Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Colossians 2:8-15
From our last message we noted that divine justice overruled divine love, even though the Father and the Holy Spirit never stopped loving Jesus Christ with a perfect love. When that first personal sin of Adam struck our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and the pain of spiritual divine judgment shot through his body and soul; when the Father heard that cry from the one he loved and adored from eternity past, he still did not call off justice. If he had we would all still be dead in our trespasses and sins. The Father did not revert back to his personal affection for the Son. He was totally impartial in judging sin just as if it were you or I who had sinned. God’s love never interferes with his divine justice for as we have seen, what the righteousness of God demands the justice of God carries out. The unsaved have this silly notion that they will be able to bring up their good deeds and kind hearted works and pull at God’s sentiments, but justice never allows any such notions to tamper with the integrity of God.
Our Mediator Jesus Christ, the only mediator or “go between” between God and man as per I Tim.2:5, was the only one found suitable to bear our sins.
Some say this is too severe of a characterization of God, that he is perfect love and compassion and he would not need such a horrendous act to satisfy his justice; that mercy overruled. However, we need to understand that nothing can stand in the way that would violate divine righteousness which is half of the integrity of God, and the other half, divine justice is the function of the righteousness of God in that justice always carries out what righteousness demands. God’s righteousness demands judgment for sin, and it says as per Gen.2:17 where God said to Adam if you disobey me you will instantaneously spiritually die and then later on you will physically die. Since God was disobeyed, divine +J has to carry out the function of satisfying the +R demands of God.
Even though Christ Jesus was judged in our stead by the Father, for our sins, nevertheless God the Father never stopped loving the Son.
The closest the Father could come to expressing his love for his son was to cover the earth in darkness for three hours, Lk.23:44-46.
Let it be known that the essence of God never challenges the divine integrity of God and it did not challenge the decision for Christ to go to the cross. When Jesus Christ left heaven’s glory he knew before he came to this world that he would go to the cross by way of the cradle.
In this most sacrificial act on the part of God, salvation was able to be offered to mankind. However, Satan attempts to deceive men into thinking that there are many ways to the path of salvation and heaven, Acts 16:17, but Acts 4:10-12 says otherwise.
Both Satan and the mass of humanity challenge the integrity of God on an on going basis.
Col.2:9-15 read...
From this Colossian passage we see Satan was positionally defeated as prophesied from Gen.3:15. Satan’s hold on man was released when Jesus Christ overcame death and the grave. Satan had used death and he still uses death as per Heb.2:14 as a lever to scare men into doing a lot of things in the name of religion and human good to earn ones salvation. Satan also tempts men to blame God for the ills of this world; that God’s justice is unfair in letting sinners go to Hell.
So men strive to gain the pleasures of God by good deeds to appease God and this is futile. Satan could never be reinstated to God’s favor and Satan doesn’t want men reinstated to God’s favor either. Satan doesn’t want men coming to Christ.
Satan has instigated and initiated many distractions through the minds of lost men and women through the influence of demonic powers and dark principalities out there in the world. There are so many points of view which have floated around this universe since the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve fell into sin.
These philosophies and points of view all try to either ignore the existence of God [atheism] or [agnosticism] or they seek every imaginable avenue to heaven apart from coming to faith in the Son of God.
A religion is started in the name of God and rituals are invented to keep the people in a dark world of superstition until they die in their sins. Yes they will spend perhaps a lifetime spinning their wheels doing good, but never coming to Christ. II Cor.11:3-4, 13-15 tells us Satan has his ministers of false light who preach another gospel that gives only temporary hope to the people. These ministers avoid the deity of Jesus Christ passages in the Bible. They avoid the issue of sins needing to be atoned for. They avoid the crucifixion passages and the return of the Son of God to judge men passages.
Col.2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” The rudiments of the world, stoicheia, refers to man’s take on our existence from the material aspect or the cosmological aspect. That is, we are either or both only products of our earthly make up, that is, evolution, or we are part of a cosmological idea that no one can know why we are here or where we came from.
But the Bible is clear as to why we are here on this earth and that is to glorify God, and the Bible is clear where we came from, that is, the hand of God. The Bible is clear on where we will go based on our choice to believe God’s word, heaven or hell.
We can know who God is and what God wants of us, but ever since the fall of man we have given our minds over to a notion that we do not need God and what he has to offer.
The Bible says in Ps.14:1-3 “The fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no not one.” That includes me and that includes you, too.
We need the Savior, not religion. Our souls need saving, not our planet. Our spiritual bank accounts need filling not our earthly bank accounts.
Brethren, we need a repentance from the dead works found in Christianity today. We have socialized the gospel. We have gone from being heavenly minded to being earthly minded. We have adopted the political gospel of liberation theology seeking social justice in this world. We have scrapped the propitiatory gospel of the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. We have laid God’s revelation of his inspired word to the side because we think it does not profit us. We need to get back to the Bible and we need to get a firm grasp on the Holiness of God. We need to turn down the entertainment in our churches and tune in to the exposition of God’s holy word. If we are going to be a holy people unto God, we cannot do it without sound Bible exposition. Hosea 3:6 says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee...”