We looked at a couple of verses
here last week. I just want to talk a few minutes,
mainly concerning verse 2. But let me read the first four
verses to us again. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free, has made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak to the flesh, God sinned in His own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin He condemned sin,
destroyed it in the flesh, in His flesh, His dying flesh, that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. I want us to
look just for a few minutes in verse 2. The law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. The Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus. The life of a believer is in
the Spirit. That's where he has his life.
It begins in the Spirit. He's born of the Spirit. He is said to live in the Spirit. He is told to walk in the Spirit. And He is even told to be filled
with the Spirit. And Paul reached this conclusion
there in verse 9. In the light of this, he said,
If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And Paul uses this word law here
in verse 2, the law of the Spirit Now, what does law mean? Well,
it means a rule that is fixed or established. We talk about
the law of gravity. We know what that is. That's
a fixed rule. That's definite. If you hold
up a rock five feet off the ground and you let it go, what happens
to it? It goes down, doesn't it? If
you're on a hundred-story building and you walk off the edge, what
happens? There's a law that says in about 15 seconds you're going
to hit the ground. That's the law of gravity. It's
an established, it's a fixed rule. So he comes here and he
said there is a law concerning the Spirit of Jesus Christ. What is that law? There's something
that's fixed in regard to those who possess the Spirit of Christ. And what is it? They have life.
They have life. If you're here this afternoon
and you possess the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have
life. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus. Nobody has the Spirit of God
and are dead and trespasses in. If God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your heart, then you're alive in the Spirit. Very familiar scripture, listen
to this. That last day, the great day of the feast, the Lord Jesus
stood and cried, He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. This he spake of the Spirit. The woman at the well in John
chapter 4, the Lord Jesus said to her, Whosoever drinketh of
this water that you are coming for shall thirst again. But whosoever
drinketh of the water that I will give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I will give him shall be in him a well."
That's the source, isn't it? She took a bucket to the well
to bring some water back home with her. The Lord Jesus said,
I have water to give you, in you shall be the supply, in you
shall be the source, the water that I will give is life everlasting. That's the rule of the Spirit. And it's fixed. It's the Spirit
of life that is in Christ Jesus. And if you have the Spirit of
Christ, then you have life. Everywhere He goes, He brings
life with Him. That's the first rule. And the
second rule He mentions here in verse 2 is this. The law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free." Freedom. Liberty. That's the rule. Where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. There's liberty. This
word free here means to liberate, to exempt from bondage. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. You remember the first message
our Lord Jesus preached at Nazareth? When he opened the Bible and
found that passage in Isaiah chapter 50, in the book of Isaiah,
maybe chapter 59 or 60, and he read it, the Lord God has sent
me to set at liberty those that are bruised. There's a law of
the spirit of life that's in Christ Jesus. When he comes into
the soul, he sets the person free. Stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free. Dear old Patrick Henry,
most of you remember reading about him in history. He was
a member of the congressional group there in Virginia, later
the governor of Virginia for several terms. And in 1775, he
stood in that assembly, and he had felt the bondage of the King
of England for so long. And he stood, and with a voice
of great enthusiasm, that reached not only from the coast of Virginia
all the way out on the west coast of California, and it rippled
and rippled all the way across the ocean to the King of England.
when great Patrick Henry stood in that assembly and said, give
me liberty or give me death. And we were talking about it
just back there. One of the reasons those dear men desired liberty,
a country, political liberty and social liberty, economic
liberty, is because many of them had heard the gospel. They had
tasted liberty in their conscience and they wanted liberty. I think
there's something in man, and somebody has said this, that
there's something in man, it's inherited in man to want to be
free. That's why we see some of the
revolutions going on and have been in the past. Men long to
be free. And there's nobody that longs
to be free any more than a believer. This is why we love our country,
is it not? One of the reasons we love our
country is because we have liberty. And we know something about liberty
because we have liberty of our conscience. The Spirit of God
has come into our hearts, and when He comes in, He makes you
free. The Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made you free. You know why communism hates
the gospel? Because it frees men. You know
why socialism hates the gospel? You know why dictators hate the
gospel? Because it proclaims liberty.
And they want to bind men. Men bind us, don't they? Everybody's
wanting to put you under some kind of bondage. Religion wants
to put you under bondage. Government wants to put you under
bondage. Satan wants to oppress you and
put you under bondage. There's only one thing that will
set us free. And that's the spirit of life
that's in Christ Jesus. He sets you free in your conscience,
in your heart, in your soul. Can you imagine what that Gadarene
felt in his soul, in his heart? That had been bound by the devils,
a legion of devils, maybe for years. All his friends know to
do for him was to bind him that much more. new ropes and chains
and he'd just break them. That man was in such bondage.
Can you imagine how he felt when the Lord Jesus cast those devils
out of him? And he was set in their clothes
in his right mind. He was free. For the first time
in his life, that man was free. That's what the spirit of life
does for you. That's the law. It's a fixed
rule. Every heart he comes to, he sets them free. I want you
to read a passage with me. I want you to hold Romans 8 there
if you've got some way to hold it. And look over in 2 Chronicles,
in verse 29. 2 Chronicles, verse 29. When we talk about freeness,
liberty, stand fast in the liberty, we're not talking in the Gospel.
We're not talking about physically. A lot of us are bound up with
some kind of diseases or may be in prison. There are some
dear children of God in prison in different places in this world.
But he's not talking about being free in the body, in the flesh.
But Hezekiah here tells us what it is. Look here in 2 Chronicles
chapter 29 and verse 30 and verse 31. Here's where they're having a
great revival here in Hezekiah's day. And look here how he says
it. 2 Chronicles chapter 29, and look in verse 30. Moreover,
Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing
praises unto the Lord with the words of David, and Asaph the
seer. And they sang praises with gladness,
and they bowed their heads in worship. Then Hezekiah answered
and said, Now you have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord. Come
near and bring sacrifices and thank-offerings unto the house
of the Lord. And the congregation brought
in sacrifices and drink-offerings, and as many as were of a free
heart burned offerings." They brought offerings. A free heart. A free heart. That's the amazing
thing. This is what we crave to have.
A free heart. A free conscience. A free spirit. And you know something? It's
when we're set free. It's when the spirit of life
comes and sets us free that we worship. Who was it that brought
all the sacrifices? Who was it that brought the offerings
and worshipped Who was it that sang praises to God, those whose
hearts were free? And brothers and sisters, if
you know anything about liberty in your heart, you know what
a precious, precious thing it is. We'll never serve the Lord. We'll never worship Him as we
should until we find out that we're free. The law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. The Lord in Isaiah 58-6,
He said this, He said, This is the feast that I have chosen,
to loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, and let
the oppressed go free, and break every yoke. They were fasting
and starving themselves and disfiguring their faces. And the Lord said,
Here is my fast. Let the oppressors go free. Break
every yoke. Let men have freedom in their
conscience, in their hearts. And that's what the Lord gives
us. There's an amazing story. I'm not for sure where it is
in the Scriptures. Maybe it's in Exodus 30 or 31 if you want to
read it sometime. A man had got into debt and he
sold himself into bondage to a Jewish brother. And he was
allowed to keep him in bondage for six years. And if he had
given this man a wife, the man had to go out the seventh year.
He went to the man and he says, you're free. You're free. You can go out. If you brought
your wife in with you, take her and you're free to go. But there
were some men who would not leave. And they said, I love my master. I will not go out free. And they
would take that man and stick his ear to the post of the porch
and they would bore it through with an awl, put a hole in his
ear. It showed that he belonged to that master forever. But you
know, you know in what context that he made that decision that
I will not go out? When the Master went to him and
said, You're free. You're free now. You can go.
And that's the time when he said, I'm not going anywhere. But you're
free. Free to what? Free to love my
Master. Free to serve my Master. And
when he says the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free,
do you know what it makes us free to do? to serve Christ,
to love Christ, to worship Christ, to follow Christ. That's why
it's such a wonderful and glorious liberty. The Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has made you free. Free. Free from what? Look back over in our text in
Romans Chapter 8. What are we free from? Look what he says in the last
portion of verse 2. The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. What does that mean? He's made
us free from the law of sin and death. Well, let's stay with
what the word itself means. Law, that established and fixed
rule. There's a rule concerning sin
and death, the law of sin. It's a fixed rule. You know what
that fixed rule about sin and death is? It abides in everybody. That's the fixed rule. It abides
in everybody. Somebody says, I don't have sin.
There's a law that says you do. There's a law that says you do. If we say we have no sin, what
do we do? We deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. There's a body of sin, a sinful
nature that abides even in the person of the children of God. And it's the biggest burden they've
got. And here's what they say about
it. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of sin? Paul talked about it. Look here
in chapter 7. Look here in verse 22. Look here
at this corrupt nature, sinful, corrupt nature. In verse 22 of
chapter 7, he said, I delight in the law of God. I delight
in God. I delight in the gospel of God,
the Son of God, the law of God, after the inner man. But I see another law in my members. warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members." There is a body of sin. That's what it's called,
a body of sin. And it dwells in us. It's what
we are by nature. And you know something, you can't
escape it as long as you live in this earth. Some people have
denied it. They've gone as far as to say Paul was talking about
his experience before he was converted. Paul never said this
about himself before he was converted. He never said, oh, wretched man
that I am. He said, God, I think I'm not
like other men are. I fast twice a week and pay tithes
and all that. I'm a righteous man, he said.
Concerning the law, I was blamed. But here, he changed his tune,
didn't he? Why? God showed him. Within your
own nature, there is a body of sin, and it wars against your
mind. You're in captivity to it. You
can't escape it. It's a body of sin. And he says
in verse 24, he calls it something else. O wretched man that I am,
not that I was, but I still am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? It's called a body. A body of
death, a body of sin. That's what makes chapter 8 verse
1 so precious. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. How could that be so? How could
we have this body of sin in us and we recognize it and it makes
us cry, O wretched man that I am, and still we're not condemned?
How is that possible? The Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has set us free from it. We're free from it. But how can
He do that? Well, look back in chapter 6
and verse 6. You want to know the position
and the condition of this old man of sin? You want to know
something about him? You know he's been destroyed?
Did you know that? This whole body of sin has been
destroyed. Look what he says in verse 6 of chapter 6. Knowing
this, that our old man, what's that? That's our old corrupt
nature, is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Ain't that amazing? The Bible
is an amazing book, isn't it? The Scripture says we're crucified
with Christ. Is Christ crucified? Well, the
Bible says He is. The last thing this world saw
of Him, He was, wasn't He? And you know who hanged there
with Him? This old man. This old man. And you know what
happened to him? He was destroyed. He was destroyed
when Christ was destroyed. You mean Christ was destroyed?
The Bible says He was. Destroyed this temple and in
three days I'll raise it up again? He was destroyed in that sense
upon the cross because sin that was in His body was put to death. This body of sin was destroyed. And now the Spirit of Christ
can come into our hearts and He says you're free from this
sin and this death because it hung with Jesus upon the cross
of Calvary. It's gone. It's destroyed. I
don't feel like it is. Do you? In my experience, it
isn't. But God tells me to reckon it
dead. Reckon it crucified with Christ. Look in verse 11 of chapter
6. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Next time sin starts bothering
you, when this old man starts bothering you and you're packing
him around, they said, Rome, I don't know if this is true,
but it's been told us by pretty incredible forces that there
was a time when Rome had this law, if you killed a man unjustly,
they tied him on your back and you packed him around while he
decayed. Wouldn't that be awful? You talk about old wretched man,
this body of death. Who's going to deliver? Did you
see some man walking around carrying a 200 pound man he killed and
he was decaying? Maggots was falling out of him,
coming down his ears. Flies blowing him. Can you imagine
a man like that saying, who shall deliver me from this body of
death? The next time you feel that old
man, just think of this. Old man, you're dead. You're
dead. You were crucified with Christ.
You're hanging on the cross with Christ. And where the Spirit
of life is, you're free from that body of death. That's one of the meanings of
this verse, but let's look at another meaning. The Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from The moral law, the moral law, which
reveals sin and threatens with death. Listen to these passages
of Scripture. Sin is the transgression of the
law. Where no law is, there is no
transgression. Ain't that wonderful? If there
is no law, there cannot be a transgression. The reason they can fine us for
going up Indiana 3, 65 miles an hour, is because the law says
the speed limit is 60. If they could take that law away,
you could run as fast as you wanted to. You wouldn't be a
lawbreaker. Why? There is no law. Listen
to this verse. Sin is not imputed where there
is no law. The passions or motions of sin
which are by the law. The strength of sin is the law. By the commandment, sin becomes
exceeding sinful. The law entered that the offense
might abound. There is no sin where there is
no law. But where there is a law, there
is sin. There is sin where there is a
law. The law that reveals sin and
makes it exceeding sinful. We're free from that law. The
law of death, the law of sin, it reveals sin, it makes sin
exceeding sinful, it points it out, and it threatens with death. The law of sin and death. Look at chapter 7 and verse 10. The commandment which was ordained
to life. And it promised life too, didn't
it? Look at this. I found it to be
unto death. The law brings death. Why? Because the law is holy
and is just and good. And it threatens that which is
evil. Death. A soul that sinneth, it
shall Die. Look over to your right just
for a minute, right quickly. Look in 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. Look in verse 6. 2 Corinthians
3. 6. God hath made us able ministers
of the new testament, the new covenant, not of the letter,
not of the law, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death,
written and graven in stones, what was written and graven in
stones? Ten commandments, weren't there? The moral law was written
and graven in stones, and that's called the ministration of death,
because it not only threatens with death, it'll kill you. It'll
curse you, and it'll kill you. You know why Adam died when he
ate of that fruit? The law says, the day that you
eat thereof, you shall surely die. You know what happens to
a man who lusts? You know what happens to a man
who steals? You know what happens to a man who takes God's name
in vain? He dies. Why? The law says, I'll kill
you. The wages of sin is breaking
me. You break me and you're dead.
That's how strict this law is. is strict. If the ministration
of death, written in graven and stone, was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face
of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was
to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, Much more does the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. There's two administrations.
One is the moral law. That's the moral law. And that
law reveals sin, and that law curses to death. And there's
the ministration of the Spirit. The Spirit gives And when the
Spirit of life from Christ comes into your heart, what does He
do? He frees you from that ministration of death. He frees you from that
moral law. You're not under it. You're not
obligated to it anymore. You're free. Go out and see your
Reformed brothers now. They're standing up on their
backs. They're bristling. Free from the moral law. I tell
you, you're free from it. You're under it. And if you're
under it, you're cursed. You're cursed. That's all the
law was given for. And if the Spirit of life in
Christ has come to you, He's freed you from that ministration
of death and that ministration of condemnation. How could it
be said, look back in Romans, right quickly back in Romans,
back in verse 4, of chapter 8, look at this. How
can this possibly be said? Look back at chapter 8 and verse
4. Verse 2, we're told that we're free from this law. If you look
on it as the law of sin and death, or if you look on it as the moral
law which reveals sin and kills, we're free from it. And then
in verse 3 he tells us that God sent His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and He condemned sin. He judged it, He punished
it, He put it to death in the dead flesh of Christ. And now
he comes to verse 4 and he says that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. Now let me ask you a question.
Knowing something about the nature of God's law. how spiritual it
is, how broad it is, how heart-searching it is. Is there anybody in this
building this afternoon that would raise your hand and say,
I fulfill that holy law? I have never lusted. I've never
had a low thought of God. I do not do it now. I've never had an unclean thought.
I've never had a thought of foolishness. I've never stolen anything. I'm
not breaking the law now. I'm doing everything it commands
me to do, and I'm refraining from what it tells me not to
do. Can anybody raise your hand and
say, I've done that. I'm doing that. What does Paul
mean here when he says then that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us? And you know I love his choice
of words. He didn't say by us, but in us. How can the law be
fulfilled in us? Well, who dwells in us? Christ. Christ. You say, well, he said
the Spirit of Christ. But is there any difference?
What he calls the Spirit of Christ here, down in verse 10, he calls
Christ. And if Christ be in you. When the law comes to you, if
he sees anything, he don't see the old man. He don't see the old man. Where's
the old man? When the law looks upon the old
man, where is the old man? He's hanging on a cross. We just
read it, didn't we? The old man is crucified with
Christ. When the law comes then, who
does he see? If he don't see the old man,
who does he see in us? He sees Christ. Christ in you. And wherever you find Christ,
you'll find the law is satisfied. The law was never angry with
Him until He hung upon the cross with our sins in His own body. When He walked here in our humanity,
the law looked upon Him, and the law says, He's honored me.
He's magnified me. He's kept me. The law looks at
him today in heaven. What do you think the law thinks
of Christ in heaven? Do you think he's free from it?
Do you think he's a lawbreaker? The law is well pleased with
him. What do you think about when he looks on him and he's
within us? Don't you think he says the same thing? If Christ
is within us, then the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us
because Christ is in us. and therefore there is no condemnation
and the law is satisfied. I hope you understand union with
Christ and what that means. Union with Christ means he is
our representative. Christ is what the old Puritans
used to call a public person. He is not a private person. That
means everything that he was and everything he did, he did
it as the representative of other people for his people. When he lived a righteous life,
he lived it for them. When he died under the penalty
of the law, he died under the penalty of the law for them.
When he raised, he raised for their justification. And when
he lives there in heaven and when he comes to abide in us,
he's a representative person. And we're free, brothers and
sisters, we're free from the moral law. And you know what you'll do when
you find out you're free from the moral law? You'll love it
to death. You'll love it to death. You'll
delight in it. You'll delight to love God with
all your heart. You'll delight to never mistreat
your neighbor, to help him when you can. You cannot delight in
the law of God until you find out you've been freed from it. Did I tell you, I told you about
that old pit bull that was up on the north side of town, didn't
I? Let me tell you about that again, because I still think
about that. There's another old pit bull in town right now, and
sometimes I think about that pit bull. I used to walk on the
north side of town. And he was tied on a chain and
just inside that old rusty fence. And he had hit the end of that
chain and hit that fence and just bark and shake that fence.
And I thought, boy, if he ever comes through that fence, I'm
a dead man. He'll eat my legs off. One time I went through
there and they'd taken the fence down. And that old rusty chain. And he was hitting that chain
and shaking and popping. I thought, I'll never come back
through here again. Because if he gets loose, he'll eat my legs
off. And I didn't go back through there for a long time, and one
day I was walking up the hill, and just up top the hill, I seen
him the same time he saw me. And I'll be honest with you,
I was too scared to try to run. I got weak in my knees, and here
he come. Here that dog come, trotting
with his ears up. And I just stood there. Come
on boy, come on boy, come on boy. I was scared to death. And you know what that wild,
vicious dog did? He come up and licked my hand. He licked my hand. There was
something about when he tucked that fence out from around that
dog, and he loosed him from that chain, when he got loose and
felt his freedom, it changed him in a way that nobody would
have ever imagined. He became loving and tender. That's the way it is with the
child of God. He's under bondage to the wall. It reveals his sin. It stirs up his sin and wrath
against God. It says you've used God's name
in vain. Yes, and I'm tired of you telling
me about it. I hate you and I hate God. Ha!
Ha! Ha! Just let me loose. And boy, you're vicious and you're
a rebel. And then you find out. The law of the spirit of life
has come in and you're free. You're free. What do you do then?
You become as meek and gentle and loving and gracious and as
merciful as the master himself. I don't know how that works.
I just know it works. You bind me to the law and nobody
will be safe around me. I'm telling you. But you tell
me I'm free from it. by a great sacrifice of another,
and the Spirit of life is in my soul. I tell you, there's
something about that. There's something about that
that makes you love the Master, love His laws, love His statues,
love His ways, love His people. Ain't that so? The law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. I'm free, free. The land of liberty of thee I
sing. Emmanuel's land is a free land. Our Father, we do thank you.
Oh, we bless your name. We praise you for setting us
free from Satan's tyranny, from our false religions, from our
hypocritical hopes that bound us from sin that bound us like
awful chains, cords of iniquity. Oh, you've come into us. You've
come into our hearts as a spirit of liberty, freedom. And you've
freed us and you've made us happy. You've made us joyful to be free.
Oh, we bless you for freedom of conscience. We delight now
to serve you. We delight to worship you. We
delight to keep this old man beat down, keep him crucified
where he belongs. But we bless you for liberty
of spirit, liberty of heart, freedom, freedom to serve you,
freedom to love you, freedom to come and go according to God's
will, freedom to worship. Oh, we bless your holy name for
freedom. And we pray for ourselves. We
pray for everyone gathered here and all your children. We long
for that day. We pray for that day when we'll
be delivered from this body of death into the glorious liberty
of the children of God. We pray these things in Christ
our Lord's name. Amen. We're going to partake