This sermon delves into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ as revealed in Romans 15, emphasizing the need to minister to others from this fullness. It highlights the richness of blessings available in Christ, including forgiveness, acceptance, commitment, and eternal life. The sermon encourages seeking the Lord daily for more of His fullness and joy, and emphasizes the importance of coming to people in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ as both message and means of enablement.

Well, we have a tremendous subject from Scripture to consider, it's out of Romans chapter 15. Our study is about the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. The fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ and I'd love to pray with you again about this. Lord, as we open up the word now, we call upon your name. We need to hear from you, you alone have the words of eternal life. Lord, we can only live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We're crying out for the work of your Holy Spirit, working through this priceless gift of the inspired, authoritative, sufficient, revealed, written word of God. And Lord, we know that our Lord and Savior is the centerpiece of this message, this Scripture, this Bible, and we do pray that by the work of your Holy Spirit, you would let us minister this morning from the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ and that there would be a clear, edifying, mind-renewing, heart-shaping proclamation of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I wonder if you have a personal walk and ministry vision of coming to people and ministering to them in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Years ago, this verse captured my heart and attention. Wonderful words, every word full, the fullness of the blessing of the good news, the gospel of Christ. If we don't have a growing understanding of what that is, and a desire to grow in it ourselves, we will not be ministering it to other people, and it's what everyone desperately needs. We're born on this planet in Adam, in the emptiness of sin and death. The only thing that will meet that need is the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. This blessing, this fullness is primarily the message we have to proclaim. But it's more than that. It's the message that we proclaim that is so embraced by us that it does become a very core of our mind and our heart. Therefore, it becomes the very resource by which we proclaim this fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. If we don't have a growing understanding of that fullness and that blessing, we won't have a desire to come to people and minister to them in that way. Instead of ministering in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, we'll be putting forth a message that diminishes who Christ is and all that He has done and all that He has provided for us. And not only that, what we do have accurate to share will not be shared by the resources of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. For this verse speaks primarily of a message, but it also speaks of a means by which we get this message out. The verse, Romans 15, 29, but I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. This was a certain conviction, a deep conviction that the Apostle Paul had, uses quite a word, I know. Not just I want to, or this is a possibility, but I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. That's the way to come to people, to minister to them, whether it's a friend, a family member, someone at church, someone at work, someone on campus at college. This is the way to come to people. Oh, how we need to be a blessing one to another. Life on this planet, it's tough. This is a war zone. Most people in Iraq don't have what you'd call a nice day. In fact, they probably aren't saying to each other, we'll have a nice day. They know they're in a war zone. A war zone, things are not comfortable, they're difficult, they're challenging, often heartbreaking. Intimidating, fearful, you need protection and provision, and really you need a valid purpose and you need the Lord there with you. Well, though we forget it, the whole planet is a war zone. And certainly when nations collide with nations or nations with groups and movements and there are issues at stake, and there can often be right and wrong and righteousness and unrighteousness at stake, battles rage. But there's a way bigger battle than the ones you can see, and it's the spiritual warfare. It bombards all of our minds more than we would even admit. We all kind of think, well, nobody's getting bombarded like me. Probably most of us are, you know, probably most of us are. Oh, how we need to be a blessing to one another. But you can't manufacture blessing. It has to come from God. And if we're going to bless anyone else, it has to be passed on from God through our heart and life as He has been developing us by His Spirit through His Word. We don't want to minister to people out of the inadequate resources of our own being. And we don't want to share a message that is consistently, persistently undermining the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Let's think for a few minutes just about the blessings included in the gospel of Christ. We often think gospel forgiveness, good news, initial salvation, absolutely correct connection but one does not equal the other. One is greater than the other. The gospel is greater than merely the initial introduction to this great salvation that brings us forgiveness of sins through Christ and new birth into the family of God. I mean, that in itself, speaking of blessings, it is so easy to underestimate that blessing. We can get so hard and cold and jaded, you know, and forget that we were dead in trespasses and sins. But God is rich in mercy. He raised us up with Christ Jesus, now our Lord. What a blessing that is. But the good news of the gospel, it's the good news of who He is, therefore it's also good news about what He did. If He weren't who He is, all the things He declares to have done would either be impossible or non-consequential, but He is the Lord of glory. He is God the eternal Son. And the gospel is about Him. It's the gospel of Christ. It's not just principles and concepts and ideas, though it includes those, and they're the most high and holy ones in all of creation. But it's about a person. It's the gospel of Christ. The gospel is the good news of who He is, what He has done, what He provides for us in Himself, and what He can do in our lives day by day, and what He can do through our lives in touching others. The Lord has let me minister His word nearly 40 years now, and I never have lost the marvel, in fact at times it just keeps growing, the amazement that God would use folks like us, like me, like you, to declare such high and holy truths and bring the ultimate blessing that God has for people. It's astounding. We who deserved, I mean, it was a no-brainer case against us. What does Bob deserve? Hell forever. Next case. Ah, but there was justification available in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He had pity upon our condition, and He convicted our hearts, and He sent someone with the gospel message. Now we have these blessings, and we can actually be used of God. Early on when I started teaching back in the mid-1960s, it was almost like I'd hear a voice in my head every time I stepped up and opened the Bible. It kind of went like this, who do you think you are standing to speak about God? I'm telling you, early on it almost silenced me, because, you know, the enemy had me on that one, as far as I could think it through quickly, it's like, yeah, who am I? I certainly don't deserve to be doing this. Well, it's not about what's deserved, it's about what God has freely, graciously granted and given. That's how life is developed. And this good news, it brings and provides such blessings, such rich benefits, and these spiritual benefits we have in Christ are available to us in astounding fullness. We know the Lord is the fountain of living waters, and now and then it seems to us like they're barely trickling out like an eyedropper that's kind of plugged up, you know. But that's just our perception at the moment. That's just our lack of awareness, or maybe there's something going on in our heart and mind that quenches the spirit of life for that flow of living water. But really what God has for us is much more pictured in a flooding, overflowing Niagara Falls. What is available for us in the benefits of the gospel are available in astounding forgiveness. We're forgiven in Christ. We have fullness of forgiveness. The Lord hasn't said I'll forgive this and that and the other, but there's a list here, I'm sorry, I just can't get past this one. We're often like that with one another, but the Lord is not like that. We have fullness of forgiveness. What a blessing. What a rich treasure. If each of our sins were like a square foot block, I mean, we could build the wall of China with them, you know, but we're forgiven fully and freely. We have fullness of acceptance. Oh, often people might measure us and keep us at arm's length, and maybe they're wise at times, you know, but it's not this way with the Lord. We are accepted in the beloved. What a blessing of the gospel. And we have fullness of His commitment to us. He has promised I will never leave you nor forsake you. He's the only one in the universe with such a commitment to us. And He has declared that He's for us, and He will never ever again be against us. What rich blessings those are. But those are just a few that come initially to mind. Let Ephesians 1 verse 3 just give us a big splash of a picture. Ephesians 1 verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, past tense, already ours, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Every blessing that's in the heavenly realm, the spiritual abode of the living God, our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, have blessed us with all of those riches. It doesn't mean that we know what all those blessings are yet, nor does it mean that we're learning to appropriate them, draw upon them, actually live by them by faith. We're in the learning process, but they're all ours. The fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ includes this. We are rich beyond measure. Oh, many may look upon us and say we're kind of poverty stricken, and they might examine our wall or our bank account and find out that they're right. But that's not how you measure true riches. Those things will waste away, they'll be gone someday, and they can't really obtain for us what life's all about. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Great description in a general sense of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. When we come to people to minister to them, a roommate, family member, a friend, an acquaintance, someone we encountered at the coffee house or at the supermarket, what do we come to them with? We can come to them with the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, have that changing our lives and give us such a message out of that that their hungry, dead broken hearts will start to sing with hope. Ephesians 3.8 puts it this way, To me who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Could be translated, the unfathomable riches of Christ. What a grace given to us to know these truths and have them ours in Christ, be able to grow in them and then come to people in that fullness. I remember early on I was at seminary and they were telling us, you know, we're giving you all the tools, you can go out there and be an effective servant of God, and I was concentrating on, you know, getting those tools so I could work on the word and work on people, you know, and for years I overlooked a gigantic issue bigger than all that, and that is God wanted to be working on me. I didn't need to get tools, I was a tool He wanted to hone and sharpen and use. What a grace is given to us to proclaim among the Gentiles, that is among the nations, the unfathomable riches of Christ. They're ours in Christ Jesus, we can come to people shaped and strengthened by them and then begin to speak of them. Oh, and it makes every false religion on the world look so pathetic. People have often asked me, sometimes on the Pastor's Perspective program, sometimes just face to face or sometimes in our seminar and conferences, and question, you know, well, what's the shortcoming in this movement, sect, cult, or false religion? And some of them I might be a bit familiar with just by meeting people in them and hearing about them along the way, but there's so many they just keep, you know, popping up. And I said, well, I would be certain of this, that if they're not in line with the Word of God, here's the heart of where they're missing. They are diminishing the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're underestimating or misusing His Holy Word. That's the core of it. What we have to live by and to share with others are the unsearchable riches of Christ, a person, not just a perspective, not just a philosophy, not another religion. I fully believe that in the purest sense of how that word religion is used and how the Bible would treat it, the Christian faith is not really a religion. It's a glorious declaration of a person that we were created to be joined to and to get to know, and nothing else will satisfy our hearts or satisfy the heart of God in why He even created us. Let's take that word fullness and look at a few verses that actually use terminology like that, kind of fullness terminology in Scripture regarding Christ and His gospel blessings. Colossians chapter 2 is a great one. Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10, for in Him, referring back to the very previous verse which closes with a reference to Christ, for in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And notice the implication for us, and you are, present tense, are, right now, complete in Him, fullness. It's a word used so often we've kind of even transliterated it into English and people speak of the pleroma, blessings of Christ. That's where this word came from, right here. And this description in verse 10 is the same word just turned into the appropriate word form. In Christ dwells all the fullness and you are full in Him. You are filled out, filled up, and can be filled to overflowing in Him. Think of that, in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, all that the Lord God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons, one Godhead, all that the Godhead has for us resides in, is found in, is accessed in and through a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Well that last word, what a reminder of the Lord's humility and even His humiliation. The fact that He's Immanuel, the fact that God became a man. You know throughout eternity we'll behold the King of glory in a glorified human body. Every time we behold Him, He'll be a reminder, He's the one who came to earth to rescue someone like me. Oh, don't you know our hearts will be ready to sing, worthy is the Lamb. Down here on earth the world is singing, worthy is the me. I'm worth it, I deserve it, you know. And the confession of the lost soul is so contrary to the truth that is found in Christ. It's about Him. He's the one in whom all the fullness dwells and it dwells in bodily form. The love, the compassion, the care of the Lord that He would leave glory above, would leave uninterrupted, everlasting, previously, eternally, fellowship with the Father and with the Spirit and come to a sin-scarred planet like this to save the souls of sinners like us. Well in that one, our Redeemer, who's now restored to the right hand of the Father above, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. But see, we're now joined to Him. We started out on this planet connected with Adam. He was our life source and it was a limited, temporal, fallen, sinful, alienated life source. And we started out without God, without hope in this world, but now we are connected to Christ Jesus. We have a whole new life source. It's Christ. We're joined to Him. That which He is and that which He has and that which He has done and wants to do is our portion to draw upon by faith. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you, Christian, believer, disciple, you are complete in Him. The natural mind, hearing that truth, staggers, thinking, this can't be talking about me. Nobody would use completeness to describe me. Nobody's going to use the word full and overflowing of good and great things to talk about me. Well, sure, that's because in us that is in our flesh dwells no good thing, but there's more to us than a life of flesh. We have been born again by the Spirit of God from above. There's new life in us. Christ dwells in our heart. His Holy Spirit is there to make the things of Christ real to our understanding and to our daily pilgrimage. In Christ, the fullness dwells. So in Him, we have fullness available. In the fullness of Christ, we have all we need for wholeness of life. And so often, our focus gets shifted off of the one who has the fullness, and we get shifted onto ourselves. Do you ever have any struggle to try and get your mind to turn upon yourself? Do you ever have difficulty when you want to think about yourself and you just can't get your mind there? I think not. Is that not the easiest subject on the planet to think of? In fact, half the time, we're thinking everybody else is thinking about that subject too. But they're not thinking about you. They've got their mind already occupied thinking of themselves. I mean, that's our natural tendency. But this is a heavenly perspective. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you, you are connected to Christ. You who are in Christ. You who are a part of Him like a branch is a part of the vine, and the life in the vine is available to the branch. And you are complete in Him. When broken, empty believers even, trying to run on their own flesh and their own humanity and their own resolve and their own willpower and their own new discovery and insight. That's not where you access the fullness. The fullness is in Christ. But here's the glorious encouragement. Speaking of the fullness of the blessing for us of the gospel of Christ. And that is that we are complete in Him. Draw on that life by humble dependence any part of any day. What you're tapping into spiritually, relationally, is what the Godhead has in fullness for the children of God here on earth below. Changes everything. No wonder we're called in Colossians 3 to seek the things that are above, not the things that are on this earth. They're so mundane, they're so limited, they're so unreliable. In Christ, the fullness dwells. In Him we have love. That's part of that fullness. In Him we have peace. That's a precious part of that fullness. In Him we can have joy. In Him there is strength, wisdom, faith, hope. There is protection, there is provision, there is purpose in life from heaven above. There's a multitude of things we're saved from in Christ. Saved from hell. Saved from sin. Saved from guilt. Saved from condemnation and alienation. Saved from barrenness and fruitlessness and futility. Saved from despair. But even greater than that, there are all these things we're saved unto. We're saved unto heaven, unto forgiveness, unto righteousness in Christ. We're saved unto fullness of blessing and provision. We're saved unto everlasting life. We're saved unto an eternal relationship that will never be broken with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a great salvation. Yes, what a great Savior. And in Him dwells the fullness. There is no reason that's valid whereby we would get trapped in an empty, barren life now that we've come to Christ. If we had time and there were willingness in each heart, we could stand and share the heartaches of our own emptiness personally. I could take part in that fully. And it would be an astounding picture if all of us painted the portrait with some words. You know, anyone walking by, looking in, able to see this, they'd say, Well, there's no hope for that crowd. Oh, yes, there is. And the hope is not put on a happy face. The hope isn't have a nice day. The hope isn't the power of positive thinking. The hope is Christ and His fullness. And the wonderful truth, if you amass together, this is kind of a hard picture to think of, all of our emptiness, how do you compile emptiness? It would be quite impressive. But if you consider the fullness that's in Christ, all of that fullness could flood all of that emptiness and overflow with blessing from us for others. I mean, that's the implication of such a verse. In Him, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and you are complete in Him. Isaiah 9-6, Jesus is our wonderful counselor. Oh, don't we need that? Do you ever face a day you don't need counsel? I don't. If we face a day we don't need counsel, we must have slept through the day. Well, He's our wonderful counselor. And His counsel has been recorded for us. How gracious is that? The same verse tells us that He is our Prince of Peace in a strife-torn world where World War III can rage between your ears. How great it is to be a friend of the Prince of Peace and turn to Him for peace. He is the builder of the church, Matthew 16-18. He said, I will build my church. And for all who want to truly be a part of the building of the kingdom of heaven on earth and its present form, the church, what a deep sigh of relief we let out. Oh, I thought that was on my shoulders. No, cast that burden on me too. I will build my church. And if you believe that and you seek Him, you and I can actually be used in His hands in this great, now 2,000-year project of seeing the church of the Lord Jesus Christ worldwide, age-long, built by one builder, the Lord Jesus Christ. Makes you want to just throw your life into His hands. Lord, build me. I'm part of the church. Shape me. Use me. Oh, He loves to answer prayers like that. He is our Savior. He is our Lord. He is our shepherd, and oh, how important a shepherd is to sheep. Sometimes we think and talk and act or dream about being a lion, you know, roaring and in charge of everything and intimidating everybody, you know, and the Lord sees us just bleating and batting like sheep. Boy, you could hardly be in a more vulnerable place than to be likened to a sheep. I mean, there's no one in the animal kingdom that cowers at a sheep. Watch out, here come the sheep. Ooh, we better flee. I don't know. Either who cares or, you know, I was looking for a meal. Oh, but it's all changed now because we have the good shepherd. And he also happens to be the lion of Judah. Oh, that's part of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And as Mark was sharing, ultimately he is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, isn't he? It is great to be friends to one another. It's a phenomenal gift. But the gift of friendship above all gifts is God calls us friends. Jesus, John 15, I no longer call you servants. That is, just servants, though we are his servants. But I also call you friends, and I let my friends know what I'm doing. Oh, does he ever. He's written that down too. All of this, the fullness of the blessing. And according to Colossians 3, verse 4, he's our life. Colossians 3, verse 4, when Christ who is our life appears, we'll appear with him in glory. That's coming back, Revelation 19, 11 and following. He'll bring his church back to earth to establish his thousand-year reign after he's already taken us up ahead of this great time of trouble that's coming and the great tribulation. We'll appear with him in glory as he comes back. But that one is our life right now. He's not just our savior from the past or our master in the present or our coming king with whom we also will reign, but he's our life. Our life. The Lord Jesus Christ wants to express the fullness of his life in and through our humanity, our human vessel. Christ who is our life. Yes, he gave us eternal life, but that everlasting life he gave us a share in is his life. In Christ is the life. And we're in Christ where the life is. Well, how do you do that in practicality? You live by faith. The just shall live by faith. We trust him day by day. He demonstrates his life through our attitudes, our words, our relationships, our priorities through our lives. This is part of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. But maybe one phrase that sums it up the best, Colossians 311, Christ is our all in all. You can add all of these individual realities and still run out of time, memory, or even finding them in the word. He's our all in all. He is all that every one of us need all the time. Remember what Jesus said. Jesus said in John 10.10, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Yes, Jesus came to bring us forgiveness of sin. But that's not the sum and substance of why he came. That's like the alpha from alpha to omega. He came to give us life and that life more abundantly. The fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, as it's learned of in the word and believed upon in our heart, is to be developing in us an abundance of life. You know, a doctor can take a pulse sometime. Is the patient alive? Well, they just barely are. Sometimes that's the way it is with us spiritually. Are they spiritually alive? Well, I think I saw a sign there. I think I saw a spiritual movement. Well, the Lord can take us from that state and endue us with more of his vitality as he reminds us of who he is, stirs our heart by his Holy Spirit to just call upon his name and count upon him again. And that life that is ours in Christ dwelling in us is to grow into abundance. It's to grow from childhood to maturity, from a babe in Christ to a warrior on the battlefield. And that's not a self-improvement project. No one can make themselves what God wants them to be. We've got so many programs and philosophies and ideas on how to make it happen. Here's how it happens according to the word. The living God brings us life in Christ as we call upon his name. And then we are to learn of him and abide in him and that truth and watch his life grow in us and our thinking and our desires and demonstrate it in what comes out of our personal humanity and words and deeds and relationships. We are God's project. Ephesians 2.10 We are his workmanship. Sometimes our minds are so occupied on ourselves, we're working so hard to get ourselves all put together, we forget how the kingdom of heaven develops on earth. We are his workmanship. Psalm 16.11 says, You will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. There's fullness of joy available in the Lord. There's enough on this planet to drive everyone into heavy sadness of heart, despair and depression the rest of our lives. And it can get so deep and so heavy, it's just a vain hope that man is going to snatch us out of it. But in God's presence is fullness of joy. Again, joy through relationship, not procedure. The work of Christ upon the cross is what provides for us access into the very presence of God. But often we think of that, we think of heaven someday. But actually that is to be our portion here on earth this day. Remember Hebrews 19 and 20, through whom through Christ we have access into the Holy of Holies by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through his flesh. When his flesh was torn on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. Not bottom to top by man toward heaven, but God opening the way into the Holy of Holies. Whereas the Holy of Holies was a place where the high priest went one day a year on behalf of everyone else under the old covenant of law, now under the new covenant of grace, the new and living way. We can all boldly go in to the very presence of God. Actually, I believe the scriptures describe now for the children of God who are in Christ Jesus by the shed blood of Christ, we can walk into the Holy of Holies and have that become our family den. Who's there waiting for us? Abba Father. How do we get in? The shed blood of his son our Savior. We can actually commune with him and talk to him. Think of that. There might be many people on this planet that we would like to speak to, but we don't have access. Well, let's just go right over their heads, okay? We can actually speak to, commune with, fellowship with the living God ourselves every day. And here's what he has to say to us. His word. And it's about his ultimate word, the incarnate word, which is revealed throughout the written word. And then how do we commune with him? We cry out to him from the depths of our heart. Through his word he speaks to our heart. From our heart we answer through prayer. And God knows when it's independence from Christ, it's right in the Holy of Holies. We can dwell there. Not a place to retreat to, but a place to abide in. Abiding in the shadow of the Almighty. That's what brings joy to a heart. In your presence is fullness of joy. Jesus said in John 15, 11, that he wanted our joy to be full. Paul was stirred by the Spirit to write in Philippians 4, 4, Rejoice in the Lord. Again I say to you, rejoice. Well, I can't rejoice. The circumstances are too tough, and the semester's too long, and the job's too impossible, and people don't understand, and I just can't. Turn your heart to him and you can. You'll be joyful that he's with you, and for you, and in you. You can deal with those things. He is the reason for our joy. This is a sad planet, but we have a joyful relationship with the risen Lord. In his presence, fullness of joy. Well, in conclusion, John 1, verse 14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is with the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Verse 16, And of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. That's our portion. All of these things are ours in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. They're ours through the person and work of Christ. Implication? Let's be seeking the Lord Jesus day by day for more of this fullness in light of our own emptiness. And when we come to minister to one another in any way, family, church, school or work, we can then come by faith in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And that will not only be our message more and more as we're learning it, and that's glorious in itself, to learn the majesty of this fullness and have it there to declare to people who are dying and struggling in emptiness. Along with that, these truths will become our resource. We'll be being strengthened, shaped, remade by that message. So the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ becomes both our message and our means of enablement by which we get it out. Well, let's pray together about this great truth. Lord Jesus, we are delighted in who You are. We're blessed beyond description, the place we have been given in You. Lord, for our emptiness and brokenness, open up to us in the Word Your fullness and Your wholeness. Strengthen us by those realities and send us forth in Your name to declare the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.