In his sermon titled 'Nailed to the Cross,' Steve Hopkins delves deeply into the theological significance of the crucifixion of Jesus as described in Colossians 2:13-15. The sermon emphasizes the finality and completeness of Christ's atonement for sin, highlighting the concept of penal substitutionary atonement where Christ bears the punishment for humanity's sins. Hopkins explains the metaphorical 'handwriting of requirements' as a record of debt against individuals, illustrating how Christ's sacrifice on the cross cancels this debt entirely. This act not only forgives sins but also disarms spiritual forces, stripping them of their power to accuse believers. The sermon calls for a reflective silence and a deep appreciation of the love and justice of God manifested through the cross. Hopkins urges believers to live in the joy and freedom secured by Jesus' sacrifice, encouraging worship and a life of holiness in response to this profound act of divine grace and love.

If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2 verses 13 through 15. Let's stand together for the reading of the Word of the Lord. Follow along as I read. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He is made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Let's pray. Father, we come before you once again with praise on our lips and joy in our hearts, that you are our Father and we your children because of the adoption won for us by our Lord Jesus. Father as we survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. Help us to remember the great price that was paid for our redemption and give us a profound sense of the infinite evil and heinousness of sin that demanded the sword of divine justice fall on the head of your only begotten in our place.

Oh help us God to see more of the beauty of the cross of Christ and overwhelm us with a renewed sense of your great love for us manifested at the cross. The love that nailed our sins to Calvary's tree, where you spared not Jesus, that we might go free. Oh, help us to glory in the cross of our Savior this afternoon, for we ask it in His most precious and blessed and holy name. Amen. Let's be seated.

The title of the message today is Nailed to the Cross. I had intended to move on this week to verses 16 through the end of the chapter, but we've come to a place in the Scriptures that speaks of the cross of our Savior and what happened on that cross. And I think that Whenever we come to a place in Scripture where the eyes of our minds are directed to Calvary's Hill and we are surveying the wondrous cross whereon the Prince of Glory died, We need to pause. We need to just pause. Whenever I'm driving down the road and that song comes on the radio that we just sang, it is well with my soul.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, I can handle that. I can handle that. But when the first verse ends and the second begins, Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control. I find that that I'm singing along But my voice is not so stable now because I know where it's going. So my voice starts cracking.

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul. Now my hands are not gripping so tightly on the steering wheel. It's personal. Christ has regarded my helpless estate. He didn't pass me by.

He shed his blood for me. Jesus died for me. For me. And then when that third stanza begins, It's just too much. And it's like I can't just keep driving.

I need to pull over to the side of the road and just sit in silence. Sometimes I found that my lips are moving, but nothing's really coming out. My sin, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, O my soul. That's what's set before us this afternoon. I want us to pull over to the side of the road and sit in silence together as we consider it, in holy reverence. Here is the cross, the apex of human history, as someone once said, yes, but far more. It is the apex of time and eternity, the apex of everything, because it's the place where everything that means anything was decided and it's the place where mercy and truth met together and righteousness and peace kissed where divine justice was meted out on God's own Son in our place, and our eternal salvation secured.

And it's the place where the full onslaught and the massing of evil powers clashed with the supremest good, and where victoriously Christ conquered them and put them to an open shame. And the triumph of all ages was won For me, for you, for us, for all of us if we are believers in Christ today. Where else do we find words like the words in the text before us, forgiven all, blotted out, wiped out, set aside, taken out of the way, nailed to the cross. These are words that picture finality. They picture the end of something.

My mind goes to Daniel's prophecy of Messiah, when his appearing is said to finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. Paul says in the text before us this afternoon, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. The ESV translates it, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to his cross, nailing it to the cross. Let all the earth keep silence before him.

That phrase Paul uses, it's literally the handwritten record of debts. And the inference here is that it's in our own handwriting. It's the equivalent of what we would call an IOU today. We incur a debt and we write out an IOU or a promise to pay, and we sign it, and it's a legal certificate of indebtedness. And we're saying, I owe this to you and I'm gonna pay it.

The difference here is that This is a debt accrued by sin, our sin. And the one to whom payment is owed is God. And not one of us has the currency with which to pay it. We owe God a debt because of our sin. If we break the laws of society, we owe society a debt and the penalty may be fines or it may be imprisonment or it may be both.

But we owe God a debt of punishment that we cannot pay, an infinite debt, the penalty for which is eternal death and for which an eternity of human suffering isn't sufficient to cover even the first entry in the ledger of the book of the debt of our sin debt. But bless God, bless God. On the cross our gracious Lord took the record of debt that stood against us, the debt book of our sin, along with its legal demand that a certificate of eternal death be issued against us, and he set it aside, nailing it to the cross. That's finality. That's finality.

Brothers and sisters, the record of our sin debt that stood against us, the debt book detailing all of our sins, Christ nailed it to the cross when he was nailed to the cross. Peter says he himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, all of them. If you're a believer here today, every wicked thought, every lustful thought, Every covetous thought, every envious thought, every ungrateful thought, every evil surmising of others, every harsh word, Every bitter word, every unkind word, every callous word, every prideful word, even every idle word, every single sinful act, every selfish deed, every unloving act, every immoral act, every unjust dealing, every requirement of God's holy law that stood against you, every demand of God's law you failed to satisfy and that charged you and proved its case against you beyond any shadow of a doubt and thereby cursed you and justly condemned you was canceled at the cross. Blotted out, Wiped out, nailed to the cross when your Jesus was nailed to the cross. Think about it.

Think about what the apostle is saying here and pull over to the side of the road and sit in silence. Road and sit in silence. At the cross, on the cross, Jesus satisfied the massive debt we owed by substituting himself in our place. His atonement was in theological terminology a penal substitutionary atonement. That's the theological language.

It means that Christ endured the punishment that we deserved. That's the definition of a penal having to do with the broken law and payment for that. Substitutionary in the place of atonement, making satisfaction. That's the theological language. It means that Christ endured the punishment we deserved in our place, that our sins, your sins, my sins, all of our sins, with all the guilt and shame of them, were laid on our substitute, on Jesus.

He was punished for them instead of us. Isaiah put it like this, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. God imputed the guilt of our sins to Jesus on the cross, on that cross, on that hill outside of Jerusalem 2, 000 years ago and punished him in our place when he was nailed to the cross our sin debt our iou our certificate of indebtedness along with the certificate of death was nailed to the cross with him and wiped out. I know it seems too good to be true, but it is true.

It's true. It's true. In his sacrificial substitutionary death, Christ paid the penalty of sin and cancel our debt from a note in my Bible. Charles Spurgeon walks us through what has happened. You have entered through your sin the bond of your own indebtedness to the infinite justice of God for all your rebellions against his law, all your breaches of his divine covenant, you've sinned against him.

And it's all down in black and white in the handwriting that is against you. But listen, dear friends, Spurgeon says, to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for all of us who are believers in him. First, he has taken that handwriting and he has blotted it out. The Greek original has the meaning of smearing over or expunging the handwriting. Listen to this.

So as to make it illegible as a document to be produced later against us. With his own atoning blood, the Lord Jesus has discharged all our debt. As believers in him, there is nothing whatever do from us to the justice of almighty God, for Christ has paid it all. I'm still sitting on the side of the road. Are you sitting there with me?

Brothers and sisters, the record of our sin debt is long. The law of God violated by each of us in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, fill up a very large book. In the courtroom of heaven, the charges against us are proven, and every one of us has been obligated to sign off on it, guilty as charged. The law brought the curse on us and condemned us and demanded satisfaction. But the debt book of our sins was removed from the courtroom of heaven and was set aside and nails driven through it and through it into the hands and the feet of our Jesus and into his bloody cross and thereby obliterated so that not a word of it can ever be produced again by which we may be condemned.

It's true. Every nail in the cross made a sister, a tear in this handwriting, this bond of the law that lay against us, John Gill here, whereby it was so shredded and torn as to be of no force. There is nothing in the law standing against the saints. It is blotted out. It cannot be read.

It is taken away. It cannot be seen. It is nailed to the cross of Christ and is so torn to pieces thereby that nothing can ever be produced from it to our hurt and condemnation." That sounds like good news, doesn't it? Spurgeon, its accusing and condemning power is forever gone. Now, child of God, this is Spurgeon, sit down and say to yourself, don't you love Spurgeon?

Sit down and say to yourself, as for all the sins I have ever committed, Whatever they may have been, as I believe in Jesus, the record is crossed out. The very portrait upon which it is written has been taken out of the way, and that I may be quite sure that an end has been made of it once for all. My Lord has nailed it as a crucified thing, which He has put to death with Himself upon the tree of sacrifice. It now has no power to alarm me. Christ has paid your debts in mind, if you're a believer.

What better way can there be of putting an end to sin than by bearing the punishment which was due sin. The punishment which was due sin was for us to lie forever under the wrath of God. But owing to the majesty of Christ's divine person, the suffering which he endured upon the cross was accepted as an equivalent for all that suffering which we deserved to endure forever. You hear what Spurgeon is saying there, what he's saying there? All of the eternities of our hells, all of God's, of all God's people were endured by Christ on the cross.

No wonder he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All the wrath do Christ's people, the verse goes on, was condensed into that one cup of which he began to drink at Gethsemane, where he sweat great drops of blood, and never ceased to drink until he turned the chalice upside down, and not one drop was found lingering there. The Lord had drug damnation dry for all His people. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. How could there be any when Christ adored it all?

Brothers and sisters, it is impossible that God would punish us for our sin after punishing His Son for them. God is just and His justice will not and cannot demand that payment be made twice. I wrote a hymn or a song yesterday that I was hoping would maybe help bring this all home. It's called Nail to the Cross. In the courtroom of Heaven, naked I stand, guilty my plea, broken every command, by God's holy law, charged and justly condemned, what will become of me?

Debt book of sin, true every line, proved I was guilty and worthy to die. But Jesus appeared, set it aside, showing the wounds in His hands and His side. Christ bore it all when he was nailed to the tree, crossed out my record of debt, set me free. All of my sinful thoughts, words, and deeds were nailed to the cross on Calvary. Nailed to the cross, nailed to the cross, Jesus bearing all my sin, nailed to the cross, nailed to the cross, never to be remembered again.

Once fear gripped my soul, guilt made me cry, None in the courtroom would come to my side. But when Christ appeared, love dried my tears. He said, I paid his debt on Calvary. Nailed to the cross, nailed to the cross, Jesus bearing all my sin, nailed to the cross, nailed to the cross, never to be remembered again. Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, not my sin, but in part, not in part, but the whole was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. Octavius Winslow, one of the Puritans, I love this. The atonement of the blessed Redeemer was a full and entire blotting out of the sins of the believer. Look up, you saints of God, who are disconsolate. That's A big word used by the Puritans that means who are without comfort or in a state of unhappiness or where you lack comfort or not at peace or are troubled in your hearts and minds.

He says, look up, you saints of God, who are disconsolate through fear of condemnation. See all your sins charged to the account of Christ, your mighty surety. See them all laid upon Him as your substitute. See him bearing them away and sinking them in the ocean of his blood, casting them behind his back. And then look up, look up, look up and rejoice.

Don't let indwelling sin, the remains of corruption still in you, cause you to overlook this amazing truth, the entire blotting out of all your sins through the atoning blood of your adorable Emmanuel. Bless God. It is truth. It is truth. And it is your privilege to live in the holy enjoyment of it.

Amen. It is your privilege to live in the holy enjoyment of what Christ has done for you. And brothers and sisters, if all this is not enough to have you walking and leaping and praising God when you leave here today, there's more. Because look at verse 15, that's not all that happened at the cross, says Paul. In verse 15, we read, having disarmed the principalities and powers, He, Christ, made a public spectacle of them, that is all of your accusers and every enemy of Satan and all the powers of darkness, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

While Satan and his minions or what Satan and his minions believed to be their greatest victory, the death of Jesus, was in reality their complete and utter defeat. By nailing the record of our sin debt to the cross when he was nailed to the cross Christ stripped the spiritual forces of their ultimate weapon, the legal power to accuse you, to accuse us before the thrice holy God. It was taken away. I could see them like party animals dancing and reveling in the blood at the cross when Christ hung his head and gave up the ghost. But when he said it is finished, it was finished, and they were finished, disarmed and defeated at the cross.

John Calvin writes they are, quote, disarmed so that they cannot bring forward anything against us, the attestation of our guilt being itself destroyed." Close quote. My brothers and sisters in Christ, The evil powers no longer have the legal right to accuse us before God. They stripped Jesus, but Jesus stripped them of that right. That IOU, that certificate of indebtedness, that debt book of our sin was nailed to the cross. When our Jesus was nailed to the cross, it was wiped out, obliterated.

Christ satisfied our sin debt by his death. What was considered to be the greatest triumph of evil, the death of Christ, was actually the accomplishment and triumph of the greatest possible good, your redemption and my redemption and the redemption of all God's people. You see what the apostle Paul is alluding to here in this language. No doubt he had read of the Roman army's conquests and seen the murals on the walls of the civic halls in Rome. He knew that whenever there was a significant Roman conquest, the emperor would be drawn in this open chariot with the captives in tow, stripped of their armaments and paraded through the capitals streets in disgrace.

On that cross, when Christ was nailed to the cross, he nailed our sins to the cross and all our enemies were vanquished. Sin, death, and hell. Satan, all our enemies. Jesus triumphed over it all and over them all at the cross. He led captivity captive.

All the defeated demonic forces of hell were led in a public train as defeated foes as it were through the capital streets of heaven making a public spectacle of them triumphing over them all at the cross and holding them up up to public shame. Brothers and sisters, as we close, on the cross, our Jesus was fastened with nails so that we could be set free. He was stripped so that we could be clothed in His perfect righteousness. He was condemned so that we could be justified in God's sight. He became a curse so that we would never suffer the curse.

He was forsaken so that we would never be forsaken. And He died so that we could live forever in His presence, forgiven with joy and speakable and full of glory. Many glory in their strength, others in their wealth, still others in their beauty or their talents or their abilities. In Philippians 3 19 Paul tells us still others glory in their shame. The apostle Paul says, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Let's pray. Oh Father, our sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, our sin, not in part but the whole was nailed to the cross and we bear it no more and our souls praise you for it. Thank you for giving us your only begotten Son to live for us and to die for us and to rise from the dead for us, proving that His sacrifice on the cross was accepted as payment in full for all our sins and showing Himself victorious. Oh Lord, oh Father, thank you for Jesus crushing defeat of sin, Satan, hell, and death for us.

And thank you that this same Jesus who ascended to heaven is coming again for us to take us home. Now help us Father, help us God to live day by day as your blood-bought children in the light of all this good news and in the joy of it, in loving obedience and holiness and purity in response, which is our heart's sincere desire. In grateful, joyful praise, O God, for love so amazing, so divine, that it demands our souls, our lives, our all. We ask this God, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.