The Fullness of Jesus Christ

Two scriptures. Don't get the wrong idea. Not two for the whole sermon. But two scriptures give us the subject and the title of the sermon today. The first one is Colossians 1 and verse 19. Colossians 1 and verse 19. For it pleased the Father, that in Him Jesus Christ should all fullness dwell. More than just representing all fullness. But Christ embodies the fullness of everything. Everything that's good and right and of God, that in Him should all fullness dwell. How full is that fullness? 100%. Not even 99.9, but 100%. The second scripture is John 1.16. John 1 and verse 16.

John 1 and verse 16. And of His fullness, not all one of us carries 100% of that fullness. Because we're not complete, we're not perfect, we're not God, we're not Christ. But every single one of us have received of that fullness. And theoretically and hopefully, as far as that fullness, there should be more of His fullness than us every year as we get to this point again. And of course, it's not one bit too soon to be thinking about Passover and the Holy Days.

And to be examining ourselves and really giving attention to ourselves. But of His fullness, have all we received been benefited, we've been blessed by that fullness and grace for grace. We're the beneficiaries of it. The whole world is for that matter, especially in due time. But at certain levels, even now in the meantime, we're beneficiaries of it. And those of us that are called in this age, at this point in time of mankind, we're the most blessed as beneficiaries of those benefits.

Now that fullness is a certain completeness. It says, and grace for grace. It's a certain completeness. It says, verse 17, for the law was given by, or that is through Moses. Now, it wasn't Moses' law. He didn't generate it. He didn't create it. He didn't originate it. But he was the one that God used as the instrument through which to give the law, Mount Sinai in particular, and the law being codified and all. We understand that. It was given by or through Moses. But notice grace and truth. And, of course, keep in mind, the law that was given through Moses carried the administration of death. The Old Covenant carried the administration of death.

Now, the Ten Commandments, the spiritual law of God, preceded it. We understand that. But in those days, there were a number of things of the law. If you transgressed, you could be stoned to death. You could be executed. It was called the administration of death. But grace, forgiveness, pardon, mercy, and truth came by Jesus Christ. Because by and through Him came the New Covenant, which entailed forgiveness of our sins, removal of the death penalty.

We understand that. What God gave through Moses up to that time was good, but it was partial. It was not total. What God did through Christ is complete. It's full. So we're going to cover that fullness. So the subject and the title is simply the fullness of Jesus Christ. The fullness of Jesus Christ. And hopefully, every year we go through the cycle. By the time we get to the beginning of the next year's cycle, we've grown in the understanding of that fullness of Christ.

And in order to present and cover His fullness of which we have received and may receive, we're going to cover Jesus Christ. We're going to cover law. We're going to cover grace. We're going to cover truth. We're going to cover gospel. We're going to cover the kingdom of God. We're going to cover you.

That's seven things if you're counting. You say, well, how much time are you taking today? We're going to cover it in a brief, yet thorough way, and a balanced blend that all fits together.

So let's go to Acts 17. In Acts 17, verses 24 through 28, Acts 17, verses 24 through 28, the apostle Paul at the Acropolis, Mars Hill. These Greek philosophers there that are pontificating, and Paul latches on to their inscription to the Unknown God. And beginning in verse 24, he uses that as the springboard. He says, Verse 25, He gives to all life and breath and all things, and has made of one blood, Adam and Eve, of course, all nations of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.

Verse 28, Of course, I've covered that in a previous time. And you and I have it built into us as part of our makeup. It's embedded in us to want to continue on into eternity. Think about life, living and doing, serving and sharing, relating with loved ones. That's where life is. Living and doing, serving and sharing, relating with loved ones. It would not be according to God's nature to give us a conscious, self-aware mind with life and a desire to keep on living.

Because, see, you want to keep on living, don't you? I want to keep on living. I want to keep on living and doing. I want to keep on serving and sharing. I want to keep on relating. But it wouldn't be according to God's nature to give us a conscious, self-aware mind with life and desire to keep living and no way to attain it. Folks, live and do and serve and share and relate and make the most of it because that's all you get.

Because at the end of your days, when you blank out with death, that's it. That's it. So enjoy it while you have it. That would be pretty cruel, wouldn't it? It's not according to God's nature to give us that kind of desire and no way to attain it. As we go through the fullness of Jesus Christ and the aspects of that fullness, I want us to think in terms of how it all relates to us as a personal, spiritual creation of God in progress.

Again, I appreciate the sermonette, the message, because the more you make God, His Scripture, these things that we continually read and think about, the more you make it personal. The more it means to you personally, the more successful you will be in these things. The more successfully God can work with us. A personal spiritual creation of God in progress, because God has provided that fullness for us and He wants us to partake of it. He wants us to partake, benefit, in utilizing. See, God, we are like God just naturally and normally in certain ways, because when God created Adam and Eve, and He backed off and He said, it's very good.

He ingrained certain things in us, in our makeup, that are not carnal. There are certain things ingrained in us that are positive, they're spiritual, they're good. They are tendencies and drives that are not wrong. If I said, God desires us to be in His eternal family and kingdom forever, that's accurate, isn't it? Doesn't He desire us to be there? Christ told the disciples. He said, it's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Why did He create us if He didn't want us to have opportunity to be with Him forever?

He desires us to be in His eternal family and kingdom forever. I have three children. My wife has three children. No, that's not six. That's three. We have the same kids.

She and I want to go into eternity and have life unending someday through resurrection. We also have the hopes that our children will also be in eternity with us because we want to see and do and be with them forever and ever.

We have that desire. That is the same desire God has in Him toward us. It's a parallel desire and nothing wrong with it. But again, how does God make a way for that to be? For Him to have us with Him. And for us to have not only be of ourselves, but have that opportunity with our children. God has provided the way and the means through the fullness of Jesus Christ. Period. The fullness of Jesus Christ contains, and you think about it, the fullness of law. Because He kept it perfectly. He didn't violate one point of it. He contains the fullness of grace.

You wouldn't want to sit and hear some of the sins that some people have committed. You wouldn't want to be in the company of certain ones if you knew some of the atrocious sins that send their background. And two people could be sitting side by side at a bus station or wherever, and they both got sinned.

And one's sins may be limited to just telling what people call white lies, maybe stealing a candy bar when they were a kid, snaking out of the store with it, whatever. And the other one beside them was the serial killer, who doesn't kill anymore, but never got caught. It was called of God and repented bitterly and deeply of what He did. And you might say on a human level of reasoning, well, the grace it took to forgive the one with the white lies and stealing the candy bar didn't take as much grace as it did to forgive the guy who was a serial killer, who just never got caught, but was called and deeply repented and never did it again.

But you know what? The fullness of grace covers that all. It covers that all. The fullness of grace. It can cover any and all background where there is true repentance. And the fullness of truth. The fullness of truth. It contains the fullness of the gospel and the kingdom of God.

Again, for it please the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. I will reference certain scriptures and turn to others. And I'll reference Revelation 1.11. Revelation 1 in verse 11, there at the beginning of the book of Revelation, I am Alpha and Omega. When you say that in regards to the Greek alphabet, you're saying A to Z. Because that's what it is. Alpha is first, it's like our A in the English alphabet. And Omega is like our Z. So I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

The first letter is A, the last letter is Z. And in the Greek alphabet, it corresponds to A to Z. Also in Hebrews 12 in verse 2, it says, Looking to Jesus, the author, and the margin can render beginner, the originator, the author, the beginner, and finisher of our faith. You think about it. He's there at the beginning of the process, the faith that we must go through in development. He's at the beginning of it, and He's at the end of it.

How does He go in the meantime? You have to pardon me for being a little facetious at times to make the point. It says He is the author or the beginner. So He's there at the beginning, and He's there at the finish. So where is He in between those two points? Right there. Right there with us, all the way through.

He doesn't go anywhere. I want to turn to Hebrews 5.9 and read it. Hebrews 5. And verse 9, And being made perfect, and some people don't understand why it would say, since He was perfect, why He was made perfect. He said, well, being made complete. Well, I thought He was complete. He was. Mature. And I'll go into a deeper explanation of that at another time. But because of what He went through as a human being, it was added to Him to know exactly how we feel.

That we in our trials and tests and troubles, He identifies with us 100 percent because He Himself also was a human being for a time and dealt with the same issues we deal with, the only difference being He never sinned. But notice, and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation because without Him there is no salvation. But who's that to? Whether you're talking about this age, the millennium, the last great day, the author of salvation, to whom? There's a clarifier here. Them, all them that obey Him. The only firstfruits that will be in the kingdom are the firstfruits who stay faithful to God and obey Him.

The ones who fail and fall away? No. They will not be in the first resurrection. It's the firstfruits, those given opportunity now, who stick with it and stay faithfully with it, they obey Him. Yes. In the millennium, the same thing. All of the millennium will have opportunity. It will be those who choose not just to quote, obey Him in Christ's compliance, but who learn how to do it from the heart, not just on the surface.

And in the last great day, same thing. They'll all have opportunity. And they'll have full opportunity to learn to obey God. Being made perfect, complete, or I'll use that word again, fullness. When He made the fullness of God, He became the author. Because see, before He came, there was no sacrifice for sin. So there was no way to have eternal salvation for us.

And there was no sacrifice for sin. He was God, He was the Logos, He was the Word, but He wasn't a sacrifice for sin. But as a human being, He did become that. So the fullness of God had added to it Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for sin. And again, for all those who obey Him. So let's look at the aspects of the fullness of Christ and how you relate to them according to personal responsibility on our part.

First, I'm going to ask a dumb question. I'm going to ask a question that is so rhetorical that you might wonder, well, why do you even ask it? Who is Jesus Christ? Who is He? Do you think everybody knows the answer? No. If you have two people show up at your front door, it's proselyting. Who are they most likely to be? There's two groups, huh?

Jehovah Witnesses. And what's the other two? Mormons. You know a pat answer that I can give to the Mormons if they show up at my door? Or the Jehovah Witnesses if they show up at my door?

I know you're nice folks in all of that, but we don't serve the same Jesus. Oh, we don't? No, we don't. Now, let's take the Jehovah Witnesses. Sir, we're not on the same page, even fundamentally, because we don't serve the same Jesus. Oh, we don't? No, we don't, because the Jesus I serve is the Son of God, the Logos the Word, He is God. You serve Michael the Archangel, because they teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel.

Maybe you didn't know that, but Michael the Archangel became Jesus. So it's not God. It's an Archangel who became Jesus. They even have their own translation called the Word, so that they can change certain scriptures in it that point out how Christ is God, because that doesn't fit their narrative. So, do they know who Jesus is? No, they don't. And if you look at their doctrines or get into a conversation with them, and, you know, we don't serve the same one because your Jesus is Michael the Archangel.

They can't deny that because that's what they teach. Okay, what about Mormons? Sir, you guys are nice, and I know you've got a certain amount, obviously, of integrity, and your sincere and all of that, but we're not on the same page because we don't, fundamentally, we don't serve the same Jesus. We don't? No, we don't. Jesus' size third is God.

He was God. He was the Word. The Lord goes, He was God. And He came to this earth and died for us. Well, now, we know Jesus died for us. Yeah, but your Jesus is not my Jesus. So, your Jesus was the brother of Lucifer. And God needed someone to come and be a sacrifice and redeem mankind. And He had to choose between Lucifer and Jesus.

And He chose Jesus to be the Redeemer. And Lucifer got envious and jealous and mad about it and rebelled, because He wanted to be the one to come and redeem man. I heard Lynne Beck say that on his show several years ago when he just touched upon some of their Mormon doctrines.

How that Lucifer and Jesus were brothers. See, there's so much that a lot of people don't understand, don't know about. And we're not even talking about Christianity's picture of Jesus, a long-haired, effeminate individual that is such a far away representation of Christ that is so false. See, who He is is just as important as what He has done. In fact, what He has done is totally dependent upon who He is, because did God die for you or not? Was it the brother Lucifer that died for you?

Was it Michael the archangel that came and died? Or was it God Himself? John 1.1. See, that's why these Scriptures are so absolutely, crucially important. And they need to be remembered always and practiced in our understanding. John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. So the One who came as Jesus Christ was with God, and He was God.

This frame was in the beginning with God, with the Father. Verse 2. Notice verse 3. All things were made by Him. That includes Michael and Gabriel and all the angels, and the universe, and the solar system, and the earth. All things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything made that was made. There was nothing brought into existence that didn't have His hand involved in it. Which tells us He was 100% totally pre-existent to His humanity. Pre-existent to being a human being. Again, by way of reference, 1 Corinthians 10.4. And that rock who followed them, who was there with ancient Israel, in the pillar of fire and the cloud, that rock was Christ.

You cannot get more specific than that. Way back then, thousands of years, you know, a long time before He came as a human being, that rock that followed them was Christ. And as He said to certain leaders of His day in John 8.58, John 8 and verse 58, He said, before Abraham was, I am pre-existent. And on the night that was His last night as an alive human being on this earth, before they took Him later that night and praying to the Father in John 17 and verse 5.

In John 17 verse 5, He prayed to the Father to restore Him to the glory that He had before with the Father. And sixty-something years after the church began, sixty-something years, six full decades plus, after the church began, John would write in John 3.13. And again, if you have a red letter Bible, John 3 verse 13 should be in black print, not red. They're not the words of Christ. They're the words of John. A parenthetical statement. It's a parenthetical, put parentheses around it. John is inserting this point of truth six decades after the church had begun. He says, And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. Because sixty-something years later when John's writing it, it is a historical fact that Christ came down and He went back. And that's where He currently is at the time John's writing it. No man has to stand it up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And of course, one of John's prime purposes for writing his gospel account was to show to the Hellenistic Greco-Roman Mediterranean world the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. John 1 and verse 14, And the Word was made, became, or was made flesh, didn't originate as flesh, but was changed from spirit composition. We'll have to ask God someday, how did you work? This absolutely tremendous miracle. There's no greater magnitude of miracle than one of the God-beings, ceasing to be of spirit composition, and in composition, becoming flesh and blood where the life was in the blood and had to flow to every cell of the body, even as He was imbued with the fullness of God's spirit, spirit without measure, the life and the light of the spirit to stay so true to God and do it the right way. But the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. His composition, His existence changed for a time. And again, it was not the origination of life, but simply a change in composition and state of existence, because as a spirit being composed of spirit, He could not die for us. As flesh and blood being God in the flesh. He was no less God. He just didn't have the powers of Godhead. When He brought Lazarus forth from the tomb, He didn't bring Lazarus forth, it was the Father who brought Lazarus forth.

Christ had faith that the Father would bring Lazarus forth. Christ also had faith that as He knew He would lie dead for three days and three nights, that the Father would resurrect Him. Again, when I gave the sermon at the feast the year before this past one, the door of the kingdom is framed in faith. You can't get away from the need for faith, period. God had to have faith. Christ had to have faith. That's one reason why they require faith of us also. Arius, A-R-I-U-S, Arius, in the early 300s A.D. with the Arian controversy.

The Arian heresy was that Jesus Christ came into existence, like you and I have been brought into existence. I didn't have any pre-existence. Before 1950, I didn't exist. I came into existence in 1950.

Jesus Christ came into existence from non-existence. That's what Arius taught. He had no pre-existence. He was a created being. Now, sadly, I personally know, have known and know some people in what I will call current times, who have fallen into the church, who have been part of the church, who have fallen into the Arian controversy or the Arian heresy, that Jesus Christ was a created being.

You know what that is saying? Think about it. If He is a created being, then guess what? They're teaching that a created human died for you, not the Creator. A created being died for us. God did not die for us. We've got a little problem with that.

Let's just say you have a human being who somehow, some way, is able to live their entire life and never once do they transgress and stand in their thought, in their words, in their deeds. They manage somehow to live an entire lifetime and die with never, ever sinning. Well, if that were the case, then God could give that person eternal life, right? Because they don't have the death penalty on them. So how? And that person is allowed to have eternal life because they are sin free.

And eternal life can be given to that one human being because they didn't sin. Of course, there's no such being, but I'm just making the point. But if Christ is a created being, that's what you have. A human created who never sinned, but how would his life cover for billions or billions of other humans? It only covers for himself. How could a human being, God say, well, because you live sinless, I'll let you have eternal life, but that doesn't cover for everybody else.

If it's God who died for you, if it's the Creator whose life is worth more than all of our lives put together, if it's the Creator who died for you, then you have a sacrifice for sin that's not based on numbers. There's no limit. If a billion people repent and due process the time, or a trillion, doesn't matter for whatever will repent, those that will repent and obey, there's no limit to what the numbers can be. But that kind of teaching, a created being with the beginning, it denies the fullness of Jesus Christ, and thus the fullness of His sacrifice because in the fullness, He is God.

He is the Son of God. He is Savior and He is salvation. Remember what He told them in John 14, the disciples there in John 14 verse 6. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And I would ask us, do we understand Christ better at this point in time than we did a year ago at this point in time? If you don't, you're not growing. If you do, you know you're growing. If we have a better understanding of how He incorporates the very way of God, if we have a better understanding of how He is the living personification of the truth of God and the fullness of life in Him.

And of course, He told there in John 11 verse 25, speaking to, I think it was Martha in that case, but in John 11 verse 25 where He said, I am the resurrection and the life. And the die-hard Scripture that nobody can get around, although people will ignore it, and about 60-something percent of the whole Christian community thinks, well, there could be an exception, there could be some other way to salvation other than Jesus Christ. It's unbelievable. Think about it. Yeah. There could be another way other than Jesus Christ.

Maybe Acts 4.12 that neither is our salvation in any other given. Maybe that doesn't mean what it says. And as I said, what drives that is the cognitive dissonance that's generated by traditional beliefs and a loving, powerful God. But in the fullness of Jesus Christ has found the fullness of law. Grace, truth, let's look at law. Let's look at law. Again, by way of reference, Exodus 31 verse 18. Exodus 31 verse 18. Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments. It says in Exodus 31 verse 18, written with the finger of God.

You know, the control center of my being is my mind. Okay, I want to pick up this bottle of water. I don't have to per se consciously think about it. I have the desire to pick up this bottle of water. So I pick this bottle of water up and I hold it with my fingers. My fingers are part of my hand, part of my arm, part of my being, part of my body. Since I'm holding it, I may as well take a sip of it. Okay? The Ten Commandments. I picture in my mind the actuality of God putting His finger to the stone.

And literally, with the pure energy of His power, engraving, burning, have redid it, connecting His being, His body to the stone, and those commandments flowing directly from His being, written with the finger of God. You know, how many times have we used that Scripture in Matthew 5 verse 17? How many times? Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 17. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. To fill full. And as I've said, filling a dish full, or a cup full of coffee or tea or whatever, filling a dish or a vessel full never destroys it.

And when it says to fulfill or to fill full, no one ever had 100% kept the law of God in their thinking. No one, 100%, had ever kept the law of God in their heart, in their mind, in their words, in their actions. Because it's not possible for a human being to have that level of perfection of 100%. But God does. And Jesus did. And in His thoughts and His words and His deeds, He is the absolute 100% fulfillment of God's law, His way, in the thinking, in the words, and in the actions.

And of course, we use that Scripture many times in Isaiah 42, verse 21, where it says, He will magnify the law and make it honorable. Honorable. Again, I think about John. I think about 1 John 5.3. I think about how John, looking back over six decades of the church, and seeing where the church was at His time, 60-something years after it began, and addressing certain issues and reminding them once again of certain things, as he does in 1 John 5.3, he says, For this is the love of God. What is God's love? How does it operate? What illustrates it? What reflects it? That we keep His commandments. I don't lie to you.

I don't steal from you. I don't go after your mate. I don't covet this, covet that. I don't take God's name in vain. I don't have idols. I don't bow down to graven images, etc., etc., etc. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments. See, Christ kept the law fully. It found total fullness in Him, and in Him there was no transgression. That was absolutely essential in order to be a perfect sacrifice for sin.

We come to this time of the year when we focus on the Passover and we focus on Christ, and we realize academically and realistically that if He had ever had one sinful thought, if He had ever sinned just one time in thought, that's all it would have taken. If He had to sin just one time in His words, if He had to sin just one time in His attitude, if He had to sin just one time in His actions, just one, that's all.

The devil didn't say, I want you to sin ten times. Now, I'd love it if you sin ten times. I'd love it if you sin a hundred times. But I just need one.

That's all I need, one. Because I think I can just seduce you, tempt you, get you, press you, get you to sin just one time. I've just killed the sacrifice for sin. There is no sacrifice for sin. And by the way, you yourself will have to die because you incur the death penalty on you. So you can't go back to God. I just need one. We don't think of it in those terms many times, but it was absolutely essential for Him to be the fullness of the keeping of the great spiritual law of God.

In order to be a perfect sacrifice for sin. He had to live perfectly, no sin, no transgression. Not just so there would be a sacrifice for sin for us, but also that He could return to God. And by the fact that He could return to God, He's making a way for us to be taken to God into His family someday. And again, there's no better definition in the Bible than 1 John 3, 4, where again He's reminding the church that sin is the transgression of the law.

Well, now let me see. The transgression of the law. If the law has been done away with, if it was nailed to the cross, and it's done away with, and there's no law, and it hasn't been enforced since the day Christ was crucified, how do you transgress something that's not there? How do you transgress something that doesn't exist anymore? That makes no sense on any level of logic or math. It makes no sense. It's not logical.

See, law is not sin. Law is a code of conduct. It's a way of life. It emanates from and defines the very nature and makeup of God. The finger of God, the Ten Commandments, were written in stone by the finger of God. He was connected to them. The law is our central anchor in the things of God, but it cannot save us. Why? Because we've transgressed it. We've sinned, and the penalty that's required is our death. For the wages of sin is death.

Romans 6, 23. See, the law cannot save us. And this is what some people think we teach, which we don't, that it can save us because it can't. It cannot save us because it claims our life with the death penalty. The law says you've got to die. That's the penalty of it. But Jesus Christ can save us because this perfect sacrifice says, okay, it requires death, I'll die. I will satisfy the penalty.

Because I don't have that penalty on me. So I will take it on for you. And His death pays the ultimate penalty of sin and transgression. It does away with the penalty for the person, not the law.

Again, 60-plus years after the death and crucifixion, John wrote in 1 John 1, verses 8 and 9, he said, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Paul had written to the Romans at an earlier time, decades before in Romans 4-15, he had written for where no law is, there's no transgression. Well, that makes sense. Like I said, if there's no law, there's no transgression because you can't transgress something that doesn't exist.

Then why is it said that the angels that sinned, in 2 Peter 2, 4, the angels that sinned, they transgressed the law? See, Paul wasn't doing away with the law. He was making the point that if there's no law, there's no transgression.

But there is transgression, so there must be, there has to be law. But who's to first sin? To Cain. Sin lies at the door. It's going to try to rule you, dominate you, but you don't let it. And, you know, it was before Sinai when Adam and Eve stole what wasn't theirs, because that's usually what stealing is, is when you take something that's not yours, right? So Jesus Christ provided a pardon from the death penalty. That's grace. He provided a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.

That's grace. He provided a way for continual cleansing through His blood. That's grace. There has always been law. All has always existed. And even in our national level, as we see national law, which so much of it, based on the Ten Commandments, when we see law and order breaking down in our nation, as we see it happening, look what's happening in our nation. There is no such thing as existence without law. Law existed before grace. Law existed independent of grace, at least in terms of what we think of as the heart and core of grace.

But grace, as we think of it in its most central form, has no meaning, no relevance, separate from law. Grace is not independent of it. Grace has no meaning where there is no law. Grace is the unmerited pardon from the penalty of death that the law requires. And the fullness of this grace is found in the covering blood of Jesus Christ, for your dead and your life is hid or scraped with Christ and God, Paul wrote to the Colossians in Colossians 3.3.

It is only in Christ that I have salvation that's grace. You have a record. You have your own personal record. Of course, on that record, there are any number of good things. There are any number of bright spots. There are any number of things that you're happy with, that you're pleased with. You have your own human record of thoughts and words and doings. You know what? There is no salvation on any human record of doings. Not in the past, not in the present, and not in the future, because not one single mark of sin can be taken off the record by any works that we do.

In other words, you see somebody who was the town's goundrel. They were a wife-beater. They were a drunk. They wouldn't provide for their kids. And one day, they realized, you know, I'm living like a piece of garbage. I'm cleaning up. They quit drinking. They start working hard. They quit beating their wife. They start trying to provide for their kids.

They leave the alcohol alone. And that is good. And that's what they should do. And those are good works. And you can commend that, yes. But all the garbage they had done up to that point in time is still part of their record. If the person quit drinking at a certain point and marked that on the calendar, okay, from that point on, no more drunkenness to put on the record. But all of the from then on stuff that's good, let's say, cannot wash one single thing off of the past.

It's still on the... because the record is a lifetime record. And it's still there. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can take a mark off the record. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can wash one's record completely clean. And of course, obviously, as we've said, does that mean that it doesn't matter then that since we have God's grace, we don't have to concern ourselves with sin?

Sinning, well, Paul answered that in Romans 6, verses 1 and 2. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Because some people teach, God enjoys forgiving you. The more you give Him to forgive, the better you make Him feel.

So sin all you want because it makes Him feel good to be able to forgive you. That is taught in some circles. Paul said, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? You know, always come to this time of the year, and guess what? I'm a year old. My energy levels aren't quite what they were a year ago. My eyesight isn't quite what it was a year ago.

I come to this time of the year, and I realize a little bit more that I'm mortal, that time is getting by me, and with each passing year that time is less and less my friend, it's doing an ombre on me, and that this life is going to play out at some point, and so many times the year doesn't go by without me having to stand over somebody's casket and preach their funeral of a brother or sister in Christ.

And it bears upon my mind even more so the absolute value of God's cleansing, giving us a new beginning, giving us a new lease on life, a full pardon, and that He has every right to expect me to strive to live by His law and to get in step with Him, especially with the help and power of the Holy Spirit. And as again John would wrote as he wrote in 1 John 1, verse 7, We walk in the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

And it's interesting too that when Paul wrote to the Ephesians in Ephesians 2.10 at a much earlier time, Ephesians 2 and verse 10, and again, this is a standby Scripture we're very familiar with, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained or appointed, that we should walk in them. I submit myself to my salvation Jesus Christ by yielding in obedience to good works, as defined by His law, His Word, His truth, and again, that's what we read in Hebrews 5.9, the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him. Again, it's not one bit too early to be weighing these very important issues and points in our life.

In truth, Your Word is truth. This Bible is the printed truth of God, and we went through two sermons, proof of God in the Bible, parts 1 and 2, about the absolute internal proofs of its inspiration, as well as external proofs of its inspiration. The Bible is the printed truth of God. Jesus Christ is the living truth.

He's the printed truth and living color, having lived it fully, the living truth of God. I am the way, the truth, and the life, He says. So you take law, you take grace, you take truth. It all comes together in Jesus Christ. And these are the heavies. These are the heavier matters. I'll read Matthew 23, 23. These are the heavies.

These are the heavier matters. In Matthew 23, Christ is really laying it on the Pharisees, the hypocrites. He says, woe to you, verse 23, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you pay tithe of menth and anise and common, and they're very exact.

I just picture Him sitting there with a pile of seed in from Him and a tweezers, and picking out every tenth seed, so to speak. They were that exact. At least, you know, that's the analogy that's being made. You're really exact on that. Overkill, you know? But have omitted the weightier matters at all. What's the weightier? Judgment, mercy, and faith. They couldn't take judgment and mercy and faith and blend it together and come up with a spiritual outcome.

They couldn't think spiritually. They could isolate judgment just to judgment. And to some degree, maybe isolate mercy only to mercy. And certainly, it could isolate faith to faith, but they couldn't take a situation and apply judgment and mercy and faith in a proper blend to it. He says, these you ought to have done and not to leave the other undone. Spiritually, maturely, properly blending them together. Judgment having to do with law, mercy having to do with grace, faith having to do with godly blending and application. Lord, we caught this woman in adultery in the very act.

I've always wondered, where was the guy? Where was the guy? Moses says she should be stoned. She should be killed. That was the administration of death. Remember? For the law was given by or through Moses, that is. God's law through Moses, O covenant, carried the death penalty, the administration of death. And grace and truth came by or through or with or due to or because of Jesus Christ. We read that in John 1, verses 16 and 17.

We know the account. I won't go there and go through it. After Christ did what He did in John 8 there, those accusers all melted away. And finally, it was just her standing there with her accusers all gone. And He tells her in verse 11 of John 8, verse 11.

He says, neither do I condemn you. That's grace. Neither do I condemn you. That's grace. And then He says, go. I don't condemn you. You're not going to die. You're going to live. Go. And sin no more. Don't be caught in adultery again. Not because you're so good at hiding and being sneaky. No. Don't be caught in it because you don't do it anymore. Sin no more. He passed over judgment, the penalty of the law of death, extended mercy, which is pardon, which was grace.

Because He had faith that she would change, that she would repent, that she would live differently, live according to the law and truth. Christ had to be the completion. He had to be the fullness. He had to complete the package because, as long as the Word, the Logos, was there with the One that we now know of as the Father, there was no sacrifice for sin. There was no sacrifice for sin anywhere in existence, period.

And there was no way for God to start and carry out and finish the plan that you and I are all an intrinsic part of. He had to complete the package. The package lacked a sacrifice for sin.

And all of this because God is building an eternal family. You know, we have said over and over, the Kingdom of God is the family of God administering the government of God. And a Kingdom is comprised of four parts, king, realm, or territory, subjects, law, or that is, code of conduct. And the gospel is all about that.

It involves all of that. I'll turn to one final Scripture. It may not be the final one I use, but the final one I'll turn to, Acts 28 and verse 31. The very last Scripture, and actually the last two Scriptures in Acts. And it nails the theme of the book of Acts.

Which is the theme of the church? Always has been and will be. And is. Acts 28, verse 30. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, his own rented house, and received all that came to him. Doing what? Here's the theme of the book of Acts. Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding Him, because you can't separate Him from the kingdom.

Without Him there is no kingdom. Without Him there's no you. Without Him there's no continuation of us. Without Him there's no world tomorrow. There's no forgiveness. There's no mercy. There's no grace. There's no pardon. There's no eternal life. That's how full the fullness of Jesus Christ is. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. With that in mind, I leave us with the final words that Peter left us. In 2 Peter 3 and verse 18,