Back to Emmanuel Evangelical Church - Sermons

Rev Graham Harrison           Sunday September 17th 2000 p.m.

Romans 8:1

ëJesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no moreí [John 8:1-11].

ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí [Romans 8:1].

One could go on and on enumerating many of the blessings and privileges that come to us because we are Christians. In a sense this letter to the Romans is an extended statement of all of those blessings. I may be a bit presumptuous in doing this but I think if I were to have included the apostle Paul in that same straw pole and asked him, ëWhat is the greatest blessing?í I would not have been at all surprised if he would have said to me: ëRomans 8 verse one!í: ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí. In one sense it is the climax of his argument, or at least the pivot around which the whole of this epistle swings. The message that Paul has stated beforehand leads up to this tremendous conclusion ó and it is a conclusion. You notice that he uses that very logical word, therefore. It is the sort of word that makes you think back and ask why has he said that. Of course the answer is because of all that he has written in the previous seven chapters. This is the climax, this is the consequence that comes as a result of all the blessings that he has been describing for us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí.

I grant you readily that it is somewhat invidious to try and single out one thing above others ó and in one sense I do not want to do that this evening ó but I do want to call your attention to this great blessing that seems so to exult the soul and the spirit of the apostle Paul. Before he comes to the end of the chapter it is going to cause him to break out in a glorious ascription of praise to God, knowing that this God is never going to fail him, that nothing in earth, nothing in hell is ever going to be able to separate him from the love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. So here he is rejoicing in the fact that there is ëno condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí. What I want to do is simply to share with you from this letter, and indeed more generally from the Bible itself, why it is that this so moved the apostle Paul. Why it is that he sets this very simply statement before these Christians there in the church in Rome, to which he is writing in order that they might share with him in the joy and the thrill of knowing that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

I want to do it because this really strikes a note that in a very distinctive way is a Christian note. The world does not deal in this sort of category; the world is the very opposite; the world is waiting to pounce. When it sees a man or a woman in trouble, it starts leaping upon him. It explodes all his excuses, it cuts the ground from under his feet when he begins to try to explain the predicament that he might be in and why it is that he is in the trouble. It seeks to expose him as a hypocrite. You know the phrase that has been current even with some of the politicians in recent months ó naming and shaming. If you can identify somebody, you do not take him to one side and have a quiet word with him and see if you can help him, see if there is any way you can put together the broken pieces of his life. No, you placard before everybody else what a rotten hopeless person he is and how people like him have got no place in society. You name them and you shame them! I guarantee as you open your newspapers tomorrow morning you will find that same spirit, that same attitude, very very, clearly demonstrated.

It is something of course that, sadly, we have all done. You might almost say that there is that in the natural human heart that warms to it. We seem to take a delight in people being exposed, especially if we can find a little bit of hypocrisy to tag onto that particular person. There is this perverse delight in being able to identify and condemn him. But that is not what the gospel does! The gospel is really the very opposite of that. That is what Paul is glorying in here: ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí. And if the world glories in not forgiving those whom it catches out and whom it has been able to expose in their evil and in their sin, it is as if the gospel does the very opposite ó it wants to cover things up. Indeed there is a verse later on in the New Testament that speaks about hiding a multitude of sins: ëLet him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the erro r of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sinsí [James 5:20]. Where would the newspapers be tomorrow if they acted on that principle? If instead of being able to emblazon across their pages the sins, the misdemeanours, the transgressions of the people ó if instead of that they had to print blank pages because the sins had been covered up and hidden away? That is the delight of the gospel. It comes to people who are wretched and hopeless sinners and yes, it offers them that way of escape that means as Paul puts it here: ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí.

You have only really to turn to any of the four Gospels that we have here in the New Testament to find proof in abundance of the pernicious and wicked delight that some people take in acting on the very opposite principle that Paul is glorying in here. As you read through the Gospels, you do not have to read many pages before you discover that the Lord Jesus Christ was in conflict with the Pharisees. The incident described in the eighth chapter of Johnís Gospel was one such instance. The Pharisees had really triumphed on this occasion. They had managed to fasten on a woman who was an adulteress. To make matters worse not only was she an adulteress but they had actually caught her in the act of adultery. So they bring her to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not looking for Him to forgive her; they are not looking for Him somehow to come to her and pick up the broken fragments of her life and give her some hope of mercy and restoration. ëNoí, they say, ëMoses in the law taught us what to do about this. This woman should be stoned to deathí. Why they had not brought the man I do not know! Perhaps it was one of their friends and they did not want to embarrass him ó but they brought the woman along.

They were looking for Christ to say, ëYes, take her away. Stone her!í Christ ignored them. Christ invited anybody amongst them that was without sin to cast the first stone ó and one by one each of them crept away until eventually the Lord Jesus Christ was left alone with the woman. He asked where they had all gone. ëIs there no one to condemn you, He asked? She replied, ëNo one, Lordí And then He spoke those words: ëNeither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.í It was the very opposite of what the world does. The world, had they newspapers and television in those days, would have put out a story so that everybody could have seen it. They would have given you her background, told you who her relatives were, tried to dig out something about the man that was involved as well. She would have been named, she would have been shamed ó but the Lord Jesus Christ does neither! We do not know her name, she slips off the pages of history ó all that we know is that Christ forgave her. The very opposite of the attitude of the world.

And yet I suppose we all feel that when people do wrong, they should face up to the consequences of it For example we would feel indignant.if we were to discover that in the law courts of our land there was a particular judge, or a group of judges, who when very wicked criminals were brought before them and when the case was proved infallibly against them, did not condemn them. We would say, ëThat makes a mockery of justice. Surely the whole point of a legal system is that where wickedness has been committed, that wickedness should be punished according to the law of the land.í I daresay that there are few things that irritate us more than discovering that justice is not always blind and that sometimes it can be very partial so that quite wrong verdicts can be arrived at. We feel that there is something wrong with a system like that. And the reason is that built into our very being there is a principle of justice that evil must and should be punished.

Of course that is right! God has made us like that and, in measure, in believing that we reflect something about God. Indeed, you have to go no further than this very letter from which I am preaching this evening, the letter to the Romans, to discover that what I have just said is true. As you read on through the opening couple of chapters of the letter, you discover that God is a judge ó and, unlike many human judges, He is absolutely just and righteous. You can read what is one of the most fearsome chapters in the whole of the word of God, the second chapter of the epistle, and the message that comes out with abundant clarity and emphasis from it is a very simple message ó God is just. You cannot pull the wool over His eyes, you cannot fool Him. He is not partial; He cannot be bribed; He cannot be diverted from the administration of justice. God is a just and holy God.

In that very chapter this is how the apostle has argued: ëAnd thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things,í ó and he has given a terrible catalogue of sins in the first chapter ó ëand doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; Ö For there is no respect of persons with God.í And he goes on to speak of: ëthe day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospelí Romans 2:3-16].

The idea that many people today have of God is that God, whatever He is and whoever He is, is not a judge. God? Yes, He is there to hear my prayers; He is there to answer me; He is there to get me out of trouble; He is there to be at my beck and call whenever I am in any sort of need ó but please do not mention to me that He is a judge! If you had come to the apostle Paul with that point of view he would have dealt with you very straightly. He would have said, ëYou have not understood the first principle about God! God is holy, God is good, God is righteous ó God therefore must judge sin.í And even though the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to be a Saviour and not to be a judge, when He comes the second time He will be coming as the judge. That is what the apostle said in those verse from chapter two of this epistle. So in one sense we not only understand this reaction that in I have been criticising this evening, but we say there there is something right about it! There is something truthful about it. God must be a judge. Then as the apostle begins to open up his great message as he states the gospel in such consistent ways in this letter, you understand something of the terrible problem and the plight that we sinners find ourselves in. It is the fact that God is like that which is a real problem for us.

You see there are times when we do wrong, or when we observe one another doing wrong, that we are able to get off, are we not! Sometimes we are able to plead extenuating circumstances. Or sometimes, particularly if you have got ëthe gift of the gabí you are able to persuade somebody that what you have done is not wrong, that in fact it is the height of virtue and goodness! And you have deceived them. You cannot do that with God. God reads our hearts, God knows our motives, God is never deceived. The s ame apostle writes in another of his letters ëBe not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reapí [Galatians 6:7]. God cannot be fooled. Therefore when God sees sin, God ultimately must judge and punish sin.

Or perhaps the better way to put it would be in a personal way because sin in itself is not a self existent entity. Sinners sin and therefore God does not only judge sin, God judges sinners ó that means you and me! That is the whole problem that Paul is dealing with here as he writes this letter and as he states this great message of the gospel that he has gone around the ancient world preaching. He is dealing with manís problem. Listen to him in the third chapter: ëNow we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of siní [Romans 3:19-20]. That is our problem, isnít it! The problem is that we know what we should do ó but we do not do it. We know what we ought not to do ó but we do it. There is no excuse. We are there guilty before God. That is the human predicament; that is the problem that the gospel alone is able to meet.

The question, therefore that arises is a very simple one: how do you get from those verses that I have just been quoting to you and the whole concept that lies behind them ó that of God being the just and the righteous judge who can never be fooled or deceived, the God who can never be perverted to give a false and an unjust judgment ó how do you get from there to what the apostle Paul says here: ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí? How can God pardon sinners. That is not just the message of this wonderful epistle to the Romans, it is the great message of the Bible. It is why Jesus Christ came down to earth from heaven ó He came in order that sinners like us, instead of being condemned, might be pardoned and forgiven. Paul at various points ó and I am going to refer to some of them in the course of what I have to say to you this evening ó the apostle Paul at these various points begins to state great truths about the Lord Jesus and what He has done, just as he had begun to speak of our hopelessness in sin. He says: ëBut now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesusí [Romans 3:21-26].

It is a very compact section but it really tells us the great story of the gospel. It tells us who Jesus is; it tells us what Jesus has done, why He came to earth. Some people think that Jesus came earth to show us how to live. He did not. If that is all that He came to do, would to God He had stayed in heaven because all that such a life would do would be simply to condemn us and leave us feeling utterly and absolutely hopeless. There in Him you see, perfection personified ó and you put yourself beside Him and you will never even begin to approach Him. You see that He was tempted in every way like we are, but unlike us He never once succumbed to the temptation. You can see how men were on to Him day after day, trying to catch Him out, trying to ensnare Him and trip Him up in His words. I daresay you have known something of that, havenít you? Not in the same scale in which it came to the Lord Jesus Christ, but people have been after your blood, metaphorically speaking, and they have been waiting to expose you. It irritates you, doesnít it! You long to get back at them, you long to turn the tables on them, you long to put them in their place. But read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and you do not find Jesus acting like that. You find instead in the face of dire provocation, words of grace and kindness.

I am reading a book at the moment, it was by an Australian who was one of the founders of the Borneo Evangelical Mission. He went to Sarawak, ëBorneoí as it used to be called, in 1928 with two young companions. They went up into the interior to pagan head-hunting tribes and they began to preach to them of the gospel of the grace of God and amazingly wonderful things happened. These primitive tribes-folk in many, many cases were converted and became Christians. But then the Second World War came and in 1941 this man along with some other missionaries and companions went down from the interior to the coast to surrender to the Japanese. They decided to do that because they knew that if they stayed up in hiding where they were in the interior in the mountains, it would be so much the worse for the tribes-folk that they were with because, to be sure, the Japanese would have sent some sort of punitive expedition up river and would have slaughtered the tribes people as well as going for the missionaries themselves. So they went down and surrendered and were interned.

One of the guards who was looking after them was also an interpreter. He came to the man of whom I am speaking, a man by the name of Charles Hudson Southwell, and he said, ëHave you got a Bible?í And Charles Hudson Southwell said, ëYes.í ëGive it to meí, he said. But Southwell said, ëIt is very precious to me. It is the only one I have got.í It was actually the Bible he had brought with him from Australia, back in the late 1920s, when he had gone to Sarawak. ëGive it to me!í said the guard and he had no alternative ó he had to hand it over to him and away went the man. Seven days later he came back and he pointed to Lukeís Gospel, chapter twenty three and verse thirty four. He said: ëThat is the best verse in the Bibleí Do you know what it is? Jesus on the cross: ëFather, forgive them; for they know not what they do.í That was the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in that dire extremity of the agony of His death, there was not resentment, there was not revenge; there was the expression of mercy and forgiveness.

I say if all that Christ had come down to earth from heaven to do was to show us how to live what a judgment on us it would be. No hope, no prospect of us being uplifted and encouraged by that. We would simply be pressed down even farther in to the mire of our own sin and our own perverseness. But He did not come to show us how to live. He came to do something about the fact that we do not live as we should live. He came to do something about the fact that God, the judge of sin and of sinners, still loves us and desires the salvation of those sinners. And so He sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world ó not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). That meant that He had to stand where we stand; He had to be tempted like we are tempted; He had to triumph over it all. And then He had to go up to the cross and die and in dying doing the most amazing thing that this world has ever witnessed, although sadly the world does not realise what it was that was happening. There on the cross the sins of people like you and me were heaped upon Him and punished in Him, justly by His own Father, so that sinners might be forgiven.

If you ever wonder what a word that we do not use very much but that comes in the twenty fifth verse of Romans three means ëWhom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloodí [Romans 3:25]. That word propitiation means somebody who stands in our place and draws to himself the righteous anger of a holy God, so that we can be pardoned and forgiven. The apostle Paul as he works his way through the argument that really is this letter to the Romans, glories in the cross: ëFor when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for usí [Romans 5:6-8]. You see God could not just snap His fingers and say, ëI will forget about siní. He would have ceased to be God if He had acted like that! Sin has to be punished and how can the sinner escape punishment and yet his sin be punished? That is why the story of the cross is the most amazing and moving story that this world can ever hear because it tells us of a God who sent His own Son and a Son who willingly and freely came to bear the justice of God so that we who deserve to die might live.

That is how Paul comes to this point. ëëThere is thereforeí he says, ënow no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí. He is speaking about those who are Christians; that little phrase ëin Christ Jesusí is almost a technical term, you might say, in the letters of the apostle Paul, to describe those who come as sinners to Jesus and who have trusted in Him. Now it is as if God looks on them as being part and parcel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He sees His Son He sees them in Him, clothed with all His perfection and His righteousness. No condemnation, the condemnation has fallen upon His own Son and it has passed by those who now are in Him. ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí.

It is a wonderful story, isnít it! It is not just a story, it is the truth. Our friends here this evening who are to express their faith as they follow the command of the Lord Jesus Christ are baptised would say, ëThank God that has happened to us! We sinners have looked to Jesus and Jesus has borne our sin and God for Christís sake has pardoned usí. They have not come because they are more virtuous than the rest of you. They have not come because they think somehow there is a great potential that God has discerned in them. They have come simply as sinners to Jesus, sinners who have trusted in Him and now are able from their hearts to say and apply it to themselves as they say it, ëThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí.

Before I came this evening I went and got a couple of books from my bookshelves, two diaries. Diaries of two brothers who died over two hundred years ago, one in 1788 and the other one in 1791. Perhaps they are the two most famous brothers in British history ó John and Charles Wesley. They were preachers; before they became Christians they were ministers and then in a wonderful way in the year 1738 both of them were converted. Something wonderful took place by way of transformation in their lives. I want to quote to you from the most famous of them, John, and this was many, many years afterwards, I think he was eighty one when this happened.

It was the year 1784 and it is Sunday December the 26th, Boxing Day. This is what he says:

Sun. 26.ó I preached the condemned criminalsí sermon in Newgate. Forty-seven were under sentence of death. While they were coming in there was something very awful in the clink of their chains.

But no sound was heard, either from them or the crowded audience, after the text was named: ëThere is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons that need not repentance.í The power of the Lord was eminently present, and most of the prisoners were in tears. A few days after twenty of them died at once, five of whom died in peace. [John Wesley's Journal, Sunday 26^th December 1784]

Wed., July 12th. I preached at Newgate to the condemned felons, and visited one of them in his cell, sick of a fever; a poor black that had robbed his master. I told him of one who came down from heaven to save lost sinners, and him in particular; described the sufferings of the Son of God, his sorrows, agony, and death. He listened with all the signs of eager astonishment ; the tears trickled down his cheeks while he cried, ìWhat! was it for me? Did God suffer all this for so poor a creature as me?î I left him waiting for the salvation of God.

Sat., July 16th. 1 preached there again with an enlarged heart; and rejoiced with my poor happy Black; who now believes the Son of God loved him, and gave himself for him.

Mon., July 17th. Ö At Newgate I preached on death (which they must suffer the day after to-morrow). Ö At one I was with the Black in his cell; James Hutton assisting. Two more of the malefactors came. I had great help and power in prayer. One rose, and said, he felt his heart all on fire, so as he never found himself before; he was all in a sweat; believed Christ died for him. I found myself overwhelmed with the love of Christ to sinners. The Black was quite happy. The other criminal was in an excellent temper; believing, or on the point of it. I talked with another, concerning faith in Christ: he was greatly moved. The Lord, I trust, will help his unbelief also. Ö

Tues., July 18th. The Ordinary (i.e. the Chaplain) read prayers and preached. I administered the sacrament to the Black, and eight more; having first instructed them in the nature of it. I spake comfortably to them afterwards. Ö
At night I was locked in with Bray in one of the cells. We wrestled in mighty prayer. All the criminals were present; and all delightfully cheerful. The soldier, in particular, found his comfort and joy increase every moment. Another, from the time he communicated, has been in perfect peace. Joy was visible in all their faces. We sang,

ìBehold the Saviour of mankind,
 Nail'd to the shameful tree
 How vast the love that him inclined
To bleed and die for thee,î &c.

It was one of the most triumphant hours I have ever known. Ö

Wed., July 19th. I rose very heavy, and backward to visit them for the last time. Ö At half-hour past nine their irons were knocked off and their hands tied. I went in a coach with Sparks,Ö and a friend Ö. By half-hour past ten we came to Tyburn, waited till eleven : then were brought the children appointed to die. I got upon the cart (and the chaplain) endeavoured to follow, when the poor prisoners begged he might not come; and the mob kept him down.

I prayed Ö We had prayed before that our Lord would show there was a power superior to the fear of death. Newington had quite forgot his pain. They were all cheerful ; full of comfort, peace, and triumph; assuredly persuaded Christ had died for them, and waited to receive them into paradise. Greenaway was impatient to be with Christ.

The Black had spied me coming out of the coach, and saluted me with his looks. As often as his eyes met mine, he smiled with the most composed, delightful countenance I ever saw. Read caught hold of my hand in a transport of joy. Newlngton seemed perfectly pleased. Hudson declared he was never better, or more at ease, in mind and body. None showed any natural terror of death: no fear, or crying, or tears. All expressed their desire of our following them to paradise. I never saw such calm triumph, such incredible indifference to dying. We sang several hymns; Ö and the hymn entitled, ìFaith in Christ,î which concludes,

 ìA guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
  Into thy hands I fall:
 Be thou my life, my righteousness,
  My Jesus, and my all.î

We prayed Him, in earnest faith, to receive their spirits. I could do nothing but rejoice: kissed Newington and Hudson; took leave of each in particular. Mr. Broughton bade them not be surprised when the cart should draw away. They cheerfully replied, they should not; expressed some concern how we should get back to our coach. We left them going to meet their Lord, ready for the Bridegroom. When the cart drew off, not one stirred, or struggled for life, but meekly gave up their spirits. Exactly at twelve they were turned off. I spoke a few suitable words to the crowd; and returned, full of peace and confidence in our friendsí happiness.

That hour under the gallows was the most blessed hour of my life.
[Extracts from Charles Wesleyís Journal, July 12^th-19^th 1738]

My friend, can you say that of yourself tonight? Are you in the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith? Do you have an account to settle with God? God knows it in all its particulars. He knows your thoughts, he knows your motives ó you will never be able to fool Him. You will never be able to plead some extenuating circumstance that caused you to do this, that or the other sin. We, none of us, are righteous; all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. But, thank God, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and any sinner in his sin who looks away from that sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be treated by Him as the Lord Jesus treated that adulterous woman: ëNeither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no moreí. On the Day of Judgment it will not be with fear and trepidation that you face God but with a holy confidence and a sublime joy, knowing that ëthere is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesusí.

Are you looking to Him? Or do you have before you the prospect of that inevitable encounter with God for which as yet you are unready and unprepared? Come to the Lord Jesus, trust in Him and you will find that He will accept you, sinner, as you are, for Jesusí sake not for yours.

Amen
 
 

Back to the top of the document

Back to Emmanuel Evangelical Church - Sermons