Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And
if you'd like to follow along with today's message in your
Bibles, I'm going to begin preaching with Romans chapter 8, the book
of Romans in the New Testament, chapter 8 and verse 1. Romans
8 and verse 1. What I want to talk to you about
today is the true Christian life. True Christian Life. That's the
title of the sermon. I've preached this message here
at our church in several places under this title, Keys to Christian
Living. But I'll entitle it The True
Christian Life for this program. And in this message, what I do
is describe the Christian life, the true Christian life, in under
three headings and the headings are very it's a very easy outline
for you to remember but the first the first point that describes
true Christian living is the word standing and it has to do
with if you're a believer if you're a a Christian a real Christian
not just a professor not a hypocrite That has to do with the Christian's
legal standing before God in Christ. And then the second heading
is state. And that has to do with the Christian's
present state in this world. How I exist, how I live in this
world. And then the third heading is
the word struggle. because the true Christian life
is a struggle. The Bible calls it the warfare
of the spirit against the flesh. The flesh lusts against the spirit,
the spirit against the flesh. Now, all three of those, our
standing, our state, and our struggle, is really summarized
in this one verse in Romans chapter eight, in verse one, where it
says, for the Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
And he writes, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. That's a summation of the true
Christian life. And all of these things are blessings
of God's grace. And what's happening here is,
if you'll notice there in verse one, there is therefore, that
word therefore, indicates that what Paul is going to do in the
following verses is he's going to draw some conclusions based
upon truths that he had already written and established in the
first part of the book of Romans. Romans chapter 1 through Romans
chapter 7. And the conclusions that he's
going to draw is what he says here. First of all, the obvious
one is Christians cannot be condemned by God. There is no way they
can be condemned. That has to do with our standing
before God in Christ. And then later on in Romans chapter
8, he's going to say that Christians, true Christians now, cannot be
separated from God because of Christ and the love of God in
Christ. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, he says?
Nothing. But in this one verse, we have
the description of the true Christian life. So let's look at each one
of those and study them in scripture. But before I do that, let me
say this. These are blessings of salvation
by grace based upon the merits of Christ. And the two things
that you have to see about the true Christian life A true Christian,
which involves salvation, which involves preservation unto glory,
salvation by God's grace, preservation by God's grace unto glory. The
two things that you have to see as far as living a Christian
life are, number one, that it's all by grace. In other words,
none of it, none of the blessings and benefits of salvation and
preservation, being preserved, being kept by God under glory,
none of the blessings and benefits of living a Christian life is
due to what we have earned or what we deserve. It's all of
grace. It's a gift, a free gift. No conditions on us. All conditions
on Christ. And I'll tell you something,
that's the way that you can see the difference between the true
gospel and a false gospel. The true gospel is a message
of God's grace wherein God chose a people and placed all of the
conditions and the qualifications and the stipulations of their
salvation upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh,
God-man, and sent His Son into the world as the surety, the
substitute, the representative, and the redeemer of His people,
to go under His wrath for their sins imputed, charged to Him,
and to totally fulfill the law, satisfy justice, drink damnation
dry, He paid the penalty in full and secured their eternal life
and salvation. And it's all conditioned on Christ.
Now, false gospels claim to believe salvation by grace, but they
place salvation conditioned upon man at some stage, to some degree,
in some way. And that's a false gospel. But
the true Christian life is a life of grace, living in the grace
of God. Paul even said in Galatians 2,
he said, the life that I now live, I live by the faith of
the Son of God. That's right, it's Christ working
in us by His Spirit and His Word. to save us and to keep us and
to bring us to glory. And the second thing that you
need to understand about it, it's all by faith. It's all by
living upon God's word, what God has revealed in his book. It's not in extra revelations,
but it's what God has revealed in this book. In other words,
I'm telling you, you claim to be living a Christian life, But
the way you're living, the way you're thinking is not based
upon what God has revealed in His word. You're just fooling
yourself. And that faith ultimately is always looking unto Christ
for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness, for holiness,
for preservation, eternal life and glory. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Now with that in mind,
Look at these three things that describe the true Christian life. And first of all, he says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
What's he talking about? To live as a Christian, a true
Christian, we have to know by God's revelation if we have a
right standing with God. Now how does a sinner have a
right standing with God? The Bible teaches us. It tells
us that God is holy and just and righteous and He must punish
sinners to whom sin is imputed, to whom sin is charged. In other
words, if you stand before God having your sins imputed to you,
charged to you, then that's eternal damnation. eternal death. That's why King David, writing
in the Psalm, Psalm 32, he said, Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. That he doesn't charge with sin.
What is my standing before God, you say? We fell in Adam into
sin and death, ruined by the fall. And if God were to judge
us based upon our character, our conduct, even at our best,
we would be condemned and doomed forever. See, that's what people
need to understand. It's not God judging all the
immoral perverts out here. They deserve condemnation, but
so do we. We who are trying to be moral,
we who are trying to be good, man at his best state is altogether
vanity. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that doeth good, no not one. That is good
in the sight of God according to his standard. We all know
people we claim that are good or we try to be good as we compare
to men and other women. But as we compare to Christ,
we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we all,
without exception now, the best and the worst and everybody in
between, we all deserve eternal damnation and death. That's what
we've earned. The wages of sin is death. Now
it's true the gift of God is eternal life. But what are you
gonna do about that wages of sin part? Say, So how can I,
a sinner, have a right standing with a holy and just and righteous
God who must punish sin? He must punish, listen, he must
punish sinners. This idea that people tell you,
well, God loves the sinner but hates the sin, that's a lie.
The Bible says in Psalm 5 that God hates all workers of iniquity. Well, aren't I a worker of iniquity?
Well, I'm a sinner and I fall short. So how can I stand before
God? Now listen to this. How can I,
a sinner who deserves nothing but death and hell, even right
now at my best, how can I, a sinner, stand before God and legally
be declared by God, honestly, how can I be declared by God
not to be a worker of iniquity? How can I stand before God and
be declared forgiven, pardoned, righteous in His sight? How is
that possible? Well, the Apostle Paul had already
dealt with that subject thoroughly in Romans. If you go back to
Romans chapter 6, he says in verse 3, listen to this. He says,
know you not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus
Christ, we're baptized into his death. Now, I've explained this
before on this program, but that word baptized there is not talking
about the Christian ordinance of believer's baptism being immersed
in water. The word baptized literally means
placed into, and what Paul's talking about here is the believer's
union with Christ legally before God. And what he's saying here,
you were baptized into his death. Read verse four. Therefore we
are 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 walk in newness life. Now look at verse five.
For if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. And then
verse six, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with
him. That's talking about our old connection with Adam in sin
and death. The old man, that's what the
old man is. That's a believer's former connection with Adam in
sin and death. And he says that was crucified
with Christ, that the body of sin, that is the whole realm
of sin, my fallen Adam, My being born spiritually dead in trespasses
and sin. My personal sins, past, present
and future. The whole body of sin might be
destroyed. How did Christ destroy it? He
destroyed it legally. The sins of His people were imputed,
charged to Him. He was made sin, 2 Corinthians
5.21 tells us. How was He made sin? He was not
made a sinner. He was never a sinner. He was
not contaminated or corrupted by the sins of His people, but
He was their surety, which means He took responsibility of the
debt of their sins. The Bible says it this way, our
sins were laid upon Him. God laid upon Him the iniquity
of us all. That's not all without exception
now. That's all whom God gave him before the foundation of
the world, as evidenced by their coming to faith in Christ. So
Christ took the sins of his people upon himself, and he destroyed
the whole body of sin, that henceforth, verse six, that we should not
serve sin, now look at verse seven, for he that is dead, that
is dead to sin, is freed, and that word freed is justified
from sin. And that's the believer's legal
standing before God in Christ. We are justified. That means
we're forgiven of all of our sins on one ground. What ground
is that? The blood of Jesus Christ. Listen, if you're a true Christian,
you're not forgiven based upon your remorse and your feeling
sorry and even your repentance. I've heard preachers say that
God forgives sin when you repent. No, God forgave sin based upon
the blood of His Son. That's what the scripture teaches.
Now, if you ever come to see that and believe it, you will
repent and you will be sorry for your sins. But that's the
fruit, not the cause. You understand what I'm saying?
I have a righteous, legal standing before God. That's what it is
to be justified, to be forgiven based on his blood, and to be
legally, effectually, powerfully, really declared righteous in
God's sight based upon Christ's righteousness imputed, charged,
accounted to me. That's my standing. And to live
a Christian life, we have to, by God's grace, be aware and
know that we have a right standing before God by His grace that
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. We have to know that all the
righteousness that God requires of me is to be found only in
the person and work, accomplished work, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
that on Calvary's cross, when he died, I died. When he was
buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. He is my surety, he is my representative,
he is my substitute, he is my redeemer. I stand before God
in Christ. Remember what he said there in
Romans 8.1. He said, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. And to be in Him is to be in
Him by the election of grace and by the redemption of grace,
justified before God. I have a right standing before
God. I didn't produce it. I didn't contribute to it. It
cannot be taken away from me. It can never be changed because
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And to live
a true Christian life, that's where we have to start, when
God shows us by His revelation through the gospel, which is
the revelation of the righteousness of God. And that righteousness
of God, Romans 1, 16 and 17, is the merit, the value, the
power of Christ's obedience unto death on my behalf. It's not
my works, it's not even my will. My faith, my believing, does
not make me righteous before God. It's the death of Christ
that makes me righteous. And believing is the fruit of
that, the scripture says. Now I have a right standing before
God and I have to walk by faith, believing what God's word says.
In Romans chapter 8, for example, in verse 33, it says here, And who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's delay? Who can impute sin to any of
God's delay? You see, this is how God sees
me in Christ. This is how God judges me in
Christ. This is a legal right standing.
And don't get the idea, you know, some people say, well, if it's
legal, it's not real. My friend, if it's legal, it's
real. If you're ever accused of a crime
and the sheriff comes to arrest you, you'll find out how real
legal is. And if you get exonerated from
that crime by a jury of your peers, you'll be glad you did. That's legality. Well, I stand
before God legally in Christ, who died for my sins, was buried,
and arose again the third day, and who ascended unto the Father,
and is ever living at the right hand of the Father to make intercession
for me. My standing before God is in
Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus
Christ the righteousness. My sins cannot be charged to
me. They cannot because they were
charged to Christ. His righteousness is charged
to me. I stand before God righteous.
Now that's the first point of the true Christian life, but
here's the second point. Now, he says in Romans 8.1, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who do what? Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Now somebody might say, well
if I have that kind of standing before God and it cannot be changed,
corrupted, or taken away, I'll just go out and live like the
devil. No. The evidence, the first evidence
that a sinner has a right standing before God in Christ, that God
chose me before the foundation of the world, that He justified
me through the blood of Christ, that Christ came and redeemed
me and fulfilled all righteousness on my behalf, the first evidence
is that I'll be born again by the Spirit and brought to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. And this was where I come to,
secondly, our state before God, the Christian state. Now, realize
first that every person without exception, including true Christians,
are naturally born dead in trespasses and sins. Now that's a result
of our fallen Adam. ruined by the fall. We fell in
Adam into sin and death. How do I know that includes me?
The Bible says, for as by one man sin entered into the world
and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for that all sin. How do I know that includes me?
Because I'm born dead in trespasses and sin. I'm born lost. And he
mentions this in Ephesians two. Look at verse one of Ephesians
two. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins? That quickening there is giving
of life. That's the new birth. That's why we must be born again.
Verse two, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Now understand, this is talking about believers also, by nature. This is not just some, and it's
talking about even the most moral, the most dedicated people in
society. The children of disobedience,
what is a child of disobedience in the Bible? It's an unbeliever.
He can be moral, he can be charitable, he can be kind, he can be good
in the eyes of men. But if he's an unbeliever, if
he doesn't know and believe in Christ, he's a child of disobedience. Verse three. among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our
flesh." The lust of the flesh. Usually when we think of lust,
we think of unlawful sexual desire, and that is lust. But lust in
the Bible, sometimes called concupiscence, can refer to any unlawful desire. any unlawful desire that you
have. For example, go back to Cain and Abel in the book of
Genesis chapter 4. Cain sought and desired salvation,
blessing from and fellowship with God based on his works. Well that's an unlawful desire.
Why is it unlawful? Because God forbids it. God commands
sinners to come to Him and beg for mercy and grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how Abel came, bringing
the blood of the Lamb, picturing Christ. Abel came admitting,
I'm a sinner. I have nothing to recommend myself
to God. God, have mercy upon me. Like
the old publican in the Pharisee and the Publican parable, Luke
18. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And so to come before
God seeking salvation based upon something you do or trying to
establish your own righteousness is a lust of the flesh. He says
in verse three of Ephesians two, fulfilling the desires or the
wills of the flesh and of the mind. He says, and we're by nature
the children of wrath even as others. Now when we're born into
this world naturally, born in spiritual death, Our state on
this world is lost. That's what believers, they're
the lost sheep. The Bible depicts Christ as the
great shepherd, the good shepherd. He gives his life for the sheep.
And the good sheep, they're lost sheep. We all like sheep have
gone astray, Isaiah 53 says. That's our state. But if we have
a right standing before God in Christ, by God's grace and mercy
and power before the foundation of the world, what's going to
happen? The good shepherd not only died
for us, he's going to come out and find us. He's going to find
his sheep and he's going to bring them into the fold. Their state
is going to change. What's going to happen? Well,
they're going to be born again. They're going to be given life.
They're going to be quickened by the Holy Spirit. How does
he do that? He does it through the preaching
of the gospel. Romans 116, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek
also. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed, as it is written,
the just shall live by faith. From faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. So what happens is,
is we have a right standing What's gonna happen? Then at some point
in time, God the Holy Spirit, sent forth from the Father and
the Son, will bring us under the preaching of the gospel,
and he'll give us life, spiritual life. He'll raise us from the
dead, give us a new heart, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. He'll give us knowledge, knowledge
of who God is, who we are, and who Christ is. and that's the
new birth, and our state changes, and that's revealed here. Look
at Romans chapter six. Back in Romans chapter six, he
says in verse 17, he says, but God bethanked that you were the
servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin, you became the servants of righteousness. See, our original
state, if I'm a true Christian, living a true Christian life,
I recognize that before God brought me to hear and believe the gospel,
before that, I was lost in my sins. I was ignorant, blinded,
deceived. I was worshiping a God who cannot
save, the God of my imagination. You know why we call it repentance
from dead works and idolatry? Dead works are works aimed at
making myself righteous enough to be accepted with God. That's
salvation by works. The idolatry comes in in this
way. The God who I thought accepted
my works was an idol. How can you say that, preacher?
Well, the God of the Bible will not accept that. The only thing
He'll accept as to the ground of attaining and maintaining
salvation is the imputed righteousness of His Son. But when God the
Holy Spirit brings me under the gospel, He shows me the way. He reveals it to me. He shows
me who God is in His justice, in His holiness. and he shows
me who Christ is. I'll pick up here next week with
this same message. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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today and may the Lord be with you.