Let's pray. God, our Father, thank you for
enabling us to gather this morning, and we pray that it is for our
spiritual good that you have brought us together. I ask, Father,
that you would bless this time, bless it with truth, bless it
with your Spirit, for there will be no truth apart from the Spirit
guiding us into it. Bless us with the presence of
your Son. Bless us with minds and hearts ready to receive the
Word of God and work in us to bear fruit however it suits you. Be with those of this congregation
who are sick. There are several, Lord. This
is something that as a congregation we're not so accustomed to. You've
blessed us all with such good health, but as our years mount
up, Lord, what else can we expect but that the ravages of time
would begin to show? So we make no complaint, Lord,
against your providence, but we pray for the sake of those
who suffer that you would, with the suffering, give grace. And in the midst of the things
they lose, Lord, show them what wondrous things they've gained
in Christ Jesus. We pray, Lord, for those who
struggle under any sort of trouble, for these struggles can often
make us feel as though we've been cut off from you. But Lord, we know that's not
the case. We know that you have promised
us trouble in this world. And what could we expect? We're
not citizens of this world. We're not subject to the world. And therefore the world, because
it hates you, hates us. And so we expect that just as
your only begotten son suffered, so that we who have been adopted
in your family will likewise suffer. Lord, bless this church with
the opportunities to make known the gospel, put in the hearts
of each one a readiness to speak a word of truth in every situation
where it's where it's possible, and that each would be ready
to give an answer for the hope that lies in them. And we pray
these things in Christ's name. Amen. Now open your Bibles to
Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I want to speak
on a on what is an important message.
Not that the others are not. I hope that everything, well
everything we preach from the scriptures is going to be important
just on that account. But maybe this is just needful for
the hour. I want to speak on the subject
of assurance. The title of the message is Strong
Assurance for the People of God. Here's something I know about
God's people. They believe and they don't, both at the same
time. They have called upon the name
of the Lord and the Lord has saved them.
but they yet live in this mortal body. And this flesh has never believed,
and it won't. That which is natural cannot
conceive of the supernatural. That which is of the flesh cannot
grasp that which is of the spirit. And so there is a struggle. Now
some, it seems, the Lord gives them grace, they don't struggle
with it as much as others do. But everyone struggles some.
And here's another thing I notice. As the years go by, and for quite
a few years they can go by and we don't even pay attention.
But the more they go by, the more they mark us the more they
change us, the more we feel the weight of them. And we see approaching
that time when we're gonna leave this life. And it's easy, you know, to make
a strong profession when you don't think you're gonna get
called on it. When you're in the strength of
youth, I believe." But then you don't expect that you're going
to die in the next couple of days and face God either. But as it gets closer and closer,
and you can see the cliff from where you stand, the questions begin to rise. People say, I want a gospel I
can live by. Fine. What you need is a gospel
you can die by. Because living you may or may
not do, dying you will do. But as we approach the end of
life, as the reality that there is an end to our lives begins
to press on us, we will doubtless begin certainly some self-examination. We will feel more that natural fear of
death, And that may actually even become some of that legally
binding fear of death, that fear of death by which Satan holds
men in bondage, and it becomes a real struggle. And this is
even made worse for those whose early childhood religion continually
pointed them to themselves to find a reason to believe that
God had saved them. And I know very few who would
make the claim that whatever religious principles they were
taught in childhood have ever left them. We may try to, in our minds,
sing the gospel louder, but there's always someone in there singing
law. And I guess there's going to
be someone doing that till the day we die. And here's the thing,
when law and grace try to sing together, it's awful. Law ruins the beauty of the song
of grace. Now, there are two kinds of assurance
that the believer has or can have. First of all, he has objective
assurance. It's the assurance simply that
what God has promised is true, no matter how we feel about it.
We are assured, we who believe are assured that we have eternal
life. But the assurance that I want
to address this morning is not just the objective reality of
the certainty of salvation in Christ. I want to address that assurance
that is the sense of peace and calm that all is truly well. The Bible says, say unto the
righteous, it shall be well with them. And why do you have to
keep telling them that? And remember, when the Bible
talks about the righteous, they're not talking about, their righteousness
is not defined in terms of what they've done. The righteous are
those who believe. Abraham believed God and it was
imputed unto him for righteousness. Why do you have to keep telling
the righteous it shall be well with them? Because they often
wonder whether or not it will. The thing about doubts and doubts
is the opposite of assurance. Doubts not only are the essence
of no assurance, the very fact that we have doubts often makes
us wonder if we have any faith. Doubts are bad enough, but doubts
sow their own seeds. And we doubt even more based
on the fact we doubted it all. So let's take a quick look at
this chapter of scripture that's very familiar to us. And believe
it or not, I began preparing by looking at the last part of
it. But the thing is, you know, everything he says is based on
what he just said before. I thought, well, I better back
up one verse. Well, then I got all the way
to the first verse. But don't worry, I'm not going
to try to do a detailed exposition of every, every verse of this
scripture. But let's look at this first
one. Therefore there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Here is a blessing, or is the
blessing that we look for, and a description of the people who
have it. No condemnation. Anybody want
that? I want no condemnation. It's
condemnation that we fear. It's condemnation that works
the level of fear in us that suddenly will, you know, it can
instigate a little fear, and then that fear suddenly makes
us start looking at ourselves. And of course, when we look at
ourselves, we find plenty of reasons for us to be condemned. But here is a bold statement
by the Apostle Paul. under the inspiration of the
Spirit of God, there are people for whom there is no condemnation. And it's gotta be no condemnation.
A little bit is eternally deadly. No condemnation. We hope for no condemnation because
no condemnation is the same thing as justification. And we hope for that because
we know that if God declares us to be righteous, and that's
what the word justify means, to declare to be righteous, to
be declared not guilty. If God declares us to be righteous,
we will not be condemned in that awesome and fearful day when
God judges the world in justice by Jesus Christ. It won't happen. I don't mean the day won't happen.
Our condemnation won't happen. I hear people say, well, you
know, I'm believing the best I can and I'm just gonna have
to wait and see what happens. No, you don't. You don't have to wait till that
day to find out whether or not you are in Christ. It is written, blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, doesn't
charge them with anything. Now, what would be the use of
the psalmist writing that if we had no clue who that man is? We'd be talking about blessings
that we wouldn't know if anybody even had them. We could think
of it in terms of hypotheticals, but never could we say, yes,
blessed is such a man. I am blessed. And this fellow,
you know, he's among the blessed. If we couldn't know whether or
not these things were true of us, wouldn't mean he used to
say it. So, no condemnation in Christ. Now it doesn't just say there's
no condemnation. For some people there is condemnation.
But there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Now, our lack of assurance, and
you'll find this to be true, It always arises from us finding
something lacking in ourselves. We start looking at ourselves
and we see our conduct. We know that's not good enough.
We may look at our faith. That's not good enough. We may
look at our prayers. Oh, certainly God help me if
I have to get to heaven on my prayers. They look like they have all
the size of a spiderweb thread, but none of the strength of it.
I wouldn't trust myself to my prayers. But we start looking. We start looking for those things
we think should be present in the life and character of a believer,
and we don't find them. And thus, our doubts begin to
increase. There is something, indeed, that
distinguishes those who are condemned as opposed to those who are not
condemned. However, the evidence that shows
that distinction is not the evidence that religion tells you to look
for. It isn't at all. You may say, about this business
of being in Christ, that's what I'm doubtful of, whether I am
in Christ. I know that there's no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. What I don't know is if I'm in
Christ. Well, I can understand that being
the question that troubles you, for whether or not you're in
Christ settles the whole matter, doesn't it? I mean, if you could
ascertain And that simply means to make certain, to be certain
about it. If you could be certain you were
in Christ, you could be certain that you had and will forever
have God's salvation. But the point I want you to get
from this in Christ thing is that this business of being not
condemned is based on something about you, but something in which
you played no part. Are you in Christ? If you are,
you did not put yourself there. In 1 Corinthians 1, it says very
plainly, it's because of God you are in Christ Jesus. God
puts people in Christ Jesus, and I can even tell you when
he did it. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the
heavenly places, in Christ, according as he chose us before the foundation
of the world in Christ. Before the world was made, he
chose us and put us in Christ. So obviously we had nothing to
do that, we didn't even exist. So if you're looking at yourself
for something that you think moved God to put you in Christ,
you're gonna be sorely disappointed, because you won't find anything.
And anybody who thinks he finds something that would move God
to put him in Christ doesn't understand God, doesn't understand
himself, and doesn't understand what it is to be in Christ. You
will never find anything like that. You will never find a cause
in you for God to do anything good for you. Period. Full stop. You don't have to
qualify that at all. People say, what about my faith?
God doesn't bless you because you believe. You believe because
God blessed you. But just because you had nothing
to do with being in Christ, It doesn't mean that there's no
way for you to know whether or not you are in Christ. Being
in Christ does have proof. It's not the proof that religion
would tell you to look for, or that your conscience will tell
you to look for, but there is. And if you listen, I believe,
if you'll listen this morning, by the time we're done here,
you'll know. you'll know whether or not you're
in Christ. And if coming to the end of what
we have to say, you can determine, yes, indeed, I am Christ or I
am in Christ. You can have all the assurance
that that truth brings. Now, let's read the next three
verses, starting in verse two. Because through Christ Jesus,
now we're talking about no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life
set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was
powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did
by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be
a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the
flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might
be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh,
but according to the spirit. Now you'll notice I altered our
translation and that's because our translation got it wrong.
And they keep, they keep translating that the Greek word for flesh
as sinful nature or natural man. No. So I've just said flesh because
it's important that we understand what that is. But here's the
thing, two laws are mentioned here. There's the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and there's the law of sin and
death. Now, what's the law of sin and
death? Well, that's very simply another
name for the law of God handed down to the Israelites on Mount
Sinai. Why does Paul call it the law
of sin and death? Because the only thing the law
ever finds in us is sin, thus the only verdict that can be
rendered by the law is guilty, and the only consequence of guilt
is death. Whenever you look at the law
for anything, it will eventually produce guilt which brings with
it death. Every doubt we have, every doubt we have, comes from
the law. Whether it's the law given at
Sinai or some law we made. People look at the law of Sinai
and they say, well, we can't do that, but we can do this.
But anything your conscience comes up with, standard to meet,
eventually you'll miss the standard and then your conscience will
be all over you again. I don't care what law it is you come
up with, your conscience is going to find you guilty and condemn
you to death. But Paul takes this law from
God. For what law could there be more unshakable than the law
which was handed down on Mount Sinai? And if I can be set free
from that law, I don't have to worry about any other law. And Paul said he'd been set free
from it. How? Well, there was this law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. So what's the spirit? What's the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus? That's just a long title for
the gospel. Say, how so? Well, first of all,
It's the law of the Spirit. It's the law that the Spirit
preaches to God's people. And what did our Lord Jesus Christ
say the Spirit would teach us? He'll guide you into all truth
and he will take from what is Christ's and show it unto you. The Spirit of God does not lead us to the law.
He does not lead his people to the law. Now, I understand that
God may use the law to get a person's attention. And as Paul said,
what the law says, it says to those who are under the law that
every mouth may be stopped and everyone be found guilty before
God. And generally speaking, before
anybody will ever bother to listen to or seek after a way of salvation,
they've got to be convinced they need salvation. So when I say
that the spirit of God doesn't lead God's people to the law,
he doesn't lead them to the law ever as a means of gaining, improving
upon, or keeping God's favor, period. Why? It'd be a waste of time. We can't
keep it. Not for a second. Every time
we go to the law, all it can do is shut our mouths and declare
us guilty. Always. And therefore the law of the
spirit is not to condemn. Therefore he doesn't go to the
law. Condemnation is not his message for his people. That's his message for the world,
but not for his people. His message is the message of
Christ, the message concerning Christ. It's about his description,
his testimony about how one obtains the eternal blessedness of God. So it's a law of spirit, it's
a law of life, not death. Now, the law of Sinai is a law
of death. This is a law of life. It can't,
therefore, be the law of Sinai that the Spirit is using, because
that law always brings death. This is a law of life. It cannot be a law that takes
into account anything that I have done or am doing or shall do. For every path to life that takes
my conduct and my character and my person into account, every
one of those paths leads to death. Broad is the road that leads
to destruction and many there be that take it. That road's
got a lot of lanes on it, plenty of room for everybody. but it's
a way of death, not a way of life. Our Lord Jesus said concerning
the life that is in him, he said, I've come that they might have
life and have it to the full. Now he was not talking about
merely increasing the fullness of the life they already had.
The life we have naturally is nothing more than a walking death.
It always ends that way. He wasn't talking about merely
increasing that life or making it more joyful. He's talking
about giving us a life we don't have naturally and then giving
us the full version of it. other than the gospel of Christ
fulfills these characteristics. It's the law of the Spirit. It's
the law of life. It's the law of life that's in
Christ. Therefore, everyone in Christ
has been set free from the law of sin and death, and they've been set free. by
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. There is no
condemnation to those in Christ, for they are not under the jurisdiction
of any law that condemns them. And certainly not under the jurisdiction
of the only law that can condemn them in the sight of God. It's not that there's simply
no punishment to them who are in Christ Jesus. as though they
are still found guilty by this law and still condemned by this
law and still under a sentence of death by this law, but somehow,
you know, just God never goes out and never carries out the
sentence. No, that's not what it means. It doesn't say there's
just no punishment. It says there's no condemnation.
There's no verdict of guilty to them who are in Christ Jesus.
And the only way, listen to me carefully, the only way for God
to render a verdict of not guilty is for that person to be not
guilty. He said to Moses, I will by no
means justify the guilty. So when it says there's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ, one of two things must be true. It
must be that they've never sinned or that they're no longer under
the jurisdiction of the law that finds and condemns sin. Now this is a, this is so hard
for people to grasp, hard for us to grasp. I'll be honest with
you, it's even a little scary for me to say because we recognize
the law for the awesome thing that it is. How dare we say we're
not under its jurisdiction? Believe me, I would never say
it if the scriptures didn't say it. When I say us, I'm talking
about believers. Those who are in Christ are not
under the jurisdiction of that law because if they were, they would be found guilty and
condemned and in time punished, period. Well, since none of us
can claim not to have sinned, the only way of life involves
us not being put or no longer being under the jurisdiction
of that law, that covenant of death. We are not condemned And that's
contrary to our natural way of thinking. God's people are not
condemned because God will never bring them into a court with
the power and authority to condemn them. They are never brought
into the court of condemnation. They are brought into the court
of justification. That's why there's never any
condemnation. And I'll tell you this, from God's viewpoint, there
never has been. There never has been. For God's
elect, he's never been out to get them. We experience that, we go through
that knowledge of our sin and all that, but remember, God put
us in Christ for the foundation of the world. That means there
was no condemnation when the world started. And the world
started a long time before I did. But God is not unrighteous or
unjust when he does this. We know that God will not do
anything unrighteous or unjust. So how is he able to just snatch
us out of the jurisdiction of the law of sin and death? After all, that's his law. Well, it says he did it by sending
his son in the flesh and condemning our sin in him. Jesus Christ was brought into
the court of the law of sin and death, bearing the sins of his
people, and the law did to him what it is powerful to do, condemn. It condemned him, cursed him,
and inflicted on him the full measure of divine retribution
for the sins that he bore. Now, we say those words, and
we know that's what happened, but we have never known the full
weight of divine retribution, and if we're in Christ, we never
will, but he knows it. Let me read you a few verses
beginning in Romans chapter six beginning in verse five, he said,
if we've been united with him like this in his death, we will
certainly also be united with him in his resurrection for we
know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of
sin might be done away. That we should no longer be slaves
to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now I'm amazed that out of the
30 English translations that I look at, or at least can look
at if I want to, and I looked at them on this verse. There's
about 30 of them on the website that I go to. Out of that 30,
only two of them translated this right. The word is not freed. It is justified. He who has died
has been justified. from sin. Imagine this to understand what
that means. A man's found guilty of murder
and he's sentenced to death. They strap him into the electric
chair and turn on the juice. He stiffens up. After they turn
off the juice, the doctor checks his heart and pronounces him
dead. At that moment, That man is justified
from all his sin. Why? He's paid the price of them. And sins paid for no longer exist. Just like a debt paid for doesn't
exist. He's justified from his sin because
he satisfied the law by his death. He is no longer a convicted murderer. They do not say, give him another
jolt just for good measure, and then put him back in the cell.
Why? He's justified. He's no longer a criminal. He
is no longer that murderer. He's paid the price. That moment
that he died, the law, the prison warden, the guards, and the executioner
lost all jurisdiction over him. He was justified. He's not a
guilty man anymore. therefore, because he's no longer
guilty, that's why he is freed. They say, well, yeah, but he's
dead. Well, hang on. We'll get there. Jesus Christ
has been justified twice. He's been declared righteous
twice. He was first justified in the court that condemns because
his father said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
Now God would never declare that he was pleased with someone who
was guilty of something. So in those words, God declared
his son to be justified. Then Christ gathered up the elect
of God, tucked them into his bosom, and when he gathered them
up, he also gathered up all their sins with them. And he entered
that court of the law of sin, burying them and burying their
sin. He owned their sins as his own. He was found guilty in the court
of the law of sin and death. And he suffered the penalty that
that law imposed. He said, it is finished. And
he died. And the moment he died, he was
justified from all sin. Why? Because by his death, he put
them away. They don't exist anymore. Some people think he laid in
the grave there for three days and know, and some, you know,
they say descended into hell. No, he didn't. What do you tell
that thief? Today you will be with me in
paradise. Now, if the Lord is bearing sin,
what's he doing in paradise? He's there because he no longer
has sin. He is justified by reason of his death. Now let's go back
to that story of the condemned man I mentioned a bit ago. They
electrocute him and he dies. There's a hearse waiting outside
and they take him to the morgue and the coroner ascertains that
indeed he is dead and puts him in one of those refrigerated
drawers until the family comes to claim his body. Three days
later, someone comes into the morgue early before it's open
and he opens the door to the drawer where that guy is and
he pulls it out. And that man sits up, jumps off
the slab, puts on some clothes, and walks outside. A little later, some of his loved
ones see him. And they go report the sighting
to others. And others are so overjoyed,
they can't even really believe it. How's he alive? So they run to the morgue to
make sure it's true. And sure enough, the slab's empty. There's
nobody on it. When they get there, the coroner
has also arrived. They say, it's been reported
to us that the man you put in drawer three is alive and walking
around. So the coroner goes back to the room where all the drawers
are, and they follow him in. And sure enough, the man's drawer
is empty. It's open. The door is slid out, but there's
nobody on it. And he scratches his chin and
thinks for a few minutes and he says, you know, I don't know
how to explain this, but I can tell you with certainty that
whoever you saw, it was not the man that was in this drawer.
Wasn't him. That man's dead. Dead, dead. Before I left last night, I checked
all the bodies in the morgue. The man in this drawer was dead.
He'd been there three days. There was no pulse. His body
was bluish gray, and his temperature was about 35 degrees. He was
dead. I can ask, I can, I'll swear
to it. The man was dead. So who, I don't
know what happened to him, and I don't know who you saw, but
it wasn't that man, because he's dead. Must have been some new
guy, some different guy you saw. The policeman sees the executed
guy walking around and recognizes him. He arrests him and puts
him in cuffs and takes him to the police station. He calls
the prison warden and tells the prison warden that he's got one
of his prisoners. The warden replies that they,
you know, did the bed check last night and all are present and
accounted for. And the police respond, no, I
got one right here. They're looking at the mug shot.
He looks just like him. The warden says, let me put you
on hold for a minute. He calls the executioner. Hey,
Sam, we got a problem here. I just got a call from the police
in town. They say that they have the man we executed three days
ago. They say got him in custody and he is alive. Did you really
flip the switch and turn on the juice? You really execute that
guy? Well, sure I did. I flipped the switch. I saw the
voltage meter go up to the proper voltage. I left it on for the
prescribed time. Not only that, I saw the man's
body stiffen up, and when I turned off the electricity, it went
limp. I don't know who they have in
custody, but it's not the man that was in that chair. The warden puts in a call to
the doctor on duty at the execution. Hey doc, something real peculiar
is going on. The police have called telling
me that the man we executed a few days ago is alive and they have
him in custody. Are you certain that the man
was actually dead? Yeah, I'd stake my reputation
and my career on it. I checked it out, that guy was
dead, dead as dead can be. Warden calls the county courthouse,
Alice, there's something strange going on. I just got a call from
the police telling me they have in custody someone we executed
three days ago. Could you look in your files
and see if there is a death certificate for him? Alice looks on her desk,
yep, we just got it. They usually wait a few days
before sending it to make sure he's dead. It's got his name on it with
the cause of death as death by electrocution carried out as
a sentence for the crime of murder in the first degree. I don't
know who the police have, but it's not the guy you executed.
He's dead. Says it right here. So the warden
gets back on the line with the police and says, look, I've checked
with everyone that has a concern in that man's death. And everyone
says with full conviction, he's dead. So whoever you've got ain't him. And he hangs up. Policeman, he still can't accept
that. I mean, mugshot guy look exactly
the same. He didn't know what to do, so
he calls the judge that presided over the man's trial, tells him
the whole story like I just told, and he said, what should I do?
The judge gets out the file on the man's trial, notes the crime
with which he was charged, that he had confessed to it, so was
found guilty, sentenced to death. He gets back on the phone replies
to the policeman's question. I've looked over all the documentation
and verified what you have told me about his execution. So it's quite obvious that the
man you have in custody is not the man guilty of murder, sentenced
to death, then put to death. I don't know who he is, but it's
not him. So here's what you need to do.
You need to go back to that cell you put him in. You need to unlock it. You need to take his cuffs off
and set him free. Because whoever he is, he's innocent
and he's a free man. He who has died is justified
and freed from all his sin. We're like that executed man.
We were found guilty and sentenced to death. But Christ has pled guilty to
our crimes, and he has borne the proper penalty for them.
But here is the wonder, when he was crucified, we were in
him. And when he came out of that
tomb, fully justified from all the
sins that he bore, we were in him then too. Just as we died
with him, we have risen with him. And just as Christ came
out of the tomb, a new man, So we who are in him are new people. Listen to Paul's word in 2 Corinthians
5. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Nearly everyone uses that to put people under a sense of
sin. If you're in Christ, you're a new person. All those old things,
all those old desires, they're gone. Everything's new now. That's not what Paul means at
all. If you're in Christ you're dead. He said that to Colossians,
you're dead or you have died and your life is hid with God
in Christ. You're a new man. Just like that
executive. What they keep saying about him,
I don't know who he is but he's not that man, must be some new
guy that just looks like him. A new guy upon which there is
no sentence of death. You can't take him into court
for that murder because the guy who did the murder is dead. All the sins that you did laid
on Christ if you're in him. He died for him and you died
in him. He came out a new man with no sin and you came out
a new man with him, no sin. And you'll never be brought into
that court of law again. Everything old, your sin, the
curse and the death that come by it was put away. Everything's become new. You
are in the sight of God without sin. if you're in Christ. Now, we get to this question.
How do I know if I'm in Christ? Verse 14. Because those who are led by
the Spirit of God are the sons of God. So, okay, I agree with that.
That's fine. I don't know if I've been led by the Spirit of
God. You can know. Because I know where the Spirit
of God leads everybody. If He's going to lead you, there's
only one place He's going to take you, and that's going to
be to Christ. He won't take you anywhere else. Have you been to Christ? Have
you been taken to Christ? Have you been shown who Christ
is and what He did? And if you look to him and entrusted
your soul to him, he said, well, yeah. And it's a done deal, isn't it?
You have my faith, not very strong. Nothing about your strength mentioned
in here. If you went to Christ, you were
led by the spirit of God there. Nobody else will take you there.
The spirit of God won't take you anywhere else. If you came
to Christ, it's the spirit of God took you there. And it means
you're a son of God, you are in Christ, and for you there
is now no condemnation. Do you believe that? Brethren, if that's not the way
the gospel is, there is no gospel. And so we can say, as Paul does
later in this chapter, who will bring any charge against God's
elect. It's God that justified him.
You think you can undo God's justification? And he didn't justify because
of anything he found in them, he justified them for what he
found in Christ. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died. Even more, he was raised from
the dead. What's that mean? Well, he died
because he died under sin, but he raised from the dead without
sin. We were in him. Now you notice this. Paul says
in setting forth the certainty of our salvation, he does not
refer to a single thing about us. He said, who's going to bring
a charge against us? God justified us. Who's going
to condemn us? Christ died for us. Now, You got any doubts? To whatever degree you're doubting,
you're looking at something other than God who justifies and Christ
who died and is risen again. Have you gone to Christ? Have
you confessed you're a sinner, unable to save yourself? Have
you cast yourself on him? Yeah? Then be at ease. Return to your
rest, oh my soul. Quit looking at yourself. You're
never gonna find anything in there to convince you that there's
no condemnation. You look to Christ and you'll
find yourself in him and in him there is no condemnation. I knew it'd be a little long,
that's why we didn't sing. But I felt it was important.
It was heavy on my heart. I hope I got it out there like
it's supposed to be. Hope it did you good. Did me
good preparing it. Let's just sing Amazing Grace.