Okay, well, we come to Colossians
3 again this morning, and I know we've referred to it quite a
lot recently, but I want to focus particularly on chapter 3, verse
11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in
all. This letter from Paul the Apostle
to the Colossians, written from house arrest or prison in Rome,
He certainly couldn't go where he wanted to go, but he was confined
in Rome about to see Nero and eventually to be put to death
under that regime. And he wrote this letter to these
people at Colossae. It's a letter to gods. It says,
saints and faithful brethren. Saints are set apart ones. Who
set them apart? Answer, the scripture tells us,
God set them apart before the beginning of time. God set his
love upon a people. He has loved us with an everlasting
love. And they come to a knowledge
of the truth in time by the quickening, the making alive of the Holy
Spirit, the new birth of the Holy Spirit. And they become
faithful brethren. They are brethren because they
love one another. We're all of the same Heavenly
Father, with the same salvation, the same gospel hope. They're
saints and faithful brethren. And Paul knew by the message
that was brought to him by Epaphras that these people evidenced faith,
They evidenced hope and they evidenced love. They had faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where did they get it? Not of
themselves, it's a gift of God. God gave them faith to believe. God gave them a hope of eternal
glory, the hope of eternal glory. And God gave them, who would
naturally be suspicious of one another, he gave them a love
for one another. and they had heard the gospel
and being ordained to eternal life they had believed the gospel
because that's what acts 13 48 says they preached and those
that were ordained to eternal life believed and they're on
a journey of life and paul himself says it when he writes his last
epistle that we have in the scriptures in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and
verse 18 he talks about him going before Nero for the second time
and he knew that was going to be the end of his life and he
said the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will
preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever
and ever. He knew that the Lord would preserve
him unto his heavenly kingdom. That heavenly kingdom is the
city of God. That heavenly kingdom is the
city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. That's
the one that we seek. We know that here we have no
continuing city, but we look for one to come. they were subject,
as all the saints of God in the world, to satanic attempts to
prove that they were never really true. I mean, there's an example
here in this letter, right before us, and it's quite shocking,
really. In chapter 4 and verse 14 of
chapter 4, where Paul is giving the closing greetings and sending
the greetings of different ones that were with him at that time.
Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. Demas greet
you well. Go over to Timothy. chapter four
and verse ten, for Demas hath forsaken me. Why has Demas forsaken
Paul? He's loved this present world
and has departed. Demas has forsaken me. Satan's
doing this all of the time and some who look like they're true
for a while prove that they're not. God never loses those who
are true. So anyway, Paul writes from prison
where he knows he's soon to lead this life, and he writes to confirm
them, the saints at Colossae, but us as well, in this day. He seeks to confirm them in the
faith once delivered to the saints. That's what Jude calls it, the
faith once delivered to the saints. And he prays that they will be,
in verse 9 of chapter 1 of Colossians, he prays that they will be filled
with the knowledge of God's will. And what is the will of God?
We know what the will of God is because the Word of God tells
us, Jesus said, this is the will of God, that of all that the
Father gave to him, he should lose none. The will of God is
the salvation of God's elect. The confirmation and the accomplishment
of those people who are sinners by nature in this life, in flesh,
in eternal glory. Holy, with the holiness of God,
fitted for the kingdom of God. But this is the point. It's entirely,
entirely by God himself in Christ. With zero, zero, zero contribution
from those saints. Zero contribution from us who
believe. Because God has done it all.
God has completed it all. He has satisfied his own divine
justice. He has paid for the sin of his
people. He has confirmed his people in
holiness, that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Look, we once were, as it says
in chapter 1 of Colossians verse 21, You were sometime, once, all
you who believe, were alienated from God and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, enemies reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. How? How has he
done it? By eternal union with God. His people were united before
the beginning of time with God himself in the person of his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In whom, as it says in verse
10 of chapter 2, you are complete in him. You are complete in him. You are filled with the knowledge
of salvation. You are crucified with Christ.
You are risen with Christ. Your life, as it says in chapter
three and verses one to four, your life is bound up with Christ
in God. And you're waiting to appear
with him in glory. So here's the question, and here's
the question that Paul addresses in chapter three of this epistle.
How should God's elect, oh, people say, oh, I don't like that word,
it's a very Very obscure doctrine that. Look at verse 12 of chapter
three. Put on therefore, he's talking to the saints of God
in those days, in that place, to us here today, to you out
there with us on the internet. Put on therefore, if you believe
you're the elect of God, it proves that you're the elect of God.
Put on therefore as the elect of God. Put on as the elect of
God, holy and beloved. God's elect, how should God's
elect interact with one another? and with the world around while
we wait for that glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Answer?
The answer? Religion will tell you by the
law, by being subject to the law of Moses, the law given at
Mount Sinai. The New Testament, the Gospel,
having fulfilled all of that Old Testament in our Lord Jesus
Christ, How is it, what is the rule of life? It's gospel precepts. Gospel precepts fulfilled not
by law threats or promises, but by the new man living in the
light of gospel grace. And so he says in chapter three,
put off, put off the old man, put on the new man, take off
the filthy old rags of the flesh and put on the garments of salvation
of the new man. You see, In the flesh, and we're
a company of two armies as we saw in Song of Solomon chapter
6 and verse 13 last week, we're a camp of two armies. One is
the old flesh and the other is the new man of the spirit of
God. And the spirit and the flesh are contrary to one another and
they're in conflict with one another. In the flesh, we're
naturally drawn to the filthy garments in dark corners of the
wardrobe. But when the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ on the
new man, that new man of the Spirit is drawn to the garments
of salvation, and those fleshly garments in When there's a bright
light in the room, you can't see what's in the dark corner
of that wardrobe. You can't see the filthy old
clothes in the corner of the wardrobe, can you? Because the
light in the room overshadows it. And this is the thing. This
is how this comes about. The new man is living in the
light of God, in the light of God. And the more he lives in
the light of God, the more those filthy old garments of the flesh
are just naturally put to one side. So then, the new man, verse
10, you have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him. The new man, renewed in
knowledge in Christ's image. In whom? All that makes people
in the flesh to differ, all those differences become of no effect
whatsoever. In Christ, the new man, there's
no difference, there's no difference. All that makes people to differ
in the flesh becomes of no effect in him. What do I mean? I mean
what race you are, what color of skin you might have. Whether
you're male or female, whether you're Jew or Gentile, rich or
poor, and he says it elsewhere, he says it in Galatians 3.28,
there's no bond nor free, there's no male nor female, we're all
one in Christ Jesus. Rich or poor, master or servant,
All those things that make us to differ in the flesh in Christ
have zero consequence, have zero effect, have zero merit. We all
stand on the same merit. We all stand on the attributes
and the accomplishments of God in Jesus Christ. If you're His,
that's the basis on which we stand. That's the qualification
for heaven. You always see... Comedians,
they're making jokes and joking about what will it be like when
you get to the pearly gates? And they've got this myth that
you will be interrogated by Saint Peter to find out whether you
were good enough for this, that or the other and you can answer
the right question. It's all utter nonsense. We know it's
utter nonsense. But the truth is that only one thing matters
and that's Christ. are the attributes of the Lord
Jesus Christ, are the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ, are
they yours in Him? In Him, His people, all who believe
Him, are made, made, made, not make themselves, made the righteousness
of God. It's not what you are, it's not
what you do or you don't do, but it's Christ is all and in
all. Christ is all and in all. That's
the thing that matters. Do you consider yourself to be
a true believer destined for God's kingdom? If you are, to
you, Christ is all and in all. We quote him so often, the little
story about Happy Jack. What is your recommendation to
be allowed to become a member of this church? What have you
done? What do you know? He says, I know only one thing.
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. And the more you think on these
things, the more you think on these things, the clearer it
becomes. Christ is all and in all. To
the unbelieving world in general, Christ is despised. Christ is
ignored. Look at it, all around us, Christ
is ignored. Christ is ridiculed. Christ is
dismissed. Christ is not all and in all.
Christ is nothing to the world around. But to many who claim
to be Christians, he is not all. To many who claim to be Christians,
he is not all. I'll give you an example. In
Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 2, We're
told this, because Paul's been making the case. The people trying
to bring them back under the bondage of Jewish legal systems,
these Galatian Christian Gentile believers, he's told them, no,
you're free in Christ. And he says in verse two of chapter
five, behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing. What are we saying? If you add
anything that you are, or you do, to improve your standing
with God, Christ shall profit you nothing. Oh, but what about
the works of progressive sanctification that we must do to improve our
standing with God? This is what Paul the Apostle
says. This is what the Word of God says. Christ shall profit
you nothing. Christ shall profit you nothing.
Because why? Christ to you is not all and
in all. If he is all and in all, there
is zero space for any other contribution. There is zero space for anything
you do to sanctify yourself. There is nothing, no space whatsoever
for it. Yet religion, calling itself
Christian, will tell you that you must do this and you must
do that. And it's a complete denial of God's Word. I say to
you that if ye be circumcised, If you add anything that you
are or you do to improve your standing with God, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Christ... it's shocking, isn't
it? It's... when you see it as it
is, you see the lies that you've been taught by religion down
the years. And what a liberty it is to be
free of it. Stand fast, says Paul, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. And in chapter 2 of Colossians,
towards the end of it, he went through saying, don't let anybody
judge you in these religious things or that. Because what
you do or you don't do makes no difference to your standing
with God. All of that is determined by Christ, who is all and in
all. Of course, knowing that, That
makes a big difference to what you do, but it's not the other
way around. So, how is Christ to all his true people? What does it mean, Christ is
all and in all? What does that mean? Let's unpick
it a little bit further. Christ is all. Well, let me suggest
he is all deity. God who created, who sustains,
who upholds all things, Christ is all deity. Christ is all,
and he's all deity, Colossians 2 verse 9. For in him dwelleth
the fullness of the Godhead, the fullness of the deity bodily. In a human body that walked this
earth dwelt the fullness of the Godhead. He is all deity. Christ
is all and in all. He is all life because we only
have life because of God. Life, that thing that thinks
and senses in you, all of that is from God. There is no life
without God. He is the light of life. He is
all life. There is no life without Him.
He is all hope. and all confidence of eternity.
He is all of it, for there is no hope anywhere else outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that my Redeemer liveth,
that he is all my hope. He is God's Word. He is more
than that. He is all God's Word. He is all... It's the name on his thigh, towards
the end of Revelation, is the Word of God. That king on his
horse, the Word of God, in the beginning was the Word. And the
Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made
by him and without him was not anything made that was made.
He is all creation. Nothing was made without him.
Nothing. He is all creation. He is all
and in all. He is all his body, the church. He, because we're united, the
church, his people, are united with him from eternity. And it
says in Ephesians 1 verse 23, talking of the church, it says,
the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. He is all in the church. He's
all of these things. Christ is all and in all. But
there's one verse in scripture, I think, that stands out succinctly
as capturing the full span of what Christ, how Christ is all
and in all to his people. And that's the verse that we
read right at the start in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30. but of him, no flesh should glory
in his sight, but of him are ye, you people, you believers,
but of him, of God, are you people in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us, unto his believing people, wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. He is made all of these things.
He of God is made all of these things to his people. This shows
us more. Let's dig into it a little bit
deeper. Wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All his people are in Christ
of God, not of themselves. It's of God. He, in the beginning,
he said, you have not chosen me, I have chosen you. It's of
God. It's by the decree of God. By
the decree of God, he chose his people, a multitude that no man
can number, from every tongue and tribe and kindred. He chose
His people before the beginning of time. He loved His people
with an everlasting love before the beginning of time. He redeemed
His people in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
but then coming in time to accomplish in this space time creation.
He quickened His people by His Holy Spirit. He made them alive.
He gave them a new birth. He put a new man of the Spirit
of God within them. and he glorified. You say, oh
no, that's not happened yet, we're still here. He says in
the scripture that he's glorified his people. He says in the scripture
that his people, even though we think we're moving here, we
are seated in heavenly places in Christ. And how has he done
it? all in accordance with strict justice in Christ. He hasn't
violated the justice of God. He hasn't violated the holiness
of his being. He hasn't violated the sin, condemnation
and hatred of his being. So let's break these down. Firstly,
wisdom from God. Christ is made unto us of God.
Wisdom from God. All the wisdom of life All of
it is from God, manifest in Christ. We read in Proverbs chapter 3
earlier on, Proverbs 3 and verse 13, happy is the man that findeth
wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. He's not talking
about happy is the man that goes to the university of this subject
or that subject. He's talking about happy is the
man that finds true wisdom, the wisdom of God. How do we get
the true wisdom of God? Only one way, it tells us. Christ
is all and in all. Christ is made unto his people,
that wisdom. Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom, happy is the man that findeth Christ. Happy is the
man that findeth God in Christ, and the man that gets understanding,
the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. Happy
is the man that finds wisdom. And verse 15. She is more precious. Wisdom is more precious than
rubies. More precious than rubies. Jesus
said, using another precious stone, he said it's like the
man that's got lots of pearls and yet he goes and in a field
he finds the pearl of greatest price and all the rest he sells
them so that he might buy that one field with that one pearl
of great price. The pearl of greatest price is
this truth. It's the wisdom of God that is
made unto his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. She is more precious
than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to
be compared unto her. You know, you think about what
will heaven be like? What will I give up of this earth?
All the things that you can desire in the flesh will be zero, nothing,
worthless, compared to this knowledge of God in Christ. in verse, where
am I? Chapter eight, if you turned
over a few pages to chapter eight, because chapter eight is the
big chapter in Proverbs about wisdom. Wisdom is made into a person
speaking, and of course it's Christ that is speaking. But
in verse 35, it says this, this is wisdom speaking. So what is
that to a believer? Christ is made unto us, wisdom
from God. Whoso findeth me, says wisdom. Whoso findeth me, says Christ. Whoso findeth me, findeth life,
and shall obtain favor of the Lord. This is it. Life is in him. It's echoed by
John in his epistle, in the fifth chapter of his epistle, in verse
20, just before the end of it. He says this, we know that the
Son of God is come and that he's given us an understanding. What's
he given us an understanding of? Life. True life. The life
of God. That we may know him that is
true. And that we are in him that is
true. Even in his... How are we in
God? Even in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. He has made wisdom to us. Is
Christ all your wisdom regarding God, in relation to God? Is Christ
all that you need to know? Is he your all and in all? For if you're a true child of
God, he is. Secondly, He's made unto us righteousness. He's made
unto us righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5.21, again oft
quoted, He made Him, God, God made Him His Son. God manifest
in the flesh. He made Him to be sin. Why? He came in a body, and we're
going to be remembering shortly in the bread and wine, that a
body was necessary, a body you have prepared me, a body to take
on the flesh of the children, that by death he might pay for
the sins of the children. He made him who knew no sin,
for he was the perfect Lamb of God. He was examined for those
33 years and found faultless. Which of you, he could say, convinceth,
convicts me of sin? Nobody could. The Pharisees,
the high priests, they couldn't. He was the perfect Lamb of God.
and yet God made him sin. God loaded upon him all of the
sin of the people he had loved with whom he was eternally united,
and there in that body on that cursed tree, he paid the price. Why did he pay the price? That
we, his people, might be made the righteousness of God in him. Is this a New Testament idea
only? That Jesus has made his people
righteous? No. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah
23 verse 6, the name of God, the name of our God, the name
of Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness.
And I know I've shown you this before, but I think this, you
can mull this over and you can never plumb the depths of it.
But he is the Lord, our righteousness. And then in chapter 33 of Jeremiah,
verse 16, speaking of the church to whom he's wed, speaking of
his people to whom he's wed, it says, she, this is the name
by which she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. You
know, marriage, marriage, that's why in true Christian marriage,
the wife takes the name of the husband. The church, his bride,
takes the name of the husband. He is the Lord our righteousness,
and the church is, if I can put it this way, Mrs. the Lord our
righteousness. He makes his people righteous.
Christ is all to us. I need righteousness to stand
before God. I need righteousness to be accepted
by him. And as he is, Says John, 1 John
4, 17, as he is, as our Lord Jesus Christ is righteous, as
he is in the eyes of God righteous, so are we in this world. Oh, wow. Think of that. Think
of that. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought! My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. As he
is, so are we in this world. We sinners are cleansed from
all unrighteousness in him. Nobody can accuse us of sin at
the bar of divine justice. The accuser of the brethren,
Satan, is cast out. He cannot. Who shall bring any
charge against God's elect? He can't. Because why? Because
Christ has taken it. You say, I've still got it. Yes,
I know you experience it in the flesh. But as far as the justice
and judgment of God is concerned, he's taken it out of the way.
And that is true Sabbath rest. Resting in Him, resting from
all your works to make yourself better with God is true Sabbath
resting. As I keep saying, it isn't keeping
Sunday as a day of austerity and deprivation, as the Sabbath
day in its Christian form. No, Sabbath is resting in Christ. Do you rest in Him and all He
has accomplished? Is He all and in all to you? And then thirdly, sanctification
holiness pursue holiness follow holiness it says in hebrews 12
14 follow holiness because if you don't have holiness you will
not see god you will not be there in eternity holiness without
which no man shall see the lord follow holiness religion says
you only get that by your efforts to keep the 10 commandments perfectly
great men have said exactly this great men who were renowned for
lots of good things that they said and they did. But there's
one particular, I won't name his name because he's long since
gone now, but he wrote lots and lots of good stuff and I've got
several of his books and several of the things he wrote are very,
very good. But he said this, he said, justification is God's
work. But quite clearly, he said, sanctification
is our work as believers. It's the thing that we have to
do. I said this 30 odd years ago in a Reformed Baptist
church. And I said that, no, Christ is
made unto us, sanctification of God. Oh, boy. the bomb that
I exploded in that place by saying that. It was just absolutely
amazing. But that's what religion thinks.
Religion can't stand it, that Christ is all the sanctification
we need. You say, you know, what they
say is you have to do the Ten Commandments perfectly. And you
say, well, you can't. And they say, well, yes, we know
you can't do it perfectly, but at least you'll get credit for
having tried. But God's word says that Christ
is all his people's sanctification. It says it. Hebrews chapter 10
verse 14 says this. How do you get sanctified? How
do you get made perfect for God? By one offering, Christ has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Is there any element of you doing
anything in that? He is all and in all. And then
fourthly, he is redemption. He is redemption. Redemption,
to redeem something, is to pay the price of its liberty. You
might go into a shop and redeem an article with money. You release
it from the bondage of that shop and it's yours and you take it
away. It's the price of liberty from bondage. What is the bondage
that we're under in the flesh as sinners? This is it. It's
the law of It's the covenant of works Galatians 3 verse 10
says this is what that says. This is what it said The law
given at Sinai says this do this and live do not do this. You
shall die. You shall surely die Cursed is
everyone that continues not in all things written in the book
of the law to do them continually I remember reading John Warburton
saying how he came under conviction by reading that verse he tried
his best to turn over a new leaf to be resolved to do better to
not be a sinner anymore and he said again and again he came
back to that because it said cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them perfectly forever never failing and we can't do it cursed
cursed but verse thirteen Christ has redeemed us. Redemption. He's made unto us redemption.
He has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How did he redeem
us from the curse of the law? By being made that curse in our
place. By substitution. By taking our
place. He, Hebrews 9 verse 12, he, by
his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place. What
does it say? Having obtained eternal redemption
for us, for his believing people. He is all in all to us. He is redemption. He is wisdom from God. He is
righteousness. He is sanctification. He is redemption. Christ is all that to us now
and on into eternity. He, our God, will be our exceeding
great reward. That's what God said to Abraham. Who was it who said that to Abraham?
It was the second person of the Trinity. It was the word of God.
It was the word from God. He said, I, Abraham, are your
exceeding great reward. That's the great reward, to be
in the presence of God for eternity. He started it before time began,
and he'll finish it when time is no more. Has he begun this
new work of life in you? You know what Philippians 1.6
says, being confident of this very thing. that he, God, which
hath begun a good work in you, the work of salvation, that he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it, he'll
keep it going until the day of Jesus Christ, until he takes
you to be there in eternal glory, to hear those words, come ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. You know how it is if all of
a sudden you suddenly get something unexpected. A huge amount of
money comes your way and I once knew a young man and the world
would have regarded him as a bit of a sad case and he was in a
technical team and his grandmother died and left him her house. And it was a little terraced
house up north, so it didn't fetch much more than about £100,000.
But you know what he did with it? He blew the whole lot on
the top-spec Porsche he could buy with his £100,000. And everybody
thought he was completely mad, because now he didn't have an
inheritance, but he did have this flashy car, and it was a
beautiful car. And he reveled in that car, and
he reveled in its beauty, and he reveled in its engineering
perfection, and its performance, and so on. How much more, how
much more, people of God, if you've apprehended the truth
of gospel grace, will you revel in it? Will you rejoice in it? When it says rejoice in Christ
Jesus, it's mulled over in your mind. Think of the situation
that you're in compared with this lost, dead world. So thereby,
thereby, put on. In verse 12, it says, put on
therefore as the elect of God, bowels of mercies and so on and
so forth. Christ is all in all to you,
therefore. Well, I told you last week that
when it says therefore in verse 5, that same word could easily
be translated thereby. In this way, by looking at these
things, these things will happen. By thinking of Christ as all
and in all, thereby put on the garments of the elect of God. As the elect of God, holy and
beloved, put on bowels of mercies. It's a state of heart, bowels
of mercies, consideration for other people, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness. long-suffering, patience with
people, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. Why should
you forgive one another? Because the law says you must
forgive? No, it says this, if any man
have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, look to
him, look at the forgiveness that's in him, so also do ye. And above all these things, Put
on charity, put on agape love, put on self-sacrificing love,
which is what he did, which is the bond of perfectness, it's
the bond of perfect union between brethren. Put on charity, knit
together, it says in Colossians 2 and verse 2, his prayer is
that their hearts, the saints' hearts, might be comforted, being
knit together in love. It's the bond of perfectness,
the bond of perfect union. Looking at him and all that he
is, that he's all and in all, we put on the nature and the
fruit of Christ's being, which is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Romans 8.29 talks about his people
being conformed to the image of God's Son. You're the elect
of God. Bathe in the blessedness of that
statement. Naturally, naturally, bathing
in that thinking on Christ being all and in all naturally put
off the old man and put on the new man look what he says forbearing
with one another. Oh, I've already read it, haven't
I? Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which
also ye are called in one body, and be thankful. And let the
word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord. As God's believing
people, as people of faith, we're no longer under the legal schoolmaster
of law. We saw that last time. What was
the law? What was it for? Galatians chapter
3. The law was our schoolmaster. The thing that drives us to Christ. Seeing what we couldn't do with
the law drove us to Christ who's done it all for us. What the
law intended is established by faith. Romans 3, 31, he asked
the question, do we make void the law by faith? Do we make
void what the law wanted by faith? No, rather by faith we establish
the law. This love in verse 14. that put
on charity, this agape love, which is the bond of perfectness.
It's the bond of perfect union. Put it on, because it's a natural
thing to put on. Love, says Romans 13.10, love
is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the fulfilling of the
law. But only if Christ is all and in all to you. Is he? Or is there a little corner retained
in your heart for the bondwoman of legal works. And the reason
why I use that term is Galatians chapter four, Galatians chapter
four, where Paul talks about Abraham and Sarah and Hagar,
the bondwoman, and Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman, Isaac,
the son of the free woman. And he says it's an allegory,
it's a picture of our relationship to law to the old Jerusalem,
to Mount Sinai, to the covenant of works, and the new Jerusalem,
that which is above. And in verse 30 he says this,
because you see, he's writing in a situation where religious
Judaizers were trying to bring them back under the bondage of
old covenant. And he says, what says the scripture?
cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren,
we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. What says the
scripture? What says the scripture? Not
what says the 1689 confession of faith. What says the scripture? That should be our rule. What
says the scripture? Amen.