Well, let us look to God's Word in Colossians chapter 2. Last time we were in Colossians, I think it was in mid-August, we looked at verses 6 and 7 about how we are to be sanctified, which is to continue in the way in which we begun, which is but faith in Christ, right? So we're going to start reading in verse 6 because it's actually, of course, very connected with the verses that we're going to be looking at today. So let us stand again for the reading of God's Word. Colossians 2 and starting in verse 6. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. But for in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, 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 you, who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them and Him." This is God's word. You may be seated. Our message today is called holding fast to Christ and that's picking up on what we were exhorted to do in verses six to seven if you remember we were told to continue to, just as we received Christ Jesus, to walk, to conduct ourselves, to live the Christian life in the same manner in which we received Christ. And we received Christ by faith, and we received the teaching about who Christ is from the apostles, right? And Paul made it very clear in the beginning of this letter that He was sent by God with this message to reveal the mystery that was hidden for ages. And that mystery is Christ, right? Christ, the plan of God to bring to fullness, at the fullness of time, to bring redemption to all things through Christ. And remember, he tells us who Christ is. very vividly that Christ is the image of the invisible God, right? He is the firstborn of all creation. Everything was made through him and for him. So everything exists because of and for Jesus Christ. He is the first. He is the head. He is supreme in creation. But more than that, because creation fell into sin through Adam's sin, right? Jesus is first in redemption, the first to raise from the dead, and he has brought about redemption for his people. He is the head of his church. He has authority over his church, and he is bringing redemption to all things. He has conquered every ruler and authority, that is the demonic forces. He is first. nothing is greater, no one is greater than Jesus Christ. And the whole point of the entire book of Colossians is the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And so you have to keep that in mind for the passage we're looking at today. So we are exhorted to walk in Christ in the same way, according to the message we heard about Him, who He is and what He has done, we are to continue walking in that, being firmly rooted in Him and built up, established in the faith. So, what Paul tells us, that we as Christians, our walk, the way we are sanctified, the way we overcome sin, is not by something in addition to Jesus, but more of Christ. knowing more of Christ, having a higher and more exalted view of Christ. So he begins verse 8 and he says, See to it that no one takes you captive. This phrase, this word, see to it, it's an emphatic phrase. We could even translate it, take heed, watch out. Don't let anyone take you captive. We are being called to be on guard. That's our first point. Hold fast to Christ and be on guard, saints, lest you be taken captive. We are called to be on guard so that we would not be taken as spoil by the enemy. This word captive is military language. That we would be taken as spoil, taken as captives by the enemy and taken into his realm. And we are being called to be on guard against anyone that would teach or any kind of teaching or any kind of thought process that would take us captive and lead us away from Jesus Christ. And I mentioned in kind of passing, but now we're getting into the nuts and bolts, the nitty-gritty of it here in Colossians, about what we call the Colossian heresy. the teaching that was being promoted by some false teachers. Now it doesn't sound like the Colossians had given in fully to this teaching, but they were in danger of it. And so Paul is telling them to keep watch that they won't be taken captive by these false teachers and their false teaching. What he calls philosophy and empty deceit. And the stakes are high. The stakes are high because what is at risk is being taken captive by the enemy. This is not a light-hearted warning against these teachers and their teaching. It's not inconsequential. Their teaching has the potential of leading people away from Jesus. And the weapon that they were using to take people captive is what Paul calls here philosophy and empty deceit. And it's important to understand these two things as intimately related. Empty deceit is further describing what this philosophy is. That it's a philosophy that is characterized by being empty and deceitful. That it is empty, it doesn't bring the fullness, whatever it promises, it doesn't bring it. What the fullness that it promises is not what it brings, and it's deceitful. It promises one thing, but it's not true. It's false. And so what these teachings that were being promoted are dangerous because they lead away from Christ. Look, he says, because they are according to, or that is based on human tradition. That these teachings that were being promoted are not based on Christ, but based on the traditions of man. You can't help but think of Jesus and his rebuke to the Pharisees. That they have made the traditions of man the law of God. Right? And so, what we are being called to be on guard against is any kind of teaching that would add on to what God has called us to do or be or believe. Anything that would add on to or replace Christ and what life in Christ looks like. And then he further describes in a parallel phrase, according to or based on the elemental spirits. Now, some of your translations probably say elemental principles or elemental, the world's elements. And that's because there's some debate about what exactly this word means. But essentially, what we see here is that Paul is saying, don't be taken captive by things of this world. He talks about food, and he talks about drink, and he talks about observing days, and all these things. Don't be taken captive by those things. Now, in Greek thought at that time, there were the central elements of the world. But there was also an intimate connection in their mind between those elements, and the supernatural and the powers, the authorities as Paul calls it here. And so this word is also used as an illusion at times for the things that those spirits, those spiritual powers have authority over. And Paul is saying that this philosophy, this empty and deceitful philosophy, is based on human traditions, which is actually based on the elements that the spirit, the elemental spirits, the things that, it comes from the demons, is what he's saying. That these philosophies, this empty teaching, this deceitful teaching, finds its source from the evil one. and his minions. Now that word lost its meaning after the movie, right? Minions. His evil ones. And he's saying watch out because any teaching that supplants or says we need an addition to Jesus Christ ultimately has its origins in the spiritual forces of darkness. And we need to be on guard. We need to be on guard so we not be taken captive because if you're taken captive by human tradition that comes from evil spirits, then you are not living according to Christ. We must have our perspective. We must understand the Christian life as coming from Jesus Christ. And any teaching that does not have its origin, does not come from, is not based on who He is and what He has done, then we must be on guard and we must reject it. He tells us to be on guard because these things are dangerous. Any kind of false teaching has the potential of taking us captive as prisoners and drawing us away from Jesus Christ. And before we make some connections to our own context, I think it'd be helpful for us to kind of get a perspective of what were these false teachers, what were they teaching that that Paul is calling empty and deceitful philosophy. Well, one commentator, I thought this was really good and creative and helpful, constructed a fictitious but possible letter that these false teachers could have written to the church in Colossae. This is what their letter may have said, summarizing their teaching. Dear Colossians, We know you are experiencing hardships. No doubt you are aware that there are evil spirits and powers that have authority over our mortal world. These powers prey on the weakness of human bodies and flesh. Thus our world is fraught with chaos. We can offer, though, knowledge, wisdom, and teachings, traditions, that can protect you from these malevolent forces. By controlling, combating, and disciplining your own frail body, you can resist these powers. Circumcision and strict ritual Torah obedience are particularly effective in counteracting these hostile spirits. Once you have submitted yourself to such disciplines of the body, you will gain access to the celestial world, receiving divine wisdom, visions, and provisions to fight against the weakness of the flesh that the evil powers use against you. We can offer you the proper route to spiritual fullness and perfection. This is the kind of thing that was, they were in danger of these kind of teachings that would take God's people captive by thinking, by controlling themselves, by disciplining their body, they could overcome sin. By following certain portions of the law, they could overcome sin. And ultimately it comes down to trying to control. our flesh, right? Trying to have control so that we can overcome the temptations of our flesh and the enemy, the evil spirits who tempt us to sin. And so they were promising a type of fullness that could come through self-discipline. And through that self-discipline you could get special visions from angels, and that would give you the knowledge and the wisdom that you needed to have spiritual fullness. Now that's quite different than some of the things, the way we think, right? In fact, most of us don't think about there being spiritual forces, do we? We don't think about the fact that there are angels and demons. And we don't talk about it. We don't think about it. These are what the false teachers are teaching. But Paul, he knows it's true, right? There are angels and there are demons. And this is a big theme throughout the book of Colossians, that Jesus has conquered the rulers and authorities, and that he has authority over all spiritual beings, whether his angels or the demonic forces who follow Satan. Jesus has authority over them. And we may not think that way, but the reality is that there are evil forces. There is the spiritual darkness, which is seeking to draw us away from Jesus. And we can often fall into thinking that we can control our sin, control our flesh, overcome the evil one in our own strength. So what are some ways, some empty and deceitful philosophies that we as Living Hope Bible Church are at risk, are in danger of falling into? There are many that we can name that would be outside of our church, our tendencies in this church, right? We could talk about the prosperity gospel. It promises that fullness is in a certain type of faith that brings financial wealth and health and all sorts of prosperity. We could name that one. I don't see that as a problem here. Though you need to be on guard against that. We could name certain kinds of teaching that say you need a second spirit baptism that gives you power to overcome sin and elevates you to a higher spiritual level. I haven't heard anybody trying to teach that here. So what are some things that we are at risk of falling into that we need to be at guard against because the enemy uses it? Now, they're not quite to the extreme. They don't sound to be to the extreme of some of the things I mentioned, but there are two primary ways that we are in danger of supplanting Christ while appearing to be godly. Both of these ways are expressions of legalism. License doesn't appear to be godly, right? Legalism appears to be godly. License is clear to everyone that you are living in sin and saying that grace abounds because of it. So there are many forms that legalism takes, but there's two primary ways that we are in danger of falling into legalism. The first way we can fall into legalism is by holding up the standard that we see in God's Word for His people, such as abstaining from sexual morality, telling the truth, caring for the needs of the saints, many things that we are commanded to do as believers. and to try to fulfill them in our own strength and to earn God's favor, or simply to appear godly externally. This type of self-reliance is nothing other than unbelief, saints. It's unbelief. And anything that is not done in faith is sin. John Piper put it this way, moral behavior that is not from faith is legalism. Moral behavior that we would conduct ourselves in, that is not from faith, not trusting in the power of God, in the mercy of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, becomes a type of legalism. And it becomes about appearing godly when our heart is dark. And this is what Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for, right? You wash the outside of the cup, but the inside is filthy. You are empty tombs, he tells them, right? This type of morality inevitably leads us to self-righteousness. To self-righteousness and to looking to our own deeds is what brings us favor with God and with one another. And it's contrary to the gospel saints. We need to be on guard for it because we're all danger. How many of us have not lived that way at one point in the Christian life, if not right now? And it comes in many forms. And it's often hard to put your finger on because it has the external appearance of godliness, right? But we have to examine our hearts. A couple things just off the top of my mind, you need to examine your heart. But some of the things are we can view self-discipline, even what we call spiritual disciplines, as in of themselves this source of power to overcome sin, right? We think that reading the Bible in of itself is going to keep us from sin. Now, of course, reading the Scripture is a vital part of the Christian life, right? There is no Christian maturity without the Word of God. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Word, and when it becomes Just this practice where we operate in guilt. I need to read the Bible today or God will be mad at me or something I need to read the Bible today or I'm or That you know the verse of the day keeps the devil away, right? Now you need to memorize scripture and scripture is the weapon that we use against our enemy, right? But you know what I'm talking about When we read the Word of God, are we reading to hear the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Word to reveal Christ to us, and reveal the Christian life, and what holiness is? You can read, you need to read the Bible, but unless you read it in faith, in utter dependence upon God, to speak through it, to grow you through the Word, you'll be doing it in your own effort. You're gonna look in the word and you're gonna see what's expected of you as a believer, what's expected of God's people, and you're gonna be like, oh, I need to do this, I need to not do that, and you're gonna try to do it in your own power. And we need to go to God's word to hear the truth. One thing you see in Colossians, right, is Paul has spent a lot of time making sure we have a right view of Jesus, who he is and what he has done. so that we can conduct ourselves in godliness. The rest of the book is going to be unpacking what the Christian life looks like, putting off the old man and putting on the new, because we are holding Christ as exalted. This type of self-reliance and moralism can be found in any form of discipline, any time of trying to pick yourself up by your bootstraps, and to just do better. But we need Christ. If all we're doing is trying, and trying in our own effort, you know, every time I lie, I'm going to pinch myself. Well, you might be able to break a habit, but you're not dealing with the heart. We need to deal with the heart. We can view things such as, helpful things like covenant eyes, which is a tool to help you stay living in the light. But don't think covenant eyes is going to deal with your lust. It doesn't. You can have covenant eyes on your phone and your computer and still be filled with every manner of lustful intent. Use covenant eyes. I use covenant eyes. Use it. It's great. but do not consider it to have power that it does not have. These things have the appearance of wisdom, but in of themselves they have no power to help us overcome the indulgence of the flesh." That's what it says later in Colossians. That's the first way legalism expresses itself in our self-reliance. Another way that legalism expressed is by erecting specific requirements of conduct beyond what is taught in scripture and making adherence to them a means by which a person is evaluated as to whether or not one they are a Christian or two whether or not they are a mature Christian and we must not do that We must not set up boundary markers that are not set in the Word of God, right? We are called to live holy lives, right? And holiness looks pretty serious. Staying from sexual immorality, do not lie, do not lust, do not slander, do not gossip, do not do any of these things because we are in Christ, right? But we must not set up boundaries beyond those. Well, we've got to set these boundaries here to keep us from doing that. It's dangerous. That's what the Pharisees did. And we cannot do that. And we cannot evaluate our brothers and sisters based on standards that we have erected. Okay? We can name a number of things. The easy one to target is alcohol, right? We could say, well, no Christian should drink alcohol. Well, Scripture doesn't say that. Scripture says no one should be drunk, right? So we must not set up boundaries. Now, you may say that the best thing is to abstain fully from alcohol, and you should do that in good conscience, right? But we cannot set a standard that the Word of God has not set and say someone is not a Christian or not godly. If they had a glass of wine or something. Now that I've seen that's prevalent, and it's very, very much based on the morality of our culture, and not scripture, is diet preferences. Saints, we need to be careful about this one. Our world has... I'm not getting down on eating healthy, okay? My family has certain standards about what we eat or don't eat, and that's fine. You can have certain standards of how you want to have... what kind of food you want to eat or not eat in your home, but we must not set standards about what Christian maturity is based on what someone eats. Jesus declared all food clean. And in Timothy, Paul says, God has given us all things for our enjoyment, and whatever we eat, if we give thanks to God in eating it, then it is sanctified, and it is holy, and we can eat it to the glory of God. We must not set standards, whether it be about the way we seek health care, natural or medical, whether it be about schooling, how we educate our kids, We must not set standards that God has not set. Where there is not a standard set, there is freedom of the Christian conscience. Okay? Have convictions. Stand firm on your convictions. Do what you believe is best for your family and those things. But do not hold them up as an evaluation of godliness. Okay? I'm sure we can think of many more, but these are the type of empty and deceitful philosophies that run us at risk of being taken captive by the enemy because what all those things do is they set standards and ways of trying to overcome sin and guilt and shame that is not centered on Jesus Christ. And so Paul goes on to say in verse 9, For in him, in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority." So this is our second point. Hold fast to Christ, for in him, in him alone, you have the fullness of God. The reason that these philosophies are empty and deceitful, is that they are seeking fulfillment, satisfaction, somewhere else other than Jesus Christ. And we can only get fullness, only can get the fullness of God in Jesus Christ. Look, he said, In Christ, in Him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. That is, the whole nature, the whole essence of God dwells in Christ. Remember the Christ-Him earlier in Colossians? The Son of God, by whom and for whom all things were created. He is the very same Jesus Christ who took on flesh and lived in history. Right? This Jesus, who had bodily form, lived fundamentally as a man, who was tempted as you are, yet without sin, is the fullness of God. We can't help but think of John 1, "...and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And you skip down to verse 14, "...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." So we've already emphasized, as we've been going through Colossians, Christ is the fullness of God. And so, if you have Christ, you have all of God. There's not something beyond Jesus, something more than Jesus that you need to know the fullness of God. There's not something more than Jesus that you need to have satisfaction, to have spiritual fullness, fulfillment. It's in Jesus that we know God fully. Now you say, what about the Holy Spirit? I know that Brother Jerry would say that, like, where's the Spirit? Yes, of course, the Holy Spirit has a part to play in all of this. But the Holy Spirit is not an addition to Christ, right? The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, as Paul says in Romans. And the Holy Spirit's ministry is to apply the work of Christ to our hearts, through the conviction of sin, regeneration, and adoption. The Spirit is the one who brings us into union with the Son, with Jesus. And the Spirit's ministry is to bring us to Christ, to reveal the fullness of Christ, to reveal the glory of Christ, so that we would know Christ. The Spirit's ministry is intimately connected with Jesus. Right? So, you want to know spiritual fullness, then you need to know Christ through the Holy Spirit. And not only does he say that Christ is the fullness of God, but that we have been filled in Him. That is, by our union with Jesus, we have spiritual fullness. We spent a whole message on union with Christ. But just to reiterate, Union with Christ, Paul often uses the language of in Christ, or in him, or with him. And in those phrases, he unpacks in many of those passages what he understands to be our intimate connection with Jesus. That the work of Christ is applied to our lives by the Holy Spirit who brings us into oneness with Christ. And he describes that in Ephesians as being the same thing as a husband and wife who are one flesh. That the church and Christ are one. And that we are identified with Him. And as we'll see in this passage, that therefore we participate in all that He has done for us. That means that He has died and risen from the dead, and so we have died and risen with Him because we belong to Him. And He says that we have the fullness of God because we are in Christ. See? You have been filled in Him. You have been filled in Him. It's like what he says in Ephesians chapter 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Saints, because you are already in Christ by faith, you already have fullness. You already have all that you need. You have all the spiritual blessings that God has promised us in Christ. You don't need something else. You don't need anything more. You have the fullness because you have Christ. He is the head of all rule and authority. He is over these spiritual forces who seek to lead us away from Him. He has all authority over them. He has conquered them. And that will be unpacked a little more in our last point in verse 15. Now look at verses 11 through 14. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, 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 you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross." First thing we see here is that we need to hold fast to Christ, for in Him the power of sin is defeated. In him, the power of sin is defeated. He starts out by giving us some metaphors, some pictures, saying that in Christ, in him, we were circumcised with a circumcision not from human hands. What does that mean? By the circumcision, by the putting off of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. What does that mean? Well, in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, we have the sign of circumcision, right, that was given to Abraham, and that all Israel was to receive. The cutting off of the foreskin to identify God's people as belonging to Him, right? But Moses, early on, all the way in the beginning of, you know, in the Pentateuch, in Deuteronomy, talks about the circumcision of the heart. Jeremiah talks about it as well. That what matters is not simply an external sign. All that was meant to be an external sign of internally having the circumcision of heart and belonging to God. Right? As Paul says in Romans chapter 2, I believe, there are, you know, those who are Jews are not really Jews unless they have been circumcised of heart. That you don't really belong to God unless you have been circumcised of heart. So he says here that we have received a circumcision made without hands. And then he further, he explains, describes what that is. He said it's by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So he's saying that this circumcision made without hands is the putting off of the flesh. Now, he's not talking about the physical body. He's talking about the sinful nature that is part of this sinful body, right? Of this sinful nature that we have. It's the sinful nature. And so, in Christ, we have been circumcised, that is, our body of flesh, our sinful nature, has been removed, has been taken off. That is, we're not under its realm, we're not under its power anymore. It's been put off. That doesn't mean that we don't, as Christians, live with the realities of a sinful nature, right? We are tempted by sin and the sinful desires that are in us, Romans 7. But what it means is that it no longer has power. We read Romans 6, right? And he talks about how if you have died with Christ, sin no longer has dominion over you, therefore consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And this is what he's using this metaphor to say here, in a more compact version of Romans 6. That the circumcision of heart is what Christ did on the cross, which he unpacks more in the next verses, what Christ did on the cross has conquered sin and rendered it powerless. It's taken its power away. So you received this circumcision of heart made without hands, and this was performed by the putting off of the body of the flesh, the rendering powerless the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. That is, that Christ has subdued the flesh. Christ has conquered it. And it's made more clear in the next verses. It's through this faith in Jesus that we are united to Christ. And because we are united to Christ, we participate in what he has done. Right? Not that we do anything, not that we add anything. What I mean by participate is that we are considered to be along with him when he dies and rises from the dead. Just as we were in Adam and we were considered to sin with Adam and are guilty of Adam's sin, now that we are in Christ by faith, we are free from sin and he is our head and we have received his death and resurrection. We were buried with him and he brings up baptism, the symbol of baptism, which signifies, which is the symbol of the internal reality, just like circumcision was the outward symbol of an internal reality. The baptism is a sign that you shared in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And as Romans 6 says, if he died, he died to sin once and for all, and if we have died with him, then therefore sin no longer has dominion over us. Christ has defeated the power of sin. And notice he says here that we received this through faith in the powerful working of God. Usually when Paul says, the object of faith is typically Christ, but here it's in the powerful working of God. And I think this is because he is countering these empty and deceitful philosophies that tell you you need to work to overcome the power of sin. And he's saying that you overcome sin by faith in Jesus, who conquered sin, and you have been buried with him and risen from the dead. So through faith, overcome sin. So what does that mean, saints, for us? All those things we mentioned, right? We cannot overcome sin by just trying to do better. We need to overcome sin by faith in Christ. We need to consider sin as dead. We need to consider sin as no longer having power and dominion over us. So that means when you are tempted as a believer, you do not have to sin. Don't believe that lie, and don't let the enemy make you believe it either. That you have to sin. Now, I understand that we do sin, and we do fall into sin. We are sinners. If anyone says, he does not sin, he is a liar, John says, right? But we do sin. But when we are tempted, at that moment, we must exercise faith. Faith is not an abstract concept, saints. It's not a, it's just something I think in my mind. Manifests itself in action, right? And so when you're tempted to live by faith is to say that thing feels very alive right now, and I want to do it But I believe by faith that Jesus has conquered sin. I Believe by faith that I don't have to do that and I'm not going to by faith that is living by faith and the powerful working of God and Live by faith. Hold fast to Christ. You can't overcome sin without Christ. You can't overcome sin without holding fast to Him. It requires this faith to overcome sin. And faith is not what you're doing, right? It's a trusting in what God has done. that you have been buried with Him and raised to new life, that you have been circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, that is put off the flesh, its power, and now you can obey God and walk in holiness. Moralism, legalism, All of that is empty and it doesn't bring any satisfaction or fullness. But when we hold fast to Christ, that brings holiness and holiness brings joy and peace. Hold fast to Christ. Last point. Hold fast to Christ for in him the power of Satan is defeated. Look at verse 15. So the work that Christ did I know we missed verse 14. It's important for this point, so I need to go back. That Christ, when He conquered sin on the cross, He has made a full end to it, right? He said in verse 14, in verse 13 and 14, that though we were dead in our trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, so though we were dead in the actual sins that we commit and the sinful nature that we have, the uncircumcision of flesh, God made us alive with Him, so it was the work of God, and He forgave us how many trespasses? All our trespasses. So how many other trespasses did Jesus not forgive? They're all taken, erased, it says. We had a record of debt because of our sin, and God canceled that record by nailing it to the cross of Christ. Jesus bore our sins on the cross and paid the full penalty for them. So there is no more penalty to pay, right? Okay, so the sin, the record of debt that stood against us with all of its demands, the penalty for sin is what? Was put on Christ who died for our sins. And so in doing this, he as well disarmed the rulers and authority. See, the power of Satan over us is that he is the accuser. And so he can point to our sin and say, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. And that is His power that He held over the human race. That He could accuse and hold us under His authority and power. But Jesus has conquered the rulers and authorities. He disarmed them. He took away their power because He nailed the sin to the cross. And so what power does Satan have over the believer anymore? He can bring accusations, but who can condemn? It is Christ who has saved us. It is Christ who has paid it. So who can condemn? Satan can't condemn you anymore. You are free, and you are free indeed. And so the enemy's power is rendered powerless to us. Now often, I know he knows that, but he knows we don't often know that. And so he brings the accusations. See that? You're not really a follower of Jesus. Wallow in your guilt. You are guilty. I love this part in Pilgrim's Progress when Christian encounters Apollyon. And the enemy says this to him, Thou has already been unfaithful in thy service to him. And how do you think to receive wages of him? Christian said, wherein, O Apollyon, have I been unfaithful to him? Apollyon said, Thou did faint at first setting out, when thou was almost choked in the gulf of Despond? Thou did attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy burden? We're talking about Colossians. whereby thou should have stayed till thy prince had taken it off. Thou didst sinfully sleep and lose thy choice thing. Thou wast almost persuaded to go back at the sight of the lions. And when thou talkest of thy journey and of what thou hast heard and seen, thou art inwardly desirous of vain glory in all that you say and do. Christian says, Paul, this is true. And much more with thou has left out. But the prince who I serve and honor is merciful and ready to forgive. But besides these affirmatives possess me in thy country. For there I suck them in and have groaned under them, been sorry for them and have obtained my pardon from my prince. He has no power. He's rendered them powerless, and I love the image here. He says he triumphed over them. He put them to open shame, triumphing over them. It requires a little bit of a history lesson here, but in Roman times, the Romans, they would do this triumphal procession where they conquered their enemies, and then they would humiliate them in open shame before everyone to see that they had been conquered. And Paul says here, Jesus did this with the rulers and authorities. He triumphed over them in open shame. The cross, which is the folly of man, is the power of God. Where Satan thought he won, God conquered and rendered Satan powerless and shamed him. And he has no more power over you. So hold fast to Christ. Without Christ, saints, we have nothing. Do you believe that? It's not just a phrase. It's a truth. Without Christ, we have nothing. We can't overcome sin. We can't overcome the devil. Hold fast to Christ. Be on guard against any kind of thinking or teaching or philosophy that would supplant Christ. and hold fast to Him. In Him, you have the power of God. In Him, you have already been given fullness. In Him, sin has been rendered powerless. In Him, Satan has lost his power. Let us hold fast to Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Please apply this word to our hearts that we would hold fast to Jesus. We know the enemy will attack us. and lie to us that these things are not true, but help us hold to them in faith. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.