The Fullness of Christ

Will you turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew in Chapter 12. I really wasn't intending on getting up this morning, but what our two brethren have brought before us, I think, maybe ties in nicely with what I've been enjoying and what I've been thinking about lately. What I'm about to read from Matthew 12 might leave you scratching your head for a moment, but hopefully if you bear with me, I'll be able to tie together what we have heard.

We've just been reminded of the leanness of our lives as we as believers, many times we find ourselves feeling empty. And here in Matthew Chapter 12 and verse 43, Matthew 12 and 43 and what's on my mind, and maybe when I read this you're going to say I'm not sure where he's going, but it's the fullness of Christ, the fullness of Christ. Matthew 12 and verse 43 says, When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

Then he saith, I will return to my house from whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished, or put in order. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there.

And the last state of that man is worse than the first, even so shall it be. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. Now turn with me if you will over to John Chapter 7. Gospel of John in Chapter 7, verse number 37.

John 7 and 37 says, As in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And he that believeth on me, as Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.

For the Holy Ghost had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. And then we're going to make references and probably read other portions of Scripture as we go along, but we're just going to start right there. We've just been reminded of the leanness, and I think all of us here, if we're being honest with ourselves, there's times when we stop and we look around, and we look within ourselves, and maybe there's someone here today, and you know that you are saved.

There's no doubt in your mind that there was a moment in time in your life when you placed your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you were saved. And yet, sitting here this morning, you might sit here this morning and think to yourself, I feel empty. You might sit here this morning and say, you know, it's almost sometimes more difficult in my life right now than maybe it was even before I was saved, and it feels like there's something missing.

It could be, potentially, that the reason it feels more difficult is simply sanctification going on in your life. There's times when God will bring things into your life that will sanctify us, and we'll look at that a little bit as we maybe move along, but it's just a thought of sometimes a Christian life is hard because of the things that God has to bring into our life to sanctify us by His Word. But sometimes there's simply just an emptiness or a leanness, as we've been hearing already this morning.

We read in Matthew chapter 12 that story and that account, and I'll clarify here just in a little bit, but it's of a man that by his own doing, he had done this by his own strength, that he had essentially, what the world would say, turned over a new leaf. He had tried his very best, and what had happened is he had actually been able to clean out his house. He had emptied it out.

He had swept it, and he had put it in order. And what had once dwelt within him, that demon that he was struggling with, had left. And as the demon left, he was looking for a place to find lodging, and he could find none.

And he returned to this man. And now because this man had, by his own strength, sought to turn his life around, we know how the story then goes, that that spirit, that unclean spirit, came back, and he brought seven others with him. Now, if you're truly saved, yes, you will never experience, you will never be demon-possessed, you will never have an unclean spirit take up residence within you because the Spirit of God dwells there.

But when your life has been emptied out, and that's essentially what happens at the moment of salvation, there is what we would call justification takes place, that we are declared righteous before God. And God came in, and He did a work that we ourselves could not do. And He emptied out our life.

He cleaned it. He swept it. And He put it in order.

But now it's empty. We are a new creation, or if you would, a new construction. And guess what happens whenever new construction goes up? It doesn't just stay empty.

It eventually gets filled with something. Or even in your own home, you might go into a room, and you might clean it out. But guess what? That room doesn't stay clean very long before it is filled back up with something.

And things come in, and it fills our life. And so what is filling up our life, is my question this morning. What are we putting into our life? See, this man in Matthew chapter 12, he had his definition of clean, but it wasn't truly clean.

See, I have my definition of clean. My definition of clean is if there is nothing major sitting around, and I've cleaned it up, it's clean. My wife would disagree.

My wife sees the little things. She sees the dust. She sees the smudges on the windows.

She sees the things that I don't see. And this would be sanctification that happens. So at the moment of justification, what happens is you step inside of a door, if you will.

Allow me to paint you a picture. You are stepping inside the door of justification. You are declared righteous before a just and a holy God.

And that position will never change. Eternally secure in Him. And that's a one-way door.

It only lets you in. It will never let you back out. Because once in Him, in Him forever.

So you are now justified. But now as you have stepped inside that door ahead of you, there is a hallway. And on the other end of that hallway, there is another door.

But this hallway, I would call it the hallway of sanctification. And in this hallway, there is going to be things that come in. And we are going to have to choose, now that we are new creation, and now that we are under new management, new construction, what happens? How are we going to fill our homes? How are we going to fill our lives? We would all acknowledge this morning here that if we are saved, we would all say that, well, we didn't clean our lives out.

We didn't save ourselves. We were saved by the strength and the power of Almighty God and the finished work of the cross through Jesus Christ our Lord. But there's many of us that fall into this trap, and I have fallen into this trap in the past.

Yes, He saved me. But then it becomes, but now I must keep my life clean. He saved me.

He cleansed it. But now it is on me, incumbent upon me, to do something to maintain what He has done. Well, maybe you're a better Christian than me, but I can't maintain what He has done.

If it was incumbent upon me to then live my life a certain way based off of my own strength, guess what? I would fail. And that's why I'm so thankful that the Christian life and the sanctification that comes with it and everything that comes with it, the fullness of Christ comes with it, that if it was incumbent upon me, I would ultimately fail. In our Bible study back home, we have been going through the book of Romans, and we have just gone through Romans chapter 12.

And Romans chapter 12 and verse number 2 tells us that we are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And sometimes we get to be so focused on trying to maintain and keep clean what God has cleansed that you know what happens? We never fill it up, and so we feel lean. We have put before ourselves a set of rules and things that we must do or attain, and we have to not do this, and not do this, and not do this, and we must do this, and we must do this, and we must do this, that we have essentially become religious moralists.

And sometimes we look at, my last name is Yoder, and sometimes we look at the Amish community, and we laugh at them, and we smile, and we snicker, and we say, how sad. Sometimes it's a laugh of pity, but how sad to look at them and to say, look at what they're doing, and it means nothing at the end of the day. And I sat at my grandma's funeral a couple of years ago, and I thought to myself, here was a woman that lived her whole life this way, and she thought it was going to merit her favor with God and a home in heaven.

What would it have been to live your life, your whole life that way, and then wake up and realize it was for nothing? But there's many times that we as believers, we can fall into this trap where we are so taken up with doing, and not taken up with the fullness of Christ, as we have just been hearing. So how do we get to the fullness of Christ? How do we get to enjoy His presence? Because if He is the one that cleaned it, if He is the one that has emptied us and put our life in order, why would we turn to anyone or even ourselves in order to maintain that? Why not go to the one who started the work, and allow Him then to finish the work? Because in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Him we live and move and have our being.

But the reality is there's many times when it's not in Him that we live and move and have our being, but it is in what we have done and do and think that we move and live and try to have our being, and we don't experience the fullness that comes with the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in this hallway of sanctification, the one who has emptied out our life, we are now under new management, new construction. But then we must also acknowledge that if we're trying to maintain that by ourselves, that Romans 7 tells us that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.

But at the moment of salvation, there was something that came in and took up new residence. So in me, in myself, dwells no good thing. But if you are truly saved, now in me dwells Christ.

The Holy Spirit of God dwells within every single child of God. So what comes with a Christ-filled life? Here's where I'm going to have you flip, and I'm just going to touch on these, and I'm not really going to build a whole lot, but just something to encourage us of what we have in Christ. So if you will, turn with me, first of all, to Philippians chapter 4 and verse 7. And if you don't want to turn to them, that's fine.

A lot of these are only one verse. But Philippians 4 and 7 says this, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. What's one of the things that comes when we have Christ within us is the peace of God that passes all understanding.

Isn't that beautiful? It's not something that we have mustered or conjured to try to give ourselves peace, because if it was something that we did, guess what? At some point, it's probably going to fall apart and we're no longer going to find peace in it. But in Christ, he says, the peace of God that passes all understanding. There's moments and times in a Christian life when you are faced with things that you don't understand.

How did I get here? Or why am I here? And we have heard requests for prayer this morning of believers who are going through trials. And no doubt, sometimes there's questions that are asked as why. But there's also in those moments that we can turn to our Savior.

And we can't explain it and we can't understand it. But there's a peace of God that passes all understanding. Psalms 16, for my next one.

Psalms 16 and verse 11. Psalms 16 and 11. You can also make reference to this from Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 10.

But Psalms 16 and 11 says, Thou wilt show me the path of joy. And in thy presence is fullness of joy. And at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

When it comes to the fullness of Christ, we also receive fullness of joy. There's fullness of peace. And we have a fullness of joy.

And sometimes, like we have just heard, that doesn't mean that we walk around laughing hysterically because that's maybe happiness or laughter. And there's going to be moments of laughter. I hope there's moments of laughter as believers.

If there's not moments of laughter, maybe it's because we don't understand what we have been brought into in Christ. But in Christ there is joy. There is peace, but there is a joy.

A joy that we might not even be able to explain to those around us. But with peace comes joy. The joy that He gives to us as believers because in Him is fullness of joy.

You might say, well, that's the Old Testament. Sometimes we categorize things in our minds for Old Testament and New Testament. So let me go now, if you will, to Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 ties all three of these together that we have just looked at. And verse 13. Romans 15 and verse 13 says, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.

That you may abound or that you may overflow is the thought. That you may overflow in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. This is a hope.

This is not a fingers crossed kind of hope like a religious moralist might do. Or if you speak to those in the Amish community and you try to tell them you can know based off of Scripture, based off of 1 John chapter 5 and verse 13. These things have I written unto you that you may know you have eternal life.

And they will say you cannot know. You can only hope. But when they say hope, they're not speaking about a sure foundation.

They're not speaking about an anchor for their soul. But they're speaking about a fingers crossed kind of hope. I hope that when I die, fingers crossed, I will be in His presence.

But here he says, there is fullness of joy and peace that the God of hope will fill you with joy and peace in believing that you may overflow in hope. An anchor for the soul. Fullness of Christ comes hope.

In Him we live and move and have our being. And from our belly ought to flow rivers of living water. Turn just back a couple chapters to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. And here we have two aspects of what Christ has given us.

Romans 5 and verse 5. Tells us this, and hope. So he's telling us that we should, by verse 2, actually we'll just start in verse 2 and read it. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace.

Why? Because we have been justified. Verse 1. Wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience.

Patience experience. Experience hope. And hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad or is poured, is the thought, is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Fullness of Christ, there is a love that is poured out. There is nothing held back. He has poured all of His love into us.

And we have been given the Holy Ghost. Not part of Him, but all of Him has been imputed unto us, has been given to us at the moment of salvation. So God is not looking at it and saying, okay, here's what's going to happen.

As you go along your Christian life, you're going to need the love of God. But I will give it as it is needed. No, He doesn't just give it as it is needed.

But He has poured it all into us. And as we move along this hallway of sanctification in our Christian life, there's going to be moments where we maybe didn't understand it five years ago, or two years ago, or a week ago, or maybe even a day ago. But you're going to get a glimpse of the love of our Savior.

And you will get to better understand the fullness of His love that was poured out on Calvary. The fullness of His love that has been given to us. And you will understand that the Holy Spirit of God now dwells within us in a greater measure than you understood before.

He held nothing back, but He gave us. Of His fullness have we received and grace for grace. He will also give us something else.

And this we'll find in James chapter 1 and verse 5. James 1 and verse number 5. And sometimes this may be things that we struggle to ask for. But James 5 says, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abraideth not, and it shall be given unto him. Abraideth not is without reproach.

You know, sometimes we say there's no such thing as an unintelligent question. I was going to use the other word, but I thought I better not. There's no such thing as an unintelligent question.

But then sometimes, especially as a parent, sometimes your children come to you and ask you a question, and you go, why are you even asking that question? You know the answer. You know better than that. Sometimes we come to God and we think, I can't ask him wisdom on this.

What's he going to think of me? But he doesn't reproach. But he gives wisdom. Those who ask of God, he gives it liberally.

The wisdom of God indwells us. He doesn't say, that was a foolish question. Don't ask that again.

But he gives wisdom to those who come and ask wisdom. And it is given to him liberally. Just in the remaining couple minutes, I love this portion of Scripture, so I'm going to ask you to turn to it.

And this is more than one verse, so if you're tired of one verse, this is more than one. Ephesians chapter 3. And I think this beautifully sums up what we have in Christ. So we have thought of this door of justification through faith in Jesus Christ.

And when we enter that door, we are freed from the penalty of sin. As we move through our Christian life, and we're in the hallway of sanctification on the road to heaven, we are being freed from the power of sin as we get to know more of Him. And He takes up residence in our life.

And we realize all that in Him dwells. And we get to experience that. We begin to be freed from the power of sin.

In Ephesians 3, verse 8, it says, Unto me who is less than the least of all saints, this is grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Drop down to verse 14. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He should grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heights, and to know the love of Christ with paths all knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages and worlds without end. Amen. In Him dwelleth everything.

And if we understand that He dwells in us, in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing, but as a child of God in me dwells the Holy Spirit of God. And with the Holy Spirit of God comes wisdom and love and hope and peace and joy. In Him there is knowledge and wisdom.

And in Him I find no leanness. But in Him, Brandon asks the question, why are we many times so lean and there is no fat in us? Because He is the source of the fat, if I can put it that way. He is the one that gives us the extra.

He is the one from whom we draw. And if we understand who He is, there is coming a day, as we walk through our day or in our hallway of sanctification and we start knowing more and more and more about Him. We get to know more of Him and we look forward to the door that is on the other end of that hallway.

And over top of that door I would put the saying glorification. And when I enter into that door, I will then be freed from the presence of sin at home with the Lord. And the one who I got to know in my journey of life as a Christian, as a believer, and hopefully day by day, week by week, month by month, as I walk this life, I understand that in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily to be absent from the body and present with the Lord to live in a world without end.

Amen.