No Condemnation

As we continue our journey through this second major movement of the Book of Romans, we've come to Romans chapter eight, and today we will look at those first four verses in Romans chapter eight, but essentially our attention will focus on verse one of Romans chapter eight, because that is the statement of this section. In Romans chapter eight. There are many theological underpinnings that will be necessary to grasp to understand as we try to interpret and apply these truths, and many of the theological underpinnings, many of the theological assumptions upon which our teaching here will be based may be a bit foreign to many of us, because they are not the normal theological underpinnings or theological assumptions of our day, and not the predominant theological underpindings or the predominant theological assumptions of our day. As I've said, as we've said on a number of times, as we've taught not just through Romans, but other parts of the scripture that we've taught, the predominant theological grid through which Biblical truth is understood in our culture today is the theological grid of dispensationalism, the theological grid of dispensationalism is the dominant understanding. It's it's the if you want to understand, you know that that that perspective, just think left behind series. Okay. That is the predominant theological grid. The idea that God has two people, two plans, the two peoples Israel and the Church. Okay, the Plan A was an earthly kingdom for Israel. Israel rejected Plan A. Therefore you insert a parenthesies. The parentheses is the church age. The parentheses is where we are now. The parentheses is where God deals with People's number two, and that parentheses will eventually be closed. But God has to come back and finish up his work in Plan number one with people number one. Therefore we must have a rapture of the Church and tribulation and so on and so forth, so that then God can establish this earthly kingdom with Israel, fulfill all of the earthly promises that have been made to Israel, and then consummate all things, joining the two peoples eventually in the heavenly kingdom. It's the predominant ideology, it's the predominant understanding, and that hermeneutic has an impact on the way you view all of scripture, not the least of which the way you view the Book of Romans, we look at the book not from a dispensational but from a covenantal perspective. We do not believe that God has two peoples but one people. Okay. We do not believe that the Church is a parenthetical pause before God finishes what he's doing with Israel. We believe that the Church is Israel. We believe that the Church did not begin in the Book of Acts, but that the Church has always existed, that there has always been this one people of God. Now there is a new covenant, and it's important for us to understand that we are under that new covenant. But what we're going to see here today, and what I'm going to argue here today, is that many of those promus is that the dispensational perspective believes are yet to come for Israel are actually fulfilled in the person and work of Christ in the Church. Okay. And it's very important to understand that. That'll be even more important when we get the Romans chapters nine and ten and eleven. But it's important even now in Romans chapter eight. It's been important all along, and we've talked about this in part all the way through, but it's very important as we turn the corner here as we close this section of Romans, that's chapters six, seven, and eight before we enter into nine through eleven. So as we look here Romans chapter eight, it's look at these first four verses. I'll read that whole first paragraph, and again we continue to discuss the issue of sanctification progressive sanctification. Verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death. For God has done with the law weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hot still to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot. Indeed it cannot. Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh can not please God. We'll talk about that on next week. That statement there, the spirit and the flesh, and the idea that a man who is in the flesh cannot please God, which gets to the doctrine of total depravity, that man cannot save himself, or, as the Convention says, prepare himself thereunto okay, a man cannot help God. Again, the popular understanding of our day is that God does most of it, but man has to do the deciding part. We've talked frequently about the idea of the tract, the famous deal Moody tract, where there's a ballot on it and there's you know, a check on one side of the other, and it says God has cast his vote, the devil has cast his vote. Now it's time for you to cast the deciding vote. According to this first paragraph in Romans chapter eight, you don't get a vote. Amen. Even if you did, you couldn't do anything with it. Dead Men don't vote amen, like we talked about before, dead men don't grab life preservers. He says, Though you're drowning in the sea, and you know that God throws out the life preserver, and he does it, and he's willing to pull you in, but you've got to grab the life preserver. No, you're dead and your trespasses and sins. If you want to get a dead man out of the water, you got to go getting Amen. He will not help you help him. He's dead. He cannot help you help him. He's dead. And so it's very important to understand that not only do we come at this from this covenantal perspective, but that we also we come at this from an openly and unapologetically reformed slash calvinistic slash sovereignty of God slash Augustinian slash whatever you want to define it, whatever terminology that you like. We come at it from that perspective, a monarchistic perspective that salvation is all of God. But we see here this picture of sanctification, and oftentimes when we talk about sanctification and we get a little muddled and confused. There are two possibilities possibility number one that the believer is not condemned because of something that the believer accomplishes. That's possibility number one, that the believer is not condemned because of something the believer accomplishes. Possibility number two, the believer is not condemned because of something the believer receives. Let me give you a hand two. The believer is not condemned because of something that the believer receives. It's important for us to grasp this when we talk about sanctification. Sanctification is not the believer's accomplishment of righteousness on his own. It's not what sanctification is that somehow the God will justify you, but you've got to sanctify yourself. No, it's not believers achieving or attaining peace with God. That's done through justification and our declaration of righteousness. We are at peace with God. We're not trying to earn that. Thirdly, it is not a believer becoming more acceptable to God. Sanctification is not a process whereby you become more acceptable to God. It is, as we will see in this chapter, you being conformed to the image of Christ, and it is a work of God. It's the other thing that we need to understand. Let's you have your hymnalst open up again to six seventy seven, page six seventy seven, not Hymn six seventy seven, page six seventy seven. And on last week we read together paragraph two and paragraph three in chapter thirteen Sanctification. Today, I want us to read together paragraph one of Sanctification, paragraph one, page six seventy seven, Chapter thirteen of Sanctification, Paragraph one. Let's read this together. They who are united to Christ, effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, are also farther sanctified really and personally through the same virtue, by His word and spirit dwelling in them. The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of all true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. That last phrase is important, all true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Again, we've talked about it before, but please just bear with me. There is that idea out there that you know well, you believe in one saved always saves. Again, understand, terminology is very important, and usually when people say, what you believe in one saved, always saved, my response is I believe in the perseverance of the saints waiting. That's the same thing. It could be depends on what you mean by one saved always say. Here's what people usually mean. You start with a faulty definition of salvation. Salvation equals you asking Jesus into your heart, you praying to receive Christ, you making the commitment to Jesus, you so on and so on and so on and so on, you walking down the aisle. That's what salvation equals. So if you ever pray a prayer, if you ever walk an aisle, or you ever make a commitment, from that moment on, you are saved no matter what. That's usually what people mean when they say, oh, you believe in what saved always say, And what they're referring to is the idea that there are people who pray the prayer, walk the aisle, make the commitment, who live lives that are absolutely horrid and unpleasing. In fact, displeasing to God. And yet when they are confronted about the lives that they live, they always point back to I made a commitment. I asked Jesus into my heart. I made a decision for Christ. I walk an aisle. I did it. I stood there, I repeated after the preacher. He told me that I could write my name in my Bible since it was written in the Lamb's Book of Life and would never be taken out. Therefore, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a Christian. Sanctification follows justification as inexorably as night follows day. Those who are saved are sanctified. We'll see that later on in this chapter. Those who are saved are sanctified, and they will walk in holiness. They will now we saw on last week. Does this mean that you're saved and immediately there's that perfection and you never deal with no refer you back to last week. Okay, but there will be holiness. There will be not measured against the culture at large, but the standard of God. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what you need to know. Believers are not condemned. Believers are not condemned. We just say this to you. Look at me. If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have been born again, if you have come to God through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is true of you. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. There is no condemnation from God. But there's a whole lot from you and other people. If you can't say amen, you ought to say oush. There's no condemnation. You are not condemned. You are not condemned. Now here's what I don't mean. I don't mean that you can go and sin and your conscience will not condemn you. No, it will. It will will long to Christ. That's the end of chapter seven. That's the war that is going on within us. Doesn't mean that at all. It doesn't mean that there will be brothers or sisters who at times point out the sin in your life. Doesn't mean that you never have to repent. What it means is when you go back to the first part of the Book of Romans and you see the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and the unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. When you see that those without the law are condemned, when you see that those with the law are condemned, and you see there in chapter three that the only answer is the person and work of Jesus Christ. What you then understand as we move forward all the way to chapter eight, is that those who are in Christ are not under any threat of condemnation from God whatsoever. That's important? Why is it important? Because of what we do read at the end of chapter seven. Listen again to verses twenty four and twenty five. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks me to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. We said that there is this chrescendo, and at this chrescendo we shall hey man. And then there's this last statement that makes us go what I was all delivered in everything, and then after that we get this. Therefore, my mind I'm serving the love of God. And then my flesh the Lord. No, I don't want that. By the way, that's good that you don't want that, but it is a reality. So here's the question. Does that mean that when I sin? Notice I didn't say if. Does that mean that when I sin, somehow I have again stepped under the condemnation of God? There is therefore now no condemnation. I am not condemned. But wait a minute, but when I sin, God has to zap me. There is therefore now no condemnation. Yeah, but you know what, you know, I wasn't living right, and I was doing ABC and X, Y Z, and then all of a sudden I lost my job, and all of a sudden my dog died, and all of a sudden, all these things happened. Be real careful with that one. Be very careful with that one, because here's what we often do. We say, these bad things happen in my life because I wasn't living right. If that's true, then the converse also has to be true. Those good things that happen in your life, you deserved them because you were living right. Help you if you believe that that's not true. In fact, the horrible things in your life are the only things you've ever deserved. Amen, somebody, They're the only things that you've ever deserved? Do you really believe that when those positive things happen in your life? Do you really believe that the fact that you live in the wealthiest nation, the most prosperous nation, that you live this good, the comfortable, free life that you live is because somehow you were good enough to deserve it. Do you believe that the food and your belly already today that is more than what many people on planet Earth will eat all this day, and you're gonna eat again in just a little while, by the way, do you believe that somehow that's because you're better than those people? Are that the clothes on your back, which would in many places be all that people own on some parts of planet Earth, which for you was difficult to pick out because of all the stuff you got in your closet that you don't even wear anymore, is there because you're more righteous than someone else? How dare you? How dare I? That is simply not the case. And so what we do is we if you get on this whole condemnation trek, and there's something bad that's happening in my life, and that's because I'm being condemned by God and I'm paying for my sin. You cannot pay for your sin. That's why you needed Christ. You can't. Well, yes, I can't pay for my sin. A person can pay for their sin in Hell. No, that's why Hell is eternal because the payment's never finished. They are paying for their sin. If a person could pay for their sin in Hell, then Hell would be purgatory. Some of you haven't still haven't gotten what I just say. If you could pay for your sins in Hell, then Hell would be purgatory. See purgatory, that's the place where you go and you suffer until payment is exacted, and then you go on to be with God. Hell it's not like that. Like Purgatory is not like that either because it doesn't exist. But Hell's not like that. Okay. It is eternal because you cannot pay for your sin, because payment for your sin against an infinitely holy God has to be an infinitely worthy payment. You are neither capable of infinite payment nor worthy payment. Therefore, you cannot pay for your sin. And yet there's no condemnation. Why you're not condemned because of what was done for you? Look at verses two and three. Four. Just might want to circle that right, there. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Four. The law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Notice that spirit there is capitalized. Four. God has done with the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh. There is no condemnation for you, not because you've been good, because you're not. Remember, in your flesh dwells no good thing. There is no condemnation for you because of what someone else accomplished on your behalf. Here's why all of that stuff is important. It's important because if we believe that we have this ongoing negotiation between us and God. If I'm bad, you condemn me. If I'm good, you don't condemn me. If we believe that, then we believe that somehow we merit this lack of condemnation, that somehow, if we do everything just right, if we've got our eyes right and we cross our teas right, that somehow God looks upon us and smiles because of what we are able to accomplish, that belief is blasphemy because it negates the completed work of Christ. It negates the value of the work of Christ. It negates the majesty of Christ. It negates the holiness of Christ. It negainst the righteousness of Christ. It negates the magnitude of the difference between Christ and me. It negates the deity of Christ because it fails to recognize that only a divine god man could satisfy the righteous requirements of God on my behalf, and that somehow either I believe I'm on his level or I drag him down the mind, you are not condemned because of what Christ has accomplished on your behalf. Look at the phrases there, For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Remember those laws that we talked about on last week, they're just there. What has set you free spirit of life? The Holy Spirit has set you free. This chapter is all about the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of the believer. And first and foremost it is about the work of the Holy Spirit and setting you free by applying the finished work of Christ to your life. We have a Trinitarian salvation. The son does his work in salvation, but the Spirit also does his work in salvation. Will get later to the Father's work in all of this as well, will save that for then this is the Spirit's work Verse three. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. We read that in the last several chapters you could not keep the law. The law was not designed to make you holy and righteousness. Though the law is good. The law is holy, and the law is righteous. God did not give the law so that his people could somehow attain righteousness. God gave the law so that his people might know sin, and that sin might become sinful to the uttermost amen. God gave the law so that his people could see the distance between him and them. God gave the law as a tutor and as a mirror, that we might see our sinfulness, and that we might recognize that we need someone else to mediate between us and God. But remember what we learned on last week. The law is spiritual. He got the wrong currency. I'm a man of flesh in need of a spiritual solution. So it happens the Spirit of God unites me to Christ applies his work to me by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh. This is why the doctrine of the virgin birth is important. There are those in liberal camps who want to argue, you know, it really doesn't matter. The doctrine of the virgin birth really doesn't matter. Of course it matters. Remember, the law is spiritual, but I'm of flesh. If we do not have a virgin birth, then Christ is of flesh in the same way that I'm of flesh. But he's not of spirit in the same way that God is of spirit. But because we have the virgin in birth, we have God who is spirit, who wraps himself in flesh, who is one hundred percent man and one hundred percent God by virtue of the virgin birth. If you do not have the virgin birth, you don't get that. And if you don't get that, Christ is just an example of how we work hard to please a God who can't be pleased by sinful man, and there is no hope. Gnosticism noceticism the idea that Christ was just God and not man in the flesh, that doesn't get us there either. It is in his flesh that sin is condemned. It is when a human man obeys God as God has required, and lays down his life as a sin offering, and takes it up again because there is no sin in him. It is then and then only that we see this exchange that takes place. Doctrine is important. Don't give me that doctrine stuff. No doctrine, no discipline, wrong orthodoxy, wrong orthopraxy. It is important that we understand the hypostatic union. It is important that we understand that Jesus is God and man. It is important that we reject the idea that Jesus is just some sage who went about teaching things that were good, because we have a sin problem that has to be dealt with. Otherwise I face God and I can't pay. What is this work that was done for us? Christ took our sinfulness? And again, if he's not a flesh and blood man, we don't see that. Isaiah fifty three to six. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us. All amen. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us. All again. We've talked about this before, but it's necessary that we do it again and again and again and again and again, because there are those who say, and what you know the mantra, you're familiar with the mantra, all means all, and that's all all means. You've heard that before. All means all, And that's all all means. You don't like that idea of particular redemption, you don't like that idea of election, because of all these all passages were really watch this. We gotta be careful. All means all, and that's all all means all right, all we like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us. All all means all. That's all. All means. That means the iniquity of Pharaoh, who died and went to Hell, was not only paid, or is not only being paid in hell by Pharaoh, but it was also paid by Jesus once for all. At dog won't hunt. If this all means every human being without exception, that means there are people in hell paying for sins that have already been paid for by Christ. Meganois, may it never be. Isaiah obviously is speaking here about the covenant people of God. That's why he says us all, we all who's us, and we the covenant people of God. That truth Galatians chapter three, Verses thirteen and fourteen get us a little bit ahead of ourselves. But that's okay. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. There's that church in Israel. Stuff Again. I'll explain it more carefully in a little bit. Christ took our sinfulness, and yet he was without sin. Secondly, he gave us his righteousness two Corinthians five point twenty one for our sake. He God made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There's both in one. There's Christ taking our sinfulness and giving us his righteousness, or imputing to us his righteousness. It is an alien righteousness, as Luther called it. It is not our own righteousness, nor is it a righteousness manufactured in us. It is the righteousness of Christ. Thirdly, Christ canceled the debt. We ode. He canceled the debt WI old. This is incredibly important for all of those who juggle with that. You know I did this. Therefore there has to be an equal and opposite reaction from God to snap me back. Now there are consequences for the things that I do. But God doesn't play whack a mole. Okay, you know that game, whackam. Oh, you know, you go and you get the tickets, and the mole pops up, and you gotta smack it on the head and the other pops up, and you got it. God doesn't play whackamo. Every time you do something, he watch you, and he just watch you and watch you. God doesn't play Whackamo Colossians two thirteen to fifteen. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. That's what happened. He canceled my debt. Here all means all we know that A by the context all of my sins, all of my trespasses, for all of us who are in Christ, there is no condemnation for me because it was all paid in Christ, all of it, all of it. I am not condemned. You are not condemned. Grasp that. And for some of us, it says that we need the condemnation so that we can feel better because we're so guilt laden by grace. I need God to be angry with me so that I can feel like I'm paying something. I need God to be angry with me because I don't like the way I feel when I acknowledge the fact that Christ died for that sin. Finally, Christ reconciled us to the Father Colossians one twenty one and twenty two. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. There is no condemnation because of what Christ has done on your behalf. Walk in that, rest in that. If you believe there is condemnation for you, then you either believe that Christ did not pay sufficiently or that Christ was not worth enough. That's the only way you get to hold on the condemnation for yourself. Christ did not pay sufficiently, or Christ was not worthy enough. Therefore, somehow there's condemnation left over for you. There is therefore now no condemnation. As the hen writer writes, Jesus paid it all all to him. I owe sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Or again, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinner's plungs beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. There is now therefore no condemnation. None, none, none. Yes, but I feel so condemned, you know what. That might not even be true. You can't tell me what I feel. I know I feel condemned. You might. You might feel guilty, but that's different than feeling condemned. In order for you to feel condemned, you have to actually believe that God is going to charge that to your account, though Christ already paid for it, and that God is going to destroy you for what you did, although Christ is already paid for it. Is that one. Well, no, I don't believe that. Then you don't feel condemned. You just feel guilty. Stop using the wrong word. Amen. Well that doesn't help me because I still feel guilty. Okay, repent, but there's no condemnation, no condemnation. Thirdly, believer, it's not condemned because of how they live as a result of what was done on their behalf. Don't miss this. Believers are not condemned because of how they live as a result of what was done on their behalf. This is important. Go back with me, if you will, and look at first four. In order that what was Christ accomplishing in his death in the flesh that condemned sin, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. That last phrase is important, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us. That's right, I have to fulfill the law, who walk not according to the flesh. Why because you can't fulfill the law in the flesh, but according to the Spirit who has sealed you unto the dear redemption. So it is the Spirit of God who actualizes this sanctification in you, so that you are sanctified, not just forensically where it happens to be true because God says it, but actually sanctified. You walk in holiness and righteousness by the power of the Spirit, because of the completed work of Jesus Christ. That's how you do it, That's why you do it. This changes everything. I am not doing what I ought to do. Okay, I need five more rules to follow so that I can do what I ought to do. No, you're not doing what you ought to do. Flee to Christ, Run to the crost, because that's your only hope. It is him and his finished work. I just can't do this, outstanding. Hold on to that. Believe that. Your problem is that you don't believe that, because when we say I just can't do it, usually what we mean is I haven't found the right combination of guilt and works to make me comply. But you ought to really mean that I just can't do it. And then don't stop there. I just can't do it. That's why Christ had to die in the flesh. Take my sin, be resurrected for my justification. Send His spirit to endwell and empower me so that I would accomplish that which I cannot accomplish by a power that is not my own and a righteousness that is alien to me, although my flesh could never do it. Just finish the statement, Saints, don't stop too soon. Listen to this to know what Tom Schreiner says. And here's what's important, and you'll see what I mean in just a moment. When I read a couple of passages. We should note here that the promises of Israel are now realized in the Church. The New Covenant promises that the law would be kept through the spirits enabling is now a reality. The resurrection promise to Israel Ezekiel thirty seven belongs to believers in Christ. Israel was God's son Exodus four twenty two, but now believers in Christ are God's children Romans eight fourteen to sixteen. Israel was pledged and inheritance in the Old Testament, but now believers in Christ are heirs together with the new Israel. And second Adam Jesus Christ Christ is to do Israel. In him, all those promises are fulfilled. In him, we see the fulfillment of the promised seed. And so now notice this statement again in verse four, and then we're going to compare it to the promise of the new Covenant in the Old Testament that some would argue is yet to come when Israel gets this new kingdom in the New millennium. Look at verse four again. In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Jeremiah Chapter thirty one. Go there, Jeremiah, chapter thirty one. Jeremih Chapter thirty one, beginning of verse thirty one. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. When I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. For the least of them, from oh, I'm sorry, from the least to them, to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. What is that if not fulfilled in Romans eighty four in the church, I'm not waiting for the end of a parenthetic will pause for that to be fulfilled in an earthly kingdom. That's true right now in us Ezekiel, chapter eleven, verses eighteen and nineteen. And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart and a new spirit, and will a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. What is that if not regeneration and the life of the believer. Ezekiel, Chapter thirty six, verses twenty six twenty seven. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. That is Romans eight four. Fulfilled in Christ and those who are in Him, who are the true Israel, as we saw in Romans chapter five. Finally, believes are not condemned because of where we are. Because of where we are, we're not condemned. That's person and foremost, Amen, Holley, praise the Lord. Good news. We're not condemned. Secondly, because you can mess up there. Yeah, we're not condemned because of us. No, you're not condemned because of what has been accomplished on your behalf. You're also not condemned because of the obedience with which you live as a result of what was accomplished on your behalf. You obey God, not because you work it up from within you, but because of what was accomplished on your behalf. And finally, because of where you are, which is in Christ. Let's go back to verse one again. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. You're not condemned because He's not condemned, and you are in Him. And because you are in Him, any condemnation of you would have to result in condemnation of him. You are in him. He is the true Israel. And because you are in Him, you are the true Israel. In the Him, all of those promises are fulfilled. And because you are in Him, all of those promises are fulfilled. Now watch out for that overrealized eschatology. Remember the end of the last chapter. There is still a battle. There is still a war. Remember already and not yet. Remember the Age to come has invaded this present, evil, sinful age. But that invasion is not yet complete, because the consummation of all things has not yet come. Therefore, this is a reality, but not a complete one yet, and so we hold to it in hope. But we are in Christ. That's why you're not condemned. Because you are in Christ. You are his and he's yours. He's the vine, you're the branches, and you're not condemned because you're in Him. That's why so we glory but we do not gloat, and we glory in Him who. Is our righteousness. So when I keep the righteous requirements of a righteous God set forth in his righteous law, I do not pat myself on the back, but I praise the one in whom I find myself, because I recognize that it is His righteous being worked out in me. Does that mean that I don't pursue righteousness? Megganoisa, have you forgotten Chapters six and seven already? No, it means I'm finally free to pursue righteousness. I never was before. It is only now that I'm free to pursue righteousness. And so when I find sin and me, I do not look up to God afraid because of the condemnation that is to come. When I find sin and me, I call it what it is, I repent of it, I turn from it. I acknowledge the fact that I am in Christ, that Christ is in me, that there is no condemnation, that I am forgiven, and that His Spirit dwells in me, and that I have in me the power that raised Him from the dead, and therefore can most assuredly overcome whatever sin happens to beset me. That's how I live and if you are trusting in anything else and you are not in Christ, hear me. The opposite of this is true. There is nothing but condemnation for you, no matter what you do. We'll talk about this on next week when we get to this next paragraph. You're in the flesh and not in the spirit, and you can't please God. It's as though you're driving in a stolen car and want to be patted on the back because you use your turn signals and obey the speed limit. Amen, it matters not you're in a stolen vehicle. You're a lawbreaker no matter what you do. So when you use your turn signal, you're breaking the law by using a turn signal in a car that you stole. When you obey the speed limit, you're breaking the law by obeying this limit in a car that you stole. When you obey the warning signs on the highway, you are breaking the law by obeying the warning signs in a car that you stole. And everything that you do is illegitimate because you're not in Christ. So are you found in Christ? This is not behavioral modification, this is spiritual transformation. Are you found in Him? There are some of you and you work, and you work, and you work, and you are overwhelmed. Why because you're not found in him, and you are trying to avoid condemnation by doing that which only the spirit of God can accomplish in you, and by doing so you are heaping even more condemnation on yourself. Why because God has declared that there is one who is righteous, and that is his son. There is one whose payment is sufficient, and that is Christ. And you say to God the Father, I spit on your son, I spit on his finished work. I believe I'm just as good as he is, and I can please you just as much as he did. And somehow that's supposed to get you into heaven. Mega nuy Todd. May it never be. You cannot achieve this, But for those who are in Christ, he will achieve this in you. The question is are you in Christ? I didn't ask you if you walked an aisle. I didn't ask you if you pray to prayer. I didn't ask you if you invited Jesus anywhere. What good does that do? I'm living my life in a stolen vehicle, and I invited Jesus into my stolen car. Please have you come to the end of yourself. Have you come to the place where you realize that there is nothing but condemnation for you, and you cannot please God, and your righteousness is but filthy rags in his sight, And that therefore there is a desperate need in you for an alien righteousness. Is that you? Have you come to the place where you have abandoned all trust in yourself to appease God. Is that you? Have you come to a place where you recognize your sinfulness Christ's sinlessness? Is that you? If you come to a place where you experience equal parts terror and joy as you realize that you're standing in the presence of a holy and righteous God who ought to consume and destroy you, but instead instead has offered you his son, who died in your place. Is that you if you turn from your sin and yourself and placed your complete trust and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ and him alone? Is that you? Or are you just hoping that you can come to church enough or read your Bible enough to somehow stand before God and be righteous? Come to the end of you be found in Him? Because there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Believer, Are you walking in that or you one of those people who just desperately needs the guilt and condemnation for you to feel all right, that's sin, that's sin. The lamb is worthy. Don't deny it through your desire for grief. The lamb is worthy. Praise the Lamb. Yes,