Well, once again, folks, we're
continuing our study, and it's been a couple of weeks since
we had a morning Bible study, a Sunday morning study. Turn
with me, if you would, to the book of Romans, chapter 8. Some
of you who may not have been with us in our last Bible study
may recall, wait a minute, weren't you all the way back in Chapter
6? Yes, we were. We finished out
chapter 6, went all the way through verse chapter 7 to bring us to
these verses in chapter 8. We actually looked at verses
1 through 4 in our last study of chapter 8. As you can see
there in verse 1, it says, there is therefore. Now that's therefore. Speaking of what Paul had just
wrote in chapter 7, in the last half of chapter six, talking
about the law of the flesh and how it wars with the law of the
spirit. Look over with me, if you would,
at chapter seven, verse 21. I find then a law that when I
do good, evil is present with me, for I delight in the law
of God after the end were banned, but I see another law in my members. warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. And I say that, and I said that
slowly and clearly because I want you to understand something.
And I battle with this just as much as anybody does. How can
God save? How can God tell me? How can
God be true telling me that I am saved from the sin that is within
me? Because my spirit, the new spirit,
the new heart, that law that we just read there, the law of
God after the inward man, we know that God's law is good,
but that we cannot keep it. Our law is this law that we read
about in verse two of Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus. That's how God can be true. That's
how God's Word can be true. It's not in you and I. Oh, how
we need to be reminded of this over... John Reeves needs to
be reminded of this over and over again. It's not Me, it's
my Savior, the Lord Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus have made me free from the law of sin and
death. Why? How? Because my Lord has
fulfilled the law of sin and death, the law of Moses, completely
in my stead. Not only did he go to that cross
and shed his blood, paying the ransom price for my sins, He
established a perfect righteousness by fulfilling every jot, every
tittle of His law in my stead and in yours. This is how God,
who is holy, so holy, He cannot even look upon sin, can look
upon us in His Son, in the Spirit. There are two laws, two laws
that we see here in this verse two. One is the law of conviction,
the law against sin, the law of death, the law that we all
come into this world under. It says in Romans chapter five,
verse 18, therefore as by the offense of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life. Look back if you would with me at Romans chapter three
for just a moment. The other law of the Spirit. The other is the law of Spirit. The first law that I just spoke
about was the law of conviction, the law of sin. The other one
is the law of the Spirit. So what is this law of the Spirit?
Turn back to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. We read about
this not too long ago. Look at verses 23-28 with me
if you would. It says, For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There's me. That's us. right there, being justified
freely, that means without cost, that means it was something outside
of us, without cost, freely, by His grace, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God had set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, through the belief that His blood was
pure, perfect, righteous, and accomplished all that he desired
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Christ. Where is the boasting
then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Is it excluded by the
works of men? Is it excluded by what we could
do? Nay, but by the law of faith. The law of faith. So we see two
laws. The law, back in our text, we
see the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and that
it hath made us free. from the law that we once were
held bondage to, the law of sin and death. The law of faith,
folks, is this. First off, it does not save us. Did you catch that? The law of
faith does not save you. Too many people will take that
statement, the law of faith, and say, see my faith? You see
how faithful I am? I show up every Sunday. I give
to the Koffer every Sunday. See this, see that? This is the
things that we do? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Faith
does not save us. Yet one is not saved, but through
faith. That's what it says. We are saved
by grace, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith,
through believing Christ Jesus, the Lord. That's what we read
in John 3.16. for God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son. Here's the important part that we see about that,
that whosoever, remember the scripture tells us that there
are none that seeketh after me. Was that not you at one time?
Was that not John Reeves at one time? There are none that seeketh
after him? Whosoever believeth in him, whosoever
has faith in him, whosoever has been given the gift of faith,
as we read in Ephesians chapter two, which we'll read here in
just a moment, believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. The everlasting life is to those
that believe, to those who have received the gift of belief,
as I mentioned a moment ago, Romans 2 verses 8, for by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is
it a gift of God. Again, our faith does not save
us. Christ is our Savior. The Lord
Jesus is our Savior. He, in His grace, gave Himself
for us, being made sin for us, He took our rightful reward. How do you know what your rightful
reward is if you don't see the depth of your depravity? We're
going to talk a little bit more about that in the next service. You don't go to a doctor unless
you need one, do you? How do you know you need a doctor
if you don't think you're sick? By His grace, He gave Himself
for us. By His grace, He was made sin
for us. He took our rightful reward,
our rightful reward of death. He took the full wrath of God
the Father upon Himself as our substitute. He paid the price
in full. God the Father forsook His Son. Now can you imagine that? Can
we wrap around our little minds around that? Grace, God, forsook
his son, God. He turned his back on him. I
can't even think about what that is. I can't even picture in my
mind what the magnitude of what that is. And what that does is
it expresses the grace of God even greater to you and I. We
can't understand the depth of what God turning his back on
his own son means, but we see that because of that, the depth
of his love, a deeper understanding of his love for you and I. It
brings out those verses in Romans 8 that we'll get to here soon,
over in the backside of Romans 8 there. He spared not his own
son. but deliver him up for us. How
shall he not also with him give us all things? It expresses that
in great depth, does it not? He gave us his only begotten
son that he would not have, so that he would not have to, in
his holiness, forsake you and I. For this cause, because our
Lord was tried and convicted in our stead, the law of death
is conquered. says, for the law of the Spirit
and life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. Our Lord conquered death for
us. We now live in the law of faith,
the law of the Spirit, the law of love. Let me give you four
verses. In Romans chapter 13, we read
these words. Oh no man anything but to love
one another For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
That's the law of love. In Romans 13, 10, we read this,
love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law. In Galatians 5, 14, for all the
law is fulfilled in one word. Even in this, thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. If ye fulfill the law, it says
in James 2.8, if you fulfill the royal law, according to the
scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ye do well.
This is walking in the spirit. Now, do we do it perfectly? Absolutely
not. Do not insinuate Paul is trying
to say that very same thing. Do we do what we should do perfectly? Absolutely. Our Lord did everything
perfectly for us. That's how we stand before God.
In Him, not in what we do. But that doesn't mean we don't,
we just, eh, whatever. I can live any way I want. Anyone who says that has not
been shown the reality, the truth of God's word and grace for his
people. When you've experienced the grace
of God, you will. you will show love towards others. Maybe not as much as you'd like,
maybe not as good as you would like to, but I'm telling you,
you do. If you belong to God, you do.
This is walking in the Spirit. And verses five through 14 explain
this phrase of walking in the Spirit. We're not gonna be able
to get to all of it today, but I wanna cover a couple of verses
if you would. Join me again back in our text. verse five of Romans
chapter eight. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but, now here we come back to
that very statement we saw just a moment ago, for the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. For they that after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit
the things of the spirit. Do you recall a time when you
thought upon the true spirit of God? When you didn't think
about upon the true spirit of God? I can remember that very
clearly. That was 23 years ago, but it
was all about John. I never had any thoughts in my
mind about God himself, especially the true and living God that
we see in scripture. John was off trying to do whatever
he thought was right in the world, just like you folks were off
trying to do whatever you were trying to do in your time with
the Lord when the Lord brought you to His Word and had the truth
of His Word preached before you. Unregenerate, unsaved people
do mind. In other words, they are concerned,
they're anxious to take up with the things of this world. I can't
go to church and worship God. I've got to pay for a house that
I want. I want to watch golf. You can
put whatever you want there. Whatever excuse you want to put.
Why are you going to church today, John? What's up with that? Why are you going? I don't know.
I need to go. I need to hear about my Savior.
I need to hear about my Savior. Turn over to Matthew chapter
6. Mark your spot there in Romans. We're going to come back for
a couple more verses. But look over to Matthew chapter 6 real quick.
The flesh, those that are of the flesh, mind the things of
the flesh. They mind the things of this
world. In Matthew chapter six, verses 24 and 23, we read these
words, 24 through 33, I'm sorry. No man can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will behold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, What ye shall eat or what ye shall
drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on, is not
the life more than meat and the body than the remnant? Behold,
the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather in barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought
can add one cubit unto your statute. This is walking in the Spirit,
folks. Walking in the Spirit, trusting in our Lord for all
things. It's not telling us not to put clothes on. It's not telling
us not to prepare for the things we need. You need a new coat
for winter, you go out and buy it, right? What it means is that
we put all of our trust in our Lord. Everything that's going
on with that building next door right now is being taken care
of by God Almighty. Everything that happened the
other day when those waters came up and ran over the building,
did it scare Kathy and I? Yes, it did. It put her in tears,
but God was in control of that. That's walking in the Spirit,
giving our Lord the glory for everything, even the preparation
for what comes next. Which of you by taking thought
can add one cubit into a statue? Verse 28. And why take ye thought
for remnant? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, how they toil not, neither do they spin. And
yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all of his glory was
not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed the
grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little faith,
take therefore no thought, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall
we drink? Wherewithal will we be clothed. For after all these
things do the Gentiles seek, speaking of those who live after
the flesh, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all
these things. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. This is the spirit. Walking in the law of the Spirit,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. Health and happiness,
honor for the flesh, is the main concern for those of the world,
not so for those who are in Christ. They are concerned first and
foremost, their thoughts are occupied with the relationship
of our Savior, Christ Jesus. Doesn't mean we don't think about
those things in the world, it means our Savior comes first.
He has the preeminence in our life. Those of the world are
concerned and their thoughts are occupied with the relationship
of the world, yet those who belong to Christ, our thoughts and our
relationship, our thoughts are occupied with our relationship
with Him. We grow in grace. We have a right relationship
with others in attaining to the resurrection of the dead. Go
over to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Right
before Colossians. I want to look at three verses
over in chapter 3 of Philippians. Paul speaking of those very things
of the world. The things that he sought after.
The things that the Lord had to teach him were a lust and
that was a power of the religious sect that he was in. He was going
about persecuting the church with the thoughts of the world,
thinking he was being righteous in what he was doing. And he
says this about all those things over in Philippians chapter 3,
beginning at verse 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. We have been brought We have
been given a new heart that seeks our Savior first. Why? Because
he's the first in all things. That's what Paul is telling us
here. I count everything a loss of excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them, those things, but done, that
I may win Christ. And being found in him, verse
nine, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law. Remember,
we're talking about two laws, aren't we? That's what Paul's
talking about there. He doesn't have a righteousness
of his own. That's under the law of death and sin. But he's
under the law of the Spirit, which is in Christ Jesus, but
that which is through faith. Isn't that what it says there? Faith of Christ. The righteousness
which is of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering be made conformable
unto his death. And if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. Now back in our text in
Romans chapter 8, verse 6 we read this, for to be carnally
minded is death. That's what we were just talking
about a moment ago. For they that are after the flesh, that's
what carnal means, to be of the flesh. for to be carnally minded
is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Don't
we come into this world spiritually dead? Isn't that what scripture
tells us? That means when God gives life to somebody, When
God comes to a dead soul and gives them life, like He did
Lazarus, He gives you life to see the truth of His Word, that
there is no righteousness in you, your only righteousness
is in His Son. He reveals the whole truth of
God to you. That's the walking in the Spirit.
If God has revealed Himself to you, you are walking in the Spirit.
Again, we don't do this perfectly. Don't let me downphrase that
at all. This is important, folks. Quit measuring yourself, John
Reeds, by what you do and measure ourselves by our Savior and the
gift of faith that he has given us to believe in him. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Go on, let's go on to verse seven.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, that fleshly mind
that we used to have, that old stony heart that shook our fist. Did you ever shake your fist
at God? Do you ever remember doing that? I don't remember
ever doing that, but I did. When you put yourself above God,
you shook your fist at him and said, that one doesn't rule over
me, I rule over my own path. And we've all done that. every
one of us. Yes, I have shook my fist at
him. Maybe not in the flesh, maybe
not doing it this way, but in my mind. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. Outside of Christ, there is nothing
that we can be, think, or say, or do that is pleasing to God.
The elect of God, those who are chosen of God, those who are
accepted and are Those who are accepted in Christ are well-pleasing
in His sight because we are in His Son, the Lord Jesus. Turn
over to Ephesians chapter 1. We'll just look at a couple of
verses there. Ephesians chapter 1. And while you're turning there,
allow me to read from Hebrews 11 verse 6. It says in Hebrews
11 verse 6, But without faith it is impossible to please Him.
For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that
he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Are you
with me over in Ephesians chapter 1? Look at verses 3 through 6. You see Ephesians 1 verses 3
through 6. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ. according as he had
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. In love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now
back in our text once again, if you would, verse nine, Romans
chapter eight, verse nine. But ye are not in the flesh,
Paul writes. We who have been called by God
out of the darkness that we once walked in are not in that darkness
anymore. We walk in the Spirit. We follow
the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus. So then they, but ye are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, it says. If so be that
the Spirit of God does what? dwells in you. Now if any man
have the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. I'm sorry, I
didn't read that right. Now if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. What did we sing a moment ago?
I am his and he is mine. Verse 10. And if Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. because of his righteousness.
This body of flesh and all that pertains to it is subject to
the death because of sin. That's the battle that we continue
to fight. That's a battle that some of us never fought before.
That's a battle that many of us gave in to easily. Why? Because we were bound by our
nature. to give into it. Now we turn
away from it by God's grace. I was asked one time, don't you
believe that we can do things that please the Spirit? I believe
this, God does things in me that pleases the Spirit. John's flesh
does nothing. Sometimes the Lord does wonderful
things in me, and it is glorifying to His name, not mine. I thought
about this. And we'll close with these thoughts.
I thought about this. Have you, I don't know, maybe
you're one who is not real passionate to the homeless. Maybe you're
one who is, You know, I've seen enough baloney homelessness-ness
that I turn a cold shoulder to it most of the time. You know? And then one day you're driving
along and you go to pull into a McDonald's or something like
that, you see, he's pulling off the road, some driveway, and
you see a poor homeless person sitting there, dirty, ragged,
And you think to yourself, I've got to buy this person some food.
I've just got to do it. What? I thought you didn't have
any compassion. Oh, but I do. My Lord's compassion
for me. Because He is compassionate to
me, sometimes He works His compassion through me. Does that fit anybody? Does that fit anybody else? Maybe not that particular scenario,
but things like that. That's what a child of God does.
We walk in the spirit of his love for us. And if anything
happens, if I do anything to bring pleasure, to please my
Savior, it's because of my Savior doing a work in me.