Part 3: The Key of Promise | Sermon Series 01/12/2025

Spiritual Warfare and the Key of Promise

All right, church, here we go. Go ahead and grab your Bibles, please, and turn to Colossians chapter three. Get there myself. Funny enough, for everyone who's on the live stream, you probably just heard me singing solo for about 30 seconds, because I realized my mic was on.

They're probably like, what is that horrible noise? That was me praising my Savior all the day long, all right? So God accepts it. I know it probably wasn't good for you guys, but that's all right. So before we get right into our sermon, I wanna start with a story.

Keep your fingers, though, here on Colossians chapter three, okay, because that's what we're gonna get into today. And this is the third part of our Spiritual Warfare sermon series. The last sermon will be next week, and we have a guest preacher.

It'll be Ed Romine from First Baptist Provo. He'll be preaching next Sunday. But listen, guys, there was once a man who, through the reading of a precious truth, realized that the world was not as it seemed, that even he was not as he seemed.

He lived in a city whose passions were that of the world, earthly desires, drunkenness, passions, and lusts, where the heart of men sought comfort only in what the eyes could see, where people lived purely by sight, yet they were blind to the spiritual realities that encompassed their hearts, that enslaved them to sin.

These people, they did not seek God, they did not understand God, all had gone astray, and they heartily approved of wickedness. They were, as the scriptures put it, children of wrath, and their father was that of the devil.

This city was called the city of destruction, and upon the reading of a precious truth, a man named Christian realized that his city was soon to be destroyed. And in his fear, while carrying a massive burden on his back, he flees to what the scriptures call is the celestial city.

And within his journey, Christian comes across many different challenges and many different people who seek to take him off the path to the celestial city. He comes face to face with many lies, many lies, and at one point of his journey, he, along with a man named Hopeful, hop off the path near the river of life in a meadow, and they take a path by what seems to the eye's glance to be a less rocky, easier route, to what they thought with their eyes seemed like a better path to take.

Now, Hopeful, in this moment, he was doubting, but Christian, being in Christ longer than Hopeful, persuaded him, and Hopeful listened. Hopeful joined him on this new path, which by, again, the desire of the eyes, seemed to be the easier route to the celestial city.

But Christian was wrong, and both Christian and Hopeful became prisoners of the giant despair within his land of Doubting Castle. And now, the giant had a wife named Diffidence, and Diffidence means lack of confidence, lack of faith.

And she counseled her husband, the giant, to berate Christian and Hopeful in order to destroy their faith. He told them lies about themselves and their positions as prisoners within Doubting Castle. They were told that it would be better for them to kill themselves than to continue on as prisoners.

For days on end, Christian and Hopeful were beaten by the giant, starved, and left for dead. They were in the chains of Doubting Castle by the hands of the giant despair, but they didn't. He showed Christian and Hopeful the remains of the pilgrims that had come before them on their way to the celestial city, their skeletal remains, and said, this will soon be you, and I will destroy you by my very own hands.

Now, when things seemed worse, to be at their worst, really, he said, kill yourselves now, or this is what's going to happen to you. When the world was at its darkest, when the flesh of Christian longed for comfort, the devil came and whispered in his ear to take his own life.

This was spiritual warfare. But in the midst of the darkest point of Christian's life, he turned to God in prayer, and through faithful meditation, he understood something that once brought him back to reality.

Though he was in chains, though he was a prisoner by what seemed to be a giant that could crush him in seconds, though what appeared to be all around him was death, disease, and self-deprecation, the key to get out of the prison was within his bosom all along.

It was within his heart. And this was the key called promise. And this key unlocked any door that held him and hopeful captive within Doubting Castle. And in that, they fled from the land of the giant and back onto the king's highway to the celestial city.

It was that simple.

When the truth was known in his heart, he was instantly out of chains. So like Christian in Doubting Castle, we too have a key of promise, whom is Christ, in whom is hidden all wisdom and knowledge, and we are hidden in him.

Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and he frees us from all bondage. Like Christian, we too are on our way to the celestial city. And within that journey as a Christian, we are cast into warfare, whether we like it or not.

Hearing is the lesson we can learn from Christian. Within the lies of the enemy, the truth is still within us. He, the truth embodiment, will never forsake us. In order for us to see our lives for what they truly are, we must see past our circumstances and into the promise.

We must.

Our war is not a flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And this is the point of this sermon to present you with the key to spiritual warfare, the truth within the battle of lies.

To remind you that it's actually an honor, it is an honor to wage war with the king of kings. It is an honor to share in the sufferings of the God of glory. That this war that we are in has already been won.

Jesus Christ is the general of the Lord's army and the battle we face with the world, our flesh and the devil, is not one where we ought to ever be overcome. But one in which through holding fast to the promise, we are called to storm the gates of hell, which will never prevail against the church.

So I want you to have a correct understanding first of who you are in Christ and your position in the Lord's army. So that in every aspect of life, from your home, your marriage, your job, your children and children, your relationship with your parents, how you function in school.

So you can understand the battlefield. And with understanding your position in the battlefield, you can leverage yourself within the war for the kingdom of God. My goal is that you would retain these heavenly promises, which are the key to worship in the midst of spiritual warfare.

To be like Christ, resisting the devil, the father of lies with the truth, which has been revealed to us by the spirit in his word.

It's the point of today.

Prayer for Boldness and Accuracy

So let's pray. Dear God, I come before you as a minister of the gospel,. Lord, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands.

Of the living God.

To prepare something that Lord has preached before you and the angels today and your people. Let me be far from error, God. Let me shrink and you decrease. Help me, God, to preach your truth with a boldness and accuracy, God.

I can't do this without you, Lord. My mouth will fail me. But Lord, you are the one who created the mouth. Lord, I pray that our hearts in this room today will be encouraged by your word. Holy Spirit, that you will convict and bring conviction where necessary.

Lord, if there's anyone in this room who doesn't know you today, God, I pray that by the power of your spirit and the truth of the gospel that you, Lord, will regenerate and save individuals from the flames of hell today.

Lord, I love you and I thank you for this opportunity. It's in your name, I pray.

Amen.

Raised with Christ and Transferred from Adam to Christ

So if you're looking at your Bibles, go ahead, Colossians chapter three, verses one through three is what we're actually going to be going through today. I think I put in the bulletin Colossians three,.

One through four.

I don't know why I do that. I always make a little mistake in the bulletin, but that's okay. God is gracious.

God is gracious.

So Colossians three, one through three. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You cannot understand the warfare that you are in if you do not understand first the position that you hold in battle. And to understand the position that you hold in battle, you must understand that you are in Christ.

There's a very truth that ought to be grasped in the Christian's life and walk, which is that you have been raised with Christ. And we're gonna get into that. So what we are going through today is spiritual.

It's spiritual in nature, but it's not without earthly ramifications. So firstly, I want you to understand that your position in this warfare, it has nothing to do with your height, your physical strength, your athletic capabilities, your appearance, where you live, you name it.

Fill in the blank. If your understanding of who you are in Christ, because that's what we're gonna focus on, if your understanding of who you are in Christ comes from any other source other than Christ and his word, you will not understand your position in this warfare.

You won't understand it. The base reality of who we are now is the spiritual truth that first comes from who you are in Jesus. Look at the scripture in question and let's sit at the first section, Colossians 3, verse one.

If then you have been raised with Christ. So Paul here, for quick context, is speaking to the church in Colossae and he is reminding them of something. You see, we're fast forwarding into the letter about halfway through it.

And this church, like the church in Ephesus, was comprised mainly of Gentile believers who were once entranced by pagan practices. In chapter two of Colossians, we are told by Paul that Jesus Christ has what, disarmed all rulers and authorities and has put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him, in the resurrection.

So now as Christians, we must think in biblical categories. These former pagans that he's writing to were once children of wrath like all of mankind. Go back even to the catechism. In Adam, all die. But now, now they are in the family of God through his grace.

That means something. There's truth in that. In Colossians chapter two, Paul captivates the church in Colossae by telling them that all hidden wisdom and knowledge is in Christ and that they have been filled.

They have been filled with him who is the head of all rule and authority. That who they are now is different than who they were before. Now in chapter three, Paul is consistent, like he is in all of his epistles, that he tells the church that they have been raised with Christ.

Go read Romans. It's all over Romans. There's something true, I think, that we lack so much when we read the epistles and it's actually believing what some of the words say. And I want you to believe it today.

The statement of being raised with Christ is not merely a concept. This is a spiritual reality of all who are in Christ Jesus and we must, we must believe it in order to leverage ourselves in this battlefield.

In order to be successful in this battlefield, within this spiritual warfare, we must believe this statement. You, Christian, have been raised with Christ. I want this to transfer from your head into your heart today because what we're being told here is true.

This is true. We don't listen to the lies of giant despair, right? We want to listen to what the truth is in God's word. This isn't a plethora of encouragement. This is a fundamental reality for all who sit here in this crowd.

You, if you believe in the Lord Jesus for your salvation, you are in Christ. You are in Christ. And how can we explain that? Well, Paul in Romans 7 details in human terms what has happened to God's people through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And this is key to understanding spiritual warfare because this is who you are now.

So listen up.

In Romans 7, a human analogy is given by Paul of marriage. He states that when you are married to your spouse, as long as the two shall live, they are united. However, when one dies, they are no longer bound by what Paul calls the law of marriage, okay?

And he's making an argument. He's building a case. He's showing that all of us apart from Christ are married to the law. In our headship is that in those of Adam. He is our representative in which we all fall under condemnation.

Through the law in Adam, we all die. We are born married to the law. So if you can imagine with me, okay, two people. We have Adam over here on your right, my left, and Christ over here on my right, your left.

I think that's how it would go. Adam was a direct creation of God, meaning that God took him from the dirt and breathed into him the breath of life. He was created upright, like our old catechism showed, but men sought out many schemes, in that he sinned and death passed to all men through Adam.

In Adam, again, all die. The wages of sin is death. And in Adam, every one of his offspring, his progeny, they all inherit a sinful nature. We all inherit a sinful nature. Not one is outside the curse of the law, Romans 5, 12.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man in death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. This is what it means to be in Adam. In Adam, all die. Outside of Christ, we are all under the headship of Adam.

Every single person on earth is what scripture calls a child of wrath. You've gotta understand this. If you wanna know what it means to be in Christ, let's think about who we were before we were raised with Christ, okay?

What are some ramifications of being a child of wrath? This isn't gonna be an exhaustive list, but this should help you just think in these categories. Number one, war with God. We are all at war with God.

We have enmity with God as children of wrath. Number two, we're enslaved to sin. We are not free to uphold the law. We are under condemnation of the law. Number three, there is no spiritual truth found in a child of wrath, none at all.

No matter what the pagan religions wanna tell you, they have no spiritual truth. They are blinded by the lies of the enemies. And four, eventual death in judgment. It's what it means to be a child of wrath.

Now man, if we were left to our own devices as children of wrath, we would never have peace with God, ever. Something or someone was needed in order to pay the penalty of sin. What is the wage of which we owe?

Death.

Yet the death of a sinful man could never pay the penalty required. So the wages of sin is death. We die, but that doesn't satisfy the righteous requirement of the law because our blood is not a propitiation for our sin.

We can't offer our blood and our sacrifice to God in order to give us a right standing with God because we offer him tainted works, tainted blood. Something was required. The blood of goats and bulls could never pay the price.

The blood of any other man from Adam could never pay the price. Psalm 49, 10 states, no man can ransom another man's soul because the cost of his soul is too pricey. So what was needed? We needed the sinless sacrifice of a man for it was man who sinned against God.

Herein enters the God of promise into his own creations. We have Jesus now. So picture to the right of Adam and all of Adam's progeny, which is every single human on earth, we have Jesus now. Now the man Jesus, not his divinity, not his God, was also a direct creation of God.

The man Jesus, we know Jesus. The word made flesh is eternal. Direct creation of God like Adam. Conceived by the Virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit, Jesus the Christ was sinless. He doesn't fall under Adam's headship.

He's outside of that. He now is there, okay? Born from the Virgin Mary, sinless. He is what scriptures call the second Adam for that very reason. So thinking in terms of Romans 7, since we are all married to the law under the headship of Adam, we are unable to come underneath the headship of Christ by our own accord.

We can't just transfer under Christ by our own will. We are enslaved to sin.

In Adam all die.

There is no spiritual truth in us. We are on a pathway to judgment. No one seeks God. No one understands God. All have gone astray. The venom of asps is under our lips. Our throats are that of an open grave.

Romans chapter three. You cannot live with someone, like Paul states in Romans 7 as well, if you wanna read it later, you cannot live with someone other than your bride. It would be considered adultery.

We're under the law. We're under Adam. Our bodies and our souls are enslaved to sin under the curse of law outside of Christ. Remember, again, the wages of sin is death. However, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, without sin, fulfilled the works of the law where we were born in failure and never could.

Listen to this.

This is Romans 3, 21 through 25. If you want, you can turn there and read this with me. I'll wait just a second. This is the beautiful truth here. Hear God's word, Romans 3, verses 21 through 25. And let's praise God when we read this.

This is amazing.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified, declared righteous, by his grace as a gift through the what?

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption, redeemed. There was a debt that we could never repay. The wages of sin is death, but even our death couldn't fully pay the wrath of God. Jesus Christ in his righteousness redeemed us, paid it.

He paid the cost of our souls. Not only that, he accredited to us his righteousness. We have more than just a paid debt. We have accredited righteousness now through Jesus because he was perfect. So listen, let's keep going here.

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. The blood of Jesus Christ purchased something. It was a propitiation. It appeased God's wrath. Remember, the sinful human, our blood, from birth, children of wrath, would never ever satisfy the righteous requirements.

Of the law.

It was tainted. But Jesus Christ's blood was that propitiation to be received by faith. He came to die. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It's beautiful.

The just and the justifier. He is the judge of all righteousness, but he is also the one who declares us righteous. Through him and to him are all things to God be the glory forever. We really need to understand this because when God saved our souls, something truly happened to us.

Something real. It was real. Though spiritual and first in nature, it is a fundamental reality you need to grab hold of this that we are no longer who we once were.

We're not.

The sinless son of God paid the full penalty of sin on all who believe in him. He was the propitiation. Apart from the law, the righteousness of God paid our ransom by his blood. Romans 7 tells us you have also died to the law through the body of Christ.

Remember Romans 7. You can't be outside of the law of marriage unless there is a death that occurs. Jesus Christ as our representative for all who have faith and believe in him, his body died so that we could be dead to the law and risen alive in Christ.

That occurred. That happened. There's a spiritual reality there that you need to hold on to this truth. This is how we wage war. We wage war first knowing who we are in Jesus and knowing what Jesus has done for us.

Jesus is not an idea. He's a person. Something happened. Let's believe it. What does he say? I'm gonna read it again from Romans 7. He says, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

That is absolutely beautiful. You cannot bear fruit for God unless you are in Christ. What does he say? I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Are you getting it?

Are some of the pieces clicking right now? Through our belief in Jesus by the power of God, we pass from death under Adam and into life in the second Adam. We have died to the law and have become children of God, no longer children of wrath.

Redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ, the price of our souls has been paid by the one who knew no sin and we now belong to him. We are his possession. Not only that, we have been raised with him, first in the spirit, guys.

First, we're raised in the spirit and at the end of all things, the end of the world, in body as well. So through faith, like Colossians states in chapter one, we have been transferred from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So let's compare the two, being under Adam and being in Christ, being raised with Christ, Colossians 3 chapter one. In Christ, now we have peace with God. Children of God, not of wrath. Adopted into his family by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Two, we're free to uphold the law without the condemnation of the law. Three, we can walk in the spirit, not according to the flesh. And that's absolutely essential when understanding spiritual warfare in Colossians chapter three here.

Because when you seek the things that are above, you're walking according to the spirit, not by what your eyes see, okay? Four, we now have eternal life and an inheritance in Jesus Christ. These are true.

You must remember this. In understanding spiritual warfare and our position in the battlefield, who we are now as new creations are people who have been raised with Christ. So our position in the battlefield, in this spiritual warfare is alive and in Christ.

Being filled in him who is the head of our rule and authority, we are called to walk in the spirit. Colossians 3, one, since you have been, if then you have been raised with Christ, let's continue on, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

You can do that.

That is true. That is what you're commanded to do. The key to spiritual warfare is inherently linked to our identity in Christ, inherently linked to our identity in Christ. Here in Colossians, we are told exactly how a new creation must inherently think while operating in this world.

If you've heard me preach before on Colossians or on the sermon series on Philemon, you'd probably understand that Colossians and Ephesians were written at the same time and they were sent out, of course, to two different churches.

So Colossians expands and Ephesians expands on concepts where Colossians doesn't and Ephesians doesn't, of course. I recommend reading these two letters back to back. It's absolutely beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful.

Paul goes over and over again in Ephesians talking about walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. But here's the thing. We must seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

What does that mean? As new creations, we are not allowed to live in the flesh, to surmise. What do I mean by that? So we're not allowed to surmise our own well-being through creature comforts or our current circumstances in life.

So in other words, our temporary earthly circumstances are not our eternal condition. So if your soul joy is found in your earthly comforts, you are not waging war, you're only fighting yourself. You're only fighting yourself.

Hear me clearly. If you are in the midst of spiritual warfare, and we all are, but if you're in spiritual warfare right now and you're not walking in the Spirit and are not seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated, you are fighting a spiritual war in the flesh.

And you will not be successful. It will not work. You will not succeed. You will be rendered useless in the kingdom. You will be like a soldier in a foxhole during World War I who is shaking in the corner from PTSD.

You'll just be shaking there. You will not be living in the reality in which you have been called, Christian. You will ultimately have a flawed view of the war and believe the propaganda in the lies of the enemy because you're walking according to the flesh, according to what you can see, according to what you can hear, and not living according to the Spirit.

What do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? One, the war in which we fight, listen to this, the war in which we fight has already been won. It's already been won. As the head of Goliath was severed from his body and the Israelites were called to conquer the Philistines, so has the head of the serpent been crushed under the feet of the crucified one.

And he rose from the grave. You, church, are called to be on the offense in this war. To storm the gates of hell, child of God, they will not prevail against you. It's the words of Jesus. Do you believe it?

Do you believe it? I hope you will after the end of this. You are not to be blind to the devices of the enemy. You are to, what, resist the devil and he will flee from you. You are not just a soldier on the battlefield whose general is far from the enemy lines.

Listen, you don't have a general who just sits back, tells you what to do, and then you storm, running to the gates of hell and just get shot by stuff and just sit there and die. No, no, no, that's not true.

You are filled in him who is the head of our rule and authority. Jesus Christ is with you in this very moment. Do you believe it?

Do you believe it?

Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. You are united to Christ. The enemy will never snatch you from his hand, John chapter six. Again, the spirit of God lives in you. Everything that I said here was from the scriptures.

These are the things that are above where our minds must be placed, seated with Christ, seated with Christ. Do you believe this, Christian? Do you truly believe who you are now in Christ? Listen to Romans 8, 15 through 17.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Elizabeth Elliott's book, Suffering is Never for Nothing.

Great book.

Recommended, it's true. Just because you suffer doesn't mean your eternal condition of your soul is up for grabs. No, it's actually a grace.

To suffer for the name of Christ.

These truths are the things that are above where the embodiment of truth is seated. The key, the key in which we wage war is this. We trust what God says rather than lean on our own understanding. We do not lean on the flesh.

We live by the spirit. To have the mind of Christ, to have the mind of Christ. It's like Christian in the book Pilgrim's Progress when I was going through that little story. If you've ever read Pilgrim's Progress, read it to your children or read it yourself, you're probably thinking, oh, I've heard this story before.

But what was the key? How did he get out of there? By faith, by faith. Whatever the giant had told him in Doubting Castle, none of it stopped him from the Celestial City.

None of it, none of it.

There's a really good quote from J .C. Ryle from the book Holiness. I love the book, it's amazing. He says, you might as well, Christian, if you're going to heaven, well, because you're going to heaven, because you have faith in Christ, you have full assurance of your salvation through the completed work of Christ on the cross.

Since you're going to heaven, you ought to go to heaven with your head held high, not hung low, in terms of your faith, right? So we have the pilgrims by Doubting Castle that were destroyed, ripped up by the giant despair.

Their end is the Celestial City as well. They had faith in Christ. They had faith in Christ, but they should have went with their heads held high, not believing the lies of the enemy. Not believing the lies of the enemy, if they are truly in Christ.

Again, we must trust what God says rather than lean on our own understanding. And what does God say about our current circumstances in which we live? What does he say? God tells us with regard to any circumstance that we are in, that it is for our good and for his glory.

Romans 8, 28. Do you believe it? That's the question. It really is quite simple. God has told us that he has determined the end.

From the beginning.

What you are going through right now, whatever it is, if you are one of God's children, it is for good. It is for good. Do you believe that? If not, may I ask you, is God a liar? Is God a liar? He isn't a liar.

And I say this with so much humility here. Please, please wrestle with this, okay? If you're having a hard time believing that whatever you are going through is working together for your good and God's glory, you might be listening to the lies of the enemy.

You might just be entertaining them. You might not be seated where Christ is. Again, I say this with the utmost care and respect because we are humans, we live in a fallen world. All of us here have dealt with trauma, suffering, evil, and wickedness.

You sitting here, you may have experienced horrors that are unimaginable, unspeakable, and the pain that you experience from whatever has happened to you is tangible. You feel it. It's weighty, and you carry it with you every single day.

Your every breath is shallow. Your lungs are on fire. It's like every single day you're learning to breathe in water. And every day you just can't wait to fall asleep at night to avoid drowning in that pain.

I get it. But understand this, that God, the God of glory will make everything right. He truly will. You will receive justice one day. If there was an injustice given to you today, that the law has not settled in front of you, one, that there is no restitution, it could never be repaid, because something horrible may have happened to you, you will receive justice at the end of time.

God says he will make everything right. He really will. But let me tell you something, Christian, and please hear me clearly, because I'm not trying to be insensitive to you. I'm really not. I want you to be free from the burden that you are carrying.

Number one, you are not defined by your trauma. Number two, you are not defined by your past. I pray this encourages you. What does Paul say in Romans? What does he say in Colossians? What does he say in almost every single epistle?

You have died with Christ and have been raised in new life. The old Andrew, the old me, is dead and gone. The old Matt, the old Josh, the old Cade, the old Cole, the old Craig, you name it, whatever your past has, the old Eric, the old Dusty, dead and gone, crucified with Christ.

You have been raised in new life.

Do you believe it?

Do you live that way? Or do you think you are your past? The enemy does not want you to believe this. The enemy wants you to be in the grips of your past in order to render you useless in the battlefield.

He wants to render you useless. Don't allow it. Remember the verse from earlier? From Romans eight, you have not received the spirit of slavery to what fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons.