Well, we return our attention this morning to Paul's letter to the Colossians, turning to chapter 2, Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 2. In the Pew Bibles, depending on the binding, you'll find it on either page 876 or page 1143, 876 or 1143. Just briefly to remind you that Paul's purpose in writing this letter to the church in Colossae was to encourage the saints, encourage them in their faith, and to warn them against false teachers in their midst. And this morning we take up our reading of Paul's letter in chapter 2, beginning at verse 6. Reading verses 6 through 15, our text being verses 13 through 15. Hear now the word of God. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and on the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, And you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with the circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith, and the power of God who raised him from the dead. 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 His regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made His public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Here ends the reading of God's Word to us today. We ask that He would bless it to us by His Spirit. Well, in this letter to the Colossians, Paul's fundamental message is encapsulated in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 2, which we have just read. A reminder and an admonition. A reminder that just as you have already received Christ as Lord, continue to live in Him. In other words, you do not need anything else or something more than Jesus Christ alone. He is your all. All who trust in Him have not only been made right with God already, they've been justified. They are also being sanctified, motivated and empowered more and more to live a life worthy of Him, a life that pleases Him in every way. And this is so because Jesus alone is qualified to be the Christ, the Savior of God's people. He alone is God in the flesh. In Him alone all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form and through faith in Him. All who trust in Him have been given fullness in Him. Well, last time in verses 11 and 12, we considered how the fullness of Christ has become ours as participants in the circumcision of Christ. And in verses 13 through 15, our text this morning, Paul presses on and presses upon the Colossians that fullness is not theirs because of anything that they have done. It's only because of what God has done. And if left to themselves, they would still be dead to God in slavery to sin and oppressed by Satan. But God has done for them as he has done for all the saints, as he's done for everyone here this morning who's trusting in Christ for their salvation, what we could not do for ourselves, he has accomplished our perfect deliverance in Christ. In Christ, God has accomplished our resurrection from death, our redemption from sin, and our rescue from Satan. Now, in all that Paul has to say here, he has to say as an encouragement to the saints. to anyone and to everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. If you do not believe that you need a Savior, or even if you do and you are trusting in something or someone other than Jesus Christ alone to save you, then you need to know that you remain dead to God. You remain a slave to sin. And you remain oppressed by Satan. So as these words this morning come to the people of God, you are invited to listen well and to consider what God has done for the saints. And you are encouraged to listen and know that all of it can be and all of it will be yours when you confess you are a sinner who deserves the judgment of God and you cling to Christ alone to save you and to include you in this perfect deliverance. Now in verse 13, Paul continues his train of thought that really started in verse 11 by reminding the saints that our perfect deliverance in Christ involves our resurrection from death. He begins, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature. In order to keep the saints from trusting in themselves and in anything that we have done, Paul reminds the Colossians of who they were apart from Christ. Now the English Standard Version captures Paul's pointedness here a little bit clearer. He begins in verse 13, he says, And you, you who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a lie. In Adam's fall, sin we all. And as children of Adam, all of us are sinful by nature, guilty of Adam's sin, guilty of our own, and corrupt through and through. That's who we are, apart from Christ. There's no one righteous, not even one. and the wages for this sin is death. It's what we deserve. Therefore, every one of the Colossians, just like every one of us, was conceived and born under the death sentence of God. Living and breathing enemies of God, dead men walking straight to hell to eternal death. Apart from Christ, that's who we were. And Paul reminds the saints in his letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. God had to send the sinless one to rescue us sinners, to give us life. And he did so that Christ in his sinlessness would carry our sins with him to the cross. As we considered in detail last time, where he underwent the circumcision not made by human hands. Where our human nature, our sinful nature was cut off, where it was put to death with Christ. Therefore, Paul in verse 13 is continuing a thought he had actually started in verse 11. He goes on to make the point of what he began in verse 12, when he said, having been buried together with Him and raised together with Him through faith. In the powerful working of God who raised Him from the dead, God made you alive together with Him. Believers, the saints could say, I have been crucified with Christ. And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. You see, it's God who accomplished our resurrection from death and the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It's God who delivered you from death to life in Christ. And it is God who made you a new creature, a new creation, living and breathing children of God who are bound for glory, for eternal life. That's the first and fundamental thing that God has done for us in Christ. He's delivered us by resurrection from death. And so all who trust in Christ alone for salvation have already experienced this resurrection from death. It is already true for you. According to Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 1, Christ Jesus has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. But at the same time, our resurrection from death is yet to be fully realized. And how well we know this. Each of us has lost family or friends to death. And each of us must face death. Right up until the last day when Christ returns in glory. And on that day, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we, if we are still living, will be changed in the flash. And it is then, Paul says, that the saying that is written will come true, that death has been swallowed up in victory. So this resurrection from death that we now enjoy is not yet fully realized. So in the meantime, as we live between now and then, we live by faith, we live by faith because Christ is at the right hand of God. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And we walk by faith in His promise that He is the resurrection and the life. And that whoever believes in Him will live, even though He dies. And whoever lives and believes in Him will never die. This is our life. Alive, and yet not eternally alive in the fullest sense. And so we live each day in the knowledge and the conviction and the promise that this is true for us. That we have been resurrected from death. And Paul goes on to link the death that we have been rescued from and we have been resurrected from with the sin that causes it. Death is the consequence of sin. Apart from sin, there would be no death. And therefore, in order to accomplish our resurrection from death, our perfect deliverance in Christ required a redemption from sin. There's no way to get free of death without becoming free of sin. And so Paul presses on in verse 13 and he makes this connection. A connection that's more clearly presented, again, in the English Standard Version because they didn't start a new sentence. In our NIV, they put a period in the middle of verse 13, towards the end of verse 13. So I want to read this to you from the English Standard Version because it shows this connection that Paul wants us to have in mind. There we read, 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. Having forgiven us all our trespasses, God made us alive in Christ. So you see, unless all of our sins are forgiven, we remain dead to God. Therefore, we must be redeemed, we must be set free from sin in order to be made alive together with Christ. This is a necessary consequence. And so in verse 14, Paul portrays how it is that we have been redeemed. How it is that we've been set free from all of our sin, completely and forever. And he describes something here with imagery that is rare and difficult to understand, so that it is variously translated in... Every English Bible in here has it different, I can guarantee you. I'm going to read you a few. Because even though the imagery is translated in several ways, the substance comes through. It's translated as the written code with its regulations that was against us, and stood opposed to us, NIV. The record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, English Standard Version. The certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, New American Standard. And the handwriting of requirements that was against us which was contrary to us, New King James. Lots of different ways to try to present to us what Paul is saying yet in spite of these differences this much is clear and I want you to clearly hear and understand whatever it is Paul has portrayed it as a handwritten record of a liability. A handwritten record of a liability for which we are legally responsible. And whatever this written record for which we're legally responsible is Christ has done something to it. He has canceled it. He has erased it. He has wiped it out. He has removed it. He has set it aside. He has taken it out of the way. He has nailed it to the cross. The most fitting analogy for this something that I can come up with in my own experience is that of an IOU. Now, an IOU can be as simple as promising to repay a few dollars to my friend. It can be as complex as signing the papers on a house, or worse. But no matter the size of the IOU, no matter the nature of the IOU, it is a debt we are obligated to pay, and we're obligated to pay in full. And what Paul would have us see here is the IOU that obligates each of us to satisfy the claims of God's justice against our sin. against our failure to perfectly obey Him. Now this IOU we inherited from Adam, a debt for sin that we can never pay, a debt for sin to which we add every day, the Scriptures tell us. And yet, the justice of God demands that this debt be paid in full. And the only way to pay it is to take the full justice of God, the wrath of God against that debt, and to endure it. And that wrath is the everlasting punishment of body and soul in hell. That's what it takes to pay the debt. And this IOU must be paid in full either by ourselves or by another. God will not wink and let it go away. It must be satisfied by ourselves or by another, but none of us is able to pay. Either for ourselves or for another. None of us is righteous. No, not one. None of us can endure the wrath of God. Therefore, our only hope is in the mercy of God. In the mercy of God to satisfy this debt for us, and this, of course, is what Paul is telling us he has done. In his great mercy, God sent his only begotten Son in the flesh, Jesus Christ, the righteous, the sinless one, to offer himself on the cross and there to bear in his body the wrath of God that our sins deserve unto death, making payment in full for all who will trust Him for it. Jesus Christ came in the flesh to take up our IOU and to pay it in full. By His sacrifice in our place, by His substitutionary atonement, Jesus Christ canceled our debt. He erased the record of our sins. He wiped it clean. And therefore God remembers our sins no more. As far as the east is from the west, he has so far taken our sins away from us. But Jesus Christ has accomplished even more than that. He's not only set the record clean that we could somehow start over again, He has set the record right. By his perfect obedience throughout all of his life, right up to his death on the cross, to every requirement of God's law in our place, Christ has fulfilled the law and has removed the condemnation of the law against us. For by faith in Christ, we have his righteousness. We stand before the law perfect. Not only is our account zeroed out, it's added to with the righteousness of Christ. And therefore, while the law of God remains, it's upright and perfect, its condemnation has been nailed to the cross. The condemnation of the law has been nailed to the cross. We bear it no more in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is why Paul exclaims in Romans chapter 8, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. In Christ, God has accomplished our redemption from sin. And all who are trusting in Christ alone for their salvation have already experienced this redemption from sin. According to Paul in Romans chapter 6, verse 22, you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God. We're no longer bound to sin. We're no longer controlled by sin, but we have been freed to obey God more and more to want to and more and more to be able to do what He wants us to do. and yet at the same time our redemption from sin is not yet fully realized and we know this too well for sin still clings to us it still tangles us up it still trips us up we still stumble into it we still do what we don't want to do and we still fail to do what we know we want to do and this struggle will continue right up to the day that Christ returns on the last day when Christ will meet us and Christ will transform us transforming our lowly bodies into bodies like his own will be glorified free from sin no longer able to sin forever And so in the meantime, already redeemed from sin, not yet fully glorified, in the meantime, we eagerly wait for His coming and we do so walking in faith, doing whatever we do, whether in word or in deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. We do so having been given fullness in Christ. So we've seen that by the cross, Jesus Christ has delivered us from sin and has delivered us from death its wages. But there is more here. Paul goes on in verse 15 to announce our perfect deliverance in Christ also includes our rescue from Satan. Our rescue from Satan. And having disarmed the powers and authorities he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Now Paul nowhere mentions Satan by name in this letter. But there's no doubt that Satan is the commander of the power and authorities that Paul has in mind here. And we think of the life of Jesus Christ in the flesh after three years of open warfare during his earthly ministry. Open warfare against the demons and spirits of darkness against Satan himself in the desert. Satan and his forces made their final assault on Jesus Christ through the cross. It was their last stand. It was their final push. It was their great strategy to derail the plan of God to rescue his people. If they could put to death the Son of God. And so they did. And all seemed lost for the Son of God when he was put to death on the cross and then buried in a grave. And Satan rejoiced. For how long, children? For three days. For three days when he discovered that what he thought was his victory was in fact his defeat. For the Son of God in the flesh rose again from the dead. He rose victorious over the grave and there publicly demonstrated his victory over Satan by the cross. And it was just as Jesus predicted in John chapter 12, just before he turned his attention to the cross, he said, Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. Paul says somewhere, if the enemies of God would have known what they were doing, that would never have crucified the Son of God. And on the cross, Jesus Christ declared, It is finished. This was his victory cry. This was no cry of defeat. It was his victory cry. For by the cross, he not only conquered sin and the death that it causes, but he also vanquished Satan who wields them in his hand. By the cross, Christ is the victor. And as the victor, he has disarmed his enemies. He has stripped them of their armor, their weapons, their power and authority. And Paul portrays this victory, this victory over Satan and his minions in a way that's very familiar to the Colossians. In verse 15, For in the Roman Empire, of which they were a part, a victorious general was granted a parade through the streets of Rome. Much like we had a parade in Manhattan, New York City, June 10, 1945, at the end of World War II. General Eisenhower at the front. A victory parade. But in Rome, this victory parade that was led by the general also included his soldiers and the booty of war, all the spoils that had been gathered. And then behind all that would come the captives. The vanquished enemy, stripped naked except for his chains. So that everyone would know his utter defeat. It would be undeniable and publicly proclaimed. And in the same way, Satan's utter defeat here is undeniable. He has been stripped of his power and authority. He's been stripped of his armor and his weapons. He's been shamed before all of creation. And this is made known every time and in every place the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed. The victory parade continues every time you hear the good news of the gospel. And so all who are trusting in Christ alone for their salvation have already been rescued from Satan. In Hebrews chapter 2, we read these assuring words, Since the children of God have flesh and blood, he too, that is Christ, shared in their humanity, so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil. It's done. He's been defeated. but at the same time our rescue from Satan has not yet been fully realized he is as Peter warned still prowling around and he will continue to tempt us and he will continue to tempt us to sin and we will continue to give in to sin and when we do he'll be there to accuse us and he will do his best to make us think that the victory has not been done that we are still under his thumb. But it's not true, people of God. The victory is done. You've been rescued from Satan in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Satan will continue to torment us right up until the last day. When, as the book of Revelation tells us, he will be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur to be tormented himself day and night forever and ever. The tormentor will be the tormented. And so in the meantime, in this life between our rescue from Satan at the cross and his full realization of the return of Christ in glory, we find our strength in the Lord and in His mighty power. And Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil's schemes. And so although his accusations might rightly sting us and we may need to be stung when we fall into sin, we stand firm in the faith, assured that there is now no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. And we press on, confessing our sins, receiving forgiveness from God and from others and pursuing righteousness. And we do this confident that not even Satan, not even Satan can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we do this assured that when we resist Satan, standing firm in the faith, he will flee. We live by faith in these promises of God. And so in our text this morning, Paul has reminded us of what God has done for us. That which we could not do for ourselves. He has accomplished our perfect deliverance in Christ. And by the cross of Christ, he has secured resurrection from death, redemption from sin, and rescue from Satan. These are fundamental facts that we are to hold to through life. They are so fundamental. Is it any wonder that in question and answer one of our Heidelberg Catechism we could begin our confession of our only comfort saying that I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins by his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. And we bring that confession to a close saying, because I belong to him, Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. We confess our great and perfect deliverance in Christ right there at the beginning of our Heidelberg Catechism. And so, saints of God, I hope you hold these truths precious, so precious that you live in them and you trust in them in the circumstances of life and may call you to question them to the glory of God and the strengthening of our Christian life. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that when we read your word this day we are reminded so boldly and so vividly of the work you have accomplished by the cross in Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you that you have resurrected us from death where we were conceived and born in it and we had no way out of it apart from your intervention. And we praise you that in Christ by the cross we have been redeemed from our sin. That which we have inherited from Adam our father and that which we add to every day. And Father, for the sake of Christ, it has all been wiped away to be remembered no more. And the law no longer accuses us. We're no longer condemned by the law, but we are guided by that law to the glory of your name. And we thank you, Father, that behind all of this you have rescued us from Satan. that you have put him in his place. And even now you are preparing him for that final place where he will be set apart and be tormented for eternity. We thank you, Father, that along the way we can live by the faith you've created in us by your Spirit through the Gospel to hold these promises dear and to live each moment of every day in the strength of them when our own strength is weak and our own resolve is paltry. Thank you for your word this day. In Christ's name, amen.