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Free from Condemnation
In this first sermon of Pastor Floyd's new series on Romans 8, Pastor Floyd talks about being free from condemnation.
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Wow. What a great song. On November the 14th, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy, the greatest tragedy in the history of collegiate athletics occurred. After losing to East Carolina University, the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team boarded a chartered flight, leaving Greenville, North Carolina, to its home destiny in Huntington, West Virginia. Just one mile short of the runway the chartered plane crashed, leading to the death of all on board.
Perishing that night the 37 members of its football team, 6 coaches, 22 boosters, other university personnel, and 5 crew members. In all 75 people died that night. The tragedy literally shook Marshall University to its core. I mean could you even imagine, grasp what that would be like if that happened today?
With only a few players left on the team who did not travel that day, the administration was forced with canceling the football program the next year, and a decision was about to be made regarding that. In the movie called, We Are Marshall, a decisive meeting was portrayed with a the Board of Trustees where all of a sudden that meeting was interrupted by a football player named Nate Ruffin, who made a bold move and he sounded the battle cry of the entire student body to save the program.
Would you watch just for a moment this scene? [VIDEO CLIP]
Marshall went on to hire Jack Lengyel as the new football coach of this devastated program. Lengyel helped rebuild this struggling program through the base of recruiting, and even went to the other athletic teams of various sports of the University recruiting them to play on his football team that first year.
In the first home game of the season Marshall defeated Xavier 15-13. The final scene that I want to show you briefly is a scene about the Assistant Coach named Red Dawson. You see Dawson was a part of that original 1970 collegiate coaching staff in which all of the other coaches perished that night in the crash. Dawson, because he had recruiting duties had made the decision to drive from Greenville, North Carolina back to Huntington, West Virginia. And while he was on the road that night he learned of the tragedy of his colleagues, and his players.
And what you will see here is a man dealing with the struggles of why me? Why am I the only one left? And yet the glory of victory was simply a small thing compared to the battle cry that the entire campus embraced, “We are Marshall.” Watch this final moment. [VIDEO CLIP]
I’ve taken the time this morning to show you that to set up the entire several weeks that we’re about to spend together in Romans chapter 8. Let me ask you a question today, and I want you to ask yourself this weekly. Do we have a battle cry? Those of us who our lives have been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, whose sins have been forgiven, do we have a battle cry?
Just as an army would ascend a hill, when that army is going to take over the territory of the enemy, they would sound forth a battle cry that would bring them together in unison, but would also be a cry that was so profound the enemy would be intimidated. So I ask you today, do we have a battle cry?
Let me share with you today, we do. Absolutely. And our battle cry is WE ARE FREE! That’s our battle cry. Once we come to know Christ, we understand that we are free. I ask you this morning do you understand the power of that statement that we are free?
In the first 7 chapters of the book of Romans, the writer tells us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we are hopeless and helpless. We are falling short of the glory of God continually. But then interrupting in chapter 5 is this statement, “But God commends His love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” And the moment we begin to understand that even though there was no hope, and no way to come to God on our own, that is our faith alone in Christ alone that serves as our eternal salvation. That it’s not on the merit of anything we’ve done, or on the merit of anything that we’re a part of, but the merit is found in Christ alone as we demonstrate faith in Him.
The Bible here uses in the first verse the word “therefore.” [PASTOR COUGHS] The word “therefore” is there because it’s very, very important. Because of the truths of chapter 1 through chapter 7, is that we’re hopeless but yet Christ died for us, and now through faith alone and Christ alone we are set free. The Bible then pronounces a new moment, and it says, “Therefore,” based on all those other 7 chapters, “Therefore,” notice what the scripture says in verse 1, “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus.” Amen.
And verse 2 goes on to say, “Because the spirits law life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. And what the law could not do, since it was limited by the flesh,” notice these words, “God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in the flesh like ours under sins’ domain, and as a sin offering. In order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Therefore indicates a brand new moment, and listen to what that moment is, we are free from condemnation. And this morning I want to talk to you about free from condemnation. The moment you gave your life to Christ, the moment Jesus saved you, you were set free at that moment from ever being condemned.
The Bible tells us in the first verse, it uses that word “condemnation.” That word condemnation is used three times in the New Testament, and all three times is it used in the book of Romans. And notice something today, while justification means we’re set free, on the opposite end of that pole is condemnation. And condemnation means that we’re guilty, and that we deserve punishment, and we have condemnation apart from Christ.
Remember because it’s on the opposite end of the pole that can never meet as long as they go down that same track. However, at the cross there was an intersection, and when that intersection occurred at the cross, those of us who embraced the cross at that moment, everything has changed, not only in the past, but also in the present, and even in the future. And while the guilty verdict may be handed down, there’s also a verdict that takes more prominence, and more preeminence than the guilty verdict. It’s what a call a divine legal decision.
You know what the divine legal decision is? Here is the divine legal decision that can never be reversed in your life, that can never be reversed even by the supreme court of the United States, even if some world court would exist, never could they reverse this divine legal decision, and here is the divine legal decision that comes straight from God for your life. We are free from condemnation. For all of your life and your past, in your present, and in your future, we are free from all condemnation. This means that even if we tried to keep up with the law, we couldn’t live the law. This means even if we tried to live a good life, we could not live a good life on our own.
But the scripture here says that we are set free. What does that mean? That we are set free. We’re set free from legalism. We’re set free from the law of our inability to accomplish goodness apart from the grace of God. And now because it is faith alone in Christ alone, we have the power and the opportunity to be set free.
Now if you have a pen and you’re looking at verse 1, I want you to circle a word, and the word I want you to circle is the word “now.” Now is a very important word in that text. Therefore there is now, now what? Now that we have faith alone in Christ alone. Now that no longer does that punishment and crime and guilt and legalism and religion and all that, all that is no longer a part of my life because of one thing. I have been ushered into a new era because of my faith in Christ alone for my eternal salvation. And that new era has begun, and the moment that new era has began in my life, everything changed.
And if you would, take that same pen you have, and I want you to underline a key phrase today and that phrase is in Christ Jesus. It is a powerful phrase, an important phrase. It’s our key to freedom. We’re united with Christ, the scripture says. That means that we will, we will always be in Jesus.
In verse 2 it talks about how in contrast to the Mosaic Law, and how the Mosaic Law brings us guilt and condemnation because we cannot live up to it. The Spirit of God has a law of life, and that Spirit of God exists because it’s faith alone in Christ alone.
Do you understand today the moment you had faith alone in Christ alone, if you are a true Christ-follower you’ve had to do that, and when you demonstrated faith alone in Christ alone, the Spirit of the Living God came to live within you, and now you have the Spirit of Life living in you, rather than the spirit of condemnation, rather than the spirit of destruction, the spirit of guilt, and anxiety over how good you are, and how you are measuring up, because it’s all about who’s in Christ Jesus.
You see being in Christ Jesus you’re set free from the law of sin, and the law of death. No longer are we condemned to die. Remember the divine legal decision is we are free from condemnation! And what we must understand is this whole element that we even continue to read in verse 3. He talks about how the law, you know what the law does? The law delivers one thing to every one of us, guilt. The law delivers a guilty verdict. Now the law trains us up. Paul says the law teaches us and guides us into righteousness. But listen, the law, none of us can live up to the law. All the law does is verify to me that I’m a sinner, and that I’ve fallen short of the glory of God every day. It’s like me trying to hop to the top of that ceiling. Now listen, I can do that but at 5’8”, you know I can only go so far. My friend Steven Hill, he’s 7’1”, he can get a little closer, but he still ain’t going to make it. And that represent eternity. That would represent life change. That would represent grace. But I can’t do it, but guess what happens? Because of the cross of Jesus Christ God extended His love toward me. And He took away the law of sin, and He took away the law of death in my life, and the gospel began to take place when Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins. Therefore, we have become a sin offering, Jesus has become a sin offering by His death on the cross for you and me. He condemns sin, and He set us free from the law of sin and death.
Notice what verse 4 goes on to teach us. Verse 4 goes on to teach us that Jesus’ death on the cross fulfilled the requirement of the law. You see death was necessary because sin deserves a penalty. And because death was necessary, that’s why Christ had to die. Somebody has to die for sin. And Jesus died for sin. However, when we demonstrate faith alone in Christ alone, everything changes in our lives. So if you want to really understand Romans 8, let me give you the key to Romans 8. The key to Romans 8 is this statement: We are “in Christ Jesus.” That is the key.
If you want to unlock the door that lets you into the jewels discovered in Romans 8, you’ve got to unlock the passageway, the door in understanding what my life is like now that I am in Christ Jesus. I promise you today what I share today, and what I will share over the next several weeks together it has the power to, I mean really revolutionize the way you see life, the way you see yourself, and prayerfully even the way you see the Lord God in heaven, and the One who lives in your life today.
You see when we look at that; we are in Christ Jesus, what does that mean? How does that fit in life? How do we wear that out here? What do we learn from that? What is the application in that? Well today I’m going to talk to you about that in 3 simple statements, and I will be brief.
First of all:
(1) The “in Christ” life is a free life. It is a free life built upon those four verses. We know that once we’re in Christ we are free. Now what are we free from? Listen to this carefully, we are free from sin! We are free from the law! We are free from legalism! We are free from religion. We are free from guilt! And I promise you I am talking to people on both campuses today, at our campus in Springdale, and our campus here today who are attending this specific worship service, and many of you are living with major guilt in your life. And you always feel guilty. You know what? There is a difference between conviction and between guilt.
Conviction of the Holy Spirit is, is that the Spirit of God tells you that you have messed up, but the conviction of the Spirit of God, you know what it does? It always leads you to repentance. But guess what’s different than that in guilt? What guilt does, guilt just crushes you down. It just makes you feel like a scum of the earth. It makes you feel like the dirt on the floor, and that’s what Satan brings. He makes all of us feel guilty! Now when we mess up I pray the conviction of the Holy Spirit will get a hold of us and move us to repentance because if He doesn’t convict us when we mess up, that means we’ve never been saved. But if we are convicted then we’re going to repent, and we’re going to get it right. We’re going to go forward.
By the way, whatever it’s worth, you cannot be saved until true repentance is experienced. Your life is going this way but then all of a sudden because of Jesus it is turned around completely in a 180, everything is changed. You see if your salvation is based on you, and you feel like you’re carrying it because of something you do, or you accomplish, then I want to tell you you’re going to feel guilty. But I want to tell you today, you’re salvation is not on you. You cannot be saved unless God wants you to be saved, and His sovereign spirit draws you to salvation. I don’t care how many prayers you pray, how many aisles you walk, a lot of hell will be full of people who walk down the aisle and said a lot of prayers. My friend I want to make it real clear today, you can only meet Christ when the Spirit of God draws you to Jesus as Lord and Savior, and when you respond in faith alone in Christ alone. That’s the only way to meet Christ, and to know Christ.
We live in a country today with a lot of freedom, people say. And it does, yet we’re losing our freedom a little bit in America, and it’s concerning to all of us as we see government becoming more overpowering and other matters happening even morally, and anti-biblically in our culture. In fact it breaks my heart. The other day, yesterday, I read in the New York Times that the President has now established, and he’s promised some gay group recently the day before talking about how, how his commitment to turn around the defense of marriage act, saying that there’s really not a whole lot of difference between, there’s no difference in his mind between a gay couple and between a husband and a wife.
Let me tell you something, that’s not what he said when he ran, and the bottom line is it doesn’t matter what he said before he ran, and when he’s here now. None of that really matters! What matters is what the Book says, and the Book says that ain’t right! And it’s just not right! [APPLAUSE] And that’s not what God stands for! So what we’ve got to understand today, my friend, while we want to talk about freedom in America, let me tell you something today. Let me make it real clear today. We have a lot more freedom in Jesus Christ as Christians than we will ever have in America! And while some of you want to shout and stand up and praise God over the freedom in America, and we should do that, but our shouts need to be greater, and our expressions need to be louder for Jesus, and what Jesus did for us when He set us free! [APPLAUSE]
Because you see we must, we must trust, and we must rest in Jesus continually for this freedom or else we’re going to walk around feeling guilty, wearing our religion, and struggling with our legalism. The in Christ life is a free life.
But:
(2) The “in Christ” life is also a Spirit-empowered life. This means according to the scripture that we are now a Spirit-principled people. Did you get that? A Spirit-principled people. In other words we are a free people.
Verse 4 calls us to walk in the Spirit of God. And not to walk in the power of our flesh. You see the power of understanding these verses, I really found out a couple of things: one is repetition, and the other is contrast. When you look at those four verses and you see the repetition, notice it. The law’s used four times, the word Spirit’s uses twice, and the word sin is used four times, and the word flesh is used four times.
But notice something I think is more powerful than the repetition, and it’s the contrast. Because the contrast is what we must grasp. The law of the Spirit of life contrasted with the law of sin and death. The law, the spirit of life, over here we’re free in Jesus. And the law of sin and death, over here we’re condemned. And what He does is, He draws a major contrast in these verses to the point He’s saying to you, “No, this is not your life anymore! You lived that life when you came to Jesus but now that you have come to Jesus, it’s life and peace in the Spirit of God! It’s not this condemnation and guilt and legalism and religious junk that we tie ourselves up in, in a religious way.” You see the law brings condemnation.
It reminds me constantly of my great need for the Savior. The law reminds me constantly that Jesus is my hope. Jesus is my hope. And it’s in faith alone, and Christ alone that I realize the power of that hope.
But I want to tell you something else today, and this part really excites me because I think we are absolutely, quite honestly, quite honestly, we’re rather ignorant about the point I’m about to make.
(3) The “in Christ” life is a gospel life. It is a gospel life. In verses 3 and 4
we know that the law and our flesh choices, the condemn us to death. The law, it reminds me everyday I’m, I’m not there. Every choice I’ve ever made since I was a little baby. Yeah, I was a sinner. Can ya’ll believe it, I was a little sinner from the moment I was born? I mean that’s, that’s what you were. Don’t want to offend you but that’s what you were.
And the moment of that, all you’ve got to do is go down to the nursery today and give it up for about an hour, and you’ll find out real quick how powerful that sin nature is. Jeana told me today that Josh and Kate were, had to work in the nursery in the first part of the Springdale hour, and I said, “Man they need to claim Romans 8:1. “Therefore now no condemnation of those in Christ Jesus.” But thank God for people who work in the nursery. Amen? And I want to thank God for them.
But you listen carefully today, and listen very, very carefully, Jesus became our sin! And through Jesus becoming our sin, He satisfied the requirement of the law! Somebody had to die for my sin! Jesus died for my sin! And you know what? We read in verse 3 and 4, we read about the gospel. “I was hopeless. I was condemned, but God, He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for me.” And when I exhibit faith alone in Christ alone everything changes in my life. Because you see this is the gospel! And the gospel declares that the divine legal decision right in the face of no, right in the face of condemnation, we are free from condemnation! That’s what the gospel does!
You see the “in Christ” life is a gospel life. I want to challenge you to practice something today. And I want you to practice it over the next several weeks. I practiced it this morning early. I practiced it again on my knees in my office. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily! That’s what we need to practice. Because I’m telling you, you will carry guilt; you will carry all the stuff with you every time you mess up as a Christian. And you know what? Any psychologist, any psychiatrist worth their salt will tell you one of the greatest anxieties that people have in their lives today is guilt. That’s right! And that guilt will paralyze them!
And you know what the sadder tragedy is than that? Is that more of us in the church feel more guilty than those in the world! And what we’ve got to understand is we are free from that guilt ladies and gentlemen! Teenagers, we’re free from condemnation! I mean yes you will mess up! We all mess up! Yes you will sin! We will all sin. But thank God the Spirit of God will convict us, and that conviction will lead us to repentance!
It’s one thing to be convicted, it’s another thing to have guilt, and you know what Satan does? He crushes your spirit, your hope, your faith in always making you feel guilty, and always making you feel condemned. And that’s why you have got to preach the gospel to yourself.
Oh Jesus, You died for me! Oh Satan, you listen, Jesus died for me! I’m a new man today! I don’t have any guilt anymore in my life! I’m set free Satan, so you just shut your mouth because I’m free in Jesus.
And that’s what I mean; you’ve got to preach the gospel to yourselves everyday. No condemnation. No guilt. All of it based on freedom in the gospel! You see all of it is ground in our whole battle cry as believers, we are free. That is our battle cry.
Tim Keller who is a pastor in Manhattan, in article he wrote recently, he talked about how so many people talk about, and use that phrase, “I cannot forgive myself.” I cannot forgive myself. Any of ya’ll ever said that? Oh probably about a 100% of you. He said you know when we say I cannot forgive myself, he said that means that we are basing our lives, we’re basing our identity on something other than the gospel, on maybe some standard we have in our mind, or some condition we think about in our mind, or even upon another person. You know, listen to this, I feel so guilty when I’m around that person. You know they’re able to do this, and I can’t do this. Are you following me? And they’re the centrality of our lives. Oh no, no, no, no.
He said the tragedy is that we have forgotten the gospel is central to your identity. The gospel is your identity. What do I mean by that ladies and gentlemen? The grace of God is the gospel. Listen carefully; I have a life in my past because of the gospel. I have a life that is sustained today because of the gospel. I have a bright future in my life because of the gospel! And my life is gospel life. And when I understand, I am free in Jesus. It’s about the gospel! And I can’t feel bad about the past because the gospel’s taken away the past! Any my only thing that I’ve got going on in my life today, it doesn’t’ matter whether I work in corporate America, or I work down the street, or I’m in education, or I’m in ministry, or I’m a housewife, or whatever I do in my life, it’s all about the gospel!
Because see the gospel changed me. The gospel is mine now! It is mine now! But when I think about the future, oh listen Josh, we don’t need to worry about our future, we don’t need to have anxiety about our future, because you see it’s not about where you are, it’s not about what you’re doing, because whatever you’re doing, and wherever you are, it’s all about the gospel! Isn’t that right? Are you getting it folks? Are you getting it? Say I got it. Because the point is I’m going to keep on going until you say I got it. You better hurry up.
You see grace is the gospel, and I’m convinced today that we must understand in Jesus’ name that the gospel is to be central in our lives. We talked several weeks ago about living a gospel-centered life. You know the tragedy with so many of us; we act like the gospel is something in our past. No it’s not something only in your past, it’s the now life. It’s the future life.
In other words there’s no life Ron apart from the gospel! Do you get it? There’s none because the gospel changed me. The gospel revolutionized me. The gospel gave me hope and meaning and purpose, and nothing else has ever done that. Nothing and no one. So it’s really all about the gospel.
Now, as I bring closure, listen carefully, many of us, in fact all of us that have taught the bible from time to time, and have read the Bible, we’ve always kind of ridiculed and made fun at times at the people called Israelites in the scripture. Now the Israelites, they were free from the Egyptian bondage. You remember what happened after the Red Sea had parted? Do you remember after all the miracles had occurred? Do you know what they told Moses? Take us back! We want to go back to Egypt!
Even after all they had seen in the miraculous hand of God opening up seas, getting water out of rocks, raining manna down for 40 years in a row, having the same thing breakfast, lunch and dinner, and it was so miraculous He reigned down a double portion on the day before the Sabbath because you’re not suppose to work on the Sabbath, and it didn’t go bad because it was pre-Sabbath, a miracle God. But you know what they declared again, and again, and again, Moses we’d rather be back in our slavery. We’d rather go back there than have the uncertainty of our future today.
Well you know what? It’s a little ridiculous for us to be making fun of them, and ridiculing them when so many of us are just as guilty, in fact, we’re more guilty, and I’ll show you how today. Because we walk in our lives, and we live our lives so committed to guilt, so bound in our condemnation, so bound in religion, and what we think religion wants from us, and even many of us are bound in our legalism in which we grew up under.
You know I thought about that this morning a little bit. My generation, you know, we were handed down legalism. And while I respect and love the generation before me, that generation handed that legalism down to us. You know what legalism is? It’s the word of God plus more. In other words, it’s almost like scripture’s not sufficient enough so let me add to it. And so all of a sudden it begins to declare what you need to do beyond what the scripture says. And even tells you how you need to do it because that’s the way we’ve always done it. Oh no, no, no, no, listen to me today. We are set free from legalism.
Now we have the extreme on one group that handed down legalism, we’ve got a generation today that needs a little bit of it because they only want to talk about I’m free. And they’ll come to church, and they’ll raise their hands. They’ll come to church and they’ll clap. They’ll come to church and stand. They’ll come to church and participate. They’ll teach classes. They’ll sing in the choir. They’ll do everything else and they may be sleeping with another person outside of marriage by the time they’re doing it! It’s a messed up generation!
But the point is ladies and gentlemen is that we are free from all the legalism there is! And we’re free from our condemnation. And we’re free from our guilt. And because of what Christ did, we are free. I mean we are free today. And you listen carefully, if we do not preach the gospel to ourselves every day, we will return like a dog to its vomit, and we will return to legalism because there’s a security in legalism. We will return to condemnation because we’re so used to it. We will return to guilt, and we will return to the law. Like we want to return to the law because all the law does is remind me of what I can’t do! And the law teaches me how I need to live, but I can’t live that law until the gospel has transformed my life.
Oh my friend listen today, there is a battle cry that we have got to understand is our battle cry. And that battle cry is we are free! That’s the battle cry, and you need to declare it, you need to receive it, you need to pronounce it, you need to announce it, you need to preach it to yourself every day! I am free from all those things because of one reason, because I have faith alone in Christ alone for my salvation. Thank God for freedom in Christ.
- MP3:
- http://www.ronniefloyd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/2Y241L-Free-From32K001.mp3
- Vimeo:
- 7047282