Pray for governments and leaders that they might make right decisions and that God's people might live in peace. How we need to pray for that in these days of perilous times. Just to reinforce that, I want you to hear something. Dana received this in school and she's in high school. It says it's on nice green paper and got big illustrations and outlines. You know, you'd just be tempted to read it. And it says, Chips, anyone? Can you imagine being able to wave your hand and turn on a light or start a computer? Can you imagine being able to unlock a car or house door without a key? Some people already can do that. They had computer chips placed under their skin. The chips send signals that enable them to do those things. Other people have chips under their skin that tell them about their health. If they are in an accident or are very sick, someone in the hospital can scan their chip to learn who they are, their blood type, and what allergies they have, and other things about their health. The chips, which are called RFIDS, are about the size of a grain of rice. They have tiny antennas that send out the signals. Some schools are using RFIDS too. Students wear tags with RFIDS in them or clip these chips to their backpacks. These chips signal when a student enters and leaves school. Parents can get messages sent to their cell phones that tell them when their children left school or if they didn't go to class. Pet owners have used these chips for several years. They have had chips put into their dogs' or cat's skin. If the pet has lost the chip, it can be used to track down the pet's owner. More facts about the implanted chip is called an RFID, which is short for Radio Frequency Identification Device. Some people are afraid the government might use RFID-S to spy on people. I'm not afraid that they use them to spy on people. I'm afraid that they'll keep us from buying and selling with it. Well, one person will keep us from buying and selling with it. It's amazing, for one, that they... I hadn't seen this on the news. I think Sister Carol said she saw something about it on the news, but they put it into our schools first. Isn't that interesting? Like they do many things. I'm sure that the people backing this kind of technology would probably, like many other things, make it where kids can have it done, if they will, without any parental guidance or direction or even the parent knowing, for that matter. I want to tell you, we live in perilous times. There were days, you know, when we think back on our past, when we looked like the days of the Antichrist were far, far away. How could that ever happen? And right now? I mean, we're right on the threshold of all of those things being able to happen just like that. Wow. The only comfort that we can glean is if we know Christ and know that He holds all these things in His hand and know that we're His and He would keep us from evil. How we should consider the times that we live, how we should consider the urgency of the message that we preach, whether to preach it or to hear it. Because it is of an urgent message. The time of the coming of the Lord, surely, is near unto us. And how our mind should be set upon that. We do need to pray for our country. Pray for our leaders. A lot of things going on right now that we don't really know how to pray. But nevertheless, we should know that the Lord knows. He knows what is right. And we can pray according to His will and rest thereupon it. So do remember these things. Also, continue to remember all of the members. Let us pray one for another. You know, that is an imperative, a commandment in God's Word, that we should pray one for another. And when it said that, it had church members in mind. It had churches just like this in mind, that we should pray one for another. Remember all of us here in this building today, but also those that are not with us, that are separated from us by distance. Listen to what Elizabeth Elliott said about this praying for one another. One way of laying down our lives is by praying for somebody. In prayer I am saying, in effect, my life for yours. My time, my energy, my thoughts, my concentration, my faith, here they are for you." That's pretty good, and the Lord has indeed showed us that we are to give our lives for others, just like he gave his life for us. Colossians chapter 2. To give you the context of this passage, this is the Apostle Paul speaking to the believers at the Church of Colossae, and others also, as he mentions in the beginning of verse 2, also to them that are at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, is what he says. And then he says in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13, And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." I want us to continue in our series that we've been preaching on the subtlety of Satan versus the simplicity that is in Christ. And we have been dealing, we saw very quickly how subtle Satan was, and we should know something about that. It's very simple to see how subtle Satan is. But on the other hand, as we look at the simplicity of Christ, it is a very, very deep subject. We've been dealing with that now for six lessons and just really scratched the surface. And that's what we want to deal with today, the simplicity that is in Christ. We've seen so far that In this simplicity, we've answered the question as we have seen it, why did Christ suffer, bleed and die? And we have seen that he did that for our sin. We've seen that he has done that to absorb the wrath of God. We have seen that he has suffered and bled and died to show us the value of God's love. We have seen that also that in the fact that he has suffered and bled and died to be perfected and to learn obedience, And then last week we looked at the fact, the reason he did this was to show us his own great love. Today I want us to consider this subject. Why did Christ suffer, bleed and die? To rescue us from the debt, the death decree of God's law. To rescue us from the debt and the death decree of God's law. I want us to consider this subject under three headings. First, our bad deeds, second, our good deeds, and third, the only deed that matters. In our text, do you see the phrase in verse 13, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh? That phrase speaks to every one of us here today. Every one of us have been in the past, or still are in the present, rightly represented by those worse. It literally means you are separated from God. You are separated from your Creator. You're separated from the Giver of life itself. You're separated from His favor and from His acceptance and from His approval in your sin. In your sin. Let's talk about your sin. My sin. Our sin. I guess we could call them our bad deeds. We've all committed bad deeds, haven't we? I mean, there may be those who hear this message and may not believe in God's word, may not believe in God himself, may not believe in God's book, but yet even they believe they have committed in their lifetime bad deeds. Their conscience bears witness of this fact. They have indeed sinned. We have indeed sinned, haven't we? Every one of us here today realizes in our mind, if you don't want to admit it, Even now, you should realize that you have sinned. We have lied at times. We have perhaps stolen. Oh, we have. Let's just admit it. We've stolen. We have cheated. We have been disobedient. And we can go on and on and on and on. Even the postmodernist who wants to believe there's really no actual right or wrong, that everything is relative. Even they, when it becomes personal, they know that they have sinned. I mean, they may argue up and down of what theft is. I mean, they may have all kinds of positions on what is actually theft, but the thing about it is, if some thug comes up to them while they're sitting on the street, knocks on their window and pulls out a gun, and hijacks them from their car, I guarantee you they're going to call the police, aren't they? They're going to say, that guy just stole my car, and he held a gun on me. They're going to call that stealing, they're going to call the police, and they're going to demand that that person paid for what he did. They can say all they want to about right and wrong, but when it gets personal, there's a right and there's a wrong. They know what sin is. We know what sin is. We know what bad deeds are. We all do and have and still do commit bad deeds. You know, God is right. I said that several times during this series of messages. I hope you're hearing it. God is right. We have all sinned. and fallen short of His glory, the first is the proof of the latter. We've all sinned. Though we all know that we have all sinned and though we all know we have done bad deeds, some would believe that somehow they can impress God or earn His favor if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds. I mean, they want to put them on a scale and see if we can accumulate more good than bad. just for your information, that's what the false religions of Muslims believe too. They believe they can stack it all up on a scale and as long as their good deeds outweigh their bad, they're going to be okay. And even if their good deeds don't outweigh their bad, they can do the ultimate and become a martyr. They can murder and somehow that will tip the scale in their favor and they'll have all they ever dreamed of. Well, that's one of them That's the subtleness of Satan speaking in their ear, is what it is. It is. So, let's see. Can we outweigh our bad deeds? Can we outweigh the sin that we commit, that we know we commit, with good deeds? Well, what are the good deeds? I guess we might all have our list. We might all have our categories. But the thing is, if we are weighing the good against the bad, why are we weighing the good against the bad? Who is overlooking the weighing? If you ask most people that believe this, we can outweigh the good and the bad. The reason that they want to do this, and they think that this could be the way to do it, is to get them to heaven. But the thing about that is, who's the owner of heaven? God is the owner of heaven. God's the owner of heaven, so you see, He is really the one that's overlooking this thing, and He is the one that says what's good and what's bad. He is the ultimate judge. I mean, it's Him that we're in actuality, we're trying to get to heaven, that we're trying to please, and let's face it, everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to go to hell if they understand anything about it at all. So man has devised all these ways that they can get to heaven, and one of them is outweighing their bad deeds with their good deeds, but the fact of the matter is, God is the ultimate judge. He's really the judge, so He is the one who has to say what is good and what is bad. He is the one who puts your works, if you will, let's use this picture, on the good side or the bad side. But the thing about it is, here's where it really gets interesting. He says in His own book, in the Old and the New Testament, He says, of those that are described in our text by the words that are dead, they are dead in trespasses and sin. He says, of them there is none that doeth good. None that doeth good. As a matter of fact, in Romans 14.23, in his book, it is said that whatsoever, or let's use the word when we can, anything that is not of faith is sin. Anything that is not wrought of faith, and the faith that that's talking about is the faith that he gives, that faith is, anything that is wrought that is not of faith is sin. And again, in Hebrews 11, 6, it states it even clearer, without faith, it is impossible, impossible to please him. Impossible to please him. So that means when we start weighing our good deeds against our bad deeds, every time we put it on the good side, oh, that one's a good deed. I put it over here trying to outweigh this bad deed that I did several years ago. Every time we do that, that good just slides right over to the bad and the scale keeps going down and down and down. And at the end of the day and at the end of time, the bad side is loaded over and the good side is completely empty. God is the judge. He's the one that declares what is good and bad. It's His scale, you see, we're using. So you see, it is totally hopeless to think we can outweigh our bad deeds with good. While we are dead in our sins, all our deeds, no matter what they look like to us, no matter how we might categorize them, no matter what we think are good or evil, all of them While we are dead in sin, all of them, as they are wrought by sinners, they are all evil. All evil. And here's why. It's really not even in the deed itself. It's because all of the deeds are done in rebellion to God. What he says, listen to Romans 10 3, it says, For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, Is that what we're doing when we're trying to accumulate enough good that way or bad? That's exactly what we're doing. We're trying to figure out a way to establish our own righteousness. But we being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish our own righteousness, it says we have not submitted ourselves unto the righteousness of God. In essence, that means we've rebelled against God's way of righteousness. He has a way. Do you understand? This whole book is about the way of God's righteousness. But if you would just throw the book aside and say, I'm going to do it this way. My good deeds, they have to outweigh my bad deeds. So I'm going to start doing this and start doing that and start doing this. But see, the whole time I'm doing these so-called good things, I'm rebelling against that book because I've laid it aside. And therefore, I'm rebelling against the God of that book. and his way of righteousness. It's futile. So where does that leave us? Our bad deeds are bad, and our good deeds are bad. All that is without faith is bad. The scale is all the way to the bad, and that has brought about, as our text implies, a handwriting of ordinances that are against us. All of us, all of us have had or do presently have a handwriting of ordinances that is against us. I'm talking about in God's court, and that's the ultimate court. That's where the scale is if you want to put a scale there. There's not a scale there. If there was a scale there, we'd be just like the king over in Daniel says the scale's been weighed and we've been found wanting. A handwriting of ordinances against us, this text says. Really, literally what that is, it's a certificate of death, I'm sorry, of debt with its decrees. A certificate of debt with its decrees. As sinners, dead and lost in sin, remember what we talked about this morning, our sin has surrounded us and that's how God sees us. when we're dead in sin. We have accumulated a great debt against God. I've told you over and over and over again that when we sin, we do not sin in oblivion. We sin against God, our Creator, the One who gives us breath and life. And we've accumulated a great debt against Him. And just to be perfectly honest with you, it is a debt that you cannot pay. Why? Because everything we do goes to the bad side. Everything. It just gets worse and worse. There's no positive to pay the debt with. You see? Because God won't accept it. Because it's done in rebellion to this book and to Him. It's a debt we can't pay. And the decrees that are with it. This is a debt certificate with its decrees. The decree that is with it, the proclamation that is with this certificate of debt, it says that until the debt is paid, this death will continue. You see, in essence, this is not just a debt certificate, it's a death certificate. It's a death certificate. It's a death decree. The wages of sin is death. is what God's Word says. Eternal death, eternal separation from the favor and acceptance and approval of God. And those that are dead in sin are involved in it right now. And then in eternity, it just goes on and on and on into and includes judgment. It includes wrath. It includes hell itself. So as natural men, women, boys, and girls, this death decree hangs over us. And there is nothing we can do to free ourselves from it. Nothing. With every step, with every act, we just add to the death, and add to the death, and it accumulates, and accumulates, and accumulates. And that's the reason that it will be all eternity. in the fires of hell for those that are unbelievers. They will never pay this debt off. Never. Nothing can free us from it. It just hangs over our head. Now, how thankful we should be today that God has given us His Word. How thankful we should be right now, though you may count it a burden to be here, I see the look on some of your youngsters face and it looks like you'd rather be in a hundred different other places. You'd rather be doing a hundred different things. Most of you look like you'd rather be asleep. But I want to tell you something. If the death decree hangs over your head, consider yourself blessed today because God has brought you to this place in this moment. to hear from Him, to hear His Word, to hear a message. And if God would give you an ear to hear, there's wonderful news to be heard. Those that are dead in sin don't realize how weighty the death decree is that hangs over their head. But it is so weighty you can't escape it. not of yourself, not of anything that you do. But I want to tell you, there's wonderful news to be heard from God's Word. It's a wonderful act of God's mercy that He has brought you here to hear it today. Might He open your ears and open your heart to believe it. Because our text here, it talks about being dead in your sins. It talks about the uncircumcision of your flesh. It talks about the death and death decree that is against us, and really, in reality, it talks about your bad deeds and your so-called good deeds, and it piles it all up and says they're all worthless, you're worthy of death, you're worthy of God's judgment. But that's not the overall theme of the verse we read, is it? Not at all. I told you in the beginning that the Apostle Paul was speaking to believers in the Church of Colossians. And if you read the passages directed to them, and you being dead in your trespasses and sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses. The overall theme of what is being talked about is seen in the words like quickened together with Him, quickened together with Christ, which means being made alive in Christ. And when you're dead in sins and when the death certificate hangs over you, listen, you're dead. You cannot hear God's Word. You're dead. Just like Lazarus was dead in the grave, you're dead. But this book talks about one being made alive in Christ. One being given spiritual life in Christ. That which was lost in the fall, they are given by God's grace life again. It is restored. It goes on and says, "...having forgiven you All trespasses. Isn't that what brought about this decree of death to begin with? The trespasses that we committed against God. But it says here that they have been forgiven. All trespasses. That's what He's saying to the believers in Colossae. And it goes on in the next verse to say the blotting out of the decree of death. We can't do anything with it. It hangs over our head. It would eternally plunge us into hell. But somehow, someway, it talks about in this verse of that death decree being blotted out. You see, in ourselves, we are dead in sin. We're consumed with sin. We're surrounded by sin. We can't get out of it. There's no escape. But this is talking about us being made alive and our sins and our trespasses being totally forgiven. In ourselves, we have no help and no hope against the decree of death. But God's Word here talks about it. talks about it being blotted out. You know what that means? That means obliterated, to erase, to wipe out and wipe away forever. Isn't that what we need? Do you think that you need that? Listen, we all need it. That is the greatest need of our life. Whatever other needs you may have, they are far down the list from the need of the handwriting that is against us, the death decree that is against us being blotted out. and our trespasses against God being forgiven. That's our greatest need, but how can this be possible? Well, it's not our bad deeds, and it's not about our so-called good deeds, but it is about the only deed that matters. The only deed that can do this impossible thing for unworthy sinners like us. You see it in our text. He says, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that were against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Nailing it to His cross. The only way that we can be rescued from the decree of death that is against us is that it be taken away, that it be nailed to His cross, that it be nailed to the cross of Christ. He is the one, the only one who can rescue us from this decree of death. He's the only one who can take it away. Listen, God's way of saving sinners from the death and the death of their own sin is not about your good deeds. It never has been and never will be because you have none and I don't have any in myself. None of us have any good deeds in and of ourselves. They're all sin before God. It's not, praise the Lord, it's not about good deeds. If it was about good deeds, there would be no hope for any of us. And it's not about a nailing of a parchment certificate to the cross of Christ, but it It is about the way of being rescued from this death decree that is against us. It is about, and it has always been about Christ and Him, our sin being loaded upon Him. Scripture says He became sin. He became our sin. He became its penalty and its debt. Whenever I read this passage, it causes me to rejoice because I had no way of being rescued. No way of getting out of that death decree by myself. No way of escaping death. But I want to tell you, when I read that, it causes my heart to rejoice, because it's not about my good deeds and my bad deeds. It's about the only deed that matters, and that's the deed that the Lord Jesus Christ performed for me upon the cross of Calvary. My sins were rolled upon Him, and He bore them. all of them, the whole of them, everyone. He bore them all the way to death. He endured my damnation is what he did, and the death decree was blotted out. The death decree that was against me, the death decree that was contrary to me, the death decree that held me in bondage and in slavery to sin, it was blotted out. forever, and Christ set me free. He set me free. He rescued me through His sacrifice, through His cross, through His death. Have you been rescued? Have you been rescued? Did He blot out the death decree that was against you? Has God given you faith to believe and trust Christ Jesus your Lord? for this great unsearchable salvation. If not, I pray even now, He would cause you to understand what I'm saying. Even if you don't realize it this morning, most people think good and bad weighed on a scale, but that's wrong. It's Satan's lie because you can never outweigh your bad deeds. You can never outweigh your sin. The death decree, the death The death certificate has already been written, and the decree against us has been proclaimed. The wages of sin is death. Listen, if we are to be saved from this thing, it has to come from another. And it has come from another. It has come from the Lord Savior, Jesus Christ. He's the only one that can save you from your sin. He's the only one. You can't save yourself. Religion can't save you. I can't save you. But the truth of God's Word, because it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, He can save you. He can rescue you. Can you believe upon Him? Have you been given faith to believe upon the only one and the only deed that matters? Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Let us rejoice in this verse once again. beginning in verse 12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." That is the simplicity that is in Christ. I challenge you, I challenge you to find anything in this book about Satan doing anything that looks like this. I'm going to tell you, let me just save you the time, you're not going to find it. You're going to find things about Satan lying to you. Satan lying to you. Satan lying to you some more. Satan destroying lives. Satan bent on destruction. Satan seeking to devour who he will. That's what you're going to find out about Satan. There is no salvation in Satan, but yet it looks like the world's gone off serving him. Gone off running. I think of them hogs. When Christ Himself cast the spirits out of legion into those hogs, those hogs went crazy and ran off the cliff. And the world right now, Satan is running them off the cliff. But may God impress upon our hearts this morning as we've heard from His Word. There is no salvation in Satan, there's only eternal condemnation. But I want to tell you something, in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is salvation. Only He can blot out the handwriting of ordinances that is against you. He did it. It was on Him at the cross of Calvary. Praise be to the glory of God's grace. He did it for me. Did He do it for you? I pray that He would cause you to know the truth. Once again, we are brought to this conclusion. The simplicity that is in Christ is that Christ suffered and bled and died to rescue us from the death decree of God's law. May the Lord help us to understand and glory in this great truth. We praise the Lord for His word. We praise the Lord for the comfort and the rejoicing that we find in Christ Jesus in this word. All the things, brothers and sisters, He has done for us. How might that move us to serve Him? this week. Might it move us to serve him today. Might it move us to desire with all our being to honor him because he is the most honorable of all. We praise the Lord for his word. May he make it effectual in our hearts. Let's all stand and we'll be dismissed. We praise the Lord for your presence and attention. We rejoice in the visitors that we have here with us this morning. We praise the Lord that he has brought you to be with us this day. We pray he would bless you in it.