The Cross of Christ

Please take a seat and open up your bibles to colossians chapter 1. There's some bibles on the tables if you if you need 1. And this is the first of 2 readings: verse 13 of chapter 1 of colossians. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the sun he loves. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And then on the next page in chapter 2, I'm gonna read from verse 13 to 15. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, god made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken 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. Well, good evening.

Oh, that's loud. Good evening. My name is Pete Woodcock, and I'm the pastor of the church. And it's a great honor really to start this series off on the cross. What an amazing subject this is.

This is the central event in the whole of history. So let me pray again. Father, help us now. Please to have ears to hear. Help us to understand just what you were doing on the cross, at least 1 aspect of it and help us to revel in it in Jesus' name, amen.

I want to talk about the word triumphant or triumph, and you'll see why in a minute. A dictionary definition of the words triumphant is this a procession in honor of a victorious general or a captive led in triumph exaltation for success of the king over over someone that's been captive living triumph or to celebrate the victory with pomp to rejoice for victory. Now in order to understand just what that meant in in Roman times, the word triumph, let let me read to you quite a detailed description by a Greek philosopher who was in Rome at the time of the Romans in the first second century. And he's writing about a triumph given by rome the the Roman General Amelia Porta great name in there. I mean, I love that.

You just sort of put us on the end of anything. It's Deenus, drydners, That doesn't quite work, actually. But anyway, here's his Plutox description of amelius Paulist on returning from capturing Macedonia and the king and that whole army. This this is how it goes. Just have a listen to this.

Great scaffolds were erected in the forum and along the boulevards of Rome for Spectator seating. And all of Rome turned out dressed in festive white On the first day, 2 59 chariots displayed in procession the statues pictures and colossial images taken from the enemy. On the second day, hundreds of wagons carried the armor of the Macedonians following the wagons came 3000 people carrying the enemy's silver in 7 50 vessels followed by more treasure. On the third day, came the captives proceeded by a hundred and 20 sacrificial oxen, then the Macedonian gold Then the captured king's chariot, his crown and armor, then the king's servants weeping with hands outstretched, begging the crowds for mercy Next came at the captured king's children. Then the king himself clad entirely in black followed by endless prisoners.

Finally, came the victorious general amelius poreless seated on a magnificent adorned chariot, dressed in a robe of purple interwoven with gold who holding a laurel branch in his right hand and then it goes on. That's a triumphant entry. Yeah? That's the general who's showing what he's captured. That's a triumphant entrant.

Now hold that picture in your head. Here's another picture. Very different scene. Well, in many ways, it is. It's a scene of a large crowd.

It's scene of someone walking through that large crowd. It's a scene of a man that's been seriously, seriously beaten up. It's a scene of the crowd cheering but not for him. Only for him to be executed in the most painful way you could imagine. It's a scene of a man walking through a crowd being cheered at to be executed, not carrying gold, but a heavy beam of wood on a freshly whipped back.

It's a scene where he eventually falls down under the Pat out under the weight of that beam of wood and it's transferred to another and they're followed by wailing women. And the crowd is eager to see him nailed on that piece of wood and lift it up on a cross. And you know the rest of the story of the crucifixion of Christ. Now 1 of those 2 scenes got in common. 2 scenes, quite vivid aren't they?

It looks like Amelia Paulus, the Roman General, is the victor but he clearly is. And perhaps Christ is the victim because he looks like 1 of the captives of Amelia Paulist, isn't he? But actually, that isn't what they have in common, not according to the Bible, and this is an amazing thing here. Not according to the Bible. Both of them are descriptions of a triumphant entry.

Both of them, even the Cross of Christ 1, What cross what Christ is doing on the cross is exactly what the Roman general, Amelia Paulus, was doing over Macedonian king. He's displaying his victory over a great power and ruler. Paul, in the verses we've just read and open colossians chapter 2 up, represents the cross as Christ's chariot of victory and not defeat. Look at verse 15 in colossians chapter 2. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triomphing over them, that's the word.

Triomphing over them by across. Now who is the them? Who is these powers and authorities that have been been disarmed who have been made a public spectacle of who have been triumphed over. Well, when you read through the scriptures and when you even read through colossians or you go into Paul's other writings, you'll see that that's none other than the devil than the power of evil. Various names for him in the bible, Satan, the dragon, the serpent, the enemy, the devil, the temptor, the murderer.

None of these names are very nice, are they? The father of lies, the anniversary, the accuser, the destroyer, the evil 1, That's the 1 who's actually been triumph over, who's led himself captive. Now, this is the interesting thing because to every unbelieving eyewitness of the crucifixion, it looks like Satan 1 To every unbelieving witness of of the crucifixion of Christ, this great dragon is the Victor there's the dragon, breathing out his blasphemies and spitting on the face of Christ and bashing a mock crown of thorns upon his head and mocking Jesus and having his beard pulled out. Here is Jesus beaten up strip naked, falling into the dust of the earth that he, the creator, had made, bowing down to bite the dust. At 1 time, he was creator.

But looking at him now, At 1 time, he created the tree, but now the tree has been cut down and turned into a beam of wood that he is gonna be crucified on with nails where he 1 time created the iron in the earth. Have been extracted by wicked men and turned into nails and rammed through his hands. There he is. Looks like that the army of demons through human servants who are cheering their king Satan, the enemy of truth and the father of lies, looks like he's the conqueror. Looks like the serpent himself who's laughing at the nail as being shoved into the hands of the creator God.

And laughing at the banner over the head that's just been nailed up king of the Jews. The murderer himself enjoying Jesus' last breath, raising his head in pride and saying, I'm the ultimate victim of this world. Now to hell with everyone. But that's not right. That's not right.

Look at verse 15 of our chapter. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Jesus hid his victory in defeat. He hid his glory in shame. He hid his life in death.

Satan and all his demons lack the insight and the faith to see just what happened at the cross until it was too late. Poor writing in the book in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians and in the chapter 2 talks about how unwise people are and even the very wisest wisdom of this age. And the rulers of this age, same sort of word that is used for Satan and his demons. The rulers of this age, they didn't under stand the wisdom of God. They thought the cross was foolish.

They didn't understand the wisdom of God. If they had says Paul, they would not have crucified the lord of glory. They wouldn't have done it. God defeated Satan in suffering. What a surprise?

The most staggering reality about Satan's defeat is is not that he'll be thrown into the lake of fire by the justice of God, which he will be, as we're told at the end of the age, is that that Jesus suffered the lake of fire on the cross himself, and therefore took it away from people. That's the staggering thing. With all of Satan's strength and he is strong, And with all his pride and all his hate he lost, that day on the cross when Christ was on the cross. He lost all those that would be saved through a trusting Christ, he lost. He lost.

In an act of utter weakness and humility of god. God's weakness God's weakness is stronger than the whole of Satan's power. The humility of god becoming a man and dying on the cross is more powerful than all the pride and strength of Satan himself. Isn't that amazing? The weakness of God is stronger than all the strength of Satan.

That is amazing. The death of Christ on the cross is more alive. Than all of the breath of the demon and the dragon. It's extraordinary. It's extraordinary.

Every point, Christ is superior to the devil. And that most important moment when the ugliest, despicable, most despicable being in the universe. Is beaten by the most beautiful being in the universe, by weakness, and death. He triumphed over Satan. And that's my first point.

Paul is telling us this writer of this bible book of colossians. There's no need to be afraid of a host of evil because the battle has been won by your warrior king. And it's been 1 for you. Christ has disarmed the principalities and powers. Just go back to that first reading.

In chapter 1 of colossians, and verses 13 and 14. It's just it's just an amazing. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves, in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sins, we have been rescued. From the dominion of darkness of Satan, of the liar, of the of the of the temper, of the adversary, of the enemy, of the murderer. Christ has stripped the principalities and the powers of authorities on the cross.

And he's demonstrated that by when his broken body was dumped in a grave. 3 days later our warrior king rose to life again to demonstrate that he had triumphed over Satan on the cross. But notice this. Notice that at the moment he's not destroyed the devil. Did you notice that?

He will, but he's disarmed the devil. It's a very very good word. Because the devil and Satan and all his all his demons because the devil has been disarmed. He can't actually harm you. He can't harm you.

He can't. Because Satan has been disarmed, you now can resist him. You can't. Even though he may come to you as a roaring lion, he isn't got any teeth. Even though he's prowling around looking for those who he wants to devour, he can't devour you.

Even though he has great strength, his victory has lost. He's lost. So we can resist him. Because of the victory of the cross, we now can fight even Satan. And we need to get clear on this.

And I hope I hope you are clear on this and sort of underline this in your head. Jesus victory 1 on the cross doesn't mean to say you're set free from the fight. It means you're set free for the fight. Can you get that? It's not that now we don't we don't we don't sort of do a Harry Potter sort of, you know, with a magic spell.

And incantation. We don't just say Jesus won them across, who and Satan runs off. That's just sort of that's no. We don't we that doesn't work. But James and Peter in the bible, they tell us that now we can resist the devil.

And he'll flee from us. There's there's a resisting that has to go on. It's not just boom, Jesus 1, but there's a resisting. And now because of the cross, we're free to fight. We're set free to fight.

We're not set free from the fight. We're set free for the fight. So Peter says in his second letter, 2 2 Peter chapter 1, that actually we've been given the divine nature so we can participate in this battle, in this fight against the demon and and evil and corruption of this world. We've been given a new nature because of the death of Christ. To be able to fight.

Here's an illustration I've given it before, but imagine that you go home tonight and you're flat or your house or wherever it is you live, there's robbers in there. Okay? Burglers. Yeah? Yeah?

Yep. It's it's worrying, mate. But there's burglars in your house right now. Yeah. And dad goes in first because he he thinks maybe there is a burglar.

And dad gets tie it up. James is tied up. These are strong vocalists, mate. They tie you up. I mean, you're in there for a fight, but they get you.

They're far stronger than you. And so they tie up. They tie you up to a chair and they gag you and to a girl in your mouth. So some stuff in your mouth, and then a gag around, and you can't even shout out for help. You're tied You can't do anything.

You can't call for help. The burglars are now just taking everything in your house that they want to and destroying anything that they don't want. They're evil. They're wicked people and you can do nothing about it. But just imagine this.

That your dog, who hasn't bothered to fight the burglar, hasn't bark, hasn't done anything, and you're thinking what a useless animal that was. But it comes up and it bites through. It bites through your your ties, your rope that's tying you up. And now your hands are free. Now you're free to fight.

Now you're free to take off the mask and ungag your mouth. Now you're free to telephone the police. Now you're free to go into battle. You're not free just to sit there and say, thanks, dog. That's really good.

Hey, brothers, the mother dog did. You're free now to fight to do something. Christ has set you free for the battle because in principle he's won. So that's my first point. My second point is What has Satan been disarmed of?

What are the weapons that have been taken away from him? Well, look at verses 13 and 14. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive in Christ, and here we go, he forgave your sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us. And condemned us. He has taken 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.

Notice it says this, the end of verse 13, he forgave us all our sins having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. You've got to remember this outside of Jesus, outside of what Christ did on the cross, we are under condemnation. And we're under the condemnation of none other than god himself. There are charges against you. This is the trouble.

You know, we wanna live in a happy little world where we think we're free. You're not free. Where under the charges, I've got the very law of god shows that not only are you a sinner, Not only do you break the very law of God, you're in debt to God, not only that, you actually have gone over to the monster's side. You are captured by Satan blinded by the devil. You are born already ruined that you walk out of the out of the womb.

But Satan owns you. He's your father. He's got you. And the very law of god says you're guilty and you're his. You've broken off from god.

And the written code and there's a charge against you from god himself. This legal indebtedness, there's a record of your sin and your selfishness, and whatever it is you've done and not done. You are under the condemnation of God, you are sentenced to death, And Satan comes and says, he's mine. She's mine. Look at the way they live their life.

Look at what they've done. Their mind, I will take them to hell itself. They're mine. They're my children. They listen to me.

They listen to my word. They never listened to you. They never obeyed the 10 commandments. They said, shove off God. They said, I'll live my life for myself, and they didn't realize they were living it for me.

They're mine. They're my possession. And I'm a strong man, and I'm holding onto my possession. And I'll tie them up, and I ransack their life, and I'll bleed them to death, and I'll take them to hell. So we got to remember that there's that against us.

But The rescuer comes. Christ comes. On the cross, he takes our guilt. On the cross, the perfect 1 takes our sin. On the cross, he pays for us.

I like an old paraphrase. It's called J. B. Phillips. He did a paraphrase of this verse.

It's phenomenal. Listen to this. He has forgiven you all your sins. Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments, which always hung over your head, and he has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross. All your sin is gathered up and Jesus says, I nail it on myself.

All your content, I'll I'll be condemned. Jesus has wiped the record book clean. He's dealt and paid the price and canceled it. And because of that, there's nothing against you. There's not extraordinary.

Is isn't that actually extraordinary? But when God looks at you, he says, well, you haven't done anything wrong. Christ has done it. He's taken your sin. It's extraordinary to be able to live like that to to know that your guilt has been dealt with is is an amazing freedom, isn't it?

Isn't it? Look, the best illustration I can give of this is is that when Adam and myself, we were we were in India many years ago. And we went to this amazing shop in India. And we just had to buy something, and I didn't know what to buy. So I bought a pencil.

And it was I mean, it's that particular. So the pencil was like, you know, half a rupee or whatever. It was probably less. But I I just wanted to see the whole process. And the process of this shop was that you said I would like that pencil and 1 of the workers would come along and say this pencil here So, yeah, that pencil there.

And he and and he would take it. I don't wanna know I want it, but he'd take it off. And it went off to be wrapped up with honestly brown paper a little bit of a string. This is amazing. What a shop?

I mean, you just go in there, wouldn't you for anything? And it was taken off. And then you come to the point of I mean, he gave you a little ticket. And the ticket said you owed, you know, half a rupee for this pencil. And that ticket, you can't get out the shop with the pencil with this.

You're in debt now. You took it to another man who was at a sort of window and you paid the price and you paid the price for the pencil And he took that piece of paper that said that's your debt. And there was a nail there like that. And he went, on the nail. And when the nail had gone through that, it meant you had paid.

He couldn't pull that off and so you haven't paid it up because there's a nail hole through it. And then he gave you your pencil and how you went. Isn't that amazing? And Jesus, there's a nail print through every single 1 of your sins. Nail print.

But you don't know what I've done. You don't know how guilty I am, the things I thought. A hole right the way through it. And Satan says, you've done this There's a nail print through it. It's extraordinary, isn't it?

So there is no condemnation. So he's been disarmed of being able to say your sin stands between you and God because it doesn't. Because Christ beat him on the cross. But what does Satan do now? He doesn't give up.

And you've got to get this, and and this is the rest of the sermon really. He doesn't give up. Because he's not completely destroyed. He's still working. And so you wanna sort of ask, what's your business now, Satan?

What what what are you up to now? You can't take these Christians away from Jesus Christ. These Christians here in Kingston in this little building here and those on the internet that are following the lord Jesus Christ, their sins have been canceled. They have been forgiven by Christ. Christ's triumph, he's taken the captives and made him his own.

So Satan, you can't take these Christians to hell. You have lost them forever. But he's still in the business of condemnation. He can't condemn you, but he still is in the business of condemning you. Condenation means 2 things in the dictionary.

1, it's the sentence a person to punishment. Satan cannot do that. Christ's paid the punishment for you. But the second meaning is is to declare a person unfit for use. Satan knows that he's lost you.

He's lost the battle for you, but he's still in the business of condemnation in this lifetime. His aim is to spoil your life now. He can't spoil your eternity. But he can spoil your service for God. He can't stop you going to heaven, but he can stop you being useful in this world.

He can declare you unfit for service, and that is what Satan does. He's totally disarmed, but he can come and put put the fingers in the back. Remember those old films? In fact, lots of lots of robberies go on, don't they? By false fake guns.

They're not real guns. It used to be years ago a pipe, but no 1 uses a pipe anymore. I used to put a a stick in your back and it's hands up. If someone came, if you're just walking down through Kingston, and there was a thing went into your back and it felt quite sharp. You'd put your and he said, hands up, I want I want your You know, and it might just be his fingers.

It might just be a stick But you don't know what it is. And Satan's in the business of condemnation. He's constantly robbing people of their life and service for God He's totally disarmed. He hasn't got this arm, armor. But he still puts his finger in our back and and we give in.

His I haven't got time for 4 tactics. So I've got 4 tactics here, but let me give you some. Let's see how many we can get through. Here's tactic 1. He's a he's a stick in the back.

He's how he does it. Satan, who has been disarmed, pretends he can beat you, and he'll come with the tactic of sin. Now if Satan never cease to attack the Lord Jesus Christ, he'll never cease to attack you. Satan even used Peter a disciple to try to get Jesus not to go to to the cross, not to actually live a life of service for god. And so Satan will use anybody, even friends, to stop you serving God.

And he does it by getting you to sin That's why you need to be on your God because Satan's a very clever, fake gunmaker. The gunny puts in your back is really good. Way is the same. Looks the same, but you don't know there's no bullets in it. And he will cause you to sin.

And if you're not on your guard, you'll be like David, with bathsheba, if you know that story. King David, not out battling, not out fighting, and therefore was open to falling into sin and he did. But after you've fallen into sin, that's when he sticks the knife in. That and it's not a real nice though. That's when he boots you down, when you're down, and it feels that he has power over you You've listened to him, you've sinned, and now he's kicking you in and say, now you've sinned, you've failed.

You've broken. Your your eternity has gone. But your eternity hasn't gone because Christ has dealt with that on the cross. But it feels like you have. Now you've gotta get this.

This is so important that you never lose your relationship with God the Father because of what Christ has done on cross, but you can certainly lose your fellowship and the joy of your salvation when you sin. Why can't you lose your salvation because of verses 14 and 15? Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away nailing it to the cross. Look, when you go When you see these ships out to sea, if a ship gets in difficulty out in the middle of the sea, It really is in difficulty.

The waves are massive. It's lost its engine power. It's in big trouble. Yeah. And what happens is another ship will try to get there quick.

And they tie themselves up anchor to anchor. The anchors will never break, not even in, you know, swelling sea. They're strong. They tie anchor to anchor. And the ship that's towing the other ship is tied anchor to the ship that needs rescuing.

And that anchor chain will not break. But they have other lines, communication lines, telephone lines from ship to ship, And in a massive swell of the sea when 1 is ship is rising up on the on the wave and the others down into into the swell. The anchor chain is pulling, but it never breaks, but the communication lies. Communication with God sometimes feels like it's broken when you sin. But the anchor chain never breaks.

And if we confess our sin, he is faithful to forgive us our sin. And they'll set up those communications again. The tempter will say when you sin, he'll tempt you to sin. You've lost everything. But according to our verse, that is not true.

The sin has been dealt with already. Get your communication line. Say, sorry. Come back to Christ. Martin Luther, great reformer in the fifteenth century.

He said he had this very vivid dream. He often had these actually about Satan coming coming to him. And on this 1 occasion, this very vivid dream, Satan came to him and brought a record of Luther's sins written in Luther's own handwriting. And there was page after page, and Satan said, to Loutha, is this true? This page is true?

And Loutha had to say yes. And the next page is this true then? You wrote this. You wrote this. Is this true?

Have you first said yes? And then next page, is is this true? You've done these stuff? Thought these thoughts? Not done these things?

And he said yes, and he was broken, bowed down. And Satan was to go out of the room. Just leaving when Luther came to his senses and remembered the bible and shouted out, it's true. Every single word you've reminded me of is true, but Christ has canceled our sin. On the cross.

And that's what we need to say. Satan has been disarmed And when he comes to you to dis he's a destroyer and a liar, you go where to the cross. If you sin, where do you go to the cross? You always go to the cross, and that's where the power of Christ is. And where you see your anchor chain is never broken.

That's 1 tactic. Another tactic is suffering. I'm not going to go into detail here, and there's a lot of stuff I would like to say. But when suffering comes, you feel like deserted. You feel like you're standing alone.

And unfortunately, what can happen is you can feel that God is against you. When you suffer, is God against me. Well, if if he loved me and I'm his child, why am I suffering? Is he against me? And I think this is another stick in the back.

This is the 1 that surrenders. He's very clever at this. Now now remember that God used suffering to beat Satan. So that's something to remember in suffering. He uses suffering to beat Satan.

What Satan meant for harm, God meant for good. Remember that? And then there are Christians that make suffering even more hard to deal with, liars and preachers that stand up and say, if you had more faith, you wouldn't suffer, that's a lie. That's an utter lie. And it's interesting that I've noticed that in London, we've got the faith healers starting to come back.

But where have they been for 2 years? Yeah? And it's what a lot of nonsense that is, isn't it? They're putting on healing meetings. Why don't you come in the middle of COVID?

Thanks very much. But they start saying you haven't enough faith. Now if you read your bible, you know that that is nonsense. Paul in Romans 8, which is amazing chapter on suffering and no condemnation. He says there is no condemnation Christ Jesus and many deals with suffering.

Yeah? Suffering happens We're in this world. We're in a world of death and pain that's groaning itself under the curse of God. Because this is never gonna be heaven on earth. So when it comes to suffering, we mustn't think that we're redeemed Our body is redeemed.

Our body is the same as every other non Christian in the world. It's open to death and disease and suffering. 1 day you'll have a new body. That's promised. Christ has bought that and you'll have that.

But in this world, you're not redeemed. Your body's not redeemed. Not yet. It will be, but not yet. You're redeemed when it comes to the sense of forgiveness of sins.

Your sins are forgiven. But your body is open to decay and corruption. You see that? And poor works that through in Romans 8. And so you can come under a sense of condemnation when you suffer because you think, well, Hold it.

Am I really redeemed? I'm I'm a child of God. And sometimes Christians can make it worse. There's a third tactic and it's sort of a follow on that Satan uses as a as a stick in the back and his hands up and I surrender, and that is superior Christians. Christians that think they have more than Christ which is an extraordinarily blasphemous thing to say.

Look at colossians chapter 9, chapter 2 verse 9, and 10, chapter 2 verse 9 and 10. For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In Christ, you have everything.

You can't have any more In Christ is the fullness of God. You can't have any more. So when Christians come up and say, and whether you've got Jesus and you're forgiven of your sins, but you need a little bit more. You just tell them where to go. You tell them that Christ died on the cross for satanic lies like that?

Don't come with, to me, with those sort of satanic things. And again, Paul works this through what people do. If you see at the end of colossians too, there's There's there's legalism that goes on. People add things. What you need is Christ plus you need to obey these rules.

And then there's a mysticism that goes on. What you need is Christ and this experience. And then there's an asceticism that goes on. What you need is Christ and you must give up this food. Or that food or this.

So you have these add ons. You see that in chapter the end of chapter 2. There's there's rules you ought to obey that are add ons and there's mysticism's experiences you need that are add ons more than Christ. And there's things you ought to give up like meat or whatever it is. You know, you need to you need to This aestheticism, this You need to live a much more simpler life.

Yeah. And if you had that, I mean, driving here, a number of churches are having climate change Sunday. So what you've got to do is to change your light bulbs and not have a diesel car. And if you gave that up, you'd be more of a godly person You see, that is Christ plus that. That's asceticism.

Yeah? Now, you know, if you wanna give up these as Christ's fine. But that doesn't make you more godly. That's the point I'm saying. I don't mind if you're a vegetarian or meatarian or whatever it is you are, but it doesn't make you more godly.

Yeah? I mean, there are some people, the things you'd only eat and eat, and you're ungodly. If you, you know, eat your foods you know, food. And and so it's mad. All this denies Christians what God hasn't denied them and it commands them what God hasn't commanded them and it adds to Christ.

Well, on the cross of Christ. Your sins have been canceled. You have everything in Christ. You can battle against Satan. You've been you're you're called to the fight.

Now do it. Let me pray and then you can have a few minutes on your table to discuss. Father God, help us to understand these great truths. That you have triumped over Satan on the cross and help us to live in the light of that we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we're going to have some minutes so you can ask some questions.

But on your tables, just have what struck you or what questions you'd like to ask. And then we'll go on from there for a few minutes. Okay. Any questions, statements you want to make issues, disagreements, Well, if you turn to Romens 8, you'll see what Paul is doing here. So Romens 8 is just 1 of those Amazing.

Well, I mean, the whole bible is amazing, but it's 1 of those ones that jumps out at you. And you see in Romans 8 and verse 1, what he's talking about. He he says in verse 1, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So he's talking about the main subject here is no condemnation. Yeah?

Now he then works through a whole load of stuff, but then if you come to verse 18, So that's the sort of presenting verse. There's no condemnation in Christ. Then verse 18, he's talking about suffering. So there's now no condemnation when you suffer. So he says, I consider that our present suffering.

So there's present suffering now. He's talking about suffering. Are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation weights in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. So it's waiting for the children of God.

Those have been saved those who have no condemnation on them because of what Christ has done to be revealed. In the sense of their body, they're going to be revealed that they are the the children of God. At the moment, we just like everybody else in creation subject to disease and suffering and death. Okay? So he's talking about that whole thing.

And then he he just sort of just go down to verse 22. We know that the whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time, not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our a sun's, the redemption of our bodies. You see that? So we haven't got the redemption of our bodies yet It hasn't happened yet. It will happen.

You'll have a perfect body, Saskia. Yeah. I know, you know, I know I have picked the wrong person here. Yeah. Dean.

Yeah. You all have perfect teeth. I mean, think about how bad your teeth are. Yeah. But you all have perfect teeth.

Look, but hope that – sorry, I'll jump to this 1. For – it is in this hope that we are saved. So we're saved, forgiven by Christ. That's what he did on the cross. With the hope that our bodies will be redeemed but not yet.

So we're groaning with the whole of the earth and we're waiting patiently for a new body. Yeah. And so what do we need to know when we're suffering? Are we outside of the love of God because we're suffering? And Paul is saying no, look at verse 38 and 39, the last verses of the chapter.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life neither angel nor demon neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor depth not anything else in all creation, including suffering, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our lord. Do you see that? Nothing can separate us from the love of God. So his argument here is, when you suffer Part of that suffering is that we're in this world of curses. This is never heaven on earth.

What was that song? What was that song? Heaven is a place on earth. You could not be more wrong, woman. Yeah?

But linked to Carlyle. Yeah. I mean, Carlisle. You're going to Carlisle. Anyway, it's not a place on it.

It's not heaven. It's not a place on earth. Yeah. So so you couldn't be more wrong, and it will never be. And that's our problem.

We're looking here for heaven on earth. Heaven is not on earth. It's a new place. We're in the world of suffering and death, but Christ's cross shows us what God does with suffering. He what what Satan and what evil means for harm God will turn for good.

So the hope is there in the cross. We never lose the love of God when we suffer. If I come along and say to a Christian suffering. If only you had more faith, you'd be healed. That is a wicked lie.

It's not Christianity. And it just makes that person suffer more and makes them feel that God does doesn't love them. That's that was my point. Is that good enough? Yes.

Anything else? Yep. Yeah. Yes. So so so so can Satan send suffering?

And the answer is yes. The bible is very clear on that, but always under God. So Satan is always the second cause if you like. So God is in control. God is the sovereign of the universe.

And he allows that which Satan means for harm to be for good. So what happens with Joseph? If you know the story of Joseph, The whole story is summed up. You know, his brothers sell him for for dead, really. He's in prison.

Terrible things happen to Joseph. And in the end, he comes second under the main ruler of the world, if you know that story of Joseph. And that the summary of that is what what his brothers, what people meant for harm, God meant for good. If you go to acts, in acts chapter 2, and it talks about the cross what so Judas and and the the evil people gathered together. And Satan was there to kill Christ on the cross.

So what the dragon meant for harm God turned into good. So God is always the 1 in control, and he allows this stuff to happen in this cursed world. But in the end, he can turn that round as he's done on the cross for good. Yep. So Satan is always on a leash.

So so if you go to Revelation and we've done a whole series in Revelation and maybe we should do it again, it's fantastic to preach to Revelation. You'll see that Satan is on a leash that he's allowed out on a leash, but he's like a wild dog that God will pull back. And god allows things to happen, and it looks like even defeat happens sometimes to Christians. I mean, think of Christians in Afghanistan at the moment. You know, it feels like, well, Satan really is very strong and somehow it looks like like Christ isn't in control, but he is in control.

And somehow, we'll see it perhaps not for a million years, but we understand that Christ allowed Satan to to rush out and to destroy and to have power. But always, and the cross shows us this, that Christ has won that battle and will turn evil for good. Yeah. That's that's all. It's so fantastic to know that.

Yeah. So, you know, our world at the moment, you know, is crazy in what it's teaching young people. App solute wickedness. Satan is really clearly just a liar. The lies that are being told are young people.

In this country. It's lie upon lie upon life of freedom, and it's causing bondage and this and and suicide and destruction. If you know this true story about Satan's lies that's going on in this country, the life of freedom. You can be what you like. I mean, I I saw on what was it?

Amazon Prime, the new Cinderella, yeah, that came up. I didn't even want it to come up. You know, it comes up and this this woman talking about. It was such a privilege to play Cinderella, you know. And what and it seems to be based good miracle as far as I can see.

This is a new Cinderella with new emphasis with a a new dynamic story line, which is whatever you want to be. And I thought how many times have we heard this nonsense? And you're claiming this is new Give us something new. Give us a Cinderella that says, you can't be anything you wanna be, you know. Give us a Cinderella, you know.

That's why aren't we writing stories like this? Anyway, there we go. Finds out that the prince is an evil monster in the end. Yeah. And actually, the wicked if woman was quite nice.

That would be a good twist, wouldn't it? Anyway, there we go. Someone else take me off these subjects, another question. Yep. You know when you were thinking about how we when Christ died on the cross, it meant that we were no longer, like, subject to his, like, he can't send us to death anymore.

Yeah. But we're now in this, like, life on earth of, like, giving into temptation and coming back to God and stuff like that. But people before Christ stepped on the cross still had that like battle and that we see it like in David's times about where he, like, gives him to sin and then when he's, like, stronger and closer with God and he doesn't do that. How Is it that the devil can't, like, condemn him in that moment because he hasn't already because Jesus hasn't already defeated him. How how someone like David how could David be saved?

Because Jesus hasn't been on the cross yet. Can't, like but how does David have that, like, battle with sin? That similar to I'm sorry. That we have. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, because the cross is the central part of the history that goes back as well as forward. So that's the great thing. So we look back to the cross.

He look forward to the cross. Yeah. And you see that very clearly in Psalm 51, when when David confesses his sins. He talks in cross like language about being cleansed with hisop, Now hissop is a herb. And what was that herb used for?

It was a herb that was used in sacrifice. Where they dipped the blood of the lamb, they they dipped the his sword in the blood of the lamb to sprinkle the blood which was a picture of forgiveness. Now that was a picture of looking forward to what Christ has done on the cross, but Christ is so cosmic I don't know whether we're dealing with this. That cosmic power of the cross is so cosmic. That event's so cosmic.

It goes back as well as forward. So we look back to that event. David looked forward to that event. Yeah? Brilliant.

Anything else? 1 last thing. Stern me up. What's the fourth tactic? Well, there's many more than fourth, but my fourth tactic here and I thought you all look like I should give out and go home.

My fourth tactic was hopelessness because I think he brings a hopelessness to us that I can never change. And I think that's really important. So in Revelation 12, 11, it says they overcome talking about Christians. They overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. So there's there's there we will overcome.

And we can overcome Satan, but only by the blood of the lamb. And so we're not hopeless. And so those of those of you that are stuck in cycles of of big sin. And there are people that are in these cycles of big sin, you know. I'm talking about, you know, that dominates them.

They're constantly in this addiction to whatever it is And Satan will say, you're in that cycle. You're in that vortex. You can never get out of it. This is what you are. You've discovered who you are.

You've sinner. And and he will lie and put this gun to our back that isn't real and make us say that we're hopeless. This is what I am. I am a or I can't do anything else. I'm addicted to pornography.

Therefore, I'll just have to get on with it. I'm addicted to, you know, greed. I'll get on with it. I'm addicted to lying or, you know, or whatever it is. And and that's not true because Christ has broken the power of that sin.

He's broken that on the cross. And so there's hope in us that we will overcome because of the blood of Christ. And 1 day, we'll not have that temptation. 1 day, we'll be free from that temptation completely and utterly that I won't be so small minded and tuck taken up with a few images on on the Internet, but I'll be taken up with the bigness and grandeur and bigness of Christ. And and it's so much more refreshing and gorgeous because he's the river of life.

And he'll take me up. But even now, I can win those battles because of Christ. Only because of Christ. It's not This isn't a sort of an American prosperity gospel spill that you can succeed in yourself nonsense. That's a nonsense.

And that's underlining a lot of American evangelicalism, I think. The underneath there, you know, there's the success of yourself and you and they're on the family and you know, you'll have a successful fact. All of that is a sort of an American gospel underneath, and you see that in some of the people that have fallen. When you listen, you hear that that that's the sort of gospel that's sort of underlining and it's caused them to even fall. But but actually, that that it's Christ.

It's looking to the cross. It's humbly knowing that I'm a sinner and it's there where Christ has dealt with my sin. So there's always hope when I look to the cross. But if I look to myself, it's hopeless. Yeah?

Okay. I'll finish there. Thanks.