Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 978
Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, February 26th, 1871 by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.”—Colossians 1:19.
THE PREACHER IS UNDER NO DIFFICULTIES this morning as to the practical object to be aimed at in his discourse. Every subject should be considered with an object, every discourse should have a definite spiritual aim; otherwise we do not so much preach as play at preaching. The connection plainly indicates what our drift should be. Read the words immediately preceding the text, and you find it declared that our Lord Jesus is in all things to have the pre-eminence. We would seer; by this text to yield honor and glory to the ever-blessed Redeemer, and enthrone him in the highest seat in our hearts. O that we may all be in an adoring frame of mind, and may give him the pre-eminence in our thoughts, beyond all things or persons in heaven or earth. Blessed is he who can do or think: the most to honor such a Lord as our Immanuel. The verse which succeeds the text, shows us how we may best promote the glory of Christ, for since he came into this world that he might reconcile the things in heaven and the things in earth to himself, we shall best glorify him by falling in with his great design of mercy. By seeking to bring sinners into a state of reconciliation with God, we are giving to the great Reconciler the pre-eminence. On gospel shall be the gospel of reconciliation on this occasion. May the reconciling word come home by the power of Christ’s Spirit to many, so that hundreds of souls may from this day forth glorify the great Ambassador who has made peace by the blood of his cross.
The text is a great deep, we cannot explore it, but we will voyage over its surface joyously, the Holy Spirit giving us a favorable wind. Here are plenteous provisions far exceeding, those of Solomon, though at the sight of that royal profusion, Sheba’s queen felt that there was no more spirit in her, and declared that the half had not been told to her.
It may give some sort of order to our thoughts if they fall under four heads. What is here spoken of—“all fullness.” Where is it placed—“in him,” that is, in the Redeemer. We are told why, because “it pleased the Father;” and we have also a note of time, or when, in the word “dwell.” “It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.” Those catch words, what, where, why, and when, may help you to remember the run of the sermon.
I. First, then, let us consider the subject before us, or WHAT—“It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.” Two mighty words; “fullness a substantial, comprehensive, expressive word in itself, and “all,” a great little word including everything. When combined in the expression, “all fullness,” we have before us a superlative wealth of meaning.
Blessed be God for those two words. Our hearts rejoice to think that there is such a thing in the universe as “all fullness,” for in the most of mortal pursuits utter barrenness is found. “Vanity of vanity all is vanity.” Blessed be the Lord for ever that he has provided a fullness for us, for in us by nature there is all emptiness and utter vanity. “In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.” In us there is a lack of all merit, an absence of all power to procure any, and even an absence of will to procure it if we could. In these respects human nature is a desert, empty, and void, and waste, inhabited only by the dragon of sin, and the bittern of sorrow. Sinner, saint, to you both alike these words, “all fullness,” sound like a holy hymn. The accents are sweet as those of the angel-messenger when he sang, “Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy.” Are they not stray notes from celestial sonnets? “All fullness.” You, sinner, are all emptiness and death, you, saint, would be so if it were not for the “all fullness” of Christ of which you have received; therefore both to saint and sinner the words are full of hope. There is joy in these words to every soul conscious of its sad estate, and humbled before God.
I will ring the silver bell again, “all fullness,” and another note charms us; it tells us that Christ is substance, and not shadow, fullness, and not foretaste. This is good news for us, for nothing but realities will meet our case. Types may instruct, but they cannot actually save. The patterns of the things in the heavens are too weak to serve our turn, we need the heavenly things themselves. No bleeding bird nor slaughtered bullock, nor running stream, nor scarlet wool and hyssop, can take away our sins.
“No outward forms can make me clean,
The leprosy lies deep within.”
Ceremonies under the old dispensation were precious because they set forth the realities yet to be revealed, but in Christ Jesus we deal with the realities themselves, and this is a happy circumstance for us; for both our sins and our sorrows are real, and only substantial mercies can counteract them. In Jesus, we have the substance of all that the symbols set forth. He is our sacrifice, our altar, our priest, our incense, our tabernacle, our all in all. The law had “the shadow of good things to come,” but in Christ we have “the very image of the things.“Hebrews 10:1. What transport is this to those who so much feel their emptiness that they could not be comforted by the mere representation of a truth, or the pattern of a truth, or the symbol of a truth, but must have the very substance itself! “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.“John 1:16.