And I think you’re familiar with Eli. According to the record, God had called him to three areas. He had called him to be a judge, a priest, and a father. In all three areas, he received custody: as a priest, the custody of the ark; as a judge, responsibility for the people; and as a father, the custody of his children.
According to the record, there is not a godlier man in the Old Testament. When you read the record of Eli, and the way he received the word of the Lord, even when it was condemning him, and his heart toward God, this man was godly. But he failed as a judge, he failed as a priest, and he failed as a father.
The only record of his failure was weakness. He did not use the authority that God had given him. Nothing else in the record is against Eli except his weakness. He lost his sons. He loved the Lord. He loved the people of God. His heart trembled for the ark. He just had a heart toward God.
But when it came to authority, he was weak. And out of love, he was weak. He did not want to—you know, when they wanted to take the ark, he just trembled and said, “Don’t do that.” Then they insisted, and he said, “Oh well, go ahead.”
When his sons were acting ungodly, he rebuked them. He said, “You’re going to have to answer to the Lord for this.” But the Bible says he did not restrain them, and so on. Oh, God spoke to my heart on that.
Whatever reason I am sharing that, maybe before the Lord we can ask God, since we have been delegated authority over our children, that in that responsibility, by His grace, we would not be weak. Maybe He can really minister to us in that. But I felt that I had to share that.
I will ask you to turn, please, to Romans 8.
As we come to the study of God’s Word, there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable, and that is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can take the things of God and reveal them to us.
Our hearts need to see Jesus. Our hearts need to be fed. Our spirits need the Lord, and God is the only One who can do that. We come to this Book and study it, but it is just like gathering water. Unless He turns it into wine, we have just got water. So we need the Lord to minister to us.
As we go to prayer, I am reminded of that passage in Scripture on the sensitivity of Jesus. I think one of the greatest pictures of the sensitivity of Jesus is when that woman reached out and one little finger touched the thread. He felt it. Talk about the sensitivity of Jesus.
As we get ready to wrap up another weekend, that is always difficult for me. You know what is going through our minds and our hearts, how the Lord has met us, and where we are coming from. But the Lord Jesus is so sensitive to your need, to your heart.
As we look in this marvelous passage of Scripture, just reach out in simple faith. Even if you only touch a thread, He will feel it. He will meet you, and He will touch your heart. Let us commit our time to Him and trust that He will minister to us. Let us pray.
Father, we thank You again for Your marvelous Word, for the Holy Spirit who translates that for us, shows us Christ, and then transforms us from glory to glory.
Lord, we ask You to tie up any loose ends that we might have, or leave them untied—whatever is Your desire—but give us Christ. We thank You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Romans 6 through 8: the unfinished work. Oh my, there is an unfinished work in our hearts. He is doing it. He is working. He will complete it. It is all because of the finished part of the unfinished work.
Once again, Romans 6 is the finished part of the unfinished work: the Lord Jesus is victorious. The Lord Jesus is dead to sin. The Lord Jesus is alive to God. The Lord Jesus is sanctified on our behalf as our substitute.
Romans 7 is the unfinished part of the unfinished work. That is the ongoing process of conforming us to the Lord Jesus. Chapter 8 shows us God’s marvelous means by which He finishes the unfinished work: by the blessed life of God the Holy Spirit living in our hearts to conform us and change us.
What we have been looking at, and what we will continue this morning, God gracing us, is this: if we see the Lord Jesus as our sanctification, what will be true in our lives? I have suggested that at least these three things will issue from our lives.
Do not worry about sin. Do not worry about holiness. Do not worry about anything.
We are coming to some of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. I have asked different brothers if they would really uphold me this morning, because you are in over your head in any part of the Bible, but in a special way at the end of Romans 8. I am sure you are all familiar with these passages. My, this is deep water. We do not want to drown together. We want to see the Lord, but we do not want to drown.
So I ask you to keep us before the Lord in that attitude of intercession. Now let us read the passage, please, beginning at verse 28.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies.
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died—yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written,For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long;
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
See my problem? Look at that passage. I think it is important how we approach this tremendous passage. The Apostle Paul is not reaching for words at all. He is not looking to pile superlatives on superlatives and get descriptive.
The Apostle Paul is very aware that, when touching on these truths, flowery words and trying to be fancy would detract from the message. So he does not try to be theological, though some of the deepest theology you will ever touch is included in these words.
He stops what he has been doing. In Romans 6 and 7, he has been a teacher—logical and deductive. Then, all of a sudden, he stops describing, and it is almost as though he begins admiring. He falls into worship here.
When you begin to read these verses, he is not instructing, teaching, or debating. He is worshiping God on paper. He is worshiping the Lord. He is writing in rapture, astonishment, and wonder. He is overwhelmed with these things. This man is full of praise, bubbling over, and his heart seems to glow like an ember over these tremendous truths.
If you are going to understand any part of God’s Word, you ought to read it as they wrote it. Since he wrote it in worship, the way to understand it is by worshiping with him and adoring with him.
I think the secrets in these verses are absolutely locked to those who approach them merely theologically. They are just locked. You cannot find them in the halls of controversial debate, from the pulpit of abstract theology, or by pouring over ponderous volumes of comments made on these verses.
The truths in these verses are scattered as treasures at the feet of babes. There is light here for the hungry. If we would come just to see the Lord Jesus, I think we are going to get a lot, because this is written by a worshiper for worshipers. If we can come with that heart, to see what Paul is rejoicing in, I think we can really see the Lord.
Let us immediately put it into its context. Romans 6 through 8: Christ is our sanctification. Now he is saying a big thing: do not worry about anything.
For the sake of logical connection, glance at Romans 8:28. God causes all things to work together for good. Now, what is left out of that “all things”? You say, “Well, nothing is left out. God causes all things to work together. When God says all things, all means all, and everything is in the all.”
Well, that is not quite true. There are a lot of things left out of “all things.” You say, “What is left out?” Well, verse 32:
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Here is another list of all things, different from the first list. So you have two lists of all things, and they are not the same. What He causes to work together and what He gives us are different lists of all things.
What is left out of that? You say, “Well, that includes everything.” No, it does not, because of verse 37:
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Here He gives us a list. He tells us what these all things are. That also is open-ended because of the general way he speaks, but it is different too. So you have three lists of all things:
Because of those all things, I am suggesting that this last section says, “Do not worry about anything.” He has given you three lists of all things, and I do not think there is anything left out after that. Let us look at each list, God gracing us, with this intention: do not worry about anything, because Christ is our sanctification.
Romans 8:28–29:
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
The first thing we need to do, brothers, is identify the good. This is not new, and it is not unique, but it is very healthy to do. The good in verse 28 is being conformed to the image of His Son in verse 29.
In other words, God causes all things to work together for good. What is good? The good is to make you like Jesus. That is what all things are working together for.
Sometimes something takes place in our lives and we say, “What is the purpose of this?” I will give you an all-inclusive answer: to make you like Jesus. That is the purpose of it. All things are working toward that.
May I encourage you to be very careful when you are sharing the dear Lord Jesus with somebody. Be careful when you say something like, “Come to the Lord Jesus and He will solve all your problems. Come to the Lord Jesus; He will straighten out your mess, put the pieces back together, tidy up your sin, change the curse to a blessing, and rescue you.”
Ultimately, He will. You are right when you say that, in the final analysis, all things will work together. But along the way, it does not always look as though He is solving your problems. In fact, it can look as though He is creating them.
I know I have far more problems since I have trusted in the Savior because of the way God is working to conform us to Christ. So be careful when you say that.
Because you know Jesus, that does not necessarily mean your wife is going to stay with you. It does not necessarily mean you are not going to go bankrupt. I received a letter from a man in prison. Well, he is not a brother; we have been praying that he would become a brother. He said, “If I accept Christ, am I guaranteed parole?”
Just because you accept Christ, you are not guaranteed parole. It does not mean your problems are going to go away. There is not a more comforting truth in the Bible than Romans 8:28. Do not be afraid to share it. Just make sure they understand: a person does not receive Christ to solve his problems. A person receives Christ because that is God’s will for his life.
So the good is to make us like Him.
Now glance at Romans 8:28–30, because God touches here on two of the most mysterious doctrines in the Bible—mysterious because they are big, mysterious because they are so all-inclusive, not because they are difficult to understand. They are not difficult to understand.
Verse 28 is the doctrine of His providence. Verses 29 and 30 are the doctrine of God’s decrees, His eternal decrees. Decrees are what God ordains to happen. Providence is what God orders to happen.
In the decrees, He is both Author, Initiator, and Controller of everything. But in providence, He is ruling and overruling. The all things that God causes to work together for good refer to His providence.
Whatever comes into your life is controlled by the Lord. We will not get into the whole development of this, but there are only two reasons why everything happens:
That is the only reason anything takes place in your life: either that you might see the Lord or that you might get ready to see the Lord. That is what He is about. He is showing you the Lord.
His providence includes every place in the universe: the heavens, the earth, the sea, and hell—every place. His providence includes every person on the globe and all of their actions. His providence includes everything that occurs at any time on the entire earth.
His providence reaches to the very hairs of your head. His providence takes into account not only things actual, but things possible. Just think about that. We say, “This happened in my life, and that happened. What if something else had taken place?” God has considered all the what-ifs.
The things that come into your life are controlled by the Lord. He has already considered all things actual and all things possible, and the only things that finally come into your life are those things that either show you Christ or prepare you to see Christ.
If you had at your disposal the wisdom, knowledge, and life that God has at His disposal, and you had to select a path for your life, you would not change a thing. You would not change one thing. It is so perfect. That is God’s providence.
This is not cold theology. Believers must know that there are no second causes. There is no luck, no happenstance, no chance, and no fortune. Everything that is in your life, God causes to work together to make you like Jesus. It all has to do with sanctification—everything.
I found a wonderful verse in Job. I found it like I was the only one who had ever found it. That is not true, but it felt so new to me. It is in Job 36 and 37. Elihu is sharing with Job the providence of God.
Behold, God doeth loftily in His power:
Who is a teacher like unto Him?
God thundereth marvellously with His voice;
Great things doeth He, which we cannot comprehend.
Then he begins to speak about the works of nature—storms, animals, calamities, and so on. In Job 37:12–13, he says:
And it is turned round about by His guidance,
That they may do whatsoever He commandeth them
Upon the face of the habitable world:
Whether it be for correction, or for His land,
Or for lovingkindness, that He cause it to come.
Is that not marvelous? Whether for correction, or for His land, or for lovingkindness. I think that can be tied into Romans 8:28. Why do things come into my life? Whether for correction, to bring you back; or for His land, because there is a need; or for lovingkindness, because it is simply the grace of God. God causes all things to work together for good.
This is a mighty argument, brothers, not to worry about anything. If you really believe that—you know, it is so easy to read this, “La, la, la”—you will not worry.
I know it might appear at times that His providence is running on a collision course with His covenant and His promises. It may look like the opposite. It may appear that you are a victim of circumstances and second causes. It may appear that God would not dirty His hands by controlling some event in your life.
But I will tell you: from man, it may come to you as sin, as in the case of Joseph, Jezebel, Saul, or Judas. From man, it comes as sin; but from God, the same thing comes as good, in order to make you like Jesus, in order to conform you to Christ.
Paul had that thorn in the flesh, and he called it a messenger of Satan. Indeed it was, because Satan is a little errand boy. The messenger of Satan brought the message of God. What was that thorn? It was to make him humble. Satan delivered the message, but it was a message of God.
Your trusting God, your belief in Romans 8:28, and your knowledge that God is the God of providence are absolutely inconsistent with anxiety, worry, fretting, and care. If God would bring these things home to us, we would see that we are being made like Christ.
Every moment of the day, things are coming into our lives, and God is controlling them and superintending them. We come to a conference like this, or to fellowship once or twice a week, and pray, “Oh, I just pray, Lord, that what I hear and this experience of being together will make me like Jesus.”
I pray it will too. But getting together twice a week, twice a month, or twice a year is not what conforms you to the Lord Jesus, whatever you hear. It is getting up in the morning and going through the day. As God brings everything into your life, it is the grind of every day.
It is all that God brings into your life to show you Jesus or make you like Jesus: your responsibilities, your duties, your relationships with other people, and your clashes. That acts like the desert sun. It exposes what is within, and then God can take that and show you the Lord Jesus.
Every moment of every day is crowding you to Christ. That is where you are conformed to the Lord—not in a church, school, or institute. Life is your school, and the experiences God keeps bringing in purposely make you like the Lord Jesus.
Glance at Romans 8:29–30. These have to do with the decrees of God—what He has decreed would happen. In fact, verse 33 gives that five-letter word: elect. They say, “Uh-oh, now we are going to get into predestination, election, and the eternal decrees.”
Only to make the point Paul is making here, and it is a marvelous point. Paul gives another list of words. Notice it. It begins in eternity past and stretches all the way into eternity future:
Then he puts all of those together and says, “the elect.” Now, as far as your experience is concerned, where do you enter that list? You come in at “called.” You came in the middle of the list.
Where do you leave? You leave at “justified.” So you came in the middle. You did not see the beginning, and you did not see the end. You just came in the middle. As far as your experience is concerned, you came in when you were called, and you experienced justification.
There are things that have gone before that you know little about except what is written, and there are things coming down the road that you know little about except what is written.
What are we called as Christians to believe? Electing love? No. We are called to believe redeeming love. That is where we came in. We heard about redemption. We heard about the Savior. We heard about the marvelous thing He did for us as our substitute. We saw Christ as our Savior.
God did not burden our hearts with eternal decrees, everlasting election, and predestination. He broke our hearts with redemption. He came to us with redeeming love.
Where does electing love come in? Let me make a suggestion to you. I ask you to trust me on it now, and then check me on your own. Do you realize this? When you read about election in the Bible, in every case—at least every case I can find—it is an inference. It is an inference from grace.
When is my head cleared on election? You say, “When you digest Calvin’s Institutes.” No, that is not when my head is cleared on election. You say, “After you have studied the ponderous work by Shedd on election.” No, that does not clear my head.
My head is clear on election when I respond to redeeming love. The more I enter into redemption, the more I appropriate Christ as my Savior. After a while, when I have a full Savior, election dawns on me.
I begin to look back in my life and say, “Wow, I have tasted such mercy and such grace. I have seen such a marvelous Savior.” Then you begin to look back and say, “You know, I think a higher hand has been involved in this. I think there has been something a little bit before this. I do not think my ear came to the ring of the gospel by accident.”
I begin to see how God has orchestrated, moved, and worked. The more I enter redeeming love, the more I understand electing love. I think in every case it is just an inference.
What God is saying is this: redeeming love is yours by faith; electing love is yours by experience. The reason many people are confused on election is that they have not entered into redemption.
Get people understanding redeeming love and seeing what a full Christ is, and they will be buried with evidences of election. That is all implied. Every true Christian who is laying hold of a full Savior does not have any problem knowing that he has been elected. He does not understand it, but he knows that the Lord has been in the background.
I heard the doctrine of election too soon. I really did. I had not entered into the fullness of redeeming love. I did not know beans about a present Savior. Then all of a sudden, I heard about election and predestination, and I will tell you, that almost destroyed me.
I think we can do a lot of damage with that doctrine by giving it to people who have not experienced redeeming love and salvation. Do not embarrass yourself with that doctrine of election. There is nothing in that doctrine to encumber or confuse. It is a marvelous truth, experienced by those who enter into redeeming love.
Paul brings it up because he is trying to tell the Christian to stop worrying about anything. He knew that the more they entered into their salvation and embraced a complete Savior, the more electing love would dawn on them.
He wanted them to see that, if they came in the middle, certainly there was something before and something after. If they came into the middle, certainly they were guaranteed what was going to follow.
Look at verse 30, please: whom He justified, He also glorified. What is glorification? You say, “That is the last stage of my salvation. Glorification—that is heaven. That is resurrection. That is when I see a full Christ in full view. That is freedom even from the presence of sin.”
Glorification—that is glory. I cannot wait. Someday, when will I be sanctified? The answer is: when I am glorified. I will be satisfied when I am glorified. I am already sanctified in Christ, but personally, when I see Christ, I will be like Him, for I will see Him as He is.
Now let me ask this question: is anybody glorified now? Then in verse 30, why does he use the past tense? He does not say, “Whom He justified, He will glorify.” He did not say that. He says, “Those He justified, He also glorified.”
I will tell you why He does it: because it is as good as done. That is why He can put it in the prophetic past tense. Whom He foreknew, He predestined. Whom He predestined, He called. Whom He called, He justified. Those He justified, He also glorified.
It is like the Lord Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Before He even went to the cross, He said:
I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.
He had not yet gone to the cross. How could He say, “Finished”? The answer is that it was as good as done in the mind of God.
See what Paul is saying—see what the Holy Spirit is saying through Paul. He is saying, “Do not worry about anything. God’s providence is working for you. Not only that: do not worry about anything. God’s decrees are working for you.”
You came in the middle, but you have already tasted the end. It is as good as done. What has to come is as certain as what has been.
You might think in your heart, “I will not know I am saved until I get to heaven. Then I will sigh a sigh of relief when I am finally there and say, ‘I made it.’”
Let me ask you this: when you have been in heaven for a billion years—and I know there is no time there, but let us not get into that—will you be safer than you are right now?
I tell you, you are already glorified, brothers. My mom has been in heaven almost five years now. She sees more than I see. She knows more than I know. She enjoys more than I enjoy. I do not doubt for a moment that she is happier than I am.
But she is not more secure. She is not more secure than I am, and she is not more secure than you are. Because those He foreknew, He predestined; those He predestined, He called; those He called, He justified; and those He justified, He glorified.
Christ is your sanctification. His providence is for you. His decrees are for you. That is the first list of all things.
Let us look at the second list. Romans 8:31–32:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Paul is not asking this question because he wants an answer. The answer is already implied. He is not in doubt. He is not trying to be instructed. The answer is obvious. This is a question of triumph.
The comfort he offers comes from this argument in verse 32: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all—how will He not also, with Him, freely give us all things?
Brothers, do not miss the Father’s heart in this verse. There is an academic theology that saps the Father of all heart, feeling, and emotion. God is viewed as a computer. He has power, wisdom, and faultless morality, but no sensitivity.
Romans 8, at this point, puts the spotlight on the Father and on the Father’s heart. This does not minimize the love of Jesus. That is not what Paul is trying to say. He is trying to show you that the Father is in view.
This is like John 3:16, and the word so is the key to that verse:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.
It is talking about the Father’s heart. The parental heart of God is on trial in this verse. It hurt the Father to give the Son. It hurt the Father. There was pain there. There was suffering there. There was a struggle in the Father’s heart when He gave the Son.
No words I could ever say will be able to describe the painful surrender of the Father’s heart. It is a matter of revelation. We need to see that from God. But try to appreciate His heart when He consented to the cross.
Yes, He poured out vials of wrath on the Lord Jesus. Yes, He commanded the sword of justice to fall on the One who was His equal. Yes, the Father was involved in that. He laid on Him the sin of us all.
When the Father endured that spectacle of tears, agony, pain, and cries—when He saw His Son writhing in pain until full atonement was made—He was not standing by as some unconcerned spectator. The Father’s heart was broken.
Do not think about the Father as somebody frigid, some desolate abstraction. He is not that at all. Here is the argument God is giving: if God spared not His Son—if God, in all that pain and struggle, did not withhold His Son—oh, the ravishing love of God the Father in this passage.
Catch this: if God did not hold back the most painful part of His gift, what will He withhold?
In the Bible, God’s mercy is presented three ways.
Ahab received mercy. The Ninevites received mercy. Hagar and Ishmael received sparing mercy. The Bible even uses that language for the ravens that cry. They receive sparing mercy.
But God spared not His own Son. The weakest mercy in the Bible was denied the Lord Jesus. He was not allowed to tone down even one little second of that suffering, or one little degree. God did not spare Jesus one stroke, one tear, one agony, one groan, one sigh, or one circumstance of the misery He went through on earth.
When we make a down payment, when we give an earnest, that is the easy part. We put a down payment on a car, a house, or a piece of land. That is the easy part to pay. The hard part comes later, when you pay the thing off.
But in the Bible, it is reversed. In spiritual things, it goes the other way. In heavenly things, when God gave the down payment—when God spared not His Son—that was the difficult part. That was the hard part. That was the struggle. That was the painful surrender to God.
The pledge was the dearest, most valuable thing to His heart, and that is what He gave in the down payment. He gave His Darling. He gave His beloved Son. That was the first part of the down payment.
Here is what God is saying. He is saying, “Brothers, if God did the most difficult part, now that the suffering is over, will He withhold the easy part?” That is His point.
What remains in your sanctification? Two things: making you like Jesus and taking you to heaven. That is all that is left. The hard part is finished, and the delightful part is left. What is left is fun for God: making you like Jesus.
I have a book in my library called Select Discourses. It is a book of sermons published in 1858. There are some unique authors in that book, and one is a brother named Frederick Krummacher. Have you ever heard of him? Get him. Read some of the things he has written.
He has a whole section on the temptations of Christ in the wilderness. But he has a sermon on the last part of Romans 8, and he says there is something here. Of course, he is German. He says there is something in the Greek that you miss in the German. Well, I think you also miss it in English.
He said, in the original language—and I see it now, and I am almost afraid to say it because we have been saying a few radical things—if we can end up as Krummacher says Paul ends up here, this is amazing.
I will quote him, so that if you do not agree with it, it is his fault. He said these verses end in a holy defiance, a defiant challenge.
He said the Apostle Paul is standing here on the finished work of the Lord Jesus. He looks in every direction. He stands on that finished work, looks in every direction, and defies everybody in the universe to find one thing against him.
He challenges the angels, the devils, the scowling world, his inflamed conscience, the law of God, and God Himself. Look at these verses:
If God is for us, who is against us?
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?
Who is the one who condemns?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
He is challenging. He is defying. He is daring. In verse 33, there is something wonderful:
God is the One who justifies.
The very One who should condemn us brings arguments in our defense. Our condemnation should have come from His corner, but our vindication comes from His corner.
In this marvelous sermon, Brother Krummacher follows the Apostle Paul with his daring defiance. Of course, he gets poetic, but he pictures Paul taking the world’s honors and throwing them back in their face, taking their shame and reproach and weaving them into a crown, then putting it on his own head.
“I am more than conqueror.” Then he says, “Paul, who are you, you presumptuous man? Who are you to make statements like this, to challenge every intelligent creature in the universe? You, the one who was godless without parallel, the enemy of the Jews, the persecutor of God’s people, the one who dared call himself chief of sinners—what right do you have to stand there and challenge, dare, and defy?”
In his graphic way, Krummacher pictures him going up to Mount Sinai, the mountain of the law. He stands there, looks straight at Mount Sinai, and yells, “Who is he that condemns?” He takes the holy law of God and says, “I dare you. Find one thing against me.”
Then, after he turns away from the law, he goes over to the abyss of hell. He cries into all the demons and Satan himself, forehead to forehead, and says, “I challenge you. I dare you. Find something against me. I am a child of God. God is the One who justifies. You find something to condemn me.”
Then he runs down to the gates of the dead, swings them open, and sees those he has killed, those he has put on the rack, and those who suffered. He says, “I brought you here, and I brought you to death. I dare you to accuse me. Anybody, stand up. Find something against me.”
Then he stands in front of the mirror and looks at his own conscience. He says, “Scream all you want. Find all the condemnation, and I will admit to every one and multiply them by ten million. I agree. But I dare you to condemn me.”
Then Krummacher pictures him going up to the great white throne judgment, appearing at the white throne when the curtain has finally been rolled up, the heavens have fled away, and the earth and sea have given up the dead in them.
Upon that throne sits One whose eyes are a flame of fire, whose feet are brass, whose wrath is horrible. Before Him are all the multitudes, and He will say to so many, “I never knew you.”
Paul then begins to shout in a way that makes the throne tremble: “Who is he that condemns?” He looks at God Himself and says, “If there is any condemnation, speak now or forever hold Your peace.”
And God says:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
These are Krummacher’s words—this is how he ends his sermon:
Who is he who condemns? Huh! The curse sticks in your throat. Away, you accusers. Be dumb, be dumb. The tongue must dry up that would judge us. Who is he that can condemn?
Brothers, is that too bold? Is that too presumptuous? I suggest it is the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the good news.
In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer. Christ is our sanctification. Do not worry about sin. He is dead to sin; He is alive to God. Do not worry about holiness. The whole universe knows you are going to arrive.
You have already had the down payment. The Spirit is in your heart, praying for the will of God. Do not worry about anything. God is for you. His providence is for you. His decrees are for you. His love is for you. Your enemies are for you.
Do not worry about anything. Do not worry about anything. May God enable us to believe these things.
I want you to read the benediction. I am going to ask you to turn, please, to 1 Thessalonians 5.
Brothers, this is from my heart to you. I pray this: 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24.
And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire,
without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is He that calleth you,
who will also do it.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.