If you'll turn back with me now
to the Book of Colossians, I'm actually going to use Chapter
1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 and try to talk to you this morning.
I was talking this past week to a man that I've known for
more than 40 years. Met him years ago down in Louisiana. And he's been an avid supporter
of Sovereign Grace evangelism for as long as I've known him.
When Brother Milton Howard and them were down in Mexico, Walter
Groover, he supported them faithfully for years and years and years. But he's never been able in all
that time to settle down in a single church and sit under a pastor
and just listen and rejoice and be fed by the gospel. He never
could spend any length of time in any one church and he seemed
to drift I don't know so much about him in his later life,
but in his early life, he would drift back and forth from the
Southern Baptist churches to Sovereign Grace churches. And just recently, he left Sovereign
Grace Church again, and he was giving me his reasons for leaving
that church that his wife and he were attending. And he said, the pastor there
only and always preached Christ crucified. Now he said, don't get me wrong.
He said, preaching Christ crucified is very important. Very important. But we need a little law. We need a little rebuke. We need a little reproof. We can't live in this present
world on Christ crucified. And this is the story of every
man I've ever known, every woman I've ever known, who's given
consent to the five points of Calvinism. but have never truly
rested their souls in Christ. They adhere to the doctrines
of grace, what we refer to as the doctrines of grace, as the
means of salvation, but say it's not sufficient to live by. Their accusation is that we do
not preach the whole counsel of God. To preach the whole counsel of
God, they tell me, is to preach grace for salvation
and law for sanctification. Now, beloved, don't you bite
into that, ever. I don't care how they spread
it on the table. I don't care what they season
it up with. Don't you take a bite of that.
There is but one relationship between the believer and the
law, and that's death. Dead to the law. He just keeps
telling us we're dead to the law. Dead to the law. Not dead
in the sense that you just dry up and go sit down, but he said
we're dead to the law that we might be free to marry another. And the other is Christ. How do believers live their lives
in this world? How do they face the influence
of this world and deal with the flesh that's still in them? How
do they maintain a godly walk in this present evil world? How do they deal with sin on
a daily basis? And this man, by natural reasoning,
says he needs a little law. He needs a little threatening.
He needs a little rebuke. He needs these things to restrain
him. He needs these things to keep
him in fear. He needs these things to maintain
some idea of a personal righteousness. And that's usually what it all
boils down to. At the end of Romans 5, Paul
concludes with these words. And he's only talking about two
men all the way through. He's talking about Adam and he's
talking about Christ. Talking about Adam, talking about
Christ. And he's applying these things to us. And he gets down
to the end of the chapter in verse 21. And he said, that as
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. I'm gonna tell you something. The law does not keep sin from
reigning unto death. Sin reigned unto death in all
those who were under Moses' law. It still reigned unto death.
It reigned before the law came and it reigned after the law
came. And it still reigns today under that law. The point of fact, the law only
makes things worse in that it reveals sins of which we're not
even aware were sins. We say the law is just a concept. It's just there to give, to point
you to the right way. Did you know the scripture said,
cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them? If you offend this law in one
point, any time from your birth to your death, there's no way
that you can redeem that law that you broke. There's no way
you can redeem yourself under God. If you just had one slip, I'd be afraid to put the number
on the slips that we all make every day of our lives and had
been since we were born. Listen to this, Romans 7, verse
8. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, all manner of abnormal desires,
strong and irresistible desires. That carnal mind which is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It longs for whatever
God forbids. something as simple as a speed
limit sign or as evil as men lusting after men and women after
women. The law never has and never will
keep sin from reigning in the heart, but grace does. Grace does. Now I want to ask
this morning, and I think these are the questions, I titled this
message Questions That Need Answers. And I want to ask and try to
answer from the scriptures three things. The first thing is this,
what constitutes my standing before God? Huh? Am I standing before God
forgiven, justified, righteous before God? What constitutes
that? Why do I even think that's possible?
What's the basis of my hope and my standing before God? Secondly,
what constitutes my attitude and conduct in this present evil
world? And then thirdly, what constitutes
my spiritual growth and maturity? So let's begin here with this
question. What constitutes my standing before God? You tell
me, I'm saved. I'm saved, I'm a believer, I'm
an heir of God, I'm beloved of my father. On what basis do you make this
claim? Huh? Now come on. Was it just a feeling? I just
had a feeling one day. Really, you gonna rest your soul
on that? Well, I made a public profession.
So did Judas. Some kind of ceremonial walk,
I walked an aisle, I shook a man's hand, I signed a pledge card.
What's the basis of your hope, your standing before God? I hope none of these things constitute
your standing before God. The believer standing before
God is altogether in the person and work of Jesus Christ. You
either stand in him or you're not standing before God as a
believer. He said Christ crucified was
important. It's not important, it's everything. That's your standing before God. Colossians 119 said, for it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. What fullness? All fullness. Fullness of justification,
fullness of sanctification. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom. What wisdom? All wisdom. Righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And having made peace through
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. God's justice had to be reconciled,
had to be satisfied, things in heaven or things in earth. And you, he said, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked work, yet now
has he reconciled, how? In the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel. Jesus Christ is the provision of every believer which God chose
in His Son before the world was. He's the provision. We want to
run and talk about this and talk about that and argue about this
and that and split hairs on it. It's all in Him. The question
is, is He sufficient? Is He sufficient? Now if He's
not, then you're going to have to come back and lean on your
words. He's the provision of every believer
that God chose in him before the world was. The very being
of creation finds Christ and his church the reason for being
here. How come there's an earth? How
come we can plant plants and watch them grow? How come we
got a job to go work and an income and a life to live? Why? Why? Where's the... Christ is
the beginning of that. He's the reason. He's the reason. finds Christ and His church the
reason for being here. Creation was made subject to
vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the
same in hope. He's the basis of our hope from
the beginning, and He's the basis of our hope throughout the promises
and prophecies and pictures of the Old Testament. To Him give
all the prophets witness. And he's the basis of our hope
as he appeared in union with human flesh, bone of our bones
and flesh of our flesh. Why didn't he become an angel?
Why didn't he appear as an angel? He took not on him the nature
of angels, he took on him the seed of Abraham. Because he wasn't a hope of the
angels, he's our hope. made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons. He's our hope before God as he
was crucified on that cross. He bore our sins and his own
body on the tree. All that stuff he suffered, he
didn't suffer it for himself, he suffered it for us. He died in the room instead of
every man and woman given to him by the Father from the beginning.
In Romans 4.25, he said, who was delivered for our offenses. Now listen, and raised again
for our justification. And he's our hope before God
as he sits at the right hand of God making intercession for
us. Not saying words, not presenting
arguments to God, but his very person. He's the substitute. He's the surety. He's the priest. He's the king. He makes intercession
for us simply by sitting at the right hand of God. Now if that's what constitutes
your standing before God, is all this other stuff, this owl
walking, and feelings, and all this kind of nonsense, and adhering
to certain doctrines, and all that kind of tommy rot, then
you've got a false hope. And at the very least, you're
trusting in another Jesus. All right, here's the next question.
That's our standing before God, Christ. Christ and Him crucified. All right, here's the next question.
What constitutes my attitude and conduct in this world? What
makes me want to walk and honor God? What is it that does that? What do you need to do that?
What does a man need? I know he's not born with it,
but we're born again. We're born again. What constitutes his attitude
and conduct in this world? Well, he tells us in Colossians
2 and verse 4. He said, this I say, lest any
man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent
in the flesh, yet I'm with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and steadfastness in your faith in Christ. Now
watch this. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord. How did you receive him? As your
Savior, right? As your Lord. As your intercessor. As the Son of God. As your substitute. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, now watch this, so walk ye in him. Huh? Ain't that what that says? So walk ye in Him. Rooted and
built up in Him. Not the law. Not in fear. Rooted and built up in Him, established
in the faith as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware. lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after
the rudimentary or basic principles of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in him which is the
head, that is the power, the authority over all principality
and power. The believer walks in this world
with the knowledge of Christ's righteousness. I have one righteousness,
Christ. I don't have one. All our righteousnesses,
the prophet of God said, are filthy rags. We're like those
unclean rags of the leper, filled with pus. I can't even make it
ugly enough. That's our righteousness. When
you're really feeling good about something you've done, that's
what you're glorying in. Filthy rags. Filthy rags before
God. It's His righteousness, and I
walk every day in His righteousness. I don't have to struggle to do
something that I know I can't do. But the free gift of God,
He gives me His righteousness. And a believer walks in it. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He said of Israel, they're going
about in their blindness. They're going about it in vain,
trying to produce a righteousness and have not submitted unto the
righteousness of God. A believer walks in this world
with a knowledge of Christ's righteousness. And he walks in
this world with an all-sufficient concept that Christ died for
his sins on the cross. A fella told me, he said, well,
what about our sins? I said, I don't have any. What do you mean you don't have
any? I said, I don't have any. Do you? Christ died for my sins. He died, he reconciled us in
the body of his flesh through death to present you how? Holy. Unblameable. Who's gonna blame
you for anything? I have a perfect righteousness
in Christ. What about my sins? He's already
satisfied God for my sins. Is that right? That's how you
walk in this world. Do we know that we sin? Yeah,
we do. Do we mourn over it? Yes, we
do. Do we long for a day when it is gonna be taken away? Yes,
we do. Yes, we do. If I walk in Christ as I have
received him, I walk in a perfect justification. Who is he that condemneth? That's
what Paul said. Who is he that condemneth? God
that justifies, isn't it? You cannot honor the law any
more than you do when you see that law exalted and honored
in Christ. When I look to my crucified,
risen Savior, the love of God is shed abroad in my heart. Is there any other way for that
love to be shed or brought in the heart? No, no. It comes from seeing a crucified
Savior. It comes from seeing the gift
of God. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. You want the wellspring
of love, here it is, here it is. This is where you find it,
Christ crucified. God so loved the world, he gave
his only begotten son. Herein is love, not that you
love God, but that he loved us and gave us his son. 47 years of marriage, I never
needed a law. I didn't have to go pull out
a law out of the chest somewhere and dig it out and say, now what's
my responsibility to my wife? No, I loved her. She wanted something,
I'd do everything I could do to give it to her. I loved her.
I didn't need any law. I did those things out of love,
and law doesn't evoke love. Only guilt and fear. What thing
soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty
before God. Paul said, we have not received
the spirit of bondage again, that bondage under that law.
We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you have received the spirit of adoption, sonship, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. These are necessary things to
maintain our attitude and conduct in this present world. In 2 Corinthians chapter five
and verse 14, he said, the love of Christ constraineth us. What keeps you from going off
the deep end? I love Christ. The love of Christ constraineth
us because we thus judge, that is, we thus understand that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. and that he died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him that died for them, and rose again. Huh? That's what you need for an attitude
and conduct in this world. That's what you need. You need
the love, the love of God shed abroad in your heart. Where do
you find it? Christ crucified. If I can't inspire you to live
with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, what could I
possibly accomplish up here with the law sticking my finger in
your face, huh? It's grace that reigns through
righteousness, not ours, but His, and it reigns unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. In other words, it's sufficient
all the way into eternity. All right, here's the third thing.
What constitutes my spiritual growth and maturity in the faith?
What do I need to mature in the faith? What do I need that man
to preach? Huh? If I'm gonna mature in the
faith, turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. Do I need to hear? Scripture
said, faith cometh by hearing. Hearing by the word of God. What do I need to hear? And what
is the effect of this hearing? In Ephesians chapter four, verse
11, talks about the ascended Christ, and it says that he gave
some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers, or pastor-teachers. Why did he give them? For the
perfecting of the saints, that is, the calling out of the complete
number of God's elect. Or perhaps even their perfect
standing in Christ. and surely the perfections of
Christ is our standing before God. And also he gave them for
the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body
of Christ. Till we all come in the unity
of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, that is Christ in you, unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ. See, this is what faith's all
about. seeing that perfect man, trusting that perfect man, having
that perfect man in you as your hope. That we henceforth be no
more children tossed to and fro, signing up for this church and
then quitting and signing up for this church and then quitting
and then going to that church and then quitting. You're tossed
to and fro, he said. that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby
they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him. What are you gonna grow up in? Into him. In all things, which is the head,
even Christ, from whom the whole body fit be joined together and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to
the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."
All these men that God has appointed, they work to this end, to this
end. He says here that Christ gave
these men, equipped these men for the spiritual growth of the
body of Christ, and in particular, that hope of Christ, which is
Christ in you. And it's unto the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ. How do they do it? Speaking the truth in love. That's why we do it. That's why
we don't quit. That's why we don't throw our hands up and
walk out the door. We preach the truth in love.
Well, how often should a man hear? Continually. Continually. I guarantee you, if I was up
here this morning, and I was reading the will, I was a lawyer,
and I was reading the will of a billionaire, I'd have your
undivided attention. You'd be waiting, is he gonna
say my name? Maybe he left me a Ferrari. Boy,
I'm listening. You got my attention. But we're
up here talking about heirs of God and people play games. What's the results of this preaching
and this hearing? He says here, the effects of
working of the Spirit of the living God, that working into
which he works every member of his body, every office, every
position, every work. Now brethren, Paul came to this
in the book of Colossians. He came to this end. Christ is
all. He's not just an important part
of your salvation. He's all. He's all of it. There's nothing outside of Christ
but damnation. If I establish doctrine, it's
the doctrine of Christ. Isn't that what he calls it? If I reprove, Christ is the basis
of that reproof. If I correct, Christ is the standard. If I instruct, Christ is the
foundation. He's the meat. Believers have
no relationship to the law and no need of it. to be mixed with
the gospel and the grace of God. Christ is the end of the law.
You take that word endus as far as you can take it in any way
you wanna take it. We're risen with him that we
should walk in newness of life. And so I'll close with this exhortation. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
three. I'll read this and then we'll
close. Colossians chapter three, verse
one. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of the earth, for you're dead. Did you know
that? You're dead. We're crucified
with Christ. You're dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Now put off the old man with
his deeds. Based on what? Based on what
I just read. And put on the new man, which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all, and
he's in all. Huh? We don't need a little law. We don't need a little law. I've
had all the law I can stand. I tell you, when I found out
what the law was, I wanted no part of it. No part of it. Kept telling me, you need to
read this law. I said, I read enough to know what that law's
saying. I don't want any part of it. Oh, may the Lord make
it so in our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.