I was sitting there thinking a
few minutes ago about the first time I met John and Ernestine. I recall the first message I
preached to you at Tuscarora, August 1984. It was on the redemptive
work of our Lord Jesus Christ and after the service John came
up to me and said the opening word of the message grabbed me
and the Lord didn't let me go to the last amen. Would to God
he might now grab your heart and hold you and seal this message
to your heart by his grace for in him that is in Christ dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You might want to write
somewhere in the margin of your Bible, in a body. In the body of that man, in the
humanity of Jesus Christ in him, in that man dwells all the fullness
of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Oh, how I wish I could
communicate this blessed truth to you. All that God is is in
Christ, for Jesus Christ is himself God, the embodiment of God, the
fullness of God, and the revelation of God. All that God requires
of sinners is in Christ and only in Christ. All that God gives
to men and women is in Christ and only in Christ. All that
we can need, all that we can desire for time and eternity
for our soul's eternal good is in Christ. All grace, all mercy,
all love, all peace, all wisdom, all righteousness, all sanctification,
all redemption is in Christ. All salvation is Christ himself. And it's in him in absolute fullness. Now you can't add anything to
fullness. In him dwelleth. Permanently. Permanently. All the fullness. All the absolute fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Now get these next words. And
you are complete. The word means you are full. It's the very same word that's
used where it says fullness in verse 9. You are full, complete
in him, which is the head, the ruler, the power, the dominion,
the governor, the king of all principality and power. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the head of all things by virtue of his obedience
to God as our mediator. He has been given the place of
supremacy, dominion, and rule over the entire universe as our
substitute and representative. and all who believe in Him, all
who trust Christ, you who just now had begun to believe in Him,
and you who have believed in Him for many years and perhaps
are about to draw your last breath, all who trust Him are to all
degrees perfectly, absolutely complete in Him. Now, that's
my subject this morning. complete in Christ. I pray that
God the Holy Spirit will enable me to effectually preach to your
hearts as I endeavor to show you what it means to have this
fullness, this completion in Jesus Christ. As all the fullness
of the triune God resides permanently in Christ the Mediator, so all
the fullness of Christ the Mediator is ours by faith in Him, and
you're complete in Him. Now, if I don't get anything
else said, that's enough to mull over for a lifetime, as all the
fullness of God permanently resides in that man sitting yonder on
the throne of glory. So all the fullness of that God-man,
our mediator, is ours in Him, By faith in Him, and we're complete
in Him. But what does it mean to be in
Christ? There are many answers given
to that question throughout the Scriptures. We who believe are
in Christ by God's elective purpose, in Christ by divine predestination,
in his hands, trusted to his hands as our surety, in his hands,
trusted to his hands as sheep to the shepherd. We are in his
hands, in his protective power, under his watchful eye and constant
care. But let's just stay right here
with the text in Colossians 2. To be in Christ, Paul's talking
now about our being in him experimentally. To be in Christ is to be regenerated,
to be born again by God's sovereign grace. Look at verse 11. In whom
you also, or in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Now, what on earth does
all that mean? It means this. The new birth
is here represented to us by the picture of circumcision.
Circumcision was instituted by God to Abraham and his children
in Genesis chapter 17 as a sign and token and seal of God's covenant
grace in Christ. Circumcision was not, I repeat,
it was not contrary to popular opinion among Protestants and
Papists alike. Circumcision was not a picture
of baptism. Nowhere in the New Testament
is it set forth as such. Circumcision was a picture of
the new birth, a picture of regeneration. As the foreskin of the flesh
was cut away in circumcision, so in the new birth, the Lord
God separates between soul and spirit. He causes the child of
God to be born of his spirit, and symbolically, this is called
a circumcision made without hands in the heart. By the new birth,
the Spirit of God cuts the heart of the believer from the body
of sin in which he resides. Now, that doesn't mean that the
believer ceases to be sin. It doesn't mean that the believer
ceases to have sin. The believer does not cease to
sin, but his heart is now made to detest his sin. Your heart,
if you're in Christ, has been cut off from the body of flesh.
Your heart, if you're in Christ, abhors what you are and what
you do by nature. Your heart is at war against
your flesh. That's what it is to be born
of God's Spirit. In regeneration, a righteous
nature, a new nature is imparted to the believer. And now that
one who is born of God loves what once he hated and hates
what once he loved. In the Old Testament, a child
being circumcised was given a name at the time of his circumcision.
And in regeneration, you and I had been given a name, being
born of God. Now we are called the sons of
God. Could not be otherwise, but now
we are called the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Circumcision gave the children
of Israel the right to come and partake of the Passover, to eat
of the Passover, which was typical and representative both of our
Lord's sacrifice and of the blessed ordinance of the gospel that
we call the Lord's Supper. And so it is that the one thing
required Before anyone sits at the Lord's table is that they
be circumcised in heart, be born again of God's Spirit. As we
come together tonight and once again sit together at the Lord's
table, all who are born of God are welcome to eat the Lord's
Supper. It's His Supper. We set no requirements before
you. We don't do anything to try to hinder you, but rather
encourage every believer to come and eat of this bread and drink
of this wine in remembrance of Christ. But unless you've been
circumcised in heart, You don't dare partake of the ordinances
of the gospel. But this spiritual circumcision
is a work of God made without hands. It's altogether a matter
of the heart. It's a work of God the Holy Spirit.
Circumcision was a mark. It was a mark in the flesh. Now
this circumcision was a painful mark. You recall when Moses'
wife Zipporah was required to circumcise her son. She looked
at him in disgust because it's such a painful thing. She said,
you're a bloody man to me. Circumcision was an identifying
mark. It identified one as a child
of Abraham, as the seed of Israel. It distinguished him as a mark
of distinction from all the rest of mankind. It was a covenant
mark. This circumcision says this child
is a child of the Abrahamic covenant, this circumcision in the flesh.
And it was a permanent mark. Once it was done, there was no
undoing it. So it is with the circumcision of the heart. It
is a painful mark. No one is born of God's Spirit
without undergoing the pain of conviction and repentance. It
is a identifying mark. By this, when we are born of
God, given life and faith in Christ, we are identified as
the children of God, the true seed of Abraham. By this distinguishing
act of God's grace, we are set apart from the rest of the world,
called out from the herd of fallen mankind, and called into the
sheepfold of God's grace. This is a covenant, Mark. Once
a child of God has been born again by His grace, once God
has given you His Spirit and His grace, then He says all the
covenant is yours. Once God gives you life and faith
in Christ, then He says all the blessings of the covenant are
yours in Christ. Now remember, It is not your
new birth, nor is it your faith in Christ that gives you the
blessings and the privileges of the sons of God, but it is
your faith in Christ that gives you the right to apprehend these
things for yourself. They were given to us in covenant
grace before the world began. And the new birth, like circumcision,
is a permanent mark. Once it's done, it can never
be undone. Those who are born of God shall never cease to be
children living before God with the life of Christ in them. To
be in Christ, in verse 12, is described as trusting Him. The apostle says here, buried
with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him,
through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from
the dead. All who are born of God are given
faith in Jesus Christ. The one certain mark of the new
birth is faith in Christ. And that faith is confessed by
public baptism. Baptism is the ordained ordinance
of God by which believers confess the faith of the gospel. Now
this ordinance of baptism is here described by the Holy Spirit
as a burial and a resurrection. When someone is baptized, he
is buried in the watery grave. Now there's no question that
the only biblical way to perform baptism is by immersion. It is not possible for a person
to be buried by someone sprinkling a few grains of sand in his face.
And it's not possible for someone to be baptized by having a few
sprinkles of water splashed on their face. Baptism is a burial. It has to be a burial because
it represents a burial. It represents the death of the
Son of God. His burial in the tomb and His
resurrection from the dead. It represents the fact that we
who believe were crucified with Christ. We were punished in Him
to the full satisfaction of divine justice, buried with Him in the
tomb. And when we rose from the grave
with Him, God declares we're justified forever. Our sins have
been put away by his sacrifice. Baptism, as I have said before,
I repeat, was not a picture of circumcision, or circumcision
was not a picture of baptism. But baptism is a picture of the
death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism
is also an act of faith. We are not baptized in order
to get faith, but because God has given us faith in Christ. When a believer comes to the
waters of baptism, he's performing an act of faith. You see, faith
obeys God, and baptism is the answer for good conscience and
obedience before God. Looking back to the finished
work of Christ, we are baptized with Him, and we say to the world,
Christ's death is my death. His sacrifice is my sacrifice.
His blood is my atonement. I trust Christ alone to put away
my sin. And if you don't do that, don't
you confess any baptism. Not until you have been given
faith in the Son of God. That's what it is. And baptism,
symbolically by faith, looks forward. We declare to the world,
I was risen with Christ, and now by God's grace, I've been
given a new life with Christ. By faith in Him, I walk with
Him this day forward in the newness of life. Let no one assume the
right of baptism. Let no one presume upon God being
baptized until that person has been raised with Christ and is
consecrated to Him by virtue of resurrection power to walk
with Him in the newness of life. In baptism, I lift my hands to
God and I say, I'm His forever. I'm his forever. Every time I
have the privilege of baptizing someone or watching another believer
confessing Christ in baptism, in my heart, I lift my hands
to God again. I say, I'm yours forever. To
walk with you in the newness of life. And baptism looks forward
to the last day when the Son of God shall come again and we
shall be raised with him forever. Now this faith, which we confess
in believers' baptism, is the gift and operation of God. Do
you see that in verse 12? Our faith is by the operation
of God. Faith is not something the sinner
decides to do by his free will. Faith is not something that the
preacher talks the sinner into doing by his persuasion and logic
and telling stories and tearful illustrations. Faith is the gift
of God. It's the gift of God. It's the
fruit of the Spirit. It's the effectual work of His
almighty power and regeneration when He raises us from the dead
by His grace. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, if right now, somehow, you had begun to do what you
never could do before, if right now, Larry Chris, you believe
on the Son of God, right now, if right now you believe Him,
God gave you faith. God did it. The Spirit of God
called you. Christ redeemed you. God chose
you. God predestined you to life. And the evidence is faith. Faith
in the Son of God. To be in Christ is to be born
again. It is to trust Him. And to be in Christ is to be
the object and recipient of God's immutable saving grace. Look
at verse 13. And you being dead, in your sins. That kind of eliminates free
will, doesn't it? Dead. Well, you'll be saved if you,
well, when you put if in there, you've lost it. You'll be saved
if, no, man's dead. He'll be saved if God, not if
you, if God. You'll believe if God gives you
faith. You'll live if God gives you
life. You'll repent if God grants you repentance. If God leaves
you to yourself, you're going to hell. Now, that's all there
is to it. You being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision,
the filth of your flesh, hath he quickened, regenerated, together
with Christ, having forgiven you. Not in order to forgive
you, but because you've already been forgiven. The forgiveness,
Ron, was accomplished at Calvary. Having forgiven you, look at
this, all trespasses. Isn't that good? blotting out
the handwriting of the 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, in His death upon the tree. When God raised His
Son from the dead, He was raised as our representative. Christ
lived, died, and rose again as the representative, substitute,
surety, and mediator of God's elect. And as the result of His
finished work, all the blessings of God's saving grace have been
effectually secured to all who trust Him. We all, by nature,
are born dead in sin. Dead because of our sin and fall
in our Father Adam. But God has been gracious to
us. He's given us life. Look what he says here. He quickened us. He quickened
us. I recall years ago, I heard a
fellow trying to illustrate this word quickened. He said it's
sort of like when a fellow's asleep. Somebody comes along and just
nudges him or pinches him and wakes him up. Oh, no, no, no, no, no,
no. He's not talking about somebody
being asleep. You don't mess about being dead. And a nudge
or a pinch ain't gonna help any. In order for dead to live, the
Lord God must come and say, come forth. The Lord God must speak
to the dead. The Lord God must breathe into
the dead and give life by His Spirit. To be quickened with
Christ is to be raised from the dead when He arose representatively
and raised from the dead by the power of His resurrection in
the new birth. God has freely, completely forgiven
us of all sin through the merits of Christ's righteousness and
His shed blood. What does He do? He's forgiven
you all trespasses. Preacher, surely that doesn't
mean all of them. Yeah, it does. All of them. Past, present, future. All trespasses. Those things,
Bob, that torment your conscience from your youth, all trespasses. Those things that plague your
heart today, because as a believer you yet trespass against God,
all trespasses. And those things that you fear
most you shall do tomorrow, all trespasses, Rex, we forgive you. All trespasses, if you hear us. All trespasses. He's forgiven
all trespasses freely and fully. All your sins, sins of youth,
old age, and sins of omission and commission, sins of thought,
sins of word, sins of deed, all are freely, everlastingly forgiven
through the merits of Christ's blood. But this forgiveness of
sins is a just and righteous forgiveness. God does not simply
ignore your sins. He can't do that. God doesn't
just say, well, I understand, and say, I'll forget about your
sins. Justice won't allow that. We do that with our sons and
daughters, and well, we should. We do that with one another,
and well, we should, because we are sinners ourselves. But
God Almighty is just. He's holy. He cannot lie. He
said, the soul that sinneth it shall die. That means, James
Jordan, God cannot forgive your sins apart from the satisfaction
of His justice. He can't do it. How does God
forgive sin? By punishing Christ for sin.
He took my sins and punished me for my sins to the full satisfaction
of His justice when I died in Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. You mean you
suffered for your sins? Yes, sir. In a substitute. I
was in Him when He died. The oracles and ordinances of
God's holy law, which I have broken, those things which were
against us, the law of God demanded our execution. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, by His blood, has blotted out the law's transgressions,
blotted out all our sins. He took them and nailed them
to the tree, so that now the law has no word to say. The Lord God cannot accuse us
anymore of sin. Christ has nailed it to the cross.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
I love that word, blotted out. God says, I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions. Just blot them out. Blotted them
out. It doesn't mean to cover them
up. It doesn't mean to erase them. It means just take them
away. Blotted them out altogether. Expunged from the record books
of heaven. Are you in Christ? Oh, if you
knew the value of your soul, you'd give no rest to your eyes
until you possessed this blessed privilege of grace in Christ. Well, that's the first thing.
What does it mean to be complete in Christ? I'll come back to this another
time, but let me take a stab at it. This word complete, it
means entire, finished, full, absolutely satiated, topped off,
complete. When this glass is completely
full, You can't put another drop in it. Just absolutely, that's
the word. Same word that's used, as I said
earlier in verse 9, for fullness. As all the fullness of God is
Christ, so all the fullness of Christ, the God-man mediator,
is ours in Him. Oh, now that's astonishing grace. If I'm complete in Christ, Then
I have in Christ all that God requires of a man. Everything. Everything. What does God require? He requires
wisdom. And Christ stands and says, I
am wisdom. He is made of God unto us wisdom. He is that one
who gives us wisdom, who spoke wisely for us in the covenant
of grace and makes us wise to salvation. God requires of us
righteousness. Would you be accepted with God?
Would you? Would you tonight lay your head
on your pillow and find rest in your soul knowing that you're
accepted with God? All that's required is perfection. That's all. That's all. perfect to be accepted. That's
what the book says. Oh well preacher that shuts me
out. It shuts you out but not Christ. It shuts us out but not Christ.
He is made of God unto us. Righteousness. How? To what extent? In exactly the
same way as he was made to be sin for us and to exactly the
same extent. What does that mean? Merle, when
God put your sin on his son, he said it was his. He charged
him with it. He punished him for it, and he
gave him the reward of it. And when God looks on you and
says, your name is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness, he
put Christ's righteousness on you. He made you accountable
for it. He said it's yours, and he gives
you the reward of it. That's what it is to be made
righteous in him. Righteous. Made righteous by free grace.
Made righteous by divine imputation. But God also requires that we
have a holy nature. You can't go to heaven with sin.
You can't go to heaven in a heart of corruption and flesh. Well,
how on earth can we be made righteous? Christ is made of God and to
us, sanctification. He sends his spirit in the fullness
of time to every chosen redeemed sinner. He calls us by His grace. He plants Himself in us and gives
us a new nature. And it's that holy thing which
is born of God described in 1 John chapter 3. But then we must be
delivered from this bondage of sin. Christ is made of God and
to us redemption. He redeemed us with His blood
at Calvary. And then in the fullness of time,
at the time of love, he comes to the chosen sinner and delivers
us, redeems us from the hand of the enemy. That's what the
psalmist is talking about when he says, let the redeemed of
the Lord say so. Oh, blessed be God. I was once in the enemy's
hands. I was once held in fast chains,
in darkness and in bondage, a willing vassal to Satan, held in bondage
under the curse of God's law. And he came and said to Captain
Frey, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And one of these
days, He's gonna redeem us from the grave. He's gonna deliver
us in resurrection glory into the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. If I am in Christ, I possess
all that God can or will bestow upon a man. Everything. Everything. Lindsay referred
to this in Ephesians chapter 4. All His grace is given us in
Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. All of you. Grace
is in Christ. Mercy's in Christ. Salvation's
in Christ. Not in the church. Not in baptism. Not in saying
a silly prayer somebody wrote out for you. Not in repeating
words after some slick soul winner. Salvation is Christ. And all the blessings of grace
are in Him. I can't give them to you. No
church can give them to you. No preacher can give them to
you. But God has given them all to all who believe in Christ
from eternity. These are spiritual blessings.
All spiritual blessings. They were given to us in eternity. In eternity. In eternity. If God gave them to me back yonder,
in anticipation, knowing everything that I would be and do, knowing
all the corruption that I would perform, knowing all the evil
that's in me, then nothing out here will cause Him to take one
from me. They're eternal blessings, eternal. These are heavenly blessings.
They come from heaven. They turn our hearts toward heaven.
And blessed be God, they will soon bring us to heaven. All
the blessings of God were bestowed upon all God's elect in Christ
before the world began. And therefore, the apostle says,
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And listen
now, listen now. Do you right now believe on the
Son of God? Do you trust the Son of God?
Yes, preacher, I do. Not like I should, not like I
would, but I do trust Him. You are complete in Him. Amen. Lindsay, you come listen
to him, please.