our Bibles today to Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8. There's 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 hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin 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. I want to speak to us today from
three words in verse number one. Three words, in Christ Jesus. I try to prepare every message
as if it were to be my last message. And I trust the Lord will bless
his word to all of us here today as we consider just these three
words, in Christ Jesus. My message has two parts. The
first part, I want us to see seven things that we know that
are in Christ Jesus. And the second part of the message,
two things about those who are in Christ Jesus. So first of
all, seven things that we know that are in Christ Jesus. And notice the name, Christ Jesus. The Messiah, Jesus. The Messiah,
the anointed of God, Jesus, that is the name that was given him
at his birth when he came into this world. Here are seven things
that we know that are in Christ Jesus. First, and you may want
to turn with me to these places, but first, In Colossians chapter
two and verse nine, the first thing that we know that is in
Christ Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead. Colossians two and verse nine,
the apostle said, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Now what does that mean? The
fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him. The fullness of the Godhead. Simply put, it means that the
Messiah, Jesus, is God. That's a simple, basic definition. That's what it means. The fullness
of the Godhead. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. It simply means that Jesus Christ,
the Messiah, is God. That the Word, the eternal Word,
was made flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Son of God, He
is referred to as the Word. He's one with the Father, and
He's one with God the Holy Spirit, possessing all the perfections
of God, the eternal Word. The eternal word, the eternal
Son of God. He's one with the Father and
with the Holy Spirit, possessing all the perfections of God. Is the Father eternal? Yes. So is the Son. Is the Father
omnipotent? Absolutely. So is the Son, and
so is God the Holy Spirit. Is the Father omnipresent? Is
He everywhere? Absolutely, and so is the Son. This is simply what it means,
for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything that is true about
the Father is also true about the Son, that God, God was made
flesh. This is the reason the Apostle
Paul said, great is the mystery of godliness. You know, there
are many religions in this world, and I believe there's five or
six that are called the great religions of the world. But only
Christianity, only Christianity teaches that God came into this
world, that our belief, our faith, our salvation is based on the
fact that God is our Savior. God is our Savior. All these
other religions, and like I said, many of them, they all teach
some form of work, something that you've got to do, some way
you've got to please God by your doing. Someone asked me the other
day, what would be a very simple definition of the covenant of
works and the covenant of grace? And I said, do and done. Do and
done, that would be a good simple definition. The covenant of works
under which God placed Adam and therefore all of us when we come
into this world under a covenant of works do to inherit, to earn,
to merit eternal life. The covenant of grace of which
the Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator and the surety is done. It's done. He did it. When he cried on the cross, it
is finished. And we know his work was accepted
because not only did he die and was he buried, but he was raised
again the third day. Raised for our justification. God justified him, declared himself
satisfied, his justice satisfied by the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We worship Jesus, but you're
not supposed to worship anyone but God. That's right. He is God. The fullness of the
Godhead. And that's the reason I pointed
out the fact that the Apostle Paul, and remember, the Bible
is inspired by God, God the Holy Spirit. And every word is important. Every word is important. And
our text tells us this morning, there's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ, the Messiah, Jesus. In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's the first thing
that we know is in him. The savior of sinners is divine. And that's what it is to believe
the gospel. You say, well, what is it to
believe the gospel? Peter's confession was simply
this. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's what
it is to believe the gospel. It is to believe that Jesus Christ
is God. God manifests in the flesh. The second thing that we know
that is in Christ Jesus, all the Old Testament scriptures
are fulfilled in him. I'm gonna read a verse from Luke
chapter 24. You may not want to turn with me, but here in
Luke chapter 24, reading verse 27, the context is the Lord Jesus
Christ on the day of his resurrection, he appeared to two of his disciples
who were downcast, who were sad. Why were they sad? Because they
said, we thought that he was the one who was going to redeem
Israel. And he was crucified. And our
Lord comes alongside of them, walks with them. He's beholden
from them. They don't understand. They don't
realize that it is Christ walking with them. But then the Lord
Jesus Christ said this. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? In other words, isn't
that what all the Old Testament predicted? Isn't that what all
the Old Testament scriptures said? That Christ the Messiah
would suffer, that first He would suffer and then enter into His
glory. the payment rather of sin had
to be made first through the sufferings of the Messiah. But then he would enter into
glory. The Lord said, ought not Christ to have suffered these
things and to enter into his glory? And then here's what we
read. And beginning at Moses, where
does that begin? In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. Beginning with Moses, the first
five books of the Bible, and all, not most of the prophets,
but all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. That's the second thing that
we know. In Christ Jesus was fulfilled all of the Old Testament
scriptures. All of the types, all of the
types, he fulfilled. The Ark of Noah, the brazen serpent,
the Passover lamb. I mean, you just go on and on.
God's anointed king, on and on through the Old Testament, type
after type, picture after picture of him who was to come, the Messiah. And he fulfilled all. the Old
Testament tithes, and all the promises from that very first
one that God gave when there was no one but Adam and Eve in
the garden. And God said that the seed of
the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. From that promise
on through all the Old Testament, they're all yea and amen, all
fulfilled. in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus was fulfilled
all the Old Testament scriptures. The third, and I want you to
look at this one in Ephesians 1, in Christ Jesus is redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Say, why do you people talk about
the Lord Jesus Christ every time you come together? Because that's,
he's the message of the Bible, that's why. He's the message
of the word of God. We don't come together to learn
how to be better citizens, and better husbands,
and better wives, and better parents. Now we run across that
as we go through the word of God, but our purpose, our goal,
every time, is to lift up Christ. He said, and I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all men unto me. These other things, I'm not saying
they're not important. But as we look in the word of
God, the message of the scripture is Jesus Christ and him crucified. Here in Ephesians 1 and verse
7, the apostle said, in whom? Now that whom, the antecedent
is, of course, the beloved. In verse 6, the beloved, in whom? Two times during the ministry
of our Lord, his life here in this world in the flesh, two
times at his baptism and also on the Mount of Transfiguration, God spoke from heaven and declared,
this is my beloved son. There he is. There he is. This is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased. Now Paul says, in whom, that
is in the beloved, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace. In Christ Jesus,
in Christ Jesus, there is redemption through his blood. You'll never
find redemption anywhere else. You know, I like to, when I study
the word of God and I come across a word like redemption or ransom,
I like to look in my concordance and find the first time that
word is used in the scripture. And I go back and read that place
because that's one of the rules of Bible interpretation. That
is, that word is used that first time it will follow all the way
through the scripture. Maybe there's a few exceptions,
I don't know of any. But you look at the word redemption,
and I found it back here in Leviticus. The first time, Leviticus chapter
25. Chapter 25 and verse 23. This is part of the law which
God gave to Israel through Moses. The land shall not be sold forever. When they went into the land
of Canaan, they divided the land by lot. And a man, he received
this parcel of ground, he could never sell it. You couldn't ever,
you couldn't put a for sale sign up there. Call Ray Max and say,
hey, I want, I've got some property over here I want to sell. No,
you can't ever sell that land. Why? Because first of all, it's
God's. The land shall not be sold forever,
for the land is mine. God said, it's mine. For you're
strangers and sojourners with me." And don't miss that part,
with me. Are we sojourners in this world? Absolutely. Are we pilgrims?
Strangers? Absolutely. But with Him, with
Christ, with God. The land shall not be sold forever,
for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners
with me. And in all the land of your possession,
you shall grant a redemption, first time, a redemption for
the land. If thy brother be waxen poor
and has sold away some of his possession, and if any of his
kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother
sold. He could sell the land until
the year of Jubilee if he was poor. But if he had a kinsman,
his kinsman could redeem that land and give it back to him. And the two things we learn here
the first time redemption is mentioned in the word of God
is redemption is not purchasing. Redemption is not buying. Redemption
is redeeming something that was already yours. It's already yours. You just redeem it. You've sold
it. Someone else now has possession
of it, but you redeem it. You don't buy it. You redeem
it. And a near kinsman had the right of redemption. That's the
reason it was so needful that the eternal son of God become
a man to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, that
he might have the right as a kinsman to redeem us. To redeem us. We were already his. We were already his. but he redeemed
us. We had sold ourselves into servitude. And notice the justice of God.
Who did he pay the price to? This, sometimes people think,
well, he paid the price to the devil. Oh, no, absolutely not. I think there's one of the false
religions that teaches that. That he paid the price of redemption
to Satan. No, he paid the price, the blood
was paid to purchase us, to redeem us from the justice of God. From
God's justice that had us. Had us by the neck. Pay me, pay
me that which thou owest me. We didn't have two cents to redeem
ourselves, to pay for God's offended justice. Christ came as our Redeemer,
and through His blood, through His blood, He redeemed us. In Christ Jesus is the forgiveness
of sins. This is what Paul tells us here.
in Ephesians 1 and verse 7. And let me just say this, the
forgiveness of sins is only, only found in Christ Jesus. The devil's very active. And
he goes about as a roaring lion. He's very active. And he's active
in convincing men and women That their sins, yes, they've done
some wrong. They haven't always been what
they should be. But the way I'll remedy this,
I'll do this, or I'll do that, or I'll do the other. Satan is
always trying to convince men that the way to redeem themselves
is by our doing, by our obedience in some way. No, the scripture
says, God's word declares, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you. When Martin Luther entered the
convent, he came very, very close to destroying his life. Very close to death. How did
that happen? because he was trying to pay
for his sins. He was trying to satisfy God.
He was doing what the church then told him he needed to do.
With flagellations, he beat his back, stripped his back, laid
out in the cold at night, whole nights laid out in the cold on
the ground with no cover in the snow. What was he trying to do? He was trying to earn, he was
trying to pay, he was trying to redeem. No, salvation is through
the redemption that is through the blood of Jesus Christ and
nowhere else. Nowhere else. Notice the text says, according
to the riches of his grace. Let me read that whole text.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. How many times
have I been asked this question? But why would God save me? Why would God save me? I can't
tell you how many times I've been asked that question, and
I sure can't tell you how many times I've asked myself that
question. Why? Why would God save me? And I've never found one reason.
I found many reasons why he wouldn't, but I've never found one reason
why he would save me. Salvation is by grace. It's completely, 100% by grace. That's what the text here tells
us. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. Can we imagine
how rich God's grace is? Save the ill deserving, the hell
deserving, That's who God saves. And he saves each and every one
by his grace. By his grace. Don't ever look
within and think, well, I'm gonna find some reason in here why
God would save me. It's kind of like people say,
you know, I just can't understand why God said he hated Esau. Anyone ever say that to you? What is our response? I don't
know about Esau. But I sure can't see any reason
why he would have saved Jacob. Can you? You're not going to
find it in the Word of God. It all comes back to this. God
being God. And God not only having, but
exercising His right with His creatures and saying, I will
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. God's amazing grace. The fourth thing in Christ Jesus
is acceptance. We see that here also in Ephesians
1 in verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted in the beloved. It is only in Christ
Jesus that any of Adam's fallen race are accepted by God. It is only as considered in him
through his blood to cleanse and his righteousness to justify
are men and women accepted. You say, I don't know if God's going
to accept me. Well, If you're in Christ, you
are accepted. But if you're not in Christ,
I can tell you right now, no, no, no one is accepted by God
who's not in Christ. And we're only accepted because
of him. A fifth thing that we know is
in Christ Jesus is eternal life. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. What is eternal
life? You say, well, it's forever. Yes, it's true, it is forever,
but it's a quality, not just a quantity, it's a quality of
life. It is to know God, that's what
he said. This is life eternal, to know
thee. the only true God in Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. There's no knowing God apart
from Jesus Christ. Eternal life is in Christ Jesus. He that hath the Son, John wrote
in 1 John, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the
Son hath not life. He's talking about eternal life
there. A third, or sixth thing, in Christ
Jesus is all preeminence. Look in Colossians with me just
a moment. Colossians chapter one. And verse 18. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. Now that opens up a subject or
a topic for another message in itself. God is determined that
His Son have the preeminence in all things, in all things,
in creation, in salvation, in providence. has the preeminence. That means
he's first. And he should have the preeminence
in each of our hearts. He should have the first place
in our heart. Like David said, Whom have I
in heaven but thee? And whom upon earth do I desire? God's determined that he have
the preeminence in all things, and he should have the preeminence
in our hearts. Everything else should be secondary. I'm talking to believers, to
God's children. Everything else should be secondary
to Christ. He's first. He has the preeminence. And then if you look back in
our text, Romans 8 in verse 1, in Christ Jesus is no condemnation. And we see that this is true
of those that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 in verse 1. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now I pointed out seven things
which are in Christ Jesus. But let me just mention two things
about those that are in Christ Jesus. First, they all secretly have been in Christ
from before the foundation of the world. Secretly. Everyone that is described in
this verse, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Each and every one of them were
secretly in Christ Jesus from eternity. In other words, they
were chosen. And they were chosen in Christ. People, religious people, deny
the truth about God, don't they? Many of them. Recently I was listening to a
man on the radio being interviewed, I assume he was a preacher, but
he denied election. And he said, well, we're not
predestinated to be saved. Bible never says we're predestinated
to be saved. He said we're predestinated to
be conformed to the image of his son. And I thought, what
is salvation? If that's not salvation, to be
made like the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, yes, we're predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his son. But don't deny the
truth of election, as the apostle said, for we are bound to give
thanks for you, brethren, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you. Chosen you, to what? to salvation,
to salvation. Those that this verse speaks
of, they have always been in Christ. There never was a time
when they were not in Christ because they were chosen in Him
from old eternity or before the foundation of the world. We know that in that covenant
of grace, when that covenant was made, there was just the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And each of the persons
in the Godhead, they agreed to certain things in that covenant. And the Son agreed to be made
flesh, to come into this world, to be our Redeemer. And he asked
of the Father a bride. And the bride was given unto
him. We were betrothed unto him from old eternity. And when we
fell, and we did, and our father Adam, he never stopped loving
us. He never quit loving those that
the father had given him as his bride. No, he loved us. As that scripture says in John
chapter 13, having loved his own, he loved them unto the end. We were considered in Christ
Jesus, in union with him, that marriage union. When Christ was
hanged on the cross, his people were hanging there with him.
And when he died, they died. When he was buried, they were
buried. When he arose, they arose. And when he ascended into heaven,
Paul tells us that we are seated with him in the heavenlies. There's
such a union that exists between Christ and His people that what
the head, Christ is the head, what the head did, the members
did. These that are in Christ Jesus
and under no condemnation, they have secretly been in Christ
from before the foundation of the world. But listen, the second
thing. They are openly in Christ Jesus
when they hear the gospel and believe and are baptized. They are openly. You today, many
of you, you were in Christ from before the foundation of the
world. And yet there was a time in your life when you heard the
gospel How shall they believe in him of whom they have not
heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? God has ordained means and calling
his elect, calling them with the gospel through the preaching
of the word of God. And you heard, you heard the
gospel and you believed, you believed. Other people, maybe
that you knew, maybe some in your own family, they heard the
same message, but they didn't believe. But you heard and you
believed. And now you are openly in Christ
Jesus. Secretly you were in him from
old eternity, but in the fullness of the time, when you were called
by the gospel, and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and confessed
him in baptism, now you are openly in Christ. And there's no condemnation. There's therefore now no condemnation. What's the opposite of condemnation? Justification. You've been justified,
declared righteous because of the work of Christ, the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord would bless
these words to all of us here today. In Christ Jesus, those
three words. Think about those. Meditate on
those words. In Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. What's in Christ Jesus? Who's
in Christ Jesus? Am I in Christ Jesus? Oh, that's
what it comes down to, isn't it? Am I in Christ? Do I believe? I've heard. Do
I believe? And do I confess Christ as my
Lord and Savior? Okay.