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. And I hope that this program
will be helpful to you if you're interested in and if you endeavor
to study the word of God, the Bible. That's what this program
is all about. Studying the scriptures, finding
out what God has for his people in the word, which leads sinners
to seek and find salvation by the grace of God in Christ Jesus
the Lord. And today I'm going to preach
to you on the subject of Complete in Christ. That's the title of
the message, Complete in Christ. This is part two. Last week was
part one, so if you didn't hear that, order the message. We'll
be glad to send it to you, or you can visit our website and
listen to it. But it's based upon these two
verses here in Colossians, the book of Colossians, that's the
text. If you want to find it in the New Testament, Paul's
epistle to the church at a place called Colossae. And this is
Colossians, the Colossian believers. And it says in verse 9 of Colossians
chapter 2, For in him, that's in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, And verse
10 says, and you are complete in Him, which is the head of
all principality and power. Complete in Christ. Now when
the Bible says here that in Him, in Christ, that's speaking of
Christ as the Savior and the Redeemer of His people. It's
speaking of Christ as he was set up and appointed before the
foundation of the world in the everlasting covenant of grace
to be the surety and the substitute of the people whom God had given
him, God's elect. Now, a surety is one who stands
for responsible, accountable, for the debt and the safety and
the welfare of another. And when Christ was set up to
be the surety of his people, they were given to him, and the
whole responsibility of their salvation was placed on his shoulders. Not on theirs, but on his. All
of the debt of their sins was charged, accounted, imputed,
is the word the Bible uses, to him. And he was made sin. And it was all based upon a just
ground. You see, God chose a people,
and the kind of people that God chose were sinners who fell in
Adam. And God chose them even before
they fell, but that was part of His plan. We fell in Adam.
And we had nothing to recommend the Son to God. I hear people
talking about election, for example. Is God looking down through a
telescope of time and foreseeing who would believe or who would
repent, who would cooperate? My friend, you will not find
that within the pages of this book. Last week, I talked about
there in verse eight, of Colossians 2, beware lest any man spoil
you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of
men's, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
That kind of thinking about God looking down through a telescope
of time and choosing a people based upon what he foresaw, that's
the kind of vain deceit, philosophy, traditions of men that takes
people's minds away from Christ. That makes salvation condition
on the sinner and not on the sinner's substitute who is Christ.
So God's choice of a people was people who had nothing to recommend
us unto God. Sinners who deserved nothing
earned nothing but damnation and death. And that's why it's
called the election of grace. Grace cannot be earned or deserved. Mercy, sovereign mercy, mercy
cannot be earned or deserved. Let me tell you something, if
anything God gives you, anything in your mind now, I'm talking
about how you think, if anything God gives you, whether it's salvation,
any of its benefits, any of its blessings, if he gives it to
you because you earned it or you deserved it, it is not grace,
it is not mercy. Well, here's the point. The Bible
tells us that God never gives any of His chosen people what
they deserve or earn, because Christ took their place. Now,
if God ever gives any of us what we've earned or deserved, I can
tell you exactly what it'll be. It'll be justice in our damnation
and eternal death, because the wages of sin is death, Romans
6, 23. The gift of God, not the wages,
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So it says, in Him, in Christ, Colossians 2.9. Now, God has
determined that in the salvation of His people, He is glorified
in every attribute of His nature and character. And we can summarize
it in the statement or in the issue of this, that God is both
a just God and a Savior. Now that phrase, a just God and
a Savior, you'll find it in the book of Isaiah chapter 45, but
it's all through the Bible. You see, God is a merciful God. God is a gracious God. God is a loving God. You understand
that. People talk about that all the
time today, but they talk about it wrongly. Now listen, He's
merciful. He delights to show mercy. I
want to preach to you the mercy of God, the covenant mercies,
the tender mercies of God. God is a loving God. God loves
His people. He loves Himself. He loves His
Son. He loves His people. And His love is everlasting. It's immutable love. It doesn't
change. There's no such thing in the Bible as God loving a
person one day and then hating them the next. Now God does hate.
That's His justice. That's what that is. That's not
the sinful hatred that we engage in. Our hatred is sin, but when
God hates, it's a just punishment and a just hatred. Righteous hatred, righteous indignation. It's right for God to do so.
He has to. He hates all workers of iniquity.
But the Bible says that he justifies the ungodly. Well, God is love. He is mercy. God is gracious.
But now here's the point. I pray that the Holy Spirit will
seal this in your mind and cause you to seek out this issue. God
is merciful, God is loving, God is gracious. But he cannot be
merciful and he cannot be gracious and loving apart from justice
being satisfied. Do you understand that? Now,
who satisfied the justice of God? Well, Christ did. And so
there is no mercy from God. I can't tell you that God has
been merciful to you in salvation. I can't tell you that God loves
you. Now, preachers do that all the time, but they're not biblical.
I can't tell you that God has been gracious to you outside
of Christ. You see, God's love, God's mercy,
God's grace is all in Christ. Paul, when he was talking about
the what I call the believer's motto. In Galatians 6.14, he
makes this statement. Let's look at that passage in
Galatians chapter six. And he's talking about salvation.
And wherein that we glory. He says in Galatians 6.14, he
says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. God forbid that I should boast
or have confidence in anything for salvation except the cross. Now the cross is not talking
about a piece of wood or a piece of metal that you wear around
your neck or some church puts up on the wall. The cross is
talking about the successful redemptive work of the Lord Jesus
Christ in his death, in his burial and his resurrection, whereby
he put away the sins of his people, he paid the debt in full, and
established a righteousness that enables God to be just and still
save them, to be just and love them, to be just and be merciful
to them. That's why Christ died. Christ
didn't die on the cross to get God to love his people. He died
on the cross because God loved his people from the beginning.
from everlasting. And so it says, save the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world, in verse 15. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature, a new creation. And look at verse 16. And as
many as walk according to this rule, what rule? God forbid that
I should glory, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peace
be on them. I can speak peace to anybody
who is glorying only in Christ crucified and raised from the
dead as the Lord their righteousness. And mercy, God has been merciful
to them and upon the Israel of God. There's the true Israel
of God. All who believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'll show you that in just a moment. Go back to
Colossians 2. Now there in verse nine, for in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In this person, Jesus Christ,
and based upon what he accomplished on the cross of Calvary to pay
for the sins of his people, to redeem them by his blood, and
to establish righteousness for them, we see the fullness of
the glory of the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost, the glory of the triune Godhead is seen
in the face of Jesus Christ. Bodily, that is God in human
flesh. And then he says in verse 10,
now because that's true, all who believe in him, all who rest
in him, all who plead his righteousness as their only ground of salvation
and their only source of spiritual life, You are complete in Him,
verse 10, which is the head of all principality and power. Complete. Now you wanna know something
about completeness? You cannot add anything to it. If you can add something to this
situation, then it wasn't complete to begin with. And if you take
anything away from it, it's incomplete. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the salvation of his people based upon Jesus Christ,
crucified, buried, and risen from the dead, and ascended unto
the Father. My whole salvation is complete
not in me, not by me, not anything done by me, but in Christ. That's as I stand in Christ. I'm complete. I'm completely
forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm completely saved. He's able to keep that which
I've committed. These people who tell you you
can be saved one day and then lost by doing something terrible,
they don't believe they're complete in Christ. They believe it's
conditioned on them. Christ fulfilled all the conditions.
I'm complete in Him. Completely saved. I'm completely
assured of heaven's glory in Him. Now I know what they say. I know their argument that unbelievers
bring against that. They say, well that means we
can sin all we want. No, it does not. Because not only am I completely
forgiven and completely saved, not only am I completely righteous,
completely justified based on His righteousness imputed, I'm
also completely born of God. I have a new spirit, a new heart,
a new mind. Look over at Colossians chapter
three, in verse one. Here it says, if you then be
risen with Christ, that is, if he died for me, if he was buried
for me, if he was raised again for me, then seek those things
which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of
God. In verse two, set your affection, your mind, your heart on things
above and not on things of the earth. You see, Christ, the grace
of God, based upon Christ's righteousness imputed, is not only the ground
of our justification, being not guilty, a right standing with
God, but it's also the source and the power of our regeneration,
the new birth, which gives us a new way of thinking, a new
knowledge, a new desire to fight sin, all sin, and to obey God. And he preserves us. The Holy
Spirit indwells. I'm completely born again. And
listen, I am completely righteous, not in myself, but in Him. I'm
complete in Him. In Christ, and because of what
Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross in my stead as my surety
and substitute, God cannot and will not charge me with my sin. I'm a sinner, but He will not
charge me with my sin. The Bible says in Romans chapter
8, I believe it's verse 33 or 34, 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. It's Romans
8, 33 and 34. It's Christ that died, yea rather
who is risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father
ever living to make intercession. He continually pleads the merits
of his righteousness imputed to me, and I cannot be lost. I cannot lose salvation. David
said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
And Paul, he expounded upon that as the Holy Spirit inspired him
to do so in Romans chapter four and verse six, which says, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
That's completeness. I'm completely assured for heaven
in Christ. And this Christ, look at verse
10 of Colossians 2. This Christ, this one, this Savior,
he's the head of all principality and power. There's nobody above
him. He cannot be defeated. His purpose
and his desires cannot be thwarted or even hindered. Satan can't
do it. You can't do it. I can't do it.
He's sovereign. He's the head of all principality. That is everything, every kingdom,
every nation that's been created, every family, and power. There's no power above him. He's
omnipotent, as we say. And then look at verse 11 of
Colossians 2. It says, in whom, which is Christ, 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, obviously here, he's not talking about a physical
circumcision. He's talking about spiritual
circumcision. We look at spiritual circumcision
in several ways, but there's circumcision that took place
when Christ died on the cross. Look at verse 12. That's what
this is talking about. Verse 12. It says, "...when he
put off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ." That means Christ took the sins of his people.
He was cut off from God, remember he cried and it's recorded in
Matthew 27, he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? That's that legal alienation
between the father and the son because of the sins of God's
people imputed, accounted to him. And he died. And so what did he do? He was
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. All the sins of
his people laid upon him legally, imputation, imputed sin. And
he was cut off, and then verse 12 of Colossians 2, buried with
him in baptism that is placed into him wherein also you are
risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath
raised him from the dead. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. You see, he was my representative.
He was my surety. He is my substitute. He's my
redeemer. What he did, he did not do for
himself, he did it for his people. But then, then there's also circumcision
of the heart, which is the fruit, the result of what Christ did
when he died on that cross, was buried and arose again. and that's
spiritual circumcision of the heart. Now the apostle Paul dealt
with that over in Romans chapter two. You know, the Jews, the
unbelieving Jews, they relished in the circumcision of the flesh.
The male children were circumcised. They represented the whole family.
And they used to plead circumcision as one of the things that recommended
them unto God, physical circumcision. Well, Paul was adamant about
that and all the believers were, even the Jewish believers, that
physical circumcision meant nothing as far as a right relationship
with God. And listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter two,
verse 28. Now this is a very, very significant
verse. He says, for he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly. Now to be a Jew outwardly is
to be a physical descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Judah. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,
physical. And then verse 29, but he is
a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart. The heart is the mind, the affections,
the will, the conscience, the inner man. Circumcision is that
of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, that is, not
in the law, whose praise is not of men, but of God. You see that? He's talking about spiritual
circumcision there. We'll look back at Colossians
2, look at verse 13. Listen to this. and you being dead in your
sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Now that's
talking about a believer's union with Christ in his death, burial,
and resurrection. Quickened together. Quickened
means to be given life. Well, representatively, Christ
as our surety and our substitute, the substitute of his people,
he died, was buried, arose again for them. And they were quickened
together. And that is the ground of all
forgiveness. And when Christ did that, listen
to verse 14. He 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. What is the
handwriting of ordinances? That's the law. The law that
condemned us based upon our sins was taken out of the way by Christ's
death on the cross based on the sins of His people charged to
Him. He died to satisfy the law so
that the law is no longer against us. The law, which demands righteousness,
looks upon God's people in Christ and they are righteous based
on His righteousness imputed. And so he says in verse 15, and
having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it, or in himself. In other words, all the things
that we look at in this earth that are powerful, these principalities,
the kings of the earth, the religions of man, the philosophies of man,
even Satan himself, who's the prince of the power there, what
Christ did is he defeated all of it. He spoiled it. He made
a show of Him openly. How did He do that? Well, He
died, but He didn't stay dead. He was buried, He didn't stay
buried. He arose again the third day and ascended into the Father.
And so that's what He's talking about. We're complete in Him,
if we're in Him. The evidence of being in Him
is believing in Him and repenting of our dead works. So He says
in verse 16, now listen to this. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or the new moon,
or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come,
but the body is of Christ." Now, what do men relish in? Usually,
it's something like what they abstain from. We don't eat that
meat. We don't drink that drink. We don't watch this or watch
that. Now my friends, let me tell you
something. I'm not here, I'm not a health consultant or anything
like that. I would say there are things
that people shouldn't eat and shouldn't drink, shouldn't watch.
But here's the point. We don't glory in those things. They don't recommend us unto
God. What I do or don't do does not
save me. It does not keep me saved. It
does not bring me into glory. I'm complete in Christ. If I choose not to eat certain
meats, okay, for my health or whatever. Now, if I think I eat
this meat, I'm gonna be a sinner, or if I don't eat it, it'll make
me more righteous or more acceptable to God. Now, that's legalism.
That's denying Christ. Look on what he says. He says,
verse 18, let no man beguile you of your reward, the reward
is of grace, in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding
into those things which he had not seen vainly puffed up by
his fleshly mind. You see, that's the religion
of man. all those things that people do and don't do, what
they think. The body is of Christ. He said
that all the things that the old covenant, there were prohibitions,
don't do this, don't do that. There were commands, do this,
do that. These things were a shadow of
things to come. That whole old covenant exposed
the sinfulness of man and showed that he was deserving of condemnation
because of his sin. But it was a schoolmaster to
lead him up to the time of Christ. And the body is of Christ. The
church is the body. That's the body he's talking
about. Christ's church is his body. He's the head. His church
is the body. He's the head of the church. He's the foundation of the church.
He's the heart of the church. And the church, believers, made
up of believers, the church is not a building, it's people,
sinners saved by grace, who have been called out of the world
by Christ through the Holy Spirit and into the kingdom of God through
the gospel, and they're complete in Him. 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. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.