Rick Warren - The Word of Victory - Part Two

Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily

Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your

past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,

and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.

Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?

And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown

people are more open to an invitation to go to

church than at any other time of the year. Don't

go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't

know Jesus Christ, a family member, a friend, a coworker,

a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to

that church service and they come to know Christ, You're

going to be making a friend for eternity. It'll be

the most important investment you can ever make in their lives.

And by the way, if they come to Christ, would

you let me know about it. I'd love to hear

that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they

found Jesus. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrick

dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. I would love

to hear from you. God bless you and Happy Easter.

Thanks for joining us here today. On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,

the audio broadcast Ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we

continue in a series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love.

There are seven words in particular that Jesus spoke during

his final hours on the cross that hold the keys

for finding fulfillment in your life, relationships, and even your career.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick with part two of a

message called the Word of Victory.

Luke, chapter twenty four.

Jesus said, this, by the way, this story that I'm

reading happens after the cross. He's resurrected, and he's actually

walking down the street a few days later, the week

after he's died on the cross. So Jesus said, this

is on the road to a MIAs. Jesus said, this

is what I told you while I was still with you,

in other words, before I died on the cross. Now

he's back to life, and he's telling us this people,

everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in

the Law of Moses, that's the first five books of

the Bible, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. Then

he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures,

and he told them this is what was written, that

Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the

third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be

preached in his name to all nations. Jesus and this

was predicted, and this was promised, and I just fulfilled it.

A few days ago, he said, I'm fulfilling. Now You're

never going to find Jesus' name in the Old Testament.

But all of the predictions and all the prophecies of

what he would do, what he would say, where he

would be born, how he would die, and all of

those things, we looked back a couple weeks ago. Are

there he fulfilled the promises that God had given to us.

Look at the next verse there, Second Corinthians one twenty.

All of God's promises, all of God's promises have been

fulfilled in him who that's Jesus. And he says, that's

why we say Amen when we give glory to God

through Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, and he

said these three words, it is finished. He was announcing

five benefits to you. The first one he fulfilled what

God had promised us. He fulfilled all the scripture, all

the prophecies, all of the promises.

Number two, this is a big one.

He's satisfied what God's justice required. He satisfied what God's

justice required.

Now, let me explain this to you.

God is a God of justice. He is imminently fair.

God cannot be unfair. God is a god of justice

and truth and righteousness and wines and always does what's

right and can never do what's wrong. So God is

a God of justice, and God is a God of order,

and God is a god of laws, and God is

a God of fairness. Now, the only reason the universe

works is because that's God's nature. God wired the universe

to run on certain laws. There are laws of physics.

God designed them all. There are laws in astronomy, there

are laws in chemistry. There are laws in the environment.

There are physical laws. There's the law of gravity. How

about if the law of gravity just worked every other

day and it was totally unreliable. God's laws always work

all the time, and so God designed the entire universe

so that rotations work, and gravity's work, and the laws

of thermodynamics work. All of God's laws are immutable. Now

there are physical laws. Laws of physics has said they

are physical laws. There are spiritual laws, there are moral laws,

and there are relational laws. God is a god of

justice and law. Now, God gave the moral laws to

Moses and to the nation of Israel, to the Jews,

and the Jews were to take the moral laws and

share them with everybody else. You've heard the phrase that

the Jews are God's chosen people.

It's true. What were they chosen to do?

They were chosen to be the purveyors or the ambassadors

of God's moral law to everybody else, those of us

who are not Jews. That's what they were chosen to do.

To take the word of God, and to take the

truth of God, and to pass on the laws of

God to everybody else. Now, human beings, we you and I,

we have two problems with the laws of God. Number one,

we are completely unable to keep them all.

We just can't keep them all.

In fact, here's what the Bible says Romans chapter eight.

The law of Moses could not save us because our

sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan.

This is like a plan b.

God put into effect a different plan to save us.

He sent his own son in a human body like ours,

except that ours are sinful, and God destroyed sins control

over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for

our sins.

That's what he was doing on the cross.

He did this so that the requirement of the law

would be fully accomplished, finished, satisfied, completed for us, who

no longer follow our own sinful nature but.

Instead follow the spirits. What the rest of that verse.

Says, Now, Jesus is the only person in human history

who ever kept all of God's law perfectly, because he

was the son of God. Now, the first problem we

have is that we're completely unable to keep all of

God's laws. The second problem with God is this, justice

demands that law breakers pay the consequences. You don't have laws,

and then if you break it them, nothing happens. There

are certain laws. There are laws of sleep. If you

don't get enough sleep, your body pays for it.

There are laws.

If you don't exercise, your body pays for it. If

you eat the wrong foods, your body pay for it.

You are free on this planet to do anything you

want to. God gives you that freedom, but you are

not free from the consequences. I'm free to go out

get drunk, cause accidents blow up buildings, steal things, live

a totally licentious, self centered life, and.

I'm free to do that.

God gives me that freedom, it does not give me

the freedom from the consequences of it. And every kick

has a kick back, and there is a payoff, and

justice demands that law breakers pay a penalty. So God

is a just god, but he's also a loving god.

And Jesus did for us what God's justice and God's

law required. Look at the next verses. Look at this

verse on the screen. After Jesus had finished his work.

What's the work he's talking about? That work on the cross,

dying for our sins. After Jesus had finished his work

on the cross, he became the source of eternal salvation

for who for everybody, everybody who obeys him.

It doesn't matter.

What your background is, doesn't matter, what your culture is,

doesn't matter, what your religion is, doesn't matter, what your

personality is, your sex is, doesn't matter, He says, it's

for salvations for everybody who obeys him, who accepts what

he did for him. Look at the next verse in

your outline. Romans tend for Christ ended the law law

so that everyone who believes in him may be right

with God. Now circle that phrase ended the law. Did

you know That's what God did when he let Jesus

down the cross? He ended the law. Now wit minute,

he said, Wait a minute, Does that mean I don't

to keep the thak commandments anymore?

No, that's all what that means. Let me explain it now.

I want you to listen really closely, because the world

gets this wrong all the time. There are three kinds

of law in the Bible. There's legal law for the

nation of Israel, there's ceremonial law for the worship of Israel,

and there's moral law for everybody in the whole world. Okay,

there are legal laws in the book, in the Old

Testament books that are for the nation of Israel. You're

not obligated to fulfill those laws. You're not a Jew,

you don't live in Israel, and you weren't living in

the time where there's the theocracy of God being the

King of Israel.

You're not obligated.

And then they're ceremonial roles in the Book of Leviticus.

Anybody ever read that book.

Okay, there's some strange rules in there. Okay, rules of hygiene,

rules of health, rules of the kind of clothes you're

supposed to wear, rules, the way you're supposed to do

worship in the temple, and all that. That was the

ceremonial law for the nation of Israel. You're not obligated

to keep those. You're not at ISRAELI and you're not

under that system. God ended that system into that system. Now,

the moral laws are still in effect. You can't murder,

you can't lie, you can't commit adultery. Those are the

big ones, and those are always an effect. And what

happens is is people will come up to you and say,

what about the law that says da da da da

da da, And you say, well, that's a ceremonial law.

Well that's a national law. It's not a moral law,

and it doesn't have the same effect as the laws

that are to keep on.

Jesus ended the old system. He just says it right there.

He ended the law, so everyone who believes in him

may be right with God. Here it is in the nutshell.

Look at the next verse Romans five eighteen. Here it

is in a nutshell.

Just as one.

Person did it wrong and got us into all this trouble,

the sin and death.

That guy was called Adam. By the way, paradise was lost.

Another person did it right and got us out of it.

By the way, his name is Jesus.

But more than just getting out of us out of trouble,

he got us into life.

What did Jesus finish on the cross?

He fulfilled all the promises and he satisfied God's justice

that was required. Number three, This is an even bigger one.

He paid off the debt that I owed God. When

Jesus finished dying for me on the cross, he paid

off the debt that I owe God. Now, you have

a lot of debt in your life, and I'm not

just talking about your fifth financial debts. You owe something

to everybody you've ever hurt, you've ever offended, you've ever

sinned against. You owe them something because you've taken away

something from them by offending him, hurting them, sinning against them.

But you're even in deeper debt to God because everything

you have is a gift from God. And many times

you've been ungrateful, you've been unthankful, you've been rebellious, you've

done your own thing. You've basically, you know, said forget

you God, and did whatever you wanted to do. You've

gone with your plan instead of God's plan. You've done

the when God said do this, you've done the exact opposite.

You're in deep, deep, deep debt to God. Here's what

the Bible says Colossians, chapter two. We owed a debt

because we've broken God's laws, and that debt lists all

the rules that we failed to follow.

But here's the good news.

God forgave our debt, and he canceled our debt by

nailing it to the cross circle. The word canceled. This

is the third thing Jesus did. When he says it

is finished, he's saying, I've paid off your debt. It's

paid in full. You don't have to pay it anymore yourself.

You don't have to nail yourself to cross. I took

that punishment for you. I've canceled your debt. Now.

Can you imagine waking up on Monday and getting a

call from a Visa credit Cards or American Express or

Mass Cards. They called and said, you know what, we

just decided to wipe your slate clean. We're gonna eliminate

all your debt on all your credit cards. We're just

gonna wipe it out, and we're just gonna start over

with anybody like that.

Yeah, well, that's exactly.

What Jesus Christ did for you when he cried on

the cross.

It is finished.

I've paid all your debt to tell us, paid in full,

like that stamp paid in full. The bill has been

paid off, the sentence has been served, and I've paid

your debt financially, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.

I did it all for you.

Colossians won Verse fourteen says God's son paid the price

to free us, which means and it's like bail, no,

maybe morning bail, because you don't have to go to court.

God's pay the price to free us, which meant that

our sins are forgiven?

And which of your sins are given?

Every one of them, every single blasted one of them,

even the ones you haven't committed yet. I remember years ago,

Can and I went on vacation and we stayed in

a hotel somewhere.

I don't remember it wasn't.

Somebody recognized me, and I remember when we went down

to check out. I went up to the clerk to

check out and the attendant said, oh, your bill's been

paid off?

Said what?

And the guy said, oh, I said, oh, I've taken

care of that. I looked at this guy, I didn't

know him from Adams that you are my new best

friend and who are you and why did you do this?

And we got to know each other. He said, I've

taken care of your bill and I just paid it off.

That's exactly what Jesus Christ did for you. Look at

this verse on the screen. Now that our sins have

been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

Now lead that verse up there on the screen for

a minute. Let me explain this.

In the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was the way

that people said they were sorry for their sins, and

there were sacrifices made. And the Bible says, now that

Jesus Christ has died on the cross, there is no

need to offer any more sacrifices because Jesus was the

ultimate sacrifice for everything you've ever done wrong. Now let

me explain this in implication of it.

Some of our.

Friends, some of you right here in our church, are

Christians who believe about the second coming, that for before

Jesus Christ can come back, that a temple has to

be built in Jerusalem, and the sacrificial system restarted before

Jesus can come back. But the Bible just said there's

no need for any more sacrifice, so that's irrelevant. There

is no need for the temple to be built because

the sacrifice has already been made. There will never again

be a need for sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem, never.

Never never never never never never never never again. It

doesn't have to happen.

Why because the Bible says Jesus was the sacrifice and

there will never ever again be any need for any

other sacrifice. Now, some of you have felt guilty over

something you've done wrong, and you believe God has forgiven you,

but you haven't really felt God has forgiven you, and

you keep trying to pay off your sin. Maybe if

I go on a piece trip, that'll pay off my sin.

Maybe if I go to church, that'll pay a foe

off my sin. Maybe if I tie, then I can

get rid of this gill. And you're trying to pay

off your sin when it's.

Already been paid for. That's good news. That is good news.

The sacrifice was final, it was complete, and it is finished.

To tell usty, there will never be anything else you

could ever, ever, do to pay for your sins because

it's already all been paid for. No need to try

to keep repaying for your mistakes. I remember one time

reading about a lady who was an elderly woman, and

she went to her insurance company and she walked in

and said, how can we help you, ma'am? She said, well,

my husband died five years ago and I can't afford

to keep paying his insurance life insurance premiums. I just

can't afford to do it anymore. And I said, ma'am,

you don't need to. It's been paid off. It's done,

and now you get to benefit from it. He died,

and because he died, you are now going to benefit

from his death.

You don't have to pay anything anymore. And that's what

Jesus did for you. Now, there's one other use.

Of the word to tell us stye that I didn't mention,

and that it is. It was often used as a

battle cry, and in war when armies would go to

battle and they had won the battle and they had

completely defeated the enemy, the soldiers would shout to tell

us die it's done, We're finished, it's paid in full,

we won.

It's all ours.

And these are the last two meanings of this in

your life.

Number four.

The fourth thing that happened, and when Jesus said it

has finished, was he defeated the fear of death. He

defeated the fear of death. Now this is a universal fear.

Nobody is exempt from it. Everybody has some fear of death.

But Jesus broke that power. And this was a battle cry.

It was a shout of a victorious conqueror when he says,

I have defeated death, and I have proved to you

you don't have to be afraid of it, because I'm

going to come back to life. And if I am

the resurrection, you can be resurrected. And believing in me,

death is not the end, and you don't need to

fear it anymore. Couple verses Romans five seventeen. The sin

of one man Adam caused.

The death to rule over all of us. But all

who received.

God's wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph

over sin and death. Through this one man, Jesus Christ

triumph over sin and death. Look at the next he

Brews Chapter two, fourteen fifteen. Jesus became flesh and blood,

by being born in human form, for only as a

human being could he die. And only by dying could

he break the power of the devil, who had the

power of death. And only in this way, how Jesus

died on the cross, could he deliver those set us free,

deliver those that's you and me, who have lived all

their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. I

don't have to be afraid of death anymore. I'm not

afraid of death. I can honestly say I'm afraid of pain,

but I am not afraid of death, because death is

just a transfer. And I know where I'm going, and

I'm no I'm supposed to be there, not here forever,

and I'm looking forward to being there since more and

more of my friends and parents and relatives are there.

It breaks the fear of death.

He defeats the fear of death when he says it

is finished. By the way, do you know what is

the symbol of this though you don't have to fear death,

it's baptism. Baptism in the Bible, every time you see

the word baptism used, it's used to refer to a

burial and a resurrection. The Bible says by in baptism,

we're buried with Christ, and in baptism were raised with Christ.

Which is why we do it the way they did

it in the Bible. We don't sprinkle water, we don't

pour on water. We do it the way that they

did it with Jesus, because it's a picture of a death,

a burial, and resurrection. Every time the word baptism is

used in the Bible, it refers. In fact, the word

means to put underwater baptizzo. And so just as Jesus

Christ died, was buried in the ground three days and

rose again and broke the power of death. And we

don't have to be afraid of death anymore because we

know you can be resurrected from it. Jesus died, was

buried three days, rose again. That you know, I take you,

or one of our pastors takes you, puts you under

the water, leaves you there three days, raises you.

I'm just seeing if you're listening, raises you up again.

And that is a symbol that I have died to

my old way of life. All my sins are forgiven,

they're washed away, they're forgiven, they're wiped out, and I'm

being raised to live a brand new life and I

don't have to fear death all right.

Number five now.

The fifth one, and I really love this one. I

appreciate it so much. Is that when Jesus Christ died

for us on the Cross, one of the things he

set is free from, that he liberates from he finished

was this. He destroyed Satan's power to control me on

the cross. He destroyed Satan's power to control me, to

control my mind, to control my life, to control my destiny.

Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and

listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know your prayers

and financial support are having a huge impact on millions

of people here and around the world. So thank you,

Thank you so much. And now Rick's going to share

a letter from one of our listeners who says Daily

Hope is making a real difference in their life.

I love letting you hear some of the letters that

we receive every day here at Daily Hope. Here's one

from a woman named Bonnie, says, Dear Pastor Rick, my

husband Tom and I both receive your Daily Hope print

devotional in our email every morning. We take turns each

day reading the daily devotional. They must read it aloud

and it's a great way to start our day along

with our individual daily quiet time. It's been such a

blessing and encouragement to us in each of our daily lives.

And sometimes I am able to turn on the podcast

and we listen to the broadcast as well. Know we've

both been Christians for a long time, but that daily

encouragement for you helps us keep on track and it

helps us make our lives so much richer as we

follow God every day. So thanks and may God continue

to bless you and use you for many more years

to come. Blessings to you Pastor Rick, Bonnie and Tom Hey,

thanks for writing Bonnie. It always blesses me when we

hear that Daily Hope is helping other people grow strong

in the Lord.

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