For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, soul under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent, I agree with the law, that it is good. Now
it is no more I that do it, but sin, sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, my fallen nature, dwelleth in me no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but to perform that which is
good, I just can't find out how to do it. For the good that I
would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that that I would
not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me." Twice he's made that statement. So the next time you try and
struggling, promising yourself that you're going to do one thing
and you end up doing the other, sin dwelleth in you. in the law of God after the inward
man. Verse 23, But I see another law,
principle, in my members, in my body, in my eyes, my mind,
my thoughts, my heart, warring against the law of my mind, who
I am. Your mind means who you are,
same word as heart. And bringeth me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members, O wretched man that
I am. who shall deliver me from the
body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, though with the mind I myself serve the law of God
with all that's in me, my personal self, but with the flesh my old
fallen nature, the law of sin, the struggle. 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 in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent 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 who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Our Father and our blessed Savior,
our Lord Jesus Christ, we come to the God of all grace and the
Father of mercies, blessing Your holy name, blessing You for Your
mercies and grace Lord, we talk about your mercy so much, talk
about your grace, because your mercies are new every morning
and they've so wonderfully blessed our hearts and preserved us day
by day. Thank you for your grace that
saved us and preserves us and keeps us. And Father, I thank
you for the children of God are here. And Lord, we do pray for
those who among us are so ill, so weak, so frail. And Lord, this body is frail. And you told us it returned to
the dust because you took it from the dust. And oh Lord Jesus, we thank you
that you conquered sin, Conquered death. Defeated hell. Defeated every enemy that was
against us. You took it out of the way and nailed it to your
cross. You defeated the devil. Everything that could possibly
hurt and harm us, keep us from spending eternity with you, you
took it out of the way. Oh, blessed be your name. Oh
Lord, thank you for this great, great, great salvation, this
blessed, blessed salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank
you for the grace and strength you give us day by day. Lord,
you'll never take us anywhere where you haven't been. Never take us anywhere where
your saints haven't gone before. And we find such comfort and
assurance in that. Enable me to preach the gospel
today. Enable the dear saints to hear. Save you people in His
place, open hearts, minds, and understandings, for only you
can. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. I forgot to ask you girls,
could you sing? Let's stand and sing again. Let's
end the bulletin. There is not a sparrow nor a
worm but bound in God's decree. to their throne, and sings his
very pleas. If I dine in the poor sire of And Jesus' hand that lies, my
son, in darkness When He reveals the book of life
Oh, may I bring my head upon the shoulders His love, the power's love. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see." Thank
you. May we see you. Paul said in verse twenty-four
of chapter seven, O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death,
this death of sin, this old body of sin that we carry around,
this old flesh. So let me say some things about
Romans 8. I'm going to bring my message
from no condemnation in Christ, the first four verses. Romans
8 starts out with no condemnation. Paul said, I know who delivered
me. I have this sin that dwells in
me. I have this law in my members. But still yet, thank God through
Christ Jesus our Lord, there's therefore now, no matter what's
going on over here, there's therefore right now no condemnation to
them that are in Christ. Starts out with no condemnation
in Christ and ends up in glorification. Look down in In verse 28, And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. There's the key right
there, see? And we love Him because He first
loved us, and how come we love God, and all things work together
for it? To them who are the called according to His purpose. They're
the only ones that love God. They're the only ones that all
things work together for good. Them that are called according
to God's purpose. Now listen to this. For whom
he did foreknow, he had this acquaintance with, this love
for. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son. Now do you reckon that'll work?
Do you reckon that'll happen if we're predestinated to that?
Do you reckon that'll eventually happen? that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. He's the firstborn, he's going
to have a multitude of brethren. Now listen to this. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified.
Start out with no condemnation and end up with glorification.
Start out up here with no condemnation, going to end up in glory. God's
purpose is that. That's his predestinated purpose.
And then you say, well, what are all the things going to happen
between us by the time He saves us by His grace and calls us
according to His mercy and justifies us and calls us? What's going
to happen to us between now and then? Well, look what He asks
down in verse 35. So everything that's going to
happen to us from the time there's no condemnation until we reach
this glorification, who's going to separate us from the love
of Christ? Well, there's an awful lot of
things happening in this world. Oh, I know it. Tribulation. There's
some folks going through some tribulation right now. Has it
ever separated them? Paul is more of mine. Prison,
jail, floundering around in the sea for three days, beaten three
times by the Jews. So, tribulation, distress, getting
in such a situation that you have no way to save yourself
from it, a persecution, or a famine, or we have no means to buy our
clothes, or peril, or somebody brings a sword down. But knowing
all these things, verse 37, We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. These things just make us better,
refine us, strengthen us, encourage us, cause us to grow, cause us
to trust Christ more, cause us to see our need of Christ more.
That's what these things do. They cause us to flee to Christ. And then Paul goes on to say,
for I'm persuaded, I'm convinced of this, that death or life There's
not an angel in heaven, there's not a principality on this earth,
a government, or a monarch, or a law place, or a demon out of
hell, nor powers that are right now, or things present, or things
to come. Nothing gonna care how high it
is, how deep it goes, or any other creature shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. No
condemnation, glorification, or whatever happens in between.
Nothing's going to separate us. Nothing. Go on. I'd stop right there. Let's go down. You know, that's it. That's it. Starts out, no condemnation to
glorification. But look here in Romans 8.1. No contemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. We, as God's blessed people,
are justified and sanctified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Justified
and sanctified. The girl sang it last week, completely
in Christ. Justified in Him, sanctified
in Him. And by being united to Him, having
our union with Him, we're dead to sin. Christ died under sin
once. We died with Him. As He died
under sin, we're dead to sin. Sin cannot come and do anything
to us because we died to it. Can't be judged for it, can't
be punished for it, because we're dead to it. But then we become
alive under righteousness through our Lord Jesus Christ. We're
dead to the law. We're not under the law, but
under grace. Ain't that what He said in Romans
6, 14? We're not under the law, but
we're under grace. And because of grace, sin shall
not have dominion over you, shall not reign over you. And that's
what I was talking about, about law. When you lay down the law
to somebody, they've got to, you know, your children prove
it. You say, now you be quiet and you be still. Why? Don't get into that. Why? And
they get into it anyway. And that just goes to show you
the law, when we put down laws and rules and principles for
people, they just got to resist them, they got to fight them.
We did, our children did it. You don't teach your children
to lie, you don't teach them to say no, you don't teach them
to be a rebel, you don't teach them to get throw fits, you don't
teach them to scream and cry, you don't teach them anything,
because they got that nature. And I tell you, and I heard a
preacher preaching one time that these fellas, you know, that
always harping on keeping their wives under obedience, you know,
their wives got to stay under obedience. Well, what about their
obedience? When you put somebody under law,
you're going to make them rebel. And that's why when we're under
law, you can't do nothing but sin against it. You can't do
nothing but break it. That's why I don't want the Ten
Commandments in my home. I don't want them in my yard.
I don't want them on the walls here in the church. I don't want
any law. Because when I look at it, it says, love God with
all your heart. I said, I don't. Love your neighbor as yourself.
I can't. Love your enemies and pray for
them despite what you're using. When's the last time I did that? That's why we're not under law.
Christ fulfilled it for us. We're under grace. And because
of that, sin shall not have dominion over us. It ain't gonna reign
over us. It's not our master anymore. And we've got to, nature. That's why Paul said, that that
I wouldn't do, I do. That that I hate, I do. That that I wouldn't do, I do.
I see this law, I see this miserable, wretched man, it's in me. With
one thing, with my mind, with my heart, my soul, I serve God,
I love God, I love His moral, I love His nature, I love everything
about Him. And over here's my old flesh,
my old fallen nature, and it's as much against God today as
it was the day God saved me. It thinks ill, it acts ill, it
says things and goes places and does things that you know is
wrong, and in your mind you know it is, but you can't stop it.
You've got this war going on. But I tell you something, our old nature
is not our master anymore. We used to get up and do whatever
it said every day. If it said, go get drunk, we
went and got drunk. If it says stay on from work,
we stayed on from work. If it says tell a lie to get
you out of trouble, you told a lie. If you got mad at your wife,
you'd cuss her out. If she got mad at you, she'd
cuss you out. I mean, that's the way it was. But that's our
old nature. It's not our ministry anymore.
Even though we struggle with the flesh, we don't walk after
the flesh anymore. And the reason being is there's
therefore now no judgment in Christ Jesus. And I tell you,
when we look at Romans chapter 8, we learn, and this is one
thing that people need to learn, is that living a Christian life,
being a believer, being a Christian in this world, is not one lifelong
endeavor to be good and eventually be saved. A multitude of people
are doing that. They started out wanting to live
for the Lord, and they start out, they want to live in church,
they start out wanting to live good, and they hope eventually,
by living right and doing the best they can, they'll eventually
end up being saved. But God requires a heapsight
more than being good. We'll see that what grace requires,
what grace requires, Grace gives. Huh? And that's why we call it
the gospel. Whatever grace requires, grace
gives. Whatever God requires, God gives. You see, beloved, that's why
it's called the gospel. That's why it's called good news.
That's why it's called publishing peace. There was no peace in
Romans 7. Just a struggle, just a battle.
But Paul said, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's
no condemnation now. Paul used to have to tell about
what a miserable wretch you are, but there's no condemnation.
You got talking about what you did, what you didn't do, what
you loved, what you hated. He said there's no condemnation. There's two things I believe
every believer, every Christian, wants above everything else in
this world. He wants deliverance. He wants to be saved from the
guilt of sin. I don't want to bear the guilt of sin. I've carried
it. And I want to be saved from the
curse of sin. I want to be saved from this curse. And you know
how you do that? Living in Christ. And being in
Christ. And not only does he want deliverance
from the guilt and curse of sin, but he wants deliverance from
the power of sin. Sin's power. And he wants free
from the practice of sin. He don't want to have power of
sin reigning over him. He don't want to practice sin.
And so you live in Christ and you walk in the Spirit. And by
being joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, when a person has a saving
interest in Him, we do both. We live in Christ, saved from
the guilt and curse of sin. live in Christ, walk in the Spirit,
save from deliverance and power of sin." Look what he said here
in verse one. Here's a statement of a fact. It's a glorious fact. It's a fact. It's just a fact.
And what God says is the way things are. Therefore, now, now,
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. When he
says, You've got to look back and see what there is for. You go back to what happened
before to find out. And you, therefore, look all
the way back to where it says, by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. So then he comes back to say,
but yet there's therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Right now, in the present. And
it'll always be now when you're in Christ. There'll never be
a time when it isn't now. Is that right? If it's in the
middle of the night, it'll be now. Tomorrow, it'll be now. Every time, ever, ever, ever
with the present, it's always right now. Right now. And right now, we're in the present.
He dealt with our past. Look over in Romans 5, 6. I want
to show you something. Therefore, now, in the present,
you know, our Lord Jesus Christ dealt with our past. and dealt with our future all
by his death on the cross. Look what he said in Romans 5,
6. For when we were yet without strength, no ability to save
ourselves, in due time, according to the time of God's purpose,
Christ died for the ungodly. Ungodly. You say, that ain't
me. Well, then he doesn't die for
you then. He died for the ungodly. People without God. People who
didn't think about God. People who didn't need God. People
who wasn't interested in God. People who thought they were
alright with God. People who worshipped idols,
who worshipped their free will, who worshipped their own ability,
worshipped their own goodness, their own righteousness. He says,
snap, he died for the ungodly. Now watch this. Oh my, especially
for a righteous man would want to die. If a man's righteous,
why would you need to die for him? He's righteous. Why would
anybody die for a righteous man? If he's righteous, he has no
sin, he's a righteous person. Yet perhaps, maybe for a good
man, some would even dare to die. Well, he's a good fellow. I think somebody ought to know,
but listen, but God commendeth His love toward us. And that
while we were yet, what? Sinners. Sinners. Christ died for us. See, He took
care of our past. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. That
took care of our sin, our ungodliness. And where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. So right now, right now in the
present, no condemnation. That word condemnation means
judgment. Judgment. Guilt. Prison sentence, if you will.
And then he says, no, there is therefore now no. You notice
how that's very emphatic. Very emphatic. No sort of condemnation. No kind of condemnation. God
can't condemn us. He's the one that justified us.
Christ can't condemn us. He's the one that died for us. Huh? The Father can't condemn
us. He's the one that commended His
love toward us and saved Christ. And no experience that you ever
had can bring you under condemnation again. But your experience, whether
judicial or spiritual, you cannot be brought back under condemnation.
This is the foundation, beloved. It teaches us the perfection
of our justification. Our justification before God
is perfect, complete, and absolute right now. I'll tell you, we need grace.
We need grace to continually keep us from sin, keep us from
self. Keep us believing, keep us pleading. We need the power of the Holy
Spirit to work in us. But I'll tell you what we won't
never need again. We'll never need justification again. Because
that's final, full, and free. And as far as God's concerned,
we'll never ever be brought under condemnation. That's why we can come boldly,
confidently, freely to the throne of grace. Huh? And look what
it says. It says, in Christ Jesus. Those
that are united to the Lord Jesus by faith, we're united to Him
in all that He did. You go through the Scriptures,
go through the New Testament, and find out how many times it
says, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Huh? We're united to Him. How much
merit does Christ have? How much merit does our Lord
Jesus Christ have? Well, whatever merit he has,
we have it. What kind of a holy life did
he live? What life of obedience did he live? How holy was his
life? How blessed was his life? How wondrous was his life? How
sinless was his life? Well, we got that life too. Christ
is our life, ain't that what it says? And that's why, because
we have his merit and his life, no condemnation, no guilt. I
tell you, that's one of the most blessed things that you can think
of in this world right here. You know that there is no condemnation
that God Himself, that God says things. Paul just got through
talking about what a war, what a misery. Oh, in my flesh, there
was no good thing. What I wouldn't do, I'd do. What
I hate, I'd do. And on and on and on and on about
it. And then he cried out, wretched man that I am. And then he comes
back and says, yes! No judgment, no condemnation. That's a fact. You know, I want
to tell you all something, and you can take this for what it's
worth. I cannot remember the last time that I felt any condemnation. You know why? Because I believe
the gospel. Have I done anything that I feel
Guilty about sometimes, yes. But what do you do about it? I say, Lord, forgive me. What else are you going to do?
You ain't going to say, well, Lord, I ain't going to do that
anymore. I'm not going to say that anymore.
I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm not going to act that way
anymore. I know enough about me not to make any promises to
myself or anybody else. But bless His holy name. Because
He said there's no condemnation, I believe that. And after all
these years, after all this evidence, after all this proof, after all
my ups and downs and in and out, I still come holy, confidently
to the throne of grace. Bless this holy name. What a
salvation. No guilt, no condemnation, no
judgment. I'm not trying to be saved. I'm already saved. I'm not trying
to work my way out from under condemnation. I'm a saint without
any condemnation. And look at how Paul explains
this. He says, "...shows us our deliverance
is accomplished to them..." It says here, "...to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit." Oh, my. We're in Christ. We don't walk
after the flesh anymore. We don't walk after our fallen
nature anymore. And then he says in verse 2,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
me free from the law of sin and death. Oh my! Our union with Christ. We have a new power. Look what
he says. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You
know how that's capitalized? That's the Holy Spirit. for the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You see the Spirit, Christ in
us. Paul says, Christ in you, the
hope of glory. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, He controls the Holy Spirit in us. He controls that
fallen nature. He controls that evil nature.
He controls that part of us that's not, that's awful. And I'll tell
you something, it says Christ formed in you. Not religion formed
in you. Not doctrine formed in you. Not
church membership formed in you. Not your free will saving you
from yourself. But He says Christ formed in
you. Christ in you, that's the hope of glory. And look over
here in 1 Corinthians 15, in verse 45. You know, it's the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus. That's the reason we can live
for the glory of Christ and to Christ, because Christ is formed
in you, Christ in you, the Spirit of life of Christ in you. It's
the very Spirit of life itself. Our Lord said, because I live,
you shall live also. Look what He said here in 1 Corinthians
15.45. Here's the difference between
two men. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made
a living soul. That's us, living souls. We are living souls inhabiting
a dying body. Who we are is inside us. It's
the soul that's saved, it's not the flesh. We were born with
the flesh that died and started decaying the first minute we
were born into this world. And it gets weaker and weaker
and weaker and weaker. That's why we're made living
souls. It's the soul. Christ died to save the soul. Now watch this. The last Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was made a what? A life-giving spirit. And Adam is the living soul. Christ comes and He gives life
to that soul, to that spirit. And that's what we're talking
about. And that's why, here's the answer to that 723 and 724
where He said, Oh wretched man, but I am. Oh my. And I'll tell
you something, when the Holy Spirit, back over in our text,
when the Holy Spirit brings the life of Christ into a man's soul,
Look what it says here, "...hath made him free from the law of
sin of death." When the Holy Spirit brings the life of Christ
into a man's soul, He sets him free from that law of sin. He
sets him free from that. Sin don't rule as his master
anymore. And then, not only the law of sin, but sets him free
from death. You know why sin produces? The wages of sin is
death. Sin always ends in death. That's why Christ died. Because
sin must end in death. And if Christ bore our sin in
his own body on the tree, wherever sin is, it's got to end. The
consequences of sin is death. And so we've been set free from
the law of sin, and then the law of sin, which has consequences
of death, we've been set free from that. Death ain't gonna
bother us. And oh, look here, there's
two different laws that he's talking about. The law of the
spirit of life in Christ and the law of sin and death. One
is going to be a master. One is going to overcome the
other. Look in Galatians 5 with me just a minute. I'll show you
what I'm talking about. You know, that's why people say, well,
I used to go to church. I used to be saved. We got this show on on discovery
now. It's called a snake salvation,
and they have these people that work, you know, pick out snakes
and all that stuff, and they all have a great big time and
just sing and dance and, oh my, pick up all them snakes and roll
them all over the place and catch your fingers on fire and all
that. I mean, just a bunch of, huh? But you watch those folks,
and all they can talk about is what they're doing to be saved.
There's a woman who said one time, she said, I would kiss
the diamond back and walk through fire if I could just get right
with God. And that's what they're doing.
They keep talking about, you know, I know God heard my prayer
and done this to this fellow over here because God heard my
prayer. He didn't hear Christ's prayer. He didn't hear Christ's
intercession. But they heard Christ. And I'll
tell you something they never, ever mention. They never mention
Christ. And then I seen this one where
he said, well, this fellow's daughter, you know, she played
the organ. She went and got a sackcloth when her daddy got bit by a copperhead.
And, oh, she just played the organ. Next episode, do you know
where she's at? She's back. She quit church.
She quit church. We got to see her. We got to
go pray for her. She quit church. She's with church. She don't know nothing about
the spirit of life in Christ. That's all flesh. The flesh rules
there. Sin rules there. That's sin. That's all godly
sin. And that's the flesh. And I'll
tell you something, if Christ don't save you, And Christ don't
give his die for you, and Christ don't keep you saved, you know
what you'll do? You'll walk out on the gospel too. And it won't
hardly take nothing to offend you to cause you to walk out
on that. You just let the right thing be said at the right time,
and something that will upset somebody, the next thing you
know, they've left the gospel. It's happened too many times.
I'll tell you, minister, with what we're talking about, the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is going to reign in your life,
or the law of sin in Christ is going to reign in your life.
One or the other. They can't both reign at the same time.
You can't have two masters. You can't have two rulers. You
can't have two lords. Either sin's going to be your
master, sin's going to be your lord, or Christ's going to be
your master, and Christ's going to be your lord. Christ in you
is going to be the salvation of you and the keeping of you,
or sin in you is going to be the damnation of you. There's
no middle ground. And that's why folks all the
time, if they do some little something, they've been taught,
you know, you've got to do this to be saved and that to be saved
and all this. And so they'll commit some little act or something.
You know, somebody said, you know, you've got to quit smoking
if you want to be saved. So they'll quit smoking and then they'll
join the church and they'll hallelujah for a year or two. And then they'll
go out and they'll get tempted to do something. Something happens,
they'll smoke a cigarette and say, well, I've lost my stuff and
I won't quit. How many times have we seen that
stuff happen in our lifetime? Huh? But you see, if you're saving
yourself, that's exactly where you want to be. We started out
with no condemnation in Christ. Our life, we're not, we're not,
we're not, our life, our endeavors is not to be saved. We start
out where they want to end up at. We start out in Christ with
salvation and no condemnation. They're laboring to be saved
and laboring to get out from under condemnation. Where they
want to go, that's where we start. That's where the gospel starts. That's why it says, that soul
of Jesus who hath led for repose, I will not, I will not, I will
not desert to his foes. He's going to take us through
deep waters. He said they won't overthrow you. You'll go through
the fire and it won't burn you. So that's what I'm talking about.
Look here in Galatians 5. So I hope they get that poor
old girl back in church so she can play the organ. What are
they going to do without an organ player? Oh, boy. You all need to watch that sometimes. I told Mary, I said, come watch
this. She said, no, I ain't going to watch it because if I see
them snakes, I'll dream of snakes all night long. They're awful.
They're awful. But look here, Galatians 5.17.
This is what I'm talking about. We've got this war, but one of
them is going to control us. For the flesh lusts wars against
the Spirit, fights the Spirit. And you notice how that's capitalized,
that's the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit wars against the
flesh. You've got your old nature and
your new nature, they're going on. And they're contrary, the
one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you
would. You cannot walk after your flesh like you would, and
you can't be as spiritual as you would because you've got
these two natures. And when we come to a worship
service, that's it again every time we come to a worship service.
Our spirit will get involved in the service, and then just
a little while, the flesh will think of something else in their
mind. And then we'll have that back, you know, just back and
forth. Now look what else he goes on
to say. If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the
law. So then these works of the flesh
are not going to control you. Now, these are the works of the
flesh, and they're manifest. I mean, it's obvious when you're
walking after your fallen nature. Adultery. Adultery. That's why half of marriages
end up in divorce. Adultery. Fornication. people living together without
marriage, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
and oh, I tell you what, witchcraft, that's really, next time you
read your horoscope, you're practicing witchcraft, I'm telling you. Superstition. Hatred, oh, to
hate somebody, that's why people say, oh, I hate them, I hate
them. Listen, oh, my. Various demimulations,
wraths, strifes, seditions, errors, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
ramblings, partings, and such like, of which I tell you, and
before and tell you again, then time pass that they which do
such things shall not, no way under God's Son, inherit the
kingdom of God. You ain't gonna get in. You're
not in it now. God may save you and put you
in it, but you're not going to be in it and live like that.
Now, here's what the Spirit does for you. Here's what the Holy
Spirit does. But the fruit of the Spirit does the works of
the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. It's love. Oh, the love of God shed upon
my heart by the Holy Ghost. Joy. Joy and peace and believing. Peace. Oh, peace like a river
attendeth my way. And listen to this, longsuffering?
Oh my! We deal with ourselves in longsuffering
when we have something going on, we just wait on the Lord,
and we bear with other people gentleness, goodness, faith,
neatness, temperance? Against us there's no law. Now
listen to this, and this is another fact, and they that are Christ,
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof."
Have. Not going to. They have. They
have. We're free from the law of sin
and death. How much time do I have? Well, let's go back over there
and take a stop. Get on with this here. Romans 8. Look what he said in verse three.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and forced sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Now, when it says,
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, nothing wrong with God's law. Paul said it's holy, just,
and good. You know where the weakness is at? The defects in
us. Defects in us. The law was weak
because it demanded what we couldn't produce, what we couldn't provide.
Whenever God gave the law and they stood up and said, all that
you say we'll do, if they would have stood up and been honest
and said, Lord, there's no way we can obey that. We'd have found
ourselves guilty just the very fact that you brought it down
and told us to do it. But they said, anything you tell us to
do, we'll do it. We'll do it. We'll do it. And see, that's
what it says, either do and live, or don't and you die. Well, it said here that weakness
through the flesh. Well, how in the world is sin
going to be condemned in the flesh then? How's it going to
be condemned? God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh. Listen to it now. And for sin. condemned it, judged it, wrapped
in His own body, in the flesh. That's why there's no condemnation,
because Christ was condemned. That's why the flesh is not going
to be free from the law of sin and death, because Christ judged
sin in Himself, in His body, on the tree. Christ was made
sin. You see, it's because of our
depravity, our inability, that the law is insufficient and the
law is impotent. So I'm telling you, beloved,
I need to quit, I say I do, I'm preaching too long. But how in,
you see, since the law is insufficient, the flesh is insufficient, and
our flesh is so insufficient, God therefore must do everything
for us in salvation. He must do everything. And all
beloved, in what He requires, He provides. He says, Behold,
the Lamb of God. He required a perfect lamb, He
gave a perfect lamb. He required holiness, He gave
Christ to be our holiness. And this is what He said, in
what He provides, what God provides, He accepts. Nothing more or nothing
less. You don't want nothing more given
to or nothing less. And this is what He required.
He required sin to be paid for and condemned. Well, so what
did He do? He sent His own Son. That tells us about His deity,
His Son. It was God's Son, the Son of
His love. And then, in the likeness of
sinful flesh, that's His incarnation. He took upon Himself human nature.
And you notice it says, in the likeness of sinful flesh. When
you looked at Him, He looked like any other man. But he was
a sinless man. He was the God-man. He did not
have the ability to sin. And while I was there, he said,
which of you convinces me of sin? And then look what else
it said here. In the likeness of sin for flesh,
and as a sacrifice for sin, as an offering for sin, he judged
sin in the flesh one time in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord's
death was condemnation of sin, And now, beloved, justice is
satisfied, God satisfied, sins put away, and then look what
happens about it. I'll finish up right here. And
I love this right here. Here's the reason. Here's the
results of it now. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. You think about that. You talk
about the righteousness of the law. The law demands perfect obedience,
righteousness from the day you're born to the day... Everything
you do has got to be exactly right, perfectly right, without
any sin, without any spot, without any blemish in it. Well, we do. The righteousness of the law
is fulfilled in us. How do you know that? Well, look
in Romans 10. I'll show you. And who live by the Spirit, not
after the flesh. We live by the Spirit. We don't
walk after the flesh. We don't look to the flesh. We
don't trust the flesh. We have no confidence in the flesh.
We know the flesh has nothing to add to our salvation whatsoever.
And look what it says there in verse four. For Christ is the
end, the goal, the fulfillment, the end of the law. for righteousness
to every one that believeth. You ever been to a place that
says, dead end, no way out? That's the end of it. That's
a dead end. There ain't no place out there. I don't want to get
out of there. There is therefore, right now,
Christ is the end. Whatever the end of the law was,
was death for sin or righteousness for obedience. Well, Christ is
the end of it for us, for righteousness now. Do you know that I am as
righteous as God's own Son right now? And you are too, if you
believe in Christ. The righteousness of God is in
us. That's what the Scripture said. God made Christ to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. I'll tell you something, beloved.
In Christ, we have the holiness which the
law requires but couldn't produce. And I tell you, the gospel, it
works, it succeeds. You know why? Because Christ
did it all. Do you notice how I said, in
Christ, in Christ, in the Lord? Righteousness fulfilled in us.
You say, well, I don't feel very righteous. He didn't say that,
actually, pure righteousness. He just said it was done.