I remember, oh it's been years
ago, I was preaching, scheduled to preach for Brother Bruce Crabtree
up there in New Castle, Indiana. The night before, the Saturday
night, some of his brethren came by and picked me up at the motel
and we went out to have a bite to eat. just before we were leaving
the restaurant, one of the young men asked me, Larry, are you
going to preach something new and stale to us in the morning,
or something old and fresh? I don't think I'd ever heard
that before. And I said, well, brother, by God's grace, I'm
going to preach something old and fresh. God's glorious, everlasting
gospel. I remember listening the dear
brother Henry Mahan, somewhere years ago. And this lady, he
was telling the story, had been listening to him on his television
broadcast for years every week. She attended a church somewhere. But this lady, and Henry shared
it with us, wrote Henry a letter, and in it she said, Brother Henry,
every Sunday, just about every Sunday, my pastor tells us we
need to get our act together. She said, he tells us that before
the message is over. You need to get your act together. She said, Brother Henry, my question
is, what is my act? I don't know what my act is. I don't know what it's supposed
to be. I'm so thankful that it's obvious
that you have a pastor who is an earthen vessel, obviously,
but the most earthen of earthen vessels. But at the same time,
when I think about things like I just shared with you, I'm so
thankful for a place where we can come and worship God, the
God of the Bible, to hear about the true and living God. Would you pray that we'll be
able to do that this morning? Are you still in Colossians?
Colossians chapter 2. In Isaiah chapter 40, you don't
need to turn there, but as you find the place in Colossians
2, In Isaiah 40, God commanded the prophet Isaiah to comfort
his people. To comfort God's people. And
he told him how to do it. Isaiah, I want you to comfort
my people. They need comforting. And this
is how you'll comfort them. This is the best thing you can
do. I'll tell you what to tell them. He said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. and speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. And she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. That should have comforted
them, doesn't it you? What a comfort to know that all
my sins are gone. that my warfare by the captain
of my salvation is accomplished. And God has pardoned for Christ's
sake all of my transgressions. What a company. And nothing,
nothing that happens to me today or tomorrow or for the rest of
my life can do anything to change that. There's nothing that can
be done to me. There's nothing that I can do
that can change that glorious, glorious fact. Isn't that a comfort? Now, listen to these words or
read them with me. Verses 9 and 10. Let's just bring
those few verses in Isaiah 40 and place them as an introduction
to these two verses in Colossians 2, verses 9 and 10. For in Him,
that is Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
Now when you've thought about that, when you've allowed that
to ravish your heart, when you've bowed down in adoration and astonishment
at that glorious truth, then think of this. And you are complete
in Him. In Him dwells all fullness. and
you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality
and power." You are complete in Him. That's the message. That's the title. You are complete
in Him, Christ in whom all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
dwells. stays, resides. This is what John told us in
chapter 1 of his gospel. 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, the Lord Jesus. And then John went on to write,
And of His fullness have we all received and grace for grace. Let's look at this text, this
phrase, one word at a time. You are complete in Him. The first word is you. You. You are complete. My son, you are complete. A believer,
a child of God, you are complete. I looked up the word complete. Just curious, I knew it would
have many definitions. But the first one that came up
said this. The definition of complete is
having no deficiency. Perfect. Perfect. That's what we read
in chapter one. Perfect in Christ Jesus. Wow! How can that be talking about
you? Or me? I mean, after all, don't
we join with the Apostle Paul? Isn't his experience the experience
of every believer when he cried? For I know that in me, that is,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. But
I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am!" Not,
O wretched man that I used to be before God saved me. No, no, no. O wretched man that
I am. Who should deliver me from the
body of this death?" So how can such a person as that be complete? Well, of course, our completeness
is not in ourselves. You are complete in Him. Not everybody. That's not talking
about everybody. The religious world, and usually
it's preachers that lead the charade, use God's promises like
some kind of, just throw them out there, for everybody. People
that hate God, well, you know God said everything works together
for good. No, no, that's not to you. That's the God's people. No, everyone's not complete.
It's not talking about everybody. Everybody's not in Christ. But
somebody is. Somebody is. And to everyone
who is, they're complete. You who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you, all of you, and nobody but you, are complete
in Him. You who are loved and chosen
of God, we know that if we believe. were redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ, justified, sanctified by His grace, born of His Spirit,
robed in His righteousness, clothed with the garments of salvation,
you're complete in Him. Look at verse 11, here in chapter
3 of Colossians, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but
Christ is all and in all. And all His people are in Him.
Whether they be Jew, Gentile, male, female, black, white, it
doesn't matter. They're all in Him, and being
in Him, they're all complete. There's not one more complete
than another. Christianity. True Christianity. True religion. God's, according
to God's Word, is all centered in a person. It's all centered
in a person. Conversion, that great change,
is not a mere change of human opinion. It's not the devotion
of the heart, but rather it's the devotion of the heart to
a person. A converted man is not a man
that has changed his mind about some facts, or has changed his
views or his perspective. That's what you do with, you
know, you may be a Republican, decide to become a Democrat,
or just, the heck with both of those, I'll be independent. Well,
with politics, yeah, that's okay. But with knowing the Lord Jesus
Christ, it's not like that. You know, well, I was a Catholic
and I became a Baptist. Well, after that, I decided,
nah, they're dead and dry. I think I'll be a Pentecostal.
I want a glory in the flesh. No, all hope, all real faith,
if it's worth anything, if it's genuine, it's centered in a living,
personal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's exactly right. You say, Larry, everybody knows
that. I beg to differ. Everybody does
not. I have met and afterwards have
them tell me with their own mouth, Larry, I was a five-point Calvinist,
but I didn't know God from a goose. There's a difference. Your doctrines
will all come from Him. Your motives will be found in
Him. Your joys will be found in Him. Your acceptance with God, likewise,
will be found in Him. Your completeness, as our text
tells us, will be found in Him. You, oh blessed wondrous thought,
but yet true, you are complete in Him. God sees us only, oh
and aren't you thankful this is so, God sees us only in His
dear Son. He sees us only in His dear Son,
and He would have us see ourselves only in His dear Son, accepted
in Him, made perfect in Him by His almighty grace. Turn, if
you will, to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. I'd like for
you to read this with me. Romans 6, verse 6. Knowing this, Romans 6 and 6,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that is,
with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we also shall live with him. Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more, Death has no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye yourselves."
You're completing him. Likewise, reckon ye yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. View yourself the way God views
you, in Him." Hebrews 9 and 24. Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. I love that verse. Jesus Christ
right now appears in the presence of God as my representative. How can I not be accepted? How
can I not be loved? How can I not have everything
pleasing through Christ by God the Father. How can it be? The only way that God can reject
this believing sinner is first he must reject his son. His son
represents me and God's well pleased with that. Would that not greatly comfort
us? And more importantly, would it
not greatly honor our God? Keeping that wonderful truth
in mind, to cause us to do this. Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off those guilty fears.
The bleeding sacrifice on my behalf appears. Before the throne
my surety stands. My name is written on his hands.
My name is written on his hands. He ever lives above for me to
intercede. His all-redeeming love, his precious
blood to plead. His blood atone not for all our
race. You have my permission to scratch
that out in the hymn, in our book. His blood atoned for all
his race and sprinkles now the throne of grace. Oh, what a wonderful
Savior is Jesus our Lord. I've had folks, and I don't know,
I can't read minds, but They seem to think somehow, some strange twist of logic, seem
to think that being down in the mouth, I'm talking about professing
Christians, always going around, oh, woe is me, woe is me. I just
don't know if I'm going to make it. I just don't know. Billy,
I just don't know if I'm going to make it. I'm talking about
be saved. brought to heaven. Just don't
know if I'll get there or not. I just don't know. And they think
somehow that's honoring to God. Oh, no, no, that's dishonoring
to God. That's dishonoring. If I'm in
the Lord Jesus Christ, if I really know Christ, this text tells
me I'm completing Him. I'm completing Him. If I've tasted,
if I've truly tasted, the true grace of God that's in Christ
Jesus, I'm going to be in glory. I'm going to be with my Redeemer.
I'm going to see His face. If I believe God, all that's
going to happen. If I believe His word, He promises
me that He who gave me grace will also give glory. Here's
the second word. Are. You are. Are complete. Isn't that sweet? It's the present tense. It doesn't
say, someday you'll be complete. Or you used to be complete, but
you've done something to change it. No, you are complete. It's a blessed thing to live
in this sweet assurance that we are complete in Him. Or we
shall be. We shall be. It's not inaccurate
to say that. When we see Him as He is, we
shall be like Him. Oh, body, soul, and spirit, what
a glorious hope. But we're complete in Him now,
as far as our acceptance before God. Paul was talking about that
which is the present blessedness of every sinner who believes
on the Son of God. He wants you to know, as God
told Isaiah to tell my people, comfort my people, tell them.
Paul says, listen, you're complete in Him. You're completing Christ. Don't forget that. You need this. You need this. Man, life's a
battle. This is a trial. Those who endure
to the end and those only shall be saved. This is not easy. And as you're going through this
world, a pilgrim and a stranger mocked. misunderstood by your
very loved ones. Oh, remember this, you're complete
in Him. When you shed those tears, remember
you're complete in Him. When your heart's breaking, remember
you're complete in Him. Nothing, nothing can change that
because everything about it is built upon free, unconditional,
unqualified Grace. Grace unmerited. You never did
anything to earn it in the first place. You're not going to do
anything to lose it. Complete in Christ. Being one
with Him, in union with Him, His fullness, completion, and
perfection is your fullness, and your completeness, and your
perfection. And you will never be anything
other than complete. you'll never be anything other
than complete. A child of God, a believing sinner,
will never be less than complete. David, listen to this, think
of this, David was complete when he, as just a young, the youngest
of his father's sons, was sitting out there watching the flock,
probably had his back against a tree, playing his flute and
singing, Oh, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I'm
his. He's mine. Oh, what a feeling of completeness. What blessing. But listen, he
was no less complete than when he cried, have mercy upon me,
oh God. According to thy loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee,
the only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight."
When he said those words, he was no less complete when he
said, the Lord is my shepherd. Yes, what David did displeased
God concerning Bathsheba, and David suffered for his sin. But
blessed be God, David was not cast off. What did the prophet
say? The sword's never going to leave
your house, David. You're going to reap this. And
he did to the day he died. Perhaps that's what he had in
mind when he lay on his deathbed and looked back and said, oh,
though my house be not so with God, yet I'm complete. I'm complete. And Nathan, you
remember what he said? But God has put away your sin. You're not gonna die. You're
not gonna die. He never was less accepted, less
loved for a moment because he was in Christ Jesus. After that
blessed message from the faithful prophet Nathan, David's troubled
soul He sat down and wrote this, Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no God. What was David saying? He said,
oh, I'm complete. I'm complete in Him, and we will
always be complete in Christ. As long as in Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, we will always
be receiving of that fullness. Neither can change. You have
need of nothing. That's what David meant, didn't
he, in the psalm, when he said, the Lord is my shepherd, and
immediately he wrote, that being the case, I shall not want, I
shall not like. If He's my shepherd, It just
goes without reason to say, then I shall not want. One is as certain
as the other. In Him, you are at this moment,
in Him, entirely clean. In the eyes of God. And that's
the eyes that I want to be accepted in. In Him, an object of divine
approval and eternal love. Though you're feeble, though
we are feeble, forgetful, frail, fickle, fearful in ourselves,
yet in Him we have all that we can desire because we're complete. Look at your own nothingness,
simpleness, unfaithfulness, and indeed be humbled. But look to
Christ Jesus, our great representative, and substitute and sing, sing,
I'm complete in Him. Do not be so mindful, do not
be so mindful of your own poverty as to forget His infinite riches
conferred on you. Don't be so absorbed in your
emptiness that you forget His fullness, the fullness He has
made yours by His grace. In the Beloved, God's marvelous
grace, He calls me to dwell in this wonderful place. God sees
my Savior. And then He sees me, in the Beloved,
accepted and free. Here's the third word. Complete. Complete. Complete in Christ. How far can we take that? As
far as God gives you faith to. Complete. I'll tell you this. You'll never run out of road.
Oh, take this and just run with it. You'll never come to the
end. You are complete in Him. I, as probably some of you do
as well, I take some supplements, some things off the shelf, as
they say, vitamins, so forth, just in case I'm not getting
certain things I need in my normal diet. Well, I don't need no supplements
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ I stand before
God accepted. I don't need any supplements
of my own making. I dare not think to add anything
to Jesus Christ. You remember when Adam failed?
One of the first things they did once they realized they'd
sinned, disobeyed God, had fallen, was to make themselves aprons
with fig leaves. Tried to cover their shame. Remember
that? They made themselves aprons. Men still doing it today. Adam's
offspring have been doing it ever since. Trying to sew fig
leaves together. To bring before God and say,
don't you approve? I approve. I proved Adam thought,
you know, this is fine, this suits me. It didn't suit God,
did it? He took them away. He took them
away. And we're told that God provided
them with the skins of animals, coats of animals. God didn't
accept their filthy rags and He still doesn't do it. Unto
Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins
and clothed them. That sounds just like what the
Father did. the prodigal's father, didn't
he? To the returning son. Remember
what the son said to him? Father, I've sinned against heaven.
You know, he had planned that thing. He memorized what he was
going to say. On that long journey home, when
he finally came to his senses, when he was brought to his senses,
he said, I'll arise and go to my father. Could you just see
him going down the road smelling like a pigsty? Anybody who got
near him probably would pass to the other side. But he was
thinking, this is what I'm going to say. Oh, how guilty he was. How shameful he was, and he should
have been. And he thought, oh, my father, what can I say to
him? What can I say to him? There's
no excuse for what I did. And he kept thinking, what, this
is what a father I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight,
and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son." And that was
exactly true. But it's not what the son said
that determines this issue. Aren't you glad of that? It's
not what the prodigal said that made the difference. It's what
the father said. And then we read, but the father.
We heard what the son said, but the father said, bring forth
the best robe and put it on him. And put a
ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. He's complete. That's what the father said.
And that's exactly what God the father does to every returning
prodigal. Everyone that comes unto God
by Him, that is, by Christ, take that stinking, filthy garment
of self-righteousness, throw it away, put on Him the robe
of my Son's perfect righteousness. Put it on Him. Do we need righteousness? Christ
has made the righteousness of God. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him. Do we need acceptance with God?
We are accepted in the good. Do we need justification? Of
course. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Must
we be holy? As holy as God Himself is holy?
God said we do. Holiness is ours in Christ. God
calls His saints His holy ones. That's what the word means. Christ
is our holiness. The holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. Do we need forgiveness? There's
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. And we could
go on and on and on. Everything you need, everything
that God demands, we have in Christ Jesus. We're complete. We're complete. Here's the last
thing. We are complete in Him. In Him. You say, Larry, you've
gotten ahead of yourself. You've already told us that.
It was impossible for me to mention these other words without including
that. In Him. That's the most important
thing, isn't it? Without Him, None of these other
things would be possible. Without Him, there would be no
such thing as completeness before God. It would be unheard of. It would be unknown. It would
never be realized, except for this, in Him. Where is this perfect completeness,
this infinite supply, this limitless fullness? In Him. In Him. You reckon that's probably why
God told John the Baptist, when you go preaching and Christ comes
on the scene, you tell everybody to behold him. Look at him. Don't look at you, but look at
him. Is that why Moses, when he lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, cried, look, look, look, look
and live? You reckon that's why God tells
his preachers today, left up Jesus Christ. Preach Him. Men can't be saved if they don't
see Him. They can't be reconciled to God
by Him. And people are sitting in their
robes of self-righteousness and they don't know Him. Preach Him. What else are you going to preach? What else? Only in Him can you
be complete. Not in the church, not in this
church or any other church, but Him. Not in the ordinances, baptism,
Lord's Supper, but Him. Not in doctrine, not in correct
doctrine, but in Him. Not in my feelings, but in Him.
Not in my experience, but in Him. Not in my works, but in
Him. Not in my devotion, but Him. Not in my faith, but Him. Oh, blessed, blessed, completeness. These two words speak of our
blessed, indescribable union and oneness with the Son of God. God's elect are so aligned with
Christ, our mediator, that we are positively one with Him. We are His bride. He's our bridegroom. We're the branches. He's the
vine. We're the body. He's the head. We're one with
Christ. There's no condition, no condition
outside of heaven itself that can be more blessed than that
which is produced by a God-given assurance of eternal, everlasting,
unalterable union with Jesus Christ. Is anything sweeter? Can you
think of anything better as you journey through this world? than
the sweet realization I'm complete in Him. By God's sovereign grace
united to His Son eternally, I can never be divided from my
covenant surety. God's free love from everlasting
made me one with His dear Son. Blessed union, strong, unchanging,
I am with my Savior one. That being the case, we'll wrap
this up, this being the case that all completeness is nowhere
else but in Christ, then I'd better make sure that I'm in
Christ. If God won't accept any sinner except in His Son, I'd
better be sure that I'm in His Son. And we're told over and
over again to do that very thing in God's Word. Examine yourselves
whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you? Except
ye be reprobates. Wherefore, there rather, brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall. I saw an interesting little
clip on the evening news the other day. It was the local news. I don't
know if the story was about a local person, But anyway, this lady
had been watering a plant someone had given her for two years. Some of y'all may have saw this.
And she decided, you know, I need to re-pot this thing. Is that
the word? Need to put it in a bigger pot.
And once she did, after watering the thing for two years, she
pulled it up, It was fake. You can't make this up. I'm not
making it up. She found out that was a fake plant. It was artificial. Oh my. Now you take that story
and apply it to this. Isaiah 63, I'm sorry, Isaiah
61 and 3. To appoint unto them that morning
Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called the trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Then came the disciples
and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended
after they heard this saying? And he answered, Every plant
which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
Leave them alone. They be blind beavers of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
they shall both fall into the ditch. God forbid, God forbid,
that I be in Fairmont Grace Church, empty, broken, but not be in
Jesus Christ, complete, and lacking nothing. And Jesus Christ, just
as he has the power to present us complete, has the will, the love, to bring
it to pass. As He has one mind and none can
turn Him, there can be no doubt that He'll do so. He'll bring
us to glory. Complete. With that being the
case, let us join with Jude in these words. Now unto Him who
is able, to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God and Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. Amen. Amen. Let it be so. Complete in thee, no work of
mine, may take, dear Lord, the place of thine. Thy blood hath
parted both for me, and now I am complete in Thee. Dear Savior,
when before Thy throne barred, all tribes and tongues assembled
are, among Thy chosen will I be at Thy right hand, complete in
Thee. God bless you. God bless you.