Let's open our service looking
at Colossians chapter 2. Colossians, the second chapter. As you're turning there, let
me tell you that Eric Floyd is preaching in Danville this morning.
I want to pray for him as he preaches. He and Abby, as they
travel. We have our conference scheduled. You see that scheduled in the
bulletin for May. We look forward to that. Colossians
chapter two, we'll begin our reading in verse six. As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you
have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest
any man spoil you through philosophy, in vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
For in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye
are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also ye are circumcised, with a circumcision
made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism,
wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 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 his
cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it." And we'll end our reading there. All right, let's
stand together as Isaac leads us in singing our call to worship. Thou art the way to Thee, alone
from sin and death we flee, and he who would the Father seek
must seek Him, Lord, by Thee. Thou art the truth, Thy word
alone true wisdom can impart. Thou only can inform the mind
and purify the heart. Thou art the life the open tomb
proclaims thy conquering arm, And those who have their trust
in thee, nor death nor hell can harm. Thou art the way, the truth,
the life, grant us that way to know. That truth to keep, that
life to win, whose joys eternal flow. Turn to page 126. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? Peace for sin could not atone. Thou must save and Thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to To Thy cross I cling,
While I draw this fleeting breath. When my eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown, And behold Thee on Thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee. If you would please open your Bibles
to 1 John chapter 5. Read a portion of 1 John chapter
5 this morning. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
begat loveth him also that has begotten of him. By this we know
that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep
his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ,
not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit
that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there
are three that beareth record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are
three that beareth witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water,
and the blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the
witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the
witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath a witness in himself. He that
believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." End of reading
there. Let's thank God for his word
and bow in prayer, please. Our Holy Heavenly Father, we
thank you for this day you provided, this place where you provided
that we can come and gather around the preaching of the gospel.
Thank you for it. We pray that you continue to
keep it here for years to come. Continue to give us faithful
men to study and prepare and preach to us out of your Word.
Teach us more of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm thankful
that you've seen fit to love a people, to set your love upon
sinners, and to provide a salvation for sinners that we have no ability
to help ourselves out of. Thank you for the precious atoning
work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. the blood that
he spilled to atone for our sin. Cause us each day to know and
to be thankful for the work that he's done for us. Let us also
be thankful for the many blessings of this life that you've given
us to take care of our family, our homes, our jobs. Let us not
take these for granted. Be thankful each day for all
that we have. Know that it's a gift of your
hand. Those men that stand and preach
this morning, think of Eric and others. Pray that you give Eric
and Abby safe travels home. Let them come back here together
with us again around the preaching of the gospel. As we leave here this morning,
we ask that you go with us. Leave us not alone. Go with us
each day and protect us and guide us and direct us. increase our
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, Father, we pray for a
true hour of worship this morning. Teach us out of your gospel and
show us more of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. These things
we ask and pray in his name. Amen. Let's open our Bibles now to
Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter 2. I titled
the message this morning, Complete in Him. I took my title from
verse 10. The apostle says, and you are
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and
power. Now, before I get to us, the believer being complete in
him, I want us to start where the gospel starts with our Lord
Jesus Christ. I want us to begin thinking about
the glory of Christ the Savior. Paul says in verse nine, for
in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead moderately. All
the fullness of the Godhead, everything that God is, dwells
in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the man, Jesus of
Nazareth, is a real man. And he is fully God. Everything that God is, dwells
in his body. Every attribute of God dwells
fully and completely in the man, Jesus of Nazareth. He's full
of every attribute of God. So there's no room for anything
else. He is fully God. Everything that
God is dwells in that human body. I want you to think of this,
how amazing that that is. Every attribute of God, Before
I go on, I want to make sure our young ones know what an attribute
is. It's not a word we use very commonly,
but an attribute is a characteristic of a person. A person's characteristics
or their attributes tell us what that person is like. What kind
of person are they? Well, their attributes, their
characteristics tell you. Well, God's attributes tell us
what God is like. God has all He's the Almighty. He has all might. He has all
power. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
full of the power of God. The power of God to save. The
power of God to give life to his people. The power of God
to keep his people. He's full of the power of God.
God has all wisdom. God is so wise. He found a way
to be both just and justifier. He found a ransom. that would
ransom his people, that would redeem his people from their
sins. Well, Christ is full of the wisdom of God. All the wisdom
of God is found in him. It's in Christ, in the person
of Christ and his obedience and his sacrifice that God can save
in both mercy and justice. The sacrifice of Christ put away
the sin of his people and made it right for God to show mercy
to his people. That's saving him mercy and justice,
to truly put away the sin of God's people, so that God could
be merciful to them. God's so wise, only God could
do that. All the wisdom of God is found
in the man, Jesus of Nazareth. God is true. He is true. For the Lord Jesus Christ is
full of the truth of God. He truly makes his people holy. and righteous. This is not a
pretend thing. God doesn't pretend until someday it's true. He truly,
right now, makes his people holy and righteous. God is righteous. We know that, don't we? God is
righteous. Everything that God does is righteous
and holy and perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ is full
of the righteousness of God, and that enables him to make
his people righteous. They're not righteous in themselves,
but he makes them righteous. God is love. And Christ is full
of the love of God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that
enables God to love sinners by seeing them in Christ. And Christ
is full of the love of God. That enables him to love sinners. It's true love. The love of God
enables him to love sinners and to give his life a ransom that
he might save them. Christ is full of the eternality
of God. God is eternal. He has no beginning,
has no ending. Neither does the Lord Jesus Christ.
His body has a beginning when he was born in Bethlehem, but
he doesn't have a beginning. He's eternal. And I'll tell you
why that's important. Because in eternity, when only
God existed, the Father elected a people and he put them in Christ
to be their surety. There's never been a time that
the Father has seen those people outside of Christ. See, he's
eternal. The Father's always seen his
people in Christ. He's never seen his people outside
of Christ on their own. That means that God's elect have
always been loved. They've always been saved. They've
always been accepted in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
elect have always been justified in Christ. You know, some people
hate the thought of eternal justification. You know, they say, oh, I can't
be justified, you know, until I believe. There was a time I
was not justified and then there was a time that I was. That's
not true. God's people have always been
justified in Christ, in Christ. And some people hate eternal
justification, but I love it. And I can tell you why. God can't
change. God can't see me one day as unjustified,
the next day as justified. God can't change. If I wasn't
justified in eternity, I never will be now. But if I was justified
in Christ, for the foundation of the world, I'll always be
justified. I can never lose it, because
it's all in Him, and He's eternal. I mean, you just go on and on
and on. You can't think of any attribute of God that does not
fully reside in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every attribute of God,
Christ, is full of it, so that there is no room for anything
else. Now, since Christ is full of these attributes, The fullness
of God dwells in Christ. They're all in Him. They can't
be found anywhere else. God didn't put it here, here,
here, here, and over there. God put it all in one place. And if you need any of this that
I just described, go to Christ to get it. Go to Christ to find
it. Do you need righteousness? It's
all in Christ. Go to Him to have it. Do you
need the forgiveness of your sin? It's all in Christ. Do you need spiritual life? You
have no life, and you need spiritual life? Well, don't try to get
a little of it here and a little of it here, a little of it by
your doctrine, a little of it by your knowledge, a little of
it by your morality, a little of it by Christ, because it's
not in all those different, it's in one place. It's all in Christ.
Go to Him to have it. Go to Him. Do you need wisdom? I mean, you need wisdom just,
you don't see how God can save sinners. You don't see how anybody
can understand God's word. Do you need wisdom? It's all
in Christ. Go to Christ to get it. Go to
Christ to find it. Do you need to be loved of God?
You can't be loved in your sin. You can't be loved in your vile
wretchedness, can you? If you need to be loved of God,
go to Christ, because the Father loves the Son. The Father loves
the Son. Then go to Christ to have it.
See, go to any blessing of God you can think of, any spiritual
blessing that you can think of. It's found in Christ. If you'd
have it, Go to Christ. Go to Him. Would you think how
glorious this is? That's all in Christ. God made
it so easy to find. It's all in one place. The heavens
cannot contain God, can they? The heavens can't contain God.
Yet God is contained in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think
of that. What a glorious person. Go to
him. Go to him. Just the wonder of
that. Just ought to draw us to him.
Now I want to give you three ways that Christ is our completeness. He's the fullness of the Godhead
in a body and you're complete in him. Christ is completely
everything that we need. Everything. Number one, God's
elect are made perfect. They're made complete. in Christ. Verse 10 says, and you're complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power. That
word complete that Paul uses there means perfect. It means
full and lacking nothing. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is perfect, don't we? We know he's complete. We read
it. It is finished. He completed the work that the
father sent him to do. Everything that God is is completely
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's complete. Paul says the
believer's complete, too. They're complete in Christ. The believer who's in Christ
lacks nothing that God requires, nothing. You have it all in Christ. If you're in Christ, there isn't
one drop of righteousness, not one drop of holiness, not one
drop of perfection that can be added to you. You're already
full. You're already perfect in Christ,
perfectly righteous in Christ. I told you how all of God's righteousness,
all of it is in Christ. Well, you know what? If I'm in
Christ, I have all righteousness. All of God's holiness is in Christ.
Well, if I'm in Christ, I have all holiness. Christ is my holiness. It's not my actions. It's not
how well I behave in front of you. Christ is my righteousness. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, holiness, and redemption. Those things aren't,
those aren't things. They're a person. Christ is the,
if you have Christ, you have all of those things. All of God's
redemption of sinners is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. If
I'm in Christ, then I'm fully, completely redeemed. See, Christ
is my redemption. That's my assurance. If Christ
is my redemption, I can never perish. The price has been paid. All of God's justification in
Christ. I would remind you, justification is being made without sin, having
kept God's law perfectly. Well, if I'm in Christ, I have
all justification. I'm completely justified. I can never be condemned. I'm
innocent of all charges because I have justification in Christ.
All of God's wisdom is in Christ. And as ignorant as I am by nature,
if I'm in Christ, I have all wisdom. You see, it's in Christ. I see all these great mysteries
of the scripture, the great mysteries of salvation, the great mysteries
of spirituality is all plain and obvious to see. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ, it's easy
to see how God can justify sin. In Christ, it's easy to see how
the dead can live. In Christ, it's easy to see how
God will keep his people. It's easy. It's easy to see how
God's going to call his people. It's easy. If you see Christ,
of course you're going to come running to him. All those things
are so plain and obvious if we see Christ. And if Christ is
my wisdom, then my walk, and my conduct through this world
is going to be directed by Him, by looking to Him, by following
Him. If Christ is my wisdom, I'll
never fall away. Never. Because I can never be
deceived into trusting something else. I can never go off onto
the wide path that leads to destruction because I'm following Christ.
He's my wisdom. All of God's power is in Christ.
He has all power. And I tell you what confidence
and peace that gives for my soul. If I'm in Christ, all of God's
saving, keeping power is on me. I know I couldn't keep myself
for one split second. I know that about myself. If
you're honest, you know that about yourself. But this is our
confidence. All power is in Christ. And if
I'm in Him, all of God's power is on me. He'll keep me. He'll
keep me. All of God's grace, all of God's
mercy. God has all grace, all mercy,
doesn't he? It's all he is. And he put it
all in Christ. So that if I am in Christ, I'm
completely covered in God's mercy and God's grace. So I can never
perish because I have all of his grace that keeps me. All
of God's love is in Christ. So that if I'm in Christ, God's
love is, I'm, I have the completeness of his love so that God almighty
loves me, loves me. Now, knowing my sin, knowing
my, my sinful thoughts and the weakness of my flesh, I was, as, as we were singing,
I was sitting there thinking, my goodness, Every once in a
while, a channel asks me, Frank Tate, what are you doing? I think
of my weakness and my sinfulness and just, oh my goodness, I ought
to run from this building and put my hand over my mouth. How
in this world can a cold-hearted, dead, rotten sinner, how can
he dare think to stand in front of people and talk about God? Boy, I tell you, when I tell
you to come to Christ, I'm telling me that. look to Him, flee to
Him, find in Him everything that you need. Knowing my sin and
my weakness and just, I mean, the sin and weakness I have in
the worship surface, it sounds highly improbable that a holy
God would love me. I mean, just doesn't it seem
impossible? Well, it is outside of Christ,
because it's all in Christ. I just see the tip of the iceberg,
but as horrible as I see myself, Imagine what God would see if
he sees me outside of Christ. But in his son, all of the love
of God is on me. And God sent proof of it, of
his love for his people. He sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sin. He did that because all of his
love is in his son. God is true. Now this I know
God cannot lie. Everything he says is true. He's
always true to his word. Even if I don't understand it,
he's true to this word. He's true to his promises. Well, if I'm in Christ, all of
God's truth is completely on me. If God promised to save me
in Christ, he'll never cast me out. I don't care how shameful
I am, how sinful I am. It doesn't matter. All that sin,
all that shame has been put away in the sacrifice of His Son.
And God will never cast me out because of my sin. Never. He's true to His Word. He's true
to His promise. And if you think that's an excuse
to sin, you just go out there and live like you want to, you
haven't seen Christ. You haven't seen Him. This is
a comfort for God's people when they can't stop sinning. I mean,
I don't want to sin, do you? I don't want to. But when I can't
stop sinning, this is our comfort. God will never cast away His
people, which He foreknew, because He's true to His word, because
He keeps those people. He sees those people in His Son. And all of God's truth is found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if Christ has saved me, God
will be true to His word. and I'll always be saved. I can
never lose it in him. God will never cast me out. Since
God's elect are complete in Christ, that means every believer is
complete in God's sight. That's not the way I see myself,
but that's the way God sees me in Christ. If I'm complete in
Christ, I'm the righteousness of God in him. And I'm completely
righteous. I can't get more righteous. I'm
holy, I can't get more holy. I'm redeemed, and I can't get
more redeemed. I'm justified, and I can't get
more justified. I'm complete, and I can't get
more complete. Complete's complete. Full is
full, I can't get more. And the believer has all that
in Christ, through union with Christ. Because the body is whatever
the head is. And the believer has all of this
right now. Right now. The believer is not
in the process of becoming more righteous, or more holy, or more
justified, or more loved of God. God doesn't love you this much
today, but he only loves you this much tomorrow because you
didn't do very good today. This is not a work in progress.
If you're in Christ, you can't be made better. It's impossible. You can't be improved. I always
hate it if I have to do a software upgrade on my computer. I hate
it. I mean, I hate it. I just avoid
it. I try to ignore it. I won't do
it until they just don't support your software anymore. It won't
work. You've got to do this stupid update. And I just think, why
couldn't you have made it right the first time? There's never
a reason for version 3.1 in a believer. You're already perfect. Perfect
in Christ. This is not piecemeal. It's not,
you know, a little bit better every day. No. perfect, complete
in Christ so that you'll never be more righteous, never be more
holy, never be more justified, never be more loved of God. Now
we grow in grace. I mean, you know, don't mistake
me. We believer grows, don't we? We grow in grace. We grow
in the knowledge of Christ. We mature in the faith, but we
don't become more righteous. We don't become more justified.
We don't become more holy. complete in Christ. And I know
it didn't feel that way. It doesn't feel that way because
his flesh is dead, rotten, stinking and got to be put in the ground.
But this is the way that God has made all of his people perfect,
complete in Christ. Right now. Right now. And I'm telling you, it better
be right now. It better not be someday. I better not be waiting.
Someday I'm going to be made righteous because God can't accept
you or me that way. unless we're complete, lacking
nothing. So he made his people complete in Christ, lacking absolutely
nothing that God requires. That's the only way God can accept
us. Now, it's easy to see Christ is complete. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's complete. Nothing can be
added to Christ. That's easy to see. And of course,
he's perfect. Well, being in Christ, being saved by Christ
means this. Nothing can be added to you either.
Because you're complete in Him. Christ is everything God requires
of you. Now that's a miracle, isn't it?
What a miracle of God's power. A miracle of God's grace that
He would make His people complete. And I can't go on without reminding
us about this. Where does this completeness
come from? It's in Christ. It's in Christ. It's all of God's
grace. It's all of God's power. It's
all of God's work for me and all of God's work in me. And
my work adds nothing to it. If I try to add my work to the
completeness of Christ, I'm going to ruin it. It's all Christ. It's all in Him. Now I tell you,
it's all in Him. So believe Him. Trust Him. If Christ is everything that
you need, why wouldn't you trust Him? Why wouldn't you rest in
Him if He's everything that you need? And here's why I stress
this. You're complete. Christ is the
completeness of everything that God is. If you're in Christ,
you lack nothing. Here's why I stress that. Because
nothing will cause a sinner to run to Christ more quickly. Nothing
will cause a poor, weak child of God to cling to Christ more
fully than knowing He's everything God requires of me. Now, you
come to Him and believe Him. This is not a piecemeal thing.
it's immediately made complete in Christ. And I tell you, nothing
makes me more thrilled to depend on Christ alone than hearing
that. Doesn't you? All right, here's the second
thing. Christ is the completeness of
the new birth. Verse 11, in whom also you're
circumcised with a circumcision made without hands and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ. Now, Paul isn't talking here
about the fleshly circumcision of the foreskin that was required
by the law. He's talking about spiritual
circumcision, which is the new birth. If you look at verse 13,
and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, the uncircumcision of the flesh means you're spiritually
dead, dead in your sins. You hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. See, this is
talking about spiritual circumcision that gives life and a new birth
to his people. And I'll show you that if you
look at Romans chapter two. Romans the second chapter. See, this is not an outward thing. It's spiritual. It's a work of
God in the heart. Romans chapter two, verse 28. For he's not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh, but he's a Jew, which is one
inwardly. In circumcision, the spiritual
circumcision we're talking about is that of the heart in the spirit
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. See, in spiritual circumcision,
the hardness of the heart is cut away. You know, we're talking
about the circumcision where part of the flesh is cut away.
Because the flesh profits nothing in salvation, does it? The flesh
profits nothing spiritually. And the way the hardness of the
heart is cut away is by the Holy Spirit giving a new heart. Now
in spiritual circumcision, we talk about the cutting away of
the heart. The old heart's not cut away in the sense that it's
removed and you don't have this sin nature anymore. You don't
have a desire to sin or something anymore. Now in the new birth,
The old heart is still there. The circumcision is just a picture.
It's not perfect. It's just a picture. In the new
birth, God gives a new heart. So there's two natures inside
of every believer. The flesh and the spirit. The
dead sinful flesh and the holy righteous spirit. So the old
dead heart, that old stony heart that cannot love Christ, that
cannot believe Christ, that can't do anything but sin, That heart's
still there. But here's where the circumcision
comes in. The power of that old heart is cut away. Its power
is cut away. The old nature is still there.
It's just not in control anymore in the believer. Now, please
don't misunderstand this or you get so discouraged you'll quit.
That doesn't mean that with the power of the old heart being
cut away that you have the power to stop sinning. but you have
the power to sin less than you ever did before. Matter of fact,
when you're born again, this is what you'll think. You'll
think, how can I say that I'm a safe person? How can I say
that I know Christ? I'm sinning more than I ever
did before. You know why you think that? Because only the
new man can see the sin of the old man. Only the new man can
understand what sin is, that it's spiritual, that it's what
we talked about in the lesson this morning. It's of the heart,
not an outward action. The cutting away of the old dead
heart, cutting away the power of that old nature means this,
that that old nature that used to have power over you, that
old nature that made you, when you heard the gospel, made you
have no interest in it. Or that old nature that made
you think, and you thought, well, I'd like to believe that. I'd
like to believe that preacher's saying. I'd like to believe this
Christ. I'd like to find this rest and hope and peace in him,
But I can't see. I can't see how to do it. I can't make myself believe Christ.
That's the power of the old nature, stopping you from being able
to see, stopping you from being able to believe Christ. The power
of that nature is now taken away, and there's a new sheriff in
town. The new nature that God gives, the new birth, that nature's
in charge. Oh, the old nature tries to make
you not believe, but it can't anymore. Now you believe Christ
and you can't believe anything else. You can't quit believing
him. That old nature is constantly trying to bring you back under
the rule of the law. Telling you, you gotta do this,
you gotta do this, you can't do this, or you're not a believer. The old nature, that is the old
nature trying to bring you back into captivity to the law. But
thankfully, that nature's not in charge anymore. And the new
nature that God gives is in charge. so that you can't go back under
the law, so that you can't believe anybody but Christ. You can't
find any rest, any hope, any comfort, any peace, any assurance
for your soul anywhere but in the Lord Jesus Christ. Does that
describe you? Then you've been born again.
That's the circumcision of the heart. And this new birth, this
new life, it's complete in Christ. See, it's completely trusting
Christ and Christ alone. All right, thirdly, Christ is
completely the believer's confession of faith. Verse 12, Colossians
chapter two, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you're
risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who
hath raised him from the dead. Now, every believer knows this,
and we believe this, that we're complete only in Christ. That Christ is all of my salvation. He's all of my righteousness.
He's all of my holiness. He's all of my hope. Everything's
in Him. He's all of my salvation. Not
only has all of my salvation been accomplished by Christ,
but He personally is all of my salvation. And the best way I
can think of an illustration to describe that, that Christ
personally is all of my salvation. The best example I can think
of is marriage. I know there's a lot of books
written, a lot of thoughts, you know, on marriage. You talk about
marriage and there's rules and regulations, things you're supposed
to do, things you're not supposed to do, all that stuff, you know.
But you know what marriage is to me? Gina. It's a person to me. And all
those rules, all those regulations, all those things I'm supposed
to and not supposed to do, you know how all that is applied to my heart? You know
how I see all that? It's her. Since I love her, I
won't cheat on her. I'll be faithful to her. It's
a person. Salvation is the same way. Salvation
is a person. Yes, Christ accomplished it for
me. There are some legal matters. that must be taken care of. My
sin must be put away. It's got to be paid for. I've
got to be made righteous. God can't accept me if not. He
did those things. He applied them to my heart.
But salvation is not those things to me. Salvation is not the work
of Christ on the cross for me. Salvation is Christ. It's not
trusting his work. It's trusting him. There's a
big difference there. It's trusting him. It's loving. It's not loving the work. It's
loving him. And that's what a believer confesses
in believers baptism. We're confessing. I don't do
anything to make this salvation effectual to me. Christ is all
of my salvation. When he lived, I lived in him. When I'm baptized, this is what
I'm confessing. I am so sinful. I'm so The only
way my sin can be put away is by the Son of God dying and rising
again for me as my substitute. That's the only way I can be
saved. In baptism, we confess union
with Christ, that I'm complete in Him. When He lived, I lived. What He did, I did, because He's
the head and I'm the body. The body does everything the
head does. I'm completely saved in Christ by being in Him. When Christ died, he died for
my sin. He was made sin for me. He took
my sin and he made it his. And when he died, I died in him. I died in him. I'm in Christ.
When he died, I did whatever he did. When he died, I died
in him. Now I've already died to God's justice in the person
of my representative. So I'm dead to condemnation of
the law. The law can't condemn me again. I've already been condemned in
the person of my substitute. The law has no claim on me anymore
because I already died to it. I already died to the demands
of the law in Christ. So I don't have to keep the law
in order to be righteous. I'm righteous in Christ. I'm
complete in him. I am dead to the demands of the
law and the law is dead to me. I have no relationship to the
law whatsoever. because I'm saved in Christ.
When he died, I died in him. So no more claims of the law
on me. And when I'm baptized, I'm baptized confessing that
when Christ was buried, I was buried in him. He truly died.
I mean, they took a dead body down from that cross and laid
a dead body in that tomb. When Christ died, I died in him. And since I was buried in Christ,
I'm free from worry that my sin is ever going to condemn me because
my sin was buried in Christ my substitute. And it's put away. He'll never be heard from again.
And this is important. When I'm baptized, I'm confessing
that when Christ arose from the tomb, I rose in him. There's
no salvation without his resurrection. If the sacrifice of Christ didn't
put away the sin of God's people, he would have made sin for his
people. If his death didn't put that sin away, he'd never rise
from the dead. And God's people would still
be in their sin. But thank God he did rise again. You know why
he rose again? Because all of that sin that
was laid on him is put away by the power of his death, by the
power of his blood. And the father raised him from
the dead by the power of God. Now I can't understand that.
I don't have any concept of the power that it takes to make a
dead person live. But God used the exact same power
to make this dead sinner, spiritually dead sinner, live. Live, to live
in Christ. He is my life. And when I'm baptized, that's
what I'm confessing. I'm complete in Him. He is completely
all of my hope of redemption. Now being dunked under the water,
I tell you this all the time, we have a baptismal service,
I fill that pool up with a garden hose. That water, I mean, remember
when you were a kid, you'd drink water in the summertime, it'd
be so hot, and you'd drink water out of the garden hose? It's
that water. I mean, you know, it's relatively
clean, but you know, it's not going to cleanse anybody that
they're seeing. It's not going to help anybody's soul. But being
dunked under that water, it doesn't do anything for the flesh, does
it? Doesn't cleanse the soul. But boy, it sure gives us a beautiful
picture, doesn't it? It gives us a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is how He saved His people.
And He's all my hope. He's all my confession of salvation. That I'm saved by being in Him. Complete in Him. That's the only
way God can accept me. That's a glorious confession,
isn't it? And you know what? That gives a believer good hope,
good hope. If my hope depended on me always
doing everything right and always showing a good attitude, I wouldn't
have good hope, would I? But if my hope is being in Christ,
that I'm complete in Him, that I'm as righteous as He is, I'm
as holy as He is, that I'm as loved as He is, I'm as accepted
of the Father as He is, I have a good hope. I can expect one
day to finally leave his body of sin behind and go be with
Him face to face. Come in Him. It's all in Him.
All right. Well, the Lord bless that to
you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for the simplicity
of the gospel, the simplicity of salvation that you put it
all in one person, in your Lord Jesus Christ, that he's accomplished
it all and he is all for his people. Father, how I pray that
you would see each of us in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we'd
be complete in him, that we not depend on any of our works or
morality or anything about us, but completely trust in and rest
in the Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful we are for your
power that makes your people complete, lacking nothing, having
everything that you require in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
I pray you give us faith to believe him and rest in him and to be
found in him. It's in his precious name, for
his sake and his glory, we pray, amen. All right, Isaac. Stand and sing 509. The sands of time are sinking,
the dawn of heaven breaks. The summer morn I've sighed for,
the fair sweet morn awakes. Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
but day-spring is at hand. dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. O Christ, He is the fountain,
the deep sweet well of love. The streams on earth I've tasted,
More deep I'll drink above. There to an ocean fulness His
mercy doth expand, And glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. Oh, I am my Beloved's, and my
Beloved's mine. He brings a poor, vile sinner
into his house of wine. I stand upon His merit, I know
no other stand, Not in where glory dwelleth, In Emmanuel's
land. The bright eyes not are gone,
her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but
on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but
on his pierced hand. the glory of Emmanuel's plan.