Romans 8 - Freedom From Bondage — Leonard Ravenhill

Romans 8 as the Peak of Paul’s Revelation

The epistle of Paul to the Romans and the 8th chapter, Romans and chapter 8. You may or may not remember that, I know you weren't living then, 1772 a man by the name of Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born.

He became one of the outstanding critics of the day, later, not when he was born, but later. And he wrote a lot of things. One thing that was outstanding of his writings was a thing called the Ancient Mariner.

And it was acclaimed and disclaimed. He was born in when? 1772, died in 1834. But he said this epistle of Paul to the Romans, in his opinion of course, one man's opinion isn't everything, he said this is the most sublime thing that was ever written, this amazing epistle.

When I first came to America, my first trip in 1950, there was a book critic by the name of Wilbur Smith. A very outstanding, almost a genius, he had a private library of 25 ,000 books. I think I'd like that number too.

Well he said if this is the most sublime book that has ever been written, the epistle to the Romans that is, the 8th chapter is the very peak of all the revelation. And it is the most sublime part of the most sublime book.

The Holy Spirit’s Work Throughout Scripture

I think it was in the 1800s there was a hymn written, Eternal Light, Eternal Light, how pure the soul must be. There's a phrase in that hymn that always sticks with me. The writer speaks of the Holy Spirit's energies.

The Holy Spirit's energy. It was he who moved over chaos in the beginning, you remember, and out of it brought cosmos or order. It was he who moved over men. One climbed a sycamore tree. Amos was a herdsman.

David was a king. These strange characters, different characters, were all inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. In these days when there's some disregard for the Old Testament, I want to remind you again that all, that's A-L-L, Scripture, is given by inspiration of God.

And even in this day it's profitable to us. The energy of the Holy Ghost breathes all through Romans, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, there are 26 references to the Holy Spirit in the epistle of Paul to the Romans.

And if I remember, 18 of them are in this very chapter. I reminded you before that Romans 7 is a funeral march. Romans 8 is a wedding march. I think if Paul had known it after he wrote Romans 7, he would have sung, Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night, Jesus, I come.

That's a great hymn. Out of my sickness into thy health. Out of my poverty into thy wealth. Out of my sinning into thyself. Jesus, I come. God had to continually remind the children of Israel, Remember, thou wast a bondsman.

Never forget or be ashamed of your birthplace. I don't care if you're born in a gutter. I don't care if you're born of a harlot. You have life. It can't be made as much as science tries. It can destroy it.

In fact, it's making an oven now to roast us all in. It can't just decide what temperature, but we're trying to beat the Russians at it. But life is the most precious thing. Romans 7, full of darkness and death.

Holiness, Experience, and the Victory of Romans 8

I'll say this and repent afterwards, but I sometimes think that many of the modern preachers are devil's advocates. I heard the greatest holiness preacher, greatest expositor in the world, 50, 60 years ago.

50 years ago. And he gave a classic sermon on holiness. Then he finished and said, now look, I'm not preaching sinless perfection. But you know, in our day, we're more afraid of holiness than we are of sinfulness.

That's a great weakness of the church today. He finished up by saying, but remember, with all his amazing comprehension of God, the Apostle Paul finished up saying, oh, wretched man, that's a lie from hell.

He did not finish there. There happens to be another chapter after Romans 7, and it's called Romans 8. To me, the Apostle Paul is the best example of his own theology. Every preacher should be that. A man with an experience, this is not mine, it's good enough to be mine, but it isn't mine.

A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. I had to jump out of a burning hotel in Chicago in 1958. You'll be amazed at the advice I got afterwards, how I should have done it.

I should have jumped and tripled ahead of the heels coming down. All the counsel I got after I'd gone through that horrible experience. I said, I suppose I should have sat down and said, hey, fire department, wait, I'm drawing a plan now to get out of this place.

I happen to have some experience. I don't want to repeat it. I don't want to tell you about it either. But you see, this man's life breathes everything he preached. He dares to say what few men dare to say.

What things ye, as followers of readers of my testimony, what things you have seen and heard in me do, and the God of peace be with you. Ask your preacher on Sunday, dare he say that? Dare he say to you, go where I go, read what I read, do what I read?

Follow in my footprints, and when you get to the address, see, I'll be accountable for the way you've trod, because you've followed me. You know, when you read this chapter, first of all, this eighth chapter, there's nothing tremendously exciting about it, I think.

It doesn't give you any goose lumps or whatever you want to call them, turkey pimples or anything else. It seems very plain at first. But Dr. Sangster of Westminster, a very marvelous man, used to say, Brother Raven, we need to be close readers of the New Testament.

He didn't mean to read it closely like this, you know. He meant, get down and don't skip it. Don't get through it quickly. Meditate on it. It's a lost art. The psalmist says, I will meditate in thy precepts.

Meditation, contemplation, brings revelation. Look how he begins. Yes, he's finished there, verse 24 of the previous chapter, a wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from this death? The law can't do it.

But he answers in the next verse, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. With my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin. What does he mean? He's sinning? No, he says, I, my body, this body of mine is going to serve the law of sin, which is death.

If man hadn't of sin, there would have been no death. But he says, this body most likely will serve the law of death. Of sin and of death. He says, there is therefore now no condemnation. The key verse, let me jump to it, is down here in two verses, verse 15 and verse 16.

Adoption, No Condemnation, and the Fatherhood of God

Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Father. That's what it really is. Father, Father. That the eternal God who sits on a throne, the high and lofty one who inhabited eternity, is my Father.

We reminded ourselves of this last week. Abraham never called him Father. Nor did Isaiah. Nor did the outstanding prophets of the Old Testament. But we are permitted by the grace and mercy of God, because we being God was contracted to a span, an incomprehensibly made man.

The heavens of heavens cannot contain him, and yet he's packed into the womb of a virgin. How do you explain it? You can't. Any more than you can explain how eternal life was put to death on the cross.

There is therefore now no condemnation. Let me go back, I'm sorry. Verse 15. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again, but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, or Father, Father.

The spirit itself, that's a terrible translation. The spirit isn't it, it's him, he's a person. And I remind you again that the Trinity is not composed in this way, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Spirit is not, N-O-T, a junior partner in the Godhead. He's equal with the Father, equal with the Son. Every mass, let me say this, the Holy Spirit is totally incapable of doing anything small.

You say, but, well, my salvation wasn't dramatic, I've never been a prostitute, I've never been a thief. Come on. It took the mercy of God, the blood of Christ, and the power of the Holy Ghost to redeem you, and regenerate you.

You're the product of the triune God. It didn't happen just because you knelt down and said, I'm a lousy, rotten sinner and I deserve hell. No, no, no. Agencies have been working before ever you could say that.

Prevenient Grace and the Spirit’s Witness

It used to be, years ago, yes, years ago, years ago, preachers used to preach about prevenient grace. Do you know what that means? It means all the times God interfered in your life when you're ready to slip into hell and he rescued you like that.

When you're going to do a somersault into destruction, and there came an unseen hand and an unseen power and restrained you. It might have been called fear. It might have been some other thing. But prevenient grace was there.

You did not make the first move to God. He made the first move to you. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit. Notice that. You might say to me, did you see Sonny James in the meeting? I say, yeah.

No, I didn't. I saw the shell he lives in. Nobody's ever seen him, not even his wife, which may be good, but anyhow. All I've seen is the house in which you live. You are a spirit. God is a spirit. And as an old hymn says, spirit to spirit thou dost speak.

You've not received the spirit of bondage. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, not our emotions, not our thinking, not our intellect. I am a spirit capable only of being touched by God on the level of the Spirit.

You can put my body to death. You can't put my spirit to death. The Spirit beareth witness. How does he beareth witness? Beareth witness. Well, this first verse says, there is therefore now no condemnation.

No Condemnation and Assurance of Salvation

Oh, if you were Methodist, I'd have you sing that great old hymn of Charles Wesley's,. And can it be that I should gain. How many of you know that? Wonderful, what a pity it isn't in our book. These Baptists are only 200 years behind.

They'll catch up some of these days. Don't frown on me now. Because I've got the advantage. I can point you out, see. But that's when Wesley wrote that. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood?

Died he for me who caused his pain, for me whom to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? The second stanza says, no condemnation now I dread. You see, I never have joy, though, or much excitement in it.

Well, that's not the point. I remember slipping into a meeting after I preached at a meeting in Ireland. I went in, and as I went in, the schoolmaster of the district, very fine Christian, was there. And he waved.

I said, hi. When the altar call was given, his daughter, a very bright 15-year-old, rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed Irish girl, went down to the altar. He said, would you please help my daughter when she comes back?

I will if I can. She went up to the altar last week when this man called. So when she came up, I said, come on, let's go. Hey, your daddy wants me to talk with you. What happened tonight? Tell me this.

What happened last week? You went up to the altar last week. Why? I was tormented with guilt. I was weighed down with condemnation. I was haunted with memories. What happened? Well, I went to the front.

They told me what to do, and what happened? Nothing. I got up in the morning. I was just the same. Felt my guilt. Felt I disappointed God. She went down the list again. Well, then I said, what happened tonight?

She said, well, I just went up to the front, and I said the same thing again. What happened? Nothing. Are you sure? Well, I don't feel any excitement. We used to sing a hymn. You shall have the joy bells ringing in your heart.

No joy bells ringing in my heart, she said. But that's not the point. What's the point? You said that when you went up to that altar last week and this week, you were bored down with condemnation and guilt and haunted with memories, afraid of exposure, what your daddy and mummy would think.

Did you really pray sincerely, God be merciful to me, a sinner? Did you really say, I believe Jesus died for my sins, even mine, as John Wesley said? He prayed that at a quarter to nine on the 24th of May, 1738, and he said, I believed at that moment.

Self-righteous man. Brilliant scholar. Impeccable morality. I believed at that moment I passed from death unto life. His brother, too, had a colossal intellect. His brother, too, was an outstanding teacher.

And he wrote this verse. Remember, he has no hideous crime record. He never polluted some woman's life. He never stole. He was impeccable in his morality. But he wrote this lovely verse again in the same hymn, And can it be that I should gain?

And he says, No condemnation is a second stanza. And then he says, Long, long, my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin. And here's a man you can put your finger on him. You couldn't fault him in anything in his life.

He was a perfect scholar, a perfect gentleman, a man of unclouded revelation of God as far as he knew. But there came a moment when he said, Long, my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. What chains? Not chains of depravity in the sensory thing. The chains of fear. The chains of false religion.

The chains of false teaching. I said to that girl, Well, just wait a minute. Please don't run away. You said last week that you felt condemnation lashing you. Conscience was burning in you. Fear was on you.

Yeah, I felt as big a criminal as anybody on God's... Do you feel it now? A little facelift? No. Mr. Regner, I don't feel guilty. I don't feel lashed with guilt. I don't feel a burden crushing me. Well, like you got the witness of the spirit.

Why? Because if he doesn't witness with condemnation, he witnesses with joy. He witnesses with peace. You don't need much witness of the spirit if your bell's battling in your ear all day, do you? But sometimes when the enemy comes, but you know there deep down in your heart that there is no condemnation.

No condemnation, now I dread. Look at verse 34. I like the who... Excuse me. I thought you were coughing for me there. Okay. 9 verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Who is even at the right hand of God the Father? Making intercession. Verse 35. Who shall separate us from... It's as though he says, Come on, who? Come on, where are you?

Come on, bring your condemnation. No condemnation, now I dread. Why not? Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Can anybody contest, whether they're men or demons or theologians, can you contest the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ?

It is Christ that died. Who is at the right hand of the Father? Making intercession or supplication. Can anybody contest his supplication? He's at the right hand of God. Can anybody contest his sovereignty?

He has broken the power of sin. Nobody can contest him. He made one perfect offering once at the end of the age. When billions of sins were on him. I tried to preach a couple of weeks ago about the contrast between the Christ on the back of a donkey going down the streets of Jerusalem with two or three thousand people scorning, ridiculing.

No doubt the Romans used to seeing an emperor go down the road with his slaves or his captives chained to the wheel of his... Here's a man on a donkey. Good night, is he starting a kingdom? The church has made a lot of that on Palm Sunday.

But we've made very little of the man on the donkey when he comes on a white horse charging through the skies. When without saying a word he faces two hundred million people, he has no sword in his right hand because he had seven stars.

And yet what is in the ninth of Revelation, right after the marriage supper you get the bloodiest battle that's ever been, the battle of Armageddon. Blood is going to flow. It's from the ground up to the bridles of the horses.

And it's two hundred miles in length. You talk about a holocaust. That's a super, super, super holocaust. Jesus Christ with authority and power. We've lost sight of that. Do you know why we're not impressing the world?

Because our God is too small and the church is too paralyzed. They're not concerned to go to art galleries and see what Rubens or Raphael or somebody else painted three centuries ago and now they've pitched a sale for ten million dollars.

How can you have a dead service if a living Christ is in it? Come on. I get angry when young people say our church is about as exciting as a Tupperware party. Well, join Amway. Here he is, the Christ of God.

His substitution cannot be contested. His supplication cannot be contested. His sovereignty cannot be contested. Isaac wrote among his great hymns, wrote one, Jesus shall reign where 'er the sun doth its successive journeys run.

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more. Blessings abound where 'er he reigns the prisoner leaps to lose his chains the weary find eternal rest and all the sons of want are blessed.

Where he displays his healing power death and the curse are known no more. In him the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their fathers. You know, there are people who have gone to graves today never heard the name of Jesus Christ two thousand years after he was here on earth.

I'm haunted by the five, almost five billion, at least in excess of four billion people that never heard the name of Jesus yet. They're most likely to hear the name of rock and roll stars than hear the name of Jesus Christ.

Redemption from Bondage and the Garbage Collector’s Praise

Chapter eight again, verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation. And not one of you can even squeak a hallelujah for that. What a miserable crowd. Hmm? When we went to the Methodist church, I used to love to watch an old man who wasn't too old, sitting across here across the aisle, a big hefty guy.

He had a very great job, he was a garbage collector. But you know what? He'd been rescued from the verge of hell. And I felt sorry when we had the strange preacher and they sang, And can it be? Because he was in for trouble.

As soon as they stopped singing, the old boy there would raise a hand, it looked as big as a shovel to me, he put his hand up like this and he'd bawl out about ten keys out of order. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I walked the dungeon's great flame, and he'd get those big hands, oh boy, like an earthquake. I got scared when he got there. My chains fell off. My heart was free.

I rose and I went forth, and I followed him. And he did. You know, we think we haven't been saved from much, we didn't have a rotten record, a rotten past. Brother, if you knew how many hearts beat you away from eternity when they intercepted you on the road to destruction, it may take eternity to open our eyes.

There is therefore now, folk, no condemnation for those of us 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 from the law of sin and death.

That's why it says in verse 15, You've not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption. How many of you tonight are adopted? I don't mean spiritually. Thank you.

Oh, I got some information there. I mean adopted. There's been a row in England this week over a princess who was discovered now, she's in the royal family, she's been adopted. Her parents were criminals in the German SS army or something, and boy, is she embarrassed.

She's found out she was adopted. We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, and we were outside the covenant of God, but now we can cry, Abba, Father, because he's brought us in. We have some schools in England, they're called public schools.

One of them is called Eaton. At Eaton, you have to get your child's name, it's only a boys' school, of course, pardon me, but the day your child is born, you have to register that child to go to that school.

It's a school for royalty mostly, princes, rich people. Those private schools are called public schools, I don't know why. Any more than when you finish a school period, you call it the commencement. How in the world can it be commencement when it's the end of the thing?

Tell me after. But this public school, this little boy went to a public school, he always had more money than anybody else. They used to take big boxes, we called them tuck boxes, filled with candy and fruits and all kinds of stuff.

This little fellow always had enough that when other boys had run out, he'd say, here, here, here, here, give them a quarter, give them an apple, give them candy. One day a little boy came up to him and says, listen, you're snobbish.

Just because your daddy owns a mill and he owns half of the town and a chauffeur drives you to school in a Rolls Royce, you know better than we are. I've got something to tell you too. The man you call daddy isn't your daddy.

You say that again, I'll give you a bloody nose. He won't alter it, he's not your daddy. When he got home, he dashed straight out of the car, went into his daddy's library. Daddy says, come son, you're home for Christmas.

Do you know what I've got for you? I've got you the pony you wanted. And I've got... What's wrong? He said, look at me straight. Are you my daddy? What? Are you my father? When the boy got back to school, the other little urchin was there to jump on him and he said, did you ask your daddy?

Yeah. Well, is he your father? No. No, he's not. You're laughing. When I told you, you said you'd give me a bloody nose. What are you laughing about? Well, he said, he took me to the window of the library and he showed me, he said, you see that town over there?

I own about three quarters of it. You know the big castle that you go to in summer? Well, that belongs to me too. And that yacht that we sail on, that belongs to me too. And not only that, but I've got millions and millions of pounds in the bank.

I've got thousands of acres of land. I am one of the richest men outside of the royal family. You're not my daddy? No. What happened? One day, when the night, when the bombers came to Liverpool, your parents were killed.

And it's literally true. They used to go around with trucks or vans after the air raids and pick up children that were terrified and bleeding and wounded. And they didn't know who they belonged to and the kids didn't know very often.

Anyhow, he said, we went to, they took me to a big home for boys. One day, my daddy and mummy, he, my foster daddy, if you want, they went to that place and said, we want a boy. And the matron said, well, we have 500 to choose from.

He said, then they reduced it to 15. Then they reduced it to five. And my daddy said, let's take five. We can afford them. My mother said, who can manage them? So, they decided not to have anybody but me.

They chose me. My daddy said, all that I've told you is all yours. I've changed your name. I've changed your station in life. I've given you more than you could conceive as a little boy. And you tell your friend this when you go back to school.

But what else did he say? He told me to tell you that when they wanted a boy, they had 500 to choose from. But when you were born, your folk had to have you whether they wanted you or not. Do you think I'm going to be worried what this world says about my simple trusting of Galilean merchant who died for my sins and nobody's sure about it?

Listen, I've passed from death unto life. He changed my name. He changed my destiny. He's got a mansion laid up for me. He's got eternal life laid up for me. He's got the most glorious company the world could ever dream of.

I'm going to be the marriage supper of the Lamb. And you know what else? I'll have to change my sex. I'm going to be part of the bride. But there's no sex in soul. There's no sex in soul. Listen, don't waste your sympathy.

I'm the child of a king. I belong to a royal priesthood and a holy nation. I can call the maker of... Right now, my dear sweet wife's garden is gorgeous. I said to her tonight, Darling, you've done a great job.

The roses are gorgeous. They look so wonderful. And we have a beautiful plant spread out like this. Not quite like that, but anyway, spread out. It's called bougainvillea. There's a lot of it grows over in the Bahamas.

Glorious colors. Red and bluish. Tangerine. White. Magnificent. Oh, that God. When I see it, I think of a word of Isaac Watts. When he said, He made the stars, those heavenly flames. He counts their numbers, calls their names.

His wisdom's vast and knows no bounds. He put the color in all of them. He shaped all of them. And that mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, is my God? I can talk with him on the eye-to-eye, one-to-one level when I want, in my closet.

I can turn back the pages of history and all I can say when I turn them back is, Great is thy faithfulness. To individuals, to colonies of people, to nations of people, Great is thy faithfulness. The Spirit bears witness not always with joy bells, but with peace.

And boy, I need peace more than I need joy bells. It's the most elusive thing in the world. In our last hundred years, there have been 1800 peace pacts between the nations and we're further from peace now than we were when we started.

Peace, Meekness, and the Sermon on the Mount

Why? There's no answer. Jean-Paul Sartre, the great French critic, says this, the present generation... Thank you. The present generation of people, he says, we've come to an impasse. For the nations of the world at this given moment of time, that brilliant philosopher says there's no way out.

Well, there isn't. Why didn't we wake up to that long ago? It's a problem nobody can solve. Can God solve it? No, he can't. He has solved it. We've got every answer we need in the Sermon on the Mount.

Because the one basic problem that humanity has is we can't get on with each other. It's a problem of human relationships, man and wife, children and parents, churches, fellowships, all except Latter Days, but anyhow.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Now it's blessed are the pacemakers. Blessed are the meek. We think it's blessed are the weak. Meekness is the strongest thing. Jesus is the only person ever tried to found a kingdom on meekness.

His first call to men was, come unto me, for I am meek. The main part of his message, the Sermon on the Mount, is meekness. Paul writes about the gentleness and meekness of Jesus Christ. But gentleness today means softness.

And meekness means weakness. But meekness... Jesus was the meekest man that ever lived. But twice he cleansed the temple. Wouldn't you have gone in a temple the second time after you cleaned it out once?

And raised everybody's madness against you? But he did it. That's why when he was on his way to what we call the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he was going to cleanse the temple again. Why didn't they kill him?

He was defenseless. Except he had a wall of angels round about him, that nobody could get through. Blessed are the meek. Do you remember there's a record of Moses? He was the meekest man in all the earth.

Mercy needed it with a sister like he had. Maybe that's why the Lord was making you meek. Or getting you ready for a wife. Moses, the meekest man in all... But when he came down from the mountain and they were making a golden calf, he was angry.

He was mad with them. Jesus was the meekest man. Look, what a pity we can't get on TV and blast this into the ears of... You have one of two options. Right now, to submit to the blood of the Lamb, or wait and meet the wrath of the Lamb.

And there's no creature on earth, I'm told, which is more fierce than a ram that has got maddened. It's totally impossible to get hold of it and do anything with it. It can get away from a man or a team of men.

Right now, God in his sovereignty, in his mercy, is still giving us some protection. I don't think he's going to last long. Within five years, we'll have collapses in America we never dreamed of. And right now, there is a day of mercy, a day of grace.

God is a God of mercy, but he's angry with the wicked every day. Stick that on your bumper, sticker. They'll burn your car. Verse 2 says, The Lord, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, had made me free, free from the law of sin and death.

The Law, Sin, and Freedom in Christ

OK. Verse 3, for what the law could not do knowing 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 may be fulfilled, not destroyed.

He comes and gives me power to keep the law impeccably. Folk are crazy that say, the Old Testament isn't for today. Well, that's a fine thing to give the world, isn't it? They want to commit adultery.

They want to lie. They want to cheat. Tell them now that the Ten Commandments are obsolete. Forget it. Jesus says, I came not to destroy the law but to fulfill. We have to keep the moral law as long as there are men on earth.

The ceremonial law is not ours. We don't have to go through all the ritual of the ceremonial law, thank God. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Get that for a minute.

God sending his own Son. So the Son was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh. So the Son was seen. First he was sent, then he was seen in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was a sent one. He was a seen one.

In the likeness of flesh and for sin. He was a substitute one. He condemned sin in the flesh. He was a sinless one. The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.

Verse 8 or verse 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is subject to the law of God. Neither can it be. Carnality is not subject to the law of God. There's no law of God that will cancel carnality in your life.

He doesn't curb it or control it. He cleanses it. He removes it. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject. You can put all the laws you like. Come on, you know, you drive down the road there, I -20.

Does everybody keep the speed limit? Don't blush. I see you're blushing. Well, that's all right. You shouldn't do it. You can legislate. You cannot legislate righteousness. In this nation there was a tremendous try years ago when I was a young man to legislate the drink business.

Prohibition came in. Did it stop it? Not on your life. It made the Kennedys multimillionaires. We're told Al Capone was paying a quarter of a million in tithes every week to the Roman church because he was running the underworld of liquor in Chicago.

You cannot legislate carnality. The carnal man is enmity against that's a terrible word. If he's not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Oh, that's an escape hatch for us, isn't it? They that are in the flesh as long as I'm in this flesh that's not what it says. It's talking about your fleshly nature which is quoted there in Galatians 5.

The works of the flesh all the horrid things the temper, the pride all those things if you're in the flesh you cannot please God. Well, that's a breather, isn't it? Till you come to the next verse where it says but you're not in the flesh now what do you do?