Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, we'll be looking
this evening at verses 33 through verse 35. The Scripture says, shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect. It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for
thy sake we are killed all the day long, and we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. Now, I want
to deal this evening, Lord willing, with these three questions. First
of all, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? The second question is found
in the next verse, who is he that condemneth? And the last
question is in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Three questions. Three questions
that the apostle gives us ample answer. These are not unanswerable
questions. They're very answerable and they
are answered in succession. Now, this first question, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? First of all,
who are the elect? Who are the elect that are unchargeable? The ones that God says, who shall
lay anything to their charge? Well, we know that the elect
are those who are eternally known and loved of God before the foundation
of the world. This is clearly seen in verse
29. The Scripture says, for whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. These beloved ones, these are
the chosen ones, and they were chosen by the sovereign will
and purpose of God. They were chosen in eternal grace
and put into eternal union with the Son of the living God. This
is the work of the Father in salvation, in sovereign election. And I want us to see this as
well, that this salvation of the elect is a work of the Trinity
of God's persons. All of the Godhead is involved
in this matter of the elect salvation. And the Son of God, the Son of
God having delighted from eternity in the elect, the adopted sons,
He willingly agreed. willingly agreed to be their
Savior, their Mediator of a better covenant, the surety of the New
Testament. He agreed that He should redeem
them to God, reconcile them to God, and present them as holy
creatures without sin before God. This was the work and responsibility
of the Son to redeem. to redeem, to reconcile the elect. And the Holy Spirit of God purposed
to come and be sent of God the Father and of God the Son to
each one of the elect at the appointed time. To be sent to
these elect persons in order to create in them a holy nature,
a sinless nature, The Holy Spirit then gives the elect life and
faith and every grace of God. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit, the new birth. Being born again. Jesus said,
you must be born again. Born from above. The wind bloweth
where it listeth. You can hear the sound thereof,
but you can't tell where it's coming and where it's going.
Listen, even so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. See, the
Spirit of God is the instrument in the new birth. And listen,
these elect, these who are called to faith in Christ, you who are
called to faith in Christ, you are the elect of God. The elect
are called sinners, called to faith in Jesus Christ. And listen,
the Holy Spirit, His work is not finished in just creating
a work in you, but He Himself comes and lives in you. This
is the promise of the Holy Spirit. He's not just by us, but He dwells
in us. In us. So then every elect person,
listen, you are the temple of the living God. You. You are. This is not a question. This is a statement. You are
the temple of God. Paul says this in two places
in Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 3, 16, he said,
know you not that you are the temple of God? In 1 Corinthians
6, 19, he said, what? Know you not that your body is
the temple of God? That the Holy Ghost dwells in
you and you are not your own? Don't you know that? You who
believe, you know that. You know that because the Spirit
of God dwells in you, and He testifies of this in you. He testifies that you are the
children of God. And according to the sovereign
decree of God, in the trinity of His persons, the Holy Spirit
will also keep every elect person until the end of time. Will keep them. Keep them. Paul says of the elect, he says,
you are kept. And I like that. Because if there's
anybody that needs to be kept, it's me. I must be kept by the
Holy Spirit. He must keep me in love and faith
and hope and every grace. He must keep me. He must sustain
me. He must lift me up. He must give
me strength. And He must teach me. else I
die." This is the work of the Holy Spirit to keep you until
the completion of our salvation. And He will keep His elect. He
will keep us all in faith and hope and love until we die. And then the Spirit that God
has created in us will ascend unto God. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. He will keep our bodies even
though they lie in the ground and they turn back to dust. He
will ever keep vigil over them because one day they must be
raised from the dead. Do you not see that God has not
only saved you in your spirit and your soul, but He has also
saved you in your body. Your body has been redeemed by
the blood of Jesus Christ. and therefore it must be raised
up, incorruptible, undefiled. Isn't that a sight? Isn't that
going to be a wonderful sight? When this body is no longer decays
and rots and hurts and suffers, there's going to be a day when
this body itself and not another will see God. That's what Job
said. He said, with my own eyes, I
shall see God. But these eyes won't be the corruptible
eyes that we have now. They'll be incorruptible. They'll
see things as they really are. I tell you, I don't see things
as they really are right now. I just don't. These corruptible
eyes, these old fleshly eyes, they see things and then they
begin to doubt God's power and providence. But one day they
won't. Those old eyes will be put in
the ground and I'll have new eyes to see everything exactly
the way they are. Exactly the way my God sees them.
Now then, seeing then that salvation of the elect is sure. And that's
the whole point of Paul coming up to this point. He is telling
us that salvation is purposed of God. It's purposed of God. It's planned of God. It's ordained
of God. It's decreed of God. And nothing
shall stop God from doing His own will, which is to make us
holy. That's His will. That's His purpose
for the elect is to make us in the image of His holy Son. And knowing this, that our salvation
is sure, that none, none can prevent the hand of God that
he is purposed to call, justify, and glorify his elect. You see
that in verse 30, he said, moreover, whom he did predestinate, and
these are all in past tense. Them he also called, and whom
he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he
also glorified. All of those are past tense because
God calleth those things that are not as though they were because
in the purpose of God they are. When God decrees something, it
is as sure as done. It is as sure as done. All of these elect shall stand
before the bar of God's holy justice. Who then, if God has purpose
to save, who then can charge one of God's elect. That's the question here. If
God has purposed and called us, if He's justified us, if He's
glorified us in His eternal decree and purpose, if He sent His only
begotten Son who delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him freely give us all things? He asked this question, who then
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Behold with me
in your mind's eye all of the elect, as though all of the elect
were gathered together in one place before the justice bar
of God. And God declares all of his elect,
you are justified. You are justified. Now what does
the word justified mean? It means you are innocent of
all charges. That's what the justice of God
says. You are justified. Is there anyone,
and God stands before His elect and says, is there anyone who
can lay one charge to my elect that I have justified? Is there
anybody? As I thought of this, I began
to see one hand in the back raising his hand And he stands and he says, I
am one that has a charge. And he says, my name is Adam.
Adam stands and he says, are not all of your elect by nature
represented by me? Are they all represented by me? And did they all not die when
I died? In other words, can the elect
of God be rightly charged with original sin? Behold, the truth of this is
plainly clear in the Word of God, that in Adam all have sinned. This is so. This is true. Scripture says in Romans 5 and
verse 12, it says, Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into
the world, And death by sin, so death passed upon all men.
Listen, listen, for all have sinned. All have sinned. In who? In Adam. In Adam. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15,
22, for as in Adam all die. Is it not true that spiritual
death is passed upon us all? Did not Adam's nature inflict
spiritual death upon his whole race? Did not the justice of
God condemn us when He fell? Did we not all fall in Him? Listen, if God is holy and just
and righteous, how can his elect escape the charge of original
sin? If God declares you innocent,
have you thought of that? How is it that God can declare
you innocent when truly we all in Adam have sinned? seeing that He truly was our
representative, sealing that we were truly born with His sinful
nature. Yes, all of that is true. How
then can the elect be justified? Even because God had before Adam
given us to another representative. That's how we can be justified. Because even before there was
a sin, God gave His elect to Christ as a representative man. He had given us to another representative
before Adam, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He purposed, God
purposed, that His righteousness should be our righteousness. Friends, the justification of
God is not just an arbitrary thing. It's not as though God,
like us, is whimsical. You and I are whimsical with
our forgiveness, aren't we? We're picky. Picky people. And you know what? We can forgive
each other without really a cause, can't we? We can just do it.
Because you and I both are such wicked people, and we're not
just. But I tell you, God can't just
arbitrarily justify without truly the people being innocent. And
the only way this could be For us who are truly of Adam's nature
is that we be given to another. He says this in 2 Timothy 1.9.
God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, listen,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And at the appointed time, God
comes to every elect sinner, though they were born of Adam's
nature, and He gives them their true nature. He gives them the
nature of their true representative, Jesus Christ. He gives us a new
nature, which was ours. Before the world began this new
nature that you have do you not know that that was purposed for
you? Before you fell in Adam that
nature was yours in Christ before the world began and now at the
appointed time God condescended brought that nature down and
put it in you created it in you a new nature a new heart a In
the birth, new birth, the regeneration or the resurrection to life. He created a new heart. And this new nature, listen to
me, it cannot be contaminated with the old. It cannot be touched
with sin. cannot be contaminated because
it is completely innocent of all sin. The new nature is completely
without sin. In Ephesians chapter 4, the apostle
encourages us who are believers in Christ. He says this, that
as a result of the new nature, as a result of what God has done
for you, he said, put off the old man and his deeds. Put him
off. Put off the old man, the Adamic
nature with all malice and hatred that still resides in us. And
He encourages us, put on the new man, listen, which is created,
created, created after God in true holiness. Do you not see that your Savior,
His righteousness is yours? It's yours. That's what the new
nature is. It is a righteousness that has
been imputed and imparted to us. Not that it was made by our
faith, but our faith is a result of it. You who believe, your
new nature does not depend on your faith, but rather your faith
is a product of the new nature. And all the grace and love toward
God is a product of what God has created in you. Even the
image of His own Son in you. How else do you think the Holy
Spirit could stand living in you had you not had a new nature? I tell you, you do. You who believe. You are created in the image
of his son. Now that flesh is still there. The old Adamic nature is still
there. But friends, that old man is
dying off quickly. Praise God. Praise God he's dying
off quickly. We still have sin, we still sin,
even because the old nature is still with us. That new nature
did not eradicate the old. But I tell you, it conquered
it. The new nature now resides in
us, has the upper hand, because God the Holy Spirit dwells and
guides us in this new nature to serve and love God. This causes
a great concern and fear in our hearts because the old nature
is here. Doesn't it cause you great fear because of that old
man that still resides? Aren't we confused? Who's not
confused? This old man is constantly confused
and cast down, and daily and hourly we are convicted of our
sins. And I tell you, we confess them.
We confess that in our flesh dwelleth no good thing. I confess
that. Every believer does. But believer,
be of good cheer. For God has justified you by
the new nature that is ours in Christ. Even God has justified
you before you ever were under Adam. You were in Christ. I like this, Spurgeon said this,
he said, if God had not chosen me before the foundation of the
world, surely he wouldn't have chosen me after. And when He did, He chose us
before we became sinners. He put us in Christ and gave
us the nature of Christ. Now behold, this Adamic nature
that resides in us is still under the sentence of death. This is
why our bodies are decaying and getting older. This is why the
body will die. And when the body dies, consider
this, so does the Adamic nature. It dies with it. See, death is not a horrible
thing. Not for the believer. Because
when this body dies, so does the sin nature. And what's left? What's left? Only the righteous
nature that God made. Only the righteous nature that
we have in Christ Jesus. But until then, we must fight,
and do fight against this old nature. We must with malice put
him off and rejoice by faith in Christ, seeing that God has
justified us. Now then, God, see God's elect
standing, see Adam raising his hand, and then see God sitting
him down and shutting him up. Because you were not first in
Adam, you were first in Christ. Therefore, you are justified. justified, innocent. And not just anybody justified
you. God did. God said it so. God said it so. Now second of
all, let's see the second question here. It says, who is he that
condemneth? Now behold, the elect standing
before the justice bar of God, I see another hand raised, and
it is Satan. Satan raises his hand and says,
has your elect not sinned themselves? Excluding the Adamic nature,
is it not true that your elect that you say are justified, how
is it that you can justify them seeing they have actively and
willfully disobeyed the law of God? How is that possible? Can
the believer, the elect of God, be condemned because of our own
sin? And then again, I see the elect,
which is me and you. We breathe a sigh of relief for
the first one, and then all of a sudden, our head goes down
again. Surely, we did sin in Adam. and by his transgression failed
passively. But have we not also sinned actively? Have we not also sinned willingly? In rebellion against our God,
have we not broken His holy law? We must say that's true. We must
confess that's true. Behold, Satan, who is the accuser
of the elect, stands before the holy bar and says, look, your
children, you who justify them, look, they've sinned against
you. They've committed atrocities and ungodly deeds. How is it
possible for a holy God then to declare these elect innocent
when they have been truly guilty? Therefore, every believer in
Christ, every elect sinner knows his sin to be real. Listen, my sin is real. I know it is. And in order for me to be justified,
because God is holy, he must really deal with my sin. He must really deal with my sin. And every believer confesses
this, that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Over in 1 John, 1 John chapter 1, the apostle says
this about somebody who pretends that they're without sin. He
says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. In verse 10, he said, if we say
we have not sinned, we make God a liar and His Word is not in
us. Surely, even our own conscience
daily condemns us, does it not? We confess Therefore, from the
depths of our souls, that we have sinned against God, that we have really rebelled
against the holy God of heaven. Against the God who rules the
skies, I fought with hands up lifted high. Madly I ran the
sinful race, secure without a hiding place. Therefore, how shall we be able
to stand before this holy bar of God's justice rightly? How shall we stand rightly before
God, knowing that we deserve the darkest part of hell? How can God rightly justify us? How can we escape the condemnation
of God's holy wrath? God gives us here four reasons
why it is that you are justified and Satan cannot condemn you.
Look at your text. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? Four things. It is Christ that
died, number one. It is Christ that is risen, number
two. It is Christ who is at the right
hand of God, number three. And number four, it is Christ
who maketh intercession for you. First of all, dear believers,
Satan cannot condemn you because Christ has died. This is how
God can clearly justify you who have actually sinned because
Christ actually died for it. He really died for it. We truly have sinned against
God, but God was not willing to impute our sins to us. This is the good news. This is
the message of grace. God says, I'm not willing to
impute their sins to them. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. God says, I will not impute it
to them. What are you going to do with
it? What is he going to do with it? Now, you and I, if we said
that, and I said, I'm not going to impute your sins to you. I'm going to forgive you, and
I can arbitrarily do it without any payment. Can I? I could do it. Why? Because I'm
unjust. So are you. Listen to me, God
cannot do this arbitrarily. You see, when God says, I will
not impute sin, that sin had to be paid for. It had to be
imputed to someone. It had to be charged, it had
to be paid, or God would not be holy, God would cease to be
God. Therefore, God says, I will not
impute their sins to them, but I will impute them to my only
beloved Son. Look over in verse 1 of chapter
8 of Romans. Paul makes this statement, There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Well, how
is this so, Paul? For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The law of God, the justice of
God must be satisfied. And it stood against us. The
law stood against us. The soul that sinneth it shall
surely die. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. What the law could not do. What could the law not do? The
law could not save you. The law could condemn you, but
it could not save you. In that it was weak through your
flesh. Isn't that true? Is there anything
wrong with the law of God? Do you find any fault? If you
do, then it just shows you that you're a wicked sinner. If you
find any fault with that law, it is because we're wicked and
we don't know what holiness is. There's nothing wrong with the
law. The problem was with us. The problem was with our weakness
to obey it and honor it. Therefore, God, not willing to
impute our sins to us, He sent His only Son, made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin, notice this, He condemned it.
He condemned sin where? In the flesh of His Son. on the cross. See then that there is none that
can condemn the elect of God even because Christ has fully,
perfectly suffered the penalty of our sins in his own body on
the tree. How is it that God can be just
and not condemn us who have actually sinned because he has actually
imputed your guilt to his son and condemned it. And here's the good news, believer.
This is good news. He cannot demand twice payment. God who is just and condemned
our sins in Christ, He will not condemn us because they are already
condemned. He's already been satisfied. Therefore, who then can condemn
you, seeing that you were made the righteousness of God in Him?
Who then can condemn us? Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb
of God, was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Thus on Him, the songwriter says,
thus on Him eternal vengeance fell, that might have sunk the
world to hell. He bore it for his chosen race
and thus became our hiding place. Christ having suffered for sin,
redeemed us to God, has done so forever. Forever put away
all our sin. Isaiah 53 says this, he shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. God did not
neglect his justice and could not neglect his justice to show
us mercy. But rather he satisfied his justice
and is just to show us mercy. He's just to show you mercy. Believer, Was God's justice satisfied with
Christ's offering? Was he satisfied? Well, how do
I know he was satisfied? Because Christ is risen from
the dead. If there was one sin that Christ
did not satisfy, do you realize that death would have reigned
over him. If Christ had that one sin left,
that God could not raise Him justly from the dead. And Paul
said, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain and you are
yet in your sins. But Christ is risen from the
dead. Therefore, we know that there
is no condemnation to us who are in Him. If God punished our
sins, and punished them all, and was satisfied, and Christ
is risen from the dead, then we know that God was satisfied. And we are free from all condemnation. Condemnation of the law. Condemnation
of Satan. And listen, even the condemnation
of your own conscience. I do not care what my conscience
says. I do not care how I feel about
the matter. Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceptive. My feelings about this matter
have nothing to do with the justice of God. Christ has died. He has satisfied God. And God
raised him from the dead. And not only this, but God is
not going to condemn us because God has set Him on the throne
of glory. It says, "...who is He that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God." You see, I know that we cannot
be condemned because Christ is sitting down. This is important. In the law, the priests never
sat down. They were always working because
the work was never finished. But God has raised up Christ
and has sat Him down on the throne of God because it's done. It's done. The work is finished. Salvation has been accomplished. Redemption accomplished. Mission
accomplished. The work's done. How is it that
I know no one can condemn me? Because Christ is seated at the
right hand of the Father. And all power is given to Him. Over all flesh. And He rules
and reigns over all men and angels and demons and the world and
the flesh and everything that happens. He rules and reigns
for the purpose of saving His people from their sins. And He'll
do it. And there's no one can stop Him
or stay His hand or say unto Him, what are you doing? He'll
do it because you are not condemnable. You cannot be condemned. How
do I know this? Because Christ still bears the
wounds. You notice when His glorified
body was presented to the disciples, He still had the wounds. Why? To show His intercessory work
between us and the Father. Do you know why when you ask
for forgiveness, you're forgiven? You know why God willingly and
graciously, constantly forgives your sin? Because Christ ever
lives to make intercession for you. That's why He forgives you.
And He's right to forgive you. He's just to forgive you of your
sins. Because Christ has died for them. Does this mean that the believer's
life is all a bed of roses? Does that mean that everything
will just open up and the world and all of its treasures will
pour down on your head? No. Matter of fact, that's when
everything starts to fall apart. When God saves a man, that's
when everything falls apart. Believer in Christ. though we
suffer in this world that has no bearing, no bearing on God's
mercy towards us. The reason God will forgive you
is for Christ's sake. The reason God will save you
was for Christ's sake. Be it known unto you, O house
of Israel, I do this for mine own namesake. God is going to save you because
he will. That's why he's going to do it. Don't look for a reason in you. You won't find one. All the reason God is going to
save you is because of Christ. And this is the last question,
who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Seeing that he loved
us from eternity, seeing that He manifest His love by giving
His Son to die for our sins, seeing that He justified His
elect by the eternal decree by putting us in Christ and making
Him our representative, seeing that Jesus gave Himself for us
and satisfied the justice of God and is risen to the right
hand of God and ever lives to make intercession for us, who
then shall separate us from His love? Now, the love of God is not toward
all men. We know this. The love of God
is not toward all men, but I tell you, it's toward you. You who
are His elect, you who are called to faith in Christ, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, know this, His love is toward you. And consider that His love is
boundless. It's as infinite as God himself. His love doesn't vary. Your love
varies. Your love goes up and your love
goes down. Mostly down, is that right? Mostly
it's cold and mostly it's indifferent. But I'll tell you, his love,
however high it is, it is infinitely the same for all eternity. Do you realize if God stopped
loving, he would change and no longer be God? I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, Because I loved you,
I have drawn you. I have drawn you. Flip over to
Hosea. Read this with me again. This,
I believe, is becoming one of my favorite verses. Hosea chapter
14. Hosea chapter 14 and verse 4,
listen to what God says to those he loves. He said, I will heal
their backsliding. I will love them, how? Freely. I will love them freely. For mine anger is turned away
from Him, from Christ. I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and
cast forth His roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and
His beauty shall be as the olive tree and His smell as Lebanon. That's Christ. He is the tree
of life that spreads His branches. And they that dwell under his
shadow shall return. That's us. They shall revive
as the corn, and grow as the vine, and the scent thereof shall
be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have
I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed
him. I am like a green fir tree, For
me is thy fruit found. Isn't that true of every one
of us? What are the fruits? Love, joy, peace, meekness. Whose fruits are they? Thy fruits,
God's fruits. Who is wise? And he shall understand these
things, prudent, and he shall know them. For the ways of the
Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them. The justified
shall walk in them. How? By faith. We believe these
things to be true. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies them. No one will lay a charge to us.
Who is he that condemns us? It's Christ that died. It's Christ
that's risen. It's Christ that's seated. It's
Christ who is ever living to make intercession for us. Seeing
that he's done all this. Now, who in the world has ever
done so much for you but God? Do you know anybody in your life
that has ever done as much as God has done for you? And yet
we pine. Oh, do you love me? Oh, do you
love me? Do I love you? Look what I did.
I justified you. There's no one that can condemn
you. I was reading in Isaiah, and that's what it was. I'll
read it to you. You don't turn over there. Isaiah 37. He's talking
about the enemies, Assyria. And he says to them, Therefore, saith the Lord to
the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city, nor
shoot an arrow, nor come before it with shields, nor cast up
a bank against it. By the way he came, by the same
he shall return, and shall not come into this city, saith the
Lord, for I will defend this city, and I will save it. That's what God says about you.
You're the city. And God says not one accusation
of the enemy shall fly over your walls and hit you. Do you get that? You are without
condemnation. For how long? Until your next sin? No. Forever. And no thanks to you. Who gets the glory for this? God does. God does. May God give us grace to wrap
our minds and hearts around this. And I'll tell you, we would be
a lot more content if we knew how much, how far
our sin has been separated from us. If we knew how much he loved
us, we would be far more content than we are. May God teach us. Even now, teach us. There is no condemnation for
us who are in Christ. I pray God will bless that to
you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.