Colossians chapter two, and we're
going to, well, I was going to read from verse eight, but let's
just read the first few verses as well, and that'll put us in
mind what we looked at on a previous occasion. Colossians chapter
two and verse one. For I would that ye knew what
great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. That their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto
all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ. in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith
as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ. For in him dwelleth 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 the circumcision made without hands, in 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 in 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. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. It is important for us as the
Lord's people to be careful who and what we listen to. If the apostles, Peter, Paul,
James, John, Jude, these who wrote for us the epistles of
the New Testament, were so anxious concerning false teachers, and
they were, then we ought to be careful who we listen to and
we ought to give attendance to the warnings that these men gave
us. Two thousand years ago, These
men realized that the church in their own day was susceptible
to these troublemakers, these false teachers, these heretics
who came in amongst them and who sought to undermine the purity
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we discover
is that these individuals have had opportunity over these 2,000
years to hone their message, to sweeten their sermons, to
increase and improve the calibre of their beguiling words and
narrative. to such an extent that it's sometimes
hard to know the difference between those who are the true preachers
of the gospel of Jesus Christ and those who are false prophets
and wolves in sheep's clothing. If the Lord has shown you the
gospel of free and sovereign grace. And we're going to speak
a little bit more about that gospel later. But if the Lord
has shown you that gospel of grace, do not forgo the hearing
of it. Do not veer away from it lightly. If the Holy Spirit has declared
Christ to us, That privilege comes with responsibility. Responsibility to stand for the
truth, responsibility to attend to that truth, and a responsibility to value
and preserve that truth, which has been committed to us. that
we might, if the Lord allows and enables, be able to commit
it to the successive generations. Wouldn't it be a shame if because
of our own personal desires, we started listening to sermons
that were not the true gospel of Christ? and we thereby prevented
that gospel from being heard to a much wider audience than
just ourselves and our family. We have a calling to hear the
truth, to uphold the truth, and to carry that truth into this
world. And if the Lord makes that our
burden and the yoke which we must bear, then he will give
us the grace and the strength and the boldness to step out
in faith and to follow that calling and to stand for him and to uphold
the truth and to glorify his name in it. The Lord does not
call us to a life of ease, but he does call us to stand for
the things that he has revealed to us. The Apostle Paul could
say, O Timothy, Keep that which is committed to thy trust. Keep it. Preserve it. Hold on to it. It has been committed
to your trust. If I said to you, will you look
after this for me? You would do it out of respect
perhaps for me, out of a desire to please me, out of friendship
and fellowship towards me, you would endeavour to fulfil my
request. The gospel has been committed
to our trust. O Timothy, keep that which is
committed to thy trust. Avoid profane and vain babblings
and oppositions of science, falsely so called. The Apostle Paul in
this little book to the Colossians has already warned the believers
in Colossae and Laodicea, Herapolis, these little towns and cities
that were to receive this letter. He's warning them, he's warned
them in verse four of chapter two, that they should be careful
lest any beguile them with enticing words. He's warned these men
and women against those men who would come amongst them with
beguiling and enticing words. And Paul enlarges a little bit
upon that, not a lot. It's interesting to see the way
that the apostle deals with this matter. He says that he will
speak a little more about them. But you see, the truth is that
we don't need to be experts in error. It's much better to declare the
truth positively and by contrast reveal the error than diving
into the error in order to expose it in some sort of more contrasting
way. Let us just declare the truth. Let us lift up the Lord Jesus. Let us proclaim those things
which he has committed into our hands. And it will be very obvious
where the error is to be found and where the false teacher with
his beguiling and enticing words will be discovered. Look at verse 8. The first verse
that is in the little passage that we have before is verses
8 through 15. The name of our service this
evening or the title of our sermon is Complete in Him. And we'll
discover that little phrase as we go down through this passage. But here in verse 8 we begin
our thoughts with the Apostle continuing to warn against these
enticing people with their false doctrines. And he says, Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ." He's calling on the Colossians to be aware, to
beware, and to be wary, to be observant, and to inquire about
what they hear. These men want to spoil you,
says the apostle. Now, we know what happens if
something gets spoiled, it gets ruined. A garment can get spoiled
if it gets covered in oil or covered in mud. But the sense,
rather, with spoiling here is not so much that it has been
defaced as it has been robbed. The sense is that they are stealing
from the Colossians. If they come to spoil the Colossians,
they come to steal from them. And that's what the devil does
to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what false preachers
are doing to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We might imagine
that if we go and listen to a sermon where the Lord Jesus Christ is
not lifted up, that in some way, well, we're no worse off for
not hearing the truth. But the reality is that we are
worse off because the Lord Jesus Christ, in not being lifted up,
has been cast down. The truth in not being proclaimed
has been hidden. Our faith in not being stirred
up and encouraged has been quietened and suppressed. Our spirits,
for not being nourished, have been emaciated, have been starved
of the truth, and thereby false teachers steal from us. They steal from our faith. They steal from that which Christ
has committed into our hands, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what these Colossians
had received. They had received it from the preaching of Epaphras.
He had ministered amongst them. He had established a church there.
They were his brethren. They were his friends. This was
his fellowship. And now Epaphras was in prison
in Rome with Paul. And there is a concern amongst
these men. Who is there now? Who is speaking
to them? Who is preaching to them? Have
these false teachers inveigled their way in amongst them? And
are they stealing the children's bread? Philosophy, as the Apostle speaks
about it here in verse 8, is a reference to wisdom and knowledge. And let me just say that the
apostle is not saying here that we are to disparage wisdom or
think lightly of knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge, philosophy
if you like, are valuable things. They are valuable in their place. And let us not in any way appear
to be anti-education. Education and knowledge and wisdom,
the philosophy of this world, can be a very useful thing. and it is not to be disparaged,
but it has to be put in its place. It is to speak to the things
to which it can speak, and it is not to speak to the things
of which it is ignorant. Let me go on and show you that.
We then speak about this natural science. He says, beware of philosophy
and vain deceit. Natural science, the use of those
things in this natural world, like chemistry and physics and
biology, they are so useful, they are so valuable. We live
our lives, we have our societies, We have our skills and our technologies. We have the various tools that
God has given us to make the world a better place and make
life easier for more and more people. And they have a place,
but they cannot discover God, nor can they comment upon God. nor should they endeavour to
comment upon God, because God is transcendent and these things
are physical and natural, and so the philosophy of this world
will become a vain deceit if it is used improperly. Logic,
rhetoric, I didn't mention when I spoke about Isaac Watts, but
one of the things that he is famous for is writing books about
logic. He wrote an early book on the
subject of logic, which was very well received in its day and
in its age. Logic and the ability to reason
and argue, rhetoric, the ability to speak, communications, these
things all have their place. And there is a value in those
things which have been revealed by God. A general revelation
is available to us in this world through reason and through our
observation and through our experimentation in this world. But it needs a
special revelation. to discover God. And that's what
Paul is talking about here. You keep this philosophy in its
place. You don't let it become a vain
deceit when it is employing natural things against spiritual. because it has nothing to say
to the spiritual. It has nothing to offer. It has
no wisdom to give. It has no insight or understanding
to relay. It has its place, and it's to
be restricted to that place. We mentioned it in a different
context recently, but that which is born of flesh is flesh, that
which is born of spirit is spirit. And the apostle goes on to say,
not philosophy, not vain deceit, not the tradition of men, Tradition
of men is the religious assumptions that we have received, often
from our parents, often from our fathers and our grandfathers,
often the religion of our society or the religion of our culture. America prides itself as being
a Christian nation. Well, I think I could make a
very good case to say that they long ago forgot Jesus Christ
and all they have now is the traditions of men. That's what you call ancestor
worship. People will say, that's what
I believe and I'll defend it until I die. And they will, if God doesn't
give a special revelation. Paul speaks about the rudiments
of the world. That's the religious and the
moral codes that people have, which they build their lives
upon and which they think are the groundwork of their acceptance
with God, their moral conduct. And it had a special context
with respect to the Colossians here and the troublemakers that
were amongst the Colossians like those troublemakers amongst the
Galatians and those troublemakers that Paul and John had to deal
with and Peter at different times who brought in law and ritual
out of the Judaic system and endeavoured to impose it upon
the Gentiles, telling them that they had to be circumcised, telling
them that they had to come under the yoke of Moses' law, telling
them that they had to accept all of the conduct and all of
the ceremony and all of the ways in which the Mosaic law had been
taken and adapted and misapplied generally by the scribes and
the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all of the religious layers
that were imposed upon the Jews. We were speaking about that on
Sunday past where we made reference to the council at Jerusalem in
Acts 15. Why are we to be careful of those
things? Because they're not after Christ. They are fleshy things,
and they may, on the surface, appear useful. They may appear
to give structure to a society, to give meaning to the things
that we do, to give a morality to our conduct and establish
the law and order by which a society is based. But it cannot reveal
Christ. It cannot reveal God. And while
it may have its place, it's not to be used in the place of God
or in the place of Jesus Christ, because it's not after Christ.
It's fleshy, it's earthly, it's natural. And spiritual things
are superior, and Christ is superior, and he is excellent. He excels above all of these
things. And when we go into verse nine,
we see how the apostle has place these two thoughts together in
order to show just how superior and excellent the Lord Jesus
Christ is. He's spoken about the natural
things of this world which we have to be careful about because
he says they're not after Christ and then immediately he goes
into verse nine and he says, for in him, that is in Christ,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is a
contrast between that which is natural and physical and commonplace
and that which is extraordinary and transcendent. It is God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the apostle says
here. And he says, for in him, that's in Christ, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I think this is one of those
verses in scripture that it doesn't matter how many times you read
it or how often you think upon it or meditate in its words. It is a verse which becomes deeper
the more it is probed and the more that it is explored. I think
some of you have heard me making this analogy in the past. I'll
probably continue to do so because I have only so many analogies.
But space fills me with wonder. I look at whatever I find coming
out of NASA by the way of photographs or the headlines in the newspaper
or some science programs perhaps that you might find on the television
or on YouTube. These things where they're endeavouring
to look into space and they look and they look and maybe they
send a telescope up there on a Hubble spacecraft and that
gives them further to see and more to look at, and they scan
the heavens, and it doesn't matter where they look. What becomes
obvious is that the more they look, the more that there is
to find. There is a depth and a wonder,
there's a magnitude and a mystery in probing space that proves
it to be untouchable. We can look as far as we can,
and all that we see is that there is much, much, much more out
there than we can possibly ever comprehend. I think God has given
us space in order to show us something as to what this verse
means in 2 Colossians, or Colossians chapter 2, verse 9. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There is
such depth and wonder, such magnitude and mystery in these few words
as to show that our God is untouchable, unreachable, incomprehensible. Just too big for us. Now I want
to draw a quick distinction here because Let us remember that we can only
know God. We know God only to the extent
that he has chosen to reveal himself. We sometimes speak about
the attributes of God. The attributes of God are those
aspects of his character, his nature, his purpose, his desires,
that He has chosen to reveal to us. If God chooses to reveal
something to us, then that's God's prerogative to do so. If He chooses to withhold a revelation
from us, that is also His choice. and within his power and ability.
So God has chosen and revealed himself in those things which
he has chosen, those attributes that he has revealed. And we
know something of his holiness. How do we know about the holiness
of God? Because he has revealed that
he is holy. He has spoken of his love. How
do we know that God is a God of love? Because he has told
us so. Mercy. the attributes of God,
His omniscience, His knowing of everything, His omnipotence,
His power in everything, His omnipresence, the fact that He
is everywhere at all times, the fact that He is self-existent,
the fact that He sustains this world with the word of His power,
not the world only, but the whole universe, that whole space thing
that we were talking about is upheld by the word of His power. Now if he ceased to exist, if
that were possible, everything else would cease to exist too.
God has revealed himself to us in these ways. The presence of
God, his person, his nature, his attributes. These things
are most fully seen in this man, Jesus Christ. Recently I've been... reading
a little bit from the Old Testament and the Book of Exodus. And I've
been reading there about the tabernacle in the wilderness
and how Moses was instructed when he went into the mountain,
into Mount Sinai, with all of the dimensions and all of the
information about the design and the structure and the materials,
the furniture, its location, as far as the tabernacle was
concerned. and he was given all this information and he had to
follow it exactly. We say he had to follow it to
a T. He had to follow it precisely.
Why is it so important that Moses built the tabernacle exactly
as God had instructed him to do? Because that tabernacle was
a picture of Christ. It was a picture of Christ just
in the way in which we were talking about typology. It was an Old
Testament picture. given to the people of God by
which they could discern something of the nature of that one who
was yet to come, the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. In
that tabernacle, God dwelt with his people. And in the Lord Jesus
Christ, God dwells with his people. And the outside of that tabernacle
was mean. It was badger skins. It was coloured, but it was dull.
It didn't look anything special. It looked like, I don't know,
like a tent from the outside. But inside, it was glorious. Inside was gold. Inside was chitim
wood. Inside was brass. Inside was designed with purpose,
with clarity to describe wonderful things. And that again was a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah could see of Christ that
when we saw Him, there was no beauty that we should desire
Him. First few verses of Isaiah 53. But in this person dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Every full perfection of divine
majesty dwells in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Now the human nature of the Lord
Jesus Christ changed. If I can speak reverentially,
there was ignorance in the person of Christ. because we learn that
He grew in wisdom and we hear Him saying that there were some
things that were known only of the Father. So in that sense,
we surmise that in the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
see Him changing. God can't change. God is immutable,
but the Lord Jesus Christ in His physical body changed. In
His knowledge changed. He grew in His understanding. And the Lord Jesus Christ in
his body died. God could never die, but the
Lord Jesus Christ died. And here we see in him both that
human nature and the divine nature come together. In the human nature,
the God-Man, and in the divine nature, the Son of God, possessed
of all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That God, as it were,
dwelt in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. God tabernacled
with his people in the person of the God-Man. And yet every full perfection
of divine majesty dwells in our Saviour. Everything. Let me read. Let me read another
aspect of this to you from William Gadsby. I'm familiar with these
verses and I think perhaps you've heard this one as well, but it
just shows you how these divine attributes of our God, the eternal
nature, the self-existence, the omnipresence, the immutability,
is in the Son, and that is united with the human nature of Christ,
joined together with that divine nature of the Father and the
Holy Spirit. And it's a revelation that God
has given to men in this world that could never be discovered
by nature, and yet is specially revealed to us. Gadsby says,
oh what matchless condescension. the eternal God displays, claiming
our supreme attention to his boundless works and ways, his
own glory he reveals in gospel days. In the person of the Saviour,
all His majesty is seen. Love and justice shine forever
and without a veil between. We approach Him and rejoice in
His dear name. Would we view the highest glory? Here it shines in Jesus' face. Sing and tell the wondrous story,
O ye sinners saved by grace, and with pleasure bid the guilty
Him embrace. In His highest work, redemption,
see His brightest glory blaze. Nor can angels ever mention one
that more of God displays. Grace and justice here unite
to endless days. I repeat myself. I think this
verse, nine, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, becomes deeper and more profound the more it is probed
and explored. And it is a verse worthy of our
meditation often. Gadsby's hymn draws us on in
Paul's argument too, because it gives us a sense of the purpose
of the way in which the Apostle Paul has put these two themes
in juxtaposition. He has said, beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy, and then immediately talked about
the wonder of the revelation of God in the person of Jesus
Christ. And this is where I wanted to
talk again about this free and sovereign grace, because this
is what the purpose of this great revelation is. Blessings flow
to sinful men and women at the divine instigation and initiative
of our God in the person of Jesus Christ. This comes to dead sinners. We speak about our deadness,
but that's a sense of our inability. We are that flesh. We are world-bound. We are natural in our comprehension
and in our abilities. And while we have an imagination,
even our imagination has fallen. And there's nothing that we can
do to remedy our condition, such as the loss due to sin in our lives. We're
as good as dead, spiritually speaking. And that the carnal
man cannot receive the things of the Spirit. And so it takes God to reveal
them to us. It takes God to open our eyes. It takes God to open our ears.
And that's why science can never... help us to understand God. That's why reason and rhetoric
and logic can never prove the existence of God or indeed disprove
the existence of God. Science cannot, intelligence
cannot because these things are spiritually discerned. And the
message that was preached to the Colossians was a message
of a gospel accomplished by Christ, a salvation wherein every needful
element, every aspect of the needs of those for whom it was
designed and provided was secured by God himself. through the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now these false teachers, they
came to Colossae and Laodicea and Hierapolis and all the other
places where they followed Paul and the other apostles around
with their hobbled together and cobbled together message. They
came to add human wisdom. They came to add human works.
They came to add wishful thinking. And the theology was a hodgepodge. It was bolted together with all
the different religions and idolatry and the Mosaic law and the big
yoke of responsibility and duty that was laid across the shoulder
of these people. And it was saying to them, you're
bound up again in all of these natural things if you ever want
to please God. And Paul says, no, that's not
what it is. Listen. In Christ dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and he has done everything that was
needful for your salvation. Don't go back there. Don't be
deceived. Don't be enticed. Beware, be
wary of these men for they have nothing to add to you. But this
grace, this free sovereign grace of God is his gift of salvation. And you are complete in him. There you are, that's my title
for this evening's service, Complete in Him. I called the sermon Complete
in Him because as I reflected on it, I think that these are three of the most significant
words that you can find in any verse in the Bible. Complete in Him. And make no mistake, this completeness
is Paul's argument against the Colossians needing anything from
these false teachers and these law workers. You're complete.
Why would you go there? Why would you listen to these
people? You're complete in Him. You don't need them. They've
nothing to add to you. They've nothing to offer you,
nothing to contribute. In fact, if anything, they will
spoil you. They will steal from you. They
will diminish your joy in the possession of that completeness,
that fullness that you possess. These Colossians need nothing
from these false teachers. These young believers, they need
nothing from these false teachers. A child knows more than those
theologians, those doctors of divinity, if they know the gospel,
if they know the Lord Jesus Christ. The phrase complete in hymn,
it means that in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are full and we need
nothing. We are complete and we are perfect. Really? Did he just say that? Did he just say we're perfect?
That's exactly what that phrase means. Perfect in Christ. Perfect in Christ. Every believer,
every child of God, everyone whom God has chosen and Christ
has redeemed is perfect in the sight of God. And that message
needs emphasizing. It needs emphasizing today It
needs emphasizing in our churches. It needs emphasizing in the gospel. It needs emphasizing in our society. Men want to heap to themselves
teachers who will Tell them what they have to do to please God. You want me to dig in my pocket?
You want me to dig in my pocket and open my pocket book, open
my wallet and give you something? Do you want some time? Do you
want to lay some charitable obligation upon me? Do you want to give
me some good works to follow? Do you want to tell me how I
need to be obedient to the word of God and to the church's rules
and to the duties and obligations that fall upon me as a Christian
in this world? You bring it on. You tell me.
Tell me what I've got to do because I want to get to heaven. You
tell me what I need to do. And the Apostle Paul says, you're
perfect in Christ. You are perfect, complete, whole,
full, pure, and holy. You are righteous and justified
in the sight of God. Nothing can be added to you to
make you more pure, more perfect, more holy in the sight of God. And that's a fact. Now I might say to somebody,
do you believe the Bible? Oh, I believe the Bible. I believe
the Bible. Do you believe you're perfect? Well, I'm not so sure about that.
Well, you are if you're in Christ. Now, I know many of you are going
to react saying, well, I don't feel holy and I don't feel perfect. And that's true. You don't. And
no true believer ever did. Because in ourselves, in our
flesh, in these bodies, we continue to carry the presence of sin
and the effects of sin. But we are chosen in eternal
purpose to be conformed to the image of Christ. We have been
united to Christ in the eternal covenant purpose. And we have
been redeemed by Christ at the cross of Calvary. More on this
shortly. But there is a process in this,
not sanctification. I'm not talking about sanctification
or increased holiness or getting better and better every day like
the little train. But I am talking about a growth
in grace. I'm talking about a growth in
the knowledge of truth. I'm talking about a development
in the appreciation of the things that Christ has done for us.
And the believers grow in that, and that's the reason why we're
still in the world. That's the reason why we have
to live in these bodies of flesh, though we are holy in our souls
and we are perfect in our spirits. This conflict has been established
in order that we might learn more of Christ, might learn more
of what it means to lean upon Him, to rest in Him, to draw
strength and comfort from Him. And all born-again sinners are
taught to know and to love and to lean on Christ by the experiences
that we have in this battle conflict, this war which exists between
the flesh and the spirit. It's a battle, it's a trial,
and it includes and it involves dark times. It involves ups and
downs, tears and fears and doubts, as our flesh wars against the
Spirit and our spirit against the flesh, each seeking the ascendancy,
each seeking to come out on top, because there are things that
we desire in the natural man which the Spirit fights against. And we want our sensual experiences,
and we want our indulgences, and we find ourselves being drawn
towards them in temptation. And the Spirit resists those
things, because the Spirit seeks after the things of God, and
after the things of Christ, and would dwell upon the loveliness
of the Saviour, and the blessedness of forgiveness of sins, and the
great accomplishments of our Redeemer on the cross. And the
flesh says, nah, you'll just go to sleep. It says, no, we're
too busy for that just now. We've got something more important
to do. We've got something more pressing. We'll think about that
later. And why is it that we have to
go through this conflict? Because it seems right in the
sight of God to lead his pilgrim people by this way. This is the road. This is the
path. This is the way. Walk ye in it. And faith calls us to trust and
to believe in the promises of God above our feelings, beyond
our natural inclinations. And we are complete in Christ,
complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. He is supreme. These false teachers
have nothing to offer you. We have Christ. And no one can
alter what Christ has confirmed and what he resolves to do. The
Jewish religion couldn't do that. The Jewish religion wanted to
say, to please God, you have to be circumcised. You have to
be cut in your flesh. That of course had a significance
much more than just the circumcision, just more than the skin being
cut. It had to do with taking on the
ceremonial and the festivities and all of the obligations of
the Ten Commandments and having that as our rule, our regulation,
our duty, our obligation in life. The Jews said, if you want to
please God, God has given us these rules, we have to obey
them. That's what you're called to do. If you want to be a follower
of God, by all means trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, but look
at what we've got to do. If you love me, Jesus Christ,
keep my commandments. Now get on with it. but we're completing Him. We
already are completing Him. We've got all the righteousness
we will ever require. We've got all the good, all the
purity, all the sinlessness that we will ever require in the Spirit. And this body, which holds us
back, which drags on us like a ball and chain, like the chain
shackles that we have to shuffle around in in this world, this
body must go to the grave. It will never be improved. It
will never be bettered. It's only going in one direction,
but the Spirit is going to Christ. We are complete in Him. And not
the Jewish religion, not the philosophical sophistry of the
false teachers or the accusing devils. They cannot change what
Christ has decreed. They cannot change what Christ
has accomplished. And this is how we stand before
God. And this is the essence of our faith. We believe God
who has said these things and declared them to be true against
all. Let me say that in big capital
letters with highlighter and an underlining. Against all else. We'll believe God against all
else. What do you mean like all else,
that my feelings and this depression and this hardship and these trials?
Yes, against that we'll believe God. Or against the doctrines
that I hear all these preachers telling me about? Yes, we'll
believe God above all those preachers. Or against the devil who comes
accusing me of being a sinner and accusing me of all those
old sins that I've committed and showing me that my passions
still lead me there and tempting me to follow after them even
now. Yes, we'll believe God above all else. And if we trust in Christ, It
is because the Father has chosen us to trust in Him. It is because
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has redeemed us on the cross,
and it is because the Holy Spirit has called us to faith, converted
us in time, and given us that trust to believe, even if it
is just small faith, little faith. In the final verses of this passage
that we have down to verse 15, We find that the Apostle Paul
supports his gospel assertions with a number of statements. I've pulled out five, but there
are so many more. You know, I was just saying to
someone recently, I need to ask forgiveness because
I've overlooked how beautiful this little book of Colossians
is. I failed to grasp how wonderful. I'm really enjoying studying
this book in order to come with these thoughts to you on a Wednesday
evening. Five beautiful statements I just
want to draw your attention to in these final verses to describe
and to enhance that union that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. Verses that emphasize and reinforce
and confirm and reassure the people of God, corroborating
evidence, if you like, that the Apostle sets up here to show
us the wonder of this union that we have with Christ and the fact
that we are perfect in Him, complete in Him. Look at verse 11. He
says there in verse 11, "'In whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.'" Circumcision
without hands. Isn't that an amazing statement? circumcision was cutting, cutting
that member of the body in order to enter into a union with Abraham
and with the Jewish covenant promises that God had given in
the Old Testament, failing to see that what was really being
pointed to was not a national or a physical or a geographical
union. about land or anything else,
but a spiritual union. So these Jews came along to the
Colossians and they said, well, you're Gentiles, but you have
to be circumcised. We'll circumcise you and then
you'll be like us. And they wanted the Colossians
to go under the Mosaic law. But Paul says you're already
circumcised. You're circumcised, not with
the circumcision made with a knife or a sharp stone or a razor blade
or something. You're made with a circumcision
that's made without hands. Not a fleshy, physical cut, but
a spiritual circumcision of the heart. And it's been made by
Christ. It's to do with the confession
of our personal sin. Every child of God that is brought
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ realizes they are doing so for
the forgiveness of their sins. And that's the circumcision of
the heart. It's our confession. and it's
a repentance and it's a repudiation of sin in the Spirit. It's a recognition of the divine
removal of our sin and our shame by the Lord Jesus Christ and
by God the Holy Spirit through a circumcision made without hands. Look at verse 12. He says, we
are 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. Buried and risen with him. This emphasises the union that
we have with Christ and our completeness with him. What Christ endured,
we endured. What Christ experienced, we experienced. What Christ is glorified with,
we are glorified with. The joy that Christ had in the
recognition and acknowledgement of the good pleasure of God is
the pleasure he has in us also. Now the Apostle here, the Apostle
Paul, does not mention our being crucified with him, not at this
point anyway. Perhaps because he's thinking
and speaking about the Colossians' public witness of baptism, and
that's what he has in view here. But that's our unity with Christ. We are crucified, we are buried,
and we are risen together with him. When the Lord Jesus Christ
was buried, we were buried. When the Lord Jesus Christ rose,
we arose too. That's why the picture of baptism
is so suitable and why I believe that adult, sorry, not adult,
believers' baptism rather than infant baptism or any other form
of baptism, the pouring or the effusion as it's sometimes called,
doesn't meet the picture. because the picture is of believers
entering into that burial experience and that resurrection experience
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so integrated and entwined
are we with the Lord Jesus Christ, him the head, we the body, a
union together, that no distinction can be made between the two.
and such is the suretyship and the representation of the Lord
Jesus Christ on behalf of his people. He stands for us and
we stand in him and we are complete in him. And faith is that appropriating
grace. We receive all the blessings
of God towards his church through faith. And if it isn't of faith,
it's of the flesh. I wanted also just to draw your
attention to that little phrase in verse 12 where it talks about
the operation of God. It's through the faith of the
operation of God. The operation of God. We are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. His workmanship. This is God's operation. It's
another lovely phrase in this little second chapter of the
book of Colossians. We trust in free and sovereign
grace. We trust in the operation of
God that he has accomplished all these things and secured
all these things and purposed all these things and brought
all these things to fruition. Look at verse 13. Here's another
little phrase. We are quickened and forgiven. all our trespasses and all our
sin. Verse 13. And you being dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him? Look, having forgiven you all
trespasses, I mean, I don't know how anybody
can have any doubt about this gospel that we preach. All our
trespasses are forgiven. This is the divine work. He has
quickened us and forgiven. He has made us alive and forgiven
all our trespasses. Where's free will in this? Where's duty faith in this? Where's
obligation in this? This is God's divine work. This
is the operation of God. We are His workmanship. All believers'
sin is forgiven. It's all gone. Yesterday's sin
and tomorrow's sin and the sin that we committed today as well.
It's all forgiven. It's all gone. It's been carried
by the Lord Jesus Christ to His cross. He suffered for it. He paid for it. He has carried
it all away. It is forgiven and it is forgotten. And forgiveness of sin and pardon
is exactly what you need. And it's exactly what I need.
And it's exactly what Christ has done for us. Where has this
sin gone? It's real sin. It's a tangible
breach and transgression of God's law. It's God's law because he wrote
it. He wrote it himself. On those
two pillars of stone, those 10 commandments, we've breached
them. We've transgressed them many, many times, whether we've
done it physically or whether we've done it in our mind, whether
we've done it in our speech. God wrote those laws himself
in order to intensify our guilt. And boy, are we guilty. So where
is that sin gone? Well, the apostle says it's been
blotted out. It's been blotted out. He says in verse 14, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances, those 10 commandments. blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, our transgressions
of the law of God, which was contrary to us, which accused
us and had allegations legitimately against us, and took it out of
the way, nailing it to his cross. Well, there's another amazing
statement. Who's going to talk to me about universal atonement?
when Paul clearly says that our transgressions have been nailed
to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, the bearing of
our sin by the Lord Jesus Christ was personal. It was individual. And it was a definite act by
Christ. He didn't die for all sin and
make that a great big provision that anybody could choose to
go back and forward and make use of or not depending on their
whims took them. He took our sin. Now I'm not
going to enumerate them. Find yourself a priest if that's
what you're looking for. But he took my sin and he took
the sin of every believer. And he took that sin and he said,
I know that sin. I know where he committed that
sin. I know who he did that sin with. I know what was perpetrated on
that occasion. I know the desire of his heart.
I know the satisfaction of his mind. I know the pleasures of
sin for a season. I know exactly what he was doing
and that he knew what he was doing when he did that. I take
that sin, I take responsibility for that sin, I carry that sin
says the Lord Jesus Christ, I put it on my shoulders on the cross
and it gets nailed to the cross with me. Now if that sin is nailed
to the cross, it's been removed from me. It's been cleansed from
my account. It's been carried by my substitute. It's been born by my representative. And it is atoned for before the
Holy God. Do you remember these verses
are Paul's proofs of the Colossians and of our acceptance and with
God and our perfection in Christ, that we are complete in Christ?
How can a man go to hell for his sins if the sins have been
nailed to the cross? How can a man be responsible
and culpable for his sins in hell if those sins have been
taken away and nailed to the cross with the Lord Jesus Christ?
That sin is gone. Therefore, all for whom Christ
died will be in heaven. Finally, and with this I'm done,
look at verse 15. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. He made an open show of victory. The Lord Jesus Christ made an
open show of victory. You know the resurrection of
Christ was an open show. He didn't just disappear out
of that tomb. out through the rock in the darkness
so that he would go back to heaven and take all the accolades of
glory and sit down with his job done. No, they moved the stone
and they let him walk out. They moved the stone because
the Lord Jesus Christ had to show his victory openly. He made an open show of victory.
The body of the God-man returned from death. The grave released
him because it couldn't hold him. He ascended through the
air. He was received into heaven.
And Satan and the devils and angels and men watched him in
an open show of his victory. The cross should have been Satan's
victory, but it was his defeat. And the Colossians and all who
are of faith share in Christ's victory. Not its accomplishment,
he accomplished these things himself, but we share in the
victory for its benefits, and we are complete in him. We are
perfect, we are accepted, and we are safe in Christ Jesus. We all face our trials, and we
face our foes, and we face our enemies, and we have trials and
difficulties and pressures and temptations from this world,
from our flesh, from the devil. But we do so knowing this, that
the victory is won. The saviour is successful and
we are complete in him. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us and may he delight you as he is delighting me in
these beautiful passages that we are encountering in the book
of Colossians. Well thank you once again