Christ the Cosmic Conqueror Colossians 2:13-15

A prayer that I try to remind myself when we come together is may I be a blessing to others

We want a blessing from the Lord, don't we? But let's pray that we be a blessing to Others as we meet together.

We have several announcements that I want to go over with you and One thing

I just want to encourage If you were not here for Sunday school It's a great time of Bible study and I would encourage each one if you're not here and they're listening to us on our

Video, it's a very good time of blessing in the word and that's at 930

Sunday morning till 1030 then we have our regular worship service at 11 as today and Then we have a prayer meeting

Sunday night tonight. We come together and pray We've had a fairly decent group that's come down With the desire to lift up the church and the people in prayer.

So we would encourage you if you desire to lift up those in prayer that are around you and have

Special prayer requests and we always start off with a time of Thanksgiving to the Lord for what he has supplied for us

It's an encouraging time. I just want to say a word We used to take up an offering with plates so we no longer do that at this time mainly we started with the kovat

So we have a box in the foyer. If you have an offering you put it in there Being the treasurer of the church.

I just say a word to you We have envelopes there and maybe you do or don't know this if you want to have your giving

At the end of the year for a tax write -off. You just write on the envelope Your name and we keep a record of that that's up to you and At the end of the year, we would send you a record of your giving sometimes and I throw this out to you sometimes if you would pay with a check and You say this is offering and we have something special Like we said we have a special fund if you wrote had one check and you wrote this is this much for offering

This much goes to the project whatever that might be I just throw that out to you and then we that's just considered offering so, you know that that's why we have the envelopes there

If you want us to keep record of your giving we do that the ladies

Bible study will be September the 18th at 10 to 11

Barbara has your questionnaires for first Kings chapter 5 so if you don't have the

Notes and questions Barb has them this morning and so you make sure you get to Barb and get the questions from her we were planning to have a baptism the 12th of September Now the some of you might not know that the baptismal is right here

There's a door to the baptismal that weighs 800 to a thousand pounds And so on the 12th is the baptism so we're going to ask some strong young men

To come a Saturday and help us lift The door so we'll need help

Saturday the 11th So keep that in mind and we'll get together the week before and say, okay, we'll meet at this time but then we also want to say if some of you

Would like to be baptized You come to pastor myself or Harold and say

I would love to be baptized I've been saved. I know the Lord. I want to follow the Lord in baptism.

So you come to us if you have that desire if you see all of these the posters on the wall the only thing

I can understand is 1961 to 2021 and 60 and we have a

Bible Baptist Church of Praise meets here Sunday afternoon about 2 to 4 o 'clock.

They also meet here The kids meet during the week they're young adults and they also meet

Friday night. They have a very large service Friday night to with a Sunday school and so forth

They've been with us almost 30 years now this is the celebration of their organization when it was founded in Russia and It's a there's about two

Baptist Russian organizations that were underground churches in Russia and so the

Lord has allowed them to be with us for many years and They've been a blessing to us and they've helped us in many areas because they have a lot younger people to help in that area

So if you wondered what the posters were if you read Russian, you might find it interesting Just before we pray.

I was thinking of a verse when I was a young man, I Went to my pastor who was an old man.

He was 60 and he said I Don't know why the

Lord has allowed me to live this long you know and we were in a small church and there was some trouble in the church and it was very hard on the pastor and I was reading through my

Bible and I asked him because I Had really been away from the Lord and I came to the Lord and then

I really just blossomed under his ministry And I loved the things that he was given pastor

Combs then I came to Romans 5 4 and I said I'm reading this verse and I says

I don't understand it would you tell me what it means and I just said Romans 5 4 and I Learned it in the

King James and I looked into it in the New King James and it just wasn't the same to me

Just because of where you read it, but it says the trial of your faith worketh patience patience experience and experience hope and I says what in the world does that mean and He what he said to me is, you know the trial of your you're going through a trial you just love it, right?

No, we don't like it when we're going through a trial and it says when you go through a trial

What do you get when you go through a trial with the Lord helping you you get experience? Right.

Okay. That was a tough one, but the Lord took us through it Barb has a favorite saying when people say man,

I'm really worried about what's going to happen next and she says well I guess today's the day the Lord's gonna fail you right but I'm saying all that so patient brings experience and Then it says experience hope and what it means is when you come through that trial

You look back at it and you says the Lord carried me through that trial now I have hope the next trial that comes he's going to carry me through that one too, right and That's always been a blessing to me to think of that I don't like my trials

But just like when you're at work, you'd like to do a perfect job But the way

I always learned was all my failures, you know, and then I look back and I did it wrong

Well, I'm not gonna do that again, you know So I'm just that's been a blessing to me Romans 5 for the trial of your faith work of patience

Patience experience and experience a hope let's open with a word of prayer Thank you heavenly

Father for the blessings that you give us We thank you Lord that you take us through trials

But you also take us through them and you give us strength and you give us experience through these trials

We pray with each one of us today as we go through life that you would help us to understand

That we have hope that you're going to help and we thank you for that Lord we pray for the service today and we pray

Lord that you might look down upon us and that this might be a time of Teaching and learning and if there's areas in our life that we need to address

That you would help us and direct that towards us We pray that we might be a blessing also as we talk with each other of the things that you've done for us

Pray with the music Lord that you might speak to our hearts through the words that we sing and we'll thank you very much

Pray in Jesus name. Amen David good morning It is a good thing to give thanks to the

Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O Most High to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night and let's stand and sing to our

Lord Jesus Christ And I'm pleased to be seated at this time.

Good morning. Good morning. Great to see everybody here this morning. Scripture reading this morning is from Ephesians chapter two, verses four through 10.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved and raised up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. May God has blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word.

Please turn with me to Colossians. Colossians chapter two, verses 13 through 15.

Colossians chapter two, verses 13 through 15. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.

And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Let us pray. Father, we are so thankful that we worship a

God who is triumphant, God who is victorious, God who is fully in control.

And Father, this morning we come before you in need of you and your presence.

And Father, we pray specifically for our servicemen abroad in Afghanistan.

We pray for their family because they bravely risked and sacrificed their lives to protect our people abroad.

And God, we pray that you would comfort their family and that their family may hope in you because you're the ultimate source of hope.

Father, protect the rest of the troops there and rest of Americans and Afghanistan people there too.

Protect them from the evil one, protect them from Taliban. God, we pray that you would use even the evil to bring good out of it.

We pray for the churches in Afghanistan that they would stand firm to the gospel, that you would give them all power in Christ to endure the suffering that they will have to face under the evil rule of Taliban.

God, we pray that we would always remember to pray for them. Father, as we gather here today this morning, we ask that our focus would be on Christ who made this all possible, who is the conquering king who laid down his own life.

In Jesus name. Now, in the 20th century, there was a wealthy

Canadian couple named Robert and Jenny Bouchard.

It's French, so the CH is like SH. They worked hard and made a lot of money during the 19th through the 20th century selling cement in North America.

One particular year in the early 1900s, the couple took a vacation to Europe.

A well needed rest for both, really hard working couple. And when it was time to return back to Canada, they missed their ship back.

The reason was, there was this one species of birds, European birds in fact, that Robert collected in Canada and they all died during their trip.

How tragic. When Robert received the call, he had to make a trip longer to attain a new flock of birds of that specific species in Canada.

And it was due to Robert's fascination with this one specific bird species that made them miss their ship back to Canada.

This is a double tragedy. First, the birds are dead while they're away and they miss their ship back.

And can you imagine what the wife is thinking? Because of those stinking birds, we're delayed going back.

And she had a giant garden, which exists to this day to take care of. And he had a business to run after all.

What a bummer. And when we think, how frustrated would we be if that were to happen?

Do you know which ship they missed? It was the RMS Titanic.

The supposedly indestructible ship that sank with over 1 ,500 people aboard.

If you look at it from another angle, you get to see how it was not a tragedy.

But actually a blessing that Robert's birds died at that time.

And it delayed the trip longer. And would anyone here argue that Robert and Jenny experienced a massive tragedy?

Oh, how sad those birds died and they missed their ship back. No, when we see the larger, clearer picture, their mini tragedy saved their lives.

The text today shows a similar view. When Jesus was humiliated on the cross, in reality, he humiliated

Satan and his fallen angels publicly by rescuing us from their grasp.

When the rulers of the world and Satan rejoiced at Jesus' death on the cross, it was actually his decisive victory against sin and all the principalities.

The main point today is Christ conquered completely by nailing all of our trespasses on the cross.

Christ conquered completely by nailing our trespasses on the cross.

First point, God revives us by forgiving all of our trespasses.

From verse 12's glorious unity with Christ in resurrection,

Paul changes the perspective to our past before we were united with Christ.

Verse 13 reads, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

Here are the differences between our pagan past sinful past to the

Christian present are stark. Paul, of course, reuses the two terms from the previous two verses in verses 11 and 12 to emphasize the differences.

For example, verse 12 says we were united with Christ. God raised us up with Christ from the dead.

However, before Christ, we were dead in our trespasses. The contrast is clear when we are in Christ to before Christ.

Now, what does being dead in our trespasses mean? Dead in our trespasses is a figurative way of explaining our lost state.

We were under the dominion of death. We were spiritually dead, completely disconnected from God, the true source of life.

Trespass is a specific and an especially despicable type of sin.

For example, we know that it is possible for people to sin unintentionally. This is not that.

A trespass is intentional. It's a deliberate decision to disobey

God, a deliberate decision to disobey God. In fact, the

Old Testament portrays this type of sin as covenant unfaithfulness.

Translation, adultery or cheating on a spouse.

Ezekiel 16 paints the grotesque picture of this betrayal very well.

The chapters, chapter 16 of Ezekiel, starts out with God's gracious act of rescuing the dying

Israel. Israel's wallowing in its blood. It's naked. It has no one for it.

God, however, enters into a covenantal relationship with Israel.

And not only that, God adorns her with garments and lavishes her with jewels.

And she becomes beautiful. And God was the faithful and extravagant husband to Israel in every possible way.

But this is what Israel did to God in return.

Verse 15, but you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame.

You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, places of false worship, and played the harlot on them.

Such things should not happen nor be. You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from my gold and my silver, which

I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them.

The contemptible nature of this unfaithful act is that Israel even took the gifts from God to cheat on him.

Israel betrayed God using the treasures, the very treasures that God had graciously given her.

This is a moral perversion to the highest level. That is what a trespass is.

It's active. It's actively and consciously choosing to betray

God. And Paul tells us that we were dead in such things.

That was our lifestyle. We were dead in our trespasses. The second phrase, uncircumcision in your flesh, shows us our relational state before Christ.

Because circumcision was a physical representation for the Jews that showed their spiritual relationship with God, Paul uses this physical concept to explain their spiritual reality.

Uncircumcision would mean alienation or complete separation from God.

As Gentiles who worshiped false gods, we were totally alienated from God.

We had no part in God. We belonged to the domain of darkness, Satan's domain, not the kingdom of Christ.

Paul thoroughly describes our past, not to shame us, after all, he doesn't end there, but to magnify the marvelous reality of our unity, our union with Christ.

He continues, he has made a life together with him. We were dead in our trespasses, but now he has made us alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

God made us alive together with Christ. After Christ faced the punishment that we deserved on the cross, he died.

However, unlike every other person who has been crucified, he didn't stay dead. God raised him up from the dead on the third day.

For those who believe, for those who trust in Jesus and his work on the cross, this directly applies to you.

He rescued you from the dreadful state of your trespasses and complete alienation from him.

In Christ, we were made alive again. In Christ, death is done away with because in Christ, God forgave us of our trespasses.

This means God does not hold your unfaithfulness of your past or your past rebellion against you anymore.

In Christ, you are made a new creation, no longer affected by death, but living a new life for Christ.

As you age, rather than rushing towards death, you're entering closer and closer to a new life in Christ where there's no pain, there's no sin, there are no tears.

It's a life that you've never lived before, but it starts now when you believe.

It's the beginning of the best life, and we're no longer hampered by sin nor its effects.

God makes us alive with Christ precisely by forgiving us of all our trespasses.

And how does God forgive us? God wipes away all of our record of trespasses by nailing it to the cross.

God wipes away all of our record of trespasses by nailing it to the cross.

After showing us how we are made alive with Christ, which is through forgiveness of all of our sins,

Paul explains that this forgiveness entails having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having it nailed to the cross.

Our forgiveness entails wiping out the handwriting of requirements that was against us.

I like the term the record of debt used in the English Standard Version because it specifies what kind of document, handwriting document we're talking about.

As God's created beings, we owe God our full allegiance. After all, he is the creator and we are the created.

We have no authority to go against what the creator wants the created to do. But we have been unfaithful to him.

We were dead in our trespasses. Instead of loving God with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, we love ourselves that way, thus selfishly making ourselves into gods, mini gods.

Because we actively offend this holy God, our record of debt against him accumulates, it grows.

This record is not like the monthly credit card payment you have to make, where it's possible to pay off paid off with a click of a button because you worked hard and you got your salary.

A better comparison is our national debt of $28 trillion or $86 ,000 per citizen.

It is so huge and heavy that it is unpayable. It is over 140 % of our

GDP, how much our nation makes per year. While the national debt is against other human beings, right, other countries, our debt is against God, which is more fearful.

While the nation creates goods and we still have a high GDP, there is no scent to our name before God.

We all stand morally bankrupt before this holy, holy God. Nowadays, debt is such a non -threatening concept because it seems everyone has debt, student loans, housing loans, car loans.

In this country, we have forgiving policies like Title 11 by which you declare yourself bankrupt and you don't owe that debt anymore or other debt forgiveness programs that the government offers.

That's why we have such a low view of debt. It doesn't trouble us. However, in the ancient days and even a couple hundred years ago, that was not so.

Debt was shameful and it would make you a social outcast. Debt was offensive and could lend you in prison.

The debtor's prison would force you to stay there and work off your debt until everything has been paid off.

We do not have that anymore. But imagine the Colossian Church knew of how serious debt is.

Now, before a holy God, any debt against him would take forever to pay off.

Any offense against this God would be extremely criminal and costly.

Any good that we do is just never good enough. Doing good works to pay off our debt against God would be like trying to throw a plastic water bottle from the helicopter to stop the wildfires in California.

Foolishly impossible. However, what does

God do with our debt? First, he wipes it off. He wipes the record clean.

He expunges it. But it is more than just a debt that is being paid off.

It is as if the memory of the debt is gone. It is no longer standing against us anymore.

It is blotted out. Even the ink smudge on the record is erased clean.

For people who declare bankruptcy in this country, even when the debt is gone, their credit score is horrendous.

There is an effect. There is a trail, record trail. Not so for Christians.

When God blotted out our record of sin against us, it was complete.

There is no longer any document of debt against God of our debt.

God does not hold your past sins or trespasses against you anymore.

And how did God do this? God did not just ignore our debt, nor did we print our way out of our debt.

No. Rather, God took on our debt and dealt with it himself.

And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. God decisively took all of our sins and nailed it to the cross.

It is precisely through Jesus' death on the cross that our debt was cleared.

Jesus, who had no debt of sin of his own, but only honor and glory to his name, willingly took on all of our sin and debt against God, and they were nailed on the cross with Christ.

And Jesus made the payment by dying on the cross. The one who owed nothing against God assumed the debt of those who owed everything against God so that we may be found righteous before the holy

God. He faced the punishment for our debt so that we would have a clear record in him.

And for those of you who do not trust Jesus yet, what more do you need?

When you trust Jesus, all your record of sin is expunged.

It's erased. In Christ, you are no longer your worst mistakes or the most wicked actions you've committed.

In Christ, that record has been done away with. It was nailed on the cross.

It was cleared away. It was blotted out, wiped clean. It is not up to you to clean the record.

You need not to get your life together before trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. If it were up to you, the record of sin against you still stands, and you're only writing more onto that list.

Start trusting Jesus who died for your sin now, and your record will be destroyed.

You will only be standing in Jesus' perfect record. For those of you who trust in Jesus already, is that how we live?

There may be nights when you stay awake because of your past sins. Oh, why did

I have to do that? Oh, why did I say this? The question is, what right do we have to hold any sin against ourselves when

God himself doesn't? How can we hold any of our past sins against ourselves when

Jesus cleared away all the record against us? We must not let ourselves be the judge, but let

God be the judge. If the unsleeping eye, the judge of the whole universe, has no record against you, then you're free from the past sin now and forevermore.

In Christ, you can silence your wandering, tireless mind because all the record of sin has been nailed to the cross.

When any doubt arises, ask yourself, is Jesus still hanging on the cross? Or was it truly finished when he cried out, it is finished?

Trust the words of Jesus that it is finished. Now, what did the removal of our sins and its record accomplish?

Christ victoriously conquered his enemies. This is a very powerful picture of what the cross accomplished in the spiritual realm.

Verse 15, having disarmed the principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

While verse 14 was the result of the cross in our personal lives, where no records are held against us, verse 15 unfolds the cosmic effect of the cross, the universal effect that happened when

Jesus died on the cross. So what happened when Jesus shed his blood for our sins?

Paul says it resulted in Jesus disarming Satan and his principalities, who had power over us through sin.

Remember, Satan literally means the accuser. Because of our sins,

Satan and his fallen angels enslaved us with our record of sin. It was a threatening record.

However, when Christ took on our sin, its record and sin itself nailed on the cross, he completely and effectively disarmed them.

Satan and his principalities have lost any hold on God's people.

How does Paul show this? He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Here, Paul uses an ancient idiom. In the ancient

Roman and Greek culture, when the king won the battle, the city would parade, the soldiers would parade through the city.

And what happened to the conquered enemies, who were disarmed? They would be tied up at the back of the parade in shame.

The crowd would be celebrating the victory that the king has achieved. And in fact, they would start throwing rotten vegetables and fruits at the enemies who are tied in the back, putting them to open shame, making a public spectacle of them.

Paul is saying this is what happened exactly in the spiritual realm, when Christ freed us from our sins.

This then raises the question for the Colossian church. Why then would you do rituals for these principalities?

Why worship the defeated and humiliated spiritual beings under Satan?

This is worse than rooting consistently for a losing sports team. At least that sports team might have a chance of winning at one point, right?

Maybe once a century. But not so these evil spiritual rulers.

They have no chance now that Christ vanquished them once and for all. And the irony of the cross has to be pointed out here.

In ancient Rome, only the worst of the criminals were crucified. It was not the quickest method of execution, because the purpose was not to kill, but to humiliate.

They ended up dying, of course, but the main purpose of the cross was utter humiliation for the one who's being crucified.

It was a mockery. However, it is ironic that Jesus, when the world tried to mock him the most, he ruled from the cross.

When Satan and his minions thought they have finally defeated the Son of God, Jesus utterly defeated them by destroying the power of sin and death that enslaved his people once and for all.

When Satan and his minions tried to humiliate the Son of God by placing him on the cross,

Jesus made a public spectacle of them as the biggest losers of the universe.

This means we do need to be much bolder about the cross. The cross is no longer a symbol of humiliation and shame, but to Christians, the cross is the symbol of the greatest victory the world has ever seen.

Christians, we are often publicly much bolder of our sports team winning than Christ who conquered sin and Satan.

Or of our political party winning than Christ who conquered sin and Satan.

We're more excited about a victory that lasts maybe one year or two than the ultimate victory that will and has changed the whole world forever for all eternity.

What Christ accomplished on the cross was the biggest victory and will be the biggest victory the world has ever seen.

People enslaved to their sins and their records could now finally be free through faith in Christ.

We belong to the king of kings who triumphed over his enemies victoriously.

The kings of the world, they send their people to fight their battles. The rulers of the world kill their own people whenever they go against their desire.

Not so this king. Christ, the cosmic conqueror, fought the battle alone, bruised and bloody, lifted up on the cross to save his people, to win his battle, to purchase his people from the enslavement of sin, to clear the record of any sin that is against them.

And he single -handedly won without any of our help.

He alone triumphed over all his enemies. And this is the victory which we call the gospel, the good news that we ought to share, we ought to be excited about.

This is better than the World Series, the World Cup, Super Bowl, all of them combined.

Christ the king freed his people from sin and death by taking their place of wrath and death on the cross.

And he reigns victorious because he is risen. That's the gospel.

And we proclaim Christ's victory excitedly. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you that we are under a winning king, king who will never be defeated, the king who died for his people, the king who didn't send his people to die for him but did the opposite because of love and because of his holiness.

And God, we pray that as Christ's people, we would live as victors, not as losers.

And we would stand up tall and be proud of the gospel message that we are given to share with everyone around.

Because we are on the winning side. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.