My text today is Romans chapter
7, verse 24, through Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. The title of my
message, Wretched but Not Condemned. Romans 7, 24, Wretched but Not
Condemned. Now as you know, the chapter
and verse divisions of our English Bible were added by our translators
and they're very useful in helping to remember where a passage of
scripture is and memorizing verses and chapters of the scriptures.
Very useful in that regard. Very useful for dividing up the
chapters for easy reading. But they become a little bit
difficult because we tend to think that because there's a
chapter division there is also a different subject taken up
and that is often not the case. Clearly here the chapter division
is unfortunate because Paul is speaking in chapter 8 of the
very same thing he'd been dealing with in chapter 7. In chapter
8 the words begin like this, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. The word therefore obviously
refers to what Paul had been talking about in chapter 7. So
let's read our text at once together. Romans 7 24. Oh wretched man
that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. I have often heard preachers
say we need to get out of Romans 7 and into Romans 8. Nonsense. For the believer, there is no
getting out of Romans chapter 7 while we walk in this world.
The two are one. The two are speaking about the
experience of one person or speaking about the experience of all God's
elect. I thank God with all my heart
since the day he saved me by his grace. I have never known
what it is to be out of Romans 7 or out of Romans 8. I recognize
and confess my sin, and at the same time rejoice to know there
is right now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
I constantly struggle with sin, with inward corruption, with
my wretchedness, and I rejoice, oh, how I rejoice in the complete,
full, free absolution of all sin through the precious blood
of Jesus Christ, God's darling Son. If you missed Lindsay's
lesson this morning in John 20, you missed another great blessing.
He handled so magnificently our Lord's words to Mary. He said,
touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended. And Lindsay brought
out the fact the word touch means don't hang on to me. The Lord
said to Mary, don't hang on to my body. I'm going to glory. Don't hang on to my physical
flesh. I'm leaving you. I'm going to
heaven because now I have fulfilled all obedience to my Father and
I've accomplished redemption for you. While we live in this
world, Let us live by faith in Him who accomplished our redemption,
who has ascended into heaven, who took His place at the Father's
right hand and intercedes for us. Paul says, so then, look
at verse 24, 25 rather, he says, so then, with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. very next word is, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that
amazing? Isn't that amazing? Fully confessing
his sin, in the teeth of his sin, with a clear awareness of
his sin. The Apostle Paul speaks with
confidence, with joy, with assurance of this fact, though I am a man
full of sin, I'm in Christ Jesus. And that means there is no condemnation
for me. No condemnation. The fact is,
believers, as I've been trying to show you for the last several
weeks in our study in Romans, are in a state of constant conflict. but never in a state of condemnation. At the very same time, when the
conflict is the hottest, our justification, our forgiveness,
our acceptance with God in Christ Jesus is sweetest. Is it not
so? Our Savior declares, blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. Those who know nothing of bitter
mourning over their sin know nothing of the sweet comfort
of grace. If you don't know what it is
to have the pangs of hunger and thirst after righteousness, you
don't know what it is to have the sweet satisfaction of Christ's
fullness. None but those who struggle with
their corruption, with their sin. None but those who know
their utter wretchedness before God can enter into the blessed
assurance proclaimed here by the Apostle. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now I realize,
I realize that everybody in the religious world is taught to
have absolute assurance. Like many of you, most of you
perhaps, when I was just seven years old, I was scared into
making a profession of faith. I walked down to the front of
a church building, knelt down in an altar, and a very nice,
respected, well-meaning man, I knew him well, knew him all
my life growing up, but I was just a seven-year-old boy, and
I got to know John after that, but very nice fellow, highly
respected fellow, intending good because he himself had been deceived.
He took me and went through the scriptures and asked me questions
about did I ever do anything wrong, did I ever lie or cheat
on a test or that stuff, you know, did I ever take something
that your mama told you not to take. Well, yes, that's sin. That's sin. You know, sinners
go to hell, you don't want to go to hell, do you? No, that's
what got me here. No, and I just bawled and he
was bawling too. He took me down to what they
call Romans Road and asked me now to say this prayer after
me and I repeated his very words. And he squeezed my shoulders
up to his chest and he said, now Don, you're saved. Don't
ever doubt that. And you can live with that farce until you go to hell if
you want to. But you know and I know there's
nothing real about that nonsense. It's all fake religion, fake
religion somebody else gave you, fake religion you know nothing
at all about in experience. Believers are men and women who
have been made to mourn their sin and hunger and thirst after
righteousness. and find sweet comfort and satisfaction
in Jesus Christ the Lord believing him. Now notice our text is written
in the present tense. If you miss that, you'll miss
much of the force and sweetness in this passage. The word now,
now, now. shows how distinctly this statement
of non-condemnation is consistent with the mingled experience of
the believer in grace while he lives in this world. Right now,
right now, right now. If you're in Christ right now,
no matter what went on with you yesterday or last night, No matter
what's going on with you right now. Right now. If you're in Christ, there's
no condemnation. No condemnation. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. The passage
describes the conflict that unregenerate people can never enter into. Religious professors can never
know, because they neither delight in the law of God after the inner
man, nor do they agonize over the body of this death in which
we live. Every believer readily identifies
with Paul's words. We make no attempt to hide from God what we are. We confess our sins. We confess
our sin. I have on occasions had folks
to call me up or come visit me and want to confess their sin
to me. I want to acknowledge some evil
they've done. And I stop them when they start.
I don't need to hear about that. I don't need to hear about that.
I don't need to hear about that. And I can't do anything about
it. You see, it's easy. to confess your sin to me. It's
easy to go to a confessional booth and to confess your sin.
I mean by that your acts. The things you did that folks
look at and say that's bad. We don't have folks to come forward
in church and confess their sin publicly. Don't do that. Don't
do that. Why not? That's easy. That's
getting off easy. That's getting off easy. We confess
our sin to God. And every believer does. Not just his acts. Not just the fact that he lied
yesterday, or cheated, fell out of some money the day before
yesterday, or cheated on his wife last night. Not just that. And those things are horrible.
I don't make light of that in the least. But that's not the
confession of sin. opens his heart to God and hides
nothing. And I want to tell you something.
You who know nothing about that, that's as painful as life gets. That's as painful as life gets. The believer confesses his sin. We recognize that we are nothing
but sin. and yet confessing our sin. In
fact, only when we confess our sin do we find ourselves resting
in the sweet assurance of complete forgiveness by faith in Christ
Jesus the Lord. Reading our text with the emphasis
then on the present tense, our hearts ought to sing with joy.
With all our watching and warring, with all our fear and trembling,
Oh, how I rejoice in the Lord with this assurance. There is
therefore now, right now, today, December 27th, 2015, for Don
Fortner, no condemnation. No condemnation. Oh, blessed,
blessed good news. Now, let me show you four things
in these verses of Scripture. And I'm going to be as personal
as I possibly can be in talking to you about myself and my experience
of grace. And I pray that you can enter
into it. And I pray that you who have
never entered into it will today enter into it. Here is first
my lamentation. Oh, wretched man that I Oh, wretched man that I am. The phrase is a phrase spoken
by one weary and worn out with conflict. It might be read this
way. Oh, miserable man I am. Paul speaks of groaning. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Very familiar to you, but look at it. We know that if our earthly house
and this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we
groan. What a word. we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. I can't remember who it was,
but I read years ago and I was reminded of it as Lindsay was
teaching the class this morning. He's sick and been sick for a
while, and his wife and children were standing by his bed and
very sad and crying. And he looked at his wife, took
her hand and looked at his children. He said, please let me go. Please let me go. And they understood
his desire. Please let me go. In this we
grow, not desiring, Not desiring to be unclothed. Oh, no. Not
just feeling sorry for ourselves because our boy got in trouble
or our daughter got in trouble or husband left you, wife left
you. No, no, no, no. Not just feeling
sorry for ourselves because we've got ourselves in trouble. No,
no, no, no, no. Desiring to be clothed upon with
immortality. clothed upon with the perfection
of Christ our Redeemer. But in this day, while we live
in this body, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. True faith acknowledges and confesses
sin. Listen to this word of God's
church. She speaks to her beloved and says, I am black. I am black. I am black. My own vineyard have I not kept. I am black with sin because of
my nature. I am black in the eyes of others
because of my actions. I am much more black in my own
eyes because I know what I am. God's people like Job, acknowledge,
behold, I am vile. I abhor myself. With David we
confess against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this great
evil in thy sight. With Daniel we confess my comeliness
is turned to corruption and I have no strength. The fact is Any
sinner who believes on the Son of God, any sinner who sees Christ
in the glory of His grace, having accomplished redemption by the
sacrifice of Himself, any sinner whose lips have been purged with
white-hot coals from off the altar of Christ's burnt offering
as our sacrifice for sin, confesses, woe is me, for I am undone. Oh, wretched man! that I am. We have this struggle Paul has
been talking about in this chapter with flesh and spirit. I find
it extraordinary, extraordinary that men have difficulty understanding
what Paul is saying in this passage of scripture. The believer is
not a person whose old nature has been renovated. He's not
a person whose old nature has been cured. Whose old nature has been made
holy. No, no, no. The believer is one
in whom Christ has come. One in whom God has created a
new man in righteousness and true holiness. And those two
natures are constantly at war with one another. I was discussing
this with Brother Eric and Frank and Cody Walton out of Mexico,
John Newton's hymn, "'Tis a Point I Long to Know." I say this and
sometimes folk get the idea I disapprove of the hymn. I don't. I disapprove
of it for public worship. I don't have it in our songbooks. It's not in most songbooks anyway. But the hymn is one that believers
often experience because of this horrible warfare. Because with
the flesh, with the flesh, with the flesh, I serve the body of
sin. Tis a point I long to know, often
causes anxious thoughts. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why
this dull, this lifeless frame? Hardly sure could they be worse
who have never heard thy name. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I
deem myself a child? I understand that conflict. I
have been there many times and I have been there often. Because
we look within. Because we look in ourselves
for something to give us peace. Because we look in ourselves
for something to give us hope. We want to find in ourselves
some evidence that we're gods. But Lindsey, honesty just won't
allow that. Honesty just won't allow that.
I ask you, every one of you who profess faith in our Redeemer,
every one of you, is there anybody here who has anything in their
lives, any experience, any thought, any aspiration, any act, any
deed that you think gives evidence that you're one of God's. Anybody? Anybody? Stand up and speak. Anybody? Were you to do so, I would say
you're lying to yourself. You know You don't have the kind
of love for God, the kind of love for your brother you ought
to have. You know your mind's not what it ought to be. You
know your aspirations aren't holy. You know that's not true. You know it's not true. With
the mind, with this carnal nature, you and I serve sin and nothing
but sin. Yes, we love Christ. Yes, We try to pray and do pray
the best of our ability. Yes, we bow to God's wise providence. Yes, our God has set our hearts
on things above. Yes, we are God's witnesses in
this world. But oh, what little love there
is for Christ. What little prayers found in
our hearts. How much grumbling and discontent
with God's providence. How much overmuch care for this
world, how much undue attachment for this world, how little, how
little we think of eternity and Christ and things above and how
much our minds are fixed on things below. Well, how can you say
that? I think about heaven and eternity
and Christ all the time. Do you really? How can we talk
so much about politics then? How can we talk so much more
about the news in Danville than the good news of redemption? How come if my mind is so heavenly,
how come I think so much more about what's going on around
me than I do about what God has done for me and is doing for
me by his grace? Because with the mind, we serve
the law of sin. That's just sad fact. Yet, we have reason even now
to give thanks. Because we know we're saved by
grace and not by works. Saved by Christ's blood and Christ's
righteousness, not by our doing. Preserved and kept by Christ
intercession for us in heaven and not by something we do Now
look at the next slide in our text That's my lamentation here's
my desire Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Paul didn't say this body of
death. He said the body of this death
This body, this physical frame, is not the corrupt thing. This physical frame, it's decaying. It's getting old. Some of you
have seen pictures of me when I was a young man. You wouldn't recognize the same
man if you saw the same man today in a picture. You'd say, those
can't be the same person. Just can't be. Too much change.
That's because this body is getting old. This body is decaying. This body soon will die as God
has ordained. But that is the death of this
body of sin. That inner man of ungodliness. That inner man called Adam. old man called sin, that old
nature, the lust of the flesh. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Soon, bless God, I shall be delivered
from the body of this death. And when this earthly house of
this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building, a house made
by God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We earnestly
groan, earnestly desiring not to be unclothed, but clothed
upon. That's the case with God's people. We live with this body of death. I told you a few weeks ago, I'm
certain the picture Paul had in his mind wasn't familiar to
the Romans. A murderer condemned by the courts would have the
body of a murdered victim attached to him. And he would have to
walk around day after day with that dead corpse attached to
him. Night after night, sleep. with that dead corpse attached
to him as that dead corpse just rots. He had to live with the stench
and had to breathe the air. When he ate his meals, he had
the stench and the filth of that rotting body attached to him. We have something worse. We have the dead corpse of fallen
Adam in us and we never take a breath without breathing the
foul air of that fallen dead corpse. Adam, that old man. Our desire is to be delivered
from this body of death. That is to be free from sin. Free from unbelief. Free from myself. My dear friend, Brother Joe Vandal,
the Lord took him home last Friday. I intend to write to his children
tomorrow. My granddaughter called me on
Friday evening. They're all brokenhearted, and
I understand it. Brother Joe and his wife were
faithful, faithful man and wife in the Church of Cottageville,
West Virginia, through some difficult years. And Joe was, in God's
providence, the glue that held that church family together for
many years. God used him to maintain the
witness of the gospel in that place through great difficulties. And he'll be missed by the congregation,
missed by his family, but now he's free from the body of this
death. And soon, Burrough, we shall
be. I can't imagine what it'll be to be free from sin, to be free from unbelief, to
be free from the fall, to be free from corruption to be free
in the glorious liberty of the sons of God with my mind and
my heart and my soul free from every trace of Satan's slime
upon me. The experience of God's grace
in this present state makes Christ dearer now and will make him
dearer in eternity than he could otherwise have been to our souls. How blessed, how blessed, how
blessed it is to look away from myself and my sins and find righteousness
in Christ. Oh, how delightful to look away
from myself and my faithlessness and find faithfulness in my Savior. How blessed it is to look away
from myself, my corruption, and find holiness in God my Savior. Now, look at verse 24 and 25
together. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death. And when Paul
asked that question, he wasn't expressing doubt or uncertainty.
He's expressing a great desire to be free from sin and death
altogether. The question is rhetorical. He
gives this confident answer. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. This is my confidence. Christ has delivered me. Christ is delivering me. And Christ shall deliver me. Turn, my soul, oh turn your eyes
away from self to Christ. He redeemed us that we may no
longer served the lust of our flesh, but him who died and gave
himself for us. He redeemed us that we should
no longer live after the flesh, but after the spirit. He redeemed
us that we should no longer live to ourselves, but unto him, serving
God. Let us serve him then with our
mind, with our hearts, and ask grace that we may walk before
God all the days of our lives, serving Him continually. Oh God,
help me to live unto God. To live unto God. I have been praying I think, I have been praying
every day, countless times through every day for almost 49 years. Lord, help me today to live to
you, to honor you, serve you. Keep me from bringing reproach
on you. Give me grace to magnify your
name, to serve your cause. And I have more earnest desire
to that end now than I have in 49 years. And I'm not one bit
closer to the attainment. But this is the heart burden
of every heaven-born soul with the mind, I serve my God. The inner man, that inner man
that loves Christ, that walks with God, no pretense of some
kind of inherent righteousness or holiness. I know better than
that. But God's put in us a new man. A new man created in righteousness
and true holiness that serves Him and walks with Him, believing
Him. Now fourth, in Romans 8 verse
1, I'll wrap this up. Here's my joy, my heart's delight
in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Now, Paul is speaking in the
present tense. I remind you again. He's not
talking about future condemnation. He's talking about right now.
He doesn't say there's no corruption. He has already confessed better
than that. He doesn't say there's no correction.
The Lord will correct us for our transgressions. The apostle
doesn't say there's nothing in us that deserves condemnation. Everything in us by nature deserves
condemnation. But Paul doesn't simply say there's
no condemnation to me or to any particular believer. He says
there's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Are you in Christ? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you trust Christ? There's
no condemnation for you. Not today, not tomorrow, not
forever. No judgment, no curse, no condemnation. No judgment, no curse, no condemnation. Judgment's finished. The prince
of this world's cast out. Our consciences sometimes accuse
us as we look at ourselves and would condemn ourselves. Our
neighbors, family and friends, and our foes accuse us and we
recognize they have reason to do so. Satan would accuse and
condemn us, but there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Oh, God help you now to believe on the Son of God and know the
blessedness of no condemnation. No condemnation. No condemnation
because of original sin. No condemnation because of actual
sin. No condemnation because of our
inward corruption. No condemnation though we know
ourselves utterly wretched. No condemnation because there's
no guilt. No guilt. No guilt. Oh, but pastor, you've been telling
us we're guilty of Horrendous crimes. Not any longer. No guilt. Christ Jesus took our
sin and made it his own and suffered the wrath of God to the full
satisfaction of justice. And by his suffering, put away
our sin. And that means we have no guilt. heaven says, no guilt. God says,
no guilt. And our hearts sprinkle with
the blood of Christ. Looking to Christ, our hearts
condemn us not. Our consciences purge with the
blood of Christ are freed from dead works and we have no guilt. Christ put away our sin. Paul, if you read through the
rest of this eighth chapter, seems to mount the white stallion
of the victor and rise through the streets of Zion saying, who
shall separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus?
There's no condemnation. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Blessed
be God The verdict is in, and God says, not guilty. Not guilty
of all those past crimes. Not guilty of all our present
transgressions. Not guilty of any future offenses. Christ has put away our sin. If you haven't read it, I recommend
that you read Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. If you have read
it and it's been a long time ago, I suggest you read it again.
In the Pilgrim's Progress, when Giant Despair's head was cut
off, Mr. Bunyan said that Pilgrim danced,
and well he might. Mr. Despondency and Miss Much
Afraid took a turn, and even ready to halt with his crutches,
joined the party. When he saw the monster's head
on a pole, he couldn't help rejoicing. Here is the monster sin's head
held up on a pole. No condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. In Christ. One with Him. In Christ. In Christ by God's
purpose, by God's grace, by God's doing. Created one with Christ. Christ in us and us in Christ. Christ, vitally joined to Him
by faith. No condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. These are they who are in Christ. How do you know whether or not
you are in Christ? They walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. What does that mean? What does
that mean? who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. Sadly, you have probably heard
many tell you that believers are people who don't do this
thing, don't do the other thing. Well, there's a sense in which
that's right, Sammy. Believers are people who don't
trust their works. That's what it is to walk after
the flesh. you've got to do is read the next few verses and
you'll see that. He says, Christ came to do what we couldn't do
in the flesh. Christ came to fulfill the law. Those who walk
after the flesh are men and women who hope to find acceptance with
God by something they do. That's what it is to walk after
the flesh. We walk after the Spirit. We find acceptance with God by what Christ has done. That's all. That's all. That's
all. This is my hope. This is my plea
that Jesus died and died for me. That's all. That's all. Nothing I feel. Sometimes I feel close to God and I'm thankful for that. Sometimes
I think I have some communion with God and I rejoice in that. Sometimes I think maybe I know
what it is to be on the mountaintop rejoicing. But I can't very well
sing, I'm living on the mountain underneath a cloudy sky. I can't
very well sing that. Sometimes I think I get there,
and I'm thankful for that. But those mountaintop experiences,
that communion with God, that fellowship with Him, isn't my
hope. I hope that I profit your souls. I hope my labors are beneficial
to many, but should I know they were beneficial to untold multitudes,
that's no hope. That's no hope. I'm thankful
you've come to express your appreciation for me. I'm thankful for that,
but that doesn't give me any hope with God. What's your hope? This sinner trusts Christ and only Christ. This sinner trusts Christ and
only Christ. Christ, the Lord, my righteousness,
the Lord, my Redeemer. How would you like to go home
today with God speaking in your soul? No condemnation. Huh? Would you like to go home today
with God speaking in your soul? No condemnation. Believe on the
Son of God and go home free. Amen.