Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's holy word. And now, the message. Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from the book of Colossians, chapter
2. And the title of the message is Christ, the fullness of God. Now I'm taking that title from
verse 9 where it reads, For in him, that is in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now when we speak of
the Godhead, we're speaking of the Holy Blessed Trinity. We're
speaking of the Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. We who know the Lord. We who
are saved by the grace of God, we worship and serve one God
who subsists in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, and that's the Blessed Trinity. Now, I need to say,
and you've heard me say it before, I need to say again, that we
cannot explain and fully comprehend the Trinity. That is a concept
that is so high above and so far beyond our finite minds that
we cannot comprehend it. Yet we know it is true because
this is how God reveals himself in his word. Now, it's not that
we worship three different gods or three gods. We worship one
God. We're not polytheistic. In other
words, we're not like the old Greeks and the Romans who worship
many gods. We worship one God. Our God is
one God. In the Ten Commandments, when
God gave the law to Moses, that's one of the first things he said,
the Lord thy God is one God. And yet he subsists in three
distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And God is so
high above us and so far beyond our understanding that we can't
explain it. And I want you to know this, there's no way we
can illustrate it with an earthly example. I know many people try.
But it's futile. God reveals Himself in His Word. The only thing we know about
God is what He tells us of Himself in His Word. And the only thing
we know of God in a saving way is what we know of Him as revealed
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what this verse is teaching
in verse 9 is that in Christ, now it says, for in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That means in Christ
as God-man. Now who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He is God and man in one person. He exists in the blessed union
of the two natures, one divine and one human, without sin. And
those two natures are together in the one person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's no mixture of the two
natures. There's no intermingling or even
confusion of the two natures. But they are united together
into one person. And that's another concept that
we, who are human, cannot define and fully grasp. We think about
the blessed birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the conception
and the birth. He was not born of man. He was
not born of Adam. If he had been born of Adam,
he would have been born dead in sin, trespasses and sins,
just like you and me. He would have been a sinner.
Many people today are calling Him a sinner. My friend, the
only ones who call Christ a sinner in the New Testament were His
enemies. And I want you to know something.
Christ is the God-man. He's the seed of woman. Now woman
has no seed. So where did the seed come from?
It came from God. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit. And when He was formed in that
womb, The angel came along and addressed Mary, and he said,
that holy thing that is in your womb. You see, there was no word
for it. That was not a derogatory word.
That holy thing, that blessed, blessed child, he's God-man. And he, in every way, is divine. In every attribute of his nature. and His character. He is divine. He is co-equal in the very nature
of His divinity with the Father and with the Spirit. And yet
He is in every way human except in one way, without sin. Christ had no sin and He knew
no sin. Now the Scripture says Christ
was made sin in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21. For He,
that is God the Father, hath made him sin." The words to be
in that verse are in italics. So, God the Father hath made
God the Son sin. Made Him sin. Christ who knew
no sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Now the question comes, not was
Christ made sin? Yes He was. There's no argument
there. There's no debate there. The
Bible says He was made sin. But how was he made sin? And
I'll tell you, there are people today who are going crazy with
that. Taking that one word, made, and actually saying that Christ
was made a sinner. Now a sinner is one who transgresses
the law. One who is defiled and contaminated
within himself. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
not made a sinner. He was made sin. Now how? Well,
the context of 2 Corinthians 5 tells us. Back up in verse
19, it speaks of God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. So that tells us the subject
of 2 Corinthians 5 is reconciliation. So God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, not
charging them with their sins. Now, if God did not charge His
people, His elect, with their sins, to whom did He charge them? Well, He charged them to Christ,
His Son. And Christ became fully responsible
for all the sins of God's people that were made to meet, laid,
and accounted to Him. Now, those sins were not shot
into Him, or infused into Him, or imparted to Him. Those sins
were legally laid to his account. Now that does not mean that his
death was only a legal transaction, no sir. His death was a real
death. Because of sin laid upon him,
the Bible says that, he was our sin bearer, the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all, and because of our sin, the sins
of his sheep laid upon him, Christ had to actually experience all
the sorrow, all the pain, all the suffering, all of the death
in his human body and soul that sin deserved. He called them
his sins in Psalm 22 and in Psalm 69 he referred to himself as
one who was unjust and guilty and cursed of God. And that is
all true, but it was all based upon sin charged to his account. Now in that person, the godman,
who took the place of his sheep, and who kept the law for them,
and who went to the cross of Calvary for their sins, and died
that death, that complete, finished death, that satisfied the justice
of God. He suffered on the cross the
equivalent of an eternity in hell for his people. In that
person dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, all the
fullness of the Father, all the fullness of the Son, and all
the fullness of the Spirit. So much so that if you want to
know God as your Father, if you want to know God the Son as your
Savior, If you want to know God the Holy Spirit as your regenerator,
as your comforter, then you must look to Christ. For in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You cannot come to God
apart from Christ. You cannot come to the Father
without Christ. For without Christ, without His
blood and His righteousness as your only hope of salvation,
You will only meet God as a righteous judge who will judge you for
your sins according to your works, and you will be damned forever.
Now that's so, my friend. Listen to me. If you seek the
Son apart from the God-man, Jesus Christ, who came, who is the
Son, then you will not know Him at all. You will not know Him
as Redeemer. You will not know Him as Satan.
You will not know Him as the friend of sinners. You will know
Him only as a judge. And if you seek the work of the
Spirit apart from Christ, you must understand that apart from
Christ there is no work of the Spirit. There is no saving work. There is no regenerating work.
For if Christ, God the Son incarnate, in whom dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, had not come and done His work, there'd
be no life to give. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He gives life to a dead sinner. Well, where does that life come
from? It comes from Christ who is our life. Didn't Christ say
that? He said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. You see, the Holy Spirit in the
new birth shows sinners the way. Now, who is the way? Christ is
the way. So without Christ and Him crucified,
there's no way to show. The Holy Spirit is the spirit
of truth, the truth of salvation, the truth of who God is in His
holiness, the truth of who we are in our sinfulness and our
depravity, our need of salvation by grace. But without Christ
in Him crucified, there is no truth to reveal. And the Holy
Spirit gives the dead sinner life, spiritual life, eternal
life applied to that sinner's soul. Well, without Christ and
Him crucified, there is no life. Christ told Martha, He said,
I am the resurrection and the life. So if we're going to be
saved, if we're going to know the Godhead, we must come to
Christ. Now that's the issue that Paul's
dealing with here. He speaks of that, look back
up in verse 1 of chapter 2, he says, For I would that you know
what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea,
talking about the church at Laodicea. and for as many as have not seen
my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being
knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of
the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge." All the mysteries concerning God
and in Christ that we as human beings can know in salvation,
as sinful human beings, are all wrapped up and they're all hid
in Christ. If you want to know wisdom, he
speaks of wisdom and knowledge here. You think about that. Where am I going to find the
wisdom of God and the knowledge of God that a sinner can have? There's not but one place, not
but one person, the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then
he speaks of treasure, the treasures of wisdom, the treasures of knowledge,
all in Christ, for Christ is our treasure. And he says in
verse 4, and this I say, lest any man should beguile you with
enticing words. Now that's common in our day.
People will seek to beguile you. Preachers, men of reputation
will seek to beguile you. That means to deceive you. It's
a subtle deception though. It's not an open denial of Christ. But it comes in the form of various
heresies. You know the New Testament church
was plagued and is plagued with many heresies in many forms. One of the most common is legalism.
A legalist is one who imagines that salvation and security and
reward is conditioned on their law keeping, their deeds of the
law. In other words, God will do this,
give me this, or reward me with this if I just do my best to
keep the law. And therefore they do not look
to Christ and his deeds, his work, his suffering unto death,
his righteousness alone. A legalist is one who seeks to
establish a righteousness of his own. He cannot see himself
complete in Christ. Look down at verse 10 of Colossians
2. Now read verse 9 again. It says,
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. You see, if I know Christ, if
I see the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in Him, if I
see in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, if I
see in Christ all the wisdom that God requires of me, I find
complete in Christ. He is my wisdom. And He's my
righteousness. All the righteousness that God
requires of me, I find complete in Christ. He is my righteousness.
And then sanctification, or holiness. All the holiness that God requires
of me, I find complete in Christ. He is my holiness. And then redemption. All the redemption that God requires
of me, I find complete in Christ, for He is my redemption. You
see that? Now a legalist doesn't see that. He sees himself as
incomplete unless he does his part. Another heresy the church
had to put up with was mystics, mysticism. A mystic is one who
finds their peace, their hope, and their assurance by looking
within themselves. In other words, it's not totally
what Christ accomplished and what he finished, but it's got
to be something added within themselves subjectively by experience. And they're big on experience.
They look in themselves to find their hope. What does the Bible
tell the sinner to do? It says, look unto Jesus, the
author and the finisher, the completer of your faith. Look
unto Him. Over in the book of Colossians
chapter 3, it says in verse 1, if you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. My friend, there's nothing wrong
with examining yourself. examining yourself whether you're
in the faith, but you're not going to find hope and peace
and assurance and comfort by looking within. Because we're
still sinners, even we who are saved by the grace of God, we're
still sinners. We want to love God perfectly,
but our love is still contaminated with selfishness. We want to
be holy. God the Holy Spirit has given
us that desire to be holy, to be perfectly conformed to the
image of Christ. But all we have to cry with the
Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? It doesn't stop there, does it?
He goes on, he said, I thank my God through Jesus Christ my
Lord. We want to find something within
ourselves that we cannot find. I'll tell you where you'll find.
You want to find perfection, don't look within yourself. Somebody
said, well, doesn't the Holy Spirit dwell within you? Yes,
He does. Well, isn't He perfect? Yes,
He is. But that perfect Holy Spirit
leads me to look upon and rest in and find my peace in the perfect
Christ who's seated at the right hand of the Father on high. Look
unto Christ. And then another heresy that
the church was continually plagued with was a heresy called Gnosticism. Now that's a funny word maybe.
Maybe you've heard it, maybe you haven't. But it comes from
a Greek word which means knowledge. And a Gnostic is one who was
a knowing one. That's what it literally means.
But here's what the problem was. The Gnostics believed that they
had a greater, higher knowledge than anyone else. They knew things
that only they could know. And they called it a revealed
knowledge. It would be like somebody coming along and saying, well,
now I know it, but you don't. And if it's ever revealed to
you, you'll know it. And they set themselves up as
the knowing ones. The problem is this. Their knowledge
was not based upon God's revealed word. And their knowledge actually
went against God's word. For example, there were Gnostics
who denied the humanity of Christ. Now what does it say here? For
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. What? Bodily. They denied the humanity of Christ.
The reason they did is because they looked upon human flesh
and materials as being evil. They knew Christ was not evil.
They knew he was sinless, therefore he could not be human. But that's
man's logic and rationalization. That's not the Word of God. Christ
was very human in every way, in every attribute of humanity,
except he had no sin. He was perfect. humanity. But
the Gnostics said, no, there are people today who deny his
deity. There's a denomination that calls
themselves Christian, but they deny his deity. Well, to deny
his deity is to deny him. My friend, to deny anything that
God reveals concerning the person and work of Christ is to deny
him. And these Gnostics, they claim
to have this higher knowledge. Oh, they can see things that
you can't see. They can judge things that you
cannot judge. And then another heresy that
crept into the church was elitist, elitism. These were people who
liked to draw people to themselves. They had a circle, their own
little circle of friends. There was a man in 3 John that
John the Apostle pointed out, named Diocrates, who was like
that. You had to follow him, he had
to do the judging for you, he had to think for you. But you
see, this is why Paul is writing this right here. Look at it again
in verse In verse 4, he says, This I say, lest any man should
beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit. In other words, my heart's
with you. That's what he's saying. I'm
not there bodily, but my heart's with you. Join in beholding your
order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. I join
in the fact that even though these false preachers and these
false believers are creeping in with their enticing words,
trying to beguile you, you're steadfastly looking to Christ. Oh, my friend, don't ever let
anyone take your eyes off of Christ and what He's accomplished
on your behalf. He says in verse 6, As you have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.
A lot of times people will try to come along with something
new. Some revelation, somebody would tell you, say, well, I've
seen something I haven't seen before. Well, that's possible.
We know there's no new revelation because we have the entire complete
revealed Word of God from Genesis to Revelation here. But I know
when I study the Scriptures, I'll see things that I didn't
see before. However, however, they must be consistent with
the gospel of God's grace in Christ, who He is, what He did,
what he accomplished, why he did it, where he is now. Whatever
the scriptures say, if I hadn't seen it before, if I see it now,
it's got to be consistent with the other scripture. Somebody
comes up with something new, what does Paul say here? As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him. Now there's another connotation
to that verse. In other words, you receive Christ
as Savior, as Lord, Now walk in Him. Obey Him. Follow Him. Follow His teachings, His words.
Love as He loved. Obey as He obeyed. Seek to understand
and know the humility that only Christ can give by His Spirit.
All of those things, not in order to be saved, but because you
already are saved by the Lord Jesus Christ in God's grace.
He says in verse 7, rooted and built up in Him, and established
in the faith as you have been taught abounding therein with
thanksgiving. Don't be tossed to and fro. Don't
go off on this section and this section with this group and that
group and that preacher who stands up and preaches something new
that is contrary to the faith to what you've been taught in
the scriptures by the apostles and by the Spirit of God. But
be rooted. That's established. Be built
up. That means growth in grace and
in knowledge. established in the faith, that
is in the gospel of God's grace, as you've been taught, and abound
with thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for
giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. He says
in verse 8, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit after the tradition of men and after the rudiments
or the elements of the world, and not after Christ. I made
this statement before. Anybody who comes along teaching
anything that diminishes, devalues, or rivals the person and work
of Christ, get away from it. It is not of God. Beware, he
says. through philosophy. You know
the word philosophy in the Greek means love of wisdom and yet
the philosophy of men is the philosophy of fools. You see
the only true love of wisdom that we can know is that which
we have in Christ who is the very wisdom of God. And the tradition
of men, in other words their religion is not what God has
revealed in Christ, it's what they teach. It's what they figured
out. Don't follow him. And then the
rudiments of the world, the elements of the world, the things of this
world. Now that could refer to anything like the law of Moses.
When he spoke the types and the pictures, those were elements
of the world. They pictured and typified spiritual
things, but there was no salvation in those things themselves. And
it could mean other things. But he says, and not after Christ.
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and you
are complete in Him. You know, the word complete means
just that. It means you can't add anything
to it. It means you can't take anything
away from it. There's no enhancement. There's
no additions. There's nothing really to follow
as far as completeness in the way that he's seen here. Now,
for example, we know that we who are saved by the grace of
God, we are not yet finally glorified in our persons. but we are in
Christ and that's what he says here look at it again for in
him verse 9 for in him now this is what we are right now in Christ
not in ourselves he says for in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead Bible in Christ and ye are complete in him I
am right now perfect and complete in Christ not yet in myself This
old body's dying. I still have to struggle with
sin, the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. But one day I
will be complete in myself, perfect in myself. Already am right now
in Christ. And my perfection and my completeness
in myself is sure and certain. The certainty of it is complete
because it's in Christ. So as long as Christ sits on
the throne, as long as he's seated at the right hand of his Father
on high, There is no possibility that I could perish because I'm
looking to Him and to Him alone for my whole salvation. For in
Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you
are complete in Him. I hope that message is helpful
to your understanding of God's Word. If you'd like to receive
a copy of this message, listen to the announcer as he gives
you the details. The title of the message is Christ, the fullness
of the Godhead, or the fullness of God. And I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-422-4222.
432-6969, or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you, and may the Lord be
with you.