Well, there are so many things that I'm thankful for when I think about our church family here at Twin City Bible Church, things I go to the Lord and rehearse and thank Him for. And certainly just to be a part of a church family where it's made up of people, certainly not perfect. You know, you know me and I know you. And we are all on this road of seeking to grow and learn more about Christ and His Word. And we have people in our church family at all different levels of that growth process. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that we can come and grow and learn. I'm thankful that at the center of everything is the Word of God. If the Word of God is not being proclaimed accurately and If we're not taking it seriously what it says and seeking to apply it, then it's all for naught. I mean, that's just one of the clear-cut purposes of the church. We are, according to the Apostle Paul, we are the pillars of the truth. We are the storehouses of the truth. It's what we have been given to teach and proclaim and pass on. And that necessitates then a philosophy of ministry about all that we do, going back to that. It necessitates understanding what the mission of the church is, you know, why we're here, and so forth. So I'm thankful for all those things about our church, and it's strictly because the Lord has chosen to graciously develop those things here. But all that to say, but there's one more thing I'm thankful for, and that's the music here. I just thank the Lord all the time for that. And today was another good example of that, to sing such rich songs and to hear them played in songs so beautifully. I'm so grateful to Kyle and the singers, the kids, the teens, the adults, and the choirs, and the instrumentalists, all who make it all possible. I'm just so thankful to the Lord for their giftedness and their desire to use that giftedness to honor Him, but to serve us. They are helping us grow and to worship the Lord. So, I'm thankful for the music. I mean, really, it's only Christianity, really, that has music like that. I mean, the music that proclaims truths like these. We're the only ones who really have a true reason to rejoice and sing, and we should sing. So, I know you're grateful for all those things as well. Well, I want to talk just for a moment here at the beginning of our time of study about Something that amongst Christians has been an on-again, off-again sort of interest, and that is an on-again, off-again interest through the most recent decades, interest in demons and in spiritual warfare and the activity of Satan. Some teachers and some books along the way say that demons are behind various sins or bad habits. I've heard that discussed and taught, things like the demon of lust, and the demon of alcoholism, and the demon of gossip, and the demon of depression, and the demon of nail biting, and the list goes on. Demon of soap operas. Some go so far as to promote the idea of territorial demons, so-called territorial demons, and even generational curses that are passed down. generation to generation and their families who live in fear of that sort of thing, hereditary demons, some would call them. Many deliverance ministries have developed along the way, the last few decades especially, with so-called anointed preachers speaking to demons and supposedly casting demons out of people many books I could mention. One book especially that intensified interest in all this was written by Frank Peretti. His book entitled This Present Darkness came out in the 1980s. It sold hundreds, thousands of copies. I personally witnessed a lot of silliness, I guess you could say, from my perspective in professing Christians when it comes to demonic activity and and fearing the devil. I've had these kind of conversations or been taught these things along the way. For the example that you shouldn't have any paintings in your house or portraits or photos of owls, O-W-L-S, not owl, A-L, but owls in your house because they are creatures of darkness and they attract demons in your home. I served under a pastor one time who taught that. He and his wife would go visit a family, a new family in the church or something, and if they had a portrait like that on the wall, they would make sure to cleanse that house of the demons and all of that. I've heard this taught that you shouldn't emphasize certain beats in music, especially the second and the fourth beat of the measure, because that attracts demons. And obviously, don't use drums of any kind because they certainly attract demons. I don't know if electronic drums attract electronic demons or not, but that's up for discussion, I guess. Heard this, wearing certain colors attracts demons. Well, there certainly are some serious concerns about all of this. I'll tell you the primary problem, it is that people are forming their views and their and structuring their practices from fictional novels and Hollywood movies and from rumors and from their own imaginations rather than Scripture. And this lack of submission to biblical authority, therefore, means that much of what is written in many books and much that takes place in these supposed deliverance ministries and a lot of seminars and much of what is taught about spiritual warfare is just not biblical. Another issue that's related to that is that it seems that some churches and preachers focus more on the devil and demons than on Christ. In other words, there's so much talk about Satan and his activities that people then just live in constant fear of them. Satan and his demons have been made to be so powerful that they cause fear and that Satan is essentially sort of portrayed as being omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent. Preachers talk about the need to bind Satan off of services. We were in a church like that for a while, especially when you'd have revival services. You've got to pray to bind Satan off of this service so he doesn't interfere in the teaching of certain particular warfare prayers that you need to pray for protection. This excessive focus on Satan and demonic powers has produced a term by those who observe all that, they promote the sovereignty of Satan instead of the sovereignty of God, which just implies that people are more focused on Satan and his power than they are on God and His power. Well, just to clarify something, there is a Satan, there is a devil, and there are demons And there is no doubt much evil in this world that Satan and his demons are behind. Just remember the words of Ephesians 2 verse 2, Satan is called there the prince of the power of the air. And then it goes on to say that he's the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. So we take that seriously. But nevertheless, Scripture still presents a much different portrait of demonic powers and spiritual warfare than all the various deliverance ministries do or novels do. And our passage today is one that lays out the truth about the defeat of Satan and his evil spirits. Our passage is Colossians chapter 2. I should say it's the first of our passages. We're going to look at two today as your bulletin outlines. Colossians 2, verse 15, but also 1 Peter 3, verses 18 through 22. You can put your finger in 1 Peter 3 and hold on to that. I mean, this is a great day for you to come because you're getting two sermons for the price of one. The first, Colossians 2.15. Now last week, we looked also at Colossians 2, we looked at the previous two verses, verses 13 and 14. And the glorious truth, if you'll remember from last week, our study, the glorious truth that in His death on the cross, Jesus canceled out the debt of the sin of His people. That debt, in verse 14, is called a certificate of debt. And I explained to you that the words there mean something like an IOU. It's a metaphorical way of representing the record of our failures. It's an IOU as if we have this IOU where we have promised our obedience to God because He created us, yet everyone fails in that. All people fail in perfect obedience to God's moral law, and that is what He requires. And so the certificate of dead is like a record of that. And the verse also says that the decrees of God are loudly proclaiming something. They're loudly proclaiming our failure and the fact that we deserve judgment for that failure. Judgment for our sin. The glorious news that we rejoiced over last week is that that certificate of debt was canceled out, it says, verse 14, by Jesus when on the cross He died after taking on Himself the wrath and the judgment of God that His people deserve for their sin. In addition, verse 14 says that the decrees themselves of our, you know, decreeing our deserved judgment, those decrees were taken out of the way. Literally, it means to remove from the middle, removed as the barrier that keeps us from having a relationship with God. The verse says those decrees of our deserved judgment were nailed to the cross, as it were, so that when Jesus died, He was paying the debt of our crimes. And the good news of the gospel, that's what gospel means, the good news. The good news is that this cancellation of the sin debt applies to those who have calm and humble faith and repentance to Christ, seeking the forgiveness of their sin and seeking to serve Him as their Lord. Well, there is though something else that the Apostle Paul, who wrote this under the inspiration of the Spirit, something else that the Apostle knew that we also should be concerned about. We not only face the problem of the certificate of debt and the record of our transgressions, our sins, we have another enemy we should be concerned about. And that is Satan himself and his demons. who not only tempt us to continue sinning, but who are eager to do something, and that is throw our failures in our face. They love to remind us just how unworthy we are, just how sinful we are, and as well they're eager to call all of that to God's attention as well. So we do need to be wise to Satan's tactics, but we don't need to live in fear of him and his demons. Followers of Christ don't have to live in fear due to the record of their sins, but neither do they need to live in fear of demonic activity. And that's because Christ not only canceled out the record of our sin, today's passage confirms that He also canceled out the power and authority of Satan and his demons. Here's verse 15 of Colossians 2. Here we have two past actions of God, very important past actions on God's part, directed at Satan and his wicked spirits, actions that give us confidence in our fight against evil, Actions that prevent us from living in fear. Therefore, actions that are the reason we can live our lives enjoying freedom from oppression. Here's past action, number one, something God did. Number one, He disarmed all evil powers. He disarmed all evil powers. Now, before we look at our text, I think we should be reminded of Satan's origin. You get that in the Old Testament? Ezekiel chapter 28, for example, Isaiah chapter 14, the fact that Satan at one time was initially a powerful angel in heaven. Scripture even presents him as a beautiful, powerful angel in heaven, but he was cast out of heaven due to his pride and this rebellious desire on his part to be exalted even above God. And many angels rebelled with him. angels subsequently called demons. And from that time onward, Satan and his demons have been in great and direct opposition to God, seeking to hinder God's redemptive plan in this world, His plan of saving sinners. Now this satanic opposition appeared, as we know, in Genesis chapter 3 in the Garden of Eden. Satan, it tells us there in Genesis 3, in the form of the serpent came to the first two individuals that God created, Adam and Eve. And he tempted them and even led them to rebel against God's love and rebel against God's authority and what God had told them to do and not do, led them to sin against God. And because of Adam's sin, the one who represented the human race, because of Adam's sin, at that moment, the whole human race was plunged into sin. with each person who came after Him. Each person being born in a state of spiritual death and thus each person continuing to choose to transgress God's holy and good law in some way. That's our bent that we're born with. That's our propensity to go our own way. You fast forward throughout human history and you find then the ongoing tragic story of Satan and his demons opposing God and opposing God's people. They eventually even sought to dissuade Jesus from His mission. They stirred up hostility against Jesus and Satan even himself directly tempted Jesus, trying to get Him to fail. No doubt when it comes to us, Satan loves, as I said, reminding people of their sins. He loves to try to convince them that they're not worthy to be in the family of God and therefore to doubt salvation. And he loves also making accusations to God about our sin because he doesn't want God to graciously extend forgiveness to us. And like I said, he and his demons also love tempting us to sin. So it's a vicious cycle if you think about it. They tempt us to sin, and they're involved in that in some way that's hard to know and understand, the particulars. But if they succeed in that, then they accuse the same people that they led into sin, they accuse them of sin before God. Listen to what Scripture says about Satan in this regard. Revelation 12, verse 10. The accuser of our brethren, that's what he's called there. The accuser of our brethren, accuses them before God day and night. If you want to know what Satan is doing and where he is, since he's not omnipresent, he can only be in one location at a time. He spends most of his time doing that before God, day and night, accuser of the brethren. One more weapon of Satan, at least so he thinks, is death. He loves to promote in people the fear of death. So it is true, Satan exists. He's our arch enemy. He's the accuser of God's people. And he has all these evil spirits to do his bidding. Invisible demons that exist in vast numbers and who are bound together with Satan, their leader, by the same spirit of bitter hatred towards God, God's authority, and bitter hatred toward God's people. Satan and demons are truly our enemies. So we do have to be wise about their tactics. We do have to contend with them at some level. which is why the Apostle Paul wrote this in Ephesians 6.12. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. There's where the real battle is. Now in our text today, look at verse 15, you'll see that these evil spiritual forces are referred to this way. In verse 15, they're called rulers and authorities. Now, this is not the first time in Colossians that these evil powers have been mentioned. You can find them back in chapter 1, verse 16. It's talking there about God's sovereignty and creation, that all things have been created by Him, Colossians 1.16, both in the heavens and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. And then you get to chapter 2, you can look back at verse 10, the end of verse 10, they're mentioned there. It says that He is the head over all rule and authority. So now in our verse, Paul once again refers to these supernatural evil powers as rulers and authorities. These are demonic powers, demonic spirits that are hostile to God and hostile to his church. But even though Satan and his minions are real, and even though our struggle against them and with them is real, we do not have to live in fear of what they do. And it's not because of something about us. It's not because of our inherent ability to withstand them. It's because of something God has done. Verse 15, He disarmed them. Disarmed them. Now, this verb, disarmed, is rare. It has the basic notion of stripping off clothing, some unwanted piece of clothing. It's only used one other place in the New Testament, also in Colossians, the next chapter, chapter 3 verse 9. It's used metaphorically there about our salvation. It says in Colossians 3 verse 9 that you laid aside, same verb, you stripped off the old self with its evil practices. But it has another nuance in addition to that. Not only is it used to talk about stripping off something like a piece of clothing, it's also used to talk about stripping off from an opponent that's been conquered, stripping off that opponent's weapons and stripping them of their power. And God accomplished that through Jesus, through his death on the cross. He stripped the rulers and authorities of their power and authority. He stripped them of their weapons. not least of which is what we've already discussed, the certificate of debt, that detailed record of our failures and our inability to keep God's decrees. He stripped, really, the ability of Satan to use that. In fact, I love the words of Colossians 1 verse 20. It says, Jesus made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. But here's something else about this. This amazing victory that was accomplished at the cross, God disarming all evil powers and having victory over them, that was something prophesied way back in the Old Testament, all the way back to the book of Genesis again, and again, chapter 3. Genesis 3, verse 15, said this would happen. Now, if you go back to chapter 3, it's the record of Adam and Eve sinning. the fall of man. And after they sinned, God began to pronounce the consequences that would be true for men and women, still true today. He also pronounced a curse upon Satan who led them into sin. And you find that in Genesis 3.15. He's speaking, God's speaking directly to Satan and he says this, I will put enmity between you and the woman, you serpent and the woman, And between your seed, all those who would come after you and follow you and reflect who you are, between your seed and her seed, but then it tells us something about her seed. It's a singular person. He, the Messiah, will bruise you on the head and you will bruise him on the heel. We call this the first proclamation of the gospel in the Bible, Genesis 3.15. And there's an antithesis there, there's a contrast. The Messiah, the one who would come from the woman eventually, he'll bruise the serpent, Satan, on the head. It's a death blow, a serious wound, but you'll bruise him a lot too, just lesser on the heel. The cross was the fulfillment ultimately of Genesis 3.15. on the cross, Jesus bruised the head of Satan. So what an amazing reversal occurred. Because look at the cross. To many, it's the moment of Jesus' apparent defeat. But instead, it was a moment of victory. God disarms Satan in all evil spiritual forces. And this passage, therefore, is meant to be an encouragement to us. We need to view Satan and his demons the right way. They're real, they're active, they oppose us, but they are defeated, defeated foes. They bring about terrible spiritual damage. 1 Peter 5, 8, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But nevertheless, God disarmed them and because of that, their ultimate doom was sealed. You know what their ultimate doom is? You find it in places like Matthew 25 verse 41. It talks about there, the lake of fire. You know why there was a lake of fire created by God? Here's what it tells you, Matthew 25, 41. It has been prepared for the devil and his angels, the demons. You jump to the last book of the Bible, Revelation 20, verse 10, and you find this fulfilled someday in the future. Revelation 20, 10, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. That was sealed, their doom at the cross. God disarmed all evil powers. The commentator John Kitchen puts it this way, irony of ironies, the cross in which the evil powers thought they had defeated Christ was the cross through which He sealed their doom. It is through the cross that we who were doomed are set free. God disarmed all evil powers, but there's a second action God performed. An action that confirms the victory over all evil powers through Christ confirms that it did not remain just a private matter. Here's the second past action. Number two, He displayed all evil powers. He disarmed all evil powers. Number two, He displayed all evil powers. Verse 15 says, He made a public display of them. Now that verb display has the sense of exposing something or making a public example of something or someone to proclaim something publicly. It has only one other New Testament occurrence, and that's back in Matthew 1, verse 19, when it talks about Joseph, who found out that Mary was pregnant, and Joseph trying to figure out what to do about it. Matthew 1, 19. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, same verb, not wanting to make a public example of her, not wanting to expose her to public disgrace, planned to send her away secretly. In other words, he chose to divorce her quietly. rather than making a public example of her. Same verb. So here in Colossians, it's that term that she used to say that God did it though. God put the true character of evil powers on public display. And verse 15 goes on to expand on the idea even further. Verse 15, having triumphed over them through him. Now that verb, having triumphed, refers to a scene that was familiar to them and their culture at that day. In their day, when a military commander or a king would defeat an enemy, he would come back home and he would ride his chariot through the city in this triumphal procession to celebrate his victory publicly. But he'd be followed in this parade, not only by his own army, but after that they would parade all the plunder that he had won through this victory. And then in the parade would be the defeated kings and officers and soldiers, any of them still alive, they would have to parade. A visible representation they'd been defeated. Now this verb is only used one other time in the New Testament. And that is in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. And you read this verse and you get a better sense than what's happening here in 1 Peter. In Colossians 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14, but thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph. There it is in Christ. It's this picture of us having been conquered by Christ. And he's in this triumphal possession. And we're being led in this victory parade through life following him where all the world can see that we belong to him now. We're his possession. So, back to our text, Satan and his demonic powers were conquered by Christ at the cross, and to some degree, not totally so, but to some degree, since the cross was public, we can say that in a sense, those vanquished powers were on display before the whole universe, but it wasn't obvious. In fact, even the vanquished powers themselves may very well still have been imagining that they had Jesus at their mercy. When in reality He was disarming them, He was defeating them. So there's something else alluded to here. Not only did the cross spell the defeat of Satan and his evil minions, the real proof of the triumph occurred through the resurrection and then the subsequent ascension of Jesus back to heaven. Those two go together. The resurrection confirmed that Christ's death was successful in canceling out the certificate of the dead of our sin. The resurrection confirmed that Satan's power to keep men, one of his weapons, to keep people in fear of death, that was destroyed. Hebrews 2.14, it says, Jesus rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, because he conquered death, Jesus did. The resurrection is the proof of all that. But something else is important about the resurrection of Jesus. It was the resurrection to a certain state in existence, a glorified state. Therefore, it includes his ascension back to heaven because he ascended to heaven in that same glorified state. It was through those events that God's sovereign superiority over all evil powers was truly put on public display. Through those events, evil spiritual powers were clearly confirmed to be defeated. You can say it this way, the resurrection of Jesus to a glorified state was the true public celebration of the victory. Now with that in mind, we go to the other passage, 1 Peter 3, verses 18-22. two sermons for the price of one. 1 Peter 3. Now, let me just set the context for a moment. Peter was writing to those believers who were experiencing great persecution. You find that throughout the book, encouraging believers in the time of suffering and persecution. And you find this topic then of Christians needing to have confidence in the face of that persecution. So that kind of leads up to our passage. In verse 17, he makes the point that if God wills it that you should suffer, make sure it is suffering for doing what is right and not doing what's evil. And he tells us in chapter 2 that Christ is the example of that. He suffered for doing what was right. And he left us an example of how to suffer in the face of all that. But then starting in verse 18 of chapter 3, Peter gives more information about the suffering of Jesus, but not just his suffering, also his victory. So that those who know him and follow him will be encouraged that even though they suffer, they too can share the same victory eventually. So let's briefly walk through these verses. And then I will connect it back to what our passage in Colossians 2 was talking about. It's all going to make sense in the end, I hope. Verse 18, 1 Peter 3, for Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust. so that he might bring us to God. You find first of all there a reference to the substitutionary death of Jesus. We call it the vicarious suffering of Jesus. He was a substitute for sinners. Jesus died for sins once for all, the just, that's Jesus, for the unjust, that's us. statement about the substitutionary death. It's also a statement about the purpose of the death. Look what it says, in order that He might bring us to God. Christ's death opened the way for Christians to follow Him through death as well into the presence of the Father. But this is also a reference to the resurrection. Verse 18 goes on, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. We need to understand this correctly. These terms, flesh and spirit, do not refer to two parts of Jesus, his external part, his body, and his internal part, his soul. Nor does the spirit here refer directly to the Holy Spirit. When the Greek wants to do that, when the Greek wants to distinguish between the material body And the immaterial part of us, the soul, the Greek term for body is soma. And the term for soul would be psuche. Those are not the Greek terms here. Rather, flesh here is the Greek term sarx, S-A-R-X. This refers to a realm, a sphere. It refers to Christ in his human sphere, the human sphere of his earthly life. In that sphere he was crucified. Spirit is not psuche, it's the Greek term pneuma, and it likewise here refers to a sphere. There's an antithesis here of two spheres. He was resurrected in the sphere of life, the glorified sphere, a different realm. Now you find a similar sort of two-sphere statement. Some of the words are the same, some are not. I'll just give it to you. It's Romans 1, verses 3 and 4. Listen to Romans 1, 3. Jesus was born of a descendant of David according to the sarks, according to the flesh, in the world of the earth, earthly families. But he was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. There's the other sphere. So in 1 Peter 3, there's this intentional antithesis in these phrases, put to death in the flesh, but I need to tell you the word these is not there. It's literally just put to death in flesh, that sphere, and made alive in spirit, that sphere. Both references to sphere. He was put to death in the sphere of the flesh, raised in the sphere of the spirit, which is the sphere of being glorified. So this is not a verse talking about what was going on with Jesus' soul, why his body was in the grave. So again, this flesh-spirit contrast is just not between his body and his soul, between two states of existence. He existed in the realm of the earthly human life before his death and in the glorified state in existence after the resurrection. And both of those aspects of the redemptive event were necessary to bring us to God. The resurrection is part of the gospel message. Christ's death was necessary, but so was His resurrection to a glorified state, which is then followed eventually by the ascension back to heaven in a glorified state still, same sphere, which is why the ascension will be mentioned here in a moment in verse 22. It's all part of completing the redemptive sequence. So stay with me here. Here's the point. Jesus' crucifixion is represented in the phrase put to death. His resurrection is represented by the phrase made alive. And if you jump to verse 22, his ascension is found in that phrase, having gone into heaven. Now, verse 19 brings us to the reason I'm connecting this passage to Colossians 2. Verse 19, in which, what is that referring to? That second sphere, the sphere of being resurrected, the glorified state. In that state also, he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison. So the person who does the proclamation is the one who's in this sphere called being made alive in spirit, the resurrected sphere, the resurrected Christ. So the best way to read it is this way, in which state of resurrection and glorification he went and made proclamation. But a question to ask is what did Jesus proclaim? Well, one of the things that confuses the answer to that is a very famous document that many of you have heard of called the Apostles' Creed. There's a line in the Apostles' Creed that says, Jesus, do you know what it says? Descended into hell. And a lot of people have bought that interpretation through the years. It's just not defensible in this text here in 1 Peter. Just know something about the Apostles' Creed. First of all, it's not our authority. God's Word is. And you'll need to know something else about the Apostles' Creed. It's not like the Nicene Creed, for instance. The Apostle Creed was never written or adopted by any official church council. But what's far more important is the fact that the verb Peter used in verse 19, went, does not mean to descend. It's a wrong translation to say it that way. It simply means to just go do something. Peter's point was simply to say that Jesus went and did something. Once he was resurrected, what's he doing now? Making proclamation. And he says he made this proclamation to the spirits. This refers to evil spirits, demons. In his glorified, resurrected state, he made proclamation. to demons that it says were in prison. And that means they were confined for some reason. Demons who are being restrained by God. There are demons still active in the earth today. But these demons, Peter refers to, were so bad that they were put in a realm, a state of existence where they are being restrained by God until their day of judgment. You have some references to that. For example, Jude 6 talks about angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode. He has kept an eternal bond under darkness for the judgment of the great day. 2 Peter 2 verse 4, Peter writes that God committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment. That's the prison. Well, we're going to come back to verse 19 in a moment and complete it, but go ahead and go to verse 20 because here the spirits are identified further. I mean, what demons are we talking about here? I mean, they're all bad, right? Yeah, but these are worse. Who once were disobedient, verse 20 says, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. This refers to the state of the world at the time of Noah. What was the world like at the time of Noah? It was bad. There was a level of corruption and rebellion on the state of the earth that is hard for us to imagine. Here's what it says in Genesis 6, 5 about it. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Verse 11, Genesis 6. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. I mean, men and women at that point in history had progressed to a terrible state of rebellion. And now Peter, under the inspiration of the Spirit, is confirming that that state of severe corruption and rebellion at that time was being fostered and furthered by demonic involvement. And the result, we know. God sent a flood to judge the earth. so bad that he saved only a small number, Noah and his family, and that was it. So what you have here by looking back at Noah and the fact that all that corruption was being fostered by demonic involvement, we can include this. This problem with Satan and demons goes back a long way, even to the time of Noah. But what happened there when God imprisoned some, constrained them, that was a A preliminary judgment of some demons. There's more judgment to come. Just like the flood was a preliminary judgment on the earth to foreshadow there's another judgment coming in the future. So yes, Satan and some demons continue to be active and they may think that they can still win, but the act of judgment by God in Noah's day and confining of some demonic spirits, restraining them was a foreshadowing of the ultimate victory. that Jesus was going to win not only through the cross, but the resurrection from the dead. Now back to verse 19, there's another obvious question. He's proclaiming, there's a proclamation going on, but proclaiming what? Well, the content of the proclamation is not actually stated verbally, but I can tell you what he was not proclaiming. He was not proclaiming the gospel. I've heard that. He was proclaiming the gospel even to demons. But we know that's not true because this is not the word for the preaching of the gospel. That's a different Greek verb. This verb just means announcement. It was Jesus' announcement of his victory over Satan and demons. The proclamation, the proclamation of the success of the disarming, the proclamation of the success of the counseling of the dead. the proclamation of victory over rulers and authorities. His death won the victory, but the resurrection itself dramatically sealed it. And in and of itself is an announcement to the universe that Jesus won. So let me paraphrase verses 18 and 19. Jesus was put to death in the earthly sphere of existence. He was made alive in the glorified sphere of existence. And in that state of existence, you find then the proclamation of His victory over fallen angels. Jump to verse 22, it just confirms that the ascension is part of that, part of the victory proclamation. Verse 22 says, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him. It's important for you to know that that term, having gone, is the same Greek verb, went, in verse 19. They're connected, all these thoughts. And the place Jesus went to is the place of power and authority. Several times it's said in Scripture, like in Ephesians 1, that God seated Him at the right hand of heavenly places, a majesty on high, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. Ephesians 1.22 says, and God has put all things in subjection under His feet. So summary, you just get this, you'll make a good grade on the exam that I'm going to It was on the cross that God through Christ disarmed, stole the weapons from, the ability to accuse and the ability to use death. He disarmed the rulers and authorities, but it was in the resurrection and then the ascension that God ultimately put on display this proclamation, the reality of that victory over all those powers. You could say it this way, when God raised Christ from the dead, He put an exclamation point on the victory. And that exclamation point goes on day after day after day. Yeah, we have to deal with evil in this world and evil powers. They're opposed to us, but they are powerless, unable to harm the person who is in Christ. So what's the practical point of application with all these lofty, technical, seminary thoughts here this morning? Simple. We don't need to fear. We don't have to fear the outcome of the battle with evil in this world. Christ has conquered. And if we're in Him, we too have conquered. To know and enjoy Christ is the same thing as knowing and enjoying freedom from oppression and fear. How do we make it practical in our experience though? Well, James tells us how to do that. James 4 verse 7. James encourages the practical experience of this victory. Here's how he encourages it. Listen to James 4.7. Very simple. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Pretty simple. Now, obviously, you can ask, well, how do we submit to God then? Time-tested ways, time-tested biblical strategy, prayer. You submit to God. When you go to God in prayer, even daily, starting your day praying something like this, like Romans 12, Lord, today I give my body to you a living sacrifice. You pray 2 Corinthians 4, verses 1 and 2, right in there, I today renounce the things associated with darkness. Today, Lord, Take me today, Lord, and use me for your glory." You pray. There's another time-tested biblical strategy of what it means to submit to God. It's the Word of God. You read the Word of God. You ponder the Word of God. You study the Word of God. You meditate on the Word of God. And it's amazing how God uses even passages you've studied before, but based on what you're going through at the moment, how something just comes alive and gives you encouragement and help and strength and stirs up in your heart a passion for Christ again. You're submitting to God when you do that. The devil hates that. He has to flee. I would add one more to the time-tested biblical strategies, prayer, the Word of God, and And there's going to have to be a choice of trusting God. You have to choose to trust Him. Trust that His promises are true. Trust that you need nothing else. You really can take comfort and joy in promises like this, Romans 8, 38 and 39. I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That is a promise. And that includes no fear. But I got to be honest with you, that promise of victory and no fear is only for those who have come to that place in their life of realizing their sinfulness. And they have come to express in their own heart saving, repentant, submissive faith in Christ. If you do not know Him, then you don't have this resurrection life. You don't have the sharing of this victory. You are under sin. The certificate of dead and the decrees are proclaiming your guilt. You are empty. You are subject to oppression. You should fear them. But Christ is such a wonderful Savior, He beckons you to come to Him just as you are. You don't clean yourself up and turn over a new leaf. You come admitting, I have no hope on my own. I'll just give you His words, Revelation 22 verse 17. Here's what He says to you, come. Whoever is thirsty, let him come. If you're thirsty, for being right with God and have a real purpose for living and knowing that you're going to go to heaven when you die. If you're thirsty, calm, he says. And whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. If you're empty, call out in your heart to Christ, receive life, be delivered, and then you'll be part of this victory parade with all the others who don't deserve it either. parading through life saying, we belong to Him, the one at the front, our conquering King. It's in Him that we have everything we need. Let's pray. Father, I pray that You would take the technical aspects of all this and the language and the trying to blend two passages and all that. I pray that You would take it all and in our own hearts and minds, smooth it over to the main point. that in Christ alone, we have everything we need. Forgiveness of sin, reason for living, confidence about the future, freedom from oppression. We don't have to fear death. We don't have to even fear life now. So, Lord, just help us go forward with that thought that we serve the conquering King, the resurrected, glorified Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.