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. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of Colossians,
chapter 2, beginning at verse 14. And the title of the message
is, Jesus Christ, the End of the Law. Jesus Christ, the end
of the law. Now I'm gonna be preaching from
Colossians 2, as I said, beginning at verse 14. That's my text. But I've taken the title of this
message from another passage of scripture in Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10 in verse four. And that's where the Apostle
Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to make this statement.
He says in Romans 10 in verse four, for Christ, is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Meaning
this, that if you're a believer, then you know that Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. Now that word end there in Romans
10, four, it means he's the finishing of the law. It means he's the
completion of it, the perfect fulfillment of it. He's the perfection
of the law. It's the same word that Christ
used on the cross when he was hanging there in John 19, 30,
and he said, it is finished. And he meant his work on the
cross, but it also included the law, the law of Moses, the old
covenant law. He's the end of the law for righteousness. And that law is a summation of
the whole righteousness of God. that God requires for the salvation,
for the justification of His people. Now if you'll look at
our text in Colossians chapter 2, here it's been speaking, Paul's
been speaking of the death of Christ on the cross and the union
of His people with Him in that death. Christ is the representative
of His people. Now think about it this way,
union with Christ. Christ and His people, His sheep,
His church, God's elect, all believers, are one with Him,
united with Him, one with Him, placed into Him, in the eyes
of God's law and justice. So that He is the representative
of His people. See, in order to stand before
God and be accepted, I need a proper representative. And then he is
the surety of his people. Now surety is one who stands
accountable, responsible for the debt of another. And Christ
was made the surety of his people, surety of his people. He's called
the surety of the covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace,
which means that all of the conditions of the fulfillment of the promises
of that covenant were placed upon him. And all the debt of
the sins of his people were laid to his charge, imputed to him. He was made sin. The Lord laid
on him the iniquity of us all. That's the debt of sin, charged
to his account. And so he became responsible
to pay that debt. And of course, in order to pay
the debt, he had to be our substitute. Representative, surety, our substitute. He had to actually take my place
under the wrath of His Father and satisfy justice by His death
as God-man, shedding His blood, redeemed by the blood of the
crucified one. And in His death, righteousness
has been established in the gospel. It's called the righteousness
of God. And it's the merit, the value, the worthiness of Christ,
obedience unto death. And as my sins were charged to
Him, imputed to Him, His righteousness is imputed to me so that I stand
before God righteous in Christ. I'm not righteous in myself yet.
I will be when I die and go to be with the Lord. But I am truly,
honestly, greatly, blessedly righteous before God. God will
not charge me with sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. So he's my representative,
he's my surety, he's my substitute, he's my redeemer, he's my mediator
and intercessor, and one with him. So when Christ did all of
that work, last week I talked about the operation of God, he
secured the salvation of his people, And he did it by his
death, burial, and resurrection. And in that, here's what he did.
Now look at verse 14 of Colossians 2. It says, 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 the cross. Now what did he do? Well, the
whole law of God, that was against us, against his people, his elect. Now how was it against us? Well,
back over in the book of Galatians, and in Galatians chapter three,
listen to this. This is verse 10 of Galatians
chapter three. It says, for as many as are of
the works of the law, are under the curse. Now do you hear that? Now who is of the works of the
law? Well, he's talking about people who are trying to keep
the law for righteousness, for salvation, for acceptance with
God. They're trying to work their
way into God's favor. They're trying to earn their
way into God's favor and blessings and rewards. And he says they're
under the curse. Now why? Well, it's written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Verse 11 of Galatians 3,
but that no man is justified, that is declared by God legally
not guilty and to be righteous by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident. And then he says, for the just
shall live by faith. Now I'll come back to that. Now
look back at Colossians 2 and verse 14. The handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, against the Jews under the old
covenant, contrary to us. Why was the law given? Why was
the law of Moses given to the Jews, to the Israelites on Sinai? It was not given as a way of
salvation. God never said, well, now if
you'll keep this law, you'll be saved. Now he told him, he
said, if you do the deeds of the law, you'll be blessed and
all that. But it wasn't for salvation because man cannot be justified. He cannot be saved. He cannot
be forgiven. He cannot be declared righteous
before God by works or deeds of the law. The law was given to show them
their sin, to show them that they deserved nothing but death
and hell based on their best efforts to keep the law. The
law entered that sin might abound, Paul wrote in Galatians 5. But
where sin abounded, grace did much more. You see, salvation
is not by law, it's by grace. The law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so the law condemns any sinner
to whom sin is imputed. And every sinner who's trying
to work their way into God's favor, it condemns them. It's
against them. And that's what he's saying here,
that Christ, by His obedience unto death, His perfection, the
righteousness that He established, He blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us.
He took it out of the way. He finished it. He made an end
of it. He made an end of sin. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He
said He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Christ
satisfied the justice of the law. Now go back to Galatians
chapter three. Now he says in verse 11, but
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, that's
evident, for the just, that's the justified, shall live by
faith. In other words, the justified.
Now who are the justified? Well, it's God's elect. That's who the Bible says they
are. It's all those who are justified in God's sight based upon the
fact that their sins were charged to Christ, and He died in their
place satisfying justice, and His righteousness, which comes
out of what He accomplished, His keeping of the law, His satisfying
the law, His righteousness is imputed, charged to them. They're
justified, they're not guilty. They're righteous in God's sight,
not because of their works, not because of their cooperation,
not even because of their decision for Christ. They're justified
by the cross, by the blood, based on His righteousness imputed.
And they do live that spiritual life in the new birth. You see,
the righteousness of Christ imputed is not only the ground of justification,
the ground of salvation, it's also the source and power of
spiritual life. which raises us from the dead
in the new birth, and we live, but how do we live? Not trying
to keep the law in order to be saved. We live by faith. We live
looking to following, resting in Jesus Christ as our whole
salvation. And then look at Galatians 3
and verse 12. Galatians 3 and verse 12. The
law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live
in them. The law does not command us to believe. The law commands
one thing, do. Do it, perfectly. Not 99 and
44, 100%, but 100%. And those who don't keep it all
are under the curse. The law says, do and live, disobey
and die. It doesn't say believe. But verse
13 of Galatians 3 says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And verse 14, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Now the blessing of Abraham is salvation by God's grace. God justifies the ungodly based
on the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now with that in mind,
go back to Colossians 2. Now Christ blotted that out.
And in verse 15, it says, and having spoiled principalities
and power, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it or in himself. What does that mean? It means
he defeated Satan and his kingdom. That's what he's talking about,
principalities and powers. Satan is called the devil. That
means he's the adversary, he's the accuser of the brethren.
and he accuses the brethren of sin. But the problem with his
accusations that when it comes to those for whom Christ died
and was buried and arose again, his accusations don't stick. You understand what I'm saying?
I'm a sinner, but God does not keep a record of those sins in
his law books because they're covered by the blood of Christ.
Now, I know people today, they say, well, that just means we
can sin all we want. No, it does not. You can take it that way
if you want to, but that just leaves you in the darkness and
deception of unbelief. As I said, the righteousness
of Christ imputed is not only the ground of salvation, it's
the power and the source of new life, a new heart. That's the new birth, new motives,
new desires. that causes us to fight sin and
want and desire to be like Him and to follow Him and to repent. But you see, it's what Christ
did alone on the cross that blotted out the handwriting of ordinances,
that spoiled principalities and power. See, He's the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone. Our believing, now think about
it this way. Our believing does not save us in itself. because we can believe things
that are wrong. Christ saves us and we believe in Him. Believing
is the way that God brings us to Christ. Repentance is the
way that He, it's repentance unto life, that He brings us
to Christ who is our life. So he says, look over here in
verse 16. Now think about this. He says,
let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. Verse 17, which are a shadow
of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Now, first of all,
the body that he's talking about there is the church. Christ is
the head, the church is the body. And you see, here's the thing.
People want to judge righteousness and salvation by such things
as he's listed here, what you eat or don't eat, what you drink
or don't drink, what day you keep or don't keep. I know people
who say we ought to be keeping the Jewish festivals under the
old Levitical law. and that's how they judge salvation
or righteousness. Sabbath days, new moons, Sabbath
days, the Sabbath. The word Sabbath means rest.
Under the old covenant, it was in a day. It was on Saturday,
the seventh day of the week. Under the new covenant, And those
things were shadows of things to come. That's Christ who was
to come. Under the New Covenant, the Sabbath is Christ. It refers
to the believer's rest in Christ. Under the New Covenant, our Sabbath
is not a day. You know, people talk about Sunday.
Well, is Sunday the Christian Sabbath? No. I had a Seventh-day
Adventist ask me this one time because he talked to other pastors.
And he'd ask them the question. He said, well, where in the Bible
did it say that God changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to
Sunday? And they all try to answer him
with the traditions of men. There's nothing in the Bible
that says that God did that. And he asked me the same thing.
Where in the Bible does it say God changed the Sabbath day from
Saturday to Sunday? And I said, it's not in the Bible.
God never changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday.
And he was taken aback. I said, but under the new covenant,
our Sabbath is not in a day like it was under the old covenant.
That was a physical type picture shadow that was given to a rebellious
people, unbelieving people, a nation that didn't believe to force
them to follow God's commands and keep them together until
the Messiah comes. Our Sabbath under the new covenant
is Christ. We rest in him. Read Hebrews
chapter four. Well, does that mean that we
don't have any special days? No. Sunday is the first day of
the week. It's the day of the new beginnings,
the new covenant. You might even say it's like
the eighth day. Seven days, and then the first
day of the week is also the eighth day. And the eighth day, that's
when the Hebrew children were circumcised. That represented
a new beginning. And Sunday's not our Sabbath
day, but it is the Lord's day on which the New Covenant Church
met together to worship. It's a special day. It's the
Lord's day. Every day is the Lord's day. And we're to see
it that way. But Sunday is a special day.
Not because it's a holy day that makes us righteous if we don't
work or don't do this or don't play or whatever, don't watch
TV. No. Don't let any man judge you.
Don't let any man judge you saved or lost based upon a Sabbath
day. Don't let anybody judge you righteous
or unrighteous based on that. See, that's legalism. I rest
continually in Christ. He is my Sabbath. Christ is the
Christian Sabbath. Sunday's a day when we meet as
a body in Christ, where the gospel is preached to worship the Lord.
And he says in verse 17, which are a shadow of things to come. But the church, the identity
of the church, is not in those things. The body, the church,
and its identity is of Christ. How do you know what a true church
is and what a false church is? Probably many of you go to church,
go to a group. How do you know you're worshiping
in a true church? Well, the true church is where
Christ is preached, not just some general notion of Christ
or of Jesus, but where he is preached, where he is identified
and distinguished from the Word of God, who he is. He's God in
human flesh, God-man. What he did, he accomplished
the salvation of his people. He didn't try to save everybody.
He didn't make salvation possible. He assured and secured the salvation
of his people. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. That believeth what? That believeth
that He is their righteousness. And so why did He do it? For
the glory of God and the salvation of His people. Where is He now?
He's risen from the dead and He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, having secured the salvation of His people.
He didn't make salvation something that you can gain or lose. That's
a false church. He secured it. And so He said,
the body is of Christ. And so he says in verse 18, let
no man beguile you or judge against you of your reward, the reward
of grace in a voluntary humility, that's a self-imposed humility,
not a Holy Spirit-worked humility, and worshiping of angels, people
worship anything and everything, intruding into those things which
he had not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Now I'll
go over some of this the next time, because these are important
things you need to understand. But in verse 19 he says, and
not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands
having nourishment, ministered and knit together, increaseth
with the increase of God. Now all that is simply saying
that it is Christ that holds his body together. Christ is
the one. Christ is the foundation of the
church. Christ is the head of the church. Christ is the heart of the church. He is the one who brings, he
redeemed his church, he paid for their sins with his precious
blood. They are justified in his righteousness
imputed. Metaphorically, they wear the
robe, the wedding garment of his righteousness, which he wove
and put on them. Cannot be contaminated, cannot
be taken off. And He holds them together. He
called them into the fold by the Spirit in the new birth under
the gospel. And He holds everything together
in the fellowship of faith and love. And all of this is because
He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believes. You see, I have no righteousness
but what I have in Him. by His righteousness imputed
to me." And that's why the psalmist said, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And Paul was quoting
there from Psalm 32 where David said, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit is no dishonesty. It's not that we can't tell a
lie. I know what that means is that we're honest before God
about our sinfulness, our deservedness of condemnation, and that our
only hope is in Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Now, every bit of that is accomplished
by Him. Every bit of that is completed
by Him. Every bit of that is held together
comes together and preserved by him, by his grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he talks about Christ
being the head, verse 19, not holding the head from which we
don't hold him up, he holds us up. And so if you're dead with
Christ, you're justified and you will be regenerated. You will be made alive. We died
with Him, we're buried with Him, raised again with Him. We'll
be made alive by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. That's regeneration
and conversion who brings us to believe in Christ, who brings
us to repent of dead works and idolatry, who brings us to see
that our hope is in Christ and in Him alone. And there's no
other way of salvation. There's no other way for righteousness.
You can keep all the holy days you want to keep. You can stop
eating this and start eating that. Stop drinking this and
start drinking, you know, somebody asked me one time and said, well,
aren't there things that we shouldn't eat and shouldn't drink? Well,
yeah. We're to be moderate in all things. We're to live our
lives in moderation and temperance. But even that doesn't make us
righteous before God. What we eat or drink has nothing
to do with the righteousness in which we stand before God
if we're believers. Keeping holy days and feast days
and Sabbath days, all of those things. Voluntary humility. You see, even lost people can
be humble before men, but they can't be humble before God. Because
to be humble before God is to submit to Christ as the Lord
your righteousness. As long as you think that anything
that you do or don't do or anything that proceeds from you can recommend
you unto God or make you righteous before God or earn your blessings
from God, you're not humble before God. A sinner who's been brought
to true humility before a holy God is one who admits that if
God were to judge him, right now, based on his best efforts
to keep the law, he would be condemned forever. The psalmist
in Psalm 113 verse 3 put it this way, O Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? None of us, if God would impute
sin. Thank God he doesn't impute sin
to his people, he imputed it to Christ. He imputes righteousness
to his people. Paul cried out as a saved man,
oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body
of this death? And he said, I thank my God,
thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. And then he went on
to say, and he said, with the mind I serve the law, serve God,
with the spirit and the mind I serve God. with the flesh serves
sin. But he said, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ. No condemnation. How can that be? Well, verse
20, he says, wherefore, if you be dead with Christ, now how
are we dead with Christ? Justified from the rudiments
of the world. Don't live like the world. Now
we'll get into that next week. And 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
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2-3. Thank you again for listening
today, and may the Lord be with you.