Book of Romans, 8:1 - No Condemnation For Those Walking After The Spirit, Pt. 1 (07/14/2019)

You today. Turn with me if you would to Colossians chapter 1, and I will give you a brief introduction of how we got there. Anyway, we're in Romans chapter 8 verse 1, and let me read you right at the end of Romans chapter 7, so you see the contrast.

Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

No Condemnation in Romans 8:1 and the Contrast With Romans 7

The same man that wrote that wrote the next verse, Romans chapter 8 verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

And they're not two chapters, there are no chapter divisions in the original, so it's just all one life. All one man, all one life, same way we are. We are living in a body that has a brain in it that's still part of the old man, still has bad input and good input, but if we're saved, and I can be more confident with a smaller crowd like this, since you're saved, your new man is in control of that entire body including your brain.

And your new man is charged with being the watchman of your brain, your mind, and making sure that if thoughts come in there that aren't appropriate that you cast them out, and all of that. What's interesting about verse 1 to me in chapter 8 there of Romans is that some people take it that the first part and the second part are somewhat contradictory.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ, and then they take this next part to be sort of a condition of salvation or something. It says who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

It's not a condition of salvation, it is an effect of salvation, and there's a big difference. It's not the cause of it, it's the effect of it. And I was, I think most of you heard me say that I was kind of going back in time some 455 years ago when John Calvin wrote, and he said that this particular verse is God through the Apostle Paul describing the contest which the godly have perpetually in their own flesh.

But then in verse 1 of chapter 8 he gives the consolation that we are freed from sin, exempt from the power of death, and exempt from every curse. And then Calvin said this, if you take chapter 7, all of chapter 7, and you take the first part of chapter 8 and the second, I'm sorry, first part of chapter 8 verse 1, and the second part of chapter 8 verse 1, you only have three things.

The first thing is the idea of the imperfection under which the faithful are always walking. We're not perfect. The second idea, which is the first half of chapter 8 verse 1, is we see the mercy of God in pardoning and forgiving the sin.

And the third part, which we see in the second half of verse 1, he simply said we see the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. So he sees that as not like a condition of salvation, he sees it as the result of it, as a result of salvation.

Now, you know, what I felt we should do is try to find out is this because John Calvin had predisposed beliefs? Is this because John Calvin just wanted it to be that way, or is it what the rest of the Bible bears up?

So in going through other scripture that I can clearly see bears up his thought that that second half of verse 1 is not a condition of salvation, it's the result of it, that he's absolutely right. So I'd like to share some of what I found in the scripture.

And most of what I want to show you today is in Colossians chapter 1. There are other verses out there, many different places. So let's just focus on this. In Colossians chapter 1, we'll start there with verse 1.

And you've heard me say before that a long time ago I preached a sermon, or several series of sermons, on the 33 things that God did for you and to you at the moment you were saved. And I got the idea from Louis Barry Schaeffer, who founded Dallas Theological Seminary in a book that he wrote years ago.

And what's interesting is I studied this chapter with regard to Romans 1, sorry, Romans 8 verse 1, to bear up what John Calvin said about it, see if it's true or not. I found that there are about 30 things that God did for us, the nanosecond that he saved us, in this one chapter.

And they don't match perfectly with the 33 in my other study, which means there's more than 33, doesn't it? But what's interesting, there are 30 of them right here in this one place. So kind of look for them as we read through this.

But the gist of this is, and some other verses that I studied, is that it makes it clear that even though how you read a verse can make a difference, where you put the emphasis on the different words in the parts of the verse can make it sound one way or another.

That's why we have to take a look at the whole Bible and let it shed light on this particular passage we're looking at so we fully understand exactly what it means, and more importantly sometimes what it doesn't mean.

All right? Because verse 1 sounds like that the no condemnation is for those who only walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. And you start thinking about that, well is that me, or do I sometimes walk in the flesh?

Do I sometimes sin? You say, well then do I even have the promise that there's no condemnation for me? And if you get that second half of that verse wrong, it totally destroys the power of the verse. So you've got to get it right.

Now what helps though is as we go on down through chapter 8 later, we go to verses 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, they shed light on verse 1 also. And they start to show that the way that the Holy Spirit is speaking through Paul in these passages is there is just an underlying assumption there that if a person is genuinely born again, he does have a predominant walk after the Spirit or according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

And that's really what it's talking about. But are there other places in Scripture that bears this out? Because there should be if it's the truth, right? You don't have any, like Myron says, you don't have any stand-alone truths.

So that's why I'm in Colossians, because I had to look at some of these passages to make sure Mr. Calvin was correct. If he's not, we don't care. He said so many wonderful things. You take the good stuff, throw out the bad, right?

That's how you have to do when you read theology. It's all got mistakes in it. But it's also got some amazingly powerful thoughts from men and women of God who've lived over the last 2 ,000 years. So we have to take the good and throw out the bad, and that's the only way you can study theology.

Because it's not the Bible just because a person said so, is it? But Calvin turned out to be correct about this, in my view, because of the Scriptures we're going to look at. So let's start right there at verse 1, Colossians 1.

Election, Calling, and the Will of God

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. Notice that it starts out claiming that the only reason he is an apostle is because God predestinated that he would be one.

That's what we call the will of God, God's will, being in God's will. You and I have a particular job to do that God foreordained that we would have when he put us here also, just like Paul and just like Timothy.

And so our whole life is according to the will of God. The interesting thing is that as we get older, we have more to look back on and we can recognize the different things God did and places he put us in and bad stuff that happened and good stuff that happened and bad people we met and the good people we met.

All these influences that God used to make us be who we had to be to do the job that we're doing. But when you're a young person, you don't know what that job is yet and you're having all that stuff done to you by bad people and good people and truth and falsehoods and different things coming into your mind.

And God will use all of it to make you be who you have to be because of who he's already foreseen that you are and will be. Isn't that interesting? So you can rest in the fact that you're going to end up in God's will.

You just are. And you may think you're making your own choices and that they're determining what you're going to be because we do make our choices. But what we have to understand is there is an underlying father that we have in heaven who knows how to influence us, even in our choices.

And that influence is so certain. And then on top of that, he's already been out and been with you in the future and seen it. So like there's no mistake where you're headed. There's no mistake. And God is just God.

We can't get around that. He's not a human and that's why humanism and religion doesn't work. But our choices are very important. Let's see. Bill, I think your pizza man may be looking for you. He's kind of staring in here like he's not sure what to do.

Or he's interested in the sermon. I'm not sure which. Probably worried about the sermon, the pizza. So it's by the will of God and you can walk certain that God is going to keep you in his will. There's this false idea out there, especially among Baptists, where they say, well, you need to find God's will.

You need to be in God's will as if you can get out of it. And they don't really think through what God's will means. I mean, think of it. If you're God and you will it, then it happens. Think about that.

So you're not going to get out of God's will unless you are stronger than he is. And you're not. And I'm not. And that's a comforting thought. And you say, well, how can the bad things in my life be part of God's will?

Because they're part of a bigger good picture. And that's why he says all things work together for good to those who are called and those who love him. So it starts out in verse one reminding us of all this sovereignty of God.

Verse two says who he's writing to. It's always important when you're studying the Bible, go back wherever you are. You may be trying to prove something, use scripture to prove something, and that's okay.

We're supposed to be able to tell people why we believe what we believe, aren't we? And you find that from scripture, but you should always go back to the first of the chapter or the first of the book.

And it will usually tell you who he's writing to. So some books are to every human. Some books are only to Christians. Some books are to people who profess to be... Dave, could you turn this down just one hair?

It's ringing. Some books are for people who profess to be Christians and those who are truly born again, all mixed together, kind of like when we speak to a larger group of people, it's that way. You've got people who think they're Christians, people who are Christians, all mixed together, right?

So some books and passages are written to that kind of a crowd. So you need to know because you'll misinterpret it if you don't know. So look at verse two. Who is Colossians to? Very clear, to the saints.

What's a saint? It's not what a Roman Catholic says it is. A saint is a saved person, a genuinely saved person from God's viewpoint, not from man's viewpoint, from God's viewpoint, a truly born again person.

That's who he's writing to. And notice it says, and the faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae. Now what's interesting about it, it sounds like that's two kinds of people. You've got saints, saved people, and you've got faithful, saved people.

Well, we do have that in the church, I think. But really, if you look at the Greek in particular, in the word faithful, it's really kind of the same person. It's a whole lot like Romans chapter eight, verse one, where it says you have this no condemnation, but then it says those who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

But when you really study, you find out that's the same person, that people who are saved do predominantly walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And in this verse, those who are saints are predominantly faithful.

You see? Now you won't see that in the English, but we'll see it later as we look at this. So he's writing to faithful saints in Christ, which are at Colossae. And he says this, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. And what does he pray? Well, he started praying for them from the point when he heard about their faith. And he started praying for them at the point when he heard about the love that they had for other believers.

And then verse five says, here's what I prayed for you. I prayed for the hope, which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, which has come unto you as it is to all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day that you heard it.

Now let's stop there and spend a little more time going a little more slowly through those six. I don't want to try to do that whole chapter. Let's just look at those six verses. So go back up to, to verse one for a minute.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I want us to start counting some of the things that we can see in this passage that God gave to us or did to us at the moment of our salvation. So they start sort of in verse, and of course we can start with verse one, we were predestinated to be saved, right?

I mean, that's right there. It's not there as clearly as it is in some other passages, but it alludes to it vaguely. Don't you think? Vaguely. It alludes to that, but the specific things start in verse two.

So it says to the saints who are faithful. So that's the first one that I see is faithfulness. Now if it's true that at the moment we were saved, God gave us whatever this word means, faithfulness. I think we need to know more about what it means.

It's very interesting to me that when you look up that word in the Greek, you see that it comes from the Greek word pistos, which is the same word that is translated into believe everywhere in the New Testament.

Isn't that interesting? It's not translated into faithful. It's translated into believe. So it can mean a person who is trusting, a trusting person, a believing person, a person trusting with regard to a belief that trusts in Jesus Christ.

And it actually comes from a little Greek root word, pitho. Now listen to this, which means to convince or be convinced. Now think about that for a minute. Just in the word itself. I'm writing this to saints who have been convinced in Jesus Christ.

That is so totally foreign to today's world of religion where humanism takes over and we're told there are things we have to do to be saved. This passage teaches us that he's writing to people that are saved and these people are people who have been convinced.

Now it doesn't imply that you convinced yourself. It implies you were convinced by someone. That alludes to nothing other than the calling where the Holy Spirit came to you and called you and convinced you for the first time in your life that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that he's your shepherd and that you're hungry and he has the food.

You've heard me say it a million times. So this root word is the word that's translated into faithful in verse 2. So it's not the predominant meaning in Greek is not that they're faithful. The predominant meaning is that they're trusting because someone has convinced them to trust Jesus.

So they are in a state of trusting Jesus. Isn't that something? Beautiful how you dig deeper you find amazing nuggets that convince you that other portions of Scripture that you've read and thought you understood that you actually do understand them.

Are you with me? So he's writing to saved people and saved people are called people. Not people always who just came down and prayed a little prayer because a preacher or a church or a group told them here's how you get saved.

But a person who the Holy Spirit called and said wake up and look at Jesus. I've just put in your heart a desire for him that you never had before and if you're sitting out here today you know if you have that desire because you can't work it up.

You can't make yourself have it. It was a gift from God. The Lord himself convinced you that Jesus is your only Savior. Not your mom, not your dad, not your spouse, not your boyfriend, girlfriend. Jesus made all of those people and put them in your life so he's greater than all of them.

He is your only Savior and only the Holy Spirit can convince you of that and he will do it. That's what this word means. So that's who we're writing to is people who've already been convinced and who are believers and faithful believers.

If you want to add the English word is fine with me but the reason they're faithful is because the Holy Spirit convinced them. Once he does that one of the other things he does is he places himself inside of you until Jesus comes back and seals you and you are indwelt by the Spirit and now your spirit witnesses with his Spirit that you are a child of God.

Isn't that beautiful? So you got all that going on right there and with that one word faithful. To the saints and the faithful brethren in Jesus Christ which are at Colossae. He's specifically writing a letter to Colossae but I believe we could expand this to any saint who has been convinced that Jesus is their Savior and here's what he says to them.

So now we're going to see two more things. So the first thing God gave us when he saved us was he gave us faithfulness or he convinced us in the truth of Christ as our Savior. He gave us belief. So if you if you've ever heard me say and you've heard me say a million times that when we got saved God gave us Jesus's belief.

This is where he and how he did it. He gave us Jesus's belief right here. That's the first thing. Second thing we see is it's the second part of verse 2. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father Lord Jesus Christ.

So we now have a second thing called grace in our life. Now this word grace is caris and it means graciousness. It's not the same exactly it is the same word but in the context didn't have the same meaning as when you say I'm saved by grace.

It's a different meaning. So we're not talking about specifically salvation grace here. We're talking about a different meaning for the word. So let me see if I can help us move in on that a little bit.

If you look at the definition of this word caris it has been defined as graciousness but especially the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in your life. The divine influence on your heart and that influences reflection lived out in your life.

So when you say that a person is moving from grace unto grace that's the more meaning for this word. It's talking about how we grow as Christians that we grow to know him better and the Holy Spirit together with the Word of God make us to be more like him all the time.

We're growing from grace to grace that's what this word means. So one of the things he gave us in fact it's interesting that the first thing it says he gave us is faith. Second thing he gave us is this ability to grow and it's all implied that the same person that got the salvation and the faith got the ability to grow and that's why in Romans 8 chapter 1 the very same person who has no condemnation is the same person who walks not after the flesh but after spirits.

He learns to grow as a spiritual person and to lay aside more and more of the fleshly stuff. It's always there though isn't it? Can we go like this? Yeah it's always there but in reality God sees it as if it were crucified already with Christ 2 ,000 years ago so it's dead to God.

To us it tries to act like it's still alive and we have to live this life in a mixed-up world on the inside of our head where you got flesh and you got spirit. You got the flesh causing you to do things you don't even agree with and not to do things you know you should do for God and you got the spiritual man that loves God and never sins and never will sin and wants to try to control your whole body and will control it more and more.

You know why? Because of this second great gift he gave us is called grace. You have it. You have the grace to move away from sin habits towards wonderful righteousness habits and we're supposed to be in a mode of that moving that direction all the time.

That's what Romans 8 verse 1b means. What's the third thing here found in verse 2b is peace. Now this word for peace not only did he give you belief not only did he give you the way to grow grace that helps you grow stronger and stronger it also helps you get through times you think you might never could get through but now he gives you peace.

This peace is called Irenae and it's interesting to me because it comes from a little Greek root word Iro which means to join. So let me explain something to you. Yes peace is a gift that the Holy Spirit gives us at the moment of our salvation but it has a source that it comes from.

It's not just like a gift that he gives us it's in and of itself it is actually the result of us having been joined to Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. So the word peace itself at least in Greek not in Hebrew but in Greek the idea of peace is we have peace because we're joined to Jesus Christ and that's the only reason we have peace because as the Father looks at us and sees us connected with Christ he sees us as with no condemnation.

No condemnation whatsoever even though we're still walking in a body that has fleshly thoughts sometimes does fleshly deeds and we're sorry about it when we do it even in light of all that because of this peace because of the fact we're connected with Jesus and nothing can disconnect us because it's God that connected us and he put the Holy Spirit in us and sealed him there.

You can't break a seal of God by the way that's a whole nother sermon but he sealed him there until the day of redemption when you meet Jesus so you can't lose that connection and as long as you have it you have peace.

All right so that's there there we see three things that we have all listed in verse 2. So let's look at verse 3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you. We should always be praying for each other shouldn't we never take anything for granted about each other.

As you wake up in the middle of the night and God puts one of your brothers and sisters on your mind pray for him before you go back to sleep. Verse 4 says since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the Saints.

All right so now we see two additional things that are given to us. The fourth one is pistis. Now remember up in verse 2 where it says we're faithful it's pistos. All right so this is a very similar word comes from the same Greek word which means to believe right.

Whereas the one we studied already has to do with the having been convinced we have been convinced by the Holy Spirit and therefore we believe in Jesus and therefore we are faithful because we continue to be in a trusting state of mind.

That's the connotation of the word in verse 2 the gift that he gave us there which is gift number one. But this one is pistis which is purely means this persuasion. Now think about it it's almost the same exact idea as being convinced of something.

Now you're being persuaded of something. So here again we don't see that the Bible word for believing is humanistic. It's not us having a mental pep rally saying I believe I believe now I'm a better I believe I believe now I'm gonna say it's not like that.

It means you got convinced and you got persuaded by the Holy Spirit that's the calling. So now it's been doubly emphasized because this is the second time it's been mentioned in just two verses. I would say it's slightly different words so it can have different colors of meaning but basically both of these words come from the Greek the root word pitho which means to be convinced of something.

So now we see that he has given us a faithful spirit because of the fact we've been convinced. He's given us grace to grow where we grow from grace to grace and become stronger. He has given us peace because we're joined vitally to Jesus by the Holy Spirit and now he mentions that we have been given as a gift faith itself saving faith.

But look what the next one is in that same verse it says and of the love which you have for the saint. So the fifth thing that we have is love. Now I want I want you to stop and think about this a minute.

I believe that there's no greater proof of genuine salvation and by that let's just take it down to the nitty-gritty of the cause of everything. Genuine regeneration. There's no greater proof that you've experienced that than that you now have a love for the saints that you didn't used to have before you were saved.

It was very vivid in my life I didn't get saved till I was 24 so sometimes when you get saved late older you remember things better because I remember I hated church I did not want to go to church. You couldn't get me there and if you did like my sweet grandmother did I'd find a little friend that was just like me and we'd go upstairs in the attic and explore the whole time that preacher was preaching that boring sermon.

I did not want to be in church I did not want to be around God's children and the very day that I got saved in my car driving to work one day the very next thing we did as soon as we got moved back to Mahea is we joined church and got back in church because we wanted to be around the believers.

That was a huge change in my life. I am not by nature a person likes to be around a bunch of people unless I'm teaching them. I don't like to just be around a bunch of people and God changed me and made me where I not only like it but I have to do it I have to I have to be around God's people.

So in your life you have to ask the question has there been such a change now if you got saved at a very young age you just may have always loved being around other Christians you know and they can be people of your own age group doesn't mean you have to love to hang out with old Christians or young Christians you just you just generally love God's people.

No greater proof that you're saved than that. May I prove that to you turn with me to first John chapter three please in verse 10. I'll preach the sermon when I was in my 30s I still have it somewhere it was called the symptoms of salvation and the first one was that one that you love other Christians symptoms of salvation.

First John chapter three you look at verse 10. In this the children of God are manifest. Now what does that mean? That means if a person's really a child of God it will become obvious to others who are watching him through this thing it's about to talk about and it will become obvious to the person himself or herself through this thing it's about to talk about.

So in this thing this is how we can know that a person is a child of God and the children we can also know who is a child of the devil. Now wouldn't that be good information to have? I mean if Jesus says don't cast your pearls before the swine we need to know who the swine are.

You're not even supposed to witness to them. So you need to know who they are because if you witness to them he says they'll turn and rend you means they may kill you. Right? So you need to obey the Lord and that but how can you if you can't tell the difference?

Well look at this verse. In this what I'm about to say God says I will show you how to know the children of God versus the children of the devil. So what does it say? It says whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.

You can sometimes tell by how people speak whether they're son of God or not what words come out of their mouths and I'm not talking about slips. We all have a slip especially if we drop a sledgehammer on our toe.

We might slip because the old man is still there but on the predominant lifestyle if you go into your home or my home what kind of language do we hear spoken by the family to each other? Do you hear a bunch of curse words or you're stupid or that kind of stuff or do you hear more gracious words?

That can tell you the difference between saved people and lost people according to this passage. Okay whosoever does not righteousness is not of God. So if you don't see a person who's growing because what did we learn earlier?

One of the things given to you at the point of salvation is the grace to grow more like Jesus Christ and if you don't see that happening in a person's life they are not saved. Now you do have to understand that if you don't know that person very well you could judge that incorrectly but if it's a person you're around quite a bit like at work or at school or at home or in any endeavor in life and you're around them day in and day out over a period of a year or two or three you don't have to be mistaken about this.

You can know are they doing righteous acts that God would say is righteous not the world but that God would say yeah that that's how that's one of my children there I'm growing them they're not perfect but they're getting more like me.

If not they're not of him whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. Notice that doesn't say believeth not it says do it. It's the life. It's looking at the life. Are we supposed to judge people?

Absolutely. You can't know who not to cast the pearls before if you don't judge people. The only, listen to me, the only group of people the Bible gives the right to judge another person are Christians but then it says no man can judge us.

That's what it says. You are supposed to judge everybody in your family, in your house, in your work, everywhere you go according to this scripture. Do they do righteous acts? Not fake ones to make you think they're Christian but predominant ones in their life.

Habitual things such as stopping cussing. That's a good example. I'm stopping to cuss and talk like the world and I'm starting to talk more like Jesus would talk which wouldn't be hello thou my holy brother how art thou.

He didn't talk like that. That's that's called church gibberish. We don't want to ever talk in a way that some visitor comes and they don't even know what we're saying and there's a lot of churches where they got their own code.

I don't believe in code but it's just being kind. Kindness, graciousness, love, showing them love, you know. This is what it's talking about. Well apparently the devil's children don't get it. They don't have the ability to do this.

Now let's look what else it says. Neither he that loves not his brother. So you see a person who is biting and chewing on other people in the church and maybe they just come to you and they just want to chew on them a little bit.

You need to question that person's salvation. You say really? Yeah you really do because my bible says in this are the children of God manifest and the children of the devil. A person who does not love his brother is a child of the devil.

Even if he dresses up in a nice Sunday suit or dress and comes. You see my point? So you look at kindness is one of the huge huge thing. Kindness, forgiving one another, loving one another. That's the symptom of salvation and people that don't have it are tears quite frankly.

They don't need to hang around here very long and they don't. Have you noticed? Now this doesn't mean we can't disagree with each other. You can strongly disagree with each other's positions as long as you love the person and you do it in kindness and if you don't you go back and you apologize.

You know I was a little I was a little like I gave you both barrels and I love you and I didn't mean that. I just don't think you got that right. See there's a difference in the tone isn't it? It's the tone it's how you do it and if you mess it up which we always do go back to the person and apologize.

Fix that and say but I still disagree with you. You see the difference? That's not a person who's trying to divide the church is it? But you have people that are just like that. They're tears. How do I know?

First John chapter three verse 10. All right now verse 11 says for this is the message that you heard from the beginning. You go all the way back to what Adam and Eve taught their kids who taught their kids who taught their kids even before it was written in in writing by Moses.