My heart is filled with thankfulness
to Him who bore my pain, who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
and gave me life again who crushed my curse of sinfulness and clothed
me with his light and wrote his law of righteousness with power
upon My heart, my heart is filled with thankfulness to him who
walks beside, who floods my weakness and strength and causes fear. to fly Whose every promise is
enough for every step I take Sustaining me with arms of love
and crowning me with grace. My heart is filled with thankfulness
to Him who reigns above, whose wisdom is my perfect peace, whose
every thought is love. For every day I have on earth
is given by my King So I will give my life, my all to love
and follow Him Good morning. It's good to be
here this morning. I always like to follow Jessa when
she sings because that's a message in itself right there. If you would this morning, turn
to Colossians chapter one, Colossians one. I'd like to read this chapter
this morning. Colossians, chapter one, Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timotheus,
our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ,
which are at Colossi. Grace be unto you and peace from
God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks
to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always
for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of
the love which he hath to all the saints, for the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you as it
is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in
you, since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God
in truth, as ye also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow
servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also
declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we
also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that
you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God. strengthened with all might according to his glorious
power, and to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. who is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him
were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things unto himself, by him, I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled,
in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. If ye continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill
up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh
for his body's sake, which is the church, whereof I am made
minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. whom we preach, warning every
man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
you, every man, perfect in Christ Jesus. Grant you also labor,
striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." My message today is a very simple
message. Very simple. It's a very simple
text that I'm preaching from. Very simple, and it's from a
simple person. I went to high school and I graduated
from high school, but that's the extent of my education. But
I will say this, I've stood under the gospel ministry for 40 years,
pretty close, 40 years, and I've heard a lot of preaching, a lot
of good preaching, a lot of it. And there are men that I've heard
preach, I've heard them preach, and I've learned the doctrines
of grace from men. I have. I've learned Calvinism
from men. I have. I can cite them. I know
them. I know them upside down the other. I know them. But the grace and
the doctrine, the grace that is in this right here, was taught
to me by the Holy Spirit. And you'll never know the grace
that is in that doctrine. Oh my, the wonderful grace that
is there until the Holy Spirit gets a hold of you. It shows
you your need for it. You've got to show your sinners.
You've got to show it to Him. And when He does, oh my, the
grace that is here. The grace that is in these trees.
Oh my. Well, my verse this morning that
I'm preaching from is verse 19. A very simple verse. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
Lord, we come to you this morning asking your blessing. Lord, we
thank you for this opportunity that we have to come and to worship
you, Lord. You are so merciful to us. You
have been so gracious to us. And Lord, we just pray that your
great grace would be amongst us here today. Lord, there are
so many pains and so many troubles and so many trials in this world. that we had the time to mention
them all this morning to you, but today we come to you with
one accord and we ask this one blessing this morning, that your
grace would dwell amongst us and that some poor needy sinner
here this morning would see his need for a Savior, her need for
a Savior, their need for a Savior, Lord. See their sins, see their
depravity, see their wickedness. Oh, and then to see the glorious
gospel. Lord, we pray that this will
be the case. Lord, we beseech You, we beg of You, Lord. Have
mercy on us this day. Oh, for Your glory and Your honor,
we pray. In Your dear Son's name, we pray.
Amen. Amen. For it pleased the Father
that in Him should all fullness dwell. Oh, for it pleased the
Father. That's what we're here for this
morning, isn't it? To please the Father. Everyone came here
this morning for the same reason, to please the Father. Now, there
are different reasons why someone, and they might think in their
hearts different ways about why or how they're pleasing the Father.
There are different ways about that. We started homeschooling
here this year, and I guess I'm the principal of the school. I told the children I was going
to get a board and I was going to put a school board on it and
I was going to put it in my office. And I told them, you don't want
to meet with the school board. You don't want to meet with them.
OK, there's two reasons why you can try to please someone. The
first one is you're scared of them. You're scared of what might
happen if you don't please them. And the second is because you
love them. And I hope to goodness that my children will try to
please me because they love me. That's why I hope. But there
are two reasons why anybody would come to church this morning.
Two reasons. You're either scared, either
scared or it's because you love the Lord. You love the Lord.
And we've asked ourselves this morning, are we pleasing to the
Father? I don't want anybody to walk
out that door this morning without asking yourself that question.
Am I pleasing to the Father? Am I pleasing to Him? We understand
by the Word of God, we understand that it is appointed unto man
who wants to die. We know that. We can see it. All we've got
to do is look in the mirror. There was a time in my life I could
haul drywall all day, go home, get my basketball stuff on, go
play basketball until 10 o'clock, come home, get up and do it all
again the next day. I can't do that anymore. I can't. I'm doing
good just to get home. I'm telling you, we've got a
one-way ticket to the grave. The flesh is a one-way ticket
there. And we're all, it is appointed unto man once to die and then
to face the judgment. There is a judgment that is going
to be faced. There it is. There it is. We
are all going to stand in the presence of a thrice holy God
and be judged. We are. And the only thing, whether you are going to stand
before him and be justified or not justified, Whether you're
going to go to heaven or whether you're going to go to hell, it
revolves around this one thing. Are you pleasing to the Father?
Are you pleasing to Him? Or are you offensive to Him?
Are you offensive? Are you pleasant in His sight?
Are you? Are you offensive to Him? Are
you beautiful in His sight? Or does He look upon you with
abhorrence? Which one? Are you lovely in His sight?
Are you? Or does he look upon you with
a holy indignation that in eternity in hell will not pay the down
payment? It won't. The question that's
got to be answered this morning is, am I pleasing to the Lord
or not? Am I? That song that was written,
"'Tis a Point I Long to Know," often causes anxious thoughts.
Do I love the Lord or not? Am I His or am I not? Oh, it's
a point we long to know. Well, the answer lies in what
the God of creation is pleased with. What is the God of all
creation pleased with? Well, I think it's right here
in our text. It's right here. For it pleased the Father that
in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His dear and precious Son,
it is pleased Him that in Him should all fullness dwell. All
fullness. Oh, I think what the Lord is
pleased with this morning by our text is all fullness, isn't
it? All fullness. All of it. Oh, my. Now, this fullness, what
is it? What is it? We've heard of grace. We hear grace preached, and that
is God's richness, the riches of God, the fullness of God. What is this fullness we're talking
about? This fullness is a perfect righteousness, a perfect righteousness. It is an absolute holiness, absolute
holiness, absolute perfect keeping of the Levitical law and the
spirit of the law. The Levitical law says, thou
shalt not kill. The spirit of the law says you
look at your brother with envy or hate in your heart. You're
guilty of murder. You're guilty of it. The spirit
of the law says thou shalt not commit adultery. The letter of
the law says don't even look. Don't even look. The Levitical
law says thou shalt not steal. The spirit of the law says you
don't touch it. Don't even touch it. Don't even
look at it. That's what the spirit says. Righteousness, as John
the Baptist told those Pharisees, he said, it far exceeds the scribes
and the Pharisees. It far exceeds that. To be all
fullness is to be all light. To all light. For he is light
and in him dwelleth no darkness whatsoever. None. When the God
of the Bible says, be ye holy even as I am holy. When he says,
be ye perfect even as I am perfect, he is saying you must be all
fullness. You have to be all fullness. Oh, if one minute speck
of darkness is found in you, then you are not all fullness.
You are not acceptable in His sight. No, you're not. Now, the
Word of God creates many legal problems for the sinner. It does. Many. Job asked this question
over and over again. He said, how can man who is born
of a woman be just with God? How can he be just with God?
Many verses in the Bible point us to our imperfection. They
point us to that. Romans 3.23, for all has sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There's that fullness, that
glory of God. Romans 3.10 says, there is none
righteous. No, not one. Not even one. Isaiah 64.6 says, we are all
as unclean things. And all of our righteousnesses,
that's blurry. All of them are as filthy rags
in His sight. All of them. Oh, but lest you
think your depravity is not total, lest you think that there is
some portions of your life that has not been stained by sin,
by the fall, I give you our text. I give you our text. For it says
plainly in this text, it pleased the Father that in Him, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, should all fullness dwell. All fullness. Now, if all fullness and if all
perfection All righteousness, all merit, all holiness, all
power dwells in Him. Then where, my friends, is yours? Where is it? If it pleased the
Father, then in Him should all fullness dwell. Then where's
yours? Where's yours? From what earthly
spring are you going to go and find one drop of fullness that
does not exist? Where are you going to find it?
From what mind are you going to go dig one ounce of fullness
that does not exist? Oh, for if all fullness belongs
to Him, if it is all in Him, then there is no earthly fullness
to be found. There is none. Oh, listen, I tell you, if you,
my friend, have a fullness whatsoever in and of yourselves, then this
book is a lie. It's a lie. And the paper it's
written on isn't worth anything. It's not. For this verse plainly
states, it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fullness
dwell. All fullness. If you claim a
righteousness of your own, if you claim a self-righteousness
of your own, then you in all essence are calling the Word
of God a lie and you're standing before the thrice holy God and
you're calling Him a liar. That's what you're doing. You
are. What did you say? Are you telling me that somewhere
in my heart somewhere in my being, that there is not one ounce of
goodness to be found? That there's not one speck of
goodness? Somewhere in the back of my heart,
you couldn't find something that could be considered fullness
in the sight of God? I can't stump that. No, no. I'm not telling you that. The
Word of God is telling you that. For it says in this verse, it
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness Listen, if a king of a country
said, I have all the wealth. I have all of it. All the money
is mine. Every bit of money in this kingdom
is mine. And there was this young man way off over the river and
through the woods to his house to go. He's way off in the corner
of the kingdom. And he's got an old shack down
underneath a bunch of trees. And somewhere in this kingdom,
this boy, this young man, he's got a penny, one cent, and he's
got it tucked under his mattress. No one knows about it. I tell
you, that king's a liar. He's a liar, for he does not
have all the money. No, he doesn't. He says, well,
how's that king supposed to know? How's he supposed to know that
boy's got that penny under his mattress? My king's on mission. He is. He knows everything. He
wrote this. He wrote it. He said, for it
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. All
fullness. If there is one penny, if it's
buried in the ground somewhere in this kingdom, if it's just
buried in the ground, and there's someone by chance he's plowing
in his field, and he happens to plow this penny up, oh, and
he jumps off his tractor and jumps down and grabs this penny
and holds it up in the air. Look what I found. And he runs
to the king and he says, look, look what I have. I have one
cent, I have a penny. I know it's not much, but listen,
I've got something. Which means you don't have all.
You don't have all of it. Oh, it pleased the father that
in him should all fullness dwell. All fullness, all fullness. Had two great truths shown in
this text. Number one, the fullness of our
Savior. The fullness of Him. And the
second thing it shows is our emptiness. Our total and utter
emptiness without the Lord Jesus Christ. We are empty. There are
people all over in Christendom today. Almost everyone that is
a Christian that claims to be saved, they would say that they're
sinners. They would. They'd say that they're
sinners. For Jesus, I came not to call
the righteous, But sinners to repentance. If you put two and
two together, and you're a Christian, you've got to be a sinner. Whether
you think you are or not. You have to be a sinner. And
many claim not to be whole. They do. They claim not to be
whole. For Jesus said, the whole need
not a physician. You've got to believe you're
not whole. You have to. Many claim to be
lost. Yes, say you're not whole. Believe
you're not whole. Many claim to be lost. They do. Jesus said, I come to seek and
to save that which was lost. If you're not lost, if you don't
claim to be lost, then Jesus never came for you. He didn't
come to seek you. It says it right in the scriptures. It does.
But many, I fear, do not understand. They do not understand the severity
of their circumstance. They don't understand it. The
fact that outside of Christ, men are altogether sinful. altogether
sin. That they are sick unto death.
They just don't have the sniffles. They're just not a little bit
sick. They're sick unto death. For outside of Christ, Ephesians
2 verse 1 says we are dead in trespasses and sins. We're dead. That we are lost. We're not just
lost out in our backyard. No, we're lost in a wilderness
of depravity that is so thick and so vast. They would take
eternity and we'd never find our way out of it. Never. Oh,
we're truly empty. Empty. Empty of anything that
is acceptable in God's eyes. Empty of it. But the Word of
God was truly spoken through Isaiah. When he said that, all
of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in his sight. That
was the Word of God that was spoken through him. The truth.
Wait a minute, you say. Wait a minute. This morning I
got up and I read my Bible. Surely there must have been something
good in that. Surely there had to be something
that would merit something before God in that. I asked you this
morning this. Did you see Christ when you read
your Bible? Did you? Did you see Christ in
the text? Was he there? Did you see him?
Did you? Did every word of the scripture,
did it point you to your need of a savior? Did it? When you
read the law of God, did you tremble? Did you tremble? Did
you see that death angel pass by the verse? Did you see it? Oh, and when he passed by, did
he see the blood? Did he see it? Oh my, did you
see Christ? Did you, as Spurgeon said, he
said, he said, every word, did every word of the scripture provide
you with a constellation of promises that guided your eye to the star
of Bethlehem? Did it? Oh, if not, there is
only emptiness in what you do. There's only emptiness in what
you do. Oh, you read this book, if you don't see Christ, there's
nothing there. For it pleased the Father that in Him should
all fullness dwell. It's in Him. You've got to see
Christ. You've got to see Christ in it. Well, you see, after I
read my Bible, then I prayed. I prayed. There's got to be something
good in that. Well, when you prayed, did you
plead the blood of Jesus? Did you? Was every word uttered
sprinkled with the blood of our blessed Savior? Was it? Did you come before the throne
of God boldly and with all confidence, knowing that He who has the Son
hath life? Did you? Was His will sought
in your prayer? If not, then it was just vain
repetition. That's all it was. It was clouds with no water.
It was words with no power. That's what it was. For it pleased
the Father that in the Lord Jesus Christ should all fullness dwell. All fullness is in Him. You say,
well, I'm sitting in church this morning. I'm sitting here in
church this morning. Is there any good in that? Is
there? Did you come expecting to hear
of Christ? Terrence said in his prayer this morning, oh, then
we might see Christ. that we might see Christ. Did you come
here expecting to see Christ? Are you sitting on the edge of
your pew waiting? Hoping just to hear one word
of Christ? Are you? Oh, I remember that
story. I'm sure you've all heard it.
That story of that little boy at Spurgeon's Church. He was
sitting up on the front row. He was sitting up there. He was
sitting right on the edge of the pew. And he had his ears
like this. And some old lady looked at him. She said, son,
are you hard of hearing? You having a hard time hearing?
He looked at her and he said, no, no, ma'am, no. He said, Mr. Spurgeon said that the Lord calls
sinners and I don't want to miss his call. I don't want to miss
it. I don't want to miss it. Are
you sitting on the edge of the pew like that? Is that how you are? Are
you disappointed with all exhortation that does not show you Christ,
that does not show you the blood of the crucified one? Are you? Oh, I hope you are. Does your
soul long for Christ? Does it? Do you pray that the
one speaking will be determined to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Do you look at the lost people
beside you and the people around you and your children? And you
put your hands over them and you look up at the preacher with
all earnestness in your eyes and you cry to him with a voice
that cannot be uttered and you say, Preacher, show us Jesus! Oh, that we might see Jesus.
That we might see Him. Oh, my. If not, then just sitting here
isn't good enough. No, it's not. It's not unless
we see Christ. We might have stayed home and
watched football. Might as well. Because it is in Him and Him
alone that all fullness dwells. It is in Him. You say, well,
oh boy, they've kind of taken everything from me. Well, what
about when I walk out the door, I always put money in the offering
box. I do that. Surely there's got to be something
in that. I asked you this morning this,
I said, did you give unto the Lord as he has given you? Freely,
freely, no strings attached. Lovingly, did you? Was your offering
a gift? Like grace? Like faith? Was it
a gift? Was it? Or was it works? Was
it? Did you give like the Israelites
of old? Out of bondage? Out of fear? Oh my, if I don't
do this, something bad is going to happen to me. Did you? How
did you give? Did you give because the law
that is written on tables of stone? Or did you give because
that law of love that is written in your heart? Why? Why, ask
yourself this. I don't want you leaving them
doors until you've asked yourself these questions. Until you've
found out in your heart, am I pleasing to Him? Oh, until you saw Christ. Until you saw Him. Did you give
because you saw the fires of Mount Sinai jumping out of that
box? Did you? And did you give because you
saw the Lord Jesus Christ hanging there on that hill called Galbraith
or Calvary? You saw him hanging there. And
you said, he gave his life for me. What have I given to thee? What have I given to thee? Oh, if Christ was seen in your
gift, I tell you, there was fullness there. There was fullness. For
it has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. But if He wasn't seen, your offering
was like candy. It's unacceptable. Unacceptable. The produce of our fields are
not acceptable in His sight. No, they are not. There's no
fullness there. None whatsoever. You as one,
if you come with your fullness, you're as one who enters a bank
and you've got a counterfeit note, counterfeit bill. And you
walk up to that teller and you lay that bill down and say, I
want to deposit this in the bank. Oh, you're not only guilty of
having that bill. That bill is not only worthless,
but you are guilty of being in possession of that bill. You're
guilty. The teller, what's she going
to do? She's going to call the guards. She's going to call and
say, arrest this man. He's guilty of counterfeiting.
He's guilty of being a counterfeit. If you stand before God with
anything other than the fullness of Christ, then His fullness,
then my friend this morning, you stand before God a counterfeit.
You are a counterfeit. Your so-called fullness is counterfeit. It is. And the God of all creation
will look at you, and He will say, Depart from Me, ye worker
of iniquity, for I never knew you. Your fullness is counterfeit. I don't recognize that. I don't
recognize it. The only fullness that God recognizes
is the fullness He put in His Son. The all-fullness that He
put in His Son. For it is in Him and Him alone
that all fullness dwells. Oh, that all would see that nothing
Nothing will fuel the fires of hell like self-righteousness. Oh, it won't. It won't. Nothing
is going to kindle the wrath of God on sinners like a sinner
coming before a thrice-holy God, looking him straight in the face,
and calling him a liar. Nothing's going to kindle his
wrath more than that. Nothing will. Nothing will justify God
more than the casting of sinners into eternal damnation than self-righteousness. than taking away from the fullness
that is in His precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. Nothing is going to do that. Oh, that the Holy Spirit would
show us this morning our emptiness. That He might fill us. That He
could fill us. That we might see His fullness.
Oh, that we could understand this verse. For it is in Him. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. All fullness. You remember Joseph
down there in Egypt? You remember that? All the corn
in Egypt belonged to Joseph, didn't it? Turn over. It's Genesis
42. I want you to see this. Genesis 42. Genesis 42 verse
41. I'm sorry. 41 verse 48. It says in verse 48, it says,
And he, that is Joseph, gathered up all the flood food of the
seven years, which were in the land of Egypt and laid up the
food in the cities and food of the field, which was round about
every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn
as the sand of the sea very much until he left numbering for it
was without number. All the fullness of Christ is
without number. You couldn't measure the fullness
of Christ. You can't measure it. Look over
here in verse 54. Verse 54, it says, And the seven
years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph has said,
and the dearth was in all lands. But in all the land of Egypt
there was bread. Verse 55, And when all the land
of Egypt was famished, no more food, it was all gone. All the
food was gone. The people cried to Pharaoh for
bread. Watch what Pharaoh says. He says,
And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph. Go to
Joseph, because he's got all the food. And I'm saying there
this morning, I'm saying, go to Jesus. Go to Jesus. You're sitting in a land of famine
right now. Oh, there's a famine of fullness.
There is no fullness to be found in this world. I'm saying this
morning, go to Him who is all fullness. Go to Him who is all
fullness. Look to Him. Look to Christ.
Oh, those people that came to Joseph, you know what? They came
with empty sacks. They did. They had nothing in
their sacks. What would have happened if somebody
had come up and had a full bag of food and said, I need some
more? Joseph would have said, you get out of here. Where'd
you find that? Where'd you find that at? No,
they all came with empty sacks. And if we're going to come to
Christ this morning, if you're going to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and if he's going to fill you this morning, you're
going to have to come with an empty cup. An empty cup. Oh, all healing power. You remember
that snake in the wilderness? All healing power was put in
that snake, wasn't it? It was. I said, you look at this
snake, you live. You don't, you're going to die.
You're going to die. Oh, it was all put in that snake. Oh, you remember, all the atoning
power was put in that blood that was on the doorpost of the children
of Israel in Egypt. All of it. That angel that went
by, he wasn't looking at the people inside, was he? What was
he looking for? When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. When I see the blood. Oh, he's
going to have to see the all fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ
when he sees you. Oh, there's no hope. There is
no hope whatsoever. Oh, Joseph, was he not a picture
of Christ? Wasn't he? Ah, the snake on the
pole that was lifted up, was that not Christ? In the mind
and purpose of God, wasn't it? Ah, that blood on the doorpost,
in the mind and picture and type and shadow and all these things,
it is a picture of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what that blood is. Oh, that when He passes by us,
He'd see the blood. He'd see the blood. Listen, in
ourselves we have nothing. We are empty. We are empty of
any merit. We are empty of any righteousness.
We are empty of any fullness. We are empty of any holiness,
anything, whatsoever. Outside of Christ, we are complete
darkness. Now listen to what I'm going
to say. We are complete darkness with no hope of ever dwelling
in the light, none whatsoever, in and of ourselves. No hope.
We are absolute sinners who are absolutely lost. who are absolutely
dead. OK, and we need an absolute Savior
with absolute fullness. So we might stand before an absolutely
just God and be absolutely justified. There's no variables here, none
whatsoever. This is a gospel message. That's
what it is. Paul, if you today, I tell you,
If you today are like that young man out in the corner of his
kingdom, that king's kingdom, and you have that one bit of
righteousness that is buried under your mattress somewhere,
oh, if you do, if you look down in your cup
and you see that one bit of righteousness just dangling in your cup, just
clanging around in your cup, I'm telling you this morning,
cast it aside. Cast it aside. It's counterfeit. It's counterfeit. And I'll point you to that one
who hangs between two things. I'll point you to him. Do you
see him? Do you see that one who hangs up there? Oh, do you
see those thieves that are beside him? Do you see those guards
walking up to those thieves and breaking their legs? Do you see
him? Do you see him walking up to
the Savior's side? Do you see him plunging that
spear into his side? Do you see that fount that flows
from his side? Do you see it? I'll take that
empty cup of yours, take it, and plunge it in that fountain
that flows from the Savior's side, and be saved. Be full. For that alone is where
fullness comes from. And that is the only place you're
going to find it. The only place you're going to find it. Oh my, if you're like that one
who's plowing in the field, are you like him this morning? Are
you out there plowing in the field working? I say, jump off
that plow. You're not going to find nothing.
You're not going to find it. Jump off that plow and run to
the Savior. Run to Him. Look in your cup.
There's nothing there. It's empty. The only thing that
you see is sweat and dirt from what you've been doing. That's
all you've got to offer. Jump off that plow and run to
Christ. And take that cup and put it
in that fountain. Oh, my. That fountain of righteousness. Oh, and if you're here this morning,
if you're here this morning, you say, oh, there's not enough
fullness in all of creation to cover my sin. Isn't fullness
enough? Oh, I tell you this morning,
Harlot Rahab, she's filled. She was filled. She was. That
thief on the cross, he was filled. He was filled. Oh, Saul of Tarsus, that one
who enjoyed, he consented to those ones that stoned Steve,
and he held up coats, and he watched it, and he enjoyed it. He did. Oh, he found fullness,
did he not? He found fullness in that fount
that flows from the Savior's side. He found fullness there. Oh, my. He wrote it in 1 Timothy
there. He said, it is a faithful saying. It is worthy of all expectation
that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. Of whom I am chief. Oh, if there's
room enough at the fount for the chief of sinners. If there's
room enough. There's room enough for you.
There's fullness there for you. Oh, and little ones. Little ones. Cannot forget you. Oh, the fall has left its mark on
you. It has. It's left its mark on you. I
know you have not had the time in your life to stain your cup
as we have. No, you haven't. But there's
enough sin in you to send you to hell right now. There it is. And I'm ashamed to say it, but
you inherited that from me. You inherited it from your mama
and daddy who inherited it from their daddy and their daddy right
down the line. David said, I was shaped in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Oh, I pray this morning. I pray this morning that you
would look in your cup. Oh, little ones, look in your
cup. Look in your cup. Do you see anything? Do you see
emptiness? Do you see emptiness? For that's
all that's there. Oh, I don't ask you this morning
to make a decision for Christ. For any of yourself, you can't
do that. You can't do that. But by the grace of God, by the
working of the Holy Spirit in your lives, you can look in your
cup and see emptiness. This morning, I take you and
I point you to Christ. For that is what Jesus said to
do, is it not? He said, suffer the little children
that come unto me. Oh, my. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. There's fullness
there. Oh, there's fullness there. Oh my, and to... You know, no one has ever been
turned away that comes with an empty cup. They're not. They will not be turned away.
They will not. And to you, you hear this morning
that it's tasted of the grace of God in your lives, that have
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And at one time in your lives,
you felt like that fount was overflowing you. Oh my, but now
the flesh and the world and the devil, oh, they're strong adversaries. They are. And they'll pick fights
with any chance they can. They will. And you feel in your
life, you feel that cup that once ran over. That cup that
was once wet and moist on the side of that cup with the dew
and with the water of life. Oh, you feel it's all but dried
up, that size of your cup. And you see the flecks of rust
and the little bits of dirt on the side of your cup. Oh, I say
this morning, look to Christ. Just look to Christ. Oh, we we
got to not just be filled with the fountain. You got to live
at the fountain. You got to live there. Oh, in
your prayers, look to Christ. Pray to Christ. Pray to Him. When you come to church, look
for Christ in everything. When you read your Bible, when
you read it, Look for Christ. Look for Him. Oh, He is to be
found. He will be found. By all those
that come to Him in need, He will be found. And I'll tell
you this morning, if your cup was ever full, it's still full
now. It's still full. Oh, because
those who are justified in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will
always be justified. Oh, but what we need, what we
need in our lives is to be overflowing. And it's going to take living
at the fountain to be overflowing. Overflowing. That's what we need.
Oh, by the grace of God, we would be made up. Oh, that Christ would
not just be felt in us, but that He would be seen in us. That
He'd be seen in us. Oh, my. That we could say with
David, The psalmist David, that we could say, oh, he has prepared
for me a table in the presence of my enemies, my cup runneth
over. Wouldn't that be a wonderful
thing? Just to be able to stay and dwell at the table of the
Lord. Oh, we've got the feast right
here. We got it. Oh, I pray for you, Pastor. Pray
for him. And he would have words to speak,
just words of Christ to show you. Words of Christ. Oh my,
that that would be the case. Well, I hope the Lord blessed
this message. I just thought about this verse
of scripture I'll read to you before we go to dinner. He's telling about the Word of
God in John 1. 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. And in verse 16, and
of His fullness. Have all we received. And grace
for grace. Just receive it. That's our problem,
isn't it? We don't want to come with empty
cups. That's our problem, isn't it? We think somewhere we've
got to have something in our cups. Instead of just coming
and receiving everything. Guilty of the greatest sins you
can imagine. But here's fullness of forgiveness.
Your righteousness are as filthy rags. Here's a full righteousness
you can stand before God in. Of His fullness. Thank you, David. Wonderful message. Simple message.
Good message. I have no idea what we're going
to have for lunch, but I know it smells good. And I know it'll
be good. So I hope you all can stay in
about maybe one o'clock or so, whenever we get back in. Brother
David's going to come and preach for us again, and I'm looking
forward to it. So let us stand. We will ask the Lord to bless
our food. O gracious Father, gracious, gracious Father in
heaven, merciful, so pitiful to us, O we bless your name. We ascribe all honor and praise
and thanksgiving to you. Who would have known this morning
when we awoke from our beds, that we'd hear such wonderful,
wonderful news. Oh, such good news for our poor
souls that makes it leap for joy and laugh and shout. Oh,
we thank you. Lord in heaven, never can we
find any such words except in your Bible. Oh, Father in heaven,
do empty us out. Empty us of ourselves and bring
us to the Lord Jesus Christ to receive everything you require
and everything we need from Him who is willing to give it to
all those who come empty. Thank you for Brother David.
Thank you for giving him this message, this gospel message.
And thank you for those who have gathered here today to hear.
May you be your own teacher. May you be your interpreter. Thank you for the food that you
ladies have prepared today. We bless you for it. In Christ
our Lord's name, Amen.