Well, once again, we are in the
book of Romans and this morning we're going to make quite a jump. I don't want to just jump without
going through it. Paul has been laying the grounds
for us in this letter to Romans of why the law is good, but yet
that we are under a new law. Christ Jesus came to this earth
and satisfied the law of God for us because we can't do it.
No matter how hard we try in this flesh, and we do try, we
do try, we are not antinomian. That means lawless. God's law
is good, and if I could live the way I want to, If I could
live the way I want to, I would live it perfectly. But that's
not gonna happen until the Lord takes me out of this body of
death, this body of flesh. And none of you are gonna live
that way either until the Lord takes you out of it. We're gonna
battle. We're gonna battle this flesh until the day the Lord
takes us home. So this is our grace in knowing
that we have this battle before us, that our Lord has fulfilled
it for us. We're gonna start at verse 10.
Romans chapter 6, and we're going to read all the way through this
morning to Romans chapter 8, and we're going to stop and take
a good, close look at Romans chapter 8, 1 through 4. But right
now, I want to start with verse 10, and just bear with me. I know it's a lot of scripture
to be reading, but as we go through, you'll see that Paul is basically
going through and guiding us to that point of Romans chapter
8. He's guiding us to this point
to remind us that God's law is good, we want to serve it as
best we can, but Christ is the one who served it perfectly for
us. That's who we look to. That's
who we look to for our righteousness because that's a righteousness
that was established in him and in him alone. So beginning at
verse 10 of Romans chapter 6, we read, For in that he died,
speaking of our Savior Christ Jesus, he died unto sin once,
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's exactly what I just finished
saying a moment ago. All of our righteousness is in
Him. We live through Him. We live
in Him. He is our all in all. Verse 12,
let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should
obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you. For ye are not under the law,
but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. God
forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey? His servants, ye are to whom
ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin. Now that's a strange thing for
Paul to say, isn't it? God be thanked that we were servants.
You know why? Because if we weren't servants
of sin at one point, then we wouldn't know the difference
between then and now. We wouldn't know that we are
the servants to God's grace now. We look to Him for His grace
in all things, but we wouldn't have done that if we hadn't have
known sin. Law is what taught us sin, what sin is. God be thanked that ye were the
servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being then made free,
verse 18, from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Being freed from the dominion
of sin in our lives, we are now servants of His righteousness. Servants to Him. That's what
looking to Christ for His righteousness is. It's serving Him. It's looking
to Him, His righteousness. Verse 19, I speak after the manner
of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have
yielded your members' servants to uncleanness and to iniquity,
and iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants
to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants
of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those
things? Where have ye now ashamed? For
the end of those things is death, but now being made free from
sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end of everlasting and the end everlasting life. For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Know ye not brethren, verse one
of chapter seven, know ye not brethren, for I speak to them
that know the law. We know the law, we know the
law is good. How that the law hath dominion
over man as long as he lives. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth, but if
the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband.
So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
that become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in
the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now, now
we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were
held, that we should serve the newness of spirit and not the
oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. That's what I was saying just
a moment ago. Thank God we had sin in our lives at one point,
so we know what the perfect and the righteousness of the law
is. Had not known the sin, but by the law, for I have not known
lust, except the law had said thou shalt not covet. But sin,
taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of conspicuence. For without the law, sin was
dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which
is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin that it might
appear, sin working death in me by the which is good, that
sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For
we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would that do I not,
but what I hate that I do. Verse 16. If then I do that which
I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is the present with
me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do
not, but the evil which I would that I do. Now if I do that I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I do good, evil is present
with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members. warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity of
the law of sin, which is in my members, in the flesh. O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Boy, I tell you, it took a lot of words for the verse to get
to that point, didn't it? Took a lot for Paul to describe the
whole thing of, oh, wretched man that I am. See, that's why
I wanted to go ahead and jump through to where we are right
now. I wanted to bring you through all, I don't want to skip any
of God's word, but all of what Paul just brought out brings
us to this very point right here, oh, wretched man that I am. And we know we are, don't we?
We absolutely know we are. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So then with my mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. And
then we come to verse number one of chapter eight. Folks,
there is two things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but
there's two things that every believer, every believer wants
above all else. True believers, true believers
who know their conviction of sin, that we all that what we
just read about, all of the things, and it's kind of monotonous for
us to read because we know this. No, we knew all of what we just
read, didn't we? Everything that was just read is part of our
flesh. And we know that to be true in
our flesh. And as a true believer, one whose God has convicted us
of our sins, causing us to look to his son, there are two things
that we desire the most, I believe. At least it goes for me. Number
one, I want deliverance from my guilt. I want to be delivered
from the guilt in this body. Oh, wretched man. Who will deliver
me from this body of death? That's the guilt that Paul has
in the flesh. Oh, how I desire. Oh, how I want
to walk according to God's law. I want to be delivered from the
guilt that I cannot. I want to be delivered from the
curse of sin. I want to live in Christ Jesus,
my Lord. Secondly, every believer wants
to be delivered wants deliverance from the power and the practice
of sin. That's what I was mentioning
a minute ago, we want. Oh, if I could just live the way I want
to. If I could just live putting
away the power and the practice of sin and walk in the Spirit. I can tell you this, that a saving
interest in Christ and our living union with Him, both of those
points are completely and 100% accomplished. We forget that,
don't we? We forget. We forget whose blood
it was that was shed on the cross to pay for our sins, don't we?
Don't tell me you don't. If you don't, you're somebody
special. Because Christ instituted this coming to the table for
that very reason, because he knows in the flesh we are weak
and we forget. Not only are we weak and we forget,
we get a little stiff-necked at times and purposely try to
turn away from it and say, oh no, see what I'm doing? See the good that I'm doing?
I know, I do the same thing. A saving interest in Christ,
our living union with Him accomplishes both of those desires that I
just momented ago. It accomplishes delivering us
from our guilt. delivering us from the curse
of the sin. We live in Christ. It accomplishes
delivering us from the power of sin and the practice of it. When I have something sinful
in my mind, across my mind, I'm watching something on TV and
whatever, use whatever you want to use. Or somebody just cut
me off traffic and all of a sudden my blood starts to boil again.
Or I remember somebody who wronged me really bad in life. Somebody who did something that
is unforgivable in my life. And I think about that and all
of a sudden the anger and the hatred comes up towards it again.
I see heads going up and down. Yeah, you folks know what I mean.
I remember. I remember by God's grace, His
grace for me. And sometimes Sometimes He pushes
it on my mind so hard of His grace for me and reminding me
of it that I'm actually able to be gracious to that one I
was thinking of so angrily about. Occasionally. Occasionally. I'm not patting myself on the
back that I'm any better. I'm patting my Savior for what
He's done for me. And I do it because of what He's
done for me. I had no care about that before.
Did you? Did you have any care for the
grace of God in your life towards you before, or were you actually
out there trying to earn your way through salvation, like most
of us were? You know, I say that I was not
a religious person at one time, and I wasn't. I was a John religion,
but that, too, is trying to work my way into God's salvation,
isn't it not? The very fact that I would not
do certain things back before the Lord even called me out of
darkness was the fact that I was saying, well, I don't want to
do that because it's wrong. I want to do what's right, even
though I wasn't doing it for the glory of Christ at that time.
I wasn't giving Him any glory for it, I was glorifying myself
with it. Look at verse 8-1 here with me,
if you would. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. The Apostle Paul does not say
that we are not condemnable, Folks, everything about us is
condemnable. We are sin from the top of our
head to the bottom of our feet. God cannot overlook sin. But there's no condemnation to
those who are in Christ Jesus because he's taken our condemnation
on himself. He was made to be sin. He was
made to be our sin. It wasn't his. There was no sin
in Christ at all, even the day he hung on that cross. But he
was made to be our sin. He was perfect, even in the deliverance
of himself upon that cross, the death of himself. Everything
about us is condemnable. And Christ took every bit of
our condemnation upon Himself. There is therefore now no condemnation.
God can't condemn us twice. He's already condemned us in
His Son, hasn't He? He's already laid all of His
wrath upon His Son, Jesus Christ, has He not? Well, He can't do
it to us again afterwards? There's no condemnation to us
if we're in Christ. If He went to the cross for us,
we are as clean as He is, we're as holy as He is. Be ye holy,
for your God is holy. I am, not in this flesh, but
I am in my Savior, and I am perfectly holy in Him. Perfectly holy in
Him. There is therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Paul didn't say we are not condemnable,
for there's still sin within us. And all sin is condemnable,
but sin cannot bring us into condemnation twice, for we are
in Christ Jesus. Look over at Galatians chapter
three, verse 13. Go to the right there in just
a few pages. Galatians chapter three. Speaking of what I just
mentioned a moment ago, Christ being condemned for us. Over in Galatians chapter three,
we read in verse 13, Christ hath redeemed. Our blessed Redeemer
didn't try to redeem us. He did redeem us. It just bothers me every time
I hear somebody say, God wants, God tries, God would love to
have you do this. If God would love to have me
do it, He will bring me to do it. Turn me, Lord, and I will
be turned. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Our condemnation was
laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He has borne our penalty, judgment,
and condemnation for all of our sins, past and future. Look over
at Colossians chapter 1, verses 20 through 22. And having made
peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to reconcile, that
means to unite. That means to bring us together
again. That means to bring those who were separated apart, separated
by sin, He who has made a curse for us, 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 in enemies in your own mind by wicked works, yet
now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death
to present you what? I just get a kick out of that.
This is just to present me holy. Be ye holy for your God is holy. To present me holy. and unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight. Oh, folks, I'm telling you, we're
gonna look at it a little bit deeper in that subject when it comes
to that subject for the next message. Then it says, who walk
not after the flesh in our text back in Romans chapter eight,
verse one. After it tells us we are not, there is therefore
no condemnation to which those of us that are in Christ Jesus,
it says, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. This is not the reason why we
are not condemned, but it is a description of those who are
in Christ Jesus. We don't walk after the flesh
anymore. Folks, we don't have any confidence
in our flesh, do we? Absolutely not. Everybody's head
shaking. Yes, I know exactly what that
means. I got no confidence in this flesh that stands before
you. I can walk out that door and commit a sin just as quickly.
I can commit five sins before I even get to that door. I can
name John Reeves in five notes before I even get to that door.
Walking in the spirit is not what causes no condemnation. Christ is the one who has caused
no condemnation. And the results of that is that
we walk in the spirit, not in the flesh. Christ is our Lord
and our Holy Spirit, and He is our guide. Look at verse two.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
me free from the law of sin and death. This is what Paul was
talking about there. Who's gonna deliver me, O wretched
man that I am? In verse 24, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death, this body of sin? I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord, through our Savior. by the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus have made me free from
the law of sin and death. The gospel of Christ or the covenant
of grace in Christ has forever freed all believers from the
law of sin and death. For every requirement, every
requirement of the law is met in our Lord and Savior Christ
Jesus. Look back at verse chapter six, verse seven. He that is
dead is freed from sin. Now look over at verse 18. Being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Now back in our text again, one
more verse if you would there. No, actually we're gonna look
at two more. Verse three next. 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 weakness or the inability
to save does not arise from any defect in God's law, for the
law is perfect and holy. The defect and the weakness is
in our flesh. The law cannot save because we
are unable to keep the law. Yet as we read in Romans 7, verse
18, for I know that in me there is no, that is, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform
that which is good I find not. But Christ can justify the ungodly,
just as he does all of his people, and make righteous the chief
of sinners. That's what Paul calls himself,
the chief of sinners. I'm the chief of sinners. I know
this because I see my sin where I don't see all of yours. And
I'm glad I don't see all of yours. Don't bring it before me and
show it to me. I don't want to see it. I got
enough sin of my own that I should see. Take it to God. Take it
to our Savior. Take it to the feet of Jesus
and lay it at the feet of Jesus and say, Lord, I need help. I
need help getting through this sin and passing it by, walking
away from it. God, I hope the sin in your life
burdens you enough to bring it to your Savior. Let it burden
us enough to go to our closet in private and say, Lord, I cannot
do this on my own. Christ justified the ungodly,
and he makes righteous the chief of sinners. For as our representative,
God sent him here in the likeness of sinful flesh, he not only
obeyed the perfect law, but was condemned and punished by it
for our offenses. Look back at Romans chapter 5,
verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,
and here we go, here's the one who obeyed the law perfectly
for us, the one who was perfectly condemned for it in our place,
the one who took our punishment for our offenses, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Now back in your text in verse
four, we'll come to a close. It says that the righteousness,
verse four of Romans chapter eight, that the righteousness
of God might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. The righteousness of the law
fulfilled or fully met in us. This is the reason why Christ
came to the earth, isn't it? Isn't that why he became a man?
Isn't that why God Almighty humbled himself and became a servant?
Not just to pay the price for our sin, but to satisfy every
jot, every tittle of God's law for our sakes because we can't?
Isn't that what he did? Isn't that what he did, walking
this earth perfectly and doing everything that pleased the Father?
Absolutely. That's the reason he came to
the earth, that by his active and passive obedience, all believers
might be justified, sanctified, made holy, and accepted in the
beloved. In Christ, we have honored the
law and satisfied justice, and we are perfect before God. And
we'll close by looking over Colossians chapter 2. In Christ, we have
honored the law and satisfied it. We have satisfied the justice
of God. We are perfect before God, just
as our Savior is. And here in Colossians chapter
2, verses 9 and 10, we read this. For in him, in our Savior, in
the one who has satisfied the law for us, who has honored the
law for us, who has satisfied the justice of his Father for
us, the one who we are perfect in, in him, for in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead, Donnelly, and ye are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power.