Jesus Paid it All

Take your Bibles and go to the book of Colossians and I want you to go to chapter 2. We'll look at verses 8 through 15 tonight. Man, it's been a joy to be back here with you guys and see the way God has blessed this church. And I know something of the price that's been paid that this church might be what I call a true church or a biblically, spiritually healthy church which is radically rare. I don't mean a perfect church where I'm still learning and growing and repenting. But from a biblical perspective, to be a true and healthy church is a very rare thing. I can illustrate that very easily.

It's really unheard of, it's absurd for the church of Jesus Christ to have a membership in its local churches that is a great number but only a small fraction of that number even barely look like Christians. Even barely act like Christians if that much and never even attend the meeting of the church. In Baptist life, it's overwhelmingly common for a church, for example, to have 200 on their membership rolls and maybe 70 in attendance. That means you're throwing 130 people every week out into the world, but you're not throwing them out there, they stay in the world.

But anyway, you've got 130 people in your community every week that say, "This is what a Christian is and they're living a total lie." And this is a church that has a meaningful membership. You've paid the price to update your rolls and be the kind of church where membership means something. And my goodness, you couldn't play on a ball team and have that kind of attendance or work at a company and have that kind of attendance. And those are not nearly as important as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can I get amen on that? So I commend you for being that kind of church.

You've already faithfully practiced biblical church discipline, always with compassion and kindness and long suffering, with every hope that the person in hardened, unrepentant sin will repent and be restored. We've been doing that for almost 40 years now, which made us really weird and odd to most evangelical and Baptist churches.

But my goodness, do you know there was a day in the mid part of the 19th century when it was commonplace if you were a Baptist church and you failed to discipline a member who was living in brazen, unrepentant of sin, the local Baptist association would remove you from their fellowship as a church for not practicing discipline. Brother Chris, that's how common it is in our history. I mean, the things you and I hold to, they're biblical, but they're in our history. Just the last 100, 150 years, we've forsaken these things. So I commend you for being that kind of church.

Right before I left for my leave three weeks ago, I went before our church and had to bring two families to the church that were under a form of discipline at that time. And it's commonplace thing and anything. Look, can you work for any corporation, company, business, play for any ball team that doesn't have accountability and discipline? Is the church of Jesus Christ? It's not more important than that. And by the way, the Bible says the wages of sin is death. And if there's a brother or sister who violating their marriage vows or just, folks, we don't run an FBI agency. Amen. We're talking about open, clear sin.

If we love that person, we want to go rescue them before sin kills them. The wages of sin is death. And I don't mean physical death, only that's included. It may kill their marriage. It may kill their health. It may kill their influence. It certainly has killed their witness for Christ. There's all kind of death when a person goes on in unrepentant of sin. By the way, there's only two kind of people in the world, unrepentant sinners and repentant sinners. And we're the repenters. Amen. Listen, by the grace of God, we get to repent. That's good stuff right there now. And we have no concept of how deeply offensive we are to a holy God.

We'll know more one day in the eternal state because we have perfect minds to comprehend better. Anyway, saying that to say the things you're doing and then your conviction of sound doctrine, your pastor who brings you the whole counsel of God verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book through the Bible, that's the mainstay of this pulpit. It's been the mainstay of my pulpit for 41 years. Only that brings the truth of God and builds the saints of God. That alone is exceedingly rare today. I've said this many times, I would drive two hours one way to be a part of a church like this.

And here's what's weird, Christian, you're just barely normal. I mean, we're just barely biblical normal. It's not special. It's just that everybody else is so radically subnormal. It makes us look abnormal. But here's what I always told my folks when I was reforming our church and the big stuff's been done a while, but you're always fixing stuff and repenting and learning. Nevertheless, here's what I told them. When I lead you to do something, first of all, I'm going to study the scripture to make sure it's thoroughly biblical. We're not going to change stuff on half of a verse somewhere.

It's got to be a systematically thoroughly grounded teaching in the scripture. Secondly, I must find it in church history. We're most arrogant. And if we think for 2000 years, we found some clear major doctrine that our forefathers all missed. And guess what? Everything I was just told to you was prominent, practiced, and a mainstay of badness and evangelical life in past centuries. It's just we've forgotten it today. And our churches are deplorable. I believe John McArthur's right. He said most of these places aren't worthy to be called churches. We need to call them non-churches. But here's what happens.

Even good folks, I mean good folks that love the Lord, that's all they've ever known. All they've ever been in is a very unhealthy, unspiritual church. Biblically mild church at best. And I mean, brothers and sisters, in today's world, it's gone so radically wicked. No longer do we preach. "The day will come when men will call good evil and evil good." No, we're in that day. Just radical, vile, evil stuff abounds. This is no day for the church to be mildly biblical. So thank you for being what you are. Now I want to cast out a charge to you a little bit here. And this is a real strong affirmation.

If you know me well, I don't go around giving compliments much, unless it's earned. We've got enough people patting people on the back who are not living right and doing right. But as a church, you've become, and will increasingly become, a good model for others to emulate. And you need to have a vision of that. I guess it was close to 35 years ago. I led our church to vote and adopt as our vision statement. Now your purpose statement is what the Bible says you're to be. We don't get to make up our own purpose statement. God's already done that, amen?

But occasionally, there are churches like John MacArthur's church and other churches around the world that have a special role, I guess, in influencing others. You should be one of those churches. And so you should have this vision for your church. God, may we be a biblical church you might use as a model for others. That's exciting. And that's been our vision statement for 40 years. And guess what? I'm living the fulfillment of that prayer. Ask God, God, make us so biblical by your power, not never perfect, by the way, amen? We'll always be learning and repenting. But at least we can get the main stuff right.

Let us function biblically to prove to the world God's word works. We don't need man's tampering with God's stuff to make it work. So I just want to charge you, grab that vision. God, make us a biblical church. You might use as a model for others. As your pastor, Chris, connected with us so many, many years ago and basically said, "I want to be biblical. I believe these things." But basically said, "I've never really seen any of it." And that was my struggle 40 years ago. I knew what was wrong, Brother Chris, but it didn't hardly know what was right or what it looked like.

And that's why I think God's blessed us at Grace Life of the Shoals in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He's allowed us to be something so that men who want to be thoroughly biblical could say, "Hey, they've been doing it for decades and they're being immensely blessed." So we can too. But you need to be that kind of church. And I believe over the next several years, you're going to have an increasing number of young men called into the ministry or praying about being called in the ministry who will look to you and say, "Can I be mentored by you guys? Can I connect with you guys?

Can I join the church and just learn from your guys?" And by the way, we do have a pastor's training institute that's built off of what we do, not just what we teach at Grace Life Church. I say it's theology and shoe leather. It's sound theology with proven methodology. You can go a lot of places and get sound theology, but can they model for you from their experience? Here's how it looks and works in the local church. Now that's the hard part. That's the hard part. A lot of people can proclaim doctrine. But folks, listen to me.

When we get to heaven, as far as I know, there'll be no systematic theology classes and there'll be no exposition of Scripture, but there will be a pure church. Are you with me? See, it's not about just going through the motions of good exposition as foundational and important as that is. What's important is the church being matured and built up. Now that's a means to it. Brother Christ will tell you that there's a lot of good brothers out there who are exegeting the text in its grammatical historical context, dotting all the I's, crossing all the T's of sound exposition, but they don't have a passion for the church to be healthy.

They just want to do their exposition, and there's a difference. I mean, your wife didn't want you to come home like a robot and say, "Well, I got the eight things husbands do for wives." Check that one off, check that one out. No, she didn't want you to do that. She'll say, "Get out of here." She wants to see it. It's in your heart. It's not a mechanical thing. Amen? Well, I'm just chasing rabbits, but I just commend you for where you've come and where you're going. Now look, are you listening to me? Everybody say, "Amen" if you're listening to me. I preached in the largest evangelical church in Canada.

I preached in the largest evangelical church in Eastern Europe. I preached in the largest evangelical church in South America and didn't even try to. It just kind of happened. I don't know why I've been to many places, but in a lot of places, in a lot of churches. Right now, biblically speaking, you are in the one percentile of all Baptist churches just because you're trying to be biblical, and you're already actually doing it. You're not just saying we're going to do it. You're already actually doing it. And probably a lot smaller fraction than 1%. But keep on keeping on. Don't grow weary in well-doing. God's going to use you.

Now here's a principle, and I'm not preaching my sermon yet, okay? Here's a principle I want you to remember. Chris and I talked about this today, and we just shook our heads because he and I have been here a long time. And it's like, how have we missed this? If you say you hold to the inerrancy and full sufficiency of Scripture, what does the New Testament show us about churches? It shows us that the New Testament, it's absolutely thorough and abundant. Look at the ministry of Paul.

It's over, I bet you there's a hundred cases of this in the New Testament where Paul links church with church, links church with church, local church with local church, local church. Why? To strengthen, to sharpen, to mentor each other, to be an example of each other. Over and over, no, Paul says the Macedonians give this way, so Corinthians, you ought to give this way. He holds church after church, and the church up to other churches to be examples.

God meant for sound, glory of God-focused, Christ-honoring, Bible-saturated, Spirit preaching the Word and the power of their Spirit-based churches to connect together and help each other and work with each other and encourage each other and mentor each other and do missions with each other. Why have we always thought we have to have some institution outside of a local church to do mission work? It's not that that's evil, it's just not best. You know how they did missions work in the local church? The church at Jerusalem and the church at Antioch sent out missionaries.

And when they had a problem, they didn't go to a board or mission agency, they went back to the local church at Jerusalem and solved the problem. It's really simple, and that's what Anchored in Truth Ministries is. That's the way we've organized it. We are radically local church-centered because that's all I see in the New Testament. Paul didn't go start a mission society, he started churches. And the more mature churches who have a longer track record were looked to to lead the effort, but it always centered around local churches connecting together.

And it's time we stop connecting because we have the same denominational background and we have the same geographic setting. It's time to start connecting because we hold to the same doctrinal truths. Alright, that one is free. That won't cost you anything. Keep on keeping on, do not quit. Alright, Colossians chapter 2, what a text that extols the glories and the wonders of Jesus Christ. I hope this leaves you with deep joy. And if you could leave this meeting saying, "I treasure Christ more than when I came in that I'm happy." Colossians chapter 2 verse 8.

Paul writes to the church at Colossians, he says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him, past tense, you have been made complete." And he has said, "Over all rule and authority." "And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him.

Having forgiven all of our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. When he disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him. I've entitled the unpacking of this exposition, "Jesus Paid It All." Jesus paid it all. Notice first of all, as we stole Christ from this text, notice his perfection. Because of his perfection, Paul gives a strong command. Verse 8, look at it again, he says, "See to it." Now, "see to it" is a present imperative.

It means continually see to this, and it's a command, even a warning that you see to this. "Church, see to this." That's what Paul's saying. Don't let this happen. Brother Chris, don't let this happen here. Men of the church, stand with Brother Chris. Don't let this happen. Well, what are you talking about? Well, he says, "See to it." Verse 4, if we go back to that verse, notice what he says in verse 4. "I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument." Excuse me, I've got to tickle. "No one deludes you with persuasive." That idea of deluding you means a false reckoning.

Make sure no one comes to you, and they sound like they're wise, and they sound like a Christian teacher, but they've got to spin on things. They've got to twist on their teaching, and they're deluding you. They're trying to cheat you with a false reckoning. Now, two specific false reckonings I pulled out of this text. Now, you could lump them all together, but I think it clearly has two parts to it. All right? The first false reasoning or reckoning you must guard that it never gets in this church is man-made philosophy. Man-made philosophy.

Now, in fact, you could just say the latest trends, the latest cultural narratives, the latest emphasis in the society. Same thing. The false is see to it that doesn't get in the church. Are you hearing me, church? We have the truth once for all given to the saints. We don't need anything the world can come up with. We don't need anything. This whole nonsense of critical race theory, that some pagan, ungodly woman professor came up with, "We don't need that.

How do we need that to help the church when we've got the completed canon of God?" Sure, we're against injustice and evil in the culture, but I don't need some reprobate to write something to convince me about it when I've got the word of God. Amen? See to it. No one takes you captive through man-made philosophy. Now, I get this from the word that he says there. And verse 8, take captive means, verse 8, "See to it no one takes you captive." That's to grab you and carry you away through philosophy and empty deception.

So don't let these plunders come in and grab you and carry you off being centered on Christ and Christ along with all their fancy teachings. Philosophy means that which is derived of man. It has man as its source. It seems wise and it seems reasonable, but it does contradict sound doctrine. Later in verse 8, he calls philosophy, he elaborates further and calls it empty deception. You're deceived by something that has no substance to it. I can't tell you the badness in evangelical churches today who sit on the edge of their seats to wait for the pagan, unregenerate world to come up with their next narrative.

And then they try to find a way to weave it into the church to make us more relevant and effective. Makes me want to run through that wall and run back through it again screaming. What do you mean you need the pagan, unregenerate world to help you be effective for the all-powerful Jesus Christ? What do you mean? No wonder Paul gives an imperative here. See to it that you never do that in this church. It I pray the thing will burn to the ground before even in a Sunday school class. Somebody knowingly brings in the narrative of the world to try to help the church do what she's called to do. They say you look pretty angry.

I'll just tell you this makes me mad as I could be to even suggest that the Lord's church needs Satan's world to help it do the Lord's work. Just think about it. It's so ridiculous. Someone said a philosopher is a blind man in a dark room trying to find a black cat that isn't there. Philosophy is empty deception because it starts with man. You know the Bible talks about that wisdom which comes down out of heaven. It's of God it's heavenly and it's true for time and eternity. But then the Bible says there is that earthly wisdom.

That wisdom, that teaching, that doctrine that comes up out of the earth and it's demonic and it has no true lasting substance. It's not good for time or eternity. We've got to be discerning where this teaching is coming from that slips into the church. The World Book Encyclopedia says the Greek word for philosophy comes from a love of wisdom. But in our context it's a love of really that which is non-wisdom, which parades as wisdom. So he says don't let any of the world's notions and philosophies. Now I've been in the Gospel ministry in the same local church for 40 years.

I can't tell you the number of different fads, amusements, gimmicks, teachings, new ways to look at things that's floated through the church and every one of them left the church as weaker. All of the churches have said nope, we're not letting that in. And by the way you don't have an option. The Word of God has commanded you to not let it in. That means you've got to be wise and discerning. You've got to be careful. Well the second part of this, again it could be lumped as one, but I think it clearly begins to emphasize another element that's in the world and that's man-made religion.

In verse 8 he continues on and says, "according to the tradition of men." And all scholars I look at says that means the religions that men come up with and hold in their traditions. Then he says, "according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ." So the traditions of men refers to sincerely held beliefs and practices that again originated in man and not in God. Remember the Apostle Paul said that the gospel he preached did not come from man, that he received it from God. He wanted to say some teacher didn't come up with this. God brought this to us.

Then that phrase, "the elementary principles of the world" means those outward ceremonies that cannot bring man to God. Throughout the ages and the Roman Catholic system has probably done the best job of this evil. And that is they come up with all kinds of rituals and traditions and ordinances and hoop jumps if you will. And if you'll do those things, the church will tell you, "you've got to come here to our priest because he's the holy man and you've got to take the sacrament and go through the system and jump through the hoops and then maybe God will be pleased with you." That's what this is talking about. You know why that's so effective?

Are you listening to me? Because that's an elementary principle of a fallen world. Men in a fallen world want you to give them a hoop jump. Men in a fallen world want some ceremony they can do, Brother Chris. They can do it in their own strength and energy and power. "Give me something I can check off and say, well, I've checked those off. Maybe I'm going to heaven now." And there's so many of them around the world. Man-made religious teachings. And we must be careful as he commanded, "see to it." Don't add those to your teaching. Don't do it. It is Christ and Christ alone. The point is, he is perfection. You don't need anything else.

Don't do it. Well, where did all this elementary principles of forming religions that God doesn't accept, where does it come from? Well, it came from Cain. Well, it came from Satan originally. But what did Cain do? Cain in the Garden of Eden, he brought his offering. It's something he did himself. He grew that crop. He harvested that crop and he brings that crop to God. Look what I did. I jumped through the hoops, God. I did the work. I performed the ritual. And what did God do? He rejected Cain's offering. Abel, his brother, bought a slain animal. No man can make an animal. God did that. God, I'm bringing to you what you did.

Now think about that. When you stand at the judgment bar of Christ, and you say, and it's not going to happen. This is just hypothetical to make a point. He says, "Why should I bring you in?" You say, "Here's your blood. I brought what you did." I brought what you did. You made this animal, Abel could say. So God rejected Cain's offering. He became mad. So mad that he killed Abel. And you watch it. Every religionist, every person who follows works and legalism trying to get to heaven, they end up toward the end of their life bitter and angry, just like Cain. It leads to bitterness and anger.

You'll never see a person grow really sweet and kind in their latter years that doesn't know Jesus Christ. You want me to give you a good... And when I say this, you're going to say, "Yep, that's it." Look at the old feminist. Look at them, the ones who've led the feminist movement. Look at them. They're the ugliest old women on earth. Scowling, hard countenance, ugly. Ladies, don't you want to grow old with the sweetness of Christ in your countenance? I'm telling you, there's a radical difference between an older lady who loves Christ and an older lady who's a scowling, hardened feminist.

Well, in verses 8 through 10, he explains, "If you've got Jesus, if you've put your trust in Jesus Christ, you have perfection and you can't improve on perfection." You don't need to add to Him anything the world's on out there. You don't need to add anything in the realm of religion that man has developed. And matter of fact, he makes a phrase at the last part of verse 8 that's very powerful. He says, "Rather than according to Christ." He says, "Once you begin to embrace something else, you add something to Jesus, you lose Jesus.

If Jesus is in the room and the moment you suggest anything other than simple faith in Him is sufficient for your salvation, Christ leaves the room. He tolerates no rival." That's why he says, "Rather than Christ, you can't have both." And all these people think they're so clever and so wise to bring in worldly concepts and add it to the gospel. Now, this 150 plus years ago with what was called liberation theology in South America, they took the gospel and they mingled in social justice causes and equality things, things we believe in by the way, but we don't connect them to the gospel.

We don't intermingle them with that makes you a true Christian. That's a lie. That's not true. And do you know what happened before long? I mean, it didn't take any time. They were not preaching Jesus or the gospel at all, only their liberation theology. Their option of each other, Brother Chris, they won't stay together. They cannot do it. Well, continuing on, Paul wants to continue to add on, amplify this perfection of Jesus Christ. So we see in verse 9, he says, and here's what he's saying.

He says, "Consider all that Jesus is so that you will recognize how foolish it is to think you need anything more than Him." First of all, he says, verse 9, "For in Him all the fullness of deity." All the fullness means he doesn't just have parts of deity. He has the fullness of deity. Now in the ancient world, they had what they called demigods. It was really popular over in the Old Testament era, especially in Egypt and other places, where they had all these gods who are not quite the one high God, but they are higher than man, but lower than the one true God. Kind of the teaching of Mormonism.

Mormonism teaches that if you guys do right, you'll kind of get your own little God one day, but not the final God. Same kind of pagan. You know, it's interesting how pagan teaching just kind of recycles itself over and over again. But Jesus is not a demigod. He's fully God. So as poor as if He's the fullness of deity, not partial deity, not mostly deity, He's God of very God, as the theologians would say. He's the God-man. 100% God as if He were not man at all, but 100% man as if He were not God at all. He's God and man at the same time. And if you've got God as your savior, why would you add anything else? Paul says, "See to it.

Don't do that." He's full perfection. He lacks nothing. John 1.12 reminds us, "To as many as obey the plan of salvation." No. "To as many as jump through these hoops, take these sacraments, perform these works." No. "To as many as receive Him." The person, Jesus Christ. You see, Brother Chris, we don't simply preach the doctrines of Christ. We preach the Christ of the doctrine. You don't trust the teaching of Him. You trust Him whom the teaching flows from. You get, "Amen." It's a person, a living person who is also God.

Then he said he's the fullness of deity back in verse 9, "In bodily form." That means God now has a body since Christ became man. In past eras, God manifest Himself only in part. He showed Himself in part to Moses, with the pillar of fire and the glory in the temple. He showed Himself in part in pieces, maybe in the temple and the sacrificial system. Those were pictures or types of Christ. But in Jesus Christ, God has shown Himself fully. Every bit of God that is God is in Jesus Christ. And He's your Savior. What else do you need, Paulus say? In verse 10, I love the way he words it there.

"And in Him you," past tense, "have been made complete." You could say perfect there. You've come to the final place anybody needs to come to to be fully acceptable and welcomed in the presence of the triune and holy God. If God saves you, and if God's made you perfect and complete, you need nothing else. See to it that you add nothing to Him. He's perfection.

The Bible says in 1 John 2.23, "He who has the Son has the Father also complete." And then He adds on something else in verse 10, "He's head over all rule and authority." In other words, who can possibly, who can possibly rob your salvation when the one who secures your salvation has all rule and all authority over all things? Oh, Bill Stafford. You remember Bill Stafford? You know his name. He used to preach for us a lot. Bill Stafford used to say, "I'm so saved it's pitiful." And what he meant was it's just when you think about it, it's kind of overwhelming.

His perfection, see to it, church, see to it that no one dare ever tamper with the pure biblical doctrine of Christ and Christ alone as our salvation. The church doesn't save you, the pastor doesn't save you, the priest doesn't save you, the sacraments do not save you, clean living does not save you, rights and rituals and ordinance do not save you. They add nothing to your salvation. It is Christ that saves you. And what a hope that is. You say you may have the most hardened, bitter, atheistic person maybe in your family and you think, well, what's going to be hard for them to be saved? No, not if God saves, it's not hard to save them. Amen.

You got hope to the last breath if it's Christ who saves. Never give up, never give up, never, never, never, ever give up on anybody. Now if it's up to them doing something, I'd give up. But if it's Christ who saves, you don't give up. Whoo, that's good stuff. Rule ahead over all rule and authority. Now number two, he says, "I want you to make sure you concentrate on his perfection and make sure you're resting in him completely because he's the perfect one." But secondly, his provision in verses 11 through 15, now Paul begins to describe how he saved us, how he is the provision for our salvation. Some sub points here.

First of all, as our provision, he gives us victory over the offensiveness of our flesh. Now, by our flesh, I do not just mean our physical bodies, though it includes that. It means the totality of our humanity, our soul, our spirit, our physical being, all that came with you as a human being when you came from your mother's womb. All of that is your flesh. Are you listening to me? The moment you are a one-celled human being in the womb of your mother, you are deplorably offensive to the holy God because you inherited the sin of your forefather. And you were every molecule of you as a one-celled human being in the womb of your mother.

Every atom, every molecule of your being was polluted thoroughly by wickedness and sin. The Bible says, "I went astray from my mother's womb, for in sin did my mother conceive me," the Bible says. How offensive we are. You see, we have to preach on the character and the attributes of God because you need to understand more of how deeply you are offensive to this God. Are you listening to me? Naturally, everything in a holy God wants to destroy you, and that is righteous to do so. It is the just thing for God to do. So God looks at the offensiveness of us. Well, how did Jesus fix this? Look at verse 11.

"And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Now, we know that in the Old Testament they circumcised the foreskin of a male child on the eighth day, and they thought literally doing that act purified that child, made him a part of the covenant of Abraham, and somehow gave him a better place in standing with God. But what Paul is pointing out is that never made any child clean before God. That never removed any child's sin. It was just a symbol. It was just a picture of the real thing that was coming.

It was an example, an illustration of a removing of a defilement that would be accomplished thoroughly when Jesus comes. That's what he was saying. It's a circumcision, he says, not made with hands. It's a spiritual cleansing. Christ is the reality that circumcision prefigured. And listen to me, once the reality has come, you no longer need the symbol. You don't need the ritual of circumcision because the reality of circumcision, the true circumcision, Christ, circumcising us spiritually speaking.

I've done a lot of weddings in my ministry, and you know it's very common when you perform a wedding that the bride, because this is the day before the wedding, you know, in the rehearsal, the bride will sit out there doing the rehearsal, and somebody else will stand in for her so she can kind of see how it all looks. But I've never seen a bride when the real thing happened, say, I'll sit out here and watch. No, no, when it was just an illustration of how we're going to do it, they'd sit out and watch. But the real day, when it was the real thing, the wedding day, no, she was up there with the groom. Well, that's the way this is.

Circumcision was the illustration, the picture of what was coming. Christ is the real circumcision, and he cleanses us. He uses the phrase there, "By the circumcision of Christ." Christ is the spiritual surgeon who took the scalpel and he cut off all the offensive flesh tumor, and no longer stands between us and God. You cannot comprehend the woeful depth of defilement and offensiveness you naturally have before God. But neither can you comprehend the glorious, sufficient, completed removal of all that offensiveness through the work of Jesus Christ.

Right now, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you walk through this world, and God looks at you and he sees the righteousness of his Son and that only. That's powerful stuff. That's why we don't believe in works religion, because, Brother Christ, if we get a church full of people who comprehend that, they want to serve Jesus from the heart. They don't need rules and hoop jumps and legalism. They want to honor him from the heart. They want to give to his work and support his work and do the things that God wants the church to do.

Well, victory over the offense of the flesh is one of the parts of the provision, but then he says victory over what I call death living. Victory over death living. Verses 12 and 13. "Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith and the working of God who raised him from the dead." What a powerful picture. He's not talking about water baptism saves you in any way, shape, or fashion. He's a symbol of what's happened, but he's talking about the fact that when you were born, you were born with a death life.

When you were born, you were marked by death, and that's why there's death in every man's life and every woman's life that's coming someday. Because you're a dead man. You're the living dead. You're dead to God and you're defiled by sin and the wages of sin is death, so you live dead to God's spirits in this life and you'll go into eternity. And so for eternal death, where you can't fully die, but you'll be under the wrath of God forever. But this verse says Christ has raised us from that, and now we have his life in us, and now we have true life. Now we're the living living. We're the living alive. Instead of the living dead.

And Christ's life is in us, and not only does that change us now and give us what the Bible calls an abundant life now, it means for eternity we will enjoy our lives in the presence of God with eternal pleasures, joys, wonders, goodness, and God's blessings all around. And Christ did that. He brought us victory over the death that resided in us and would bring us to eternal wrath.

Now, Jesus said in the New Testament, "If you came that they might have life, they might have it more abundantly." Now look at verse 13, "And when you were dead," in other words, you lived in the realm of the dead before God, you were dead spiritually, "and in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, the offensive flesh still stood between you and God, he was still offended and had to judge you, in that condition God took the initiative and he did something. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions." Christ did this.

I think Paul's point is, now you've come out of Gentile darkness into the light and life of Christ, and you did not have to journey through man-made philosophy or man-made religion to get there. Christ got you there. You're a new creation in Christ Jesus, the Bible says. Well, the provision, he talks about victory over the offensiveness of our flesh. Then he talks about victory over our death, living. Now thirdly, victory over the curse of the law. Look at verses 14 and 15.

First phrase of verse 14, "Having canceled out the certificate of debt." The word "cancelled out" means "rubbed off" or "wiped away." It's just like a wet marker board and somebody's written on it and they have a wipe with the chemical on it and they just wipe it clean. God says, "When I look at you, all the debt that was against you has been wiped away because of Jesus Christ." Then he says, "He's canceled out." Now notice this wording, "The certificate of debt consisting of decrees that were against us." Now the reason Paul's doing this is they had these certificates of debt in his day. They were very common.

So he wants you to get a mental image here. They would take a piece of paper and on that piece of paper they would have some wording that you would write out that, "I owe Chris Shepherd $100 and signed my name." And, "Chris, that was a certificate of debt that was against me." And you could hold that against me anytime you wanted and say, "You owe me $100." But God says, "I want you to know in heaven I've got a certificate of debt against everyone." I've got a certificate of debt against everyone when Paul wrote Philemon. Remember Paul wrote Philemon because Philemon's runaway slave, Onesimus had run into Paul and gotten converted.

And so Paul's writing to Philemon and saying, "I'm sending Onesimus back." And he's a Christian now. He's not just a slave anymore. He's a Christian brother now, Philemon. And by the way, Philemon, whatever he owes you, and he says, "I'm writing this with my own hand. I'll pay for it." So Paul's saying, "I'm doing what the law of the day requires. I'm writing this out. This is the certificate of debt. I'm taking Onesimus' debt on me." You know, that's exactly what Jesus did for us. God the Father, "I'm taking their debt on me. I'll take care of it. I'll pay it in full." You see, God couldn't just let your sin go.

It had to be full justice served, and that's why Jesus died on the cross. He's taken that certificate of debt. He's wiped it clean. Now, when I think about that certificate, I think it's very obvious he wants you to think in terms of his moral law, at least other things, but his moral law, the Ten Commandments. And how from the moment you had the tiniest understanding of a good, bad, and right, and wrong up to this very moment, how have you been at perfectly keeping all the Ten Commandments in their letter and in their spirit?

Remember, Jesus said, "It's not just you've not committed adultery, but have you lusted in your heart?" It's not just, "Have you not murdered?" That's true, but "Have you had hatred in your heart?" Every time you had the tiniest bit of action or heart motive against the commandment, you transgressed the commandment, and you're guilty, and that certificate of debt is in heaven, and it's against you. Powerful stuff. In verse 14, he says, "It's actually hostile to us." In other words, it's God's certificate. It's signed on by us, and it declares our condemnation. That's the sense in which it is hostile to us.

It declares we are without excuse, and we are worthy of the judgment of God. Do you understand something? If God had never sent his Son Jesus Christ, every single person who was ever born went to eternal hell. And by the way, do you know God goes to hell? God's omnipresent. He cannot be somewhere. He's everywhere. But he's only in hell in his wrath, retribution, and anger, not in his love and mercy and kindness. He's in hell! What you need to be afraid of is not the devil. You need to be afraid of God.

And if God sent everyone into eternal wrath, the angels would praise him with all their might for the righteousness and justice of him to do so. He'd be the right thing to do. Well, then how are these wretched, offensive people with this great certificate of debt against them, how in the world are they going to ever be saved? God sent his Son to fulfill the mission to do it. And by the way, he did it perfectly. He did it perfectly. He says something is here, just continues to amplify this provision in Christ. He's in verse 14, and he's nailed it to the cross. He's taken it out of the way.

This is what John meant when he saw Jesus coming from baptism. He says, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away." He bears it up and carries it away. That takes away the sin of the world. And then it says, just for added emphasis, that certificate has been nailed to the cross. So any accuser that says, "They shouldn't come into your presence. They shouldn't be forgiven." The certificate of debt against them is great. Jesus said, "Look at that bloody cross. The debt's been paid." Look at verse 15 again. It's interesting that he brings in the spirit world here.

When he has disarmed the rulers and authorities, that's the angelic world, but I think particularly here, it's the demonic angelic world. And he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him. Now, who does the Bible say is the accuser of the brethren? It's Satan. Satan and his demons scream in the face of Almighty God that we're guilty, that his church is guilty, and we're deserving of eternal wrath, and they're right in a sense. But I think about that certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, and I think about it being in heaven. I want you to think about it, and at the top is your name.

And under your name it says, "You shall have no other gods before me, and in bold black letters guilty." Then it says, "You're not to make for yourselves an idol, and beside that in bold black letters guilty." You're not to take the name of the Lord, you're God in vain, guilty. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, guilty. Honor your father and mother, and all heart motive and behavior, guilty. You shall not commit murder. Jesus said you can't even hate from your heart, all guilty. You shall not commit adultery. Even if you've lusted, you're guilty. You shall not steal, guilty. You shall not bear false witness, guilty.

You shall not covet what someone else has, guilty. A certificate of debt. Brothers and sisters, it may not just be a figure of speech. There may be a certificate of debt against you in heaven. A literal one. It doesn't have to be because God's omniscient, He knows it all. But the Lord Jesus Christ, having died and been raised from the dead, because of His perfection and His adequate provision, He took that certificate of debt that was against you and He took the golden stylus of heaven and dipped it in His royal redeeming red blood. And He took that certificate. And here's what they do in the ancient world.

He marked a great big red X on that certificate that was against you. Then He took that certificate of debt and He dipped it in His royal red redeeming blood one more time and He rode across the bottom, paid in full, signed the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the Bible says, He's nailed it to the cross and said, "All right demons, devils." No, they didn't deserve it. But I took their debt and paid for it in my blood. Any questions? He's disarmed them, the text said. He shamed them to silence against us. I heard the Savior say, "Thy strength indeed is small." A child of weakness watching pray, finding me, thine all in all.

And when before the throne, Paul's word here, I stand in Him complete. I need nothing else. The world's flossiest religion. I stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save and my lips will still repeat. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but He's washed it white as snow. Wow. Paul says to the church, "See to it." You never ever, ever allow anything to pollute the pure doctrine of salvation by faith through grace in Christ alone. I want you to put your pens down. I want you to bow your heads for just a moment. I want you to seek the Lord for just a moment.

Senior adult, mom, dad, young person, are you still under the condemnation of that certificate of debt? Are you right now? God says you're offensive to me in every way. And I should justly judge you. Do you know you've been forgiven? Have you truly come to Christ? Would you turn to Christ now and say, "Oh Christ, save me. Oh Christ, if you don't cleanse me, I can't be cleansed. I don't deserve it, but I want you to cleanse me. Christ, make me yours. Wash away my sins." Heavenly Father, would you please, for your great glory in the building of your church, would you do that work no man can do and glorify your name? In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.