That's why I picked that song.
Oh, my. My, oh, my. The name of the message
tonight is Blotted Out. Blotted Out. Colossians chapter
2. We'll be in verse 14. But I'm going to read the context
verses 10 to 15. Verses 10 to 15. And this is written to the Colossian
believers, so this is written to believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul writes by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, And ye are complete in Him, which is the
head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, and put off the body of
the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried
with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him him
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from
the dead. And you, believers, Colossian
believers, and us, we who believe, and you, being dead in your sins,
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. He paid it all. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Now last week, we looked at verse
14 where we saw our natural state. We saw our natural state when
we come into this world. and we saw our natural state
before the Lord saved us, dead. And we looked at the Greek word
for that, and the Greek word there means dead. It means we
have no ability. A dead man can't walk an aisle. A dead man can't pray. A dead
man knows nothing. He's dead. He knows nothing of
God. He knows nothing of the things
of Scripture. They're dead. And then we saw that believers
in Christ are quickened by the Holy Spirit of God. The dead
are made alive. The dead spiritually are made
alive spiritually. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. And then we have a vital union
with Christ, right? Because we're in Christ. We're
in Him. And we finish looking at the
fact that in and through Christ, we have been forgiven all trespasses. That's good news for sinners.
That's good news for this sinner. All trespasses. All sins. Heaven forgiving you all trespasses. Well, tonight in verse 14, we
see Paul continuing to tell the Colossian believers What they
have in Christ, as opposed to what the false teachers are claiming, that you have to do these certain
things to be saved. Paul will tell the Colossian
believers what Christ has done for them, in addition to all
their sins being forgiven. That all the handwriting of ordinances
that was against them. is blotted out. We will look
at what that means. Blotted out. That's why I've
picked that song, Jesus Pays It All. We'll see why. We'll see why. Okay, let's look
at our verse. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. It was our adversary. That's
what the contrary to us means. And took it out of the way, nailing
it to His cross. Here before us in our verse tonight,
Paul, continuing from verse 13, the truth of our forgiveness,
here he illustrates it under the figure of a debt. A debt
that's being blotted out, but a debt that we could never pay. Remember a few weeks back in
the Sunday morning message, we looked at if you offend in one
point of the law, you're guilty of it all, right? So there's
a debt we can't pay, right? The law has a claim upon us,
justly. Now think on this. The false
teachers were teaching that certain ordinances and certain traditions,
you must do in order to be saved. Or again, the Gnostics were teaching
that they have a special knowledge that they had to impart. All
this is additions to what Christ has done. And as I said before,
all works-based religions are boiled down to that. They add
to the work of Christ. And they add what you do. But we preach what Christ has
done. We believe and rest in what Christ has done. In Him
alone. And in studying scripture, and
in studying the gospel, we are equipped to know what the counterfeit
is. Remember? What Brother Norm said,
I shared it with you before, what do the bank tellers study?
They study the real to know the counterfeit. I don't have to
tell you about all the religions and there's guys out there that
have these apologetics ministries and they get into everything
that these folks believe and what they believe. We don't have
to get into that. We study the real. We can identify
the counterfeit right off the bat. Right off the bat. Not saying
that that stuff's all useless, but we're gonna... Grace preachers
and grace churches, we study the real. And then we know what
the counterfeit is. We know what the counterfeit
is. So these teachers were adding to the finished work of Christ.
Adding something that you must do. And Paul is continuing to
show the all-sufficiency of Christ, the all-supremacy of Christ,
that salvation is in Him and Him alone. The false teachers
were teaching that a believer must be circumcised. That's obvious
when we read verse 11. We see that. Telling the believers
that they must be circumcised. But Paul tells the believers
that they're circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.
They don't need the traditions of man. And the false teachers
were trying to enforce Judaistic ceremonies upon the Colossian
believers. Turn, if you would, to Matthew
15. They were trying to force ceremonies
upon the Colossian believers. They were adding rules of their
own, just like the Pharisees did. And we see this in the writings
of the Gospel. Look at Matthew 15. Look at verse
2. Why do Thy disciples transgress
the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands
when they eat bread. And then go down to verse 34.
You see, they've admitted right there that they're following
the traditions of the elders. They're following the traditions
of men, beloved. Out of their own mouths. Look
at Matthew 15, verse 34. Or actually, no, I'm sorry. Matthew
15, verses 4-9, I'm sorry. For God commanded, saying, Honor
thy father and mother, and he that curses father or mother,
let him die the death. Well, before that, the Lord said,
But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition? Verse 5, But ye say, Whosoever
shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or mother,
he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment
of God, of none effect by your tradition. Of none effect. Well, did Isaiah prophesize of
you, saying, Thy people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth,
and honoreth Me with their lips. But their heart is far from Me.
But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men." Well, we saw Paul combat that heavenly. And think of this,
Paul used to teach these things. And now he's redeemed by the
precious blood of the Lamb, and he's teaching against it. He's
teaching against it. So the false teachers at Colossus
were doing this. They were adding tradition and
ceremonies, and they were also adding their own rules. Their
own rules. Now think of this. Let's look
at our verse again. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to His cross. The law was an adversary. was our adversary. And the law
is an accuser of transgressors. It confronts men with this stern
statement, for as many of the works of the law are under the
curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth,
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Galatians 3.10. So the law has a demand upon every human
being. Hendrickson says this, the handwriting
that's against us is clearly the law. The law is against us. It's our adversary. We're condemned
by it, aren't we? In our natural state. Turn, if
you would, to Ephesians 2. So the handwriting that was against
us is the whole law of God. His ceremonial law that was given
to Moses when He was with God on the mount, all of them, including
the written law, the Ten Commandments, the moral law, which was and
is written on the hearts of all men and women who come into this
world by virtue of our physical birth. It's our adversary. It's the handwriting of ordinances
that is against us. That's contrary to us. Look at
Ephesians 2. Verses 13 to 17. Look at this. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh. Look at this. By the blood
of Christ. You're bought near. By the blood
of Christ. We were far off. We were Gentiles. We're way off, hey. For He is
our peace. Christ is our peace. Who hath
made both one, that's Jew and Gentile, and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances. There it is right there. For
to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace. See
the handwriting of ordinances that was given to us. The law
of commandments contained in ordinances. And that He might
reconcile both, both Jew and Gentile believers in Christ,
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby, and came and preached peace to you, which were far
off, and to them that were nigh." We were far off and they were
nigh. So the handwriting that was against
us is the whole law of God. The ceremonial law. The moral
law. which again is written on our
hearts. It's against us. It condemns us. It's the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. And let
us remember this. When we think of this here, this
statement, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
think of this. Remember Belshazzar? Remember Belshazzar in the Old
Testament? Remember the hand? Thou art weighed in the balances
and found wanting. That's where we're at before
we're saved. We're weighed in the, you know,
I used to have this view that's not even biblical,
but I didn't know God, that God was going to weigh me. And that since I wasn't an axe
murderer, I wasn't as bad as the guy down the street or those
guys I read about in newspapers or see on TV, that my good, all
my good would outweigh my bad. And you know, you go to heaven.
And then the Lord, as he's drawn, starts to show you the scriptures. When he's drawn his people, and
you see that there's none righteous, no not one. And He makes you,
He teaches you, He shows you that you're weighed in the balances
and found wanting. And you flee to Christ. And you
flee to Christ. So the handwriting against us
is the whole ceremonial law of Moses with its ordinances, its
commandments, its laws, and plus the moral law. Again, we're weighed
and found wanting. We're weighed and found wanting.
Romans 3.19 says this in light of this weighed and found wanting.
Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law." Who's under the law? Every single human
that's born into this world. There was only one who wasn't
under the law, and that's Christ. But every son of Adam and daughter
of Adam were under the law. So what does the Scripture say?
It saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God, weighed
and found wanting. Wade and found one. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. None but Christ
could put away this handwriting. None but Christ could put away
this handwriting against us. But glory be to God, he's done
it. Now why couldn't we put away the handwriting? Because we can't
satisfy the law of God. And we can't satisfy the justice
of God by our works. But he did. He did it for his
people. He did it for we who believe. Hebrews 10, 9, we looked at this
on Sunday. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 9. It took the perfect life of Christ. It took the perfect sacrificial
death to put away our sins, to put away the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us. And the Lord Jesus came to this
earth. He came to this earth both to live as a substitute
of his people and to die as a substitute of his people. That's why he
came. And here in our text we see the
results of his life and his death. In the pain, not only of our
punishment, in verse 13 we say, we see heaven forgiven you, all
trespasses, but also, beloved, but also obliterating the debt
that was against us. Obliterating the debt that was
against us. In God's people, we rejoice. We rejoice in this. Oh, I hope
we can leave here tonight rejoicing. Paul tells the Colossian believers
who are being harassed by false teachers, right? And they are.
They're being harassed by these false teachers. These worksmongers
of their day. And we have worksmongers in our
day, don't we? And they harass us too. They
tell you you've got to do something to be saved. They're nothing
but worksmongers. Paul tells the Colossian believers
Again, he's being harassed by these people who are trying to
yoke the Colossian believers under the law. The very thing
that is against us. Paul tells them that the handwriting
of ordinances that were against them, against the Colossian believers,
has been wiped away. covered, obliterated by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all those words, wiped away,
covered over, obliterated are the Greek meaning for this word.
Blotted out for these two words. This is good news for sinners. Good news for sinners. Blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. which was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Now that we have looked at what
those handwritings are, let us look back at the beginning of
this verse to the words, blotting out. Blotting out. My, oh, my. Now the Greek word
for blotting out is exolefo, exolefo. And it means this, wipe,
cover over, smear, means literally to completely wipe off. Literally, exolefo, or exolefo means to remove by
wiping off, like you'd wipe a blackboard. When you write on a blackboard and you take one of them erasers
and you wipe it, you never see that again, do you? Now, you
may rewrite something on the blackboard, but what you wrote
and what you wiped off is gone. It's gone. This Greek word has an underlying
meaning. as when a blackboard is erased. Oh my, this makes my heart sing. The Word was applied to the process
of obliterating writing on any material. Some of its uses in
Scripture retain this literal meaning. Turn, if you would,
to Revelation 7. Revelation chapter 7. Some of
the uses in scripture retain this literal meaning, but most
uses speak of a figurative blotting out or wiping off. The idea in
all its uses is to cause something to cease. To cause something
to cease by obliterating or eliminating any evidence. God bless us, eh? To cause something
to cease. So the handwriting of ordinances
that were against us, right? Have been obliterated. Have been,
or are ceased by eliminating any evidence. The same Greek word is used twice
in the book of Revelation. And once in the book of Acts,
we'll turn to Acts 3 later on, but let's look at Revelation
7, verse 17. Revelation 7, verse 17. And then I'll have you turn to
Revelation 21, verse 4. The same Greek word is used in
this. And I'll tell you where it is.
And it means, again, to cease by obliterating or eliminating
any evidence. Think of this. Revelation 7,
verse 17. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into
living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away exilephel. for wipe away, ex aleifo, to
cease, obliterate, eliminating any evidence, all tears from
their eyes. My oh my. And then Revelation
21.4. Look at this one too. And God shall wipe away all..."
Wipe away again. Exilephel. "...tears from their
eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are
passed away." That's where our dear brother Joel is. My, oh my. And then turn to Acts
chapter 3. Now, look for us who are in this
present time still upon this earth. And we're going to look
at the tense a little bit in this blotting out and I think
it will bless you. I think it will bless you. We'll
look at the tense later on of the Greek word. Look at Acts
chapter 3. Now remember, this is to cease
by obliterating or eliminating any evidence. To wipe it off,
right? Like erasing a chalkboard. Okay,
look at this. Acts 3.19. Repent ye therefore,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. Exilefo? That your sins may be blotted out. Exhalate. To cease their obliterating.
The evidence is being eliminated. We could just sit here, couldn't
we? Oh my. When the times of refreshment
shall come from the presence of the Lord. So the Greek word
is used to denote the act by which a law or deed of obligation
is cancelled. The word here means also to expunge. I had a friend of mine who got
in with a bad crowd and had something happen. He ended up in a federal
prison for a little while. A friend of mine that was in
Oregon and the Lord saved him. He's a sovereign grace man. The
Lord saved him and has an amazing testimony about what he came
through. But he talked about getting his felony record expunged. And when I heard that, we talked
a little bit about it, but today I actually looked up the word.
I actually looked up the word to see In English, what it means, and
it means to erase or remove completely. Exileful. Oh my, blotted out. The sins and iniquities of God's
people are exileful. Gone. That's why God doesn't remember
them anymore against us. And we're still sinners, aren't
we? But you see the marvel of this? And not only are our sins
blotted out, but the handwriting of ordinance that was against
us is blotted out. That which could charge us This is why, and think on this. If there was a charge that could be bought
against us, then we would face judgment. But there's no condemnation to
those in Christ Jesus. Why? Because they're blotted
out. Oh my. The punishment. Now do you see why we're saying
Jesus paid it all? He's gone. He paid everything
God demanded for the sins of his people. This is what the Lord did. This
is what the Lord did for us. The law had a rightful claim
upon us. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. We have a debt that must be paid.
The Lord Jesus Christ dies in the place of his people. Dies
in the place of his people. And the debt that we owe, the
debt that you and I owe, is paid in full, brother. Is paid in
full. He's blotted out. He not only
paid our debt, he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us. The evidence that would have
condemned us. Oh, my. It's wonderful. It's
wonderful. It's wonderful. What a God. What a Savior. What a God and
a Savior. The punishment due for my debt,
the punishment due for your debt, who believe, is paid in full. In the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, that was contrary to us, that was an adversary
to us, has been wiped. Erased. Erased like a chalkboard. Removed. And they cannot be found again. What a salvation. What a salvation. Vincent adds this about the Greek. The word carries the sense of
a removal, hence to smear out or to wipe away. Words that would also be close
to it are blotted out, wiped away, obliterated. These are
all underlying Greek words or Greek meanings for this same
word. Blotted out, wiped away, obliterated,
completely expunged. Now the Greek word is in the
Aorist tense. In this picture, a past completed
action. A past completed action. The blotting out was accomplished
by Christ on Calvary's grounds. My oh my. And Paul, Paul here,
in this context, pictures God blotting out, totally erasing,
right? The certificate of death. Our
sin. Gone. Gone. And Paul, in verse 13, when he
said, Heaven forgiven, you all trespasses, about God's grace being manifested
in the free forgiveness of the Colossian believers. And the
fact, the fact that all their trespasses in Christ were forgiven. All of them. And you being dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. And here
in verse 14, He adds to the wonderful pardon of all our sins in Christ
by telling the Colossians and we who are reading here tonight, that the means of this forgiveness is that Christ died as our substitute. See, he's contrasting how it's
nothing to do with you. The false teacher's telling the
Colossians, you've got to do this. Paul's saying, no, this
is all done by Christ. He did it all. See, we study
the real to know the counterfeit. He's telling the Colossian believers
that this forgiveness is that, again, Christ died as our substitute
and that the canceling of the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us is by the death of Christ in our place. He has
obliterated the handwriting that was against us. That was against
us. Now, sin in Scripture, turn if
you would to Mark chapter 6. Sin in Scripture, and also put
your finger in Luke 11, sin in Scripture is frequently accounted
a debt. A debt. Look at Matthew chapter
6 verse 12. Matthew chapter 6 verse 12 and
Luke chapter 11 verse 4. Matthew 6, verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. Look over in Luke 11. It says, and forgive us our debts.
That's not like a debt that you owe to someone down the street
or something. Look at this. This is our prayer to the Father. Look at Luke 11-4. And forgive
us our sins. Well, over in Mark it says, and
forgive us our debts. See, it's pictured. Our sins
are pictured as our debts. And forgive us our sins for we
also Forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not
into temptation but deliver us from evil. So the believer in Christ has
had the debt paid and the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us obliterated by the death of Christ in our place. The believer
in Christ has been emancipated. We're emancipated from the guilt
of sin and from the penalty of sin, not the presence. Brother
Joe is now emancipated from the presence of sin. It's in glory. We who remain here upon this
earth, we're not emancipated from the presence, are we? We're
not free from the presence. But beloved, we are free right
now from the guilt of sin and from the penalty of sin. Why?
Because Christ paid it all. Let's look at our text again. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. Now how was this done? How were
our sins forgiven? And the handwriting which was
against us obliterated? Oh, it's obliterated by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text continues. And took
it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. nailing it to his
cross. The law of commandments with
all its requirements has been fulfilled by Christ. We who believe
are now discharged from the law. Now folks will say, you're all
a bunch of antinomians. No. No, we love the law of God. It's holy and it's from our God
and our King. We just know we can't fulfill
it. but we know one who did it for us. And again, the love of
Christ constrains us, doesn't it? I think it was Brother Norm
who said, the Holy Spirit never lead us contrary to the law,
but praise be to God, beloved, the law of commandments with
all its requirements has been fulfilled by Christ, and we who
believe are now discharged from the law. The handwriting of ordinances
that was against us is being obliterated. My. The words, took it out of the
way, mean that Christ has abolished it. He's abolished it, beloved. We have before us the complete
destruction of the law regarded as a code of rules and regulations.
We are free in Christ. Free in Christ. The work of Christ
was consummated, completed, finished on Calvary's cross. And we see
in our verse We'll see in our verse next week that our Lord,
He's a conqueror and victor, beloved. He's triumphed over
our sins, and He's triumphed over princes and principalities.
Beloved, Christ has prevailed. He's prevailed. And He's a conquering
King in glory. Right now. Right now. And we see here once again before
us, we have bought before us tonight by the Apostle Paul,
and in the study so far, we have bought before us a perfect Redeemer. An absolute perfect Redeemer. Perfect and all-sufficient Savior. The One who has all supremacy
and the One who receives all the preeminence. See now why
we say we give Him all the glory? He's the one who's deserving
of it all. Look what He's done for us. Oh, He's a perfect Savior. If any man be in Christ, beloved,
he's a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away.
All things have become new. As God ceased from His works
on the Sabbath day, we cease from our works, and we cease
from our labors, and we rest in Christ. And this is what Paul's
pointing the cloche in believers to. You are complete in Christ. And this is what He's done for
you. He's forgiven you all trespasses. He's obliterated the handwriting
of ordinances that was against you. Just rest. Just rest. My, what a God we have. What
a God we have. Our state of spiritual deadness
has passed away. Now we're learning the things
of Christ as the Holy Spirit teaches us. Our state of spiritual
blindness has passed away. Now we see Christ. Now we see
Christ. Our state of spiritual deafness
has passed away. Now we hear the Shepherd's voice
in the preaching of the Gospel. My, oh my. And think of this, the old covenant
of works with all the ceremonies and commandments of the law has
passed away. The fear of death and the fear
of God's wrath has passed away. We have a brand new life because
of the sovereign quickening power of God. We have spiritual eyes because
God has enlightened our minds. And He has given us eyes to see. He's given us the eye of faith
to look to Christ. To see the glory of God in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. To love the one who we didn't
love before. Oh my. It's all the work of God.
It's all His work. It's all His doing. We have been
delivered from the old covenant of works. We've been delivered
from the curse of the law because Jesus Christ died upon the cross. And God has revealed to us that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant
for us. By faith, by faith, we see Jesus
as the one who has redeemed us from the curse of the law. We
look to Him, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on the tree. All the Jewish rites, now
think of this, all the Jewish rites were shadows of gospel
blessings. Just shadows. Shadows from the
Old Testament, which find all their substance in Christ. All
in Him. They're shadows. He's the substance,
beloved. He's the substance. And God makes
all things beautiful in His time. And we see everything through
the eyes of faith. Faith that looks to Christ as
the creator of all things. Now to close, here are some good
reasons to rejoice from our text tonight and from some of the
texts over the last few weeks. Let's look in verse 13. Here's
some reasons to rejoice. And you being dead, in verse
13, we who are dead in our sins, dead to the things of God, are
now what? Alive in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Look at this. Hath He quickened together with
Him? We're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. He has operated
upon us with circumcision made without hands. born again by
the Holy Spirit of God. Oh, that gives us a reason to
rejoice. Another reason to rejoice, having
forgiven you all trespasses. All of them. All of them. Oh my. All the believer's sins
are forgiven. Every single one of them. Even
the ones we haven't committed yet. And think of this, too.
How many sins do we do and we don't even know we do? All forgiven. All forgiven. There's not one left behind.
Not one. And how? How are they forgiven?
By the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. By his precious
blood. By his death upon the cross.
And think of this, another reason to rejoice. The law has no claims
on the believer. No claims on the believer. as
all its demands have been fulfilled in Christ. All of them. Absolutely
fulfilled in Christ as our substitute. When he died upon the substitute,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, that was contrary to us, which was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. What forgiveness the believer
has in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were dead in sins and He's
made us alive spiritually. God has forgiven us all our sins,
all our trespasses in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
alone. We are redeemed by His precious blood. The handwriting
of ordinances that was against us has been obliterated by His
death. The Holy Spirit has in our text
made use of various expressions to show that there is nothing
in the law standing against the saints. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. The handwriting
that was against us has been blotted out and cannot be read. All the charges against us are
wiped out. Wiped away. Obliterated. And
cannot be seen. And cannot be seen. It is nailed
to the cross of Christ. And is torn to pieces so that
nothing can ever be produced to condemn the believer. In Christ it has been wiped away. The charges against God's elect
have been obliterated by the death of Christ and the shedding
of His precious blood to pay those demands. Christ, by once
offering Himself a sacrifice on the cross, has disarmed the
law, has disarmed the law against the believer in taking away its
condemning power. You know, it was a customary
of old, especially in Asia, to pierce canceled debts with nails
so they couldn't be read, to pierce canceled debts with nails
so they could never be bought against those who were the debtors. And Christ, by his satisfaction
of the law in the believer's place, did not only discharge
us from the condemnation of the law, but he affectionately, with
the nails which he himself was crucified, by interpretation,
by picture, fastened the handwriting of ordinances to his cross and
abolished the ceremonial law in every regard against us. The debt is fully paid. Jesus paid it off. He paid them. This is good news for sinners.
Oh, my. Oh, my. The debt was fully paid
at Calvary's Cross by the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn, if you would,
to Hebrews 9. And we're finished with these
verses. The ransom price demanded was paid by Christ Himself. And
He Himself was the ransom. I found a ransom. Have you? It's
Christ. It's Christ. Oh my. He paid the ransom price and
He was the ransom for His people. He put away their sin and praised
to be the God. Salvation is accomplished. It's
accomplished. You remember the tense of the
Greek word was that this is done. This is finished. And Christ
did it at Calvary's cross. He blotted out. He blotted out
the handwriting of ordinance that was against His people.
Look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the
world. Remember? He did this once. Once. By the sacrifice of himself. We know that. We're going to
work once. But now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin. How? By the sacrifice
of himself. He put away sin. He put it away. He paid all that God demanded
for the sins of His people. And then look a little bit up
in verse 12. He obtained eternal redemption
for His people. And it's only in the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him alone. Look at Hebrews 9, verse 12.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood. He shed His blood. He died upon
the cross. But by His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place. Look at this. Having obtained. Having obtained. He prevailed. He's a successful Savior. Having
obtained. What? Eternal redemption. If
you're a believer, for us. Praise be to God. Praise His
mighty name. Jesus paid it all. Gracious Heavenly
Father, we come before Thy throne rejoicing in the salvation that
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We marvel, Lord Jesus. We marvel. And how you blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. How you forgave all our trespasses
and sins. And we know that every single
one of our sins was future at Galilee's cross. And therefore
we know that all our sins are forgiven. All of them. Because
scripture says, heaven forgiven you all your trespasses. All
of them. We marvel in our amaze, we who are sinners, that we're
saved by the grace of God in Christ. That You, You chose us,
that You drew us, that You saved us. Oh, we pray You'd use the
message to save Your lost sheep, that You'd draw them to Thee,
we pray. But we pray most of all that
You'd be glorified, that You'd be magnified, and may we think
upon this wonderful, precious truth. that the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, not only are all our sins forgiven,
but that the handwriting of ordinances that was against us has been
obliterated, has been wiped away, has been erased. Oh, praise be
to God. May you be glorified in Jesus'
name. Amen.