All right, Romans chapter 8, verse 1. There is therefore right now no condemnation, no judgment,
no charge to them which are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit. There are two things taught here which are the desire of every
believer. This is my greatest twofold desire,
and yours too. Number one is no condemnation,
no judgment, no guilt before God. deliverance from the guilt
of sin, from the curse of the Lord, to know that though it
is appointed unto men once to die, and for them after death
a judgment, for us no judgment. What a blessing! And the second
one is this, to walk with God. Walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit, like Enoch of old. to be delivered from
the power of sin, the reign of sin, and walk with God, walk
in fellowship with God Almighty. That's it. No condemnation, no
judgment, and walk with God. Now, let's take those one at
a time, no condemnation. From childhood, all of us know
something about what it means to be condemned, to face judgment
and condemnation. I never will forget when this
was experienced by me for the first time, to stand condemned,
to face judgment. I don't know how old I was. I
was just a little boy. I would say seven, eight, or
nine, somewhere in there. We were awful poor. This was
during the Depression. I lived down in a little town
in Alabama called Montevallo. Lived about a mile from the school.
We didn't have any school buses. Everybody walked wherever they
went. Didn't have any cars either. And children walked by themselves
wherever they went. And I was walking home from school
one day, and I stopped by Miss Jones' ten-cent store. And I
stole a baseball. I walked through there, and I
never had on the new baseballs. I just picked it up and put it
in my pocket and went home. And as I was out in the yard
throwing that baseball up in the air, that brand-new white
baseball with red seams, my mother came walking out. She said, where
did you get the ball? I said, I found it. You know,
when you sin, you've got to tell a dozen lies to cover it. I found
it. She said, where? I said, Miss
Jones' 10-cent store. Where was it? I said, on the
floor. That's three lies in a row. She said, well, why didn't you
put it back on the count? I said, I figured they didn't
want it. I took it. Well, she said, you just take
it back. I said, back to her? Yeah, back to her. You going
with me? You stole it, you're going to
face the judgment by yourself. You go back to her and you tell
her what you've done, and you're ashamed, and you're going to
give it back. Well, I left home and started
walking. That's a long walk. Judgment. Facing judgment. Facing the wrath of that woman.
Facing her rebuke. It wasn't but two things that
could deliver me from that terrible, terrible judgment. One was death
and the other was the end of the world. And I've been satisfied
with either one, honestly. I remember that like it was yesterday. I can see it in my mind. Scared to death. A little old boy, you know, just
scared to death, facing judgment. My friends think of the horror.
of standing before God, not with just a baseball, but all the
corruption and evil thoughts and deeds and words and actions
that we have in this life on earth committed before him. What a horrible thought to stand
before God And the book is open to be judged out of those things
written in the book, every evil deed, every idle word, every
secret thought or imagination facing God Almighty. And that's what men face without
a Savior, without an Advocate, without a Mediator. You can read
about it over here in Revelation chapter 6. In verse 15 of chapter 6, the
kings of this earth, the great men, nobody is excluded except
those in Christ. The rich men, the chief captains,
the mighty men, every bondman, that's every slave or servant,
every free man, they hid themselves in the dens and the rocks and
the mountains. They said to the mountains and rocks, fall on
us and hide us from the face. of him that sits on the throne,
from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is
come. Who is going to be able to stand? I'll tell you who. There is no condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus. Now, that's right. It does not
say we are not condemnable. We condemn ourselves. Our conscience
condemns us. I still feel guilty about that
baseball. That was 70 years ago. We condemn
ourselves. My sins ever before me are yours.
The law condemns us. We condemn ourselves. Our conscience
condemns us. Others who know us condemn us.
But thank God he doesn't. He doesn't. That's what counts.
He doesn't. In Christ Jesus, no condemnation. Look across the page at Romans
8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
who is risen again. He's not still in the tomb, he's
risen, he's even at the right hand of God. He even makes intercession
for us. That's good news. That's good
news. Isaiah said, And a man shall
be a hiding place from the winds of trouble, and a man, our God-man,
shall be a shelter from the storm of God's wrath. And our man shall
be a river of water in a dry and thirsty land, and our man
shall be a rock, a stone, a tribestone, a sure foundation on which we
build for eternity." What a promise, no condemnation, to them who
are in Christ Jesus. Then it says, "...who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This is not the reason
why we are not condemned, because we walk with the Lord and walk
in the Spirit. This is a description of the
character of those who are in Christ Jesus, to whom there is
no condemnation. This is a description. These
people who are in Christ, who have no condemnation, they walk
with God. They walk in grace. They walk
in obedience. They walked in the word of God.
Like Enoch of old, they walked with God. He had this testimony,
he walked with God. Did Enoch walk around with a
Bible in his hand all the time? No. Did Enoch walk around with
his hands in a praying position all the time? No. Is that what
you're talking about, a man's walk? No, that's not a man's
walk. A man's walk is three things.
A man's walk is his general conduct, his general character, his general
attitude. That's a man's walk, what he
is all the time. Secondly, a man's walk is what
he is privately and publicly. A man's walk, thirdly, is the
tenor of his ordinary life. Enoch was a family man, Enoch
was a working man, Enoch was a man who had crops and cattle
and sheep. He was a busy man. But he walked
with God, that's his walk. That was his general conversation
and conduct with God, spiritual things. That was his private
life, that was his public life, that was the tenor of his life.
His walk with God is the everyday principles by which he thinks,
acts, and lives. That's a man's walk. That's a man's walk. You see
that? They walk not after the flesh, they walk after the Spirit,
whether they are worshiping or working, whether they are praying
or playing, whether they are in devotion or whether they are
on the creek bank fishing. He's the same, whether in conflict
or peace, he's the same, it's his principles. And a believer's
walk is not always at the same pace. He wishes it could be,
but it's not. A believer's walk with God and
spiritual walk is not always with the same progress. They
take one step forward and two back. It's not the same progress,
it's not with the same patience and devotion and enthusiasm,
but it's always in the same direction. He says things he wished he hadn't
said, he does things he wished he hadn't done, he thinks things
he wished he hadn't thought, but he's still in the same direction,
walking with God. That's his principles, that's
his conduct, that's his character, privately or publicly, that's
the tenor of his life. He's always walking in the same
direction. Paul said in Colossians 2, as
you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Christ.
And that's what that's saying. To them who in Christ Jesus is
no judgment, no condemnation, and the character of these is
a walk with God. Now watch verse 2. I'm going
to give you some help that I received on this that just opened this
verse up to me. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. Now, I'll tell you what to do.
Where that word law is, put in there the word power. power,
or the word rule, R-U-L-E. You see, there's the law of gravity. Well, it's not a written law,
it's a power, it's a rule. That is present, it's a law,
it's a power. So what he's saying, Paul is
saying here, put that word power in there, for the power of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. has made me free from the power
of the law of sin and death. The reign and rule of Christ
Jesus, who has come into my life, has made me a new creature and
delivered me from the power and the reign and the rule of my
flesh and of my old nature, my old man. Paul is saying this, we who are
in Christ, we who are believers in Christ, We no longer live
and walk by the same principles and power and rule that once
governed us. Plenty of people sitting right
here now can say, just what I was is not what I am. Why? Because you've got a different
boss. You've got a different master. You've got a different
power control in you. You've got the Spirit of God
in you. And the power of the Spirit of God and the life of
the Spirit of God in Christ has delivered me from that power
that used to dominate me and control me and use me. We now live and walk by the power
of the Spirit of God. It's like when winter is here. Ice and snow is everywhere. Everything
is dead, frozen, miserable. Some of you chickens run off
to Florida, I know about that, and stay down there while we're
suffering up there in this winter. But winter's here. And then the
power of spring moves in. The power of spring comes in.
And when the power of spring comes in, the power of the winter
goes out. And that's why you've got summer.
And then you snowbirds come back, you know. But see what I'm talking
about? So in a man's life, cold, dark,
black, dirty, flesh, that rules him. But then the grace of God
and the Spirit of God and the truth of God comes in and takes
over. It takes over, not to where he
doesn't sin anymore, you know what I'm talking about, it takes
over. Whoever is a man's master, he
serves him. And we serve our Lord Christ. He's taken the law, which is
the power of the spirit of life in Christ, has freed us from
the clutches and rule and reign and power of that old nature
that reigned over us. That's what he's saying. Verse
3, now, what the law could not do. Now, we're talking about
the law again now. We're talking about God's moral law, God's
commandments. what the commandments could not
do, in that the commandments are weak through the flesh. God
sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sacrifice
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. What's this saying? What
the law could not do, what the commandments cannot do. I'll tell you this, the law cannot
make an evil man holy. The Spirit of Christ can, but
the law can't. The law cannot make a man love
what he hates. It can't do it. And vice versa,
it can't make a man hate what he loves. No law can repeal the sentence
of death. A law can't repeal its own sentence.
So the sentence shall die, the law says. It can't change that.
The law can't change that. And even the law may reform a
man temporarily. The law may come and reform a
man temporarily, but when that law leaves, he's the same fellow
over again. He's just been in jail. That's
right. Every lion's a good lion who's
in a cage, but you better not turn him loose. See, that's what
the law does. The law cages people. It confines
people. It puts them in a situation where
they can't be what they want to be and can't be what they
would be. But remove the bars, and that's what they did in World
War II when all these fellows headed out to the seas, you know.
Over there they were different. They didn't have the bars around
them. The law can put bars around you,
but it can't change your height. That's right. Why? Well, what
the law could not do because it's weak through the flesh.
The law is not weak, but the flesh renders the law powerless. The law is rendered powerless
because of our evil wills and our evil ways and our evil hearts.
The natural man receiveth not the things of God, their fruit
is disturbed. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Nope. Can his
skin be changed? Yeah. Can the leopard change
his spots? Nope. Can his spots be changed?
Yes. God can do it. And so here's
the declaration, what the law couldn't do because of the weakness
of our flesh. Watch this now, just word for
word. God sent. Who's the sender? God's the sender. God the Father, who gave the
law, against whom we've sinned, the righteous, just, and holy
God, who must punish sin. God. Whom did he send? Sent his own Son. His own Son. by whom he made the worlds, the
image, brightness of his glory, the express image of his person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Great is the mystery of Godliness.
God was in Christ. He sent his own Son. And the
form in which he sent him, look, in the likeness of our sinful
flesh. He was born of a sinful woman.
He was subject to all the temptations and trials and troubles in human
nature, yet without sin. He sent his Son in the likeness
of our sinful flesh. He took upon himself the form
of man, became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. He sent his Son, the second Adam, Lord from heaven. Why?
For sin. For sin and for sinners and for
a sacrifice for sin. Some old writers said this, all
the sin of all the people of God was laid on Christ by the
Father. He voluntarily took all our sins
upon himself and in himself, and just us, binding our sins
on him, charged him for our sins, and demanded from him satisfaction,
and condemned him And through him, our sins condemned him,
and he condemned our sins, because he was put to death for them.
And in him, now, is no condemnation. Why does he do all this? Look
at verse 4. In order that the righteousness,
the righteousness of the law, might be fulfilled in us. these
people who walk with God, these people who walk not after the
flesh, but believe on Christ and walk after the Spirit. Our
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, has fulfilled the righteousness of
the law, and he has imputed that perfect holiness to us by virtue
of our union with him. And the holiness of Christ Not
only do we not have any condemnation, but we have holiness. The holiness
of Christ is reckoned to be ours as if we fulfilled that law ourselves. Did you know that? And we are in him. There is no
condemnation to them who are in Christ, because in him we
are personally, perfectly, legally, eternally justified. sanctified and accepted. And we can walk into glory like
our dear brother did last Wednesday morning. Walk into glory. Last Monday, wasn't it? We walk
into glory, accepted in the beloved. I went to a foreign country for
the first time. after I grew up and became a
preacher. But there are three things required
to enter that country. I had to have proof of my birth. I had to have proof of my birth.
I went to Mexico. I had to have proof of my birth to get in. I had a birth certificate. I
was born a citizen of the United States. Enter heaven, I've got
to have proof of birth, born of God, born a son of God, born
again. Number two, they had to have
a visa. They had certain rules and requirements they put upon
people who entered the country, and so they issue a visa that
the people who come in are accepted according to their rules. When
we enter glory, there's a righteousness of God. Except your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you
won't enter. But you've got to have his righteousness, his approval,
meet his requirements. That's Mavisa, his righteousness. But then I walked in and laid
my birth certificate down, stamped it. I laid my visa down, stamped
it. I walked a little further and
here was a guy. He took out a book. I was standing
there and he looked down. I said to the man behind me,
I said, what's he doing? He said, checking to see if you've got
a record, to see if you're a fugitive from justice. And if you're on
that list, you catch the plane out. But I wasn't on that list. So I'll tell you, between me
and glory, I've got a birth certificate, born of God, born from above,
son of God, family member. I've got a righteousness. It's
the righteousness of Christ himself. It's accepted of God. I've got
no record. I'm not dangerous. I won't turn
heaven into hell. I've got no record, nothing,
no charge against me. That's right, no charge. When
I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I
see thee as thou art and love thee with an unsinning heart,
then, Lord, I'm going to know, and not till then how much I
owe. Chosen not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee.
hidden in the Savior's side, by the Spirit sanctified. Teach
me, Lord, in this life to show, by thy grace, how much I owe. I want to show you one more thing
before I let you go. Verse 5. I can help you here, I think, as
I've got a little help myself. They that are after the flesh,
they that walk after the flesh, They do mind the things of the
flesh, but they that ask the Spirit do mind the things of
the Spirit. But to be carnally minded is
death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. For the carnal mind is enmity
with God. For the carnal mind is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. What's the word here used over
and over again? It's the word mind, mind. They that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They that are after
the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. To be carnally
minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. What
does the word mind mean, mind? Here, listen to me. It's to be concerned with, it's
to be anxious about. is to be occupied with and primarily
interested in and actively pursuing the flesh. They that are in the flesh and
not in Christ, they are concerned about this flesh, overly anxious
about this flesh, occupied with it 24 hours a day, primarily
interested in gain and popularity and beauty and materialism and
just occupied, primarily interested and actively pursuing these things.
But those that are spiritually minded, they are more concerned
with something else. Oh, they have to eat and drink
and wear clothes and drive a car and keep a job. But they are
more interested in their relationship with God. They are concerned
about eternal matters. They are occupied much of the
time with the things of God. They are primarily, if you put
them down against the wall and ask them, what are you chiefly
concerned about? My relationship with God. I can get by on a whole lot less.
But I can't live without him. Brother Paul asked me two weeks
ago, Jenny, how do people die who don't know Christ? How do
they die? Well, I've got another question.
How do they live without Christ? Our Lord taught us the meaning
of this. Turn to Matthew 6. Matthew 6, verse 25. Listen to this. The Lord knows
we need these things. He knows we need these things.
He said in Matthew 6.25, I say unto you, take no anxious thought. This mind is occupied with, interested
in, pursuing. Take no anxious thought for your
life, what you'll eat, drink, or yet for your body, what you'll
put on. Your life is more than meat and
your body is more than raiment. Behold, the fowls are there,
they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not better
than they?" Which of you, by taking anxious thought, concern,
and primarily occupied with, can add one cubit to your stature,
that's one moment to your life? That's what that's saying. He's
not talking about making yourself taller, he's making yourself
live longer. You can't add one moment to your
life. And why take fault then for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they tar not,
neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today he is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he
not much more clothe you? O ye of little faith, therefore
take no thought And I believe this is talking about the same
thing that Paul talked about. It's minding, it's concern, anxiety,
occupied with, primarily interested in, pursuing. Take no thought
to say, well, what am I going to eat? What am I going to drink?
Why am I going to be clothed? After all these things do the
Gentiles seek? Your heavenly Father knows you
have need of all these things. But here's the key. Seek first. Seek ye first. Set your mind
upon first. Be anxious about first, concerned
about, occupied with, actively pursue the kingdom of God and
his righteousness. And these other things will be
added to you. Now, back to the text. That's what Paul is saying
there. That's what he's saying. To be carnally minded, concerned,
anxious, occupied with primarily the flesh, the things of the
flesh, that's death. That's death. To be carnally
minded, verse 6, is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. How does a change come? The change comes when something
better is revealed to us. God makes the change. The power
of the life of the Spirit of Christ comes in, and something better. I have a friend
that used to run a restaurant down in Tioga, Louisiana, Brother
Gerald Stoniker, had a big beautiful buffet, fish buffet, one of the
finest restaurants I've ever been in. And he had this buffet
line with all this shrimp and crab and fish and oysters and
all these things and green beans. And he had a tray there of corn
on the cob, these little corn on the cob, about three inches
long, you know, boy, yellow corn. With that butter all over, it's
just rolling in that butter and that light shining on it and
it just glistens when you come out. There's that beautiful corn.
Everybody gets one. Well, this man and his wife and
little boy were going through the line, little boy about three,
four years old, and he saw that corn. He wanted one of those
corns and his daddy got him a couple of them, put them on his plate,
and they went over and sat down and ate their dinner. That little
boy was occupied with one thing, he had that corn on the cob,
that juicy yellow corn just running down his fingers and down his
sleeve and eating that corn. They got through with their meal
and they were ready to go. The daddy looked at him and he
still had that corn in his mouth, just sucking the juice out of
the cob. The daddy said, Give me the corn, son. He said, Son,
give me the corn. Dad, you know what he's going
to do? He's going to make a scene in that restaurant, you know,
and he threatened him, and he talked sweet to him. That little
boy wouldn't turn loose of that buttered corn. Brother Gerald
was over here, Brother Gerald Starnaker, and he saw all that,
and he opened this under the cash register, opened the sliding
door there, and he took out something, and he came over behind his back.
He said to the daddy, he said, I was watching this, could I
help you a little? That's how somebody helped me.
Gerald held out a Hershey bar, a sweet chocolate Hershey bar,
and that little boy just dropped that corn and grabbed that Hershey
bar. And I'll tell you this, find something better. That right
earlier, find something better. You drop it. you let her go, because it never
has brought you any joy or peace, it's so flesh, it never has. That's spiritually minded. That
little boy got minded toward Sweet Hershey bar, and he forgot
that time. That's just weaned from these
things by the grace of God. But the law can't do that. The
law can't make a man love what he hates or hate what he loves.
But spare the God care. He can turn winter into summer.