Would you open your Bibles with
me to the book of Colossians Chapter 2. Colossians Chapter 2. I want to begin reading at verse
8. Colossians Chapter 2, where the
Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, issues a
warning and instruction to the believers in this congregation
known as the Colossian Church. And he says in verse 8, Beware
lest any man spoil you or corrupt you through philosophy and vain
deceit. after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments or the elements of the world, and not after Christ. Verse nine, for in him, in Christ,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It's an interesting
way to put that, isn't it? The fullness of the Godhead bodily. Verse 10, and you are complete. Now the word complete means to
be filled full. You are filled full in him, in
Christ, which is the head of all principality and power. And
verse 11 says, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Verse 12, buried with
him in baptism, when also you are risen with him through the
faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the
dead. Now, in your bulletin, I've noted
that the text that I'm going to preach on is verses 8 through
12 that I just read. In reality, I'm going to deal
mainly with verses 8, 9, and 10 today. I'm going to make mention
of verses 11 and 12, but I'm coming back, Lord willing, next
week and I'm going to deal with verses 11 and 12 and some verses
after that in more detail because those are sort of difficult verses. And we need to spend some time
there. He speaks of circumcision, made without hands, you know
what that is. He speaks of the circumcision of Christ, and I'm
going to talk about that. But basically what he's talking
about in the whole passage here is a believer's union with Christ. Now that's the subject. And he's
encouraging these Colossian believers to not be corrupted with false
doctrine, Because he wants them to realize anew, and this is
something we need, if we're believers now, this is something we need
to be reminded of constantly. I think every Lord's Day that
we meet, every day that we can be reminded is this, is we need
to be reminded of our fullness in Christ. And so the title of
the message is Christ's fullness is our fullness. Whatever Christ's
fullness, it's our fullness. Now, Paul wrote over in Colossians
3 in verse 11. Look at verses 10 and 11 in Colossians
3. We'll deal with that when we
get to it, but just in line with this message, he says, you who
have believed, you who are sinners saved by grace, you've put on
the new. You've put on the new man. Now
what is it to put on the new man? Well the new man is what
we are in Christ. Whatever I am in Christ, that's
the new. The old man, that's what I was
in Adam. Whatever I was, what connected
me with Adam. And to put on the new man means
that you believe in Christ. That's just the same way of putting
that term. You believe in Christ. You rest
in Christ. You realize that you're cleansed
from all your sin, forgiven by the blood of Christ. See, the
old man didn't know that. And you realize that you're righteous
in him, that God will not charge you with your sin. You have his
righteousness imputed. And that's how you live now in
the new. You have a new revelation, a new knowledge, all of that. So you put on the new man, he
says, which is renewed in knowledge. In other words, you learn, you
grow in grace and knowledge after the image of him that created
him. Who created this new man? God did. We are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good. See, our good works, if
we're Christians, we're not self-made people. You've heard me use the statement
about certain people that I know, and I'd say about one man specific,
I said, he's a self-made man and he's in love with his creator. Well, that's not a Christian,
is it? First of all, we're not self-made. We're made by Christ. And we are in love with our creator.
And that's the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. And so
we're, this new man, is realized, is renewed, because we lose sight
of it, don't we? I've lost sight of it a lot.
But we need to be driven back. That's why we meet to worship,
to glorify God. And we pray that he's glorified,
and we glorify him by lifting up Christ. Well, what's the connection? Well, in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead. So the more I lift up Christ,
the more I glorify the Godhead. All three persons of the Godhead.
And we're met here because we want to be evangelistic. We want
to see sinners saved. We want to see sinners brought
to Christ, brought to faith and repentance. And we're met here
to edify one another. That means to build up one another.
And the only way I'm gonna build you up, if you're a believer
now, is not by bragging on you, but bragging on your Savior.
You see, that's what builds up God's people. Most preachers
spend time in pulpits bragging on themselves or bragging on
the people. That won't do you any good if you're a believer.
But if I brag on Him, everybody here who's a believer will say,
amen. Tell me more about Jesus. Remember the old hymn? Oh, more
about Jesus. And you can't brag enough on Him. My old pastor
used to say that preaching the gospel, preaching the word, is
no more than just getting up and bragging on Jesus Christ.
And that's what we're gonna do. But he goes on there in verse
11 of chapter three. He says where there's in Christ,
created in him, this new creation. And there I believe he's talking
about the church collectively. He says there's neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free. These distinctions that we're
so proud of, They don't mean anything in the new creation.
They don't mean anything as to the glory and grace of God, as
to what makes us righteous before God. Listen to me. The Apostle Paul,
how he was marvelously and miraculously and powerfully used of God. Can
you deny that? No, you can't deny that. A man
whom God used to write most of the New Testament books. But standing, as far as his standing
before God, as far as the forgiveness of his sins, as far as his justification,
his righteousness before God, he was no more saved, no more
blessed than the thief on the cross. who was saved by grace
during his last hours on earth. You see what I'm saying? Because
it's all of grace. So there's no difference. But
here's what it is in verse 11. But Christ is all and in all. We used to sing a chorus in Ashland,
Kentucky, where I was pastor. It goes like this, Jesus Christ
is made to me, all I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea,
he is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power,
holiness forevermore, my redemption full and sure, he is all I need. Now here's something I need to
consider and you need to consider. You hear those words and they
sound nice and they're good to sing, but is it just pleasant
poetry? Or is there something real and
substantial there that we can know by God's revealing it to
us, know by faith? Is it real? For the believer,
when we say Christ is all, And in all, what does that mean?
Is that really, I mean, is that just highfalutin words that we
like to say and smile and go on our merry way? Here's a good question. You say
you believe in Christ, you trust Christ for salvation, for your
whole salvation. Well, is Christ enough for you?
Is Christ enough for me? The question for you and me is
this, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to the blessings
of God, when it comes to the benefits of God's saving, when
it comes to justification, how I can have a right standing before
God. I'm a sinner. You're a sinner.
Isn't that right? Does that offend you? It shouldn't. That's the kind of folks that
Christ came to save in. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ is coming to
the world to save who? Sinners, of whom I am chief. The Pharisees said, we be not
sinners, and they said, and I know your master, they said to the
disciples, I know your master's not of God, because he even sits
down and has supper with publicans and harlots and sinners. Ooh. What is a church? It's a hospital for sinners.
Who needs the physician, the great physician, those who are
sick? That's what we are, we're sick,
aren't we? With sin. And we don't have the
cure. But I know who does. So when
it comes to my justification, how can I stand before God and
justly and rightly and truly be called righteous. How's that
possible? Well, is Christ enough to do
that? Or does he need my help and your
help? What does it take to fulfill
us? You know, back here in Colossians 2, Colossians 2 verse 10 says,
you're complete in him, that means you're filled full in him.
You're filled full in Him. To make us full, to meet our
needs, what does it take? Matthew 5, 6, one of the Beatitudes,
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be fulfilled. Do you hunger and thirst after
righteousness? Do I? Well, what fills me up?
How am I filled? Well, the Bible says that we're
fulfilled, we're filled full with the fullness of Christ.
Is that right? But you know what most popular views of salvation
today really say? No, he's not enough. Did you
know that? No, he's not enough because what
he's done really means nothing unless we do our part. Unless
we meet certain conditions. Unless we make our decisions.
Unless we seal the deal. That's the message of false Christianity. God loves everyone. Christ is
trying to save everyone. Christ died for everyone. But
you still perish if you don't do your part. And whatever your
part is, it depends on what denomination you are part of. So in essence, one has to add
to his fullness in order to be saved. There's a problem there.
If it's full, you can't add anything to it. You see, God's word says that
Christ is enough. And really, literally, it says
Christ is even more than enough to save me and keep me eternally
saved. Why? Because in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I love Psalm 23. How about you? Brother Jim read
that Psalm. Here's why I had him read it.
It starts out, the Lord is my shepherd. And you understand
now, everything that is written in the 23rd Psalm is based upon
the accomplishment of someone in the 22nd Psalm. Did you know
that? Actually, the Psalm here, Psalm 22 and 23 and 24 is a trilogy.
Psalm 22 speaks of the work of Christ as our Redeemer, as our great
high priest. Remember how it starts out? My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Who said that? Christ on
the cross. He was forsaken of the Father
because our sins were imputed to him and he was made guilty. That's right. He was made a curse
for his people and the curse was death and he died. And what
did he die? Why did he die? What was the
accomplishment? Look at Psalm 22 verse 30. It says, a seed
shall serve him. Seed is his offspring. Who is
that? That's the ones for whom he died.
And it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. It's
on account of him. That's what that means. A seed's
gonna serve him. He's gonna have some children.
He's gonna have some servants. People for whom he died. People
for whom he was cut off. And who do we lay the account,
who do we give account for that? You, me? Oh, I made a decision
when I was 12. Is that the, no, it's accounted
to him. It's on account of him. It's
what he did. And then verse 31, they shall
come and shall declare his righteousness, not mine, not yours, unto a people
that shall be born that he hath done this. He's done it. And
then he says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The
good shepherd gave his life for the sheep. He's their shepherd. And if he's your shepherd, if
he's my shepherd, you know what he says there? We won't lack
anything. They shall not want. They're
not found wanting. Do you have everything you want
right now in this world? No. Somebody said, well, I have everything
I want. They're probably lying. I can tell you I have everything
I need. Somebody asked me one time, said,
are you praying for what you need? And I said, man, I went
way past need years ago. I'm into the realm of want. I want things that I don't have.
Listen, I want clear arteries. I don't have them. But that's the Lord's business.
I'm not going to forsake the Lord because of that. He knows
better than I do. He's my Father. I'm His child.
He knows what's best for me. But I know this, when it comes
to His shepherding, and that means His salvation, His righteousness,
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, the blessings, He's
my shepherd and I don't lack a thing. I've got it all. And then he goes on. You read
the rest of it. Look at verse 5. I wrote an article in the
bulletin about this one because of this message. He says in verse
5 of Psalm 23, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence
of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runs over. Now you know, let me tell you
something about a prepared table. A prepared table is not A table
that everybody brings contributions to. It's not like our dinners
when we have the Lord's Supper back here and everybody brings
a dish. Everybody contributes. A prepared table is a full table. You can't add anything to it.
Everything you need or want is right there on that table. And
who prepared it? Christ did. Christ did. Now look back at Colossians 2. Now in light of all that, here's
what he tells them in verse 8. He shows them the futility of
legalism and conditional salvation. Beware, verse 8, lest any man
spoil you, corrupt you, drag you down. Through philosophy. You know what philosophy is.
The word literally means love of wisdom. But the kind of wisdom
he's talking about here is the foolishness of the natural man.
He says philosophy and vain deceit. Empty deception. In other words,
it doesn't leave you full. It'll leave you empty eventually.
You may be like the church at Laodicea. You may think you're
rich, but in reality you're poor and you're going to find that
out one day. You may think you've done enough. You may think that
Christ did his part and you filled in the gap. But if that's what
you believe, you're gonna find yourself empty in the end, just
like those who stood before the Lord in Matthew 7, saying, Lord,
Lord, haven't we preached enough? Haven't we prophesied enough?
Haven't we cast out enough demons? Haven't we done enough wonderful
works? And he said, depart from me,
you that work iniquity. I never knew you. You see, those
things will not make you full. They will not leave you full.
They're empty, vain. And he proves it here, after
the tradition of men. That's the problem. See, we don't
need the tradition of men. We need the Word of God. He says,
after the rudiments, the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
Now, what are the elements or the rudiments of the world? Well,
he's basically referring to the old covenant ordinances which
unbelieving Jews who claim to be Christian were trying to bring
down upon Gentile believers. Yes, we're saved by grace. Yes,
we have Christ, but you need more than him. You've got to
be circumcised. You've got to keep a day. You've got to do
this. You've got to taste not this, touch not that, handle
not this. Look across the page there at
verse 20 of chapter two. When he says, wherefore, if you
be dead with Christ, that means dead to the law, dead to sin. That means sin cannot condemn
you, the law cannot condemn you. There's therefore now no condemnation
in Christ, to them who are in Christ, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. In other words, God will not
charge you with sin. God charges you with righteousness. You're
dead with Christ from the rudiments, the elements of the world. Why,
as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not? Is that what separates you from
the world? What you don't eat, what you don't touch, what you
don't handle? You measure goodness and righteousness
by what you don't do, what you avoid? Are there certain things
that Christians should not touch or handle or taste? Yes. But
that's not our claim of salvation. That's not what separates us
from the world. That's being worldly, he says. That's the
tradition of men. That's what men relish in. That's
what men, natural people, that's what they glory in. What do God's
people glory in? Well, they glory in Christ. They
glory in the cross. They glory in His righteousness.
And so he's saying back here, beware. Why do you run after
false teaching that inspires you to strive for the impossible
and then leaves you empty when you have everything necessary
and more? In Christ, my cup runs over.
It's kind of like what Paul said in Romans 5.20, where sin abounded. Where sin overflowed me like
a flood, grace doth much more abound. The law will leave you
empty, folks. Salvation by works, conditional
salvation will leave you empty. And he'll describe that in more
detail. We'll go over that when we get to it. What is it that
conquers our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Well, is his blood enough? I heard a preacher on television
years ago, he says, what is the cost of forgiveness? Here's his
answer. Your repentance. That sounds
good, but it's not so. You know what the cost of forgiveness
is? The blood of Jesus Christ. And if you ever see that, I'll
tell you what, if you ever believe that, you'll repent. What is
it that makes us righteous in God's sight? Well, is it anything you do,
say, decide? Is it your faith? No, it's Christ
alone. He's the fullness of righteousness
for his people. What is it that gives us life
from the dead? Somebody says, well, you believe,
you make your decision, and then you're born again. Oh, no. The life that Christ gives to
his people in the new birth comes totally from him, and it's a
full life. Look at verse 9 again, for in Him, in Christ dwelleth,
tabernacles, that's the presence of God. That's the glory of God,
that's the revelation of God. It dwells in all the fullness
of the Godhead in Him bodily. That means this, that means Christ
as God in human flesh is the full revelation of the glory
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You want to know
God? You want to come to God? You want to be accepted with
God? You want to approach God? You want to worship God? There's
only one person who will enable you to do that in fullness, and
that's Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. Jesus Christ,
who is our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption,
the Lord our righteousness. Because in Him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead. This is the grace of God through
the fullness of Christ. This is the foundation of how
we should think and how we should walk. Isn't that right? And it's
all because Christ is the complete revelation of the glory of God,
the complete salvation of his people. Look at verse 10, and
you are filled full. You're full up in him. Complete in him. Why should that give me comfort?
How can that give me comfort? Well, because he is the head
of all principality and power. He's it. He's the one sovereign. Christ is the head of the church.
He'd already said that back up in verse 18. But he's not only
a king of his church, lord of his, he's the king of kings.
Even the evil can't back in the days of this writing here. Did
you know that Christ was the king of Caesar? Did you know
that Somebody said well, I can't believe that. Well, I know you
can't I Couldn't either until God the Holy Spirit did a work God's in control Christ is in
control of this thing In that comforting to you I tell you, it is to me. So is
His blood enough to pay for all my sins? Yes. The blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin. Is His righteousness imputed
enough to justify me completely before a holy God? Yes. He's
the end of the law, he's the finishing, the completion, the
perfection of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. Is
his righteousness imputed? His power, is it enough to raise
me from the dead and bring forth in me the fruit of spiritual
life? Well, the Bible says in Romans 8.10, if Christ be in
you, this body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. Is he able? Paul said, I know
whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. The
point is here, he's sovereign and he's able to save to the
uttermost. But here's the basis of it all. Now these verses here,
as I said, verse 11 and 12, They're difficult verses because
people, I think, read them out of context. When you read about
circumcision, people's minds automatically go to the physical
circumcision of the Jews, which was a right that God had commanded
them. And of course, Paul had dealt
with the issue of spiritual circumcision back in the book of Romans, where
he said, he that is a Jew outwardly, circumcision is that of the flesh,
is not a Jew inwardly, and talking about circumcision of the heart.
What is circumcision of the heart? That's when the Holy Spirit in
the new birth brings a sinner to faith in Christ, and the cutting
off of the filth of the flesh, spiritually, is repentance of
dead works. That's when you say you put all
of your works, even the things which men highly esteem, even
the things which you highly esteem by nature, you put all those
in the category of filth of the flesh. You see an example of
that in Philippians 3. When Paul said, all those things
that were gained to me, I count but loss for Christ. And I don't
want to be found in my own righteousness, which is of the law, because
that's an unrighteousness. So there, and then somebody talks
about the circumcision of Christ. What does that mean? That's not
talking about when he was an infant and eight days old, they
took him to the temple to have him circumcised. That's not what
that's talking about. What's it talking about? It's
talking about his death. And I'll deal with that next
week. But verse 12, buried with him in baptism. Now that's not
talking about water baptism. That's not even in the context.
The word baptism means to be placed into. That's what it means. And what kind of baptism is he
talking about? Well he says wherein also you
are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God
who hath raised him from the dead. Now let me just give you
a general word about this and then I'll come back and Lord
will and go into it in detail. But what he's talking about is
the reality of a believer's union with Christ, meaning that his
fullness is my fullness. Why am I filled so full of Christ? You know, somebody said, that
preacher's full of bull. I had a man from Texas, he told
me, he said, he heard a man preach and he said, that was a longhorn
sermon. I said, what's that? And he said, a point here and
a point there and a lot of bull in between. Well, that's not
what we want, is it? We want to hear about the fullness
of Christ. And that's what he's talking about here, our union
with Christ. And how we are, if you're a believer,
that means you were united to Christ in His death. Because
our union with Christ, we have been delivered from the dominion
of sin. He's my representative, that's
union with Him. In other words, when Christ was
set up before the foundation of the world to be the surety
of his people, he's our representative, he's our surety. My sins were
imputed, charged, accounted to him. He is righteousness to me. I was united to Christ in redemption. When he died, he didn't die for
himself, he died for his people. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. That's redemptive union with
Christ. He's my substitute. That's what
all those sacrifices on the Jewish altars typified. The Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Behold the Lamb of God which
beareth away the sin of the world. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. The Lord laid upon him all of
our iniquities. That teaches the gospel doctrines
of substitution and imputation and satisfacts. Christ died for
his sheep. That's our union with him. So
that when he died, if you're one of his sheep now, evidenced
by your faith in him, that means you died with him. Now you weren't
there personally, but you were there in him. He
was your representative, your surety, your substitute, your
redeemer. When He was buried, I was buried. When He arose, I arose. And that's
proof that I'm a partaker of His fullness. Everything that
He is and that He accomplished, you see, as far as my salvation,
fills me full. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And in time, if I'm in union
with Him, there is a union of regeneration, a union of faith.
I'll be brought to Christ where I put Him on, put on the new
man. And then there's a mediatorial
union with Christ. Where is He now? He's risen from
the dead. When He arose again, I rose.
He's my substitute. And then He ascended unto the
Father. And He ever lives for what purpose? to make intercession
for his people. That's our union with Christ.
Now that's what Paul's talking about in verses 11 and 12 and
13. I'm going to go into detail on
that next week because like I said the language here is a little
difficult. That's what he means. Now he's not talking about the
ordinance, the Christian ordinance of water baptism. If you want
to find that, go to other scriptures. It's there. But what do we confess
in water baptism? We confess that when Christ died,
we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
When he arose, we arose. That's believer's baptism. That's
a believer's confession that Christ's fullness is our fullness
and he's our hope. Jesus Christ has made to me all
I need for salvation, for life and glory.