We'll come back with me to Colossians
chapter 2, and to start I just want to read from verse 8 to
verse 15. We'll be looking at the verses
down to verse 15, but let's just remind ourselves from verse 8
of Colossians chapter 2, where Paul writes, 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 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. And you, 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 having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Okay. You who count yourselves
among the people redeemed from sin, redeemed from the curse
of the law by the work of God in our Lord Jesus Christ, you
and I, all who believe, are on a journey to the celestial city,
as Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress portrayed it. The celestial city
is the goal. It's the city that Abraham looked
for, a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
But on that journey in this life, Satan would have you sidetracked. Satan would have you diverted.
He would try to prove that you were never really among God's
elect, redeemed multitude. So he and his agents come and
try to deceive. Oh, they don't look like they're
threatening. They look like lovely, cuddly
little sheep. Nice woolly coats, but within
They're wolves. They're wolves dressed in sheep's
clothing. They don't come as demons, they come as angels of
light. But they are demons. They come
speaking, as it said earlier in chapter 2, they speak enticing
words. attractive words, words to get
your attention and divert you. They're trying to capture you
for his side, for the kingdom of this world. And how do they
do it? By philosophy and vain deceit in accordance with worldly
religion. That's what it means by the rudiments
of the world. They deny Christ. They deny him. Because in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you, the people of God, are
complete in him. But they can't stand that message.
They hate it. What will get you to eternal
glory? Christ and him alone. Not religion. That won't get you there. Tradition
won't get you there. What? What our parents and grandparents,
that won't get you there unless they were God's true people.
Worldly religious wisdom won't get you there. What do we need
for attainment of heaven, of the kingdom of God? We need God
himself. Where do we find God? Show us
the Father and that will suffice in Christ alone. What is the
way? He said, I am the way, the truth
and the life. No man comes to the Father who
we must have to get to eternal glory except through Jesus Christ. He is God manifest, God made
known. In him dwells the fullness of
the deity bodily, in a human body. If you are in him, And
if you are, you were put in him by the Father before the beginning
of time. If you are in him, if you are bound up in him, if you
are united with him legally in the justice of God, in divine
justice, if you are united with Christ legally, then everything
he is, Everything he has done, everything he will complete,
that is your eternal possession. Who says so? God says so. It's by the decree of God. It's
not by me speculating, it's by the decree of God. God has said
it in his word. This is what he has given to
his people to show us. Everything Christ is, everything
Christ has done, everything Christ will complete, if you're believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ and resting in him, that is your
eternal possession by the decree of God. You were betrothed to
him. before time by the sovereign
will of God. God willed it. If God willed
it, what can prevent it? You were married to him for eternity. There's a marriage supper coming,
and that's to unite you forever without time to him. What more
could you need? What more could any of us need?
Can religious exercises add anything to that? Can the works of the
flesh that we do, the religious works, good works, whatever you
might call them, can they add anything to where you stand in
relation to God in Christ and all that he is? Can the best
human wisdom, the highest human wisdom, can that do it? No. At
Colossae, it seems, and other places around what is modern
Western Turkey today, at Colossae, Jewish Old Testament influences
were detracting from or adding to the message of Paul's gospel,
which is Christ and him alone. And today, in the day in which
we live, the same idea survives, except now, mainly for us, if
you're a true believer, in the Church of Christ today, it's
under the names of Presbyterianism. Oh, you're being shockingly controversial
there. No, I'm absolutely certain that
that's the case. Religion, formal religion, and
its edicts, which are not according to the word of God. The Reformed
Baptists, oh, there's nobody better, is there, at knowing
the truth. Read what they say, and their confessions say, and
compare it with the word of God. Oh, even the gospel standard.
Now, how can anybody say anything about them? I tell you, in lots
and lots of places, there are still some very good people preaching
the true gospel of Christ, but there are very many others that
have gone the way of these others with their denominational traits.
I'm not saying all of them, without exception, but many hold high
The Judaizers of Paul's day, their banner of Christ plus Christ
plus something you must do. And that's Paul's concern and
Paul's subject here. If God's people are, what he
says, complete in Christ, you are complete in him, How can
the addition of anything improve your standing with God? If you
are complete in Christ, how can anything that you need to do,
you ought to do, you should have done, you didn't do, how can
that make any difference to your standing with God? It can't,
because Paul has said, the Spirit of God has breathed this in this
letter, that you are complete in Him. You are complete, you
have everything you need. What do I need to be acceptable
to God? You need everything that Christ
is, and in Him, trusting Him, that's what you have. But they,
then, were being assailed with enticing words to submit to religious
patterns now fulfilled by Christ. It was the same in Galatia. The
Galatians were being assailed by Jewish believers saying, yes,
it's good to believe in Christ and to trust Christ, but you
have to do all of these Old Testament legal mosaic law things as well
if you want to be acceptable to God. You have to be... because
it was the right of the Jews. You have to be circumcised. You
have to come under all sorts of legal bondage. Otherwise,
believing in Christ just isn't enough. You must do all these
extra things. This is his concern. They were
assailed by it in those days. We are assailed by it today. If you are the true people of
God, they will tell you. Who's they? There are hordes
of them. Religious folk, Orthodox religious folk, they will tell
you that you are lacking, that there's this missing, that you
don't do this, that, or the other, and you need to be doing this,
that, and the other if you want to be accepted with God. It's
legal bondage. Where do we find ourselves? In
verse 11, he says, that the people of God, the true people of God,
are circumcised in Christ. He's talking about Christ. You're
complete in Him. In whom? In Christ. Ye also 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. As in Galatia, The Judaizers,
those promoting the Old Testament legal system, the Judaizers were
teaching the need for faith in Christ plus circumcision. I remember an illustration that
Bill Clark used to give years and years and years ago. It's
a very good one. He got a glass of water, he said, this is pure,
pure water. Now, you'll drink that, won't
you? Yes, it's pure water, it's fine. Now, I'm just going to
put one tiny little drop of cyanide in it, all right? Will you drink
it? Of course you won't. Because that one tiny drop, be
it ever such a small proportion of that glass of pure water,
it poisons it. And this is what the message
of scripture is, that this, message of adding anything or taking
anything away from that which Christ is and has done is eternally
poison. It's poison. So let's try and
understand what its relevance, the thing he's talking about,
circumcision here. What does that mean to us today?
Where did it come from? By whom was it practiced? How
was it ended? And what is its equivalent today?
Abraham was called from idolatry. His family were idolaters. Joshua
tells us that. We know that the family of Abraham,
when he was in Ur of the Chaldees, was a family, like everybody
else, of idolaters. They followed false religion.
But Abraham was called by God. Abraham was shown gospel redemption. We read it in the early chapters
of Genesis. He was shown the truth of gospel
redemption. He was shown the lamb, the need
for a lamb, the shedding of blood, picturing Christ who would come,
the promised seed of the woman. He was shown a city. He was shown
a heavenly city. He looked for a city which has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Here we have no
continuing city, but we look for one to come. Abraham was
shown and told covenant promises. He was shown promises of salvation,
that a great people Satan had captured the whole world, but
in what Abraham believed, there was a people to be called out
of this world, a people who would populate the kingdom of God.
He was given covenant promises. He was told you won't be able
to count them, just like you can't count the grains of sand
on the seashore. You can't count the numbers that
will come because they're known to God. And the promises were
symbolized in the token of circumcision. Way back in Genesis 17, and you
don't need to turn to it because I'll turn to it and read it to
you, but in Genesis 17 verse 9, And God said to Abraham, Thou
shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee,
in their generations. This is my covenant which ye
shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every
man-child among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt me and you. He that is eight days old shall
be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations.
He that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger
which is not of thy seed, he that is born in thy house and
he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised. And
my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is
not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He
has broken my covenant. It symbolized what it says in
verse 11, in whom also, verse 11 of chapter 2 of Colossians,
whom ye are also circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands. It symbolized the circumcision
made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Fallen flesh In its sinful
outworking, bars a person from heaven. It blocks you from going
to heaven. Nothing that defiles shall enter
in, says God. Circumcision was a symbolical
act, cutting off that which barred which was sinful flesh, cutting
off the flesh which bars from the presence of God. And it was
only for Abraham's nation of Jews in the Old Testament, plus
proselytes that were converted, people with whom God dwelt, people
to whom God spoke. What advantage is there in being
a Jew? Much every way, for to them were given the oracles of
God. It symbolized, that nation symbolized the elect of God.
It contained the elect of God in those days, but they're not
all Israel that are of Israel. but it symbolized his elect.
His Israel of sinners made princes. You know, Israel was Jacob. Jacob
was the swindler, was the cheat, but God called him Israel, a
prince with God. And we're all, by nature, sinners,
made princes with God. This is the nation of Abraham's
spiritual children. Who are the children of Abraham?
Do you believe the same gospel that Abraham believed? Then Galatians
3.7 says you are the children of Abraham. We are the children
of Abraham if you believe the same gospel. So how do they,
you and me, if we believe, how do we put off the sins of the
flesh? Those sins are put off, they
have been forever put off in Christ. Not by his physical circumcision
as an eight-day-old baby, which is what happened when they took
him to the temple. That was just symbolical in fulfilling all
righteousness. He hadn't yet gone to the cross.
All that Old Testament regime still applied. So he just went
through that to fulfill all righteousness. But no, it's not talking about
that. It's talking about his broken
body and his shed blood. This is the circumcision of Christ,
his broken body and shed blood. It's his vicarious death for
his people. Vicarious means when he died,
you died. When he died, you believer, you
died in him. It was in your place. It was
on your behalf. It was so much so that you actually
died when he died, as far as the The justice and the decrees
of God are concerned by the baptism that he endured. Look, buried
with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from
the dead. He's not talking about water
baptism here. If you look back at Luke's gospel,
chapter 12 and verse 50, Jesus said, I have a baptism to be
baptized with. He wasn't talking about immersion
in water then. and I am straight until it be
accomplished. He was talking about his crucifixion. This is what he had to go through.
In Matthew chapter 20, in verse 21. Well, a mother, the mother of
Zebedee's children with her sons is desiring that her sons sit
on the right hand and the left hand of Jesus in heaven. And
he said to her, what wilt thou? She said to him, grant that these
my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other
on thy left in thy kingdom. And Jesus answered and said,
you know not what you ask. You don't know what you're asking
for. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of
and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And
they say unto him, we are able. Then he says, you shall indeed
partake of it. He was talking about his crucifixion.
He was talking about his impending death in the place of his people
on their behalf. everything and more that was
symbolized by physical circumcision, the sign given to Abraham, it
was accomplished in Christ's death and his resurrection. He
was lifted up, it says in Romans 4.25. He was lifted up to put
away the transgressions of his people. Lifted up for transgressions.
He died and shed his precious blood to pay the debt to the
justice of God for sin. He rose as confirmation of acceptance. It was vindication. God raised
him from the dead to show that that sacrifice was accepted.
He was raised for the justification of his people, for eternal entrance
into the kingdom of God. No addition of religious rights
or duties are required. What is it that has accomplished
this? It is the faith of Jesus Christ. This is what we rest
in as the people of God. We rest in the faith. It's not
our faith in Jesus Christ. That's the means by which we
apprehend it, the sight of the soul by which we see it. But
what we rest in is the faithful work of Jesus Christ in the place
of his people on their behalf. In verse 12 it says, the faith
of the operation of God. It's what he has done. He has
done it all. What has he done? Look back into
chapter 1 of Colossians. Let me remind you. It pleased,
verse 19, it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness
dwell. And, right, look what he's done.
Having made peace. Naturally, we're enmity with
God. We're enemies of God. We're at
war with God because of our sin. We're his enemies who must be
barred from his kingdom, but he has made peace. How has he
made it? Through the blood of his cross,
which paid the penalty. And by him to reconcile all things
unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you, that were sometimes. You believers, you were sometimes,
you were once alienated from God. You were enemies in your
mind by wicked works. You performed wicked works. Yet
now hath he reconciled. He's reconciled enemies. Reconciliation,
what a glorious thing. How wonderful it is. It says
in the Psalms, when brethren are reconciled to one another,
it's like the oil running down Aaron's beard. I don't know whether
that triggers any of the right emotions in you, but I think
we know what it's saying. It's a good thing. It's a lovely
thing. And how did he do it? How did
he do it? Verse 22, in the body of his flesh, God became man. God took on him the form of a
servant, the form of a man, the second Adam, in the body of his
flesh through death. Why did he partake of the flesh
of the children? It says in Hebrews 2, that through
death he might redeem them from the law's curse. He did it to
present you, to present you in that great and glorious day,
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Can you add to
or take anything away from that? Under divine justice Under divine
decree, when he died, all his elect died in him. When he rose
from the dead to eternal life, all his elect rose in him. And
so Paul in Galatians says, I am crucified with Christ. I died
with him when he died, I died. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. and the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by, listen, the faith of Jesus Christ. I live by what He has done. I rest in what He has done. I have no other confidence than
what He has done. When someone tells you that you
need to add to Christ's finished, completed work with religious
duties, with observances, with anything physical, the way you
dress, etc., beyond basic decency, of course, see what the Apostle
says. You are complete in Christ. All
that which was symbolical in the Old Testament law of Moses
and the pictures is now fulfilled. And so, it being fulfilled, In
chapter 3 of Philippians, and I know we quote it all of the
time, but he's telling the Philippians to beware of this same thing,
beware of this same religious danger, the concision, those
who say you've got to be circumcised, to add to the work of Christ. He says, we are the circumcision. We are the ones in whom the works
of the flesh have been put off so that we have a place in eternity.
How are they put off? It says, the putting off of the
body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
What he has done. We are the circumcision. We who
believe the gospel are the true circumcision. Not the Jews as
it was in those days, not the religious legalists today. We
are the circumcision. And what do we do? What are the
marks? of the true people of God. We worship God in the Spirit. We don't worship God in this
place or that place. We worship God in the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. He's all our confidence. He's
all our hope. And we have no confidence in
the flesh, none whatsoever. We are the true circumcision,
our sinful flesh put off, really, really, by our union with Christ
in his death and resurrection. It's the faith of Jesus Christ
that is the basis. So then, quickened and forgiven. Verse 13, Colossians 2, you,
being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
that's what you're like by nature, in your flesh, that's how you're
born, that's what you're like, has 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.
You, in your natural born state, as the offspring, the progeny
of Adam. You're sinners, we're all sinners
from the fall. There is none righteous, no,
not one. In our natural state, God looked
down from heaven before the flood and saw that all of the intents
of the heart of man was constantly evil. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The
Lord knows it. He knows what it's like. Sinful thoughts, sinful
actions, all arising from unbelief. arising from ignorance of God,
arising from allegiance to Satan's kingdom. Again, in another epistle,
Ephesians chapter 2, the first five verses, Paul says to the
Ephesians, you, hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and
sins, wherein, in time past, you walked in your sins according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the devil. the spirit who now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation. We lived like it, we reveled
in it, we swam in it, this sinful world. We all had our conversation
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, the children deserving of the wrath of God, even as
everybody else but God. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive together with
Christ. By his grace you are saved. There are so many, as we judge
with our sinful perspective, with our fleshly perspective,
there are so many lovely people, friendly people, helpful people,
kind-hearted people, and no doubt that's true relatively, because
it's all relative from the perspective of people who are sinners. But
let God be true and every man a liar. All are sinners. All have fallen short of the
glory of God. There is none righteous, no,
not one. They're all gone out of the way.
Read it in Romans 3, you'll read the indictment. All are worthy
of eternal condemnation. All the lovely people that we
say, oh, what lovely... They're all worthy of eternal condemnation,
if we believe what God has said in his book. We're all worthy
of eternal separation from God. We're all worthy of what the
Word of God calls hell. We're all worthy of that. Remember,
even the apostle Paul, this great apostle who wrote so much scripture,
even Paul said, and he meant it, It wasn't dramatics. He said,
in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Ah, you've got the truth in an
earthen vessel, Paul, but he was conscious of the very earthen
vessel. He said, compared with all the
others who believed, he said, I am the least of all the saints. What about the other apostles?
Wasn't he made an apostle, one born out of due time? He said,
I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. Why? Because I persecuted
the church. What about being a sinner? You're
not as bad as the others, are you, Paul? He said, I am the
chief of sinners. So we all, including you believers,
me, Our natural condition is spiritually dead in sins. That's our natural condition.
Our natural condition in the flesh is separated from the life
of God by our sinful nature. Your flesh is by nature spiritually
uncircumcised. But God, but God, what did it
say, Ephesians 2 verse 4? But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us, made us alive together with
Christ. He's made us alive. God formed
Adam out of the dust of the ground. He formed Adam out of the dust
of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and Adam became a living soul. That's what he says. In
the same way, God's Spirit quickens, puts new life in the soul of
a dead sinner. It says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse
6, God who shined light in the darkness at the beginning of
time, at creation, God who shined light out of darkness hath shined
in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God, where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
That's where we see it. That's where we see it. He gives
the gift of spiritual sense, which is faith, to apprehend
it, to grasp it, to understand gospel truth. He gives faith
to trust and to rest. He gives his spirit. He gives
his spirit. They come and make their abode
with us. He gives his spirit, whereby we cry, Abba, Daddy,
Father, to God. We, the children of God, cry,
Abba, Father. because the trespasses, the sins,
the iniquities that separate, that alienate, are all forgiven.
You being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he has quickened together with him, with Christ, having forgiven
you all trespasses. They're all forgiven. Those trespasses,
those sins are forgiven. My sin, not in part, but the
whole is nailed to his cross. He's taken it out of the way,
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, that was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. Past sins, present sins, future
sins. My sin, not in part, but the
whole is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. Praise
the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. He's paid for it. The justice
of God is satisfied. The justice of God requires no
more. The justice of God cannot possibly punish the sinner who
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, for he has already borne and
paid that penalty. The sins of his people, the forgiven
sins, are forgotten in the judicial memory of God. How do we know
that? God says so. I will remember
them no more, he says. God says he will not remember
the sins of his people anymore. It says in Jeremiah 50 and verse
20, the sins of Judah and of Israel, and that's just symbolical
of the people of God, the people, the children of Abraham by the
same faith that Abraham had. He said the sins of those people
will be looked for in that day of judgment. and they will not
be found. Why? For he has taken them out
of the way. How has he done it? On the cross,
with his shed blood paying the price. He's taken the sins out
of the way and removed them. How far? As far as the east is
from the west. Then be remembered no more in
the judicial memory of God. Christ silenced forever everything
that would justly accuse and condemn the people he loved from
eternity. Nobody can now charge God's elect
with any sin. The accuser of the brethren certainly
can't. Satan is the accuser of the brethren,
and he's cast down. Why? Because Christ has taken
everything that he had with which to accuse justly the people of
God of being sinners and unfit for heaven, he's taken it away.
Who shall bring anything to the charge of God's elect? Christ
has died. Nay, he's risen again from the
dead. In him now In Christ, there is no condemnation. Think of
it! In Christ, there is no condemnation. There is no condemnation. What
is our reward when we get to heaven? You're ticking the box
and your extra jewels in your crown because of the good works
you've done in this life? No, God, I am your exceeding
great reward, he said to Abraham. It's in him alone. And then finally,
briefly, Victorious and triumphant. Verse 15. He has spoiled principalities
and powers. Christ has spoiled them. And
the word spoiled doesn't mean just make a mess of. It means
conquer them in a war situation. You know, the spoils of war.
The things captured from the enemy. He spoiled principalities
and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. At the cross, Satan seemed victorious. He'd been waiting as Revelation
12 pictures it. He'd been waiting to devour the
child born of the woman. The woman is the church and the
child born of the woman is Christ, the promised seed of the woman.
Come to redeem his people. And he's there waiting to devour
the child as soon as it's born. But the child comes and accomplishes
his purpose and accomplishes redemption and returns to heaven.
And on the grounds of that redemption, that shed blood of Christ, Satan
is cast out of heaven. He's cast down to the earth.
He thought the seed of the woman, the promised seed, was destroyed
on the cross. He thought redemption of the
people of God was denied. He thought that the elect of
God would remain unwashed from their sins and destined for hell
with him. But there, at the cross, Satan's
power to accuse was cancelled. They rejoiced in heaven in Revelation
12. Why? By the blood of the Lamb
they overcame the devil. The blood of God's Lamb overcame
Satan and defeated him and spoiled him in a war sense. He spoiled
him in the sense that he captured back from Satan all of his eternally
loved multitude. He captured them back. He showed
Satan up as a defeated enemy. He paraded him as a conquered
foe, like the Roman emperors. That's what it's alluding to
in verse 15. The Roman emperors in this day
when Paul was writing, they would make a show of their defeated
enemies openly. They would parade them in shame
through the streets of Rome, in chains. Look what we've conquered. And he's saying in the same way,
Christ has made a show of Satan openly. Is this just New Testament? No, Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, verse
10, we'll read the last three verses. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He has put him to grief, the
Lamb of God. He's put him to grief. When thou shalt make his
soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. He didn't bear the iniquities
of the whole world. Not sins of man since the world began.
No, he shall bear the iniquities of his people. Therefore will
I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoil, there it is again, with the strong, because he has poured
out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors,
and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors. In his death and his resurrection,
he spoiled Satan. He spoiled his kingdom. He entered
the strongman's house, as Jesus put it in Matthew chapter 12
and verse 29. How can you take over the strongman's
house? You have to go inside and tie
up the strongman, and then you can get his possessions, and
that's what Christ did. He came and tied him up. He tied
him up in his ability to accuse the people of God. He led captivity
captive, it says. He led Captive, that which made
his people captives, which was the work and kingdom of Satan.
And so Psalm 24 says this. Lift up your heads. It's in the
same mode as this verse 15. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The
Lord, strong and mighty. He is the King of glory because
he's accomplished the victory. And then it says again, lift
up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King
of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. Behold, I and the children whom
he has given me, says Christ, as he leads his army into heaven. Behold, I and the children whom
the Father has given me. What work do you need to do to
ensure you go to heaven? Think on this, think on this.
What work do you need to do to ensure you go to heaven? How
sanctified do you need to make yourself to go to heaven? Religion
will give you a list of things you ought to do. But scripture
says this, scripture says rest in Christ alone. That is true
Christian Sabbath-keeping. You know how the Old Testament
law of the Sabbath was strictly enforced. One day in seven had
to be absolutely no work done. And anybody violating that, picking
up sticks to light a fire on that Sabbath day, was to be stoned
to death. You say, what a harsh punishment.
Do you know anyone that does not rest in Christ alone is guilty
and deserving of eternal death and eternal separation? And that's
why This is how we keep the Sabbath. We keep the Sabbath not by a
day of deprivation and austerity. We keep the Sabbath by trusting
Christ and him alone. We'll see more of it in the verses
at the end of chapter 2 next time, God willing. Amen.