Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us for this Bible study as I preach
through the word of God. Today I'm going to be preaching
through in the book of Colossians chapter two. I've done several
messages out of this book in this chapter. And today I'm going
to talk to you about this subject, holding on to Christ, holding
on to Christ. And the title is taken from verse
19. of Colossians 2.9, where it talks
about not holding the head. The head there is Christ, who
is the head of the church. Holding on to Christ. And that
can pretty much be a summation of the Christian life, a believer's
life, spending our lives holding on to Christ, clinging to Christ. For all salvation, for all holiness,
for all righteousness, for all the blessings and benefits of
salvation. And the reason that the Apostle
Paul was inspired by the Spirit to talk about this subject is
because in the early church, as well as in the true church
in all ages, there are always false preachers, false believers,
who will creep into the church and try to dissuade believers
from looking to Christ and Christ alone for all salvation. And one of the main tools, and
this is a satanic tool that people use to try to get your eyes off
of Christ for salvation is to get your eyes on yourself. Look
within. For example, they'll talk about,
well, we're saved by grace. But there's so many things that
we have to do in order to make salvation sure or make ourselves
more righteous and acceptable before God. And back in the days
of Paul in the Gentile churches here, these churches were made
up of believing Jews and believing Gentiles. But as it is in every
church and every age, there are always, in this life, until Christ
comes again and raptures His church unto Himself and glorifies
us together, there'll always be a mixture of believers and
unbelievers. And these unbelievers will be
professing believers. And back then, there were unbelieving
Jews. who came in and tried to bring
believers under the law and get their minds, get people's minds
off of Christ and onto themselves as law keepers. And so if you'll
look here, look at verse 18. Now Paul had talked about how
Christ was the end or the finishing of the law for righteousness
to everyone who believes. When Christ died on the cross,
The old covenant law was finished and abolished by way of fulfillment
in the death of Christ. And so now under the new covenant,
the New Testament, believers follow the law of Christ. Somebody
said one time, well, if we're not under the old covenant law,
what law are we under? Well, whatever Christ says, the
commands of Christ that he gives to his people. And there's a
difference there, but we don't have time to go into that. But
Paul had written here in verse 17, he says that those things
were a shadow of things to come. The elements, the physical things
that made up the old covenant law, they were types, they were
pictures, they were shadows of better things to come in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, now look at verse
18. He says, let no man beguile you. Now that literally means,
you may have this in your concordance, means to judge against you, beguile
you or judge against you or try to take away from you in judgment
of your reward, your reward in a voluntary humility, Now, voluntary
humility is a self-imposed humility. It's a false humility because
men and women think that it's a true show of humility, but
it's a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, that was
very common back then as it is today, intruding into those things
which he had not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Now, what's happening here is
it's kind of like this. You remember he says, let no
man beguile you of your reward. Now, what do you think of when
you think of the word reward when it comes to salvation? Now,
there are so many people today who will tell you something like
this. They'll say, well, salvation is by grace. I'm saved by grace. I'll go to heaven by grace. But
my rewards in heaven are based on my works. Well, my friend,
that's the very heresy that he's talking about here. It's like
somebody back then who would say, well now, you're saved by
Christ, by His grace, but you have to keep the law to get your
reward or greater rewards in heaven. And that is totally opposed
to the grace of God. The Apostle Paul dealt with that
subject over in Romans chapter four when he was talking about
how Abraham was justified before God by his grace based upon the
righteousness of Christ imputed and not by his works. And he
says in verse four of Romans chapter four, now to him that
worketh, that is worketh for blessings, benefits, salvation,
is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. Now the very
moment that you talk about earning your rewards or gaining your
rewards by your efforts, you've left grace and you've gone into
the realm of debt. That's what that is. That's what
God owes you. But my friend, let me tell you
something. God never puts his people or he never allows his
people to put him in a position where he owes anything to them
by way of debt. It's all of grace. And grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So it's based upon
the work of Christ, his obedience unto death. Everything that I
have in salvation, by way of all of its benefits and blessings,
is a reward not that I work for, not of debt, but of grace. And
it was all conditioned on Christ who fulfilled those conditions.
So he says when people come in and try to impose rules and regulations
and human rules and regulations, laws upon you in order to gain
your reward, or if you don't submit to what they're saying
you're going to lose your reward, don't let them judge against
you that way. Don't let them beguile you of
your reward in a voluntary humility. Now that voluntary humility is
self-imposed humility. It's a false humility because
it's wrapped up in what we call a show of humility, or what people
think is a show of humility. Now, a perfect example of that
is found in, for example, Matthew chapter six in the Sermon on
the Mount, and I'll just, where the apostle talks about the giving
of money, the giving of alms to charity, and he talks about
praying, and then he talks about fasting, and people do those
things publicly because they want people to see them because
it's a voluntary, I think it's a show of humility. And he tells
me, he said, when you give your alms to men, when you give your
money to charity, don't let people see you. When you pray, don't
do it publicly so that people can see you, as if that means
something. Because prayer is a private thing. We pray publicly in our worship
services, corporately, because we're commanded to. We meet together
to sing praises and hymns and pray together and hear the gospel.
But out in public, people standing on street corners or in restaurants
praying to be seen of men. And then in Matthew chapter 6
and verse 16, where he talks about fasting, listen to this.
He says, Moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a
sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear
unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. All right, they think that gives
them reward when they appear before men to be fasting because
that's a voluntary humility. Look how humble I am. I had a
fellow write me a note. He wrote a note to several people
on the internet and he said, I want all of you all to pray
for me because I'm getting ready to go on a seven day fast. Well,
I wrote him back and I said, well, you shouldn't have told
us that. Listen to what Christ says in Matthew 6, 17, But thou,
when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that
thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is
in secret. and thy father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly." You see, true humility is the
work of God upon His people that brings them to faith in Christ
and repentance of their dead works. Realizing that, look,
my fasting, if I fast, I may have my reasons, but it's not
to show you anything. Some people told, a guy, a fella
told me one time, he said, well, praying in public is our testimony.
No, it's not. You know what the believer's
testimony is? The believer's testimony is the
preaching, the witnessing of the gospel wherein Christ is
revealed, where God is revealed as a just God and a Savior. Now,
are we to pray? Sure, we're to pray. Every believer
is to be a praying person. but not to be seen of men, not
thinking that that's our witness. The Bible says in Matthew chapter
five and verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
The light there is not the good works. The light is the gospel. Now we're to live our lives before
men in honesty and obedience and all that, but not as a vain
show, not as a witness. We don't want to let our behavior
get in the way of our witness when we tell people the gospel.
So that's what he's talking about in Colossians chapter two and
verse 18. He says, in a voluntary humility, he says, worshiping
of angels. That's another way that people
get their eyes off of Christ. It's just like Catholicism. They
have their eyes on Mary, on the saints. They have their eyes
on the Pope, but not on Christ. You see, that's the issue. Keep
your eyes on Christ. How do we run the race of grace? How do we live the Christian
life? Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2. Looking unto Jesus. We don't look to the preacher.
We don't look to the Pope. We don't look to the angels.
We look to Christ. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher, the beginner and the completer of our faith.
And then he says, the worshiping of angels, intruding into those
things which he had not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly
mind. Those are all just acts of pride. And people don't realize it.
You know, all the years I've studied the word of God, and
as I continue to study the word of God, I'm constantly made aware
that the thoughts of men, even the religious thoughts now, even
the moral thoughts in the eyes of men, are light years away
from God's thoughts and God's judgments. Well, here's where
I got the title of the message, Holding on to Christ, verse 19.
So you see, those things take people away from Christ, looking
to Him, clinging to Him. And He says it there, and not
holding the head or holding on to the head, not holding on to
Christ, not clinging to Christ, from which all the body, that's
the church, Christ is the head, the church is His body. You see,
there's several pictures of the union between Christ and His
church. Christ is the bridegroom. His church is His bride. He bought
and paid for her with the price of His own blood. He robes her
in the robe of His righteousness imputed, qualifies her to be
His wife. So He's the husband. The church
is His wife. Christ is the head. The church
is the building. Christ is the foundation and
the cornerstone of the building. But here, He's the head of the
body. So the whole body, by joints and bands, that is, they're put
together. Christ is the builder of the
church. You know, I had a fellow one
time, he said he was a church builder. Well, if you're talking
about bricks and mortar and buildings, that's okay, but that's not the
church. Christ is the builder of the church. He told Peter
and the disciples, upon this rock, I will build my church. And incidentally, the rock there
is not Peter. The rock was Peter's confession
of Christ, who is the Son of God, the Messiah. who would come
and redeem his people, who redeemed his church with his own blood.
So they're put together, they're built up, having nourishment,
the nourishment of the church, ministered, served to them, and
kept knit together, which means kept together, increases or grows
with the increase of God and not of men. You know, nothing
would please me more than for the Lord to bring in multitudes
of people to hear and believe the true gospel into the church
I pastor and into other churches where the gospel is preached.
But whenever people go into what they call soul winning or church
building, and they wanna increase in numbers, they wanna get people
in, almost inevitably, They use human means, human instruments
that appeal to the lost to bring people into the church. And their
idea is that the way that they do it is okay because their goal
is to get people under the gospel if the gospel is preached there.
But the thing about it is, is there is nothing in the Bible
that gives us leave to do that. All we do is fill the churches
with false professing Christians. That's all we do. Lost people,
religious people. You say, well, maybe they have
changed lives. Maybe they're an alcoholic and they stopped
drinking. Well, that's okay, but that's
not salvation. Now, if you're an alcoholic,
if you overindulge in alcohol, you should stop. That's bad,
that hurts your whole life. But just stopping that and becoming
religious will not save you. Coming to Christ is what saves
sinners. And what he's talking about here
is that those who cling to Christ, they're brought into the church,
they're fit together, they're kept together, and they grow
with the growing power of God, not of man. not of man, but of
God. If I change my message to get
people to come to church, that's not an increase of God, and it's
not gonna result in people holding on to Christ. So look at verse
20. He says, wherefore, or for this
reason, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments or the elements
of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you
subject to ordinances? Now ordinances are commandments.
What's he talking about here? Well, look at verse 21. Taste
not, touch not, handle not. Verse 22, which are all to perish
with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Now that's
the problem. First of all, what is it to be
dead with Christ? Well, that speaks of the union
of Christ with his church. Christ is one with his church. Just like in the marriage vows,
when a man and a woman come together in marriage, instead of being
two, they become one flesh. That's what the scripture says.
That's what the marriage vows say. They become one. One in
foundation, one in love, one in purpose, one in goal. Well, Christ is one with His
church. And how does that filter out
as the way the scripture teaches us? Well, He's the representative
of His people. He stands before the Father as
the representative of His people. If you believe in Christ, according
to the scriptures, Christ is your representative. He represents
you. You know, we send representatives to Washington, D.C. or to Atlanta,
Georgia. to represent us. Sometimes they
do a good job, sometimes not. But Christ always does the perfect
job for His people. He's our representative. Secondly,
He's our surety. Now what is a surety? A surety
is one who willingly takes upon himself the debt of another. to pay that debt. He promises
to pay that debt. That's what a surety does. Well,
Christ was made the surety of his people before the foundation
of the world in the everlasting covenant of grace. And the debt,
the sin debt of his people was laid upon him. The Lord hath
laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Now all there is not
everybody without exception now. It's all of his sheep, all of
his people, his church. So he's the surety. If we're
in Christ, we're one with him as our representative and as
our surety. And then thirdly, we're one with him as our substitute. Not only is he our representative
and surety, but he had to actually take the place of his people. He died for his sheep, his church,
and pay their sin debt with the price of his blood. That is,
he's our redeemer. substitute Redeemer, kinsman
Redeemer. That's what Christ is. And then
in the process of time, he sends forth the Holy Spirit to give
us life in the new birth and bring us to faith in him and
we become one with him in faith. And so when he says, if you be
dead with Christ, what he's talking about is when Christ died, If
you're in Him as your representative, surety, substitute, redeemer,
then you died with Him. He died for you. He died for
all of His sheep and paid their sin debt and brought forth righteousness
whereby God could be just to justify them, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Now, that is a death from sin. It's a death from self-righteousness. It's a death from idolatry. but
it's also a death from the rudiments of the world. In other words,
the commandments that men place upon people in order to establish
their own righteousness before God. You see, I have a righteousness
complete already before God. It's not my working, it's not
my efforts, it's not within me, it's Christ who is my representative,
surety, substitute, redeemer. He's my intercessor. I stand
before God in a righteousness not my own by my words. It is
mine because God imputed it, charged it to me. And now I'm
dead to the law. The law cannot condemn me. And
I'm dead from the rudiments of the world. I don't have to use
the elements of the world. at all. Because God has given
me Christ and my righteousness is not found in what I don't
do. Touch not. Taste not. Handle
not. You know, that's what a lot of
people measure their righteousness by, what they don't do. I don't
touch this, I don't taste that, I don't handle that, I wouldn't
go there, blah, blah. Now, there are things that believers
shouldn't touch, taste, and handle, places they shouldn't go, but
that's not our righteousness before God. We hold on to Christ
as our righteousness. And all those things that men
think make them holy or make them righteous or gain their
rewards in heaven, Verse 22, they are all to perish with the
using. They're perishable. You see,
I have a righteousness before God that cannot perish. I have
a righteousness before God that cannot be contaminated. cannot
be corrupted and it cannot be removed. It's the righteousness
of God found in the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ. It's imputed to me and the Holy
Spirit has brought me to lay hold of him and cling to him,
holding on to Christ for my whole salvation. And then look at verse
23. He says, which things have indeed
a show of wisdom, these elemental legalistic taste not, touch not,
handle not, voluntary humility things, all of those things.
To men, they appear to be wise and they have a show in will
worship. Will worship is a self-imposed
worship. In other words, it's just something
people choose to do because they put stock in it or they think
it recommends them unto God, but it's not God's will. God,
in fact, he forbids it. And they have a show of will
worship, they have a show of humility. People look at that,
oh, isn't that holy, isn't that humble, you know. And neglecting
the body, punishing the body, like fasting, I'm gonna deprive
my body and I want you to see me, but not, listen, but not
in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. There's no honor
in it, not from God. There's no satisfaction in it.
And it really will not even satisfy the flesh because I guarantee
you that when you come to the end of your fasting or whatever
you're doing, you'll find that at points in your life, you'll
say, well, I've got to do more. I've got to do more. I've got
to do more. And the more is never enough.
Have you ever been in that kind of religion? You know, A person
who's involved in this legalistic religion, this taste not, touch
not, handle not, if they ever come to a point where it is enough,
that's a sad situation because that's the conscience that's
been seared over with a hot iron. You see, it's never enough. But
let me tell you who is enough. Christ is enough. He's enough
to save me. He's enough to keep me. He's
enough to justify me. He's enough to sanctify me. He's
enough to regenerate and convert me. He's enough to keep me and
preserve me and to glorify me. He is enough. He's my all and
in all. And what God has done for His
people, He brings them to a point in life where they cannot be
satisfied with anyone or anything but Christ. This voluntary humility
or will worship, this taste not, touch not, handle not, this rules
and regulations for salvation, they're never enough for a true
believer. Why? Because he's being convinced
of sin. He knows these things cannot
wash away his sins. He knows these things cannot
make him righteous and holy before God. He knows that Christ alone
is his all in all and he holds on to Christ. I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.