This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions and Day 3 of our Look Together through
Colossians Chapter 2. In a minute I want to read for you verses 11 to 15 of
Colossians 2, but before that, before reading these verses, let me remind you of
the false teaching that was running rampant through the Colossian Church, the
teaching that was wearing away at their faith for those that fell under the
captivity of this teaching. Because with this false teaching in mind, the
answers that Paul gives and the verses that we're going to read today take on
greater clarity.

So let me remind you of what this false teaching was all about. It had five
specific qualities to it. Number one, they wanted to teach men an additional
philosophy, a human philosophy.

Number two, they wanted to introduce a system of astrology. Number three, they
wanted to impose circumcision on Christians because they felt like that keeping
of the Jewish law was still important. Number four, they wanted to get people to
adhere to ascetic rules and regulations, things that you couldn't do, a lot of
do's and don'ts.

And number five, they wanted to introduce the worship of angels. Now with that
in mind, let me read verses 11 to 15. But with the circumcision done by Christ,
having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in
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 all your sins, having canceled the
written code with its regulations that was against us and stood opposed to us.
He took it away, nailing it to the cross.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of
them, triumphing over them by the cross. As we walk back through these false
teachings that were a part of this church, you get a good sense of how Paul is
giving a strong and clear answer to this church. Remember, they wanted to teach
men an additional philosophy.

We talked about that a little bit yesterday, this human philosophy. One Paul
said that takes you captive, one that depends on human tradition and what Paul
calls the elemental truths. That word elemental can mean a couple things.

It can mean the ABCs, just going right back to the little tiny basics, but can
also have to do with the elemental spirits of the world, focusing on our human
passions rather than focusing on God's purpose for our lives. And there are a
lot of human philosophies that sound very smart, but what's really behind them
is, I want to do what I want to do. I want to live my life for myself.

There's a lot of smart ways to say, I'm going to do what I want to do, and I
don't care that anybody gets in my way. You can say that in a selfish way. You
can say that in a smart way.

The truth behind it is, it's still that elemental thing of selfishness that's
behind it all. They wanted to teach men an additional philosophy. They made it
sound smart, but it was still all about selfishness, me.

They wanted also to introduce a system of astrology. In that day, by and large,
people believed that their lives were determined by the stars. When any
important decisions were made in government, the stars were consulted.

If a war campaign were to be waged, the stars were consulted. If Caesar had a
decision to make, the stars were consulted. And the Gnostics came into this, and
they began to teach based on this teaching of astrology, because this teaching
also said that the stars told you what kind of life you were going to have.

They determined for you the life that you were going to lead. And if you were
poor, that's because the stars determined it. Fatalistic.

You had no choice. If you were rich, the stars determined it. Well, for so many
that were poor, they felt trapped in a life they could never escape.

And the Gnostics came in and said, "Oh, yes, you're trapped there, unless you
know this secret. " It was like the secret password. If you know this secret
password, then you can unlock the stars, and you can escape to become all that
you want to be in your life.

Again, it's appealing to human pride. The problem was, it was false from the
beginning. The stars don't determine our lives.

God's will determines our lives. They also wanted to impose circumcision on
Christians. This came from the Jewish faith, and God had told the Jews,
commanded them to be marked by circumcision, the Jewish men, as a sign of their
faith, beginning back with Abraham.

But when Christianity began, the question very quickly came, "Does a new
believer in Christ, who is a Gentile, who's uncircumcised as a man, does he have
to be circumcised to become a Christian? " And the answer quickly came. You can
read about it in Acts chapter 15.

No, no, he does not. That faith in Jesus Christ is enough. But there were people
in this church who were teaching, "No, no, you have to be circumcised to really
be a believer in Jesus Christ.

You have to follow these Old Testament laws as well. " And Paul says, you
noticed in verse 11, "You were circumcised. " He's talking to people who are not
Jews, saying, "Spiritually, God has done something to your heart.

You were circumcised in the putting off of your sinful nature. " And later he
talks about the uncircumcision of your sinful nature. Paul is saying, "Yeah, God
asked the Jewish men to be marked by circumcision, but that did nothing to their
hearts.

" It just was a symbolic way of saying that their hearts, their hearts were
focused on God. Paul's saying, "It doesn't mean anything if it doesn't mean
anything in your heart. " And so, no, Christians don't need to be circumcised,
or uncircumcised.

That's not the point. The point is what's happened to your heart. You see,
Jesus, for these false teachers, didn't fulfill the law.

He just added to the law. So they had the whole Old Testament law they still
needed to keep, maybe a few minused, but Jesus added a few things to that. And
Paul is writing and saying, "No, Jesus fulfilled the law completely because it's
about what God's doing in your heart.

" These people also wanted to get others to adhere to ascetic rules and
regulations. We're going to focus on that a little bit more tomorrow. All these
rules about what you could eat, what you couldn't eat, why.

There's people in your life who'd love to fill your life with rules and
regulations about spiritual things. It makes them feel better if they can
control you in that kind of a way. Paul has something to say about that.

We'll look at that tomorrow. And they also wanted to introduce the worship of
angels. They felt like that because God was so great, we couldn't get close to
God.

And so we needed to worship some spiritual being that God had made, and angels
were as close as we could get to God, so maybe we should worship them. So they
wanted to introduce into the church the worship not of God, but the false
worship of angels, the worship of a creation. God answered all of these false
teachings in Christ.

He also answered them at a place in Christ. Did you notice? In verse 13, "God
made you alive with Christ.

He forgave all your sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations
that was against us and stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the
cross. " Jesus Christ is the one who has canceled all of these false teachings,
put them aside, shown the truth.

And where did He do that? He did it at the cross. Notice two things that happen
at the cross.

They'll give you freedom in daily life. Notice those two words, "cancelled" and
"disarmed," "cancelled. " The written code, which is a picture of a handwritten
list of the ways I do not keep God's commands.

That's the idea of the written code here, the written code with its regulations,
this list of all the ways that I didn't keep God's commands, that I didn't
follow what God wanted me to do, both in positive ways and negative ways. I
didn't do what He wanted me to do, and I did what He didn't want me to do. It's
canceled.

The idea here is of an IOU being ripped up, canceled, even more than that. It's
of it being erased entirely from the page. Because if you rip up an IOU, you
might be able to tape it back together and see that it existed at one time.

But this is the idea of completely erased, like a whiteboard where it's
completely erased. You don't even know what was on the board. There is no record
that it's ever been.

That's what the word "cancelled" means here. How did He erase it? The only way
He could?

Through crucifixion. Your sins were crucified with Christ. This list of all the
things you haven't done, all the things you have done that are wrong, this list
was nailed to the cross.

It was crucified with Christ. It died with Christ. If I'll only accept by faith
what Christ did for me, that's what I'm accepting.

Cancelled, that word. What else happened at the cross? There's another word
here, and it's the word "disarmed.

" He disarmed the powers and authorities, and He made a public spectacle of
them, triumphing over them by the cross. There's an incredible picture here. The
picture is of a Roman general.

When the Roman armies went out and they had a great victory, then the army would
come back after the victory and they'd march through Rome. First of all, all the
soldiers would march through, and behind those soldiers, the defeated followed.
It would bring back the captives, the people they had defeated from whatever
country they had just triumphed over, and those defeated would follow.

They were stripped of all their weapons. They were often in chains. They were
the defeated and disarmed.

Paul writes and says, "Jesus Christ has already triumphed over all the powers of
evil. He made a public spectacle of them at the cross. " It's already done.

Now, I know in daily life maybe sometimes you feel defeated, maybe you feel like
sin's getting the best of you, but sin did not get the best of Jesus and it
never will. In fact, it's already settled. He's already defeated all those
powers.

He's already made a public spectacle of them. It's signed and sealed and
delivered. It's disarmed.

It's finished. Paul's challenge to the false teachers is, when you look at God
in human flesh, when you look at the triumph of the cross, what could possibly
be added to that? There's also a personal challenge in our lives in these
verses.

It belongs to you and I. One of the people on our research team, as they read
through these verses, wrote, "My thoughts are, as I read this chapter, my
thoughts are of the baptisms today that I see at church. I was helping out in
our baptism today and they were so emotional.

I could see that people were captured by that moment of being baptized, becoming
one of Christ's family, recognizing that they were in Christ's family. " This
verse explains that it was through their faith in the power of God that they
were born again with Christ. This is a powerful moment of witness, the public
display of faith.

You see, all of the powers of evil were put on public display and they were
disarmed, but you and I also need to make a public display, a public display of
our faith. In him, in verse 12, "You were buried with him in baptism and raised
through your faith in the power of God. " What happened the moment you were
saved?

This burial and baptism talked about in verse 12, it's talking about what
happened to you the moment you became a believer in Christ. Your sins were
crucified with him on the cross, buried with him in baptism and you got this new
life in Christ, raised to walk in a brand new life. And when you are baptized,
when you're baptized before others and make a public spectacle in the positive
of what Christ has done for your life, you're symbolically showing what Jesus
did for you when you were saved.

That's why baptism is so important. It's a powerful witness of what Jesus Christ
has done in your life. It's a powerful witness of the triumph that he worked at
the cross, disarmed, canceled.

That's what happened at the cross. Let's thank him for that. Jesus, thank you
for the cross.

We have a little idea of the power of the cross, but it's just a little. When we
read verses like this and realize that you truly canceled all of our sins by
what you did for us on the cross, when we read these verses and realize that you
disarmed those powers and authorities of evil, Lord, it's amazing to us what you
did. Thank you for your humility to come to this earth and die for us.

And thank you for your power displayed on the cross, displayed in your
resurrection and displayed in our lives today as we trust in you. Thank you,
Jesus, in your name, amen.