COMPLETION

E. Palmer

John 17: 1–5; Philippians 1: 3–6; 2 Timothy 4: 6–8

God has very great pleasure in things that are complete. When God begins to do something He never leaves it unfinished. Very often we do, but God never does. If God, so to speak, reaches out to do something, He pursues it and continues it with a patience that is all His own until finally what He set out to do is done. He spoke in regard of creation “and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”, Psalm 33: 9. There is eloquent testimony as to the perfection of what God did in the minute and accurate manner in which things in the creation work, so much so that men must of necessity make their calculations in regard to calculations that God has already made.

So I want to speak of things that God finds great pleasure in that are complete, and, in speaking about them, I would like the impact of the truth to find an answer in all our hearts. I speak first of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was never ever any need that anything should be completed in Him; there was perfection in detail in relation to the position that He took in manhood, but there were things that He put His hand to that were completed by Him. In us there are things that need to be completed, but it was never so with Jesus. We need to hold the truth as to His Person inviolate, to let no thought or suggestion in any sense detract from the perfection of His Person, because that perfection gives character to everything that He put His hand to do. Let us remember that.

In John 17, in speaking to His Father, it is clear that a certain great work was committed into the hands of Jesus. Primarily that work was in relation to the will of God, that God might be glorified, that God might be honoured, that there might be something secured for God in people like you and me that would glorify Him and honour Him. Jesus, so to speak, unreservedly committed Himself to this work that He undertook to do as Man for God. What pleasure God had in Him! What a wonderful study John’s gospel is in relation to those links of perfect affection between the Father and the Son, so that the Son always glorifies the Father and relates everything to the Father; moves with the prerogative that is His because of who He is, but moves as Man in relation to the Father. What glory that is!

So in John 17 we have this profound and blessed insight into what those relationships were and what kind of communications went on in those relationships. Why should God allow us, so to speak, to listen to what Jesus said to Him? Why should the Father be pleased to let us into the secret of love’s conversations? I believe it is to give us an understanding of how Jesus was here in the glory of manhood. In Luke’s gospel it is the dependence of manhood; I believe the glory of manhood is in John’s gospel. And so it says. He “lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee”.

When He said that He was on the threshold of Calvary, already committed to that mighty work that would for ever resolve for God everything that stood athwart His pleasure and His purpose and His desires for man in relation to Himself.

And so Jesus says, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. He had not yet been crucified, and it required the crucifixion, His death, to complete that work, but He says this in anticipation of that; He looks on, so to speak, as having committed Himself fully and irrevocably—He could not draw back and He would not draw back (impossible that He should) from completing the work that was given Him to do.

How vast is the extent of it! How detailed that which was involved! Redemption’s work was involved in it; the fulfilment of God’s will in regard of what He purposed; then too the setting aside of an order of things that could never ever yield pleasure to God and the bringing in in Christ of another order of things in which God would be honoured now and for ever.

I love the thought that God is honoured now in virtue of what Christ has done. Of course, it does raise the question as to whether I am in it; whether I take advantage of what Christ has done. You say, How may I take advantage? Put implicit confidence in Him. Throw everything else aside, and put implicit confidence in Him, and once you open your heart to Christ with implicit confidence what you get is all that He is, and all that He has done. Do you believe that? Thank God if you do! Then I say, Give place to Him in your soul. Without the shadow of a doubt it will alter every facet of your life. It will! What you do will in measure be like what Jesus did. What did He do? He considered for God with utter disregard to self. You say, That tests me. It tests me too; I confess that. We are measured in relation to God’s standard and I think something like that happens as we speak together about these wonderful, holy realities. Jesus considered for God with utter disregard for Himself. What a standard, is it not?

The Spirit of God would help us as He points out the satisfaction that God has in what is complete. “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it; and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”. That verse carries something of the inscrutable glory of the Person of Christ, who He is. It is wonderful to think of the glory that He had along with the Father before the world was—that would be the glory of the Deity and He speaks about that in the hearing of people who could pass it on to you and me. Glorified He is indeed! The glory of Jesus is the witness to the complete satisfaction that God has in the work that was given Him to do. Let us keep that in our hearts; let us hold that in our minds, that Jesus is not on the cross, that He is glorified, and the glory of Christ is the witness of God’s satisfaction in the work that He has done. You say, ‘I believe in Him’. Then the value of that work is yours. You say, ‘I put my confidence in Him’. Then all that He is is yours.

‘Oh’, you say, ‘God delights in him’. Yes, and He delights in every person whom He places

“in Christ Jesus”. You may say, ‘But I do not feel ...’. It is not a question of feeling; it is a question of believing. Do you believe? These are the wonderful facts of God’s glad tidings, and the facts are presented that we might believe. The Holy Spirit is given to confirm us in our consciousness that what we believe is indeed a reality.

The apostle Paul, in writing to these Philippians thanked God for them, and what he recognised was this, that God had begun in them a good work, and what was more. Paul, who had a peculiar link with these believers in Philippi, had confidence that what God had begun He would complete. Now we have that confidence too. I would like to inspire confidence in every person here. I would like to inspire confidence in every company of saints who gather in the light of the assembly, who seek to walk in that light, that He who has begun is He who will complete.

It would be unreasonable, would it not, to think otherwise? And where is the work done? It is done in the souls of persons. It is not done by organising; it is not done by agreement; it is not done even because certain great items of the truth are subscribed to by people and they say, ‘I believe this and you believe that too, therefore we can be together’. It is not done like that. It is done in the souls of people, and God operates by His Spirit, and His Spirit delights to magnify Christ.

“He who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”; that is why I say the Spirit delights to glorify Christ. Where does He do it? Where does He make much of Christ? In your heart and in mine. Something happens in people when they give Christ the full place in their hearts. It is not outward glory, that is going to be seen in Jesus Christ’s day.

Yet people do see something now. In John 9 the neighbours saw that the man who had his eyes opened was different. But there is coming a day, and it is cherished in the hearts of those who believe in Jesus and who have had their sins forgiven because He died and bore the judgment for them, when the One who was despised—and is still despised and rejected of men—is going to be honoured and glorified in the presence of men. Do you rejoice in that? I find a thrill goes through my soul every time I think about it. There is a verse which says—

this—

‘Thee, my Master and my Friend,

Vindicated and enthroned,

Unto earth’s remotest end

Glorified, adored and owned’.

Does that not thrill you?—that God is working, operating powerfully, in people, right inside their beings, helping them to appreciate the One in whom

His pleasure is centred, who completed the work that He gave Him to do. God is working by His Spirit in persons at the present time, and what is so establishing and assuring is that He who has begun a good work in you—not by you—will complete it. You know, there are people who think that christianity is doing good to other people. Of course, that comes into it, but it is not the real test of christianity. The real test of christianity is what God is doing in people. So it says, “He who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”.

Then, I say, He is working at the present time. Not only did He work in Philippi, He is working now He is working in Chelmsford. Name the place where there are persons who seek to walk in the light of the assembly—God is working that there may be an expression of what is of the assembly there. Moreover we can be sure that in whomsoever He works, or wherever He works. He is working to completion in relation to what He has in mind to do.

There is a scripture in the Old Testament which says that when they bring forth the headstone of the house they bring it forth with shoutings; “Grace, grace unto it!”, Zechariah 4: 7. That is the top-stone. They had come up from the foundations, right through the edifice, and the headstone was put on it. Who is that? It is Christ. And who is the foundation? It is Christ. The completion is the same as the foundation. So God is working to the top-stone, to the completion, and it is in view of that wonderful day of display.

The apostle Paul was committed to God’s work and he laboured more than all. He was picked up by a divine intervention, he was commissioned, and he fulfilled what was given him to do with a zeal that was commensurate with his appreciation of the grace

that had intervened on his behalf. He speaks of himself as the chief of sinners and if he is chief, everyone else is behind, so there is hope for everyone. “Less than the least of all saints”

(Ephesians 3: 8), that is how he speaks of himself; but he committed himself to that great service for God, and he committed himself to complete what had been given him to do. God finds pleasure in that. You say, ‘Oh, he was special’. He was special; but this scripture is most encouraging because I believe that it would help us to see that where there is in any sense committal in relation to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. God finds pleasure in that being pursued and worked out to an end.

So the apostle says, “For I am already being poured out”; he was going to die, but not like any other man. He was going to die in relation to the God whom he had served. He was being

“poured out as a libation” (Philippians 2: 17)—that is, a drink offering. Paul says, “The time of my release is come”. He also says how much better it is to depart and be with Christ (Philippians 1: 23). He did not have an easy time in fulfilling what was given him to do, but he says, “I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race”. He kept going, and he kept going until the course was complete. He did not drop out half-way. You see that very often in a cross-country race some drop out; others keep going steadily until they complete the course. That is the idea. These simple illustrations are of great spiritual value. “I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”. How did he do it?

He kept his eye on the Lord in glory and relied upon the Spirit. How shall we do it? In the same way. It is very simple; it is very real. You see, christianity is not a theory; it is a thing to be worked out in the lives of people who have proved the blessedness of what it is to be in touch with God in the working out of matters.

So Paul says, “Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to me in that day; but not only to me, but also to all who love his appearing”. Not ‘a’ crown, but ‘the crown’. The crown that Paul gets in character is the same crown as that rendered to others. Who are those who love His appearing? They are those who recognise that the place that belongs to Christ is the place of absolute supremacy. How do they manifest it? They give Him that place now in their own hearts. You could not say that you loved His appearing, could you, and then go and do your own will? How could you say that? You would not be true. You would not be a man or woman marked by reality. Those who love His appearing are those who recognise that He is to have the supreme place, and give it to Him now. The apostle went on that line and he completed his course in a way that glorified God. Well, I should like to be on that line, would not you? I would like to be engaged with the Man who finished the work that God gave Him to do, that glorious Man. I would like to be among those in whom God is working, working to completion, that He might have that for Himself that satisfies Him. What is that? A real expression of what the assembly is in the places where God has set us. You say, ‘Is it possible?’. You walk in that light and something will come into expression that characteristically is of the assembly. God has His delight in that.

I commend those few thoughts to us; they are fragmentary, but I desire that every person in this hall might be concerned to know the Lord Jesus, to honour Him, to be governed by Him, to put themselves in the way of blessing and go on to completion. Is there anybody here who feels they would like to give up? I hope not! Do not give up! Go on! You will find that the Spirit of God Himself will help you because God delights in completion. May God bless his word.

Address at Chelmsford
24 September 1977