The Sufficiency of Christ

After coming off of the heels of teaching a practical Sunday school and then teaching through Joshua, the verses in Joshua seem to very much teach themselves. And this verse, to me at least, did not. I had to really dig into here, into the theology. And I think I was certainly blessed today during the sermon because it laid a lot of really good groundwork for the metaphor that we're going to be talking about. But just a little bit of context of the scripture that we're about to read. This is a book to a church that Paul had never visited. He had never actually gone to visit the church in Colossae. Colossae, I think I'm probably butchering that. Colossae, Colossae, Colossae. And this was a letter, for the most part, encountering a problem that he had gotten a report back from a gentleman by the name of Epaphras. We don't know exactly what it was. We have some bits and pieces. Kind of the bottom line is that the report that he got back for this church was that they had drifted away from Christ. They were looking for pretty much everything out there in the world that you could look to to to fulfill them, whether it was philosophy, going to some kind of Hellenistic thought system. There's some indications in the scripture that it was tradition. Maybe they were leaning on Jewish tradition, which certainly would include one thing that that that was in the sermon today. of circumcision and other traditions to that, but basically leaning on anything that they could see out there in the world to fulfill themselves and to bring themselves right with God in their own mind. And Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, wrote this letter to refute that, to refute whatever that was that was going on. I think a great illustration to start with, an illustration of kind of how this was working in the battle that Paul was refuting here. relates to an event that the rest of the world is going to be celebrating next year. And it's a great, it's a hundred year anniversary in exploration. Does anyone have any idea? It's going to a place that had gone to the first time before in 1911 and 1912. South Pole. The South Pole was first visited I'll leave it as a cliffhanger if you don't know the story. But basically there was a gentleman, a British naval officer, that was given the opportunity to take an exploration down there to the South Pole. He had gone down to Antarctica before and one of the methods that he used to haul some of his materials from where they would land in Antarctica to the South Pole was with dogs. And he wasn't sure that that was the way that he wanted to do it. So he went, preparing for this next venture in 1911, he went over to Norway and was asking some people that had a great deal of experience with this, hey, what do you think I should use to go to the South Pole? And they said, well, you should probably take three things, dogs, dogs, and dogs. When he goes back, and he has a very high view of animals at this time, kind of the poster, an early kind of a poster child for PETA, if you will. And he didn't want to take dogs or he didn't want to entirely rely on them. So he looks out at the vast technologies coming online at that time and he says he considered taking a balloon, an airplane, track vehicles, man hauling, which is eventually what he did, and ponies. So he gets down to Antarctica, and he's gotten kind of this grab bag of everything in the world, a little bit of using dogs, but everything else. Well, at the same time, there's a fellow, another fellow, I believe from Norway, named Roald Amundsen, who actually made it to the South Pole. He beat Scott. And what did he use to get there? He used dogs entirely. He got there first, and he also got back. Something that Scott did not. Not to make light, because if you read the story, there's incredible sacrifice, incredible courage in there, in the story. But Scott was not successful in being the first there to print, to plant a British flag. But he looked at all these different things, knowing that there was one thing that had been successful before. This was what the church in Colossians was doing. And Paul is going to hit on that, refuting this with two illustrations of two two different acts from the Old Testament and a new symbol in the New Testament, and that is circumcision and baptism. So kind of focusing down here into verse 11, this is what Paul says, and I'll read both verses to begin with. This is Colossians 2, verse 11. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. One of the false teachings that we that we know that Paul was refuting here was a man centered man made religion. Basically, the philosophy is kind of the catch all word that that Paul used more of a a works based system of righteousness that had crept into the church after they had initially been preached the gospel. And what Paul is countering here is not using a workspace system, but what's referred to in the Old Testament as a circumcision of the heart. We'll dig a little bit more into that, but it's an inward destruction of sin's control over the lives of the people in Colossians and of us. There are some indications from scriptures that one of the things that people were looking for in this church was putting away all of the material things, going into kind of an asceticism. You can kind of think of the monks of the dark ages that would go and live on kind of a very spartan atmosphere to do that. Basically leaning on that separation from everything out there in the world for their own edification and to bring themselves right with the Lord. And Paul is saying, no, absolutely not. I think here with bringing up the concept of circumcision, the groundwork was laid a little bit here in the sermon, but I think it's helpful to contrast the circumcision in the Old Testament with what Paul is talking about here. First, the very obvious thing is that the circumcision in the Old Testament is very much a physical act. There are some scriptures in the Old Testament that talk about a circumcision of the hearts and that being really what God was mainly getting at. that it was an internal change in the heart that God alone could bring about. And we'll touch on that in verse 12 of this powerful working of the Lord. The New Testament focus here that Paul is talking about is a circumcision made without hands, not a physical act, but a spiritual act, something that the Lord brings about. An interesting thing of circumcision in the Old Testament was that it was a prerequisite for the celebration of Passover. We read about that in Exodus 12, 48. To celebrate it, you had to be circumcised. It kind of took it off the table of being able to celebrate that ordinance there. And just the same way, our circumcision by Christ, which means, we'll dig a little bit more into this, not too much for the sake of time, But but being spiritually sealed by the blood of Christ, which is what this this spiritual circumcision is, a circumcision by Christ being a prerequisite to take full and take part of a full and true worship of the Lord. If we are out there and we're leaning on our own works to save us when we go to worship, how are we going to worship a lord? We're actually going to come in with the side with the. with the heart of basically saying, I'm going to sing this hymnal, but basically everything that I should be worshiping is myself, everything that I do. And this circumcision of our heart brought about by Christ is entirely against that, because, again, it's not our works, but it's his. It's the Lord's. Another contrast here in the Old Testament was that circumcision was a distinguisher between the people of Israel and many of the other heathen nations around them. They would actually, in referring some places in the Old Testament, such as in 1 Samuel 14, referring to the Philistines. They're not actually called by name. They're simply called the uncircumcised, those people that are not part of the covenant of the Lord. And it was also coupled with a call to avoid those people that were not of the circumcision, a physical separation. Reading throughout the Old Testament, we see that that call was not heeded and it brought a lot of problems to the people of Israel. They were mixing with these other groups and specifically drawn to some of the more depraved aspects of their religion. Child sacrifice, we talked about that in our Sunday school, in the happy class of all places today. talking about Manasseh going back into these awful, awful religious practices that they were doing. So they were not heeding that. And obviously, even if they were heeding it, it would not be anywhere as powerful as the circumcision of our heart that Christ performs in us. The circumcision that Paul is talking about here in verse 11 is an inward distinguishment between us. It separates us from the world, being that we are not relying on our own flesh to accomplish salvation. And again, that's knowledge that comes from the Lord, from the word, but initially initiated by the Lord. Differentiating us from a world that very much embraces the philosophies that are out there saying that man is the center of the universe, that we are kind of the end all, be all, that we are captains of our own soul. I forget the poet that that came from, but it was a, does anybody know? It's some sort of verse that I think Timothy McVeigh, the guy that blew up the Oklahoma City bombing, really was gravitated toward, because it's very humanistic, that we control our own destiny. But we are distinguished from that. We acknowledge that our destiny, that the future of the world, that the entire universe is all in Christ and nothing apart from that. That's central to what Paul was teaching here, that Christ alone was sufficient for the Colossians and nothing else came even close to the power of the Lord. And finally, one of the biggest points here is that it was simply a requirement of the Lord that circumcision be performed on the eighth day. And that was something that Paul, boasting later on in another writing that he boasted of, of saying that it was that. But he counted it as just rubbish. In Galatians, a very similar problem had crept up. In Galatians, Paul is much more direct in talking about the difference between a physical and a spiritual circumcision. And this is this is what Paul says. This is from Galatians 6, 6. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. So lest we get too far down into talking about the actual act of circumcision, Paul is saying, no, even the act itself in the Old Testament and the New Testament counts for nothing. But it's the circumcision of the heart. It's the in working of Christ in us. Now, that actually is is what matters. And that's that's kind of the only thing that matters that Paul was was talking about and refuting to the Galatians and their kind of gravitation of wanting to go back to the Jewish customs to count to count for everything. I've seen another way. This is another interpretation that I found this in inscription. I think it's it's in a in a commentary. There's another way of looking at this verse that the Old Testament circumcision was a separation of one part of flesh. That was a marking of a covenant between the Lord and his people. But in this new circumcision of the heart by Christ is actually putting away all flesh. It's putting away everything that we can lean on for our own understanding, for our own salvation, for our own sanctification. It's putting all of that away. Uh, and it's, it's the, the, uh, symbol of baptism actually brings that in and flushes that out, which Paul is going to get into, into, uh, into verse 11, but it's putting all of that reliance on the law to, to fulfill us in the Lord. It's taking that away and saying that is no longer. a requisite, it is all Christ. It is not going to the temple, it is not going to circumcision. That is everything that is now counted loss, which Paul readily would have admitted, that he counted all that loss. And he was kind of holding himself as kind of the superstar in that regard, that he had met every requirement, but still he was counting it as absolutely nothing. So moving on to verse 12, this kind of leaves us at the end of verse 11. If it if it just stopped there, this would only be part of the gospel. This would be the Lord through the circumcision of our heart, of drawing us close to him and planning that faith in our in our lives. But there's a new picture here. So circumcision is taken away, but there's a new symbol of that of that relationship coming in. And the kind of the how of how this comes about is pointed to or explained to really in verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism and which you are also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And Paul is making another parallel here. He's not making a parallel to an Old Testament. an Old Testament right or an Old Testament action or reference in Scripture, but to the New Testament, and that is to Christ's death and resurrection. Our sin enslaved man centered selves are buried with Christ and uses this baptism of being picture thinking of a baptism of being buried in water and immersed in our kind of our typical dunking. I have that in my notes, and I don't know if that's probably that's probably not a a correct word, but actually the the word here in baptism or baptism and some of the secular Greek writings that use that word actually have a connotation of a city being wiped out with violence, being completely immersed by whatever conquering army is going through there. So this is a complete covering, absolute covering and burial, being buried with him in baptism. Our old self is dying. Now, what if the gospel ended there? Think about how terrible that would be if a baptism ended there, you're underwater and and Keith just says, OK, I'm done now. That's an incomplete. That would be a very dangerous thing, especially with a small child that couldn't swim, depending on the depth of the baptismal. But if the gospel simply ended there with a burial, where would that leave us? You can think of kind of the patron saint of Charlottesville, Thomas Jefferson. He has his own version of a Bible. You can go to Monticello and buy it. I think they actually have it in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. You can go there and it's called the Jefferson Bible. What Jefferson did, he went and he pulled out everything that had any kind of connotation of the Lord's power, essentially, which obviously he had to take out the resurrection. And that's where the Jefferson Bible pretty much ends. It ends with Christ dead, death and burial. And for whatever reason, that was sufficient for him. He wanted to take out all of what he considered anything of a miracle. That's where the Jefferson Bible ends. It ends with Christ's burial. But then just as the gospel would be empty with just simply a filled tomb or without the resurrection, the gospel is empty in us if we deny the continued regeneration of our hearts, which I think is hinted at in this verse here, being raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God. being raised up in a new life in Christ. Now, what does this through the powerful working of God mean? There are two different interpretations that I've seen in here. One could mean that that the working of God in our own rational looking at that is so powerful that it convinces us to run headlong towards the Lord. Well, what's the problem with that? The biggest thing is that it really is against the very nature that we're told is inside of us in Scripture. If we go to Romans 119, I'll just read through this. This is the true nature of us inside of us that Paul is writing here. This is actually Romans 118. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. who by their upright unrighteousness suppress the truth, actually suppressing that truth inside of us. Think about the story that I talked about in Scott of knowing that dogs were going to get into the best way into the South Pole, but putting that aside and going through his own rationalization, thinking about what else he could use to accomplish what he wanted to do. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse or rather we are without excuse. in our natural nature without Christ. So that's our nature there, that before Christ we have no power in us to rationally think, wow, Christ was resurrected. I should grab on board with this doctrine because it's a lot more powerful than Jewish orthodoxy or Islam or anything else. No, it's something that this powerful working of God is the power that God has to work in us that is so powerful that it overcomes that nature that is inside of us. Jonathan Edwards actually hit on this in a brief passage that I'll read on here and close with an application. And in 1751, and I'm not sure how he got this invitation, but Edwards was asked to go speak at the signing of a treaty in Albany. And it was basically a treaty between the British government and the Mohawk Indians. And he starts it out basically kind of laying out the fact that there were two different realities in here between the world of the flesh and the world of the Lord. He starts it off. These honorable gentlemen treat in the name of King George, but I am the name of Christ Jesus. So he's kind of setting out these two different worlds to the Mohawk Indians. This is the first time that to my knowledge that they had been preached to like this. But Edwards is going to get into their true nature and it really talks to our true nature as well without the Lord. He starts off by saying, but you have been neglected long enough, talking about to the Mohawk Indians. It is now high time that some more effectual care should be taken that you may be really brought into the clear light and know as much as the English do. So he's he's bringing up the English, the English being there and being trained and learned in the in the word of God and the Lord moving through them. He continues, but we do no more than our duty in it, for it was once with our forefathers, as it is with you. They formerly were in great darkness and knew no more than the Indians when the white people came over here. But God put it into their hearts of other into the hearts of others to come and instruct the English and the word of God and so to bring them into the light. This good we had by the kindness of God to us, and therefore we ought to be ready to show this kindness to you. We are no better than you. We are no better than you and no respect only as God has made us to differ and has been pleased to give us more light. And now we are willing to give it to you. This is Edwards hitting on exactly the same thing that Christ is talking about here, the sufficiency, the sole sufficiency of Christ, and Christ being solely sufficient to us as well, even regardless of the state of darkness that Edwards was talking about to these Indians. I think that speaks really to one of our first applications here, in going that we now are able to, having been passing on from being under bondage of the law and having to go through circumcision and the law and everything else on there and being able to partake in the Lord working through us in the symbol of baptism, of being buried with the Lord and our fleshly self being separated from us. You think of that picture of circumcision and then being raised in new life in Christ. that we have the correct attitude when we are out there in the world, in whatever setting that we should be in, realizing that we are in this state only because of the grace of God for what he has done, that we are in that state of darkness and did not go charging towards the light or charging towards anything else in our own rational aspect, that it was initiated by the Lord. I think we can take that in application as we, when we are evangelizing or talking to others in the community. Whether they be in academia, in our home situation and talking to other people, whether out there shopping or in our work. I think another application that we can take from this, think about the picture of the circumcision of our heart, of dedicating ourselves to being distinct from the world. in how we act and how we think and the way that the Lord is guiding us, but not so disengaged to the point where we have absolutely no opportunities for evangelism and looking for those opportunities as they come about and being in a prayerful mode when those do come about. I know certainly for myself in some things when I've been talking to people at work and kind of putting on my apologetic mode of not doing it the most tactful way. And certainly not doing it with the right attitude, with the right heart attitude that I should. And prayer is definitely key and part of that. And being convicted while I was saying something, a harsh word to someone saying, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. Let me show you why. Well, that's just going to absolutely turn someone off if you're talking to them about the gospel, because you look arrogant. And arrogance kind of says, hey, I've got everything figured out. I don't need anything. And that certainly doesn't show that we are relying on the Lord. for our evangelism in proclaiming the word. And I think finally, it asks us to take an appraisal of our identity. The Old Testament Hebrews certainly based a very large part of their identity and who they were physically and where they were attached to the land of Israel and being someone that was circumcised, someone that Paul certainly brought up in his biography. And looking at what we cling to our identities. Now, what Paul was hitting at in these two verses is that our identities are entirely in Christ and are being buried with him and raised in Christ. That is not only sufficient for us, entirely sufficient for us, but it should be the only thing, the primary and only thing that we base our identity on as Christians, putting everything up front. Christian, Tracy certainly has to do with my love of politics out there. I absolutely love it. It's fascinating, but sometimes I'll put that above my identity in Christ and putting something that is completely unchristian because I'm someone that I have some kind of political affinity for and separating those two. No, I absolutely have to be entirely basing our own identities in Christ and nothing else. And that is not easy. It's certainly not easy for me to separate those two and thinking, OK, I'm an American, I'm whatever, I've got my identity and all these other things that are competing to say this is who we are. We're certainly in a world that loves to peg us into different demographics, too, aside from our religion. And we like to do that within the church as well, that we're this type of Christian or this type of Christian or anything like that. But it all are in the end, are all our identity has to go is to Christ. And that that is something that that that Paul is hitting on here in the church in Colossians, because he had a heart for this church, even though he had never, never visited them. So I'll close just with a quotation in scripture from Christ himself, where he is talking about this soul sufficiency of himself. This is in actually in in John, towards the end of John, John 15. I am the true vine, starting in verse one. And my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. This abiding entirely in Christ and in nothing else, not relying on our own flesh, not relying on our own intellect, not relying on tradition, anything else like that that can compete, but relying entirely on Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to come and to gather in your name to study your word tonight, Lord. Lord, we pray that you might etch it into our hearts, into our minds, into our souls, Lord, as we leave from here, Lord. We pray that you might spur us in our evangelism, Lord. Lord, that you may be with us, that we may be prayerful in considering these verses, Lord, as we evangelize to others, Lord, as we consider ourselves, Lord, and take stock of our own identities. Lord, just pray we thank you for the reminder of of just the wonderful picture of baptism is that that is with our burial with you of burying our old cells, Lord, and being raised up again with you, Lord. We thank you for for that picture, too, Lord, that that foreshadows our future of eternity with you, Lord. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.