Great Texts of The Bible | Colossians | Pastor William Hixson

see several visitors with us this

morning. We welcome you all. Uh we

invite you. We have a meal afterwards

that we fellowship with. We invite you

if you have time to stay with us and we

can get to know you and you us. You're

welcome to do that if you want. And

there's some special folks all the way

from Japan

that I'm stunned to see this morning.

Would you stand up and tell us who you

are because aunt Linda and I know, but a

lot of folks don't, but they were in our

church years ago.

>> Yes, we My name is Pat and this is my

wife.

My daughter Luna and my son Leo. This is

Leo's first time here.

>> Okay.

>> Luna was left here when she was two

years old.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And it was 10 years ago.

>> Yeah.

>> 12 years ago. That's right.

>> 12. Yeah. It's been a long time. Yeah.

>> 12 years ago we were here. Yeah.

>> So, we live in Japan.

>> It's nice to see familiar faces and new

faces as well.

>> Yeah.

>> Good to have you here. Welcome.

[clears throat]

>> Welcome.

>> Okay.

We're doing a series on great text in

the Bible and we're in the book of

Colossians right now. If you would open

your Bibles to the book of Colossians,

this goes under our great text series.

I have to admit,

we all have our different books of the

Bible that we really like. And I love

the book of Colossians. It's been a

great blessing to me over the years. I

love teaching it verse by verse and

taught it here several times. I love

studying it and thinking about it. It's

a little book with a big message.

It's a little book that we need to hear

and know well, especially in the days in

which we live.

It's concise.

It's profound.

It super exalts our Lord Jesus from

beginning to end.

And uh this is not our text this

morning, but I want to start reading

this one. First Colossians 1:15,

Colossians 1:15

speaking of our blessed Lord,

the Apostle Paul reminds this local

assembly

just who Jesus is. Now, they knew that,

but they needed to hear it again in

light of the situation they're in. And

we know it, but we need to hear it

again.

Speaking of our Lord, he says, "Who is

Colossians 1:15, the image of the

Colossians 1:15

invisible God, the firstborn

of all creation."

Now, I'm not going to preach this text,

but firstborn doesn't mean he was the

first created. It means he's the one

that gets everything.

The firstborn son in the Old Testament

was the one that got the double

inheritance. Well, Jesus gets more than

the double. He gets it all.

He's the firstborn of all creation. So

he's over everything. For by him were

all things created that are in heaven

that are in earth, visible and

invisible, whether they be thrones or

dominions or principalities and powers.

All things were created by him. And

here's why I said that. For him.

For him. It's all for him.

And what a precious thought that is.

And he's before all things and by him

all things create consist. So he's the

creator of all things and he's the heir

of all things. He gets it all.

And if you're in Christ and you're

you're your uh know the Lord as your

savior. We are joint hes with Christ. So

if he gets it all, what do we get?

We get it too.

So we don't have to worry about where we

stand in this world as far as stuff is

concerned.

We get everything in the end.

So it's it's just precious. He exalts

the Lord. And it says in verse 18, he is

the head of the body, the church who is

the beginning and the firstborn from the

dead,

that in all things he might have the

preeminence.

For it pleased the father that in him

should all fold as well.

Paul could not say greater things about

Jesus than what he wrote in that verse.

It's incredible verse. It's an

incredible verse. Now, that's not the

only one. This this whole book is uh

full of that. And I'd like to call your

attention to chapter 2, verse 9. This is

more where we're going to be.

Well, I'll go back to verse eight

because there was a problem in this

church.

And Jesus knew how to treat the problem.

He knew what they needed.

And so, he gives them a double dose of

Jesus Christ.

That's the answer.

Get your eyes on the shepherd. Get your

eyes on the son of God. Get your heart

focused on him. He's king of kings. He's

lord of lords. He gets everything. He's

He created everything. Get her eyes on

him. But the teacher the teachers that

had come into this church in the little

town of Colasse were diverting people

from looking at Jesus.

And so he says in verse 8, "Beware lest

any man spoil you through philosophy and

vain deceit after the tradition of men,

after the rem rudiments of the world,

and not after Christ." That's not saying

philosophy is bad. There's good

philosophy and there's bad philosophy.

But to get over occupied with the

speculations of men is a big mistake. We

need to know the revelation from God.

Now, as a young person, I took 30ome

hours of philosophy at OU, and I'm I'm

not sorry I did, but there's a big

difference of the from God's re

revelation and man's speculation.

So he says he says in verse n for in him

in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the

godhead bodily and you are complete in

him who's the head of all principality

and power. Principality and power deals

with not human beings but angelic beings

and different orders of angels. And

whatever they are, he's above all of

them. He's in charge of all of them.

good angels, fallen angels. He's over

everything. That's those invisible

beings that God create that are created

beings. And so, uh, he says in verse 11,

in whom also you are circumcised with

the circumcision made without hands.

We're going to talk about that a little

bit today.

in putting off the body of the sins of

the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,

buried with him in baptism, in which

you're also risen with him through faith

in the operation of God, who raised him

from the dead. And you being dead in

your sins and uncircumcision of your

flesh, hath he made alive together with

him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

You said, "Well, I didn't understand

that first part." Well, get about get

this part. Blotting out the handwriting

of ordinances was against us. That's the

ten commandments.

which was contrary to us and took it out

of the way, nailing it to the cross. The

Ten Commandments are perfect, but we're

not.

We're lawb breakakers.

And so,

and so that's the picture. And having

spoiled principalities and powers, and

now he's going back to fallen angels, he

made a show of them openly, triumphing

over them in it. Let no man therefore

judge you in food and drink, respect the

feast days or new boons or Sabbath days,

which a shadow of things to come, but

the body is Christ.

What's going on? Their attention and

their interests were getting scattered

into all kinds of directions,

speculations. Paul says, "Get back to

Jesus.

Get back to him."

And these were true Christians. These

people weren't uh unsaved people. They

were true Christians, but they got

diverted.

And people get diverted all the time.

So, this is a marvelous section.

Everything about it is good. And one of

my favorite verses, I got to read this

one, is chapter 3, verse one. If you

Isaiah 3 · chapter mention

then be risen with Christ, seek those

things which are above,

where Christ sits on the right hand of

God. Set your affection on things above,

not on things on the earth. And then he

tells them how to live on the earth

while you're looking at the things above

from that perspective.

A marvelous thing.

This is a

th this is such a marvelous book. The

first three chapters of this book are

theology on fire.

Paul's Paul's Paul's ready to go. He's

coming out swinging

because he didn't start this church. Uh,

one of Paul's disciples started at

Apaparus and the Apaparus traveled to

Rome where Paul was in prison, told him

what was going on. Paul said, "I'll take

care of that." And so he wrote back to

the church in Colasse and this letter

came back to them and he does it with

love and with grace. And so the first

three chapters are theological. It's a

it's a theological fireworks.

Paul's really putting the the he's

putting the the the uh heat on these

false teachers. But the last chapter is

personal and and so Paul's not just all

theological fireworks. There's a

personal love in this book. He meets

different people and so forth. But it's

quite a display

and it must have knocked the wind out of

the inf infiltrators of this little

church. And they realized right away we

are overmatched. We we can't handle him.

He's the he's the he's the uh uh uh be

beyond our ability to deal with.

And basically what Paul is saying, you

don't need to hear their rules. You

don't need to hear their regulations.

You don't hear their speculations. You

don't to hear their fantasies about what

they know about angels, which they don't

that they're making up. You just need to

be you just need about Jesus. The whole

Bible's about Jesus. If you're not, you

need to study the Bible. Yes, there's

practical things in the Bible, how to

live and how to do this and that, what

not to do. The main thing, it's a love

letter from God

about Jesus.

That's what it is. If you don't read the

Bible like a love letter about Jesus to

you, you're misreading it. No wonder you

don't like it. You think it's a bunch of

rules. Yes, there's rules in the Bible,

but that's not the point. The law is a

school master to bring us to Christ.

When I found out I can't keep the Ten

Commandments, I broke all of them. Now

what?

Well, I need a savior.

I need Jesus. and we begin to appreciate

him and who he is and what he's done.

If we think we can save ourselves, we

don't appreciate the one who saved us.

I I almost drowned three times as a kid.

I got pulled out all the three times and

I remember everybody that pulled me out

and I I I didn't learn to swim till I

was 20 20 years old.

So that I had quite a few times almost

dreamt.

Thank I thank God for the people that

saved me.

And so uh can we not thank God for Jesus

Christ who saved us from something

greater than drowning?

Do we not remember him at the Lord's

supper? Should we not enjoy him when we

read the Bible?

The Bible says the volume of the book

that's written to me to do your will, oh

God. It's all about Jesus.

And so what Paul does as he as he comes

through this uh uh he he he does it for

a reason. He wants everybody in that

church to be singing all that thrills my

soul is Jesus.

He wants everybody in that church to be

singing all I need. You know that song

gospel song Jesus Christ has made to me

all I need. All I need. He alone is all

my plea.

He is all my need.

So Paul's got purposes here that he's

aiming at. and he pulls the rug out from

under the false teachers and the and and

uh this is this is a really weird

mixture of Greek speculation, philosophy

and religion and uh Jud

Judeo

legalism

some kind of proto I call it

protonnosticism full-blown nasticism

didn't come to the second century this

was kind of a beginning of that I'm not

going to go down that road too far. But

these guys had the big head and thought

they knew something and and they're all

over occupied with visions of angels and

stuff like that which were all was all

in their imagination. So Paul um dealt

with them and he dealt with them so well

you think wow Paul I don't want to go

against him.

He he was an inspired apostle

and he just smoked.

And that's if you know the Bible and I

didn't as a young person. I didn't start

studying the Bible till I was a senior

at OU

and I read it from cover to cover and

all of a sudden my eyes got open to so

many things and I thought well I didn't

open my Bible before

what was the matter with me?

And so uh it gives you an insight you do

not have. And these people were young

Christians in Colassi. Colass is a

little town. Colasse and Laosa and

Heropouloolis are all nearby there. I

mean they're within a very short bus

ride of each other. Let's say

guess I'm guessing five miles, six

miles, nine miles, something like that.

And uh I I remember getting off a bus

right at Colassi. We were looking

archaeological sites on this tour and

the cred says you can go up there if you

want to. Uh but uh it's a pretty steep

climb and I looked and yeah, that's a

steep climb. I think I'm a little too

old to go up there. I'd sure like to go.

We'd already seen the other cities, but

it was right by Heropouloolis and

Colassi, maybe nine miles at the most, I

guess.

And I think I made the right decision

because I was as I standing there

outside the bus thinking where I should

go, an older couple came over the

horizon and fell down the hill.

[laughter]

Poor woman. It was it was something.

Yeah, I missed Colassi, but I I could

miss the falling down the hill, too. So

it it it was but these are cities that

interacted with each other that knew

each other. And so the letter to

Colassian, the letter to Laiaa and uh

her uh the uh the other one I said they

all knew each other. They interacted

with each other quite a bit and no doubt

these things were infecting everybody.

So Paul dealt with it fully completely

and I believe he saved that church.

And this is not a it's not that Paul was

so slick and intelligent. He was he had

a super IQ, but that's not what it was.

Paul was an intelligent man. He was a

convincing man. He he was a man who had

a lot of understanding how to deal

things. We'd have said of him, he could

sell stripes to a zebra or ice to an

Eskimo. I mean, the guy was really

fluent if you read his writings. But

that was inspired scripture. God was

mediating that through his mind and his

heart.

And what was going on here was one

called it oriental philosophical

mysticism. It was a philosophical

theosophical speculation anti-Christian

throughout.

And I think that's certainly right.

And so they had excessive reverence for

being

uh

for for angels that they thought were

angels were that were lower than God.

They were always talking about the

angels and they all talking about the

angels. Paul says, "Talk about God.

Talk about God."

That's his picture.

One Bible study book that I have says of

this chapter in Colossians, the greatest

christoologgical passage in the entire

Bible.

I mean this is really high stuff this

book chapter he's talking about chapter

1 verse 16 to 20.

And he said it's a message probably more

urgently needed in our day than even in

Paul's day. We need this book. We need

it. We need to we need to know what's

going on

and uh we need need to know the message

here.

So may God help us to do that this

morning and we're just touching it this

morning. I'd like you to turn with me to

Colossians 2:9

Colossians 2:9

and and following.

Paul says, "In him dwells

all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

There's nothing true of God the Father

that isn't also true of Jesus Christ.

When they killed Jesus, they killed God.

That's that's it.

The God man died on the cross.

It was a horrible sin

[clears throat] to execute God falsely.

It's basically what happened. He's the

God man. Of course, you can't kill God

the Father. He's a spirit. You can't

kill God the Spirit. He's a spirit. But

the the God the Son became a man and

they killed him.

They executed him.

And so what Paul's is reminding this

church is the infinite glories of our

savior who died on the cross for us. In

him dwells the fullness, all the

fullness of the godhead bodily. There's

nothing true of the godhead that's

father and spirit and pre-incarnate son.

That's not true of Jesus. He is the

pre-incarnate son of God.

>> [clears throat]

>> And so let's meditate on the infinite

glories of our savior this morning.

And notice what it says first. In verse

9, we have his identity. In verse 10,

his sufficiency and in later in verse

10, his authority.

Paul knows who he is. Paul knows

how sufficient he is.

What's that song? Gospel song. Jesus

Christ has made to me all I need. All I

need.

And so Paul says, "You don't need what

they're selling."

Have you ever tried somebody Have you

ever had somebody try to sell you

something you don't need?

That's a lost cause. You know, I got 10

of those. I don't need anymore.

And so, you know, that's the point. So

Paul focuses on his identity, verse 9,

his sufficiency, verse 10, and his

authority. The last part of verse 10,

he said, "In him dwells all the fullness

of the godhead

bodily. All the planitude of deity lives

in Christ."

That was true of when he was conceived.

That's true of when he was born. That's

true of when he lived down here. That's

true of when he risen. It's true of when

he ascended. It's true of where he uh

where he sits at the right hand of God

and it's true when he comes back

and amazing. He's the bridegroom and

we're the bride. Think about that.

We're creatures and we're not only

creatures, we're fallen creatures, but

we get to be in a relationship with him,

a love relationship forever

if we know the Lord.

These are the strongest possible

verses to show that the man Christ Jesus

is incarnate God. The whole glories of

the total of the total of what God is is

in him. He is Emmanuel, God with us.

That's what the prophet said Isaiah in

chapter 7 and that's what the New

Testament says in Matthew.

God was manifest in the flesh. That's

what 1 Timothy 3:16 says. And Paul's

1 Timothy 3:16

saying any system that's not occupied

with him is wrong.

Just wrong.

Any philosophical system, any religion

that doesn't put put him front and

center, it's wrong. And by the way,

that's true of any church.

Churches should exalt Christ. Christians

should be talking about Jesus, right?

And you get off on this issue and that

issue. You might even be right, but

you're wrong.

We teach the whole council of God. Yeah,

we need to know about this and that, but

we need to always be focused on Jesus

Christ in the whole thing. That's where

the power is. That's where the beauty

is. That's where the joy is.

That's where the enthusiasm should be.

We've all been in churches. They're all

excited about some dumb little thing.

And whether even if they're right,

they're wrong.

I hope we get that in our head.

We're here to magnify Christ. We're here

to glorify Christ.

And it doesn't mean we don't study the

different issues of the day. It doesn't

mean we don't try to understand all the

Bible and the things about it. But we if

we love anything more than him, if we're

more excited about anything more than

him, there's [clears throat] something

wrong.

It's just like where Col the Colasse

Church was.

And so the fullness of deity has its

present and permanent dwelling in

Christ. And you can put the sign up, God

lives here.

God lives here.

And the supreme test of any religious

system is what it does with Jesus.

And I'm talking Christian systems as

well as pagan systems, other kind of

systems. We should never ever think of

robbing him of his preeminence.

And it's not just theological error.

Theological error and practical error go

together.

If you don't believe right, you can't

live right.

Just if you're wrong about Jesus, you're

going to be wrong about life.

And I'm not saying there aren't people

that don't know Jesus that can't do good

things. I'm saying at the core of their

being, they're they're missing the main

thing.

I I've known non-Christians that very

nice people, very like make good

neighbors in one sense. make people that

you like to be around, but they don't

know the Lord. There's there's an

emptiness there. There it's like a it's

like a beautiful car without an engine.

So it says in him dwells all the

fullness of the godhead bodily. He the

wholesome and substance of the infinite

attributes of the being of God are in

him.

And that's the one Peter says bore our

sins in his own body. And that's the one

Paul said he reconcile we were

reconciled in him through in his body.

Uh and Hebrews 10:5 says of Jesus a body

Hebrews 10:5

hast thou prepared for me. Jesus didn't

have a body in his pre-incarnate state.

He was part of the trinity.

So the body and blood that bought our

redemption

did so and could only do so because

deity dwelt in them.

What does uh Paul tell the Ephesian

elders in Acts 20:28?

Acts 20:28

Shepherd or feed the church of God which

he has purchased with his own blood.

That's an important verse.

Feed the church of God which he's

purchased with his own blood.

Does God the Father have blood?

No. He's a spirit. Does God the Holy

Spirit have blood? No.

Jesus was made flesh and blood. He

became incarnate. So when Paul's saying

feed the church of God which he's

purchased with his own blood, he's

talking about Jesus, the death of the

second person of the triune God.

We believe in one God, not three gods,

but one member of the Godhead became a

man and therefore died on the cross and

took our hell because that's what the

cross was. The worst place in the Bible

is not

is not even hell. It's the lake of fire.

And Jesus took all that.

He paid all that

for those who know him.

How can we even imagine anything greater

to be done?

He's an infinite person and it took an

infinite person to pay an infinite

penalty and he paid it. Nobody else

could do it.

We saying, "No, no one ever cared for me

like Jesus." Well, no one else could

save me but Jesus.

There was nobody else.

It takes God to save you from God. It

takes God to save you from your sins.

Our sin is a bigger problem than we

imagine.

Our sin is a big issue. Jesus didn't

come to deal with something little. He

came to deal with the main problem of

all eternity.

Um,

so

I hope we just look at that first point.

In him dwells all the fullness of the

godhead bodily. His identity.

Oh, now we know who he is.

his identity

and now his sufficiency.

Because of who he is, he can do what no

one else could do.

And you are complete in him.

Colossians 2:10, who's the head of all

Colossians 2:10

principalities and power?

In whom you're circumcised with

circumcision made without hands in

putting off the body of the sin of the

flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

What a precious thing we are. We we have

he is sufficiency is because of his

identity.

And what's the Bible say in first John?

He that has the son has life.

What's the opposite of that?

He that has not the son has

talking about eternal life.

You want eternal life, there's only one

person that's got it is Jesus. You got

to get it from him. Walmart doesn't have

it. They don't have it.

You got to get it from him.

And that's it's a wonderful thing. We

have a full salvation verses 11 and 12.

We have a full forgiveness verses 13 and

14. and we have full victory. Verse 15,

and it it says, and it's because we're

complete in him who's the head of all

principality and power,

in whom you're circumcised with a

circumcision, made without hands, and

putting off the body of sins of flesh by

the circumcision of Christ, buried with

him in baptism, in which you're ris.

That's not water baptism, by the way. We

believe in water baptism here. We

baptize people with water. This is

spirit baptism. This is when you're put

into the body of Christ.

Just like there's a circumcision not

made with hands, there's a baptism not

done with hands. [clears throat]

And so uh circumcision and baptism both

are a religious right that's done

physical religious right but they stand

for things behind that and above it.

So we have a full salvation. We have

full forgiveness

and that's a blessedness.

There's a full salvation in verse 11 and

12. There's full forgiveness in 13 and

14. There's full victory in verse 15.

Let me let me go back and get that verse

11.

The full full salvation 11 and 12.

Already read that. Full uh forgiveness

verse 13 and 14. And you being dead in

your sins and uncircumcision of your

flesh. He's talking about Gentiles.

uh have be made alive together with him

that's spiritually alive having forgiven

you all trespasses

not just the little trespasses not just

the middlesized trespasses

all trespasses

the blood of Jesus Christ the Apostle

John says cleanses from all sin

I'm a very bad one about getting food on

my white shirts

and my ties. So, I always take my tie

off when I eat just I just can't afford

to buy more ties.

And so, but even when I do that, usually

the last bite of the eat meal and drop

it on my shirt.

What an agony that is. This was not

coming out. It's a good shirt. It's my

best white shirt. Ah, I get out the the

soap and try to deal with it. But you

know, just like just like a a food stain

on a shirt, we are stained. We are

ruined.

Only Jesus could clean us up. Only

Jesus.

Thou soap can't do it. You need the Lord

Jesus. And so may God help us. And so

there's a full salvation. There's a full

forgiveness. Verse 13. in you being dead

in your sins and uncircumcision your

flesh as he made alive together with him

having forgiven you all trespasses

blotting out the handwriting of

ordinances was against us which was

contrary to us took it out of the way

nailing it to the cross and why he was

on that he spoiled principalities and

powers that's full victory so the

devil's got nothing on me now

when the devil tells you you don't

deserve heaven you don't deserve

Yeah,

we could say, "Look, I know I don't I

don't deserve heaven. I don't I don't

need eternal life. I don't deserve being

in the new heavens and new earth with

Jesus forever. I don't deserve that."

But he paid the bill.

The bill's paid.

I deserve judgment. I deserve punishment

forever. I've neglected God. I've got

plenty of sins of omission and

commission.

If we win on a contest, who's the

biggest sinner in this room? Who do you

think it'd win?

I don't know. God knows. God knows who's

the biggest sinner in this room.

I guess it might be me, but I don't

know. But what you know, we don't know,

do we? But say we are the biggest one.

Say we're the biggest one in the whole

world.

We're not just the biggest center in

Ohio or United States. We we are uh we

are a

major league sinner

or major league sinner.

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from

all sin. Guess who was a major league

sinner? I mean major league. He was

Olympic

Paul himself.

What do you do before he was a

Christians? before he was a Christian.

He murdered Christians.

He murdered. That's what he did. He went

around killing as many Christians as he

could.

He did it legally through the Sanhedrin,

but he did it.

He said, "I'm not fit to be called an

apostle. I can't believe God made me an

apostle. I persecuted the church of

God."

So if God could forgive Paul sins, if

God could give Paul salvation, if God

could give Paul full victory

and the victory is over satanic powers

because you're not your own. You're

bought with a price. Glorify God in your

Bible in your body. But even when you

were before unsaved, you weren't your

own. The devil had you with both hands.

You weren't you weren't free.

And having spoiled principalities and

powers, he made a show of them openly,

triumphing over them in it.

So there's this invisible war. This is

conflict of the ages. And Jesus is in on

it. And he won the battle already. The

main battle's been won. We have full

salvation, full forgiveness, full

victory.

I've been teaching in Jeremiah, and I

love that book. It's it's not an easy

book to teach or to listen to or to

preach, but it's a wonderful book. And

God there said, "My people have

committed Jeremiah 2:13, two evils."

Jeremiah 2:13

They've committed two evils.

They've forsaken me the fountain of

living waters

and you out to them sistns, broken

sistns that can hold no water. Two

evils. In other words, they don't want

anything to do with me. They left me.

And I I uh uh and they've forsaken me.

The source of living water. Living water

is running water, right? Living water is

like a river. It's not standing water

with a lot of pollution in it. It's it's

moving water.

God says, "I'm the fountain of living

waters. They left me and they built

these sistns to hold rain water. And the

systems got cracks in them. Everything

they did, all these idols, they're all

cracked. They can't they can't do for

you what you

you want done.

And so

it's a beautiful picture. I I I make it

like in my backyard, we've got my wife's

got several bird baths in the backyard

all over the place and they go with the

funds that feed the birds. I don't know

what the birds would do without my wife

cuz she just she feeds them, she waters

them and stuff. And so there's a bunch

of bunch of bird bass. But we don't just

have that. We got a water hose in our

backyard.

Now those bird bass crack can happen.

The water goes out where the sun dries

it all out. The water gets dirty and

murky.

There's a big difference between having

the water hose

and having the bird bath. The birds

don't know the difference, but the only

reason there's anything in any bird bath

is because the post puts it there.

Now, God is the fountain of living

waters. He is that.

False religion, false philosophy, false

ways of thinking are cracked. They're

cracked. They don't hold water.

They're not helpful.

They're hurtful. They promise something.

They give nothing.

So here we'd see a full salvation, a

full forgiveness, a full victory

in verse 15. And having spoiled

principalities and powers, he made a

show over them openly, triumphing over

them in it. So he says in verse 16,

don't listen to these people.

Don't let them get you.

You got two ears. Use both of them, but

don't listen to him, but listen to the

Lord.

So

very important. It's very basic stuff.

And to ignore Jesus is to is a very

dangerous thing. John Calvin wrote, I'm

going to quote one I'm going to quote

the Calvinist named John Calvin and then

I'll quote an Armenian this morning. So

even I'll do it fair, right?

John Calvin said, "You are made you are

you are made full does not mean that the

perfection of Christ is transfused into

us, but that there are in him resources

from which we may be filled that nothing

be wanting in us.

Every spiritual need, everyone is met by

him."

And Charles Wesley said, "Thou, O

Christ, are all I want, more than all in

thee I find."

So we see our Lord's identity, his

suffering, and his authority.

It's not wise. It's not safe. It's not

biblical to be diverted from that.

And you know, we're living in times that

um

new inventions have uh been in invented

that made previous things obsolete,

right?

I mean, you just look down through

history. Medieval armor, everybody, you

had to have that armor on. Well, and

castles, medieval armor and castles were

made obsolete by the invention of

gunpowder.

The calvaryary charge was made obsolete

by the invention of the machine gun.

The automobile made carriage makers uh

and wagon wheel workers out of work.

They became obsolete.

Remember the old television set and some

of you are old enough in the 50s with

the tubes in it?

They're not even worth fixing today

unless you're some kind of a collector.

Or how about the the computer? Your

first computer. Would you want to go

back to that? Or your first iPhone

or those little flip phones?

[laughter]

I could beat you, Case. I would like to

go I'd be honest. I'd kind of like to go

back to the old phone in the 60s on the

wall.

You know, when World War II started,

600 American generals were fired.

Why?

600. You think, "Wait a minute, you need

all these g you need of all times World

War II's going. We need these generals."

They were fighting the last war, not the

first war. And new inventions made them

obsolete in their thinking. The same

thing happened in the Civil War.

They were fighting in the last war. So

everybody standing there shooting in

line. That that was that didn't work too

well in the Civil War. Why? Because, you

know, gunsmithing had improved. They had

they had people had better aim and so

forth. So Paul says, "You're complete in

him. You're never going to get anything

better. Nothing's ever going to make

Jesus obsolete."

2,000 years haven't changed that.

and his fullness meets our fallenness

and you're complete in him.

You need a s you you need the Lord

Jesus. You don't need a surgical

salvation. Uh you have spiritually

circumcised. You got the reality the

other was a picture of

what a precious thought that is.

That doesn't mean things like

circumcision or baptism are of no

importance or anything else. But what if

either one can't change this?

If you're not saved, all that doesn't

mean anything.

Doesn't mean anything in the Old

Testament or the New Testament.

And so the important thing is the change

inside. The important thing is having

the reality of what the symbols pictured

and that reality uh is salvation in

Christ and the life of Christ in us.

I think it was pastor John MacArthur

that mentioned this and I can't read my

notes real well today but somebody was

asking him there was a Catholic Roman

Catholic boxer and every time before a

match he cross himself and they asked

John MacArthur uh does that help him

and he said well if he can fight he can

[laughter]

if you can't fight you can go through

all the motions too bad too bad so the

big thing is a changed life inside out

salvation

and uh a circumcision made without hands

is a supernatural work of God in your

heart.

The Bible says if any man be in Christ

or woman, any man, any person be in

Christ, he's a new creation.

Old things passed away.

All things are become new.

That's such a precious verse.

And a man-made salvation can't save you,

whether it's something people were

promoting now or something they were

promoting then.

So, what a what a wonderful thing. I'm

glad I could share this with you this

morning.

I'm glad we can look for something

beyond human ceremonies, even if they're

God-given human ceremonies. I'm glad

there's a circumcision of the ear.

Jeremiah 6:10, of the lips, Exodus

Jeremiah 6:10 Exodus 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, and of the heart, Leviticus

Leviticus 26:41

26:41

and Jeremiah 9:26. There's an inside

Jeremiah 9:26

work that God does.

Uh, no need for additions. We got all we

need

and the reason is the excellency of our

savior.

So, I hope that this has been a

wonderful picture for you of who we have

in Christ and what we have in Christ.

Uh, and if you don't know the Lord,

several visitors here this morning. If

you don't know the Lord, we couldn't be

happier that you're here. And there's a

lot of things in the Bible nobody

understands in this life. We know in

part, we prophesy in part. But if you

you need to know who Jesus is. He's the

God of heaven who died for you

and rose again conquering sin and death.

Your two biggest enemies is sin and

death. He dealt with both of them all at

once.

And so

you you're not going to go wrong by

staying with him. People say if you're

out of date, you're talking about

somebody was here 2,000 years ago. Yeah,

but he arose from the dead. He's still

here. He's in heaven. He's coming again.

so

we can rest and rejoice in him. Father,

we thank you for what we've looked at

this morning. If there's anyone doesn't

know the Lord, may the spirit of God

take the word of God and take something

that was said from your word. We're born

again through the word

and use your word today, Lord. Use it

uh and do a work. You've done it in many

of us here. Not that we're sinless or

perfect. We're works in progress. We're

not what we ought to be, but we're not

what we used to be. And we thank you for

that. And we're certainly not what we

will be when we'll be made like Jesus in

Christ. And we thank you for the gospel.

It's not by works of righteousness which

we've done, but according to his mercy,

he saved us.

Every other religion is a merit theology

because it's a man-made religion.

Only the gospel is a gospel of grace and

gives God the glory and really

[clears throat] works

because it comes from the creator

redeemer.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

>> Stand turn page 300

[singing]

[music]

loving you more

trusting you more. [singing]

[music]

May the power of your love [singing] and

the light of your word shine

to a sin [singing and music] darkened

world as we go from this

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