Join me in that. Our text comes
from Romans, the eighth chapter this morning in verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. And that'll be our text for today. And the main point about which
we're going to be speaking and It was interesting to kind of
look at this in that. I think there was 11 therefores
up in through the book of Romans up to this point. It's like a
set of building blocks, each one laying down establishing
a truth and then therefore this next truth comes along and then
we have therefore this next truth comes along based on what was
laid down before that. And if we look right at the very
beginning of Romans, the chief building block of the whole thing
is what he writes in the first couple of verses here. The first
three verses we'll read, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. which he had
promised to fore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning
his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of
God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection. from the dead. And he is therefore
the basis point, the beginning, the author and finisher of everything,
of our faith. And so everything builds from
that gospel of the Lord. And each time we turn a page
in this book of Romans, we come to a new building block on that. In Romans 117 it says, the just
shall live by faith, and that faith is on the finished work
of Christ and total reliance on His perfect salvation, His
perfect work in our behalf. And then chapter 2 begins off
again with, therefore, you're an excusable man who judges others,
and yet don't look at yourself. And chapter 3 presents us as,
in our natural condition, there's none righteous. There's none
that seeketh God. There's all are guilty. and come short of the glory of
God and then the next building block in chapter
4, that, blessed though, blessed are you whose iniquities have
been forgiven, whose sin is covered. We've been delivered from our
offenses by the finished work of the Lord. And then chapter 5 says we've been
baptized into Jesus in verse 3 of chapter 5. And we have these series of metaphors
that are interwoven throughout all this and in part of the,
he talks about in the chapter four about circumcision
and how that pictures the cutting away of the flesh and not relying
on that anymore. And then it turns out that it's just a
picture, it's just an emblem, and circumcision or no circumcision
has no efficacy, but it's emblematic of the circumcision of the heart
that's not performed with hands, it's performed by God. And it's
a cutting away of that flesh that depends on the flesh that
depends on itself for righteousness and for our relationship with
God. And that's what we find mostly
dealing with here in the eighth chapter of the beginning of 8th
chapter of Romans. So, there's a metaphor. One of the key words that we
look at here, and Mike brought this up, I think, when he was
reading Ephesians chapter. And I think it tells us there
in Ephesians 1 from verse 3-14 that there's 12 or 13 times that
it talks about us being in Christ. In whom we have all these blessings. In Him, in Him, in Him. And yet
we find that true in the book of Romans too. It talks about in baptism in John chapter, or in
Romans chapter five, we're baptized into Christ, into His death. And what a picture of us being
totally immersed in Christ. And this word in Romans, the
eighth chapter, Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those
which are in Christ." That word, in Christ, is such an important
word because it just means we're totally immersed in Him. We're totally one with Him. In
a spiritual sense, we're just in union with Him is what that
word means. In earlier Romans it talks about
the marriage and how that is a picture as well. marriage pictures that union
with Christ. And it takes us back to Genesis
chapter 2, where it says, they too shall become one. So it's
very critical to our understanding of how we relate to Christ as
being in Him and not relying on ourselves as part of that. We're just blessed to be in union
with Him because of the work that He's done in the new birth
and in our lives. So as we look at this chapter
8, let's read through chapter 8, the first 6 or 7 verses here. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now in my inner linear, in the Greek interlinear, it
shows that's the period, that's the end of that verse. And the
second part there is kind of borrowed from chapter 8 verse
4b, the ending of verse 4 there. But I'll go ahead
and read through it anyway. But There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, period. And from verse 4 it says, who
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the law
of the spirit of life in Christ 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, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,
that part that was transferred as well to verse 1 there, 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 is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, the
fleshly mind, is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. ye are not in the flesh. Boy,
what a blessing we have there. There's no condemnation to those
that are in Christ. We're not in the flesh in the
spiritual sense. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of God, he is none of his. And so it goes on to elaborate
on that a little bit more. But generally the theme there
is that we're no longer relating to God according to the flesh. And the very first thing that
we run into in verse 1 of chapter 8 is that there is therefore. because of what the building
blocks that we've established in the first seven chapters here,
which there really isn't any dividing lines in the original,
but what's been written before that there's no condemnation
based on what we've had before. And that is based on the Gospel
of Christ dying in our place and taking our penalty in our
place as our substitute. And Paul, as he wrote in chapter
7, and we often refer to this, because he had come to this realization after the new birth that he experienced
there, and I think maybe in Acts, Mike will probably get to that
at some point, but when he was on that road to Damascus and
the Lord intercepted him, and he says in Galatians, when it
pleased the Lord, At the time that it pleased the Lord to reveal
His Son in me, there we have that term in again, that it was
God revealing Himself in me. He was there. as Mike read in
Ephesians chapter 1, in whom we are. And He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world. So there we are. But there
has to be a point in the new birth where that's revealed to
us. And there has to be a point in the new birth where our relationship
to self and sin is revealed. And then our rescue from that,
our relief from that. Boy, there's just... You know,
there's just hardly any better picture of that than if you turn
over to John 8 for just a moment. In John 8, we're given the report
of the Lord in verse Lost my place here. Well, I'll
just tell you how it is anyway. It's John... I lost my place. Anyway, this
woman that was taken in adultery, it says in the very act. I believe
that's... in John. And she was caught in
the very act. So according to the law of Moses,
the condemnation was that you should be taken out in stone.
Actually, both of them that were involved in the adulterous act
were to be taken out in stone according to the Old Testament
law. And they brought her before Jesus,
and they didn't really care about it. They just wanted to put him
in a trap. And they said, this woman was
caught in the very act of adultery. What sayest thou? And he said
unto them, well, he that is among you that without sin let him
cast the first stone. And then he stooped down and
he rode in the dirt. And one by one, these accusers
kind of wander off and give up on that. And when finally they're
all alone, the Lord says unto her, where are those thine accusers? What man condemns thee? And she
said, no man, Lord. And he said unto her, neither
do I condemn thee. Neither do I condemn thee." She
was in him. She was in union with him, even
though she didn't really know it at that particular time. But it was brought to her now
in this face-to-face confrontation with the Lord God Almighty. And
he says, neither do I condemn thee. And boy, that's the basis
of You know, we're all caught like that. We're all guilty.
The Scripture says there's all of sin and come short of the
glory of God. We're all in that boat. And yet, because we're
found in Him before the foundation of the world and the covenant
of grace, He says, neither do I condemn thee. Therefore, there
is now no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus. Boy, what blessed words. And so from that point, He says that this law that he
talked about, you know, we were talking about Paul a minute ago,
that the Lord revealed Himself to him at the appointed time
on that road. And he, in his prior life, thought
that he was able to sustain and originate his righteousness within
himself by a keeping of the law. Chapter 7 is written about that
very thing. He said, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
You know, when the Lord revealed Himself to him, he says, oh man,
all those things that I thought that I did that were righteous
and that kept the law, I didn't do any of those things, truly,
not from the heart, and I was guilty of all of them. And he
says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? No, God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. The sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. For I was alive. without the law once, but then
the commandment came and sin revived and I died. And the commandment,
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. You know, that
was the original covenant, you know, keep the law and you'll
live. But no one could do that. No
one except the Lord himself could do that. And even though they
said, whatever thou sayest, we shall do. And then they turned
right around and didn't do it and couldn't do it. were opposed
to actually doing it. And the very second that they
had an opportunity to not do it, that's what they did. And
so he said, it turned out that the law condemned me to die. And he says, but you know, he says the
law is holy and the commandment's holy. and just and good. So there's nothing really wrong
with the law. The problem lies within us in
our sin nature and our inability to keep that. And, you know,
we just we just run into that every day of our lives here on
this world. But unfortunately, we have to
put up with that. But the good news is that There's
no condemnation for us that are in Christ Jesus. And he goes on to say here in
chapter seven that we know that the law is spiritual. The sense
of the law is spiritual. And he says, but I am carnal. I am flesh, sold under sin. For
that which I do, I allow not. And for what I would, That do
I not? So he's really just saying that
the spiritual part that says, thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy might. In
my spirit, in my heart, I want to do that. In my flesh, I can't
do that. In my flesh, I fail that. in the very time that I read
it out loud. But he says, and the part that
I don't want to do, the part that I don't want to be involved
with, that seems to be what I do. that if then I do that which
I would not, I can send unto the law that is good. Now then
it is no more I that do, but sin that dwelleth in me. For
I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me. But how to perform that, which
is good, I find not. In the physical flesh, we just
fall short all the time. And the good that I would, I
don't do. But the evil, which I don't want
to do, that I do. Now, if I do that, that I would
not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me. As I find then, Here's how it boils down. I find in a law
that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight
in the law after the inward man. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. But I see another law on 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 he just says,
oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? And then he gives the answer
in verse 25 there, chapter seven. I thank God. I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. And
he had this battle that goes on. And he talks about that in
some of the other letters that he wrote to the churches. But
he says, because he thanks God through the Lord Jesus Christ,
he says, therefore, There's now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Even though we're guilty just
like that woman that was caught in adultery. He says, I don't
condemn thee either. There's no condemnation. You
know, that word condemnation, it means an adverse sentence. It means a sentence that goes
against us. When you're in a court of law, violate say a traffic ordinance
or something and they've caught you at it and you go before the
magistrate and the judge says you ran the stop
sign at the corner of 10th and Union and therefore you're guilty and you're condemned
to 10 days in jail or a fine of $50
or whatever it might be, but you're condemned because of what
happened there, what you were caught at. But here it says there's
no condemnation. Because we're justified. We're justified through Christ
that took our place there at that judiciary hearing and said,
I paid that penalty. I took care of that. I took care
of their sin. I paid double. I don't even remember
their sin. And when the Lord looks at us
through the eyes of his son and says, I see no sin, I see no
sin, I remember no sin, it's, I don't even have any sense of
it on you. And so therefore, there's no
condemnation to them which are in Christ, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the spirit. And then it goes on here in the
next few verses to talk about this. how we relate to the Lord
and how we're not to relate to him on the basis of merit or
on the basis of flesh. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ, that's the law of grace, that's the law of the
gospel. have made me free from the law
of sin and death, that law which we try to do by ourselves, the
things that we try to accomplish by ourselves without depending totally, unrelying
totally on the finished work of Christ. For what the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, I like what it says
in my inner linear. It says the impossible thing
of the law, in that you can't keep it through the flesh. It was weak through the flesh. God, sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. So instead of us being condemned,
the sin is condemned, and he took that on himself. And so
in verse 4 of chapter 8 says that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, and that was Christ that fulfilled
that righteousness in us. and not ourselves, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh,
or in the Greek that's katasarka, that the after the flesh, that
we rely after the flesh. They that are after the flesh,
mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit,
or katanuma, they mind the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally
minded or fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace, because that's what the Lord says, I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish and no man shall
Because they're in me, we are one. No man shall pluck them
out of my hand. And they're my Father that's
greater than all. They're in His hand and no man
shall pluck them out of His hand. And so we have that union that
we have with Christ that causes us not to relate to God on behalf
of our own selves, not to relate to Him. through the flesh, through
our own work, through our own merit, the scripture says, it's
not of him that runneth, nor him that willeth, but God that
showeth mercy. And we find that in Romans, the
ninth chapters, that the children not being even born, not having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. Those that were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world that He would have mercy
on, and therefore there is now no condemnation in them. And then He causes them to intersect
with that Gospel, that Gospel of His dear Son that it talks
about in Romans 1. And then, the Spirit causes us to believe
that. And as Mike read there in Ezekiel,
it's after I give you the new heart, after I give you a heart
to know me, all those I wills, I think there's eight or nine
I wills there in that block of Ezekiel that the Lord takes and
does in our behalf. And he says, and then, then you'll
have a view of sin, then you'll, then you'll loathe yourself for
your ways that were not good and your iniquities. But then
the good news is that you'll, you'll also be brought to know
that There's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
those that are in union, perfect union with him. And, you know,
in John chapter 17, if you turn over to John chapter 17, he speaks,
the Lord himself speaks quite a bit of this, this union that
we have in verse 21 through 23, and he said, you
know, I pray for them. I don't pray for the world. But
in verse 21, it says that they may all be one as thou, Father,
art in me. That union, and Mike brought
that out in his part about the Trinity and how they're individual
but united as one, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
that they may be one as thou art in me, as thou art, Father,
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which
thou gavest me I've given to them, that they may be one even
as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. and that the world may know that
thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me. So that that perfect union with
Christ when we're in him is and and it's not it's not just words
on paper. Well, we're we're we're in Christ. Well, we are in him as that I
just love that picture that baptism that talks about in Romans is
we're baptized into Christ. We're just totally When you're
baptized and you're immersed, you go under, you're just totally
in it. You're just totally immersed
in it. And that's what that picture is there, that baptism, and raised
in newness of life with him, and as it went on to talk about
that. And then the marriage it talked
about in Romans, the marriage that was they too shall be one. And that represents that union
that we have between the church and Christ. We're in him, as
it says in Ephesians there in chapter one, chosen in him. I think it tells us there is
11 or 12 times in Ephesians chapter 1 from verse 3 to 14 that we
are in Christ, in whom we have redemption, in Him. We've been blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according if he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and blameless without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us under the adoption of children to himself and on
it goes. And so there's like, I think
11 or 12 times it talks about us being in Him, in that perfect
union. And that's what goes on here
in Romans. In chapter 8, verse 1, there's
no condemnation to us that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So, kind of in conclusion, we
just wanted to reiterate that in this spiritual relationship
that we see here, that there's no There's no union with him
in the flesh. There's no union with him after
working, after our own righteousness. To be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, that peace
that we get that's without, passes all understanding. The carnal
mind is always at enmity with God. Every time we would try
to go to God with, well, You know, we have that perfect example
of Cain in the garden. You know, Abel brought a sacrifice
that was acceptable to God, pleasing to God. And Cain brought his
sacrifice that was the work of his hands. You know, I'll bet
you he worked really hard for that. And he did good work. I'll
bet he grew a really nice garden and he did good. And it was a
hard work because he had to contend with thorns and thistles and
weeds and anybody that has a garden knows all of the work that you
know you have to tear care for the plants and take out the weeds
and keep them aerated and watered and and he brought that work
here's here's my hard work that I did but and it was you know
it was nothing wrong with his work as far as work goes But
it was not a work that was satisfactory to God because there was no payment
for sin in that. There was no sacrifice. He'd
already provided the sacrifice of his son, the lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. And that was what he would,
the only thing that would be satisfactory to him is that sacrifice. And so there's no, There's no going to God with
works of our own hands, no matter how good they are. And you know,
it's not wrong to do good works. We should do good works just
because it's right. It's good to do them. But it's
not something that we can take to God and say, I want to substitute
this in the place of the sacrifice that my Savior made for me and
my behalf. That sacrifice of His own dear
Son. That sacrifice that satisfied
all the righteousness of God. And based on that sacrifice,
and based on the new birth that places us in Christ Jesus, there's
no condemnation to them. that are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh now, but after the spirit. It's just
what it says in Hebrews chapter four, he that enters into his
rest has ceased from his own works. and enters into that perfect
rest of God. So we'll stop there and thank
you for your attention as always. And we're done a little early,
but we didn't have our song service and some other things that we
would normally do. But anyway, remember all our brothers and
sisters in prayer and those that are fighting off this illness
that you pray for them that the Lord's will would be accomplished
there.