Colossians chapter two. Interestingly
enough, it's been about a year, I'll say roughly, since we moved.
It's been a little more than that, but the first Sunday I
was with you, a year and a couple weeks ago, we looked at Colossians
two, and I would remind us of the title. It was hearts being
knit together in love. and you can look that up again
and listen to it if you choose or not. It's irrelevant, I suppose,
but as I was studying this, I reminisced of the time that we, in moving
up here, and whenever we first came to be here, it was a matter
of, it was an honor, it was a privilege, it was a frightening time. We
didn't know what was going to happen, but we knew who we were
looking to to provide all things, and he did it well. And what
a glorious hope that we still have. Our hope hasn't changed.
The message hasn't changed. Our surety hasn't changed. That's why we're able to look
in the second chapter of Colossians again and see, and the Lord chose
to reveal himself again to us, and so we can declare it again.
I'm not gonna preach the same thing as I preached a year ago.
The Lord gave me this thought complete in him. And if we are
complete in him, our hearts are knit together in love. If we
are complete in him, that means he's given us each the same heart
that looks to him. Therefore, our hearts are knit
together in his love. But once Paul mentions our hearts
are knit together in love, he gives an immediate warning in
verse four. I'll bring your attention to
that. Verse four and five. And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent
in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. He directs them to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He warns them lest someone would
beguile them and then he immediately directs them to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how we preach as well, isn't it? We do give
warnings of falseness and the possibilities thereof, but what's
the solution? Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ
and his finished work. There's the solution. That's
what we declare. He tells them that Christ is
the hidden mystery. Don't be deceived. Don't be beguiled. Don't be entangled. That's what
he's communicating to them. Anything besides Christ is a
delusion, isn't it? We can say a lot of things, but
if we're not preaching Christ simply, that's just a delusion
that's adding to or taking away from his finished work. That's
not the Lord. In his fullness, that's a delusion, isn't it?
Paul's hope is that their hearts would be united in one thing,
and this is our hope. This is our hope, the Lord Jesus
Christ and his gospel alone. That's where we hope to be united
in. Look in verse six. If this is
our hope, he says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him. How did we receive the Lord Jesus
Christ? How did we receive the Lord Jesus
Christ? We received him as needy, as
poor, as undone sinners, didn't we? We didn't come to him bringing
anything to him. And that word received, that's
not the word that men, the option to not receive, the option to
reject, that's not what he's saying. This word received by
definition means to acknowledge one, To be as he professes to
be to acknowledge one to be as he professes to be. It's because
of repentance, isn't it? We we received him. by his faith, by his repentance. It wasn't a option of rejection
or reception, was it? No, we received him because faith
was bestowed to believe. We received him because repentance
was given so that we could acknowledge him as being as he professed
to be. See, and we know this to be true,
a dead man can't receive anything, can he? He's dead. We had to
be made alive first, didn't we? And once we're alive, then faith
is given and repentance is given instantaneously and we just believe
Christ. We see God as seated and we just
believe Christ Jesus as all in salvation. So if we are dead, what must
happen? God must make us alive, and then, verse seven tells us,
we are then rooted and built up in him and established in
the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
He gives faith. He gives faith. Repentance acknowledges
who God is and who we are, and faith believes Christ. Faith
looks to Christ. Repentance reveals that He is
sovereign in His wrath. He is sovereign in His justice,
that He is holy. And in seeing Him as holy, it
reveals that we are not holy. We are not truth, but He is. We are false and full of sin.
We need a substitute. That's what faith does, is it
points to the substitute. It gives us eyes to see our substitute. We're no longer looking for signs
and wonders. We're not deceived in any way. We're not looking to ourself
anymore. We're not looking for our own worth in what we do or
what we say or what we think or what we don't do. We look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what faith does. Don't look to self in any way. Sometimes I believe that some
individuals are waiting to come to Christ because they're wanting
some sign or some wonder or some emotion or some experience or
something to change. The call is not wait to come
to the Lord. It's today is the day of salvation. Come to Christ. Confess the Lord
Jesus Christ right now. Don't wait. Don't wait. It's
now is the time. Now is the accepted time, the
Lord says. If we're waiting on an experience, a feeling, or
an emotional stirring, we'll never come to him. That's looking
to self. That's trying to see something in me that gives me
the ability to come to him. No, come to Christ. It's simple,
come to him. If he's given repentance and
faith, flee to him. Well, how do I know if I have
repentance and faith? Well, you're not looking for
repentance and faith, you're looking to Christ. That's the point,
isn't it? If you look to him as all your hope and salvation,
come to him. Come to him through the eyes
of faith that he's given. Don't look at yourself. McCall
has come to Christ right now, right now. This is what Paul
is talking. You've been rooted. And then
he says, it's by faith, come to Christ. You've been given,
if he's your hope, if he's your only hope of eternal life, come
to him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the call. He is
the root whereby our life source is derived. It's not what we
see, it's whom we believe in, and not what we believe in, it's
whom. I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. The Lord Jesus Christ is who we come to through the eyes
of faith, not looking to ourself in any way, in any way. If a man or a woman says that
they came to Christ, they believed on him, but afterward there arises
a need for some evidence of that coming to Christ, whether it
be the works of the flesh as part or evidence of salvation,
and they never came to the first place. So we don't return back
to the law after salvation and try to work something that would
please God. Faith, continually believes the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. As soon as we're made alive,
faith looks to Christ. Throughout our entire life, faith
looks to Christ. It never looks to self. And we
find that's usually our greatest struggle is we're constantly
looking to self. We're constantly taking matters
into our own hand. We're constantly looking away
from him and we're constantly sinking like Peter. And we constantly
have to say, Lord, save me, Lord, save me, and we return. Why?
Because he says, come to me. You're laboring again, you're
heavy laden again, don't do that. Come to Christ, rest in his finished
work. If the Lord does not give repentance,
For those that may be beguiled for a brief time to look to themselves,
and we do, we look to ourselves, but if the Lord doesn't give
repentance of that, then that's not a believer. That individual
is not a believer. A believer comes to Christ in
the heart. A believer believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The only difference between a
believer and a sinner is a believer believes. I said that one time
and got some communication from somebody saying, well, there's
a lot different in a believer and a non-believer. There's a
lot different between a sinner and a saint. And I said, well,
first of all, saints are sinners and sinners are saints. And Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So what is my point
here? The only difference between a
believer and a non-believer is a believer believes in everything.
In everything that we do, whether we're walking, whether we're
talking, we're looking unto Christ. Now, do we do that all the time?
The new man does, but we're constantly in this old flesh tripping over
our own self, aren't we? We just need to be brought back.
Lord, bring me back. Lord, here I am tripping over
my own feet again. And only the believer understands what I'm
talking about. We just keep tripping over ourselves. We can't get
out of our own way, can we? Lord, I want to see you. I want
to believe you. I want to trust you with every
fiber of my being. That's what heaven is. That's
what heaven is. If we can, when we get to glory,
we're constantly gonna be focused on him forever and ever and ever. Isn't that glorious? Never taking
our eyes, never looking at self. Boy, look at the glorification
that the Lord has given me. Look at my robe of righteousness. No, we're looking to him. That's
what faith does now and one day it'll end in sight and we'll
just look at him forever in worship, in perfect worship. Well, Paul goes on to say in
verse eight, beware. He's giving us a warning. He's
giving us a warning. He says, beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy. Now there's a problem that men
have, philosophy. And vain deceit after the traditions
of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Beware lest any man spoil you
in any way that is not the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware, beware. Philosophy is the love of wisdom.
It's any branch of knowledge, any branch of knowledge. Men
love to water down the finished work of Christ. Men love to gain
knowledge and believe that they've attained something. Men are puffed
up. That's what knowledge does, the scripture says. Knowledge
puffeth up. The more we know, the more we
think we know. But the believer says, Lord,
I have purpose to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Is that your confession? Lord,
it's not what I know. I see now what I know is nothing
compared to your infinite wisdom. I need your wisdom. And that's
Christ, isn't it? Christ has made our wisdom by
God. The Lord makes Christ our confession,
our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.
Got to have him. We've got to have him. We've
got to have him alone. Well, men want to debate when
they hear things like that. Well, yeah, I know that's true,
but and they'll try to what about this and what about this and
what you know what the scripture teaches that the gospel declares
it is finished and the believer just rest. There's no debating
it is finished, is it? I mean, it's just we just declare
it. Yeah, yeah, I know it's finished, but what about this? It's finished.
It's finished. We've been, we're complete in
him. The only reason men want to debate is they like to draw
attention to what they know. Boy, we don't, Lord's people,
we don't draw attention to what we know when it comes to the
gospel. We rest in the gospel, don't we? It's not about bragging
rights. I was thinking about, Thinking
about sports recently and how that one team, when they win,
they have bragging rights. We have beat the other. We're
better than the other team. The scoreboard is our validation
for that. In the Lord's church, there is
no Christ is the validation. That's it. There is no pride
when it comes to what we know. Now, we're very proud in the
sense of our Savior. Don't misunderstand. Yeah, I'm
very humbled, but it's not an arrogance. There's no arrogance
when it comes to Christ. He's given us the spirit of humility.
We don't say, well, I'm better than so-and-so because I believe.
It's by grace alone, isn't it? It's not what we've came to the
knowledge of. It's that He's given us the knowledge
of Christ. He's given us Christ, our wisdom,
and faith just looks to Him, not self. Any type of debate,
it's not of the Lord. It's deceitful vanity. That's
trying to keep the moral law, isn't it? Vanity is what Solomon
called life. Everything is altogether vanity.
He had gotten Every, I can, I'll sum it up for you by saying,
gotten everything physically that you could possibly possess,
including whether it was entertainment, it was music, it was vineyards,
it was everything, building great buildings, everything that you
can imagine, he had it at his disposal and he did it. And he
said, every bit of it's vanity. Every bit, everything I've done
is nothing. It's just, who's, I'm gonna pass
this on to the next person when I die. What did this accomplish?
Nothing. He said, OK, well, I've got another solution. Let me
get a book out. Let me learn. Let me put everything up top.
Let me start studying. And he started studying. He started
growing in knowledge, he thought. And the more he learned, the
more he realized the same conclusion. It's vanity. What was the conclusion
at the end? It's not what you do. And it's
not what you know. And it's not what I do. And it's
not what I know. It's whom we have believed. How did we believe? How did we receive him? The same
as every dead dog sinner receives him as poor, as needy, as confessing
he is all he is all we acknowledge that he is all that's what receiving
means, isn't it? Paul saying that These three
things here, the philosophy, the vain deceit, and the traditions
of men can be summed up by saying the moral law, the civil law,
and the law of ceremony, like we heard last Sunday. That's
the three laws that men try to use. That's the summary of the
entire law given in the word of God. That's what men push
on others in order for them to, in order for it to be revealed,
they think that they have some kind of salvation, but the Lord
doesn't look at what we're doing. He looks at what Christ has done. If I preach Christ and yet I
add one thing to him or take one thing away, I am a false
prophet. I am a false preacher. Now I
want to say that again very clearly. If I preach Christ and I add
one thing to his finished work, or I take away one thing from
his finished work, whether it be prior to salvation or after
the Lord has revealed for evidence of salvation, I am a false preacher. And the Lord does not call men
from false preachers. The Lord does not call women
from false preachers. The Lord calls from a God called
preacher that preaches Christ alone. So what do we pray? Lord, keep us preaching Christ
alone. I don't get to stand back and
I don't know how many years, but if I was to put a number
on it, I would say I'll be with you. Hopefully, if the Lord would
permit at least 30 to 40 years, I don't get to look back over
Donny Bell's been in. Crossville, Tennessee for 45
years, declaring the gospel faithfully by God's grace alone. And that's
exactly what he would tell you. He looks back and he says, I
don't get any glory for declaring the Lord for 45 years. He says,
I can't believe that he calls me to do that. It's all by his
grace. That's what we say, isn't it?
It calls us to preach Christ alone. Allow us not to be blinded
to self or the world or allow the adversary that we face to
pull the wool over our eyes, so to speak, for even a brief
moment. Shut us up to Christ. There's no neutrality. There's
no neutrality whenever it comes to Christ and works. It must be Christ alone. It's
not Christ plus something or Christ minus something. If we
don't preach him, then we have failed. We have failed. And in verse nine, he tells us
why we preach him. For in him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In him dwelleth the fullness.
This is how we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we saw
him as God. When we saw him as God, he had
to give us the repentance and faith to do it, but when we saw
him as God, we bowed to him, didn't we, in the heart. We came
to him, Lord, I've got to have you. You're God. This whole time
I thought you were baby Jesus, meek and mild. No, you're God.
That's what faith reveals. He is God. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. The Lord Jesus Christ is 100%
God and 100% man. Now, if you were to get a calculator
out and try to explain that, you would have a very difficult
time, and so would I, because it's impossible to understand.
Faith believes it. Faith believes that he's 100%
God and 100% man, the successful redeemer of his people, the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Him in his entirety, his sovereignty,
his authority. You remember a good example of
him being God. You remember when they came to
arrest him and they said, he said, whom do you seek? And he
said, they looked at him and said, Jesus of Nazareth. And
he said, I am. And what happened? Well, they
all fell backwards, didn't they? He said, I am, and they fell
backwards. And then they got up. And the Lord gave them the
audacity to say, he said, whom do you seek? And he said, Jesus
of Nazareth. I mean, I would imagine that
me and you'd be trembling and run away and hide. I mean, if
we just got knocked over by someone's word. But they couldn't see that
he was God, could they? It was purpose that he would
go to the cross. We know the reason that they didn't run away.
He was to be delivered into the men with wicked hands, the scripture
says in Acts 2.23, by the determinate counsel of God. They asked him
again, or he asked them again, I should say, whom do you seek?
And they said, Jesus and Heather. He said, I already told you,
I am. I am. Let these go. And guess what they did? They let every one of them go.
All the disciples left peacefully. Peacefully the Lord was taken
into custody if you will at that moment by his own doing he had
all the power He said all power is given to me of my father All
powder you can't add to all and you can't take away. I mean that's
every bit of it right all power All power in heaven and in earth
was given to the Lord Jesus Christ by the Father. He's God. He's
God. He was not a victim to their
will or any man's will. He chose to honor His Father
unto death, even the death of the cross. He chose to be wounded
for the transgressions of His people. He chose to be made sin
for us who knew no sin. He chose to do these things.
He chose to shed His blood for the remission of His people's
sin. You know, our blood couldn't
accomplish anything. The shedding of our blood, scripture
says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sin. But you and I could not have shed any blood or shed our
own blood for the remission of sin because it's tainted, it's
sinful. His blood was perfect. His blood
was the Father's blood. His blood was enough. It satisfied
the Father. And he chose to shed his blood
for the remission of his people's sin. That word remission is making
it so that we have never sinned one time in his eyes. I love
that. It's not that it's like we have
never sinned. It's not that we had sinned in
his sight and then he took it away. In his sight, his people
have never sinned one time. That's what justified means.
That's what remitted means, remission. I can't explain that. I still
see sin, don't you? I still, every day I see it and
he don't. He chose to put it away by his
own death, by his own blood, he purged our sin. He chose to
shed his blood for those that he loves, and then he chose to
die for the remission of our sin, the atonement of his people.
In Leviticus chapter 17, it says, for the life of the flesh is
in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make
an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that maketh
an atonement for the soul. He chose to be the covering. That's what the word atonement
means. He chose to be the covering so that when the father sees
his elected people that Christ shed his blood for, he doesn't
see them. He sees the blood of Christ.
And when he does, he said, told us in Exodus, when I see the
blood, I'm gonna pass by you. That's what he's looking for.
It's got to be applied. It's got to be applied. Now,
who's the one that applies it? The Lord. The Lord must be. I
can't apply and you can't apply the blood of Christ, but he did
for his people. He did. He did it to reconcile
us back to God, to atone for everyone he loves. He chose to
lay down his life freely. He told the self-righteous Pharisees,
the ones that even came to get him from the Garden of Gethsemane,
he said, no man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down,
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. No man can take my life. He chose
to lay down his life freely for his people. He has all the power
because he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Told us in
John 10, as the father knoweth me, even so now, even so know
I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. He goes on to tell us, I and
my father are one. Jesus Christ is God, and he died
for his people on the cross of Calvary as the God-man, shedding
his blood that we may be covered by it, and therefore justified
in the sight of God. Now look at verse nine. Again, for in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And I've spent a lot of time
in describing this for one reason and one reason alone. And I knew
I would go through this chapter to begin with to get to the point
because we have to see what he's done and who he is in order to
appreciate verse 10. Look at verse 10. And ye are
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and
power. Ye are complete in him. What does that mean? You are
complete in him. Do you feel complete? Do you
feel day to day, and it's rhetorical, we don't as believers, do you
feel complete in him? No. No, I don't feel complete
in my prayer. Lord, when I'm praying, my prayer's
not complete. Lord, I don't feel complete in
my worship. Lord, I want to worship you in spirit and in truth, but
I feel like my mind wanders. Lord, I'm not complete in anything
that I do. You're complete in him if he died for you. In the
Father's sight, you're complete in him. You're whole. There's
not one blemish. There's not one spot. There's
not one crack. Even though you see all those
things that I mentioned, the Lord says you are complete in
the Lord Jesus Christ. I recently got, I received a
decorative vase, and it's an antique, and apparently it would
have been worth hundreds if it hadn't had a crack up the back
of it. And the top of the bottle is a little, next time you come
to my house, I'll show it to you. But the top of it's a little
deformed whenever they were making it, it's a little lopsided, you
know, and I said, That's a good example of what we are. Turn
it around, you can't see the crack. Turn it around, it looks
perfectly fine on the shelf. It's worth hundreds, but it has
a crack in it. That's what we are by nature, isn't it? We're
not just cracked, we're broken in pieces. I don't need to make
us sound better than what we are. We know that to be true. But
what men say is, well, all you got to do is just turn around.
Don't show them the crack. Put that against the wall, and
they'll probably think you're just fine. And that's what men spend their
entire life doing, not showing their flaws and making themselves
look good. But the people that are in the Lord Jesus Christ,
they don't have a crack. Not in God's sight. Now he sees
it as how that it is. You are complete in him. No deformities, no cracks whatsoever. Why? Because the blood of Christ. That's why. Because he is God
and he died for his people. That's why. Putting away all
of their blemishes, all of their transgression, all of their spot.
There's hope. There's our hope. He's the doer
of it. And he's the one that applies the blood to his people,
isn't he? He does it all. And he has to give us repentance
and faith or we'll never come to him. So he does that. He has
to give us his spirit, make us alive. We can't, we can't receive
the things of God being dead and trespasses it in sin. He
has to make us alive. And he does that too. You are
complete in him. He told us why in the verse before,
because he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's why,
that's why. Just as there is complete union. Now, do you believe that there
is complete union with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
Do you believe that? There's complete union. Christ
said that multiple times. I and my Father are one, and
we know it's Christ's Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ is His
Spirit. If you believe the Lord's words, you believe that there
is oneness and unity with the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Complete oneness in everything
that they do. The good news of the gospel is,
is we're complete in Him. We are one with God. We are one in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are whole. We are new in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Just as these three are one,
God's people are one in Christ Jesus. It's said in 1 Corinthians
8, verse 6, there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things,
and we in Him. How are we in the Father? Because
we're in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. That's what
Christ did by His own blood. He put us in Himself and birthed
us into the family of God. There's the hope of the gospel.
We are complete in Him. There's one God, the Father,
of whom are all things, and we in Him. And one Lord, Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and we by Him. He is the head, he says right
here, of all principalities and powers. He's over all. Nothing
has power over Him. I like the word head that he
uses there. That means the top, the highest
most point. There's nothing above Him. Everything's
under Him. Everything is subject to Him.
Everything is below Him. Everything obeys Him. and you
are complete in him. That's the good news of the gospel.
No matter how high we preach him and no matter how low we
preach man, you can't preach him, we can't preach him too
high and we can't preach man too low. But no matter how high
we preach him and how low we preach ourself, you are complete
in him because of what Christ Jesus did. Go back to chapter one, verse
18. He's the head, I would remind
us, as he just said here. Chapter 118, and he is the head
and the body. He's the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning and 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 he is the head of his beloved church he hath reconciled
his people back to the father He is the head over his church
and we are united to him. Just as he is the fullness, I
don't want us to miss this, just as he is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily, the fullness of Christ is given to his people
by faith. Just as he is the fullness of
the Godhead bodily, the fullness of Christ is given to his people
Isn't that, I don't understand that. We have the fullness of
Christ right now. We have all his benefits right
now. Now we can't enjoy all of them. We have every one of them
right now. Right now, we're complete in
him. When were we complete in him?
And I love the answer to that. Before time ever began, we were
complete in him. Isn't that, talk about a work
that could not be thwarted or could be prevented or could be
changed. It was forever settled. Lamb's book of life is eternal,
isn't it? It's eternal. And we don't understand eternity.
All we can do is think of things in time. And so we just believe
that which the Lord spoken. And he said, before time ever
began, he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
The scripture said before he even said, let there be light,
his work was finished and we're complete in him because of it.
Well, how are we complete in him? Well, we've been born again,
haven't we? By his own doing. He told Nicodemus, you must be
born again. That's the only way that we are made alive. He has to do that. He has to
birth us into his family. Give us repentance and faith
after we're made alive. Really, all of it's instantaneous.
He says, live and gives repentance and faith all at the same time.
It's not one comes after the other. How do you describe the
right nowness of the Lord? He doesn't have time. You can't
narrow it down to 10 billionths of a millisecond. He's right
now, and that's the best way I can describe him. The moment
he says live, he gives repentance and faith. His people are born
again, and he just reveals that they've always, always, always
been complete in him. He describes this, actually,
as the circumcision, which was an issue he was dealing with
throughout many of the letters he was writing, but look back
in chapter two, verse 10. And you are complete in him which
is the head of all principality and power, in whom also you are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. That erases
all that we do by works, isn't it? It's without hands and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised
him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened. Now
you know what that word quickened means? Made alive. Made alive,
you hath he quickened. Together with him, having, and
this is past tense, isn't it? Having forgiven you all trespasses. How did he forgive all of our
trespasses? He tells us in verse 14, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, having spoiled
principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly
triumphing over them in it. If we are in Christ, we are complete
in Him. He has blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances. He has put away the sin. He no
longer sees a broken vessel. We're no longer broken cisterns,
and I believe we see ourselves as broken cisterns. Somebody
mentioned this too, it's a good analogy because we get full when
we come and hear the gospel and we feel. Somebody told me recently
they heard a message and said, boy, that was a good meal I just
ate. That was a really good meal. I'm still digesting it. And that's,
we need it every day, don't we? We need to be fed. We need that
water from heaven. And when we receive it by the Lord's grace
through faith, We're full up. David said, my cup runneth over.
We go to the next chapter. And David said, Lord, have mercy
on me. I've leaked out all the joy that I had. That's what we
do, isn't it? We got to have more. We got to
have more. One day, when we see him face to face, he will reveal
that we were never cracked, we were never flawed, we were never
broken, we never sinned. One time, he took it out of the
way, nailed it to his cross, and they are gone forever. We get to see him face, you talk
about joy overflowing then forever and ever. We'll never take our
eyes off of him. We'll never take our eyes off of him. The
scripture talks about the streets of gold. It says they're transparent. They're transparent goals. Well,
what's that mean? It means you won't even notice
it because it's like pavement compared to him. It's a street,
it's pavement. When we see him face to face,
we won't even notice anything other than him. There's nothing
that compares to his beauty. When it's revealed that we are
complete in him, we will rejoice forever in him. You ever feel complete in him?
No. No, I don't feel it. Well, Being complete in him is not
a feeling. It's by faith. Look to him. Don't look to yourself.
Don't look to what you do. Don't look to what I do. Look
to Christ. Look to Christ. It's not a feeling.
Faith just looks to him. Completeness in Him means we're
totally dependent on Him. It's nothing that we do. It's
nothing that we're going to do. It's what He's done. We just
believe that we've been given justification before God, that
we've been given sanctification before God. That's what it means
to be complete in Him. You're justified in God's sight, sanctified
in His sight. We have peace with God, perfect
union in the Lord Jesus Christ with Him and His Father. That's
what it means to be complete in Him. We've been pardoned of
our sin, our iniquity, our transgression, our trespasses are all gone.
They're all gone. That's what it means to be complete
in Him. We've been pardoned from the penalty of sin and the power
of sin. We don't, we can't see it. But His eyes, that's how
He sees it, isn't it? We've been given eternal life.
And I had this thought and I, I want to elaborate on this thought,
but just briefly, we're coming to a close, but we've been given
the title deed to heaven. Think about that. If we've been
given all things in Christ and Christ is the owner of all things,
we've been given the title deed to heaven. Well, don't misunderstand
that because Christ is heaven. Christ is heaven. If we're looking
for a place, we're not looking for a person. Christ is heaven.
heaven. And does not the scripture says,
I am my beloved and he is mine. I own him. He owns me. How did that happen? Well, we're
completing him by his blood. That's what his blood purchased.
That's what his blood purchase paid for all by his blood. We've been given every blessing
in Christ Jesus. Even though we can't enjoy all
of them right now, but we've already been given everything
in Him because you are complete in Him, not because you're going
to be. And this is what my brain has
trouble with, is everything's futuristic, so I try to make
it, not in God's eyes, it's already finished. Right now, right now,
there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Right
now, you are complete in Him. Not because of what you've done,
not because of what I've done, but because of what Christ has
done. Not because of what we're going to do, but because of what
Christ Jesus has done. We're complete in him. No matter
what darkness may cloud over us, the Lord says, my grace is
sufficient for thee, you're complete in me. No matter what earthly
need may arise, the Lord promises, our God shall supply all of your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Why?
We're complete in him. No matter what trial or tribulation
we face, the Lord promises that God will sustain and keep those
that are in Christ. Why? They're complete in Him. No matter how much I fail Him,
He will never leave me nor forsake me. That's what the scripture
says. He will never leave me nor forsake me, no matter how
much I fail Him. Why? We are complete in Christ. No matter how much my unbelief
shrouds his lovely face, I want to see him so all the time. But my unbelief just gets in
the way. Can you relate to that? But no
matter how often it does. No matter how often it does,
he will cause the son of righteousness to break forth in his time, revealing
the simple truth. It is finished. You are complete
in him. No matter how much I sin against
him, nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus. Do you love the fact that you don't have
the power to separate yourself from Christ? I love that, because
if I could, I would. My unbelief, your unbelief, you're
no different than I am. Our unbelief would just run away
from him and never return to him if I had that power. But
you're kept by the power of God, not your own. You're not your
own. You've been bought with a price, the scripture says. Why? Because
you're complete in him. That's why you're kept, because
you're complete in him. No matter how much we sin against
him, nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Rest, knowing that every single
person that Christ Jesus died for is eternally complete in
him.