Turn back to Romans chapter 8. I've entitled the message for
this morning, What is the Gospel Message? What could be more important
to consider than that? What is the gospel message? Romans chapter 8 verse 3, for
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God did do. God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and foreseeing 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. What
is the gospel message? It's a message about what the
law cannot do. And it's a message concerning
what God can do. Now, think about that. You can't
really preach the gospel if you don't preach what the law cannot
do. And you can't preach the gospel
unless you tell what God can do. Now, here's what the law
can never do. The law can never cause its righteousness
to be fulfilled in us. And here's what only God can
do. He can cause the very righteousness
of the law to be fulfilled, to find its completion and its perfection
in us. Now, would you please give me
your most careful attention and ask the Lord to enable me to
preach the gospel, and ask the Lord to enable you to hear the
gospel. What is the gospel message? First
of all, it's about what the law cannot do." Now that word cannot
is also translated impossible, what's impossible for the law
to do. It's translated impotent, what the law is impotent to do.
It's translated not possible, what it's not possible for the
law to do. Now, There are things that the
law is powerless to do. And I can't preach the gospel
unless I preach this aspect of the gospel. What the law cannot
do. Now the first thing we need to
consider is what does Paul mean when he's talking about the law?
What the law cannot do. And it's very important for us
to have an understanding of exactly what he's talking about. Now
the first thing I think about when I think about the law is
the Ten Commandments. Probably the first thing you think about
too. God's holy law, the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt have
no other gods before me. The law concerning his name,
don't take it in vain. God's name is so holy, it's so
other, it's so altogether glorious that even to speak his name in
a way that's irreverent calls for hell. That's how holy he
is. That's a solemn thing to think
about, isn't it? There's the commandment regarding idolatry,
the forbidding of all graven images and false concepts and
ideas of God, the commandment of the Sabbath, the commandment
concerning honoring your parents and honoring authority, the commandment
concerning not killing or not committing adultery or not stealing
or not bearing false witness, not coveting. That's God's holy
law, the 10 commandments. And then there's the law that
God placed in the garden before the fall. Remember the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil? You shall not eat of it. In the
day you eat thereof, you'll surely die. You're forbidden. That's
law, isn't it? Turn with me for a moment to
Galatians chapter four. I think this explains what is
meant by law more than anything else. And this is the story of
Hagar and Ishmael, of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac. And I think
what is interesting about this is that we would have never known
that this is to teach us what law really means unless God revealed
it to us. We would have just looked at
it as another one of those amazing stories in the Old Testament. Galatians
chapter four, verse 19. my little children of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. I desire
to be present with you now and to change my voice for I stand
in doubt of you. And here's why he stood in doubt
of them. Tell me you that desire to be under the law. Don't you
hear what the law says? Now if I was writing this, I
would have gone straight to the Ten Commandments and shown how
the commandments we haven't kept one, one time. That's not what
Paul chose. He chose this story about Abraham
and Sarah and Hagar and Isaac and Ishmael. Now let's look in
verse 21 or verse 22. For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bondmaid and the other by a free woman. Now you remember
the story, don't you? God promised Abraham a son through
Sarah. Sarah had actually gone through
menopause. She was unable to bear a child. 25 years pass since God made
this initial promise and Sarah comes up with an idea. Obviously
God's promise is not going to come until we do our part. And obviously I can't have a
boy. So here's what you need to do. You need to go into Hagar.
We need to do our part or God's promise won't come into effect.
You go into Hagar and we'll have that boy." And Abraham said,
okay. He went into Hagar. Hagar was
a young woman. There was nothing miraculous
about this birth. And they had this child. It's called the child
of the flesh, nothing miraculous. It's us doing our part. But God rejected that. And Sarah,
the free woman, had a son by promise. His birth was a supernatural
birth. I don't understand how somebody
can have a, or her birth, when Sarah had Isaac, it was supernatural
because she'd already gone through menopause. Yet she has a child. There's something supernatural
about this. It's totally a supernatural work of God. Now look what he
says. Verse 23, but he who was of the bond woman was born after
the flesh, nothing miraculous, but he of the free woman was
by promise, which things are an allegory for these are the
two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which
genders to bondage is Hagar. Hagar represents salvation by
law. Now here's what salvation by
law means. Salvation by law is you doing your part to make it
work. That's all. If any part of salvation is predicated
upon, conditioned upon, dependent upon, contingent upon us to do
our part, that is law. The message that is preached
in our day, God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, wants
to save everybody. But it's up to you to do your
part. You must accept what he did or what he did won't work
for you. You must accept him as your personal Savior. That's
just as much law as you have to keep the Ten Commandments
perfectly. Do you believe that? It's so. Salvation dependent upon law. Now, Paul tells us what the law
could not do. There are some things it can
do. The law could expose sin. It can do that. The law can make
you feel guilty. The law could accuse you. The
law can condemn you, but it can't give power to obey. It cannot
forgive. It cannot justify you. It cannot
sanctify you. IT CANNOT GLORIFY YOU! IT CAN'T
PRODUCE LOVE IN YOU! IT CAN'T PRODUCE FAITH! IT CAN'T
CAUSE YOU TO REPENT! IT CAN'T GIVE YOU A NEW HEART!
IN OTHER WORDS, IT CAN'T SAVE! IF SALVATION IS DEPENDENT UPON
YOU, AND THAT'S WHAT LAW MEANS, IF SALVATION IS IN ANY WAY TO
ANY DEGREE DEPENDENT UPON WHAT YOU OR I DO, WE WILL NOT BE SAVED! That is salvation by law. You know, the law can't even
restrain sin. Romans 5.20 says, moreover, the
law entered that the offense might abound. The more law you
put somebody under, the more wicked they'll become, the more
things they'll do. That's what God says. The strength
of sin is the law. First Corinthians 15.56. Now,
the problem is not with God's holy law. problems with me and
you." Notice what he says in our text in Romans chapter 8.
Would you turn back there? For what the law could not do,
it couldn't save, it couldn't cause its righteousness to be
fulfilled in us, It could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh. The problem is not with the law.
The problem is with the weakness of the flesh. Look what Paul
goes on to say in verse 6 of Romans chapter 8. For to be carnally
minded, fleshly minded, is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, that's
the mind you and I were born with. is enmity against God,
it's hatred toward God, for it's not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be, it lacks the ability to be, so then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God. Turn with me for a moment to
Hebrews chapter 7. Hold your finger there in Romans
8. I want you to look at what the writer to the Hebrews says about
God's holy law. Verse 18, or verse 16, talking
about Melchizedek who is made high priest, not after the law
of a carnal commandment. That's what he calls God's holy
law, a carnal commandment. But after the power of an endless
life, for he testified thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek, for there is verily a disannulling of the
commandment going before for the weakness and the unprofitableness
thereof. That's how the writer to the
Hebrews refers to God's holy law. He talks about the weakness
and the unprofitableness of it. Now, the weakness is in me. The
reason it's unprofitable is I can't be saved by it. It won't do me
any good at all. Look in Hebrews 8, verse 7. 7 For if the first covenant, talking
about the law, had been faultless, then should no place have been
sought for the second. For finding fault with them,
he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I make a
new covenant. See, he, God himself, found fault with the law. He's
the one who recorded it, he gave it to us, but he found fault
in this sense. It will not save us. What the
law cannot do, so certainly a part of the gospel message, is what
the law cannot do. And if that is not completely
brought forth, it obscures the positive part of the message,
what God can do. What I thought about when I thought
about what God can do, what the law can't do, it can't cause
its righteousness to be fulfilled in us. Only God can do that.
But I thought about the rich young ruler, this man filled
with so much promise. comes up to the Lord with such
seeming respect and he falls down on his feet and he says,
good master, what good thing can I do that I might inherit
eternal life? And I'm sure the apostles were
thinking, this is good. We got this guy interested in,
he's rich. He's educated, he's a ruler, he's somebody. Here
he comes to the Lord. Maybe we can start making some
progress with converts like this. He comes up and he bows down
before the Lord and the Lord said, you know the commandments? And he named them, thou shalt
not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness,
honor your father and mother. He named the commandments. And
this young man said, all of these. have I kept from my youth up. Now, I remember when I was a
young man, I used to think of the Ten Commandments, and I can
remember very clearly thinking, boy, I've kept seven of the ten.
Now, that's when I didn't know what they meant, obviously, I
was a boy. But this fellow was a young adult,
at any rate, and he said, sincerely believing he had, all these have
I kept. from my youth up." Now, that's
some impressive young man, isn't it? I mean, he's wrong, the fact
that he thought he, I'm impressed. There's one commandment the Lord
didn't mention, covetousness. This was a very rich young ruler,
and the fellow said, well, you lack one thing. If you want to
be perfect, go sell all you have and give every bit of it to the
poor and come and follow me. He couldn't do that. You see, this man was controlled
by covetousness. He wasn't near as good as he
thought he was, and then he went away very sorrowful. And the
Lord said, how? Hardly. shall they that have
riches enter the kingdom of heaven." It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven. And the disciples watched this
fellow leave and they said, if he can't be saved, who can be
saved? This is the best humanity has
to offer. And the Lord said, with men,
this is impossible. With men, salvation is impossible. If any part of salvation is dependent
upon any man doing anything, salvation is impossible, but
not with God. For with God, all things are
possible. Sarah heard the Lord give that
promise in Genesis 18. Sarah's gonna have a boy. She
started laughing. Started laughing. Lord said, is anything too hard
for the Lord? Is my arm shortened that it cannot
save? You see, while the law can't
do anything but condemn, It certainly can't cause its righteousness
to be fulfilled in us. God is able to make the very
righteousness of His law fulfilled, completed, brought to its end,
brought to its perfection in us. That's an amazing thing,
isn't it? You know what that means? God can take somebody. Who's
the most sinful person you know? who is the absolute most sinful
person you know. I was watching a TV program the
other night, and there was a singer being recognized, and he looked
out at the audience, whatever it was, and he said, he said,
well, he said, I might not be the best person, but I'm not
as bad as some of you. And he was laughing about it,
and I'm sure he was telling the truth, outwardly speaking. But
who's the most sinful person you know? I know who the most sinful person
I know is, me. And I really believe that. I'm
not just saying it, I'm really believing it. Now, I realize
I'll probably get upset if you agree with me and say, yeah,
I think you probably are, you know, but that being said, I
know enough about myself to know I am the most sinful, weak person
alive. I really believe that about myself. You know what? God is able to
take me and cause the very righteousness of His law, perfect obedience,
to be fulfilled in me. Now that is something that only
God can do. Here's how. Verse 3, For what
the law could not do, in that it was weak in the flesh, God
sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemn 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." God sending His own Son, the
man who was and is His fellow. His equal, His love and delight,
the only begotten and well-beloved Son. I love that name of His,
don't you? The only begotten. Ain't nobody like Him. the well-beloved,
the sole representative of the being and character of Him who
sent Him, the One who possesses in His body every attribute of
pure Godhood, the only begotten and well-beloved Son. God sent
Him. Why did He send Him? Aren't you glad He did? You know,
Christ is called the Sent One. God sent Him. Why did He send Him? God sent
His Son into the world not to condemn the world, our Lord said.
He wasn't sent to condemn you or me. We already were condemned. He sent Him to save. That's why
God sent Him. He sent His Son into this sin-cursed
world to save. Matthew 121 says, Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. God sent him to be a savior.
God sent him to save people like me and you. That's why God sent
him. He sent him to be a surety. Now, I love this concept the
Bible gives us of assurity. You know what assurity is? Assurity
is someone who takes the responsibility of somebody else. First loan I got, I remember,
I went to the bank, they said, no way. I went to my dad, he
said, no way. I went to my grandfather, he
said, I'll cosign. I'll be assurity. And I got the
loan, $600 for a 1967 Mustang Fastback. Wish I still had it.
But the point is, the only reason I got that money was because
my grandfather was my surety. Do you know Christ became my
surety, the guarantee of my salvation? Listen to these words that Judah,
gave to Jacob concerning Benjamin, saying, I'll be a surety for
Benjamin. And Christ said this of me. He
said, send the lad with me. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shall thou require
of him. And if I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. That's what Jesus Christ said
of me. Send him with me. He said in
John chapter six, verse 39, this is the will of him that sent
me that of all which he hath given me is elect. I stand to surety for
them. I won't lose one of them, but
raise it up again at the last day. He said what Paul said to
Philemon of Onesimus, the runaway slave. If he hath wrong thee
or oweth thee aught, put that on my account. I will repay,
saith the Lord. I will repay. He sent him as
a surety and he sent him as a substitute. Now, what's that mean? Well, Peter put it this way in
first Peter 3, 18, for Christ also had one suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, the just for the unjust. You see, he stood for me. He lived for me. He kept the law for me. He lived the life that I could
not live. He died for me, the death that
I couldn't die and that I could never pay or make satisfaction.
He paid the price that I could not pay. You see, a real substitution
took place. Second Corinthians 521 says,
for he hath made him to be sin. What are the next two words for
us? For us. Who knew no sin, he never
sinned. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. A real substitution took place. He actually, literally, positively
took my place. My sin became his personal sin
so that he was made to cry out, my God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? At that time, he couldn't even
call God his father because he stood in my place and took what
I deserved. Why did he come? A real substitution
took place. You see, God sent him as a sacrifice
for sin. Now, once in the end of the world,
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Of himself. Abraham and Isaac are walking
up the mountain. Isaac doesn't know that he's
to be put to death. And Isaac says to his father,
as they're carrying the wood and the fire, see, here's the
wood, here's the fire for a burnt offering, but where's the lamb? Where's the lamb? And Abraham
said, my son, God will provide Himself a lamb for the burnt
offering. He provided the lamb. He provided
the lamb for Himself. As I've said so many times, for
God to do something for me or you, He first had to do something
for Himself. His justice had to be satisfied. His law had to be honored. Do
you know Christ would rather die than let God's holy law be
dishonored? He provides himself as the lamb,
the sacrifice for the burnt offering. And God sent him to make satisfaction
for sin. He sent Him to be a Savior. He
sent Him to be a surety. He sent Him to be a substitute.
He sent Him to be a sacrifice. And He sent Him to make satisfaction
for sin. He shall see the travail of His
soul and be satisfied. Satisfied so much. Sin was so
effectually removed. God's justice so completely satisfied
that in the sight of God, every believer holy, unblameable, and
unreprovable in the very sight of God. Complete satisfaction
made. Everybody that Christ died for,
God is completely satisfied with. God looks at me and He says,
I'm satisfied with Him. My holy law is fulfilled in because
of what Christ did for me. God sent his son to be a success. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. It is finished means it is finished.
He succeeded. Whatever his intentions were
to do, he did. Successful. Now, it also says
in our text in Romans chapter 8, God sending his own son. Look
at the next phrase, in the likeness of sinful flesh. Not in sinful
flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. You see, he had
no sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He could actually say, and this
is one of the many glorious things he said, but he could actually
say, which of you can convince me of sin? Can you imagine saying
that? He's the only one who could.
Which of you can convince me of sin? You see, he was sinned
in the likeness of sinful flesh. In the flesh, he never sinned.
He kept God's law perfectly. Listen to these words from Matthew
chapter 5. I'll read it to you, beginning
in verse 17. He said, Think not that I am
come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled." He came to fulfill
God's holy law. Now it says in our text back
in Romans 8 to 3, God sending his own son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, for sin. On account of sin, he came
to bear our sins in his own body on the tree to be, as the scripture
says, made sin. And do you want to know what sin
really is? Look at that one nailed to a
cross. There sin is. And the only way
you and I will ever have any true understanding of sin is
when we see how God killed his son. And the punishment always
fits the crime. God killed his son because of
sin. And if you ever want to know
how sinful you really are, don't look at what you do. Now, what
you do is bad enough. I realize that. But that's not
where you really find out what sin is. You find out what sin
is when men are left to themselves to do what they want to do, and
they nail God's son to a tree. And that's what's in my heart,
and that's what's in your heart. If you want to know what sin
is, you look to the cross. That's where you find out what
sin is. He sent him for sin. And what did he do? It says he
condemned sin in the flesh. God sent him in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin, because of sin. And here's what
he did. He condemned sin in the flesh. Sin was tried. Sin was condemned, sin was executed,
and sin was put away by what the Lord did. Because He condemned
sin in the flesh, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Verse 4, now here's what the
law could never do. Here's what God really did do,
that the righteousness of the law, perfect obedience might
be fulfilled in us. Now, I think this is interesting.
He doesn't say that it might be imputed to us. It was imputed
to us. But he said that it might be
fulfilled, brought to its completion. brought to its end in us. What does that mean? Does it mean that we will be
enabled by the grace of God to keep the law now that we have
grace? Is that what it means? Well, I know this, if it does
mean that, I'm in trouble. Because I've never experienced
anything like that. I know that that is not what it means. Doesn't
mean you're enabled to keep the law. If that is what it means,
none of us will be saved because we've all failed. What does it
mean? Well, it means exactly what the
Lord meant when he spoke to John the Baptist. He came to John
the Baptist, he said, I want you to baptize me. Can you imagine how you would
feel if Jesus Christ the Lord came to you and said, I want
you to baptize me? You would feel altogether unfit
for such a thing. Well, John did too. He said,
I have need to be baptized in thee and comeeth out of me. And
the Lord said, suffer to be so now. I love the way he said that.
Suffer to be so now. I realize this seems totally
inappropriate for you to baptize me. I realize that. Doesn't look
right, does it? Suffer to be so now, for thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. When Jesus Christ fulfilled all
righteousness, so did John the Baptist. So did Todd Nybert. So did John Greenleaf. Everybody
that he fulfilled righteousness for has the very righteousness
of God fulfilled, brought to its completion in them. If I'm united to him, just as
truly as my sin literally became his sin, and it did, It's just
one of those things that are just mysterious. I don't understand
how that could be, but my sin became His sin. so that he became
guilty. It really was his. It was his.
And he owned it as his. He didn't say Todd's sin, which
was imputed to me. He said my sin. That's the words
of our Lord. My iniquities have gone over
my head as a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. That's
the Lord speaking regarding his sin. My sin became his sin. And how literal is that? Well,
how literal was his death? That's the way I'd ask that question.
How literal was his death? That's how truly my sin became
His sin. And just as truly as my sin became
His sin, His very righteousness, His law-keeping is mine. So that I am, through Him, my
Savior, I am the very righteousness of God in Him. The righteousness of the law
has been completely fulfilled in me as I am united to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Whatever he did, I did. Don't
you love baptism? Because that's what baptism depicts. When Christ lived that perfect
life, that's my life. When he died that horrible death,
that's my death. When he was raised from the dead,
I was raised with him. And that's what we depict in
baptism. That's all my salvation. And that's all my desire, that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, not
in everybody. You know, I love the us in the
scriptures. If God be for us, who could be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not freely with
him give us all things? He's talking about every believer,
talking about those who bow the knee to Christ, talking about
those who believe Him, talking about those the Father gave Him,
talking about God's elect. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. To walk after the flesh is to
walk according to your first nature, your natural thought,
your natural thinking, the way you believe naturally. You know it's as natural to believe
in free will as it is to breathe. Natural, that's the way a natural
man believes. That's walking after the flesh. To think your
flesh has something to do with salvation. You know, when the
writer of the Hebrews says we're to repent of dead works, that's
talking about any works that were performed by the flesh.
Dead and sins. Repent of that. Repent of that. Trust the living God. We're not
to walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That means
we do what only those who walk after the Spirit do. We believe
the gospel. We do something that's impossible
for the natural man. We look to Christ. We really
do rely on him as our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification,
and our redemption. We really do. We walk after the
Spirit. Do you know only God the Holy
Spirit can enable a man to walk after the Spirit, to believe
the gospel? Now, Paul, turn back to Romans
3. Verse 31, do we then make void the law
through faith? Now, salvation is experienced
through faith in Christ, trusting Jesus Christ as your righteousness
before God. That's what faith is. It's simply
that. It's trusting Jesus Christ as your righteousness before
God. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Now, does that mean God's law
is out the window? God forbid. Yay, Paul says, we
establish the law. Now, do you want to know how
you can honor God's holy law? One way, by faith in Christ. Anything else is dishonoring
to God's holy law. You're bringing it down to your
level. You're bringing it down to the mud and the grime and
the filth of yourself. Don't do that. The only way to
honor God's holy law is through faith in Christ. Now, the message of the gospel,
it's about what the law cannot do. The law, salvation dependent
upon you, can never cause its righteousness to be fulfilled
in us. God's law can't do that. But
here's what, here's the message of the gospel. It's concerning
what God can do. God can have the very righteousness
of his law fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. You know, someone visited me
this week, and he said, do y'all have an altar call? I said, why
would we have that? And he said, well, you're calling
people to come to Christ. I said, number one, where's that
in the Bible? You don't have any example of
anything like that in the Bible. And number two, the entire message
is calling people to come to Christ. into everything we're
saying. It's calling people to come to
Christ right now. It's not done by walking down
a silly aisle. Last time Walter Groover was
here, he said, I see you got your aisle slanted. That way
you can roll people down the aisle, you know. I said, no,
no. Beloved Everybody in this room,
I don't care what your experience is, how much you know, how much
you don't know. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you. And thou
shalt be saved. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for teaching
us what the law could never do, you do, in sending your glorious
Son in the likeness of sin