Well, we'll be considering Lord's Day 15 this evening, questions 37 through 39 found on page 216 of your Forms and Prayers book, and then now we'll read from God's Word in Isaiah 53, 1 through 12, and then we will concentrate this evening on Romans 8, 1 to 4. Isaiah 53, Yet we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crucified for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before his shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Now over to Romans 8, verses 1 through 4. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Let us pray once more to ask God's blessing on His Word. Heavenly Father, as we approach Your Word, We confess our own weakness of understanding and inability to grasp the things of your word apart from your revelation and the ministry of your Holy Spirit. And so we ask that as we consider these things anew and afresh now, you would be pleased to teach us, to fill our minds with truth and our hearts with a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask it in his name, amen. Well, sometimes the simplest questions can be the hardest ones to answer. It was Augustine who said, I knew what time was until somebody asked me to define it. And in a similar way, I think we can approach the gospel sometimes and say, oh yeah, I know what it is, but if someone asks us to define us, maybe perhaps we get a little tripped up in what exactly it means. And maybe we need a refresher on what the gospel actually is and how to define it and how to articulate it to people. But not only is the gospel necessary for us to understand and articulate and to hear it again in order to do that, but it's necessary to hear the gospel again because we need the gospel again. It was Luther who said, I need the gospel every day because I forget the gospel every day. I hope this evening to consider for you a sufficient definition of the gospel, how we should define and understand the gospel from Romans 8, 1 through 4. And I want to break it down really into three aspects. The gospel's verdict, the gospel's foundation, and the gospel's goal. Firstly, the gospel's verdict. Verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The gospel proclaims a verdict that there is no condemnation. There is no guilt for those who are in Christ Jesus. And to really appreciate this gospel verdict, one has to read it in light of chapter 7, where we see a man, the apostle Paul, even beset perpetually by his own shortcomings in sinfulness. And we read in chapter 7 verse 15, even the Apostle Paul saying words like this, for I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it no longer, it is no longer I who do it, but sin who dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil that I want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So here in this chapter, chapter 7, we're confronted with a man who's very aware of his own residual and indwelling sin. And in order to appreciate the gospel's verdict, we need to see the gospel with those verses in the background. And so those verses that the Apostle Paul is drawing out leave us with a question in our minds, and maybe even Paul in his mind, will I make it to the end? Will I finish? Will the besetting and indwelling sin within my heart prevent me from finishing the Christian race. Will God give up on me? And the gospel verdict comes in right at that point in chapter 8 verse 1 and says, Paul, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is, as Calvin puts it, a fortress for trembling consciences. A fortress for trembling consciences. Imagine what it would have been like for Adam and Eve to experience the bliss and the goodness of God in the Garden of Eden. And yet to forfeit all of that and sin against God and be cast out of the Garden, you can imagine the guilt that they would have sensed in their own consciences. And yet the gospel comes in and says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Think also of Noah, a preacher of righteousness for 120 years, faithful to God to build the ark that he called him to do. A man who experienced the judgment of God and the deluge of his wrath. And yet even Noah found himself in a drunken stupor. And you can even sense what he has said to himself. What will God do? How will God respond to this? And his conscience perhaps was even afflicted by that very act of his own sin. And yet the gospel comes in at that point and says to Noah, Noah, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The gospel's verdict is an instantaneous reality. It is an instantaneous reality. There is therefore now no condemnation. It's true right now. It's not just true at the end of your life. It's not something that you have to aspire towards or you work towards. No, it's God's gospel verdict true in the present. It is a future reality brought backward into the present. It is what's true on the last day brought forward to the present day. It's an instantaneous verdict. It happens on the first day of your Christian life. And not only is it instantaneous, but it's irreversible. There's nothing you can do to change God's mind. There's no sin that you can commit that would make God revoke this gospel verdict from you. Philippians 1.6, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In John 10, Jesus said, I know my sheep and no one can snatch them out of my hands. This gospel verdict is irreversible. And imagine what that would be like for someone like the Apostle Peter. who lived with the Lord Jesus Christ, who did ministry with Jesus, who went all around Galilee and Judea and the neighboring areas of Jerusalem. And yet at the end of Jesus's life, he denied him to a servant girl. Can you imagine the guilt that Peter would have felt when he committed that sin against Jesus? And yet the gospel, the verdict of the gospel comes in right then and there and says, Peter, all who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. There's nothing you can do to change God's verdict. It's irreversible. And not only is it instantaneous, not only is it irreversible, but it's also available to all who will come to Christ. This is not just something for the pastors. This is not just something for the elders or the spiritually elite or the seminary students or those who might be the upperclassmen. No, this is available for the old, and it's available for the young. It's available for the spiritually mature. It's available for the worst kinds of sinners. When Jesus was on earth, the gospel was presented to Nicodemus, the teacher and leader of Israel, and the gospel was also presented to the thief on the cross, even in his dying breaths, in his last moments. The gospel is available for all kinds of people. It was available for John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and it was available for Saul, the persecutor of the church. The gospel's verdict is available for all who are willing to come to Christ. Jew and Gentile, male and female, old and young, just like the parable of the wedding feast when Jesus said, okay, if Israel, national Israel is not going to come, then take this gospel verdict all across the streets and proclaim to all people to come to the wedding feast, to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb, to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only salvation. The gospel's verdict is available for all who are willing to come to Christ. Christ is the only shelter from the condemnation of God. He's the only safe haven. He's the only place where sinners may find rest and shelter from the wrath of God. Think for a moment what it would have been like to be Israel in the land of Egypt. And God said that God commanded His people to offer a sacrifice and to put the blood over the doorposts and to trust that because the blood of a lamb, the blood of a sacrifice, protects this house, the angel of death will not kill your firstborn son. And so likewise, that is the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood was shed. He was the true sacrifice for sins, and the only shelter from the wrath of God is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. This gospel verdict is available for all, but it is only given to those who will come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Calvin put it this way, First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, all that He has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us. As long as Christ remains outside of you, what He has done and accomplished in your said is absolutely useless. And not only is this gospel available to all who come to Christ, but it is a divine verdict, meaning that it comes from the only person that really matters. We care a lot about what people say about us, what our reputation is for those who are around us. We care much about what people say to us and about us, and yet there are many out there who would cast their words against us. We have our own consciences that accuse and afflict us at times. Even Satan is called in Scripture the accuser of the brethren. And there is certainly no shortage of friends like Job who misdiagnose our situation and tell us that the reason why we're going through our trials and sufferings is because of a particular sin in our lives. And yet the most important aspect of this gospel verdict is that it doesn't come from the pastor. It doesn't come from your best friend. It doesn't come from your parent. It comes from God himself, the only opinion, the only opinion that really matters. And if the judge says that I am innocent, what does it matter what the pedestrian on the street says, if God declares me just and righteous in his sight, why would I care what others say and condemn me for? Think of the hymn before the throne of God above when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within. Upward I look and see him there who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. Now, how is it that God is able to declare this verdict to sinners? Verse 2, The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Simply put, no condemnation because liberation. The law of the Spirit of life has set you free, has liberated you from the law of sin and death. The Holy Spirit delivers you from the condemnation of the law. Before the death of Christ and before the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the only approach to God was through Sinai. It was through a situation where there was thunder and darkness and trembling and anyone who touched Mount Sinai would be killed. The approach to God was one that caused fear and trembling. None could come to God favorably because of our own sinfulness. And yet now the Spirit, He delivers us from Sinai and takes us to the heavenly Jerusalem. He delivers us from the condemnation of the law that we would have experienced in our own unregenerate sinfulness. And He takes us to, as Hebrews 12 talks about, Jerusalem. meaning precisely this that we no longer approach God as a judge who condemns sinners but rather we approach God as a father who has shown grace to us and so we don't enter into a throne room of judgment rather we enter into a throne room of grace and that's because the Holy Spirit has liberated us the Holy Spirit is the agent who unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ We were united to Christ in His death. Romans 6, you were baptized into His death. In Romans 7, what that union means is that your covenant with the law has been broken. You now have a completely different relationship with the law of God. The law of God no longer condemns you. And even Paul illustrates it by saying that it's similar to whenever you get a divorce with somebody. You no longer have to submit to the one you just divorced. They no longer have authority or power over you. You are married to Christ now. You have a new husband, a new leader, a new authority. And so the law no longer condemns you because you're united to Christ and released from the condemnation of the law. But not only has the Holy Spirit liberated us from the condemnation of the law, He's liberated you to love the law. He's liberated you that you may love the law you once hated. The law of God now as a Christian in Christ teaches you how to live in gratitude for the work that God has done in Christ. It is now can be viewed positively as I will endeavor and strive to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind and to love my neighbor as myself. And so now you have a completely different appreciation for the law. So you say with the psalmist, oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day long. And this was the promise under the new covenant in Jeremiah 31, 33, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. I will give them a love for my law. The Holy Spirit not only liberates us from the condemnation of the law, he liberates us to love the law. And secondly, the Holy Spirit has liberated us from the power of sin and death, from the power of sin and death, verse 2. The Holy Spirit has liberated us from the power of sin. Sin no longer reigns in our hearts. It remains, but it no longer reigns. It's no longer exercising the same degree of power and authority in our lives because we've been released. The power of sin has been broken, which is why Paul says in Romans 6, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God and Christ. Have that kind of mindset in your thinking, I'm dead to sin. Sin no longer has its grips on me. It no longer can exercise its power over me because I've been liberated from it. And not only have we been liberated from the power of sin, we've been liberated from the power of death. The power of death, death prior to the death of Christ, death always won. Death always got the last say. Think about how fearful people are of death today, terrified to die, fearful to have one last breath, uncertain of where they will spend eternity, but not so for the Christian. We can approach death with confidence and with joy because Christ has defeated death. He's defeated the grave. 1 Corinthians 15, 55, O death, where is your victory? O grave, where is your sting? Christ has rose victorious over the grave. So now we as Christians for the first time can look death in the face and have confidence that it will not hold us, that it will not bind us, that Christ will raise our bodies on the last day. Hebrews 2.14, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He, namely Jesus, likewise partook of the same things that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Before Jesus died and before the Holy Spirit liberated you from the power of death, you were, as that verse says, subject to lifelong slavery. A lifelong slavery of fear, fear of death, fear of how you would die, when you would die, what it would be like. Now as the Christian, you have a completely different view of death. Death is the liberation from sin in all its forms. It means that we may eternally be in the presence of God forever and ever delivered from our sin in all its forms and in the presence of God for all eternity the Holy Spirit has liberated you from the power of sin and death now how can God declare sinners who are guilty to be not guilty is that unjust of God is that unrighteous of God. No. Verse 3 teaches us that God has done what His law cannot do. God has done what His law cannot do. The law of God cannot justify a sinner. Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. The law cannot justify a sinner. All sinners deserve God's condemnation and judgment. Galatians 3.10 teaches us, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. The law cannot show grace to a sinner. The law doesn't grade you on a curve. The law is not like your school teacher who says, oh, you know, everybody failed in class and did a really terrible job, so we need to bump it up a little bit and scale the grade. The law of God does not do that. The law of God does not show grace to a sinner. It doesn't grade on a curve like your teacher might. The law of God doesn't consider your tears or your cries. It doesn't take into consideration your crying and wailing. You can't, you might be able to cry your way out of a ticket, but you cannot cry your way out of the law of God. Think of the well-known hymn, Rock of Ages. Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. The law of God does not show grace to a sinner. God had to do something that his law could not do. The law of God could not justify a sinner, so he has come up with another way. Another way for sinners to be justified before him. Notice, firstly, that the gospel, what God has done, is a Trinitarian gospel. And it springs from God the Father. It starts with God the Father. It's not just something that Christ has done. I think that can be easy for us to assume or think that Jesus has done everything. But no, the gospel begins with God the Father. It originates, flows from the heart of the Father. God gave his only begotten Son. John 3.16, God so loved the world that whosoever would believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God the Father gave His only begotten Son. And furthermore, in this context, God the Father sent His Son. He sent Him. He didn't just give Him up, but He sent Him somewhere. He sent Him to live among sinners. He sent Him to live and dwell and eat and fellowship among sinful people. Not as a king to live in a palace, but as a servant to live in a polluted world of sin. And we must not lose the shock factor of the descent of the Son of God down to earth. When Jesus came down to earth, it was one who left a palace to come live in a pigsty. I don't know if you've been to the San Diego Zoo or any zoo for that matter, but if you're like me, when you walk into the door is you get a stench of the odor and the smell of the animals. And you think this is a very unpleasant place to be. I certainly wouldn't want to live here. I would say to some degree the equivalence of God the Son descending from heaven, the palace in eternal glory of heaven and living among sinners is almost like one coming down to live in the stench and pollution of a zoo. It's not somewhere that you would want to camp out. And yet the Father has sent His Son to live among sinners, and not just to live among them, not just to preach to them, but to die for them. God the Father sent His Son to die for sinners and to be condemned in the place of sinners. 2 Corinthians 5.21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God. The gospel springs from the heart of a loving father. It's as though we could say, as Stephen Charnock says, that God loved you so much that it appeared that he did not love his own son when he gave him to die on the cross. That he loved you so much that he was willing to part with one as dear to him as his own son. That is the heights of God the Father's love that he has shown towards sinners. The gospel springs from the heart of a loving father and it is secondly secured by the Son. It's secured by the Son in His life and in His death. The Son has taken upon Himself the likeness of human flesh and sinful flesh. The Father did not send Him against His will. He voluntarily assumed a human nature in all its weakness, in all its frailty. He took upon himself the reputation of a servant and a slave, one who came to die. The Holy or the Son of God has assumed a human nature in order that he might die for sinners. Romans 5, 6 through 8 teaches us that while we were yet weak, Christ died for us. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person. And even a good person one would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The most that we can do for our brothers and sisters around us is to die for a righteous person. Someone that deserves our death. Someone that is worthy to die for. And yet, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that He died for the most unworthy, a sinner, one who was weak, one who was an enemy of God. The gospel is secured by the Son in His life and in His death. He fully acquired a righteousness in order to be given to sinners. He lived a perfect life. He died a substitutionary death, all for the sake of securing the good news of the gospel and a righteousness that could be imputed to sinners by faith alone. Not only does the gospel have a foundation, but the gospel has a goal. So we've considered the gospel's verdict, we've considered the gospel's foundation, and now we are considering the gospel's goal. Verse 4, in order that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in those who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Christ came to fulfill the law at every point. He teaches us in Matthew 5, do not think I've come to abolish the law. I have not come to abolish the law. Rather, I have come to fulfill the law. Jesus obeyed the law at every point even though he didn't have to acquire any righteousness for himself. He didn't need to obey the law. He didn't have to do it for his own sake. He was already righteous and pure. All of his obedience to the law was specifically for you, that his righteousness may be credited and imputed to your account, which is exactly what Jesus says in John 17, 19, for their sake I sanctify myself. I live a holy life for their sake. Christ selflessly obeyed the law at every point in order that the righteousness of God may be imputed to us. Christ fulfilled the law that the law may be fulfilled in us. But it's not as though, or it's even more than that. Christ not only has imputed his righteousness to us, but he has sent his spirit to make us like Christ, to conform us to the image of Christ. I love the way that B.B. Warfield put it. He said, Do we not rightly say that the next thing to our longing to be in Christ is our corresponding longing to be like Christ. Christ has fulfilled the law at every point in order that righteousness may be credited to you and in order that he may, after his ascension, send the Holy Spirit to live and dwell within you to make you like himself. The gospel has a verdict. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The gospel's foundation is built on the love of God the Father, the love of God the Son, and the work of God the Holy Spirit. And the gospel's goal is not only to reckon you righteous, but to make you like Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you for the love that you have demonstrated towards sinners in giving your only begotten Son to acquire a righteousness for sinners and to die a substitutionary death in order that we, as guilty, sinful people, may be imputed with his righteousness and indeed indwelt by the Holy Spirit to walk in the likeness of Christ. continue to teach us and grow us in his image, transforming us from one degree of glory to the next through the ministry of your word. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.