Now in that passage that Brother
Mark just read, Colossians chapter 1, we have what I believe is
one of the most magnificent statements made in the Scripture by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of the certainty, the absolute certainty of the
eternal complete salvation of all of God's people whom He chose
before the foundation of the world and for whom the Lord Jesus
Christ lived and died and arose the third day and for whom Christ
stands even now as the intercessor, the mediator, the advocate, you
might say the defense attorney for His people before Holy God.
We could ask the question, what right or title do I have as a
sinner to claim salvation? What right or title do I as a
sinner have to claim the blessings of God, the grace of God, salvation,
or even right and access into the presence of a holy God? What
is my right and title to do that? And it's clear from scripture,
from that passage that Brother Mark just read, that my right
and title is wholly and totally wrapped up in the glorious person
and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you may ask me, do I believe
the gospel? Do I believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? And I will tell you, yes, I do, by the grace of God. I do by the grace of God. But
my believing is not my right and title to claim salvation. My believing is not my right
and title or fitness to enter the presence of God. Look back
at this passage in Colossians 1. He says in verse 12, and I won't
read the whole thing because I want to get right to the heart
of the message and I want to do it quickly. He says, giving
thanks, Colossians 1.12, giving thanks unto the Father which
hath made us meet. Mark read that, he said fit,
means qualified. If you're qualified to claim
salvation, if you're qualified, fit, for the presence of God,
how did you get that way? Well, he says here that for God's
people, he hath made us meet or fit or qualified to be partakers,
fellowshipers, or partners of what? The inheritance of the
saints, the sanctified ones in life. Now, one thing you know
about an inheritance is that's not something you earn or deserve.
It's something that is given to you or bequeathed to you by
somebody else who earned it or deserved it. And that's what
salvation is for the people of God. It is simply given to us,
something given to us totally by God's grace which we did not
and cannot earn and do not and cannot deserve. In fact, the
Bible teaches us that if God were to ever at any time, and
I want you to hear me well on this, And I often put it in this
light because I want to put it in the right perspective for
myself and for you. I've been preaching this gospel
for over 30 years now. And I want to tell you right
now that if God were to, at this moment in time, give me what
I deserve or what I've earned, it would be eternal damnation. I told you about the fellow who
reviewed the book that I wrote on what is salvation. And he
made this statement. He said, some modern Christians
may be offended by Parker's assertion that the Bible is the inerrant
word of God and that all of us by nature deserve hell. And yet
I guarantee you the fellow goes around quoting Romans 3.23 all
the time. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And Romans 6.23, the wages of
sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now what is a wage? The wages
of sin is debt. That's what we earn. What is
a gift? That's what we don't earn. That's
what somebody freely gives us. So don't ever think that you've
ever gotten to a point in your life where you deserve or earn
anything more than eternal condemnation. If I'm saved, if I'm fit to be
a partaker of the inheritance of salvation and all the blessings
and benefits of salvation, it's grace. It's mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. He says in verse 13, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son. I didn't do that, Christ
did. This wasn't the result of some
kind of a decision that I made. Did I make a decision? Yes. But
God had to change my will. He had to give me a new heart,
the scripture says. Christ said you must be born
again or you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You can't
even see it. You can't even understand it or know it. In whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
I heard a preacher say one time, he said, The condition we must
meet in order to attain forgiveness is repentance. It's not true,
folks. If we have to meet any condition
to attain forgiveness, we will not be forgiven. There's only
one condition for the forgiveness of sins, and you know what it
is? It's the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, must we repent? Yes. But that's the fruit, not the
cause. That's the result, not the cause. Now I say all that
to say this. Look at verse 19 of Colossians
1. The title of this message is what about if? If. If. There's an if here, isn't
there? Look at verse 19. He says, for
it pleased the Father that in him, that's in Christ, should
all fullness dwell. that is in Jesus Christ, God
the Son incarnate, God in human flesh, the perfect God-man, it
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness, all fullness
of life, all fullness of light, all fullness of salvation, all
fullness of blessing dwells in Christ. All fullness of love
is in Christ. Nowhere else now. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross, peace between God
and sinners, that's what he's talking about. Based on what?
Well, the fact that you turned over a new leaf or turned your
life, no, the blood of his cross. By him to reconcile all things
unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, what I believe he's talking about there is the saints
in heaven and the saints in earth are reconciled to God by Christ. And he says in verse 21, and
you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. Now you see that? When we were enemies. Enemies. You see, today's religion teaches
that we all have some spark of goodness and all we need is the
right preacher or the right revival meeting for somebody to fan that
spark and get us to make a decision for Christ. And that's not what
the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God in
his power makes us willing in the day of his power under the
preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's not. Spark of goodness
within us. We don't have that the scripture
says there's none good. No, not one and I hate to break
it to you, but you're not the exception there There's none
righteous. No, not one. You're not the exception
It even goes far as say this in Romans 3 there's none that
seeketh after God and You're not the exception there either
Now notice it doesn't say there's none that seeketh after a God. There's none that seeketh after
the true God. And he says when we were enemies,
you say, well I was never an enemy of God. Heck, I was born
in Georgia. I'm in the Bible Belt. In fact, we're the buckle
on the Bible Belt. I was never, let me tell you
something. Any sinner who's not submitted By the power of the
spirit, the God's way of salvation and righteousness in the Lord
Jesus Christ is an enemy of God. Now that's what the scripture
teaches. And so he says, yet now hath
he reconciled. Enemies in your mind by wicked
works. Now what do you suppose those wicked works are? Well,
most people when they hear things like that, they think of the
dregs of society, don't they? They think of the thieves, the
robbers, the drug pushers, the whoremongers. And certainly those
are wicked works. And those whose lifestyles are
characterized by that kind of attitude and behavior are lost.
They're enemies of God. But you know what he's talking
about, the wicked works? Go back to a man named Cain,
who approached God seeking God's salvation, seeking God's favor,
seeking God's blessings, based on what? The works of his hands. That's why the scripture says,
by grace are you saved. Through faith, and that's not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Do you know that a sinner approaching
God, seeking salvation, seeking righteousness by his works, is
an enemy of God? His works do not glorify God. His works deny Christ. His works
elevate self. He's an enemy of God. And look
here, he says in verse 22, in the body of his flesh through
death. We're going to be taking the Lord's Supper today for any
believer who wants to take it. We're going to be talking about
his body. That was his humanity, his perfect sinless humanity
offered upon the altar of his deity, as some old writers used
to say, for the sins of his people charged to him. And then his
blood is his death, his blood. This is the blood of the new
covenant, he said, the new testament. And he said, in the body of his
flesh through death, that's what that's talking about. To present
you holy. A sinner stands holy before God,
but only in one way, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my holiness. And I don't have any other holiness
but him. Just follow me around a couple
of days. It won't even take a couple. I'm a sinner saved by grace. And I'm blameable. That means
you cannot be charged with sin. I'm a sinner who cannot be charged
with sin. Sin is not imputed to me. David
said that in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. He doesn't charge or lay sin
to my account. How is that possible? God is
a just God. He must punish sin. God is a
righteous judge. Yes, He's a loving Father. Yes,
He's a merciful Savior. But He's also a just and righteous
judge and He must remain so. He cannot forget justice in order
to save me in love. His mercy and His justice must
be consistently working together. His righteousness and His grace
must come together consistently. If my way of salvation that I
understand in my mind doesn't portray God in truth to be both
a just God and a Savior, then it's a false way. Now what's
sad about that is that most people in religion today, even who call
themselves Christian, have never even considered what I've just
told you, let alone live by it. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Do you know that's the question
of questions? That's the gospel question. The answer to that
question is the heart of the gospel. You'll find it all through
the scripture, but I'll give you one example, 2 Corinthians
5.21, For God hath made Him, Christ, to be sin, Christ who
knew no sin, for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. The sins of His sheep, His church, His people, imputed,
charged to Christ, and the righteousness of Christ charged to His people.
And it's upon that one ground that God can be just to justify
sinners. And that we who are in Christ
can say with the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter eight, 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 is risen again, is
seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. So we're unblameable. We cannot
be charged. We're charged with righteousness,
not our own, but Christ. We're charged with a righteousness
before God that we had no part in producing. Christ alone produced
it all. Romans 10, verse 4. For Christ
is the end, the fulfillment, the finishing, the perfection
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Paul
said, O that I may know Him and be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law by works, but that which
is through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. His faithfulness
to keep the law. His faithfulness to satisfy its
penalty. in my place as my surety. That's what propitiation means,
satisfaction to the law. The law cannot condemn me because
Christ died for me. That's what it means. And then
he says unreprovable in his sight. That means uncorrectable. Now,
I don't know about you, but in my Christian life, I need a lot
of correction. But as far as my standing before
God in Christ, there's no flaw, there's no shortcoming, I'm totally
uncorrectable. Unreprovable. Because I have
a perfect righteousness imputed charge to me. That's called the
righteousness of God in Romans 1, 16 and 17 that's revealed
in the gospel. How many people have never even
heard of it? But look at verse 23. He says, if, if you continue in the faith,
that is in the gospel, grounded and settled, the hope of the
gospel, do you not move away from the hope of the gospel,
the hope of the gospel is the certainty of salvation in Christ,
which you have heard and which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven, where have I upon made a minister. Now most people look at that,
and that one little word, if, takes everything that I've just
told you in these first 15 minutes, and they use it to suspend it
all on the sinner. And they call it conditional
salvation. In fact, most people believe a conditional salvation,
or a conditional security, you might say. Well, now let me give
you this first. The gospel of God's grace teaches
this. Salvation is not conditioned
on the sinner. For if it were, it would fail. You believe that? Now if you
don't, I'm gonna tell you what your problem is. You think too
highly of yourself. You've got too much confidence
in the flesh. The gospel tells us salvation's
not conditioned on the sinner, for we are sinners. But salvation,
here's the good news now. That's what gospel means, good
news. The gospel teaches that salvation is conditioned on the
Lord Jesus Christ, who by his obedience unto death for his
people fulfilled all those conditions to secure the complete salvation
of all for whom he died. which are called his church or
his sheep. What about if? Doesn't the Bible say, if you
believe, if you repent, you'll be saved? Yes. Didn't Christ
tell those who claim to believe on him, if you continue in my
word, you'll be my disciples indeed? Yes. You'll know the
truth and the truth will make you free, he said. Didn't he
say in John 13, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples
if you have love one to another. He even said this in John 15.10,
he said, if you keep my commandments, you abide in my love. And incidentally,
he's never commanded anybody to try to keep the law in order
to be saved. He said, you're my friends if
you do whatsoever I command you. Look over at Hebrews chapter
three. Turn over just a few pages. Let me show you this. If, what
about this if? Does that mean that everything
that I've just told you about the blessings and the security
and the assurance of salvation by God's grace is suspended on
me? Well, I can tell you something.
If that's the truth with me, I'm a goner. How about you? And I can hear people when I
say they say, well, what in the world are you doing? I'm trying to live my life. I'm
a sinner. You see, in order to be saved,
the condition that's to be met is righteousness. And at my best
moments, I don't measure up to that. But I know one who does. His name is Jesus Christ, and
he's the Lord my righteousness, Jehovah Sid Canu, Jeremiah 23
and 33. I have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. He is my righteousness. But look
here in Hebrews chapter three, he talks about the household
and family of God, who is built by Christ. Remember he said he
built his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against
it? Look at verse six, he says, but Christ as a son over his
own house, that's the house of God, the family of God, whose
house are we? In other words, we're in that
family if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end. People will look at that and
they say, well, see there, you're saved by grace, but your final
glory is conditioned on your continuing. Is that what that
means? Well, we must continue. We must
persevere. The scripture says that. Is that
because it's all suspended on us? Is that what this is saying?
Well, look down at verse 14. He said, for we are made partakers
of Christ, we're in fellowship with Christ, partners with Christ,
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. Is that what this passage is saying? Is that what Colossians
1.23 is saying? If you continue, then in other
words, the assurance of it, the security of it, The blessing
of it is suspended on your continuing, conditioned on your, like this
is a condition you must meet, either to be saved or at least
to be kept safe. Well, you know, how many denominations
do you know that claim to be Christian that'll tell you you
can be saved and then lost? Is that what the Bible teaches?
Do you know that most of their doctrine is founded upon if passages
in the scripture? If you do this, if you do that,
if you don't. How are we to view these if statements? Somebody says, well now, you
can only be saved if you believe. Alright? Does that mean that
my salvation is conditioned on my believing? Well, how do you
reconcile that with a passage like this, John 6, 44? No man
can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him,
and I'll raise him up at the last day. That word can there
means ability. No man has the ability to come
to me. How do you reconcile with passage,
let me just read you this, you don't have to turn there. Romans
chapter three, listen to this, I read, I quoted part of it.
He says in verse 10, as it is written, there's none righteous,
no, not one. What does that mean? That means none of us, by nature,
born of Adam, have a righteousness that equals the demands of God's
law and justice. We don't have it. We're born in sin. We fell in
Adam, we're born dead in trespasses and sin. In fact, Ephesians 2
tells us that before we're born again and brought to Christ by
the Holy Spirit, we walk as children of wrath, even as others. There's
no difference between us, even in our religion. But look what it says in verse
11 of Romans 3. Let me just read this to you.
There's none that understandeth. Now what is it that we by nature
don't understand? You understand a lot of things.
I understood a lot of things before I was saved. We don't
understand God's way of salvation, how God is just to justify the
ungodly. There's none that seeketh after
God. Surely that's got to be talking about somebody else.
It can't be talking about us. No, it's talking about us. They
are all gone out of the way. They together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. That's good in God's sight now. Not in man's view. First Corinthians 2.14, listen
to it. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.
Who's the natural man there? Well, that's got to be talking
about some wild, crazy person. No, it's talking about all of
us by nature. The natural man is how we are born naturally
in sin. And there's no exception. In
fact, it even specifies it. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he not. You know
what he says that he cannot receive? It's in 1 Corinthians 2.12, just
up a few verses. He cannot receive the things
that are freely given. Free salvation. And you know what that means?
Man by nature is so proud and self-righteous that he cannot
accept a salvation that is totally undeserved and totally unearned. He's got to put his part in some
way. It's kind of like a fella who
was repairing my old guitar one time. I had an old guitar that
was made in 1946, and the case that it was in was about as old,
and it was pretty shabby. This fellow repaired it for me,
and when I went to get it, he presented it to me in a brand
new hard case, expensive case. Name was Ted, and I said, Ted,
that's not my case. He said, well, that's my gift
to you. I said, oh, no, Ted, let me pay you for it. He said,
don't you know what a gift is? Well, you know, the natural man
doesn't really know what a gift is. He thinks salvation is conditioned
on him, suspended on him, and he has to fulfill the condition.
And you know what he calls that today? He calls it grace. But it's not grace at all. Salvation
is for those who rise above the rebellious, stubborn crowd and
does this, accepts this, decides this. But that's not the way
it is. Man by nature sees everything
in salvation as conditioned on his works or his will. Why? The reason most people see these
ifs as conditions we have to meet of our own power and will
is to attain or maintain salvation is we just won't receive the
things that are freely given. We're too proud, too self-righteous. So what about all these ifs?
Well, let me just give you briefly what the scripture teaches. How
am I to look at that if you continue in Colossians chapter 1? Well,
it depends on the context. Here's what it really depends
on. It depends on the covenant. The covenant. What covenant is this if given
under? Is it a covenant of works? Or
is it a covenant of grace? I'll give you an example. You
don't have to turn to it. One of the most familiar Old Testament
passages, 2 Chronicles 7, 14. And here's what it says. If my
people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and you
know the rest of it. Is that a conditional if given
to the nation Israel to turn to God? Yes. But what's the covenant? It's a covenant of work. It's
the old covenant. And their prosperity in that
land of Canaan that was given them by God was conditioned on
their national obedience. Now let me ask you a question.
Have you ever read the history of Israel in the Old Testament?
It says, if my people who are called by my name will humble
themselves, Turn to God, repent. If you read the history of Israel
under the Old Covenant, did they humble themselves and repent?
Did they do it? And the answer is no. What's
God teaching in that Old Covenant? I'll tell you what He's teaching.
The whole history of that nation under the Old Covenant was a
glaring testimony that if salvation or any part of it was ever conditioned,
on man, we would all fail. We would all fail. But what about this covenant? The covenant of the gospel? The
covenant of grace? It's a different matter now.
You see, the if under the covenant of grace is not a condition you
must meet in order to attain, maintain, earn, or deserve salvation. The if under the covenant of
grace is, hear this word, evidence of salvation. That's the difference. If you continue. If you continue
what? In the faith. What is the faith? Salvation conditioned on Christ,
who met the conditions. Salvation by God's grace. Grounded
and settled, be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
What is the hope of the gospel? The certain assurance of salvation,
the security of salvation, because Christ fulfilled all the conditions.
Christ fulfilled all requirements for me. That's the difference. It's kind of like saying this,
Christ is our surety. He paid the debt in full. How
do I know he did it for me? Here's the evidence. You'll believe
on him. You'll repent of your dead works
and idolatry. And you'll cling to him for dear
life and you'll never, by the grace of God, let go. That's
the evidence. That's right. You say, well,
you know, I know I'm saved because I did this right. No, I know
I'm saved because Christ died for me. How do you know he died?
I believe in him. I rest in him. That's the evidence. That's what Paul's saying here.
If you continue in the, those for whom Christ lived and died
and rose again, they'll come to him, they'll believe in him,
and they'll continue in his word. That's the evidence. How do I
know you're alive? You're breathing. That's there
if you and I can tell you this I say now if you breathe you'll
live if you stop breathing you'll die Now is your breathing the
source of your living no? God put that spark of life, and
it's evidenced by your breathing you see the difference If you
can tell what about the it's an evidence of God's power God's
goodness God's grace in Christ All right