Well may God bless that reading
from his word. And now once again, may the Lord
help us as we continue with our meditation in the Epistle of
Paul to the Colossians, and the second chapter, and this evening
we'll read three verses, verses 10, 11, and 12. So the Epistle
of Paul to the Colossians, chapter two, and reading verses 10, 11,
and 12. and ye are complete in him which
is the head of all principality and power in whom also ye are
circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ buried with him in baptism wherein also Ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
him from the dead. Well, there are some wonderful
words recorded in the Word of God. Words for our encouragement
and the strengthening of our faith. And as we meditated on
last week, The ninth verse tells us, for in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. That means in Christ there is
everything necessary, everything needful, everything to be adored. And what a great and wonderful
blessing that is. And so then, the apostle comes
now and directs us individually as it were and he says, and ye
are complete in him which is the head of all principality
and power and that again is a very wonderful statement to think
that we are not lacking anything in a spiritual sense we have
two natures We have our old nature, that nature with which we were
born, and if we are the children of God, we have the new nature,
that blessed nature which we received when we were born again
of His Spirit. And so we have this statement
which is so wonderfully true, and ye are complete in Him. That means we don't lack anything
in a spiritual sense. That means we are forgiven. That means we are sanctified. That means we have been made
spiritually alive. Indeed there is nothing that
is lacking and we can think perhaps of the sixth chapter in the first
epistle of Paul to the Corinthians where the Apostle spoke about
all the wrong things which are in our lives which start from
verse 9 really and then he comes down to verse 11 and tells us
and such were some of you none of us can say we were any better
none of us can say we were without sin but he comes to say this
And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit
of our God. That means surely we are complete
in Him. It's a wonderful truth, it's
a wonderful statement, and what a blessing it is if you and I
in our little lives can trace out God's goodness and mercy
and favor toward us in revealing to ourselves what we are by nature,
sinners not deserving any favor and then to realize the Lord
has looked upon us, the Lord has remembered us, the Lord has
enabled us to come and to confess all our sins and repent of our
sins, and to seek the wonderful blessing that the Apostle speaks
of here, being washed, washed indeed in the blood of the Lamb. So thankful we should be for
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, not only washed, but sanctified,
made holy, and not only made holy, but also adjust. in the name of our Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. What a wonderful, what a wonderful
consideration that is. And it comes when by the Spirit
of God we've passed from darkness to light, from death to life. What a mercy. Can we not thank
and praise our God from whom all blessings flow and to truly
come tonight and rejoice in this wonderful truth, ye are complete
in him. There is nothing lacking because
the Lord has done everything for us, everything that we need. Indeed he's given his life that
we might receive that great and glorious gift of eternal life. What a mercy it is and what a
blessing it is. And so And ye are complete in
him which is the head of all principality and power. And he goes on to say in whom
also ye are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. Now naturally circumcision of
course was made with hands. But this circumcision is made
without hands. And as we pondered out, we should
realize that it is that circumcision which is the foreskin of our
hearts. Or in other words, mortifies
all the lusts of the flesh, not with the hand, but by His Spirit. You see, we move into a spiritual
situation. The Old Testament was one of
works and one which was physical. for the most part. But we see
here the glorious work of the Holy Spirit in directing us to
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful
blessing that is. And as the Apostle goes on to
say, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ. United to Christ, we have his
glorious example set before us and we know therefore that was
as we read in the Hebrews there was that first covenant and if
that had been faultless then should no place have been sought
for the second but of course the first covenant could never
be kept perfectly every effort was made but sin was mixed with
all we do and all the old testament people all those who were saved
still could not make themselves pure in and of themselves. And
then in the 10th of Hebrews, in the first verse we read, for
the law, having a shadow of good things to come. A shadow, as
you probably know, if the sun shines on something, a tree perhaps,
and it shows a shadow on the ground, what do you see? You
see the outline, but you don't see the detail. and the Apostle
tells us then in this first verse of the 10th chapter for the law
having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image
of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect
no, it was right to do those ceremonies but there was no perfection
But today we see perfection in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And what a great blessing that
is. And so we're told, putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. And then he says, buried
with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from
the dead. Well, we see then the picture
that the Apostle draws our attention to, which as we read together
in that sixth chapter to the Romans, where again the Apostle
speaks of this situation. And he tells us, verse three,
know ye not that so many of us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ,
were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. So, what do we see? We see a
very wonderful and a very deep significance in the picture that
we have before us. And what it means is, as we are
baptized, as we go down into the water and are buried or taken
beneath the water, it simply signifies that Christ died and
Christ was buried and we therefore being baptized follow this example
that we have Jesus himself of course was baptized signifying
his death and so we see the the death of the Savior who was indeed
baptized and took with him all our sins we today are privileged
to take up our cross and to follow the blessed example of the Lord
Jesus Christ as we do this in remembrance of me and so buried
with him in baptism but Christ of course was buried in the sepulcher
he didn't remain there he didn't remain there what happened he
rose triumphant from the dead on that third day and my friends
this baptism that we observe, we see going down into the water,
under the water, but not staying there, and being raised again,
coming up out of the water, signifying this great and glorious resurrection. Yes, to be then united with Christ,
wherein also ye are risen with him, with him. It's a wonderful
blessing and a wonderful privilege to be a true follower of our
Lord Jesus Christ, to be united with him in death, to be united
with him in rising from the dead through the faith of the operation
of God who has raised him from the dead. And what a blessing
when God gives us faith to believe the glorious truth which is set
before us in these words. Well, the apostle was convinced
of it. And what a blessing it is when
you and I are also convinced of it, because it sets before
us very wonderful, very precious, and various glorious truths to
be found united with the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore,
in the Old Testament, as you know, there were very many complicated,
ceremonies that had to be carried out so very accurately and very
carefully. But in the New Testament there
are only two. One is Believer's Baptism and
the other it leads on to, which is the Lord's Supper. And so
we should be thankful today that we are able to fulfil those requirements
and confess what the Lord has done indeed As we mentioned on
Lord's Day, come in here, all you that fear God, and I will
declare what he has done for my soul and in saving us from
that death without Christ and bringing us into the New Testament
covenant. What a blessing. Well, tonight,
may we really rejoice in these words. It's wonderful the Lord
wrote them to the Colossians, and they needed them. The Church
of God has needed them, and we need them tonight to realize
that by His grace, unworthy sinners are complete in Him, which is
the head of all principality and power. What a mercy if He's
our head. If He is our Head and we are
so thankful for it, and we desire to bow before Him and worship
Him as the King of kings and Lord of lords, in whom also ye
are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith, God-given faith, of the operation of God,
who hath raised him from the dead. Well, may God bless his
word to us.