“Biblical Clarity Regarding Condemnation” (Romans 8:1)

If you’ve got a Bible, would you go to with me to Romans chapter eight, and we’re going to cover some of verse one. Yeah, woo exciting. Super happy to be here doing that while you’re turning there. I want to add to Pastor Jeff’s commercial about the Pastoral Q and A like he said, “It is a come and go.” If you can’t get here till a little after it starts, or a lot after it starts, you can still come. If you can’t stay for the whole thing, you can still come. If you say, “Well, are we gonna take a break?” No, we’re not going to. But you can get it and get coffee and get a snack or whatever. But basically, what we do is we’re going to interact on theological topics, topics about society, who knows what we’re going to have up there, and we’re going to have a micro two microphones, and you can ask questions and you can ask anything, as long as we can answer it. Right? And so, if you’ve never been part of one, it’s a blast. It’s a really good time. There’s a lot of great interaction. I trust me, you will enjoy it. I hope that you can make that.

Okay, here’s what we’re doing today. We’re going to get some clear understanding. In fact, the title of this message, and it’s a very important title for especially to catalog it is “Biblical Clarity Regarding Condemnation” (Romans 8:1). “Biblical Clarity Regarding Condemnation” because that’s that key term in Romans 8:1. Let’s look at that text. It says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Now we want clarity on that. What is it actually telling us? Well, first word I want to point out is this. It says, “Therefore.” This is that word, “Therefore.” But what’s that talking about? So, I’m going to do this in four points so we can understand the text clearly from this point forward.

Here’s

1.  Why Not?

Why is there not condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Well, and the simple answer is this, because of the work that Jesus accomplished in justifying His people. Basically it’s this, there’s no condemnation because there is justification. Justification is the work of God, whereby God sovereignly and righteously and justly declares someone fully justified, just as if they’d never sinned. In other words, they have the righteousness of Christ on them because their sin has gone on the Lamb of God. That’s what he’s referring to when he uses the “therefore”, in chapter eight, verse one, he’s actually referring back to another, “therefore”, which is chapter five, verses one and two here, those are chapter five of Romans. Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, since we have been (this is past tense) justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This would be talking about the past, right? Justification, when? At the moment of someone’s regeneration. When they’re born again, they’re justified. It’s not a process. It’s permanent. He goes on in verse two, “Through him (that’s through Christ) we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” This would be what? This would be, present. Can’t spell “present”. There we go. It’s the pen’s fault, right? And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. This is the future, right? Past, present and future. There is no condemnation. There’s no condemnation for the Christian past, when they were saved, that’s when that began. It was taken away. Present, no matter what they face, no matter how they stumble. There’s no condemnation. Future, at the beam of judgment seat of Christ, when we stand before Him and we receive rewards for the things done in our body, in faith, that’s there’s no condemnation in that. There’s literally none. It literally does not exist. This is how Paul can later write in the chapter eight. Look at Romans. We’ll skip ahead on it. Just a moment. Verses 33 and 34 he says this, Romans 8:33-34 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” That is His church, that’s His people. Why? Why can no one bring a charge? Because “It is God who justifies.” You know, it’s the answer to the question, no one, no one can bring a charge against God’s elect. Now, does that mean that you can’t go to a brother or a sister and say, “I need to tell you this, you’ve sinned against me”? No, it doesn’t mean you can’t do that. Because that’s Matthew 18. This is talking about a damning charge. This is talking about a charge that will result in eternal damnation. That’s what this is referring to. You’ve been justified. You’re not gonna have those charges against you. Verse 34 next verse, right? “Who is to condemn?” What’s the answer? No one. Why? “Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us.” When? Right now. Why? Because we need it. How do we know we need it? Because we know what Romans seven says, and we live with us, right? You get this. This is why there’s no condemnation. He’s taken it out of the way.

Here’s point number two, look how fast you’re going.

2. When?

When is that? Does that mean someday, in the pie in the sky, when you are in glory? Does that mean someday, while you’re still on earth, when you reach some achieved stature of holiness. When you finally quit doing the thing that you know that you’re thinking about right now, or you start doing the thing that you’re thinking about right now, is that when it happens? When is it? Oh, let’s look at the text again. Chapter eight, verse one, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (right now, for who?) for those who are in Christ Jesus.” If you are His, there’s no condemnation for you now, right now. Listen, on your worst day, there’s no condemnation. And some of you are going to struggle with that because you came from churches who wanted you to feel condemned so that they could yoke you and try to modify your behavior. That’s very dangerous. That’s called moralism. It doesn’t work. You make new vows at every new youth camp and or wherever it’s called, you know your camp de jour, and you rededicate your life, or you turn over a new leaf, or you make this vow. You say, “I will never.” Yeah, okay, we’ll watch you about 10 years from now. See and that leads to despair. Right now there’s no condemnation, not just in the future, but from the moment of regeneration there’s no condemnation, not past, not present, and not future.

Now here, there’s a problem with this, though, and the problem lies with us. It certainly doesn’t lie with the Almighty. The problem is that even as Christians, sometimes we feel condemned. Nobody? I as a Christian, sometimes I feel condemned. Is that better? Does that help? Thanks, you Amen me. Appreciate that, buddy. Side note, Kelly told me this last week, one of the wives, I don’t remember who she was, one of the gals was talking to my wife, and she said that she was talking, I think, with her six or seven year old son, and she was talking to her son about sin. She said, “You know the thing about sin, we all sin. Everybody sins.” And the woman decides to say this, “Even Pastor Steve.” And Kelly’s like, “Ha”. No. And the woman, the woman answered her child, and she said this, or no. She goes, “Oh, even Pastor Steve,” and the child says this, “Pastor Steve doesn’t sin, he preaches.” Yeah, no condemnation from the moment that you were there. But have I felt condemnation? Will I battle condemnation? Listen to me, friends, I went to Catholic school as a child, I was raised in condemnation. Nothing condemns you like Catholicism. I was beaten by nuns. Anybody who went to parochial school in here or online. You got that joke because they take those rulers and they bang you with the with the flat end, and if it doesn’t work, they turn it to the sideways and bang you on the knuckles. Oh my gosh. Thank you for hearing me out. This is like counseling. I also didn’t get a big wheel when I was a kid too, so I’m pretty messed up.

What happens, though, when I see the sin in my members and I look at myself and I can’t face myself, and I feel condemned, because even if it’s just thought or intention, and that’s what I’m talking about, not to mention the fact that if you were to walk something out, what do you do with that? Well, listen, the book of 1 John was written. I’m gonna show you some some passages here the book of 1 John, it says so in chapter five, you can find it yourself. It says that this book, 1 John was written so that you would know that you belong to Christ, that you’re His and that you would have assurance of your salvation. And in that context, I want you to hear these verses. This is 1 John 3:18-20, “Little children.” Okay, who’s he talking to? He’s talking to Christians. Let’s get that down. He doesn’t say, “Little demons.” He doesn’t say “Vipers.” And you know, “vipers in diapers,” or any of that “Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth.” Now, what are we talking about here? Someone that does this, that loves what the Bible calls real love, in deed and in truth is about as mature as you’re going to get, and you’re always going to be growing in this. You’re never going to arrive. But love is the pinnacle of maturity. If you read 2 Peter chapter one, you look at the progression that goes all the way from faith all the way down to love. It’s quite the progression, if you’ve gotten here, man, this is something. In fact, according to Romans 14, you’re fulfilling the law because you’re not going to sin against somebody who you love. Of least, not intentionally. So he’s talking about this context, okay, Christians really walking uprightly in maturity. He says this, “By this, (look at the verse) By this, we shall know.” Now by what? By love. By the love being manifested in your life. “By this, we will know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him.” So, in other words, somebody walking in love walking by grace, you’re walking in love, and you’re not convicted of sinning against someone. You’re not convicted of grieving the Spirit or quenching Him, or sinning and breaking the law of God. Somebody that has a clear conscience like that is going to what? They’re going to have that assurance of heart before Him. They’re going to feel a tremendous amount of confidence and boldness to approach the throne of grace. That’s the problem, though, right? What about when you haven’t walked in love? What about when you’ve done that thing, or haven’t done that thing, and now you have that on your conscience, right? What about that? Is there condemnation then? Well, it’s possible for you to feel it without it actually being there. And that’s what this is talking about. Okay? 19 again, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him, for whenever (watch the next verse), For whenever our heart condemns us.” It does not say, “For whenever our God condemns us,” you see it? “Whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” In other words, He’s other than, and He’s greater than, and guess what? “And he knows everything.” Now, why does John put that there? Is it just a random “Hey, I want to tell you about the omniscience of Almighty God?” No, what is it saying that God knows? God knows everything, and what does He know? That you’re not condemned because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. That’s what He knows. Your heart feels condemned but your heart is not where you get your theology from. If anybody’s told you, “Well, the way to walk with Christ is just follow your heart.” Oh, they lied to you. Don’t follow your heart. Follow the Spirit. You follow the Spirit, and the Spirit will minister to you this. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.” I hope you see that. I hope you really get that. That’s when that’s now, even when you feel it. And some of you in here, maybe you were raised under moralism. Maybe you were raised under Catholicism. You were raised under Baptist-isms. There are those too. Some of those churches man, it’s law that the beatings will continue until holiness improves, right? Wow. Some of you need freedom from that, and that’s where you find it. There’s no condemnation over you right now.

But then we got to come to number three, point number three.

3. What Condemnation Is

Okay, then what is condemnation like? What is it? Because if we don’t define it, each of us will come up with their own definition. But biblically speaking, this would probably be the most distilled and therefore rich definition of what the Bible means by condemnation that you can find, and it’s this condemnation is this definition,

Eternal Damnatory Separation And Punishment

Eternal, damnatory, yes, that’s a word. Eternal, damnatory, separation and punishment. In other words, it’s forever when a man who does not know Christ enters eternity. When he draws his last breath, he enters into condemnation. The condemnation that’s been stored up for him is now on him. Now it’s been on him the whole time, but now he’s going to face it. He’s going to face that Jesus actually John in after Jesus was speaking in John 3:36 says this, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. But (what?) but the wrath of God remains on him.” “The wrath remains on him.” In other words, what? He’s under condemnation, and therefore he’s going to face that wrath. If you go back up to verse 18 of the same chapter, Jesus says it this way, John 3:18, “Whoever believes in him, (He’s speaking about Himself. Remember, God so loved the world that He gave His only son. He’s referring to Himself. But He says this) whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Again, what are we talking about? We’re talking about something that’s eternal. It’s damnatory, and it’s eternal separation and punishment. Now people have a hard time with this. In fact, right now in our nation, a wannabe theologian named Kirk Cameron, and if you like him, I’m glad, I like him too. He just was a better child actor than he is a theologian. That’s okay. That’s not mean. But what he’s come out lately is said that he does not believe in eternal conscious torment. He has become an annihilationist, or he’s leaning that way. An annihilationist simply believes that when someone goes to hell, they go into the flame, either burned up and they disappear, they don’t exist anymore. And I’ll give you this that’s a pleasant fiction, but you have to leave out a whole lot of Bible, because when someone goes into hell is eternal. They are conscious and they are tormented, and people push back against this, that that would be what condemnation really means, because they think this, “Well, what if somebody only lives to be 80 years old? How could you punish someone for eternity for only 80 years worth of sin?” Well, two things are at stake there. Number one, you don’t really understand the holiness of God. But number two, you also don’t understand that when people go to hell, they don’t stop sinning. People in hell are sinning. They’re doing it right now. They’re not just weeping. They’re gnashing their teeth. They’re doing this. Why biblically look through, go and look up, “Gnashing of teeth”, what does it represent? It’s anger, it’s hatred, it’s malice. They gnashed their teeth, plugged their ears when they ran at Stephen and they put them to death. Right? People don’t continue to sin. This is the condemnation they’re under. And it is eternal. It is conscience, and the conscience, and they experience it. What is condemnation? This is what it is for the Christian. There is none of this.

And here’s what it actually looks like on Judgment Day. I want you to see this. This is Revelations, 20:11-15 John writes, “And then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” This is the fruition, or the consummation, of being under condemnation. If you are in Christ here this morning, you should be thanking God from your heart. Thank God. There is no condemnation for those who are in Him. You will never face that. Do you know why? Because the full weight of the punishment of your sin went on Jesus Christ, and He gave you His righteousness, and at your death, when your fleshly body dies, listen, you’ve sinned your last sin. How cool is that? Now, if I asked how many of you would like to send your last sin right now? Well, that’s kind of a tough question, because that means you’re going to die. That means no more intent, incorrect, no more breaking of God’s law at all, and therefore that’s our eternity. There is no condemnation, but that’s what condemnation literally is.

And finally, here’s number four, and this is really, really important,

4. What Condemnation Is Not

What condemnation is not, let me tell you what condemnation is not.

Temporary Divine Discipline

Condemnation is not temporary, divine discipline, okay? Condemnation. What is it? It is eternal, damnatory, separation and punishment. It’s eternal, well, condemnation. That’s what condemnation is. What condemnation is not. Condemnation is different than temporary divine discipline because, guess what? When there’s no more condemnation, it’s because you’re in Christ, that’s where this begins. And guess who does it to you? God does. You say, “Do you have proof of that?” Oh, yeah. So let’s do this now, some of you, you’re not going to be as happy as you were when you came in. And that’s okay. That’s okay. It’s like, when your child reaches the age and they get their first you know, you got to warm them up a little bit, right? Their kids, like, “What new magic is this?” Right? They have to learn that way. Well, God disciplines His children. We’re seeing this all through the Bible, and you’ll see that it’s for a loving motive. Now when we talk about discipline, it’s very important we distinguish this from condemnation otherwise, as people have done throughout the history of this epistle in Romans, they read chapter eight, verse one, and they say this, “There’s no condemnation. I could do whatever I want.” No, there’s discipline. And now it’s not eternal. You’re not damned because of because of that thing or whatever, but God will discipline you, and as He disciplines His kids, what I want you to see is there is a spectrum of different kinds of discipline, from the lightest discipline of the afflicting of your conscience all the way to something as severe as death. I want to prove this to you so that you can rightly understand the word, okay? Here’s the lightest form of it, and I’m going to give you this in story form, narrative form, from 1 Samuel 24:2-6. This is the story. Remember, King Saul’s chasing David, and he wants to put him to death because he’s jealous of him. He knows that David’s going to become king. Start verse two. “Then Saul took 3000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat’s rocks. And he came to the sheep folds by the way, where there was a cave. And Saul went in to relieve himself.” He’s got to go to the bathroom. He’s got a bunch of men with him, so he’s going to go in there and have some privacy. It says this that next. So look, “Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.” Awkward. And here he comes David’s sworn enemy, whose whole purpose for being in the cave is he’s out marauding around trying to kill the man. Verse four, “And the men of David said to him, here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemies into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’ Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.” Sneaks up to him while he’s using the bathroom, Saul’s a piece of his robe off verse five, though. “And afterwards, David’s heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.” What is this called? This is discipline. What does that mean? That means the Holy Spirit convicted him that what he did was wrong because he wasn’t supposed to do that. He wasn’t supposed to touch the Lord’s anointed, and Saul was still in that capacity. It was God who was the one that was going to bring the judgment. God was going to bring the vengeance His way. But David stepped in and did that. And so, he’s disciplined here. So, what does he do? In response, he’s been disciplined. Verse six, “And he said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.’” What’s the point here? This is the easiest form of discipline. You do it, or you think it, or the motive is there, or you realize after the fact, and your heart strikes you, and you say this, “That was a sin, that was pride. Oh, that was dishonesty. That wasn’t loving. I shouldn’t have talked to my wife that way. Oh, I shouldn’t have treated my neighbor that way. Oh, my gosh. I shouldn’t have acted like that.” Right? “I shouldn’t have had that thought. Oh, I see that motive.” And what do you do? “God, forgive me, Lord. Thank You for Jesus Christ. Lord, ask You to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness according to Your Word, 1 John 1:9.” And then, guess what? Discipline is over. But not all discipline is like that, because the discipline will match the need.

Now fast forward in David’s life. Look at 2 Samuel 24:10. What does David just got through doing? He took a census of the people, which was a great sin, because God didn’t command him to do that. I won’t go into the detail of it, but this is you see it again, verse 10, “But David’s heart (what?) struck him (that’s discipline, the Spirit’s discipline begins. Hang on. Watch this. I finally learned something high tech. Look at that. Boom, then I come back. That works, all right. Don’t applaud. No please. But) David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people, and David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I’ve done very foolishly.’” Now when he cut off the robe in the cave, we don’t know. There wasn’t any consequence that we know of, but there was this time. And if you’re familiar with 2 Samuel, you know that He gave God, gave Samuel, I’m sorry, He gave David a choice of three things, and David chose three days of pestilence from God. Well, if you remember this, he says, “Let me fall into the hands of a merciful God, not man, not into the hands of man.” And because of that, in that pestilence, 70,000 men died. You say, “Wait a minute, God disciplined David by allowing a pestilence that took the lives of 70,000 men?” Yeah man. Now if in your heart you’re saying this, “Well, that’s not fair.” No, but it’s just God’s not fair, by the way. He’s just God does what, God’s in heaven, He does whatever pleases Him, and this punishment fit the crime. And so don’t get it in your mind that because there’s no condemnation that discipline means very little. It can at times mean very lot. Sometimes there’s consequences. Am I right? If you go rob a bank, when the FBI catches you, you can repent and you can be forgiven. God will forgive you, but you can’t tell the men who just put you in handcuffs, “1 John 1:9” because you’re going to prison, right? You’re getting three hots in a cot for five to ten. That’s discipline. You say, “Wait, but that’s earthly discipline,” right? God will use that too. Absolutely, the civil authorities are sent by Him to do His bidding, not that they always obey.

I digress. You say, “Okay, Pastor, that’s Old Testament.” Okay. Well, so you were, if that’s your mindset, you just told me you were raised in a church that tried to teach you that there’s two gods. There’s Old Testament, angry God, and then there’s new testament, super cool, Jesus God. No, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and God’s ways don’t change, and His discipline is still enforced. I want to show you two instances, and I believe some of you maybe you’ve never seen it in your Bible, but it’s right here in the book of 1 Corinthians 5:1-5. We’ll start in chapter five. The church at Corinth was very immature, very fleshly, very carnal, very sinful. Needed a lot of correction, and so it got a letter. And by the way, if Paul was alive today, the church in America would be getting a letter. 1 Corinthians five start verse one. He says, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans (what kind?) for a man has his father’s wife.” That means there was a man in the church who was sleeping with, we’ll say that kindly, right, having sex with his stepmother. This was happening in the church, and, by the way, the church was aware of it, and they were just lauding themselves and praising themselves for how gracious they were and how loving they were for putting up with it. God doesn’t think that way about that. Does He? No Look verse two, “And you are arrogant. Ought you not to rather mourn. Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” In other words, this is called church discipline, which is a form of discipline, a discipline of God to the children who He loves. He’s going to discipline the man. He’s going to remove him from the congregation. For what purpose? Well, ultimately, so that hopefully he’ll repent and be restored. But the warning is way more severe than that. He goes on verse three, “For though absent in body, I am present in spirit, as if present. I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man over to Satan.” In other words, turn him over, or the devil will have free reign on Him. God’s not going to cover him from it. Why? “For the destruction of the flesh (what is that talking about? It’s talking about his physical death for the destruction of the flesh) so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Then you might be here going, “Wait, what are you telling me, a real Christian was participating in that behavior?” Was it sinful? Yes. Was it also ignorant? Yes, it was very, it was both. But what was the church told to do? The church is told to do this, turn him over to Satan, remove him from the midst so that his body can be put to death until he goes too far. I’m gonna protect him from himself. I’m gonna take his life so his Spirit can be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. You say, “That’s very severe discipline.” Yeah, Ananias and Sapphira often, so we don’t like that, because that’s God being God, and that’s in the New Testament. So that’s an isolated incident. It actually is in its description here, but we know that God’s will is for the church’s purity, and He disciplines His kids. By the way, this has a happy ending in 2 Corinthians, he gets restored because he went away and he didn’t have to be put to death. You know why? He repented, he came clean, and they forgave him and they restored him. You see, the purpose of discipline is always protection, restoration if possible.

But here’s one you probably have never noticed. This is 1 Corinthians 11:20-32 now what I’m going to read is going to include something that Pastor Jeff read during communion. And you hear this a lot. You’re at almost there, you’re well, you hear it a couple times a month, at least. Here, when we take communion, we come to the Lord’s table. I want you to see the context. Start verse 20, “When you come together, is it not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.” Right? Talking about receiving Communion, but they were totally blowing it. Each person was bringing their own picnic baskets, and the rich people were pigging out and getting drunk, and the poor people were left out. It was just pure chaos. He goes on, he says, “For in eating each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry and another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I receive from the Lord (sound familiar?) I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.’” And we stop there, and that’s okay. But Paul doesn’t stop there. He goes into the severity of coming to the Lord’s table and the fact that God will discipline those who treat it commonly as common or unholy. Look, he goes on. This is the next verse. “Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner (we’ll talk about what that is) will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord.” In other words, it’s the grave sin. He goes on. And here’s the unworthy manner, “Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” What is the unworthy manner? It is the person that comes to the Lord’s table and thinks it’s just a religious exercise. It’s the person that goes, “All right, we’re going to go through our liturgy here at Sherman Bible. I peel open the snack pack, yep, stale, nonalcoholic, la, da.” We go through the motions, we stand up, and then we start singing again. You say, “That’s a sin?” No, I didn’t say it’s a sin. He said it’s a sin. God says it’s a sin. Why? Because you’re taking it in an unworthy manner. You’re not taking it seriously. You are disregarding and treating as common to the sacrifice that Jesus made for you. And you’re not examining yourself to see if the Holy Spirit would convict you of any sin. You’re not saying, “Holy Spirit as I come to this table. Do I have any sin that I need to confess, anything that I’ve held back, whether I know about it or not, would you bring it to my mind? I want to repent.” So he says, “Examine yourself. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body (see?) eats and drinks (what?) judgment on himself.” Now does he eat and drink condemnation on himself? No, but judgment, and that judgment of God is going to bring what? It’s going to bring punishment. It’s going to bring discipline. How do I know? Because we keep reading the Bible, right? Look at verse 30. “That is why.” What is why? What’s the ‘that’? it’s taking the Lord’s table in an unworthy manner, thinking it’s just the liturgy. He says, “This is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died.” Oh, it’s quiet in here. It’s heavy, isn’t it? It’s very heavy. And you might be out there going, “Oh, come on, Pastor, can’t we just enjoy Romans eight one? Let us be happy.” This transcends happy. This is joy. This is you seeing what God’s rules actually are, and His ways, including for His kids. Now, does that mean anytime somebody is weak and they’re ill or they die, it’s like, “Ah, I bet he did the communion wrong.” No, he doesn’t name names. He simply says there’s down line consequences of a heavenly Father that loves His kids and will discipline them so that they will walk in holiness. There’s no condemnation but this is discipline. But look at the good news. Look at the next verse, “But (look at this) if we judge ourselves truly, we would not be judged.” In other words, we don’t have to come into discipline if we’ll judge ourselves, if we’ll look at ourselves and say, “What have I done? What have I thought? Where have I been? God, I want to walk before You with a clear conscience. Oh, thank You, Holy Spirit. I confess that You take that in a worthy manner.” That’s you judging yourself, and then you don’t come under His judgment. Nowhere is condemnation mentioned in here, even though there are people who are going to be weak and ill and even die as a result of refusing the discipline of God. That’s how committed He is to you. He’s not playing around. And then finally, end the thought here verse 32 “But when we are judged by the Lord (again, that does not mean condemned, that means He’s going to discipline you) when we are judged by the Lord, we are (what?) we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” Hallelujah, don’t you think it would be better for the sinning man in 1 Corinthians chapter five to be put to death than to move himself outside faith and the grace of God, which God will not allow, by the way? Just as He put Noah in the ark and He shut the door, He shuts in the believer. You’re not getting out of this. He’s faithful to finish what He started, even if you want to fight Him, even if you want to run against Him, He will stop you if you’re His. Don’t you think it’d be better that he physically died, and then he would somehow refute the blood of the cross and be punished for his own sins? Well, he can’t be punished for his own sins so God will stop that from happening. And that’s what this is talking about. When we’re judged by the Lord, when we want to walk that way, we get disciplined. Why is it so important? Because people read Romans 8:1 and they say, “Oh, there’s no condemnation for me in Christ? Great.” And they go out and they think they’ve been given a license. Well, there isn’t condemnation if the faith is real, but there’s discipline and it’s serious, and we want to sit under the whole weight of the truth, not be floaty little people, to just be like, “Oh no, condemnation. La, la, la.” It’s called taking His grace in vain.

I’ll end with this Hebrews. Hebrews 12:7-11, speaking to believers. Here it is, “For discipline that you have to endure. God (when He disciplines you) is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” No one. He’s referring to what fathers should be doing. There are fathers who would be negligent to do that. But he’s saying a good father, there’s none. Verse eight, “If you are left, (if you could be left, in other words, without discipline) in which all have participated (that’s all without distinction not all without exception, that’s all believers) in which all have participated, (if that’s the case) then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” You say, “I don’t think God’s ever disciplined me.” You’ve never felt your conscience pained? Called to repent? If you’re here and you think you’re a Christian, you’ve never repented of sin, you’re called a non-Christian, you’re not saved, and it’s not loving for me to let you go on in that charade. You’ve not yet to be convicted. You’ve not yet to be called. I pray you would hear the Gospel today and that you would repent and you believe. You put all your hope in Christ and repent of your sin. Verse nine, he goes on, he says, “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them, shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and (what?) live?” They’re talking about eternal life? Talking about this life, living for Him. “For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But he (that’s God) disciplines us for our good that we may (what?) share his holiness.” Is that talking about the holiness that you were given by Christ at justification? No, this is talking about you sharing in His holiness, in practical holiness, you walking uprightly, you doing what’s right, yielding your members not to sin but unto God as your reasonable service of worship. We’ll get to that in chapter 12 of Romans. This is talking about a life that’s changed. So, people sometimes say, “Well, I don’t really fear God.” I had a woman come to me one time after I taught something just like this, and it wasn’t here, so it wasn’t you. And she said, “Well, I just want you to know I’ve walked with the Lord for decades, and I am not afraid of God. I love Him.” And so, my answer to her was, “Well, you’re not afraid of Him because you don’t know Him very well.” And then, of course, she thanked me. No, that offended her religious pride and she got angry. But the truth of the matter is, yeah, you’re not afraid of God if you don’t know Him well. And yes, I love Him, and yes, I’m near Him, and yes, He’s near me, and He’s God. And I tell you what He disciplines His kids. You say, “What kind of discipline might I be under?” I don’t know, but I’ll tell you this, if you are under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, if you’ll ask Him, He’ll show you, your conscience will know it. He’s not going to spank you and tell you and not tell you what you did. He’ll reveal it to you. You’ll know it. “That we can share in his holiness.” And then finally, “For the moment, all discipline seems (what?) painful rather than pleasant, but later, it yields the peaceful (look) fruit of righteousness to those who’ve been (what?) trained by it.” How do you get the discipline of God to stop in your life? Be trained by it. In other words, receive it. Answer to it, “Yes, God, I see this. I acknowledge this in my life. I know I’m not under condemnation, but I have acted foolishly, I’ve acted presumptuously, I’ve taken Your grace in vain. I’ve walked in my flesh. I’ve done those things.” But you got to see, see this, family, that’s a fruit of the Spirit. That’s not a factor of you being moralistic. You’re not doing that so that you can be loved and redeemed. You’re doing that because you’ve been loved and redeemed. It’s the fruit, not the root, that’s what condemnation actually is, not it’s discipline. So, let’s look at the verse one more time, “There is therefore now no condemnation (none you’ve been justified, when?) now (what is condemnation? Eternal damnatory separation and punishment) for those who are in Christ Jesus.” If you’re in Christ Jesus, you’re going to be disciplined by the Spirit. This shapes the verse for you to understand it clearly and biblically. What the Bible really says about condemnation and its weight.

KEYWORDS

Biblical Clarity, Condemnation, Romans 8:1, Justification, Eternal Life, Eternal, Damnatory, Damnation, Separation, Punishment, Temporary, Divine Discipline, Church Discipline, Moralism, Sin, Repentance, Judgment, Holiness, Spiritual Growth, Church Discipline, Holy Spirit, Salvation, Communion, Lord’s Supper, Hell, Great White Throne, Beam Seat, Annihilation, License, Grace, Online Sermon, Bible Sermon, Gospel, Texas, Kirk Cameron

Speaker

Steve LeBlanc