Let's be turning to Romans chapter
8. Romans 8. Now the salvation of God's child
is so complete and so certain that Paul lets out this exclamation
which the Spirit has recorded for us here. He says in Romans
8 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, the fact that believers
are not condemned and that we're not in danger of any condemnation
is owing entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is for Christ's
sake that there is no condemnation for you that believe Him. Someone said it isn't that we're
not condemnable, meaning it's not that someone can't look at
us and find fault in us and something to accuse us of. There is sin
yet present in these bodies. We still see the Philistines
in the land. The sin is still present in these
bodies, but We cannot be brought into condemnation by our sin. It has no more voice. It has
no more bite. It has no more anything to condemn
us. And that is for Christ's sake
that we cannot be condemned. Look down at verses 33 and 34
in this chapter. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. We're not justified because we
keep ourselves from sin. God has justified us through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Now while we're on this, let's
just turn over to Colossians. We'll come back to Romans, but
Colossians chapter 1. And look down in verse 20. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. And so our Lord
Jesus Christ has not only delivered us from the condemning power
of sin, but he has delivered us from the wicked works which
we were in bondage to. He's delivered us from the wicked
works that we were in bondage to, meaning what? In dead letter religion. where we spent and labored trying
to work a righteousness for ourselves. He's delivered us from that.
When we try to make ourselves righteous, when we try to set
ourselves free from sins condemning power by what we did in religion,
by our works, what we do, but we're unable to, Christ has delivered
us from that, from that, trying to save ourselves. I want you
to notice back in Romans 8 verse 1 how Paul describes believers
at the end there, verse 1, who walk not after the flesh but
after the Spirit. So walking after the Spirit is
to walk by faith. It's to trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he has saved me, that he's delivered me from this
condemning power of sin. It has no more power over me.
The law is nothing more to say to me about it. And sin isn't
dictating my eternal rest and habitation. Christ is. It's all
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has justified us. Christ
has sanctified us. And he's done it all. Walking
on the flesh is a very broad term. Men walk in the flesh,
and it's very broad. You might think it's only speaking
of what men call sin and lusts of the flesh. You might think
that's all that he's talking about there, but in the context,
as we'll see, Paul is describing those who look to the law of
Moses for a righteousness, for their justification, for their
sanctification. To help themselves, to improve
themselves, they're looking to that Law of Moses and they're
trying to keep the Law of Moses for righteousness. And he's saying
that is walking by the flesh. Whether you're just fulfilling
the lust of the flesh or you're trying to constrain the lust
of the flesh with the Law of Moses. Both are walking in the
flesh, or after the flesh. To Paul, it was all the same
thing. Why? Because it's all outside
of Christ. It's all rejecting Christ. It's
all despising Christ. It's not hearing Christ. It's
trusting something you're doing by your flesh. And so it's all
of the flesh. And it's just looking to the
flesh. And so he's addressing sin and
the practice of the law as walking after the flesh. Now, before
I show you an example of this, look down at verse 2, Romans
8, 2. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death. And I want to
understand that more. I'm constantly reading this.
I want to know what Paul is talking about here. I want you to know
what Paul is describing here and talking about. First of all,
Paul is rejoicing in Christ Jesus that he is a new creature. He's
a new creature. He says over in 2 Corinthians
5, in verse 16 and 17, I'll read them together. Wherefore, henceforth,
know we no man after the flesh. There was a time when we understood
men and looked at others in the flesh, according to the flesh,
judging them, determining them, knowing who they are. So we thought
by the flesh, by what the flesh says, that's good, that's bad.
This is how you do it, this is how you don't do it, according
to traditions and customs and how we were raised and taught
to think what's good and what's bad. There was a time, yea, though
we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know
we him no more. There was a time when we knew
Christ in a very limited fleshly sense. When we tried to come
to God by the works of the law in a very carnal, fleshly walk,
trying to do better, trying to be good, trying to stop this
and to start that, we thought that was coming to Christ, but
it was after the flesh. But now in Christ Jesus, if any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. That term old things is very
broad. Just like walking after the flesh
is very broad. This old things covers a lot
of ground, everything we are by nature. Whether we're fulfilling
the lust of the flesh, in sin or fulfilling the lust of the
flesh in religion. It's old things. It's coming
to God in old ways, in the dead things of religion. So this old
way, these old things, it's very broad. It covers our interactions
with one another. in a very legal, harsh, judgmental
sense, with schisms and divisions and how we speak to one another,
how we treat one another. We don't look to that, how we
deal and settle things to get our way. It's all fleshly. It's all fleshly, and it includes
the old form of religion in our worship, so-called, of God. and how we just did things. Well,
if I light these candles, well, if I go to these stations, if
I bow my knee here, if I chant this liturgy, if I sing these
hymns here, if I show up at this date and time, if I put on these
clothes, it's all the things that we do thinking this is what
pleases God. This is how I fix myself. This
is how I deliver myself from the condemning power of sin.
See that? That's what we thought. That's
what we did. It's all the flesh. It's all old things that cannot
save or deliver us from condemnation. But in Christ Jesus, all things
are new. How we love one another, how
we bear long with one another, rather than judging them according
to the flesh, believing and hearing the promises of God, and bearing
with our brethren. How we speak to one another,
how we reconcile with one another, right? It's after Christ now,
and it includes how we worship the Father. Through Jesus Christ,
all things are become new, and the law of the spirit of life
The law of liberty, the law of faith, the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. That is radical because it is
contrary to everything we are in the flesh. We have our lines
and so and so crosses a line for us and that's it, you're
out. And all you do is deal with it after the flesh, until you're
satisfied that the punishment that you think needs to be meted
out to them is meted out to them. That's gone. That's gone. We're not looking for you to
hit a certain mark before we'll love you, because the Lord doesn't
speak to us in that way. He loves us in Christ for Christ's
sake. And then how we worship God. We worship God by a new and living
way that doesn't involve this, these works of the flesh under
the law of Moses for righteousness. Much of the church so-called,
I don't call them that, but the church so-called They bind sinners
with the law of Moses for righteousness. And they're afraid that if they
don't use the law, then you won't be constrained in your flesh,
and you'll just go live like the devil. Well, then what does
the promise of Christ mean? Who says, I'm your righteousness,
and I'll lead you, I'll guide you, I'll keep you, I'll provide
for you. I'll turn your heart and give you a heart for me.
It's Christ. It's not the law. If you need
the law to constrain you, what are you trusting in? The flesh. It's still a fleshly way to come
to God. But Christ gives us light. and
hope and trust in him apart from the flesh, salvation is entirely
by the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, this last phrase here that Paul
uses, the law of sin and death, in every case it has to do with
the flesh. It's always dealing with the
flesh. And I want to emphasize this to you because not only
is it to drive you from the lust of the flesh, which like Peter
said, brethren, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against
the soul. It's not only to drive you from that, but it's to drive
you from trusting that your salvation from the condemnation of sin
is by your works under the law of Moses, or in your religion,
a practice of religion, because it's all the work of the flesh.
All right? So let's start back in Romans
5.12. Romans 5.12, 1st Paul tells us,
wherefore, because I want to understand this law of sin and
death. Wherefore, as by one man, by the first Adam, spoken of
in the Garden of Eden, when the Lord created the first man, Adam,
sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. That's a law. That is true. We're sinners. All of us die because of sin. We were conceived in sin, born
of the corrupt seed of Adam, and so we're conceived in sin
and we come forth proving that we're sinners and thought we're
indeed. Give us enough time, you'll see it pretty quickly.
You'll see that we're all sinners. And we're given a sample of what
sin in the flesh looks like. For example, if you look at Galatians
5, verses 19 through 21, Paul tells us the works of the flesh
are manifest. They break out. You can see them. What do they look like? Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, all sexual sins. That's how some
people deal with their problems. They're whores and just go out
and have sex and things like that in a wicked way. Idolatry,
which is covetousness and idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance,
emulations, which is jealousies, wrath, strife, meaning those
who cause factions, And fractures, seditions, which is to divide
from your brethren, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revelings and such like of the which I tell you before, as I
have also told you in time past that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He's describing those
works of the flesh, which is natural to us. That's what this
flesh produces. That's what it does. But what's
more, men who are awakened by their sin, for various reasons,
they become aware that, hey, you're an offense to God. You've
sinned against holy God. This is wrong. This is wicked
what you're doing. These are crimes not only against
men, but against the true and living God. What do they do? They feel that guilt and shame,
and they flee to religion. They hug up to religion to get
more religion to try and deliver themselves from the condemning
power of sin. They want to remedy that guilt
with religious works, with making sacrifices, and making promises. I'll do this if you do this for
me, God. It's just all fleshly religion. And that's what we
do. That's where we turn to it. It
was first demonstrated for us with Adam and Eve. Once they
saw their nakedness, they ran and clothed themselves with fig
leaves, dead things. As soon as they plucked it off
the vine, it started dying. It was just a dead work, what
they did. And did it help them? Did it
reconcile them to God? No, because as soon as they heard
the voice of God walking in the garden, they fled and hid themselves
among the trees of the garden. So it had nothing, no ability
to cover their guilt, to remove the condemnation of sin. All
our works do not remove the condemnation of sin. Now, sin is evil. It's
of the flesh. But turning to religion to save
you is also evil. It's a wicked work. It is a work
of the flesh that does not save, that does not deliver us from
the condemning power of sin. Even the law of Moses. is included
in that. Why? Because it rejects the righteousness
of God. It rejects the salvation, the
Savior whom the Father has provided, which in Romans 10.3, they being
ignorant, he's talking of the Jews, he said they're zealous,
but they're not worshiping God according to the knowledge of
God. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness." He's not talking about those
sinful works in the flesh, adulteries and fornications and idolatries.
He's not talking about that. He's talking about those trying
to worship God by the law of Moses. for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ
destroys the power of the law of sin and death. So it has no
more power over you. Whether we're talking about the
sin in the flesh or we're talking about a religion, a law of Moses
to make a righteousness. So we see that we're saved by
Christ there. Now, back in Romans 8, Romans 8, verse 3 through 5, for what the
law, see, he's not talking about sinful behaviors and practices. He's talking about trusting the
law of Moses to save you, to deliver you from condemnation.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us by Christ. Not your practice
of trying to do your best under Moses' law, but that the righteousness
of which it was shown us that we're not righteous. But this
is the righteousness of God. That righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. It's a very broad, encompassing
term to walk after the flesh. 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. So why do I say that turning
to the law of Moses for righteousness is a fleshly, carnal work? Because it's a yoke of bondage. It is used to constrain the flesh. It's a fleshly means of constraining
the flesh. It is a yoke of bondage that
cannot set you free from the law of sin and death. It doesn't
deliver us from the guilt or from the shame. It doesn't reconcile
us to God. It's just a yoking bondage of
the flesh. Turn over to Galatians 5. Galatians 5 just hang with me a bit in Galatians
here. Galatians 5 verse 1, Stand fast
therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. I'm trying to go back to the
law for a righteousness. Going to dead-letter religion
for a righteousness. Don't be constrained and yoked
with that yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If
you adopt parts of the law, well, all right, so I won't do circumcision,
but I like this. I like the Ten Commandments.
I'm going to adopt them as my rule of life. Or I like this
thing over here. I'm going to keep the Sabbath
for a rest, because I think that's going to help me be a better
person, a more righteous person. It's going to sanctify me. It's
going to make me special in God's sight. It's going to make me
pleasing to him. It's going to make me more holy,
more righteous. I'm going to grow by doing these
little tweaks and things that I do. here, well, then he's saying
there, Christ shall profit you nothing. You're turning from
Christ. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, or put in whatever you want from the
law there, every man that is circumcised, for every man that's
keeping the Ten Commandments as his form of righteousness
and sanctifying power, that he's a debtor to do the whole law.
The whole law, not just the blessings of the law, but now you're under
the curses of the law too. You can't just take part. You're
under the whole thing once you start looking to the law. Christ
is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law, ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit,
walking by the Spirit, for we through the Spirit wait for the
hope of righteousness. Wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. We're believing the promises.
We're trusting Him. We're not turning to a fleshly
constraint to deliver ourselves from guilt and condemnation.
We're trusting the promise of God made unto us in Christ that
He is our righteousness. And that when he comes, we shall
be righteous even as, we'll be as he is, because we'll see him
as he is. That's how he says it there. When he says there in Galatians
5.5, we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness,
just so you know, that's almost like what he said in Romans 8.25,
when he said, but if we hope for that we see not, then do
we with patience wait for it. Paul is very consistent here.
We're trusting that Christ is all my righteousness, that Christ
keeps me, that he reveals himself to me, that he gives me a new
heart, not through religion, not through practice of religion,
but in looking to Christ and hearing the hearing of faith,
trusting him. For in Christ Jesus, Galatians
5, 6, For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Or as
he says in Galatians 6.15, but a new creature. But a new creature. It's not what I do or don't do
in the flesh. It's being made a new creature,
which manifests faith which works by love. I am justified. I am sanctified. Therefore, I
delight in serving my Lord, in serving my brethren, in loving
my brethren rather than holding them to account to satisfy my
form of justice upon them if they sin or offend me. It's trusting
the Lord that he's able. And it's trusting the Lord is
able to correct me and teach me and keep me. It's believing
his word. So those who look to the law
for righteousness, they're trying to fix a problem that they see
in their flesh by the yoking of that flesh, by a bondage. They're putting themselves under
a yoke, under a bondage. That's not the hope that the
believer has in Christ. That's not faith in Christ. That's
not love to Christ. That's saying, I don't believe
Christ. I don't trust him. He's not enough. I need something
more. I need something more. So to
those who would say that you need the law or else people are
just going to live in sin and do what they want. Well then,
they just don't believe Christ. They don't think Christ is sufficient
and able to do it without the bondage. Because the spirit of
Christ is liberty. He sets free from the yoking
bondage of the law. We adorn the gospel of Christ
by the faith and the hope and the love and the confidence he
gives us, which are all spiritual blessings. That's how we adorn
it. We don't adorn the gospel by
the yoking bondage of the law. That bondage is slavery, and
it's ugly. It's a bondage that just yokes.
Peter was opposed to the use of the law. And he said it this
way, now, therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the
neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear? But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. That's how
we're saved. We're not kept by the law. We're
kept by the grace of God in Christ. The law is not given to those
set free by Christ to find peace and comfort. Dwelling under the
law, you're not gonna find any peace, no life, no comfort under
that law, because by the law is the knowledge of sin. It's
to shut our mouths, it's to make us guilty before God. That's
what the law was given to do. So you're not gonna find life
in the law. All right, doing the law, keeping the law. If
God is gracious to you and looking to the law, all you're going
to see is what a vile, wretched sinner I am, what a filthy sinner
I am. And if God is in it, he's going
to drive you to cry for mercy. He's going to turn you to be
a mercy beggar, begging God to save you and deliver you from
the condemnation of the law. And so to those who he loves,
he reveals Christ to them. He reveals Christ and what Christ
has done. Turn now to Galatians 4. Look
at Galatians 4 and verse 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it's written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a
free woman. But he who is of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. That's the yoking of the law. That's that bondage. That yoking
of the law is a bondage. Nothing more than the work of
the flesh. But he of the free woman was by promise born of
faith. So who are these two sons? Well,
you have Ishmael, the firstborn, A picture of that which is born
of the seed of Adam. He was the flesh, that's what
comes forth first is the flesh, Ishmael. And Isaac is the second
born, born of promise, born of the spirit, spiritual life. It's a picture of us born again
by the incorruptible seed of Christ. Verse 24, which things
are an allegory for these two are the two covenants. They picture
the covenant of works, the covenant of works by the flesh, and the
covenant of grace established by the blood and righteousness
of Christ. The one from the Mount Sinai, the works of the flesh,
the law, from Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage. you that look to the law, you're
slipping your neck under a yoking bondage. It's a work of the flesh. It yokes the flesh by the works
of the flesh, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage
with her children." How do you know that? They rejected Christ.
They would not hear Him. because they're in bondage to
the yoking of the law. They're in bondage to it. And
so those that try to live by it and try to please God by it
are in bondage. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. Speaking of the spirit
of Christ, it's given to all them set free, born again by
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's free. The Spirit of Christ
is liberty. Liberty. Therefore, Paul, if
you want to see this in 2 Corinthians 3, over in 2 Corinthians 3, in
verse 5, it's not that we're sufficient of ourselves to think
anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Not God plus Moses' law. Of God
and God alone. who also hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, not to come and preach
the law of Moses to you to constrain your flesh by fleshly works,
but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
spirit giveth life." And then he goes on to compare the law
and the spirit, the ministration of the law and the ministration
of the spirit, calling the preaching of the gospel, the ministration
of the spirit in Mercy. And then he calls the law of
Moses, which he says is engraven in stones. What was engraved
in stones? The Ten Commandments, that everybody
says, well, I don't follow the practices of the law, but I keep
the Ten Commandments. Don't look at the, no. When you
look to the Ten Commandments, look to Christ. I trust him. He's able to keep your heart.
You don't need a law engraved in stones. to keep your heart,
you need the spirit of Christ to keep your heart. He's the
one that keeps us. And so in verse seven, he calls
it administration of death and administration of condemnation. See, it's all part of that law
of sin and death, law of sin and death, law of sin and death.
It's just a yoking bondage that kills, that gives no life, that
doesn't free you from guilt or condemnation. It's all dead.
It's dead. And so But of Christ, there's
no more condemnation. It is the spirit of liberty.
You're delivered from the law, the yoking behind the law, from
those works of the flesh to see them for what they are, to cry
out to the Lord, save me from these things, Lord. Have mercy
on me. Keep me. Keep my heart. Keep my way. Keep
my thoughts. Deliver me from evil. He's giving
you that spirit that cries out to him for his help, for his
grace. For me to preach Moses to you
for a law for righteousness, I'm just putting a veil over
you. I'm just laying a blanket over you and hiding the face
of Christ from you. It's doing you no good. It's
not helping you at all. But the Spirit is coming. He
cuts the flesh, the veil that's over the heart that keeps us
in blindness and dead to the things of God. That veil is done
away in Christ. put it's put away so that we
find light and life in the face of Christ as he says over in
2nd Corinthians 4 6 for God who commanded the light had shined
in our hearts for to give the light in the face of Jesus Christ
right to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ now back in our text where Paul is rejoicing. Again, everything we've covered,
look again at verses 1 and 2. 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, the law of liberty, the law of faith, In Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the yoking bondage of the law of Moses,
which he equates to the law of sin and death. It's done. We don't look to it at all, because
it's a ministration of death and condemnation to those who
would come to God under the yoke of it. It's a work of the flesh. It's just flesh. Now, Romans
8, 6 through 8. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God. right, or the law of liberty,
the law of faith. Neither indeed can be. So then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So whether you're
out there fulfilling the lusts of the flesh in adulteries, fornications,
idolatries, wrath, seditions, and divisions and all that, whether
that's your thing, or You're restraining yourself from these
things with the yoking of the law to keep you, to try and get
this thing under control, and trying to live yourself from
condemnation. Either way, you're in the flesh,
and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. All right,
it's that tight that he says this thing. Now look at verse
nine and 10. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin. We see it present in our members.
The body's dead. It's gonna die because we're
walking by faith and we're trusting that when he comes again, this
body will be raised anew, delivered from this sin once and for all.
Fully once and for all. Christ being you, the body is
dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness,
true righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, not manufactured
by our hand, not by the whippings, beatings, yokings of the law.
No, it's not of the flesh. It's entirely of the spirit of
liberty of Christ Jesus, who sets us free from those things,
who delivers us in power, resurrection power, And so we see its presence,
and we feel the lustful desires of it, but we trust Him. And
we hear Him who says, abstain from these things. Cry out to
Christ. Seek the Lord for deliverance from these things. Trust Him.
And keep seeking him for, trust him for, he's able brethren. And that set forth, look down
in Romans 8, 15, for ye have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear, right, under the threats and curses of the law,
but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba,
Father, Daddy, Father, save me, have mercy on me, set me free
from these things, keep me, Lord. Help me, right? Because it's
by the spirit that we do mortify our members which are upon the
earth, all these things, these wicked works, right? For the
sin that we see yet present in our members in the flesh. If
they weren't there, the apostles wouldn't have told us to abstain
from these lusts, right? But they're there, we see them.
We know that they're there, but we believe the promise of God.
We're trusting him. We're settled in Christ. We hear
his voice. We follow him. We walk by the
spirit, by faith, which is given to us. And in closing, Galatians
3, verse 3, and then verse 5. Paul said, are ye so foolish,
having begun in the spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the
flesh? Is that going to deliver you
from condemnation, the law? in your flesh. He therefore that
ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith."
That's what we're giving, this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And remember to preach Christ, not the law. But Christ Jesus,
He's able, brethren. Trust Him, believe Him, walk
by faith in Him, rejoice in Him. There's no more condemnation
for sin in Christ Jesus. He is salvation. Amen.