Nikita Koloff here, the devil's worst nightmare with the It's Time to Man Up Podcast, where we talk to real men who have real stories who realize it is time to man up. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network.
This is the Truth Network. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?
I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.
For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now, let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. Let's give the Lord a prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this day, and thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Lord, Your Word is incredible.
It's like a deep well, and it's so true, and it's full of life. Lord, You're the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through You, and we thank You, Lord, for Your grace and Your mercy. We thank You, Lord Jesus, that You humbled Yourself and became a man, and You endured such incredible suffering, including being separated from fellowship with Your Father, Your Abba, and You did it for each one of us. You had each one of us in mind when You died on the cross, and Lord, we're so thankful that You arose again on the third day to validate Your claim to be the Son of God and the Son of Man. We love You, Lord Jesus. I pray that Your Word will go forth tonight and accomplish the purpose for which You intend. It's in Your name that I pray, the name that is above all names, the name of Jesus.
Amen. So, tonight we continue the second part in our series entitled, The Cup of God's Wrath. As we learned last week, Jesus began to drink from this cup in Gethsemane. It is the full realization of the suffering and pain and separation began to weigh heavily on His soul.
We can't fathom what He went through. Jesus so dreaded the hour that was upon Him that He asked His heavenly Father to take it away from Him. But He humbled Himself and said, Father, not My will, but Your will.
And He literally sweat droplets of blood. So, tonight we're going to focus on the trials of Jesus. But here's the question I want you to think about.
Who was really on trial? Jesus or us? God or mankind?
I want you to consider this. Jesus came into our world preaching a message of good news, a message of hope. He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind. He healed lepers. He cast out demons.
He ministered to women and children. He raised people from the dead. He was in the world and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth. When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.
For it is by His wounds, men, that you and I are healed. Now, let me ask you another question. Have you ever been falsely accused of doing something that you know you didn't do?
If you have, then you understand what it feels like. And if you're like me, you want to defend yourself. You want to lash out. Well, I remember one day when I was in the 8th grade and we had just come in from lunch and Mr. Cobby Deans, he was not in the class yet and we were all getting our seats. And I know you all won't believe this, but I literally was just sitting there minding my own business. When this friend of mine from the other side of the room walked over, his name is Joe, and he began hitting me for some reason.
I have no idea to this day why. So, what do you think I did? I stood up and I hit him back. And the moment that I hit him, Mr. Deans walked in and he looked at the two of us and he scolded us.
He told us to sit down and then announced to the whole classroom that that afternoon at the beginning of PE, he was going to give us a paddling. And I did what I probably shouldn't have done. I defended myself. I said, Mr. Deans, he came all the way over here.
I was sitting at my desk. And the more I responded, the more he was determined that we were going to both be paddled. And so that afternoon, at the very beginning of class, everybody is standing around and Mr. Deans makes Joe and I bend over and grab our ankles.
And he had a paddle that was about three feet long and about an inch thick. And he walloped me and Joe on the back and it hurt. But what hurt more than that was I was embarrassed. I felt like he was totally unjustified. But see, my experience pales in comparison to what happened to Jesus. First of all, I'm sure I was not totally innocent while Jesus was.
He was totally, completely innocent. Yet he was arrested and bound with ropes, mocked, ridiculed, and spit upon. He was beaten with rods, tortured beyond recognition, and he was crucified on a cross naked before the world. Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8 describes the humiliation that Jesus endured.
Jesus, listen to these words carefully. By the way, this was a hymn that was actually sung back then. And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul included it in his letter to the church in Philippi. Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. We can't come close to understanding what it really means that He imputed Himself. Theologians believed that He did not actually give up His deity, but that He temporarily laid aside His glory and submitted to the humiliation of actually becoming a man. But the pinnacle of Jesus' humiliation came in three stages during the last about 10 hours of His life. Stage one was the agony of Gethsemane leading to His betrayal. Stage two was the shame of the trials bringing false accusations. And that's the stage we're going to look at tonight.
And then stage three we'll look at next week or the week after that. And that has to do with the suffering of the cross resulting in His separation from His Father's fellowship and His death. And that brings us to Mark chapter 14. So, if you don't have your Bibles open, I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Mark chapter 14.
We're going to begin with verse 53. And here Mark writes this, they took Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests, the elders, and the teachers of the law came together.
Peter followed Him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest. There He sat with the guards and warned Himself at the fire. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so they could put Him to death. You see they had already determined that they were going to put Him to death.
But it says they did not find any evidence. Many testified falsely against Him but their statements did not agree. Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against Him. We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another not made with hands. Well, He never said He would destroy the temple.
He said, when you destroy this temple. Yet even then their testimony did not agree. Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, are you not going to answer?
What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you? But verse 61 says that Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked Him, are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? And Jesus said, I am.
Which is what? The Old Testament name for God. I am and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. And at that it says the high priest tore His clothes. And He said, why do we need any more witnesses?
You've heard this blasphemy. And He looks at the 70 men that were with Him and He says, what do you think? And they all condemned Him as worthy of death.
And then some, listen to this, these are a bunch of supposed to be holy religious men. They began to spit at Him, blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists and said, prophesy, just joking with Him, mocking Him. And the guards took Him and beat Him. So what I want to do in our Romanian time tonight is I would like to explain the number, the time frame, and the nature of all these trials that Jesus endured that night after being led away from Gethsemane.
So here's what I want you to hear. There were six trials, three religious trials, and three civil trials. The religious trials were conducted by the high priest and the religious leaders while the civil trials were conducted by Pilate who was the Roman governor of Judea and King Herod. Jesus was found guilty at all three religious trials and innocent at all three civil trials.
Now here's the time frame. And guys the only way that you can get this time frame is if you look at all four Gospels. Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane sometime very early on Thursday morning at the beginning of Passo.
It was probably about 1 a.m. in the morning. And then He was bound and led to the house of Annas. Now you wouldn't pick that up in Mark. You have to go to one of the other Gospels. Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. And he used to be the high priest.
He was high priest for about 10 years before he was deposed by the Roman government. And then he was replaced by his son-in-law Caiaphas. But Annas still wielded a great amount of power and authority. And that's why they took him to Annas first. And Annas declared him guilty at about 2 30 in the morning.
Y'all tracking with me? Then they took him to Caiaphas. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. When Jesus stood before Annas He was silent. And now that He's standing before Caiaphas He remained silent. And this was this amazed Caiaphas. He couldn't believe it.
I mean these they're all making charges. Him, what would you be doing? I'd be responding. I'd be saying, that's not right. How can you say that?
I never did that. This is why Caiaphas asked Him, are you not going to answer these charges? But Jesus just stood there and He didn't say a word. And this was all in fulfillment of Scripture. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 7 says, He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamp to slaughter.
And as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. See guys, when you study the Bible you see it's true. That was written by the prophet Isaiah who lived 700 years before Jesus was even born. If you want to know if the Bible is true, just study it.
Guys, the more I study the Bible the more solid and sure my faith becomes. And so since Jesus would not speak Caiaphas had no choice but to place Him under oath. And so in Matthew's account we learned that the high priest said to Him, I charge You under oath by the living God. Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God. Caiaphas wanted to know, do You claim to be the Messiah? And some theologians say, well Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. Well, yes He did.
Listen to this. And Jesus said, yes, it is as you say. But I say to all of you, He's looking at these 70 men, in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of glory. And with those words Jesus sealed His fate because He was headed where? To the cross.
That was His destiny. Now by the time these religious leaders come to their guilty verdict, Jesus had been standing before them from about 2 30 in the morning. It's now about 5 a.m. in the morning. But they still needed an official verdict of the Sanhedrin. It's important to note that only after daylight could a legal trial take place. And so listen, they were breaking one law after another by having that trial at night time. And they knew it. But see they didn't care.
It didn't matter to them that it was illegal. All they want to do is get rid of this man. So Luke 22 verse 66 says, at daybreak, sun's coming up, the counsel of the elders of the people, both the chief priest and the teacher of law met together. And Jesus was led before them. So now we see this third trial. And once again they required Jesus to claim that He was the Christ. And once again Jesus said, I am. And for the third time He was declared guilty. The time now men is about 6 a.m. Then the whole assembly rose and led Him off to Pilate for the first civil trial.
But Pilate could not find anything wrong with this man. And so when he heard that Herod was in the city, he said, well, I'm just going to send him to Herod. He wanted to pass the buck. And so the chief priest and the teacher of the law followed Jesus. And they stood outside Herod's palace accusing Jesus because they couldn't go into a Gentile's house because it might defile them. And yet they're plotting to murder a man.
Do you see the irony? And Herod, who'd always wanted to meet Jesus, plied him with question after question. And Jesus gave no answer. One reason He wouldn't answer Herod is because Herod is the one who beheaded John the Baptist who was Jesus' first cousin. You don't mess around with Jesus. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked Him, dressed Him in an elegant robe. They sent Him back to Pilate after finding Him innocent.
Time is now 7 in the morning. So Pilate called together the chief priest, the rulers, and all the people. He probably gathered out there on his porch. And this is what he said to them. He said, You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I've examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him.
Neither has Herod. For he sent him back to us. As you can see he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him. So, this is when he sends him to be scourged. See he was thinking that if he scourged him bad enough and brought him back for the people they would have sympathy and let him go. But we are going to see later that that's not what happened.
And so, the time now men is 8 AM. And as I asked you at the beginning, who was really on trial here? God or mankind? Can you really put God on trial?
Well, you can't, but we do. So, what does it mean to put God on trial? Well, first, we put God on trial when we question His Word, the Bible. This is exactly what Satan did in the garden when he said to the woman, did God really say? Did God really say the serpent said to the woman, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?
Well, guess what? Is that what God said? No, He just said there's one tree.
There are 10,000 other trees out there that you can eat from, but just not that one. We also put God on trial when we twist His Word. This is exactly what the woman did and Satan did when she responded to the serpent and said, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the milk garden and you must not touch it or you will surely die. Did God say you must not touch it?
She added that. If you go back to the end of Revelation, you'll see that it says, anyone who adds to the Word will suffer all the punishment that you see all throughout the book of Revelation. You don't add to God's Word.
You don't subtract from it. God means what He says and He says what He means and He's recorded for us in this book that has stood the test of time. And finally, we put God on trial when we question His authority.
This is what the religious leaders did when they asked Jesus, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you authority to do this? So let me ask you, do we not put God on trial today just as mankind has always done? Do we not judge God? Have you ever questioned God's Word?
Have you ever doubted it? You see, when you question the Bible, you're really questioning God. You're judging His Word rather than letting His Word do what?
Judge you. Have you ever heard someone twist Scripture to mean what it clearly does not mean? I could give you many examples of preachers right here in Raleigh who twist the Word of God.
Happens almost every Sunday. Last year, I listened to the sermon of a popular young minister. He twisted the words of John chapter 3 where Jesus clearly says to Nicodemus that you what? Must be born again. You know, I was listening to Billy Graham on the radio this afternoon, and it's like God was confirming to me, stand up there and tell them, you must be born again. Billy Graham said, you must be born again. Well, this minister said that the Greek phrase, Gennethai anothon.
Gennethai anothon. He said it does not mean born again. This is what the minister was saying to his congregation. It does not mean born again. It means born from above. And then he gave a very twisted idea what born from above mean.
Well, guess what? Born again is what it means. It means born again and born from above.
But the point is this. Jesus was referring to a second birth. This is why Nicodemus said how can a man enter his mother's womb and be born a second time. But the minister twisted that. I'll have to say it's the worst heresy that I've ever heard in my life coming from a man who claims to be representing God. He was twisting the Word of God. His church was packed before COVID-19. I don't know whether they're meeting now, but a lot of churches men who don't proclaim the truth of God's Word are closed because of COVID-19.
And I hope they stay closed. I believe God allowed COVID-19 to shut down men and women in the church who are not preaching the truth. See, Paul warns about this in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 3 and 4. It is a myth that a man or woman does not need to be born again. And many men and women are buying into that lie. Third, we put God on trial when we deny His authority over our lives.
How do we do this? We remove God's Word from the public arena because we don't like what it says. You know, somebody actually put the Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court with an image of Moses for a reason. And if the ACLU had their way, they would strip it away just like they have, you know, many times with the Ten Commandments in our courtrooms. And they'd have to go to Washington D.C. and get a lot of different monuments and strip away the verses that our founding forefathers put there. We define marriage the way we want to because we don't like the one way that God has designed.
And I've got news for you. If a marriage is not between one man and one woman, I don't care what they call it. It's not marriage. Not in God's eyes. And we declare that a woman has rights over her own body. The very body that God Himself created.
He created the little body that's inside her body, which is totally different from her body. But she thinks she has the right to kill that little baby. You want to know why the country's under God's judgment? Look no further than that one thing. So who's really on trial? We are. And God is watching.
And this is what I want to leave you guys with tonight. One day, the judge, whose name is what? Jesus Christ. Because God the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son. He is going to return and He's going to show the whole world by whose authority He speaks. And this is why Jesus said to those religious leaders, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of glory.
What event was He pointing to? The second coming. When He's going to return, not as a baby and a manger, but a judge filled with the wrath of God Almighty. I want you to take your Bibles, and this is what we're going to end with tonight. I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 25. By the way, I meet with a group of about 15 young men who are about 19 and 20.
They all go to NC State. So these guys, we just started meeting about a month ago, and we've covered God. We've covered Jesus. Last week we covered you must be born again. And yesterday we covered hell. I said, have you ever heard of sermon on hell?
Nope. I wonder why? See, nobody wants to go to church to hear a message about hell.
Why is that? Because we want to go dressed up really nice and hear a wonderful sermon and then go have some fried chicken. But you know what? Jesus said more about hell than anybody else in the Bible. Look at verse 31. So, here in verse 25, Matthew, Jesus is describing His return and what will happen when He does return. And I want you men to listen carefully, because this is exactly what's going to happen, and it's in our future. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and guys, these are the words of Jesus.
And if you have a red letter Bible, this is in red. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory right here, guys, on planet earth. All the nations will be gathered before Him. I don't know how that's going to happen.
It's going to probably take a while. And He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Remember He said He compared the truth to a sword?
And when you bring a sword down, what does it do? It divides. When He stood on that cross, one believed and one didn't. He says He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King, He's the King, will say to those on His right, come you who are blessed by my Father.
Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. He created this world in seven days. Can you imagine what He's done in 2,000 years?
What it's going to look like. Now look at verse 41. Then He will say to those on His left, depart from Me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for who? The devil and the angels.
I don't have time to get into this, but hell was not prepared for us. He was prepared for Satan and the one third of the angels who rebelled against God. Then He will say to those on His left, depart from Me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but they're righteous to eternal life. Can you imagine what it would be like if Jesus looked at you and said, depart from Me?
These would be the most dreaded words a human being could ever hear. And this from the mouth of Jesus Himself. As I said, Jesus said more about hell than anyone else in Scripture. Because He used very vivid language. He said that hell will be a furnace of fire, a place of eternal punishment.
Where their worm, not a worm, but their worm does not die. And the fire is not quenched. Where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And it will be a place of total darkness. And then John writes, you know, John was given a vision. John who wrote the book of Revelation and the Gospel of John. He's given a vision of the future. And here's what he sees in Revelation chapter 20. He sees this great white throne judgment.
It's the one that we're talking about. And he says, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Is your name written in the Lamb's book of life? I hope so. Can you imagine what hell will be like?
I can't. So question comes to mind, are these descriptive words to be taken literally? In other words, will it be a real fire? Well, I could be wrong, but this is what I think.
I believe these words are symbolic. But listen, I could be wrong. But I believe the eternal fire, listen, it's going to be just as bad, if not worse, than if it were a real fire. Because he's talking about what's going to happen to a man's soul. Billy Graham this afternoon said that the whole universe cannot fill a man's soul. That's how important your soul is to God. I believe the eternal fire refers to the torment of the soul that will never cease.
It will never come to an end. I believe when it says their worm will devour the wicked, will gnaw away at the wicked. It's a guilty conscience that will gnaw away at a man or woman forever.
And there won't be a pill you can take to get rid of it. The weeping and gnashing of teeth point to the pain and agony, and I believe even the anger of those who will still be rebellious. Listen, there will be some people in hell who still won't repent.
Listen, hell is a real place where the soul will experience everlasting darkness. Listen, I know this is difficult to hear, but we need to hear the truth. Those guys that I meet with on Monday afternoon, young people, they want to hear the truth.
They don't care how graphic it is. Speak the truth to me. Do you know why Jesus warned about hell? So we won't end up there. And Jesus went to the cross and He endured all that Satan could throw at Him.
Why? To save us from hell. So when you say that you've been saved, one of the things you've been saved from is hell.
And listen, here's the good news. The moment that you're saved, God writes your name in the Lamb's Book of Life, and He doesn't have an eraser. Once you've been born again, you cannot be unborn. One of the young guys that comes on Monday asked me, he said, well, if you become a believer, can you ever become an unbeliever? Can you ever lose your place with God? I said, no. I said, just like you can't lose your physical relationship, I told him, I said, if you go to China and change your name and reject your parents, are your mom and dad still your mother and father?
Yes. And so even if I all of a sudden claimed to be an unbeliever, that wouldn't be true. I don't care even if I believed it, because I belong to God. I want you to hear the heart of God. Ezekiel 33 verse 11 says, as surely as I live declares the sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live life. Second Peter 3 9 says, God is patient with you. He's been so patient with me, it's ridiculous. I deserve hell.
I do. God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. So, man, listen, if you've never truly repented, if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, don't leave here tonight without doing business with God. Billy Graham said this on the radio this afternoon.
He ended with this. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. Do you know why God doesn't destroy evil? Because if He destroyed evil, He would have to destroy the world and then no one else would be saved past that point. God sees all the evil in the world and He is restraining Himself from destroying evil.
Why? Because some Bible will be saved tomorrow. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Jesus, for what you've done. Thank you for the men who come here, Lord. Lord, I pray that every man in here, if they don't know you, will know you tonight and receive you by faith.
I want us all one day to be on the other side of death and walking around the streets of gold with you and we'll be high-fiving each other and enjoying your creation and living the life that you planned from the very beginning. Lord, we love you. We need you. We pray for our country to God that you'll have mercy on us. Please, Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for our many sins. We love you, Lord Jesus.
Amen. Being a Christian is not about being religious but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local triangle men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net.
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