Boasting in Our Deliverance from Condemnation

Father, we, we're here today because we are hungry and we need to be fed. We are no better than the world around us. If left to ourselves, Lord, we are exceedingly dangerous, a danger to ourselves and a danger to others. But by your grace, you're teaching us and you're growing us.

Our sins have been forgiven. Those of us that have believed in Christ and, and we're growing in love for you. We thank you for your word that teaches us and instructs us and sometimes rebukes us and shatters us. And yet Without some of the hard things that your word says to us, we would be utterly incomprehensible to ourselves.

And to each other. And yet this book that speaks things to us that maybe we don't want to hear speaks on the other side of that, such wonderful, rich, good news that we can embrace ourselves and be strengthened by, and that we can speak to others to give this message to a lost and a dying world full of people who are just like us who need to hear this message. I pray if there's any here in this room, Lord, who have never given up trying to save themselves, that you would overwhelm them with an awareness that they were created by you.

You brought them into existence because you could not imagine your world without them in it.

And that they have a purpose to fulfill and they have fallen short of that glorious purpose because of their sin. But there's something that can be done about that. You've provided a way for their sins to be forgiven so that they might. be saved and, and be able to fulfill your loving purposes for their life.

And use your word and anything that is said. In the coming moments, Lord, to bring them closer to a saving, transforming knowledge of you. bless us all, Lord. Our hearts are wide open to all that you would have to say to us in Jesus' name.

All God's people said, Amen. Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 for our time of study and the word this morning, we're doing a verse by verse study. Through Romans 567 and 8, a journey to the heart of the gospel.

And as we continue in this journey, we come this morning to Romans 8:33. And my goal today is to cover verses 33 and 34, and the title of the message is boasting, boasting in our Deliverance from condemnation. boasting in our deliverance from condemnation. many times in our lives, we as believers, we, we struggle with doubt and a lack of assurance.

and then sometimes we are believing it and we're walking in assurance and confidence. What we find modeled in our passage this morning is someone who has blown by just assurance. And is, what we see in verses 33 and 34 is a gospel-induced bravado. where Paul is beyond ass assured of his salvation, and is defying any, with any accusation or condemnation to step forward and to bring it on.

And he's utterly confident in what the outcome of that would be, because of the salvation that he's experienced in, in Christ. the truth is when we think about our deliverance from condemnation as believers, we need to think of it both objectively and subjectively. Objectively, everyone who believes in Christ for salvation. And they're reborn.

they, they repent of their sins, and they, they, they believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. At the moment of their conversion, God saves them. And one of the things he does in saving them is he delivers them from condemnation to where from that moment on, it can be said of them in Romans 8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation. To those who are in Christ Jesus.

In other words, there's not a single condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's a fact. If someone came to God and listed off every sin that you've committed throughout your life, after every sin is named, God would say not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, utterly. Uncondemned.

There's not a single condemnation, not a shred of condemnation that comes from God, to those who are believers in Jesus. That is the objective fact. And yet, subjectively speaking, many of us would confess in this room that though we are objectively delivered from God's condemnation, we are not quite delivered from the subjective experience of condemnation. We're not quite delivered from the apprehensions and the forebodings and the doubts.

And the uncertainties regarding the possibility of condemnation from God. And I think from God's perspective, God delivers us objectively from his condemnation at the moment of conversion. And then he spends the rest of our pilgrimage on earth persuading us of that fact. That it is indeed true.

This is almost too good to be true. And so he gives us the Spirit and His word to help us to believe in the reality of our deliverance from condemnation. Now, why is it so hard though to believe? We all know that when we're in a condemned place, and experiencing condemnation as believers, we know we're worthless, right?

We have no grace to give to anyone else. We don't feel like serving or reaching out to anybody. And we're irritable, short fused. Anyone who wrongs us, boy, they're going to pay for it.

Because if we're laboring under condemnation, we have no grace to give to anyone else. so, this is very practical. We, we know that it's a fact, but we want to be delivered from it. But why is it often such a battle?

one of the reasons is because the moment we place our faith in Christ, God stops accusing us. And he releases us from his condemnation. And that's really all that matters. But at that point, the devil begins accusing.

Using us. And if you're going to walk with Jesus, you're going to be experiencing accusation from him on a daily basis. In Revelation 12:10, we learned that the devil is an accuser of the brethren. He, he goes before God and he accuses us before him, just like the devil accused Job before God and said, Well, the only reason Job loves you, God, is because you give him everything he wants.

You take that away, and you let me touch his body, then he'll stop loving and worshiping you. What's he doing there? He's accusing Job before God. The devil does that.

And he also accuses us to our own conscience, and tries to shame us away from daring to believe that God would love us, and forgive us of our sins and want a relationship with us. And the devil, if he succeeds, he can get us on many days. To begin to think that God's in the process of changing his mind about us. Maybe he loved me yesterday, but he's having some second thoughts today.

Also, sometimes we experience condemnation as a result of the way that others go about relating to us, maybe rebuking or confronting us over sin in our life, and they do it without grace, and they come to us with anger and with condemnation. And and they're, giving example after example after example to make their case. And when we think they're done, they've got 5 more examples, and they just surround us. With these examples of our failure, and there's no gospel grace at all.

And sometimes when we're on the receiving end of that angry confrontation, it takes us beyond the place of biblical conviction over sin into what Dave Harvey describes as the septic infection of condemnation. There's a third source of accusation that sometimes can take us to a place of condemnation, and that is our own hearts, our own conscience, our own thoughts. John in 1 John 3:20 says, if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. And so he gives a solution, but I'm just struck by the fact that John includes himself in this and makes a very telling admission.

He's acknowledging the fact that in the lives of believers, including his own life, there are times where our own heart condemns us for whatever reason, maybe. Some past sin that is haunting us or come back to our attention, maybe present failure, maybe we've not even sinned, but we're battling and struggling so hard and our heart begins to condemn us over the fact that we have to struggle so hard against a particular sin, and we ought to be ashamed that we even have to struggle with such a sin.

And so when we try to walk with Jesus, we know we read in the Bible that we're uncondemned, and we rejoice in that, and then we embark on this journey with Christ. And here come all these accusations from Satan and sometimes from other people and, and from within, from within our own hearts.

And sometimes it's easy to mistake these accusations and condemnations as coming from God rather than these sources. Our passage today helps us immensely. Because in verse 33 and verse 34, Paul asked two questions. Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

Who's going to bring a charge against God's elect? And who is the one who condemns? As you read these questions that Paul is asking, what you ought to do is to imagine a courtroom scene, because that's the setting for these two verses. And imagine God the judge who's at the bench, and he has just declared Paul and all of us who have believed in Jesus to be justified.

And our attorney who has been representing us in this case is, his name is Jesus. And he's done a great job. He died for us. He was raised for us.

He's at the right hand of God. We see that in the courtroom, as it were, and he intercedes for us, and he has done and will continue to do eternally, a phenomenal job at representing us. And we're on the receiving end of this freedom from condemnation, this justification, this forgiveness, and this grace. And then imagine turning and facing the courtroom as I'm facing you right now.

And there are hundreds of thousands of people in this courtroom, where we've all been on trial. And we look out over a sea of faces, and it's all the people we've known throughout our life. The people we knew before we came to faith in Jesus Christ, who knew the mess we were, they saw the sins we committed, they were on the receiving end. Of those sins.

They've been hurt by us. They've been wounded by the decisions that we have made. They are the recipients of the damage that we have caused by the sinful choices that we have made in our life before Christ. Think of Paul.

He would look out over this courtroom and, and he would look in the faces of widows and orphans in the church of Jesus Christ who are widows and orphans precisely because of choices that Paul made before Christ saved him. And confronted him on the road to Damascus. Paul ravaged the church like a wild beast would ravage its prey. Paul was a blasphemer and a violent aggressor, and he caused others to blaspheme Jesus Christ.

And so Paul had a lot to be ashamed of, and he would look out over many faces of people who, who were with him and hung out with him, and they saw the choices he made, and many who were wounded by the sins he committed. And the simple choices he made. And then there would be people out in the courtroom, who have known Paul since he believed in Jesus. And when those people read Paul in Romans 7 saying the good I want to do, I don't do and the evil I hate, I do, they would say, I didn't even need for him to admit that.

I already knew that. I know this guy. I know him since he believed in Jesus, and there are many times I've seen him not do the good that he should have done, and I've seen him do the evil that he should not have done. In fact, I remember those occasions because I've been hurt by such failures on Paul's part.

So imagine looking out into the courtroom at such people who are from your past and from your present, and they know you well. And then imagine in that audience is also Satan and all of his demonic beings who are just so anxious to step forward and to condemn and accuse based on their knowledge of us. And Paul, representing all of us, looks out over this courtroom. And he says, Who's going to bring a charge against God's elect?

Bring it on. Who is he in this room who will step forward and condemn us before God? Bring it on. That's basically what's happening in this passage.

Paul is not saying we all have a spotless record, right? But what he's saying is that there is no one in this courtroom, no one in this courtroom who could ever step forward and bring a legitimate charge against us that has not already been covered by Christ's atoning work and by God's saving verdict upon our lives. It's all covered. No one will ever Come up and bring something up by way of condemnation or accusation that would surprise God.

It's all been addressed. It has all been forgiven. No one can accuse us before God, or condemn us before God that will in any way change his mind about us. Or cause him to condemn us.

The way we're going to frame things this morning is in this way. 5 responses that we observed to these two questions. Who is he who accuses us before God and who is he who condemns? 5 responses to that we can Deliver to anyone, including our own hearts, who would ever accuse us or condemn us before God.

In your moments where you find yourself going to a place of condemnation, 5 places you ought to go, 5 responses that we see Paul modeling here. Response number 1 is this, and guys, learn from this and learn to put these very words on your tongue, and not only think them, but speak them. Anyone want to condemn or accuse me before God? Paul says it's God who justifies.

It is God who justifies us, who will bring a charge against God's elect. God is the one who justifies. We've looked at the word justify. And this theological reality in the lives of believers, a handful of times going through this section of Romans, basically, when God justifies us at the moment we come to Jesus by faith, God in that moment is deciding to think of our sins as forgiven.

And he decides to think of Christ's righteousness as belonging to us. He credits that to our account. And God then declares us to be righteous in His sight. God then decides that I will forever be governed by this decision that I am making regarding you.

I will always look at you through the lens of this decision that I am making about you today. The location where justification occurs is in the mind of God, and it goes to the issue of how God chooses to think about us. And Paul is looking out over this courtroom, and he's like, anyone want to accuse me before God, or condemn me before God? My response to anything you might have to say is, it is God who justifies me.

I love this attitude and this perspective. Paul is in a way saying, I don't, I don't need your high opinion in order to be justified. I don't bank my status, or how I see myself based on how any of you look at me, or even how I might look at myself. Think about this in 1 Corinthians 4:3 and 4.

Paul's speaking to the Corinthians, and he says, I know you guys are judging me. I hear some of the stuff that you guys are saying about me. Some of you are questioning whether I'm a true apostle. of Jesus Christ.

So all this stuff gets to me 2nd and 3rd hand. But look at his response. He says to me, it is a very small thing that I may be judged by you or by any human. Let me tell you where you rank in terms of your judgment of me.

It's not only a small thing, it's a very small thing for me to be judged by you or by any human being. In fact, I'm not necessarily putting you guys down. In fact, I don't even judge myself. For right now, I'm not conscious of anything against myself.

Yet I am not by this justified. The one who judges me is the Lord. Paul is saying, I don't, in terms of my status before God, it's not dependent upon what you guys think of me. Whether you like me or think highly of me.

It's not even dependent upon what I think of myself. I don't justify myself. And if you come with your accusations, I'm not going to try to justify myself. God is the one who justifies me.

I'm not going to bring other witnesses and people who know me and have them testify on my behalf to show you that I'm really a good guy. No, no one else justifies me. And I don't justify myself. God is the one who justifies me.

And I'm content with that. Many times religious people really bank a lot on what other people think of them. They're seeking justification. And they would never voice it this way, but they're trying to justify themselves before God by rounding up as many people as they can who are impressed with them.

And think highly of them, the Pharisees and religious leaders in Israel. It's exactly what they did. They did their works to be seen by men, and as long as other people respected them and spoke highly of them, somehow they just took that to mean I must be OK. With God And they justified themselves.

There are people at the judgment who are going to say, Hey, Jesus, it's great to see you. Did, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out many demons? And did we not do many miracles?

We, we, we. Look at all the stuff that we did. And Jesus is going to say, I never had a relationship with you. Get out of my face.

You are workers of iniquity. This is how you tell the difference between a true believer and a false believer. A false believer justifies himself. And brags about the things that he has done.

And hopes that what he has done will give him standing with God. A true believer says, bring on whatever accusations you might have to bring. God is the one who justifies me. I'm not even going to try to justify myself.

I do not want to be found before God in my own righteousness. God is the one who justifies me. You got accusations to bring to me, step forward and bring them. And I'll listen to them.

And so someone steps forward. They're bringing accusations against Paul and Paul's like, what, that's a good accusation. I agree with that. You nailed that.

Yeah, that's, you're right. You're right. That's a correct accusation. That's a correct observation.

I agree. I agree. I agree. And then when they're done, he'd say, Let me help you with this.

I'm even worse than what. But God is the one who justifies me. He is my justifier. Instead of looking inward and turning upon yourself to justify yourself, turn your eyes away from you to God, who is the one who justifies you.

If you're here this morning and you're trying to live a pretty good life so that your good works will outweigh the bad, you're trying to justify yourself before God. And you're hoping God will look at you at the judgment and be impressed with what you have done. And if he is impressed with what you have done, essentially, you have been your own savior. God says, I only justify those who give up trying to justify themselves, and they see their bankruptcy, and they let me be.

Their justifier There's a second response that we see here, A response to anyone, including our own selves, who would ever accuse us or condemn us before God. And that is, it is Christ who died. It is Christ who died. And when he died, he died for us.

Who is the one who condemns? Paul says, Christ Jesus is he who died. And he said much about the death of Christ up to this point, Romans 5, when we were, helpless, Christ died for us when we were ungodly. He died for us.

When we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus didn't die for the righteous. He died for sinful, ungodly, helpless sinners. And Paul says Jesus died.

For us. You got an accusation or condemnation. Here's my response, God is the one who justifies us and Christ, the one who's seated at his right hand, he died for us. This is so profound that Paul would include this here.

And this takes us back to what Mike was saying a little bit earlier in the service that when you think about it, someone who's a true believer in Christ, they have experienced profound accusation. That would blow any accusation from any human being away. All accusations anyone else might bring to me pale in comparison to the profound experience of divine accusation that I experienced at the cross. At the cross.

We observed that Christ was pierced from the sharpness of our transgressions and crushed under the weight of our sin. One of the ways of looking at the cross is that Christ was slain through the instrumentality of our sins. There's more ways to look at it than that, but that's one of the biblical ways, which means That all of us are violators of the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. At the foot of the cross, we all show up as murderers, murderers of the Son of God, and Martin Luther says, don't you dare try to deny it.

You got the nails in your pockets. And we then turn from the cross and we look at our sin and suddenly all of our sin, the big and the small, is revealed for what it really is and it's very essence, the DNA of our sin is the murder of God, the heart, murder of God. At the cross, as we sang about this morning, we experienced the The eyes of God upon us, and we are utterly exposed for the sinners that we are. We are profoundly accused, and yet here's the amazing thing.

At the moment that we experience that accusation and that full exposure, and we're shattered by it, at that very same moment, at that very same spot at the foot of the cross, God exposes his heart towards us. And we see His love and His grace, and his willingness to forgive. At the cross we show up to be far worse than we ever imagined. And we're also far more loved than we ever dreamed we could ever be.

We're fully known and fully loved. Rebecca Manly Pippert in her book, Hope Has Its Reasons explains it this way. At the foot of the cross, she says, we finally see the very thing we dreaded to discover. At last, we find out who we are.

The cross brings us out of hiding. It breaks our denial, but only in the very instant that it shows us the possibility of forgiveness. At that same moment, That we are exposed for the sinners that we are at that same moment. God forgives us as we believe in Christ.

Paul is essentially saying to any who would accuse him. He's saying, what, what possible accusation could you ever level against me that would in any way compare to the accusation I've already experienced? Accusations that are absolutely true and the degree to which I was exposed at the cross. And that I have already been forgiven for.

It's only someone who's gone through that gauntlet of experience at the cross who can stand in front of such a massive courtroom and say, whatever accusations or condemnations you think you might have, that you want to accuse me of or condemn me for before God, step forward and bring it. I've already been accused and found guilty and forgiven, and God is the one who justifies. There's a third response of Paul to any, including himself, who would try to accuse. Any of God's elect, and that is, it is Christ who was raised from the dead after dying for us.

It is Christ who was raised from the dead after dying for us, who is the one who condemns Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather, who was raised. Paul, in his thinking, goes to the death of Christ, and he then in his mind goes to the resurrection of Christ, and he found great comfort in the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. That historical event gave Paul an incredible composure and a willingness to field whatever accusations or condemnations might be brought against him before God.

He knew how that would turn out.

Because Christ had been raised from the dead. You realize that if Christ died, the death that he died and was not raised, his death would not have had any power to save us. You realize that? And do you realize the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead is proof positive that his death was sufficient to atone for all of our sins?

Think of it this way. That when Christ died for your sins, God looked at Christ and he looked at his death. He then looked at you and all of the hundreds of thousands of sins that you've committed throughout your life, seeing the full evil of all of them, of each of them. And God then said, this death by my son is sufficient to atone for every single sin that you have committed.

how I know that's true? Because God raised him from the dead. If God looked at Christ and His death and then looked at all your sin and said, what, this death is sufficient to atone for all of your sins except this one over here. If God had said that Christ would still be in the tomb.

So think of it this way, the resurrection of Christ is your receipt. That validates the purchase of Christ for your justification and your forgiveness of all of your sins. We already know from Romans 5 that we've been justified through His blood, through His bloody death on the cross. But in Romans 4:25, we also learned that Christ was raised for our justification.

What does that mean? He wasn't purchasing our justification through His resurrection. That's the receipt. He purchased it through his death, and his resurrection is the receipt that validates the legitimacy of his atoning death for us.

And Paul would say, Take this receipt, take it with you wherever you go, put it in your wallet. Put it in your pocket and pull that receipt out at any point that you need to look at it to make sure that Christ's death is sufficient to atone for every sin that you ever have or will commit throughout your life. Speaking of receipts, you guys probably remember earlier in the month, Peyton Manning, who was, is the former quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. he was in North Carolina.

Earlier this month and he ate at a pretty fancy restaurant and the total bill was somewhere in the $600 range, so I hope he was eating with someone else, but he inside the amount that he was charged already was an 18% gratuity which brought the amount to close to $740. Peyton Manning wrote an additional $200 as a tip for his waiter. bringing his total tip to around 50% of the original amount, not 15%, but close to 50%. Well, the server was so pumped to get such a massive tip from one such as Peyton Manning that he, he kept the receipt.

He photographed the receipt, and he posted it online for the whole world to see. Which was really a bad idea because you could read the last four digits of Peyton Manning's credit card number. and so he got fired. He lost his job over that.

So that's actually a bad thing to do. By the way, here's the copy of the receipt. but But I think we can appreciate his enthusiasm here. And we can doubly appreciate the fact that God essentially says to us, you've got the receipt.

I'm giving you the receipt. That's the resurrection of my Son from the dead. Take that with you wherever you go. Take a picture of it, post it wherever you want.

This is the receipt that validates the integrity of the death of Christ, and the fact that it is sufficient to atone for any of your sins. Guys, we should never doubt that Christ's death provides atonement for any of our sins, because God raised Jesus from the dead. There's a 4th response. Paul was so encouraged and made so confident by the fact that God's the one who justifies me.

My justification is not dependent upon me or my performance, or what I think of myself or what anyone else thinks of me. God is the one who justifies Christ, who represents me. He's a great attorney. He died for me.

He died and took The condemnation that I deserve for all of my sins. And he was buried in the tomb, and then on the 3rd day God raised him from the dead, thereby announcing that his death is sufficient to provide atonement. So think about that. Jesus was perfect.

And yet he allowed himself on the cross to have your sins and my sins placed upon him, and he died as if he committed all of our sins. And God then raised him from the dead, saying, I accept this sacrifice for your sins. There's a 4th response of Paul to anyone, including himself, who might accuse us before God or condemn us before God. And that is, it is Christ who is at the right hand of God for us.

He says, who is he who condemns Christ Jesus? Is he who died? Yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God. Paul, took great comfort in the fact that not only was Jesus raised, but he took great comfort in the fact that Jesus is at the right hand of God, that gave Paul tremendous boldness and freedom when it comes to this issue of condemnation.

The the doctrine of the ascension of Christ and Christ, essentially being at the right hand of God, it's, it's, it's in many places in the New Testament, but practically, we don't ponder this truth as much as we should. In fact, Garrett Dawson wrote an excellent book. He's a Presbyterian pastor of a church in North Carolina. He wrote a book entitled Jesus Ascended that is full of rich meditations that just blew open my understanding of this aspect of the gospel several years ago, but he bemoans the fact that this doctrine is underdeveloped in evangelicalism today.

And he mentions the fact that in the confession of 1967 of the Presbyterian Church, which is over 20 pages long, nowhere is the ascension of Christ mentioned. Nowhere is anything mentioned about him being at the right hand of God. And he just, he bemoans that as a Presbyterian himself, and he's calling the church to a greater understanding and appreciation of this reality. And here is Paul, imagining people accusing him or condemning him before God and one of the places his mind goes is to the fact that Christ is at the right hand of God, and that braces him and gives him a boldness when he contemplates that.

Paul protected himself from going to a place of condemnation, partly because he turned his eyes upon the reality that Christ is at the right hand of God. What does that mean? Why is that a comfort to Paul? Why didn't he just stop at the resurrection?

of Christ. Well, let's think about it this way, guys, just from three different angles. Basically, what Paul is saying is that the one Jesus Christ, who loved me so much that he was willing to die for me is right now, at the very right hand of God, seated at the right hand of God. What does that mean?

Well, being at the right hand of God, one of the ways of looking at it is the position of highest award, highest reward, highest honor. Jesus died for you. died for your sins. He laid down his life for you.

And the father looked at what he did and said, I'm going to raise him from the dead. And I'm going to give him the highest prize imaginable. I'm going to give him the greatest reward imaginable for what he did for you, and I will give him the seat at my Right hand. Imagine somebody in your life enters your life, and they do something exceptionally kind for you.

And it's very sacrificial and kind, and they serve you in some significant way. Imagine, The president of the United States finds out about what they did for you. And the president responds by saying, I want to give you, the person who served you, I want to give you every reward imaginable, every honor imaginable. I want you to move to Washington DC, and I'm going to give you an office right next to mine, and you have total access to me whenever you please.

If that happened, what the president would be conveying is he really thinks a lot of what that person did for you. And you would think, wow, he must think highly of me or love me, in order to bless someone who served me in this way. I think some of that can translate here. This one who died for us, God raised him from the dead, and gave him the highest reward imaginable.

And he did so as an expression of love for Jesus, but also as an expression and a demonstration to us of his love for us that he would reward Jesus with this seat, because Jesus died for us the way that he did. There's another aspect of this seated at the right hand of God. is a position of absolute lordship and power over all. Jesus has died for us.

God raised him from the dead and elevated him to this incredible position of absolute lordship, where Christ can do whatever he pleases. He can get from the Father whatever he pleases. The Father never says no to Him in any way, shape or form. He has absolute lordship.

This one who obviously loves us so much. is now the absolute Lord of the universe seated at the right hand of God. I think we're going to be OK. Those of us that have believed in Him and have been saved by Him, we are well represented in the presence of the Father.

This is also the position of highest access to and influence with the Father, as I've already essentially stated. We are represented. Imagine a minority group in this country that has maybe been neglected or whatever and, and our president takes someone who really loves this group of people. And serves this group of people in amazing ways, and the president tells this person, I want you to move to DC and I'm going to give you an office right next to mine in the White House, and I promise you, you can come in and out 24/7.

Anytime you ever need to talk to me about anything representing those that you love and care for in this group, you've got total access to me and whatever you need, you just name it and you can have it. If you were a member of that minority group, you'd be feeling pretty good, right? we're, we're represented pretty well by this one who has this position so close to the seat of power. And so we learned something of the exuberance of God, His love for us, His enthusiasm for what Christ has done according to the Father's will, who sent him to die, and Christ obeyed what the Father instructed him to do, and God raised him from that and elevated him to this position of honor and reward and lordship and power and absolute unmitigated, unhindered access to him at all times.

And lastly, there's a 5th response that we observe. Here that Paul models for us to any who would accuse or condemn us. before God. Paul says it is Christ who intercedes for us.

Christ is in the presence of the Father, and he's interceding for us. It says, who is the one who condemns Christ Jesus is he who died? Yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Christ is in the presence of the Father, and he's praying for us.

He's representing us, interceding on our behalf, in a way that is intelligent, that is passionate, that is concerned about every detail of our past, present, and also our future. Imagine yourself just listening in as Jesus prays for you in the presence of the Father. And as the Father listens so lovingly and attentively to every word that he speaks as he represents you. Even in our moments of sin and failure, we can relish this.

In First John 2:1, John says, My little children, I'm writing these things that you may not sin. I don't want you to sin. I want you to hate sin. I want you to despise it.

I want you to declare war on sin in your Life, don't sin, and I'm writing this to keep you from sin. But if anyone does sin, I want you to rest secure in the knowledge that we have an advocate, literally who is toward the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Just know in your moments of failure and sin that your righteousness is in heaven, and it is safe there. It is in Jesus.

And he is at the right hand of the Father, and he represents you. Even on the other side of your moments of failure. Paul derived tremendous encouragement and confidence from the certain knowledge of not only Christ's death and his resurrection, And his placement at the right hand of God. But it also gave him a holy brazenness to know that this one who loved him so is at the right hand of God interceding for him.

That ought to make a difference to all of us. I think of what Robert Murray McShane said. Many years ago, he said, if I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear 10,000 enemies who come against me. If, if I could listen in, just imagine listening, you're walking through a hallway and you hear talking and you stop and listen and, and you realize it's someone praying and you listen more closely and whoa, it's Jesus praying.

What's he saying? He's mentioning my name, he's praying for me. What's he praying about? And you listen to him as he intercedes for you, not against you.

You just listen to his prayer. And as the father listens to him, imagine hearing that for about 10 minutes and then you continue walking on. What would that do to your perspective as you faced whatever lay in front of you that day, to know you're being covered wonderfully in prayer by Jesus. McShane then says nevertheless, distance makes no difference.

He's in heaven. But he still intercedes. He says he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Guys, let me point this out to you, what Paul does here, that's, that's so beautiful.

Paul is imagining people coming with accusation and condemnation, and even possibly his own heart, engaging in accusation and condemnation. And look at where his mind goes. Immediately, his mind goes to God's the one who justifies, Christ is the one who died, Christ is the one who was raised, Christ is the one who's at the right hand of God, and Christ is the one who intercedes. That's where his mind goes, not to himself, not to his own performance, but his mind goes to God, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ.

And we do well to follow his example. Get your eyes off of yourself, and turn your eyes upon Jesus. I know there's a place for examining ourselves in the Christian life, and we're commanded to do that. But guys, as one writer has said, for every 1 look you take it yourself, take 10 at Jesus, and you're always safe in doing that.

It'll never happen that any of God's people will ever get to heaven and God will say, you spent too much time looking at my son. That's not going to happen. Look away from yourself to Jesus. I know I've read this to you guys before, many months ago, but let me read this just an excerpt of this as we close.

Spurgeon speaks to people who are struggling with condemnation, and he says, I do not urge you to look within to try and see whether this new birth is there. And we would just for our context, don't try to look within to decide whether or not you're condemned or not before God. Instead of looking within thyself, look thou to him who hangs on yonder cross, dying the just for the unjust to bring us to God. Fix thou thine eyes on Him and believe in Him.

And when thou seest in thyself much that is evil, look away to him. And when doubts prevail, look to him. And when thy conscience tells thee of thy past sins, look to him. And then speaking as a pastor, he says, I have to go through this story almost every day of the year, and sometimes half a dozen times in a day.

If there is a despairing soul anywhere within 20 miles, it will find me out no matter whether I am at home or at Mentone, which is where he went on vacation. or in any other part of the world, it the despairing soul will come from any distance, broken down, despairing, half insane sometimes, and I have no medicine to prescribe except Christ. Christ, Christ, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look away from yourselves and trust in Him.

I go over and over and over with this and never get one jot further. Because I find that this medicine cures all soul sicknesses, while human quackery cures none. Christ alone is the one remedy for sin, sick souls. Where does Paul get this confidence from?

He gets it because he's been marinating in gospel truth up to this point of the letter. And, and he now just has this tremendous assurance, and he's even beyond assurance, and he gives out this defiant challenge to anyone who would want to condemn him. Where does that confidence come from? It comes from staring at God who justifies, and Christ who died, Christ who was raised, Christ who's at the right hand of God, and Christ who intercedes for us.

It doesn't come from a man who's gazing at himself. Or finding some comfort in the opinions that other people have. Of him Guys, believe this stuff, put it to work. Verse 31, Paul says, what shall we speak to these things?

Don't just read these verses, don't just hear a sermon on these two verses here. And don't just think them, put these words on your tongue and open your mouth and say these things. When you find yourself being accused by your own heart, or conscience or by others. And you're tending toward a place of condemnation.

One quick thing before we close, I got to say this because I, I know some would tend to misuse this maybe one wrong application of this. I, if someone comes up to you and says, hey, brother, sister, I just, I feel like God's leading me to confront you about something. I want to serve you by bringing an issue to your attention, a sin that I think is in your life, and I just wanted to talk to you about it. and allow God to use me as an instrument in your life.

If someone comes to you that way, don't say, whoa, wait a minute, God's the one who justifies me. Christ died, he was raised, he's at the right hand of God, and he intercedes for me. So what, I don't want to hear what you have to say. That's a wrong application of these truths.

Paul commands us everywhere in his letters to admonish one another, to confront one another, where it's necessary. He's dealing in this passage with someone who would be willing, who would want to step before God and accuse us before God and condemn us before God. It's very different than us as brothers and sisters approaching one another in love. serving one another through loving, gracious, gospel-centered, and gospel-shaped confrontation.

There's more to say, but we'll pick up here in the coming weeks. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for, just what you have done for us in human history and sending your son to die that we might be saved. Through his death and resurrection and ascension.

We thank you for giving us your word that tells us of these things. We would not have known otherwise. And we thank you, Lord, for a book like Romans that not only tells us of these events, but then teases out the ramifications of these gospel realities. And then thank you for passages like what we're seeing now where you actually show us, let me show you how to put this to work.

And to apply this in a practical way. To shield yourself from condemnation and to enter more deeply and experientially into the confident. Belief that you are utterly delivered from any shred of condemnation from me. Lord, if there's any here in this room that have never Fallen at your feet and said, I give up, I give up.

God, you justify me. I look to Christ and to His death and His resurrection, His ascension, and As he would represent his people before you, Father, I put my trust in Him. It is you, God, you, Jesus, where my salvation comes. And I call upon you to be my Lord and Savior.

God, just awaken hearts to see their need for you, and may they call upon you where they're seated. And if they've got questions, Lord, please give them the grace to come to me or to anyone else here to So that we can pray with them and encourage them and help them. And their journey of salvation Thank you for the opportunity to give our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus Christ. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.