Finding Purpose-Romans with Russ Andrews episode 10

Hi, this is Nikita Kolov from the Q&A with Kolov Podcast, where you, the listener, get to ask me the questions, where you get a personal phone call from the Russian nightmare. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a moment. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, 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. Good evening, men. It's good to see everybody and such a great crowd here tonight, and it is a great way to start the new year with two wonderful hymns. I love both of those.

I was even thinking about, what's the name of the first one? Coming Out Found. Coming Out Found, yeah. But that line in there about prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to lead the God I love.

And that's been a pattern in my life that I don't want to have as a pattern anymore. Hey, Russ. Yeah. Can I say one thing with that?

Sure. When I sing that song and even that second one, y'all, sometimes I think of, we might be doing okay now, but we want to finish well. Amen.

You know what I'm saying? Amen. We want to finish well. We're prone to wander.

We've blown it. We fall. We get back up.

That other song says, in every high, when everything starts going messed up and we're battling against stuff, I want my anchor to stay in this place. And I know for all of us, I'm 62, five grandkids, we're all getting older, but we want to finish well. That's all I want to say. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Stefan. One quick announcement. The Cove will be March the, let's see here, 15th through the 17th. So if you want to sign up, I think we've got some brochures in the back, and we're going to try to get some more for next Tuesday night. So just, if you want to go to the Cove, it's a great retreat for men.

I highly recommend it. Okay. You guys ready? Let's get the Lord in prayer. Jimmy father, thank you for this evening and Lord, thank you for bringing these men here and thank you for Stefan and the way he leads us in worship.

And thank you for Dave Clemmer who runs the sound so wonderfully. And Lord, we thank you for you. We thank you for your presence here with us. You tell us in your word that we're two or more gathered in your name, that you're there in their midst. And say, Lord, we know that you're here.

We love you, Lord. And I pray that your Holy Spirit will just fill this room with your presence. I pray, Lord, that your word will go forth and accomplish the purpose for which you intend. And Lord, I pray that you will work on our hearts that we might know you more intimately and Lord, that you will empower us to obey you more and to be set totally free from sin. In Jesus name, I pray.

Amen. All right, take your Bible and open up to Romans chapter 6. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 14 and I've entitled this message A New Life to Live. I'm going to begin though with 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 where Paul writes, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a what? New creation. The old has gone, the new has come. About 20 years ago, I first met Sam Barrow when he walked into my office for a Bible study that a friend of his who became a friend of mine, Luke Murray, he said, Russ, I'd love to invite some of my friends to get him in a Bible study. So I said, okay, let's do it.

So there were about 8 to 10 of us and we met every Friday morning in my office from 7 to 8. And in that Bible study, I saw firsthand how God took the word of God and changed and transformed the heart of a man. Romans 10 17 says, Consequently, faith come from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. And I watched as the Holy Spirit used the word of God to convict Sam of his sins and then lead him to Jesus Christ who became his Lord and Savior. And today I can tell you that Sam is a changed man. He's experiencing what it what it means to live a new life in Christ. He sees the world differently. He delights in the things of God. He says to the Lord speaking to him when he reads the Bible.

I know this because he shared this with me. His choices have changed, his priorities, his passions, his desires have all changed. He makes sure that on Sunday mornings, he has his family in church. And at bedtime, he says prayers with his two daughters, Spencer and Hartley.

And now they are experiencing this new life. So Sam is a picture of what God can do with a man who surrenders his life to Jesus. Recently in our Bible study, Sam said, I just feel like the Lord is always with me. Have you experienced this? Do you know what it's like to live a new life in Christ?

Are you experiencing this for yourself? If you're not sure, then I want you to listen carefully to what we're going to talk about tonight as you look at Romans chapter 6 verses 1 through 14. And if you want, man, if you want to make sure that you're experiencing this new life, then you need to understand the answers to the following three questions. First, how does this new life happen? Second, what is the result of being in Christ?

That is, what is the result of being united with Jesus? And third, how do we live this new life? In other words, how can we avoid being prone to wonder?

So let's consider the first question. How does this new life happen? In other words, how do we become this new creation?

Well, I want you to look first. I'm going to jump to verse 5 in Romans chapter 6. Paul writes, if we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

And the key word here is the word united, which means to form a single unit. When you're united to Christ, you are literally joined together with him spiritually. You become one with Christ in a living relationship through which you come to know him personally. This is why the Lord is going to say to some people who stand before him one day, they call that Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, depart from me because I never what?

I never knew you. So do you know the Lord? To experience this new life, man, this living and personal relationship with God, you must be united to Jesus. It's the only way.

So how does this happen? How are we united to Christ? Well, this is the most important question that any man can answer for himself. How do I become united to Christ? Well, let's look at Nicodemus. Remember him in John chapter 3? Nicodemus was a very religious man. He was devout. He was moral.

And he was considered the greatest teacher in all of Israel. And yet he came to Jesus one night because he had some questions. He was searching for the truth. But I believe deep down in his heart, what he really wanted to know was who are you, Jesus?

He didn't ask that, but that's what he was asking internally. And Jesus didn't explain who he was. Instead, Jesus said to him, I tell you the truth, Nicodemus, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is what? Born again. The key to being united with Christ is this new birth. Everyone has been born physically.

That's why you're sitting here tonight. That is the first birth. However, the vast majority of people that you and I know, particularly those who are very religious, have not been born spiritually. They have never experienced this second birth from above.

And herein lies our problem. We're all born with a sinful nature which cannot be remodeled. That is, it cannot be recreated. God cannot simply clean up our old nature. He must make something entirely new and different.

It's got to be a new creation. And we learned about this new creation from the Old Testament. 600 years before the birth of Christ, a prophet by the name of Ezekiel, foretold that one day God was going to do a new work.

And he was looking ahead 600 years. In Ezekiel 36 verses 26 and 27, the Lord says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I'll remove from you your heart of stone and give your heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and I will move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

So that we won't be prone to wonder. What was Ezekiel talking about? He was talking about the new birth. And so, men, if you want to experience this new life, then you must be born again.

This is the most important truth in the universe. That if a man or woman wants to ever see God in her heaven, he has to be born again. And it's in that moment when a man is born again, that the Holy Spirit invades his dead spirit and causes his spirit to come alive. And this is what Jesus was getting at in John chapter 7 verse 38, where he says, if anyone believes in me, as the scripture has said, if anyone believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. And by this, he meant the spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Do you see that? It's talking about the new birth. And when you experience this new birth, man, you feel like you have streams of living water within you. Not every single moment.

You're not walking around giddy. But you have this abiding peace and joy that the world knows nothing about. Then once you've been reborn and enjoyed by the Holy Spirit, several things happen. And this leads to the second question.

Here's the second question. What is the result of being in Christ? That is, what is the result, men, of being united with Christ?

What happens to us? Well, look with me at verses one through 10. John, excuse me, Romans chapter six, verses one through 10.

Paul writes, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means, we die to sin.

How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new what?

A new life. If we've been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with. That we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, for we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.

Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Now, what's going on here is that in verse one, Paul is anticipating another question from these religious Jews who are following him around, asking all these questions. And in their minds, Paul knows that they're thinking, why can't we just go and sin him so that grace may increase? And the reason Paul is expecting this question is because what he said in Romans chapter 5 verse 20, where he writes, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Where sin increased, grace increased all the more. So it may seem that we can just go on sinning because if we just keep on sinning, God's grace increases in our life.

And many Christians fall into this trap that if all our sins have been forgiven past, present, and future, why can't we just go on sinning? I'll never forget this, but I was with a few young Christian men one time and they referred to something that they called their grace card. Have you ever heard of a grace card? It's like a Christian credit card. And I said, well, how do you use this grace card? He said, well, whenever we do something sinful, like looking at certain things on the internet that we know is wrong, they said they just simply swapped their grace card, knowing that God had already forgiven them. You think that's right? Well, now, listen, they were mature believers and they knew that the concept of a grace card is totally wrong.

Why is it wrong? Because it's taking advantage of God's grace. A very good verse to remember is Jude verse 4. Where's Jude?

Right before what book? Revelation. Jude 4 says they are godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality. Let me repeat that.

They are godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality. You ever done that? I believe we're all honest. We all have been guilty of using a grace card from time to time.

Have we not? I personally confess before you tonight that I've taken advantage of God's grace too many times to remember and I'm ashamed of it. And it is my prayer that I will never take advantage of his grace again.

That's one of my New Year's resolutions. So what did Paul say about continuing to sin knowing you are covered by the grace of God? He said what? By no means. We died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer? And then he goes on to explain how believers have been baptized into Jesus's death, baptized into his burial, and baptized into his resurrection. And the baptism that he's talking about here is not water baptism. He's referring to the baptism of the Holy Spirit which occurs when? The moment a man is born again. It's in that moment when faith is born in a man that the Holy Spirit enters his dead spirit and gives him new life.

So what is the result of being united with Christ? You become a changed man and people begin to notice it and your life will never be the same again. What do I mean by this? What does it mean to be a changed man?

Well first I want you to listen this carefully okay? A Christian can't sin like he used to because he has a new relationship to sin. Did you hear that? You can't sin like you used to because you have a new relationship to sin. You are now dead to sin.

Did you hear that? You are dead to sin before you were alive to sin. In verse 2 Paul says we died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer? And then in verse 7 Paul says anyone who has died has been free from sin. So what does it mean that we died to sin? Let me tell you what it does not mean. It does not mean that you will never sin again. However we can no longer sin the same way that we used to.

Why is this? Because we have the Holy Spirit living in us and when we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit and we are greatly convicted of our sins I believe much more so than non-believers. Would y'all buy into that? Do you know what it means? Have you ever grieved the Holy Spirit? I have and it's a horrible thing to do because whatever you do, whatever you look at, who are you taking with you? The Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit.

Jesus you're taking him with you. Ephesians 4 30 Paul writes and do not grieve the Holy Spirit with whom you are sealed. I'm sure many of you have read 1 John 3 9 which says no one who is born of God will continue to sin. He cannot go on sinning because he's been born of God. Now I remember the first time I read that well into my Christian life and I thought well I must not be a Christian because I'm still sinning. So I've come to realize that this verse does not mean that we have reached the point of sinless perfection. What this verse means is that believers do not practice sin as a way of life.

There's a difference between the old way of life and the new way of life. A Christian unlike a non-Christian struggles with sin. He's struggling with it. That shows he's a Christian. A non-Christian is not really struggling with sin because you have the Holy Spirit in you as a Christian and if you grieve the Holy Spirit you you're in this struggle and see I believe this man the Lord wants to set us free from the struggle.

Do you believe that? He wants to set you and me free so that we can enjoy this new life. We've been set free from our slavery to sin. That's the difference between us and a non-believer. We've been set free from slavery to sin. Yes we will continue to struggle with certain sins however we are growing under the grace of God as he works to cleanse us and mold us into the men that he desires for us to be. Don't you want to be the man that God created you to be? This process is known as sanctification where God over the course of time removes our tendency to sin.

Charles Spurgeon puts it like this. Now what is salvation? Some people think that it means being saved from going down to hell. That he says is the result of salvation but salvation means being saved from the power of sin and being saved from the tendency to sin as well as being saved from the punishment of sin.

So what other changes might you see in your life? Not only have we died to sin but we also begin to experience what it means to live this new life in Christ. Paul used the word baptism here to explain why we are able to live a new life in Christ. Water baptism does not save a man but it serves as a great picture of what happens to a man internally through salvation. The moment that he's united with Christ and so by natural birth man think about this we are united with who?

By natural birth? Adam and from him we inherit our sinful nature and this is the old man this is the old you okay by spiritual birth we're united with Christ and from whom we inherit a new nature and this is the new man this is the new you. You've got two lives one is dead and one is new. Here's what Paul is trying to convey to us through this word baptism. Through spiritual baptism man you have to believe this by faith. Whatever happened to Jesus happened to you. Did you know that?

Did you know that? Spiritually speaking by faith we literally become a part of Christ we are identified with him so that when Jesus died we died as if we were on the cross with him and we left our sins at that cross. When Jesus was buried we too were buried and we left our old man in the grave so the old you is dead and gone do you see that?

You're done with the old man. When Jesus arose we arose and now we live a new life in Christ. I love John 10 where Jesus says the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full that's what he wants you to have men it's a full abundant life and I'm not talking about prosperity I'm talking about prosperity of your soul and here's something I really want you to understand tonight. Satan wants to destroy your life and I'm talking about you as a Christian man. He wants to take you down. Do you know why? Because if you have to share the gospel you are doing damage to his kingdom and he's coming after you and this is why he works so hard to tempt you and by the way he's very good at this.

You know why he's so good at it? Because he knows exactly where your weakness lies and he will exploit this weakness when you are least prepared with a temptation that he is designed perfectly for you and you're no match for Satan. So let me ask you this do you want to break free from sin?

Do you? Well that's what Jesus wants for all of us he wants us to be set free. Jesus wants us to experience a new life that brings freedom from the guilt of sin and freedom from the power of sin. There's so many Christian men all over the the world but particularly in our country walking around carrying a baggage of guilt.

Why is that? Because they're still habitually sinning and they need to be set free. Now look at verse six again. Paul writes for we know that our old self was crucified with him look at this so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should not no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been free from sin. Now even though a man becomes a new man men we still live in this body of sin also known as the flesh and we will continue to struggle with this old flesh until the day we die unfortunately. Charles Spurgeon says I love the way he puts this the reigning power of sin falls dead the moment a man is converted but the struggling power of sin does not die until the man dies. Joel McDaniel who's a pastor friend of mine he was telling about this old older godly man in his father's church back in Arkansas and and the man was just being very candid with Joel and he said you know I've um I've licked my problem with gambling I've licked my problem with gambling I've licked my problem with alcohol and the man was about 85 years old he said but this lust problem I'm still struggling with 85 years of age we will still struggle with sin but here's the difference man we are no longer slaves to sin and there's a huge difference in Christ Jesus we're now slaves to what? Righteousness. So how do we live this new life? How do we be the men that God wants us to be? How are we empowered to live the Christian life in such a dark and evil world that is so full of temptation that is as close as your cell phone?

Do you know what I'm talking about? Look at verses 11 through 14. Paul writes in the same way count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus therefore look at what he says do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness for sin shall not be your master because you are not under law but under what? Grace. The first of every year is when thousands of people make news resolutions and I want to share one of my news resolutions with you it's found in Colossians chapter 1 verse 10 one of the verses you had to read for tonight where the apostle Paul writes and we pray this in order that you may live and we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way so here's my first and my most important resolution for 2024 I want to please the Lord in every area of my life in what I think in what I see in what I say and in what I do in other words I want my mind and my eyes and my mind and my mind and my eyes and my mouth and my body to be completely yielded to the Holy Spirit every moment of every day do you have that desire if you have that desire raise your hand if you don't have that desire see me afterwards so what is the key to being victorious over sin so how many of you would like to stop sinning raise your hand okay well here's the key Paul gives a battle plan right here in the form of three commands and here's the first command he says count yourselves dead to sin man this is the first command excuse me this command is the first step toward victory over sin the Greek word used here for count is legizomai which means to continuously reckon this or this or continuously affirm something to be fully true that's what count means in your mind you continuously affirm something to be true and so if it's if it's in God's word then we must affirm it to be true in other words we must believe what God says about us is true and here's what God says if a man is in Christ then he is dead to sin who said that we're dead to sin God do you believe God do you believe God we have been set free from sin's penalty and we've been set free from sin's power and listen what we believe about ourselves will determine how we act if we really believe that we are dead to sin then we are much more likely to obey the Lord John MacArthur writes something very interesting he says the most common reason why Christians find it hard to believe that they free from sin's tyranny while they are still on this earth is that their continued battle with sin seems almost constantly to contradict that truth if they have a new holy disposition and sin's control has truly been broken they wonder why are they still so strongly tempted and why do they say often succumb do you ever feel that like that why do I keep sinning well he goes on to say until a believer accepts the truth that Christ has broken the power of sin over his life he cannot live victoriously because in his innermost being he does not think it is possible do you believe it's possible see what we believe in our minds will determine how we act and this is not some mind game I'm asking you play this is a matter of the heart we must believe what God has already said about us is true if we are in Christ and we are dead to sin we belong to Jesus men and he has set us free do you believe this I believe it more now that I'm 69 than I did many years ago I wish I'd believed it more strongly back then to be honest with you but I believe it now and then we have to act on the street by faith and this is where holy life begins here's the second command do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires the believer's warfare with sin begins where in the mind and then it moves to the body as I've always said what you continuously think about you will eventually act upon it so we have to guard our minds so how do we do this well my wife put it this way because she read my manuscript and she gave me some good insight she said Russ tell your men that they must pour over the scriptures daily and let God's precepts and commands sink deep into our hearts and minds and as we do this his word which is the living word and the holy spirit will give us power to say no to temptation and sin so how often should we meditate on God's word specific on his commands and precepts how often every day throughout the day one practical action we men must all take is to guard what part of our body our eyes we need to guard our eyes from observing evil by what you're looking at on television in the movies and on the internet and it's so difficult because it's everywhere I talked to a man actually called me up who heard our radio show on the radio and he I'm convinced he's a born-again Christian but he's struggling with pornography and I was hoping he would be here tonight but he's not so then we have to guard our eyes what you see with your eyes becomes a lasting image in your mind number three offer yourselves to God that is all for the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness men we need this this schedule without saying and we're going to get into this in Romans 8 in more detail but we need the spirit's power to live this new life because we can't do it on our own but God has given us his spirit so we have the power within us and it begins by offering our hearts in our body to God every morning in your prayer time you should offer your heart to God and remember that your heart includes your mind your will and your emotions it's the real you and so when you offer your heart to God you're offering yourself to God additionally in your prayer time you should specifically offer the parts of your body to God Lord here's my mind help me to think thoughts that are pleasing to you you ever struggle with thoughts in your mind Lord hear my eyes help me not to look at any movie or television show or images on the internet that are not pleasing to you Lord hear my hands and feet help me to walk in the light of your will and to go about my work for your glory and not mine amen it goes without saying Ephesians 6 18 Paul says this is when he's dealing with the arsenal that God has given us to fight the spiritual battle that we're in in Ephesians 6 18 he says keep on praying man prayer is the greatest tool in our arsenal to tap into the power of God so that we may live lives that are pleasing to him and stop being prone to wonder I'm going to close with this scripture from Paul he writes in Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13 therefore my dear friends as you've always obeyed not only my presence but now much more in my absence here's what I want you to hear continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God man who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose let's pray help me father thank you for your word it is powerful it is powerful it is living it is transformative lord it feeds us it nourishes our soul and lord satan wants to keep us from reading your word in the morning or during the daytime lord I pray that you would give us a hunger and a thirst to read your word that we might know you more intimately that we might be empowered to live this christian life which is so difficult and that we might as stephan said stephan said finish well that's my prayer for each one of us lord help us to god to live for you and not for this world it's in your name that I pray amen all right guys see you next tuesday 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 finding purpose.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 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