Last night we began to consider
what the theme of our conference is with regards to being in Him. And I shared with you that there
are three aspects to the in Him that we wanted to consider. And
last night we considered the fact that to be in Him, that
is in Christ, God must do it. God must do it. And we saw how
that God in His gracious prerogative before the world began, before
He created this universe, chose to have a people for Himself
whom He protected and provided for and gave eternal possessions
in the person of Jesus Christ. We saw just how wonderful Christ
is made to those that are His. How do I know that I'm in Christ?
Because everything that Christ is to His Father, He is to me. Everything. I said also that
we wanted to consider not only the fact that to be in Him is
to know and to understand something that God alone could do. It was
a work of grace, a purpose of grace. It wasn't by faith that
we found ourselves in Christ. It wasn't because of our accepting
Him or receiving Him or even believing on Him. Those things
essential to an expression of grace in the heart. It's so very
important that as we preach and teach that we establish the principle
of first causes because that's where God is glorified. I think
so often mankind would disregard what we call the first cause,
the Alpha, that leads to the omega and then focus in on secondary
causes or instrumental means or what we would call a consequence
of God's action. Often we in religion are inclined
out of our seeker friendly attitude. Now, let me say they because
I'm just not known for doing that. But those who would seek
to cater to man's felt need would start with you as the basis of
your salvation. that they would say that salvation
depends upon you, that salvation depends upon what you do or how
you respond to God. And what we would say is nothing
could be further from the truth. Salvation does not start with
you, nor does it end with you. It begins with God and it ends
with God. We say that salvation is all
of what? Grace. Grace. Grace and when you understand
grace, you understand that grace means that God is doing it. When
we respond to the gospel by faith, it's that God has by his grace
given us the gift of faith by which we see Christ just like
God sees Christ. And you know what we say? Amen.
I love what I see about Christ, just like the father does tonight. I want to talk to us about what
we have in Christ. Colossians helps us to do that. It helps us to contemplate what
we have in Christ. What does the true believer in
Christ have? Well, mark with me in Colossians
chapter two, verse nine, these words, Colossians chapter two,
verse nine, for in him, notice that's what we are talking about.
That's our theme, isn't it? Right. For in him, we have the
location and we also have the person for in him. dwelleth,
dwelleth, abideth continually for all eternity, all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In Christ dwells all three persons
of the blessed triune God. In Christ is the Father with
all of his glorious attributes, with all of his glorious Characteristics
everything that we know about the father. We only know in the
son So I jesus said didn't he if you have seen me? You have
seen the father in christ are all the attributes of our heavenly
father But guess what in christ are also all the glorious attributes
of the third person as well All three persons are God. And yet
to know this glorious triune God, you've got to come through
Christ. Christ is the revelation of the
invisible God, is He not? If we're going to know something
about a God that's invisible, we need a revelator, don't we?
And Christ is the revelation. But not only is Christ the revelation,
Paul here is telling the church at Colossae that in him dwells
the whole of deity. That's huge. That's huge. And it's necessary for you and
I to know this. As I said to you yesterday, Paul's
objective with the church at Corinth was to restore, to restore,
to restore the glory of gospel preaching. because gospel preaching
saves and it builds up and it strengthens God's people. Here
with the church at Colossae, what he's doing is maintaining,
maintaining the simplicity of Christ, maintaining the preeminence
of Christ, and he's going to now instruct the Colossians in
what he understands is the sufficiency that is found in Christ alone. I think the real challenge for
all of us in our experience, we'll get to that here in our
second point or so, is this. Is Christ really enough? Can I be honest with you a little
bit? Is Christ really enough? Isn't that a challenge for us
sometimes? Can I just get a real honest sinner in the house? I
told you, honest people are not going to hell. The question often
is, in our soul, is Christ enough? Is Christ enough? Well, what
Paul would say is this, if you are in him, he is more than enough. Christ is more than enough for
the person that's in Christ. Therefore, what we want to understand
is what is it that Christ possesses that you and I need in order
for us to find in him that satisfaction essential to our soul? Because
we're all creatures. You and I are all creatures that
crave things. That's part of our problem. We
crave things. We have needs. We are needy creatures.
You and I are not like God. We are not independent and self-sufficient
and truly autonomous. We crave and need things, don't
we? And that's part of our battle, isn't it? Well, you and I are
told that God is an all-sufficient God with an all-sufficient grace
for every need of the child of God, for those that are in him.
And I want to suggest to you, child of God, that if you are
in Christ, you have everything you need for you to make it through
this world. Look at verse 10. He says in
verse 9, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Now watch verse 10. And you, are complete in him. See what he did? He affirmed
the totality of all of God's divine nature in the person of
Christ and says, because you are in Christ, you are complete. You're complete. And what that
word really means is you have everything given to you in Christ
necessary for life and godliness. In fact, the way the construction
is set up is like this watch this now because you are in him
God has for you Totally furnished everything you need so that you
don't ever have any lack It's in what we call the passive perfect
verb form, which means God isn't bringing anything else to the
table He didn't start with Christ and then is going to bring some
other U-Haul truck with other goods to give to you. When you've
got Christ, you've got everything. That's why our model in this
church is what? Christ is all. But now I'm going
to challenge you tonight on that. It is really difficult for us
to actually enter into that reality. Am I telling the truth? Christ
is all is a wonderful concept that makes sense. It's part of
the comfort of the believer doctrinally. We have come to understand his
universal role. That's point two, his universal
role in the universe. Chapter one, verse 19 affirms
that listen to what it says in chapter one, 19 concerning the
father's pleasure. concerning Christ, verse 19,
for it pleased the Father that in Him should all, what dwell? Fullness. It pleased the Father
to place in Christ all fullness. Now here, the verse is not describing
God, it's describing those things that are under God, essential
to the management of this universe. In our previous text, chapter
two, verse nine, it described God himself being in Christ. Here is describing everything
that's under God, that God uses to manage this universe. God
has chosen to place Christ as preeminent over everything. You've
heard the psalm before, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof and everything that be therein. When God created this
universe, he furnished it, didn't he? This world works even in
its sinful state. It works pretty well, doesn't
it? Except in the areas in which we tear it up. But God has furnished
the human race with a lot of resources. And in that same way,
here's what he's saying, child of God. It was God's pleasure
because of Christ's accomplishment on Calvary to make him to be
the head over everything to the church. A great analogy of this,
and you don't have to go there, is in Genesis chapter 41. Do
you remember when God had given promise to Joseph, one of the
young striplings of the 12 tribes. And Joseph was going to be the
head over the whole of the family. And Joseph got sort of a cocky,
I suppose, to tell everybody, you know, I had a dream. God
said, I'm going to rule over all you guys. And Joseph was rejoicing
in the promise and prophecy of exaltation, a status that would
raise him to heights of authority over the whole known world. He became in time from that day
to about some 23 years later, actually about 13 years later
when he was 30 years old, he became the prime minister of
what? Egypt. Pharaoh made Joseph to
be the head over everything. And you know what he said in
Genesis chapter 41? Joseph, I have given you to be the ruler over
everyone and at your word, everything will be done. Only in my throne
am I greater than you. And he set Joseph up to be the
head over everybody. Now, why did he do that? You
remember what was going on. Pharaoh had a dream. He struggled
with it. Joseph interpreted the dream. Joseph said there are
going to be seven years of blessing, seven years of famine. And he
told Pharaoh what he needed to do. Pharaoh said, Joseph, you
do it. Joseph anticipated the famine and Pharaoh set him up. And when the famine hit, you
know what Joseph was made to be? The governor of the storehouse.
You know what that means? Everybody in the known world
had to come to Joseph to get corn. Joseph was the possessor
of the fullness. And the only way you were going
to get some of that fullness is to come through Joseph. And
what God says is it was his pleasure to make Christ, his son, the
head over all things. So that if men were going to
receive anything from God, they'd have to come through Christ.
They'd have to come through Christ. Christ is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily, and Christ has been made the fullness of all
things. That means for those of us that
are in him, child of God, we have enormous blessings, don't
we? But I wanna call your attention
to a problem. Here's attention. This is the
honest goodness truth. This is point three in your outline.
Watch this. Your poverty strickenness. Do you see that? Your poverty
strickenness. That sense of our perception
in the believer that has him or her poverty stricken. penury in their mind, destitute
in their mind and often destitute in our attitude and destitute
in our conduct. You know, the low thinking and
the low feeling, the sense of inadequacy. Does anybody know
what I'm talking about? This is one of those paradoxes.
God is everything, isn't he? But I feel like I'm nothing. God is all powerful and very
often the only thing I can find in myself is weakness. God is
all-sufficient, and yet I struggle with wanting things all the time.
Do you? See, this is a poverty-strickenness
of mind that you and I are engaged in. And you would ask the question,
why, if God is all that to those that are in Him, why do we go
through what we go through? Isn't that a good question? I'm going to give you two answers,
and I'm going to take you to a text. to show you why it takes
place. First and foremost, I believe
very often one of the reasons why God's people are walking
around in this very poverty stricken state is because of our ignorance
of what we have in Christ. A real ignorance of the fullness
that Christ possesses for us. You know, my people perish for
lack of what? The Bible is very clear that you and I have everything
necessary for life and godliness. I've been quoting that, right?
But it's only through, watch this now, a knowledge of him.
To the extent that I am ignorant of Christ and his glory and his
fullness, I am going to walk ignorant of the blessings that
are mine in him. So I might very well walk around
like a pauper when in fact I'm a what? King, prince. But here's
the other reason. I want you to mark this as you
go to 2 Samuel 9. The other reason for which you
and I would experience poverty of spirit, poverty of mind, weakness
of nature, weakness of character, is so that God might manifest
His glory in producing in you and me a hunger for God. Probably one of the most dangerous
areas the Christian can be in is a sense of sufficiency in
himself. But what God often does is bring
us to places and states of being where he strips us of all of
his supports so that he can show us that nothing begins with you. Nothing has its origins in you. Nothing in you can sustain you. And then because you are his,
he causes you to hunger for him. Now watch this. There was a young
man whose name was Mephibosheth. Now Mephibosheth was the son
of Saul's son, Jonathan. Mephibosheth had a wonderful
daddy, a wonderful father. And that father had a relationship
with a man we know in the Bible well. His name is David. David and Jonathan had a marvelous
relationship. It was profound, it was deep,
it was covenantal. And one time in the relationship
between David and Jonathan, they made a covenant. David said to
Jonathan, I will do you well all the days of your life. Should
I actually become king on the throne? Jonathan has said to
David, David, you're going to be king. And by the way, because
you're going to be king, I relinquish all rights to the throne. Now
I'm here to tell you that is a wonderful grace of humility.
because the whole human race would take the throne of God
in the stead of Christ if it wasn't for the fact that we see
Christ as far more appropriate, far more capable of occupying
that throne than you and I. Jonathan said, no, listen, I'm
happy with you being on the throne. And David says, Jonathan, I will
do you good all the days of your life and everything that issues
from your womb as well. Jonathan and David made a covenant
together a covenant that would bless Jonathan's children Mephibosheth
running from the war that took place between his grandfather
Saul and his his his enemy David Was dropped by his nurse so that
he was lame in his feet the house of Saul is devastated and Mephibosheth
is exiled in a far, far land. In fact, listen to what the text
says over in verse three and four of chapter nine. And the
king said, is there not yet any of the house of Saul? Do you
see that? That I may show kindness of God unto him. And Ziba said
unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame in his
feet. Do you see that? He was lame
from a child. And the king, this is David talking,
said unto him, where is he? Now I want you to mark this now,
children of God. And Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he is in the house of Makur, the son of Emiel in Lodabar. In Lodabar. This boy is lame,
he's exiled, his family is Torah, sound like a lot of us, right?
He's in a very desolate situation, this raw. He can't help himself. He's at the mercy of people who
may or may not do him well. Now, you know, mentally and emotionally,
he's struggling with his situation. In fact, do you know the city
that he's in is called Lodabar? And then the original language,
you know what Lodabar is? It's a place of no pasture. It's a place where you can't
grow grass to feed the sheep. Where Mephibosheth is, is where
no flocks are, where no herds are. Watch this, where no shepherds
are, where no provision is, where no watchman is, no caretaker,
no one ostensibly in the outward circumstances of his event is
there to care for his soul. Have you been there? Have you
ever been in a situation where you just felt desolate? Well,
that's what Lodabar is. Lodabar is the place of no word. In the Hebrew, when you break
it down, this prefix lo is like the word none. Debar is our Hebrew
term for the word, the word of God. Do you know where Mephibosheth
was? He was where there was no word. That's a bad place to be. But
God has to take you to places like that so that you can become
hungry and thirsty for God. God has to put his elect in places
like Lodabar so that they come to understand their desolate
condition and deep down in their soul wonder, am I cursed? Am I under the wrath of God?
Has God forsaken me? I'm part of the children of Israel.
I'm part of the 12 tribes. My family are the Benjamites.
They were some of the greatest warriors in Israel. Why am I
thus? Why am I lame? Why am I out here? Why am I apparently desolate?
Now, do you feel what I'm talking about? And you know what was
remarkable about this? His experience, his condition,
his circumstances personally, bore no resemblance to his status
covenantally. Here's what I'm getting at. God
had made a covenant for Mephibosheth long before Mephibosheth came
into existence. And in that covenant were blessings
that one couldn't even imagine. The problem of Mephibosheth is
that he did not know it. The problem of Mephibosheth is
that there was yet to be a revelation of the fullness of the blessings
of the covenant that was his in his father Jonathan. And you
see the parallels, don't you? Men and women all over this world
are like Mephibosheth in Lodobars all over the world yet to come
to know the fullness of the grace of God in Jesus Christ that is
theirs because their gods elect, but their circumstances don't
seem to show it. Are you with me so far? Ah, but
in God's good mercy, do you know what God does for his elect?
He hunts them down, doesn't he? God hunts his elect down. See,
listen, I believe in the total redemption of sinners. I believe
that if a sinner is gonna ever come to God, God's got to go
get him. See, the issue of coming to God
is not about you coming to God, but God coming to you, that you
might come to Him. And long ago, Mr. Mahan talked
about the kind of grace we call fetching grace. That's an old
country term. Fetch it! Fetching grace. Look at what David said after
he had heard the condition of the lover of his soul, Jonathan,
his son. Notice what it says in verse
five. Then King David sent and fetched him. Do you see that?
David sent and fetched him out of the house of Mekir, the son
of Emiel from Lodabar. Do you know what's happening
now to Mephibosheth? God is drawing him by his grace. The spirit of God is hunting
him down. The decree has gone forth. Go get my sheep who is
in this desolate situation and bring him to me in order that
he might know the fullness that I have for him in me. Mephibosheth is about to be highly
blessed. He's scared to death because
you know what? David should kill him. I so enjoyed the message
last night, didn't you? I'm not talking about mine. I'm
talking about Pastor Todd. I enjoyed mine too, but I enjoyed
his. Listen, you're not coming to
the true and the living God, standing up, claiming any right. When you come to God, you're
going to come to God fearful and ready to admit, are you ready?
That you should go to hell. When Mephibosheth comes into
the presence of David, we read over in verse eight, he bowed
himself and said, what is your servant that you should look
upon such a, here it is, dead dog as I. You know what he knew? That his grandfather Saul sought
to kill David and everything in his family. And God had ordained
David to be the ruler over the whole of the nation of Israel.
And that the family that sought to kill David should be killed.
He knew he should die. This is what we were saying last
night. Listen to me. What we were saying last night
is you must recognize your sinner hood. You must recognize that
by nature you're under the wrath of God. You must recognize that
when you come to God, you deserve to die. Am I making some sense? And this is how he comes humbly
acknowledging that he's worthy to be nothing but a dead dog. But do you know what David does?
Look at verse nine. Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto you, your
master's son, all that pertain to Saul and to his household.
You therefore and your sons and your servants shall till the
land for him and you shall bring in the fruit that your master's
son may have food to eat. Do you see what he's doing? He's
making the servants of Mephibosheth's father to till the land in order
that he might have provision. Watch this. But Mephibosheth,
thy master's son." Now watch this, saints, "...shall eat bread
always at my table." Do you see that? Now watch what's going
on here. This man, one minute, was in
Lodabar desolate of everything. Poverty stricken there was no
evidence around him of God's blessings of God's mercy of God's
goodness in his life And in a moment of a turn of events God has revealed
to him that a covenant was prepared for him before he even had a
being That had in that covenant eternal provision Mephibosheth
is about to be set at the king's table Do you know what that means? That means he was highly exalted. That means he was brought to
king's status. In the same way, God's people
are raised together to be seated with Christ in heavenly places
as well. Look at the language before we
go on to develop the implications. Then said zeba unto him according
to all that the lord your lord hath commanded his servant So
shall your servant do and as for mephibosheth said the king
He shall eat at my table as one of the what king's son god Look
at it Mark the phrase what was mephibosheth before he came to
david in his own thinking the enemy of god What were we? While as yet we were outside
of Christ, enemies of God. And yet in the mind of David,
Mephibosheth was always a friend. In the purpose of the covenant,
Mephibosheth was always a son. Remember what I said last night?
It requires an understanding of two roles in order for us
to realize ourselves being in Christ. A high priest and a kinsman. Somebody's got to stand between
you and God and settle the variance and the hostility and somebody's
got to be like you and be like God in order to make you like
God. Mephibosheth is now brought to
the status of a son. And I want you to mark the next
two verses because this will speak into where we are as we
go back to our text and run through our points. And Mephibosheth
had a young son whose name was Micah and all that dwelt in the
house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth. Now mark what it
says at verse 13. So Mephibosheth did what? Dwelt
in Jerusalem. That's where the king dwells.
His throne is in Jerusalem. That's where he ruled. Now watch
this. For he did eat continually at the king's table. Do you see
that? This is what we call the sufficiency,
the royal sufficiency of God's grace given to a man who in his
own right was lame and damned. But watch the next line. Here
it is. And he was laying in both his
feet. What a paradox. Go back to our
text. I want to run through this. What's
going on here? On the one hand, we see a fullness
in David, don't we? We see a royalty. We see a bounty. We see an abundance on the part
of David towards Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth is blessed now,
isn't he? Because he's in the house. He's
in the house of the king. He's sitting at the king's table
as one of the king's son. That's you and me who believe
the gospel. Are we not sons and daughters of God? Don't we sit
with Christ in heavenly places? Don't we have a table that God
has prepared for us? that is always furnished with
gospel food, that food is Christ. But aren't we also still lame
in our feet? Don't we struggle with this paradox, this tension
of being what we are in Christ and what we are in ourselves? Don't we struggle with that?
And what is the remedy? What is the resolve? I want you
to mark this now. What is the resolve of the believer
being poverty stricken in himself, experiencing what he's experiencing? Listen to what we have in point
number four. Your remedy is to recognize your fullness is in
Him. You got that? Your remedy is
to recognize that your fullness is in Christ. Lord, bring this
home. Profound. I think that the reason
why we don't enjoy God as much as we should. Is because of unbelief. I think that the reason why we
don't enter into a greater fullness of God's glory in our life is
because we don't believe God's promises. Am I making some sense? I know that we are people who
have been made to see the truth concerning ourselves. Especially
when the gospel comes in power, it delivers you from false religion
and therefore from false professions because religious people who
don't have a legitimate hiding place must put on fig leaves. Adam and Eve ran from God because
they didn't know grace. Adam and Eve hid from God because
they didn't know the mercy that would be found in Jesus Christ.
Adam and Eve sowed fig leaves. They prepared fig leaves because
they didn't understand the extent to which their sin had corrupted
the whole of their nature. And they thought somehow that
fig leaves were sufficient. That's exactly how religious
people are in the church. They really do think that what
they do counts before God as righteousness. But that's only
because they are ignorant of the righteousness of God. They
are ignorant of the glory of God. And they are also ignorant
of the extent to which they themselves are heinous sinners. Do you know
yourself to be a heinous sinner? Again, this is one of those terms.
It really amazes me. as much liberty as I have to
preach the gospel and share the word of God all around the Bay
Area. A lot of you guys know that I do radio ministry. One
of the most frequent rejections that I get is this notion that
when you come to Christ, you're still a sinner. Religious folks
find it repulsive. Pastors find it repulsive when
I say you are still a sinner. After you come to Christ, you
still sin After you come to Christ, you still struggle after you
come to Christ. You still doubt I mean doubt
is just as bad as a sin. In fact Romans 14 says if a man
doubts enough he's damn Whatsoever is not a faith is sin Don't tell
me you're not a sinner. Even if you are saved You better
embrace The tension of being both sinful and righteous at
the same time because it's in our Recognition that we are both
sinful and righteous at the same time that we will constantly
need a savior And christ will constantly remain glorious to
us and we will know we have a high priest and mediator That we can
go to in time of need to find mercy and grace And I don't know
about you, but I need mercy and grace every day Do you think that one moment
Mephibosheth ever got to a point where he felt like he deserved
to be at the table? No. And that's because God kept
him laying at his feet to remind him that he still has yet remaining
sin that must be conquered by an act of grace when Christ finally
comes. Are you with me? And so let's
move on to the next point because this is so very important. We
have to recognize that our fullness is not in ourselves, it's in
Christ. What does that mean? You and I must understand that
we are obliged to and we are privileged to be partakers of
His fullness. In fact, go there, 2 Peter 1,
I wanna read these three verses. You've heard them before, I wanna
read them to you before I go on. It's important for you and
I to know that As long as we are struggling with our weakness,
struggling with our sinfulness, struggling with our lust and
passions, it is merely designed for us to find our fullness and
our sufficiency in Him. Second Peter, chapter 1, verses
3, 1 through 4. Simon Peter is serving an apostle
of Jesus Christ. To them that have obtained like
precious faith with us, Through the righteousness of God our
Savior and Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied unto
you. Do you see that? Peter does what all the apostles
do in the opening of their letters, a very formal letter given to
the churches abroad. He always blesses them with grace
and peace. Grace and peace are for the people
of God. Grace and peace are the blessing
bestowed upon the people of God. And so Peter is blessing them
with grace and peace, but only because they have obtained a
like precious faith that has been given to them on the grounds
of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Isn't that what the text
is? Watch what it says in verse one again. We have obtained like
precious faith with us How? Through the righteousness of
God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, grace and peace be
multiplied unto you. But mark this, saints, how is
it multiplied? Through the knowledge of God
and of Jesus our Lord. Now watch this. According as
his divine power had given unto us all things that pertain unto
what life and godliness. And I want you to mark the next
line, because this is the point that I kind of want to press
home as we contemplate in him. These are the things that we
have. We have been given everything necessary for life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that had called us to glory and
virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these you might be a partaker of the what? Divine
nature. That's huge. You know what that
means? You and I have been promised to be a partaker of God. You can take the word divine
nature and view it any way you want to. It amounts to this.
God has given us himself. Now, when we think about that,
the fact that God has given us himself, having placed us in
Christ, must we not conclude that God has given us everything? If you've got God, you've got
everything. If you've got God, You've got
everything. For those that are in him, what
do we have? We have everything. Now go back to our text. I want
you to just work with me one more couple more times before
I shut it down on the proposition that's made here. That's essential
for us to grasp. When Paul was explaining to the
church at Colossae, that they need not contemplate or consider
the heresies that were rushing in to tell them that there was
more to the kingdom of God or more to ministry or more to God
than Christ. He warned them explicitly and
clearly, letting them know that Christ is the head over all principalities
above. You know what that means? To
get to Christ, you go to the top floor. You got to take the
elevator to the top floor. Christ is in the penthouse over
everything. And when you get to the penthouse,
that's as high as you can go. And when you learn that you got
a chair in the penthouse, why are you looking for any subordinate
rooms to find sufficiency? It's just insane for a believer
with a knowledge of the glory of God in Christ to look anywhere
else for their sufficiency. Am I making some sense? It's
insane. However, that's the battle we
fight every day. So I want to just call your attention
to the sensitivity of the text. When Paul said in verse 10 of
chapter 2, and you are complete in him, the word complete should
be the word fulfilled. and you are fulfilled in him. And what it speaks to is the
sufficiency of all that God in his covenant plan and purpose
has given you and I in order that we might arrive at the full
status for which he has placed us in Christ. So that means this,
positionally, I'm perfect. In God's eyes, I am, as we learned
last night, just like Christ we're gonna learn this tomorrow
when I deal with the subject of to be in him is What we are
Today is to be in him is what we have in Christ positionally
I am just as perfect as Christ is God sees the end from the
beginning He's declared in his word that he has not only called
me. He's predestined me He has justified
me and he has already this is the Greek tense of Romans 8 29
and 30 glorified me In God's eyes, I'm glorified. But in the
reality of my experience, are you ready? It's been a process. I am growing in grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord every day. And you know what else I
am growing in, children of God? I am growing in the knowledge
that Christ really, truly is my sufficiency. Are you? Are you coming to learn that
all of the idols that contend with Christ never satisfy the
soul? Have you come to realize that
even though you wake up with your head on backwards and you
start pursuing these foolish carnal things, at last, they
always fail to satisfy. Am I making some sense? They
always fail to satisfy. Because you and I must learn
We must learn how to find our sufficiency in Christ. I think it was last night our
pastor was talking about the necessity of abiding in him. And he used the analogy of the
children of Israel as they got ready to exodus out of Egypt. And God said, I want you to put
blood on the doorpost tonight. And I want every one of you to
stay in the house When I pass by you and when I see the blood,
I will pass by you and the plagues that I will put on Egypt will
not be upon you. You guys remember that? And the
simple instruction was this. Are you ready? Stay in the house. Abide in him. Stay right there. In fact, that's the command to
us. Abide in Christ. Abide in the gospel. Abide in
the doctrine. Abide in the word. Abide in him. It would seem like that's not
hard to do to just stay there. But boy, we're messed up, aren't
we? The pastor said, now, if I had enough sense, I wouldn't
even stick my finger out the door. But don't we do it? We peek out the window to look
and see what's going on. Not truly in the essence of our
soul, in the essence of our soul, having been born again, having
been regenerated by the spirit of God, having been quickened
by God's spirit. First John chapter three, verse
nine says very clearly, he that is born of God never ever at
any time, no time sins. There's a aspect of my new nature
that doesn't even contemplate sin. That's true. That's true. My new nature loves God totally.
It loves him fully. It loves him freely. It's my
old man that's the problem. Oh, wretched man that I am. Are
you guys with me so far? So here's what I'm getting at.
The way Paul lays out our position in God and the way he explains
to us the fullness of God and the full sufficiency of God.
Here is the exhortation, and I want you to get this. Child
of God, please listen to me. You are in Him. You are in Him. Stay in Him. Find in Him all
that you need. Wait on Him. Trust in Him. Look to Him. Rely upon Him. Depend on Him. Feed on Him. Eat Him. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Stay in Him because in Him is
all the sufficiency of all things that you need. That's the word
that this text is teaching. And that's the experience that
we are all coming to understand. Point number five. Here's the
reason why. The reason for his fullness is our fullness through
his grace to his glory. I know that you got a lot, a
lot, a little partitions there in that statement, but I want
you to mark them. The reason why God has made Christ to be
the fullness of the Godhead bodily and that it pleased the father,
that in him all fullness should dwell. that He owns everything,
that He runs this universe. Listen to me carefully, I'm done
here. It's not for Christ that He gave Him the universe. Are
you hearing me so far? Watch this. Christ is very God
of very God. He is the eternal Logos. We learned last night, He was
in the beginning. If there's ever a beginning,
He made it. He's called the Alpha. He's called the beginning the
beginning is a person everything that takes place therefore proceeds
forth from him He is the foundation of all things Colossians tells
us he made all things they were made for him and they were made
by him and by him all things hold together how great our Savior
is He is infinitely, infinitely glorious. But watch this, when
God made him to be the fullness of all things as a consequence
of his work of redemption on Calvary, it wasn't for him, it
was for us. He was made to be preeminent
over all things to the church, to the church. God has highly
exalted him and given him a name above every name. for the church
He made him the fullness of all things that you and I I want
you to get this because I want you to chew on this for the rest
of this year God made him the fullness of all things that we
might be the fullness of Christ Go with me to Ephesians chapter
1 I'm gonna finish right there. I want you to think about this
I want you to think about the high status that we have in Christ
the high status of that we have in Christ. I want you to stop
thinking low. I want you to think high. I know
you don't believe it in yourself, but just put your feet in the
shoes of Mephibosheth, sitting at the table of the king, made
to be like the king's son. I'll get a chance to develop
that more in our mind on tomorrow as we deal with what we are in
him. But if you contemplate being
in that status, then you and I will begin to be blessed by
the possibility and the prospects of living out this gospel in
a way that glorifies the one who became the fullness of all
things for us. I'm going to just read a verse
here in Ephesians chapter one. I'm going to read starting at
verse eight. Now, let me read at verse 20.
This is speaking concerning Jesus Christ. I'm going to go through
verse 23 and I'm going to read one more verse in close. This
is speaking concerning the power that raised Christ from the dead.
Look at verse 20, which he wrought in Christ when he sat him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places. Watch this now. Far above
all principality and power and might and dominion and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come. Is that huge? Not only in this
world is he preeminent, he's preeminent in the world to come.
Huge. Now watch this. And he has put
all things under his feet and he has given him to be the head
over what? All things. For what purpose? The church. Do you see it? Christ
rules over everything for the church. He rules over the universe
for his elect. He rules over the universe for
his sheep and his people. He rules over the universe for
his body. We are the body of Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He possesses all fullness for
the very purpose of us being his fullness. Look at the next
verse. which is his body. Do you see
that? The fullness of him that filleth
all in all. Do you see what he's saying?
That somehow you and I have the privilege of being partakers
of this glory of his fullness. in this life somehow God is glorified
by his people being brought into his fullness for his glory. Somehow
the plan of redemption, the plan of salvation, the calling of
his people out of darkness into his marvelous light, the quickening
them by his spirit, the placing them into the body, the filling
them with his spirit and giving them everything necessary for
life and godliness is designed for us to be his fullness. Now, this is a relative fullness.
This is a derived fullness. This is an extension of his fullness. Just like a physical body has
a head, and a body, we are the body. That is a huge potential. We are the body of Christ. And if the head has everything,
the body has everything, doesn't it? Now, listen, I know you're
persuaded of that. I know you are fully persuaded
that you have all things in Jesus Christ. There is absolutely no
doubt about that. Ephesians chapter three. I'm
done here. What I want you to do with respect to a knowledge
of this fullness is pursue it. I want every child of God who
knows Christ to know him fully. That's what I want for you. I
want you to be able to tap into Christ fullness and experience
the power and the glory of his being, which he became for you. I want you to hunger and thirst
for the reality of that grace that is sufficient to get you
everywhere you need to go. Here's how Paul puts it in Ephesians
chapter 3. Listen to the language. I'm going
to start at verse 17 and go through verse 19. We'll close. My prayer
is that Christ may dwell in your hearts. By what? That means through a knowledge
of God. That you being rooted and grounded in love May be able
to comprehend with all the saints What is the breath? and the length
and the depth and the height And to know the love of christ
which passeth knowledge And here's the purpose. This is our little
hint of purpose clause that you might be filled with all the
fullness of God. What is the purpose of the word
of God? What is the purpose of the gospel? What is the purpose
of the third person? What is the purpose of the ministry
of preaching and teaching? That through the word of God,
you and I would acquire a knowledge of God in order that we might
experience that fullness and be filled with that fullness
and enjoy his fullness for all eternity. Amen. Amen.