No Stones Left to Throw
No Longer Bound • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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OPENING
OPENING
Have you ever laid awake at two in the morning and had your own mind put you on trial?
No judge banged a gavel.
Nobody read you your rights.
But somewhere around 2:15,
the charges start getting read out loud in your own head —
that thing you said,
that thing you did or
that thing you didn't do,
that mistake from ten years ago you thought you'd buried.
And by 2:45,
you've convicted yourself all over again for something Jesus already paid for.
OH COME ON
Some of you
are living your whole life like a defendant
who never got told the case was closed.
You still flinch every time your name gets called,
because in your head,
you're still waiting on a verdict.
well this morning....
Paul is going to walk into that courtroom in your head
and shut the whole thing down.
Turn with me to Romans 8:31-34
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
We've spent this series called "No Longer Bound" tearing chains off one at a time —
the verdict,
the papers,
the groan,
the chain of five links we talked about last week
remember what those were?
Those whom he foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified.
Today we're going to the one place a lot of us never fully leave:
the courtroom of our mind,
this is where the accusations never stop coming.
OH COME ON,
YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT
IF YOUR TAKING NOTES, WRITE THIS DOWN
If God Is For Us
If God Is For Us
Look at verse 31 AGAIN
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
OH COME ON SOMEBODY....WE LOVE THIS SCRIPTURE....
Paul IS NOT saying...
nobody will ever oppose you.
People opposed Paul his whole ministry.
He's saying..... nobody who opposes you...
outranks the One who IS for you.
Now watch verse 32,
32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Here's the logic.
“If someone was willing to pay a debt for you that you could never repay,
why would you question whether they’d help you with what you need tomorrow?”
Paul IS saying:
God already gave up HIS BEST...
HE ALREADY GAVE UP the one thing that cost Him everything — His own Son.
So whatever you're worried ABOUT THAT He won't come through on.....
STOP IT
TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR.......
STOP IT RIGHT NOW
That's the small stuff compared to
what He already did on the cross.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY......
If He didn't hold back THE HARDEST THING,
He's not about to get stingy on the easy ones.
Somebody needs to hear that today.
You SHOUDLN’T BE waiting to find out if God IS for you.
BECAUSE Calvary already answered that question.
IN YOUR BIBLE.....
HIGHLIGHT THIS, MARK IT,
UNDERLINE IT....DO SOMETHING
Who Will Bring a Charge?
Who Will Bring a Charge?
Verse 33:
33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
OH COME ON....HE CHOSE YOU
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
HE CHOSE YOU....
CAN SOMEBODY GIVE HIM SOME PRAISE???
There's a scene in the book of Zechariah 3:1 that shows you exactly what this looks like.
The prophet Zechariah gets a vision of Joshua
who is the high priest
and he is standing before the angel of the Lord —
and Satan is literally standing at his right hand, "to accuse him" (Zechariah 3:1).
1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.
here's the detail that matters:
Joshua is standing there in it tells us....
in filthy clothes.
Guilty-looking.
Every reason in the world for the accusation to stick.
But watch what the Lord does.
He doesn't argue the accuser's facts.
He doesn't say
"well you know....these clothes aren't that dirty."
He rebukes the accuser directly — LETS READ IT
2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
OH MY LORD.....CHURCH
That.....IS your courtroom.
Somebody is always ready to read the charges
your own conscience,
your past,
the enemy of your soul.
AND THE TRUTH IS.....
YOUR clothes were...... very filthy.
The accusation BROUGHT AGAINST YOU
WERE true and accurate.
And it still didn't matter,
because the Judge Himself...
stood up and.... CHANGED the defendant
OH COME ON.......
instead of arguing YOUR case.
HE CHANGED YOU
Church,
that's what...."It is God who justifies" means.
He's not your defense attorney
HE IS NOT TRYING to find a loophole.
He's the Judge
HE already decided the verdict in your favor
and HE IS now personally handling AND CHANGING YOUR wardrobe.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY.....
SOME OF YOU NEED TO PUT ON THE NEW CLOTHES.
TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR....
PUT ON SOME NEW CLOTHES....
BUT PASTOR CHRIS....I DON’T DESERVE THE NEW CLOTHES
I’VE HURT SO MANY PEOPLE IN MY LIFE
I’VE LET MY FAMILY DOWN
LISTEN.....YOU HAVE BEEN JUSTIFIED THROUGH YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST.....
PAUL SAID I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE BUT CHRIST IN ME.
WHY??????
BECAUSE JESUS LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF UP FOR ME
FACTS.......
YOU DON’T DESERVE TO PUT ON NEW CLOTHES...
TRUTH.......
JESUS SAID.....
PUT THEM ON....BECAUSE I FORGIVE YOU
UNDERLINE THIS PART.....IN VERSE 34
Who Then Is the One Who Condemns? No One
Who Then Is the One Who Condemns? No One
Verse 34:
34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
In 1985, a young man named Kirk Bloodsworth
was convicted of a crime he did not commit and sentenced to death in the state of Maryland.
No physical evidence tied him to it —
just a mistaken description and enough circumstantial pressure to convict him anyway.
He sat on death row insisting on his innocence while almost nobody believed him.
Then, while still in prison,
he read an article about a new technology called DNA testing.
He pushed for years to get the evidence in his case tested.
In June 1993, the results came back:
the DNA excluded him completely.
Kirk Bloodsworth became the first person in America sentenced to death...
to be exonerated by DNA evidence
Here's what I want you to see.
The charge against Bloodsworth
IT didn't disappear because people forgot about it
IT DIDN’T DISAPPEAR BECAUSE PEOPLE decided to be nice.
It disappeared because....
THE new evidence outweighed the old accusation.
OH MY LORD...
The case was reopened,
the facts were reexamined,
and the verdict changed —
completely AND permanently
That's exactly what happened at the cross,
except the evidence isn't a lab result.
It's blood, and an empty tomb.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY....
Every accusation against you got reopened at Calvary,
and the verdict changed
BUT BECAUSE of what Jesus did ON YOUR BEHALF —
IT WAS NOT BECAUSE YOU CLEANED yourself up first.
IT WAS BECAUSE THE BLOOD THAT JESUS SHED ON CALVARY
THROUGH HIS BROKEN AND COMPLETELY BEATEN BODY THAT...
YOU AND I STAND HERE TODAY
COMPLETELY EXHONERATED OF ALL CHARGES OF SIN
CAN SOMEBODY GIVE HIM SOME PRAISE IN THIS HOUSE???
NOTICE THIS
Paul doesn't stop at "no one condemns you."
He adds that.....
Christ is "interceding for us" right now,
in this moment, at the right hand of God.
1 John puts it even more personally:
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
An advocate isn't..
just someone who won your case once.
He's the one still standing up for you....
every single time the accusation gets filed against you.
________________________________
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE DESPERATE AND WILL SURRENDER TO CHRIST......
JESUS..... LOOKS AT YOU AND SAYS.........
"Then Neither Do I Condemn You"
"Then Neither Do I Condemn You"
Romans 8 is Paul's theology.
John 8 is that same theology
BUT INSTEAD HE’S standing in a courtyard with dirt on HIS hands.
The religious leaders drag a woman in front of Jesus,
SHE WAS caught in the act of adultery,
and they're not asking a question —
they're TRYING TO SET a trap.
The law said stone her.
SO They're holding rocks READY TO CARRY OUT THE LAW
They want to see what Jesus does with...
an accusation that IS actually, factually true.
This isn't a case of mistaken identity like Bloodsworth.
She's guilty.
Everybody in that courtyard knows it,
including her.
Jesus doesn't argue the charge.
He bends down and starts writing in the dirt.
When they keep pushing Him for an answer,
He stands up and says one sentence that ends the whole trial:
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Watch what happens next.
Nobody argues back.
Nobody throws a stone.
One at a time — the older ones first,
the text says,
the ones who'd lived long enough to know their own record —
they turn around and walk away.
Until it's just Jesus and the woman left standing in the dirt.
LOOK AT JOHN 8:10-11
He asks her the exact question Romans 8:34 is built on:
"Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?"
And she says, "No one, sir."
And Jesus says the words every one of us needs written on the inside of our eyelids:
"Then neither do I condemn you"
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
.....THE LACK FAMILY....
Church, that is not a technicality.
He's not saying she didn't do it.
He's not pretending the accusation was false.
The charge was true
and He still said, "Neither do I condemn you"
the only Person in that courtyard...
who actually had the right to throw a stone
was the only One..... who chose not to.
BUT WATCH THIS......
Jesus doesn't end the sentence there.
He says one more thing,
THIS IS the part we “conveniently” forget to quote:
"Go now and leave your life of sin."
That's the challenge hiding inside the grace.
"Neither do I condemn you"
is not the same thing as "keep doing what you were doing."
OH COME ON....SOMEBODY NEEDS TO KNOW THIS....
I’VE SEEN PREACHERS PREACH GRACE LIKE IT’S A LICENSE TO SIN...
YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND.....THAT
Forgiveness was never meant to be a place you camp out in —
it's the ground you stand on to walk somewhere new.
OH MY LORD...HELP US
If all you take from THE SERMON TODAY is...
"I'm not condemned,"
you've only got half the verdict.
The other half is a command:
go, and leave it.
SIN NO MORE
YOU KNOW WHAT THIS TELLS ME....WE CAN CHOOSE NOT TO SIN
SIN IS A CHOICE......AND WE CHOOSE IT EVERYDAY
LORD HELP US TO STOP IT
LORD CONVICT US SO THAT WE TURN AND PURSUE YOU WITH OUR WHOLE LIFE
LORD HELP US TO CHANGE THE LIFE THAT LEADS US TO SIN.
LORD REMOVE THE PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES THAT LEAD US TO SIN
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
LISTEN TO ME.....
The courtroom in your head....
can keep filing charges all it wants.
BUT It does NOT have jurisdiction anymore.
OH COME ON......
The Judge already ruled,
the evidence already changed the verdict,
the One who died for you...
is now the One speaking on your behalf
NOT JUST ONCE.....
BUT every time your name comes up again.
AMEN????
......STAND TO YOUR FEET.....
EVERY HEAD BOWED AND EYE CLOSED
Some of you have been....
sentencing yourselves to a punishment Jesus already served.
TODAY,
the case gets reopened one more time —
not to find you guilty again,
but to close the file for good.
If you've been accusing yourself of something the blood of Jesus already answered for —
THIS IS FOR YOU
If you've believed the accuser's voice more than the Judge's ruling —
THIS IS FOR YOU
If you've forgotten you have an Advocate right now, in this moment, still speaking on your behalf
THIS IS FOR YOU
MAYBE YOUR HERE AND THE WOMAN WHOS BEEN ACCUSED....RESONATES WITH YOU
AND YOU’VE ACCEPTED THE FATHER SAYING...
”NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU”
BUT MAYBE YOU’VE NEVER LET GO OF THE SIN HE HAS TOLD YOU TO LEAVE
IT’S TIME TO COME AND LEAVE IT AT THIS ALTAR TODAY
WOULD YOU COME...
LET’S SING....
CLOSING
CLOSING
FATHER I THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORD
I THANK YOU THAT WE HAVE BEEN JUSTIFIED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
LORD I THANK YOU THAT THE CHARGES AGAINST US WERE DROPPED AT CALVARY
FATHER WE SAY THANK YOU
JESUS THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMITMENT TO THE CROSS
EVEN WHEN WE DIDN’T DESERVE IT, YOU DID IT
THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE
LORD FOR ALL OF THOSE WHO ARE STILL LIVING ACCUSED
AND FEELING REJECTED AND NEGLECTED,
I PRAY THAT YOU WOULD OVERWHELM THEM WITH YOUR LOVE,
WITH YOUR GRACE,
AND WITH YOUR MERCY.
FATHER I PRAY THAT YOU WOULD CONVICT THE HEARTS THAT NEED TO TURN FROM SIN,
REVEAL TO US THE AREAS THAT WE NEED TO LAY DOWN TODAY.
LORD WOULD YOU HAVE YOUR WAY IN AND THROUGH OUR LIVES
USE US FOR YOUR GLORY
USE OUR SITUATIONS FOR YOUR GLORY
WE THANK YOU AND GIVE YOU ALL THE PRAISE
In Jesus' name WE PRAY.........Amen.
