Session 35 – Romans; Romans:33-34: Mark Lanier, 06/14/26

ROM 035_Romans PODCAST_Lanier_061426
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[00:00:00] Are you ready to let's study Romans? Yes. Well then, let's start by telling a law story. You know, in every case that I try, there is this moment of truth that happens in the courtroom, and, and it is a dramatic moment. It's the moment where the question is going to be answered, do the charges, do the grounds for suit, do they stand?

Um, when I was trying the social media addiction case. So I, I keep-- Bless you. I keep a book all the time. As, as many of you know, I reference it often. Uh, in it I keep, uh, everything that I'm doing, my work, my prayers, my private study, [00:01:00] uh, what's happening in a case that I'm trying, all of the rest. And I pulled out the book from the case that I tried this spring because one of the things that I did in the book is I had written out the questions that were gonna be read by the jury.

And, uh, the judge would read the answers to these questions, and I needed to be able to write it down. So we're all sitting, and the whole courtroom is quiet, and they've had to hand out passes for the media because there are too many people who need-- who wanna be in the courtroom, and there aren't enough seats.

And so the passes are there. Everybody's quiet. Everybody knows after nine days of deliberations the jury has reached a verdict, but nobody knows what it is except for the jury. So the foreperson of the jury hands to the bailiff, who hands to the judge, and the questions [00:02:00] began to be read. And the first group of questions concerned the company Meta.

And it was question number one: Did the charge of negligence stand? Were they negligent? And so I'm listening. I've written all of this out ahead of time, but I've just drawn lines next to each one because as I told my client, if the answer is yes, that is good. If the answer is no, that is bad She said, "On every question?"

I said, "On every question." Are they negligent

Yes. And I wrote it down, and I wrote it in red ink, and I wrote it as the judge is reading it. Was it a substantial [00:03:00] factor in Kaylee's problems? Yes. Did Meta know about it ahead of time? Yes. Did or should they have known that it was dangerous? Yes. Did they fail to warn? Yes. Would a reasonable company have warned?

Yes. Was it a substantial factor Yes. And then the same thing was asked of YouTube, and then the damages and whether or not they should be punished. And it's a moment in each trial When everybody is silent and everybody is on edge

And if you took the blood pressure of everybody in there, it would give [00:04:00] the world's big pharma great joy 'cause everyone would need to be on medicine I promise you my pulse would be 20 or 30 time beats per minute faster than it would ordinarily be And it's, it's, um, it's an awesome moment that you, if you've never experienced it, it's hard to describe.

But I brought this 'cause I wanted you to know that it's real. And I brought it because Paul writes in such a way where he uses a judicial metaphor and he speaks to humanity's final courtroom

Where the judge will make the final judgment. Where everyone is going to hear the announcement And in this final [00:05:00] courtroom scene, if we make it personal, the question is very simple, can any charge be brought against me In God's final judgment, can I be condemned?

And Paul addresses that in the two verses we'll be looking at in Romans 8 today. Romans 8:33, he says, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies." He says, "Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us."

So can any charge be brought against me? Is someone gonna say [00:06:00] guilty? Can I be condemned? Paul answers, but his answer wasn't lofty theology His answer wasn't an idea system Paul answered with a person, Christ So I wanna look at these two verses, but we must, we must, we must always keep them in context. So this is, uh, the, we're toward the very end of a big chunk of Romans.

This big chunk started in Romans 6 One, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? And he answers it immediately, "Me genoito," may it never be. Heavens, no

[00:07:00] And he begins to list all the reasons why. And so the first 14 verses of chapter six, he says, "We died to sin with Christ." We died to sin with Christ. Then he starts using all of those sun words in the Greek, all of the with words. And then he says, "We changed masters. We're no longer slaves under the law.

We're slaves to righteousness. Our master is righteousness." We're not supposed to be sinning so grace may abound. Then he changes to another metaphor. In Romans 7, the first six verses, he says, "We died to the law and we're married to Christ." We may have been married to the law before, but that marriage is over with by death and we are remarried to Christ And then he goes on and uses another metaphor.

He says, "We've escaped a [00:08:00] law that was powerless. That law would not hold us together." It doesn't hold together And we've escaped that. And we move into chapter eight. So there's no judgment on us. We walk by God's Spirit. We are adopted children. We're fellow heirs. And creation's groaning, and we're waiting in hope.

All of these are reasons we don't need to be looking to sin. All of these are reasons we need to be living for Christ. And then he talks about the interceding spirit, and he gives that golden chain, those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those who he predestined, he glorified or justified. Those he justified, he glorified.

He's got that golden chain. And then what we saw two weeks ago, God's for [00:09:00] us. He wasn't willing to spare his own Son. He would give up his Son for us. Why would we wanna just go out there and be sinners and sin? And we get then to the verses today where he says, "This courtroom is now closed. No charge has been brought, can be brought."

Can be brought, let me change that So we're here at the end of Romans 8 almost. We'll do the last couple of verses next week. But we're here at the end of Romans 8, and I, we, we gotta remember we've done the context of the big chunk, now a little context of the smaller chunk, just Romans 8. We've got two bookends here We've got in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

And he started [00:10:00] this chapter out with that. And here at the end of the chapter, we've got the other bookend, "So who is to condemn?" The same word in the Greek. There is no condemnation, so who out there is going to condemn? And Paul has taken this passage, and he has closed a circle that he started early in Romans.

This is another way to see this in the context of the whole letter. He started out in Romans 1 saying that, "The wrath of God is revealed against unrighteousness." So we've got God the judge. His wrath is revealed against unrighteousness. And then in 3:19, he says, "Every mouth that might defend us is stopped."

This does not bode well for the courtroom scene. If this is all there is in Romans, the courtroom scene is going to be very, very bad for us. [00:11:00] But you've got that change in 3:21 where he says, "There's a righteousness apart from law that's unveiled, that's found in the death of Christ, a righteousness from faith to faith."

And we get here to where we are now, and we see that the court is closing, and it's this closing that we wanna talk about today. So we're gonna do it with three things. First of all, we're gonna ask the question, who shall bring a charge? And we're gonna look at it in close detail. Number two, who is there to condemn us?

And then number three, well, what about these two voices that seem to be speaking to me anyway? If we can do those three things, then we will have, uh, done a good study today in this part of Romans. So who's gonna bring a charge? This is where Paul starts. This is our first point. Romans 8:33, "Who shall [00:12:00] bring any charge against God's elect?"

It's God who justifies. Now Paul's question, who shall bring any charge, shall bring any charge, is just one word in the Greek. But it is almost totally used as a courtroom word. It's not just that's its main usage, that, that's what it is. It's, it's the charge that's brought against you in court. And kathegoreo, that's your charge in court, to file a charge in court.

Let me give you a couple of places the word's used in the Bible. Look at, uh, Acts 19:38.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and the letter to the Romans. Acts 19:38 Boom

All [00:13:00] right. This is our wiry screen that makes us all nervous All right, here's Paul in, uh, uh, in Ephesus. The riot's taken place, and the question is asked, if Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, Paul or someone else, if they wanna sue him, if they wanna bring charges, the courts are open.

There are proconsuls. Let them bring the charges there. And that bring the charges, same word. If someone wants to take him to court, courts are open, bring the charge. Uh, you get it also in Acts 23. While we're here, might as well look at a couple more examples. 23, verses 28 and 29. This is where Paul's sent to Felix, the governor, [00:14:00] and Claudius sends, uh, uh, uh, Claudius Lysias to His Excellency, the Governor Felix, greetings.

This man, Paul, was seized by the Jews and about to be killed by them. But when I learned he was a Roman citizen, I came with a guard and rescued him. Since I want to know the charge for which they accuse him, I brought him to the c- to their council. I found he was accused concerning questions of their law, but was charged with nothing deserving death.

That's the charge. That's the same word used in those two verses that we've seen. This is a charge. It's, it's a charge in court. You see it again a couple pages later, Acts 26, verses two through seven. Here's where Paul's defending himself before Agrippa. And he says, "I consider myself fortunate it's before you, King Agrippa, I'm to make my defense today against all of the [00:15:00] accusations of the Jews."

And he starts detailing all of this, and his accusations and the charges, again, same word. So we've got this word. It means to bring a charge in court. Paul knows it intimately well. So he's asking the question, who's going to go to court? Who's gonna bring a charge? Who is gonna hold-- Who is gonna go to court, to God's eternal court?

Who's gonna take a charge against you, Miss Carolyn? To God's eternal court. Don't answer out loud, you might get it wrong. To God's eternal court. Charles, who's gonna bring the char- who? Who? He says, "Who can bring a charge against you?" Who's gonna bring a charge against God's elect? Now, we've gotta be very careful here because we live in the 21st century, and for [00:16:00] 1,800 years people have been debating predestination Individual choice.

Predestination, individual choice, predestination. And, and, and one of the buzzwords is elect. Are you part of the elect? Are you not part of the elect? Who elected you

Are you? And so our tendency is to read the last 1,800 years of history into this phraseology. But when Paul was writing this They didn't have our 1,800 years of debate He's not writing to inform that debate. He's choosing a phrase that has two groups of meanings, but both of them are important. [00:17:00] First, God's elect or God's chosen was a reference in the Old Testament to Israel.

God had a chosen people. And so to some level, we've got God's chosen as Paul just referencing his people, God's people. But there's a whole nother level of meaning to this that I would think every Roman would have picked out. We had John Barclay in this class. Uh, I interviewed him. He's a Paul scholar.

It's been probably s- maybe six months ago, eight months ago, somewhere. It was in the past. And, um He wrote a book, Paul and the Gift, and he gets into a little bit of this in that book as well. Um, but, but he-- a lot of his work in that book was from another scholar named Mouse, and, and, and you can read this in a number of different areas.

I, I think it's very [00:18:00] important that we take a moment because most of us aren't... I'm, I'm-- We've got some old folks in here. Nothing personal I, Max, I was not gonna call your name out. I was not. Oh, no, he's taking his glasses off. He's gonna get s- he's gonna come whip me. Um, we have some old people in here, but I don't see anybody old enough to have lived during the Roman Empire.

Oh, wait, somebody over there. No, uh. So I, I want us to be aware of something in the Roman Empire that was daily and that had been around. It was, it was normal. It was just what existed, and it is what we would call the patron-clients, I think would be the, the Latin word for it. Clients, but client we can just use.

That's the word we get from it. The patron, we get [00:19:00] patron from it as well, patron-client system. And it concerned the patronus. Now, the patronus was a citizen gener- well, it had to be a citizen, actually. The patronus was a citizen, but it was someone of high regard or high standing And they would have clients, and in fact, most days would start out with the, the, the pa- patronus would awaken and, uh, would, would clean up and everything else and get, you know, have people dress them and all.

And then, um, the, the clients would file in either to the house or sometimes it'd be outside. Generally, it was inside the house. And, and they-- some would just be bringing gifts, some would bring requests, some would bring... But there was a relationship that was fed and fostered each day. And the patronus, [00:20:00] the one of the higher standing, was responsible in this relationship for providing protection, for doing advocacy in a court, giving legal representation, that was called patricianium in the Latin, for those who were under his care The client tastes.

And so this, this is... Well, I brought you something. Thought let's just make sure we're getting it firsthand. So this is a book, uh, Dionysius of Halic- uh, Halicarn- Carn- Carnassus. I always try to mispronounce it as best as I can

Um, you can just call him, uh, Dionysius H. And, um, he wrote-- He was a historian a little bit before Paul, but not much. He, he probably-- Paul was probably [00:21:00] born before this guy died, okay? And he wrote books, among other books, of antiquities of Rome. And I want to read to you, with you, what he says about the Roman patronus system so we understand it.

This is from book two. Um, starts, uh, chapter ten. I just gotta... I can't see it unless I turn around. So let's start it up here.

"The regulations which he then," and he's going way back here, "instituted concerning patronage," that's the patronus, "and which long continued in use among the Romans, were as follows. It was the duty of the patricians," that's the patronus, "the duty of the patricians to explain to their clients the [00:22:00] laws of which they were ignorant, to take the same care of them when absent as present, doing everything that fathers do for their sons with regard to money, to the contracts that related to money, to bring suit on their behalf.

They were," look at this, "they were to defend them against any who brought charges against them." The patronus was responsible under Roman law to defend, provide a legal defense, anyone who had charges brought against them if that person were his client, were his chosen. And to put the matter briefly, to secure for them both in private and public affairs all that tranquility of which they particularly stood in need.

It's [00:23:00] also interesting to me that for both patrons and clients alike, it was impious and unlawful to accuse each other in lawsuits, or to bear witness, or to give their votes against each other. Hold on. Bear witness, or to give their votes against each other, to be found in the number of each other's enemies.

That's the system that's invoked with this idea of God's elect. Who's going to bring any charge against God's elect? These-- The-- In the patrona system, how-- Honestly, do you wanna bring charges against someone where God's gonna defend them?

God is their justifier. It's God who does it [00:24:00] This is who God is. Three simple words, theos ho dekayon

Um, you'll hear me talk a lot in here about the way Paul emphasized things, because we emphasize by, um, pounding the table, or by putting, um, if you're my daughters, 10 exclamation marks on the text and 17 emojis. Um, we emphasize by raising our voice. We emphasize with, with bold font or italicized font or underlined, right?

But the ancient Greek did not have that. But they had other tools, and one of the tools they had is called asyndeton. And asyndeton [00:25:00] is because in the normal Greek language, everything flowed musically and melodically. Language-- You, you, you can see different Greek accents. Um, if you look, the-- see the, uh, the above and that first yellow word, anqilisi.

You see that E that's got the-- looks like an apostrophe sticking up? The idea was when you were saying it, you would go up in pitch when you got to that emphatic word. And then the next word, qatas, got an apostrophe pointing down. You go down in pitch. And if you see the squiggle mark on the second line, the squiggle mark is an up and down in pitch.

And so th-this was a melodic language, and we don't know exactly how it sounded now, but it was beautiful. [00:26:00] And it had all of these little added words, particles. And you'd have gar and dei and kai and all these little particles that would come. Now, if you take that away, if you take away those little added words, instead of having this beautiful lilting language, you have a staccato , a machine gun, and it, it would jump you.

And so when you have that in the Greek, that asyndeton, it means Paul's saying something that

I was riding a Peloton in, in the Peloton class in New York one time, and there's this fella, he's mean

I got no other word for it. I think he's a Marine [00:27:00] And, uh, um, he, uh, he claps louder than anybody I've ever heard in my life. I'm, I'm sitting there and, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm close to falling over. And, and ... 'Cause they don't have training wheels, a Peloton. And, um, I'm riding this thing, and I, I mean, he's just ... And he's making us

And, and he sort of sees some of us lagging behind, and he starts going, "Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go." And I'm going... That's what Paul's doing verbally. He is putting an emphasis down there that's just like boom. And he says, "So who's gonna bring any charge against God who's your patron?

Who's go- who's got the audacity?" And then he adds this staccato, theos, ho, dikaion. God, He who justifying. And that's just a mic drop moment[00:28:00]

There was a contemporary of Paul named Cicero. We've got more Cicero writings than we do anybody else in that time. Cicero would do that in court, and he would do it on purpose. When he's defending someone or making a speech or something, and he, he's written people about it, and so we know. He would say, you know, you, you hit that staccato.

You hit that as if ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. And they wake up and pay attention, and they know it's important, and that's what Paul's doing. Paul isn't just writing a verse for us to read over quickly and say, "Oh, yes, I get that." Paul wants us to viscerally feel it. He wants you to not just know God has declared you okay.

He wants you to feel it down to the marrow of your bones. Who's gonna bring a charge against those who belong to God as their patron? This is the God who justifies. [00:29:00] One, two, three, case closed. Have a good day And that's point one

Now, point two. So who is there to condemn?

Who is to condemn? And we've got an inclusio here. We've, we've got this, this book ending that we talked about before. Romans 8:1, "There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." So who is to condemn? Who's gonna do it? Who's gonna tell you God doesn't love you and hasn't accepted you?

Who's gonna tell you you better be sweating it in the day of glory? Who's going to tell you? Who's going to condemn you [00:30:00] before God Almighty? Well, yeah, but people don't know how bad I... I- Paul knew how bad you were. People are people, and the church is full of them. Who is to condemn? And then he gives you four reasons, or four things to think about, I should say, in this regard.

Number one, Christ Jesus is the one who died This verb, the one who died, apothano, is in what's called the aorist form. The aorist form means it's done. It's a done deal, as it's used here. It can be used differently, I understand. But, but he's saying it's already happened. This isn't something that you're banking on for tomorrow.

I think I'm gonna be okay. Word is Christ is gonna die tomorrow. No. And you can't erase what He did. [00:31:00] It's a historical fact. It's already happened. Nobody can undo the fact that Christ died. Nobody can say, "Yeah, well, He's gonna have to do it all over again, 'cause, uh, I'm, I'm worse. He probably only died for, like, most of the stuff I did, but there's a couple of things I've done, He didn't die for that, surely."

No, He died, period. Christ who died. He is the one who died. He is ho apothanon. Reason number one. Reason number two: more than that, mallon in the Greek. More than that, who was raised. More than that, mallon. This word can mean more than that, but it, it kinda can also... It, it denotes the idea of more [00:32:00] importantly Rather, but it's got this context of, of when they're hearing it.

It's like Paul says, "Hey, Christ died, but you know what's even bigger news? More importantly, Malone He was raised Which means not only can you not erase it, not only can you not undo it, not only can you not make God do it again, but he was raised, which tells you that God accepted it God accepted Jesus' death for you and your sins, and for me.

God accepted it. Paul has already said in Romans 4:25, "He was delivered up for our trespasses, and he was raised for our justification to [00:33:00] show us God's acceptance." That's the divine amen So we got four reasons I said. Number one, Christ Jesus is the one who died. Number two, now own more than that who was raised, more importantly.

And number three Who is at the right hand of God Paul is using Psalm 110 language. Psalm 110 was a psalm that the early church used about Jesus and quoted in the Bible, um, ma- a- as much as any other passage in the Old Testament, I think. You know, I didn't-- I haven't counted. I'm sure somebody has. Let me just put it this way, a honking lot It was used and, and this is it.[00:34:00]

A prophetic word of David Psalm 110, "The Lord says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.'" Sit at my right hand. Hebrews will reference this passage as well and talk about the fact Jesus sits because his work is done

Psalm 1:10. Jesus is at the right hand of God. That means Jesus is on the throne. That means Jesus is in the power position. That also means if anybody wants to get at you They gotta get through Jesus first Any accuser who wants to bring charges to God [00:35:00] against you has to go through Jesus first. That's what Paul's saying here.

Good luck with that. I love the movies where the hero steps up and says, "Yeah, you coming after them, you gotta get through me first." I love that. I love the idea, S- Satan wants at you? He wants to bring charges against you to God to condemn you? He gotta go through Jesus first. Amen. Well, good luck with that.

So who's at the right hand of God? And then reason number four Who indeed is interceding for us. I love this. Look at the picture Paul's drawn. This is us, right?[00:36:00]

We already know from earlier in the chapter, verse 26, just seven verses earlier, that the Spirit's interceding for us with groans too deep for words So the Spirit is coming up to the throne from down here, and Jesus is at the throne interceding for us from up there We're surrounded with intercession on our behalf by God Almighty.

Amen. He's got you covered. From the soles of your feet to the eternity of heaven's throne, you are enveloped in the Lord's praying for you. The Godhead has wrapped you in intercession, interceding on your behalf, and never because you earned it. Yes. Not because, well, he's too valuable to[00:37:00]

lose.

You are not the Patrick Mahomes that we just need- ... to, to give that contract extension to You are In all your fallenness, in all your flaws, in all your unfaithfulness, in all your doubting, in all of your poor decision-making, in all your selfishness, in all your narcissism, in all your errors, in all your faults, in every temper you've, tantrum you've thrown, in every lie you've told, in every dirty deed you've done, in every mistake you've covered up, you are enveloped by a God who is interceding for you in eternal justice.

And this, [00:38:00] amen, this is why Paul writes to Timothy later. In 2 Timothy 1:12, one of my favorite verses. Charles, we sang this hymn. I'm sure I sang it with you leading singing at times in my life. "For I know whom I have believed, and I'm convinced he's able to guard until that day what's been entrusted to me."

That I know whom I have believed, pistuo, is in the perfect form, the verb. Pistuo is the verb that's translated believed. But when you put a dative with it, which is what we've got here, the ho pepistuka, when you put a dative with it, it means trust in someone. This is saying, "I have put my trust in Jesus. I know whom I've trusted myself to, and I am [00:39:00] persuaded he's able to keep that I've committed to him against that day."

It's not, I know what I've believed. It's not, I know what I've done. It's not, I know how I'm gonna handle the scales. It's I know and trust Jesus, so I've committed it to him. So in humanity's final courtroom, can I be condemned? Let's map this out visually. Christ died the penalty's been paid

Christ was raised

God accepted the payment

Christ is enthroned. Your advocate sits with the King, [00:40:00] with the Judge, and Christ intercedes. You are covered in prayer Who's gonna condemn you?

Well, that doesn't mean voices don't try

There are two voices at least Maybe more. But two voices that try to speak anyway One voice is Satan He's called the accuser You remember Job one and two? I won't put it on the screen 'cause it would take

a minute, but let me just read to you for a moment

This is a [00:41:00] s- this is story time There once was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had 7,000 sheep. He had 3,000 camels. He had 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, and a whole lot of people to take care of them So his, this man was the greatest of all the people in his land.

His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another's houses. In turn, they'd send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them. [00:42:00] He figured that they probably did some things they shouldn't have done. So he didn't just clean up the house, he cleaned them up He would offer burnt offerings.

Said, "It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This is what Job always did. Well, one day, the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the Lord, "From going to and fro on the earth, just walking up and down on it."

The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil." Then Satan answered the Lord, "Does [00:43:00] Job fear God for nothing? Haven't you put a fence around him, his house, and all that he has on every side?

You've blessed the works of his hands. His possessions have increased in the land, but if you would stretch your hand out now and touch all he has, he will curse you to your face." The Lord said to Satan, "Very well. All that he has is in your power. You just can't stretch out your hand against him." So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and over the next few verses, Job loses his property, he loses his children.

But it says in all of this... Oh, this is where Job said that famous, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing. One day, the [00:44:00] heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord.

Satan was also among them. And the Lord said, "Where have you come from?" "Going to and fro, walking up and down." The Lord said, "Have you considered my son Ja- or my servant Ja- Job?" And he walks through it and says, uh, "He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him for no reason."

And Satan said, "Skin for skin. All that people have they will give to save their own lives. You stretch out your hand, you touch his bone, you touch his flesh, he'll curse you to your face." The Lord said to Satan, "Very well. He's in your power. Only spare his life." So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Job took a potsherd with which to s- a potsherd is a broken piece of pottery, with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes. His wife said, "Why are you persisting in [00:45:00] your integrity? Curse God and die." And he said, "Woman-

You speak foolish Shall we not receive the good at the hand of God and the bad? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Now, there's a lot to unpack there, and I'm not into unpacking it here, but I do want you to see the way it paints Satan This is pre-cross

Satan has no ability, that Satan has no ability to come into the presence of God and bring a charge against you. There's a prophetic book in the Old Testament, Zechariah, and Zechariah is one of the, the, that's fascinating. It's kind of a... It's [00:46:00] not maybe full apocalyptic writings yet, but it's at least early, uh, proto-apocalyptic maybe we could call it.

But look at Zechariah 3. Certainly something that Paul knew. "Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!'"

The Lord who's chosen Jerusalem rebuke you." But Satan is in front of God accusing. And it's not just there. If you go to Revelation, Revelation 12:10, it calls Satan something very profound. Look at verse 10

If I can find it here. Ah. "Then I heard a loud voice in [00:47:00] heaven proclaiming, 'Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of Go- our God and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.'" If you were here for my Revelation series, you would've heard me explain that this is a cyclical reading in Revelation, and in that sense, it's talking about the death of Christ destroying and throwing down the work of Satan as your accuser.

So we have a biblical picture of Satan as an accuser constantly going before God, but his accusation, or as we would say in Latin, his accusatio, is invalid. So this, this is it, okay? The charges are [00:48:00] real, but they can't get filed before God. The penalty's already paid. Here's my AI version of it

He got nothing. He got nothing. I like what Martin Luther said, "When the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this, 'I admit that I deserve death and hell. So what?'" For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God.

And where He is, there I shall be also. Amen. Have a good day[00:49:00]

Or as Don Meredith would have sung, "Turn out the lights, the party's over." So one voice is the voice of Satan, and you just gotta talk to him. Go all Martin Luther on him. Go all Paul on him. The second voice is in our head. Yeah, but... Yeah, but... And that's where s- we've got to understand that, that we need to let God just wash us afresh and anew with His mercy and grace that comes from Calvary.

Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand. The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land, my hope within the wilderness, my rest upon the way. I take, [00:50:00] O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place. And this is, this is where we need to live at the foot of the cross and proclaiming the empty tomb Because we gotta get those, those-- We, Paul will talk about it later as the renewing of your mind.

We've, we've gotta get those, those neural synapses, those thought forms that, that our life has put into our brain, we've gotta get those restored where they need to be under the mercy of the cross. Okay? So points for home. Three of them as usual. Number one, the case is closed. It's God who justifies. He is your patronus.

He's your defender[00:51:00]

Do you understand what it... Look, we got a case that's, that's getting filed and it's gonna be sent to a judge. We don't know which judge it is, and we really wanna know which judge it is, 'cause some judges are really, really fair

Some, some judges are not so. Some judges really have a heart. Some judges are cold and calloused. No. Um Can you imagine if you filed a case and the judge was in charge of you and seeing that you're okay Was your best friend? Was some- was, was, was someone responsible for taking care of you? I- it gets no better than that And, and it's not that he's a dishonest and twisted judge.

He'll make the whole penalty [00:52:00] get paid, but he's already done that. So he can be honest, he can be reliable, it can be a just court, and no charges can be brought against you because they're gone. It's God who justifies. So would you please walk out of here free? Point number two: when you feel weak, remember the Spirit intercedes for you.

Jesus intercedes for you. You are covered You may not be strong enough. You may feel weak. You may feel challenged. Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus, safe and secure from all alarm. Leaning on the everlasting arms [00:53:00] And point n- for home number three, don't succumb to the voices

You can quote Martin Luther or you can quote Paul. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You s- emphasize any words you want on that. You'll be fine. You just keep emphasizing it because all of those voices may be in your head. Satan may have p- m- he may have lined up an army of people to come tell you you're worthless, you're unlovable You've messed up beyond measure. You don't [00:54:00] belong anymore.

You're on your own. You get what you deserve. God only helps those who help themselves, and you have done nothing. All of those voices don't matter. Only the voice of God matters. There is no condemnation. Who can condemn you? It's God who justifies you. Who can bring a charge against you? Nobody. The debt's been paid.

The payment's been accepted. The divine amen has been pronounced, and you are embraced and covered by God. That's the only voice that matters. Amen. So here's your lunch topic if you want it. I'd be interested for y'all to talk about this. Which voice is harder to silence, the accuser or your own inner critic?[00:55:00]

Either way, the answer's the same, and it's Jesus. Would you pray with me?

Lord, part of me just wants to fall on my knees in gratitude and plant my face in the dirt and say, "We're not worthy, and you're just so awesome, and thank you so much, and, and what an amazing God we serve." And part of me wants to jump up and down for joy because of the same reasons Lord, my prayer is that you will use this class, this message, not just right now among us, but as it lives on in the internet, that you will use this to proclaim the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ dying for our sins, being buried, and being resurrected Jesus Christ at your right [00:56:00] hand through whom we pray to you.

Jesus Christ interceding on our behalf, the Holy Spirit praying with us in intercession Lord, use this to transform us, to instill in us the joy of the redeemed, the peace of the redeemed and the strength of the redeemed to serve you For all our days. Amen