In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith, in the working of God who raised Him from the dead, And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ, Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. May God be pleased to bless our meditation today on this portion of his word. I read again our text for the day. which is found in Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 14 and 15, reading also just that last phrase from verse 13. Having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." A great threat to the Church of the Colossians. was to underestimate the majesty and sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the Savior. It's a strange thing that man can come to know this saving gospel of Christ and then be deceived and even cheated through philosophy and empty deceit, as if Christ were not enough. So what the Apostle is saying in all this passage here is, to use his own words, that you are complete in him. You have all that you really need in your fellowship with Jesus Christ. And here in our text he is saying that this is true also because of the gracious way that he has dealt with you in spite of your transgressions. One thing for sure, Paul was always anxious to get back to the central theme, which was Jesus Christ. For God forbid he said that I should glory in anything but the cross of Christ, by whom I am crucified to the world. and the world is crucified to me." So there are momentous things that Jesus has done for us with regard to our transgressions. And today we are going to look at two of these as they are expounded by the Apostle in these two verses. And let me remind you that they are both absolutely essential. If you don't have both of these, there isn't the slightest possibility that you will ever have an eternal fellowship with God in glory. If you really do have both of these, there is not the slightest possibility that you will fail to have that fellowship with Him. And the first thing that Jesus did for us was to deal with our sins in terms of its condemning power. For he wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. He has taken it out of the way. through his being nailed to the cross. Now, you see, that's the character of law. And I mean by that any law has that characteristic. If you sin against that law, if you break it, If you have been guilty of an infraction of that law, then the law can and will only do one thing. It is capable of no other than to condemn you. And when that law is the absolute law of the Most High God, then any infraction against incurs the penalty of eternal destruction. That's why the Bible says there is none that is righteous. No, not even one. In Psalm 14 we read that God looked down from heaven upon the children of men and he made a complete inventory of the whole world Right down through the ages, and when the psalmist wrote that, it was true and it's still true today, he did not find even one who had not gone astray and broken the law of God. No, he says, they are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none righteous. No, not even one. Now if you ever go to a funeral here in Carson that is not held in Bethel Church, you are apt to hear a very different view of man's standing with God. Here we do not eulogize people because of this truth that I am talking about today. But almost anywhere else you go, people are eulogized at their funerals. They are eulogized because they are being compared with other people. And if your standard of judgment is other people, then most of the people in Carson could well be eulogized. But if you use the standard of God's absolute law, there isn't anybody in Carson who should ever be eulogized the least little bit. Not me, not you, and not anybody else either. Because the Bible says we are all like sheep who have gone astray, everyone in his own way, and we are therefore under God's law and curse, because that handwriting stands there against us. And the Bible tells us the only way that that handwriting that stands there against us can be removed is through the victorious work of Jesus. And our text says he wiped out that handwriting, which was contrary to us. And our text says he has taken it out of the way. It's not there anymore. Now when the law is broken, it cannot be silenced until the penalty is paid in full. If you break the law, and it is found out, even the law of the state of North Dakota, and it is found out, there is no way that that can ever be removed until the fine or penalty is paid. But when the penalty is paid in full, It's wiped off the books. It's gone. I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but I had a speeding ticket in Wyoming some time ago, and I got the notice. The handwriting was real plain, and I could read it. I didn't like it. It was embarrassing. But the only way that I could remove that so that the law enforcement people wouldn't come and arrest me was to pay that fine. And when the fine was paid, lo and behold, the handwriting was removed. I have never heard anything since, and there is nothing on the books against me. Now, you know, the Bible says that that's what Christ did for his people. Some people think that Christ died for everybody. in the whole wide world. But that is not true. He only died for those who, in the great plan of God for the salvation of men, either have had, now do have, or in the future shall have union with him in his death and resurrection. And that is not going to be the whole human race. That's why the Apostle Paul says he did this for us. He wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us he has taken out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. You know, in the Old Testament, the great high priest of Israel, when he went in to make the great atonement for the sins of God's people, he wore a breastplate. And do you know what was on that breastplate? Well, names were on that breastplate. Names! Why were names on the breastplate of the great high priest of Israel? Because the high priest represented those whose names he bore. Christ is the fulfillment of that Old Testament symbolism. He is the ultimate and final high priest of God. And in his great high priestly prayer in John 17, he said, I do not pray for the world. Did you hear that, people? Jesus said, I do not pray for the world. But for those whom thou hast given me, thine they were." And so on he goes. Christ very consciously prayed, not for the world, but for all of those donated to him by the Father from all ages. those whom we call God's elect people, because they and they only have union with Christ in his death and resurrection. So in a certain sense, that little word, us, is quite critical in importance in this passage. Because it signifies the fact that Jesus Christ has paid in full the penalty for all the sins of his people. And there is no double jeopardy in the kingdom of God. God has never once required two payments for the same sin. Those people down there in Wyoming cannot come back and collect a second time. And if Christ paid the penalty of your sin, God himself, by his own decree, cannot come back and collect from you. But if he did not die for you, then you have to pay. So it is the finished work of Christ on the cross which is the basis of our acceptance with God. We are accepted because the law has nothing more to say against us. You could go through all the law books in heaven and you wouldn't find anything there against anyone who has union with Christ in his death and resurrection. So it's wiped off the books. He's wiped out the handwriting of requirements. It's taken out of the way, and it's gone forever. Far as the East is from the West. So far has He removed our transgressions from us. For by one offering, says the Bible, He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. And that's why the Apostle Paul could say, there is therefore now no condemnation. It's not there. Can't find it. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Well, brothers and sisters, I want to tell you that's a wonderful thing. But I also want to say, what good would it be If we then remained under the controlling dominion of Satan and of sin, what good would that be if Satan still controlled us so that we just kept on sinning? Putting it in personal terms, what good would it be to have that one fine paid in Wyoming if I went speeding down there again and got ten more? This is something you see all the time when hardened criminals are released back into society. The old penalty has been paid and what do they do? They go right out and they do the same thing again. One penalty is taken away and ten more are added to it. What good does it do? Now I want to ask you very candidly, can you imagine a heaven full of people like that? People who have had the handwriting removed, but they remain in heart the slaves and servants of Satan. Well, right there you have what's wrong with a lot of American nominal Christianity, because the nominal Christian doesn't fathom the problem in its entirety. He thinks he understands justification by faith, but he does not understand that justification by faith is only an aspect of the total saving work of Christ. He doesn't fathom the depth of the problem of sin, for the fact is that the natural man, and I mean by that every single human being born of Adam's race prior to the time of his regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit, every single one of them is dominated by the prince of the power of the air. In Paul's companion letter written about the same time this was written, he tells us this in no uncertain terms. For he says, you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked. According to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh." Well, you don't often think about it, but the fact is that the natural man on Main Street in Carson, North Dakota is demon-possessed. He doesn't think he is. But he is. The Bible says he is. The Bible says that he is under the control of the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that now is working in everyone who is not in a saving union with Christ. Why don't they know it? Well, it's because, as Paul says, the God of this world has blinded their minds. They don't see God's absolute standard. They therefore do not see themselves as sinners, and in that very fact demonstrate that they are under the power of the Prince of Demons. Well, congregation, this too has been dealt with by Jesus Christ. That's the glorious thing. For he not only took this handwriting away, but he also disarmed principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross. So the death of Christ on the cross was not only the ground of our justification, tremendously important as that is, the death of Christ on the cross not only ripped down all that was written against us, if we're in Christ, but that same death of Christ on the cross overwhelmingly defeated the very one who ruled over us and had dominion in our hearts and lives. If you go back in the early literature of the Christian Church, there's a lot about the conflict between Jesus Christ and the mighty powers of the demons. Because the pagan world was demon-possessed in a thousand ways. We don't think about that so much in a culture that has in the past been greatly influenced by the Christian faith. But the truth is that the death of Christ on the cross was the showdown conflict between the Son of God, the seed of the woman, and the serpent, The great prince of the power of the air, our enemy the devil. And in some of the Psalms you get an inkling of how terrible that conflict was into which our Lord Jesus Christ entered. Some of you have come to love a portion of the 22nd Psalm that's often requested. Remember how it goes? Here's how Christ felt when he meant the powers of the demonic world. Be not far off, for grief is near, and none to help is found. For bulls of Bashan in their strength now circle me around. Their lion jaws they open wide, and roar to tear their prey. My heart is wax. My bones unknit, my life is poured away, my strength is only broken clay, my mouth and tongue are dry. For in the very dust of death you there make me to lie. For see how dogs encircle me. On every side there stands a brotherhood of cruelty. they pierce my feet and hands." A modern writer has written about the encircling eyes. He describes modern man as encircled in the darkness by glowing eyes of the demonic as they crowd in upon a culture that has abandoned God and His Word. But no one ever saw that encircling of the demonic eyes like Jesus did when he died alone in the darkness on the cross of Calvary. Congregation, there's a widespread delusion today, you can get it in all kinds of so-called Christian literature, to the effect that the ultimate showdown battle between good and evil is yet off in the future. But that's not true. The decisive showdown battle between God and Satan has already been fought and won in the suffering and death of Christ. And we know that because death could not hold him. Of what other man could that ever be said? Death couldn't hold him. Why couldn't death hold him? Because the power of the enemy had been drastically undermined, totally undone, thoroughly triumphed over, as it says in our text. And the Bible says Jesus Christ not only rose from the dead, but also when he ascended up on high, led captivity captive. And captivity means you and I, captive to the devil, were led captive by Christ when he disarmed our enemy and forced him to relinquish his dominion over us. Our text says Satan was disarmed, but that hardly does justice to the original, because the Greek word means he divested himself once and for all of the powers of the demonic. Like a man would tear his dirty, filthy clothes off, every last one of them, and strip himself naked of them. and throw them away totally and completely. You see, when Christ was here on earth, he was clothed with our frail human nature. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh with all its infirmities and frailties and weaknesses. And that is how Satan's power could come in upon him and really be felt. That's how he could be tempted in all points like we are. But when Satan was defeated on the cross, do you know what Christ did? He divested himself totally and completely of everything that would give Satan access to him ever again in any way, for he rose triumphant over death in a glorified human body, and Satan cannot ever so much as lay even a finger upon that glorified humanity of Christ. And the point is that when we have union with Christ, we have union with him in his death, down goes the handwriting, and resurrection, Down goes the dominion of Satan. It's as if he pulled Satan's poisoned fangs right out so that we could forever be free from his dominion. Did you ever notice how often the Bible says that kind of thing? Why, says Paul to the Romans, continue in sin? How could we? We who are risen with Christ. No, he says, sin will not have dominion over you. You're not under law. It's been taken down. You're under grace, and grace is the power of Christ triumphant over the devil. Why does Paul say in the book that he wrote to the Romans, God, the God of peace, is going to crush Satan under your feet shortly? How can he say such a thing? We're influenced by a wrong mentality about the devil. How could he say anything else when Christ has triumphed over the devil? Why, of course, you'll trample Satan under your feet shortly. because you are in fellowship with Christ. You are, to quote another phrase in that same great letter of Paul to the Romans, why you are more than conquerors through Christ who loved you. And the point I'm making is that this is the portion of everyone who really has union with the Lord Jesus. Did he wipe out the handwriting? Was it taken out of the way? Are you justified by faith? Just as surely then he also disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them as he triumphed over them, how in the world then could sin, one having dominion over you? Now, quite frankly, brothers and sisters, that is the dangerous thing about a one-sided Reformation theology. Some churches take justification by faith and make it such a big nose you can't see the rest of the face. How would you like to have a face like that with a nose so big you can't see anything else? No thanks, folks. I don't want a face like that. Justification by faith is very important. It's a central feature of the Christian faith, but it is no more central than sanctification. And what is sanctification? It is the renewing of the whole man after the image of Christ, out of which we are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. You know your catechism, don't you? So it's a wonderful thing that justification by faith was restored to the church, but that's not all there is by any means. No. The other part of it is that he disarmed our enemy and gave us dominion over him instead of him dominion over us. Now, here were these false teachers coming into the Colossian church, trying to cheat, trying to beguile, trying to defraud these people of their great inheritance in Christ. How did they do it? Look on through the passage. One of the things they wanted was to have people circumcised again. They were already circumcised when they were baptized, but they wanted them to do it again. Another one was, as you'll see in verse 16, they wanted them to celebrate special holy days that God had not commanded. It's right there in verse 16. They wanted them to have reverence for other mediators, angelic, heavenly mediators, other than Christ. You find out a little bit later on. Verse 19, they wanted them to submit to man-made regulations about eating and drinking. You find that on toward the end of the chapter. But the answer was they were always trying to get across the idea that people didn't have it all in Christ. And that they wanted them to get enamored with something else in addition to Christ. But I'm here to tell you, congregation, That's the very antithesis of the gospel. For you are complete in Him. You need justification? The only place you can get it is in Christ. You need power over the dominion of sin and the devil? The only place you can get it is in union with Christ. You can't think of anything but you really need For the new life it is unto everlasting blessedness, which you won't find in the Lord Jesus. So the question I have is today, do you really have it? Has the handwriting been taken away for you? Is it off the books? Well, one of the ways to know that is to look at the other side. Has the dominion of Satan been broken? Has the dominion of sin been broken? Are you a new creature in which the dynamic power of the Spirit of the living Christ is plainly alive, leading you to live, whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, doing all to the glory of Christ? What a wonderful thing that Jesus Christ gives us union with Him in His death and resurrection. Death to the old, resurrection to the new, because of the victory of Christ. It's so beautifully stated in Psalm 68, that surely God shall wound the head of those that are His foes. He'll seize the scalp of him that on in guilt and trespass goes. The Lord has said from Bashan range, I will bring back these foes. I will bring back my enemies, which ocean's death includes. That thou mayest dip thy foot in blood, that thy dog's tongue may share its portion of thine enemies. by me, defeated there. Great is the victory of Christ, and blessed are they who have a portion in it. Amen. We thank you this day, O God, for the victory of Jesus. God forbid that we should ever cast our eyes upon some other thing, some other one, some other gimmick, instead of Jesus. For we know that he is not only the author, but also the finisher of our faith, and we are complete in him. Grant that we may so live and bring glory to his name. In Christ we ask it. Amen.