Burbank Conference: 1999
Table of Contents
God's Principles in the Ten Commandments
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I think that's a good idea.
Bring the 10 Commandments back into our schools.
Doesn't anyone have an opinion?
When I was young, that was pretty common.
What are the 10 commandments?
If you were, what they pointed out in this broadcast was that everyone said yes, bring it back, bring the 10 commandments back into our schools.
That brings God back into the school. He's the one that gave the law, and the law is holy and just and good.
Perfect, perfect rule for man's living here.
And then they asked the the people, they all said yes, bring it back. And they asked the crowd and said, can you tell us the 10 commandments?
And no one could. They all wanted it, but they didn't even know what they wanted.
Who can tell me the first commandment?
That's the condensed version.
The condensed version is, Thou should love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and thy mind, and with all thy strength, and the second is like unto it thou shalt love.
Thy neighbor is thyself. Now that's a short, condensed version of the 10 commandments.
But I'm asking for the 10 commandments now. Can't anyone tell me the first one?
Thou shalt have no other gods before thee. Now where would I look to find this?
Exodus is correct, 12 is not.
Who 20 Exodus 20.
I'm going to turn to that. I don't have to because I know the 10 commandments by heart, but.
I just know what the sort of the abbreviated form of it, so I'll turn to it. OK, that's the first commandment.
Who can tell me the first commandment is Thou shalt have no other gods before me?
Now, is that consistent? Is that consistent with?
We're taught in the United States of America that we're to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
What do you think about that first commandment? If I want to worship God like the Muslims do?
That's fine according to the law of the United States. Worship God according to the dictates of your own conscience.
If I want to worship God as a Buddhist, that's fine, that's another religion. But I don't want to worship God as a Hindu. That's the dictates of my own conscience.
What about that commandment? Go ahead.
Pardon. Whereas a safeness, Oh yes, even that's even worse. Or as a Satanist, terrible. So to worship God according to the dictates of your own conscience leaves it up to you who God is in your life. Everyone has a right to his own opinion, right?
Are there no moral absolutes?
You see, when you take the 10 commandments out of the schools, then anything goes. It's up to what you think you can do as you please, and you can worship according to who you think God is.
But the first commandment is Thou shalt have no other gods.
Before me now who's the me in the Old Testament? Give me his name.
Jehovah. Jehovah.
What's his name in the New Testament?
Jesus, Jehovah. Jesus, yes.
Now the second commandment, I was talking to some Lutherans recently and she showed me her her catechism, her little book, the 10 Commandments in it and I said your book does not have the second commandment and neither does the Roman Catholic book have the second commandment. They pass it over and they make 2 out of the last commandment. Did you know that?
I didn't know that until I was visiting a Lutheran Catholic family some time ago that was gathered with us, but that's what they had been.
That they've eliminated the second commandment. You know what it is.
See, you don't know the 10 commandments either.
Hmm.
Don't you read your Bible?
In school. No, I I didn't learn it from school either. I learned it from the book.
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2nd commandment is I'll read it. The first one is I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. That's the first commandment.
2nd Commandment, the Catholic Catechism leaves us out, and so does the Lutheran. They follow the Catholics. Martin Lutheran was a Roman Catholic, right? He was a Catholic monk, and he came out of that. He didn't want to, but he was forced out because of his convictions. But he didn't intend on leaving the Catholic system at first.
The second is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Or any likeness of anything which is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is under in the water under the earth. I shall not bow down thyself to them, or serve them by the Lord thy God. Am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the Father's upon the children unto the 3rd and 4th generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Now their second one is our third one in the Bible. What's the third one? The first five commandments, 2 tables of stone, 5 on this one, five on this one. The first 5 has to do with our responsibility to God, and the last five our responsibility to our fellow men.
Who knows the third commandment?
Everyone you meet today violates this. When I was unsaved, I used to violate it every day, many times in the day.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Another translation reads that thou shalt not idly utter the name of the Lord thy God. You hear that? You hear that all the time. It's just common talk. We, we heard in the Gospel tonight, this one man was just using the Lord's name in vain all the time. And **** gave him a little track and he said, do I talk like that?
I remember talking to a young man once and he was he's talking about his mother and in the process he used the Lords name in vain. And I said to him, why don't you talk about somebody you know?
And he said, what do you mean? I know my mother. Oh no, I'm talking about that other person you were talking about. I wasn't talking about any other person. I said, Oh yes, you were.
You use the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in your conversation. I did. He was not aware of what he was doing and that resulted in a 2 hour conversation that I had with him. But it started out by my asking him, why don't you speak of somebody you know? Because I knew he didn't know the one that he was using.
His name in vain. Now that's the second commandment in the Roman Catholic and the Lutheran.
List of the commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
When the children of Israel heard this law, and we haven't gone through the whole thing, when they heard this law, what did they say? Anyone. What did they say?
We will do. They would keep it. They committed themselves to keeping it. When Moses came down from the mount, he was up on the mount with God getting the law. He came down with the 2 tables of stone. What had they done?
They had said they would keep it perfectly. What had they done? Now we've just read of the first 3 commandments. They broke all three of them.
The first one, thou shalt have no other gods but me.
And they made another God. What kind of a God was it?
It was a golden calf.
And the second commandment is not making that shall not make an idol in the image of anything in heaven or earth had done that. They broke that commandment, and then they said tomorrow is a feast of Jehovah, and they attached the name of the true God to their idolatrous feast.
They took the name of the Lord in vain.
First 3 commandments they had broken.
What's the 4th commandment?
You you all have to write. You all have to read Exodus 20 when you go home tonight and commit it to memory.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but on the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it Thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor any stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rest of the 7th day. Wherefore the Lord bless the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
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What's the 5th commandment?
This commandment the 4th 1 is.
Is not.
Does not apply today. We're not under the law, but everyone of these moral precepts that we've looked at, the first three are incorporated into the New Testament. Everyone of the nine of the 10 commandments you find in the New Testament, we're not under the law, we're under grace, but the Christian who walks under grace by the Spirit of God will fulfill the law.
But not not the 4th commandment, because that's.
That's the ceremonial one. Remember the Sabbath day? We don't celebrate the Sabbath day. What day do we?
Medan.
Usually.
The Lord said why?
Why do Why do Christians meet on the Lord's Day and not the 7th day of the week which is Saturday?
It's called the Lord's Day in Scripture. What's what's so appropriate? What happened on the Lord's Day?
Where was the Lord on the Sabbath day? Where was He?
He was in the grave.
He was crucified on Friday, put in the grave on Saturday. He was in the grave. What happened on the first day of the week?
He rose. He rose again.
And so we celebrate his death, which we'll do tomorrow, on the day of his victory. How appropriate. When he rose from the dead, he was dead, is now alive forevermore.
What's the 5th commandment?
Honor.
Thy.
Father, thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth, That's a that's a commandment with a promise. You want to live long on the earth. Honor your father and mother. That's what it says.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. OK, That's the first table of stone, and those are our responsibilities. God, would you say? Well, that last one doesn't sound like it's God word, but it really is because your father and mother stand in the place of God to you.
They have authority over you. You're to obey them.
6th Commandment.
Thou shalt not.
No.
Covet thou shalt not.
Thou shalt not kill, okay? I'm not trying to embarrass you.
It just struck me as being kind of humorous.
Thou shall not kill.
7th Commandment, thou shalt not commit.
Adultery.
What is adultery?
That's when.
Two people get to marry, get together that are outside of the marriage tie. That is a husband and wife.
Have marital relations and someone else comes into that and.
Has relations with the wife or the husband. That's called adultery.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
That's that's a sin, which is.
Just about as common.
These others that will just go through Thou should not Kill isn't done too often because the consequences are too severe.
They won't let you get away with killing another without being prosecuted.
Should not commit adultery? Thou should not. That's the next one.
6th and seven. Now we're at 8. Thou shalt not.
Steel. Steel.
As we go through this, are you guilty?
Is there anyone here that is not guilty? Anyone, Anyone here that can say all these have I kept from my youth up? Remember that rich young ruler? He said to the Lord. All these have I kept from my root, you thought?
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I can't say that I've taken the name of the Lord in vain so many times, for I was saved. I've stolen. I remember as a little boy I saw this train set $0.25. To me that was that was like $1,000,000.
And I stole it, took it home, and I never enjoyed it.
I just didn't enjoy it because I had taken it and I finally brought it back and I told them what I had done and they forgave me.
Another time I was.
I wanted another telephone in the house and I went to one of the public phones with some Clippers. Click and.
I brought the phone home and set it up.
And after I got saved, I took that phone to the phone company and I went into the vice president's office and I told him what I had done. And I said I have to return this. That's not mine.
And he forgave me.
Because I was honest enough to return it. You ever done anything like that? I stole. You see, I'm I'm condemned by this law.
What's the next one? The 9th commandment?
It's it's something that that happened every day at work. Without fail, people would do it, look you're right in the eye, right in the eye and they would lie like a rug.
Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not lie.
And that was the most common, common sin. We have it in this country from the top.
Down. I mean the top down. You know what I'm talking about, Top down.
What an example.
What an example.
Now, what's the last one? That's the one that slays us all. You may have passed up to allow, but I doubt it.
I doubt it. What's the last one? Thou shalt not.
Covet. She's got it. What's another word for that? Thou shalt not lust.
Lust covet. I want that neighbor boy gets a new bicycle.
I can't be happy without a bicycle just like that. I've got to have it now. This is the one that the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans make into two.
They make, I'll read it.
Thou should not covet thy neighbors house. I shall not covet thy neighbors wife.
There is man's servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his *** nor anything that is thy neighbors.
And they make 2 out of that. The wife is one thing and the other things are the other.
And they've eliminated.
Not to have any idols. You ever gone into a Catholic Church?
Filled with idols, they have taken the second commandment out.
Because it condemns them.
Lutheran Church, Did you know they just had a league together? Lutheran is going back to the Roman Catholics. Come back, my naughty children. Their arms are outspread, stretched, and she's welcoming them back.
The economical movement is in full gear.
And it's a sad, sad thing.
I just started and my time is up.
I want to read you one passage in the New Testament.
I'm especially thinking of.
The First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
Well, **** went 10 minutes over, I guess I.
First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
Verse one.
Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please God. Is there anyone here that doesn't want to please God?
In your walk.
We want to please him, don't we?
So you would abound more and more.
For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. What's he talking about?
Doesn't do any good if you read these words and don't know what it's saying, what it means. What does he mean? You're sanctification. I'll just hold your answer. I know you're all ready to give me an answer right away, but hold it and I'll read a little farther and maybe you'll get the answer.
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That you should abstain from fornication.
Your sanctification is keeping your body holy.
Abstaining from sexual sins.
Perfectly legitimate in the marriage bond.
I was talking to a young boy and he had committed himself to his girlfriend and she had committed herself to him. They were not married, but they thought that because they had made that commitment and they would not be to any other, he would reserve himself for her and she for him, and they slept together. That's very common. Since we moved down from Chicago to the southern Illinois, It just seems to be every place.
This is common today, common today, people sleeping together, living together outside of the marriage bond.
What's that called? He thought that was equivalent to being married.
Many of them think that some Christians think that what is it called in Scripture? It's not marriage.
If a male and a female come together, as is common in marriage proper in marriage outside of marriage, what's it called? What does scripture call that?
Is it sin?
It's sin.
It's called fornication.
Fornication.
I'm talking to you in almost the year 2000. I think you all know what that means.
I would be very surprised if there was someone here that didn't, but maybe there's someone. If you don't know what the word means when you get home tonight, look it up.
Look it up. Sexual sin.
That's This is the will of God. This is God's will for a Christian to be to your sanctification. Your practical holiness is to abstain from fornication.
That everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel. What is meant by his vessel? Is that his ship? Does he have a boat that was meant by his vessel? What is his vessel?
His body, his body, that's where we live. We live in this vessel.
Everyone should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.
Sanctification and honor not in the lust of concupiscence.
Sexual desires.
Even as the Gentiles which know not God, whenever you read other group of people that it says they know not God, that's not the Jews, that's always the Gentiles. The Jews knew God.
They knew God, the Old Testament. They had the law, and that's how they knew. They knew the will of God, the laws, the will of God.
Now that no man go beyond to defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also have forewarned you and testified, that refers to adultery, that refers to a man taking another man's wife.
And lying with her as though she was his? That's adultery.
Fornication is that sin committed by two unmarried people. Adultery is sin committed with another married person.
The same sin, but it's.
Called a different term.
I just got to say about this.
What's going to happen to such in Hebrews 13? I'll just read it to you. It says marriage is honorable.
And the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers, God will judge.
That's a serious sin.
Fornicators and adulterers, God will judge if anyone of you in this room.
Is guilty.
Is it hopeless for you? Does that mean you're going to hell? No, not if you judge the sin and confess it before God and and own that you have failed in that way.
If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I don't want to present this as though if you're guilty, that is hopeless for you, no.
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It's going to leave a mark on you. Yes it will.
It's a serious thing.
But nothing's ever hopeless for the Christian. No sin that you can commit or I can commit is outside of the reach of the grace of God. Remember that. Never forget that.
Out you cannot get outside of God's grace.
To save you or to restore you to himself if you have failed.
Just a couple more verses.
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness.
But unto holiness.
He therefore that despiseth, despiseth God's commandment. They have thrown this book out in schools.
They don't have the 10 commandments hanging on the walls, even though they don't know what they are. They can't even recite them. But there they could be to say this is God's standard.
This is God's standard. What's wrong with it? What's wrong with it is God said don't do it. That's what's wrong with it. God is the moral governor of the universe. He has the right to tell us what we are, what we can do, and what we can't do.
No ones going to tell me what to do, not even caught.
Hello, Siri is saying to take that kind of an attitude before God.
We all have to answer to Him. Our Creator tells us what to do and what not to do. He's given us perfect law.
Nine of those 10 commandments are incorporated in the New Testament. If I had time, I'd read you the other passages where these things are mentioned. You can search it out yourself. God hath not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despises despiseth not man, but God.
I'm going to do as I please. I'm going to do what I want. No one's going to tell me what to do, not even God. That's the height of rebellion. That's lawlessness. That's saying I'm not going to be subject.
To the one that created me.
The one that is over me.
Who is very The next breath I take is in his hands.
Serious, isn't it?
He therefore the despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit. And in first Corinthians 6 it says, No, you're not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God. You're not your own, you're bought with the price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
Serious things.
God keep you pure.
And holy, this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you keep your vessel pure.
Until God brings into your life a mate for life.
Don't go out with another of the opposite sex unless you're prepared.
To marry them.
To make them your life partner.
Romans 7
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Turn with me tonight to Romans 7.
Romans 7 and verse one.
Know you not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law.
How that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth.
But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulterous, though she be married to another man.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law.
Did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held.
That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid, Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, but sin taking occasion by the commandment.
Wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.
For without the law, sin was dead, For I was alive without the law once.
But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died, and the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good.
Was then that which is good made death unto me?
God forbid but sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good.
That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
For that which I do, I allow not. For what I hate that do I I missed. Let me read that again. For that which I do I allow not. For what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
For I know that in me, that is in my flesh.
Dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good?
I find not for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do.
Now if I do that, I would not, It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.
Which is in my members.
O 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 the flesh, the law of sin. This is a very interesting chapter. It's the only one that we have in the whole Bible.
That really lays out delineates the struggle that takes place in the soul of one who is under law but has a new nature has been born of God.
But he doesn't really have a deliverance yet until the very end of the chapter.
First part of the chapter gives you the doctrinal part telling us that we're not under law, we're under.
Grace. And there are many passages of scripture that tell us that. For instance, the 14th verse of the 6th chapter says this For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now that's an absolute statement of truth.
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The Christian is not under law but under grace. But as we know there are many Christians that put themselves under law. We tend to gravitate to the law principle because it's natural to us. This do and thou shalt live. That's the principle of law. We have to do something in order to gain acceptance with God.
Or to maintain our standing with God. That's the principle of law.
And a man likes that because it gives him something to do and something to feel good about as to his religious standing before God.
The truth of Scripture is that each of us is by nature fallen, lost, incorrigibly bad and condemned.
And by doing or trying to keep the law, we only.
You might say dig the hole deeper and we become deeper into sin. We get this developed in this chapter.
But the first part of it gives the doctrinal part. Know you not brethren, for I speak to them that know the law. He was really speaking to Jews or Israelites that knew the law. They were under it for 1500 years in the Old Testament. The Gentiles were never put under it, though many have foolishly put themselves under it, but God never did. But he speaks to those that know the law.
And he says how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth.
Once a man has died, he's died out of the the sphere that the law applies to. And so every one of us understands that for the woman, which half and husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth.
But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
Now in this example, he is using that first husband of the woman as a picture of the law and as long as that husband is alive, she's bound to that husband. But she goes on to say if the husband be dead, then she is loosed from the law of her husband. So what breaks that?
Being bound is death that comes in. In the example given, it's the husband that dies. We'll see in a moment as we read on in the application, it's that we die to it through the law. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man or just.
Truly it is she be to another man, have relations with another man, she shall be called an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law so that she is no adulterous, though she be married to another man. So what he's establishing in these first verses is the only thing that can break her ******* or her being bound to her first husband is the death of the husband. Now notice in the application of what he's saying.
Verse four he says, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law.
By the body of Christ, it's not the law that is died. The first husband is a picture of the law, but we become dead to it. Death delivers us from that first husband. That's what he's bringing out. So then, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, the body of Christ nailed to the cross, crucified for us, put on that cross for our sins, and when he died.
We died with him when we become dead to the law by the body of Christ. It's a an unusual expression here that the apostle uses, that he should be married to another. Once death is come in, we're no longer under the first husband, but now we can be united and married to the second husband, another husband to be married to another man.
Even to him.
Who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. He develops in this chapter how that when we were under the first husband, the law, we didn't produce fruit for God. Things we wanted to do, we didn't do the things we didn't want to do, we did do. And so there was a ******* there that kept us from doing.
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What we wanted to do and now he says.
We are now raised, we are now united to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. It's our union with Christ in resurrection and in His resurrection life, communicated to us in the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us to bring forth fruit unto God. Now, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this chapter at all. He's mentioned in the next chapter over and over again many times.
And he, he becomes the power.
Of the new life that we have in the risen Christ. But what he's establishing here is that we cannot be to another man. That is, you cannot be married to Christ, united to Christ and to the law, the first husband at the same time. That would be spiritual adultery.
That's the principle that he's establishing. As long as that first husband is alive, the woman is bound to him, and she's not free to marry another. But as soon as death comes in it, it severs that bond and gives her liberty to be married to another. So the death of Christ in when he died in his body on the cross.
He.
Died with him, and when he died, he died to sin, Chapter 6. And here in Chapter 7, he died to the law. He was under the law when he was here in the flesh. The blessed Lord made of a woman, made under the law that he might redeem them, that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's what you have in Galatians.
And here we're not free to be married to the second husband.
Until the first one, Death has taken him away.
She's no adulterous, though she be married to another man, if the first husband has died. Now in applying that again, verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, he also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. There will be no fruit for God as long as we are under law. We're under ******* to sin.
And there's no fruit for God in that. And many are trying.
And trying to produce fruit for God and they can't do it as long as they are under law in their souls.
They have to be set free from that and see that in the death of Christ that we have died, not only that He died for our sins. That's the first part of Romans up to chapter 511. But now the second part is that is the question of sin and law, the principle of law that applies to us in the flesh, but we're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in us. That's brought out in the next chapter.
What he's bringing out in the 7th chapter is the effect on us of having a new nature, desiring the things of God, but not having the Spirit of God as the power of that new life. He unites us to the risen Christ.
Once we are to him who is raised from the dead, we are set free from that first husband, the law.
And now we're united to the second husband, Christ.
Verse 5 for when we were in the flesh.
The motions of sins which were by the law, which were aroused by the law. The law told us, Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet or lust. These are the last five commandments and the first ones. Thou shalt have no other gods but me. Thou shalt not make an image of anything in heaven or earth, or bow down to it.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And the 5th commandment, honor thy Father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee. Thou mayest live long on the earth well.
Any honest man or woman or child will admit, confess. They haven't kept that perfectly. None of us has. There's only one man that did, and that's the blessed Lord himself.
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How can we bring forth fruit for God?
To be united to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.
This is developed in this chapter.
When we were in the flesh.
That was our standing before God before we received the Holy Spirit, and that's spoken of in the 8th chapter as being in the Spirit.
When you're in the flashes before the Spirit of God took up his abode in us, we can have a new life. The children of Israel that had a new life who were born of God, but they were in the flesh as far as they're standing before God. They were not sealed by the Spirit. 1 who's under law today is like the the the.
People of God in the Old Testament who loved the Lord but were under the ******* of law.
They were not set free from that principle.
When we're in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, which were aroused by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
You tell a child not to.
Do a particular thing. You're going out for a while and you point out, say there's a bowl on the table and you point out to the children that are playing around the table. I'm going next door. I'll be back in 15 minutes. While I'm gone, don't lift the lid on that bowl.
Now you've called their attention to it, you've told them not to do it, and until you did that, they didn't even pay any attention to it perhaps. But now that you have told them, don't lift the lid on that bowl. You arouse A desire in their hearts comes from the sin nature that they have to do the very thing that they've been forbidden to do.
And that's what's the effect of law on men. He doesn't like to be told what to do and what not to do. And so as soon as the mother comes home, she finds that the lid has been lifted and what was in the bowl has escaped. Well, they were found out. That's the effect of law on a Sinner, a man who is a Sinner.
That's the effect of law. It tells us what we should do and what we shouldn't do, but it doesn't convey the power to fulfill its commands. So it's it's a, a law that was ordained unto life. It holds out the promise of life. This do and thou shalt live. That's life had man kept the law.
He would not have died.
Now, if Israel was 1500 years under law and they all died, Every single one of them.
So none of them kept the law. Had anyone of them kept the law, he wouldn't have died, because it holds out the promise of life to the obedient. But we're not obedient. So what was ordained to life became to me unto death. That's what he says as he develops this argument in this chapter.
When we're in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, produced by the law.
Because it forbade it.
Did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. I've probably told this story here before, but I'll repeat it some may not have heard it. I remember leaving California once. I was going South and then W to Phoenix from the the opposite direction I'm traveling now. I'm traveling north now and.
When I was in California.
The signs said Please don't litter.
And I noticed there was very little littering. They got into Arizona. The sign said littering strictly prohibited, strict penalty. And there was all kinds of littering on the side of the road. That is the law forbidding. It did not produce obedience. In fact, it produced an expression of man's rebellion. You can't tell me what to do or what not to do. That's the attitude of man's heart.
When the law is applied to him.
But now, verse 6 now, now that Christ has come, that he has gone into death.
Paid the penalty for our sins, borne the curse of a broken law, and he's now raised from the dead.
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And we have his life now. We are delivered from the law.
Being that being dead, or we being dead to that wherein we were held.
That we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness.
Of the letter. Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 3 that the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life, and so we find it so. The effect of law. We see that in our children. We see that in many instances.
As we observe mankind and how he behaves under law.
What shall we say then?
Is the law sin?
Anything wrong with the law?
No, he says. God forbid far be the thought, Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust.
Except the law had said, Thou shalt not look coveted or lust.
That's the 10th commandment, the last one. That's the other one that he mentions here. It's interesting, the very one that slays every one of us, because it prohibits us from doing the very thing that our nature instinctively does.
It's like saying to a pig, Thou shalt not wallow in the mire.
You can't tell a pig that has that kind of a nature. That's not to do that. So you tell a man who has a nature that lusts not to lust. You're giving him a commandment which he cannot in his own strength obey.
He has to have a power outside of himself. First of all. He needs a new life and then a new power, and this is what we have in Christianity.
I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said Thou shalt not covet man. Reasons. As long as I haven't committed the sin, just thought about doing it, it's not sinful.
Well, the Lord said, he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart, doesn't have to do the ACT. He doesn't have to fulfill the desire of his heart. Just think about it, just desire it. He has in his heart committed adultery. Some of us have committed murder in our hearts we have thought of.
Killing someone, we're so angry with them.
And other sins that might not get beyond the lust of our heart. But thou shalt not covet. Or the neighbor boy gets a new bicycle, Or the neighbor gets a new car. And we we envy them and lust after that, and desire it coveted, want it for ourselves.
We don't have to go and steal his car or bicycle, just want to do it.
And we are condemned by the law thou shalt not covet.
The first sin in Christianity was the sin of Ananias and Sapphira they coveted. They wanted to keep some of the price of the land, and they lied to the Holy Spirit about how much they sold it for so they could keep back part of it for themselves. The sin of covetousness, the betrayal of the Lord Jesus by Judas Iscariot was the sin of covetousness he wanted.
That money and he thought the Lord would deliver himself as he had so many times before.
And and he would get away with the money in Israel after they had conquered the city.
Tried to conquer the city of Jericho, not Jericho, but AI Jericho. They were not to take any of the any of the things of Jericho and someone had taken it. He saw what was there and he lusted after it. He coveted it and it caused Israel to be defeated when they went up against AI. The sin of covetousness.
We don't often speak of it, but it is something.
That is that we're all guilty of doing more than once, and it is caused great sorrow.
I had not known sin, but by the law.
For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, or thou shalt not lust. Verse 8 now, but sin.
Sin, the sin nature. He's talking now about the nature that produces the sins that we do this, the tree that produces the fruit. He's talking about the tree here.
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Taking occasion by the commandment.
Wrought in me all manner of lust or concupiscence.
For without the law, sin was dead before the commandment of the mother to the children not to lift the lid and the bowl. They had no desire for it. Sin was relatively an active, relatively dead. But as soon as she said don't, then that drew their attention to it and they wanted to do it.
They had been forbidden to, but they have a nature that was sin, a sin nature.
Without the law, sin was dead.
For I was alive without the law once before that commandment came. They had not disobeyed their mother. They were alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Commandment came, said don't do that.
Then there was the revival of a desire to do the very thing that was forbidden.
And that's the effect that law has on a sinful person. If we were good, if we were righteous in ourselves, we would obey the law and there would be no problem. But we're not. We're sinners born in sin and shapen in iniquity. And I say we I'm talking about man in his natural state.
Verse 9 I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. It was it promised life if I was obedient, but its promises death and judgment if I'm disobedient. So he says in the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. It slew me.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me.
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and justice and good. When Israel heard that 10 the 10 commandments, they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey. That's a good law, and it is a good law. Nothing wrong with the law of Moses, nothing wrong with the 10 commandments. They're beautiful, and they tell a man how he ought to obey his Creator, how he ought to live, and what he ought to do and not to do.
What's where's the problem then? Problem is in our hearts. The problem is in our sin nature that we have from our fallen parents.
The law is holy, and the commandment holy and justice and good.
Was then that which is good, may death unto me.
God forbid far be the thought, No, indeed, but sin. There's that sin nature again, that inbred sin that we're born with, that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Let me illustrate that. Children are walking to school and they see a lawn that's just been newly seated. There's a sign on the front of the lawn says newly seated.
And they walk all over it. The person in the house looks out and sees what they're doing. So before they return from school in the afternoon, the owner has put a fence around it with an addition to the sign. Newly seated. Keep off the grass.
Keep off. Now, if they do that, if they walk on the lawn, they are infringing on a command. They are violating the law. It was wrong to do it in the first place. It was sin in the 1St place. It was inconsiderateness on their part. But now there's a fence there that says stay away, and there's a law that says keep off. And now if they do it, sin becomes exceedingly sinful.
I remember when the cars began in in our country, there were accidents at corners because men didn't give the right away to another vehicle. And then they put stop signs up and they put stop lights up. And after that when that stoplight showed red, it means you had to stop.
And after that, when that stoplight showed red, it means you had to stop. You can't go through that light. And if you did, you're violating now a command, A command to stop.
And that's the effect of law. So sin becomes it was wrong when another car was going through the intersection. It was wrong for you to continue and hit him. You should have waited until he cleared the intersection and gone on. But when there's a stoplight there, you must stop. And if you don't, you have broken the law and you'll get a ticket for it.
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That's the effect of law, but it doesn't stop man from committing sin. All it does is it increases his guilt, because he's now not just a Sinner, but he is a transgressor of a law. Verse 13 again was then that which is good may death unto me, God forbid far be the thought, but sin that it might appear, sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become.
Exceeding sinful, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. The law is spiritual, applying not only to the outward things that we do, but to our very thoughts. Thou shalt not covet.
That's something if you're coveting, if I'm coveting, if I'm lusting, you can't tell by looking at me. That's something that's going on in my heart, something that's going on in your heart.
It's spiritual. It applies not just to the outward things we do, but to things that others cannot see.
The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Sold under sin. This is the state of man, even if he has a new nature.
That wants to do the right thing and he develops that. Now for that which I do I allow not I don't want to do it. I have a nature that wants to obey God, but then I I do what I shouldn't for what I would that do I not I want to do good and I don't but what I hate.
That do I You hate it in the new nature, but you do it in the power of the old nature. And many have gone through this experience before. They have really gotten deliverance. They want to do right, but they do wrong. They hate what is wrong, and yet they do.
The wrong.
If then I do that, which I would not.
I don't want to.
Because I have a new life now. He's talking about one who's been born of God. I consent unto the law that it is good.
Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, going through this exercise, being under law, finding that it doesn't give me the power to obey it.
Though I want to obey it.
But I find there's another power coming from a nature within me that is hateful to God, that keeps me in ******* to the wrong.
So what does he say? It is no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me.
Notice in the back up for a minute in verse 15 that which I do, I allow not for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I he doesn't make in that verse any distinction from the one that wants to do right and the one that does wrong. It's the eye all the way through. But now he's making progress. Verse 16. If then I do that which I would not.
I consent unto the law that it is good.
He's made progress, he says. The law is right. The problem is in me.
Now then.
It is no more I that do it, but the sin.
That dwelleth in me. He's learned to distinguish between the true eye, the new man, and the evil nature, the sin that dwells in him, that is giving him all this problem.
For I know that in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
For to Will is present with me, and that comes from the new nature.
But how to perform that which is good? I find not. That's the power of the old nature.
For the good that I would in the new nature I do not, because the old nature is power more powerful.
But the evil which I would not.
From the new nature that I do because of the power of the old. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me. This is quite a bit of progress he's made. He's learned to distinguish between.
00:35:01
His true self, which is the Newman and that sin nature which is giving him all these problems, and he said there's no more I that do it, but the sin.
That dwelleth in me.
I find then a law.
That when I would do good.
I read the law, I submit to it. I want to obey it. I find then that evil is present with me.
And that comes from the old nature, of course, the flesh.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. The Newman delights in God's law. By law, the psalmist says, do I love?
Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. He delighted in the law, But after the inward man, there's a new man there, there's a new nature there that's not said by an unconverted soul. He doesn't have a new nature that delights in the law of God, but to the one who's converted.
Then he has to say, But I see another law in my members.
Warring against the law of my mind, the law of my mind is the Newman, the new nature.
But there's another law in my members that's the law of sin.
I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Now he hasn't found deliverance, he's been looking for strength within.
To obey the law.
But he's found that he has a law of sin and his members coming from the old nature, which is stronger.
And he fails. He fails.
He says, O wretched man that I am, he was truly wretched. Now this is not a description of true Christianity.
This is more a description of the Saints under law in the Old Testament who didn't have the Spirit of God as delivering power, who were not united to a Christ dead and risen and exalted to the right hand of God. They had a new life, but they did not have the power to to live according to the law.
Of God, though they acknowledged that it was good.
It was holy, just and good. Nothing wrong with the law.
And so he looks over his situation. This man who is under law, as long as you're under law, you haven't come to the end of yourself.
You still think that there's something good in you that will enable you to fulfill the commandments of the law, and God allows us to fail.
Even one who has the Spirit of God, if he gets under law, he will find the Spirit of God will not operate in him as power to deliver him from that principle, because he is still having some confidence in himself.
In whatever measure we have confidence in ourselves, we're under the law principle and there's no strength in that.
God will not give us strength as long as we think there's something good.
In us, he has to let us fail until we realize as Paul, as I was going to say, Paul, he wrote this chapter and what he's really doing is he's he's the one who wrote this chapter is not in the state described in the chapter. He's delivered and looking back and describing one who's under law and under *******.
But it has to be a delivered man that can describe it properly, because the one that's in it can't describe it properly.
He doesn't realize exactly what the problem is until he gets delivered from the law principle.
Why do we fail so often? Because we're not strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The strength of holiness is grace, not law. First Corinthians 15 tells us the strength of sin is the law, and that's what Romans 7 did. He experience outlined in Romans 7 brings that out, the strength of sin.
Is the law.
It does not give power to carry out its demands.
Verse 22 he says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind.
The Newman and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am now he he realizes he cannot deliver himself from that sin principle which resides within. So he says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? He is now looking, looking to another, looking to 1 outside in himself, who shall deliver me?
00:40:28
From.
The body of this death or this body of death?
And then he can thank God for deliverance. In the last verse, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Deliverance comes through him. He is the great Deliverer we are according to the teaching of the fourth verse, where for my brethren, he also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
As long as the Christian is married to the first husband, he's under law and the teaching of all Scripture is we're not under law. And if you're in that state before God, you won't find power for holiness. You won't find it because it only comes when you realize that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, and we can only find it in Christ, the life of Christ in US and the power.
Holy Spirit, so he says, who shall deliver me, O wretched man that I am? Here's a man that's always wanting to do what is right, always doing what is wrong. Now that's an absolute condition of things. And none of us has ever absolutely in that state of soul, we don't always fail. And but he's giving the he's giving the tendency of what it is to be under law and what it is to be under grace.
The next chapter develops that so beautifully.
A man who is under law is a wretched man.
Now that's not a Christian, or one may be a Christian and get into this state, but that's not Christian standing at Christian state.
It's one who's under law, and if you're under law, you're not.
You're not. You do not understand, you're not taught. You haven't been delivered from the ******* of trusting in yourself.
To keep the law of God.
I thank God, he says.
He's asked who shall deliver me? He said. I thank God the deliverer is deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's deliverance reached.
Seeing that one is in Christ before God and he has deliverance, that's the very first verse of the next chapter. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Were taken out of self and put into Christ and out of the flesh and now we have a new standing before God and the Spirit of God resides within us and he forms our state as those who are to Christ now united to him a second husband to bring forth fruit unto God. I thank God he says verse 25 through Jesus Christ our Lord deliverance comes through looking to him.
Up to this point, he hasn't been referred to in this struggle that the man is going through.
Many of us go through an experience similar to this, not exactly like it. We don't always fail as the man in Romans 7 because he's he's giving the the absolute principle of the effect of law on a renewed soul. It doesn't give power because it doesn't give him the right object. He's still trusting himself in some way.
Whenever we do that, we are bound to fail and become miserable.
And the way of deliverance is to look to him through Jesus Christ our Lord, deliverance comes.
But once the soul is delivered, that doesn't change the flesh, doesn't change the old nature, nor the new.
So he says so then, with the mind, the renewed mind.
I myself serve the law of God, I myself. He has now learned to identify himself with the Newman, with the new nature.
I serve the law of God in my mind.
And in my flesh.
But with the flesh, the law of sin.
For a delivered soul, the flesh has not changed.
And that's something we have to realize that the flesh never changes. It is incorrigibly evil, incorrigibly bad. We have to realize that God has taken us out of Adam and placed us in Christ, out of the flesh and in the Spirit, and where we have a new life and.
00:45:17
A new power to enable us to live.
For him. So this next chapter, Romans 8, is filled with the Spirit of God. You don't hear of the Spirit mentioned in the Romans 7.
He's given a he's giving a description of an experience by a renewed soul who was under law. And it leads him to the, to the statement, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? And he finds deliverance in Christ wonderful to, to know the one who alone can set us free. You shall know the truth, he said, and the truth shall set you free.
The law is *******.
And grace is liberty, freedom, deliverance, wonderful to be standing in the very grace of God. And that's what we're, that's where we do stand.
That's where we do stand before God, the realization that there's nothing good in me.
And there's nothing that I can do in my flesh to please him. I need another to do it. And.
I think of I think of this beautiful at the end of Hebrews where he's he's writing the whole epistle. Let's just turn to it before closing in Hebrews 13, I think it gives the the answer to this so beautifully in Hebrews 13, verse 20, this this epistle is written to Jews that were under law.
When they were before they were they came to Christ and it's to teach them that they're to abandon that altogether, that principle for Christ and for grace. Now verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead. Our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work.
Who's going to do that?
It's the God of peace.
He says make you perfect in every good work to do his will.
Working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight.
Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. God working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight. Through Jesus Christ. And that's where the deliverance comes from.
Let's sing.
In closing.
200.
And 32.
232.
Verse 2 Says not the labor of our hands could fulfill the laws demands could our zeal no rest, but no could our tears forever flow, not for sin could air atone with thy blood and thine alone.
Romans 8
Address—C. Hendricks
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We had Romans 7 before us last night, so we'll turn to Romans 8:00 tonight to this afternoon, Romans 8. Notice how that hymn began once we stood in condemnation.
And notice how Romans 8 begins. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walked out after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You'll notice that expression occurs at the end of verse 4.
Who walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. I believe it's proper there, but I think verse one better ends with Christ Jesus.
That is, it's our standing in Christ.
That is spoken of. There no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? In 2nd Corinthians 5 it says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. God sees us now in an altogether new standing, not in Adam.
Not in the flesh, but in Christ and in the Spirit. And this has developed beautifully.
In this 8th chapter of Romans, the 7th chapter is more the state of the Old Testament Saints. Before the Spirit of God was given, before Christ was crucified and risen again and ascended to the right hand of God, before the work of redemption was finished, was accomplished. Indeed before the one that did, it was here that came.
To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
So they're not viewed as being in Christ. The Old Testament Saints, they were born of God, they had a new life, those that believe the Word. But they were not in the position that you and I are in now, in Christ, to which no condemnation can be attached. It's not merely that our sins are forgiven, that's true, blessedly true, but the very state in which we stand before God is 1.
Which is absolutely perfect. It is in Christ defined as in Christ. John puts it this way. He says as he is Even so are we in this world wonderful, wonderful to be able to to point to the man in the glory and say before God he is my righteousness, before God, he is my righteousness. He is everything.
To us and our righteousness.
In 2nd Corinthians 3.
I just read a couple verses there that brings this out and 2nd Corinthians 3.
Now we start at verse 7. He asked the question in verse 8.
How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? This is what characterizes the.
Day of grace in which we live, it's not a ministry of death, a ministry of God's righteous requirements in the law. That's what he was just talking about here, but it's the ministry of the Spirit. He's given us the Spirit of God. We were pointing out last night that the man in Romans 7, there's no mention of the Spirit of God. He has a new life, but he doesn't have the power to work upon that life to give deliverance from.
The the sin nature, the flesh.
That we have within us. We need more than a new life to combat the flesh. We need a new power as well. And we have that in Christ. And notice the next expression in verse 9. For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, that is it began with glory giving of the law, but he calls it administration of condemnation held out the promise of life to the obedient, and to the obedient it would have been.
Our righteousness, but instead it becomes administration of death.
And administration of condemnation.
Condemnation. Well, that's where Romans 8 begins. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. God sees us as He sees Christ, the risen, glorified man, His righteousness. God's righteousness answered the work of Christ by raising him from the dead and exalting him to his own right hand in heaven.
And he sees you and me.
Just that way in Christ, he says you and me in a condition which is absolutely faultless and perfect. Christ himself having become our righteousness. Isn't that wonderful? It's not a righteousness that you have wrought or I have wrought. It's not anything that we have done, but it's what God Himself provides in His infinite grace. There's no condemnation.
00:05:22
To them which are in Christ Jesus.
The end of Romans 7 is he comes to cry out, O wretched man that I am, I know there are many. When they speak on Romans 7, they speak of it as though that's normal Christianity. It's not at all normal, normal Christianity you get in the epistle to the Ephesians where you have joy and rejoicing all the way through that epistle. That's normal Christianity.
But normal Christianity is not.
Wretched man that I am, now, that's the effect of being under law, trying to keep it and failing repeatedly. And so the man comes to the point where he says, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? He needs deliverance from that sin nature. The first thing that when we receive the gospel, the first thing that floods our soul with joy is the knowledge that our sins are forgiven.
Now that's the first part of Romans up to chapter 512 Through 511. It's a question of our sins and how we're justified before God, forgiven and justified before God with respect to our sins, cleared from all charge of guilt. Tremendous.
And wondrous truth. But it isn't very long after one is saved. And he will discover that he has a heart which is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and that that's the old nature, and it hasn't changed. And he gets thoughts and has temptations that that are anything but pleasing to God.
And this disturbs him and troubles him.
He knows the question of his sins has been settled. Christ died for our sins and He put them away and bore them on the cross. But what about that sin nature that we have within us that has not changed? That is just as incorrigibly bad after you're saved as it is before you're saved. That does not change. What has changed is you've received a new nature.
And a new power to work upon, that new nature to give.
Deliverance from the old nature, but that takes that's deliverance. The one is justification. And we need more than that to really be in solid peace with God. We need to see not only did he put our sins away, but he put us away as well. And we have probably experienced the the the grief of expecting something from.
Ourselves after we're saved, as though we can produce righteousness before God in our own strength and in our own efforts. And we've experienced something like the failure of the man in Romans 7. It's not exactly the same because the man in Romans 7, he's, he speaks of the absolute case of it, the extreme case of it, always wanting to do the right and always doing the wrong.
Always hating the evil but not finding the power to.
Say no to it.
Everyone of us has experienced that to some extent. Deliverance from self, deliverance from our sins is one thing. Deliverance from sin, the sin nature is another. And this is what we are into now. In the second part of Romans, in the end of chapter 5, he presents to us two heads, two federal heads, Adam and Christ, and all those who arranged under Adam.
Is written, condemned those who are under Adam's headship condemned those who are under Christ's headship, justified, declared righteous, accounted righteous by God. And he's given us a life which is a righteous life. We have justification of life, not merely justification from the sins that we've committed, but justification of life. And because of that he can say there's now therefore no condemnation to them which are.
Christ Jesus, we stand before God in a life, the very life of Christ.
Christ not in the condition that he was when he was here in the flesh. He was under the law. He was, He was made of a woman, made under the law. But now he has died to that and he is risen, no longer under law, no longer in that condition. It's the same life, Yes, but.
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Freed from it, freed from the law and from the power of it. And he's given us the Holy Spirit to enable us to to live as to walk as he walked. Sometimes, it said, while the Christian cannot walk as Christ, walk. Well, that's a denial of Christianity. Yes, he can.
Whether he does or not is another matter, and but He's given us all that is necessary to enable us to live above sin, not by law. Strength of sin is the law, but the strength of holiness is grace. Grace. Man thinks just the other way around. Man thinks that in order to get obedience, he has to put someone under law. You give him, you give him the liberty of grace, and then he can do whatever he wants.
Well, in a sense, that's right.
But it's whatever the Newman wants.
It's whatever the new life wants, the Spirit of God works on that life and gives us.
The desire to live in that life and to deny that old sin nature, that old sinful life, the old man there is therefore now.
No condemnation.
To them which are in Christ Jesus for the law. Now the word law in in verse 2 is used like we talk about the law of gravity. Law of gravity is that everything falls down towards the earth. Apples never fall up. They always fall down as the law of gravity. It's a fixed principle. It's a constant tendency. So that's the thought in verse 2 for the law, the fixed principle of the spirit or the constant tendency of the.
Of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free.
From the law of a fixed principle of.
Sin and death.
Now that principle of sin and death, he talked about that in the 7th chapter, verse 23. Let's back up a moment. He says. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind. The law of my mind is the law of the new nature and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.
Which is in my members, and this is what 1 discovers. If he puts himself under law, even if he has the Spirit of God, if he puts himself under law, the Spirit will not be there as power for deliverance from sin, but rather to show the one that does that the serious mistake that he's made, that the law principle cannot produce holiness.
It's grace that does it. It's realizing that we are in Christ before God.
That all that we have done and all that we were in the flesh has been put away, put away.
Well, then, why do I still get troubled by that sinful nature? Because it's still there.
That's going to be one of the wonders of heaven. The sin nature will be forever gone.
We will leave it behind at the rapture when the Lord comes for us, and the only the man that will rise to meet him in the air will be the new man.
And there be no sin any longer. Never to sin again, never to have an errant thought, never to have a desire which is displeasing to God.
Wonderful to look forward to that time when we will be there as He is, where the conformed to the image of God's Son in all perfection in every aspect of our being.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Spirit of God, working upon and in that new life that we have in Christ gives deliverance from the flesh. It's the power for it.
Power of deliverance.
If you turn back to John 20.
John's Gospel, chapter 20.
We have, I believe, a significant event which the Lord did that.
Brings brings out or what? Romans 82 brings out. What the significance of this is?
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I'll start with verse 19 to get the context. Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week. This is after the Lord's resurrection.
When the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. First He proclaims peace to them, sets them at peace before God. Their sins now were put away, and he proclaims the fruit of his work, Peace be unto you.
And when He had so said, He showed unto them his hands and His side. His hands would speak of the work accomplished. His side would speak of the the heart which from which it was accomplished. And out of His side, you remember, came the blood in the water.
The blood to expiate our guilt, and the water to cleanse and give power for holiness by the Spirit of God.
And they were disciples, glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, Even so send I you. So the first time he proclaims peace, it was for their souls enjoyment. And now he proclaims it again, and sends them forth with the message of peace to a lost world.
As the father my father had sent me so send I you now notice verse 22 now in in what power, what the what power of life are we to go forth with the message of peace?
When he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. The article isn't there, it's receive ye Holy Spirit.
That is, he communicates to them as the risen man, his own resurrection life, in the power of which they were to go forth and live for him in this scene by the Spirit of God.
That's the first part of Romans 8. Going back to Romans 8, the law verse 2, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the law of sin and death.
Spirit of God communicated as the power of life in Christ, risen. A little bit later in Romans 8, he talks about the Spirit as a person indwelling us, living in us. That's Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost. But you have John 2022, and then you have Acts chapter 2. The Spirit of God is the power of risen life in Christ, and then the Spirit of God as a person indwelling us, uniting us to the man.
In the glory, when we believe the gospel today, we receive the Spirit in both aspects, but it's separated as it is to show that there are two different aspects of the Spirit of God. Spirit as life, the Spirit of life in Christ, and then the Spirit of as a person indwelling us. Verse 3. Now Romans 8. For what the law could not do, it could not produce the obedience which it required.
It gave the command, it said what we were to do and not to do, but it didn't give the power to carry out its injunctions, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. There was no weakness in the law. There's no fault in the law. He establishes that in Romans 7. The law is just and holy and good. The fault is that it's addressing itself to a man that has a sin nature that is so powerful that it simply.
Will not carry out what the law says.
What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh.
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And for sin condemned sin in the flesh, now that's not.
His dealing with our sins, that was the early part of Romans, but here we have when he died on the cross and he bore the judgment of God, it was not simply to put our sins away, but he he was before God, answering to God for all that we were as sinners in the flesh before God, and God has condemned that, so that which is such a trouble to us and such a bother to us.
And which sometimes leads us to do the wrong thing, to have the wrong thoughts, and that has been condemned.
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Has been condemned, God has condemned it. He's looking for no fruit. Remember when the Lord came to the fig tree and he, he looked for fruit, but there was none. And of all the miracles that he did when he was here below, he only did 1 miracle one time where he cursed something and he said to the fig tree, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever.
And they went on their way, and as they came back, they saw the fig tree, that it was all withered, and the disciples made note of that.
What's the significance of that? God has cursed and condemned the sin nature with which we were born.
No fruit can ever be produced for God from that nature.
And that's a very solemn thing to consider. Consider being.
While we're in a world that is composed of people that are just like that, you can give them every possible advantage in training them, educating them and and so on. And yet if they've if they only have a sin nature, all they can do is sin all they cannot please God.
They cannot please God. We will come to that in a few verses here in Romans 8.
For what the law could not do, it could not produce obedience, in that it was weak through the flesh.
I think the flesh here is a moral term that refers to our old nature. The Bible doesn't use the word old nature, uses the word old man and Newman and it doesn't use the word new nature, but it does use the word divine nature in Peter.
But I believe the flesh is what we say the the old nature.
The law could not produce the obedience it required in that it was weak through the flesh.
And God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Notice the accuracy of Scripture. It doesn't say in sinful flesh. No, it doesn't say that. It cannot say that the Lord, when the Lord became a man, when the Word became flesh, that was not sinful flesh, That was holy flesh. He was the holy One of God.
And it says in the likeness of sinful flesh. That is, He looked just like you and I look, you could not tell any difference if you looked at him. You and I partake of sinful flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.
He became flesh, but it was not sinful flesh, it was holy. That holy thing that shall be born of thee, the Angel said to Mary, shall be called the Son of God.
So he came, his Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, doesn't say in the likeness of flesh. No, it was true flesh. He was just as truly a man as any of you are, with a spirit, a soul and a body. Sin apart.
That's the only qualification. His humanity was holy.
Ours before the Fall in Adam and Eve was innocent, and since the Fall sinful.
Sinful.
In the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, that is, as a sacrifice for sin.
More than just sins here, but sin the very tree itself. The very tree. When the Lord saw the fig tree and it didn't have fruit on it, he cursed it and it withered. And the the tree speaks of the nature and the fruit of the tree speaks of the sins of that nature that that tree produces.
We usually in our apprehension of truth, we think of our sins and the forgiveness of our sins, and that we're justified from our sins through the work of Christ. But this second part of Romans of the Gospel deals with sin.
That principle that operates causing us to do bad things.
When we give way to it.
But that nature has been condemned.
He's condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law, the righteousness that the law required, that it could never get produced by us as being sinners, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That's where that clause properly belongs, because he's talking about here the practical result now in our walk, the righteousness that the law required of man.
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Is now produced in the Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Working upon and in the new life that we have in Christ.
That the righteousness of the law, the righteous requirement of the law, might be fulfilled in US.
Who walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit? What are we saying? What is he saying?
That God has equipped us with every means necessary.
To walk as Christ walked down here.
What is the rule of life for the Christian? Someone will say, if it's not the law, many people think, well, I couldn't keep it as a Sinner, but now that I'm saved, now I have to keep the law, and the law is is the rule of life for the Christian wrong?
No, it's not. What is the rule of life for the Christian Christ? As he walked down here, He walked above the law. He kept it perfectly, but he did more than that. He walked in perfect obedience to His Father. That is our example. He is our example and not the law.
If we walk as He walked, we will fulfill the law, walk in the power of the Spirit of God. So what the law required. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in US who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
If you fail, I fail. We often do. It's because we've gotten our eyes off of Christ and.
We've gotten back under under law in some way or another and it's so easy to do. It's the tendency of our hearts. Some one brother said to me once, why do we always revert back to the law principle? I said, well, that's natural to us. We still have that nature. It's been condemned of God.
But we still have it, and it's there to raise its ugly head whenever we give it a place. And we do that too often, sad to say.
Now verse 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, That is one who is without a new life, and He is after the flesh, as it says here. He minds the things of the flesh. Of course He does. That's all He has. He has a nature which enjoys those things of the flesh. So He minds the things of the flesh.
But they that are after the Spirit.
Mind the things of the Spirit.
There's two different kinds of things that that are that the mind of the flesh enjoys, and those are sinful things, things of the world. There's a there's a thousand of them, thousands of them arrayed before us. And then there's the things of the Spirit. What are some of the things of the Spirit? Well, to feed on the Word of God, to share.
To witness to the lost of.
Christ and His saving power to walk in loneliness and meekness. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith or faithfulness, meekness.
Temperance or self-control, all of those things. The fruit of the spirit. Someone says I can't control myself.
Fruit of the spirit is self-control. You can't control yourself maybe, but he can control you and when we are subject to him if we live in the Spirit, Paul says let us also walk in the Spirit. We have the Spirit of God. So to to bring forward your natural propensities and tendencies. You say I was born that way.
That's just the way I am.
Uh, yes, you were born that way the first time, but when you were born again?
And receive the Holy Spirit. A change has taken place if any man be in Christ.
He is a new creature, old things are passed away, all that we were and connected with.
And that the flesh delighted in gone now, and we are made a new creation in Christ.
So to use what we were in our natural tendencies as an excuse for sinning today, after you're a Christian, that will not fly.
No, that's no excuse because we're under the control of the Holy Spirit and Christ is our object. Christ is our object.
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The problem is, you know it as well as I do. We feed on the things of the flesh. The mind of the flesh is death, and when you feed on the things of the flesh, you're feeding on death.
They that are after the flesh, verse 5 do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Of course the unsaved person is going to mind the things of the flesh. That's all he can mind. He has a nature that delights in those things now, But they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. Can you think of anything worse than being married for life to a partner?
That has nothing but a sin nature.
Does not have a new nature. Does not have the Spirit of God.
Cannot mind the things of the Spirit.
Sad how solemn. I can't think of a passage more powerful than Romans 8 to set before us the the seriousness of being yoked for life to one who does not have a new nature and the Spirit of God to operate on that nature.
To deliver them, they that are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. And you can't, you cannot raise the natural man to a spiritual level. You cannot do it. But what can be done is you can take a spiritual man that still has the flesh and bring him down to the level of the flesh. And that's generally what happens when you have an unequal yoke.
The saved partner doesn't raise the unsafe unless they're converted. Unless they become saved and receive Christ and have the Spirit of God in a new life, you cannot.
Make flesh spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.
He must be born again, a new life, and then He's given us the Spirit of God as well. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Wonderful life that we have now in Christ. Young people will say, come with us, we're going to have a party tonight and we're going to see life.
They're not looking at life, they're looking at death.
That's what they're looking at. The next verse says so.
It says verse 6 for to be carnally minded. I'm going to read that as it is in the new translation. The mind of the flesh is death.
But the mind of the Spirit spiritually minded, or the mind of the Spirit, is life and peace.
You really want real life and peace and joy and happiness.
You will be under the control of the Holy Spirit and Christ will be your object. You're living in a different world now. You are a new creature in Christ, and to be linked with one that only has that carnal mind of the flesh is death.
Solemn, But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Now notice verse 7. Very powerful verse, because the carnal mind, or the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.
Young person, I don't know if there's anyone of you here entertaining the just entertaining, yoking for life with an unsafe person.
All they've got is the mind of the flesh, that carnal mind, and it is enmity against God.
More, it is not subject to the law of God.
Neither indeed can be.
More so than they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Let that sink in.
If you marry someone that is unsaved, you are marrying a person that cannot please God.
That is that enmity with God that has only the mind of the flesh, which is death.
I can't put it anymore strong than that, any stronger than that. The solemnity, the solemnness of thinking with one who has not.
Christ and the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that has delivered us from the law of sin and death. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
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But we we, we Christians are not in the flesh.
But in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now there you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, not merely the Spirit communicated as the power of the resurrection life of Christ. That's John 2022, but Acts 2. Now the Spirit of God dwelling in US.
You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit of so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man, any man, have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. He is not his.
Why does it change from Spirit of God to Spirit of Christ? I think the Spirit of Christ is the expression. He's the formative power of Christ in the soul.
Spirit of God is more of a general term that applies to the Holy Spirit.
And if Christ be in you, verse 10, the spirit, the body is dead.
Because of sin.
But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. That's a very difficult verse to interpret. I believe this is what it means.
If Christ be in you, the body is held as dead because of sin. There's a sin nature in our body, so we hold it as dead because of that sin nature. So these members do not yield to express the evil of the nature, which is called the flesh.
But the Spirit is life, practical living because of righteousness. The Spirit of God produces A practical righteousness, operating in the new life that we have in Christ.
But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, notice Jesus from the dead. That was the man that was raised up from the dead. If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, Spirit of God.
Dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead. That changes from Jesus to Christ because the word Christ now associates us with him. We are in Christ before God.
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken.
Give life to your mortal bodies by his spirit or by.
Because of his spirit that dwelleth in you, so that looks on to the resurrection.
When we will receive a new life, a new body, I should say a resurrection body, just like that of Christ.
And the Spirit of God has taken up his residency in this body. I'll never forget once at a funeral, the brother that was speaking, he pointed to the corpse in the coffin and he pointed and he said this body shall rise again. I think that's the truth of resurrection. That body shall rise again. The Spirit of God dwelt in that body and has claimed it for his own. And that's what this verse says.
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.
By his spirit, or because of his spirit that dwelleth in you?
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors. Now He doesn't tell us what we're debtors to. He just stops right there. And but he says not to the flesh. We're not debtors to the flesh. We don't know the flesh anything.
We don't know Satan anything. He has no claims upon us. The evil nature that we have, we owe it nothing.
We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die.
But if he through the spirit, do mortify, do put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. There's the power that the man in Romans 7 didn't have.
He had the law, which is wholly just and good, but he didn't have the power. He had a new life with divine desires, but he didn't have the power to carry out the injunctions of the law. Now we do when we're fully delivered. A man in Romans 8 is a delivered Christian. Romans 8 is true Christianity. Romans 7 is not.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that Romans 7 is true Christianity. Is true Christianity. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? No.
Not at all. It's *******. It's failure. And that's not true Christianity. True Christianity is liberty and victory and joy and peace.
00:40:02
And all the.
Fruit of the Spirit.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Peter says it this way. The time passed suffices us to have lived as the Gentiles lived after the flesh. It suffices us now we are to lay that all aside and to live for him. And Paul puts it a little differently. We're debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die.
But if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body.
Ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. I love that verse because it gives what is characteristic of a son of God. The Son of God was always led by the Spirit of God. He was justified in the Spirit. He was led of the Spirit. It says the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Everything that he did was in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit. If we are sons of God.
We are characterized by being led by the Spirit of God. A Son of God is led by the Spirit of God. That's how you know he's the Son of God. Practically, he is under the control and leading of the Holy Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the spirit of ******* that's being under law again to fear.
Those who are under law, they're constantly in fear that they're going to fail and then lose it all.
Lose it all.
Have you ever noticed that those that don't believe in eternal security, they've lost their salvation and now they're trying again, but they're always afraid they're going to fail and then lose it again and again and again?
There's no peace, there's no real joy in the soul like that can't be real worship. How can you worship God for what he has done and and the place that he has given us before himself, which is unchangeable and unalterable, perfect standing. How can you really pour out your heart and Thanksgiving and praise if you're constantly fearing that you might do something that will lose it all?
That would mean it's all dependent on us, after all, and that's absolutely wrong.
It's dependent entirely upon Him who has saved us, and He will keep us.
You have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but she received the spirit of adoption.
Were now sons whereby we cry ABBA, father, ABBA father. The called it word for father is ABBA I believe and then the Greek word Potter his father. If you translated both words it would say father, father.
I like the thought that ABBA can be pronounced by a child without teeth, but you can't pronounce father without teeth. So I think the ABBA would be the the young ones and the father would be the older ones in the family.
Something like what we say, Daddy, you know, need teeth for that ABBA.
Father.
We've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry ABBA Father. We know we're His, we know we're children, we know we're sons. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. We are the children of God.
We know it.
And we can enjoy it. And let's notice this real carefully. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So we have the witness of the Spirit that He has made us his children. And we know that we cry ABBA Father when the enjoyment of that. Notice how he develops this.
And if children.
Then were heirs were heirs.
What are we heirs of?
Who is our benefactor? God, heirs of God.
Heirs of God.
What has he?
Made his heirs up.
Joint heirs with Christ.
Everything that he has won.
He shares with us. That's the extent of it. That's the measure of it. The one that has made us heirs is God. We're heirs of God. We're children if children were heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. That's the extent of what is ours now that we belong to Him.
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That's the highest height you can get to. And then notice what it says right away, right in the middle of the verse. Joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with Him.
That we may be also glorified together, the faith healers.
Reason. Well, your children, your heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. You should be rich in this world. You should be driving around in Rolls Royces and with ships and castles to live in your kings. They don't read the rest of the verse. If so, be that we suffer with him.
That we may be also glorified together.
Heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, children of God, and yet.
We're called upon as we pass through this hostile environment of this world to suffer with him.
The reigning time has not come. The glory still shines before us. But.
Now is still suffering time.
Today righteousness suffers. In the Millennium righteousness reigns, and in the eternal state righteousness dwells. But we have to wait. The Millennium hasn't come yet, and the eternal state is to follow. Righteousness suffers. He suffered, and we're following a Savior that suffered, that was hated. If the world hates you, he said, ye know that it hated me before it hated.
If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.
This is suffering time, though It's all ours. All things are yours, he says. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours. And you are Christ, and Christ is God.
I love that track that says you probably remember it says the richest man in the valley.
And.
He had a dream and he talked to his master who was the richest man down here and he said, I had a dream last night, master, that the richest man in the valley is going to die tonight. And that filled his, his master with dread and fear until just before midnight the message came that.
The gardener went home to be with the Lord that night. He was the richest man in the valley. You are the richest. We are the richest of all the people of earth.
Because all things are ours.
But it's still suffering time, isn't it? So he puts us through things. We live very easily, very nicely, very.
Which as far as this world goes, he had to say to the Corinthians, now you're rich, now you're full. I would to God that you did reign. You've reigned as kings without us, he said. And we don't know much about real hardship, but God puts us through things so we learn it. That's part of our training. That's part of the necessity through which we have to go. Everything can't run smoothly. We get too far away from him.
When everything runs smoothly, that's the way.
The tendency of our hearts is, isn't it?
So he goes on to say that we may be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time. Now here was a man that suffered. I mean, he suffered in his witness for Christ. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US, not worthy to be compared with the glory.
That shall be revealed in US.
I think that's a good place to pause here. I want to read the end of the chapter, The end of the chapter, he says in verse 35. Who shall separate us?
From the love of Christ.
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Now Paul knew what all that was. He personally went through it.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded.
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Now notice he changes to the singular here, because he personally experienced these things. I am persuaded, he says, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So this wonderful chapter starts out with. There is therefore now no condemnation.
To them which are in Christ Jesus. And it ends with no separation, no separation. Wonderful chapter.
We're not in Romans 7, beloved, we're in Romans 8. And if any of you are still in Romans 7.
Get out of seven into 8 and you'll have the fullness of joy and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:1
Light And Darkness
2 Timothy 2
The Third Day
God's Pleasure is Our Blessing
God in Judgment
Address—C. Hendricks
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Turn with me, please, to Daniel 7, verse 9. Daniel 7.
I was thinking of.
Continuing just with a few thoughts from what our brother Clem had brought before us.
Verse 9 of Daniel seven I beheld till the Thrones were cast down.
Or another translation set up.
And the Ancient of Days did sit.
Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.
His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.
1000 thousands ministered unto him.
And 10,000 * 10,000 stood before him.
The judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horns spake.
I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven.
And came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom.
That all people, nations and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Well, we the ancient of days that sits on this throne we would consider to be God the Father and then the Son of man comes in the night visions and to to him is given that was given him dominion and glory.
Hebrews 2 Says not to angels hath he put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak.
But one in a certain place testify as saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of man, that thou visitest him, Thou hast put all things under his feet.
Well.
That day is soon coming, when this one who was so despised and cast out, will come, and the Kingdom will be given to him.
Notice in verse nine I beheld till the Thrones were were set up. Now turn to Revelation chapter 4.
In Revelation chapter 4 verse one, after this I looked and behold, the door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up, hit her, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter or after these things.
What's after? What things? The Church period, Chapters 2 and 3.
And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. Now that's that same one that in Daniel 7 is called the Ancient of Days. I didn't read it. I meant to read it but a little farther down in Daniel 7 it speaks of, but no one is seen sitting on those Thrones in Daniel.
But now we find that these Thrones are occupied.
Round about the throne were 4 and 20 Thrones. Seats are Thrones, and upon the seats I saw 4 and 20 elders sitting.
Clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
Now who are these?
I believe these 24 elders 24 refers to the 24 orders of the priesthood that David set up and I believe it it refers to the the Old Testament and the New Testament Saints which will be raptured to heaven after the church period.
Is completed. Oh, I realized that after the true church is raptured to heaven, the false church will continue on.
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Probably to the middle of the week, because in the middle of the week there's this beast that rises out of the sea, Revelation 13. In order to appreciate what I'm saying this afternoon, you have to know a little bit about the Book of Revelation. Try to put it as simply as possible. There's a beast that comes out of the sea in Revelation 13, and that's the Roman Empire revived, or the head of that empire.
That's that little horn of Daniel Seven that we read of.
And then a little farther down in Revelation 13, there's another beast that comes out of the earth.
And it has two horns like a lamb, but it speaks like a dragon. Now that's the Antichrist, or called elsewhere, the false prophet. That's the religious leader. But the one that comes out of the sea is the political leader that will lead the Roman Empire in its revived condition. Now these 24 elders are seen sitting.
On Thrones.
Clothed in white raiment, they're not angels, they're Saints. And I believe this indicates from this point on.
They're referred to many times in the Book of Revelation. Either all of them or one of them from that company is referred to, I think, 12 Times.
In the Book of Revelation.
And.
It goes right on to the 19th chapter. And then when the marriage supper of the Lamb has come, since the 24 elders refers to not only the New Testament Saints, which are the Church Saints, but also the Old Testament Saints to make up the complete company of the priesthood. But when the bride is separated out and the marriage supper of the Lamb comes, then the 24 elders cease.
They're not spoken of again as a figure, because when the when the marriage of the land lamb comes, that's the Church united to the heavenly Bridegroom, and then there will be the friends of the bridegroom, the other heavenly Saints.
We took up.
In Dorothy Revelation Four and Five, we had five readings.
And brother suggested Chapter 5 and I said, well, if we take up five, we've got to take up Chapter 4 because it goes with five. So we had two readings on Chapter 4 and three on Chapter 5. Most profitable. Pretty heavy stuff, though. I don't know how much the young got it, but what I enjoyed so much, and I want to pass this on at that conference.
To We're talking together, and one young man was reading.
The Book of Revelation and the other said what are you reading? I'm reading the Book of Revelation.
Would you understand it? Well, not all of it, certainly. Well, what do you get out of it?
What I get out of it is Jesus wins.
In that precious and Satan loses as we look around us today.
It seems like Satan's got the upper hand, doesn't it? Seems like everything is going his way.
All the difficulties and the troubles and the problems among the Saints of God, it's not just among our company, but everywhere you talk to Christians, there's the conflict between those that are trying to to hold and maintain a line of truth and then those that just want to overthrow everything.
It's not just amongst us that this has happened. What many others going through the same kind of conflict. Satan is attacking fiercely all truth, whatever measure of truth anyone holds attacking it.
And.
The Lord would have us to hold fast what we have.
So in Daniel those Thrones were not occupied, but here they're occupied because the first resurrection has taken place and that heavenly company represented by the 24 elders consisting of Old and New Testament Saints are seen Until in the Book of Revelation at chapter 19, I think it is when the marriage supper of the Lamb comes, then the bride, the church is taken out of the 24 and the the figure of the 24.
Elders ceases.
Now in this chapter 4 of Revelation, we have.
He is our Creator.
He is our Creator. Let me just quickly read through it. Verse 4 again, round about the throne where 4 and 20 seats or Thrones, and upon the seats I saw 4 and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment. They had on their heads crowns of gold. White raiment is the righteousness of the Saints, we're told in this very book, and that applies to redeemed.
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Souls.
Now, this is not a throne of grace that we approach to in this day of grace. We approach a throne of grace. This is a throne of judgment. There's five. Out of the throne proceed lightnings and thunderings and voices out of the Thrones, the throne, throne of judgment. And these judgments are preparatory to the establishment of the true king in this world. It's about to happen.
And he will reign.
He has been so rejected. As we were reading this morning, they spit upon him. They showed their utter contempt for the the Lord of glory.
He's going to reign and every knee will bow to him. Seeing 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, seeing it as a righteous thing with God through recompense, tribulation to them that trouble you.
And to you who are troubled now, many Saints being persecuted today, Rest with us when?
He shall come.
In with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance, and then that no not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That day is coming.
And we'll come with it.
To be admired in all his Saints that come with him. We'll be in glorified bodies then, and come with him.
Well, that day is coming, beloved, if he came today.
Came today.
Seven years would pass and we would return with him approximately 7 years, and we would return with him when he would set up his Kingdom to reign. That's how near we are to the establishment of his rights in this world.
Well, let's read on a bit Out of the throne, perceived lightnings and thunderings and voices.
Just pause here in the 8th chapter. Notice how the judgment, the the character of the judgment intensifies as you go forward in the Book of Revelation in the 8th chapter.
Umm verse 5 The Angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar and cast it into the earth, and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake.
More is said than was said in Chapter 4.
And then in Chapter 11.
Verse 19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there were seen in his temple the ark of the testament, and there were lightnings and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and then is added, and great hail.
Great hail and the last mention of these judgments that will pro ceed from the throne.
Is in chapter 16.
Chapter 16 In verse 18 And there were voices, and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earthquake so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into 3 parts, And the cities of the nations fell in great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the of the wine of.
Fierceness of his wrath.
And every island fled away and the mountains were not found. Another catastrophe is not added to the to the group, but it's intensified here. And then it says.
Verse 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven.
Every stone about the weight of a talent over 100 lbs I believe.
And men blasphemy God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great. So you can see this is a book of judgment.
It starts out fairly mildly, but it proceeds from the throne. It's a throne of judgment, not a throne of grace.
Now let's read on in Chapter 4.
Verse 6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal, and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts. 4 living creatures that should read full of eyes before and behind. I think these living creatures had the attributes of the cherubim and also of the seraphim of Isaiah 6.
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And they represent, I believe, the attributes of God in in his judging evil.
Says the first living creature was like a lion.
And the second.
Like a calf.
And the third at the face of the man, the lion speaks of strength and.
Fierceness in the calf, the steadiness of the judgment that is going to emanate, and it will be according to the intelligence that the man speaks of. And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. I remember 1 remarking when I was at work in a in a very.
Disdaining way he's slower than the wrath of God.
That was a comment.
When this starts to happen, he's going to make short work of this world and he'll find out. A man like that will find out that when God starts to judge, he will make short work of things.
We've been threatening in gospel preaching and that that the wrath of God is going to fall, Hasn't fallen, hasn't fallen.
When Noah builded the ark.
The rain didn't come for a long time, but when it did come.
It was all consuming.
This world is right for judgment.
Swift as an eagle when it does finally come. And verse 8, the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him. That's seraphic. Like I say, A6.
And they were full of eyes within, and they had rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come.
And when those living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who liveth forever and ever, the four and 20 elders fell down before him that sat on the throne and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever. That will be us all, the redeemed up to this point in time that have been resurrected. The first resurrection will be there in heaven and worship Him that liveth forever and ever. Cast our crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive.
And honor and power, for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure new translation says, for thy will.
They are and were created. I want to just dwell on that. This creation exists as a product of the will of God.
He willed it into existence. He said let there be, and there was. He spake and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. The infinitely great and mighty God that we know, He willed this universe.
Into existence.
They were created.
They are and were created for thy will, thy pleasure, but thy will. The will is a sovereign act of God.
From his own will, he brought into existence this creation.
And they all worship him as creator now in the 5th chapter. We know it quite well. I don't want to spend much time on the living room.
For others we have Let's read it quickly. I saw on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside sealed with 7 seals. Now the one that's occupying the throne is God the Father.
And I saw the strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who was worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof. And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold a lion of the tribe of Judah.
The root of David hath prevailed to open the book.
And the loose the seven seals thereof.
And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne, and in the and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, 24 elders, that is, to the Lamb, as it had been slain, having 7 horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Notice in the 4th chapter it says.
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In verse 5, out of the throne preceded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were 7 lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God? And here the Lamb having 7 horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth unto all the earth. What does this represent?
The seven spirits of God, of course, represent the Holy Spirit, but in in the in the character that you don't have in the epistles. He's not here represented as representing it as one that that has formed the assembly by his baptism or Indo valley indwells individual Christians, but he emanates from the throne and from the Lamb who is about to establish his rights in this world. And these seven spirits of God represent the.
Of the power of the Holy Spirit acting in that day towards the establishment of the Kingdom, when Christ will reign here.
That's a wonderful day that's coming. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne.
It says in the first verse this book was written within and on the backside, sealed with 7 seals there. Usually a scroll is written on one side and you unroll it and you read it, but this was written within and on the backside in other words.
It contains.
The final judgments that have to fall in this world in order that the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ be established here in the power of the sevenfold spirits.
Power of God.
There's no room on that scroll to add anything else. This is the final act of judgment. This is the final book of prophecy that we have and we have the fullness, the full power of it. And when this, this scroll is on, on the rolled, it contains on the inside and on the outside all the judgments that will follow the seal judgments.
The trumpet judgments and the bowl or the vile judgments?
And then he will come on that White Horse and establish his rights in this world.
Here we have the Lord Jesus represented first as a lion, the tribe of Judah in power and glory, and then it's a lamb as a lamb.
It's not the normal word for lamb.
It's it's a little lamb. It's the diminutive word I understand.
And I believe it represents the Lord Jesus in the character in which he was rejected.
By man.
We had read to us this morning at the breaking of bread, the 69th Psalm and the 22nd Psalm. They're very different in character. In the 69th Psalm, if you read far enough into the Psalm, you find the call for judgment upon those that that maltreated the Lord Jesus. But in the 22nd time, that's his martyr sufferings and that results in judgment on man. That's what you have in the Book of Revelation.
You have judgment on those that crucified Him.
Those that have rejected Him. But in the 22nd Psalm, you have nothing but blessing following His sufferings, because those are His atoning sufferings that are before us. The effect of His atoning sufferings is blessing to us. That's what's the foundation of our salvation, this atoning sufferings. But His martyr sufferings, the effect of that is judgment.
And God has not yet judged this world for what it did to His Son.
Does that mean he's indifferent to it? Not a bit of it. It's going to be judged. And you get that in the final Book of Revelation.
What a day.
Well, let's read on a bit. Verse 7. He came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures in the four and 20 hours fell down before the land, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of Saints. Now these prayers of Saints are the prayers of Saints that are on the earth. These 24 hours are in heaven, churches in heaven here.
The resurrection has taken place.
The church period has ended and the believers are in heaven under the figure of the 24 elders.
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And.
There are Saints still on earth, Jewish Saints and Gentiles, great company of Gentiles. They're spoken of in the 7th chapter. Out of every nation, God going to have his people here. Earthly Saints, their prayers are going up to heaven.
And these 24 elders, it says.
Having everyone of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of Saints, by the way, the harps that are mentioned here, that's symbolical. Much in Revelation is symbolical. We're not going to have literal harps in heaven, I don't believe, but it speaks of the joy that will characterize that place. Golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of Saints. That's the prayers of the earthly Saints that are going up to God. How long, O Lord, you get it all through the Psalms. The, the.
It'll go through the Tribulation period. They're crying to God for deliverance, and here these heavenly Saints present them to God.
And they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy. That's the 24 elders. Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and hast redeemed. I'm going to change the wording here as it is in the new translation and has to be deemed to God.
By thy blood out of every kindred and tongue, and people and nation, and has made them not us. They're not singing about themselves that they're singing about those that are on the earth. Made them unto our God, kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth.
So they're going to have a part in the earthly reign of the Lord Jesus and they're praying about that. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts of the, the living creatures and the elders and the number of them. That's the angels. It was 10,000 * 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy of the land that was slain to receive power.
And riches and wisdom and strength and honor, and glory and blessing.
Those seven things all refer to the Kingdom reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will have power.
He will have riches, He will have wisdom, He will have strength, He will have glory and honor and dispense blessing in that coming day.
Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, the under him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.
For a living creature, said Amen.
4 and 20 elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever. Now we come to the 6th chapter, 6th chapter of the vials. Excuse me, the seals and the seals that sealed this, this book that contains the final judgments towards the establishment of the Lord's reign here on earth.
I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals.
And so on. Now I want to read the 5th seal. Verse 9. Verse 9.
When he had opened the 5th seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.
For the Word of God and for the testimony which they held. Now just hold your place here and go over to Revelation 20.
Brother Clem brought before us.
In verse 4.
Says I saw Thrones now that's the 24 elders. They sat on the Thrones. And that's the resurrected Saints of the Old and New Testament. They sat upon them.
Judgment was given to them.
And then there's another group. I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God.
Now hold your place here and turn back to this fifth seal, verse 9, Chapter 6.
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. That's that first group. Those are the martyrs.
Of the 1St 3 1/2 years.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?
Of them that dwell on the earth. And white robes were given unto everyone of them. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. That's the fifth seal, and it talks about those that were martyred. And that's this second group in Revelation 20 and four. And then there's a third group. You don't see it.
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Punctuated correctly, but it should read.
I saw Thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls of those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God. We just read about them in Revelation 6. Now it should read. And I saw them which had not worshipped the beast.
Neither his image, neither had received His mark upon their foreheads and in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ 1000 years. They lived and reigned with Christ 1000 years as resurrection. They lived. The first group are already in resurrection bodies, the 24 elders. But now you have the martyrs of the 1St 3 1/2 years. They will be resurrected at the end of the tribulation period before the Kingdom is set up. And then those that wouldn't worship the beast.
We read of them. Look at Revelation 13.
Revelation Chapter 13. Keep your place here in chapter 20.
Verse 15.
This false prophet, this beast out of the earth, it says he had power to give life or it should read breath. Only God can give life, Satan cannot. He can give what looks like life, but he can't give life. So that ought to read. He had power to give breath under the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
That's this third group in Revelation 20, verse 4.
Let's turn to it again and he says.
Those which had not worshipped the beast neither his image.
Neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands.
And they lived and reigned with Christ 1000 years. I just want to call your attention before I sit down to the 15th chapter.
Verse 2 it says I saw as it were, a sea of glass. That's a fixed state of holiness.
Mingled with fire, and then that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his names. Stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses, and so on. It speaks of these that were martyred by the beast because they would not receive the mark of the beast.
I saw recently a demonstration of what has been developed in our century. They took an animal dog, they ran this detector over the dog, nothing happened. And then they took this injector, put it under the skin, shot it into the animal, didn't hurt the animal a bit. It's right below the skin and.
They sweat that detector over the animal and a number appears.
That is, that animal was numbered, and every animal can be numbered. They can do it right now, they can do it with humans, and they will. Everyone will have to have a mark.
And you won't be able to buy or sell without that mark. But here are those that were martyred because they refused that they were the Lords and they were martyred. They were put to death. But it says in the 15th chapter, very precious, they got the victory over the beast.
Well, I thought they were put to death. They were, but they got the victory because they wouldn't submit to the mark of the beast, which meant eternal damnation and all those that have the mark of the beast will go to hell. These are those that got the victory over the beast by refusing submission to the beast. Even though the beast had the power to put them to death, they were the victors.
Doesn't look that way to the eyes of those onlookers on earth because they were put to death. But God sees it differently.
And so when we're called upon to compromise.
Even if you have to give your life, stand for the truth. You will be the victor.
You'll be the victor. It will be so in that day and it will be so today. There are many, many, many Christians today in other lands that are being persecuted, tormented, put to death, tortured. We don't know much about it in Muslim lands and communist lands.
Those that are doing that to them.
Will receive their judgment, seeing it as a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, he said to the Thessalonian Saints. And that's true today.
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So we have to be patient and be true to him regardless of what the cost is.
And we will be the victors. Well, I don't want to take any more time, but I wanted to connect those three classes. In Revelation 20, it says they lived. The second and third class were martyrs. They were dead and they lived. They were resurrected and they joined the first class of resurrected Saints. So then you have 3 heavenly Saints. So you have heavenly companies, the Church in the Old Testament Saints, the martyrs of the 1St 3 1/2 years, the martyrs under.
Of the last 3 1/2 years they lived and they'll all reign with Christ and have part in the heavenly side of the Kingdom that's coming when the Lord comes to take us home. There's so much more but I've said enough and trust the Lord will use this for our strengthening and and encouragement.
That we might too get the victory over every.
Tendency that is given to us to compromise. Compromise the truth. And I may not be martyred, but we may lose our job. We're not faithful. We may.
Be punished or suffer in in various ways, but if if you're true to the Lord, you'll be the one that has gotten the victory.
Y.P. Sing