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[0:00] 2 and read verse 14. Colossians 2 verse 14.

[0:12] Blocking out the handwriting of ordinances that were against us, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, naming it to his cross.

[0:34] This is one of the profound suppleances written by the Holy Ghost through his servant Paul.

[0:44] Everything that can be embodied in that hidden mystery of God in the Gospel lies shrouded in this one state.

[1:05] It is truly a delightful season, the work of Christ. For what need one has of grace to preach him and you are of grace to hear him.

[1:21] May he grant us both that spiritual union to him and their affection toward him, so that we shall sit at his feet like children, with a meek and quiet spirit, drinking in the meaning of this beautiful text.

[1:51] Sure I am. But if this handwriting is not blocked out for you and me, we shall land in a solemn condition when we die.

[2:05] that should quicken our appetite to know the meaning of this verse, and especially quicken our desires to be part of the assurance that we have an interest in it.

[2:24] I hope we shall sit down like Israel, and eat and drink and then rise up to play before such solemn music as this verse has to say.

[2:43] The handwriting. The handwriting. What's that? The handwriting of ordinances that were against us.

[2:55] The handwriting means a statement of death, which is to be passed. which is to be passed.

[3:07] It's a Jewish expression really, and it is very surprising to one to keep on finding out how frequently the apostles though the spirit uses Jewish expressions in his beautiful officials.

[3:26] He is the intelligible. He was a Jew. He was struck by the power of the Holy Ghost in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and anything and everything that he knew and that he left with, he laid under tribute, as it were, to express the fullness, the beauty, the blessiveness, the uniqueness of the worth of a blessed redeemed.

[3:57] He knew what he meant when he said that handwriting of ordinances that began to say. The law written by the finger of God, not by angels, not by motives, but by the finger of God.

[4:22] God, it showed the dignity, the authority, the weight, the majesty of the Lord.

[4:37] God himself, we read, spacked all these words, and again and again, God wrote all these words, written on table stones.

[4:56] Most likely, marbles stones are best, and because round about tiny eyes, red marble is in profuse.

[5:08] Be that of its legs to materials written on stones. And why? Because, as far as it can, it shall show the durability of the Lord.

[5:30] Not with some paper that easily perishes. Not on the papyrus reed of Egypt. No, not in so afraid of death, which we often use in writing in Moses' death.

[5:45] But on the stone, it shall stand, and the Lord's people said, in the Lord's people. The Lord is naked in majesty.

[6:04] And it must stand to all eternity. Why? And because it is the real inner expression of the Almighty against sin, and against all our idolatry whatsoever.

[6:30] He gave an inchling of this lasting majesty and glory, His Lord, when on the mount, the mount itself quaked.

[6:46] Quaked. The trumpet sounded louder and louder.

[7:00] So terrible is the sound that Moses said, and it's not reported what he did say. It's not an exodus.

[7:13] But it is in Hebrews, chapter 12, Moses said, I exceedingly fear. Quaked.

[7:25] And it Moses, the man of God, who had forty days of unbroken, confused God, with whom God's faith, faith to face, has none of the praise.

[7:44] If he shall quake at the majesty of his law, what are you going to do? What am I going to do? Drop dead in the world.

[7:57] Let there be no mistake. This law still stands, and will stand, when time shall be no more.

[8:11] There's a lot of misunderstanding about Christ fulfilling and making an end of the law, as if he destroyed, blown to peace that is no longer existed.

[8:27] This is true. He has fulfilled it, as it relates to his children. Never shall he condemn them.

[8:41] But note that there be any mistakes. The law is not made for the righteous, says the part of Timothy, but it is made for the sinner.

[8:54] And every man who transgresses that law, will one day find out, unless the handwriting is flotted out, you will find out that it is very much alive, and will say, pay what thou hast.

[9:16] This handwriting of ordinances, says the text, was against us. Yet hear the strange things get through tonight.

[9:31] When God, first of all, promulgated his handwriting of ordinances from Sinai, all the people endorsed it.

[9:46] They endorsed. They acknowledged the depth that that law proclaimed. And they said, all the Lord and our God had said, we will do.

[10:06] Well, there is a right way in which we acknowledge the depth. There is a wrong way when a man, under his first leading and teaching of God, and has become aware of his depth.

[10:28] He promises God to do that. And he really means it. I'm sure he does. He means it. He's sincere in that.

[10:39] And he thinks he can. In effect, he says to God, I will no longer do such and such a thing, and I will henceforth do such and such a matter.

[10:55] Spare me, O Lord, and I'll behave myself far different from what I've been doing. I think he is acknowledging the depth.

[11:06] I'm not in a wrong way. Now, there is an acknowledging or endorsing of the handwriting of the depth, in a good way.

[11:17] And I'll say, I have mercy upon you, O God. Have mercy upon you, O God. Have mercy upon you, and according to the multitude of thy tender mercy, lot as my transgresses.

[11:30] grace. Why? For I acknowledge my sin against thee. Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Ah, that's the right ring. The ring of the Holy Ghost in your heart and mine are not flattering God that is blessedly true. Genuine fit of heaven is this. Worked in and then blown out of our heart because God worked in me. You will keep on acknowledging that death as long as you live. And in some respects you will never get an ache of an itchy arm. The more you drink of the spiritual condition, some more than that not, Mr. Dan. Ah, you won't be a mere 500 cent debtor. There'll be no limit to your judgment of your death. Well, here is the handwriting which we have a door, but yet it's against us.

[12:51] It's against us as a self-behaving. How vividly one can remember that. Going back now in my own age, over 60 years, a bit beyond that. How looking at God's most holy commandment, I had nothing but shame, guilt, guilt, and fear, and dread, and guilt, and fear, and dread, and why? Because my behavior has not been on that standard or blame.

[13:29] Our God, young as I was, young as I was, and reserve, and hope, and see too. Let it be God. Oh, the evil words, that's the trouble. Even when we are first born again, that's the trouble.

[13:45] We get worse, and we get worse, and we get older. And fear is against us as a standard of behavior. And against you and me as an accuser. It says, here, here, you owe me this and that.

[14:07] Do you remember when they led the man in the cross? Do you remember when they led the manicactors to the cross, the cross, the cross is, at Calvary, for they were two of them?

[14:20] And our blessed, and our blessed Lord, by imputations, may sing with terms, that we read that they nailed this accusation of the cross.

[14:37] That he was the two of them? All of that present. But the accusation laid against the criminal was written, and he either carried it on his brace, or it was fixed upon his head, or someone went before him carrying it, or it was nailed at the top of his cross.

[15:00] The accusation of the cross. The accusation of the law. That's what I want to drive at just here. They stand before you and be in greater.

[15:15] Especially when you're first brought to the east. How do you get rid of it? You know. Some would advise this, some would advise the other. It all comes to the ground.

[15:30] You try. You try. You strive. You toil to make the anticsact stand up. But there. It's hopeless, there stands, there stands, there stands the voice of the Lord, Your majesty, accusing you. And as an avenger, it's a gays, gays.

[15:53] He cries for blood, for so the sinner it shall die. The Lord can't order that, though. Never.

[16:06] It has no way out. It must have its cause. This is a school of in-good experience with, blessed be God, we went through so many years ago.

[16:25] And it is a good collegiate training to know and appreciate and love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If any of you are in that school, do bear with you and I saying, instead of you being downhearted, be you of good cheer.

[16:44] You do not know and you can't know till you grow older in these divine things. How much God is doing for you in these early stages?

[16:57] You may have, as doubt as it is, a very miserable experience. I grant it, it will be infinitely more difficult to be had, would it not? Better by far, now in God's mercy, to have his glory, accusing and demanding payment from you and I.

[17:17] As time, time and time, he flotted it out. It was against us. It was contrary to us.

[17:28] It was contrary to us because that is holy, just and good. And I can't use those adjectives about myself.

[17:39] I'm not holy. I'm not just. I'm not good. No, I don't believe and I don't receive any mitigation of those expressions.

[17:51] Sure, there is no man holy, no man just, no man good. There is none good, no not one, says the Lord of all, how do you believe?

[18:05] Even of those who profess to know it, how they really seem assured from facing the fact that it's true, solemnly true.

[18:17] I don't wonder, but the law being contrary to many, it can have no fellowship with faith, nor are it that.

[18:29] As soon as light and darkness agreeing as to have a sinner and the holy law of God walking together, fellowship seems impossible.

[18:44] I'll tell you another thing why it's so contrary to you and me. When you've got nothing in your pocket, and a tradesman account comes in to do, a statement of your debt, and you've got nothing with which to pay, is it very cheerful?

[19:04] No, that is. And the strange thing is, I don't know, it may not be quite so prevalent today, owing to very natural benefits, etc., etc., and the increased rate, rising wages and salaries and all the rest of it.

[19:23] But when I was younger, and some of you can remember it as well as I, many of God's people were as poor as poor as they were.

[19:35] They really did not know what it was to have the common necessities of life. I worked hard for a matter of a few pence a day. I had to do it myself, for eight pence a day, and twelve hours a day at that.

[19:52] Well, friend, I don't wonder at those who is famous at that time, being deeply in it, and to have a debt sent in to a godly person which he couldn't meet.

[20:06] Ah, that's a trouble, that's a sting to him. It's all very well for the present generation to laugh about this sort of thing, but some of you have been there, and we know what it means.

[20:22] But now when it comes from God, a debt I have never paid, what am I to do? I, it's contrary to me, so contrary to me that I wish of times it had never come.

[20:41] Contrary to me in all these respects, but now look what God has done. All the few.

[20:52] Blocking out the handwriting of all the sentences that were against us which was contrary to us, He's blocked it out, he's took it out of the way, he's nailed it to his cross.

[21:08] Three blessed things. Let me repeat them. They're sweet to me. Blocking them out, took it out of the way, nailed it.

[21:21] Blocking all these decks out, so that I can't read them. What a chance. What a chance.

[21:35] Yes. God says himself the time would come when the sins of Israel and of Judah should be sought after, and they should not be vowed.

[21:48] Did you ever know the time in your own soul, friend? When you looked for your sins and you couldn't find them? That's gone.

[22:00] Now that's no imagination of the brain. That's a real thing. How could I bless it in doom? Wouldn't I love that moron? Had I would?

[22:11] God ain't too much of that. God. When one thinks of the time when you reeled to and fro and staggered like a drunken man under your own death, you fool God, with no hope of ever discharging it, and couldn't see how he could do it either.

[22:32] And then the time of love came, when he flotted it out as a big cloud off your punches, and you were as clear as a sunbeam in his divine presence.

[22:47] And you said, Lord, can it be? Am I the same man? What I that looked for hell, he has brought me heaven.

[22:59] Ah, that's the kind of experience you and I need to get to heaven with. We shall not get to heaven without knowing something about it.

[23:12] Where's low the earth? And if we do know something about it, we shall get there. Because God, don't block it out and then bring it up again.

[23:23] No, dear. He's blocked it out so this can't be read. And what's more now? The Lord can't show me my death.

[23:36] The statement we've all write once is what I did have. I know, but I don't know it now. Why? Why do you?

[23:47] If you were caught in grassland, just in case anyone had it, you have a debt, you go to the shop, you pay it. You've got the receipt.

[23:59] That shopman cannot, and of course he will not, unless he made a step, sending the demand again. And that's the people here.

[24:11] Not only are the debts removed, but never again shall I be challenged by the Lord to pay my debts.

[24:24] That doesn't mean that after my conscience will condemn me. It does. So we thought. But it does mean this, that there is therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

[24:46] What a blessing! What a blessing! And as the statement of my debts can never come in again now, so those debts I once incurred will never meet me after I'm dead.

[25:05] And say now, square the building, never. Never. It's blocked with them out. Ever. Your sins and your impotence will not be in heaven.

[25:20] No. No! What a God! What a God! Who is a God so rich and free as He to the people of this time?

[25:34] There is another expression here. He has flotted it out. He has taken it out of the way.

[25:46] Out of the way of God and I meeting on holy ground. Taken out of the way. The word way means midst. He's taken out of the midst.

[25:58] There was that law between God and I. I speak personally to make it clear to you. There was the Lord God with all my debts incurred standing between God and me.

[26:13] And I speak. He's taken down the line. He's taken down the line. So God and sin and I. Rather, oh, I can't possibly be as an illustration what you have in Exodus, God's own words, when He said to Moses, there, there, where?

[26:38] Where? Why? Where the law was? Yes. The law was in the ark. The two tables of stone were put there. That means, of course, the law was put there.

[26:51] But the lid of the ark was the mercy seat. See? And there says, God, I'll meet with you. Why? God does not want any other cause to make it to meet with the dinner.

[27:11] That's it. He is well pleased for His righteousness is sake. Not that. His righteousness is sake.

[27:22] His law stands in awe, His naked righteousness, and permits Him to meet with the transgressor of His pure holy blood, rich blood.

[27:37] Friend, immediately you get away from the blood. You get away from hope. You do, and you will, serve your right to, serve me right to, for we know that after.

[27:51] We do, if we keep on doing this stupid thing. Looking, delving, conjuring up something or other, the blood of the ground upon which God and our conscience is.

[28:07] Well, He's took it right out of the way so that God and His people can be put more over.

[28:21] There's peace. There's peace. He is our peace. The middle wall of petition, broken down, the end of His slain, cordiality, the embracing of God and the sinner is marvelous.

[28:38] I'm not using too strong terms. I only wish I could to set forth His gospel. I do it. Look at the power of the prodigal. What does it mean if it does not set forth? The overwhelming love and grace of the heart of the martyr. Embracing the prodigal that's got in a picture, through the blood of His dear sons, removing every obstacle out of the way.

[29:02] of their feast on the Lord.

[29:14] And He's come, the keep, the drink, and the carry.

[29:25] God, Mary. The sinner, Mary. Christ, Mary. The Holy Ghost, Mary. The whole Church triumphant, Mary. Not with the world's gaiety, but with a spiritual merriment and all founded on the land.

[29:47] He took the statement of the debt out of the land. That was a hard thing. No. He can say to you and me, and he does.

[30:04] You look here. You've forgotten this. I look at all the names I do, Father. That's my response to him any time. But his fathers are not treating it like they don't think that. It's marvelous how he's bringing things back to you that you did many, many years ago.

[30:23] Make them live as if you were enacting them over the game. But it's too late, friend. Too late. Bless your arms. It's too late. Why? Christ's taken out of the land. The last thing of my debt is nailing it to his cross. And so, it's torn to pieces.

[30:51] Torn to pieces. The indictment. The accusation. Torn to shreds. Now we come back to Christ.

[31:01] Now we do these. John says that Pilate wrote a title. Matthew says that he wrote the accusation.

[31:17] Christ was accused. He was accused. He was accused. By no countrymen. For they laid the charge.

[31:28] That he said he was the king of the Jews. And this is the accusation for which he's going to die.

[31:39] In the eye of the Jews. And in the eye of the Romans. But the Jew was annoyed. So he went to the pimpers and said, Don't you write that. You write that he said you are. What I have written. I have written. God's promise. May I write it and study it.

[31:50] What I have written. I have written. God's promise. God's promise. May I write it and study it. What I have written. I have written. God's promise. God's promise. May I write it and study it. What I have written.

[32:01] I have written. Is again a Jewish expression. To denote no possibility of war-waring. Like the law of the Legion of Persia. The Lord is not. He was the king of the Jews. And he is the king of the Jews. And he is the king of the Jews. And they are Jews who are not those merely outwardly put in with me.

[32:14] Who circumcised into the spirit and not of the flesh. I trust you are a Jew in that sense. And he is the king of the Jews. And he is the king of the Jews. And they are Jews who are not those merely outwardly put in with me.

[32:27] Who circumcised into the spirit and not of the flesh. I trust you are a Jew in that sense. And myself too. And he's our king.

[32:39] And did they crucify him for this? Yes. This is his accusation. And another link with it and joined to it was.

[32:51] Because he made himself the son of God. Well now. The accusations laid against us by the Lord.

[33:04] Were not written by Pilate. They were not in so much pasteboard or paper. But they are there at the cross.

[33:15] Where all most of the masters were. Matthew used to in their Aramaic form.

[33:26] Eloi, Lama, Tabakshani. My God. My God. Why? That's loud.

[33:37] Ah. He's laying it to his cross now. What? Oh, that the Lord laid against his children.

[33:51] What did he do? Did he do it? All the accusations of the law against me.

[34:02] Were they nailed to his cross. But me? They did. Ah. Here we can. Nailing it to his cross.

[34:19] And then a little further on. Three hours. He in that awful darkness entailed the bill. And I don't want to speculate.

[34:31] But surely. The darkness of the dear Redeemer's soul. Would end the matter of the everlasting darkness.

[34:42] Of the lost in picture. And that's what the Lord has done to me. Had he not. Paced the bill.

[34:54] Nailed it to his cross. Yes. Well. After the three hours of darkness. Our Blessed Lord triumphed.

[35:08] Yes, he triumphed. And so you read that he cried with a loud voice. He didn't die through weakness.

[35:23] Though it is true that he was crucified through weakness. That is, through the naked, sinless weakness of human nature. As God couldn't be crucified.

[35:35] So he took the likeness of sinful flesh, which was weakness. But he did not die through weakness as we understand. Gradually expiring.

[35:47] Something else overcoming him. Till at last it got the victory. And swept him away in death. No. His energy is there.

[35:58] Fresh and strong and triumphant. So he cried with a loud voice. And he cried with a voice. It is the spirit.

[36:09] The death's pain. The handwriting is taken away. Blocked out. Nailed my cross.

[36:20] I've done it. Done what? The work that power gave me to it. Ah, well, there's the gospel.

[36:32] May God make us love it more. Involently more than we do. There's nothing in his life without his strength.

[36:45] You may think for me that there is not the time is bound to come. When you and I will see sheer anything if nothingness but this.

[36:58] This, why, Christ, in my heart, the hope of eternal glory and all my debts paid for me.

[37:10]  Well, what can I learn if I am? Thank you.