Can I begin by thanking you all very warmly on behalf not only of myself but my whole family for the real blessing that it's been for us to be among you over the course of the last few days. We've been really blessed by the warm welcome that we've received, by all the kindnesses that have been poured out upon us. And it's a particular privilege for me, having been here alone in the past, for me to be able to introduce my wife and children to friends here, and for them to see one of the places where I've had the privilege of ministering in the past. So thank you from all of us and please be assured of our continued affection for the church and our prayers for you. And I should bring the formal greetings of the brothers and sisters at Maiden Bower to you all and I do assure you that they have been praying for us over these last few days. Please will you turn back with me to Colossians and chapter 1. Colossians and chapter 1. In verses 19 and 20, the Apostle tells us that it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." This is the conclusion, really, of the testimony that Paul has been giving to the person and work of the Son of God's love. And we are told here of the purpose that lay behind the declarations that have been made and the realities that have been declared. For it pleased the Father that in the Son of His love all the fullness should dwell. and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. So we are connected now with all that Paul has said before about Christ Jesus, particularly as the incarnate mediator, the one go-between between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now, why was all this so? How was it brought to pass? On what basis did God act? And Paul tells us here this sweet and simple cause that lies behind the whole drama of redemption and the whole glory of the Son. It pleased the Father. And there is a security in that which our souls can rest in. Our salvation. rooted in the person and work of the beloved Son rests upon the divine resolve. It pleased the Father to save in this way. It was God's eternal and electing purpose. It was His great, redemptive, reconciling determination to bring beauty to this shattered world. to bring life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and to visit His judgment upon those who continue in rebellion against Him. It pleased the Father to do what He did. It pleased the Father to appoint the Son. It pleased the Father to act in this way. And so it should please us if we are believing in Him. It pleased the Father then, that in His Son all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." Remember that Paul is writing to people who are being persuaded, or at danger of being persuaded, that Christ is not sufficient. And now as he reaches the conclusion of this testimony about the sufficiency of Christ, he begins with the reminder that God was pleased that in Him all the fullness should dwell. This is the divine fullness. The location Paul identifies is in Him. And you might at this stage be saying, okay, haven't we got it now? We've had in Him, and by Him, and through Him, and for Him, and in Him again, and in Him. Aren't we now alright with this? Can't you move on, Paul? Do you have to go over this again? We've got it. And the apostle would say to you, have you really? Are you sure? Have you really grasped this? Are you resting in this with certainty? You see, the Colossians had been taught the truth. But the problem in Colossae, and the problem with us, is that we do not live in a static spiritual environment. Satan is continually tempting and pressuring us to move us away from the truth as it is in Jesus. And so the Apostle Paul, as a faithful under-shepherd of Christ's sheep, is continually pressing us back toward the truth as it is in him. There's a holy relentlessness in him, just like there is in the Apostle Peter. While I am in this tent, I will not be slow to remind you. You need to go on getting this. You need to be reminded of it. You need to see it again and again and again, so that Christ continually fills the eye of your soul in such a way that all else and all others are excluded. Salvation is in Him. And others will say, look here, go there, try this, add something else. And Paul's response is consistently, in Him, in Him, in Him. What is in Him? All the fullness. All the fullness. Now we need to be careful here with a phrase of great depth, because Paul is also careful. It would perhaps be easy for us to say, well haven't we read that somewhere else in our Bibles? Oh yes, look it's right here in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 9. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Paul's just obviously then making a parallel statement here. But I suggest to you that that is not the case. It is true that in Christ as Redeemer dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. But Paul is saying here that it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. Now, if he is talking about the fullness of the Godhead, then the implication of that might be that at some point the fullness of the Godhead did not dwell in the Son. And we have already seen that that is not the case. He is the eternal Son of God. So what is Paul telling us when he tells us that it pleased the Father that in His incarnate Son all the fullness should dwell? It's not then a statement about His essential personal identity as God. But it is a statement about His official redemptive capacity. It is a declaration about Christ the Son of God as the saviour of sinners, as the incarnate Son, as the ransomer, as the mediator between God and men. And it is the language of totality in the context of redemption. Paul is assuring us, he's declaring to us with great certainty that the full complement of saving grace, that the entirety of redemptive blessing is found in Christ and Christ Jesus alone. It is necessary that He should have the fullness as the mediator. His capacity for it is because He is God and man. But it is as Redeemer that He is presented to us here. John Eadie says, in short, this is his expansion, and it's much longer, which is why I don't know why he says in short, but he says, in short, every grace as it is needed and when it is needed, in every variety of stage and operation, every grace, either to nurse the babe or sustain the mature man, to excite the new life or to foster it, to give pardon and the sense of it. Faith and the full assurance of it, purity and the felt possession of it, every blessing in short, for health or sickness, for duty or trial, for life or death, for body or soul, for earth or heaven, for time or eternity, is wrapped up in that fullness which dwells in Christ. That's what Paul is saying when he says, all the fullness. A more modern theologian, John Murray, The fullness that has come to dwell in Christ may be thus properly construed as the plenitude or fullness of life, of grace, of truth, of wisdom, of knowledge, of goodness, of mercy, of righteousness, of power. In other words, friends, everything that is required for your salvation, individually or together, Everything that could ever be required to bring you into a state of being saved, to keep you in a state of salvation, and to bring you to the full and final expression of salvation, all that fullness is there in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. Complete and entire. Not some of the fullness, not much of the fullness, not even most of the fullness, but all of the fullness. You need to add nothing whatsoever to Christ in order to find and enjoy salvation in its entirety. Not the Old Testament shadows, not the vanities of idols, not the thoughts of fallen men, All saving excellence is there in Jesus Christ. And He not only identifies the location, He not only indicates the measure, but He also implies the permanence of that state. It has pleased the Father that in His Son all the fullness should dwell. that all this saving richness should take up residence and never depart. Now if all the saving fullness has been deposited in Christ as Redeemer now and forever, then where else will you ever find anything of salvation? You see how this excludes every other possibility. This shows the emptiness of every suggestion and addition. Paul is telling us that it lies in Christ as the lasting deposit. Saving grace is not only entirely in Him, but eternally in Him. If you were saved by Him at the beginning, you must go on being saved by Him. There is no stage or phase of Christian experience in which Christ will not be to you your all in all. He cannot ever be, and will not ever be, more or less full, more or less sufficient. Whatever state you come to Him in, and whatever need you present to Him as a broken and wretched sinner, Christ is all in all for you. Whatever you face in your life as a believer, whether it be in these days or in days to come, whatever the prospects may be, whatever you may fear, whatever demands might be laid upon you, whatever challenges you will face as the people of God, whatever difficulties this church may one day have to deal with, Christ is now and ever will be everything that you need. And that is our confidence and that is our joy. Sufficiency lies here, full of grace and truth. God, the incarnate Redeemer. And that exposes every rival. That undoes every suggestion that something needs to be added. That cuts the ground out from under every intended spiritual supplement. To be saved, and to stay saved, and to enjoy progress and blessing in a state of salvation, you must come to Christ, you must cling to Christ, and you must keep to Christ to the very end. And my friends, you must be very careful that you never allow anything to sneak in alongside Christ as something that makes you a real Christian, or a proper Christian, or a better Christian. Don't misunderstand me. There are some Christians who are wrong about things. They probably think I'm wrong about a few things, but they're wrong about that. You want to be men and women of conviction. I'm not suggesting for one moment that I have a monopoly on understanding or wisdom. But I believe what I believe because I believe that it is what God requires of me. And that is something that I must do as bound to the Word of God, under the influence of the Spirit of God. To be able to say, I am what I am because I believe God requires it of me. But I must not elevate my convictions to the status of the Savior. I am not a better Christian because of the Bible translation that I use. I'm not a better Christian because of the clothes that I happen to wear on Sunday. I'm not a better Christian because of my parents' status, or lack of it. I'm not a better Christian because I'm richer or poorer in the things of this world. I'm not a better Christian, a real Christian, because I can use bigger words than other people, or because I've read thicker books, I'm not a better Christian or a real Christian because of the educational choices I have made for my family. I cannot look down my nose at anybody else who has the saving fullness that is in Christ Jesus. I may believe that they are wrong about certain things. They may be persuaded that I am likewise mistaken. If that is the case, then we go to the testimony of God and we test ourselves against His revelation. But to be in Christ is to be everything that anyone will ever need. And we should not establish some principle of spiritual pride as if to set ourselves up or others down on any other basis. Christ and Christ alone is everything that we need to enter into the kingdom and to be assured of the fullness of salvation. Brothers and sisters, beware the plus. Beware every temptation and tendency to require of someone something more than faith in Jesus Christ in order to be saved from their sins. It is pleased the Father that in His beloved Son all saving fullness should dwell, never departing, found in Him alone. And by Him, by virtue of all that is in Him, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Here now is a divine triumph. And again, this is difficult language. Let me suggest to you what I believe that Paul is saying. It helps us again to remember the context. There is a challenge here to the person and the work of Christ. And Paul has been proclaiming Him as the sole mediator, the one redeemer, the only ransomer. And he's been doing so with cosmic scope. The breadth of Paul's statements have been, in that sense, universal. Now, that being so, when we read that it has pleased God by Christ to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, how should we understand that language? Because it is clear from other parts of the Bible that not all are saved. We know that there are fallen angels who will be cast at the end into the eternal fires of judgment. And that is the second death. And with them will be many who did not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. How then are we to understand this language of universal reconciliation? Well, it is certainly in some sense a revelation of God's mercy. God could simply have abandoned this world that He made, that rebelled against Him. God could have destroyed it and started over again. But He has chosen to display His power and His wisdom in His Son by an act of reconciliation. So we must begin by seeing the whole of creation as we have made by and for God through the Son. But we know that this creation is now in a state of rebellion and is wrecked in its very nature. Satan and with him a host of angels turned against the God who made them. Man fell in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve sinned against God, and we fell with Him in His first transgression. And sin taints the whole cosmos. You know how Paul speaks in Romans chapter 8 and verse 21 of the cryings out of the whole creation, groaning, waiting for the adoption as sons. My friends, some of the terrors and the horrors of this world are cosmic contractions, if you will. Longing and reaching forwards for that which lies ahead. And so God has accomplished in this world a reconciliation. And that does not mean here, I suggest, a universal salvation. But it does mean a universal submission. God has made all things to be at peace, but not all necessarily in the same way. What Paul is saying is by virtue of what Christ is, God has decisively addressed the rebellion and the disorder of this broken world. All has been brought into a state in which it will serve the divine glory. So we can talk perhaps about a universal pacification. All things have been brought into submission to God by His Son and by Him alone. There is one King, and there is one Kingdom, and there can be no rivals to the Son of God's love. It is predicted in Isaiah chapter 11, where we see there the declaration about the One who will come into this world. Let me just read a few verses from verse 6. The prophet says, The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like an ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." That's a prediction of this universal pacification when all the tension and the ugliness and the wretchedness and the wreckedness of this fallen creation is utterly undone and God's intended design is restored. It is expected in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 13. There the writer says, By this one man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. There again is a predicted and final pacification. Now I don't know if you have a footstool at home. How do you think of a footstool? Comfortable little cushion thing? Sit down at the end of the day, rock back, put your feet up? Do you remember when Joshua conquered the kings of Canaan? And they were brought before him and made to lie in the dust. And Joshua was called up to put his fit on the necks of the conquered kings. That's what it means to have your enemies made your footstool. It is a picture of absolute subjection. And Christ, having accomplished salvation, is seated at the right hand of God, waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. It's depicted, especially in the last few chapters of Revelation, when the King of kings and the Lord of lords comes forth with a sharp sword out of his mouth, that with it he should strike the nations. and will rule them with a rod of iron, who treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He crushes all that stands against Him, so that even death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire." You may have heard of the phrase, Christus Victor. Here is Christus Victor. Here is Christ triumphant. This reality has already been accomplished and is now being applied. Christ has conquered. His victory is being worked out in this world. But everything has in principle been subdued. The tendency of mankind and the rule of Satan has been checked and the world will and must be restored. And when it is, all those petty powers and all those vain things that the false teachers of Colossia are saying stand with or beside Jesus Christ will be trampled under His feet. It is a complete subjection. Now how was this accomplished? Having made peace through the blood of his cross. Paul has come back to where he began. The springboard of verses 13 and 14 carried us into this song of praise. God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, a ransom by blood, the forgiveness of sins. And Paul then begins to explain to us who this Son of God's love is. And now he's bringing us again to what the Son of God's love has done. As the one in whom is all the saving fullness that we could ever require. God has been pleased to bring all things into subjection to Himself by Him. Yes, by Him and by none other. There is no triumph over sin, over death, over hell, except by our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Whether things on earth or things in heaven, whatever may come against us, whatever may strike at us, whatever we may be afraid of, Christ has overcome. And how has He done this? He has made peace through the blood of His cross. Now, my friends, we have to understand that when Christ died at Calvary, it was no small and no narrow act. Now, in one sense, I'm sure we already grasp this. Yes, he suffered in the place of the ungodly. He laid down his life for his people. When John the Baptist saw him coming toward him, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. so that every kingdom, tribe and tongue and nation may come to Him and trust in Him and obtain life through His death. One sacrifice for sins forever. That's what Paul would have us understand. But there is even more to the cross than that. Do you remember how our Lord Jesus spoke as He approached that crisis? Now, is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up, I shall draw all people to myself. You see, the work of Christ on the cross was a work for us in a distinct and particular sense. Yes, He died in our place. The Son of God, who knew no sin, was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. But in that same act, And at that same moment, the ruler of this world was cast out and Christ accomplished a great and mighty peace. It is a victory which resounds through the cosmos and is now being worked out. That is the moment of the decisive and comprehensive triumph over every one of God's enemies and those of His people. When Christ cried out, it is finished. Everything was finished. The debt was paid. And our enemy, our adversary, our captor, had his strength once and for all broken. And Christ made his people free. And Christ laid the foundation. for the final outworking of the redemptive plan of God in the earth. He has defeated His enemies. He has delivered His people. He has delighted His Father. And He did it all when He made peace through the cross. All evil has been conquered and been excluded from His divine kingdom. He has wiped out chapter 2 and verse 14, the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. You remember what He said when the Pharisees accused Him? casting out demons by the ruler of demons? How can a divided kingdom stand? This isn't Satan versus Satan. This is a stronger man coming to the strong man and spoiling him of what he has taken. This is what Christ is doing. At the moment when Satan perhaps thinks he has won. At the moment when the serpent strikes the Son of God's love with his fangs. And thinks, now I've got him. The heel of the champion of lost mankind comes down on the head of the serpent. And destroys his kingdom once and for all. Christ has done it. There is cosmic scale, cosmic significance, cosmic glory. Salvation demands that if it is to be fully experienced and enjoyed, that everything be subdued. Everything within us and everything that is contrary to God in this world. If there were one thing at the end of time that were left outside of the control of God and outside the rule of Jesus Christ, then God is not truly God over all and that cannot be and that will not be. Because God has been pleased to make all saving fullness dwell in the Son of His love, and by Him, and only by Him, to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And that, my friends, is what is taking place in this and other faithful churches. as one by one, men and women, boys and girls, bow the knee to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords as His good news is proclaimed to us. Each soul saved is a glorious token of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ being applied in accordance with His matchless wisdom working out His great strength and goodness in this fallen world. The blood of Christ secures peace for us with God. The blood of Christ brings peace among God's people who would otherwise have been at war with each other. The blood of Christ brings peace in the kingdom of God. And the blood of Christ brings peace over His enemies. And so Paul can say to the Romans, as he comes to the end of his letter to them, that the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. Does that not astound you? Satan himself will be crushed under the feet of the saints. That victory has been won. And its outcome is assured. And that outcome is now being worked out. There is no need for any other victor. There is no space for any other conqueror. There is no call for any other king. There is no requirement for any further ransom. There is no demand for any other redeemer. No supplements are required. There is no space for rival powers. And there can be no neutrality in any heart here. Christ rules in his kingdom as king and everybody here this evening is either for him or against him. It has pleased the Father that in Him all saving fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Now on which side of the cross do you stand? What is your relation to the King of kings and the Lord of lords? You will either be one who is blessed as you receive the golden scepter of His mercy, or you must be one who is cursed under the iron rod of His judgment. Where do you stand with regard to Jesus Christ? He has conquered, and you will submit. Sometimes people will say, not me. I will not bow the knee to this Jesus. They may not say it with their words, but they are saying it with their lives. They are saying it in every act of rebellion against God as Creator and Redeemer. I will not live as you will have me live. I will not live in accordance with the design that you have made for me. I will not live in accordance with the law that you have given, the holy transcript of your very character. I will not be what you call me to be. I will not go where you call me to go. I will not have your salvation. I do not need to live with reference to you. I will sit on the throne of my own soul. I will be what I will be. I will do what I will do. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. And God says, I have highly exalted him, and I have given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Every knee, you will bow to Christ. Every tongue, you will confess that He is Lord and glorify the Father who gave Him. The only issue will be when. You can either do it now, while God spares you, while God Yet in His mercy, holds out in Christ the golden scepter of grace. And bids you to draw near to the Savior who is described by the Apostle Paul under the influence of the Holy Spirit. To one who is the supreme king of the universe. To one who is the sole and sovereign head of the church. To the only savior of sinners. To the one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. God says to you now, by His word and through His Spirit, come and bow the knee to Jesus Christ and confess that He is Lord. and if you will not, and if you go on through this life in your sin, and if you die without faith in this Jesus, then there will come a day when you will bow to Him. Not willingly, not eagerly, not cheerfully, But you will be forced to your knees before the Lord of Glory when He comes with His angels to bring judgment on the earth. He will summon every one of us before His throne and He will call you to give an account to Him. And if you have lived and died in rebellion against the King of kings and the Lord of lords, your knee will bow in horror. And a confession will be ripped from your unbelieving and angry tongue. He is Lord. I never knew it. I did not want it, and I would not have it. But now I see him as he is. And I cannot now be like him, but must be cast away into outer darkness. But I know who he is. And now I face his judgments. My friends, do not wait. Do not delay. Christ is King. He is king over his creation. He is king over his church. He is king over his enemies. He has subdued all things by the blood of his cross. This pleased his holy and heavenly father. Does it please you? Is your soul humbled by this? Is your soul thrilled by this reality? Is your soul assured by what God has done for His people in Jesus Christ? You may say, this is more than I can comprehend. But do you by the Spirit of God at least apprehend? Does your head hurt It very well might. But does your heart sing? In so far as you grasp these things, child of God, it should. These may be the mere edges of his ways. This may be the mere whisper that we hear of him. The thunder of his power, who can understand? But where reason fails with all her powers, there faith prevails and love adores. Some of the greatest minds of the Christian faith, at least those that we have readily available and accessible to us, when they deal with such things as these, you may be surprised at how often Men like John Calvin, men like Stephen Charnock. Some of the men who have plumbed the depths of the glory of God and the salvation of Christ. Those two names stand out to me for how often as they wrestle with such truths as these. And as they carry us beyond our own flimsy and feeble capacities. There are times after times after times when they simply stop and say, we can go no further. This is as far as we can travel. This is as much as we can grasp. There is no more of this that we can get our puny minds around. So here we stop. And here we bow. And here we worship the God of our salvation. Now I am not suggesting that we have done a Calvin or that we have done a Charnock. But I trust when you read these words back to yourself that there will be points at which you are moved to say, though I cannot comprehend, yet so far as I apprehend, I see something of the glory of the Son of God's love and the wonder of the divine redemption in Him. I understand something more of His power. when He flung the stars into space. I understand something more of His goodness when the same hands were nailed to the cross. I see now the depths of His heart, upon which are written the names of His people. And I understand a little more about what still lies ahead as the pleasure of the Father prospers in the hands of the Son of His love. And where I cannot understand, I can at least worship. Amen. Let's pray. O Lord, enlighten our darkness, we pray. Open our eyes that we may behold wonderful things from your law. Make us, O God, increasingly to see more and more of the glory that shines in the face of Jesus Christ, that we may know you as God and our God. Father, forgive us all our sins, we pray. Forgive those who have even now been living in rebellion against you, and bring them in submission to your beloved Son. May they kiss the Son now, lest he become angry and they perish in the way. Forgive also, O Lord, the sins of your people. For how often and how easily we have lost sight of the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ Jesus, our Savior and our Lord. For all of those foolish and wicked moments in which His glory has been obscured in us by our own follies or by the lies of the devil. We pray, O God, that you would keep every heart of every man and woman and child who belongs to Christ here fully fixed upon Him. That you would not allow Satan to mist the vision of the saints in this place. that nothing would be allowed to invade or intrude upon the dominion of Jesus Christ, that as Savior, He would stand alone and supreme, that as the Lord of His people, He would be acknowledged above and over all. We pray, our Father, that with such a disposition in our souls, that You would continue to guide us until that great and glorious fruition of His saving accomplishments. O Lord, in the day when the peace that was made through the blood of Christ's cross is seen and known and experienced in all its majestic fullness, may we be found in Him and be called into Your kingdom and glory. In Jesus' name we pray.