We'll now to the 8th chapter
of the book of Romans. Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." Now, I want to tell you somewhat about
what I refer to as the serpent's gospel. The serpent has a gospel. And it's just another name for
the gospel of modern thought, for the gospel of our day. That gospel, the serpent's gospel,
which casts a doubt upon the threatenings of the law." Any
gospel that casts a doubt upon the threatenings of an immutable
God is the serpent's gospel. Now, if you'll read the first
few words of the first verse, of the book of Romans 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6. Read those first six words and
stop there, and that will be a false gospel. There is, therefore, now no condemnation. Just stop there and this false
gospel is before you. There is therefore now no condemnation. That is what the serpent preached
in the Garden of Eden when he said, Ye shall not surely die. That is the doctrine of no punishment. That's the serpent's gospel. And that's the gospel of modern
thought. And that's the gospel that is
believed by more of the world's population today than the true
gospel is believed. The serpent preached this gospel
in the garden. when he said, Ye shall not surely
die. He cast doubt in the mind and
in the soul of Mother Eve. Ye shall not surely die. And I suspect Eve said, Well,
is he not Is He not far too merciful, our God? Is it possible that
a God of love and a God of kindness, a God of gentleness, a God of
mercy, is it possible that He would condemn and punish His
creatures? You remember now the serpent
said, shall not surely die." And Eve must have rolled that
in her mind, and the force of that brought to her understanding
that a God of love and a God of mercy, He surely won't punish
His creatures. the denial of the penalty attached
to sin comes out in different ways. But when it is put in a
concentrated place or put in a nutshell, it amounts to this. There is no condemnation to any
man however he might live, whatever he might do, or whatever he might
think. It is thought by most of the
world's population that man may live in open rebellion against
God. He might live in sin, he might
practice sin, and he might die in sin, but it will not matter. Death is nothing. It is just
the laying down of your life and there is no such thing as
an immortal soul. There is no life beyond this
veil of tears. What makes the difference? That
is the effect and the result of the serpent's gospel, the
denial of sin. Some say that if you die unforgiven,
if you die unrepentant, if you die in total rebellion against
God, your sin is unpardoned and unforgiven. It is a shame. It
is a pity. But it will be all right after
a time of purging. When you die, you'll be purged. There'll be a place, a space,
a department, a compartment where you'll go and you'll be purged
from those unforgiven and unpardoned sins. And they say it may take
a little longer. You may go along a route, along
a road, but it'll all come out in the end. Don't let this business
of punishment trouble you while you're in this life. It doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter how you live
or what you do. You'll be perfectly happy in
the long run. Now that's what is conveyed from
the pulpit to the pew or from newspapers, from educators and
from preachers and pulpits. That's what is conveyed. Don't
worry. Don't trouble yourself with that
notion that there is a heaven to be lost or a hell to be feared. Get that out of your mind. The
wrath of God and judgment are just fairytales of the apostles
of old, really not so. Now, this is the gospel of the
serpent. He said, You shall not surely
die. And Eve believed that gospel
of the serpent because she took that which God had forbid her
to take. He told her the trees the fruit
of the trees of the garden you might eat of them, be nourished
by their substance. But this tree in the midst of
the garden, thou shalt not eat it. The day you do, ye shall surely
die. And the devil said, ye shall
not surely die. So she took the bait, and she
ate. And her husband came along and
he looked upon her and he knew what she'd done. But he loved
her. He is, in a sense, a type of
the Lord Jesus because he loved her and he said within himself,
he said, she's taken and eaten of the fruit and she's dead. spiritually, but I love her so
much I can't be without her." And so he took the apple or the
fruit and he ate with her. The gospel of the serpent has
ruined thousands, yea, tens of thousands of souls that have
went off out into eternity believing lie of the serpent, that they
would surely not die. Do the best you can. Do the best you can. Think good thoughts. Do good
things. This punishment of sin is a fair
tale. He's a God of love. How can a
God of love punish his creatures? The gospel of a serpent, a gospel
that has already ruined millions of people. Now, here in the book
of Romans, in this eighth chapter and the first verse, is the apostle
Paul's way of refuting the serpent's gospel. He refutes it. Listen to what he says. He says,
There is therefore now. Now. Well, you've heard me say
this before. When is now? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them. which are in Christ Jesus. Now is now. And before I go any
farther, let me emphasize that if I can. If you and I here this
morning have been brought by God to faith and By God have
we been placed, have we been put in Christ Jesus. If that is so, and that's our
case and our condition, right now there's no condemnation. There's no punishment for those
that are in Christ Jesus. Here the Apostle Paul Here is
his way of refuting this general amnesty. He says there is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now listen,
there would be condemnation to every one of them if they had
not been in Christ Jesus. No condemnation to them that
are in Him. But if they were not in Him,
they would be condemned. All right? Now there is no condemnation
to them solely because they are in Christ Jesus. Their being
in Christ is the only method by which alone have they escaped
condemnation. Their only means of escape is
by their being in Christ Jesus. They have escaped condemnation
because they are in Christ Jesus. now to be in Christ Jesus. What is that? It is the work
of the Almighty God and His sovereign grace and sovereign mercy to
put men in Christ Jesus, and the only way that they'll ever
be in Christ is by almighty God and His sovereign mercy, and
by this method and no other way will they escape condemnation. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Is that what the Scriptures say?
He that believeth not shall be damned. Does it not? I know this is hard
preaching. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's what God hath said in
the Scriptures. In the Scriptures is the sum
and the substance of what I am to believe, And what I am to
preach, the testimony of God himself says, he that heareth
the word and believeth the word shall escape condemnation. What am I to preach apart from
that? Now it would be true this morning
if I were to say, there is therefore no condemnation to all them that are in Christ
Jesus. That's the truth, so help me
God. But this is true too, if I were to say this morning, There
is no condemnation to all of them. Or better, I missed a word. If I would say there is therefore
now condemnation, say it again, therefore now there is condemnation
to all of them that are not in Christ Jesus. If they are not in Christ Jesus,
they are condemned already. But if they are in Christ Jesus,
there is no condemnation. Now, hear the words of John,
the beloved disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, that tender, generous
John who laid his head upon the bosom of his master. Hear what
he said. He said, He that believeth not
is condemned already. Oh, the sentence has gone out
against you already if you have not believed in him. Think of
it. Think of it this morning. If
you are a rebel against God, and you have not submitted yourself
to God in Christ Jesus. If you have not taken your stand
before God as a hopeless, helpless, doomed, damned sinner, if you
have not taken that stand, if you do not stand upon the platform
of who you are, well then, You have made God
a liar because you have not believed his testimony concerning his
Son. You have made God a liar. That's hard, isn't it? And that's
hard for me to say, to look into people's faces and say, if you
have not believed the testimony of God concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, then you or me, If we have not believed, we are
looking into the face of God and saying, you're a liar. That's
what we say. That's hard, isn't it? We're
bad people. We're awful people. We've got
bad hearts. The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked and no man can know it. We're in bad shape. The testimony
of God is that He sent His Son to be the propitiation, to satisfy
justice, to honor the law, and to bear the penalty. God sent
Him to do that, to save sinners, and yet we remain in constant
rebellion against Him and believe the lie of the serpent. the serpent's
gospel that says, ye shall not surely die, then we make God
a liar. Make God a liar and think of
that. Face God. One day we'll face God and if
we have to look into the face of God with a lie on our lips
that we've lied against God, we'll call Him a liar. It'd be terrible, wouldn't it? Oh, listen. We have not believed his testimony
concerning his son, and he, on the other hand, has already judged
you and condemned you, and the most conclusive evidence of the
blackness of your heart is this, he that believeth not shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. That's the evidence
of it. Oh, my soul, the words that I've
said here so far this morning are meant to be sharp, to sharp
as a robber's knife, to be sharp as a soldier's sword. They're meant to pierce and to
cut your heart and bring conviction on your soul that you're a rebel. outside of the ark of safety. And there is no safety for you
or for your soul until you find yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, if you die in your sins,
the Bible says, you will die forever. That death which bringeth
eternal, everlasting separation and torment from God forever
and ever. If you're not reconciled to God
by the death of His Son, listen to me, yes, enemy. If you haven't
been reconciled unto God, buying through the Lord Jesus Christ,
who He is and what He done, then you're an enemy of God. To be
an enemy of God, think of it. Oh, it bothers me if I have one
enemy in this life, and I'm sure I've got lots of them. But it
always bothers me, right or wrong, it bothers me that someone doesn't
like me. For something I've done, something
I've said, or my own foolishness, my own folly, it always troubles
me, it troubles me. And I, most of the time, try
to make it right or smooth it over or something to stifle my
conscience, but all to think that a man someday will come
face to face with God Almighty and find out in reality that
he was actually an enemy of God all of his life. He's an enemy of God. Listen. Listen to me now. If you're not
reconciled to God by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, then
you are his enemy. Now listen to me, if you're not
for me, he said, I read that the other night in prayer meeting,
if you're not for me, you're against me. There's no in between. If you're not out and out for
him, then you're out and out against him. That's what he means. He that believeth in Christ,
he that believeth in Christ is in. That's the reason he believes. Now, by nature, I am in myself. By nature. That's the way I was
born. In myself. And not only in myself,
but in sin. So, therefore, I am condemned. But when the grace of God...
But when the grace of God... I was twenty-some years old.
I'd been to war and served three and a half years. I'd done a little of everything. And I was in a state of rebellion,
and I was under the condemnation of God. And I didn't realize
it, but there was a time when the grace of God came. I was
telling you one time about a fellow that I knew as a school teacher,
and every time I ever seen him, he always wanted to know. How is it that you went from
one direction to another? Tell me, what is this? What's the answer? Why? How is it? One day you're this
way and the next day you're this way. Tell me. Tell me. And I
tried to tell him about the grace of God. I told him that I was
wayward. I told him that I was a wanderer.
I told him that I'd turned from God. But I told him that there
was a time when the grace of God was deposited in my heart. Grace, grace, amazing grace,
glorious grace, unmerited favor was deposited in my heart. I told Him by nature that I was
in myself and in sin and I was therefore thoroughly condemned
by God and justly so. But when the grace God came and
awakened me to know my state and to know my condition. Then
I flew to Him. I flew to Him and by the grace of God, trusted
alone in His blood and in His righteousness. And He become
to me the cleft of the rock where I hid myself and there hide myself
even as I speak. I hide myself from the storm
of vengeance that is due me for my many offenses against a holy
God. I am like the manslayer of the
Old Testament who was pursued by the avenger of blood. And the man slain, who had the
avenger of blood hot on his trail, he was never safe until he passed
through the gates of the city of refuge. And when he got across
the line and into the city, he was safe. No one could harm him
then. He was in the city of refuge.
I was like Noah's dove. Oh, they turned the dove loose
and she was flying out there over the waste of the water outside
of the ark. And she'll never rest the sole
of her foot until Noah puts out his hand and the little ark. flies into his hand and he fetches
that little dove into the ark. Oh, Jesus Christ, my substitute,
paid what I owe. And that's the end of that. A second payment cannot he demand. He can't demand that. My substitute
paid every crime. forever a crime. And every sin
is a crime. It's a crime against God. It's
a crime against God. Everything that's imperfect is
a crime against God. Whether it's a word, a thought,
a deed, a suggestion, whatever it is, it's a crime against God. And there was millions of those
crimes. that came from this fountain,
this deceitful heart of mine. And the Lord Jesus Christ, my
substitute, listen to me now, my substitute, He paid. He paid
what I owed. He paid my punishment. That's
the reason why there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ.
He paid what was my due. And He that hath the Son is free. And he whom God maketh free in
the Son is free forever. That's the reason I say my substitute
paid what I owed and that's an end to that. A second payment
cannot be demanded. Listen to me now. A criminal
cannot be hanged a second time. One death is all the law requires. And that's all the law requires
as far as I'm concerned and as far as the testimony of God is
concerned. Christ died and that's it! He bore the penalty. He established
righteousness. He honored and obeyed the law.
Oh, the man who is in him, it says, does not walk after the
flesh. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Let me read this along with that
verse over in the book of I Corinthians somewhere there. My pages of my Bible are new
and stuck together. I'll have a time to separate
them. So you just bear with me a second
here. I'll read this. Listen to this now. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and verse 30. You remember I am reading from
the book of Romans. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Verse 30 says, But of him. That means but of God. See that? Verse 3 words. But of him. That is the cause. The effect
is that you are in Christ. The cause of it is what? but
of God, but of Him, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Now, a man who is in Him He is
in him because God put him in him. He does not walk after the
flesh, but he walks after the Spirit. He has his Spirit in
him. He has the right Spirit in him,
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life. He no longer lives in the
flesh. He is a spiritual man, and he
seeks after spiritual things. He seeks the kingdom of God and
all of its righteousness. The flesh is still in him. It's
there. The flesh is still there. It's
there, but he does not walk after the flesh. It's there, and it's
striving, and it's warring, and it's grieving, and it's vexing,
it's tormenting, and that flesh will be there until God takes
him up to heaven. Maybe you say to yourself here
this morning, I don't think I want to be ruled or limited by scripture. I don't think I want to be bound
over to the Bible. It's old-fashioned and it's straight-laced
and too many rules and too many regulations. Well, then I say
unto you, then, you're blind. You're blind and your guide is
blind and you'll wind up in the ditch. You think not, I suppose,
but time will prove me to be right. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Seek the Lord. Call upon him. What an awful condition you are
in. Lord, deliver me. He delivered the children of
Israel from the land of Egypt. It was he who put them over there.
And don't you know they would have stayed there? They enjoyed being there. all
the lush green pastures of Egypt, the good food, the leeks and
the onions and the garlic and all that. They just had a pretty
good time until the pharaoh that Joseph was involved with died
and a new one come on the throne. And then they began to make it
hard for these Jews over there. You see, God put them over there,
and they would have loved to stay there, but God brought about
a man to rule and reign over them and cause hardship upon
them, and he brought them to the place where they hated Egypt,
and they hated the Egyptians. And if God ever delivers us,
he's got to bring us to the place that we hate that thing that
condemns us, sin, in all of its vows. And when they hated and
loathed Egypt and the ruler, then God sent them a deliverer
and brought them out of Egypt with a high arm. May God have
mercy upon us and you here. I know most of you are believers
in Christ Jesus. And you understand that you were
put in Christ by the hand of God. It was God that set you
apart before time ever was. It was God's Holy Spirit that
awakened you to the grace of God. And it was God's Holy Spirit
that caused you to flee to the rock of ages. I know that, but
there's others here. There's some here in all probability. They haven't found that out yet.
And my purpose and intention this morning is that what I say
will be sharper than a knife and cut your heart and you'll
cry out, men and brethren, what shall we do? And the word of God will come
to you that the work is already done. That he did the work. He finished
the work. And he'll give you everything
for nothing. God kept us all.