And by thanking you for inviting
me, it is my distinct pleasure and honor. And I tell you how
much I thank God for our friendship and fellowship for all these
years. It's a great blessing for me
to know you and every once in a while for us to get to see
one another and worship together. I have entitled the message this
evening, Complete in Him. Paul wrote this letter to the
church at Colossae while he was in prison at Rome. This church,
unlike many other churches, had not been established through
Paul's ministry. They'd never seen Paul. But Paul
had heard about their faith, and he heard about their love,
and he thanked God for them, just like he thanked God for
the churches that had been formed under his ministry. But while
Paul's in prison, he did not expect to be able to get out
of prison and ever go to Colossae and preach to them. So he writes
them this letter to give them one message from him. He said,
if I can just give you one message, this is the message that will
establish you in the faith. Now that interested me. Paul,
the apostle Paul, the great preacher of the gospel said, if you can
only hear one message from me, this is what I want you to hear.
He said, now you believe Christ. Now you continue to believe Him.
You continue relying on Him. Don't look anywhere other than
Christ. Christ is all you need because
Christ is all. That's the theme of this book,
The Letter to the Colossian Believers. Christ is all. And you know,
that's the theme. That's the message of the Gospel.
Christ is all. Christ is all of our obedience.
Christ is all of our sacrifice for sin. Christ is all of our
righteousness. He's all of our sanctification.
All of our faith is in Christ. Christ is all in creation. And
however long this creation lasts, Christ is all in providence of
it. And Christ will be all in eternity. Christ is all of our
doctrine. He's all of our preaching. Christ
is all of our worship. Christ is all. Now Paul tells
us in verse 8 of chapter 2, you beware, beware of any preaching
that adds anything to Christ. He says, beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Now that's exactly what false
prophets try to do, they try to spoil you, they try to rob
you. It's just like those kings of
old, they go conquer a city or a country, they take everything
of any value and take it with them, that was their spoil. That's
what false prophets think of you. this spoil, this something
that they can add to their wealth, add to their fame, add to their
numbers, whatever. They try to rob your heart from
Christ and they do it through philosophy. Philosophy is just
the thoughts of men. Now I want to tell you the thoughts
of men have absolutely no place in preaching because the thoughts
of men are always wrong. True preaching is only preaching
Christ because Christ is all. These false prophets, they try
to steal your heart from Christ with human logic. But don't ever
put the Word of God and make the Word of God subject to human
logic or human reasoning. The Word of God is spiritually
discerned. It's spiritually understood.
We interpret Scripture not by human logic. We interpret Scripture
with other Scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
So we can't say, well, you know, I think God is Like this, I just
think God loves everybody. I think God just wants to save
everybody. I think it's just right, God just wants to give
everybody a chance. I understand that's human reasoning, but it's
wrong because human logic, human reasoning is always wrong. God
is who he says he is, who he says he is in his word. If you
want to find out who God is, read his word. What does God's
word say? God's Word says God loves His
elect. God chose a people to save. And He sent His Son to
save those elect people. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth and did exactly that. He saved His people. He
didn't come to try to save somebody. He didn't come to make an offer
of salvation to somebody that might choose to accept Him. He
came to save His people from their sin. And He did it. There
is no way any of them will ever perish because Christ saved them. Now that preaching gives Christ
all the glory. And it's correct, it's true preaching
because that preaching shows us Christ is all. Then these
false prophets try to steal your heart away from Christ through
vain deceit. I look that word up, it means
empty delusion. They're just, they're delusional.
Preaching anything other than Christ alone is delusional. They deceive people with empty
lies, like, oh, yes, Christ saves, but you still have to tithe,
you still have to, you know, attend services, you still have
to be moral, you still have to keep certain religious ceremonies.
My friends, that's a lie that's devoid of all truth and devoid
of any spiritual life. Christ is all of our salvation. Period. End of sentence. Christ
is all of our salvation because Christ is all. Then these false
prophets try to steal your heart away from Christ by preaching
to you the traditions of men. Now the traditions of men are
just traditions and ceremonies that men have come up with but
are not found in the Word of God. I'll give you a few examples. This is what I hear frequently.
Well, this is what the church has historically believed. Well,
I don't really care. Show me that from the word of
God. That's what we believe. Here's another example, altar
calls. Altar calls are a wicked tradition of men. And the only
reason they do it is try to pull people down the aisle to get
numbers for themselves. And when they do it, they give
people a false hope. It's wicked. Mass. Well, that little piece of wafer
is supposed to be turned into the body of Christ. The priest
does some mumbo-jumbo over it and it's supposed to be turned
literally into the body of Christ. The wine is supposed to be literally
turned into the blood of Christ. And dipping that wine, that wafer
into wine and eating it, it's supposed to atone for your sin.
Now, that's so wicked. You know what that is? That's
crucifying Christ all over again. And there's no need for that.
Because what does scripture say? For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. There's no need for
Christ to be crucified again. That's just a tradition of men.
Infant baptism is another one. Baptism is believer's baptism. Now, there's no age requirement
for baptism. A child could be baptized, but
you do have to be able to understand what you're hearing before you
can believe it. Well, a baby cannot do that.
So baptism is not for babies. Baptism is for the believer to
confess their faith in Christ, in religious holidays, Christmas
and Easter. I love those days, I look forward
to them, but those days have no religious significance at
all. And if you try to keep those
days as religious days, you're no better than a Jew trying to
keep the Sabbath to make God happy with them. Those days are
days that are for time spent with family, for giving one another
presents, eating ham and hunting colored eggs, and that's all
they're for. Salvation is not in a day. Salvation is not in
a tradition. Salvation is in Christ because
Christ is all. Then these false prophets try
to steal your heart away from Christ by mixing Christ with
the rudiments of the world. The rudiments of the world are
just the elements of the world. They're mixing something spiritual
with something material, elements of this world. They're mixing
grace and works. They try to steal your heart
away from Christ by mixing Christ with something you can do here
on this earth. Maybe it's baptism, maybe it's
church membership, maybe it's your morality, whatever it is.
But now, this is very, very simple. Christ is all. If you mix something
with Christ, suddenly Christ is not all, is it? Then it must
be wrong. All a sinner has to do to be
saved is trust Christ alone because Christ is all. Everything we
need and everything God requires of us is found in Christ. Look at verse nine. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now that's
an amazing statement. All the fullness of everything
God is dwells in the body of the Lord Jesus. The heavens cannot
contain God. Yet everything that God is dwells
in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The full nature of God
is in Jesus of Nazareth. You know what that means? Jesus
of Nazareth is God. Everything that God is, Jesus
of Nazareth, our Savior, is. Is God eternal? Is God omnipresent? Yes, He is. Then so is the Lord
Jesus. Is God all-knowing? Does He have
all power? Is He the Almighty? Yes, He is. Then so is the Lord Jesus. Is
God holy and at the same time gracious to sinners? Yes, He
is. Then so is the Lord Jesus. Now,
if you want to find all the blessings that God has for sinners, you
just have to look in one place. Look to Christ because they're
all in Him. Look at verse 3. in whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Perhaps the best
commentary I've ever heard on that verse came from Brother
John Chapman. John said, these blessings are not hidden from
us in Christ. They're hidden for us in Christ. God made everything that he has
for a sinner easy to find. He put them all in one place.
Just look in one place and you'll have them all. They're all in
Christ. Does anybody here need grace? Do you? Then look to Christ. That's where it's at. Is there
a sinner here that needs mercy tonight? Do you need mercy? Look
to Christ. That's where it's at. That's
where you'll find mercy. Do you need forgiveness for your sin?
You look to Christ. Do you need eternal life? Would
you like to find eternal life? Would you like to lay hold on
eternal life? Then look to Christ. He is life. He is eternal life. Do you want peace with God? I don't know about the history
of the world. I've only lived in the time that
I've lived in, but it seems to me like, from what little I know
of history and what I see about today's world, I don't think
there's a more precious commodity than peace. Peace in the mind,
peace in the heart. People are making millions of
dollars trying to sell you something on the commercial, give you some
peace or take away this turmoil. Do you want peace with God? Look
to Christ, that's where it's found. Do you need wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption? Look to Christ. That's where
you'll find it, because God put it all in him. Now, for an amazing
statement of God's grace, and this is where I wanted to get
to tonight, complete in him. This statement of God's grace
is so wonderful, it ought to make every believer run to Christ.
And this statement is so wonderful, so full of God's grace, it should
thrill the heart of every believer and cause us to rest in Christ. The Apostle says, you are complete
in Him. Verse 10, and you're complete
in Him, which is the head of all principality and power. Now
that word complete, it means to cram full, just cram it full
so it can't hold anymore. You're full, complete in Christ. It means level. When I was a
little boy, I watched my mom. She'd bake and she would need
flour, and she'd stick that big old scoop, a cup of flour, and
she'd stick in that flour, it'd be all heaping up over, and she'd
take a knife and she'd scrape it along the top of it. She had
exactly one cup. It was full. If you add anything
to it, you ruin it. It's full. You are complete in
Christ. And it also means to satisfy.
God's satisfied with you in Christ. The same word in other places
in scripture is translated full, so that it can't hold anymore.
The net was full of fishes. You're complete, full, full in
Christ. And that's good news, because
by nature, we're empty. We're empty of everything that
God requires. We're empty of righteousness.
We're empty of holiness. We're empty of obedience. We're
empty of love. We're empty of faith. But in
Christ, we're full. full of righteousness, so that
you can't hold anymore, full of holiness, full of obedience,
so that you can't hold anymore, full of love, so that you cannot
hold anymore. You're complete in Him. In other
places, this word is translated perfect. You are perfect in Him. And again, that's good news,
because by nature, we're not perfect, are we? No, we're imperfect. We're the opposite of perfect.
What are we? were ruined in sin, but in Christ
were perfect. Now I want us to look at each
individual word of this statement, you are complete in him. I want
us to see what each word means so that our hearts are thrilled
with Christ and we'll run to him. First of all, Paul says
you, you, you here tonight, you who by nature are empty of everything
that God requires, You are filled with everything that God requires
in Christ. You're full of everything that
God requires because Christ dwells in you. Look back at chapter
one, verse 27. 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. Now, if everything's
in Christ, and He's in you, then that's how you have everything.
That's how you're full, you're complete in Him. You, you who
are born dead in Adam are made alive in Christ. You, oh, you who by nature have no
hope, you're without help, without hope, without Christ in this
world, you have a good hope through grace that's found in our Lord
Jesus Christ. And you, you who believe, but you find so often your faith
is so weak, you're ashamed to call it faith, it's weak. You are complete in Christ. You're not complete by the strength
of your faith. You're complete in the object
of your faith. You are complete in Him. And
you, who are in the middle of the fiery trial of furnace, or
furnace of trial, you're sick, sorrowing, you're heartbroken,
you who feel alone, you who feel you're facing such uncertainty,
you don't know what to do, you don't know what's going to happen
next, you don't know which way to turn, you are complete in Him. There's no sorrow, there's no
heartbreak, there's no uncertainty, there's no loneliness in this
truth. You are complete in Him. You
are, are. You who believe right now, right
as you sit here this evening, are complete in Christ. Not someday, right now. Look at 1 John chapter three.
1 John three, verse two. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. Now are we the sons of God, right
now. If you believe Christ at this
moment, you're complete in him. You'll never be more complete
than you are at this moment if you believe Christ. Now I know
you haven't experienced it yet, none of us have. We haven't experienced
that perfection and that completeness in our body and our experience.
But now listen, you're not complete in your experience, you're complete
in Christ, in Him. And no matter how many times
we fall, no matter how many times we falter, a believer cannot
lose our perfection because our perfection is not in anything
we do. Our perfection is in Christ. You're complete in Him. You are complete. Now the word means perfect. It
means full, so nothing else can be added to it. You who believe
are full of righteousness, so that nothing can be added to
it. You'll never be more righteous than you are right now. If you
believe Christ, you'll never be more righteous than you are
right now. You'll be happier someday in glory, but you'll
never be more righteous. You who believe are full of holiness. Nothing you can do can add to
your holiness. You're complete in Him. You who
believe are full of spiritual life. You have, right now, eternal
life. You don't get eternal life when
you die. When this body dies, you have it right now because
you're complete in Him. You're complete in Christ. You
think of the joy that brings, the confidence that brings a
believer. God's already given you everything you need to stand
before Him in perfection because you're complete in Christ. God's
already given you everything He's got to give a sinner. because
you're complete in Christ. You already have everything that
has to do with life and godliness because you're complete in Christ.
Now, don't let these false prophets rob you of that joy. You can't
make yourself any more complete than you already are in Christ.
You certainly can't get more complete by adding your works
to it. If you try to add your works to it, you know what you'll
do? You'll ruin it. If you try to add anything to
a full cup, You ruin it. If you try to add anything to
Christ, you'll ruin it. You won't be more complete. You'll
be incomplete. You'll be empty. You won't be
more full. You'll be empty. If you try to
add any of your religious ceremonies and traditions to Christ, you'll
be ruined. You won't be full. You'll be
ruined. If you try to add your morality to Christ, if you try
to add your morality to His perfect obedience, you're not going to
make it better, you're going to ruin it and you'll be empty.
You cannot perfect by your works what God has already perfected
by His grace. You're complete, perfect in Him. So the believer doesn't try to
add anything to Christ. We know that if we believe Christ,
we're complete in Him. God's satisfied with you. You're
complete, you have everything God requires. But also this,
if you're complete in Christ, you know you're satisfied with
Christ too. Completely satisfied with Him.
I am completely satisfied to have Christ be all my righteousness
without any obedience of my own. I'm completely satisfied to have
Christ be all my holiness, all my sanctification. I'm perfectly
satisfied to have Christ be all my salvation. I'm perfectly satisfied
to have Christ be all my acceptance with the Father. You are complete
in Him. You're complete through union
with Christ. When is a sinner in Christ? Well,
we're in Christ when we're born again, born into His family. A sinner is in Christ through
faith in Christ, by believing Christ, by believing that Christ
is all it takes to save my wretched soul. Your completeness It's
got nothing to do with what you have done or what you will do
someday. Your completeness is all in Christ through union with
Him who completed everything for His people. I'll show you
that Luke chapter nine. Look here in Luke chapter nine.
We're complete in Him through union with Christ our Savior.
Luke chapter nine, verse 28. And it came to pass, about an
eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, and John, and
James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the
fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was
white and glistering. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory,
and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem."
That word accomplish is the exact same word translated complete
in our text. Sinners are complete because
of what Christ did for us as our substitute, what he accomplished
as our substitute. God's elect are complete through
union with Christ our head who has all principality and all
power. Believers are the body of Christ. We're joined to Christ just like
my body is joined to my head. Whatever is true of the head
is true of the whole body. Whatever the head is, the body
is. Well, the believer is complete because Christ our Savior has
completed. He's accomplished all of our
salvation so that it all depends upon Christ our Head, not on
anything we do. We are complete in Him through
union with Him, through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All right. Now, that's good doctrine. Now
let me give you something you can put in your lunch bucket
and you can take this to work with you tomorrow. That's Cecil
Roach used to tell us, give me something I can put in my lunch
bucket and take to work tomorrow. Let me give you something that
will encourage you and strengthen you. How should I go through
the rest of my life knowing I am complete in Him? Two things. First is this. I know you'll
be a lot happier if you don't desire anything other than Christ. Look at verse 6 back in our text,
Colossians 2. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Now how did you receive
Christ? Well, I received Christ as a
needy sinner. I needed Christ. I came to Him
because I needed Him to do everything for me because I couldn't do
anything for myself. I'm glad. That's the way you
ought to come to Christ. Now you continue being a needy
sinner who can't do anything for yourself and needs Christ
to do everything for you. That's how you continue. How
did you receive Christ? Well, I received Christ as a
sinner who needed forgiveness of my sin. I came to Christ as
a sinner who needed mercy. I came to Christ as a sinner
who needed washing. I'm so glad to hear that. That's
good. Now you continue that way. You continue as a sinner who
needs grace. You continue as a sinner who
needs mercy and daily cleansing from Christ our Savior. How did
you receive Christ? I received Christ as a dead sinner
who needed life. I was dead, Christ came to me
and gave me life. That's so good. That's the only
way you're going to have life. Now you continue through this
life knowing This, what we're, this world of flesh, this is
not life. You continue through this world
below knowing this. Christ is your life. He is your
life. Now seek to grow in grace, but
don't ever seek to grow beyond where you started. Don't ever
grow beyond needing Christ to be your everything. Don't think
growing in grace is growing so high that you can finally contribute
something to your salvation. No, that's not growing in grace.
I tell you what growing in grace is. Growing in grace is growing
downward in my own estimation of myself so that I lean on Christ
more fully. That's growing in grace. Go through
your life repeating this phrase, I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. but Jesus Christ is my all in all. I'm a poor sinner
and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. If you've got Christ, brethren,
you've got enough because Christ is all and you're complete in
Him. Secondly, how should I go through
the rest of my journey here below seeing I am complete in Christ?
Strive to see yourself as God sees you. Well, how does God
see you? God sees you as complete in Christ. Then strive to see yourself,
count yourself to be complete in Christ. Not anything you do,
nothing you've done, but complete in Christ. Now, I understand
when we look at ourselves, all we see about ourselves is sin
and filth and corruption. But you take comfort. God doesn't
see His people that way. God sees His people in Christ.
So that when God sees His people, all He sees is Christ. That's
all He sees. He sees us hidden in Christ.
When God looks at His people, He doesn't see His Son and us.
No, He sees one person. He sees the head and the body.
He only sees the Lord Jesus Christ. And He accepts His Son in all
of His glorious holiness. And He accepts us in Him. I know
all we see about ourselves is sin. There's a problem if we
ever see anything different. All we see about ourselves is
sin. But God sees his people as holy. God sees his people
without any sin because the blood of Christ removed our sin. It
removed our sin from us, scripture says, as far as east is from
the west. You can go, I'm glad it doesn't say it separated us
from our sins as far as the north is from the south. Because you
can go north far enough, you'll start going south. North and
south meet, not once but twice. East and west never meet. As
long as you go east, you'll always be going east. The blood of Christ
has separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the
west. You're complete in Christ. Now
you strive to see yourself as complete in him. One last scripture,
Romans chapter six. Let's see if this is what the
apostle Paul is saying to the church at Rome. Romans chapter six, verse six. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead
is freed from sin." If you've died in Christ, you're freed
from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that
we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're
not under the law, but under grace. You strive to count yourself
to be dead in Christ, that you died in him, so you're dead to
sin. You're dead to the controlling
power of sin. You're dead to the damning power
of sin, because you already died to sin in the person of your
substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And seeing that enables a believer
to walk through this world without the fear of the law. Who cares
what the false prophets try to put the fear into you with the
law? You're not under the law. You're not afraid of the law.
You're dead to the law. Knowing that we have union with
Christ, that what Christ is, that's what we are, enables us
to walk through this life without the fear of death. Who cares
if the body dies? Who cares? We're just laying
it down so we can go be with the Lord, see Him face to face.
Knowing we have union with Christ, that we're complete in Him enables
the believer to walk through this life serving God and serving
His people in true love. You are complete in Him. In Him. We're not complete in
our doctrine. We're not complete in how much
we know. We're not complete in our church membership, we're
not complete in our good deeds, we are complete in Him. Then brethren, let's seek Christ.
If we're complete in Him, let's seek Him. Seek to win Christ
and be found in Him, because the only way sinners like you
and me can ever be made complete is in Him, in Him. All right,
the Lord bless you.