Colossians chapter 2. We'll continue
our journey. Like I say often, I say it every
week, but it's been such a joy going through this book. And
tonight we'll be in verse 13, but I want to read the context
of it, so let's read Colossians 8 to 15. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and
power. in whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of
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. And you, being the Colossian
believers, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven
you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to His cross. And heaven spoiled principalities
and powers. He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it. Now last week we looked at verses
11 and 12. We took two verses last week.
We saw how the circumcision made without hands was the new birth. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. And as a result of this new birth,
we then flee to Christ. See, we'd never flee to Christ
if we didn't have the circumcision made without hands. We'd never
ever flee to Him. So the Holy Spirit regenerates
the believer, and then Christ becomes the sole object of worship
for the believer. He becomes the sole object of
worship. He becomes the sole object of the believer's hope.
Christ and Him alone. We don't have hope in anything
else or anyone else. And the circumcision of the Jew
and the baptism of the Gentile both looked to Christ. They both
looked to Him. And they both centered in Him.
They both centered in Him. And in Christ, they both had
their accomplishment too. All but Christ is a shadow. All
but Christ is a shadow. He alone is the substance. He alone is the substance. All
those sacrifices in the Old Testament were just shadows pointing to
the substance, pointing to Christ. I told you all how one day I
was walking and I saw my own shadow. You all have that too. You're walking and you see your
shadow. But it's not the substance, is it? This is the substance.
So those were just shadows pointing to Christ. Shadows pointing to
Him. All those Old Testament sacrifices
and ceremonies. So tonight though we'll look
at verse 13. Let's look at verse 13 here. And you, now he's speaking
to the Colossian believers. And he's speaking to the ones
who he said in verse 11 and 12, "...and whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, and put 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." Notice, it's all about Christ. It's all about Christ
in him. in Him, with Him. And you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, Quicken together
again with Him. Heaven forgiving you all trespasses. What a marvelous, marvelous portion
of Scripture we have before us. And it just continues. The next
two weeks after this is just going to be just rich. It's just
wonderful. Good news for sinners. Good news
for sinners. Now here before us in our text,
once again, Paul brings forth before the Colossian believers,
and remember, they're battling different errors. They're battling
different errors, right? The Gnostics are saying they
have a secret knowledge that only they can impart. And then
you've got the Judaizers, and they're saying you've got to
be circumcised, and you've got to keep all these traditions, and you've
got to do all these different things. So there's a three or
four-pronged attack coming at those Colossian believers. And
Paul is heading... I was talking to young Jacob
about this this week. Paul is heading off all those
attacks. with Christ, the all-sufficient
Savior. And he's heading them off with
the supremacy of Christ. And we're going to see that continue
all through this epistle. And if you keep that in mind
as you're reading the various epistles that Paul's written,
you will see that's a thread in his writings. He continuously,
like that, if you read 1 Corinthians, And if you read the first chapter
and take note of how many times Paul writes Christ, and his brother
Norm Wells says it's like he's taking a musical tuning fork
before he even gets into the issues that are facing the Corinthian
church, and he's going, ting, he's getting their minds set
upon Christ. And then he's going to correct
them. See, and he's even done that
in our study here. The whole first chapter. Pretty
much he just exalted Christ and the supremacy of Christ and the
all-sufficiency of Christ. So here again, this is what Paul
does. He brings before the Colossian believers the error which the
false teachers are promoting when they say you must be circumcised
to do any legal rites or ceremonies or traditions, that you must
keep these or do these things to be saved. or that you might
have a secret knowledge that only they can impart. He brings
before them the supremacy of Christ. Even here. And you, being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Him. That's Christ. That's Christ.
Heaven forgiven you all trespasses. All trespasses. And all these
errors by the false teachers, And all the errors of the false
teachers of today, they all add to the finished work of Christ.
All of them. They all add man's merit. All
of them. All of them. There's nothing
new. And think of this. The enemy uses the same tactics
nowadays that he's used thousands of years ago. And his false teachers
used the same tactics. Why? Why do we know this? Because
Solomon says there's nothing new under the sun. And the same
things that trip us up thousands of years ago is the same thing
that trip us up nowadays. There's nothing new under the
sun. We just keep looking to Christ and see Him as our all-sufficient,
All-sufficient Savior. So He's been hitting the nail
all through this epistle. Salvation is in Christ and Him
alone. Salvation is in Christ and Him
alone. He is supreme. He is all-sufficient. And remember
this, in Christ not only do we have sanctification, regeneration,
and redemption, But look at this, heaven forgiving
you all trespasses. We have perfect justification
for all our sins. Perfect justification for all
of our sins. And beloved, it's all by the
free grace of God. And it's all in Christ. We have
perfect sanctification, perfect redemption, perfect regeneration,
perfect justification, all in Christ. All in Him, beloved. All in Him. So let's see tonight,
let's look at this verse and see how the Holy Spirit brings
out these marvelous truths before us. Paul brings before us this,
our natural condition which we are born in. and you being dead
in your sins in the uncircumcision of your flesh." So the natural
state, our natural condition. Number two, He brings before
us our Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. Hath He
quickened together with Him? So He brings forth, secondly,
our Deliverer. And third, He brings forth the result of this
deliverance. The result of the deliverance
in Christ. Heaven forgiven you all trespasses.
Heaven forgiven you all trespasses. Now, we got to look at the bad
news before we look at the good. Look at this, our natural condition
in which we were born. and you being dead in your sins
in the uncircumcision of your flesh." Now remember, a few verses
up, he talked about the circumcision made without hands, right? The
new birth. The new birth. Look at verse
11. "...whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, and put off the body of
the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." So this
uncircumcision of your flesh is talking about our natural
condition. Our natural condition when we come into this world.
we are dead in trespasses and sins. So Paul brings forth before
the Colossian believers their natural state. And this is not
just the natural state of all the Colossian believers, beloved.
This is the natural state of every single human being who
comes into this world. There is only one man who is
perfect. And that's our deliverer, who
we're going to look at later, the God-man, Lord Jesus Christ. So he brings before them their
natural state before God. Before they are saved by the
grace of God in Christ, this is the state again of all who
are born into this world, dead in your sins, in the uncircumcision
of your flesh. Dead in the Greek is defined
as this. I looked up the Greek and it says this, one who has
breathed his last, one who has breathed his last, lifeless,
lifeless, destitute of life, without life, inanimate, inanimate. And then it says metaphorically,
the underlying Greek they put in the metaphoric definition
is spiritually dead. destitute of a life that recognizes
and is devoted to God, because it has given up to trespasses
and sins, and then inactive as respects doing right. And then I thought this was interesting.
Think of this. People say that man in their
natural state can make a decision for God, right? People say that,
though. They do. The Greek just destroys all this.
It absolutely destroys it because it says this, destitute of force
or power, inactive, inoperative. So think of this, how can one
who is a dead lifeless corpse make a decision? We can't, can we? How can one
who's dead and lifeless, we were talking about that, how can one
who's dead and lifeless even walk an aisle? Now I want us to think on something. How can one who's dead and lifeless
willingly come to Christ, what comes first, faith or regeneration? The circumcision made without
hands, regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, and then the one
who is destitute of life is given life, and they flee to Christ. It's all of God. Salvation's
of the Lord. It's all His doing. All His doing. So we see that
the Greek is a death blow to free willism or any kind of works-based
salvation. Romans 6.16 says this, Know ye
not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
are ye to whom ye obey? Romans 6.16. Whether of sin unto
death or of obedience unto righteousness. So whoever we yield to, those
are who we are. Now whether of sin unto death,
that's our natural state, right? That's our natural state. Lifeless.
Or of obedience unto righteousness, that's in Christ. So the uncircumcision
of your flesh is that sinful, dead, carnal nature of which
uncircumcision was the sign and of which the source was our trespasses
and sin. Let us remember that. We who believe that ye, being
in times past, Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision of the flesh made by hands, that
we came into this world. We did. We came into this world
just like everyone else, right? Spiritually dead, alienated,
and enemies in our minds by wicked works. Dead in trespasses and
sins. Uncircumcised in our flesh. Without
Christ. Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. Strangers from the covenants of promise. We had
no clue. We didn't know we were heirs. But God knew. Strangers from the Covenants
of Prophets having no hope. I didn't have any hope before
the Lord saved me. I had no hope at all. And without God in the world.
So we come into this world in that hopeless, helpless state. That's how we come into this
world. And we have no care for God. We have no care for His
ways in that state. We have no knowledge of God in
that state. We're not received the things of God, because the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness. Neither can he know them, because
why? Because they're spiritually discerned. Do you know that... turn with
me if you would to Galatians chapter 5. Look at this. One
of the fruits of the flesh, do you know, is heresies? One of
the fruits of the flesh is heresies. I found this out today reading
a commentary. I think it was Brother Henry
I read this in. Look at this. Do you know that
natural man Natural man or the flesh will receive anything else
but the truth. They will receive error and heresy
as the understanding lies dead and is depraved of any spiritual
light. Look at this in Galatians 5.20.
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies. Heresies. That's a fruit of the
flesh. A fruit of the flesh. Natural man. will go after anything
but Christ. Anything but Christ. They will
walk on coals, right? We've seen stuff like that on
TV. They'll walk on coals of fire to try to somehow make themselves
better. Martin Luther said when he was
a monk, they used to whip themselves, and he would get whipped more
than most of them. But they all thought they were
gaining merit and favor Looking everywhere in themselves, but
never looking to Christ. But never looking to Christ.
Now natural man, think of this. I'll read a portion in Genesis
chapter 6 here, tied in with this comment. Natural man has
a hunger and thirst for unlawful things. Natural man has a hunger
and thirst. Think about how we were before
the Lord saved us. I didn't care about the things
of God. I just cared about whatever could make me happy. Natural man has a hunger and
thirst for unlawful things. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was greater than the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. That's
our natural state, beloved. That's how we are. Romans chapter
3 brings forth the natural state of a man quite clearly. It says,
there is none righteous. None righteous. No, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none. No one seeks God. No one says,
I want to serve God in their natural state. We do
afterwards, when the Lord regenerates and saves us. He's all we want
to hear about. But in our natural state, there's
not one of us who seek after God. I had a talk with a guy
today, or not today, this last week, and I just plainly told
him. I said, well, you believe your
decision saved you. He's plainly cold on that, because
that's what he believes. He believes he's saved by his
decision. Well, he didn't like that very
much, but it's the truth, isn't it? If someone sits there and
tells you that they believe that they had to make a decision to
be saved, then they're their own god. My god. I was dead in sins, in the uncircumcision
of my flesh, and he quickened me together with Christ. Heaven
forgiven me all my trespasses. Is it so with you too, you who
believe? Oh my. Oh my. So Romans chapter 3 brings it
real clear. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that understandeth. No one knows the things of God. As I said, everything that I
know as a believer, everything you know as a believer, we've
been taught. We can't boast in any of it. We've been taught
by the Holy Spirit of God the things of Christ. He's revealed
them. Scripture goes on to say of natural
man, they're all gone out of the way. They all together become
unprofitable. There's none that do it good.
No, not one. This is the Scripture that declares
this. Now, this is the hopeless, helpless
state that we are in. The Scripture declares that we
come into this world again dead in your sins, in the uncircumcision
of your flesh. And this is the state before
the Lord saves us. But praise be to God. It doesn't
end there for the believer. It doesn't end there for the
believer. For he who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has had revealed to him, the
great Deliverer, the great Deliverer. God raised Christ from the dead,
and God must raise us from the dead, beloved. God raised Christ from the dead,
and God must raise us from the dead. Because you remember what
we looked at in the Greek? Lifeless. We must be raised from
the dead. We can't raise ourselves. We
must be raised. God must raise us. And our text
proclaims, look at this, and you being dead in your sins,
dead, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Him. So our next point is, look at
this, our next point is, our Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in the Scripture we're looking at, hath he quickened together with
him, hath he quickened together with him. God the Father who
raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead hath also quickened
us with spiritual life. We're made alive. We were dead.
We were lifeless, the Greek says. But he's made us alive. We're
alive in who? We're alive in Christ's blood.
He's our deliverer. He's our deliverer. He's the
one who is God incarnate in the flesh. He's the perfect man. You see the contrast again that
Paul's putting before them? Again, this is only in Christ. It's not in any of these false
teachers proclaiming and popping off about different things. It's
not in them at all. It's only in Christ. It's only
in Christ. I said that first was the bad
news, now we're getting the good news here. This is wonderful
for the believer. This is wonderful. This is wonderful news for sinners.
This is wonderful news for sinners. Now, think of this. The work
of quickening the dead spiritually. The work of quickening the dead
spiritually, the work of making us alive, the work of bringing
us from death to life is the work of God Almighty. It's the
work of God Almighty. And it is a working. It's a working
of His almighty power in us. It's a working of his almighty
power. And only God, think of this, only God can give life
to the dead. Only God can give life to the
dead. Beloved of God, listen to this,
we are his workmanship. We are his workmanship, scripture
declares. Created in Christ Jesus, quicken. You'll find this in Ephesians
too, quicken. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. The dead are made alive. We're
His workmanship. His almighty power, the regenerating
power of the Holy Spirit has made us born again. And the word quickened here is
only used in one other place. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians
2. It's only used in two places in the whole New Testament. The same Greek word is only used
in two places. It's used here. And you, being
dead in your sins, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. The word
quickened here is only used in Ephesians 2.5 and here. And look
at Ephesians 2.5, even when we were dead in sins, and that's
the same Greek word that's used for dead in our text. So lifeless,
even when you were lifeless, had no power, even when you were
dead and lifeless, Hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. Oh my. Now do you know what the
Greek word for quickened means this? And think of, remember
what the Greek word for dead meant. Lifeless, right? Absolutely
lifeless. The Greek word for quickened
is to make one alive together. to make one alive together. And
it says, of Christians with Christ. Vincent finds it as this, endowed
with a new spiritual life. That's God's work and power,
or his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. It's his power. It's all his doing. Salvation
is of the Lord, beloved. It's all his work. All his work. Look at verse 12, back up in
our text. Look at this, "...buried with
Him in baptism, wherein you are also risen with Him through the
faith of the operation of God." See, it's His operation. It's
His doing. See, Paul's contrasting to these
false teachers, and he's bringing before the Colossian believers
the almighty power of God. That salvation is of the Lord.
It's in and through the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. It's
nowhere else. It's not in following certain
rites and traditions and being circumcised and all this stuff.
No, it's only in Christ. And we see that in our text.
We're quickened in Him. In Christ. In Him alone. Oh my. Remember also the Scriptures
declare this. I'm crucified with Christ. I'm
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. And we're also risen with Him
through the faith and the operation of God, who has raised Him from
the dead. It's all God's power. Turn, if
you would, to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And we know from what we looked
at earlier, right, that we are strangers from the life of God,
aren't we? In our natural state. We're strangers. We're dead.
by our natural birth, and by our fallen Adam. We were in the
state mentioned here in Ephesians 18-19, but let's look at 17-19
here. Now this is our natural state
again. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye
henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity
of their mind. Having their understanding darkened,
that's where we were, being alienated from the life of God through
the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their
heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over into
lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. So we know from
our text, now keep your finger right there because we're going
to still be there. We know from our text that we're dead. We're
dead. And we know that that was us.
Those verses describe us pre-grace. But the believers being quickened
by God, regenerated, born again by the almighty power of God,
born again by the Holy Spirit, by His work. And we look to Jesus
Christ, who is our Savior, who is our Redeemer, who is our God. And we have all this revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit. He teaches us through the preaching
of the Word, through reading the Word. He teaches us. And He teaches us the things
of Christ in Him alone. And look at verses 20-24 in Ephesians
4 here. But ye have not so learned Christ, If so be that ye have heard Him,
and have been taught by Him, we know that in John 6, all God's
people are taught of God, and have been taught by Him as the
truth is in Jesus. That ye put off concerning the
former conversations, the old man which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. And back to our text again in
Colossians, and with what we just read, keep this in mind
with what we just read, and look at what it says. Hath he quickened
together with him? We're created, we're new creatures
in Christ, beloved. We're new creatures in Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our great Deliverer. We're risen in Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him? Think of what we looked at earlier. The hopeless, helpless
state that we were in, right? We were in that state. God has
quickened us together with Christ. When God sends the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts, the Holy Spirit, we are quickened,
beloved. We are quickened together with
Him. We're united to Christ. And we
have a living union with Him. Romans 8.11 says this, But if
the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. The Holy
Spirit dwells within us. Oh, and it's because of our union
with Christ that we will be raised from the dead. It's because we
were given to Christ by God the Father in eternity that we will
be quickened. If we die here, we'll go to be
with Christ and our body will go in the ground, but then it'll
be risen. It'll be risen. But oh my. And it's all because of our union
with Christ. When we savingly believe in Christ, that union becomes a reality
for us. And we were already in Christ
from before the foundation of the world, right? Because remember,
we looked at Sunday too, the federal headship. When Adam fell,
we fell on Adam. But in Christ we're made alive.
I'm crucified with Christ. We were in Him. We were in Him. Oh, He's the second Adam. My goodness. And all that Christ
did, all that He suffered is our head, whether in life or
in death, or burial or resurrection or exaltation, is imputed to
us by God, even to the right to all these benefits given to
us, as if we'd been personally present with Him. At those times when He had done
them, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I'll live. Remember,
He's raised for what? Our justification. Oh, my beloved. We walk in close communion with
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Lord and our Savior.
And we delight in Him. We delight in Him. And we walk
with Him. And talk with Him. And He's become
our life, hasn't He? He's become everything. There
was a time when He wasn't everything to us. Oh, that He's revealed Himself
to us. He's everything. And think of this too, the conversion
of the believer being quickened together with Him is a great
act of God. It's a great act of God. It's
an act of His incomparable power. No power can compare to His power.
None. And it's a creative act of God.
The Colossian believers are born again. And then look at this
marvelous point here. Look at the result of this deliverance. Forgiven all their trespasses.
Heaven forgiven you. The result of this deliverance. Heaven forgiven you. A-L-L. all trespasses. I must confess
that I was looking very forward to get into this portion of this
book. I absolutely love these next three verses. This verse
tonight and the next two after. They are so dear to me. Heaven
forgiving you all trespasses. Here Paul explains the result
of this great deliverance of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul speaks of the great mercy
that God has in forgiving his covenant people, in forgiving
his elect, the ones that he gave to Christ. before the foundation
of the world. And think of that, you who are
saved. You were given to Christ. And I know we say this all the
time, but just ponder this. You who believe were given to
Christ before the foundation of the world, before the stars
ever hung in the sky, before all the universes that we see
were ever spoken into existence. You are given to Christ in a
covenant of love. My. And He shed His blood for those
people. For we sinners who were given
to Him before the foundation of the world, in the result of
shedding His blood, in the result of Christ's death upon the cross,
heaven forgiven you all trespasses. And you being dead in your sins,
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together
with Him, heaven forgiven you all trespasses. Turn again to
Romans 6. I know we looked at there earlier.
We were there. But turn to Romans 6 just quick. Romans 6. And let's read from
14. Look at this. For sin shall not
have dominion over you, For ye are not under the law, but under
grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not to whom
ye yield yourselves servants to obey? His servants ye are,
to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness. Look at this. And keep in mind,
having forgiven you all trespasses in her text. But God be thanked
that ye were the servants of sin. Dead. Remember? We were dead. That ye were the
servants of sin. But ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you. You heard. You
heard the shepherd's voice. Look at this, beloved. Being
then made free from sin. Free from sin? That's what Scripture
declares. Now we still have the presence
of sin, don't we? But in Christ, the guilt of sin
is gone. The power of sin is gone. The
payment that sin demands is paid for. Being then made free from
sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. So the one who
was so hopelessly lost in our text, with no way to save themselves,
is quickened by the Holy Spirit of God, quickened together with
Christ, and have all their sins forgiven. All. And forgiveness of sin is not
done piecemeal, but it's done all at once in the sacrifice
of Christ. And remember this, it includes
all sin, past, present, and future. Heaven forgiven you, all trespasses. But if we walk in the light as
He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. All sin. All sin. All sin. Wonderful news for sinners. Wonderful
news for this old sinner. Oh, my goodness. All my sins
forgiven. Not just some of our sins. Not
just the sins we committed before we were given faith to believe.
But all our sins, beloved, past, present, and future were laid
upon Christ. We're imputed to Him. And God
the Father has forgiven all our trespasses for Christ's sake.
For Christ's sake. The Lord Jesus Christ shed His
blood to purchase the forgiveness of all His people. And He did
it on Calvary's cross. And it is finished. It's finished
by the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. And He did it all. Heaven forgiven, you all trespasses
below. What are some of the characteristics
of this forgiveness spoken in our text? It says here, "...and
you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your
flesh hath He quickened together, having forgiven you all trespasses."
What are some characteristics of this forgiveness spoken of
in this text? Well, it is a gracious forgiveness,
isn't it? It's a gracious forgiveness because
it is completely unmerited by God's people. Oh, beloved, this
is a gracious forgiveness. It's a precious gift from God.
It's given to us. We're receivers of the grace
of God. It's a precious gift from God, and it's in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. Another characteristic
of this forgiveness is that it's bountiful. It's bountiful. When God gives or forgives, He
does so He does so, beloved, according to the riches of His
grace. And it's always according to the good pleasure of His will. If you're saved, it's according
to the good pleasure of His will. If all your sins are forgiven,
it's according to the good pleasure of His will. And think of this in light of
this scripture, which says, Heaven forgiven you all trespasses as
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. East never meets west. If you keep going east, you're
always going east around this globe. If you go west, you're
always going west. My goodness. Turn, if you would, to Acts 26. Another characteristic of this
forgiveness is that it's certain, beloved. It's a certain forgiveness. I was talking to a dear brother
from Montana last night. And he said, you know what, Wayne,
I'm sure thankful that my salvation is not based upon my doing. and
that my salvation, that me being kept in Christ is not even about
my doing. And I said, Amen, that's exactly
right. He's the one who saves us. And He's the one who keeps
us. It's not based upon our doing. It's based upon what He's done.
So another characteristic of this forgiveness is that it's
certain, beloved. In Acts 26, Paul is here before
King Agrippa telling him about his conversion. And note how
certain how certain Paul is of the commission that God's given
him. Look at this. Acts 26, starting in verse 14,
and we'll read to verse 18. And when we were all fallen to
the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew
tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now remember, I've brought
this up before. This just absolutely It blows my mind every time I
read this. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He's persecuting Christians.
What a union between Christ and his people. You persecute Christians,
you're persecuting Christ. Remember the whole nerve endings
that Matt had told me about and I shared with you guys? That
when a hand, you know, and when you hit your finger with a hammer,
that signal goes all the way up to the brain, to the head,
to the head, and the head sends back pain. It knows that hurt. I'm not going to do that again.
But look at this, look at this marvelous. Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? So when Paul's persecuting Christians,
he's persecuting Christ. Is it hard for thee to kick against
the pricks? And I said, who art thou, Lord?
He called him Lord right away. Oh my. He said, I am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. Again, he's persecuting Christians.
But in persecuting Christians, he's persecuting Christ. But
rise and stand up upon Thy feet. Now look at the certainty of
Paul's purpose. Look at this. But rise and stand
upon Thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, and
to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen and of the things in the which I will appear unto
thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles
unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them
from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins. It's not a maybe, is
it? That they may receive forgiveness
of sins in inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me. So a characteristic of this forgiveness
spoken of in our text is the certainty of it. Now Paul's response
in verse 26, Feastus expressed his doubts. Look at verse 25. He expressed his doubts about
Paul's conversion, but look what Paul writes. But he said, I am
not mad, Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
This is true. There's a certainty. There's
a certainty. Oh my. So a characteristic of
this forgiveness is the certainty of it. The certainty of the salvation
of God's people. what we have in Christ. He redeemed
us from our sins. He purchased us on Calvary's
tree. This forgiveness is a certain
forgiveness. Another characteristic of this
forgiveness, turn if you would to Hebrews 6. Another characteristic
of this forgiveness is that it's sure and steadfast, beloved.
And the reason it's sure and steadfast? The reason it's sure
and steadfast is because it's in Christ. If it was in us, it
wouldn't be sure and steadfast. There wouldn't be no salvation
at all. But because this salvation is
in Christ, It's sure and steadfast that all our sins are forgiven. All of them. Because it's in
Him. The salvation's in Christ. Look at Hebrews 6. For when God
made promise to Abraham, verse 13, because he could swear by
no greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing, I will
bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so,
after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For
men verily swear by the greater in an oath for confirmation to
them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise, now the heirs of promise are
those who were given to Christ before the foundation of the
world, those who will be quickened in our text, those who have all
their sins forgiven. Oh, sorry, verse 17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs a promise, the immutability of His counsel
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge. And oh, Christ is our city of
refuge. We fled to Him for refuge from
our sins. To lay hold upon the hope set
before us. which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and that which entereth that
within the veil. Whether the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek." So the reason that the characteristic of this
forgiveness is that it's sure and steadfast is because it's
in Christ and it's in Him alone. It's nowhere else. It's nowhere
else. When God raised His Son from
the grave on that third day, it was proof positive that Jesus
Christ had met all the conditions of the everlasting covenant.
All the conditions of the everlasting covenant. God showed us that
He had accepted the sacrifice of His Son. He's raised for our
justification. And the Lord Jesus Christ sealed
our pardon with His own precious blood. He sealed our pardon. He sealed the fact that we can
have all our sins forgiven, all our trespasses forgiven with
His precious blood. with His precious blood. God's
covenant people are heirs of the promise. Heirs of promise. Galatians says this, and if ye
be Christ, then ye are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise. So let us remember that the reason
we who were dead in our sins, in the uncircumcision of our
flesh, the reason that He hath quickened us together, The reason
He hath forgiven us all trespasses was because we were heirs predestined
to be conformed to the image of the Son in eternity. That's
the only reason. Oh my. And may this fill we who
are saved sinners with awe and wonder as we think about that
this week. As a result of this wonderful
forgiveness, I'll close with this. As a result of this wonderful
forgiveness of all our transgressions, of all our sins in the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's people love to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ.
We love to hear about Him. We desire to hear about the promises
of God in Christ. We desire to hear about our redemption
that we have in Christ. We desire to hear about the shedding
of His precious blood and how He purchased us. We love to hear
how he died as our substitute on Calvary's cross. We love to
hear it. It never gets old. We desire
and we love to hear about the resurrection of Christ, how he
was raised for our justification, and how God is satisfied with
that sacrifice. We love to hear about the exaltation
of Christ, and he is right now, right now, seated at the right
hand. Oh, we love to hear that, don't we? Comforts our heart.
Brings us joy. We love to hear about Christ,
who is our surety. We love to hear about God's forgiveness
because of Christ. We love to hear it. We love to
hear it. Oh, I'm forgiven for Christ's
sake and not alone. Oh, we love to hear about the
return of our great king. He's coming again. I'd love to
hear that. I'd love to hear it. What do
we say? We say, let God be magnified.
Let God be magnified in the preaching. Let God be magnified in the praise.
May He receive all the glory. All the glory. Heavenly Father, oh, we come
before Thy throne humbled with the fact that we were dead, lifeless,
no ability to come to Thee. But You have quickened Your people. Oh, You quicken Your elect. You
regenerate us. We become born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. And we see that our deliverance
is only in Christ. And we flee to Him. We flee to
Him. And we know that this is all
You making us willing. That left to ourselves, we never
would have come to Christ. Oh, we marvel. We marvel. that all our sins are forgiven
in thy Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord, let us
think upon this this week, that all our trespasses and sins are
forgiven, but let us also remember the great cost, how that you
came to this earth and you shed your precious blood to purchase
your people. And may we magnify thy precious
name, And we love you. Oh, we love you because you first
loved us. In Jesus' name, Amen.