We finished on verse 10 so we pick up from verse 11 tonight
following through Colossae remember is modern day Turkey.
Paul didn't start the church. They haven't seen Paul Pafras
was the starter of it along with Laodicea.
It was a spring off from church at Ephesus where Paul spent a
good deal of time teaching and then handed it over to Timothy.
And so it was an outspring from Ephesus.
It was a great church Colossae, but it was under attack as any
church that seeks to speak the word of God.
The devil will send his agents there to try and break it and
destroy it. This 11 in him Jesus, you were
also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.
So as we read that immediately and circumcision is a difficult
subject, isn't it? I remember one time we had this
in a smaller church we were teaching at and and then in came
a whole group of people and we're in Romans and we're
talking just purely about circumcision, uncircumcision.
And I thought this is a great topic for visitors to arrive on
today. But notice here it gives us
straight understand in him were also you were also circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands and what it what
is that in the putting off of the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
It's interesting how circumcision came into being,
isn't it as the covenant with the nation Israel started.
We ever wondered why why why did God say circumcision?
You know, because man is sinful and and the particular area of
the anatomy where circumcision occurs is where man produces
life again. But the problem with man after
the fall of Adam is that the life that man continues to
produce is what sinful. And so this takes us back.
That's a bit of a foundation why circumcision was involved.
And so Paul is bringing up circumcision here to those in
Colossae. Paul moves and he's been
teaching about the Gnostics and he's going to move from the era
of the Gnostics. One group of people who are
elitists and said that they were they were in the know only them.
Did you know that the Jehovah Witnesses, the 144,000 which
they believe that they are, that that is actually full.
It was full quite a few years back.
Don't know who he is. There's you know what number of
you I'm 139,404. I don't know.
I don't know how they work that out.
But all those that have followed on from that now are going to be
those who in their thing will take up residency on earth.
And if they live well, they won't be annihilated.
It's a shocking religion, but that's where the Gnostic heresy
comes from, because to the Jehovah Witnesses, it's just
them. It's it's them and nobody else
is right. And so Paul now is moving to the
Judaizers who were bringing their false teaching to
Colossae, who were teaching that in order to be righteous before
God. And remember, the Gnostics were
saying, well, if you want to be righteous, you have to have this
extra special knowledge. Jesus isn't enough.
It's not because they have a different Jesus.
And Paul had spent most of chapter 1 and nearly my good
part of chapter 2 saying in him he, he's, he's God, he's deity.
In him you're complete. You don't need anything else.
So now another group Judaizes. We're teaching that in order to
be righteous, that is to be right with God, have a
relationship with God, that faith in Jesus Christ is what is
not enough. Now as we read this, we probably
think well, Gee, that's that's that's just in the old days.
I'm glad that's not around not both Gnosticism and legalism
exists today and infiltrate every church you see.
People will say, well, Jesus is good, but it's not enough.
You need something more, you need to do this, you need to
pray this way, you need to fast or you need to do this.
And they were saying, so in order for you to be, to be
saved, to be righteous, you must also the Judaizers were saying
you also had to adhere to the law, the law of Moses.
So you've got to be circumcised because you have to be look what
happened to Abraham. But they forget when was Abraham
circumcised after God said you're righteous.
It was a sign after of what had happened to Abraham, my God.
So you've got to be circumcised. The Judea eyes are saying, and
you've also got to keep the law. Faith in Jesus is not enough.
And, you know, the problem is, is legalism is, is good for
people who want to be religious. And, you know, in our flesh, our
old man, our old way, we like to be religious.
We, we that's why you know, the chapels and the, you know, the
great chapels that were built. And you walked in and you heard
the singing was woo, you know, and it was, oh, you feel I felt
very religious in there because it it, it, it, it feeds our
flesh. Paul said you don't need any of
it. You are complete in him.
It's enough. Jesus says enough.
And you have been circumcised, by the way Paul says, in whom
you are circumcised, but not the physical circumcision, not the
cutting off a small piece of flesh that the law required
under the law. But the circumcision of every
Christian is a true circumcision, which the sign of
circumcision actually was a symbol of what was supposed to
have happened already to Abraham's heart.
Circumcision that followed was something that already happened
to his heart. Our true circumcision is our
circumcision through Jesus Christ, where you renounce not
only a small portion of your body, but your entire flesh, the
whole old you. You say, well, how does that
happen? He was the tragic error of the
Jews because they were counting really on the physical
experience they still are today and not upon the spiritual, so
that they had been physically circumcised, but they were still
walking in the flesh. Well, you know, I'm circumcised,
I'm right with God, I'm done. I've fulfilled the stamp.
He's ticked me off. It's religion, not relationship.
It's works, not grace. And Paul said that totally
negates the physical ritual, because the physical ritual is
what's supposed to have happened to your heart.
The idea is to cut off the life of the flesh out of the old
Keith was cut off at the cross circumcision, and then not to
live after the flesh. Paul said if the Gentiles have
turned away from the life of the flesh and are living after the
Spirit, even they, though they may not have had the physical
right of circumcision because it was practised by the Jews, it is
accounted to them in God's eyes as circumcision because God is
looking at what the heart of a man.
And so Paul here affirms the same truth.
He's saying, believers, don't worry about this because you are
circumcised. How did that happen When Christ
out on the cross and you surrendered your old life, He
was cut off completely. So the true circumcision is that
of the Spirit within my heart when I turn away from the life
of the flesh to live after the Spirit through the faith and
power of Jesus Christ, I have been circumcised in God's eyes.
Paul's saying that is I have been now set apart to live after
the Spirit, before God, and that's what God counts.
He's not looking at the physical circumcision.
He says I'm looking at the heart.
The tragic thing about rituals and they they exist today,
physical rituals in particular, is that too often people begin
to substitute the ritual for the reality, sadly, in Catholicism.
And there are a lot, a lot of lovely people in Catholicism who
just don't know the word of God and they live under the power of
the Pope and, and his edict. But how many stories of her?
Well, they've had to go and send someone to get the last rites,
to receive the last rites. What does that do?
Or christen them somehow sprinkle the water in the ritual
of baptism. How many people today are
falsely trusting in the ritual of baptism for the reality?
So are you a Christian? Yeah, I was baptised.
Oh, actually I was christened. And so they tick it off.
When I was in the WA police, I had a lot of young men come to
me and say we just, we just want to get our kids christened, you
know, and I go, I, I don't christen people because the
Bible doesn't teach me my christening.
I'll do a baby dedication, but not oh, we just want to get our
kids christened because once I've got our kids christened,
we're good, He's good, she's good, we're good to go.
The ritual of baptism, as Paul is going to point out, he
actually is death to the old life, the old life of the flesh
that I might be in the risen Christ.
I die with him and I rise with him, living now after the Spirit
of God because as when I receive Christ as my Lord and Saviour, I
confess that I'm a Sinner. I God recognises that I died
with him and now he gives me what a new life.
I'm born again and the Holy Spirit now baptises me into the
body of Christ. I'm immersed in him and he and
me now. If I have been sprinkled when I
was a child and I was, or I've been dunked as an adult, but I'm
still living the old life as many Australians are, and I'm
still living after the things of the old life, then the physical
ritual means nothing. It's it's irrelevant.
But if I by the Spirit and living and walking after the
Spirit, the new life in Christ, I'm serving him, I'm loving him,
I'm praying to him, I'm seeking him, My life has changed.
You can see man, you, you, you're different now.
It may be that I was maybe, perhaps I was converted in the
Bush of Australia and there wasn't enough water to dunk me.
But that doesn't negate my salvation as some people say,
well, have you been baptised? Well, if you're not baptised,
you're not saved or the new life that I'm now living in.
Jesus Christ, the thief on the cross.
They didn't take him down and dunk him in the bang water and
then banging back up again, didn't they?
Lord today Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom.
Jesus said I I'll remember you today.
You'll be with me in paradise. No rituals, circumcision of the
heart because Peter says now does baptism save, but not for
the putting off of the filth of the flesh one Peter 321 so it
isn't the ritual, but it is hot the conscience towards God of
living and walking really after the Spirit of God.
Lord, what would you have me to do now?
He goes on to say there's 12. So we're circumcised and now
also we're buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are
risen with Him. How?
Notice how this has occurred
through the faith, and my Bible says through the faith of the
operation of God. Some of the Bibles say through
the effectual working energy of God, who has raised him from the
dead, that is the power of God, and you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
He has quickened together with Him, made alive together with
Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
Don't that. So Paul ties together these two
rituals that both symbolise much the same thing, circumcision,
baptism. To the Jew the ritual was
circumcision, which was to be the symbol that I'm going to
live after the Spirit, not after the flesh.
To the Christian baptism, what signifies the same thing?
Romans chapter 5 and 6, the new life after the Spirit as I'm
laid in the waters of baptism. When I come out, I'm saying to
everyone, what's happened? I'm doing this because my heart,
my old me, we're symbolically burying them, staying at one.
We're having a funeral service for the old me.
And as I come out of the water, I'm now walking in the newness
of life under the power and influence and direction of the
Holy Spirit. Now that only has meaning if
there's been a circumcision of my heart.
So to the Christian, baptism signifies the same thing.
The new life after the Spirit, the old life after the flesh
dominated by the flesh is dead. It's buried.
And now I'm going to live a new life after the Spirit.
And both of the rituals symbolise the same thing.
To the Jew it was circumcision, to the Christian it was baptism.
And that's the truth applies to both.
It is not the physical right that does it.
Circumcision, baptism doesn't do anything.
It is what has happened in my heart and in reality in my life.
So being dead in your sins, the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God has made you alive together with him having forgiven you all
trespasses. In Ephesians chapter 2, it is
the correlating verse here Paul says and you haven't been made
alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.
For in times past you walked according to the course of this
world. So we had to bury that old
person, that simple person. So the thing I love here is
though, having forgiven you all trespasses, your whole past has
been blotted out through your faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the thing that we can't comprehend sometimes because
we've plagued with the things that I've said, things that I
did, and we go, oh, every trespass, every sin has been
blotted out as a result of your faith in him.
Not only that, the law and these are the ordinances that he's
going to talk about, the law of Moses. 10 commandments you shall
have, Lord your God shall not steal, shall not lie, shall not
covered all those things and we broke on all of them the law
which these people were trying to push upon the Colossians, the
ordinance of the law which Peter says in Acts chapter 15.
We can't, we can't we, we can't live these things.
Remember the Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and Caesarea.
Peter was preaching up there. Acts chapter 10 and the spirit
fell and Peter was halfway through his message and the
spirit and, and the Cornelius and the Roman band and the all
the Romans Gentiles got saved and filled with the spirit.
So there was a big powwow in in Jerusalem about what's going on
here. And Peter said, well, if this
is, they said it, well this is happening, then they got to get
baptised, they got to be circumcised and they got them
start eating this and not eating that.
All the news, Peter said that's that lay upon them a burden that
we, even our fathers haven't been able to.
We don't do that. We we crumble in that area.
So the ordinance of the law, the observ observances of the
Sabbath days, the dietary laws, the types of meat that you can
eat, and the various traditions of the Jews.
As far as the dietary laws, you can't have milk and you can't
have meat together. He said, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances, verse 14.
That was against us, which was contrary to us.
And he, Jesus, took it out of the way.
What did He do it to it? He nailed it to the cross.
The law used to condemn us. So Christ here, this is the end
of the law to those who believe. That's why people say we're not
under the law, but they don't know what they're talking about.
We're not under the law because Jesus nailed it on the cross.
It has nothing to do with us. The law could never make you
righteous. This is why it's nailed to the
cross. The law could only condemn you
because it told you where you failed.
It was contrary to you. It was condemning you
continually. Oh, yeah.
I haven't done this. I know.
And I broke that. And I broke that rule.
You know, we used to call them the do's and don'ts.
Isn't that why people didn't go to church?
Oh, I, you know, I, I and I don't do this.
I do do that. And I, you know, and the walls
would collapse if I walked into church.
That's because they collapsed under the wall.
Now Jesus has blotted out these handwritings of ordinances which
were against us. Thus, I'm not under the law.
It's been put aside because it doesn't make you righteous and
has nothing to do with me. I'm not under a righteousness
that is affected by rules and regulations.
My righteousness, my standing before God has nothing to do
with my actions. My righteousness has to do with
my faith. If you stand before God by the
do's and don'ts, you'll stand before God with a dirty, filthy
clothes, filthy, filthy clothes. But if I stand before God in
Christ's righteousness, unclothed, the robe of
righteousness, and I'm not judged.
So my righteousness has to do with my faith.
Now this living faith will produce actions.
And this is where I'm troubled today because I think many
people come to church and I think because they're going
through the rituals. I go to Calvary Chapel, I carry
a Bible occasionally and I go to a men's or a women's meeting
occasionally. And I, I teach Sunday school or
I do this or whatever. I think, well, that's what gets
me by no, it doesn't. Faith will produce actions and
it's not those actions that it's talking about.
It's talking about the way that you live, whether you're living
in sin or not. James, chapter 2, verse 17,
James says that's also faith by itself.
If it does not have works, if we can't see that you're a
Christian, it's dead. Many people are coming to church
and you know what? They're dead.
They they're hanging on to rituals.
But someone will say, well, you have faith and I have works.
Show me your faith without your works and I'll show you my faith
by my works. You'll be able to tell I'm a
Christian by how I live. You believe that there is one
God. You do well, even the demons
believe and tremble. But do you want to know a
foolish man that faith without works is dead?
And if I say I have faith and yet my works are not in
correspondence with my mouth and my words, then I am making a
false boast of faith and I'm going to get caught out In
Matthew Chapter 7 says when Jesus returns, people come, oh,
but I, I promise on your name. And I and I and I did this in
your name and I did this in your name and I did this Jesus depart
from me workers of iniquity and righteousness.
I never knew you. I don't know who you are.
And that means I do not depend upon my works as righteous basis
in my standing before God. I don't say, well, I'm righteous
because I pray so many times a day.
I'm more righteous than you because I read my Bible and you
don't. No, I'm not righteous because of
what I have done or what I haven't done.
I'm righteous because God has imputed righteousness to my
account because I'm believing and trusting in Jesus Christ
completely. Now, because I am believing and
trusting in Jesus Christ, I really want to know him.
And I read the Bible. I'm not told to read the Bible.
I love reading the Bible. You see, there's a difference.
Oh well, you know, can I be a Christian and can I do if you're
asking such questions, step away, go away and and really
think about coming before the Lord, because if you're coming
before the Lord and I want can I still do?
And will I lose my if I'm you're sounding a little a little bit
like Lot's wife shouldn't be because you should consider that
all that you were before and what you did is as Paul says was
his life manure. I am righteous because God has
imputed righteousness to my account because I'm believing
and trusting in Jesus Christ completely.
Now, because I'm believing and trusting in Jesus Christ, I want
to know him. And so I do read the word
because I do trust in him. I do pray and I love him.
I do communicate with him. I pray every day.
I want to speak with Him every day, I love him, and I want to
keep in constant communication with Him and in constant
fellowship with Him. But that doesn't make me
righteous. That is only the result of the
fact that I'm righteous through my faith in Jesus.
It's important that we distinguish that, vitally
important that we distinguish that.
Why is that? Because it is so easy for you
and I to relate our righteousness to our activities
and to our works. Well, I preach every Sunday.
That doesn't make you righteous. It's all about Jesus.
You see, when I look to my works, I'm always putting myself
in position of Oh, so you, you watch TV, do you?
I don't. Oh, what Bible translation do
you read? Oh, I don't read that one.
And so when you pray, are you on your knees?
You're not OK. And so we're always judging
others who aren't doing as much as I'm doing.
You become a Pharisee and see, that makes me a little better.
That makes me a little more righteous and also puts me in
the position of sort of judging when, you know, they just don't
really have it, do they? So it's a dangerous place to be.
God doesn't want me to be there, But when my righteousness is
just through my faith in Christ, I can't boast in my
righteousness, nor can I boast in the works that I'm doing.
You have a great marriage. You're a good husband.
You're a good father. No, God's.
God's been wonderfully kind to me.
Yeah, that's the truth. Galatians 614.
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me
and I to the world. And if you come across someone
who is boasting in their efforts, boasting in their sacr.
So how, how how long have you been fasting for?
Oh, you only went 30 days? Yeah, I went 40.
You'll get there one day. Then you have a classic example.
You see, God has made me righteous.
His righteousness is something he imputes to me through my
faith. It totally eliminates boasting.
It's all God had nothing to do with it.
So when you get people who are just always talking about how
good Jesus is, how wonderful Jesus is, and I, I don't know
what I do without the Lord, the Lord is so good.
So bless me. Then you know that person has a
real faith because they're just talking about the Lord.
They're not talking about themselves at all.
So Jesus brought an end to the rule that the law had over man,
nailed it to the cross. That's the end of the law.
It was a schoolmaster until the time of Christ.
When Christ came, law was no more valid.
The law told us we need a saviour.
When the Saviour came, we don't need that anymore.
So that no man can be made righteous by keeping the law.
You can't. You can only be righteous
through believing in Jesus Christ.
Verse 15 and having spoiled the principalities and the powers,
now we read that he had authority over these
principalities and powers. Now we're told that he spoiled
them or he defeated them and he made a shell of them openly
through the cross, trying triumphing over them in it, in
the cross. So the cross of Jesus Christ is
the place where victory over Satan was complete.
Satan not often has tables turned on him, doesn't he?
He's not omniscient. He doesn't know all things, and
he falls into the trap so many times.
You remember in the Book of Esther how the fellow called
Haman, he wanted to get more to Ki, you know, Hung, and he was
going to get, they were going to kill all the Jews and wipe out
the Jews in one day. He was planning this, so he
built this gallows 90 feet high so that the whole city would see
more to Ki hanging under Haman's rule.
He's going to kill all the Jews. Then the report came about what
happened. Haman ended up hanging on those
gallows himself, Satan bringing Jesus to the cross, raising up
the people against him. But it was at the cross where
Jesus defeated him. For the law had a claim on us
because we had violated the law, and thus we had to die.
Satan had a claim on us because we had served Satan and the
wages of serving. Serving Satan is death.
But Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law.
He redeemed us. Here's the other thing He did.
From the power, not only of just sin, but from the power of
Satan, He purchased us. Remember?
He took us out of the Kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of
His beloved Son. And He paid the price because it
cost. He died in our place.
He spoiled the principalities. He triumphed over them.
Then Paul says this, and I'll hurry.
Let no man therefore judge you in meat drink, respect of a holy
day, the new moon, or the Sabbath days.
These were all under the law. They weren't to eat certain
kinds of meats. They were to prepare the meat in
a special way that holy days, Sabbath days, new moons.
Paul was saying don't let anyone judge you in these things.
They no longer apply to me and my relationship with God. 7th
Day Adventists meet on a Saturday.
My relationship with God is not enhanced by me keeping a
particular diet. I can't diet myself to be more
righteous. I'm not taking bacon anymore,
you know, and I'll have to admit this because I will.
When I was a new Christian, I really want to serve the water.
I mean, and I love bacon. I was a meat inspector.
I can get bacon, as much bacon and meat as you want.
I, you know, we, we lived on steak and meat and everything.
And I thought, oh man, I'm reading through the Old
Testament, man, I really want to get right with God.
Stop bacon. Don't eat pork because the Jews
don't eat pork. So I stopped it.
This is not very good. I don't like this.
And it didn't make any difference to me.
It was stupid. But that's how we get without
understanding what the righteousness of God has done.
Someone should have come up to me and slapped me in the face of
have a bacon sandwich. Jesus has done everything for
you. But these were only a shadow of
the things that come the Sabbath day.
Or do we have to have a Sabbath day?
No, the rest Sabbath day was a rest day, wasn't it?
So to finish this, where do we get our rest now?
We rest in Christ. We no longer having to struggle
to be right with God. We rest in Him.
And when we rest in him, you know what?
We have grace. And when we have God's grace, we
have peace. How do we get it?
All faith we've given it.