Well, let's turn together this morning to the book of Romans. I realize it has been some time since we left off at the end of chapter 7, and we come now to, you might say, the heart of the book of Romans to chapter 8. Chapter 8 is, for many, certainly it is for me, a favorite chapter in the Bible. And we are privileged this morning to take up at the beginning of Romans chapter 8. And the Lord willing, we'll be spending a fair amount of time in this particular chapter as we continue our way through Paul's letter to the church at Rome. And as we're turning there, in the Pew Bibles, page 1300, 1,300, Allow me to lay down a bit of an encouragement and a challenge for all of us, myself included. Romans 8 is a glorious chapter. Why don't we memorize it? Why don't we work together at memorizing this chapter? I think we'll have time to do so and have an opportunity to consider these things and be built up in our work of memory work as we from Lord's Day to Lord's Day. and maybe sometimes every other Lord's Day, look at these words together. Romans chapter 8, I'm going to begin reading the verses 1 through 11. And we'll be focusing on the verses 1 through 4 this morning. This is God's holy word. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." Those are the words of our text, our focus for this morning. We'll carry on for context. 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, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he's not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. This is the Word of God, thanks be to God. I urge you to keep your Bibles open here to Romans chapter 8. As I said, we'll direct our attention to the verses 1 through 4, and I'll just read verse 1 yet again for our window onto where we are going to be this morning. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." We'll stop there. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, have you ever seen those great big signs condemned? Maybe you've seen it on an old, dilapidated, abandoned building. I used to see some of these signs in my youth in a couple of buildings in the town I grew up in. One was an old mansion on the corner that was abandoned for many years. It must have been a beautiful place at one time, but it was abandoned. And finally, signs had to be put up there, condemned, as well as no trespassing, because it was dangerous for people to go there. The building was in such a state of disrepair that it could fall down and someone could become seriously hurt. So, on a building like this, the sign was posted, placarded on it, condemned. It was doomed to destruction. It was going to be torn down. Now, the word condemned, you hear from the way that we say it and from what I've described, is an awful word. But if it's an awful word with regard to an old building, it's just a piece of property, how much more so is the word condemned an awful word, a serious word, a weighty word, when it comes to people? When it comes to the reality of condemnation? And you perhaps hear in the word condemnation the word damnation. And we speak of the reality of being doomed to destruction, doomed to hell. We speak of a serious reality that is one that we all deserve. We are mindful, of course, that we have been given good news in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're mindful of a verse that comes immediately to mind. John 3 verse 16. everlasting life or have eternal life. But verse 18 of John chapter 3 goes on to say, he who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And also the chapter, John chapter 3 ends, verse 36, by saying, He who believes in the Son of God has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. That's condemnation. Condemnation abides. That is a serious reality. And it's a reality that we need to acknowledge is one that we deserve. By nature, we are under condemnation. That's what we deserved. We deserve nothing better. As Paul would say in Romans 3 verse 8, our condemnation is just. This is what we deserve. Awful to think about, important to think about. As we're thinking about these things, I want to put you in mind of an illustration from the life of a man written about by Chuck Colson in his book, The Body. Chuck Colson, if any of you remember, was connected with Richard Nixon in the whole Watergate scandal spent some time in prison But was himself converted in prison and later wrote about these blessings and in that book the body he writes about a man by the name of Ronald Raymond Woomer that was his name born in the mid 50s grew up in a very troubled home in South Carolina and and got in with the wrong crowd so that early in his 20s, connected with a very, very bad group of people, he got heavily involved in drugs, became involved in theft and robbery, and even murder of multiple people. So that Ronald Raymond Woomer, they called him Rusty, was caught, He was charged, he was convicted, and he was sentenced. So he was convicted and he was condemned to die. In South Carolina, they practice capital punishment. He was condemned to death by the electric chair. So he spent a number of years on death row with condemnation hanging over his head, the fact that he was doomed to die. But a man by the name of Bob McAllister began to visit Rusty. And Bob McAllister over time shared the gospel with Rusty, and Rusty was soundly converted by the grace of God and brought into fellowship with his God and Savior, Jesus. Bob McAllister would visit regularly with Rusty. And the account tells us that on the night before his execution, Rusty's execution was to take place, Bob McAllister would sit down with him. And he began, they were talking about many things as they did and enjoyed sweet fellowship in the Lord Jesus. And on the night before he was to meet his death and meet his maker, Bob McAllister read from John chapter 14, Our Bible study this past week, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. But as Bob McAllister is reading these words to Rusty on the night before he is going to be executed, Bob McAllister said, the rascal fell asleep. The rascal fell asleep. Now the point here is not that he was uninterested or disengaged. The point was that he had become so encouraged and confident and hopeful in the Lord Jesus Christ that he was at complete peace and he slept like a baby the night before he went to his death in the electric chair. because though he was under condemnation from the state, and rightly so, he knew that on the next day he was going to stand before Almighty God in all of his glory, and he knew there was therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's the message of the gospel. And here we have that before us again in the Book of Romans. You'll understand that this has been before us again and again and again in the Book of Romans. You'll understand that the Apostle Paul has a very intricate and a very glorious way of putting all of this together. In some ways we might say it is deep and it's glorious, but in other ways we may say it's the same old message. It's the same old story by the grace of God. And it's at the same time very basic and very clear. And all of that, I just want to say, is a glorious testimony. If you think of the intricacy of the Book of Romans, a glorious testimony to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul didn't, if I may say this respectfully, didn't suck this out of his thumb. The Apostle Paul gets this from God, and this is the glorious gospel of God by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And this message, no condemnation, stands at the very heart of the gospel. This is the message we need to hear again and again, and this is the message we get to stand upon, and this is the message of God's good news to us that will never be taken away. This is our hope. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. It's the word of the gospel I preached to you this morning. We have four considerations, the four points correspond to the four verses that are before us. It just happens that way this time. The reality enjoyed, the realm exchanged, the reason expressed, and the response enabled. So in the first place, verse one, the reality and joy. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." We'll leave off the second half of verse 1. That phrase gets repeated in verse 4. We'll pick it up when it's repeated in verse 4. But we want to focus on what is declared to us in verse 1. As a reality, this is what is. This is what we enjoy. This is the message of the gospel for us as Christians. This is what God says. This is the truth. Now, we have here at the beginning of verse 8, there is, therefore, and you've probably heard this old saw from me before. Whenever you see the word, therefore, you need to ask, what's it there for? And certainly in Romans chapter 8, you're seeing that Paul is sort of wrapping up everything that he has been telling us up until now. Now, we looked at Romans 7 in our previous sermon. Like I said, I acknowledge it's been a while, seven or eight weeks. But in Romans 7, we had this struggle of the apostle Paul himself, the good that I would do, I don't. The evil that I shouldn't do, I find myself doing. Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ. As you might say, Romans 8 falls right on the heels of that word, but I think it's better for us to appreciate Romans 8, the therefore there, falls on the heels of everything that Paul has given to us. So it's an opportunity, since it's been some time, for us to have a quick summary of what the Apostle Paul has been on about. From the beginning he had told them, I am ready to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. I'm ready to preach the gospel. Why? Because the gospel is the power of God and a salvation for all who believe. I'm ready to preach this good news. And he's ready to preach that good news also because it's so serious. Because verse 18 of chapter 1, the wrath of God is being revealed against all of the unrighteousness of men. That's what's being experienced all around us today. And the gospel is so desperately needed. And then you recognize over against the righteous wrath of God, our being worthily, deservedly, under the condemnation of God. There's the acknowledgement as you get to chapter 3, That applies to all of us. There is none who is righteous. Romans 3, verse 9 and 10. No, not one. We are deserving of condemnation. And we can't fix it ourselves. Romans 3, 19 and 20. By the works of the law or by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3, verse 23. But now, Romans 3 verse 21, a righteousness from God is revealed. It is by faith. And Romans 4 verse 5 tells us the blessing that God in His mercy is pleased to justify the ungodly, the undeserving, those worthy of condemnation like you and me. Though we are sinners and remain sinners, God says, justified. Romans 5 verse 1, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. That's the message that Paul has been on about. That's why he's so ready to preach. Romans chapter 6 tells us. that this work of the gospel, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, is so glorious that not only are we forgiven, not only do we have this glorious peace with God, there is by the work of the gospel in our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, a new power, new joy, new strength. Sin doesn't have dominion over us anymore. Sin's not the boss of me anymore. I have strength in Christ to walk in newness of life. Romans 7, as we saw, reminds us the struggle isn't over, but it has reminded us as well, though we cry out with Paul, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death, our confidence is this, thanks be to God. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Therefore, therefore, Paul says, there is Now, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. To say no condemnation is to put negatively what the Apostle Paul has been saying, but there is. justification. There is a right standing with God. Over against being condemned and damned, there is the blessing of being received and declared not guilty, but more than that, declared righteous. Now, this language, no condemnation, needs to jump out from the page for us. It needs to be something that we recognize as glorious and beautiful, especially when we know, if we know anything about ourselves and if we're honest, when we know we are worthy of condemnation, when we know that we are guilty. when we know that we fall short of the glory of God. And then this message is one that rings with joy and blessing. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. None. And as we think about that, I want to camp out on a couple tiny little words in the phrase that are important for us to appreciate. And the first word is no. I say it's the first word because in the Greek text, the word no, in our text, which is four or five words down the line, it's first and foremost. It's the first word there, no. And it's a very emphatic word, not any, nothing at all, none at all. That's the point, no condemnation, none. I wonder if we ever struggle and wonder. with the battle that we have against ongoing sin and the struggles against sin in our particular lives. Could the Lord actually really forgive me? Could He forgive me at this moment? And the answer here in terms of the little word, no, front and center, emphatic no, is there's no condemnation, none. God doesn't withhold a little bit of condemnation so that you'll have to feel that from time to time. No condemnation. Absolutely none of it. And then he says, there is therefore now no condemnation. Right now, the Apostle Paul is saying, there is no condemnation. I wonder if you ever have times in your life I know that I do, where you're suddenly struck with a realization or the memory, the ugly memory of something audaciously wicked and stupid that you did in your past. So that you're overwhelmed again with the reminder of the guiltiness and the reminder of the foolishness of what you've done. And the Apostle Paul is saying here, as one who knows from experience, there is therefore now no condemnation. None. Now. Right now. Today. Or any of that from the past. You know, the Apostle Paul could definitely speak from experience. You think it might have troubled him from time to time, the fact that he had persecuted the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, some of them even to their deaths. He was there consenting to the death of Stephen when he was stoned. And he needed to be encouraged and he could be encouraged. There is therefore now no condemnation. You think of anyone else, you think of the Apostle Peter. The apostle Peter, who was so bold, so brazen, so self-confident that he thought, I will never ever forsake you, Lord Jesus, touched on this briefly. Pastoral intern Eric touched on it for us in John chapter 13 at the end of the chapter at our Bible study this past Wednesday. How Peter was so bold and Jesus would have to explain to him that He would indeed deny him. How Peter denied the Lord Jesus Christ even with curse words. You might say with four-letter words, I don't know that man. You imagine the weight the Apostle Peter would have borne on his shoulders until the Lord Jesus Christ assured him again, Peter, I love you. Do you love me?" Yes, Peter says, I love you. Peter could live with the confidence, there is therefore now no condemnation, right now, right now, no condemnation, not now, not ever. And so what the point Paul is making is this. Your past sins that may trouble you, your present sins that you're struggling with as you bring them to God, there is therefore now no condemnation. We could say our future sins, no condemnation, not now, not ever, no condemnation. And we may think to ourselves, that seems a little dangerous, doesn't it? It seems a little dangerous to say, no past, present, or future sins. It'd be kind of like, we might think to ourselves, it'd be kind of like giving our car keys to our 16-year-old who just got his license and saying, well, and here's the credit card, do what you will, do whatever you like, spend whatever you like, and you'll be covered. We'd say, that'd be crazy. but the message of no condemnation. It's kind of like that, but kind of not, because it's not crazy, because it is the blessing that God works by His gospel because of Christ. Reference to some of the discussions Martin Luther would have had with Philip Melanchthon. Philip Melanchthon said, Now that we're saved by God's grace through the gospel, does that mean we can do whatever we want? And Luther's answer was, yes, it means you can do whatever you want. Now what do you want? What do you want in the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you want to do? There is therefore now no condemnation, none, not ever, not now, not ever. in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reality. That's the reality that stands. Now, as we move into our second point, into the second verse, we want to begin to think about, well, how can I know that blessing? How is that to be understood and how is that to be known? I want to draw your attention here now to the beginning of verse 2 and the beginning of verse 3. They both begin with the word for, which means that the Apostle Paul in verse 2 and in verse 3 is giving us reasons why this is true and reasons why we can know it is true. I'm going to touch on verse 3 in the third point, but I want us to appreciate here that verse 2, stands on the foundation of verse 3. We'll explain that as we go along. Paul is not saying in verse 2 that the reason there's no condemnation is because you're so good and because your lives have been changed and because we see that change in your life. That has to wait till verse 3 so that we understand that the reason is not us, the reason is Christ. But verse 2 is telling us the reason you can know. in your life that there is no condemnation is because by the grace of God, you are now a different person. You didn't earn it. You didn't earn the blessing, but by the grace of God, there is something going on. There is something new in your life. A change has taken place. Our second point is the realm exchanged. So verse 2 says, The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. I used to live in the realm of the law of sin and death. That's where we live by nature. That's where we begin. That's where we think we're going to fix it ourselves. We're going to keep the law of God and we're going to make God happy and everything will be good. We'll save ourselves. But Paul is saying that law is the law of sin and death. It's the same law that he's talking about, my understanding would be, the law of God. But in and of ourselves, it is for us a law of sin and death. It leads us to sin. Our response is one of sin, and that sin leads us to death. But we have been taken from that realm by the gracious work of the Spirit through the gospel, through the good news in Jesus Christ. And now we may speak of the law of the Spirit of life, setting us free. We are free from condemnation. We are free from guilt. We are free. We are forgiven. but there is a new life in us. There's new joy. And I think when we think about the law in this way, the law of the spirit of life, the law of sin and death, it is indeed the same moral law, but something has happened. There's something different about me by the grace of God. I think Paul is reflecting on what was promised in Jeremiah chapter 31 by the prophet Jeremiah. In those days, I will take the law and I will write it on your hearts, God says through Jeremiah. And no one will teach his neighbor anymore, but you will all know me, says the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest. And I will forgive all their iniquities and remember their sins no more. And now the law is written in our hearts. Go back to chapter 7, what we saw at the end of verse 6. We don't serve in the oldness of the letter anymore, but in the newness of the Spirit. The letter that simply was etched on stone or sits on a page, that law can't save us. But we serve in the Spirit, the law of the Spirit now is that the law of God is on our hearts and we desire to serve Him, we desire to love Him, we desire to honor Him. As Christians we say, we don't want to be lawless. We don't want to walk in the way of disobedience any longer. We don't want to walk in the way of sexual perversion and adultery and all sorts of other lustful ways. We don't want to be greedy. We don't want to be lazy. Oh, you know, the Bible has been plain, Paul, has been plain. The struggle continues, but we are, by God's grace, different people. Something has happened. We've been transferred into a new realm from the law of sin and death to the new realm of the law of the Spirit of life. We've been transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and the kingdom of God's dear Son. We were once darkness, now we are light in the Lord. The blessing that we proclaim, He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. So what we're saying in verse 2, what Paul is saying there is you have the confidence that there is no condemnation. from the fact that God is at work in your life. But that's not the foundational confidence. That can never be the foundational confidence. Because, as you know from experience, we have our ups and downs. We have our failings as Christians. We still struggle. We have to get to verse 3 to realize that there Paul is laying the bedrock, the foundation. This is the 4 that gives us the basis for the confidence that we may have there is no condemnation." Verse 3, third point, the reason, the reason there's no condemnation, the reason expressed. 4, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. We need to appreciate. We need to appreciate this for our own lives. We need to appreciate this as we seek to encourage those that we speak the gospel to and those in whom the Lord may be at work. It is natural for us, it is natural for everyone when we come under conviction. When the law of God convicts us of our sin, when we're convicted of our failings, when we're convicted of our laziness, when we're convicted of all the ways in which we need to be different and we need to be changed, our first inclination is always, Lord, I'll fix it. Lord, I'll change it. Lord, I'll try harder. Lord, I'll read my Bible more. Lord, I'll pray harder. Lord, I'll do this, that, or the other thing. or what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh. We need to focus on that. It can't be done. It can't be done. Many, many people, thanks be to God, have come to the realization, I can't save myself. I can't do it. But the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight." Now the problem, as the Apostle Paul will explain it here, the law couldn't do because it was weak. The problem is not the law. Remember what he said in 7 verse 12. The law is spiritual. The law is good. The law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. The problem is not the law. The law is weak because of the flesh. The law is weak because we are weak. The law is weak because we can't do it. The problem is not the law. The problem is me." That's good news for us to come to appreciate, to understand. God is helping us to understand our need for the gospel. The law was weak through the flesh, but what the law was unable to do, what we were unable to do in the keeping of the law, this is the glorious good news of the gospel right here as well. God did! God did it! This is the sovereign act of Almighty God in His sovereign, glorious grace. We couldn't do it. God did it! God did it, we go on here to read, by the sending of His own Son. This is the message of Christmas. This is the message of John 3.16. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. He sent His own Son. So dear, so precious to Him. My beloved Son, from all eternity. That language, His own Son that He sent, is also testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ is a revelation to us of the second person of the Trinity who was with God, who is God from eternity. He sent His own Son. So we have testimony here to the wonderful grace of God. The initiative taking of the sovereign grace of God the Father. But now, look at the work of the Son, His own Son whom He sent. He sent Him to do a glorious work, but He sent Him in a particular way. And again, I think it's important for us to pay attention to the precise language the Apostle Paul uses. He sent Him in the likeness of sinful flesh. Every word is important. He sent Him in the likeness of sinful flesh. He did not say He was sent in the likeness of flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. If He had just said, in the likeness of flesh, we would have the idea, well, Jesus didn't really have flesh, or He wasn't a real man. That's an ancient heresy. He only seemed to be a man. Call that docetism. He was a real man, true man in every way sin accepted. He really lived on the face of the earth. He really suffered. He really died on the cross and He was really raised from the dead, a real Savior. So not in the likeness of flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. It doesn't also say, in sinful flesh. No, it says, in the likeness of sinful flesh, because Jesus never sinned. Again, that's fundamental to our salvation. Who of you accuses me of sin, Jesus would say in John chapter 8. The writer to the Hebrews in 7.26 says, He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Hebrews 4 verse 15, He was like us in every way, tempted at every point, yet without sin. So it doesn't say He came in sinful flesh. He was not a sinner, never was, never did. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. And yet it says He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. It doesn't say that he came in the likeness of sinless flesh. That is to say, Jesus wasn't put into the world in the cushy, warm, comfortable place that Adam and Eve found themselves in, in the Garden of Eden, when all was well, and they walked with God in the cool of the day, and there were no effects of sin anywhere. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh because He lived and walked and moved and had His being in the midst of this world in the context of all that sin has brought into this world and its squalor and all of the squabbles and difficulties. That's the world Jesus Christ entered into. And that's the love of the Father in sending His Son to do that. And what was Jesus called to do? The passage goes on. He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. on account of sin. That is to say, He came to be the sin offering. He came to be the sin bearer. We relate this to the language of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And what did God the Father do? What is Jesus Christ willing to do when He's sent into this world? He was willing to be hung on a cross in our place. What happens when Jesus Christ is hung on the cross? God condemned sin in the flesh. God condemned His own Son in the flesh that He bore on our behalf. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, because Jesus Christ became the condemnation for us in our place. We are not condemned, because Jesus was condemned on our behalf. And there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's the glorious message of the gospel. That's the reason we have this confidence, no condemnation, not now, not ever, for those who are in Christ Jesus. So what? Verse 4, our point 4, we say the response enabled or the result experienced. Verse 4, that, this is a so that statement. The righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us. Now, it's also fulfilled for us. And some exegetes and theologians will say that, even John Calvin would say that, and say that the first line of verse 4 is talking about our justification. But I think as you read through the rest of verse four, you have to realize that because we have peace with God, because there's no condemnation, it is going to show in such a way that you see it in us. You see the work of Christ in us and through us. This flows from it. This is what happens as a result. We walk differently. We could say we walk with a certain joy in our step. Sometimes we struggle and shuffle our feet. But we are new creatures in Christ. So we walk in the Spirit. This is how I live. That's what it means to speak of our walk. It's how I roll. It's how I live my life. It's how I live and move and have my being. In the Spirit and not in the flesh. Now, before I explain this, let me just try to reiterate something that I think we always have to be careful of. I talked about the first inclination for us to think, well, if I'm going to have this no condemnation, I got to smarten up. I got to do more and I got to try harder. Even as Christians, there are times when we sort of live our lives on a roller coaster and we rejoice in the blessing, we hear on Sunday there's no condemnation and then we go and we struggle some more tomorrow and we say, well, I guess I'm condemned again. No, you're not condemned again. There is therefore now no condemnation. And the answer is not do more, try harder. The answer is rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you rest, you get up and you get going and you go forward and you walk, you run. This is how you roll. Not by the flesh, but by the Spirit. What's that mean? To walk by the flesh would mean I think I've got this. I think I can do it myself. To be as audacious, as cocky as Peter was himself, I'm never going to forsake you. And to walk in the flesh is to think that it's okay for me to walk in the way of fleshly, carnal sinfulness. It doesn't matter. No, that's not right either. And to walk in the flesh also means I think I'm going to impress God by how much I read my Bible, by how urgently I pray. None of those things, as good as they are, trying harder, being nicer, working harder to be involved in the church, what have you. As good as those things are, that can be walking in the flesh if you think you're going to impress God, if you're doing it in your own strength. You can't. But because there is therefore now no condemnation, what's going to happen is this joy of living in the Spirit is such that we want to serve God. That as we want to serve God, we know that we cannot do it in our own strength. We know that we must do it in prayerful, humble dependence and reliance upon the Spirit's ministry. We know that every step that we take in this walk with God, as we walk in the Spirit, needs to be one where we are upheld by the Spirit and are walking in sweet communion with the Spirit. We also know that when we struggle and when we fall, When we have those difficulties, when we do those dumb things, when we continue to sin, we will find ourselves in grievous ways because it is the love of the Holy Spirit at work in us who is grieved in us and for us. Thanks be to God for the way he helps us by his Spirit. to want to live a life of joyful, thankful service. And thanks be to God that we can be reminded and assured every step of the way. There is therefore now, right now, no condemnation. There is no condemnation, not now and not ever, for those who are in Christ Jesus. So there's just one more thing for us to ponder, are you in Christ Jesus? Are you trusting in your Savior? This blessing that there is therefore now no condemnation is for those who trust in Him. And if you struggle with that, if you wonder about that, if you don't have that, Let me urge you, put your trust in Him. Run to Him. Cry out to Him. Rest in what He has done. He's done it well. The passage makes very plain, you couldn't do it. You are weak in the flesh. God did it. God has done it. The work is finished. Rest in His finished work. Run to Him, call out to Him, rest in Him, and be glad to know there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank and praise You For Your mercy, we praise You. The Lord Jesus Christ was condemned, damned, in our place. For the blessing that we may have now, there is therefore now no condemnation to those of us who are in Him. Lord, help us to be glad in what has been accomplished for us, And help us to demonstrate this glorious blessing in a life of thankfulness for the praise of Your name. The law of the Spirit of life is at work. We praise You, Father, for the blessing that we may walk now according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. Some of that remains a struggle for us. Lord, we have fleshly thoughts, we have fleshly ways, but we thank you that we may lay all of that at your feet in the confidence there is therefore now no condemnation. We pray, Father, that everyone who hears this word may have that confidence through faith in Christ. In his name we pray.