Victory in Jesus!

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. 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. Before I begin, this is our good Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for sending your Son into this world to save a wretch like me. Lord, we love you so much. We are so aware, at least I think we all are, of how dark the world is. All the evil, and we don't even see but a fraction of it.

You see all of it everywhere, 24-7, all around the world, and I know your heart is broken. And our Lord, we need you so much. Without you, we have no hope. I ask you, Lord, to visit us tonight with your presence. I pray that you'd send your Holy Spirit into this room and out over the internet, that your Spirit would touch us, that your Spirit would convict us, that your Spirit would take us by the hand and bring us to the cross, that we might have victory in you. It's in your name that I pray.

Amen. Okay, if you will, take your Bibles and open up to Hebrews chapter 10. As you can probably tell, I've entitled this message Victory in Jesus. Do you know what happens in the end? I figured you all knew that. We win.

Why? Because Jesus, that's right, has already won the victory on our behalf. Colossians 2 verses 13 through 15 tells us about this. He says, When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having counseled the written code, the law, with its regulations that stood against us and stood opposed to us. He took it, the law, away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, talking about Jesus, triumphing over them by the cross.

And here's the main point that I want you to take away tonight. What the law failed to do, the cross accomplished by the blood. So why did God even bother to give us the law?

Well, we talked about that last week. God gave us the law to drive us to the cross. The law basically comes along beside you and takes you by the hand, and it leads you to Jesus, who's the only one who can save you. This is what true Christianity is all about, and this is what we've been preaching at the men's study for the last 17 years. It's all about Jesus. It's not about rules and regulations, but about faith and the only one who can take away our sins. You see, the real problem is not with the law.

The real problem is who? Us and our sinful nature. That's the problem, and that brings us to Hebrews chapter 10. So in this chapter, I want to walk you through six stages of the Christian life.

See where you are. I hope you've made it through all six stages, okay? Here's stage one. In stage one, we become aware of our sin. Look at verses one through 18, excuse me, one through eight. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it, that is the law, can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near to worship. See, that's the problem with the law. It can't make you perfect.

If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.

It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, again, he's speaking to his father. You almost see him looking up to heaven. Father, sacrifice an offering you do not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings, you are not pleased. Then I said, here I am, Father. It is written about me in the scroll all through the Old Testament. I've come to do your will, O God. And then the right of Hebrews says first, he's reminding us of what Jesus said. He said sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you do not desire, nor were you pleased with them, although the law required them to be made.

Then he said, here I am, I've come to do your will. So he, that is Jesus, sets aside the first covenant to establish the second covenant. That's the what covenant? The new covenant. And by that will, that is by God's will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Sacrifices, burnt offerings, ceremonies, all of the Old Testament and rituals such as circumcision, baptism and communion, all of these things are good if they're done in truth and in spirit. They can never take away our sins and make us whole. Do you know why? Because they only impact the outward appearance of a man. God's not interested in the outward appearance. He's looking where?

At the heart. So I want you to always remember First Samuel 16 7, which says the Lord does not look at the things that we look at. Man looks at the outer appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The law and all the Old Testament ceremonies were just shadows of the good things that were coming in Christ. So we were supposed to look at the shadow and see what the reality was. The tabernacle and all the sacrificial killings of all those animals was a bloody mess, but it pointed to what? It pointed to the cross. It pointed to the death of Jesus. Now look at verse 4, Hebrews 10 verse 4. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. The blood from these sacrifices could not satisfy God's justice or turn away his wrath.

You see God's justice has to be satisfied and something's got to be done to appease God's wrath. Now I'm sure most of you remember the story about King David and Bathsheba. Bathsheba's husband Uriah was one of David's closest friends.

In fact, he was one of the 30 warriors that sat at his round table like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. David had his round table and Uriah sat at that table. Furthermore, Uriah and Bathsheba were his next-door neighbors. In the springtime when kings went off to war and Uriah was out fighting with all of his soldiers, guess where David was? He was back in his palace and he got bored and he started walking around his palace and who did he see next door but Bathsheba out there bathing. Now we don't know this but I wonder if she might have known that David had a habit of walking around on that porch at night and so while walking around his palace he saw her bathing next door and you know what was happening? Sin was crouching at David's door and it longed to possess him and so he coveted her. He sent for her and then he what?

Slept with her. Later she became pregnant and she sent a message to David to inform him of their predicament. You know what David did? He called Uriah back from the battlefield hoping that he would sleep with his wife but Uriah was such an honorable man that he would not sleep with his wife when his soldiers were back on the battlefield and they could not lie with their wives. So David came up with plan B. He sent Uriah back to the battlefield with a sealed note addressed to his commander General Joab and here's what the note said.

Can you imagine what Joab thought when he read it? David told the general put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is fiercest then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die. David thought his sins were done in secret but man here's what the Bible says be sure your sin will find you out. You know what God did? The prophet then was Nathan so David, excuse me, God informed Nathan supernaturally about David's sin and so Nathan goes in there and confronts the king with his sin. What did David do?

He immediately what? Repented. He said I've sinned against the Lord.

No ifs buts or maybes. He was the king. He could have killed Nathan but he was convicted and this is why God called David a man after my own heart because this is what God wants from us. He wants to see men who recognize their sinful nature and how egregious it is and he wants us to admit it and confess it so that God can deal with it and forgive it.

David's sins were many, covetousness, lust, adultery, lying, and murder. With that one deed he broke four of the Ten Commandments and yet God said he's a man after my own heart. See here's another lesson about but sin. Sin makes you stupid.

Luke 5 32 says it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous but the sick. I've come to come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Do you need to come to a place of repentance tonight?

The first stage of the Christian life is an awareness of your sin that leads you to repentance and to the knowledge that Jesus, this is stage two, is the only way. Look at verses 9 through 18. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but when this priest, who was this priest? Christ had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God.

Why did he sit down? Very good, Jeff. Jeff, you want to come up here with me tonight? No, no, just stay right there. One of these, you've been up here with me before, remember that when you played that role?

We'll do that, we'll talk about that later. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, think about this, Jesus is waiting in heaven for his enemies to be made his footstool.

I can't wait for that day because one of those enemies is sin and death because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Is that you? It's me.

It's me. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says this is the covenant I will make with them after that time. This is, he's quoting Jeremiah, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds. I remember Adrian Rogers said I can sin all I want because I don't want to.

Why did he say that? Because God wrote the law on Adrian Rogers heart. And guys I'm gonna tell you something, I hate sin. I never want to do it another sin. I will write them on their minds then he adds their sins and lawless acts. I God will remember no more.

Hallelujah. Then he adds, excuse me, and where these have been forgiven there's no longer any sacrifice for sin. What that means is where your sins have been forgiven, once forgiven, they're all forgiven. Nothing has to be sacrificed anymore because Jesus has already paid the price. So here's the question, why is Jesus the only way?

Well here's why, would you follow me? Getting a little theological aren't you? God created us therefore he owns us when you say so. And he is the one who gets to set the rules and he decided to set a perfect standard in the law.

Just imagine the 10 commandments beside your life. A law which he knew we could not keep and that we can never can keep it. God is perfectly holy and just so guess what?

He can't just issue a blanket pardon because then he wouldn't be what? Just. Because of his justice he has to judge our all of our sins and since our sin is against an infinite being the punishment must also be what? Infinite.

You see why? Because we're sinning against an infinite God. When you sin against an infinite God then your punishment must be infinite. So either we must suffer punishment eternally or else a substitute can endure the punishment in our place. That's what the Old Testament is all about.

It's about this substitute. Isaiah 53 10 and 12 says, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him. Talking about his son and cause him to suffer. That was God's will for Jesus to go to the cross and the Lord makes his life a guilt offering.

Like those guilt offerings in the Old Testament except this one is for real. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. For this substitute to qualify men he had to meet two conditions. First, the substitute had to be fully human in order to be qualified to stand in our place. In other words, he had to become one of us. He had to have a body like you and me. That's why he said you've prepared a body for me.

He's prepared a body for me. Hebrews 2 14 and 15 confirms this truth. Since the children have flesh and blood he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death. With the incarnation of Christ God became what? A man and dwelt among us and experienced all of our temptations and yet he was without sin. John 1 1 says yet says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and then John 1 14 says and the word became what? Flesh and made his dwelling among us. That word means he tabernacled among us. In other words, the tabernacle came and lived among us. Second, this substitute had to be fully human, has to be fully divine.

Why? To endure God's infinite wrath since a mere creature could never endure it. 1 Timothy 2 5 says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all men. Ransom is simply a price you pay to set a captive free.

Here's the deal. This is all coming from Romans chapter 5. Adam was our representative. It's called federal headship. Just like our government, we have a representative that we send where? To DC.

Then they forget what? Where they came from. But whether you like it or not, he is your representative. He represents North Carolina. Well, Adam was our representative. So, whatever Adam did by representing us, we did in Adam. So, when Adam sinned, guess what? We all sinned. Do you think you would have done any better?

You might have lasted a day or two longer, but probably not. So, here's the deal. God has sent a second Adam to be our representative and his name is who?

What? Jesus. So, when Jesus died and rose, was buried and rose again, and according to Romans 6, I believe, when you're united with him by faith, his death, burial and resurrection becomes your death, burial and resurrection. And so, when God sees Jesus's death on the cross, by faith you're joined with him, he sees your death. So, guess what? That means you've paid the price in Christ.

Did you follow that? And therefore, God's justice is satisfied and his wrath is appeased. And therefore, he can show both justice and mercy and forgive us. That's what it's all about.

There's only one requirement on your part. You must believe in him. You must repent. When's the last time you heard a sermon on Sunday morning about repentance? Nobody likes to talk about that.

It means to turn away from your sins, but first you've got to admit that you're a sinner. Most people don't want to admit that. One of the reasons that people don't like to talk about being saved is because they don't think they're lost. I can do everything myself.

I can do whatever I want to. What do you mean I'm lost? See, listen, this believing and repentance happens all at the same moment. In that moment, you have been what? Born again. Born again. That's what this new birth is all about. That's what this new birth is all about.

And that brings us to this point. Once we have truly been saved in stage three, we must persevere in that faith. Look at verses 19 through 25. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, open for us through the curtain, that is, his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, what's his name? Jesus. Let us draw near to God with us with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith.

I love this. Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from what? A guilty conscience. And having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. For he who promised is what?

Faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to do these verses justice. So let me just give you four conditions, men, that are necessary if you want to draw near to God. Who wants to draw near to God?

Let me tell you something I do. I want to be right by his side every moment of every day. And when I die, I really want to be by his side. So if you want to draw near to God, you must have a sincere heart. You must be full assurance of faith.

It must be genuine and real. Your hearts must be sprinkled from a guilty conscience and your bodies must be washed with pure water. You see before a man can come into God's presence, he must possess true genuine faith in Jesus. This kind of faith is always accompanied by a repentant heart. And when a man repents, the Holy Spirit washes him clean and removes all of his guilt and shame. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, something that's not politically correct, but guess what? It's the truth. Paul writes, Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Did you find yourself in there somewhere?

If you can't, I can read a few more things. And that is what some of you are. But you were what?

Washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Do you know who God is looking for?

Men. He's looking for men who are truly broken over their sin, who hate it. And when you come to hate sin as God does, then you will be more ready to stage four.

Heed God's warnings to turn away from sin. Look at verses 20, 60, 31. This is a very serious warning here and I believe this warning is directed to believers. It says, If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume who? The enemies of God. Anyone who reject the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

So if there was a crime back then and you had two or three witnesses, they would take that person out and stone them right then. No mercy. Then he says, How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who is treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified Him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, It is mine to avenge our repay, and again the Lord would judge His people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

See, man, here's the deal. One day each one of us is going to die and we will stand before a holy God and give an account of our lives. And that is something, man, that you should truly fear if you have not placed your trust in Jesus Christ, because it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the one who can destroy your soul forever in hell. That's what Jesus said. Don't fear the man who can kill your body. Fear the one who can kill your soul. However, if you've repented and you've placed your trust...

I want you to understand this. If you've repented, man, and placed your trust in Jesus, then you have nothing to fear, because Romans 8 once says, Therefore there's now no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus. And when we continue in a known sin without repenting, what we're doing is we're trampling the Son of God underfoot, and we have insulted the Spirit of God. We've abused God's grace. If you have something you need to repent of, come to the river of life and be cleansed from a guilty conscience, and then walk forward in victory. And that brings us to stage five. Here's another warning.

Listen, man. When you decide to follow Jesus, you should expect what? Persecution and some hardship.

Look at verses 32 through 36. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering? Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution. At other times, you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded when? When you arrive in heaven, you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you receive what He has promised. Again, I don't have time to go through these verses.

Let me just say this. Men, as Christians in America, we live in Disney World compared to everyone else. We have no idea what it means to suffer hardship and persecution for the name of Christ. And we really, all we have to fear is to sneer from our peers.

That's it. At least that's the way it's been in my lifetime. However, I do believe that persecution is going to be on the rise in America. But let me share with you what many Christians are facing in China, India, and most Muslim countries.

They face the destruction of their property, the tearing down of their churches, literally burned down, expulsion from their communities, beatings, imprisonment, and even death. I've even read accounts of Christians being crucified. In his book, The Insanity of God, which I recommend you all read, Nick Ripken shares about his travels around the world to meet these suffering believers and what he learned startled him.

He discovered that Christians over there expected suffering and persecution to come just like the rising of the sun. They just expected it because they've read the Bible. And they considered it a privilege to suffer for Jesus. And they expect to be in prison. They think three years is nothing.

They're just going for three years. And they consider their three years in prison, three years in seminary, because that's where they learn more about God. Albert Hubbard said, God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars. Are you willing to be scarred for Jesus? In John 15, 18 through 21, Jesus says, if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

They will treat you this way because of my name. Why are so many Christians around the world willing to suffer for the name of Christ? It's because they are clinging to hope.

And that's the last stage. We must cling to our hope in Christ, particularly during these evil days, the last three verses. For in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Let me just tell you something. Jesus is my only hope. And the older I get, the more I'm clinging to Him.

I hope you have hope. 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.