We'll see everyone this morning,
bright and shiny outside, although it will not be like that until
tomorrow. We're entering into an arctic
phenomenon that's about to happen. Romans chapter 8 this morning,
we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 5. We're going
to be looking at some other verses in scripture, but Primarily we
want to look through here and I'm mainly going to harbor on
verse 4. Romans chapter 8. We talked a
little bit about some of these verses whenever we were going
through Galatians a while back. I thought we would kind of revisit
one aspect of them verses. particularly in verse 4. Romans chapter 8, I'm going to
start reading in verse 1, read down in verse 5, and then we'll
go to the Lord in prayer. It says, There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 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
and that it was weak through the flesh. And that's something
that we need to keep in mind, what the law could not do because
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.
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. Father,
we come to you now and we just thank you for another day that
you've given to us and another opportunity that you've put before
us now to come. And we pray and hope that your
Spirit being with us will guide us into all truth and that you
would give us the Word of God and its understanding. Lord,
we just pray that you would meet with us today to teach us, to
convict us of sin, to show us Christ Jesus, to encourage us. Lord, we just pray that you would
be with us today, that we might be honoring and glorifying to
our Lord, Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, we need your help today.
We need your Son to send the Spirit that we might be able
to do these things. So Father, we just ask now that
as we open up the Word of God, that you might help and enable
me to speak and minister this Word in truth. Lord, I pray that
you would help us to hear and understand and Lord, I pray that
it's all glorifying to you before it's in your Son's name that
we pray, amen. It says here at the first verse,
it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. This passage, as I've mentioned
many, many times, is probably one of the paramount verses in
the scripture to me that shows why breaking up the Bible into
chapters and verses sometimes, not all the time, it's very helpful
for us, especially for memorizing where things are, If you're good
at that, or God's given you the ability to do that, I seem to
have a hard time remembering chapters and verses. I might
be able to remember the verse, but the chapters, numbers, and
verses, and stuff themselves, sometimes they elude me. Sometimes
though, the chapters and verses cause more of a confusion than
it does help. Whenever we read These, as I've
mentioned before, whenever we read these, these are the letters
that were written to churches. And whenever you write a letter,
you write, and you're writing in a flow of thought, right?
Whenever you write to somebody, or you're texting somebody, or
you're, you know, typing an email to somebody, or something like
that, you have kind of a train of thought. You know, you, hey,
how's it going? You know, whatever their name
is, and then you start off with, you know, how have you been?
Things are good. Our family's doing all right,
blah, blah, blah. You kind of get the introductory stuff out,
and then whatever it is, the subject matter to why you're
sending this email or this text or this letter to somebody, you
begin to start with the flow of thought, and you begin to
work your way through that flow of thought, and you go down.
Well, these letters were written to churches, and as the Spirit
gives ability for them to write these things, or to not just
ability, inspired this writing as the God words were being put
to pen. This was in a flow of thought. You know, there was a subject
matter at hand. There was things that were to
be said and there was a structure of why this is here. And so Paul,
whenever he wrote to the Romans here, he's writing in the chapter
break between seven and eight is unfortunate because right
before that Paul is struggling with the issue that he's not
righteous in the flesh, that he is battling in the flesh the
lust of the flesh, the desire to try to keep the commandments
of God, but not keeping them, sinning. But yet the inward man,
who is perfect and holy and righteous, that inward man, he wants to
keep and do the things and be righteous. He doesn't want to
sin against God. But yet all the flesh can do
is sin. It can't be righteous. It can't be holy. It can't be
perfect. And so Paul has this struggle,
what we call the spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare, according
to the scriptures here, is not us out battling demons like the
crazy charismatic churches on TV. Spiritual warfare is us having
a warfare within us between the flesh and the spirit. And Paul
was experiencing this battle between the flesh who wants to
try to perform a righteousness in the flesh, but the spirit
who is trusting and looking to Christ alone and that knows that
there's no good in me, there is no righteousness in me, that
I am, you know, a filthy and wretched old wretched man that
I am. That's what he said there in Romans 7. And this battle
here creates this struggle within the Christian. And the flesh
part of us wants to walk after the flesh and try to provide
a righteousness of our own, where the spirit man in us knows that
the flesh cannot do that, and therefore the flesh is saying,
look to Christ alone, that if you just trust Christ and everything,
He's provided that righteousness for you. Rest in what He has
done. And so that battle between the
flesh who is sinful and can't do any good and never can do
any good but wants to try to do good and provide it for himself,
wars against the Spirit who says, I don't need to perform a righteousness
to be accepted and kept by God. Christ has done that for me.
So there's that battle. And so whenever that comes to
our mind, If we're looking at our flesh and not remembering
what the Spirit is teaching us and telling us, if we look to
the flesh, we can fall into despair because we see we're not measuring
up. If you're truly a child of grace,
God's going to give you the understanding that you're not keeping the law.
I mean, that's just plain and clear. We'll see that here in
a minute. We're going to read some verses that have to do with
that. But walking Not after the flesh means walking not after
the law of sin and death, or walking after trying to perform
or keep a righteousness for myself. Walking after the spirit is walking
after the law of the spirit, or walking after the law of faith,
the law of Christ that says, just believe on me, or walking
in faith in what Christ has done in providing your righteousness.
So I'm not providing my own righteousness, by the works of the flesh, I
was provided a righteousness by Christ. And so that is the
two different things. And we see that here in verse
1 and verse 2 of chapter 8, which is, I mean, the consolation to
the believer who is struggling in Romans 7, the last part of
Romans 7, like Paul. whenever we think, man, I need
to be doing something, you know, because I'm not doing very good,
right? The consolation is this, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. If we are in Christ Jesus, meaning
united to Him, whenever we were elected before the foundation
of the world, God put us in Christ Jesus. He united us with Him
before we were ever born, before we were ever created. He put
us in Christ Jesus, and Christ became our substitute. We were
united to Him eternally, vitally. We were truly
His seed, and Him being our head and our substitute, everything
that He has accomplished, He has accomplished on our behalf.
So it's counted for us. And so he's saying there's therefore
now no condemnation. So for you who are thinking,
man, my flesh just is going away here and trying to perform a
righteous. But every time I try to do it, I just keep failing.
I'm coming up short. The spirit keeps telling us,
look back to Christ, because listen, yes, you're never going
to you're never going to perform your own righteous. But there
is no condemnation for that because you're in Christ Jesus. Christ
Jesus has given you a righteousness. So there is no condemnation.
for you, so don't walk after the flesh or try to walk after
the flesh, walk after the Spirit. Look after what Christ has done
and not try to look out for what you are trying to do to be accepted
or kept or be put up as righteous before God. And so he says, if
there is therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus,
then walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. And if
you notice there in 1 and 2, to me there is the contrast here. The walk not after the flesh
is equal to the law of sin and death. If I walk after the flesh,
I'm walking after the law of sin and death. The law of sin
and death is the Mosaic Covenant, is the laws and the commandments
of the Bible. Whenever I'm trying to walk after
the law, all it brings is sin and death. If I try to keep the
law, All I do is sin and of course
the Bible has a lot to say about sin. For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. The glory of God. All have sinned
and come short or have missed the mark of God's glory being
perfect. Right? And so we see that walking
after the flesh is walking after trying to keep the law for righteousness. And all have sinned in that department.
Therefore, there is no one who is going to be justified by the
law. The law has never been intended
to make one righteous. Therefore, if you try to walk
by the flesh in keeping the law for righteousness, it's always
going to lead to death. It will always lead to death.
And as we see here, Look at verse three, for what the law could
not do, the law could not provide a righteousness because it was
what? Look at it there with me. Verse
three, in that it was weak through the flesh. The law is weak through
the flesh. Now, the law is righteous. The
law is holy. The law is good. But it was never
intended to make anybody righteous. That's not what that's not the
intent of the law. The intent of the law is actually to expose
the unrighteousness. It's just the opposite. Everyone
thinks that the law is there for us to keep so that we might
be righteous. But it's actually just the opposite. As a matter
of fact, just hold your finger there. Turn with me just back
a few pages to Romans chapter 5 and verse 20. It says, moreover,
the law entered, here it is, that the offense might abound."
What offense is he talking about here? Well, if you look in context
here of Romans chapter 5, the offense that's in this context
is Adam's one offense. God said, don't eat of the tree.
Adam ate of it. That was the deal. But if you
look there, he said, the law entered. God gave him the law
for a reason. God gives man law for one reason
and one reason only and it wasn't to make him righteous. He didn't
give Adam that law so that Adam by his free will could choose
not to eat of that, therefore remain righteous before God. No, God's whole purpose of giving
the law to Adam and therefore as Adam is our natural head to
all mankind, the reason God has given the law is to expose the
fact that we are lawless people, that we are sinful people, that
we are unable to keep God's law and therefore in need of a substitute
to keep it for us. Lookie there what it says in
verse 20, moreover the law entered that or so that the offense,
the sin, might abound. God give the law so that the
sin wouldn't spring forth and manifest itself. But he says,
but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. See, there's
the therefore, there's now. See, where sin abounds in the
life of the believer, in the fact that we are trying to walk
after the flesh, and every time we do, we sin. Where sin abounds, grace much
more abounds. If you're wanting to look at
the abounding thing, look at grace. It abounds more than sin.
If we're looking for something that abounds unto righteousness,
don't look after the law. Look after the Spirit. Look after
Christ. Where sin abounded and condemned
men, grace did much more abound. Grace that has been given to
us abounds more than sin. Sin is never gonna be over grace
to the child of grace, okay? For the reprobate, sin is definitely
abounding and sin will always abound and sin will take them
to their grave and they will surely die. They will die, they
will perish. But for the child of grace, the
one who has been chosen by God, the one who has been put in Christ
Jesus, the one who Christ has stood as their surety and their
substitute and who came and lived the law and fulfilled the law
and died and rose again on their behalf for their justification.
That child of grace, there is no condemnation to them. Grace
abounds more and more. So as much as you sin, grace
covers it. Whenever we talk about the love
of God, it covers all sins. The love of God, that word agape
love has a connotation to it of being an expanding love. Meaning that as much as that
love covers, no matter how much underneath it expands, it covers
even more. I always think of, and at some
point it busts, so it's maybe not a great illustration then,
but I think of You guys don't remember this, but Lori will
remember this and people watching may remember this, maybe you
do. Back when I was younger, you used to buy popcorn and it
came in this little aluminum skillet thing with a little handle
on it and then a cover over it. And you put it on your fire and
you sit there and you just kind of ran it over the dill and as
it began to pop, the top of that thing just kind of expanded. That aluminum foil just kind
of expanded with that popcorn inside popping. And where you
had just those little kernels down in there, as it popped,
this thing just kind of got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
So as the popcorn yield began to get bigger and bigger and
bigger, so did this aluminum foil. Well, that's kind of a
picture of what God's grace, His love is. That no matter how
much sin is being filled up in us, God's grace is abounding
more. His love is covering all of our
sin. And so we see here there is a
consolation in verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation. That's why faith looks to Christ. Faith never looks to the law.
Faith never looks to walking in the flesh. Faith always is
looking to what Christ has accomplished, not what we are enabled to try
to perform. Now, I'm not saying that God
doesn't work in us. to willing to do His good pleasure.
That's the Bible and that is truth and He is doing it and
we should trust that as much as we trust that He hung on a
cross and died in our place. But us performing righteousness
through the flesh is not the same as trusting Christ's righteousness. What makes us accepted before
God, what keeps us saved, What is going to be the theme of the
song at the end of the ages is not what we have done, praise
the Lord by God's enabling, it's what He has done. The Bible is
going to say worthy is the lamb that was slain, not worthy is
the child of grace who by grace was enabled to fulfill the law. That's not what's going to be
the theme of our song. The theme of our song is going to be grace,
Grace, marvelous grace, grace that exceeds our sin and our
guilt. We're going to be singing that
it is the Lamb, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is filled with His glory. And His glory is that He died
for His people. Now, look if you would, because
that's just kind of getting into what the thinking is here on
this transition from Romans 7 to Romans 8, but it says here, for
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me
free from the law of sin. So there is this other law walking
after the Spirit. If we walk after the flesh, which
equals the law of sin and death, That's the exercise of law-keeping
for righteousness. But just the contrast to that
is those who walk after the Spirit, which is equal to the law of
the Spirit. If you'll see that in verse 2,
the law of the Spirit, which is walking by faith in the work
of Christ for righteousness. See, for the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. What makes me free from the antagonism
of the flesh, look back up in Romans 8, or excuse me, Romans 7. In verse 23 it says, but I see
another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity of the law of sin. which is in my
members. See, there is a war in our mind,
okay, that the law in my members, the law of the flesh, this desire
to walk in the law for righteousness, provide my own righteousness,
there's this war in my mind to walk after that, but then there's
the war of the Spirit who is in me, in my mind as well, saying
Christ has done it all. So there's that war that I was
just talking about. But it says here that these two are contrary
to other and that it keeps us, that we do not do the things
that we want to do. We can't do them. The flesh can
never perform what the spirit desires. The flesh can never
perform that. So if you walk after the flesh,
you're going to be walking under the law of sin and death. But
if we walk after the spirit or in the law of the spirit, The
law of the Spirit sets us free from the condemnation that we
feel. There is no condemnation. Christ has taken care of anything
that would condemn us, but in our mind, we have the guilt of
condemnation because we're not keeping the law, because we're
not walking in a worthy manner. Now, brethren, with that being
said, I'm trusting that Christ, again, is willing and working
in me to do that, which is pleasing in His sight, and that, you know,
I'm not performing a righteousness, but I'm trusting that God is
working everything out in me that He wants worked out. And
it's a spiritual thing. It's not a flesh thing. It's
a spiritual thing. So I'm not saying that we just
can go out and live like hell, live however we want to live
and do all the sinning that we want to sin and just not worry
about sin. The Spirit constrains us. The Spirit convicts us. We sorrow over our sins if we're
a child of grace. But the fact is, is that this
law of the flesh, or this law that it says here, walking after
the flesh, it wars against that spirit that wants to do right,
but the spirit is telling us to rest here. And that's how
we become free from the law of sin and death, is by resting
in the law of the spirit, by looking to Christ for our righteousness.
Now look at verse 3, it says, For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh. So here we see that God,
or that the law couldn't make us righteous. Trying to keep
the law didn't make us righteous. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God did. God made us righteous. but he
didn't do it through us keeping the law. How did God make us
righteous? That's the answer. How, what
is the righteous requirement of the law that God, what is
it that God requires? And how did God provide that
for us, or how did that happen for us? Okay? It says here, 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." Now, the title that
I titled the message is, The Righteous Requirement of the
Law, and we find that in verse 4, that the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us. The righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. So what is that righteous requirement
of the law that is pressed upon us? Because all the law can do
is condemn us. It can't make us righteous. So
what is the righteous requirement that God requires? Well, we know
that the Bible teaches several things, and a lot of people take
this that we need to do what we just talked about, walk after
the flesh. walk after that desire and walk after that righteousness
of law keeping. That's what we need to do. Let's
look at a few things here. In Hebrews chapter 12. Turn with me because I want you
to read these things with me as we look at them. Hebrews chapter
12. Let's look at verse 14. Here's something that the Bible
says. It says, follow peace with all men and holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord." So without holiness, no man is
going to see the Lord. That's pretty poignant, right?
So is that telling us you better get out there and start obeying
the law? Because without obeying the law, you're not going to
go to heaven. That's what a lot of preachers out there, that's
what a lot of lordship salvation preachers like John MacArthur,
Paul Washer, and Steve Lawson and guys like that that are out
there saying that if you don't have this obedient lifestyle,
then there's no righteousness there. See, they're saying that,
yes, we believe that God has done what he did in Christ, but
if you're not obeying the law, then there's no proof that you've,
rather, nobody can obey the law. That's the problem. His preachers
are pressing upon people to say, obey the law, obey the law. Now
that doesn't mean that we don't admonish one another and say,
hey, the scriptures say this, the scriptures say this. But
if we are out there personally saying that you can't be saved
if you're not keeping this. You're not saved if you're not
making the effort of being holy. Then you're not saved. We can't
say those things, brother. Because righteousness doesn't
come by the law. The law, what the law could not
do, and the fact that the flesh is weak, Everyone's flesh is
weak. But it says right here, it says,
without holiness, no man is going to see the Lord. Look at Matthew
chapter 5. This is the Lord Jesus speaking directly. He says in
Matthew chapter 5, and I believe it's in verse 48. Yes, verse
48. It says, Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Now, would I be a good pastor,
preacher, if I would say here, alright now, as we leave here
today, go out and you've got to be perfect. Go out and be
perfect. Would that be good for me to do? If I'm here to tell you to go
out and try to live perfectly, everyone in here and everybody
listening and everybody watching is saying, well, we know that
we're not going to be perfect. Nobody can be perfect. But you're trying to do the best
that you can. If you go out there and just
do the best that you can. You've got to try. You've got to strive.
You've got to struggle. You've got to mortify. You've
got to do all these things. I'm not saying that those aren't
biblical terms of things to do, but we're talking about understanding
biblically how this takes place, right? We are not made righteous
by walking in the flesh, by walking after righteousness through the
flesh. We're made righteous by Christ's
finished work alone. And so whenever we hear admonishments
like, without holiness no man will see the Lord, be ye perfect
as I am perfect or as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,
be ye holy for I am holy. Whenever you hear these things,
that isn't a charge for you to go out and try to start keeping
the law. Again, it goes back to walking
in thy mind frame of walking of the Spirit. Look, if you would,
at Romans chapter 3 and verse 23. Remember, brethren, whenever
you're looking at passages of Scripture, we need to look at
what all of the Scriptures say. Because if you look at one Scripture
that says, Be perfect, be holy, and you think that you can by
your work or by Even if you think that you, by the Holy Spirit
in you, enabling you to keep the works, you're still missing
it. Because by the deeds of the law,
no man's gonna be justified, no man's gonna be sanctified.
By the deeds of the law, we are not accepted of God, we're not
sanctified by God. Paul made that very clear in
Galatians. He said, have you now? Begun in the Spirit, are
you made perfect by the law? No. But look at Romans 3, verse
23, it says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
of His Christ. So we're not saved by law keeping because all have
sinned and we fall short of the glory of God. Everything that
we do is sin in the flesh. But we're justified by what?
Freely. We're justified freely by grace. We're justified by
grace, but it's through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We also
see in Romans where it says that we are saved by grace through
faith We are saved by grace. We are justified by grace. It
is given. It's a gift of God. It doesn't
come from ourselves, but it comes through His faith. It comes through
His righteousness. It comes through His perfect
obedience, His death, His resurrection, not ours. So the Bible clearly says that
none of us is perfect. Look at James chapter... Oh,
that's a good one that I forgot that I was going to go to. Let
the Lord remind me of this. James, chapter 2. Ten. For whosoever
shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all." So for that person that says, we know
that you're not perfect, nobody's perfect. Jesus isn't saying to
be perfect. He did say that, didn't he? He
said, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. He said, be
ye holy as I am holy. Without holiness, no man will
see God. We'll get into heaven. What is
holiness? Holiness is perfection. What is perfection? Hitting the
mark. Not missing the mark. Whenever
we talk about for all have sinned, the word sin, it means to miss
the mark. The very term sin means miss
the mark. It's a transgression. We didn't
hit the bullseye, we missed. We sinned. for all have sinned. So here there is absolutely positively
no man that has and no man can keep the law and God will not
accept anything less than perfection, less than holiness, less than
dead on. You got to keep it all. Because
he says right here, if you've broken it in one, you've broken
all of them. So if you strive your whole entire
life, if you could, if you strive your whole entire life, and you
have kept every law, every time, all the time, forever and ever
and ever and ever and ever and ever, and at the very last you
miss one, that would be like what they said. He's not saying
to be perfect, but you need to do your best. Well, say you do
your best your whole entire life, but you fall in just one area.
Surely the Lord isn't going to look at that one sin compared
to all the law that you've kept your whole entire life. Well,
the Lord says right here that if you've broken one, you've
broken all of it because the standard isn't almost hit the
mark. It isn't just right under the
bullseye, it's the bullseye. And the bullseye is be perfect
as I am perfect. Be holy as I am holy. So the bullseye is Christ. You have to be as Christ. And
I can tell you, I know that I have not been like Christ, and I know
you haven't been like Christ, and there hasn't been nobody
on this world like Christ, except Christ. So that leaves us where? Where does that leave us if there
is none righteous, no not one, if there is none that's that
they've all together gone out and done their own thing, everyone
doing what's right in their own eyes, everyone that's sinning,
there's none good, no not one, that all of our righteousnesses
are filthy rags, meaning that they're unacceptable for God.
They're not gonna be accepted. God, our righteousnesses, worked
out in the flesh, is not gonna be acceptable to God. God's not
gonna say, okay, well, you did your best and you did what you
could with what you had. That's not what God's gonna do.
What is the acceptance? Or what is it that God is going
to accept? Perfection. Holiness. That's all God's going
to accept. And anything else than that,
the Bible says, the wages of sin, the wages of missing the
mark, the wages of not being perfect, not being holy, is death. That's the two options. You're
either perfect, holy, if you are, you shall see God. If you
miss the mark, if you've sinned, death, you will perish. That's
it. There is no middle ground. There
is no gray area. There is no trying to work this
thing out where there is a balance in between. No, there isn't.
Be holy for I am holy. Without that holiness, no man
is going to see God. And God is not going to justify
the wicked. If you are wicked and you sin
against God, you will perish. So what is the righteous demand
of the law? Sin has to be condemned in the
flesh. The wages of sin is death. The
righteous requirement of the law is that sin be condemned
in the flesh. That is what God said. That's
what God said at the very beginning. If you sin, you're going to die.
The wages of sin is death. But to be able to fulfill that
righteous requirement, you have to be a perfect sacrifice. See,
that's why, at least in my understanding, and I may be wrong about this,
but as far as what light the Lord has given me, why there
is eternal punishment to the reprobate is because that eternal
torment or that eternal death or separation from God, that
that is eternal because they can never fulfill the righteous
requirement that's worthy. You have to be a perfect sacrifice
to be pleasing to God. God said that the sacrifice has
to be without spot or without blemish. So if you're going to
pay for your sins by your flesh, If you think that you're going
to provide righteousness by your flesh, and you're going to present
yourself in the flesh to God for acceptance, it's never going
to measure up. It's never going to measure up.
It's never going to satisfy God. That's why they perish eternally. That's why they are separated
from God eternally. That they are thrown into fire
and that they are forever tormented in darkness away from
God because the God will never be satisfied with that at all. There's only one thing that can
satisfy God and that is a perfect sacrifice. That's why Abel's
sacrifice was accepted and Cain's wasn't. Cain's was a sacrifice
from Cain's own hands. What Cain did Cain presented
unto God something of his own for righteousness, for acceptance,
to worship God. Here's what I've offered to you
by my own hands. But Abel, he didn't. He offered
something that only God provided for him, a perfect lamb. Abel
made his sacrifice to God. The sacrifice that God required,
the sacrifice that God is only pleased with, and he provided
that for his worship, for his atonement and God accepted Abel's
but not Cain's. That's a picture of us. If we
put forth our works in the flesh to make us accepted before God,
God's not going to accept it. But if we put forth as our sacrifice,
as our hope, as our acceptance before God, a spotless lamb that
was given to us on behalf of us, God accepts that. God accepts that. Look back in
Romans chapter 8, if you would. So we know none of this is going
to be perfect, right? None of this is going to keep
the law. Why? Because what the law could
not do is that it was weep through the flesh. You're always going
to be weep through the flesh until you, until what Paul said
up there, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? You're in a body of death. You
cannot keep the law of God. But he says, who's gonna deliver
me from this body of death? I thank God through Christ Jesus,
not through the law, through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I serve
the law of God, but with the flesh, all I can do is serve
the law of sin, and that's all I'll ever be able to do, is serve
the law of sin. through the flesh. There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, for the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and that made me free
from that. So my mindset, the knowledge that God has imparted
to me through the Spirit indwelling me, giving me faith to look to
Christ alone to seek Praise God, I'm delivered from trying to
keep a righteousness of my own because my flesh is weak and
cannot keep that law, but Christ has provided a righteousness
for me. And so through the Spirit in my mind, through what I've
been given knowledge of in the Spirit, I serve God, but I serve
it through Christ Jesus. I serve God through Christ Jesus. When Christ served God, His faith
was counted for my faith. His righteousness is counted
as my righteousness. His obedience is counted for my obedience.
I serve through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
and that has made me free from the law of sin and death. He says there that God sent Him
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. The righteous requirement of
the law is being condemned, sin being condemned in the flesh.
That's why Jesus had to come in the flesh. To be our substitute,
He had to come in flesh. And He had to condemn sin in
the flesh because it is us who in the flesh sin. In the spirit
we don't sin. He didn't come in spirit. The
spirit doesn't sin. The spirit is perfect. and holy
and righteous new creation from above, and it's created in pure
righteousness and holiness. The spirit that is above God,
the Bible says, cannot sin. His seed dwells in us. That's
the life of Christ, which cannot sin. It's in us. Paul, the law
that is in my mind, it's perfect and holy and just and righteous,
and it's contrary to the flesh. So, Jesus had to come in the flesh
to condense sin in the flesh so that those who were in Him
could be counted righteous. Look what it says there, verse
4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in
us. How do we fulfill the law of
God? Is it by law keeping? Is it by
obeying the commandments? Is it by striving hard to do
right? Is it by pulling up our own bootstraps
and getting that old law book out and start following them? Is it by hoping that the Spirit
would work in me to fulfill the righteousness outwardly in my
flesh? No. How do we fulfill the law and
its righteous requirement through Jesus Christ? The righteous requirement
was death. Jesus died for us. But the righteousness
He also fulfilled for us, which was obedience. He fulfilled that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Those of us
who have the Spirit of God, that has already been fulfilled for
us. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled. We don't have
to die, but guess what? We don't have to be perfect in
the flesh, because He was perfect for us. So whenever the Bible
says, be ye holy for I am holy, be ye perfect for I am perfect,
without holiness no man is going to see God, it's not speaking
of us in the flesh. It is speaking of the fact that
make your mind set, walk in the Spirit, keep your mind set on
these things, rest in Christ that you are perfect, that you
are holy, that there is no condemnation. that you will see God because
Christ, who is your righteousness, as we're fixing to see, has made
you perfect. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. I just quoted that, but let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 30. I think we actually looked at
this verse last week in our other message, but 1 Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 30. It says, but of him, speaking
of God, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us, meaning in our place, in our stead. For us, Christ,
who come from God, sent by God, God sending his Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness. Christ is made unto us, or in
our place, righteousness. We don't make our own righteousness.
Christ was made righteousness for us. Made unto us righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. Brethren, our righteousness is
not in what we do, but what in Christ is done. It isn't living a moral life.
It isn't living in obedience to scriptures. Although we exhort
and admonish one another, you know, to follow the word of God. But that's not where our righteousness
comes from. That's not where our acceptance
comes from. That's not where our keeping, that's not where
our perseverance comes from. There's a few other scriptures
that I wanted to point out in this. Look at Isaiah chapter
45. This was actually, I added this to my notes this morning
because it was in a reading that I was reading this morning. In Isaiah 45, and it's at the,
it's almost at the end, or at the end of the chapter there. In Isaiah 45, look at verse 24,
it says, Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness. In the Lord I have righteousness.
In myself I have nothing but dirty rags. But in the Lord I
have righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men come and
all that are in sense against him shall be ashamed. In the
Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory."
Listen, it's not talking about a physical seed, it's talking
about a spiritual seed. It's not talking about people
over in Israel, in a little part of the Middle East. It's talking
about the people of God spiritually, the elect of God. all those,
whether Jew or Gentile, who have been in Christ Jesus from the
foundation of the world, whose names were written down in the
Lamb's Book of Life, whose names are inscribed upon the stones
and upon the breastplate, the ones whose names are written
in His hand, those from all language, nation, tribe, tongue. That's
who it's talking about. The seed of Israel shall be justified,
not in the law, but in the one who is righteous. Look also, if you would, at Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. I don't
know why I was looking at that in the Old Testament. Colossians chapter 1, and we're
going to look at verse 28. Colossians chapter 1, verse 28.
It says, whom we preach, speaking of Christ,
whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in
all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. So was Paul out there teaching
everybody and making them perfect? See, a lot of people believe
that, you know, the more you listen to preaching and the more
you listen to read your Bible, the more you pray, the more you
do all these acts of religious things, those things are good. I'm not down on that and I'm
not saying they're not important and that God is ordained for
those things to be a part of our lives and for our encouragement
and edification. But Paul is not saying that we
can make somebody perfect to the level of meeting God's standard
for righteousness, being the righteous requirement of the
law. The righteous requirement of the law is that sin be condemned.
It's not you being holy in your flesh, it's that your flesh be
condemned. Jesus did that for us. So that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled. So that it
might be fulfilled in us. Okay. So every man being made
perfect. So whenever he says here, whom
we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom
that we may present every man perfect in Christ. Meaning what
was Paul preaching? He was preaching that you are
perfect in Christ Jesus. You are holy in Christ Jesus.
You're not holy. in keeping the law or in your
great knowledge. The Greeks, they were all about
the knowledge. The more knowledge you had, the
better person you were. The Jews was all about the law.
If you keep the law, you're righteous. So whether it be the Jew or whether
it be the Greek, we're not saved by law keeping, we're not saved
by knowledge, we are saved by Christ Jesus. And listen, this
is where we find Christians, even sovereign grace people,
fall on one of those two lines. They either think that we are
saved by doing something of the law and kept by doing something
of the law or that we are saved by what we know or by what we
believe and that we are kept by what we know or what we believe.
That's not how we're saved. That's not how righteousness
is given to us or is performed for us, by us. It is only by
Christ. It's what he did objectively
outside of me, historically, in time, one time, for all time,
for all people. He died and he did this corporately
for every child of God. It doesn't happen. He didn't
make salvation possible. And now sporadically throughout
time, whether Old Testament, New Testament, whenever someone
believes on him, then all of a sudden the effect of that cross
now is transferred to them and now they get it. That's not how
salvation works. Salvation was already determined
for the foundation of the world and was imputed to the children
of grace. But Christ hadn't come in time
at the appointed time of the Father. came to make that payment,
the righteous requirement of the law, the condemning sin in
the flesh that had to take place whenever he did that, that was
the basis for what God had purposed before the foundation of the
world to be imputed to all of his people. That righteous requirement,
even though before the foundation of the world was viewed in God's
sight and applied in his judgment, It had to take place, but it
was that work of righteousness that Christ had done that became
the righteousness of all His people. It was that. It isn't
happening in time as we are spread out over all these millennia.
It isn't happening whenever you repent and believe. That's not
when you get saved. You got saved in Christ Jesus.
You got saved whenever He became your surety, whenever He became
your substitute, whenever God declared His righteousness as
yours, that's when you were saved. By the shedding of blood, that
is why you are saved. So we are made perfect not by
the things that we do in time, but by what Christ has done.
Look at 1 Corinthians, well we already looked at 1 Corinthians
1.30, that's just a reiteration. Look at John chapter 11. John chapter 11 and verse 50. Caiaphas, who was the high priest,
said something when he was talking about Jesus, said something. I don't even know if he knew
what he was talking about. If he did know what he was talking
about, I know that a lot of these Pharisees, they realized who
Jesus was. They had an inkling that this
could be the Messiah because he's fulfilling all the things
that said the Messiah was going to be doing. And Caiaphas, whether
or not he was, you know, saying this just, you know, off the
hip or what, I don't know, don't think it was, but it definitely
was ordained of God that he say it. And it was truth that he
said. But look what he said. Verse
50. As a matter of fact, let's just back
up so you can get the context. Verse 45. Then many of the Jews
which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed
on him. But some of them went their way
to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. Now
this is right after Lazarus had been raised to life. Lazarus had been dead four days.
Jesus raised him from the dead. They went to the Pharisees and
told them, and said, Then gathered the chief priests and Pharisees,
a council, and said, What do we for this man do with many
miracles? If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take
away both our place and nation. See, they weren't worried about
righteousness. They weren't worried about holiness.
They weren't worried about salvation. They weren't worried about their
Messiah. They were worried about their status. They were the leaders
of the people. They were respected by the people.
And listen, there's a lot of preachers that fall in the same
thing. They're worried about losing their position if they
speak the truth. If you speak the truth, and listen,
Brethren, I can tell you as a pastor who preaches these doctrines
that are hard for people to listen, and listen, not popular among
modern Christianity, among modern Gospels. Listen, there's persecution
that comes with that. There's loneliness that comes
from that. There's ridicule. There's separation, division
that comes whenever you stand for Christ and His gospel, the
true gospel. Even among your own family, that
happens. And it's lonely. Sometimes it's
heartbreaking in the flesh because you don't have the fellowship
that you maybe once had. You don't have the relationship
that you once had. You don't have the spiritual fellowship
with each other that you would like to have. They were worried about their
place and preachers are worried about their status. Hey, we're
going to lose our... Hey, if we listen to this guy
and all these people start following him, they're going to quit listening
to us. He's saying salvation is in him. We're saying salvation
is in the law of Moses. And we are the ones who teach
them the law of Moses. Kind of sounds like another religion
that's out there, right? Sounds like the Catholic Church. Hmm, I wonder if the Catholic
Church, by some extension, came from the Pharisees. You might
want to look that up for those listening, because I think that
you're on to something if you do. The Roman Catholic Church,
for many years, wouldn't allow anybody to have the Bible. The
priest was the one who told you. And even today, there's a lot
of people that The priest is the one who tells us what that
is, what that means. The Pope, they say, is the vicar
of Christ, that he is the representative of Christ on earth. That he is
Christ on earth. And that whenever he sits and
speaks ex cathedra, or speaks in the place of Christ, that
what he says is the speakings of God. And they're infallible. There have been popes down throughout
history who have contradicted each other. Don't see how they
can be speaking as God, because God doesn't contradict himself.
But here they put themselves up above everybody. They're the
ones who control what everybody knows. They're the ones that
say, if you don't keep up this thing, then you're going to go
to hell. The law keepers say, if you don't keep the law, you're
not going to be saved. But you've got to come to us
so that we might teach you the law, And so that you might see
the law enacted in us, we'll be your example." See, they said,
if all these people begin to believe on Him, we're going to
be taking away both our place and our nation. We're going to
lose everything that we've got. We're going to cease to exist.
We're not going to be here no more. And one of them named Caiaphas,
being the high priest that same year, said unto them, ye know
nothing at all. nor consider it that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people, and that the
whole nation perisheth not. And this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but that also
he should gather together in one children of God that were
scattered abroad. See, I just was talking about
that in Isaiah, the seed of Israel will be justified. Well, this
is what we're talking about here. In the New Testament, it says
it's not just for that nation, Israel, but it's for all the
children of God that were scattered abroad. See, Caiaphas was right. It was
expedient that one man should die for the whole nation so that
the whole nation wouldn't die. This comes back to what we're
talking about. The righteous requirement of the law is that
sin be condemned in the flesh. But God, in His infinite wisdom
and His grace, instead of having every one of us die for our own
sins, sent Jesus to die for us. And so instead of God condemning
sin in our flesh, He condemns sin in Christ's flesh, but counted
it for us for righteousness. So the righteousness is fulfilled
in us. Romans chapter 8. We're just
about done. A couple more verses here. Again, Romans chapter 8. that the righteousness of the
law might be fixed in Him in us who walk not after the
flesh but after the spirit those whose eyes and minds are fixed
on Christ walking in faith Christ Jesus so Jesus became our substitute
He became our righteousness in a Romans chapter 8 there,
he says, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh. Those who are still in the flesh,
they continue to work the works of the flesh. They continue to
search for righteousness and acceptance for God through the
flesh. But those who are of the Spirit,
they do mind the things of the Spirit. Or to be carnally minded,
that's the same thing as saying fleshly minded. for to be cardinally
minded is death." So again, he's reiterating the fact, if you
follow this course of trying to keep law for righteousness,
it's going to lead to death. Because the righteous requirement
of that law is that sin be condemned in the flesh and you can do nothing
but sin. So if you continue in that way,
the only thing that's going to be written on your record is
not righteousness but Sin. And so the only way that you're
going to be made perfect and see God is that the righteous
requirement of the law be met. You are going to have to die. But because you're not perfect
and spotless, your death will be eternal. It will not be sufficient. You will not be resurrected.
Jesus, who was the spotless Lamb, His death was effectual. It was
satisfying to God. It was a perfect, spotless, holy
sacrifice. Therefore, God, whenever He died,
He accepted and He was pleased. The Bible says in Isaiah 53 that
His death was satisfying to God. That He saw the travail of His
soul and was satisfied. Christ dying The righteous requirement
of the law was acceptable to God. Why? Because he was perfect
and spotless. Therefore, God raised him from
the dead. He didn't have to die eternally because God said, that's
a perfect sacrifice. That was a perfect sacrifice
in the place of my people. It was enough. How Christ did
that, how Christ, other than it being perfect and spotless,
I don't know. how Christ was able to fulfill
all the righteous requirement of the law and condemning sin
in the flesh by dying and how that death is enough to satisfy
God, that's God's judgment. He's the righteous judge. He's
the one that said, this is the payment. Christ fulfilled it. We just say thank you. We say
thank you that he did it for us. And we trust that that's
it, that's enough. If God's decided, listen, brother,
I don't know how else, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to
persuade or convince as far as outwardly the Spirit will do
that if He so desires to do that in your heart. But what I'm trying
to say is this, what more do we need than the promise of God
in saying I am satisfied with what Christ did on your behalf,
therefore I'm laying that to your account, you're righteous
because He was righteous. You are righteous. Already. Fulfilled. Total. Nothing more needed. But we don't trust that, do we? Because
we walk after the flesh. We continue to go back and walk
after the flesh. Brethren, the righteous requirement
of the law is not walk after the flesh, but it's to look to
the One who condemned sin in the flesh. And it's been condemned. And therefore there is now no
condemnation to those who are in Him, to those who are in Christ
Jesus. There is no more condemnation.
Whenever I sin, I haven't lost something. Christ didn't sin
for all my past sins, and now I've got to keep track of all
the ones future, otherwise I'm going to have to pay for those
at some future judgment seat of Christ. No, no, no, no. The
judgment seat of Christ is the cross. Did Christ pay for my
sin? If He did, He's paid for all
of them. because he paid for the sins of all the elect of
God at one time. So all the sins of all the elect
was taken care of once for all, and he entered into that heavenly
throne room with his blood, and that blood was enough for God,
for all his people, for all their sins. So all my sin that I will
have done, done in the past, doing right now, doing in the
future, no matter how many I accumulate, they've all been taken care of.
once for all. And there's no condemnation for
those. Now that's not to say, hip hip hooray, let's go live
up in sin. I'm not saying that. I'm saying
rejoice in the Lord and be glad that your sins have been covered. Because great is our sin. Our flesh cannot keep righteousness. So God has sent his son on our
behalf. Brethren, that's the gospel.
The gospel is Christ is our righteousness. And he has performed the righteous
requirement of the law that we might fulfill all righteousness.
All right. Does anybody have a question?
Comments? Amen. All right. Let's pray. Father, what a great
joy it is to know that we have been saved. And we pray that
your spirit, as you have promised, will bear witness with our spirit
that we are yours, adopted of God, children crying out, Abba
Father. And we say this morning, thank
you for this salvation. But Father, not only is it a
great joy to know and experience this through faith, It's a great joy to be able to
stand here and preach this to your people. Father, it's with
great confidence that we can stand and say to every child
of grace that if you be His, there is no condemnation for
you. That though your sins be as scarlet, He has washed you
white as snow. Though ye have walked away and
walked in the flesh time after time after time, missing the
mark, missing the mark, that He has become unto us wisdom
and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. What a great
privilege it is to stand and be able to say this, Lord. And
I know that it's not anything that is in me, that I am no different
than anybody else, and that I am a sinner in need of Christ. And
it is only by God's calling, it's only by God's enabling,
it's only by the Spirit's giving utterance that I can even proclaim
these truths, if they be true. But Father, we are grateful and
we are beholden to you for every aspect of everything in our lives.
We need you. We need grace. But Father, we
truly, truly are thankful for Christ and his salvation. And
I pray today that if there's any here today that are yours,
that you get to grant faith, repentance to. Lord, that today
that you grant that to them, that they might believe upon
you. And Lord, that they might trust you for their salvation,
that they might be in obedience to your command to follow after
you in baptism, be baptized. They might confess before me
in Christ Jesus, Lord, not to be saved. We know that salvation
doesn't come in water baptism, but we know that you have given
that as an ordinance to proclaim our faith and what Christ has
done on our behalf. to show that we have been united
with Christ in His death, that we've been raised to newness
of life, walking in the Spirit, trusting in Christ alone, and
repentant from dead works of trying to gain righteousness
through our flesh. Father, we know that that is
what You've asked us to do, so we pray, Lord, that Your people,
that You have called to You by Your name, that You've granted
repentance and faith. ordinance and that, Lord, that
we would add them to the church and that they might become a
vital member of that local assembly, that you might grant them, Lord,
the gifts of the Spirit to be able to edify the body, to be
an encouragement one to another, Father, in the proclaiming of
the gospel. Father, we thank you for all
that you have done for us in this day that we have together
today. We pray that you would be with us This week as we leave
that you keep us safe and we pray for the return of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ and the end of all things. We ask for
that you just might come quickly. For it's in Christ's name that
we pray. Amen.