Will you turn with me back in
your Bibles to Romans chapter 8? Romans chapter 8. We will continue with our message
today. Romans chapter 8. The title of
our message today, There is now therefore no condemnation for
them. A phrase and a term that many
of you have heard for years. Rejoiced in it seems to naturally
incline our hearts to a kind of Thanksgiving and hope Because
the author speaks explicitly about a Freedom from judgment
and guilt and the wrath of God that's expressed in almost an
exaltation and it's true because verse 1 of chapter 8 is is not
the beginning of a new subject. It's the advancement of the same
topic that the apostle has been addressing now for several weeks
with us in Romans chapter 7. So remember now, as we read through
the book of Romans, we are not bound by new transitions because
we are now in chapter 8. We are still dealing with very
much Paul's explanation to his Jewish brethren, but now he expands
it to the whole community as he takes up the serious analysis
of the work of the Spirit of God in the life of the people
of God, and particularly those whom he says are in Christ Jesus. He speaks to the third person
who is the subject of chapter 8, and remarkably, when you think
about the Spirit of God, and this is whom he's speaking about,
the Spirit of God, He speaks in the last line of verse 1 of
chapter 8, but after the Spirit. After the Spirit. Remarkably,
the term Spirit of God, which is a designation for the third
person of what we call the triune God. We believe that God is a
triune person. He is tri-personal. Three persons. One God. Not easily explained. And even less comprehended. three
persons, one God, all equally God, all fully divine in their
personhood, and all distinct in their persons. So that when
we talk about the Spirit of God, we are not talking about the
Father. And when we talk about the Son
of God, we are not talking about the Spirit, we are talking about
each individual distinctly, because while they are one in their nature,
they are distinct in their persons, and frequently they are distinct
in their roles and we must know the concept of roles. One of
the reasons why our culture is falling apart today is because
we have failed to identify with the true and the living God who
made us. And because we have failed to
identify with God who made us, we don't know our identity. I
will assert this, that the father knows that he is not the son.
And the Son knows that He is not the Father. And the Holy
Ghost knows that He is neither the Father nor the Son, though
they all bear the same divine attributes as God. And they frequently
work together in such harmony and unity as to make it virtually
impossible to divide them. And yet the word of God would
be very clear to let us know that they operate in roles, we
call this the economical aspect of the Trinitarian persons. In
the economy of God, the father does things that the son does
not do. In the economy of God, the Spirit
does things that the Son does not do, so that we never confound
their persons nor confound their work. This is the problem with
our culture today. It's confounded, is it not? It's
confounded. In the church of the living God,
that ought not to be the case. A father ought to know he's the
father, and a mother ought to know that she's the mother. And
the son ought to know that he's a son and a daughter ought to
know that he's a daughter. And I've said this before. One
of the marked evidences of the presence of the Spirit of God
in your life is that he brings order to your life. See, before
you came to know God in Christ, you were a ball of confusion. That's right. And your life was
filled with confusion because you had no authority and the
devil governed your life. And he is the author of confusion,
is he not? And when God in his mercy penetrates
our heart and shines in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the first time God shows
up, he starts straightening things up in your life, bringing clarity
to who he is and clarity to who you are. That's the beginning
of the rest in the soul for the people of God. Today we are embarking
upon an aspect of Paul's discourse around the struggle of the believer,
recognizing that the believer is between grace and what? Glory. All true believers are
between grace and glory. And in between grace and glory
is the struggle. In the midst of this struggle,
the Apostle Paul has taught us that that struggle is designed
to do many things that are good. I will not repeat them. I will
simply say that as we advance into chapter 8, we have not discharged
ourselves from the whole concept of the struggle. You and I will
struggle till we die. But the question is, will you
struggle by yourself or will you struggle with the grace that
comes by the supply of the Spirit of God that's able to help us
in the midst of our struggles, advance in the cause of Christ,
do the will of God, and bring glory to Him while we wait on
the full transformation. in our redemption. That's the
whole issue. In chapter 8, which is an amazing
chapter, we are on another summit here. This is a massive summit. We are at the top of a mountain
and on a massive summit looking way out over the horizon towards
chapter 9. And we have 39 verses in chapter
8. 39 verses. And in these 39 verses we could spend 39 weeks. And the reason I say that is
because the information inherent in chapter eight is so rich with
important theological truths that they really do require independent
study, independent commentary, and independent analysis. They
really do. But as I've said to you before,
I live in a soundbite age, and the best I can do is talk to
you for one hour on Sunday, lest you turn into pumpkins, But you
and I really need to think this through, that Romans chapter
8 is the place that we want to be clear on, do I really know
the gospel? And do I really know the grace
of God? And do I really understand who Christ is and what Christ
has done for me? And do I really understand the
role of the third person who is the gift of Christ to every
believer, to bring them into the fullness of their inheritance.
Romans chapter 8 has been one of the most critically analyzed
and richly, voluminously commentated passages in the New Testament.
Most theologians will admit that there are tens of thousands of
commentaries around chapter 8. Tens of thousands. Theologians
know once you hit this holy ground, You need to be extremely careful
because as you descend down into the dark caverns of its implications,
you need to be on the right side of its understanding lest you
draw some serious wrong conclusions as to what the life of grace
is all about. And when you and I start talking
about the life of grace, we are coming close to home. See, it's
real easy to talk in terms of the objective truths of Christ,
particularly in the realm of justification. And mind you now,
we have not left justification. But what we have done is on the
foundation of justification, we have entered into what is
called the work of sanctification. So that sanctification is never
viewed as independent of justification, while at the same time, you never
confuse the two. Sanctification and justification
are never to be confounded as a necessity of the one over the
other, but rather sanctification is the outcome and fruit and
consequence of a perfect and comprehensive justification that
God has wrought for us in Christ. It is for this reason, child
of God, that the text opens up in chapter eight, verse one,
there is therefore now no condemnation. And so when those words are yielded
forth, they mean nothing to the person who has not trekked with
Paul from chapters 3 all the way through chapter 7 as he has
clearly established the grounds of the sinner's justification.
The person that does not understand justification by faith alone,
in Christ alone, apart from works, and what that means in terms
of his redemption at Calvary, and what that accrued for the
sinner by virtue of his death, does not understand this shout
in chapter 8 verse 1. We're simply being religious
when we go, Amen? There is no condemnation. But
the soul that understands that it has been snatched out of hell,
by the grace of God in Christ, and brought out of darkness,
and declared by God Almighty that he or she is the very righteousness
of God in Christ, that soul knows what? The term, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them. That's why the title of our message
is, there is now, therefore, no condemnation for them. Because what Paul is going to
demand that we do as we work through the after effect or the
consequence or the benefits or the blessings of justification,
which is the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, that is the fundamental
blessing. By the way, the blessing of what
happened at Calvary is the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. He is the
central figure of the blessing. What Christ said was, when I
go, I will send the Comforter to you. And he says, it must
means that I go. If I do not go, he cannot come.
His job was to send the third person to affect the blessings
of the new covenant upon us. And when you and I read Ephesians
chapter 1, 3, spiritual blessings in heavenly places, all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, what we are talking about is
the executor of the covenant called the Holy Ghost dispatched
by Christ and the Father to give to you and me every necessary
blessing for life now and eternity. in the work of the Spirit of
God. How important is the Spirit of God? He is essential to your
reality of salvation. He's essential to your knowledge
of salvation and your experience of salvation. And so as I stated,
that the third person is the one who is being talked about
in Romans chapter 8. And interestingly enough, children
of God, from chapters 1 through chapter 7, the Spirit of God
is only mentioned twice. From chapter 1 to chapter 7,
the Spirit of God is only mentioned twice. Our human spirit is mentioned
three times, but the Spirit of God is only mentioned twice,
if you will. There's arguments about it being
mentioned three times, but that's a sparse mention of the Spirit,
is it not? From chapters 1 to chapter 7.
When we get to chapter 8, guess how many times the Spirit of
God is mentioned? 20 times in chapter 8. Virtually every other
verse is about the Spirit of God, His person, His work, the
impact the Spirit of God makes. From chapter 8 verse 1 to chapter
8 verse 39, He is the prominent subject of the text. Everybody
then must pay attention to what He does. And you have heard this
phraseology used before around the whole concept of Romans chapter
8. Verse 1 declares no condemnation. Verse 35 through 39 declares
no separation. That brings joy to the soul,
doesn't it? And we understand that when the scripture declares
that you and I will never be separated from God because we've
been brought into union with Jesus Christ. This gives us an
opportunity to sigh a sigh of relief because if it was left
up to you and left up to me, by the way we act, we'd be in
hell right now. It gives us a sigh of relief.
But let me actually paint the picture a little bit better for
you. So as we make our way through Romans 8, you'll understand that
no condemnation means no separation, not because you just have a license
to sin. There is no condemnation, yes.
But there's also no accusation. And that no accusation is the
grounds upon which there will never be any separation. Are
you following the logic? Verse 1, no condemnation. Verses 29 through 34, no accusation. And then verses 34 all the way
through 39, no separation. You know what that means? Accusation
is chiefly the battle that we fight in this present generation.
And if it were not for the work of the Spirit of God, you and
I would sink under the lawful accusation of our sinful behavior
before God. So the same God that says no
condemnation says no accusation. Isn't that good? No accusation
means no separation. And this then is designed to
drive the believer to an penultimate sort of motivation to love God
and to serve God. Since no accusation will ever
be raised against the believer that will sink him or her into
hell. I want to learn everything about
Romans chapter 8 I can get, don't you? Romans chapter 8, as I stated,
is a text that actually introduces us to the person who is conspicuously
absent in chapters 6 and 7. Chapter 6 and 7 actually deals
with our justification and gives us, as I've said before, the
indicatives of the believer. The believer is dead. The believer
is free from sin. The believer is alive in Christ.
The believer is the righteousness of God in Christ. The believer
is this, that, and the other thing. Those are called indicatives.
It's not what you do, it's who you are. You need to learn that
first. Because in order to be able to do what you're called
to do, you've got to know who you are. Is that true? And so
Romans chapter 6 gives us indicatives of the work of Christ in having
justified us freely by his grace. And it calls us free from sin
and slaves of righteousness and married to Christ. But then it
tells us married to Christ for the purpose of bringing forth
fruit unto God, right? That's the purpose. Then we get
into chapter 7. And in chapter 7, Paul led us
into the deep personal analysis of his own struggle. What an
honest pastor. to lead his whole congregation,
the whole flock into his personal self-reflection and to honestly
admit that he struggles with sin. When you meet people who
say they don't struggle with sin, tell them you're either
dead in glory or you're a sociopath. Okay? You just tell them that.
And as you and I had stated last week, one of the fundamental
importance, imports of struggling with our sin is so that we don't
lie to sinners about what it means to be saved. Right? But
it's also designed to help you understand you need God because
what we do is we act independently of the very God that saved us.
And this is how you end up sinning. And this is how you end up miserable.
And this is how you end up joyless. And this is how you end up in
despair. This is how you end up burdened. This is how you
end up depressed. This is how you end up wanting
to kill yourself as a Christian because you're living outside
of the blessings of dependence upon God. Are y'all hearing me
right now? You want to live a miserable Christian life? Read Psalm 38.
I'm going to be teaching this to our folks that are getting
ready to understand the theology of the Psalms. You want to live
a miserable Christian life? Read Psalm 38. David will tell
you how to live a miserable Christian life. Live independent from God. Live like you want to live. Do
what you want to do. And think that God's going to
continue to smile on you. And watch how horrible your life
is without God. without God. And so when the
author here, Paul, opens up Romans chapter 8, he opens up Romans
chapter 8 with this subtle shift, but radical shift, with the objective
of helping the believer know that the mess that you and I
were experiencing with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, the good that
I would, I do not. The evil that I would not do,
I find myself doing. So I see a law in my members
that every time I seek to do good, evil is present with me.
Crouched right up next to me never ever letting me do what
I want to do without some help See Romans 8 is about the help
Romans 7 is about trying to do it without the help Are you guys
following me so far Romans 7 is about trying to win the battle
with that gorilla called sin without the help And lots of
people try to do that We try to handle and negotiate and manipulate
and con and coerce sinful tendencies without the power of the Spirit
of God. And Romans chapter 8 is going to deal with that because
Romans 8 says that for those who are actually after Christ,
the Spirit of God is present there to help them in this battle. So as we work through this subject,
there's therefore now no condemnation for them in Christ Jesus. There
are a couple, two or three points in our outline that we want to
address. The first is the law of the spirit
of life, which is the way Paul phrases it in verse two. Let
me read verses one and two, and we're going to deal with this
phraseology, the law of the spirit of life. He says, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. We will develop that next week.
For the law of the spirit of life, you notice that terminology?
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, watch this
now, has made me free. Do you see it? Now, Paul has
talked several times about being free, being made free, all the
way back to chapter 6. But what he did not do is speak
to the experiential aspect of being made free. Why? Because
in Romans chapter 6 and 7, he was dealing with justification.
Do you know the believer was made free in Christ even before
the believer had a being? The believer was made free, that
is, declared righteous in Christ even before you were converted.
Every believer who was chosen in Christ before the world began
was already declared justified already declared free Already
declared the righteousness of God already declared a new creature
in Christ even before they came into the world There's a real
sense from God's vantage point when we get to chapter 8 verses
28 and 29 all things working together for good. I For him
whom he foreknew, he also predestined and called and all that. That's
all in the past tense with God. From God, all of his works are
known from the foundation of the world. From the standpoint
of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, I was
free before I had a beginning. I was free before I was born.
But what good does that freedom do me if I don't know it? So
we are talking about the outside of us work of God in Christ when
we talk about justification, right? What God did for us outside
of us. It's very important to know that's
the foundation of our salvation. But largely, when we start talking
about the work of the Spirit of God, not exclusively, but
largely, when you start talking about the Spirit, you're talking
about the work He does in you. Justification is for you. Sanctification
is what? In you. Glorification is to you. Get those propositions. Justification
is for you. It's not something you feel.
It's not something you experience. It's something you know by faith.
And in fact, you don't even have to know it by faith for it to
be true by faith. Isn't that good? See, God knows
his own before they even know him. See, God is a good husband. He knows how to prepare the house.
Bring all of the necessary material to the house before he goes and
gets his wife and has their kids. We got it all backwards today,
don't we? I've been slid down another road. I told you, see,
when we mess up this inexorable connection between us and God,
confusion sets in and we get things backwards, don't we? But
see, God always builds his house first, then goes and gets his
woman and then has the children. That's good. The devil will have you to mess
it up every time. By the time God calls the guilty
sinner, that guilty sinner has been perfectly justified. The
job of the guilty sinner or the blessing is to get to know what
God has done for you. That's what gospel preaching
is about. Letting the sinner know what God has already done
for them. And if the Holy Ghost is in on
it, he gives you a heart to believe it. which is where we are right
now in Romans chapter 8. When Paul talks about the struggle
of sin and the battle of sin in Romans 7, he says in Romans
chapter 8, there is what we call the law of the spirit of life
in Christ. In Romans 7, you know what he
said? I saw another law called the law of sin and death. What
is he doing now? He's pitting over the law of
sin and death that gave him so much trouble in Romans 7 with
the law of the spirit of life who's jumping over into the ring.
Remember I told you the analogy of being in the ring wrestling
with sin and you having a heck of a time and your husband the
law because all he can do is punish sin, affirm sin, make
sin more exceedingly sinful. He came in and helped your enemy
pin you. rather than help you pin your
enemy. Now when you're married to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes
in to help you overcome your enemy, so that you can be extricated
from his power. This is what he means when he
says, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me what? Hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. Do you guys see the juxtaposition
of Romans 7 and 8 now and the insertion of the third person
who was not there in chapter 7? Do you guys see it? The third
person is there now. It's like the tag team match.
He comes in and helps you win. And I've told you this before
as we work through Proposition 1 in our outline. If you don't
struggle, you're not even in the battle. And if you fight,
you have already won. I'm going to say that again.
If you don't fight, if you don't struggle, you're not even in
the battle. Like what I'm talking to you about just is going over
your head right now because you're not even struggling with your
sin. You and your sins are one. You walk in unity. You do what
it says. Your sin is your identity. Your
sin is your master. It rules you. It controls you.
You love your sin. Isn't that what we learned? The
difference between the spiritual man and the carnal man is that
the spiritual man loves the law of God, loves God, delights in
God's truth, worships God from the inner man. That carnal person
loves sin and makes sin their identity. So there's no struggle
for the sinner outside of Christ. For the true believer, there's
always a struggle because I am and am not yet what God has declared
me to be. I have to lay these principles
down so that you can get them. And particularly for those of
my teachers at Grace, you want to be able to rightly divide
the word when you speak to the experience of the believer between
grace and glory. Don't lie and talk about how
much we victor in Christ and overcome in Christ and win every
battle that we fight because we don't always win, even though
we have already won. Don't lie and talk about you
never do anything good. You never get anything, right?
You never love God You never don't make your experience of
grace. Nothing but an excuse to live
like hell Because Romans chapter 8 is ready to help us understand
that it's not that way It's neither all defeat nor all victory Yet
there's total victory because of us being in Christ. Am I making
some sense? I So then under point number one, the Law of the Spirit
of Life, verse 2a, as we have dealt with it, the Lord Jesus
Christ constantly spoke to us about the character and nature
of the Spirit throughout His ministry. You guys remember that?
One of the things He spoke about constantly is the sending of
the Spirit in John 7, 37, as He stood up in the midst of that
great feast. What did He say? If any man thirst,
if any man thirst, let him come after Me. If you are a thirsty
soul for God today, listen to these words, come to Christ right
where you are. And the effect of grace that
will enter into your life is that out of your belly will flow
rivers of living water. And he spake of the spirit that
should be given unto those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Christ said he is the key to your experiencing the grace of
God. Are y'all hearing me? He is the key to it. In John
chapter 663, Jesus said it to the disciples on that day when
he intentionally woke up and went to preach to thousands of
people with the very intentional purpose of driving most of them
away from him. On that day, in John's Gospel,
chapter 6, Jesus Christ intentionally preached for the purpose of driving
all the masses away. Do you remember what happened?
They all got in boats and ships, and they was all looking for
Jesus. They wanted to come to the next great conference, because
a couple chapters before, He had multiplied the loaves. He
had fed the 5,000, 8,000, 10,000 between men and women and children.
And they said, a God like that, that all we gotta do is ask for
him to give us bread, he'll give it to us. And they started hunting
Jesus down. They looked so zealous. Jesus
said, you're not seeking me for your soul, you're seeking me
for your flesh. And by the time he got through
preaching, all of them had departed. And then he emptied the whole
building. Imagine me preaching and 10 minutes from now, the
whole building emptied out. Can I share something with you?
If that were to occur, either I would be fully demonically
possessed and every one of you would have been saved and realized
that I'm preaching from hell, or I would be so full of the
Holy Ghost and you would be so lost in your sins that you could
not stand the preaching that I'm setting forth and you would
have to get up and leave like people frequently do. That day,
Jesus was so fully infused by the Spirit of God that he simply
cut the lights on and showed everyone their motives and said,
hey, let's stop playing church today. Y'all can go home, because
I don't feel like playing church today. And he turned to his disciples
and said to them, will you leave also? You guys got that? He says,
because y'all can go. You can go. And they turned to
him and said, where shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. See, it's that tenacious, stick-to-it-ive
attitude that's critical to affirm you being a true disciple of
Christ. That stick-to-it-ive attitude that says, I can go
nowhere else, no matter how difficult my situation is, the only hope
I have is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only hope I have. And so
as we look at point number one, the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus, what does he do? He infuses life into the
dead sinner. Is that true, child of God? The
very purpose of the spirit of God, as seen through all the
Old Testament and the New, is to give life to dead sinners. Prior to our salvation, we are
what? Dead. The Spirit of God has to
quicken you and give you life. The Spirit of God has to infuse
your dead soul with life and wake you up. The Spirit of God
has to wake up the dead sinner, renew his heart, renew his mind,
take out the stony heart, put in a heart of flesh, and cause
him or her to be sensitive to the will of God. One of the fundamental
evidences that God is really working in the lost sinner who
is coming to know Christ is that they now become concerned about
their sin. You're playing games with God
if you're not concerned about your sin. You're playing games
with God. When He, the Spirit of Truth,
has come, He will convince the world of sin. He will convince
the world of sin. The lost sinner then has his
eyes open to the reality that he's in a hell-bound condition.
That as long as he stays in this state, he's surely going to hell.
When his eyes are open, then his soul begins to cry out, Lord
have mercy on me. Lord have mercy on me. Who shall
deliver me? And then God reveals to that
lost sinner the glorious revelation of the righteousness of Christ
on Calvary's tree as the only exit strategy for a hell-bound
sinner. And that sinner then looks to
Christ by faith and says, yes, he died for me. He's the only
reason that I have any hope for glory. And the righteousness
of God is then imputed to his soul. And from that point on,
the Spirit does a third thing, which actually is around the
subject we are dealing with today. If the Spirit raises you from
the dead and shows you you are a sinner, if the Spirit raises
you from the dead and shows you Christ's righteousness, then
here's what the Spirit of God is going to do all the days of
your life until you are gloriously transformed in the totality of
your being. He's going to continually remind
you that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
He's going to continually remind you of that. So the work of the
Spirit of God is to infuse and to impart to you the good news
of the gospel by way of regeneration. And it's only done through the
gospel. Watch this, ladies and gentlemen. You and I can never
be saved by mere religious works. You guys know that, right? You
cannot be saved by going to church. You cannot be saved by merely
adopting right doctrinal principles. You must be saved by God and
that through the gospel. Listen to Galatians chapter 3
verses 1 through 4. Let's go there. I want you to
see how the Apostle Paul establishes this truth in order for us to
understand how important actually being saved is. In Galatians
chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is really arguing with his Jewish
brethren again about making sure that they do not impose upon
the new Christians, who are struggling like Christians do, Do not impose
upon new Christians the alien system of an external restraint
system called the law because that can't sanctify them. In
other words, some of you know what it's like accepting Jesus
into your life, going to church, being baptized, and then being
part of churches where they heap upon you a bunch of rules and
regulations. You guys know what I'm talking about? It's called
legalism. And this is what the church at Galatia was doing to
the Gentile Christians at Galatia, telling them, unless you're circumcised,
unless you're baptized, unless you speak in tongues, unless
you tie, unless you keep your dresses long, unless you keep
the lipstick off, unless you stop this, that, and the other.
And we'll get into that in Romans 14. But Paul gonna get us to
Romans 14 and tell us there's ways to walk now. You guys understand
that? But what he's dealing with in
Galatians chapter 3 is telling them you cannot justify a sinner
by good works, nor can you sanctify a sinner by law keeping. A sinner
can only be sanctified and justified by God. He says in Galatians
chapter 3 verse 1, O foolish Galatians, who have bewitched
you that you should not obey the what? That word, the truth,
is a synonym for the gospel. That you should not obey the
gospel. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set
forth and what? Crucified among you. See that
last clause? That last clause is an exegetical. It's an explanation of the truth
that he said we should obey. When the truth is proclaimed
clearly, and it's proclaimed in terms of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, your mind's eye should see the crucified Christ. When
the gospel is proclaimed, the soul should be reminded that
Christ died for our sins, rose again for our justification,
is seated at the right hand of God, ruling over all things for
his father's glory and for the good of the church. When gospel
preaching is set forth, you are reminded once again that Christ
was your substitute. Am I making some sense? That's
called the truth. Where that's absent in preaching,
the gospel was not preached. It doesn't matter where you heard
it. Verse two, notice what it says. This only what I learn
of you. Did you receive the spirit? Park
it right there. That's what we're dealing with.
Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith? Isn't that a very germane question? Now granted, we'll take time,
not this week, but over the course of several weeks working through
Romans 8, I'll take time to treat the subject of what it means
to receive the Spirit of God. Again, we're dealing with very
tenuous issues, like we got a bunch of mystic Christians, don't we?
Our mystic brothers love to take us deep into the esoteric experiences
of the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit. Some of us
are so pragmatic, we don't know what in the world they're talking
about. I mean, I just never have had such a deep, profound, mystical
experience. I don't see it in the Word. I
don't see it in their experience. But they'll talk about spiritual
experiences, will they not? And we want them, don't we want
them? But I don't want them at the expense of the truth of the
gospel. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So when we talk about
the Spirit of God, we don't want to lose our mind, and we don't
want to take our finger off the text of Scripture, because the
text of Scripture is the only objective truth by which the
Spirit of God articulates Himself. Now, I know you might have experienced
some movement of some spirit, but be very sure, if it doesn't
comport with what the Word of God says, it's not the Holy Spirit. It might be your spirit, some
other person's spirit, but it's not the Holy Spirit. Because
when the Holy Spirit comes and begins the work of gracing your
life, He sets you in front of Jesus Christ and leaves you there
while He molds you into the image of Jesus Christ. And He will
never take you from in front of Jesus Christ until you look
exactly like Christ. He is the great architect. He is the great sculptor. and
he has a blueprint, an image, an icon of which he's shaping
every one of his elect into. Now, as he's shaping you, it
hurts. But by the time he's done, you look just like the son of
God. That's good. That's good. You
may not like it, but it's good. It means nothing to you if you're
still lost. For every one of us that knows that Jesus is our
only hope for salvation, Holy Ghost, keep working on me. Keep working on me. But he's
not taking you through any crazy stuff. You understand that? Let
me say it like this for those of you who are new at grace and
you know you're interested in this subject, you're intrigued
by it. Here's how you can know it's the Holy Ghost and not the
Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost never does anything that Jesus didn't
do. Like Jesus never did anything
that the Father wouldn't do. So the Son came to represent
the Father, the Holy Ghost came to represent the Son. Now, if
Jesus clowns, then yeah, the Holy Ghost clowns. If Jesus acts
a fool and is unseemly and does some of the bizarre stuff that
our mystic brothers assert is spiritual, then yes, the Holy
Ghost would do it. But when you look at Jesus in
the Scriptures, you don't find any such foolishness, do you?
Neither will you see it in the third person whose job it is
to glorify Christ You want to have the Spirit of God work radically
in your life? Keep your eyes on Christ Stay
on Christ in your affections in your meditation in in your
cogitation, in your drives and aspirations of life, in your
study of the Word of God, in your listening to preaching and
teaching, in your fellowship with the saints. Stay focused
on Christ. And you can be sure the Holy
Ghost is in that. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Watch what he says. This is what I only learn of you. Did you
receive the Spirit of God by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith? What do we mean by hearing of
faith? The preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel the
next verse watch this Are you so foolish having begun in the
spirit? Are you now made perfect in the
wild? And paul is using rhetorical
speech. That's not true. It can't be true. You can't start
in the spirit Under the simplicity of the gospel in his power and
then finish in the flesh. That's not possible romans 8
is going to teach us that let me just mark this right now in
romans 8 you are you and I are going to see a decisive Distinction
between walking in the spirit and walking in the flesh You
guys got that and as we look at what Paul says about walking
in the spirit and walking in the flesh. It's gonna trouble
you as It ought but he's gonna make some clear distinctions
about what true true believers are and what true believers do
Versus what non-believers do and it's gonna be under the rubric
in the flesh or in the spirit And this is why he says it's
not possible for you to start by the grace of God through the
power of the gospel and the ministry of the Spirit of God and then
finish under a works religion with legalistic do's and don'ts
as the mechanism by which you are finally conformed to the
image of Christ. It can't happen. You guys understand that? All
right, let's see verse 4 and then we'll go back. Have you
suffered so many things in vain? If you're to be in vain, let
me stop right there. I call your attention to that because it's
the work of the Spirit that works through the gospel to bring you
into these realities. I could go on, but going back
to our point, the second thing I want to call your attention
to, and this is critical too for us to think through. Why
does Paul use the term the law of the spirit of life? Because
the law of the spirit of life is a phraseology. It is a terminology
that underscores the mandate of the spirit of God to save
and to bring men and women into a new life with Christ. And so
he infuses life into them, but then he also does what point
B says, which is what? Liberates us. Do you guys see
that? So I want to talk about that
briefly. When the Spirit of God enters into the life of the believer,
the brand new Christian, not only does He give you life so
that you become aware of your sin, it's a strange concept,
but don't throw this off quick, it's a strange concept. Because
a lot of times what we'll do as Christians in a kind of twisted
evangelism, watch this now, When sinners are struggling, when
they're having their issues, alcoholism and drugs or whatever,
depression, they're getting ready to go to jail, they got mounting
debt, and then they come to church, or they may have struggles in
their marriages. You understand? Sinners will come to church for
a lot of reasons. Follow this now. Lot of reasons.
Because they really want to be delivered from their problems. Watch this now. Watch this now.
They want to be delivered from their problems, but not from
their sins. So stay with me for a moment.
Now, I want you to stay with me for a moment. Watch this now. And
a gospel minister or an elder or a Christian that is biblically
informed will know how to distinguish between those sinners being only
interested in being delivered from their problems and not from
their sin. And you do them no good to promise
them that Jesus will deliver you from a bad marriage. Or Jesus
will deliver you from your depression. Or Jesus will deliver you from
your poverty. Or Jesus will deliver you from
all of the external things with which we all go through, by the
way. You do them no justice by not telling them you need to
be delivered from your sin. And until a man or a woman begins
to feel their sin and feel the damnation of their sin, we have
no confidence that God is working in you at all. Are you hearing
me, ladies and gentlemen? What you and I need to be liberated
from is the bondage of our sin. We need to experience the power
of God's grace to liberate us from the curse of the law and
the captivity of sin and the bondage of the devil. That's
the power of the gospel when it comes to right. And you know
that a man or woman has truly been born again when their soul
starts to settle down in the proposition that Jesus Christ
is able to deliver you. You know that a man or woman
is starting now to experience the true grace of God when they
are more concerned with their spiritual condition than they
are their circumstances. Are you guys hearing me? It's
so glorious. It's so glorious. I will meet
people who are facing death sentences. Not in prison, but that's true
too. But let's say death sentences in the area of physical sicknesses.
They've got cancer, they're gonna die. And God has begun to work
in their life and bring them to a knowledge of their eternity
bound state. They're going somewhere when
they die. God's working on them and when I begin to share the
gospel with them and explain the righteousness of God in Christ
and how that by faith if you simply look to Christ God will
impute his righteousness to you so that you can know that when
you die you will be in the presence of God for to be absent from
the body is to be what present with the Lord for those who know
that they're clothed in the righteousness of God and that person that person
will be on their deathbed now listen to me And their souls
will light up with the joy and hope for glory, not the prospect
that they're going to get up off of their sickbed, but the
prospect that when they die, they know that they're going
to enter into the presence of God in favor on the grounds of
Christ's righteousness and not on the basis of their good works.
Now we are happy ministers because we are dealing with spiritual
issues. Not carnal ones, because frequently
people get delivered from poverty, get delivered from bad marriages,
delivered from depression, and go right on living like hell.
Well, our elder was talking about it this morning. And I try to
say it every time we do baptisms, elder. I try to tell them. We
baptize 500 people on one Sunday. You guys know that. I'm exaggerating.
But when they get in the water, I'll let them know. When you
climb up out of that water, the devil's coming after you because
you just told people you are a Christian and we're getting
ready to find out. Point number two under our first
category, liberated from the death process. Now, this is important. I'm not going to be long on this.
When the spirit of God, the spirit of life is working, when he is
working, his job is not only to give you life, but to help
you experience liberation. liberation from all of the bondages
that lost sinners or ignorant sinners or unlearned people experience. Like you and I are in bondage
psychologically through ignorance. Is that true? Stay with me now.
I mean, when I was growing up as a kid, because I didn't know
God, Sam, I used to be subject to all of the myths. Can I get
a witness? I used to believe in Dracula,
the werewolf, all of that old crazy stuff. I used to believe
in ghosts. My folks come from Louisiana,
all right? So because they come from Louisiana,
they tell stories about kinfolk coming back and walking around
without their head on and knowing it was Uncle Charlie We used
to get spooked all as the light flickering. Oh, that was uncle
Charlie calling the light the flicker I can go on and on and
on and on about the myths they are Deceptions that keep you
in bondage because you are ignorant of the Word of God And when the
gospel comes in power and your soul starts to hunger for truth
The Word of God opens up and tells us plainly it is appointed
unto men once to die and after that the judgment They don't
roam this earth as it were kind of free spirits popping in from
time to time hollering at you Those are demons hollering at
you This is what Jesus meant in John
chapter 8, 36. Whomsoever the Son shall set
free will be free indeed. And that freedom is a process. It's a process of liberation
from the multiple prisons that we are in. If you're His, His
declaration is liberty for you. Liberty. But that liberation,
as you're going to see today, is a liberation through process. We're liberated from the death
what? Process. That's Romans chapter 6. We'll
just look at one or two. Romans 6, 17 and 18. Notice what
it says in Romans 6, 17 and 18 as we consider what it means
for the Spirit of God to begin working in my life. Now, this
message is germane and beneficial to some of you because I will
be explaining today things that you are already experiencing
by the grace of God but didn't know how to articulate it. Listen
to what it says in verse 17. But God bethanked that you were
the slaves of sin. You guys see that? But you have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
you, that is the gospel. You obeyed from the heart the
gospel. Verse 18. Being then made free from what? you became the slaves of righteousness. Verse 18 is largely, again, speaking
to the work of God's justification. And you're dying with Christ
when He died, and you're rising with Christ when He rose again.
But the ministry of the Holy Ghost brings that knowledge to
your mind. And think about how liberating
it is. When you and I look in every
direction in which we go, and we see trouble in the world,
we see sin in the world, We see suffering in the world. We see
struggles in the world. And we see a lot of all of that
in ourselves. Is that true? How liberating
it is for the Holy Ghost to remind you there is no condemnation. How liberating that is. Now,
the Holy Ghost is not telling you that you're not subject to
the ramifications of those circumstances. He's telling you that they won't
send you to hell. That is a liberation! The soul
because it gives you room to breathe. It gives you room to
readjust yourself It gives you room in many cases to be able
to actually deal with a situation. That's not gonna change my sister
Laying on her deathbed Knowing that she's gonna die in a few
months But it's very clear that she is a child of God. By faith
in Christ, now can continue to build her soul up in the faith,
acquire more knowledge of God, strengthen her communion with
God, and get ready to exit this world confidently because she's
been liberated from the fear of the bondage of death. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? This is what the apostle means
when he says that you and I have been made free This freedom is
a process going back to our last sub point so I can move to my
second point So the Spirit of God gives life to us. He liberates
us from the death process It's a constant imprisonment that
we're dealing with and he liberates us to live where in him not apart
from him Do you guys see that? He liberates us to live in him
and not apart from him. Go back to Romans chapter 8,
verse 1, part B. This is where I'm going to call
your attention to now. When we hear the exaltation of Paul as
he's affirming chapter 8, verse 1, part A, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. He is simply
affirming the joy that he extolled in verse 25 of chapter 7, right?
Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind
I myself serve the law of God But with the flesh what the law
of sin verse 8 is an explanation as to how Paul was able to parse
the two verse 25 of chapter 7 is a kind of Liberty is it not as
Paul was explaining to us how the force of sin the law of sin
and death the force of sin would bring him into captivity you
guys remember that I And he would go, oh, wretched man that I am,
who will deliver me from this process of death? And then he
says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. So then
with the mind, I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the
law of sin, that is a liberation. That is a decree and a declaration
of freedom. What was his freedom? That the
experience that was going on in his body is not the sum total
of who he was. That when he finds himself compelled
to sin, He also finds himself repelling that sin and thanking
God for a mind that says, I wanna do the will of God. The Holy
Ghost therefore then lets him know, you are free from the condemnation
of that internal struggle. There are Christians whose consciences
are overworked with the reality of their sin. I told you this
about Martin Luther, did not? He went to confession every morning,
every evening, every night. He was wearing his confessor
out. I told you that. His confessor said, look, dude,
understand, you've been forgiven. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't feel forgiven. But you have been forgiven. No,
I don't feel forgiven. Some people are just overwhelmed
by a hypersensitivity to the reality of sin. I wish more of
us were, because I think the larger preponderance of Christians
are too calloused about sin. I wish more of us were sensitive
to sin. One of the messianic attributes
of Isaiah chapter 11 is the spirit of the fear of the Lord. There
are seven divine attributes that underscore the walk of Christ
when he took on a human nature, and these are gifts that also
apply to the Christian. And I wish Christians had a little
bit more of the spirit of the fear of the Lord. You know, we
used to be called God-fearing people long ago. Christians are
not God-fearing people today. They're just religious folk.
Live like hell and just hoping Jesus take them to heaven. If
the Spirit of God were to give to you the spirit of the fear
of the Lord, do you know how that would keep you out of so
much trouble? It would keep you out of so much trouble because
as you and I are going to learn next week, you would be able
to do what Joseph did when that woman kept on tempting him, kept
on nagging him, kept on tempting him, kept on driving him, kept
on poking his internal sinful nature. She knew that he was
a human being. She knew that at some point he
would fall because all people will fall if they don't have
a grace to keep them from falling. But what did Joseph do? He plainly
declared Will I sin against my God and do this evil in his sight? Liberating his soul from a horrible
destiny based upon one act. You know what caused him to be
able to say, I cannot do this and sin against my God. Are you
ready? The spirit of the fear of the Lord that was in him.
It liberated him from a process of bondage that would have led
to a death because fornication and adultery mandates death.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? If we had more of that,
we'd be able to do what Nancy Reagan said, just say what? That's
right. I'll get more of that next week. The last line, to live in him
and not apart from him, is underscored by the last line or the last
clause of verse 1. Now mark this. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh, but after the what? Right. So line B is
what we call a descriptive. It's not a prescription. It's
not a mandate. It's not an imperative. It's
an indicative. It actually describes what it
means to be in Christ. To be in Christ is to be people
who walk after the Spirit. Are you guys following me? Line
A, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are
in Christ, is justification. Line B, who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit, is sanctification. You guys got
that? You got that? Justification,
I'm in Christ. Sanctification, the Spirit of
God is in me. Justification, I'm in Christ.
Sanctification, I walk after the Spirit. You guys follow the
logic? It's very important for us to
see it. So then let's continue working through our point. Point
number two in our outline. Not only does the law of the
spirit of life work in us life, liberate us from the death process,
it's designed for us to live within him. He communicates freedom
with the promise of what? More freedom. He communicates
freedom with the promise of more freedom. I'm just going to quote
two verses here to underscore this point. Now, this is important
for you to get. This is an opportunity for you
to learn how the Spirit of God works in our life as believers.
He's communicating freedom with the promise of more freedom.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 look at 2nd Corinthians 3
3 18 I want you to see this for a moment and then we'll deal
with our two sub points The Apostle Paul talks about the new covenant
in 2nd Corinthians 3 and here's what he says is the experience
of every believer But we all with open face behold as in a
glass what the glory of the Lord Do you guys see that now that
first line again is metaphorical, but it's talking about holding
a mirror up It's a metaphor an analogy of holding a mirror up
And when you look in that mirror, you don't see yourself. You guys
see the logic? I want to help you with this.
This is not a mirror for you to see yourself. This mirror
is designed for you to see the glory of God. This mirror is
the Word of God. Follow this now. But it's only
the Word of God as the gospel is preached. Many people have
a Bible, and when they look at their Bible, they think that
Bible is talking about them. So long as they think their bible
is talking about them in the first sense. They don't have
this mirror They only have the mirror of works The mirror of
law keeping the mirror of self-righteousness It is actually a mirror of bondage
Are you guys hearing me? It's a mirror of bondage what
now think about this think about this for a moment While I got
your attention now when you look in the mirror, come on be honest
with me for a second just for just a second I'm gonna give
you a second to be honest honest person ain't going to hell Are you always happy with what
you see? I'm trying to make this as practical
as possible. Stay with me for a moment. When
you look in this mirror and you see yourself. Now, aren't there
some mirrors that you just absolutely hate? You know those mirrors
that shows your pores as wide open as the Grand Canyon? Those
hard mirrors that show every nook and cranny, all of the ugly
stuff. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Those mirrors you just
want to throw into the wall and smash. Watch this. But that's you in the mirror.
Stay with me for a second now. That's you. And that's bondage. That's bondage. Because while you see yourself,
you can't do a thing about it. You can put the mirror down and
put it back up. Same face. Put it down, put it
back up. You can extend it out. You can
bring it in close. You can twist it up. You can
shine some light on it. Still you. Bondage. You know why? Because
you're not changing. You look the same. And you're
dying. But when you look into the perfect
law of liberty, that mirror who has the face of Jesus Christ
in it, and you get to look at his face over and over and over
again, and you see a perfect man, a righteous man, a holy
man, a glorious God-man in all of his attributes, in all of
his offices, you look into that mirror and then you begin to
see that that mirror actually impacts you. It begins to change
you. You find that that mirror actually
has power to change you. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And here's what that change is doing. It's liberating
you from what you really look like and telling you this is
what you're going to look like when it's all done. And so that
mirror is a mirror where the Spirit of God is constantly freeing
you, liberating you from what you are in yourself so that you
find hope and joy as to who you are in Christ. And that's a very
important process, is it not? A very important process. So
listen to the language. But we are with open face, behold,
as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. And we are changed into
the same image from glory to glory, even as by the what? All right, so I'm getting ready
to ask you one more question before I deal with my last two
points. Doesn't it only stand reasonable,
then, that you should be walking around with that mirror in your
face everywhere you go? Man, what you doing? I'm looking
at myself. Because if you're a child of
God in Christ, all that Christ is, you are in Him. And to the
degree that you are looking to Christ, to that degree, you are
being conformed to His image. And doesn't it follow that you
should spend all your life looking to Christ? If you see the change
occurring because you're looking to Him, wouldn't it be foolish
to take our face from the mirror? Shouldn't we stay in that mirror
all the time? Shouldn't we tie that mirror to our neck? Bond
it to our head? So that we can stay reminded
that all that I am, Christ is. So that we find the power of
who He is because of our union with Him changing our life. That's
exactly what the spirit of God does through the gospel in the
life of the believer I hope that point made some Resonation with
your soul going back to our point then just let me run through
these quickly and we'll come back and pick them up Point number
two. He communicates freedom with
the promise of more freedom by declaring our justification Secondly
by affirming our justification by the life of faith in us. Do
you guys see that? Declaration the Gospels preached
to us. We enjoyed the gospel. Do you
ever get tired of justification? You ought never to get tired
of hearing what Christ did for you But what the Spirit of God
also does is affirm our justification by the life of faith in us The
only evidence the only evidence that Christ has justified you
is that you believe the gospel That's the only evidence you
have. If you are not believing the gospel today, you may hear
justification until the sun goes down. But it means nothing unless
you believe it. And the goal of the Spirit of
God is to affirm that God has justified you by continually
building into your heart faith in Christ. Am I making some sense?
Faith in Christ. The just shall live by what? The just shall live by faith.
Now is not faith a gift of God? Faith is a gift of God. It's
not just mere assent to doctrinal truths. It's a commitment to
a God who has declared to save us and who is also saving us.
Is that true? So now watch this. Under this
point, I want to say three things. When it comes to faith, and I
want you to write this in your notes, because we're going to
have to come back to it. When it comes to faith, faith
is the product of love. When it comes to faith, it's
the product of love. I want you to write that down. Faith only works by what, ladies
and gentlemen? That's right, Galatians chapter
5, 5 and 6. Faith is the product of love. Now love is the keeping
of the commandment that God demands of us. Are you guys following
the logic? Watch this now. All the law and
the prophets hang on these two principles. Love the Lord your
God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Isn't that
what he said? Watch this. And your neighbor as yourself. Isn't
that what he says? Now watch this. What that looks like for
you and me is the life of faith. What does it look like to love
God and love our neighbor? It's the life of faith. You guys
follow that? Hear me now, I'm giving you the foundation to
what true biblical faith is. True biblical faith is not simply
saying, it's me and Jesus, why you hate everybody? Hear me now,
I want you to get this, because the Spirit of God is working
in you and me, the character of Christ. If true biblical faith
is an expression of who Christ is, the character of Christ must
be working in us. Watch this. So now if I'm walking
by faith, it's rooted in what? Love. Stay with me. I'm going
to stop right here. I can tell you guys going to
sleep on me. Stay right here. Watch this down. Faith works
by love. And love has to be undergirded
by life. Put life down there. This is
the point. When he puts life in you and
me, when you and I have spiritual life, what he infuses in us is
the love of God. In that Romans chapter 5 verse
3, but the love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost causes us to rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. The just shall live by faith, that faith is based on
love and that love is based on life. Do you hear me? It's based
on life. When you and I truly have the
life of God in us, the love of God will be manifested by a life
of faith. Y'all got that triad? It's very
simple, because when we come back next week, we're going to
have to get into some tough stuff. How do I know that God is in
me? How do I know that Christ is
working in my life? How do I know that the Spirit of God is in
me? Because the Spirit of God has given me life, which produces
love, which manifests itself by faith. and the just live by
faith and the just walk in love because the just has been given
life. Does that follow, ladies and gentlemen? And that's the
grace that the Spirit of God is constantly working in our
life. He's working in our life as a consequence of raising us
from the dead, pouring the love of God into our soul. I'm saying
this intentionally over and over again, and it manifests itself
in a life of faith. That life of faith is our loving
God and loving our neighbor as ourselves the best we can, right? and daily he's working on us
in that regard. That person who is experiencing
faith this way, I want you to hear this now, will constantly
have repeated to their soul by the Spirit of God, I want you
to hear this, the person that is experiencing this kind of
faith, which works by love, that's rooted in life, will have the
constant affirmation by the Spirit of God that there is therefore
now no condemnation. Every day of your life you will
experience the blessed liberation and freedom, emancipation of
no condemnation. No condemnation. You messed up
today? No condemnation. No condemnation. You fell a little short today?
No condemnation. No condemnation. Get up, go take a bath in the
blood, keep rolling. No condemnation. No condemnation.
You thought bad today? No condemnation. No condemnation.
Christ thought good enough for you for all eternity. Just ask
Him for grace to stop thinking that way. No condemnation. Get
on up and move forward. There's no condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. Amen.