The Crown Without the Cross- Part #2

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese.

A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus. And nothing says Christmas better than that. Not key to Kolov, the Russian nightmare.

No, the devil's nightmare. Hear from its time to man up. Challenging men to step into their true manhood. 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. 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. I've entitled tonight's message, The Crown Without the Cross.

So let me ask you this. Do you think Jesus wants to condemn you? The Bible says he did not come to condemn the world, but to what?

Save the world. And the Bible says he delights in showing mercy. And so as a believer, if you've sinned, what should you do? Run to the throne of grace. He's right there like the father of the prodigal with open arms saying, come to me, all who will, who are weary and burdened.

I'll give you rest. That's where you find grace and mercy. I've been to the throne of grace so many times it's ridiculous. How many times can you go before you run out of opportunities? You don't run out.

Infinite. So now I want us to look at these temptations. How was Jesus tempted? I believe he was tempted in three ways.

Physically, psychologically and spiritually. In other words, the entire humanity of Jesus was tempted. His mind, his body and his soul. That's what guys, that's what Satan wants to do with you and me. He comes after our whole being. Our mind and our body and our soul. And what he does, he wants to destroy us and he begins on the inside and works his way out.

Literally killing as he goes about his work. So let's take these temptations separately. First, Satan appealed to Jesus' physical desire for food.

Do you know why? He was hungry. He was hungry like you and I were hungry. After Jesus was baptized, we learned about that last week, he was full of who? Is the Holy Spirit an it?

No, it's the third person of the Godhead. He was full of the Holy Spirit and then the Spirit led him into the desert to be tested. And so for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus ate nothing. Can you imagine the hunger pains he must have been dealing with? I remember years ago, I decided I was going to fast for 24 hours.

Now guys, I'm not bragging because I've only done it about, I can count on how many times I've done it. And so I got up, I was going to go 24 hours and I made it through breakfast, I made it through lunch with no problem and I came home and I was determined I was going to walk through that kitchen and bypass the stove. And I walked in after a long day at work with an empty tank and when I came through the door, this incredible aroma hit me in my nostrils. My wife, Crecy, was cooking a feast for our two sons who were probably 12 and 10 at the time. She had a pork loin roast in the oven. She had stewed corn on the stove with mashed potatoes and snap beans and I walked right on by. I said, Lord, please help me.

After I'd been home for a little while, Crecy said, Russ, I need to run out for a minute. I'm afraid the corn is going to burn. Do you mind stirring it while I'm gone?

And I said, well, okay, I'll do that. You need to understand that corn was my favorite vegetable growing up. I grew up in Bethel and we had some farmland and we grew corn. You ever tasted good, early corn?

It's good in it, Neil. Well, my mother used to put up, she would spend three or four days putting up jars of corn and we would have it all throughout the winter. In fact, I ate so much at one time I threw up, but that's another story. And so Crecy learned how to cook corn like my mother. So I went over there, I took that lid off. Gosh, that smells good. I took that spoon and I started stirring. And then this little thought entered my mind, you know, it really won't be breaking a fast if I just take one bite. So I took one bite.

Gosh, I can taste it right now. I took another bite and then I turned around and I grabbed a plate from the cabinet. Nobody was in the kitchen but me.

The boys were out playing, Crecy's gone. And I took the pork roast out of the oven and I cut me two big pieces of meat. And I piled up my plate with corn and snap beans and mashed potatoes and I devoured it.

And it was good. Did you know that sin, the Bible says, tastes good for a while? But then you wake up and it's a disaster. But listen, what I've just described to you is a picture of the way temptation works. When you are weak, the devil will appear and ask you to stir the corn. And you say, OK, I'm just going to take one little stir. Not that big a deal. As Jesus dealt with his hunger pains, the devil appeared to him out of nowhere. And you guys, I listen.

It didn't say this, but Kent Hughes said this and I think he's probably right. How do you think the devil appeared? As a wimpy little former angel?

No. In splendor, glorious, powerful. And remember, his name used to be Lucifer, and he was the most beautiful angel in all of heaven and the most powerful next to God. But he wanted to be like God. And he had seen the sun in his form of glory, sharing the throne with his heavenly father. And now here is this sun in a frail human body, this dying with hunger pains. And this powerful being stands before the sun, Jesus, and says, if you are the son of God, tell the stone to turn into bread. In essence, what Satan said was, since you are the son of God, see, Satan knew it. He believed it.

Then tell your father to take care of you. That's what he did for the Israelites for 40 years when they wandered through the desert and he took care of them. He gave them manna and quail.

Certainly, if you really are the son of God, he'll do the same for you. Again, Jesus had been going without food for 40 long days, and he felt he was dying as the hunger pains convulsed his body. And since he had the power to turn stones into bread, his body was screaming, do it. You think that wasn't a temptation?

Not from evil, but to do something good. This temptation, I believe, was both physical and spiritual in nature. If he gave in, he would usurp his father's will, who led him to actually fast and who had promised to take care of him. And yet he was starving.

His body craved nourishment. In spite of the hunger pains, Jesus was faithful. According to Matthew chapter 4 verse 4, Jesus responded, it is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

What's the lesson there? Our life does not consist of what we have, what we eat, but on nourishment from the word of God. You see, Jesus believed God's word, and he trusted in his heavenly father to take care of him. And therefore, he was faithful. What should we say to Jesus right now?

Thank you, Jesus. Because he was faithful, we are sitting here tonight. That was the first temptation, and Jesus passed it with flying colors. But Satan pushed a little harder and a little deeper with the second one.

He appealed to his psychological desire to get the crown without the cross, to bypass the pain and suffering and just go straight to the kingdom. And so the Bible says the devil took him up to the top of a high mountain, and he somehow showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And then the ruler of this world, 1 John 5 19 says, the whole world is under control of who? The evil one.

Did you all know that? I mean, he has limited control. He's like a lion on a chain, but he has control of the world. And he said to Jesus, all of these kingdoms which have been given to me, I'll give to you if you just do one thing. Bow your knee and worship me, and it will all be yours.

You think that wasn't a temptation. Jesus came into this world to do what? To establish his kingdom on earth. His greatest desire was for the people of the world to worship his father and to follow him so that he could give you and me eternal life. However, his greatest dread was the cross.

Remember? Before his arrest in the garden, he was asking his father what? If it's possible, Father, take this cup from me.

But not my will, but thy will be done. And he was so full of anxiety over what he was getting ready to face. I don't think it was the pain and suffering, although that was part of it. It was going to be the first time when the father looked away as he took our filthy sins upon his body. And so he dreaded the cross, and his anxiety was so severe that he perspired blood. And so here he was, being presented with a way to establish his kingdom on earth and aboard the cross.

I don't think we can imagine how tempting this was to Jesus in his humanity. Just a quick bow, just a fleeting moment of recognition before this beautiful, powerful being. He would pass in an instant, and then his kingdom would come to this earth in all of its glory.

Just a quick little nod. Imagine Jesus in this weakened condition, existing in a frail human body, and standing before this imposing being, masquerading as an angel of light. I believe in the unseen realm, all of the heavenly angels watched to see how the Son would respond, because they didn't know. They weren't omniscient. Did Jesus disappoint them?

No. He replied to the devil, it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Jesus remained faithful.

What should we say? Thank you, Jesus. When I prepared a lot of this today, I really was so thankful as I thought about what Jesus did for us. This is just the beginning of the battle. He's got three more years of battling this foe, all the way to the cross, when he's going to cry out three words.

What are those three words? It is finished. And guys, he did it for you and me. But he's still got a long battle ahead of him.

Three more years. So the devil upped the ante. This time, Satan appealed to his spiritual desire to know and feel the love of his heavenly Father, a love that he'd never been without. The devil took him to the highest place on the Temple Mount, which I believe is the corner, the southeast corner of the wall.

I've looked at it with some of my, some people that traveled to Israel with us three years ago from the other side of the Kidron Valley, and it's a 450 drop to the bottom. And so, somehow, Satan and Jesus are standing there on the edge of that wall, looking down. And once again, the devil in his splendor and beauty said, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it's written. So now, listen, Jesus has been quoting scripture. Now Satan's quoting it. You think Satan doesn't know what the Bible says? He said, Jesus, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully.

They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. I believe this was the most powerful temptation that Jesus faced. You see, the Son, as I said, had enjoyed fellowship with his Father from eternity past. And not only had the Father not fed him yet, but then now the devil was questioning the love of the Father for his one and only Son. And Satan reminded Jesus by quoting Psalm 91 that God promised to take care of him, anyone who trusts in him.

You know what he was saying to Jesus? Just prove it. Prove it to the world. If you really are the Son of God, prove it.

Then the whole world will know who you really are. Do it now, and you can avoid the cross. Just a shortcut to the kingdom.

Bypass the pain and suffering. But once again, Jesus was faithful to his Father. He replied, it says, do not put the Lord your God to the test. See man, Jesus was faithful all the way to the end.

So what should we say? Thank you, Jesus. Then it says, when the devil had finished testing him, Satan left to wait for another opportunity.

And man, that's what he does for you and me. You pass one test, there's another one coming. At the beginning I said we were going to answer two questions. First, what is temptation? We established that temptation is an allurement or an enticement to sin against God's Word for pleasure or gain. Jesus was off of the world.

But to take it, he would have to go against his Father's Word and will, and he refused. So the second question, and the one that I want to camp out on as we end tonight, is this. How do we overcome temptation? Well, to answer this question, I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me back to the book of James, right after Hebrews. James chapter 1, we're going to look at verses 13, 14, and 15.

Okay? I think that was part of your homework assignment this week. James 1, 13, 14, and 15. Here's what James writes. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Any of you ever experienced that deadly cycle? Let me give you some truths about temptation. First, temptation in and of itself is not sin.

You can let the birds fly over you, but don't let them build a nest. Yeah, that's when it becomes sin. It's temptation becomes sin when you give into it. Giving into temptation, man begins in the mind, and later it is manifested outwardly through our actions. Temptation comes from Satan and his demonic forces.

Satan is known in the Bible as the chief tempter. So he's the one who's coming after us. I'll never forget when I was having lunch one time with a guy by the name of Paul Woodard, who's now a doctor down in Tarboro. He's a good friend of my son.

I think he's like 36 years old now. And Paul had not yet accepted Christ, and so we were sitting at Big Ed's downtown, and I was explaining to him that Satan is like in the submarines when they're down there looking at the radar, and they're looking for the little blips that come up on the screen, and that's the enemy targets. So I drew a little circle. I said, Paul, you're right out here outside the radar. The moment that you accept Jesus, Satan's going to be sitting in the submarine, and he's going to see a new blip. Because it's not meant until you're in Christ that you become Satan's enemy.

Did you know that? Because see, when you're not in Christ, he's already got you. But when you become part of God's kingdom, then you have an adversary, and his name is Satan. Matthew 4, 1 and 2 says, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

After 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And then it says the tempter came to him. And guys, when you're weak, you can expect the tempter to show up.

And he usually shows up when you least expect him. Here's another truth about temptation. Satan knows that we have evil desires. Do you know how he knows that?

Because he had evil desires in heaven. And so he comes along beside us, and he lures us into his trap by offering pleasure or gain. And once he has you in his grip, man, he will work to destroy your life and ultimately kill you. That's why so many, you know, I hate to say this, but so many young men today have been lured into drinking, and some of them are overdosing.

I had to do a funeral of a guy a few years ago who committed suicide at age 23. That should never happen. Yeah, there are four stages of temptation. I got these words, I think, from Warren Whisbee. Desire, deception, disobedience, death.

And here's how it works. When we entertain the allure of pleasure in our minds, desire is born. Not sin yet, but you've got this desire in there. And if it's a desire to do evil, that's what Satan's coming after. And so Satan tempts our evil desires with some kind of a deceptive opportunity that offers pleasure, excitement, happiness. St. Ambrose said, The devil's snare does not catch you unless you are first caught by the bait. So as we give into the deceptive bait, we become entangled in disobedience.

It's like a vine that we just get all tangled up in. And then finally, as we continue in our pursuit of sinful pleasures, our inner being slowly dies. And guys, that can even happen to a believer. You don't lose your salvation, but you'll feel like you lost it. Because you'll be living in sin, and you'll face nothing but guilt, anxiety, depression. And what's happening is you're destroying your soul as you give into the temptation to sin.

It's destructive to your inner being. And guys, that's why God has given us His commandments and laws. Remember I told you that if you think of a football field or the boundary of a basketball court, just put the Ten Commandments around it. And what God is saying is that if you stay on the court, you're free to do whatever you want. There's freedom and joy. But the moment you step off the court, you begin to pay the consequences.

Have you ever stepped off the court? I have. Satan knows why we're weak, and so just as a fisherman uses a lure to attract fish, Satan has got a lure in his tackle box with your name on it. And when he wants to get you, he goes into his tackle box and he pulls out just the perfect lure for you. And then he uses the bait to lure you into his grip where he can destroy your life. That's what he wants to do, and he makes the bait so attractive because it comes in a beautiful package. Open this up, and you'll find peace and joy.

Do this, and you'll find satisfaction. But you know what, when we're dealing with temptation and we yield to it, we're not thinking about the consequences, are we? Warren Wiersbe says that when David looked at his neighbor's wife, he would never have committed adultery had he seen the tragic consequences.

The death of a baby, the murder of a brave soldier, the violation of a daughter, the murder of one of his sons by another son, and the betrayal of another son. You see, the bait that Satan uses keeps us from seeing the consequences of sin, and that's part of his plan. So what is the solution? How do we overcome temptation? Who wants to know the answer to that?

Every hand should go up. Well, the solution is found in James as you work your way backwards. Death came from disobedience. Disobedience was born out of deception, and deception began with desire. You see, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. So we got to deal with the heart, man. Proverbs 4, 23 says, above all else, guard your heart, but it's the wellspring of life. How do we guard our hearts, man?

Well, I just tell you, by what you take in. We guard our hearts the same way Jesus did. When Jesus was led into the wilderness, it said he was full of two things, the Holy Spirit and what else? The Word of God. I mean, if you're full of the Holy Spirit, and you're full of the Word of God, then you are armed for battle, and Jesus was armed for battle. And so you have to be, man, first thing, you've got to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And then you've got to be reading and digesting God's Word. And then you live by the Spirit and the power of the Spirit.

That's what Jesus did. That's why we do this Bible study, guys. First thing we want to do here is to make sure that you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And then once you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we want you to spend time in God's Word. That's why I say Bible study. Study God's Word.

Meditate on it. It becomes nourished before your soul, guys, and you know what it does? It gives you wisdom so that when you, whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it.

So in closing, guys, I want you to bow your heads. And I'm just going to read over us and then close in prayer. What Paul describes as the armor of God. And this is, unfortunately, we should take another hour and go through these verses here in Ephesians 6 verses 10 through 18. Here's what Paul writes. Finally, be strong in the Lord, men, and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God.

Why? So that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, men, put on the full armor of God. So when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.

And after you've done everything, to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. With the breastplate of righteousness in place, that means you've been saved. And with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace so that we're actually prepared to go out and share the gospel with others. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Take the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of temptation that come from the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation. That is, we want to wear the helmet of salvation to protect our mind from all the filth that's coming across the internet, from television, from magazines, from books, and things that we should not even be looking at or even thinking about. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word is so rich, is so deep, is so true, is so full of nourishment for our starving spirits, Lord. Help us to hunger after righteousness. Help us to hunger for truth. Help us to hunger to know you more. Help us to hunger, Lord, for your Word.

And dear God, we can't drum this up. You've got to help us because we are but dust and we need you so much. And so, Lord, I pray that you work a miracle in our hearts and in our minds and transform us into the men that you want us to be so that we can live a life full of joy and peace and stay within the boundaries of your Word, where we can have freedom from guilt and shame and depression. And one day, Lord, when you return, if we've lived our lives according to your will, we'll hear the Word from you. Well done, good and faithful servant. Now enter paradise, which I have prepared for you since the foundation of the world.

Lord, we long for that day. Lord, as the world gets darker, we know that your light gets brighter. Help us to be agents of light, to go out there and shine among those who are lost, that they might know what we know. It's in Jesus' name that I pray.

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, 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. This is the Truth Network.