Sermon

13 July 2025: Jesus' comprehensive Victory over Sin (Justin Evers)

The Way Church Podcast

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  1. Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South

  2. Australia. Morning, guys.

  3. Morning. While you grab your Bibles,

  4. we're going to open up to the Book of Colossians.

  5. We're going to start in the Book of Colossians this morning.

  6. Colossians Chapter 2, how good has the last couple of weeks

    Colossians 2 chapter mention

  7. been? Hey, with Bruce and Meyer a

  8. couple of weekends ago, teaching us around, walking in victory

  9. over sin, teaching us to build our life on the rock.

  10. And we're going to dive into this morning our victory over

  11. sin. Yeah, let's, let's start in the

  12. book of Colossians, chapter 2, and we're going to start in

    Colossians 2 chapter mention

  13. verse 11. It says in him that is Christ in

  14. him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made

  15. without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, by the

  16. circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism,

  17. in which you were also raised with him through faith in the

  18. powerful working of God. I want you, if you haven't

  19. underlined it, you should underline the powerful working

  20. of God. This isn't just an ordinary

  21. working of God. This is a powerful working of

  22. God who raised Jesus from the dead.

  23. This is the exact same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

  24. We think resurrection from the dead is this extraordinary

  25. action. That is the exact same power

  26. that has brought us from a Kingdom of darkness into a

  27. Kingdom of life like this is. This is not just an ordinary

  28. work, an ordinary thing that any human being can do.

  29. This is incredibly powerful, and it's a powerful working of God.

  30. When we are transferred, ripped out of a Kingdom of darkness and

  31. transferred into a Kingdom of light, this is a powerful

  32. working of God, and you, this is verse 13, were dead in your

  33. trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

  34. However, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all

  35. our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood

  36. against us with its legal demands.

  37. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross and verse 15 I find

  38. incredibly powerful. He disarmed the rulers and

  39. authorities. He disarmed, I think Bruce

  40. mentioned that the the devil has been disarmed.

  41. It's very hard to hold weapons when you have no arms.

  42. He disarmed the rulers and authorities, but more than that,

  43. he put them to open shame. By triumphing over them in him,

  44. He put them to open shame. As I said this morning, we're

  45. going to talk about Christ's victory, and we need to remember

  46. that this isn't like to like an equal fight we have.

  47. We have to remember that this isn't an equal fight, right?

  48. I was thinking about this, and I'm sure many of us were

  49. probably familiar with names like Novak Djokovic and Roger

  50. Federer. Rafael Nadal, the top three

  51. tennis players in the world retired now, but they were

  52. champions. Like, we're not talking about a

  53. champion tennis game like Nadal versus Federer.

  54. We're not talking about two equal opponents playing against

  55. each other, right? We're talking about one of these

  56. champions taking on my son Xavier in a tennis match.

  57. We're talking about one of the most comprehensive, overwhelming

  58. victories of all time. We're not talking about an equal

  59. fight here. And I think we, we need to

  60. remember sometimes in our life that when we're talking about

  61. wrestling, you know, the flesh and the spirit, that we're kind

  62. of going, man, it's, it's a struggle.

  63. It's a real struggle. It's not a struggle because

  64. Jesus has an overwhelming victory.

  65. He has an overwhelming victory over sin.

  66. This is one of the most comprehensive victories of all

  67. time that Jesus put them to open shame.

  68. Open shame. Not only did he take all the

  69. weapons away, but he also put them to open shame by triumphing

  70. over them in Christ. Doesn't that fool you with such

  71. confidence, such celebration, such joy, such peace?

  72. Like man, sin in my life doesn't stand a chance when the Spirit

  73. of God is alive in me. Sin in my life does not stand a

  74. chance when the Spirit of God is alive in me.

  75. And so this morning I want to look at 4 areas that Jesus has

  76. conquered sin, 4 areas that Jesus has provided victory for

  77. sin. And we're going to look through

  78. 4 chapters of the book of Romans this morning.

  79. So if you flick over Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5, and

    Romans 5 chapter mention Romans 5 chapter mention

  80. it says this in verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into

  81. the world through one man and death through sin, and so death

  82. spread to all men because all sinned, all sinned.

  83. Verse 14, we skip down. It says, yet death reigned.

  84. We know from the Scriptures, it teaches that the penalty of sin

  85. is death. And the first thing that Jesus

  86. has comprehensive victory over is the penalty of sin.

  87. Jesus has victory over the penalty of sin.

  88. Now I'm sure we all believe like you put your faith in Jesus, you

  89. have eternal life, right? But we are death and life equal

  90. opposites here. Like death does not stand a

  91. chance when Jesus comes. Any effect of death does not

  92. stand a chance because Jesus has a comprehensive victory over the

  93. penalty of sin. Where in Genesis chapter 2 and

    Genesis 2 chapter mention

  94. 3, when God comes and he says don't eat of the tree, for on

  95. that day you will surely die. And that was that was a command.

  96. If you break the law of God, if you sin against God, the penalty

  97. is death. And yet Jesus comes.

  98. And yet Jesus comes in verse 17. For if because of one man's

  99. trespass, Speaking of Adam, death reigned through that one

  100. man, how much more will those who receive the abundance of

  101. grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life

  102. through the one man, Jesus Christ?

  103. How much more this is not like we've just got a death is equal

  104. to life and like I've just been transferred from one Kingdom.

  105. No, no, no, I've been transferred from a Kingdom that

  106. was so down here to a Kingdom that is now so far the life.

  107. Jesus says in John chapter 10, he says the thief comes to

    John 10 chapter mention

  108. steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they may

  109. have life and life more abundantly.

  110. Like it's not just that they might have life and death, but

  111. I've come that they might have an even more abundant life.

  112. Jesus has victory over the penalty of sin.

  113. The second thing that Jesus has victory over, we see in Romans

    Romans 6 chapter mention

  114. chapter 6 is that Jesus has victory over the power of sin,

  115. the power of sin. Verse 6, it says this, we know

  116. speaking to believers, we know that our old self was crucified

  117. with him, with Jesus in order that the body of sin might be

  118. brought to nothing, might be brought to nothing.

  119. I'm sorry, how much it's not something that it might be

  120. brought to a little bit, that this body of sin would be

  121. brought to nothing. Like it's not even like Xavier's

  122. taking on a champion anymore. This is like he's not even

  123. showing up on the court. Like he's being brought to

  124. nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

  125. See, when we transfer, when we put our faith in Jesus, right,

  126. the victory is over the power of sin.

  127. Jesus changed our master. We were enslaved to sin.

  128. Sin is a terrible master because you end up doing the thing you

  129. don't want to do. Why?

  130. Because sin, like you just can't help.

  131. But why? Because you're enslaved and

  132. chained to sin. But you know, now we're slaves

  133. to righteousness, and righteousness is a way better

  134. master than sin. And it's so much more glorious.

  135. It's so much more wonderful to be a slave to righteousness.

  136. My master has changed under this place over here where I'm a

  137. slave to sin. I don't have a choice.

  138. I'm linked to sin. I do what sin says.

  139. But over here now, I'm slave to righteousness.

  140. I do what righteousness says. So we're over here.

  141. This is a terrible master, but this master has no authority

  142. when I'm a slave to righteousness because I have

  143. been freed from the power of sin, sin no longer has power

  144. over me. Why?

  145. Because I am now under the rulership of righteousness.

  146. If the Bible goes on in Romans chapter 6, it says that we are

    Romans 6 chapter mention

  147. now slaves to God. We are now slaves to God.

  148. Verse Romans 6. Verse 20 says, For when you are

  149. slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, but

  150. what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of

  151. which you are now ashamed? It's kind of going, whoa, you're

  152. a slave to sin, but what is that going to do for you when you're

  153. chained to sin? What's that going to do?

  154. That's going to bear nothing good.

  155. It can never bear anything good, for the end of those things is

  156. death. But now, but now that you have

  157. been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit

  158. you get leads to sanctification and it's end is eternal life.

  159. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is

  160. eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  161. There is a way better fruit when you're a slave to righteousness.

  162. And we need to understand here that we have been set free from

  163. the power of sin. Sin is no longer my master.

  164. When I put my faith in Jesus, I am now a slave to righteousness.

  165. So Jesus has set us free from the penalty of sin.

  166. He has set us free from the power of sin.

  167. And the third thing, he set us free from the presence of sin.

  168. So this is in Romans 7, Paul kind of poses this

  169. hypothetically. He speaks to Jews who have the

  170. law and he's kind of addressing them.

  171. Some scholars talk whether this is somebody saved, unsaved.

  172. The point that he kind of gets at, he says in Romans 7, it's

  173. that, you know, I do what I don't want to do, and I don't do

  174. what I do want to do. That kind of peace, right?

  175. In essence, what Paul is trying to portray here is going, even

  176. if I could do everything good, even if my master was not sin

  177. and I was, I was pursuing righteousness.

  178. It's going even if that were the case and I could live a holy

  179. life, you still have a problem. And that is the fact that the

  180. sin is in you, sin is in you. See if I can find it, it says

  181. here in verse 17. So now it is no longer I who do

  182. it, but the sin that dwells within me who's kind of going,

  183. even if I could do everything right, sin is right there.

  184. Sin is sin is with me. I can't shake this thing that's

  185. inside of me, this sinful nature, this flesh nature.

  186. I can't deal with it. He's he's pretty much comes to

  187. the end of it and kind of going, even if I could do everything

  188. right, even if I could live in victory over the power of sin, I

  189. cannot deal with the presence of sin, which means I still can't

  190. make it to that Kingdom. I still can't make it into the

  191. Kingdom of God. Even if I could do everything

  192. right by the law, by God's standard, and I could live a

  193. perfectly holy life, I still cannot deal with the presence of

  194. sin. And we so see this in verse 24

  195. of Chapter 7, Romans 724. Wretched man that I am, who will

  196. deliver me from this body of death is going to sin is within

  197. me who is going to deliver me no matter how hard I try to live in

  198. victory over sin, I cannot deal with the presence of sin.

  199. Verse 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

  200. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

  201. See, Jesus does not just have victory over the penalty of sin.

  202. He doesn't just have victory over the power of sin, but he

  203. also has victory over the presence of sin in my life.

  204. We spoke, we read out a Corinthians, Colossians earlier

  205. about circumcision, about this thing being taken out.

  206. Romans, Romans earlier says that we have a circumcision of the

  207. heart. This thing has been cut out.

  208. Like it's not like there's anything left.

  209. It has been completely removed from us and now the Spirit of

  210. God lives inside of us. The sinful nature has been

  211. completely removed. It's not like there's a little

  212. bit that like they had a bit of an operation and that

  213. something's still left. It's gone completely right.

  214. There is no resemblance of this sinful nature at all because

  215. Jesus has a comprehensive victory over the presence of sin

  216. in your life. When you put your faith in

  217. Jesus, that thing is cut out. Like this is this is the

  218. powerful working of God that we read out of Colossians like this

  219. is the powerful working of God. This sinful nature that I cannot

  220. do anything about because I'm born sinful.

  221. The minute I put my faith in Jesus, that thing is cut out.

  222. It is removed and now instead of having a sinful nature, I now

  223. have a brand new nature in Christ.

  224. Do we understand that like this is, this is this is remarkable

  225. because we often think there's this struggle, there's this

  226. struggle of flesh and spirit, like two things warring inside

  227. of me. It's not really much of A battle

  228. because the sinful nature is dead and it's been removed.

  229. And I am free from not just the penalty of sin, not just the

  230. power of sin, but I am free from the presence of sin.

  231. Yeah, that's that's that's wild because we we know we still do

  232. sinful acts, but we need to understand our identity here,

  233. that we are completely brand new creations in Christ.

  234. When Paul writes, he says this, if any man be in Christ, he is a

  235. new creation. The old has gone.

  236. He is made new. The old is where the old is

  237. gone. He is completely new.

  238. And it's not just like an upgraded version.

  239. This, this word new that they talk about.

  240. It's not like upgrading from an iPhone 14 to an iPhone 16 or

  241. whatever, right? This is like going from an old

  242. Nokia brick phone to a brand new iPhone.

  243. Completely different leagues, completely different fields.

  244. That is the difference of the sinful nature to the spirit

  245. nature. That is the difference when you

  246. put your faith in Jesus. I know that we don't often feel

  247. like that, but that is our reality.

  248. When we put our faith in Jesus, we have been upgraded from a

  249. dodgy old Nokia brick phone to a brand new smartphone.

  250. That is the transfer. This is the comprehensive,

  251. powerful working of God in our life when we put our faith and

  252. our trust in Jesus. So Jesus freed us from the

  253. penalty of sin, transferred from a Kingdom of death to a Kingdom

  254. of eternal, abundant, everlasting life.

  255. He's transferred us from the power of sin, a terrible master,

  256. a terrible master that bears terrible fruit, bad fruit, to a

  257. wonderful master who bears fruit to righteousness that bears

  258. fruit in serving God, that has its mind set on the things of

  259. God. Jesus has also delivered us from

  260. the presence of sin, this sinful nature that is inside of us,

  261. that is terrible. It's born under death and we

  262. have been transferred. We now have a brand new identity

  263. in God, a new creation, an upgraded smartphone.

  264. The Spirit of God lives inside of us with a completely new

  265. spirit nature untainted by sin, the powerful working of God.

  266. Fourth thing that Jesus has victory over is the pursuit of

  267. sin. In Romans chapter 8, Romans

    Romans 8 chapter mention Romans 8 chapter mention

  268. chapter 8, it says we're going to read from verse 2 for the law

  269. of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life has set you

  270. free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death, and we all

  271. said Amen. The law of the spirit of life

  272. has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

  273. That's a comprehensive, that's a that's a full stop on the end

  274. there. Like that's not a comma.

  275. That's not a ellipsis. There's some more to go.

  276. Now that's a comprehensive statement that Paul is writing.

  277. This is it. You have been set free.

  278. Verse 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh,

  279. could not do by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful

  280. flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in

  281. order that the righteous requirement of the law might be

  282. fulfilled in US who walk not according to the flesh, but

  283. according to the Spirit. For those who live according to

  284. the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

  285. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on

  286. the things of the Spirit. But to set the mind on the flesh

  287. is death. But to set the mind on the

  288. Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the

  289. flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

  290. Indeed it cannot. And those who are in the flesh

  291. cannot please God. Now, at first glance, when you

  292. read this, you might kind of say, well, man, this sounds like

  293. a bit of a wrestle of the pursuit of sin.

  294. Like man, sin wants one thing. The Spirit wants one thing.

  295. And I'm trying to live this this like, what am I going to choose

  296. kind of moment. But then we read verse 9.

  297. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

  298. If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, You, however, are

  299. not in the flesh. Now I want to read verse two to

  300. seven a bit now in a bit of a different frame.

  301. Ah, verse 5 actually. For those who live according to

  302. the flesh, set their minds. Remember, we're not in the

  303. flesh. For those who live according to

  304. the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh.

  305. The pursuit of sin is to set its mind on the thing that think sin

  306. desires. The pursuit of sin is that it

  307. just looks to the things that sin desires, right?

  308. Those who walk in the flesh according to the flesh have

  309. their mind set on the things of the flesh.

  310. But those who live, who have passed from death to life, those

  311. who are now free from the penalty of sin, from the power

  312. of sin, from the presence of sin, those who have transferred

  313. their Kingdom, their rulership, their mastership, those who have

  314. received the Spirit of God instead of the sinful nature,

  315. those who are now in the Kingdom of light now have their minds

  316. set on the things of the Spirit. Those who live here have their

  317. mind, their tendency, their default setting, if you like, is

  318. now to do the things of God, not the things of the Spirit.

  319. Like this. This can be quite remarkable

  320. when we begin to think about it, that as Christians, our default

  321. choice is no longer to do the things of the flesh.

  322. And now I know that we have a journey in that.

  323. And that's that process of sanctification where we're

  324. becoming more and more like Christ, but our default setting

  325. of our brand new identity, the victory that Jesus has is he has

  326. freed us from the pursuit of sin.

  327. I don't know if you noticed, but when now that you're saved, when

  328. you start looking at sin, you see sin differently.

  329. You see the desires of sin differently.

  330. Like it's like this conscience comes up and says, well, that's

  331. sinful. Why?

  332. Because Jesus freed you from the pursuit of sin under this

  333. Kingdom, you kind of go, I don't care, it's my life.

  334. I do what I want because it's the pursuit of sin.

  335. It's desirable. I do it in this Kingdom.

  336. When I see sin, I kind of go, I don't want anything to do with

  337. that. Because I've been freed from the

  338. pursuit of sin, I no longer desire sin.

  339. I no longer desire to do what is contrary to God's Kingdom.

  340. I now desire to do what is in line with His Kingdom.

  341. What's better is fruit for God, what pleases God.

  342. That is now where I sit and where I stand.

  343. For you are not in the Kingdom of the flesh, and those who are

  344. in the flesh desire the things of the flesh.

  345. Those who are in the Spirit now desire the things of the Spirit.

  346. Galatians 5 tells us now if you walk by the Spirit, keep in step

  347. with the Spirit and you will not desire the things of the flesh,

  348. because obviously our question here is kind of going, but

  349. sometimes I still desire the things of the flesh.

  350. That's true. Sometimes I still desire the

  351. things of the flesh. I choose the things of the flesh

  352. instead of choosing the things of the spirit.

  353. But Paul's encouragement to us in Galatians, I say, walk by the

  354. Spirit and you will not not, you may not.

  355. You might on occasion. No, no, no, you will not gratify

  356. the desires of the flesh. When I gratify the desires of

  357. the flesh, it's when I decide to step out of that Kingdom.

  358. But he says, walk by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit,

  359. keep in step with who you are in Christ, and you will not gratify

  360. the desires of the flesh. Why?

  361. Because Jesus freed me from the pursuit of sin.

  362. Jesus freed me from the pursuit of sin.

  363. As I said, this is one of the most comprehensive victories of

  364. all time. I think again, in our minds we

  365. have this idea that maybe there's this still, this bit of

  366. back and fro, back and fro kind of stuff going on where we've

  367. got 2 equal champions taking on each other.

  368. But I want to remind us this morning, this is not an equal

  369. fight. This is the most comprehensive

  370. victory of all time. Jesus conquered sin once and for

  371. all. It's not like sin is kind of

  372. come back up and be like, ha, like you lost that battle.

  373. I'm here for another one. Sin is done.

  374. Sin is done. It is done once for all.

  375. Dave read it out during communion earlier.

  376. Once for all done. Sin has been brought to nothing.

  377. The penalty of sin done. The power of sin over my life

  378. done. The presence of sin in my life

  379. gone and the pursuit of sin done.

  380. This is one of the most comprehensive victories of all

  381. time. And this is the remarkable thing

  382. when we turn over to the book of Corinthians, pretty sure it's in

  383. Corinthians chapter 15, verse 57.

  384. But thanks be to God who gives us, who gives us the victory

  385. through our Lord Jesus Christ. See, sometimes we can also say,

  386. well, that's great, Jesus has the victory.

  387. Jesus has the victory over sin and we kind of go, but I still

  388. struggle with sin. Thanks be to God who gives us

  389. the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  390. I want to leave with us this thought that when we put our

  391. faith in Jesus, not only does Jesus deal with all of those

  392. things, not only does he free us from the penalty of sin, the

  393. power, the presence, and the pursuit of sin, but then he

  394. gives us that victory to enforce.

  395. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  396. When we put our faith in him, we stand in the victorious place.

  397. When sin comes knocking, I exercise my victory and says,

  398. fine, you're defeated. Sin.

  399. When the devil comes and starts shoving sin in my face, I'm

  400. like, that's fine, you've been defeated.

  401. When sin kind of stirs on the outside and I start looking, I'm

  402. like this, this desire is defeated.

  403. This thing is defeated. Why?

  404. Because I now stand in the comprehensive victory of Jesus.

  405. His victory has become my victory over sin.

  406. And so when I talk about this battle or when we talk about

  407. this battle of the sin and the flesh, and it's kind of

  408. backwards and forwards and I'm not sure what to choose, I just

  409. want you to remember you have a comprehensive victory over sin.

  410. We stand in a victorious place because we now, because of Jesus

  411. putting our faith in Jesus, we now have victory over the

  412. penalty of sin. Penalty is death dominion when

  413. we're talking about praying for sickness.

  414. We have victory over the penalty of sin.

  415. We have victory over the power of sin, over the presence of

  416. sin, and over the pursuit of sin.

  417. We now stand in that victory through faith in Jesus Christ.

  418. His victory has become our victory.

  419. Amen. Thank you for joining us for

  420. today's message. For more information about The

  421. Way Church, please visit [email protected] dot

  422. AU. Have a blessed day.