Dear brothers and sisters.
You know what I am thinking? If we continue to keep the spirit at the table, we are on the way to spiritual fullness. I tend to dismiss you, but unfortunately the recess seems to spoil it a little bit. So maybe there is still a place for more meditation and encouragement.
Will you please turn to Philippians?
But I surely count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: on account of Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be refuse, that I may gain Christ.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we look to Thee to keep us in the spirit of worship, of focusing upon Thyself, of forgetting ourselves. Let the Spirit of the Lord lead the way to spiritual fullness.
We confess, Lord, how easily our eyes turn away from Thee. We look upon the world, look upon ourselves, look upon others, look upon environments, and we lose sight of Thee. Oh, dear Lord, keep us fixed on Thee. Do not allow us to drift, to falter; but we do desire to offer ourselves to Thee. Thou art the only One Who is able to keep us to the very end.
Lord, Thou hast opened the heavens for us. May that heavenly light continue to shine upon us, and in that glorious light may we see Thee and worship Thee. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
For the sake of some who were not here yesterday, we would like just to remind you that our time together is on the theme of spiritual fullness.
Again, I want to tell you that I do not feel fit to teach you on spiritual fullness. I want to be with you, meditating together with you on this glorious subject, and looking to the Spirit of God to lead us into the truth. That is my prayer.
Yesterday morning, we began by meditating on what spiritual fullness is and where it can be found. The very term spiritual fullness limits the meaning of fullness. You know, the words tell us right away that we are not thinking of worldly fullness, earthly fullness, or carnal fullness.
We are thinking of that which is spiritual, that which is eternal, that which is heavenly, that which is divine. That is the fullness for which we long, and that is the fullness that our God has provided for us. It is His will that we be filled with that fullness.
You cannot find that fullness in the world. You cannot find it even in religion.
The Corinthian believers were believers. They had the life of Christ in them. They had all the potential for spiritual fullness, and yet they turned their eyes away from the Lord and looked to the world. They tried to find fullness in the world, but it is not there.
What is there is strife, contention, party spirit, sin, love of self, disorder, and disbelief. The apostle Paul had to remind them: it is Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
The Colossian believers were believers. That is the reason why we are talking about spiritual fullness among ourselves—we who have already believed in the Lord Jesus. But how easily we can be led astray, forgetting that spiritual fullness can only be found in the Lord Jesus and nowhere else.
The Colossian believers had such a good beginning. They had faith, love, and hope. Yet they were enticed to shift their attention from Christ Jesus. They were deceived into thinking that Christ alone could not make them full—that they had to keep the law, do something, or believe in philosophy and the teachings of men.
They were sincere. They tried, but they were led astray. The apostle Paul had to correct them, saying:
All the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ Jesus bodily, and ye are complete in Him.
So, dear brothers and sisters, unfortunately even among God’s people today, we try to find fullness in places other than our Lord Jesus. The result is tragic.
Let us remember: God is the source of all fullness. It is out of His fullness that He created all things. All things ought to manifest the glory of God, but unfortunately sin entered into this world and spoiled everything.
But thank God, He loves us so much that He will not let us go. Therefore, He sent His only begotten Son into this world. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.
God demonstrates His fullness in the person of our Lord Jesus. Nothing short of full. His grace is full; it cannot be increased. His truth is full, everlasting. That is what we find in the life of our Lord Jesus. He is the expression, the manifestation, the very substance of the fullness of God.
Thank God, our Lord Jesus did not come merely to demonstrate God’s fullness—what grace is and what truth is. If He did not go to the cross, it would not be available to us today.
Thank God, our Lord Jesus secured that fullness of the Godhead by His death on Calvary’s cross. Because of Calvary’s cross, all the fullness of the Godhead is now available to us. If we believe, if we obey, it is ours.
Thank God, He gave us the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of grace, and He lives in us to make everything that our Lord has done two thousand years ago our living experience.
So this is something that we meditated on together yesterday morning.
Now this morning, we would like to go on and meditate on how we really apprehend, personally and together, this spiritual fullness.
In other words, yesterday morning we dealt mostly with eternal truth. Our Lord Jesus said, “I am the truth.” What is eternal truth? Eternal truth is something that God has done through our Lord Jesus.
Whatever He has done on Calvary’s cross is eternal. It never changes. It is always there, always ready, always available, always working.
But how does truth become our personal experience? So this morning we would like to get into experience.
Truth is objective; that is to say, it is outside of us. It is there, available, but outside of us. Now we want to see how the truth of spiritual fullness can become our daily living, real experience—that we may apprehend the love of God with all the saints.
Because we are dealing with this matter of spiritual experience, I feel that it is better for us in our meditation to find an example, a role model for us.
Now, of course, our Lord Jesus is the perfect example. But probably we will say, “Well, He is God,” although He is also Man. Now, aside from our Lord Jesus, where can we find someone who has really experienced spiritual fullness to a greater degree?
I will not say to the fullest degree, because none can say that. But where can we find one who experienced spiritual fullness to such a great degree that he may help us and show us the way to spiritual fullness?
Our meditation this morning, then, will be on the way to spiritual fullness.
I think everybody who studies the Bible agrees: if we want to find a New Testament example, that is Paul.
Paul himself testifies that by revelation he knew the mystery of Christ. What he shared with us shows that he had a living knowledge of the fullness of Christ. So we would like to use him as our example, because he is human as we are.
First of all, we know that this man Paul was originally called Saul. He was named after the first king of Israel, and Saul means “asked for.”
He was a young man, very different from other young people. I would say he was a man seeking for fullness.
He was wise enough not to try to seek fullness in the world. Many young people do not seem to have that wisdom. As young people, we think we can find our fullness in the world. If we have riches, wealth, fame, position—all that the world can offer us—then our life will be full. Foolishness.
But this young man was different. He did not try to find fullness in his life from the world. He turned away from the world, even as a young man—most unusual. He tried to find fullness in religion, in Judaism.
He tried to find his fullness in the law, the Mosaic law. He was dealing with shadow, not with reality. Even though the law came from God, yet the law is only a shadow, showing us the reality.
But the young man Saul was so absorbed in the law of Moses. He was a disciple of Moses. He was such a fervent disciple that he became a Pharisee.
At no time in history were there many Pharisees; probably at the most there were two or three thousand. He was not like the other Pharisees. He was a true Pharisee, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
He studied the law diligently. He tried to keep every letter of the law. He could even boast of himself, “According to the righteousness of the law, I am blameless.” What a young man he was.
He trusted in himself. He trusted in his own work. He trusted in his own righteousness. He was more advanced than his contemporaries. He was zealous for the tradition of the fathers to such an extent that he became a persecutor, the chief persecutor of the followers of Jesus Christ.
Why? Because according to human religious estimation, our Lord Jesus was an impostor in Judaism. He should be crucified. Away with Him.
He was so zealous. He was the chief persecutor of believers in his time. All the time, he was seeking for fullness. He thought he was serving God; he thought he was doing God a great service. But he was not living. He was in darkness, blindness, nakedness, misery.
He was sincere, but deadly wrong in his sincerity.
God looks upon the heart. God loved that young man in spite of all that he did. God knew his heart. His heart longed for fullness, but he was looking in the wrong direction. He did not know it.
Dear brothers and sisters, God looks upon our hearts. He knows where our heart is and what our heart is looking for. Are we hungry and really seeking fullness? Or are we just content to be mediocre, halfway, never reaching the goal?
God blesses a seeker. If we are seeking, even if we may seek in the wrong direction, sooner or later He will reveal Himself to us.
That was the case with Saul. The Bible tells us that one day he got documents from the chief priests to go to the foreign city of Damascus, to seize those who believed in the Lord Jesus and walked in the Way, and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished, even unto death.
Thank God for His longsuffering. The cord of love is long. He will let us go as far as we can, and then He will arrest us.
Saul was on the way to Damascus. When he was nearing that city, at noontime, the heavens opened. A light from heaven shone upon him with such power that he was smitten to the ground.
Then he heard a voice in Hebrew: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
It was not an angry voice. It was a sympathetic, loving, pitying, considerate voice: “Saul, Saul, it is hard for thee to kick against the goads. If you go on like this, you will perish.”
Brothers and sisters, I believe we all know how a farmer ploughs the ground. He puts an ox or a horse under a yoke, and then he guides the yoke to till the ground. But sometimes that horse, mule, or ox can be stubborn. It has its own way. It wants to go this way or that way.
So when that animal is doing that, the farmer holds in his other hand a goad, a sharp instrument. He uses the instrument to touch the leg of that animal. Of course, he does not want to hurt it. He only wants to remind the animal, “You have a master. You are here to do my will, not your own will.”
A slight touch. But how foolish, how stubborn that animal is—it will kick back. And when it kicks back, it hurts.
Brothers and sisters, do you not know that even before the foundation of the world, God has already chosen you in Christ Jesus in love? Do you not know that even when you were in your mother’s womb, He had already separated you for Himself?
Do you not know that you are here with a purpose—not your purpose, but God’s purpose? Do you not know that you are not free to do anything you like to do? You are His, created by Him for His purpose. You have a Master, and you are here to do His will.
If you do not, He will touch you with His goad—softly, gently. But how you kick back! And you will have to be touched again and again until one day you realize it is useless; it is foolish.
Brothers and sisters, it is foolish to live for yourself. You only hurt yourself.
Our Lord said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” He was not complaining that Saul persecuted Him. He was thinking about Saul. Why? It was to Saul’s own hurt.
That light blinded his natural eyes. Thank God for that. Sometimes our natural eyes are too open, too clear. As our Lord Jesus said, if your eyes are blind, there is hope for you.
When his natural eyes were blinded, his inner eyes were opened by God. He saw. He saw the Righteous One. It pleased God to reveal His Son in him. What a revelation!
Saul had considered our Lord Jesus a man of Galilee, a carpenter, an impostor—someone to get rid of, someone who should not live on this earth. But now his inner eyes were opened, and he saw that this Man, Whom he persecuted, was none other than the Son of God.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. He was the Heir of all things, the very substance of the fullness of God, full of grace and truth: the Righteous One, the risen One, the One in glory, the Master—irresistible, all-powerful.
Brothers and sisters, he had a glimpse of the glory of the fullness of God in Christ Jesus. It was only a glimpse, but that glimpse changed his whole life.
He began to realize that all his past was wrong. He was heading in the wrong direction. He also realized that those humble believers whom he had seized and sentenced even to death were living members of the body of Christ, part of that heavenly Man.
Only a glimpse—but that glimpse finished the old man Saul and brought in the new man Paul. The apostle Paul means “little,” not “asked for,” but little—nothing.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the beginning of the spiritual life of Paul. And do you know? This is our beginning.
The way to spiritual fullness begins with revelation.
Now, the revelation of which we are speaking is not that which has already been revealed and written in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The revelation of God is completed in Christ Jesus.
In former times, God spoke to the prophets and to our forefathers in portions and in divers manners. But in the fullness of time, He spoke to us in the person of our Lord Jesus. So with the coming of the Lord Jesus, the revelation of God is complete.
Nothing can be added, and nothing can be taken away. We find that in Revelation 22. If you take away anything, the tree of life will be taken away from you. You cannot add anything to it. It is complete; it is fulfilled.
So, brothers and sisters, we are not talking about revelation in that sense. There is no more new revelation. Throughout the twentieth century, many people proclaimed that they had new revelation and led people astray. No, there is no new revelation from above. You may have revelation from below, but not from above. We need to be careful about that.
When you hear something contrary to the Word of God already given—the faith once delivered to the saints—beware.
But we are talking about revelation not in the objective sense, but in the subjective sense. That is to say, what God has already revealed and written in the Word of God is objective. It is truth—forever true, never changing, always working. No matter who you are or where you are, it works because it is truth.
But it is objective. How can these objective truths become our subjective experience?
Revelation means that the Holy Spirit gets hold of that which has already been revealed and brings it to us in such a living, personal way that it becomes an experience within us. That is revelation.
It is like the apostle Paul on the way to Damascus. He received a tremendous revelation. The heavens opened, light came from above, and in that light he not only heard the voice, but he saw the Lord Jesus. That was revelation.
That revelation is so personal, so living, so operative, that what is revealed comes from heaven into your innermost being. It is not only there; it is here, within. You can say, “I heard it. I saw it. I knew it is true.”
Brothers and sisters, that is the revelation of which we are talking. That is the beginning of our spiritual life.
Think of yourself. How did you get saved? You may have been brought up in a Christian family. You may have heard the gospel so much that you could preach it. I did. I preached the gospel before I was saved.
But God was distant to me. I prayed, but my prayers hit the ceiling and came back to me. I did not know Him. I knew very much about Him, but I did not know Him.
Not until the Spirit of God convicted me of my sins and convinced me that Jesus Christ is my Redeemer. If I confess my sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive my sins and cleanse me from all my transgressions.
In 1930, I still remember that afternoon. As I knelt before Him, He opened my understanding. I began to see that He is my Saviour. I confessed to Him. He came into my heart. He is real.
Revelation begins our spiritual life. Dear brothers and sisters, do not tell me that you do not know revelation. If you do not, you are not even saved. No one can be saved without revelation.
The natural man does not receive the things of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because spiritual things can only be discerned spiritually. To the spiritually dead, there is no way; they are completely shut out.
Until one day God, in His mercy, looks upon your heart. He knows you are seeking. He reveals not only to you what you are—your sin—but He reveals to you the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Lord.
Every step on the way to spiritual fullness begins with revelation. Remember this.
When you first really receive revelation, you only get a glimpse of the fullness of God. He calls you by His glory, but the glory you see is just a little bit.
If you obey the revelation given to you, more revelation will be given. You have a taste of the goodness of the Lord, but that taste should increase your appetite. It should make you hungry for more.
Just like that virgin in the Song of Solomon:
Kiss me with the kisses of Thy mouth;
For Thy love is better than wine.
Dear brothers and sisters, He has kissed your neck—your stiff neck—and made you soften. But do not stay there. Is not that taste so sweet? Do you not want a closer, more intimate relationship with Him? Oh, long for Him.
Do you have a longing for Him? If you do, you will be satisfied. You are on the way to fullness.
But remember: when revelation is given, it calls for obedience. If you do not obey the light, if you do not obey what is revealed, that revelation will fade away.
But if you obey, more will be given. Remember Abraham? While he was in Ur of the Chaldees, the God of glory appeared to him. When the God of glory appeared to him, all the idols were broken.
He could not stay in Ur of the Chaldees. He heard a call: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and go where I will show thee.” Abraham heard the voice. He saw the glory. He had to go.
But unfortunately, he consulted with his father, who had no vision of God. He obeyed halfway and got stuck in Haran for many years. No more revelation, no more glory, no more voice of God.
But by the grace of God, God took Terah away and gave Abraham another chance. The same voice, the same command—nothing new. Only, “Leave thy father’s house.” Abraham obeyed.
Brothers and sisters, what is the secret to spiritual fullness? On God’s side, it is revelation. On our side, it is obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Do we obey? Do we obey the light that He has given us? The apostle Paul testified, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” That is the secret.
Are we disobedient? Someone asked the question, “Why does Paul not say, ‘I was obedient to the heavenly vision’? Why does he say, ‘I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision’?”
I think it tells us that naturally we are all disobedient. In our natural life, we do not obey. We think it is funny. But thank God, Paul could say, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, He made Paul obedient. Paul testified that he did not confer with flesh and blood. Immediately he left for Arabia, and there for about three years, alone with God, he reread the Old Testament which he knew by heart—but in a new light.
Not by the dim light of the law, but by the bright light of Christ. He came back and announced that Jesus is the Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, that is what is happening. If we have a seeking heart, God will not fail to reveal His Son in us. When He reveals, learn to obey.
Another thing you can find in the life of Paul is the reason why he seemed to grow so fast into the fullness of God: he was diligent.
Even as Saul, he was a diligent person—not only diligently seeking the law, but diligently persecuting the Christians. He was not a lazy person.
I think it was D. L. Moody who said, “Even Satan does not want a lazy man. He has no use for him.”
Dear brothers and sisters, we are all naturally lazy. We may be diligent in our own things, diligent in seeking the world, but when it comes to spiritual things, we are lazy.
It takes the grace of God, the exercise of our spirit, and the working of the Holy Spirit in us to build up in us a new character—the character of Christ: diligence.
Our Lord Jesus was the most diligent person you could ever see on earth. If you read the Gospel of Mark, you will find the words “straightway” and “immediately.” How diligent He was.
If you read the Bible, there is much teaching on this Christian character of diligence. In Hebrews 4:11, we are told to give diligence to enter into His rest.
In Hebrews 11:6, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. In 2 Peter 1, we are told to add virtue to faith, and so on; then he says, “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure,” that you may enter into the kingdom of God.
In the book of Proverbs, it is full of proverbs on diligence and on laziness. Brothers and sisters, God loves a diligent person.
Do you really diligently seek Him? Do you really diligently read His Word? Do you really diligently pray to Him? Do you really diligently serve Him? That is a Christian virtue we need to cultivate.
But of course, we cannot by ourselves make ourselves diligent. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. He will remind us. Whenever He reminds us, obey.
So, brothers and sisters, what is the secret to spiritual fullness? Emptying. That is the secret.
The measure of fullness is governed by the measure of emptying. The more we empty ourselves, the more we are filled with Christ. That is a spiritual law.
Thank God, when we are saved, the Holy Spirit helps us to empty our sin by confession and repentance. As we empty our sin, redemption, forgiveness, and salvation come to us. He fills us with Himself. That is the beginning.
Every time the Holy Spirit reminds us that there is something in us that is not Christ—whether it is the world, whether it is sin, whether it is self, whether it is the flesh, whether it is from the enemy—when the Holy Spirit reminds you, learn to obey. Cooperate.
The measure of your emptying will be the measure of your fullness. That is the reason why, in our spiritual experience, you find that once you empty yourself, you feel full. But that is your measure.
Thank God, after a while you begin to feel hungry again. Why? Because He wants to fill you more. It will go on and on and on until you come to your full capacity.
But, dear brothers and sisters, our personal capacity is limited. That is why the body—the church, the body of Christ—is the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all. We need the body.
We need to have our inner man strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, that Christ may dwell in our hearts, reign in our hearts, that we may apprehend with all the saints the length, the breadth, the depth, and the height of the love of God, and be filled with all the fullness of God. We need one another.
Is that not too wonderful, too glorious? How can it be? Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit, saith the Lord.
In Ephesians 3, we are told that it is by His power that worketh in us above all that we can ask or think, that we may be unto the glory of God.
Brothers and sisters, spiritual fullness is not for your glory or for my glory. It is for His glory.
Dear Lord, by Thy Spirit lead us into the truth of spiritual fullness, that Thou mayest be glorified in the church in Christ Jesus. Amen.