Duplex Gratia (from Colossians) (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio and the Theme of Christ for Pardon and Power

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Mike Ebendroth here. Michael Lee Ebendroth. Christ for pardon, Christ for power. Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. Do we do that discernment ministry thing anymore?

Or do we just say it's duplex gratia, Christ for pardon and Christ for power? Well, either one as you prefer. Www .nocompromiseradio .com is our website. You can email me, mike at no compromise radio dot com.

There you go. Working on a new website, working on a new church website, working on the SOS Johnson Colossians commentary, and maybe something new on American gospel. So far in American gospel, I've finished what?

Five parts on law gospel, five parts on sanctification, five parts on assurance and one other trick up my sleeve. And those things are stressful to do. Takes a lot of editing to get those things going.

Gospel assurance, the book, 31 day guide is in print form, Kindle form, and now audible form. You can get it audible, which is fun. David reading that. And then you've got gospel assurance, a 31 day devotion, just one page and then a page of notes for each day.

That's also available on Amazon. Got another project like that coming out, hopefully sometime soon. If I can get a couple of projects done a year, great. If you don't shoot for any projects, you don't get any of them done.

If you shoot for them, sometimes you still don't get them done. But there you have it. I've got a pencil here in front of me and it doesn't have, it's not pointy. It makes me think of Johnny Carson, right?

He'd always play with the pencils. And so they gave him the pencils that were not sharpened. They were just flat on the end. Well, today we're talking a little bit more about Colossians 2 and the center of Colossians 2 is verse 6.

Walking in Christ from Beginning to End

Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and establish in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. What we've been trying to say at No Compromise Radio is that you don't start off with Jesus to get saved, think justification, and then you leave Jesus to grow in Christ, think God's sanctifying work.

That's not what we're talking about. We're saying from beginning to end, up even through glory, it's going to be Jesus. Paul is writing to this church. He's never been there, most likely, and he's in jail and he sends Epaphras there with this letter.

And he knows there's been some false teaching. He doesn't name the false teachers. He just kind of tells us what they're saying and how they're trying to influence the people, the saints there. And he wants them to realize in chapter 1 verses 15 through 20, Jesus is supreme.

Then he moves on in chapter 2 and he says Jesus is sufficient. So, I want to talk to you today about the walk that you have as a Christian by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.

I don't want you to be captive by false philosophies and empty deceit, verse 8, according to human tradition. There's nothing wrong with tradition unless it's going against the Bible, right? Then that's a bad kind.

And it's not according to Christ. That would be a bad kind. I don't want you to be deceived or deluded. The language there in Colossians chapter 2 is there's all kinds of cargo on a ship and you just take it all.

This is Somalia pirates, right? And they just take off the ship. I don't want you to fall prey to false teachers. And if I could summarize the show, it's essentially this. In Christ, you have everything you need.

All the riches are in Christ, knowledge in Christ, understanding in Christ, assurance found in Christ. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So, I never want you to move past Jesus.

I never want you to say, got him figured out, got him put in the box where I need him, and I'll see him in heaven. I'm already saved now. Now I can get on to the strenuous work of sanctification without Jesus.

Obviously, holy living is strenuous. There is work and sweat and toil, and we need strength and endurance. Paul even prays for that in chapter 1. Why would he pray for strength and endurance and all that if it just was going to be easy?

But I don't want you to fall prey to people that are going to try to smooth talk you. Remember last show in chapters 2, 1 to 5, these smooth talking people, right? They know how to talk. ESV says plausible arguments, and they know how to talk really well.

And Paul says, this is a struggle. I'm struggling for you. How could Paul in verse 1 be struggling for them while he's in jail? Well, I think it's not just thoughts and prayers, we're thinking about you, but I think it's just prayer.

I think he is struggling in prayer for them. He's heard about what's going on and he, at least for redeemed humanity, the ultimate apostle, of course, the Lord Jesus trumps Paul there. Yes, that's true.

But Paul is struggling in prayer, and he wants them to know, listen, you can't move forward past Christ. Don't do that. That's why we need gospel preaching every Sunday. That's why we need means of grace every Sunday.

That's why we need Lord's Supper, at least pretty often, condemned by my own words. Chapter 2 verse 9, for in him, Jesus, the whole fullness of deity, dwells bodily. Jesus assumes human nature, right?

The eternal Son, divine Son assumes human nature. Now, he has two natures, right? And why would you go somewhere else? These false teachers come on, the fullness is found elsewhere. The fullness is found in our rules.

The fullness is found in our special leader. The fullness is found in our little sequestered harem. The fullness is found in this. Just watch Hulu, and they've got all kinds of weird cults with all kinds of weird things going on from sex cults to Scientology to Mormonism to all these kind of things.

I don't want you to fall prey to any of those. And Paul's going to go on later in this chapter to tell us what to specifically avoid. But now he's just saying, you know what? When it comes to Jesus, everything you need is found in him.

For in him, the whole fullness of deity continues to dwell in bodily form, present tense. By the way, how can that be present tense? Well, are we thinking from incarnation? Now we're thinking glorification, right?

This body prepared for him, now glorified. This is amazing. He is still a man. Oh, he's more than a man. He's the God-man, but Jesus in heaven, God-man. You are complete in Christ Jesus. Jesus, God in the flesh, now glorified body in heaven, the God-man.

You don't need to go anywhere else, do you? You want help elsewhere? Maybe you do, but stop. We can't go there. There's nowhere else to go. The permanent residence, the spirit of God now in us, hopefully convicts us of that very thing when we leave Jesus.

You've been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. Maybe I could have a substitute for Jesus. Maybe I could have something else. Maybe I've already read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Maybe I've already read this other stuff, and I kind of know that. I own it. Charles Wesley saying, thou, O Christ, art all I want more than all in thee I find. Yeah, but if I could just do some rules and stuff, that'd make me feel better.

In him also you are circumcised, verse 11, with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Probably some influence here from people who are of Jewish background, descent, Jewish people, could be Judaizers.

And you know, I know Jesus is everything you need, but not quite. You need Jesus in circumcision. You need Jesus in external circumcision. Certainly, inward circumcision of the heart, that was Deuteronomy 10, Deuteronomy 30, Jeremiah 4, Jeremiah 6, that part, you know, separation unto God, concentration of God, consecration unto God.

You're not going to need this extra. Jesus is sufficient. Well, let's talk about that. You want to talk about circumcision? I want to talk about baptism. Have 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.

Listen, you don't need external things like circumcision. You need something like this, union with Christ. You're buried with him in baptism, raised with him through faith. Can we talk about that? Like with baptism, dying and rising with Christ, dead to sins, alive to Christ.

Don't we talk this way? Negative side, death, positive side, resurrection. Can we talk about union with Christ in such a manner? Christ died, Christ was buried, Christ raised, right? Then does that mean we just get Jesus for justification and not sanctification?

What about renewal? What about mortification? What about, hey, I'm dead to sin, so I should live for righteousness. And you can remember what has happened to you. This is good for all of us to be reminded of, to make sure we realize that Jesus is sufficient.

Regeneration, Forgiveness, and Salvation as God's Work Alone

Verse 13, and you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. You want to know who's at the center of it all?

It's not you. It's not me. He had to make us alive. He had to forgive us all our sins. He had to grace us. That's the word for forgiveness found here, graced. Remember the creditor and the two debtors, Jesus' parable, when they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both.

Same word. He did it all. Union with Christ is everything. There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood. It was all their guilty stains. Salvation is of the Lord.

Salvation is God's work. Salvation is all of God's work from justification to sanctification to glorification. He's made us alive. God did the work. This is called regeneration, monergistic regeneration.

I mean, it had to be because we were so sinful. We dwelt in darkness. We couldn't understand spiritual truth. We were slaves to sin, and Jesus saved us, right? The Lord opened Lydia's heart. We're not born of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

We're born of God. And we are having all our sins forgiven, as I mentioned before. Your sins are out of sight. Cast all their sins in the depths of the sea. Out of reach. Cast all their sins, tread their iniquities underfoot.

Those are both from Micah 7. It's amazing. I'll remember their sins no more. Micah 7. Who's a God like you, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of his possession? This gracious work, this bountiful work.

Why would we go somewhere else? He's reminding them, don't go somewhere else. If you're listening today, you're off to the next thing. We want you to go back. We want you to abide in Christ. That's the idea, to remain in Christ.

I never knew what abiding meant. I just thought it was some Christian word. Abide, to remain. Remember what you were taught? Remember Christ Jesus as Lord, and you were taught all about him? Those things in chapter 1 verses 15 through 20, remember you're taught that.

So, where else are you going to go? And our salvation is so great, he goes on in verse 14, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. Thus, he set aside, or this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

The sin debt that you had, canceled, paid in full by Jesus. The sin debt I had, in writing, written above my head, as if I were on the cross, blotted out, paid, paid in full. We could never pay for our sins.

Debt, though, has been paid. Handwritten document, testified against us. Court of law, taken care of. You know, they crucify people back in those days, and the Romans would put the crime for which a criminal was being executed, ESV even says, right there on top, the sign.

He said of Jesus, you know, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Canceled. And this was something that was hostile toward us. This was, we couldn't, we couldn't erase it ourselves. This had to be done for us.

Complete removal. Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and it is nailed to the cross. Pilate placed that above Jesus, King of the Jews. God the Father placed on Jesus. Wondrous exchange, Luther calls it.

Christ bears our sins, and we his righteousness. Why would we go somewhere else? You want to talk about angels, and maybe they do stuff, and mystical experiences. Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him, Colossians 2 .15.

Supernatural powers and all their ranks and orders and taxes and hierarchy, I didn't say taxes, at the cross, was taken care of. This military language of the Roman triumph, victory, victory in Jesus my Savior forever.

He sought me and bought me with his redeeming love. These accusers, these slanders against Jesus put to open shame. Everyone could see a public display of them having triumphed over them through him. That's good news, no compromise, radio ministry.

Legalism, Asceticism, and Shadow Religion Versus Christ

So, if this is true, since this is true, why would you ever be a legalist? Why would you ever be on the opposite side someone who does asceticism? Why? Well, one of the reasons why we do that is because, at least with legalism, we have a list of things, and we think, okay, my relationship with the Lord is based on what I do, at least I could do these things.

I might not have my heart in them, but I at least did them. I mean, if Gnosticism says the body's bad, then I got two options, starve it or just indulge it. And that's kind of what happens. From asceticism to legalism to just going overboard, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

These are the shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Don't worry about the smooth talkers who say things to you when they're just pointing back to shadows. We have the fulfillment.

I've talked about him, Paul says, in chapter 1. He's the Lord, chapter 2, verse 6. Things like new moons and festivals, they're shadows of things. Substance belongs to Christ. Now, the word shadow is an interesting word.

It's S-K-I-A. Here's your fun little word for the day. S-K-I-A. It could be kind of scary. I don't know. I know it's dumb, but that's okay. S-K-I-A. Now, skia in the Greek could mean I'm standing outside, the sun is going down, and I block some of the sun and you see on the cement sidewalk a shadow.

But it also could mean a dim outline or a sketch, a tracing. That's what I think Paul's after here. Paul's after these things like new moons and festivals and Old Testament things were like an outline, but now we've got everything filled in with Christ.

Why go back to the outline? Why go back to the dim outline? Why go back to the sketch? When you've got the real person that you're trying to sketch is here now in front of you. You want the sketch or you want the real person?

I guess maybe the way we'll try to redeem this word skia, S-K-I-A, is every time you see the Kia car, a Kia, I just want you to think skia. Skia is outline, shadow, tracing, or sketch. Skia. When you see a Kia, K-I-A, I want you to put an S in front of it and to think skia.

By the way, the word Kia for the cars, Ki is a rise and a stands for Asia, rising from Asia. That's what Kia means, rising from Asia. I think Volvo is from Latin. I know it's a Swedish car, but it's Latin.

I think it's all roll. Datsuns, where that come from, Nissans. You can look up all that stuff in background. Chrysler was the last name. I do know that. Chevrolet was the last name. Ford, I think that was the last name.

Skia, outline, trace, or shadow. You've got the fulfillment. Why go back to the other things? Why go back to the shadow when now you've got the light? Why go back to the tracing when you've got the real person?

We don't want to do that, but we're so tempted to do this. And it says in verse 18, let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism, worshiping angels, going on in details about visions puffed up without reason by their sensuous minds.

We'll talk about asceticism more later, but here, angel worship, special things that I've gone through. There were angels worship back in the day, and we need to make sure we don't get caught up in that.

Talked about angels one time. Somebody gave me a little angel pin. I got it when there was 180 ,000 miles on it, I think. I think I'm up to 250. There's some kind of protective angel thing in there, and I just left it in there for fun.

Don't let anybody rob you or cheat you. Don't let anybody say, you're not really a Christian because you don't do these things. Hey, I had an experience. You had an experience. Don't forget verse 19. Hold fast to the head because these people are not from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.

You want to know what all false teaching does? It doesn't hold fast to Jesus, the head of the church. If angels are worshiped, Jesus is depreciated. If asceticism is insisted upon, Jesus' work is depreciated.

Mosaic ceremonies, depreciated. Everything's depreciated. Legal practices, legalistic practices. Hey, I do these things. I don't do those things. No, that's not what we're going to do. The focus would be wrong.

With Christ, you die to elemental spirits of the world, which you did. Why? If you were still alive in the world, do you submit to don't handle, don't taste, don't touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings.

They have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they're of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. It was Rome that took away assurance.

Assurance in Christ, Not in Rule-Keeping or Devotional Performance

And with that show, I want to keep saying this over and over. Legalism, asceticism, experiences, self-made religion, they might look good, but there's no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

They're of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Just a little, there's no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Don't do this, don't do that, don't do that. Obviously, don't sin.

If the Bible commands you to do something, obviously, we're not going to do that. That's not what we're talking about here. Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch. We don't eat certain foods. We're like 7 Day Adventist, you know, Ellen G. White, and we're going to be on God's way down diet and God's diet, the Daniel diet and all this stuff.

Don't fall for that. Don't fall for any of that. That would be awful. That would probably give you some type of, I don't know, probably something bad for your stomach. You haven't heard that one yet. That was my old days commercials for Alka-Seltzer.

Plop, plop. Oh, I can still taste Alka-Seltzer. Can your flesh be restrained by rules? Probably externally for a while. If I put you in a cage, it'd be hard to look at pornography, I guess, but you don't know what I'm getting at.

Where's grace? Where's Jesus? Where's walking in Jesus the Lord? You have to go through these hard treatments. I mean, these hard treatments, Luther did, he almost, you know, died from all this stuff until God opened his eyes.

They seem like it's working. And what must be happening here in Colossae is there's some leader who can talk really smoothly, saying, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do that. I mean, remember, food is just food.

And once it goes in your stomach, that's not what defiles a person, it's what comes out of their heart, right? Seems right. And for Christians, we can buy into legalism just like everybody else. And here's the worst way it happens, and I want to make sure you don't do this anymore if you do it.

I do my devotions, God loves me more. I do my Bible memory, my day's going to go better. I start off the day with reading my Bible, everything works out great. Obviously, you should start off your day by reading your Bible if you can, that'd be a good thing to do.

I, by practice, and hopefully by example, read my Bible in the morning. You know, if I get up at four and I have to catch a flight, I don't usually read my Bible, I'll read it later. But most every single day I get up, this is not bragging, this is just to say, yes, in fact, read your Bible.

I'm not an antinomian, I got up this morning, I read Colossians 2 in the Greek and in the English. I read some prayers in the ancient church and off I went. Doesn't mean my day's going to be better, maybe it frames my mind thinking through the biblical lens, but we're not after.

If you do this, now God loves me more. So I did it today, God's really happy with me. I didn't do it, let's say a week ago, because I had to travel, I was sick, God wasn't too happy with me. God doesn't love you more, He doesn't love you less, He loves you in Christ Jesus.

So stop letting people, including your own heart, be an umpire saying, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong, how can you call yourself a Christian? You need to do all these other things. Right? Christians don't play cards, Christians don't read this, Christians don't see that, Christians don't drink alcohol, Christians don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.

Obviously, if one of those don'ts is found in the Bible, don't be drunk, that's one thing. But Jesus is the Lord. These other people, these false teachers, these legalistic teachers, some even within evangelicalism, they're not the Lord.

All you need is found in Christ, He is supreme and He is sufficient. And if you want to feed your pride, certainly legalism is the way to go, because you probably pick some things you can probably get actually done.

So I don't want you to do that. Okay? Between us. Why don't you remember that Jesus, you're rooted in Him, you want to be built up and grow and learn, but you're never going to get past Him. So why don't you read Matthew today?

Why don't you read Luke today? Why don't you read the fifth epistle, the fifth gospel called Hebrews? Why don't you read that today? Just be reminded and say, Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me, dying for me, raised from me, help me to say no to sin as I am strengthened by your grace and yes to righteousness.

May the spirit of God help me because I want to obey out of gratitude in Jesus name. Amen. How does that sound? That kind of sounds pretty good to me. I mean, maybe I got the grammar a little wrong or something, but I think that's where we're after.

Do you know a no compromise radio now with this new format, with my new Rodecaster Pro 2 that you get extra minutes, right? Instead of the long minutes ahead of time, I don't only record 24 and a half minutes.

We're recording like 28 minutes now. And so you get a little bit extra every time. Four out of 24 is what? You're getting, what? What's one sixth? You're getting one sixth more. That's pretty good. Mike the bang right there.

Uh-huh. Compromise radio .com. You say, I can't hear that. Then email me, Mike at no compromise radio .com.