Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Freedom in the Spirit

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

How do you actually experience God? How do you sense his presence in your life? If you want to understand the key to real experience of God, the Holy Spirit is the key. Romans 8 shows us that the Holy Spirit’s job is to convince you and to show you nothing can separate you from the love of God, because the Spirit unites us with what Jesus Christ has done.  In Romans 8, we see that 1) we continue to struggle with sin, but 2) there is no condemnation. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 9, 1997. Series: Lessons in Drawing Near. Romans 8:1-4. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What does it mean to move from following a set of doctrines or ethics to actually having God be a living presence in your life? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is teaching on how we can experience God authentically in a life-transforming way. After you listen, we'd appreciate it if you would take time to rate and review the podcast. Your rating and review will encourage others to listen so they can experience the joy and beauty of the gospel, because the gospel really does change everything. Now, here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus, because through

Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the spirit. And this is God's Word. What are we doing?

Where are we? What's going on? Starting last fall and going all the way through the winter time and into hopefully spring will get here. You always wonder about this time of year. We've been looking at what it means to experience God, not just believe in God, subscribe doctually, not just obey God, subscribe ethically. How do you actually experience God? How do you actually sense His presence in your life? How do you actually connect? Now

we've been talking about that and you know it's interesting. It's the opposite. What we're doing here is sort of the opposite way or the opposite direction in which at least teachers in the circles from which I come in the church tend to start with a theology and go to practice. They tend to start with the theology, what the Bible says about something, and then they move to practical principles and examples. Now, we've done it actually the other way around. We started back in the fall, and we've been, back in the fall, we looked at actual case studies of people in the Bible who had actually had experiences

of the presence of God, who had encountered the burning bush or wrestled with God like Jacob, burning bush, Moses, who had Abraham, God appears in the form of a smoking pot and burning torch and passes between the pieces of the dead animal. They're extremely interesting, of course, and we looked at them every week. They were practical illustrations of people who had actually met God in a face-to-face situation. And then in the winter time, we looked at the Psalms and we looked at practical principles,

ways that you actually can go about drawing near to God. And I've done that because I'm trying to get your interest and trying to get your passion up. I'm trying to get you to say, yes, I want that. In fact, even last night, pardon me, even last week here, we had an open forum and it was great, the music anyway. And it was, well, one of the things that was so good about it was, it was the five mystical songs, songs, which were poems of George Herbert, put the music by Ray von Williams, and the poems are written by a tremendously godly and incredibly gifted British poet.

And the subject last Sunday night here was, how can you actually know God and have mystical union with God the way George Herbert did? The guy who wrote that. And in preparation, and I didn't get much chance to talk about this. In preparation, I went to Barnes and Noble, and I went to these huge long walls now of mysticism, mystical literature, on all kinds of literature on how to experience the sacred and how to care for your soul. I looked at these things, I really read a lot of them. And the one thing that struck me, and I was afraid of being too negative last week, and I'm not as afraid this week.

I don't know what happened to me. I guess I grew or something. When you read the poetry of George Herbert, love bade me welcome. Love bade me welcome. And I came in guilty of dust and sin. Jesus coming and touching and taking him by the hand and kissing him on the brow. And when you read the journals of Augustine or read the journals of Avalov, you want little curls of smoke to kind of come out of yours and you see the kind of experiences of God

she had. Read the journals of Jonathan Edwards. When you read the great men and women in the history of the church who experienced God, and then you pull something off of Barnes and Noble's shelf. And generally, what they'll always start off by saying is, well, you know what, you can get in touch with the spiritual. You can get in touch with the supernatural.

You can get in touch with the sacred. You can get in touch with the supernatural. You can get in touch with the sacred. You can have mystical and spiritual experiences. And this, usually they say, and it has nothing to do with religion. So you say, fine. And then you move on. And generally what they mean is, we're not dealing with God per se. We're dealing with energy. We're dealing with the sacred.

We're dealing with the soul. And when it comes right down to it, it is utterly impersonal. There's no spiritual person out there you're getting in touch with. There's no God who smiles or her frowns or who can ever contradict you. And have you ever been in a relationship of any intimacy in which the other person can't contradict you, can't fight with you, and yet in all these books, there's never a God who's that personal that he can ever tell you, stop this, never happens.

It's not personal, and because God can never say, stop this, God can never say, come to me. Let me hug you, let me kiss you, let me embrace you. It's utterly impersonal. The only reason I can tell that these books are selling like hotcakes is because if you read them after you've read the experience of the great men and women of God, you realize how incredibly tapeted it is.

You read Jonathan Edwards and you're looking at an ocean and you read the books off the shelf and you're looking at a mud puddle. And yet it's possible to be so dying of thirst, spiritually speaking, that these things look like oceans. Now, the Bible offers something far more far greater than anything that you're going to find on those shelves. Far greater.

But I've left the theology for last because in this chapter what we're going to do for the next six weeks, I think it's six, maybe seven, but I think it's six. For six weeks we're going to go, verse by verse, we're going to go through Romans chapter eight, why? Because Romans chapter eight is the heaviest, it's the profoundest, it's the most theological. In some, it's the most difficult. Passage in the whole Bible on the key to experience of God, and that is the Holy Spirit. There's no greater passage in all the Bible on the Holy Spirit than Romans chapter 8. The Holy Spirit is mentioned continually and all through it.

But more than that, if you want to understand the key to real experience of God, and sort of the Holy Spirit is the key, the Holy Spirit is the key to experience of God, the Holy Spirit in biblical theology, Holy Spirit when you become a Christian in dwells you and then you knight you with God, that's the reason. Because of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Christianity is not basically a matter of the head and it's not basically a matter of the will, it's basically a matter of the heart and of spiritual union with God, because the Holy Spirit comes in. You don't have this in the other religions of the world.

In 2 Peter, there's this incredible verse that I always go back to. It's astounding. And second Peter, chapter 1, verse 3 and 4, he says, we've been made partakers of the divine nature. We've been made because the Holy Spirit is God, and the Holy Spirit comes in indwells us. There's just no other religion that talks like that. He comes in in indwells us and as a result,

our relationship with God is an incredibly deep and mystical one. Now this chapter is on the Holy Spirit, but at the end of the chapter, we see, and I didn't, I'll read it to you in a second, we didn't print it out, at the very end of the chapter, if the Holy Spirit is the key to experience of God, and this is the chapter on the Holy Spirit, then when you get to the very end of the chapter, you see the whole point of everything the Holy Spirit does. Let me read it to you. In fact, I learned it years ago. When I first became a Christian, and I have never heard it since when I first became a Christian in our college

fellowship, we used to sing Romans 8, verse 38 and 39. We had a little ditty, and we college fellowship, we used to sing Romans 8 verse 38 and 39. We had a little ditty and we sang it and the words we used were the King James, the old authorized version of the English translation. But here's how it goes. And that's how the reason I remember it is because of the song. At the very end Paul says, I am persuaded. Neither death nor life nor angels nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor anything to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all of creation will be able to separate

us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I'll think. All experience of God, all experience of God, is due to the influence of Holy Spirit. And what is the point of everything the Holy Spirit does, according to Romans 8? What is, you see, in some ways people would say that the Book of Romans is the climax of the Bible, and Romans 8 is the climax of the Book of Romans. Well then, Romans 8, 38, and 39 is the climax of the book of Romans. Well, then Romans 8, 38, and 39 is the climax of the climax of the climax of the climax. And what is it? The Holy Spirit's job is to convince you and to show you nothing can separate you from the love of God. If you don't understand that, or I should say to the degree that you don't understand that your Christian life, your life is defective.

This is what experience of God really is. You can be a Christian without knowing this. You can be a Christian without experiencing this, but you can't have anything like the fullness of what it means to be a Christian without this because this is it. You know, the way in which Paul gets to verse 38 and 39, telling you that the whole point of the work of the Spirit is to absolutely assure you infallibly that nothing, I mean, it's such an incredible climax. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, powers, things, things to come, heith with depth. Anything in all creation can separate you from the love of God. He says, you have to understand that.

That's what the Holy Spirit's out here to do. Now, what's interesting is Paul goes through and bit by bit throughout this chapter builds a case until he can hardly stand it. He is so filled with his own arguments and he's so, and he's listening to his own arguments, he's building the case until he just explodes at the end. In verses 1 to 4, in verses 1 to 4, which we have here,

he shows us that we can know that nothing will separation the love of God because the Spirit unites us with what Jesus Christ has done. We'll look at that here in a second. The Spirit unites us to what Jesus Christ has done. So there's no condemnation. Then verses 5 through 8, we can know, Paul says, that nothing can separate from the love of God, we can know that nothing can separate us, we can know that we belong to Him, we can know that nothing can pull us away, nothing at all, because the Spirit is

sanctifying us. Verse 5-8 tells us the Spirit of God is changing us. So you can look at your heart and look at your character and look at your life and see Him changing you. And that shows you that nothing can separate you. Then in verses 14- 17 of chapter 8, he moves along. Paul shows us that the Spirit of God directly assures us

with an experience that we'll look at. It's called the witness of the Spirit. The Spirit of God can directly come and say, yes, nothing can separate you from the love of God. And then he moves on. And in chapters 8 verse 18 to like 31 or something like that, he goes on even further. And he tells us that the Holy Spirit prepares a future glory and assures us of it by giving

us a foretaste of it, giving us a down payment. And then when it gets up to verse 28, Paul starts to actually say, if you could be separated from the love of God, that would mean that the very nature of God would fail, that the actual nature of the very character of God is involved. And for you to fall back into condemnation and to lose his love, in any way, once you have it, would be a failure of God to be God. And then when he actually gets to the very end, he just starts to ask questions. And the questions are devastating questions.

They are questions that are designed to destroy fear and doubt in your life. And they just start coming. Like for example, near the end, he's the first example, he says, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Who will condemn? What shall separate a charge against God's elect? Who will condemn? What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No. Nothing in all creation, you see. And then it says, who will bring any charge?

What can separate us? I mean, you know, we were singing some of those questions in the second, it was the second song we sang tonight, which is all based on this chapter, Romans 8. And how desperately I would like to go to those questions right now, as I was reading them and I was thinking about them, I want to go to them, I want to go. I want to show you. But Paul takes 30-some verses to get there. Why? Paul starts at the bottom and he builds his case theologically.

He says, I want to show you the theologic. Think of it that way. I want to show you the logic. If God is who He says He is, if the Spirit is like this, if the gospel is like this, if you are this, if Christ is this, I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you that it all comes together. And see, the Spirit cannot assure you that nothing will separate you from the love of God unless you're willing to listen to the arguments,

unless you're willing to think, unless you're willing to reflect. Romans 8 is a very theological profound and incredibly powerful chapter. And you know, sitting down and praying and reading little books, or listening to little sermons like I've preached on how to pray, how to get guidance, as good as they are, to have stories of Moses and the Bush, and to have stories of Abraham and the torch, and stories of Moses and the Bush and have stories of Abraham and the torch and stories of Jacob. And then I have given you all these little pointers, but this is really where the rubber meets the road. Paul says, think about these things, understand these things, understand the theology.

So I'm kind of getting to it here in March and April and May. You know, a lot of people sort of pick up with us in the fall and move all the way through. It's almost like a college year. And I can't get to things like this right away. I'm afraid people would be put off by it. I'm afraid people would, would too quickly say, this is too strong.

I think I need something, you know, a little weaker. But ultimately you have to come to this. If you want to get to the climax, you have to work your way all the way through. So, let's do it. But the point is, God is in the business and the Holy Spirit is in the business of assuring you that you can't lose Him and He can't lose you. That is what He's after. That's what He's doing.

That's what you have to listen to. If you don't get that down, your Christianity is defective, you're running on one of the two three cylinders out of your eight, at best. Now, let's take a look at these four verses. And in some ways, we are just getting started this week, but we will continue. And you will feel the crescendo. See, Paul's, Romans 8 is a symphony. And as nice as it is, to put the music on some great symphony and just put it on at the

very end. So you just hear the last two notes in that final chord. It's nothing like listening to the whole thing. You know, whoever wrote the symphony spent a great deal of time getting to that chord. Spent an awful lot of time developing. And when it finally comes because you've listened to the development, it has so much more powerful impact. So that's what we have to do. Now let's just, we're just looking at verses one to four.

And let me show you how it starts. Let me just ask several questions. Verse one, now there is no condemnation or another way to put it, the way it's printed here. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. Now what does Paul need to assure them that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?

He starts with a word therefore, and here is what I think is going on. The reason he has to say, he has to tie it to what's going on. And because he has to say, therefore, there's no condemnation for you, even though there is the law of sin and death. It is, I think, what's going to happen. And actually, this is extremely practical for all of us. In chapter four, I've parted me in chapter seven, which comes right before the therefore. Paul is talking about the fact that he continues to struggle with sin. Like for example, here's a quote out of chapter seven. Paul says,

when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner and boast being, I delight in the law of God, but I see another principle at work in me, making me a prisoner of the sin within me. I will wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death, so that I myself, in my mind, am a slave to God, but in the sinful nature, a slave to sin. Now over the years, there has been an awful lot of fighting about this

passage. There's an awful lot of people that say Paul could not be saying what he seems to be saying. Here's Paul in a puzzle. Here's Paul a very great Christian. Here's Paul obviously a man God is using and blessing and therefore in some ways a model Christian. You know if you're going to have a model outside of Jesus there really are no model Christians, but as the non-Jesus people of the world go, he's pretty good, he's a model. And yet, he in Apostle says,

that in my most being, I love love God, in that sense I'm a slave to the love God, I love the love God, I'm trying to obey it. And yet I'm also a slave of sin. This has really gotten people upset. And some people have said, maybe Paul's talking about somebody else, or maybe Paul's talking about his pre-Christian self, but the trouble is, we know that's not true because in Romans 7 verse 21, Paul says, in my innmost being, I delight in the law of God. However, I'm still a slave to the sin that remains in me.

Well now if you go over to chapter 8, verse 7, at which we'll get to very quickly, very soon in our series, Paul says, the natural mind is enmity against the law of God. It cannot submit to the law of God. And that means Paul says, until the Holy Spirit changed your heart, you hate the law of God. You don't want to obey the law of God. And that means Paul says, until the Holy Spirit changed your heart, you hate the law of God. You don't want to obey the law of God. So for Paul to say,

my almost being either like the law of God, what he's saying is, I'm a Christian. And yet I'm a slave to sin. And I think this is the reason why Paul has to start off with this, there is no condemnation.

This has happened, I've seen this happen to people at Redeemer. Over the years, I've seen a lot of people become Christians at Redeemer. And one of the things that starts to get to you, it's very exciting at first, and it's always exciting. And yet something begins to dawn on you.

And that is, even though you've got all these great things, the gospel has all these great promises for you, you're still sinners, and you still die. Now, that may not seem very obvious. And when he just say it like this, surely everybody says, well, of course I know him, I'm going to say I'm going to die. Of course I know that. And yet there's a sense in which it, after you've been a Christian for a while, it begins

to wear down on you. First of all, you come to see that you still struggle with sin. The law of sin and death, which I think is the reality of sin and death. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because of the reality of sin and death, first of all, you still struggle. There are churches that say that if you're a real Christian, you don't struggle with sin anymore. There are churches that say that if you're struggling with sin, struggling with temptation,

that's an abnormal state. That's something you might fall into, but you got to get out of it really quickly because the normal Christian life is not the struggle to be triumphant. And those churches watch carefully, the leadership's always turning over. And it's not just because, what, man hat and everybody turns over, everybody's moving in and out. But what I mean is, the reason Manhattan everybody turns over everybody's, you know, moving it in out. But what I mean is, the reason the leadership turns over in churches like that is because eventually the reality of sin and death hits you.

And you realize you still are a sinner and you're still struggling with sin and sometimes you lose. Sometimes you are a prisoner of sin, just like Paul said. And if you're in a church that denies the reality of the continuing struggle with sin, if you're in a church like that and you find that it's there, I am still struggle with sin, you're either going to think that that church is a croc and you leave or be, you're going to think that you're a croc and there's something desperately wrong with you and you'll want to be an utter despair. Or number three, you may decide that Christianity is a croc because it doesn't give what was

promised, which is freedom from temptation and freedom from greed and freedom from pride and freedom from fear and freedom from all these things. But actually doesn't promise that. Paul's making it as clear as possible in Romans 7. He says there is still a reality of sin and death. And then even death, you know, most people say, well, of course, I know that I'm a Christian and know I'm a Christian, I'm going to die. The reality of the fact that we die like everybody else.

When the wind blows trees down, they fall on church vans. They, you know, in other words, Christians die. Christians are killed. Christians are wiped out. Just like everybody else. I mean, you say, well, of course, that's obvious. Oh, yeah, but didn't it strike you with strange when you saw that the, you know, the tree fell down on a church van and killed those four girls? Didn't you say, gee, why? Why a church van? I mean, out there in Queens, there's a lot of people who work for the mob.

Lots and lots. From what I can tell, that's where most of them live, from what I can tell. I mean, your tree's gonna fall down out there. There's an awful lot of people that would be better to have a tree fall on. Then a van, a church van, with girls from a church. I mean, you see, the reality of sin and death continues. And this starts to get you down after a while. The Psalms can profoundly shape the way you approach God.

Even Jesus relied on the Psalms to face every situation, including death. In Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional book, The Psalms of Jesus, you'll find daily readings through the Psalms with fresh biblical insight. If you have no devotional life yet, this book is a wonderful way to start. And if you already spend time in study and prayer,

reading and praying through every verse of the Psalms can help you discover a new level of intimacy with God. We'll send you Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional as our thanks for your gift to help gospel and life share the love of Jesus with more people. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. The scandal of sin, we still struggle with sin, the scandal of death, we still die. Isn't Jesus supposed to have delivered us from all of that?

And so Paul comes in and he says, you're going to go under unless you understand something. In the teeth of the fact you still sin. In the teeth of the fact you still die, you have to know this incredible truth. And this is actually the beginning of what Paul is bringing up, which I said in the very ended climaxes in chapter 38 and verse 38 and 39. He starts right out by saying, this is the thing that Christianity is about. This is what the Holy Spirit is trying to show you. This is it. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? Well, let's look at the two words. Look at the word condemnation.

Paul says, if you don't get this, you're going to be overwhelmed by the continuing reality of sin and death. Condemnation. The word condemnation is a legal word. The Greek word is caught to Crenow. Cata means against. Okay? Crenow means judgment.

And so it's very simple. In other, it's a verdict of guilty. It's to rule against the defendant. It's to rule somebody as liable to punishment. It's very simple. It's a legal word. And therefore, it says that when you become a Christian, you're not condemned. There's no more punishment.

The punishment's taken away. God has forgiven you. God has pardoned you. And I would say that that's probably not news to most and anybody here in this whole room. Whether you believe in Christianity or not, you've always heard that. He's always heard the well when I believe in Jesus because Jesus died on the cross for my sins. That means that when I believe in Jesus and I confess my sins, then I'm not condemned. And that's a wonderful thing. It's of course, it's a wonderful thing, but it's more wonderful than most people think. Because it doesn't just say you're not condemned, it doesn't just say you're not condemned. It says something much stronger.

It says, now there is no condemnation. Let me tell you why that's so much stronger. Here's what I think most Christian people think about how this works. And this is one of the reasons why you can't deal with sin and death. And this is one of the reasons why you don't have experience of God. And this is one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit's always trying to show this. Most of us feel that when I receive Christ,

my sins are pardoned, I'm forgiven. And then I move out and I try as hard as I can to repay him and live the life I should live and so on. But when you fall back into sin, then you become condemned. Of course, then you have to go and you have to ask for forgiveness. And then you're not condemned. And then you feel great. Then you go out and you try again.

And then you've sinned. And then you become condemned to see most of us feel like we're basically moving in and out of condemnation all the time. But that's not what Paul is saying. That's not what the Bible is saying. That's not the Christian life. The gospel provides something far greater than that. When Paul says, now there is no condemnation, he means it.

He doesn't mean that there's no condemnation. Now he didn't say you're not condemnation, he says there's no no condemnation. Now, he didn't say you're not condemned, he says there's no more condemnation. It means for the Christian condemnation does not even exist. It's gone. It's been removed, or you've been removed from the whole realm, the whole possibility. And if you want to understand what this means,

as soon as I say this to somebody, people say, you know, as soon as somebody, as soon as I say this to somebody, people say, well, then why even ask for forgiveness, which just goes to show, you haven't worked it out yet. Now, that's all right. I'm glad you're here. That's what I'm here to help you work it out. I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but I am trying to show you that maybe you don't understand what the Holy Spirit says you have to have in order to face life.

If you want to see another version of no condemnation, no more condemnation, nothing can bring you back under condemnation. Nothing can ever bring you back under condemnation. Take a look at this very famous verse that I've heard people use for years. It's usually, you know, if you're in a Scripture memory, it's usually one of the little scripture memory verses. It's in 1 John 1, chapter 1, 8 and 9. And it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Oh, you say, see there, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive

us our sins and cleanses us and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all and righteousness, right? Which means that if you sin, you're condemned until you confess your sin and then you're forgiven. Oh no, did you listen carefully? That's not the way that might be the way other religions work. That's not the way Christianity works because it does not say. We went over this about three years ago in this room when we went through first John. It does not say, if you confess our sins, your sins, he is faithful and merciful to forgive you his sins. He doesn't say he's faithful and merciful to forgive you sins.

He doesn't say, oh Lord, forgive my sins, reconcile with me, cleanse me, embrace me because of your mercy. Now that's saying God isn't merciful, but that's not what first John is saying. John is saying he will forgive you your sins because not because of his mercy, but because of his justice. He says he'll be faithful and just to forgive sins.

You know what that means? It means if you're a Christian and you're in Christ Jesus and you come and ask for forgiveness, and I have to say this reverently, but it's in the Bible. Here it is. It would be utterly unjust for God to not forgive you. You know why?

Because when Jesus Christ stands before the Father as our advocate and as our high priest, as the Bible says, he's praying for us. Well, what's he saying? Is he saying, when you sin and you come and you say, oh Lord, please forgive me? Does Jesus turn to the Father and say, one more time please?

I mean, I know this is sin, this is sin number 835 in the same category this year. But please, out of your mercy, Father, would you please one more time? That's not what John says he's doing. That's not what Romans 8 indicates he's doing. What Jesus Christ, in a sense, and this is all metaphorical language to some degree, so we can understand it. What it says is, well, we sin, and you pray to God, please forgive me. Jesus Christ says, I have paid for that sin. I have paid for it. And therefore, if you don't forgive that soon, you'd be getting two payments.

And therefore, embrace this sister of mine, embrace this brother of mine. You know why? Because you need to embrace him or her, not out of mercy now. It was in your mercy that you put me forth as a substitution. It was in mercy that you put me forth to pay the penalty out of my own life and blood. But now, embrace them out of justice. It would be unjust. Your law demands payment.

I have paid it. Therefore, righteousness, justice, the very law of God demands, and will eternally demand that you embrace this person. And so you see, and you as a Christian, go to ask for forgiveness. You're not saying, oh Lord, I'm in their condemnation, get me out. Oh Lord, I'm in their condemnation. Get me out. When my sons are rude to me or my wife when they sin against us, one of the reasons why they're rudeness, in fact, you know, rudeness from somebody outside the family isn't all that big a deal.

Routeness from somebody inside the family is. In other words, their sins are sins because they're inside, because they're inseparably, inseparably linked to us. And when they ask for forgiveness, they're not saying, please, dad, put me back in the will. They know that they're not out. They don't say, please, dad, let me back in the family. You know, draw up those papers that make us your legal errors again.

They know that's not the issue. They're saying, Lord, they're saying that because we're inseparably linked to you. It is so wrong for us to be out of fellowship. They're not asking to be brought back into the family. They're asking for renewal of fellowship. And that's what you're supposed to be doing at the very same time. You know, here's the thing that's so interesting. I am an unbelievably flawed father, yet

I know that there is absolutely nothing. There is nothing that my children could do that would ever get them out of my love. Now listen, that does not mean that my children could become so evil and so wicked that I can't talk to them, or that I might not need to keep them away. That's all very possible. But I know this about my heart. I would never stop baking for them. I would never. There's nothing, nothing. And you know what? Anybody in this room who's a parent, you know that that's the case. It's not a virtue, is it? I'm not bragging. You're not bragging. This is just the way it is. And if we flawed, incredibly flawed, human beings know that nothing will ever separate. Nothing will ever separate our children from our heart and how in the world do you think

that's going to happen to God? That somehow God is going to give up. Absolutely not. There is no condemnation. There is no more condemnation. You know, there's no more condemnation. You know, there's a very strict, and almost, well, how do I put it? A very strict, a very, oh, I kind of severe preacher, who I, you know, who's passed on his name was David Martin Lloyd Jones, he's written a lot of books. He was a very, how do I put it?

I mean, he was a man that talked about the law and talked about morality and talked about the wrath of God. There's a severe man in many ways, and he preached in London in the middle of the 20th century. But when he got to this verse, he said an amazing thing. I was looking at this. You know what he says?

If I can find it, I'll tell you. It's gotta be here, yes. First of all, he says, because this is true of you, Christians must never, ever, ever feel condemnation. You should never allow yourself to feel condemnation. If your Christians, your sins and mine, past sins, present sins, and future sins, there's no more condemnation.

It's gone. Have already been dealt with once and forever. Have you realized that? And I get this. He says, do you know that most of your troubles today are due to your failure to realize the truth of this verse? Have you thought about that? Try this.

Next time you're in struggle. Next time you're in trouble. Next time you're in a some kind of pain, ask yourself, if I really believe there was no condemnation for me. If I really believe there was no condemnation for me, if I really believe nothing could separate me from the love of God, if I really believe that, really to the bottom of my heart, bottom of my toes, would I be reacting differently right here? And you're going to see that most of the time, absolutely.

Absolutely. Where do you think addictions come from? They come because you don't like yourself. I mean, every 25 cent counselor, as well as the trained therapist know that. Where does that come from? Condemnation. Why can't a lot of you take criticism? Why are some of you very...

One of the reasons why some of you, I'm sure, just as always a certain percentage in every room, I'm not thinking of anybody in particular, please, especially since, you know, those of you who I'm not to say this about might take this wrong. But the, some of you do not have a lot of close friends because you are prickly, you're prickly people. People know that about you, they can't tell you. You know, because the porcupine appears. And one of the reasons why is because you feel condemnation, you sense the condemnation. Listen, some of you are so mad at your parents

because your parents are disappointed with you. And yet, you know what you've done? You've put a gun in their hands. You have said in your heart, if my parents don't like me, I am condemned. So you put a gun in their hands, then they shoot you with it, and then you say, how dare you?

All they're saying is I'm disappointed in you. But you have put the condemnation gun in their hands, and you're gonna put it in somebody's hands. There is some place somewhere that you say, if I do that, if I get that, if I accomplish that, then I know I'm somebody. And then, of course, it means that if I fail that, then I know I'm nobody, you're going to put the condemnation gun in somebody's hands.

Somebody has it, something, something has it. And until you get the gospel, you're not going to be able to face life. It's amazing. Most of our troubles are due to our failure to realize the truth of this verse. Now, we will continue this next week, but here, if you want a beautiful example of Jesus using this verse on somebody, go to the woman who was caught in adultery in John chapter 8. Go to the woman. And you'll see it all there. Remember, he gets rid of all the accusers, and then he looks at her and he says, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.

Now, how could he say that? The liberal approach is, I don't condemn thee, and thou hast not sinned. And the conservative approach is, thou hast sinned, and I condemn thee. But the Jesus approach is neither do I condemn thee, but go and sin nowhere. In other words, you have sinned.

You have sinned, you know? You've sinned, but there's no condemnation. Why? This verse, this passage, what does it say? There is no condemnation. Why? Because through Christ Jesus the law, of the spirit of life,

set me free from the law of sin and death. The law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. The law of the spirit of life, as we will see, is the gospel. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature because of our sin, we weren't able to save ourselves through obeying the law. God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man. Notice, he didn't send his son in the likeness of man because he was a real man, and he didn't send his son in the likeness of as a sinful man because he was, though he was human nature,

he wasn't sinful, but because he was really a man but sinless, he came in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering, and so he who God condemns sin. See the reason, the thing is so unique about the gospel. The liberal approach is we don't condemn anybody. We don't condemn sinners and we don't condemn sin. Who's to say what sin is? And the conservative approach is says, because we know there's sin, there's good guys and there's bad guys and a way with the bad guys. And Christianity says, there's no condemnation for you, but there is condemnation for sin. Jesus said, I did not come into the world to condemn,

but to save because he came to be condemned. He didn't come to condemn sinners, he came to condemn sin. And because he was condemned as sin, he was able to say to her, I took the nails, I took the stones, that's why nobody's gonna throw a stone at you. I took the nails, I took the stones, I took the th's going to throw a stone at you. I took the nails, I took the stones, I took the thorns. Neither do I condemn thee, but go and sin no more.

But you notice the order. The order. She doesn't say go and sin no more, and I won't condemn thee. She says, now that you know that I don't condemn thee, you will have power to go and sin no more. This is the gospel. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,

nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor anything to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen, let's pray. Would you, Lord, show us over these next few weeks the meaning of these passages, the meaning of these verses so that our hearts can crescendo with the voice of Paul

when he says, who brings a charge? Who is there to condemn? If God is for us, who can be against us? And we ask, Lord, that we might be able to live with that kind of triumphant, ringing sound in our own hearts. We know that the whole job of the Holy Spirit that you sent us is to show us these things. We very often thought the Holy Spirit's job was some kind of power or some kind of comfort. But now we see that all the power comes from this and all the comfort comes from this. So show us this. Get us ready to really experience you

as we see nothing in separators from your love. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. We hope you enjoyed today's teaching on experiencing God. And we hope you'll continue to join us throughout this series. Before you go, if you were encouraged by today's podcast, please read and review it so more people can discover the hope and joy of Christ's love.

Thanks again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 1997 and 2013. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at the Denver Presbyterian Church. with Senior Pastor, Everdemar Presbyterian Church.