If you would, turn with me to
Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. Here in Romans
chapter 7, the Apostle Paul very vividly describes an inward conflict. And in verse 23, Paul actually
refers to this inward conflict as a war. that goes on in his
members. And I might add that it did until
the day he died. Do you have such a conflict?
Such a war going on within you? Well, I can tell you that no
child of God is exempt from it. If there's no Christ within you,
then there's probably no conflict within you. Not the kind of conflict
I'm talking about. You see, every man, woman, sinner
born of Adam has a fallen nature within. Every believing man or
woman has two natures. The believing sinner has a new
nature that joins them to Christ. That's what the Lord Jesus meant
when He said, you must be born again. You've got to have this
new nature in order to be reconciled to God. Paul said in Ephesians
chapter 4 verse 24, put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. And did you notice the language
in that verse? The new man is created. The new
man is created in righteousness. The new man is created in true
holiness. So how do we put this new man
on? Paul said in Romans chapter 14,
verse 14, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness
of Christ is compared to a garment, and it's the best robe. You remember
that prodigal when he came home, the father said, bring the best
robe. God provides for us the best robe, and that's the righteousness
of Christ. And it's put on us by the father's
gracious act of imputation. It covers the sins and the deformities
of his people. It defends them against divine
justice. It secures them from God's wrath
to come. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ renders every believing sinner beautiful and acceptable
in the sight of God. And I guess this is what brought
this message about. It's been on my mind frequently
as of late. The thing that robbed me of any
peace, comfort, and assurance of salvation for years was indwelling
sin. That old man within would constantly
whisper to the new man, how can a believer think, do, and say
the things that you do and still claim to be saved? Have you experienced
such a whisper within? My salvation has nothing to do
with what I think, what I do, or what I say, but who I love,
who I trust, and who I bow to. How can you say that? How can
you say that your salvation has nothing to do with these things?
Because it's true. Now before anybody throws any
stones this way, let me clarify what I mean. A believing child
of God wants to think right, wants to do right, and wants
to say the right things. And they don't use the grace
of God as an excuse to sin. They don't continue in sin that
grace may abound. They hate their sin. And that's
what Paul's message here is in the seventh chapter of Romans. And please allow me to paraphrase
a bit, but Paul says in verse 14, he says, so the trouble is
not with the law. The law of God, there's no problem
with that. It's spiritual and it's good.
He said, the trouble's with me. He said, I'm a slave to sin and
I'm sold under sin. And then in verse 15, he says,
for that which I do, I allow not. And as we discussed previously,
that word allow in the Greek is defined understand. So what
Paul was saying here is I don't really understand myself. I still
haven't figured myself out. I often shake my head at myself. For I want to do what's right,
but I don't do it. And instead, I do what I hate. Does that sound familiar to you?
Now, can any of you enter into that? There's a reason for it.
There's a war going on in your members. In verse 19, Paul says,
in modern day English, if I may, he said, I want to do what's
good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong,
but I do it anyways. And then Paul makes this statement.
He says in verse 20, but if I do what I don't want to do, I'm
not really the one doing wrong, but it's sin living in me. It's
the sin living in me that does it. Now let me tell you something,
and it's probably the same with you. That excuse would not have
flown with my mother. You remember old Festus on Gunsmoke? He used to say, that dog won't
hunt. Well, that dog wouldn't hunt.
That wouldn't be a good enough excuse for my mom. My mom would
have busted my rear end and then told me to pass it on to the
sin within. But I want you to see what Paul
is saying here. In verse 22 he says, I love God's
law. I delight in God's law with all
my heart. After the inward man, after that
new man, After that new creation that God has put within. But
verse 23, he said, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin, which is in my members. You see, there's another
power within me that's at war with my mind. And this power
makes me a slave to the sin that's still within me. Verse 24, O
wretched man that I am. Paul says, what a miserable person
I am. Who will free me from this death
that's dominated by sin and death? And then he answers his own question.
And he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Or, thank
God, the answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. And you know what?
It is. That's the answer. That's the
answer. Read on, verse 25, so then with
the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the old man,
the law of sin. The new nature within me really
wants to obey God's law, and it does. But because of my sinful
nature, that old indwelling sin nature, I'm a slave to sin. And you know, there's absolutely
no other way to explain why believers are the way they are. And again,
verse 25, So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
with the flesh the law of sin, and without even taking a breath. Don't pay any attention to that
chapter division. Paul says, There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. That is
the best news I have ever heard. And I am ecstatic to tell you
who believe in Christ that that is true. There is therefore now,
right now, this very second, no condemnation to those of you
who are in Christ Jesus. You know, I love the gospel of
God's grace in Christ. I've never heard better news
for wretched sinners. I love the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm not ashamed to say that. I love Him. Child of God, when
I think about what Christ did for you and what He did for me,
the sinners that we are, I just don't. Thinking about His love
for me, I do. So undeserved. Yet, then at other
times, I grumble his providence. I'm indifferent to his will and
his purpose. There are times when I'm uninterested
in his word. I grow self-righteous in my pride. And then I'm reminded of who
and what I am, and I cry like Paul, oh, wretched man that I
am. Who can deliver me? Who can help
me? Who can deliver me from the body
of this death? And then the words seem to just
fall from heaven. Fret not, fear not, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. So, from what I deduct from the
scriptures, believers are constantly in a state of conflict, but never
in a state of condemnation. I'm so thankful for that. I found
it interesting that the word condemnation here in verse 1
of Romans 8 comes from a Greek word that means unfavorable sentence
or verdict. To me that makes this great truth
even more glorious. There's no unfavorable sentence
to those who are in Christ. There is no verdict to the sinner
that's in Christ Jesus. Do you know why? Because the
believer is not on trial. He's been justified in Christ
Jesus. Being in Christ the child of
God is perfectly identified with Him in the judicial reckoning
and dealings with God. Justification. That's a big word. Don't make it harder than it
is. It's the act of being justified. And it's not complicated. Simply
put, to justify means to make one right with God. How can a
sinner be made right with God? Only one way. In Christ Jesus. No other way. Romans 3.24 tells
us that being justified freely by His grace through redemption,
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's where it is. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because in Christ they've
been made right with God. That's not hard, is it? You know,
I wish preachers, I really do, I wish preachers would stop trying
to make the Gospel message hard to understand. There's just nothing
hard to understand about it. In order to be saved and reconciled
to God, and I say this every time we meet together, God requires
something. The fallen sinner cannot provide
what God requires. Someone's going to have to provide
it for them. Is there anything about that
you don't understand? Well, what is this that God requires? Perfect righteousness. Someone's
going to have to provide that perfect righteousness for us
if we're ever to be reconciled to God. And only Jesus Christ
can provide it. for you and I. The one who justifies
a sinner must be a perfect man. And Christ Jesus, the God-man,
is the only one that fits that bill. There's no options. False prophets and harlings and
Pharisees and ungodly men attempt to rewrite the Bible and they
add their little man-made addendums to God's Word, but it doesn't
change anything. There is therefore now no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus.
You know, God told our first parents, He said, enjoy all the
fruit of my hands. I made this all, enjoy it. Everything that God made was
good, very good. He said, but there's one thing
here that's mine. And He said, thou shalt not eat
of it. For in the day you eat of it,
you shall surely die. And immediately, That old serpent
came to pervert the Word of God. You know, he's still doing the
same today. Serpents are still saying, hath God said? Can it
be so? Isn't there no condemnation for
everyone? Why, God's too merciful to punish
sin. God loves too much to condemn
and punish His creation. Have you ever considered the
fact Now this is very interesting. Have you ever considered the
fact that the denial of the penalty of sin was around even before
sin entered into the world? Even before Adam and Eve sinned
and took of that fruit and ate, Satan, the serpent, said, as
God said, thou shalt not surely die. Lies still being told. That belief is still popular
today. Denial of the penalty of sin
comes out in many different ways. But every denial in essence says
no condemnation to anyone. However you live, whatever you
believe, no condemnation. Jesus loves everybody too much
to condemn you. I say don't believe it. Hold
your place here in Romans 8 and turn with me to John chapter
3. I know we wouldn't even have
to turn here. I don't guess there's probably many folks on earth
that don't know John 3, 16. Everybody quotes it. For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And
folks use this verse to try to prove that God is too loving,
too forgiving, and too merciful to condemn anyone. For God so
loved the world, He sent Jesus to die for everyone. Everyone's
saved. Everyone's going to heaven. Just
do the best you can do. I believe in Jesus. I believe
in the man upstairs. Me and the man upstairs, we've
got a good thing going. Those who believe shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. I believe, you believe, everybody
believes in Jesus. Verse 17. For God did not send
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. And they go, see, there it is.
God doesn't want to condemn anyone. Well, I never said that He did.
What I said was that He's going to condemn some folks. You gotta
keep on reading, verse 18. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but... Boy, that's one of the biggest
words in the Bible. But, but he that believeth not
is condemned already. Because he's not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. That light is coming to the world
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. And some tend to think that mankind
is in some kind of a state of probation. I had a friend a few
years back who's never, I don't think, ever been in a church
in his whole life, unless it was for a wedding or something.
He began to tell me what his hope of salvation was. He said,
I'm a good man. He said, I'm not perfect, but
I treat people good. I try hard. I do the best I can
do. I pay my bills. I pay my taxes. I provide for my family. And
I believe that God is watching me and that He's taking notes
and He's writing this all down and that one day He's going to
give me a passing grade. Salvation doesn't have anything
to do with how good you think you are. You have to be perfect
to be accepted. That's the issue. You have to
believe in and on Christ to be made perfect. And he that believes
not is condemned already. Oh, I'm telling you, friends,
folks need to read their Bible. You're not going to be condemned
in the end. You're condemned right now. Born condemned. Born dead. That includes every
man and every woman born of Adam. It goes for all of us. Now either
you believe that or you don't. But I'm telling you, whether
you believe it or not, it doesn't change the truth of it. It's
so. Why? Because that's what this
Word says. And this Word is truth. Those
who do not believe make God out to be a liar. For they've not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. They've
not received the testimony of God concerning His Son. And they
make God a liar. They love darkness rather than
light, and they're already condemned. Nothing but condemnation for
them as long as they remain in their unbelieving state. You've
heard it from the Scriptures. You're without excuse. You can't
plead ignorance. It wouldn't matter if you did.
He that believeth not shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. The only hope a sinner has is
to be in Christ Jesus. So, what is it to be in Christ? Do you want to know? Well, it's
the only place where there is no condemnation. And we should
all have great interest in knowing what it's to be in Christ. So
do you. There's no need for any deep theological explanations. As I said earlier, men do enough
to complicate the gospel. It was never ever meant to be
complicated. Our minds were never to have
been corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. 2 Corinthians
11 3. He that believes and trusts in
the Lord Jesus Christ is in Him. Simple dependence on God's Son
as your substitute and your sacrifice for sin and as your surety for
redemption is to be in Christ. By nature I'm in myself. By nature
I'm in sin. By nature I am dead. By nature,
I'm condemned to be punished under the wrath of God. But when
God the Holy Spirit awakens a dead sinner and gives him life, first
thing He does is flee to Christ. They trust in His blood for the
remission of their sin. They rest and find peace in His
righteousness. And He becomes the cleft of the
rock where they hide themselves from the storm of God's vengeance. Justly do them for their many
offenses against God. Has God shown you that you've
sinned against Him? Well, all your sin is against
Him. All of it. And a sinner will never see their
need of a Savior until they see that. The true child of God judges
and examines themselves whether they be in the faith, whether
they be in Christ. So let me ask you, do you stand
before God on your own footing? Oh, I hope not. I pray that you
don't. Or do you rest on Christ and
find your all and all in Him? Are you attempting to work out
your own righteousness? Or has the righteousness of Christ
been imputed to you? Do you look for salvation in
and by and through self? Or is your salvation safe and
secure in Christ? How you answer those questions
proves whether or not you're in Christ. When I'm on the mountaintop,
let me sing it from there. And when I'm deep in the valley,
oh low and down, may I sing it even louder. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. What a wondrous
work of God's grace to be put into Christ, isn't it? Why is there no condemnation
to these specific and particular people? They're in Christ Jesus.
That's the simple but true answer. Such a simple answer. There's
no condemnation to those which are in Him. And He can never
be condemned. Why? Because He's perfect. Well,
that means that I'm perfect too. For many years now, by God's
grace, we've been taught something about being under a federal head,
a representative man. Adam, as you know, was our first
federal head, our first representative. And the Scriptures are very clear
that by one transgression, Adam introduced death into the human
race. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. But our Lord Jesus came to bring
life by His obedience to God. And as by the offense of one
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came unto all men unto justification
of life. By Christ's righteous life and
substitutionary death, justification has come upon all, not all the
world, but all who are in Him. And being in Adam you sinned
and therefore you fell and you were condemned. But being in
Christ through the divine covenant of grace, Christ fulfilled the
law for you and you're justified in Him. His righteousness and
sacrifice has availed for you. So what does that mean, David?
That means that there is therefore now no condemnation to you. I see some of you smiling. viewed by divine justice as being
under the headship of the perfect man, who on our behalf has magnified
the law and made it honorable, therefore we're well-pleasing
unto God. We are accepted in the beloved
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's written, by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous, and we enjoy the fulfillment
of that promise. Will the Lord condemn those whom
He's made righteous? Will He? Nope. Absolutely not. Will God do injury to the righteousness
of His Son that covers His elect? God forbid. There's no unrighteousness
with God. Just as God can by no means clear
the guilty, He can by no means punish the righteous. Well, I'm
nearly out of time, and some of you may have wondered why
I haven't mentioned the second part of Romans 8 verse 1. The
verse plainly says, There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. See? There's something that the
believer has to do, or not do. The believer cannot walk after
the flesh, and the believer must walk after the Spirit. Know this. There's no condition on salvation.
Just the same as there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ. This
isn't talking about the reason that believers are condemned.
This is but a description of those who are in Christ. They
won't walk after the flesh. The flesh is not our master.
It's not our guide. Christ is our Lord. And the Holy
Spirit is our guide. And the saved child of God cannot
walk after the flesh. They died with Christ. They walked
as He walked. They walked perfectly before
the Law. They are dead to sin, dead to
the flesh. That's what Paul said in Romans
6 verse 2. He said, How shall we that are
dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?
Therefore we're buried with Him by baptism into death, that like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should, what? Walk in newness of life. The child of God walks in the
Spirit. He cannot walk after the flesh. He walks in the newness
of life after the Spirit of God. I don't have time to get into
it, but there are many translations of the Bible, as you know. I
don't know if any of you use the revised version. That version
and many of the other older versions omit the last part of this verse
altogether. It's not even in the translation. There are many Greek scholars
that claim that the second part of this verse was not in the
original text. Men by nature so hate the doctrine
of free justification in Christ that they seem to be afraid that
sinners should get comfort by grace through faith alone. No,
now, it's not that easy. You've got to do something. They
think man has to contribute. But believe me when I say that
salvation is ascribed completely to being in Christ. You know,
I was thinking, and I'll leave you with this, what a wonderful
power that dwells in every believer. A power that checks them when
they would do wrong. A power that encourages them
to do right. A power that leads them in the
paths of righteousness for Christ's name's sake. And how blessed
is the man or woman that no longer follows the devices and desires
of their own heart. No longer trusts and leans upon
their own understanding. So what is the hope of this sinner
that stands before you this morning? I'm going to tell you. There
is therefore now No condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
If you're in Christ Jesus, there is right now, right now, no condemnation. No condemnation in life. No condemnation
in death. No condemnation in time. No condemnation
in eternity. No condemnation at all to them
that are in Christ Jesus. So let me ask you in closing,
Are you in Christ Jesus? Do you believe that He is the
one mediator between God and man? If you do, then you've got
to put your trust in Him. Do you believe that you cannot
be redeemed by corruptible things such as silver and gold? You
cannot earn merit or deserve your way into the presence of
God? How then? only with the precious blood
of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. You know, I
remember when the Lord took me to the Mount of Transfiguration,
and I saw Moses and Elijah with the Son of God, and that cloud
overshadowed me, and I heard the voice of God saying, this
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. And when I lifted up my eyes,
I didn't see Moses. I didn't see Elijah. I saw no
man but Jesus only. That's salvation. Jesus only. And that's who every elect child
of God will see. We don't look to the law. We
don't look to the prophets. We look to Christ. Do you see
Him? Do you see Him? Oh, I pray that
God might show you Christ. Why do I desire such a thing
for you? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus.