Now today I'm going to be preaching
from the book of Colossians chapter 2 and I'm going to go over some
verses that I went over in my last message the last time I
preached on Christ the fullness of God. Today's message is entitled
Complete in Christ and that is a great description of a sinner
saved by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our completeness
Our fitness, our qualification for glory, for God's presence,
for heaven itself is wrapped up totally in the person and
in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything
that we experience by virtue of the grace of God in our own
selves, in the new birth, in our preservation, throughout
this life here on earth, and even in final glory, when we
who are in Him shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye and
made perfect and complete within ourselves. Everything that we'll
experience is based upon the completeness that we already
have in Christ. So I want to go back over a few
verses that I dealt with last week, but he speaks of walking
in Christ. He says in verse 6 of Colossians
chapter 2, the Apostle Paul writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
he says, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in him. Now those who are born again
by the Spirit of God have received Christ. Now, another way of stating
that is they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they've come to
faith in Christ, that faith which is the gift of God, as the Apostle
Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 2, for by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So they have come
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for all of their salvation.
They've seen their sinfulness, a sinner. who is saved by the
grace of God, who has received Christ, has done so because God
the Holy Spirit has entered his heart, his mind, his affections,
and his will, and showed him his sin, his depravity, his impotence,
to know that he has no hope of salvation, now or forever, but
in Christ and Him crucified, so that he comes to believe and
receive and lay hold of That's another scriptural description
of it. Lay hold of Christ. It's like a person reaching out
and grabbing for the lifeline or the life preserver. There's
no other way of salvation. He has no choice because Christ
is the only way. He said, I am the way, the truth,
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Another way of stating it is
he has come to rest in Christ. He has ceased trying to save
himself by his own wicked works and his own sinful attempts to
keep the law, and he has come to see that the only righteousness
and holiness and redemption that he can possess in completion
is that which Christ himself has purchased and has worked
out in his obedience unto death, so that Christ is all my wisdom,
He is all my righteousness. He is all my sanctification or
holiness. He is all my redemption. Salvation
and the forgiveness of sins is completely by the blood of Christ
and my justification before God. Now what is it to be justified
before God? It's to be declared righteous.
It's to be accepted before God. It is to have a right standing
before a holy God. Now how can I I, who am a sinner,
have a right standing before God. How can I be declared not
guilty? That's what it is to be justified.
I cannot be declared not guilty based on anything that I do or
anything I'm enabled to do. It is totally and completely
in Christ. So that the person who receives
Christ Jesus as Lord and as Savior see their completeness in Christ. And so Paul writes here, now
walk in Him. In other words, the walk is the
walk of faith, it's the walk of love, it's the walk of obedience,
it's the walk of repentance, all of these, the walk of humility,
knowing that our whole salvation is complete in Him. And he describes
that in verse 7 of Colossians 2, he says, rooted and built
up in Him. Christ is our foundation. Christ
is our goodness before God. We are rooted in Him, established
in Him, founded upon Him, and our growth, built up, our growth
is in Him. He sends His Spirit forth to
give us life and to awaken us and give us knowledge. He imparts
knowledge to our minds and our hearts and our affections and
our will. And we live and we grow in grace
and in knowledge of Christ. We're built up in Him and He
says established in the faith. The Bible speaks of a believer
being established so that he cannot be moved. And why is it
we cannot be moved? We're so changeable and we're
so sinful within ourselves. And we have a tendency, because
of that old sin presence in our lives, to look away from Christ. But yet he says we're established
in the faith. We're established because it
is God who establishes us. The Bible says it's good that
the heart be established with grace. And that's what it's all
about. It's the grace of God. Again,
not of works, lest we should boast. And he says, as you have
been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. The life of
a believer is to be marked with thanksgiving. Gratitude. Someone said one time that our
doctrine is grace and our ethic is gratitude. And I like that.
Because having been established in Christ by the grace of God,
Now we're to live a life out in obedience and love and humility,
in prayer and all of these things, giving thanks unto God. And let
me tell you this, giving thanks unto God in the scripture is
more than just saying the words, thank you. It's a life lived
in love and gratitude and obedience to Christ. Not in order to be
saved, but because we're already complete in Christ. And that's
the key here. Now he says in verse 8, Beware
lest any man spoil you through vain philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments or the elements
of the world, and not after Christ. The life of a believer and the
food of a believer is the preaching of the truth as it is in Christ. And when men come along with
their own ideas, their own philosophies, you know, the word philosophy
literally means love of wisdom. But man's philosophy is nothing
but foolishness. The only wisdom that we can really
see in the salvation of a sinner is what God has revealed and
provided in Christ, who is our wisdom. Over in Proverbs chapter
8, we see wisdom personified. And that's a picture of Christ,
our wisdom. If you want to know anything
concerning God, who God is, how God works, how He acts, His purpose,
if you want to know how God operates in His very nature, we must look
to Christ. And I'll show you that in just
a moment. But when man's philosophy enters the picture, it's nothing
but vain deceit. Now what that means is it is
man uplifting himself in worthless deceptions that will take a sinner's
mind away from Christ. You see, the Bible says we're
to run the race of grace looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher or the beginner and the completer of our faith. So the moment we get our eyes
off of Christ and Him crucified and our completeness in Him,
we're falling into the realm of vain deception, worthless
deception. And he talks about the traditions
of men. Men have their traditions. It's what they've been taught
from their youth up that is apart from the Word of God. And these
traditions take precedence in their minds over what God says. This is the way we've always
done it. This is the way we've always believed. But my friend,
those traditions are nothing but vain deceptions. Back in
the life of our Lord, when he was going throughout his public
ministry, he confronted a group of people called the Pharisees.
The Pharisees claimed to know the Bible. They had the first
five books of the Bible, the Old Testament, of the Old Testament,
known as the Pentateuch, and then they had the Torah, which
were their commentaries on the first five books of Moses, the
Law. They had some of the Psalms, they had the writings of some
of the prophets, And around that grew their own traditions. They
added their own words and their own thoughts and their own ideas
to it. And in time, here's what happens
now. The traditions of men become
more important than the Word of God. And that's a sad state
of affairs. That's legalism. That's self-righteousness. And he says, don't let those
spoil you. Now that word, that spoil you,
he says, beware lest any man spoil you. That means that they're
taking you like a conqueror comes in and conquers a country and
takes the spoils of that country as their own. And this is what
men do when they preach their vain traditions, their philosophies,
and their own traditions. They're wanting to take you as
a spoil to themselves. They're trying to get people
to follow themselves. So you end up being their spoil
when you follow them. And so he says, and after the
rudiments of the world. Now that word rudiments means
elements and we're going to see later on. One of the things that
he's talking about there have to do with the ceremonial issues
of the law that were meant to be a temporary teaching, a temporary
source of teaching the truth of something greater to come.
For example, Paul mentions the Sabbath. Now back under the Old
Covenant there was a Sabbath day. Now that Sabbath day was
not to be an end and a goal in and of itself. The Sabbath day
was to be kept physically on the seventh day by the children
of Israel under the Old Covenant. But that Sabbath day was to lead
them to a higher eternal spiritual truth. And the word Sabbath means
rest So, in other words, their resting on that day was intended
by God to teach them that eternal, spiritual rest could only be
found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our Sabbath. Now, that element of that day,
you see, that rudiment of that day had its time, but now it's
gone, and it's over with. But people want to hold on to
that, and they want to spoil you through using that rudiment,
that element, to bring you to keep that day because of its
traditions, because they attach some significance to that day.
But my friend, that day is over. Christ is our Sabbath. And so
we're not involved in the rudiments or the elements of this world
now. We look to Christ. The law was
a schoolmaster to teach them that, to lead them unto Christ.
Now, why is all this so? Well, verse 9 tells us, For in
him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now, that's what I preached on
last week. Christ, the fullness of God. And what we have in that
one verse, Colossians 2 and verse 9, is a vivid and a loud testimony
both of the deity and the sinless humanity of Christ. For in him,
that is in this person, the Lord Jesus Christ dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead. Now that can only be said of
one who is God. That couldn't be said of a mere
man. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Now think about that. That's the fullness of the Father,
the fullness of the Son, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
So that if you want to know anything about the very nature of God,
who God is and what He is like in His attributes, the nature
of the Father, the nature of the Son, the nature of the Spirit,
you must look to Christ in human flesh, God in human flesh. The Bible teaches that from the
very beginning. John chapter 1, for example,
speaks of Christ being the eternal Word of God. who has no beginning,
has no end. Christ told John in the Revelation,
He said, I am the Alpha and the Omega. That's God, you see. You're not the Alpha and the
Omega. I'm not the Alpha and the Omega. We have a beginning.
And this human body you see before you has an end. Now, I will live
eternally through Christ, who is life everlasting. But Christ
Himself, in Himself, is the Alpha and the Omega. having no beginning
and no end. That's his deity now. And in
him, in this person, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead,
Father, Son, and Spirit. And then it says that the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in him bodily. Now that's his sinless
humanity. Now my friends, God has no body.
He's Spirit. The Scriptures teaches that.
You can't contain God in buildings made with hands. Paul told the
Athenian philosophers on Mars here. You can't limit God to
geographical space, but God is dwelling in the person of Christ
bodily. Christ had a sinless humanity. Now, God could not dwell within
any body that is sinful. You see, God must dwell where
sin does not exist. And Christ walked among sinners,
He dealt with sinners, he ate with publicans and sinners, and
then when he went to the cross of Calvary he died for sinners
in their place based on sin legally accounted and charged to him.
Yet in his human body he was not contaminated or he was not
corrupted inwardly in his heart, in his mind, in his affection,
in his will with sin. He is the perfect God-man. And
I'll tell you that's a truth that is so far beyond our conception
and understanding. It's an amazing truth. It's this
kind of person that must be the Savior of His people. Whoever
saves us from our sins must be God, for only God has such power
to do so. Only God can give and sustain
life. And then whoever saves us must
be perfect man without sin. For he must take our place, and
he must shed his blood unto death. For without the shedding of blood
there's no remission of sin. Only man can suffer and bleed
and die for sin. So whoever saves me from my sins
must be God and man in one person. Now we step back and just stand
in awe of that truth. O man of sorrows, what a name
for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah,
what a Savior. Now no other, no other religionist
or philosopher or supposed religious leader could make such a claim
rightfully. Now it says in verse 10, and
you are complete in Him which is the head of all principality
and power. Now there's several things here.
He says you are complete in Him. Now, who is the you here? Well,
He had already said it back up here in verse 6. Look at verse
6 again. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord. All who have received Christ
Jesus the Lord are complete in Him. Now, something that you
need to know about completeness. If something is complete, do
you know what that means? It means it's complete. means
you can't add anything to it. It's whole. It's perfect. And
yet when I look at myself and see my inward thoughts and my
motives and my daily activities, I see anything but completeness. Because this body that you see
before you is a dying body. The effects of sin are coming
through every day. I can say that I've been born
again by the Spirit of God, and the Holy Spirit, who is Himself
perfect, indwells me. But I cannot tell you honestly
before God and men that I am perfect within myself. You see,
I do love God, but not yet perfectly. I have to still say, herein is
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. My best attempts to
keep the law still fall short. The only reason that I am not
lost in my, that I am not condemned before the law of God is because
Christ took my sins and died for them on the cross and paid
the debt in full. He satisfied God's law and justice
and he legally made me righteous before God on that cross. And listen to me, the only reason
that I'm not lost in my sins and ignorant of God's way of
salvation through Christ is because the Holy Spirit has enlightened
me. He's given me life and enlightened me to my sinfulness and the glory
of Christ as my salvation, my completeness in Him. So that
when I look at myself and I examine myself, I see all too often how
sinful I still am. So then where do I find completeness? I find completeness not in looking
at me, but in looking at Christ, who is my completeness. Look
at it again. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete. Where? In Him. In other words, in Christ. I
stand before you right now as righteous as I'll ever be. In
Christ. Not in myself, but in Christ.
He is my righteousness. In Christ, I stand before you
as holy as I'll ever be. Not in myself, but in Christ.
One day, I will be completely righteous and holy in myself,
because I'm already completely holy and righteous in Christ.
And that, when will I be completely holy and righteous in myself?
When I'm changed in the twinkling of an eye. When I'm glorified
and be made like Him. John said this in 1 John chapter
3. He said, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God. Oh, what love, he said. Now that
we, sinners, could be called the sons of God. Children of
God. We who deserve nothing but God's
wrath because of our sins. And he said, the world doesn't
know us, the world won't recognize this because they don't even
know God. If they don't know our Father, and if they don't
know our Savior, how are they going to recognize the children?
But he said this, he said, Beloved, it does not yet appear what we
shall be. He said, but we know this, we
shall be like Christ, because we'll see Him as He is. will
be made completely like Him. So he says, and you are complete
in Him, completely saved, completely certain for heaven's glory based
on His finished work alone. All that I am going to be, I
find complete in Christ right now. One day I will experience
the fullness of that completion when I'm glorified with Him.
But my friend, I'm to walk on this earth seeking to be conformed
to his image because of all of this. And he says, and you are
complete in him which is the head of all principality and
power. Now if he's the head, that's
Christ. If Christ is the head of all principality and power,
that means he's God. That could not be said of any
mere man. And then he says in verse 11, in whom also you are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ." Now, the term circumcision, we know that under the Law of
Moses, the Jewish males, the babies, when they were eight
days old after their birth, they were to be circumcised physically,
which was the cutting off of the foreskin of the flesh. And
that was a picture, that was a time. And what he's saying
is that in Christ, That flesh, which was represented back under
the old covenant, which represented sin and depravity, that flesh
was cut away in Christ spiritually. And I'm going to deal with that
in a later time. But this completeness in Christ is something to behold. There's no way we can describe
the wholeness of it, the fullness of it, and the glory of it. And
the reason is, is because we cannot really see The 100% perfection
of it. Paul said to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 13 when he was talking about love. You see,
we can say with the Apostle Peter that we do love God. We who know
Him, we who are saved by the grace of God, we who have been
regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We can honestly say we do love
God. But my friend, we see how pitiful
our love still is. How we fall short. of God's standard
of perfection within ourselves. And when he describes in 1 Corinthians
13 the perfection of love, oh, you just read that sometimes.
He says, love thinks no evil. In other words, if it's perfect
love, there's not an evil thought that would come. If you had perfect
love in yourself, you wouldn't have an evil thought pop into
your mind. You say, well, I'm not there yet. I'm not either.
But I'm looking to Christ who is perfect love. You see the
difference? I'm complete in Him. But he says
this, he says, now we see through a glass darkly. We see some things,
we who know Christ, we who have received Him, as the scripture
says here, by the power of the Spirit, we see some things. But
we don't yet see anything in perfection the way we're going
to see it when we're glorified with Christ. I see, now listen
to me, I see my completeness right now as I look to Christ. I don't see my completeness yet
in me, because I'm not yet complete in myself, but I look to Him.
And that's how we're to walk, we who know Him, that's what
He's saying here, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in Him. Salvation is not something to
be attained by the works of the sinner. We should do our best
to try to improve our thoughts, our motives, our character, our
conduct, our obedience. But our completeness is not made
or attained by what we do. Our completeness is completely
attained by what Christ has accomplished and by the grace of God as we
continue to be conformed to His image. The title of this message
is Complete in Christ. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word.