Let's turn back to Romans 8.
Last week, we dealt with one verse of Scripture that is absolutely
foundational truth for the comfort of all God's people. The Apostle says, There is therefore
now no condemnation. to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." No condemnation. You know, man by nature has a
fear of dying. I mean, that's just there. of leaving this world is a fearful
thing. The believer struggles. He knows. He knows that death is, in a
sense, his friend and that it is that way that Almighty God
will usher him into the eternal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's something about dying
that we look at and there's a sting to it. But that sting has been
taken away. The victory of the grave. We've
never crossed. We've witnessed it. We've seen
the effects. But the Lord said, don't fear. that death, I'll tell you what
a man is to fear. You fear Him. Don't fear men.
Don't fear what men can do to you. You fear Him that has the
power not only to take a man in death, but has the power to
put that man in hell. You reverence Him. comfort to a believer is knowing
that there's no condemnation. That's the greatest comfort.
There's no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. Never
has been. Never has been. Well, let's pick
up in verse 2. For the law, and Paul is now
going to set forth this truth, he's going to set forth under
the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the explanation why there's
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. Now, we're going to have now
the reason, yes, I'll say this, the reason why there's no condemnation,
but by me saying that the reason why, there can be a misunderstanding
of what I'm saying. Here's what it is, why we understand
that there's no condemnation. Why, how is it that we understand
that there's no condemnation? Now, I have here, a verse of
Scripture, verse 1 of chapter 8, that says, there is no condemnation
to whom? To them which are in Christ Jesus. How do you know those in Christ
Jesus? They walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There is
a consistency in their walk that is after Christ and not after
the flesh. The flesh is not that which is
set forth as the dominant walk in that person. It doesn't dominate. Not those in Christ. Not believers. How do I know that? I see it
here. I read it. But how do I know
it? Well, Paul says, the law of the
spirit of life in Jesus Christ. What law is that? Well, the word
law there means the standard. The standard. The standard, the
law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ. What is the law
of the Spirit of life? What is the standard? It's the
gospel. It's the gospel. How do I know
anything concerning Life in Christ Jesus. How do I know? The truth. The scriptures. The gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, of which the Spirit of God is the author. Holy men of God wrote as who
moved upon them to write. The Spirit of God. Holy men of
God. wrote as the Spirit gave them
utterance." The Spirit of God taught them. That's the medium
by which the Spirit of God has made known God's testimony of
mercy and grace to God's elect. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus, this gospel of which Paul said, I'm not ashamed.
This is good news. This is good news. We're here this morning for one
reason, to preach the gospel. In the preaching of the gospel,
Almighty God is honored because this message honors Him, honors
His Son. But I'll tell you this, we're
here to comfort the sheep. I've said You're not going to,
unless Almighty God gives a man or a woman a new heart, you're
not going to straighten anybody up. You know, I'm here to straighten
you out. Nobody has ever been straightened out, you know, by
hammering on them concerning the things that they're not doing.
Do you know what changes a man? Let me say it like this. Who
changes a man? Almighty God. You don't drive You're not going
to drive anybody to Christ unless God Almighty gives them a new
heart. So what are we here for? Here to comfort the sheep. Sheep,
believers, comfort my people. Comfort my people. How do you
know that there's no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus? The
gospel of God's grace has set that forth. The law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. That's how we know. That law
hath made me free from the law of sin and death. That gospel,
that law has revealed that I am under no obligation for obedience
in order. to be saved. That law that has
revealed that I'm under no obligation for obedience to establish a
righteousness. The gospel sets forth this. The Lord Jesus Christ alone has
established the accepted righteousness that Almighty God accepts. That's
my beloved son. I'm well pleased with him. and
all that are in Jesus Christ, God is well pleased with. That
gospel that sets forth that God Almighty has made me free from
the law of sin and death. God has freed me. Who shall deliver
me, Paul says, from this body of death? I thank God. That is where verse 25 says,
of the seven, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. God has
made me free. So the Lord Jesus Christ is set
forth in the gospel, the law of the Spirit of life. Verse
3, 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. The law of
the spirit of life in verse 2 is the gospel. That is the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Verse 3 speaks of another
law. That is the Mosaic law, God's
law, all law, law. Almighty God set forth the law
and gave it to Moses in the form of two tablets on the mountain. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not,
thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Obey, obey, do, and you'll live. Do these things, and you will
live. But what happened? Men fell in
the garden. So the law of God is what's being
spoken of here, the law, the Mosaic law, the law that is set
forth that if a man obeys, he will live. but which man couldn't
obey because he was fallen already, fell, for what the law could
not do." Now, you know, let's just establish and remember one
thing. The law of God, all the law, is holy, it's just, and
it's good. There's nothing imperfect in
God's law. Nothing. God's law. The Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world to establish the law of God. for a people. There's nothing
wrong with the law of God, but here in this verse, this verse
says that what the law could not do. Why? In that it was weak through
the flesh, powerless, feeble, impotent to do something. What could the law not do because
it was weak through the flesh. It cannot justify man. It cannot
justify man. Why? Because it is just. It is holy because God is holy.
It is just because God is just. It is good because God Almighty
is good. You know, one of my kids, I might
try to overlook something. You know, one of my kids did
it, and I'd tell him, say, now look, all right, I'm not going to spank you, but
now listen, I want you to listen to what I'm saying. Don't do
that again because I'm not good. Now, was I just? No. No, no, no. I wasn't just. Justice
is that the exact reward is administered. That's justice. Absolute justice. Men talk about, you know, I don't
believe in capital punishment. Well, if we're just, you know,
well, I think if you execute someone, all you're doing is
committing another murder. No, we're not talking. We're
talking about justice. This is justice. This is right.
It's right. God's law is right. It's just. But it's weak through the flesh.
It cannot justify a man. Why? Because I am a sinner. To
justify is to declare innocent. How can the law that is just
declare me innocent when I'm not? The law does not look the
other way. Galatians 2.16 says, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law. How? By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Beholding Him who is my righteousness. And that righteousness is charged
to me. That Almighty God would charge,
look upon me in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this
is what He's saying. What He has done. I look at His
work, His obedience, and I charge it to you." How can God do that? He must take what I am by nature,
a sinner, and charge that to Him. If I receive His benefit,
He must receive my guilt. Almighty God is not going to
sweep it under the table. God is going to deal with sin.
So the law is impotent. to declare a man innocent, just,
because it is weak through the flesh. The law is not weak. We're
weak. We're the one that's impotent.
A man by nature hates to be told that. Man by nature wants to
be told that there's a little good there. There's none good
there. Man by nature wants to hear that he can come to God
if he wants to. Man by nature, without a new
heart, well, number one, doesn't want to. I can tell you that
right now. He doesn't want to. He will not
come. He cannot come. No man can come
to me. You cannot come. I had someone
ask me one time. I told you this. They said, what
if there was someone that was truly willing to come, and they
weren't one of God's elect. That's a ridiculous statement.
Why? Because the Scripture says they won't. What if they do? They won't. They will not. They cannot. Can a leopard change his spots? Can an Ethiopian change his skin?
Well, neither can you. It has a nature that is prone
dead to unrighteousness, prone to rebellion against God. No
man can. How could the law pronounce me
to be just and perfectly obedient when I am a sinner? The law is
just. Our depravity renders the law
weak through our flesh to declare us just before Almighty God. What had to be done? The latter
part of verse 3, "...what the law could not do, 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, Almighty
God sent His only begotten Son. You know, believers are going
to look at this in the next a few studies in the book of Romans
concerning the sons of God. You know, believers here are
said to be sons of God by adoption. Even angels are said to be the
sons of God in creation. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only begotten Son of God, the only begotten. In fact, the
literal reading of that, the only begotten Son of God, is
this, he who is both God and only begotten, he who is both
God and only born, only come forth. That's a great mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness,
Paul says. God was manifest in the flesh.
That's a great mystery. Someone says, explain that. I
can't explain that. Tell me how that is. I'm telling
you that it is, that God himself, God himself, was made flesh. The Word. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And
the Word was made flesh. Here, the Scripture says that
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Now, you know this. He was sent in the flesh. The
Scripture says that He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh. So I know this. It wasn't sinful
flesh. It was not sinful flesh because
it says He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh. It was not flesh
in the perfect sense as the flesh that we possess from the loins
of Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ took our
nature, and it was in the likeness of sinful flesh, a body. Hebrews 10, verse 5, said, Hath
thou prepared me? He knew no sin. He was conceived
of the Holy Ghost. He assumed flesh, our nature,
but he was the Lamb without spot and without blemish. He did not take on the likeness
of flesh before the fall. Before the fall, Adam did not
possess sinful flesh. Not before the fall. He did not
take on Adam's nature as Adam was before the fall. The Scripture
says that he came, God sent, his son in the likeness of sinful
flesh. This is what he possessed. He
possessed all of the physical frailties of this flesh. Do you know why? We're all getting
older. You know why we're getting older?
Because this body is dying. You know, somebody says you look
at someone and they're they're starting to go into, you know,
Linda, you'll understand this. You know, you see someone they're
coming to die and you see them just before they're dying. They
said their body is shutting down. Let me tell you something. This
body is shutting down the moment we came forth. The moment we
were conceived, this body was shutting down. We're dying. We're in a state of dying. It's
not just those last few hours and stuff. No, that's just the
last of it. But the reason that we're getting
older, the reason that we're starting to hurt more, the reason
that we see the frailties of this flesh is because of sin. Now, you know that. You know
that. Why? Sin. We're going to die. That's what the Lord told Adam.
In the day you eat of the fruit, you're going to die spiritually,
and then eventually you're going to die physically. Unless Almighty
God does something, you'll die eternally. But death, this physical
body is frail because of sin. I get hungry. The Lord Jesus
Christ got hungry. The Lord Jesus Christ got thirsty
because He said, from the cross, I thirst. He felt pain whenever those nails
were driven into His hands, into His feet. I'm going to tell you
something. He felt that. He knew what it
felt like. Whenever Martha, at the tomb
of Lazarus, whenever the Lord Jesus Christ told Martha, I want
you to remove the stone. And Martha, you know, like she
was correcting him, she said, he's been in there four days.
By now, he's starting to stink. His body is now seeing corruption.
And it says, and he groaned. Felt. He knew what it felt like.
She didn't believe him. And he knew what that felt like. He aged. Have you ever wondered
why the Lord Jesus Christ aged? They looked at him and he told
some of the Pharisees, you know, before Abraham was, I am. They said, you're not even 50
years old yet. He was only in his early 30's.
Stress. Pain. Why did he age? He knew no sin. because he was
made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And everything, all the
effects that sin has on this body right here, he possessed,
yet without sin. Now, that's an amazing thing. He came, sent forth in the likeness
of sinful flesh. If it wouldn't have been for
that, he would have never aged. He would have never hurt. Here
was the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy, harmless Son of Almighty
God, the one that never thought, never did anything but that which
was pleasing in His Father's sight. Perfect as God. God-man. Perfect, perfect man. Holy God in the likeness of sinful
flesh. He came in the likeness, and
He came not only in the likeness of sinful flesh, but He came
for sin. That is, for the atonement of
sin, for the sacrifice. God Almighty came to pay the
debt in the likeness of sinful flesh. He came to pay the debt
owed to the law of God, to redeem, to pay. that which his elect
owed. He came, and thereby he condemned
sin in the flesh. God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, for the atonement of
sin, for the payment of sin, for what sin owed the law of
God. To what? To condemn sin in the
flesh. To condemn sin in the flesh does
not mean to completely destroy it, though there will be in that
final judgment all sin and rebellion be cast out. The word there doesn't
mean to destroy it perfectly right now. Why? Because it's
still in God's people, the presence of sin. That's what Paul says. I'm a sinner. I see in me. Sin is in me. So the condemnation
of sin in the flesh, what does that mean? It doesn't mean to
completely destroy you that believe. You're not without sin right
now. Sin is present in you, but what
it means is to punish sin in the flesh. Sin, for Almighty
God to be just, sin must be punished in the flesh. Sin must be punished in the nature
in which it rebelled for God to be just. Almighty God will
either punish sin in the person of His blessed Son. God is going
to put away sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ for
all of His elect, or He is going to punish sin in your flesh,
one of the two. But He is going to punish sin.
He came in the likeness. He came to condemn sin, punish,
have sin punished in His body. God, to justify the ungodly,
must punish them to be just. He must. He must condemn their
sin. He must condemn it. He must condemn
it. He must judge it. Christ came
into this world. for the elect, all that God had
everlastingly given him, and laid down his life, he said,
in the Gospel of John, he said, I lay down my life for the sheep. For the sheep. As I've said before,
if he died for everybody and God sends one man to hell, God
is not just. And if you think that your free
will by accepting it is what's going to make it a factual, then
you believe in salvation by works. Your works. See, that's not going
to fly. Not with these Scriptures. That
is not going to go. There's no condemnation to them
in Christ Jesus. No judgment, no punishment. Why?
Because Christ has condemned sin in the flesh for all that
the Father has given Him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. If we read all the Scriptures
every time, we would make a point we'd never go any farther. That's
why we have to read the same Scriptures over and over. He
condemned sin at the cross. He experienced the weight of
God's wrath against sin for the sheep. When he cried, he knew
what was happening. In the likeness of sinful flesh, in flesh, in the likeness of,
in that body that was prepared Him, He knew what it felt like
to be under the judgment of Almighty God for sin, for He was made
sin. And He cried from the cross,
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Because he was made sin. He was made sin. And there in
the likeness of sinful flesh, God dealt with him in one sacrifice,
that which eternity would have never paid for all found without
him. One sacrifice. Verse 4, "...that
the righteousness," he condemns 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, or that the righteous
demands of the law might be satisfied." And when he says that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled, that is the righteous demands
of the law. Remember, there are two things
that the law has a right to, that the righteous of the law,
the rightness of the law. The law has a right to do this. Number one, to declare judgment
on all disobedience. The law's got a right for that.
Why? Because it's just. Just. But secondly, the law has a right
to declare just or innocent all that are without sin, without
chargeable sin. You know, when we're justified,
we're justified in Christ. We're talking about being justified.
Do you know what has declared us just? The law of God. God's standard. God's law. God's law that says there's nothing
chargeable there. No evidence in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ found eternally chosen in Him. as He is our eternal
surety, as I've said before. How long have we been just before
God in Christ? Eternally. Everlastingly. Never, never, never, I've said
before, try to find a point where God looked at a man one way,
say, as being unjust in Christ, and then looked at him another
way, and there God changed in His attitude Brother Scott says,
therein you err. That's where you erred right
there. You say, well, I don't understand that. I can understand
that part of it. But to say that God never changes,
we're going to have to stay right there. You rest on the Word of
God. Let God be true and let all of
us be a liar. God is true. This twofold righteousness
that the law has to declare innocent those that have no chargeable
guilt and to declare guilty Those who are truly guilty, that righteousness,
that right was fulfilled, that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but
after the Spirit. The law of God has that right,
and that right has been completely and totally satisfied in the
person of Christ. For they, verse 5 and 6, that
are after the flesh, those who walk after the flesh, those who
are governed after the flesh, those whose minds are governed,
those whose actions are governed. 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. In these two verses, the apostle
sets forth and distinguishes the means of that clause that
he had just read, who walk not after the flesh but after the
Spirit. Left to one's self, anyone will by nature, in their mind,
assume themselves to be those that walk after the Spirit. You know, every man by nature,
when they read that right there, who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit, leave a man to himself and he will assume
either by his self-righteous acts of religion or if he has
no religious preference whatsoever, he'll justify it in this mind,
well, I'm as good as anybody else. I tell you what, there's
a lot of those hypocrites that go to church over there and I
tell you what, I'm just as good as they are. Therefore, if they
want to be there hypocritical ways and do all that kind of
stuff, I'm just as good. All we're doing is we're saying
in our heart, I walk after the Spirit. I'm right. I'm good. I'm okay. Unless God Almighty
reveals to a man what it is to be under the judgment of Almighty
God, it's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. The reason
that it's not a big deal is because I'm blind to the surety of the
justice of Almighty God. I'm blind to the righteousness
of God. I'm blind to the love of God.
I'm blind. Why? Because I'm dead, dead. The apostle here states, those
that are after or according to the flesh, they mind the things
of the flesh, that is, they make the things of the flesh, the
object of their attention. We do what we want to do. Now,
don't you? I do. I do just exactly what
I want to do. I realize there's some things
that we, in our minds, you know, we'll kind of hold back from
for fear of being caught or this, that and the other. But I'm telling
you, if I think I can get away with it, Jeff, I'm going to do
it. if that's what I want to do. If I think I can get away
with it, if I think I can get away with it, that is to mind
the things of the flesh, to make the things of the flesh the object
of my attention. That's the crust of what I do. All the faculties of man in his
unregenerate state, there's nothing that is exempt. from sin. It has all been tainted of sin. Only a new nature changes the
desires in a man or a woman. They long after Christ. They
want to be with God's people where God is preached, God Almighty
is exalted in the person of His Son. They want to be where He
is honored. Those that are after the flesh,
they mind the things of the flesh, but they're after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. They act according to the dictates
of a new nature. I've said before, you know, you
take a cat and a dog. Have you ever noticed that a
cat doesn't have to do anything? I've seen, as I've said before,
I've seen cats and dogs somehow get along, but as a general rule,
People, that's a slogan. Fight like cats and dogs. Why? Do you know, as a general rule,
a cat doesn't have to do anything but let a dog see him. Just walk
out there. And that dog is after him. Why? It's just in him. It's just there's something in
him, in that nature right there, that says, I'm going to get that
cat. And if that cat doesn't see me before he gets up that
tree, I'll get you. I'm going to get you. Now, do
you know what it's going to take for that dog to quit acting like
that? Well, you'll probably have to
make him a cat, probably. He's going to have to change
that nature. Do you know what it's going to
take for a man or a woman to mind the things of the Spirit?
What is it going to take for a man or a woman to hunger after
Christ? to thirst after righteousness. What is it going to take for
a man or a woman to be poor in spirit? What's it going to take?
I'm telling you all of the positive thinking classes that you want
to take. Take all of the classes you want
to. That is not going to give you a new disposition. There's
going to have to be a change. There's going to have to be a
change. Leave a man or a woman to themselves. Let them fall
on hard times. Do you know what the Scripture
says? A dog will return to its own vomit. A sow. You can take a sow. My dad used
to love pigs. He loved them. He loved to feed
them corn. He loved to hear them eat. It
was just something about the way they ate when they ate that
corn. He loved to hear them crunch
that corn off that cob. He would take that corn and throw
it down there. He loved to throw watermelons out there. He loved
to hear meat. He loved them. He loved them. He loved them. And I'm telling you, you could
do anything you wanted to to clean those pigs up. But sure
as the world, if I'd have spent all afternoon cleaning up those
pigs, as soon as I turned them loose, do you know where they're
going? To a walling hole. They're going back because that's
their nature. That's their nature. Those that
mind the things of the flesh, why do they mind the things of
the flesh? Because it's in their nature to mind the things. Those
that mind the things of the Spirit. Those that hunger after Christ,
thirst after Christ, long after Christ, long after the fellowship
of Christ and His people. Why? Because the Spirit of God
has given them a new nature and they act just like God Almighty
made them. Does that mean that they're exempt? from the presence of sin? Absolutely
not. They do not. They know it's there,
but it doesn't dominate. To be carnally minded, verse
6, is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. To be carnally minded, that is,
without a mind that looks to Christ alone by faith. To be carnally minded, to be
without faith, To be without Christ, you can't please God. To be without a hunger. You know
the Scripture Numbers 2180. It talks about when Moses, the
Lord told him, said, make a golden brazen serpent and put it up.
Any he that looketh shall live. He that looks shall live. A man that looks. We're here this morning in the
gospel of free grace, the gospel that honors Christ, set forth.
Christ is, in a sense, seen by all. You hear Him. Everybody hears what I'm saying.
So in a sense, I could say that you look, you hear. But I look
the Word up. Look. He that looks shall live. And this was what it said. He
that joyfully looks. He that respectfully looks. You know, there's a big difference
between hearing the gospel, just hearing it, hearing it with an
ear, and hearing it and have an ear that joyfully hears, that
respectfully hears, that longs after to be carnally minded That
is, to not respectfully look is death, but to be spiritually
minded, life and peace. Spiritually minded, a new mind,
wrought by the Spirit of God, given a new heart, a new spirit,
regenerated by God's grace. Those that are spiritually minded,
when they worship, when they come together, They come together
in the worship of Almighty God. They come here because they truly
desire to. They're not coming out of obligation. They're not coming out of fear
of what somebody will say if they don't come. Why are they
here? Why are you here? Why? I want
to hear. I want to know. I want to know
what the Scriptures have got to say. I want to know. Tell
me. Tell me more. Tell me more of
Christ. Tell me of Him who is my life."
Spiritually minded. They mind the things of the Spirit. They mind the things of Christ.
They love Him. They love Him. You that believe. You love Him. Why? You know Him. You know Him, but you want to
know Him. That's what Paul says. that I may know Him. Do you think
Paul didn't know Him when he said that? In the fullness. In what He will reveal to me
and what the Spirit of God will teach me. Every believer in this
congregation this morning, let me tell you what happens, and
I'll close with this. Every time the Lord, by His Spirit,
teaches you something, afresh, a new token as we looked at in
the last a new token of His love and affection for you. Whenever
Almighty God teaches you something afresh and you hear something
that you never realized you heard before, never heard that before,
and it's a manifestation of Him and of His love, you know what? You rejoice in it. You think,
oh, that was good. Oh, it was like a fresh taste
of Him It's life all over again. That was good. Spiritually minded. Those that Almighty God has given
a heart, they mind the things of the Spirit of God. All right,
here you come.