Sunday Sermon: There is No Condemnation (Romans 8:1)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

Romans 8:1 in Context with Romans 7:18-25

Well, good morning. If you would please take your Bible and open to Romans chapter eight, unless you have one of those Bibles that keeps chapters divided on other pages, or maybe if you're using your smartphone, it's got a chapter, a page at a time, I'm actually going to begin in chapter.

Seven.

I want to read what we read last week at the end of chapter seven, and then the passage we'll be looking at today will be the very first verse of chapter eight, but to keep these things in context and also to flow with what we've been reading, what we've been learning about as we go through Romans.

Let's be reminded of the plight, the struggle that Paul was working through at the end of chapter seven to read this glorious promise that we have at the start of chapter eight, which we've already said this morning, even in our responsive reading, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So in honor of the word of the King, would you please stand? This is Romans chapter seven. I'm going to begin reading in verse 18 and go through chapter eight, verse one, Romans seven, starting in 18 through chapter eight, verse one, the apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law.

Of sin.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, what a glorious promise and it is a common refrain among Christians, among the brethren, among those you have called unto yourself.

Through the hearing of the gospel and by faith in Jesus Christ we have been saved so that our call now becomes, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But Heavenly Father, as often as we say it, how much more often do we feel it?

For it seems our own consciences continually condemn us. Just as Paul struggles in his own flesh with what he wants to do but he seems to keep going.

Back to sin.

Why is it that I do the thing that I hate, that I don't want to do and that's what I keep on doing? And yet it's the same in our minds when we try to convince ourselves of the salvation that we have in Christ.

There seems to be that nagging thing that keeps coming forth and telling us, you're not saved. You haven't done enough. How could he possibly love you? Father, as we come to this verse today, I pray that we look upon it with renewed eyes and we hear once again the assurances of the promises you've already given to us in Scripture.

We do as instructed in Hebrews that we hold fast to our confidence but our confidence would not be in ourselves or our ability to will ourselves to understand our salvation. Our confidence is Christ. Show us Christ this morning that we may be sure of this, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And it's in his name that we pray and all God's people said, Amen. When David was fleeing from the wrath of Saul, he came to Gath, the very place where Goliath was from. Goliath whom David had already struck down and killed, beheaded him and paraded his head around as, I've defeated your champion.

And David was sure that while he was there in Gath, he would be recognized and in fact the people already began saying, isn't this that guy of whom it was said Saul has killed his thousands but David his ten thousands?

And David was afraid of Achish the king of Gath for he thought he would be put to death. As a reaction of having killed their own champion. So David disfigured himself and looked like a madman and began scribbling on walls so that the king of Achish says, this isn't David.

Do I not have enough madmen that I have to contend with? You bring me another madman? And after David was able to go away from that place, when God had delivered him once again, he wrote these words in Psalm 34.

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord within me and let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. What great confidence David exudes when he says those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. You know, whenever we do our responsive readings, there's a certain cadence that we take on.

I think it's kind of peer influence more than anything else. But as we read those words that are up there on the screen, you know, you heard kind of the same tone from everybody. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

But I hope that as we read these things this morning, there is much more excitement in your soul over the fact that our sins are not held against us anymore. And so that when people even look at us, they may see we are radiant.

Our faces don't even demonstrate that we are ashamed of anything because we know that we are forgiven in Christ. Not that man could never bring anything against us, other people that are going to accuse us of things all the time, things that we're not even guilty of.

But our confidence is that when I stand before God in judgment, I will be welcomed into his glorious presence as I have that access even now because of what he has done for me in.

Christ Jesus.

And I carry that joy with me every day of this short life that I continue to live until I dwell with him in glory forever in heaven. As we look at this verse this morning, we're only doing one verse today.

So since this is an eating day, praise God, because we've got food waiting for us. I just stepped outside right before coming up front here and I'm already smelling the bacon out there. So we've got some good food waiting for us.

So we're just looking at one verse. Don't underestimate my ability to stretch this out for a really long time, however. We are actually going to be looking at Romans chapter 8 for the rest of the year.

So in the months of October, November, and December, we're going to invest our time to this chapter in understanding the glorious truths that are laid out here. We have this statement, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

And then Paul is going to go on to unpack that. That we may see and know with every word we read throughout this chapter, the assurances that we have because of what God has done for us in Christ our Lord.

We're going to look at this verse, just this verse today, in three parts. First of all, we will understand cleansing, that we've been cleansed of all unrighteousness. Secondly, our confidence, as I've already talked about this morning, and that our confidence would be in Christ and not in ourselves.

And thirdly, we're going to consider covenant. And I'm not just coming up with three points of alliteration to go along with Romans chapter 8. We actually find exactly those three points in this verse.

First of all, there is therefore now, and that is our cleansing, we've been cleansed. No condemnation, that is our confidence, in that absolute statement. For those who are in Christ Jesus, and right there we have covenant.

So those are the three parts we look at today as we come to this verse. I find it necessary to add this particular caveat before we get into this, however. Some of you may be reading a translation where after Christ Jesus you have a comma.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, comma, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. King James, New King James reflect that particular rendering.

But that is actually a statement that you see in verse 4. Look down. Verse 4 says, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

It's the exact same line.

But some have taken that line and moved it up to chapter 8 verse 1. So we're going to get to that. We're just not going to look at that yet today. So don't think that I'm leaving anything out of the verse.

I just had somebody this past week who saw online what I was going to be teaching about the next Sunday and saying to me, you've left out half the verse. No, I haven't. It's still there. It's in verse 4.

We'll get to that. But there was some overzealous scribe hundreds of years ago who decided to bring that part of verse 4 up into verse 8. It's actually not in the earliest manuscripts that we have in the book of Romans.

That's why in some translations it won't be there, in other translations it is. We'll understand that context as we go, but first we focus on just this statement here. Where after Paul had been wrestling with and struggling over those things that are in his own flesh, that war against his conscience that has been renewed in the Holy Spirit, he says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

And his confidence is ultimately in Christ. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what we considered last week the Savior's solution to our sin problem. And so now, confident in God and in Christ Jesus, we come to read, there is therefore.

Now.

That's a connecting statement to the thing that had just previously been said. There is therefore now. No condemnation for those who are in Christ. So let's first of all consider the cleansing that we've been given in Christ Jesus.

And with this particular point, let's search the scriptures together. So more than just me telling you about something, we'll open our Bibles, we'll flip to a few places and we'll read about how we have been cleansed in Christ Jesus.

One of the most famous verses related to our cleansing is 1 John 1 .9. If we ask forgiveness for our sins, if we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us our sins and to do what? To cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And what Christ has done by his death on the cross and by faith in him we have been cleansed of all unrighteousness. This is a fulfillment of types and shadows we were seeing back in the Old Testament.

Cleansing is not talked about in the Bible more than in the Pentateuch, in the law, lots of passages there about cleansing. There's no book of the Pentateuch that talks about cleansing more than Leviticus.

And there's no book or no chapter in Leviticus that talks about cleansing more than chapter 14. Because it's in that chapter where it talks about how the priests are to be set apart from me. They are to be consecrated and there's all different kinds of instructions regarding their cleansing so that that priest would be understood to be pure and holy as they minister on behalf of the people.

Now who ministers on our behalf?

Christ.

And how cleansed is he? Far more than any Levitical priest was cleansed. And as the book of Hebrews says, he is our great high priest who intercedes for us on our behalf. In fact, even right after that verse in 1 John 1 .9 we get to chapter 2 verse 1 where it says, my little children, I have written these things to you that you may not sin.

But if any of you does sin, we have an advocate before the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

One.

There is no one holier, no one purer than Christ himself. And my friends, in Christ Jesus, we've been cleansed and even given his righteousness. That we stand before God dressed in robes that are not of our doing.

They're not of our ability to have washed or cleansed ourselves. But God, by his mercy has forgiven us our sins and clothed us in the righteousness of Christ as we consider our cleansing at this point.

So it's building up to our confidence that we have in Christ. Let's look at a few passages together. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6. So you're going to the right.

With all of these, we're turning to the right and we'll put these in the proper order. So we're just going further to the right. Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the apostle Paul had confronted the church regarding sin in their midst that they were not dealing with.

They were not taking care of a man who was in sin and boasting about his sin. And Paul was saying to the church, you must be cleansed. As long as this sin remains in your midst and the rest of you are flippant about it, you're not holy.

And a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump, is the analogy that he gives. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

So as Christ is holy, we must be holy in all of our conduct. But Paul goes on to speak further about the cleansing that we have received in Christ and by His Holy Spirit. In chapter 6, look down at verse 9.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

Don't be deceived. Those who live in such ways, who live in such conduct, are not kingdom citizens. Now even previously in chapter 5, where Paul was talking about cleansing out the old leaven, he had said there, I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, but he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.

Now Paul is not saying here, look for all those sinners in your church and kick them out so that the church will finally be right. You need to have better churches. If we were to just find and identify all the sinners and kick them out, this room would be empty.

It would be a lot more spacious than it is right now, but there wouldn't be anybody.

In it.

As often as I have encountered persons who say to me, well I don't go to church, it's full of so many sinners. I would say to them, yes, and they're going to add one more when you go there. None of us can point to anybody else and say that we're any better than anyone else.

But when it comes to a person that is actively in practice of this sin and is not repentant of it, they don't demonstrate in their life any understanding of what it means to live righteously, then they show themselves not to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, but a citizen of the kingdom of Satan.

Now of course, the rules that have been given to us regarding church discipline, we would confront somebody in such sin. And if they are indeed indwelt with the Holy Spirit, then they will be convicted over that confrontation and they will turn from their sin.

And then we see the work of the Spirit that exists in their lives. But if in confronting a person in their sin, they just get angry and lash out and they wish the worst upon anybody who would condemn them, judge not is what they start throwing around at people and don't actually demonstrate any conviction of the Spirit in their hearts.

Pretty good indicator that that person is still a slave to their sin and not a slave to righteousness as we read about in Romans chapter 6. And so Paul says these things must be confronted. Anybody who calls themselves brother but doesn't look like a brother, if they won't repent, they must be removed.

Purge the evil person from among you, he said in verse 13. And so therefore this warning that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Lists a bunch of sins, 10 sins that are mentioned there and these people will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now what does Paul say about the Christians that are sitting there in their midst in Corinth? Look at verse 11. And such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

So there were sitting in their midst people who could say, I once was that. That was me. There were people who could say, I once was sexually immoral. I was an idol worshiper. I was an adulterer. I practiced homosexuality.

I was a thief. I was greedy. I got drunk and intoxicated. I reviled people. I hated the people that I didn't like. And I swindled people out of their stuff so that it would benefit me. And in that place, when I existed in that way, I was not a citizen of the kingdom of.

God.

I was of this world that is coming into judgment. But now in Christ Jesus, I'm someone else. I once was that, but I've been washed, cleansed. I've been sanctified, or to be equated with consecrated. I've been set apart by God to receive this justification.

I've been justified, declared innocent in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And so the point being here, with the Corinthians, same as what we've been reading about in Romans, if that therefore is you, then don't continue in that sin any longer.

And the confidence that the Corinthians have is not in themselves. This was a church that was very much boasting of themselves, if you understand this letter. But this is, their confidence is not in themselves, but in Christ.

You have been bought with a price, Paul will go on to say, so glorify God in your body. That's verse 20. So we see, as this cleansing has been given to us, we've been called out from the world. Let us not be united with the world any longer, but be in Christ Jesus.

Let's look at another one. Turn to the right to Ephesians. Let's go to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five, beginning in verse 25. This is Ephesians 5 .25. Now I'm not laying out here a lesson on marriage.

So I'm not going, wives submit to your husband, husbands love your wives. Those instructions are there, do them, okay? But mainly what the picture of a husband loving his wife is supposed to be a picture of.

So Ephesians 5 .25, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her, that he might, what, sanctify her, how, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

We have been cleansed. And how are we cleansed? By the washing of water with the word. Our brother Alan, when he prayed for us this morning, thanked God for an expository church that loves the word of God and teaches it.

My friends, our services are overflowing with God's word. It doesn't just wait until I get up here and open the Bible and begin preaching it. We open with the word. We sing the word. We hear the word preached.

And then we will go out from this place and fulfill the word, doing what we've heard, not just sitting here and fulfilling our religious duty, listening to it. But as James says, don't just be hearers of the word.

Do what it says. It is this word that cleanses us. It is this word that from the very beginning brought us to God. As said in Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through what? The word of Christ.

We have heard the gospel message that has been declared to us. And it was that gospel that penetrated our hearts, that we understood our sin and need for a savior and turned to Christ who saves us. We have been brought into his presence even by the very word and we continue to be washed by the same word that brought us to him, continues to be our sanctification even as we continue this Christian walk.

Let's look at one more. Let's go to Titus chapter three. So still turning to the right to Titus. We were in first and second Timothy and Titus last year. And I've been regularly coming back to those books, even though we've spent all of our year so far in Romans.

The ladies even had committed themselves earlier this year to teaching about women, older women mentoring younger women as talked about in Titus two, and that was the commitment of our women's group. But it's in Titus chapter three, verse three, that we read the following, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

This sounds familiar, doesn't it? This is who we once were, but verse four, when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior.

So that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal.

Life.

Now I'm going to come back to that statement there in verse seven here in just a moment, but you see the, the cleansing once again, we, it has been poured out on us. Richly through the Holy Spirit, go back up a little bit to verse 11.

Let me, let me go to chapter two, verse 11 for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself, a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works, purified again, speaking of our cleansing that we have in Christ.

We've been called out from the world, purified to do those things that are pleasing unto.

The Lord.

That is a, a concept and a teaching that we will continue to read about even as we go through chapter eight. But once again, we are in chapter three, verse seven, justified by his grace that we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is, this is a confident promise. We have been given more than just the forgiveness of our sins, but we are given even the eternal kingdom of God as fellow heirs. I love that, love that parallel of, of being a fellow heir with Christ.

We get all the stuff the king gets. Jesus even says to the faithful churches in revelation two and three to the one who conquers, I will give to him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sit with my father on his throne.

So having considered the cleansing that we've received in Christ, and we've already talked about this, even going through chapter six, being baptized in Christ Jesus, risen to walk in newness of life.

Don't submit your members anymore to your former sinful state, but submit your members as slaves to righteousness. We just continue to receive these reminders of the cleansing that we have in Christ Jesus.

We've been cleansed. So walk as one who has been cleansed. We continue on to our confidence. Let's go back to Romans chapter eight in Romans chapter eight, verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ and being said, there is no condemnation.

We have confidence in that promise. Hebrews 4 16, let us then with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I don't remember which preacher it was who said this, but Jesus went more willingly to the cross than we go to church.

And if we are confident in what Christ has done for us, then let us draw near to the throne of grace that we receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. Now, as I said, fully understanding in my prayer this morning, that's easier said than.

Done.

We will recite this verse or we will talk about those verses about confidence that we have in Hebrews. Hebrews will say them, but it's a lot more difficult to be assured of them. It's a lot more difficult to even feel it.

Sometimes there are plenty of days I don't feel like a Christian. Some days I just feel lost and I continue to believe because it's, it's not upon my strength anyway, but Christ who dwells within me. But even when it comes to our Christian walk, it seems we bring a lot of baggage into this.

Thing.

When you read Pilgrim's Progress, you have that man Pilgrim who later becomes Christian, later becomes called Christian, but he starts with a load on his back and he's trying to have that load removed.

And when he comes to the cross, that load is removed. It's the burden of his sin that he feels guilty over and it's hearing the gospel that relieves him of that burden. And he knows now what we're reading here.

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. But even though we may feel that weight of sin that is removed from us, it still seems there's always some baggage we bring into it. Don't, it isn't there.

It's like, you know, identifying with Paul in chapter seven, I, I want to confidently believe that there is no condemnation in Christ. So why do I still feel condemned? Now, as I'm going to say what I'm going to say here, I don't want anybody to think, oh, well, Gabe's taking a conversation that he and I had together and now he's putting it in his sermon.

I don't, I don't want you to feel that way because I've had this conversation many, many times in 15 years of pastoral ministry. Of those that feel burdened and weighed down by past things so that it causes them to question or doubt their own salvation.

No one could have prepared me before I became a pastor for how many times I would have the conversation about doubting salvation. It happens a lot. And don't be discouraged when you start to feel that way.

Find somebody who will remind you of the promises of God that you may look to Christ and be assured of your salvation. I as a pastor can't popishly declare to you, you're saved. Why are you even coming and talking to me about this?

I can point you to the scriptures though and let the Holy Spirit minister to your heart that you may be confident and sure that these past things that continue to weigh you down are not your reality. Your reality is Christ.

But some have an upbringing that may be pretty strict, might have been one of those independent Baptist fundamentalist upbringings in which all these rules and regulations were placed.

Upon you.

You feel freed from that now. Man, I love being in a church that talks so much about grace, but yet it still creeps back on you. Have I really done enough? I don't do that thing that my parents were constantly drilling into me that I needed.

To do.

So have I done enough? Am I saved? Maybe you had a strict Catholic upbringing. And all of these different rules and regulations, strict Eastern Orthodox upbringing. You know, and I don't mean to say, stand up here and say, hey, we as Reformed Baptists, doesn't it feel good to be a Reformed Baptist and now you don't have to have all that weight.

Of stuff.

It happens even in Reformed Baptist circles. We have in our confession a statement regarding the Sabbath and you have surely come across Reformed individuals who have said, if you're not keeping the Sabbath rules, then you're not really a follower of Jesus Christ.

And those legalistic burdens can cause you to not really enjoy Sunday too much, right? You get to Sunday and you think, am I doing Sunday right? Am I neglecting the promises of God? Am I actually breaking one of the Ten Commandments because I'm not keeping the Sabbath the right.

Way?

And it becomes difficult for you to rest on this day of rest. Instead, you're constantly questioning, have I done enough? You may have had an upbringing where somebody is telling you, what are you so worried about?

Why are you questioning these things? Look in your Bible. Did you write the date down that you accepted Jesus Christ into your heart? Did you write the date down when you were baptized? Well, then you're saved.

Why are you even asking these questions? Makes me, it reminds me of the priest that Martin Luther went to and Martin Luther was constantly bringing up all the time, all of these things that I feel guilty about today and that priest finally said to him, look, come back to me when you have something more substantive than this.

People will constantly point us back to things that are of ourselves. If you've done this, then be assured you have it. But it's never going to be confidence in what we've done. It's confidence in what Christ has done.

I know of a man even who, whose mother never forgave him when he was growing up. And I'm talking about like anything. He would hit his sibling, he would get in trouble for it and he would go to his sibling and say, I'm sorry.

And his mother would say, no, you're not. And that was his upbringing constantly. No matter what he apologized for, he was always told, you're not sorry. And that caused him to doubt when he got older, have I really done enough to receive the forgiveness.

Of God?

And the confidence again, can't be in what we've done. It will always fall short. It can't be on the expectations that everyone else has for us. You're never going to meet up to all of their expectations either.

The confidence must be in Christ.

He died.

He really died. This man really is God incarnate who came to earth, who lived a perfect life on our.

Behalf.

Didn't just die for us. He lived for us before that. Fulfilling all of the righteous requirements of the law that he would be this purified spotless lamb when he goes to the cross to die for us. He was really nailed to that cross.

He was really pierced in his side with the water flowing out. John writing that down explicitly so we would know this man was dead. There was no swooning. He was dead. And he was removed from that cross and wrapped in burial cloths and placed in a borrowed tomb, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, even in fulfillment of what had been prophesied about him in Isaiah 53.

And on the third day, he got up out of those wrappings, even took the face cloth off of his face and folded it neatly and set it down. And he walked out of that tomb, risen bodily from the dead. He was seen for 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven.

His own disciples saw him. They put their hands in the nail scars of his hands and in the hole in his side. Matthew 28 even records for us that when they went to a mountain in Galilee to meet with him before his ascension, some believed and some doubted.

They're looking at him with their own eyes and they're going, I don't believe what I'm seeing. And in Luke 24, saying that he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. How everything they had read and had been prophesied about him was about him and he had fulfilled it.