The first thing God wants you to do is to come in with the truth. Dr. Tony Evans says there's only one alternative to the truth, and that alternative won't bring us the deliverance we're hoping for. If you suppress the truth of God, you're going to exchange it for a lie. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Pretending that a problem doesn't exist won't make it go away, but it can make it go from bad to worse. Today, Dr. Evans explains how the truth really can set us free.
Let's join him. In Romans chapter 5, Paul sets forth this concept of the delivering power of the cross. In verses 6 and 8, he makes a staggering statement. While we were helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. He says in verse 8, God demonstrated His love toward us that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Christ's death, the cross, was necessary in order for us to be forgiven for our sins. Christ died while we were ungodly. He demonstrated His love while we were still sinners. In other words, when there was nothing lovely about us, God loved us enough to die for us. That's how much God loves you, verse 8. God didn't just talk about it. He demonstrated it.
The proof that God loves you is really resident in the cross of Christ, because He loved you and me enough to die. But then he says in verse 9, much more. He repeats it again in verse 10, much more. Much more means on top of all that. Now the question is, what's the much more?
What's the much more? He says, once you've gotten saved, justified blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. If while we were enemies, verse 10, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, the cross, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
So now He's not talking to everybody in general. He's talking to Christians in particular, justified by His blood. And He says to those in this room today who are saved, having been justified, there is another saving that is available to you. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your sin bearer, you were eternally saved from eternal separation from God, which we call hell. Hell is eternal separation from God, and in this location is a state, a state of being. The best way I can explain hell is Alcatraz. In the San Francisco Bay is a place called Alcatraz, where criminals were sent to serve their time. They were serving their time in isolation from the general public and in isolation from another location called San Francisco. And the reason you couldn't get there is because this place called Alcatraz is located surrounded by water, a shark-infested body of water.
So they didn't really worry about you that much. If you escape, you ain't going nowhere. The Bible says hell will be cast into the lake of fire.
Okay? That doesn't mean people are walking around with fire popping out of them. It means like Alcatraz is in the San Francisco Bay surrounded by water, hell will be placed in the lake of fire, only it won't be surrounded by a lake of water, it'll be surrounded by a lake of fire. A person cannot get out of hell to get to heaven because of shark-infested fire.
That is, there is a lake of fire surrounding it, blocking any escape. And one of the painful things about hell is to know what you're missing. See, it's one thing to miss something and not know it.
There's a whole other ballgame to see it and not get to it. So that is what we were delivered from when we trusted Christ. Our eternal destiny was secured in heaven by our faith in Jesus Christ.
That's when you were justified. But Paul wants to talk to you about something called much more. He says on top of that, he says we are saved from the wrath of God through the life of Christ. Verse 10, through his life.
All right, let's follow this now. On the cross, Jesus died for our sins. He didn't die for your problems. He didn't die for your mistakes. He didn't die for your idiosyncrasies.
He died for sin. That's the only thing the cross will deal with. So anything else you bring to the cross is a waste of time because he doesn't deal with anything at the cross but sin.
Anything else is just pure talk, okay? Unless you've identified the sin, the cross stays dormant for you because the cross only works with sin because that's the only thing that nailed Jesus to the cross. That's why when you go counseling, you just want to feel good, but you don't want to deal with the sin, then don't even bother to pray because the cross can't help you. The cross only works in relationship to sin, all right?
He died on the cross and much more, not just to save us from an eternal destination of hell, but he died in order that the life of Christ might save or deliver us from the current outworking of the consequences of sin in history. The job of a fullback is to be—the first job is to be a lead blocker for the halfback. When they line up in an I-formation, the quarterback receives the ball. Behind the quarterback is the fullback. Behind the fullback is the halfback. The quarterback is going to hand off the ball to the halfback. The job of the fullback is to open up the hole for the halfback so he can make progress down the field.
First down, touchdown. The halfback wants to make progress. There are 11 men that don't want him to make progress, so their job is to stop the halfback from going forward, and the ultimate job is to cause him to go backwards or to lose yardage. It is the job of the fullback as lead blocker to open up the hole for the halfback so the halfback can move forward. In other words, it's called running interference.
Okay. Guess what the Bible says about Jesus? He ever lives to make intercession for the saints.
That's the fullback's job. Jesus Christ lives right now on the right-hand side of the Father after He died from the cross to be your lead blocker. God knows that there are enemies out there—Satan, sin, and the world, the flesh—that they are out there, and they don't want you to make progress down the field of your Christian life. They want to sack you behind the line of scrimmage. They want to keep you defeated. They want to keep you not moving forward.
But now that you are a child of God, you have what your neighbor does not have, a lead blocker. You've got somebody out in front whose job it is to open up the hole so that you can make progress down the field. But let me explain something. The fullback can't open up the hole for a halfback that's not carrying the ball. If he ain't carrying the ball, that means there's a fumble somewhere or something.
Aaron is going on. He must be carrying the thing that really is the key to him arriving at his destination. You can't leave the cross and then expect the blocker to be leading you down the field so that you can make progress in your Christian life. You can't leave the cross back here and wonder why you're not getting anywhere down there. When you carry the cross and the work of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ becomes your lead blocker to open up the hole against those things that want to sack you, tackle you, defeat you, and get you caught behind the line of scrimmage in order so that you can now make progress in your Christian life. So why are we not being delivered from the sacks that life wants to throw our way? Either because we've left the cross, we ain't carrying the cross anymore, we've lost our identification with the cross, or we're carrying the cross and going in a different direction from the lead blocker. You're supposed to follow the fullback.
You've run off his hip. Jesus Christ, he ever lives to be the lead blocker for the saint, okay? But he's not talking about hell now, because you don't need a lead blocker for eternity.
You need somebody to intercede for you for history. Now, he says that what Jesus wants to do is he wants to remove the wrath of God that Christians themselves are subject to because sin has consequences whether you are a sinner or saint. He says the reason the wrath of God is revealed when he defines wrath is, here it is, the truth of God is submerged. When you ignore, resist, or reject the truth of God, you have now opened yourself up to the wrath of God. Now, let me explain something about God's wrath, because people don't want to hear about that. People want to hear God is love, you know, and it is true, and we need to hear God is love, okay? But it's a disservice not to know about his wrath. See, not to be told that, somebody hiding some key stuff from you.
You need to know that. See, it is not fair for me to come here and only talk about the love of God, grace of God, mercy of God. God is good all the time, all the time God is good, right. All that's true, but you need to know that is the side of God.
That's not the popular side, but you need to know it is there. And Dr. Evans will have more on the characteristic of God we typically don't like to think about when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, imagine having the latest smartphone capable of capturing stunning photos, connecting to the internet, sending texts and emails, browsing social media, virtually anything you need to do.
It's packed with powerful features, but until you turn it on, it's completely useless. Well, Dr. Evans says that's exactly how many Christians live their lives, full of potential, yet disconnected from the true power source. In his insightful book, The Power of the Cross, he reveals why understanding and embracing Jesus' sacrifice is the key to a vibrant, victorious faith, not just empty religion. This book will show you how to access all the blessings, benefits, and power Christ died to give you. And for a limited time, we're offering this life-changing resource as our gift, along with all 14 full-length messages from Tony's current two-volume teaching series, Returning to the Cross. These powerful messages and The Power of the Cross book are available right now to anyone who makes a donation to the ministry. Your support is what makes it possible for us to bring these Bible-based teachings to you each day.
So don't wait! Visit tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222 to find out how you can receive this special offer. I'll repeat that information after part two of today's lesson. Here's Dr. Evans picking up our teaching in the book of Romans.
Chapter 2, verse 5, he talks about the wrath of God and how God delays using it. In other words, it's not his preferred response. Any parent that loves his child, they don't prefer to punish.
That's not what they prefer, but they know it is necessary for them to know the seriousness of the infraction. All right? Look, the sun shines all the time. All the time the sun shines. The sun is shining 24 hours a day, but we experience nighttime. Now, how can the sun be shining 24-7 and we have a half a day of darkness?
Because we're turning. See, the earth is turning on its axis all the time. The sun, if you were facing it all the time, you'd be light all the time. But because the earth is turning on its axis, when the earth turns its back on the sun, darkness sets in.
It's dark because you're not facing the light, not because the light's not shining. When men turn from God by suppressing the truth, then they get to see his dark side, not because he's trying to be dark, because he's light, God is light, but because you are now in darkness. You're now experiencing a side of God that you don't want to experience, you don't prefer to experience, and he doesn't prefer to use. But he can't help who he is. He can't change who he is. But Jesus says, I'm there much more.
This is not available to the general public. I'm there to run interference for you so that you are delivered. A lot of times, whenever God wanted to express his way, he would always give delays. Like he would say, 40 days, none of it would be destroyed. Why tell me 40 days? He's telling you this is your window of opportunity to turn this thing around before I come through.
I don't want to do it, so I'm going to give you a 40-day warning. Even with the flood, he says, okay, my spirit will not always strive with man, 120 years. Why read the phrase 120 years? That's how long you have.
That's a pretty long time, 120 years, okay? But the Bible says it is the accumulation. So when it hits, it's hitting hard. It's the accumulation of judgment. It's the accumulation of divine response. He says, though, that much more, more than just the justification, we are delivered, saved from the wrath of God, from God turning us over to the natural repercussions of our rebellion of suppressing the truth. That's why the first thing you've got to do in an area, you need victory or you need the deliverance or you need to be set free, whatever that area is. And we all have different areas where we need to be set free.
But the very first thing you must do is identify the truth about the matter. The truth about any matter is what God says about it. It's not what your neighbors say, your friends say. It's not what you think.
It's certainly not what the media says. It is what God says about the matter. That is the truth on any subject. That's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth shall help you, God. Therefore, anything you think or anybody else thinks or says about the matter that does not agree with what God says about the matter is a lie and is therefore wrong.
Suppress that. Don't suppress the truth of God. Because if you suppress the truth of God, you're going to exchange it for a lie. And the worst thing in the world is to believe a lie and treat it like the truth. Because once you treat it like the truth and follow it like the truth and make it your truth, you become subject to the wrath.
So the first thing God wants you to do is to come in with the truth. God, this is a sin. You call it a sin.
You don't call it a mistake, a bad habit. You know, for example, the debt some of us are living in is the wrath of God. We just say I have bills. God says you have judgment.
You see? But if you don't view living perpetually above your means as a sin, you're not going to treat it as a sin, so your Savior is not going to run interference. And I don't care how much you pray, help me pay my bills. If you don't see the sin of living perpetually above your means, then God can't deal with the sin and can't open the door to give you victory. There'll be no deliverance because you didn't call it what God called it. You didn't deal with it like a truth.
You used the lie terminology of the world. You believe Master God. And you exchange the truth of God for a lie, you're suppressing the truth, which brings the wrath. The answer to any error you need to be delivered from is you got to call it what God calls it.
Now why do I know we're in for serious judgment? Because the last time He says God turned them over, in verse 32 He says, and they endorse those who do the same. They legalize it. They authorize it.
They okay it. It's one thing to have a sin and call it a sin. It's a whole nother level to have a sin and say this sin is okay and it has been legislatively approved by the authority. Once you legalize a sin, once you legalize and legislate a sin, and you have now made it an officially approved sin, you have now invited God's full wrath and full judgment. See, it's one thing if it's a sin and we're struggling with how to get over it, but I know it's a sin. That's one level. It's a whole nother level. It's not a sin because we've officially endorsed it and approved it and we've okayed it irrespective of what God says. See, the problem with that is you have now invited God's full wrath.
You had a whole nother level. See, we are not looking at the evolution of man. We're looking at the devolution of man. He is now devolving. When God got pushed out of school and the knowledge of God became suppressed, we have watched the deterioration of public education in spite of all the academics involved.
When God got kicked out, once the knowledge of God is removed from a place, the wrath of God is left behind. See, so this is serious business. But for Christians, much more. In spite of what's happening out there in society, it doesn't have to define you.
It doesn't have to authorize you because you've got a fallback. You've got somebody who runs intercession for you. So you may not be able to solve the problems of the White House, but you can fix your house because you've got somebody running interference for you. It's all holding on to the cross. And to the living Christ of the cross, whoever lives to make history says you are delivered by his life from the wrath. A great illustration of this in closing is Jericho.
You know, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho. And there was one woman who believed. Now, if you would look at this lady's history, it was pretty putrid. She was a harlot. She lived in a red-light district.
She didn't have a life to be proud of. But when the spies showed up, she said, I have heard about your God. We have heard about your God. And she placed faith in the God of the spies.
Okay? She placed faith in their God. Then she hid the spies. She said, the spies aren't here.
Then when they left, she let the spies out through another way in order to preserve their life. They came to her and said, because you have done this thing, when judgment falls on Jericho, you and your family—tell all your family, come to your house, because when judgment falls on Jericho, you and your house will be saved. But he wasn't talking about heaven. He was talking about being delivered in history. All right?
But let me tell you one other thing about this story that a lot of people don't know. It says something about Rahab the harlot. It says, her house was on the wall.
Okay? In other words, her house was attached to the wall. Now, when you read the story of Joshua, Fitzebel, Jericho, it says the wall came tumbling down. That means not only is her house standing, because her house is attached to the wall. So that means the whole piece of wall is standing. Can you imagine seeing every other place on that wall fall down except the place where she got delivered from?
There was deliverance at her house even though the rest of the culture was falling apart. Listen, your neighbors may fall apart, your friends may fall apart, your other people may be losing their natural mind, but Jesus is your fallback. He's ready to run interference with you if you will carry the cross so that when the whole world collapses, you're left standing.
Why? Because he who died for you when he didn't know you, now that he does know you, he ever lives to let his life work on your behalf. Bless his holy name for the deliverance of the cross. Dr. Tony Evans on the liberation God extends to believers through Christ's work on the cross. Now, if you'd like to hear this message again or pass it along to a friend, you can get it on CD or instantly downloadable MP3. Better yet, the full-length lesson can be found in Tony's two-volume series, Returning to the Cross, 14 studies focusing on the most important concept of the Christian faith.
You can receive the complete series as well as a copy of the companion book I mentioned earlier, The Power of the Cross. Don't forget they're both offered to you as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to support the ministry of the alternative. But this is a limited time offer, so be sure to visit tonyevans.org right away. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help get this exclusive package out to you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, tomorrow, Dr. Evans will talk about the authority we've inherited because of our relationship with Christ and His authority and how understanding that can help us live above our circumstances instead of under them. Be sure to join us.
