Leviticus 24. In turning you there, you may wonder why I've titled this message,
Why I Love Romans Chapter 8. If a man commits a horrific crime
and is judged and sentenced by the law, the judge presiding
over the court system, and he's sentenced by the law to be condemned
to death. His death would be the result
of the strict justice of God. Strict justice of the court system,
and in our case, we've committed the a horrible crime, and we
are to stand before the holy justice of God's court. According to the law, death would
be a just judgment. It would be a death sentence
for the man that possibly committed murder or some other horrendous
crime. And there must be a consequence
for the breaking of the law or there would be nothing but lawlessness
in this world. This guilty man's death would
be his punishment, his consequence for the crime. His death would
be just and it would be right and it would be a reasonable
justice. Mankind's condemnation being
death. would be the action, the result,
and the outcome of what they deserve. A result or effect brought
about by action or condition of lawlessness. Now, in the Old
Testament, the old covenant of works as we call it, divine justice
required an eye for an eye, in a tooth for a tooth. We've all
heard that saying. The law of God here in Leviticus
chapter 24, look at verse 17, tells us that. And he that killeth any man shall
surely be put to death. If you kill someone, you're put
to death. And he that killeth a beast shall
make it good beast for beast. If you killed a man's dog, you're
going to have to replace that dog with the same kind of dog
he had. Or it would not be justice. Verse 19, And if a man calls
a blemish in his neighbor as he had done, so shall it be done
to him. Breach for breach, that means
affliction or destruction. Affliction for affliction, destruction
for destruction. Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.
As he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to
him again. Don't turn here, but let me read
this to you. Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 21. And thine eye shall
not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. You cut a man's hand off,
your hand's gonna be cut off. Now, this is defined as reciprocal
justice. The punishment for a wrongdoer
should be proportional to the crime that they committed. And
I'll just throw this in for free. If we had more of that today,
there'd be less crime. So the word condemnation, that's
my subject, condemnation. It's a fearful word. Because when I hear the word
condemnation, immediately what I think is, that's what I deserve. because of my sin, that's what
I deserve from God, condemnation. And the word condemnation generally
implies a judgment or something as being wrong, harmful, unworthy,
and it often comes with a sense of punishment or rejection. That's what I deserve from God,
punishment and rejection. And you know, we all got our
ideas of what hell is, Hollywood has painted a picture, movies
and all that. But let me tell you the most
horrific thing about hell and what it is. It's eternal separation
from God. No God forever. It will be one in hell will constantly
hear over and over and over again the words, the gospel that he
rejected Never be able to pay for the
first sin that he committed. And we don't have much of a concept
of what eternity is everlasting. But to spend eternity in hell
separated from God. It's just a fearful thing. Now I want you to look at John
chapter 3 with me. This is why I love Romans chapter
8. John chapter 3. Hear the Lord
speaking of all men and women born into this world. All. All
that's ever been born, all that are being born today, and all
that will ever be born. The Lord Jesus said in verse
19, John 3, 19, you got it? And this is the condemnation. Now the original Greek word for
condemnation means to judge or to decide, to make a verdict,
to execute justice. And the judgment and verdict
against all born is just this, that light has come into the
world and men loved darkness rather than light. Why? Why do men love darkness rather
than light? He tells us, because their deeds
were evil. That's talking about all of us,
every person here, every person outside of this place, all that
were ever born and will be born. This is the condemnation that
is upon men and women born into this world. This is the judgment
against us all. This is the verdict. This is
the decision of God Almighty. He's the judge of all the earth,
and He always does right, according to Genesis 18, verse 25. This is the holy and perfect
justice of God that is just and right against us. This is the
condemnation. By nature, we love darkness rather
than light. Now you may say, I love Jesus,
but in your heart of hearts, you love darkness more. And it says here that we love darkness
a lot and light a little. We love darkness rather than
light. We love darkness in the place
of light. We love darkness and we hate
light. Why? Because our deeds are evil. Why are our deeds evil? Because
we're evil. This is the verdict, the judgment,
the decision, the judge of the universe God Almighty has decided. Guilty! Sentenced to death. Well, that's not a very upbeat
message so far, is it? It's the truth. It's the truth. God's holy justice demands it. God must be just. The wages of
sin is death. The soul that sins shall surely
die. These are things that God says
about the guilty. Not me, not some other preacher,
but God. Proverbs 1, 32 through 33, for
the turning away from the light of the simple, the foolish, the
seducible. shall slay them, and the prosperity
of fools, those with lack of knowledge and intelligence, the
ability to apply knowledge and skill, shall destroy them. But
whosoever hearkeneth unto me, God says, shall dwell in safety
and shall be quiet from fear of evil. That's a little better. Proverbs 8, 36, but he that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. Proverbs 14, 12, there's a way
that seems right to a man, but the end of thereof is a way of
death. Proverbs 11, 19 is righteousness
leads to life. So he who pursues evil pursues
it to his own death. You see, there's a consequence
here. God has drawn a line in the sand. Hosea 4, 6, my people
are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you've rejected knowledge,
I will also reject you. And the reason that this message
falls on deaf ears so often is that men for a hundred years
now have portrayed God to be the little old man upstairs. Well, He's the little man upstairs. And you know, me and Him got
a good thing going. You know, He said that He loved
me. He loves everybody. And He's
up there wringing His hands on the portals of heaven saying,
oh, won't somebody believe in me? I need somebody to believe
in me. Hogwash! It's hogwash. It's a lie. God don't need anything from
anybody. He would cease to be God. And the Lord said that we love
darkness rather than light because this is why our deeds are evil. Psalm 28 four confirms this when
it says, give them according to their deeds, And according
to the weakness of their endeavors, give them after the work of their
hands, render to them their desert. The word means deserving. God's
holy justice demands that we get what we deserve. our love for darkness, our deeds
of evil, the wickedness of our endeavors, the work of our hands,
the attempts of our depravity. These things render to us justly
what we deserve. No one who sees themselves to
be what they are, hopeless. Has the Lord shown you you're
hopeless in and of yourself? Desperate, needy. None who have been seeing this
wants what they deserve. You know, I hear ignorant people,
I'm sorry, it means unlearned. I'm ignorant about a lot of things. But I hear ignorant people say,
I just want what I have coming. I just want what I deserve. Oh,
no, you don't. No, you don't. And I always shudder
when I hear folks say, that thinking to myself oh no don't say that
you don't have any idea what you want nor what you deserve
i don't want what i have coming i don't want what i deserve i
want and need mercy i need grace i i want and need forgiveness
I need redemption and complete salvation. How do I receive it? Only one way. How many times
have I said that this morning? A bunch of times, hasn't it?
It's the same answer. Only one way. It's always the
same answer. In, by, and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, they're pretty narrow-minded
over there at Bible Baptist Church. They better be. There's only
one way that leads to life. And He, Jesus Christ, is the
way, the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father
but by Him. Write it down. Well, no, you
don't have to. It's already written down. It's
written down right here in this book. So John 3, 17, for God sent not
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. He that believeth on him, Jesus
Christ, is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already. Already condemned. Because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now there you go. That's why
they're condemned. They haven't believed on Christ. How can a
holy and just God, who cannot clear a guilty man or woman,
do this justly? In the person of His Son, God
became a man, became sin for certain ones. Though He knew
no sin or committed any sin, He was made sin. Involuntarily, I might add. It
wasn't a punishment that God the Father handed God the Son
and said, well, you know, I'm going to have to make you sin.
He voluntarily said, Lord, I'll go. I'll go. I'll redeem these
wretched people. He took his people's sin upon
himself and he was made to be their sin. And because he was
perfectly holy and yet paid the debt of these sinners' sin, the
law was fulfilled and God's holy justice was satisfied. And God
said, it's finished. It's enough. He paid the debt. The debt's paid in full. The
debt is paid for all the sin of all the people of God throughout
all time. And this proves that God loves
some in the world so much that he gave them, and only them,
his only begotten son. That whosoever believes in him,
Jesus Christ, shall not perish, not be condemned, but have everlasting
life. And I've said this a lot in the
last couple of years, and there's a good reason. Many in my family,
those whom I dearly loved, were condemned for believing that
they were saved and could never be lost because they did something
and trusted making it a work of their hands
and not the Lord. They accepted Jesus and were
saved. Well, first of all, we don't accept Jesus. We don't. I hope I don't make you mad,
but we don't accept Jesus. God accepted us in Him, the Beloved. He's perfect. Who has to accept
Him? John 3, 16, all my life, that's
all I ever heard. For God said, love the world.
He loves everybody in the world. Why don't you just give your
heart to Jesus, you know, and well, I can't. then I wouldn't if I could, because
I'm dead. And John 3, 16 has never supported
the doctrine of universal redemption that God saves everybody and
loved everybody. It, however, did and still does
prove that God loves and saves all in the world who love his
son. Isn't that what it says? Read it. Everyone else is born condemned. That's what we're told here.
And they stay condemned if they're not affectionately made to love
Jesus Christ. But whosoever loves the Lord
will, by His finished work of righteousness, be pardoned, and
condemnation and judgment passes over them. That's good news. That's the best news I ever heard. Now turn with me to Romans chapter
8. These are the reasons I love Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 1. Romans 8 verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit." Now, the first thing I'd have you to notice
here is that the first two words, this is, is italicized, meaning
that they were added to the original verses, the translation, to make
it easier to read. I don't know how in this case,
this is does that. So if we read the verse the way
it was written, it says, therefore, now, no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. Now, that word, therefore, which
this verse begins with, means for this reason, as a result
of this, these things, because of this. Consequently, whenever
we see the word, therefore, in the scripture, it's a good rule
of thumb to look back at what was written previously to see
for what reason it follows It's therefore. Therefore means
to look and see what it's there for. Therefore, why is there no condemnation? That's the question. What is
the reason for no condemnation? Why is there no condemnation
for those who deserve it? It's a very reasonable question
to ask, especially from one that deserves it. You can't just tell
me that there's no condemnation without telling me why. And it's the only thing, the
answer's the only thing that will assure no condemnation. It's my only reason for any hope
of no condemnation. So, now let me remind you of
something else you already know. These epistles, that Paul and
James and Peter wrote were letters. They were letters written to
the church, just like you would write somebody a letter. I know
not much of that going on today with email and text and FaceTime
and all the stuff that we have, but used to, we wrote letters. It's one of the things I loved
about Brother Mahan. Of course, you know, Still in
it, he was in his early 90s and he still wrote letters. And I
remember when I'd get one in the, go to the mailbox and get
one, I couldn't wait to open it and read it. Because he always
had something to say. And Paul and these men of God
always had something to say, but these were letters. And this letter begins in Romans
chapter one with the subject of being separated unto the gospel. The gospel is concerning God's
son, Jesus Christ. That's what Romans one tells
us. This was a letter that Paul wrote. These chapters and verses
were all added later to make it easier for us to reference
and find things. We tell someone what the Bible
says and they say, well, where's that found? And you say, well,
it's somewhere third or fourth or fifth page of Paul's letter
that he wrote to the Romans. And you're like, okay. But when we say Romans chapter
three, verse one, it's just a way of marking that letter to find
what we're looking for. So look at, Romans chapter 3
verse 20. That's how we get there quickly. Just a few pages back, Romans
3 verse 20. Paul writes in this letter to
the professing believers, the professing Christians at Rome. He said, therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. The law of God was given so that
men and women knew what sin was. And that we could not save ourselves
because we cannot not sin. Follow me? Paul said, I had not
known sin in Romans 7, 7. He said, I had not known sin,
but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law said, thou shall not covet. That's what lust is. And it don't always deal with
a man's lust for a woman. I can see my neighbor with a
nice new shiny car and say, I sure like to have
that car. Same color and all. And that's
just lusting. It's coveting what he has. No salvation in keeping the law.
I want you to get that right off the bat. Why? Because we
have to keep it all or we're guilty of it all. That's in the
Bible too. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law and yet offend in one point, not keep just one little
part of it. He's guilty of all. He's guilty
of all the law. For he that said, do not commit
adultery said also, do not kill. Now, if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. You're
guilty of the law. If you offend in one point. If you keep nine of the Ten Commandments
and only fail in one, then keeping the other nine would be absolutely
of no spiritual profit for you. I've heard it said that close
only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades and a few other
things. But it counts nothing, nothing
when it comes to keeping the Law of God. It's all or nothing. You keep all of it or it does
you no good to keep any of it. That'll never be a problem with
us because we can keep none of God's law perfectly or in its
entirety. Again, we see that our deeds
are evil and that's why we must be made a new creation, a new
creature in Christ Jesus. And if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Oh
my, thankful for that. All my sin gone, passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. What good
gospel news. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His
accomplished work, has kept all the law for me. in its entirety,
perfectly. And all things have become new for us. Therefore,
there is no condemnation. And you being dead in your sins
and uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened, made alive,
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that were against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the
cross. John the Baptist confirmed this
when he himself saw Christ coming unto him. You remember what he
said? He said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world. Well, wait a minute, preacher.
You said that he didn't die for the whole world. Well, notice
here that, or notice what I just read, that John did not say the
sins, plural, of the world. We say, well, how is that significant?
He took away the sin, singular, of the world. That's not speaking
of the plural, the sins of every sinner. This is speaking of the
sin, singular, of the world. What's the sin of the world?
Unbelief. Unbelief. He took away the unbelief
of his people in the world. Who did Christ die for in John
316? Whosoever believeth in him. Him being his only begotten Son,
Jesus Christ. Unbelief is the sin of the world.
Remember, we're born condemned. None of us are born believing.
I remember Somebody told, I believe it was Brother Mahan one time,
said, well, you know, he said, are you a believer? And he goes,
oh, I've been a believer all my life. And Brother Mahan said,
that's just a little too long. We weren't born believing. We were born condemned. Dead
men and women cannot believe. They cannot trust. Matter of
fact, they can do nothing. Not a thing. They must first
receive life And in Him, they can do all things through history. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthened me. Philippians 4, 13. Look at verse
21. But now, but now, not as before,
not before Christ came, the righteousness of God that we must have We have,
without the law is manifested, made clear and obvious, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets. The Old Testament is
about Christ, even though Christ hasn't yet come. You say, how
can that be? Well, we see Him in picture and
in type. My, we've studied through these
books and we've seen Him as Noah's ark. The rain, the judgment of
God fell upon The world and upon that arc too, but those in that
arc were safe. From the justice of God, that's
Christ. One example, one picture after
another. Over and over. That city of refuge,
a man. Inadvertently kill someone, but
I for my tooth for tooth. And the. Avenger of blood, someone
in his family takes after him. You know, I don't care if he
did it on purpose or not. You deserve death. That's the
condemnation. But if he ran to that city of refuge and got within
that city of refuge, he was safe from the avenger of blood. That's
a picture of Christ. That's a type of Christ. And
on and on. Hundreds of them. Some we haven't
seen yet. The Old Testament. It's all about
him. The whole book is all about him.
And this is what the law of God and God's prophets endeavored
to teach us throughout the Old Testament. They were telling
us that one was coming who could and would provide for us that
which we could not provide for ourselves. See, that's what the
gospel comes down to. We've said it all the time. Shelley,
that's one of your favorite definitions as well as it is mine. God doing
for me, for you, what we can't do. Substitution. And He does it justly because
of who He is. When He paid for my sin, God
was satisfied because He was perfect. My sin was put upon
Him and He gave me His perfect righteousness. That's why there's
no condemnation. Verse 24. We're in Romans 3,
aren't we? Yeah. But now we are being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption. There's only one
that is in Jesus Christ. Verse 25 whom God has set forth
a propitiation through his through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness. We're not up here talking about
our righteousness. Better not be filthy rags. Through faith in His blood, we're
justified freely, the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth the propitiation through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. God should have sent us to hell
as soon as we were born. Forbearance, long-suffering,
patience. God gonna cross your path with
the gospel, and He gonna save you by His grace. Many of you
here this morning could tell that story in your own words.
That's what he did to me. That's exactly what he did to
me. To declare Christ's righteousness as the surety of his people.
Dear sinner, please hear me on this. Our righteousness could
not save us. Only condemn us. And that's why
there's no condemnation. Oh my, I'm about out of time.
God has his sword of justice drawn against us. That's what
we deserve. It's pulled from the sheep and
he's ready to use it against us. But he spared not his own
son hanging in our place on the cross. And he didn't sheathe
that back into his harness. He sheathed his sword in Christ for us until God was satisfied. And again, Romans chapter eight,
verse one. Therefore, this is why there's
no condemnation to them. Who? Which are in Christ Jesus. Those Christ died for, who walked
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. You see, we're no
longer enslaved to sin and unable to please God. God caused His
Spirit to dwell in His people. We can't take any credit for
that. We got a lot of people taking credit for it, but we
can't. We can't take any credit for that. That's something that
God did for us. Verse two, for the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh and its weak friends through
our flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, this is why God sent Christ, to put away
our sin. condemned sin in the flesh. Why?
Verse four, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
We walk not after the flesh only without condemnation because
being in Christ, we had none. We don't have any condemnation.
Our sin's been put away, it's gone. Salvation is of the Lord
Jesus. Verse five, for they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are
after the spirit, the things of the spirit, for to be carnally
minded, fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity, that word
means hostile, opposed to God, for it, that being our fleshly
minds, is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed
can be. Only in Christ are we freely
forgiven and made righteous. Our carnal, fleshly, hostile
minds could never, apart from God's sovereign grace, save us,
not our hearts. They're deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. And then we come to verse eight. So then, because
of this, They that are in the flesh cannot please God. And
then comes that little three letter word that always the gospel
seems to follow. But things aren't the same as they
once were. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit,
if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. And if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken, make alive your
mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Now I suggest
you read those verses again in your own leisure and read them
slow. Read them slow and listen to
what God's saying here. Who and what is he or she that
the Spirit of God dwells in? No creatures. They mind the things
of the Spirit. This is the proof that we have
this indwelling Spirit. We mind the things of the Spirit.
Did you notice that both the Spirit of God and the Spirit
of Christ are mentioned in verse nine? They're one in the same.
They're both God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. And because of that, the body
is dead because of sin. Our bodies, our flesh, listen,
these are just temporary dwelling places. The real you, the spirit
and the soul within is what's gonna live forever. One of these
days, very soon, we're gonna lay this body down in death. But that's not us. That's just
a tabernacle. That's just a tent. That's just
a place we dwelt. And we've all lost friends. No matter how young you are or
how old you are, we've all lost friends. And we saw them laying
there in that casket, but that wasn't them. There was no life
in them. Well, that's another subject. Verse 12, therefore, brethren,
we're debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For
if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you live
through the spirit, do mortify. That word means restrain and
subdue the deeds of the body, and you shall live. Sin can't be mortified by sheer
willpower. You can't will your sin away. If I could, I would. We ask God
for help and then rely on His power. Trust in Christ to do
it for you. That's what we do. We cannot
do it ourselves. That's all we can do. Trust and
obey. Believe God. Do you believe God? To those who do, therefore, this
is why, no condemnation. That's why I love Romans chapter
8. Oh, I love election. I love the doctrine of election.
I love the doctrine of predestination. Deep things they are. But the
reason I love Romans chapter 8 is that in Jesus Christ, no
condemnation. No condemnation to me or anyone
that trusts in Him. Under the first covenant of works,
we were in Adam. Now under the covenant of grace,
we're in Christ. As believers in Christ, we have
everlasting life. And because of him, we shall
not come into condemnation. Guilt can only be removed from
me when it's transferred to one who could bear my sin and pay
for it. Divine holiness could not ignore
my sin. God's too holy and just. Divine
grace transferred it to God the Son. And God said, that's enough. It's paid for. For he hath made
him Christ to be sin for us. The Lord hath laid on him, Christ,
the iniquity of us all. Therefore, no condemnation."
Innocent is the verdict. Friends, if you're in Christ,
you'll face no condemnation, only life everlasting. Face to
face with Christ, my Savior.