In Colossians 2, verses 8-23, we've really got to make progress tonight because we've been saying this for the last two or three weeks. I'll read through this in the NIV and then shoot through the notes very quickly. It's a very important subject that we've got going. Paul is warning them about false teaching, if you would. It's worldly philosophy and then it's going to be religion, like the Jewish religion. especially after talking yesterday about the Laodicean church that's completely abandoned and outside of Christ, but yet they were a church. This is the church of Colossae, got a letter at the same time as Laodicea. They're swinging outside, going to maintain their religion, and I'll explain to you in these verses. where they're getting their religion from and their community efforts from, but it's outside of Christ. It's away from Christ, and yet they're still claiming to be that way. So this is an example of the things we want to look out for today, and I think we can recognize all of this. The emphasis is staying in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and His salvation, and growing in that, and not being distracted by things that make us feel religious, or look religious, or look wise in the ways of the world, but stay focused on Jesus Christ, especially with what He has done for us. So here we go, chapter 2, verse 8, that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human traditions and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ." And that's going to become very clear as we finish these verses tonight. "'For in Christ all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.'" Again, that's the spiritual forces, namely the spiritual forces that are in rebellion towards God. In Him, you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with the circumcision done by hands of men, a religious activity, but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead." So it's been a form of circumcision, but not a physical circumcision. You've been separated from something, but it's been done spiritually, and it's got actual power and not just a ritual. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations that was against us, that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities." There again, that's those rulers and authorities, the spiritual powers. He disarmed them. He made a public spectacle of them. This goes now into the triumphal procession. He disarmed them and then made a public spectacle of them, or a public demonstration. Now, the world may not have seen it, but the spiritual realm saw Christ's victory. And now He has disarmed the rulers and authorities, or Satan's minions. He made a public spectacle of them. Let's see, I lost my place here. "...He took away and nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." There's your word, triumphing. Therefore, because that's the case, they've been triumphed over. Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink. If they're judging your spirituality, your Christianity, by some religious code that they've got rather than on Christ, don't even go for. You may feel peer pressure, you may feel social pressure, you may feel churchy pressure, but that's, it says, do not let anyone judge by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival. Now look at this list. A religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. I mean, they're a shadow reflecting inadequately, but kind of an image of what's going to come. But what was going to come, the reality, is already here. In fact, it says, the reality, however, is found in Christ. So don't be looking at the shadows. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility. Why would they do that? Because of their own pride. False humility. I'm so humble, I'm this way. It's like, no, that's false humility. If you were truly humble, you would humble yourself before Christ. Just like we saw in Timothy, the false teachers, because of their arrogance, because of their pride, they do not submit to the Word of God. This is the Word of God. They go, ah, well, here's what I think, and they promote their own ideas because they're arrogant. So the only way you'd follow a false teaching or present a false teaching is if you're going to present some kind of false humility. I'm so humble, I'm following this truth. No, you're not. If you were humble, you'd be following Jesus Christ. But the fact that you're following something other than Jesus Christ, it means you're arrogant. however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility end..." Look at this now. "...the worship of angels." So they've gone for just being the powers and rulers and authorities, and now they're actually participating in the worship of angels in these false philosophies and these false religions. The worship of angels disqualify you from the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen in his unspiritual mind. Again, they think they're spiritual, but they're unspiritual. They're so unspiritual they're not following Christ. To be truly spiritual is going to be to follow the Word of God. Even if it doesn't look spiritual, that doesn't look very spiritual. It looks like you're just following the written Word of God. I'm so spiritual, I'm having visions and revelations, and I'm doing all these rituals. It's like, that's unspiritual. True spirituality is growing and maturing in Christ. That's the New Testament definition. and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the head, and this sounds like the Laodicean church, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. That was the issue going on in Colossae. These are all destined to perish with use because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship. You see when you're going, do not taste, do not touch, do not handle. Oh, who are you worshiping? You're worshiping your arrogant self. These are the things I'm doing. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, that would be the asceticism, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. And now you're going to find out there, restraining sensual indulgence, if you're trying to control your sin nature, control your flesh, The answer is grow in Christ. Come to the Word. Have your mind renewed. Grow in Christ. Mature in Christ. And you will begin to control your sensual desires. But if you come over here and make a bunch of religious rules, your own self-regulations and self-imposed worship, I'm going to do all these things, you're just going to get further and further wrapped up into sin and the bondage of the flesh because there's no power over here. It's just regulations. Over here, is life and resurrection. Okay, with that being said, we look at the notes here again quickly. These are the same notes as last time, so I think we did a pretty good job looking at chapter 2, verse 8 on page 2. I'll read it just to get started. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to the human tradition, according to the elementary spirits of the world, not according to Christ. And so again, the idea we've talked last week about the triumphal procession of the Jews coming into Rome, we'll mention it again tonight. We have been taken captive by Christ, but there is still the potential that you could be deceived and be taken captive again by the rulers and authorities. These verses do not say the rulers and authorities are dead, no longer existent, you don't need to worry about them. It says they've been disarmed. It says they have no power. Your power is in Christ. But they are still able to deceive you, confuse you, and take you captive. But the thing is, you're being taken captive by an enemy who has no weapons, who has no power, who has no authority. The only thing they can do, boo! Deceive you. It's like, oh! And then you run. It's like, hey, I just took someone captive. What did you do? Boo! Nothing. They have no ability to take you captive. So, C2, that no one takes you captive by philosophy, and they're gonna use, it's here, like we said last week, the philosophy is a particular ideology they had working in the Colossian church, and it would be deceptive, or empty deceit, according to human tradition, or the elemental spirits of the world. Again, there is, again, the demonic forces or the spiritual forces that are gonna impose themselves or try to replace Christ in your religious experience. Think about it. We want to follow Jesus Christ. But there are imposters in this world that they'll be false messiahs and false Christs. They'll step up and say as a man, I'm the Christ. Okay. But there is also in the spiritual realm the defeated rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms who will now try to impose or replace Christ and lead you into worshiping them. That's exactly what the elemental spirits refers to. Okay. Turning to page four, for in him, that's in Christ, and that's the emphatic, it's in the Greek right there, for in him, it's the first phrase, for in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and we've mentioned this again, I think we've read this several times, but in him, that's emphatic, in him, the whole fullness of deity, all of deity, that the transcendent God dwells in body. Jesus Christ, the God, became the man and now the transcendent God is eminent in a body. And so that is huge because this is where we live. He came to us where He can pay for our sins in His body. We're now delivered from sin and we can join Him in His deity by being in Him. It is the great connection. for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells in bodily form." I'd read through the notes. Two parts, the full deity of Christ, the full humanity of Christ. He is fully God and he's fully human. He's not just temporarily man, he became man and is man forever. The words are important. 4 in him. 4 links the following verses to what is said in chapter 2, verse 8 about being taken captive. In him is the position in the Greek sentence that makes it emphatic. And dwells is present indicative active, which means present, it's continuous, uninterrupted. He is not past, he dwelt. He dwells. in bodily form. He is currently continuing. That action is happening over and over again. Indicative, it's the mood of reality, meaning it's happening right now. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man right now. The fullness of deity is currently now dwelling in bodily form in Christ, because when he was resurrected, it's the basic Easter story, his spirit wasn't resurrected. He was resurrected in his physical body into what is called a spiritual body. So he's been resurrected, spirit, soul, and body. He is fully a man, and that's the basic Easter story. And active, which means the subject causes or produces the action of the verb. So he himself is the one who's doing all of this. Dwells means to inhabit, to settle, referring to dwelling, settling. It's an established, permanent relationship, of course. Again, He didn't temporarily become a man. He is eternally a man. When Jesus returns, He's returning as a man. It's God coming to earth in a body. That's the second coming of Christ will be God coming to earth in a physical body. It won't be just the return of some Greek god-like person. It's not just an appearance. It is going to be God Himself, the great Creator God, coming to earth. in a human body. And it's not just some human body, it's the body of Christ. The last thing, of deity, only used here, it refers to, captures not only the divine qualities and divine attributes, but also the very essence of God. And this is picked up in bottom of page 4. So the full deity of John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then John 1.14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In the beginning was the Word, the Word is with God, the Word was God. 1.14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And John writes, we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and full of truth. Now, that's chapter two, verse nine. That's Jesus. Now look at this. Forget your philosophy. Now again, we're not talking about being stupid. We're not talking about being ignorant, not paying attention. There is a philosophy of science. There's a philosophy of literature. There's a philosophy of music. I mean, these are things we can study. in studying God's creation. But when things start to have a philosophy that's a false philosophy, and we believe in religion in the sense of a religion that leads us towards Christ, but there are religions that lead you somewhere else. So a philosophy that leads you away from reality or a religion that leads you away from Christ is ridiculous because In Him, the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Continuously, permanently, God is in a body, and that's how we have access. Now, chapter 2, verse 10, and you, talking to the Colossians, have been filled in Him, who is the head over all rule and authority. You are When you accepted Christ, when you placed faith in Christ, when you're going to talk about your penalties, your sins were taken away at the cross, that's where this is going, you put faith in that, you were placed in Christ, and now you are in Christ and the fullness of deity. You do not become God, but the fullness of deity now dwells in you because you're in Him and He's dwelling in you. You have union with God. because of what Christ has done, and you've placed faith. That's the point. Well, yeah, but here's some rules you should follow to become more spiritual. What? More spiritual? I'm in Him. I'm in the deity. The deity is me. The deity who is in fully and bodily form, who's been resurrected, I've placed faith in Him. I have full union with Him through Jesus Christ. Well, yes, but there's more. There can't be more. This is the fullness of deity. This is the full Christian experience. Remain in Him and grow and become Christ-like. It talks about having power over your sensual desires, your sensual sins. This is where you're going to find growth. But to come in and say, well, right, right. I understand, right. That's one way of looking at it. But if you really want to become spiritual, you should do this. You should try this and never touch this. And here's another way of looking at the world. The world functions like this. We believe that it's all evolving. And there's this nice story, but it evolved out of a one-celled organism, split into two cells, became a fish that became a monkey, and then eventually crawled up. And here we are. We are man. And man now is reflecting on who he is with these thoughts, and it all traces back. It's like, okay, that's a bad philosophy because I'm already in Him. He is the Creator. I don't need to do this or do this or do this to be in Him. I'm already in Him. What I need to do is grow in Him. That's what this is going to continue to talk about. Okay, and you have been filled in Him. who is the head of all rule and authority. Point one, the full sufficiency of Christ for the believer. English Standard Version says, you have been filled in Him. The literal Greek says, you are in Him complete. And you can look at that in the Greek right there. We are not perfect or sinless. See, it doesn't say you are perfect in Him. You are complete in Him. Everything you need to grow is in Him. So, yeah, but I saw you sin the other day. Well, I'm not saying I'm sinless. I'm still human in a sinful body, but I am in Him. What this says, we are not perfect or sinless, but all of our spiritual needs For example, forgiveness, life from the death that we are living in now, all of our spiritual needs are in Him. They've already been met. All of our spiritual needs, life, deliverance from sin, forgiveness, justification, union, and then I've got here the 40 Things That Happen at the Point of Salvation. It's a link you can go to, 40 Things That Happen at the Point of Salvation. I think there's a box in the front of my website. When you accept Christ, or when you are in Him, 40 things happen spiritually. You don't feel like, oh man, I've got all these things I've gotta manage. But you realize when you are in Him, these things have all taken place. And it's nice to know that. So you can't be trapped in trying to go find it somewhere else. There is no need, point three on page five, there is no need to seek spiritual fulfillment or deliverance from sin by, one, following, quote, the philosophy, Greek intellectualism creeping into the church, or obeying religious rituals. Now, when they say obeying, we're not saying you don't have to obey. That's another whole form of sin, of just living sinfully. It's like God is forgiving. It doesn't matter what we do, like the Nicolaitans were. This is obeying false rules that have no power. When we talk about obeying Christ, that's growing in Christ, there's things that are sinful that He wants us to walk away from. That is something you're growing towards Christ and you're abandoning these things. So there are things to obey in Christ, but obeying religious rituals to try to get here is ridiculous. You're already here. Your power is here, not in working up this ladder to get here. So, following false philosophies or the philosophy, obeying religious rituals, or seeking purity from the Mosaic Law. Now this comes in, I think, very strong right here. One of the things besides the Colossians, they're going to be influenced by philosophy, Greek philosophy. Colossians, a Colossi, is going to be influenced by the Jewish religion. The Jewish religion, the covenant of Abraham, the things that are written in the Old Testament, that is the Word of God that prophesied, that foretold, that laid the foundation of God's plan that was going to be fulfilled in Christ. And that's why Christ fulfilled all of the Old Testament by simply coming. The whole Old Testament was pointing towards Christ. But if Christ has come, And all the Jewish scriptures were pointing towards Christ, okay? The whole Old Testament pointing towards here. It's all the Word of God. It's pointing towards Christ. But if Christ comes and you say, no, I don't want Christ. He's not the Messiah. I'm going to stick with my Jewish religion. I'm going to stick with my interpretation of the Old Testament. Well, your interpretation of the Old Testament, if it's correct, is going to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. But if you say, no, no, no, He's not Messiah, I'm going to interpret the Scriptures. Well, guess what you're going to interpret? You're going to interpret something that is wrong. It is now a false religion. Why? Because you're interpreting the Old Testament so that you can reject Jesus Christ. So if you're interpreting the Old Testament and coming up with the wrong answer, guess what kind of an answer that is. That would be, it says it right here, I'll just make it very clear, demonic. It would be not just wrong, that's not the right answer. No, it's either Christ or it's a false doctrine. It would be, well, that's what this whole thing gets to right here. Point three, there is no need to seek spiritual fulfillment or deliverance from sin by following philosophy or obeying religious rituals or seeking purity from the Mosaic Law, which is Jewish legalism, or inquiring of spiritual beings or seeking help from angelic or fallen beings, such as pagan. This we're gonna see, I'm gonna show you a couple verses, this right here. If you're still following the Old Testament and being led into some other truth other than Jesus, You're being manipulated by the rulers and authorities that Christ has defeated, but they're now deceiving you with your own scripture. How could that happen? Well, do you remember Jesus, when Satan approached Jesus? Satan said three things to Jesus. All three of them were what? scripture. He approached Jesus with three scriptures and wanted him to interpret the scripture just slightly off-center. Jesus says, that's not what it says. How about this one? That's not what it says. How about this one? It's like Jesus answered him and led him back to the correct truth. So if you can get a demonic interpretation, they can interpret scripture, but they're going to interpret it and lead you deceived away from Christ. And point four, It says, and you have been filled with Him who is the head over all rule and authority. Those rulers and authorities that have been taken captive, He's the head over them. The word head means the ruler, the Lord, the cornerstone, the cornerstone that unites two walls. Jesus is not only the creator and Lord of all spiritual beings, He continues to be their source of life, their existence, and the fact that they still have freedom to move about and deceive, it's all by His permission. They exist by Him and through Him even today in rebellion to Him. Chapter 2, verse 11 on page 6. You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So this is one of the Jewish rituals of circumcision. It was a religious issue. God was very serious about it in the Old Testament, but it was a thing done by human hands to the flesh that was symbolic. It was a sign of the covenant. where now there's something else that's done, not by hands, it's the removal of something, it's the removal of not the skin, it's the removal of this right here, it says the flesh. And the flesh right here is sarchae, which is another, it can be translated, sin, it's a reference to the sin nature. In other words, Jesus Christ, having died on the cross, and we're gonna see what He did, He took our sins away, took the accusations and nailed us to the cross. There's nothing to accuse you of. We've already seen that in chapter one, that we are blameless in front of God. In the courts of heaven, there's no charges that can be brought against us because The evidence is gone. The charges are gone. The crime's been paid for. It's like, well, yeah, but you're the one that did it. Yeah, but there's no evidence, and it's already been paid for. It's like, there's nothing you can nail me on before God, because Christ has paid for it. This right here, this flesh, is Christ is going to not practice a human work of a ritual that's in the flesh, but it's gonna be, well, let's read this again. In Him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. I'll just read through the notes here. Circumcision by hands, cutting away of the flesh, the Mosaic law, represented being part of the covenant. Point two, circumcision by Christ without hands is the putting off of the body of flesh, which is terminology for the sin nature Putting off, in the Greek, it means to strip away or cast away. So in Christ, this sin nature, now we still have it in our nature, it's still part of where we're at, but there is, in a sense, I'll say power, there is life, there is communion in Christ, that in Him we have a power that can rise above the sin and we can begin to grow in Christ because we've got life itself. And so there is, if you want deliverance from sin, you're going to find it in Christ in this circumcision. The connection, the power of sin has been broken in our lives because of what Christ, not because of what we've done, but because of what Christ has done. So the putting off means stripping away, casting away. And the image of discarding and forsaking a piece of filthy clothing is the image that it presents. Both words, body and flesh, are used in the phrase by putting off of the body of the flesh. Body is the physical body or the full nature of man, or in NIV says your whole self. Flesh is the nature of sin in mankind or the evil and corruption of man's nature. or ruled by the flesh. So the body that you live in and the sin nature that is within it, that has been circumcised in Christ. You've been broken away from this power. And it's like, so, well, yeah, but what about the Jewish ritual of circumcision? It's like, understand, that was a ritual of a covenant with Abraham that was leading towards the coming of the Messiah, who was going to do what was originally promised in the Guard of Eden, break the power of Satan. The Messiah would be bruised when He bruised the head of the serpent. And now He has come and He's bruised, taken captive, stripped away their authority. They are powerless. Their weapons are gone. You are now complete in Christ. Yes, but we should follow these religious rules. It's like, no, they were, well, they're a shadow. We're heading towards that. 3. The ritual of circumcision is dismissed here for something more important. The corrupt philosophies in Colossae were enforcing, apparently were enforcing physical circumcision as part of their distracting false teaching. Now this would be an example of, you could get with a group that practiced circumcision or any kind of religious activity like this, that would be like making you feel like, oh, have you done this? Yes, have you gone and eaten this or not eaten that? Yeah, and you have this feeling of I'm getting really spiritual, it's like, It's worthless. You're in Him, you're complete, your full spiritual life comes from Christ. All these other things are deceptions, maybe a little bit at a time, but it will lead you off where you're in a completely different religion and moving away from Christ and following demonic forces. Not offering child sacrifices, necessarily, but going off and doing ridiculous little religious activities instead of focusing on Christ. Point four, Christ's circumcision here is called the circumcision of the heart in Romans 2.28 and Philippians 3.3. So we get to camp on that and spend more time going to Romans and Philippians. But it's the ideal of your heart where you are separated from God. It's dullness, it's inability to hear or feel or sense God and the truth, that's been cut away so you're now aware of God's presence. We'd say you've been born again. And so that is the circumcision that is taking place here. into another ritual of baptism. And baptism is a Christian institution that is practiced, but the reason it is practiced, and people are placed in water, now we're not gonna talk about being dipped or dunked. I have a pastor of church that they believe in being baptized by triune immersion, you know, where you got dunked three times, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, take another breath, in the name of the Holy Spirit. I was baptized as a Baptist one time in college, backwards, and people sometimes practice it forwards. I was baptized as an infant at a Presbyterian church by being sprinkled. So I've been baptized in a variety of ways. But nonetheless, those are rituals, and I think baptism is is a ritual, an important ritual in the church which communicates to the congregation that you are now joining the church or that you are in Him. But the reason we would even practice it is because it's already happened spiritually. You're just making a public declaration of, I have been baptized into Christ. How do we know this? How do we demonstrate this? How do we make a public profession? We dip you in water, and it's going to talk about it. And going in the water and coming out of the water is both important as a symbol of what has already taken place in him. So what we did with circumcision, we're going to do with baptism also. If you're trusting in physical circumcision and water baptism for your spirituality and you're not in him, you're deceived. your power is being in Him. But here it is. Paul says very similar things about being baptized as he said about circumcision. Chapter 2, verse 12. 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. And so when Christ was buried, that was our baptism into death. And when Christ was raised, that was our resurrection out of death. And it can be symbolized in baptism, but it's already taken place. Turn the page. Some notes explaining this. Number one, this baptism represents the believer in Christ being joined to Christ in his burial and his resurrection. You have to die, but you also have to be raised to life. This baptism is not speaking of ritual water baptism, which can be used to express the spiritual experience. The baptism is a reference to a spiritual occurrence that took place through the faith of the believer. This union with Christ is right here. You are in him. Now because you got dunked in water or came up from the water, your union with Him, your baptism into His death and baptism into His resurrection is through faith. This is the verse. The verse says this. It's the powerful working of God. God did the work. raised Jesus from the dead, you are buried with Him and raised with Him. The baptism is a spiritual occurrence by the power of God that occurs when trusting Christ." That is the point of this verse. Here's Romans. I'm going to read this verse in Romans 6, verses 3-8. Don't you know, Paul writes the Romans, that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death. We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like this, His, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that, see, our old self, our old nature, our sin nature, was crucified with him, that means dead, with him, so that the body ruled by the sin nature might be done away with. Just like I said, you've been circumcised, that power is broken through Christ's death on the cross, because you died with him. uh... that was done away with and that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin now if we died with christ we believe that we will also live with him spiritually we are alive in christ today but just like christ has a physical resurrected body no one else has a physical resurrected body. But just like John says, when He returns, we will see Him as He is because we ourselves will be resurrected. We will have a resurrected body. We are in the process, like we talked about in the past, you've been justified. We're in the process now of being sanctified, but we will be glorified in the future, and that is where we are resurrected into the fullness of our salvation. We have salvation, But we understand we are not walking in the fullness of our salvation experience. I've still got a body that's going to die. I'm totally in Him, but I'm waiting for the full process to take place. And following some stupid false religious rule or some false philosophy is not going to help. In fact, it's going to distract from my growth. Chapter 2, verse 13. and you who were dead in your trespasses, you were dead in your trespasses, you've sinned and you are now dead, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, meaning you have no covenant, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us, given us all our trespasses. And this right here sums up chapter two, verse 13, sums up chapter two, verse 11 and 12, contrasting, you were previously dead, but you're now alive. You were together with him, God has forgiven all of our trespasses. The uncircumcision of our flesh was a manifestation of the death we were in. We could not see, hear God because of our hearts were uncircumcised, but now we can. And that is what it says in Acts. A good reference to this right here in Acts chapter seven, verse 51, 53. uh... they're being addressed by steven the jews who've rejected jesus he says you stiff net people Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. Now he's talking to Jewish people. The men were uncircumcised. They didn't have any gender questions back then as far as we got now, I don't think. And if they did, they got taken out at Sodom and Gomorrah and were on their way out and mixed up with the Romans or something. But the general population of Jews understood the gender difference there, I think. Anyway, sorry, I just had to point that out. a sideline we didn't need to take. You stiff-necked people, your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. Like I said, all the men, the Jewish men, were circumcised. But it wasn't good enough because even though they were circumcised, their hearts and their ears were uncircumcised. God wants to uncircumcise their hearts, their ears, their eyes, so they can see, they can hear, they can experience. It's like, we don't need to, we've been physically circumcised. But you've rejected Christ because you can't see, hear, or feel. You are just like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?" Now, this is Stephen's speech right before they kill him. They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, like Isaiah. He got sawed in half. And now, you have betrayed and murdered him, the Christ. You who have received the law that was given through the angels, but have not obeyed it, the law was given to lead you to Christ, well, you've got the law, you're still quoting the law, but because your hearts and your minds or ears are uncircumcised, you can't follow it. Okay. Chapter 2 verse 14, I'm going to read into it, go back to chapter 2 verse 13. And you who were dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. Now chapter 2 verse 14, forgiven us our trespasses. by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. So your trespasses have been forgiven. How did God forgive your trespasses? Right here, He cancelled, how do you spell cancelled? Is there two L's in cancelled? Okay, there's no, of course there's not. by canceling the record of debt, this is the English Standard Translation, the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, meaning you have a problem. the legal demands are standing against you, and it's recorded in this record of debt that you owe because of the trespasses. But this record of debt has been canceled by God with the work of Jesus Christ, and that means the legal demand has been removed. All right, so here we go. Canceling, I'll read it again. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with his legal demands, this he set aside this record of debt, he set it aside, nailing it to the cross. Now we'll talk about he nailed it to the cross, not just to pay for it, but that nailing to the cross is also gonna make it a public proclamation. It'd be like posting something on social media. It's like, boom, he posted it on, he paid for it on the cross and left it there as a social media post your record of debt has been canceled, there's no legal demands. We've already said this in chapter one about being blameless in the courts of heaven. Now this is the rulers and authorities, everyone can see this, and the ruler, listen, I'm teaching us, I'm talking about this, I'm even learning and getting a better insight into this, but understand, Satan, the rulers and authorities, they're not listening and understanding, oh, I didn't know that. No, no, they know this. They're just betting the church doesn't know this and that they can lead you into some kind of deception somehow. Because this is not, this is, well we're going to see. This was a public display made before the angels. Everyone saw, they all saw this like, whoa. Christ has delivered mankind from sin. The record of debt, the legal demand, has been canceled because he nailed it to the cross. And that was a public proclamation. Now, the Jews weren't standing around reading it, and the Romans were like, what's that say? Oh my gosh, it's a Facebook post from God. It says, there's no longer any sin. It's like, oh, wow. That's good news. They just saw a man getting taken off the cross and put in the grave, and they're getting ready for their next Sabbath that's coming up, and the Romans just got paid for their work at the cross and went their way. They didn't see any of it. But the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, they saw it. Okay, canceling. You can see the Greek word there, exelepsis, means to wipe out, to wipe away. In Greek writings, it means to blot out a writing or abolish a law. So if there's a law, they could abolish it, or if it's in some kind of written document, they could blot it out. We've got this used, cancelling is used in Acts 3.19. Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out." Same word. Revelation 3, 5, "...the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot out his name from the book of life." Revelation 7, 17. The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to the springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Revelation 21.4, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. It goes on and says again. So that's what it means. Cancel means wiped away. It has been wiped away. It's gone. It's blotted out. If it was a law, it's now deleted. The written code is cherographon, literally means handwriting, something that was written by hand. This is a thing that was blotted out. This record of debt, this handwriting, was what was erased, eliminated. It could mean, in the sense of what it was referring to, it could mean a charge against a prisoner, It could be a list of charges that were signed by the person who owed them, like your credit book. It could be a signed IOU. It could be a signed confession of indebtedness. This is the record of your wrongs. You've as much signed your death certificate. Have you rebelled against God? Yes, I have. And you sign the document, it's like, well, Nick's you're on your way to damnation next have you sinned against God. Yep. And you've signed it. Well this this record of debt was canceled now because God is just saying well we're not going to we're not going to count that anymore. Someone has paid your debt. And so that was cancer that was blotted out. This handwritten document that had been wiped out is described by Paul three ways. In here, it's written in ordinance, which means contain regulations and legal demands. That's this right here. These were the legal demands that you had violated. That you said, did you drive too fast? Yes, I did. And you signed this legal demand. Well, that was canceled, this legal demand. And as far as these legal demands, It says, I'm looking at the handwritten document. Okay, in Ephesians 2.15, there are written ordinances. They are against God. They could be God's righteous law that had a just claim on ourselves, our souls, our behavior. I mean, it could be the law of Moses. It could be in just some kind of moral code as far as being selfish or considering yourself ahead of others. It could be any of these things where you violated God's standard. In this image, we had read and understood this claim and signed the document agreeing to the claims and God's charges. The image he's presenting is just what he says. These are the legal demands. Did you do this? Yes, I did. You've signed this and you've admitted you're guilty, even if you haven't admitted there's a God. Your life, your conscience itself, everyone knows you violated these. That stood opposed to us the point Paul on page 9 that stood opposed to us these legal demands that stood opposed to us We had no way of fulfilling our obligation or returning to a time where this was not owed This is like college debt. It's like you owe this college debt. It's like there's no way you're gonna pay it off it's it can't be taken you need you need Joe Biden to come in and save you from your college debt and Bad example, but you had a debt that there's no way you knew it you signed it you admit it I'm wrong, but you have no plan on how I'm gonna make it right because you can't make it right you are eternally Guilty, that's the way this is being presented but because of that It that's point Point four, he has taken, or took away, perfect indicative, which focuses on the abiding results. This is good news for everybody. At some point in the past, he took it away. And when he took it away, it's like, I took it away, now be careful that you don't bring it back. The tense is, he took it away, and you can't bring it back. It's like, I did it again. You can't. Even the code's been broken. The code's been done away with. You're in him. What about this? It's like, don't violate this rule right here. What rule? There's nothing there. Oh my gosh. The signed document's gone. Even the rule's gone. Even the rule's been blotted out. It's like, what? It's in Him. So it's like, you can't go back, well, I've lost my salvation. How? You're in Him, and all this has been taken care of. You're in a new creation. You've been born again. You're prepared for the new heaven and the new earth. Yeah, but what about my... You don't understand it. Ah, but I feel like I've lost my salvation. Sure you do. I bet someone told you that, too. Well, yeah, I was reading a book. And philosophically, right, because you're listening to false philosophy. You're listening to religious standards. And you're being taken captive by a spiritual force that has no weapons. The only weapon they've got is deception. And you've been deceived into thinking, I've lost my salvation. It's like, no, it's been taken care of. Well, here it is. Point five, nailed it to the cross. And that's, I wrote my own notes. Basically, it means posted on social media. There's four things that nailed it to the cross can refer to. A public proclamation that the debt has been paid. And they're right there on the cross. Now again, Jesus, the King of the Jews, was what Pilate had put on the cross. But spiritually, what's nailed to the cross is a public proclamation that my debt has been paid. I'm in Christ. Now, does that give me the freedom to sin? Well, now you're deceived. So I can just go ahead and live like I... Well, if you want to just go back and live in death, then the first question is, I know you can't lose your salvation, but if you're gonna just like check this box and get baptized and then go back and live like in death and sin, yeah, no, I don't think you got saved. I think you got dunked in some water. I think maybe you raised your hand or winked your eye or went forward and signed a prayer card or something. But you didn't flee death and flee to Christ for salvation. You just found a religious system that says, he's forgiven you of your sins, you can't lose your salvation, so don't worry about it. Just go live like the world. It's like, well, no, no, no, that's not the gospel message. The gospel message, He nailed to the cross, your trespasses are taken away because you placed faith in Him, but if your first step after being placed in Him is to run back into the world and say, good, I can't lose my salvation, I don't know if you really place faith in Him. I mean, I don't know. No one knows. No one knows how that all works out. But if this has happened, well, you're safe. Here it is. It's a public proclamation that the debt has been paid. It's a public accusation nailed to the cross proclaiming the crime the criminal died for. So it could be saying, this is what the sin was, and Jesus died for that. It is clear that Christ's death on the cross wiped the dead out and that this was his reason for dying. With the death of Christ, there is no longer a validity to the claim of this written document. The seed of the woman had come and broke the power of the serpent. And that leads to the next verse. Here it is. And because he's done this, see this, because he nailed this and it's been canceled and the public declaration has been made, because this is blank, see this is blank, because this is blank, guess what? The next verse, "...he disarmed the rulers and authorities, and put them to open shame by triumphing over them by the cross." So the rulers and authorities that were trying to bring people into sin, Satan trapped Eve and she sinned and got the whole human race and tried to drag man off into sin and rebellion towards God, this has been paid for and all of a sudden There it says right here, they're disarmed, they have no weapons, and the rulers and authorities is clearly angelic power, spiritual powers, in this case in rebellion towards God, and put them to open shame, publicly embarrass them. and why? By triumphing over them in Him. So, here we've got some information written down here. Every word in verse 15 is challenging. That's the first point. I've got highlighted the word disarmed, the phrase rulers and authorities. Open, shame, triumphing. You can see the word open is translated public in the Greek transliteration. So, put them to public shame, and the word shame could be translated, he made a show of them. He made a public parade of them. He made a public shameful parade of them, disarmed, And it's exactly the triumphal procession. We already talked about it. I'm going to show you some things. Tick-tock, tick-tock. Okay, so every word of this is important and has to be slowed down and translated correctly. The rulers and authorities, you can see it's got the word arche and ecousia. The phrase seems to refer to fallen spiritual forces that are in rebellion towards God. This includes the ranks and the hierarchy of evil, the world rulers of darkness. And he can confirm this in Ephesians 6, verse 12. For he says, our struggle, Paul writes to the Ephesians, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world's darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Though the rulers in the heavenly realms were disarmed and made a public spectacle of, were made fools of in a public parade when Jesus Christ triumphed over them on the cross, they're completely, you are now useless. You have no power except the ability to deceive the ignorant saints or the unbelieving world. That's Ephesians, Colossians 1, verse 16. We've already read that verse. 2 Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 16 says this. Now watch this verse. This is exactly what we're talking about. But thanks be to God, he has made us his captives and continues to lead us in Christ's triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like sweet perfume, for we are the aroma of Christ the God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. And who is sufficient of these things?" So there he introduces the concept of the triumphal procession and Christ on the cross We just see Him dying. We see images of Him dying on the cross and the resurrection and how, when it all takes place, you know, what order, how it's sequenced. But basically, the cross and the resurrection, specifically the cross, that was a triumphal procession exposing the rulers and authorities to public shame and embarrassment. You've lost all of your power, but also a triumphal procession leading us, the military, in a triumphal procession. We're on His side, and we're being led in that triumphal procession. And I turn the page here again. Boy, they've got several other verses there that we can look at. Public. It means it's a political term from the ancient democracies describing the freedom of public speech and address and the boldness that goes with it. The fallen powers have lost this public presentation. The only thing they can do is come back and deceive. Having disarmed means to strip, to renounce. In the Septuagint, it is the word used of stripping the enemies of their weapons after the war, just going by and stripping the enemies of their weapons. Then they have been stripped of any weapon. The fallen powers have lost this. having disarmed, okay, dissolved, disarmed, point five, he made a show, that's one of the phrases, made a show, a translation said, made a show of them publicly. This communicates that Jesus exhibited the hostile spiritual forces, the rulers and authorities, in the whole universe as having been taken captive by himself and then left them public disgraced as powerless captives. That is what he, he's left them captives, publicly disgraced. to expose, to make a show of, to hold up as an example. And triumph over them is a word that means to lead around, to make a show of, a spectacle of, and to cause triumph. And this is, again, right there at the bottom of the page, is the Roman Triumphal Procession. And I'm wrapping this up tonight. The Roman Triumphal Procession, we looked at pictures of it. That's why we got ahead last week. I started showing the pictures of the Triumphal Procession, of the Arch of Titus and those things. But the basic skeleton of a triumphal procession would be this. Spoils, the general, and then the soldiers. So all the spoils of war come down in a parade. Then comes the general, and then comes the soldiers. The triumphal procession as a parade or procession would be like this. The parade or procession was led by the spoils of war, or the booty. that would include captives of war, the spoils of war, animals from the country they'd conquered, including all their horses, the armor of the enemy, probably just wagon fulls of armor, even models of battlefields preceding the triumphing man and his chariot. In other words, if this particular man was involved in a battle, they'd have a float, like our homecoming floats or 4th of July floats, and you have some kind of display on it. They would have large floats, sometimes very, very tall, like building size heights, so people could see them. And they'd be reenacting the battle scene on this float because they didn't have, you know, CNN to bring you the news. They would reenact it on a float so the people back home could see and participate and have some memory of the battles. That's absolutely true. The spoils included everything taken from the conquered peoples, statues, gold, weapons, coins. The procession of booty was followed by the victorious military commander. In this case, what we're talking about would be, imagine, Paul is using the concept of the triumphal procession several times in his epistles, and that is what Christ did to the rulers and authority. Everything that they'd taken had been taken back and was displayed, and then they're gonna be led in as stripped of their weapons. They're powerless. But then the military commander or the Roman general, in this case, Jesus, would come in, the one who'd won the victory. In fact, the procession was all about seeing the general. A lot of times the crowds are more impressed with seeing the defeated general because, or the defeated rebel because they're notorious and know all the news and stuff, but it was about the general. The victorious general rode in a chariot in the shape of a tower, along with his children, pulled by horses. On his head was a wreath and a gold crown. He wore a purple tunic and held a scepter. Following the victorious military commander were all of his soldiers. And they would be shouting something to the effect of io triumphae, which means basically triumph for the general. And that's what they're shouting. You can see all these images now in the book of Revelation when we get into that. And they would be singing songs of victory. So they're shouting victory to the general, singing songs about the battles. And the procession went into and through the whole city of Rome and culminated with a sacrifice at the temple of Jupiter. Now what I've got right here, very quickly, and I've got three minutes to do it, I'm going to pass these around for you to look at, or I'll have them here. This is a coin of, we've talked about this. Vespasian, Titus, his son, and then Domitian, his son. Vespasian was the general who began the Jewish wars in 66, but he, after Nero died, Vespasian became the emperor and Titus replaced him, his son replaced him, and won the battle in 70 AD. After Titus, Domitian is going to become an emperor and he's going to end up building the Arch of Titus. And this is a coin of Vespasian, Vespasian, Vespasian, you can see that's what Vespasian's, those are actual coins. Now, this is the back of the coin, and I want you to see this right here. This is victory. This is a shield, and this is the beginning of building a trophy of all the weapons. This is a Judean woman bound up, sitting at the base of the trophy. That is on Vespasian's coins. Here's the same image right here, not as clear. This is a coin of Titus. You can see again right here, the woman is sitting right here, and there's no god on here. This is all just armor. put together like a trophy. So that woman is Judea. That is a coin. Both Vespasian and Titus throughout their campaign, their careers, minted coins with Judea under a trophy made out of armor of Jewish people. That's how big of a battle. These are legitimate coins. This is not like, well, do you think so? It's like, no, I know so. This is a coin. There is Vespasian right there. And then this is, This is Domitian right there. This is two Domitian coins right there. That's Vespasian's second son and Titus's brother. And this is on the back of his coins right there. There you can see the gods right here. There's a shield and there they're building the trophy. There's all the weapons that they're building a trophy that was taken. This may still be a reflection of this right here. These people were definitely still, up until 79 AD, were still talking about their war with the Jews. Domitian was doing that. I've got these coins here. I'll pass around, let you take a look at them right there. Okay, I've got to quit. I've got really a great slide right here, coming up right here. See if I can do this right. There, there, there, this right here. This is great, but it's in the next page of notes, so we gotta do this next week. This is, I really wanna teach, this is what I was excited about. All right. Sorry, come back next week and hear more. I'll pray. If you have any questions or thoughts, please feel free. I do appreciate you being here. Father, we thank You for this opportunity to see the victory that we have in Jesus Christ that is so clearly proclaimed in the epistles, that we are in Christ, that we do not need to be distracted by deception or some false philosophy or some false ideologies, religious rituals. But we have our fullness in Christ and we continue to grow in Him and mature as we continue to learn of Christ and spend time with Him and the sufficiency that He's provided for us. We do thank You for this, of rescuing us from a death that we could never escape ourselves and leading us to a victory in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Thank you for your patience and your time.