Lesson 29b

We are in lesson 29, question number 6. And by the way... If you think you can pinch me, because I don't have green on, I'm exempt. You don't look exempt. You're exempt too. No, we're not exempt. We are obligated. Is that an accounting procedure? You can call it what you want, I'm exempt.

My kids have called me a leprechaun since I was a kid. Since they were little kids. So I'm exempt. Leprechauns actually don't wear green. What do they wear? This. I know I own a pot of gold, but that's not really it. It's in heaven. It's in heaven, you're right. Let's look at number 6.

Explain what condemned sin in the flesh means. Before we answer that, let's read chapter 8 verses 3-5 and we'll come back to this question. So I'll read along, you can follow along if you have it open. Paul says, For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So we start out in verse 3, Paul says, he uses this term, condemned sin in the flesh.

What does this mean? What does condemned mean? Condemned. What does it mean? You know, it's a big word, I was thinking, I haven't heard that word used very often outside of the scripture, but then I read a a news article talking about a certain group being condemned for their actions, and I was like, huh, what does that mean?

Isn't it a reckoning? Right, yeah. That we've been judged. Okay, I think you're right on. We talk about the characteristics of God, right? Sovereignty, righteous, just, loving, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, immutable, eternal. What characteristic of God produces condemnation? Wrath.

Okay. It's along the same lines. Righteousness. I think you're right. What is righteousness? Justice. And that's a parallel to his righteousness, right? So what does righteous mean? Doing the right. Doing the right thing. And because he is completely right, when he judges, he is just in how he judges. Do we agree with that? You can't buy him off. You can't sweep something under the rug with the Lord. He is righteous. And so when God renders a verdict of guilt Is it right? Yes. Okay. And what is the object of this judgment? What's the, where's the decision here? What does he condemn? What I was thinking was, God, Jesus, God made the deal to take away every sin in the paper, every sin we've ever done.

Okay. But our sin nature, because it can't be fixed. It's still bad. It still lives in us. And so I'm thinking that fits in somewhere. Nature being. I don't know. I think some of us feel like we could probably fix it up a little bit. We always do, don't we? You know, even if we believe. Because there's that pendulum that sways. Sure. Our attitudes.

Sinning his own sin, a son rather, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. So he renders a verdict of guilt. He makes a decision about the sin nature, doesn't he? And what does he say? guilty, absolutely 100% guilty. God's purpose as revealed in this passage was to get at sin as connected with human flesh and deal with it at the cross in the way of righteous condemnation so that sin would no longer have rights in the human body, in our human bodies. Have you ever thought about the fact that God has condemned the flesh, the sin nature, it has no rights over you any longer.

It's been condemned. It's been at the judgment seat and it's been condemned. I think God's reckoning of our death unto sin in Christ. Say it one more time. God's reckoning first and he reckons us dead unto sin in Christ. And where does that happen? On the cross. Yeah. in God in the heavenlies. No? You're right. On the cross. Yeah. Absolutely.

God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Literally, of the flesh of sin is what we read there. So the words, the choices that Paul made in these words is interesting. He didn't simply say he came in flesh. So we see rather in a likeness of here, of the flesh, in the flesh, but not in flesh. So somebody look up Philippians 2, 7 for me. How fast can you do it? I want to know if somebody with their hard copy can beat the electronic copy.

It's not happening. We've got some stragglers. "...but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." The written word is faster. I think so. Could you read it one more time? But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Okay. Other translations say emptied himself. Yeah. Mike, did you have that? You're going to include that? Yeah.

So Christ came in the flesh, but his flesh wasn't connected to sin like ours. There's a difference here. And Paul is making that clear, that his flesh was real. It wasn't a ghost. A lot of times people talk about this union of Christ being fully God and fully man. Well, he just appeared like a man. No, he had real flesh. The difference was, it was not connected to sin like ours.

Why? I got a thought. Christ's glorious flesh, if you've ever beheld Him, in His position in the heavens, He is glorious. Absolutely. When He took on flesh, did He set aside His glory? Oh yeah. Did He set aside His glory? Yes. What did he take on? Well, it was hidden.

To answer your first question, the reason that he didn't have sin was because his father was not Adam. So we go back to the virgin birth. What is the reason for the virgin birth? We think about it, Christmas time or whatever, but what's the point of God being born of a virgin? It said he wasn't begotten by a man.

Why does that matter? Well, it matters to God. It does matter to God, but why does it matter to God? I like the background music. That was a good answer. We have a problem. We are going to the Apple store this week. Our phones ring whether they're on airplane mode or They're possessed. We're going to talk about that later. I just thought God was calling Ralph and like, hey, I want to let you know about this virgin birthday.

There's a principle in Genesis called life begets life. So physically it's true of animals and all the creatures that God created that they reproduce after their own kind. It's also true in the spiritual world that Adam could only produce what he was. And what was he? I'm sorry? What was he? He was a sinful man. And so he had a sin nature because of his disobedience to God. And so any offspring that he produced was going to be like him.

And so therefore, if you fast forward, Christ could not, if he was going to be the perfect sacrifice, Christ could not come from the line of Adam because he would have had sin nature. Do you agree with that? It's very important. I think Paul is communicating the fact that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin. If he had come with sinful flesh, he could not be that offering, right? There's none like Him. There will be none like Him. He is the only perfect substitute.

And through that offering, He condemned sin in the flesh. What does that mean to you? I just looked this up and condemned up in dictionary.com and number 7 under that says to declare incurable. So our sin nature is incurable for us. It cannot be cured only by a perfect human sacrifice. So are we walking around with a sin nature that can't be cured? Is that our state? Yeah. Okay. What else is true about that? States don't change. What's that? That's our condition. Okay. It's not a state. States are permanent about us forever. Did you get a phone call too? No, no phone call. She's got it on vibrate. I used to teach school though.

So you're just really specific about the words that are being used in the question. You caught on to that? What's that state? Cannot be changed. We're going to talk about our state. So you're right. We're not simply walking around with an incurable sin nature. That is our condition. That is not our position. That's not our state. That's not our position.

But there's something else about it. We're not just carrying around this incurable sin nature. There's also something that has happened to that sin nature. It's been condemned. And what that means to you is that that sin nature has no rights over you, in your condition. or your position. It has no rights.

We've used the term, Miles often referred to it as the deposed monarch, right? And I love that, it's not something that we necessarily relate to today, but it's that, you know, that analogy of you having served in the military for years and years and years, and you're finally retired, and you walk into the grocery store, and here you see the captain.

And he says, what are you doing, son? Get on the ground and give me 20, right now. And you think, oh yeah, absolutely. And you get down and you start doing push-ups. And right in the middle, you realize, hey, I'm not serving anymore. I don't have to do this. You're not a soldier. I'm not a soldier in the same way. No, not at all. But here I am serving the one because I've listened to you as an unbeliever.

Even through the condemnation of the sin nature, it is completely and 100% in control over you. We see this in verse 5. Your mind is 100% controlled by the sin nature. It has been obeying, and we know this because we've been there. Obey, obey, obey. Do whatever it says. It's all we've got the rights to do. That's all we can do. It's our nature. What I meant was, you're not in the military anymore, but you're a soldier. Well, the analogy breaks down just like most of them do. I like the word authority. Sin nature has no authority over me. It cannot tell me what to do. I can obey if I want, but I don't have to obey. It has no authority. What is that? When you start doing that, what's that? That's that spiritual insanity, right? So here we're sitting here with the sin nature. We're bond slaves of righteousness.

We've talked about this in Romans. Romans has established this entire position that we are now through the grace-given free gift of Christ's gift on the cross. We operate by faith in that way and we are sealed, bound to Christ. Life is now reigning through grace. We're swallowed up in His will.

We have a new nature. But yet we have this sin nature that's tied to what? That's what we're talking about. This old flesh has still got the sin nature attached to it and it barks at us constantly. And in our condition, we sometimes skid down and start giving them 20. Right? And we call that spiritual insanity. Yeah. Yes, sir? That's probably why he said that he condemned sin in the flesh. Because that's where it is. Let's add that. This whole thing. Condemned. Judged. It's been judged.

In 1 John 4, 2, By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. 1 Timothy 3.16 says, By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory.

The new creation. You know, some of the, I was thinking about this earlier, Christ, it goes back to a co-worker of Nick's who was a believer. not deity. He gave up his deity. And going back to Colossians 1, 19, for it was a father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. And then also in 2.9, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So there Clearly he was fully God and fully man. He did not give up his deity. So what do you mean by deity? God's attributes. Who God is.

You guys want to hear a little trick? Sergei Lui. Have you heard me tell this one before? This is how I remember those attributes. Sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutable, eternal. Sergei Lui. Don't forget it. I'll catch you next week. Sergei Lui. Lui.

Speaking reverently, the spirit has no commission in this dispensation to go beyond, but in the likeness of the flesh of sin, really human, conformed in appearance to the flesh, whose characteristic is sin, yet sinless. So in the likeness of the flesh of sin. Flesh whose characteristic, it's a hard word to say, is sin, yet sinless. Christ appeared in a body which was like that of other men insofar as it consisted of flesh, and was unlike insofar as the flesh was not flesh of sin. I think that's important. Why is the flesh necessary? So he could die. So he could die what? A human death. Right? Yeah. He needed blood. We needed a sufficient substitute.

Would a different type of animal flesh work? In the Old Testament, there's this idea of a kinsman redeemer. The kinsman had to be one of your family to redeem you. So for the Lord Jesus to redeem humanity, he had to be one of us. Absolutely. Does that mean that one of us could do it? No, we were stuck with that sin, I think. This is the difference. We have that sin nature, right? Our flesh is connected to the sin nature. Christ's flesh was not. Number seven. What is it that gives the risen Christ the glorious right to live in these bodies of ours while they are on earth?

Romans 8.3. God tells us that sin is connected with flesh, And it has been condemned, dealt with, although it has not yet been removed. Somebody look up 2 Corinthians 5, 3-4. 2 Corinthians 5, 3-4. And read it. All of that. Oh yeah, read it. 2 Corinthians 5, 3-4.

As much as we have put it on As much as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed, while we were in this tent, we groaned in burden, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

So what did we put on? What's Paul talking about here? Christ. What did we put on? And so much as we have put it on, and it goes on to say we will not be found naked, for indeed we are in this tent. So what tent did we put on? Our flesh. And the idea of being found naked is spirits literally without a body. And that's not the case. For indeed while we were in this tent, we groaned. Why did we groan? Even though this has been condemned, it's still barking at us. And that, Paul says, is a situation where we groan. It causes us to groan. Why? Because this continues to bark at us.

Being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed. And what do we want to be clothed with? Righteousness. Okay, go further. Is our spirit, even when we're separated from this flesh, is it going to just float around? It's meant to be clothed. What is it meant to be clothed in? A body. And what body is that? The resurrected body. Glorified bodies.

And when does that happen? Christ's return, right? And it goes on to say, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. And when is that life? When? When? When does that start? It's eternal, isn't it? It starts with either physical death or rapture. Does it? A new body? Yeah. What mortal will be swallowed up by life? We talk about condition and position, right? So when does that eternal life start? When your condition lines up with our position. Oh! At salvation? Before time began? Maybe?

I think it starts at salvation. You now are an eternal being. You were an eternal being before, I understand the eternal person, but you are now placed in Christ, in the heavenlies. Your eternal state as being placed in Christ, in the heavenlies, began the moment. You believed. So one would be conditional. And what's the positional side? So that's the positional side of it. What's the conditional side of it?

In Christ. It's physical death, right? And getting that glorified body. This thing is not made for eternity. Right? Which is not going to work. We've got to get things fixed all the time. But apart from sin it is. No, it's not. No, the flesh is condemned. Oh, yeah. Ego. Ego. We're all going to have to deal with that, right?

I think that's an important point right there, that the resurrected body is not just a body that the sin has been eliminated out of, and what you're left with is a non-sinful fleshly body. It's brand new. Brand new. And what's it designed for? It's designed for eternity.

And will that take place at the rapture? The foundation, and this has to do with that, but the foundation both for the resurrection of the saints when Christ comes and for the changing of living believers lies here in Romans 8.3. Sin has been condemned as connected with human flesh. And this gives God, and speaking reverently, the righteous right to transform and catch up into glory the bodies of his saints. Does King James flip that around? Maybe. We don't talk about King James in this church. Who's got the King James Bible? I'm just kidding. You're Holman, aren't you? Jim? That's important to Mike, I think. Oh, Mike. New King James? Oh, it's better. It's a little better. I have one at home. You better burn it. But it has all these wonderful notes in it. I'm just kidding.

King James is fine, whatever. So this passage also gives the risen Christ the glorious right to live in these bodies of ours while they are on earth, and to walk in us therefore daily, and this is key, in resurrection victory. So this is a life of resurrection victory, even though this guy barks at us constantly. It's been condemned, it's been judged, and to your point, it has zero authority.

And that is victory. That is walking in resurrection victory. Right? You think about that today? Did you wake up in resurrection victory? Hey! We did whether we believe it or not. That's a good point. I saw you cruising in on your bike. You looked like you were living in some resurrection dream. Yeah, I'm... Floating in the heavenly moon. Alright, alright. The only condition of such victorious life is that we ourselves walk by what? The indwelling mood. By faith in the Spirit living through us. That's exactly right. You studied.

Again, speaking reverently, the Spirit has no commission in this dispensation to go beyond the work done by our Lord on the cross. But that work on the cross was perfect and far-reaching indeed. Not only did Christ there put away our guilt before God by His blood, but there our old man was crucified with Him. Sin was condemned as having any connection with human flesh.

I'm going to try to draw some stuff here. I don't know if it's heresy or not yet. We'll see. We'll tell you. Question number eight. Romans 8.4. I'll just read the verse. So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So question eight says, what are the three statements in verse four about righteousness and the believer?

What is our state? Is that our condition? The requirement of the law is to show us? Yeah. Righteousness. Yeah. Who does the fulfilling here? It says that the law might be fulfilled in us. Who does the fulfilling? Well, Christ fulfilled the law. He sacrificed himself on the cross. He did. But what does that have to do with us? It says it's fulfilled in us. We fulfill the law. Did you fulfill the law today? Through Him. Isn't that the grace? Maybe. The life. You tell me. We died with him. Died with him? How is the, what, how does, the law might be fulfilled in us? Who does the fulfilling? You? It's in you, but who does it? The Holy Spirit. Okay. Questions 220, I think. Is that the spirit of life in Christ?

So what's interesting is the Greek actually helps out a little bit here. So being fulfilled in us is actually a passive voice. It's not us doing the job. So the Lord does that through the Spirit. Did somebody have a question? I just see somebody yawning. If you go back to the beginning of this sentence in verse 3, for what the law cannot do, God did. We have no more power than the Old Testament saints had in terms of fulfilling the law. But yet it's fulfilled in us. God does that.

And he fulfills it by not only living the perfect life. Christ's life is just as important as his death. Because it made that death sufficient. He had to have that perfect righteousness throughout his entire life in order to be a sufficient substitute on that cross for us. And he was. And why was he? Because of his deity. But he's also sufficient because of his humanity. The flesh without sin in his case.

And so the Old Testament saints were looking forward to Christ fulfilling the law in them. We look back historically on the fact that Christ died, and because of our co-crucifixion with Him, and because of the fact that He says He fulfills it in us, we can recognize that as a truth. And the third thing is that as we consent to reject the flesh and choose to walk according to Spirit, we see in the Spirit lies all the power. With us, the responsibility of choice is really a blessed thing. We have that choice. When you speak of law, it's not as a commandment, but as a principle? No, this is law. Yeah, this is the law. Oh, the law, so it's... Why do I say two S's? I'm a horrible speller. Just know that. Yes. was that, if you obey me, I will bless you. If you don't, I will condemn you. So, every human being from Adam forward didn't obey.

And so they've been condemned, just like the sins have been condemned. The execution took place at the cross and the execution was on us also. The law is fulfilled in me by the fact that it found me guilty and it crucified me. That's how it got fulfilled.

When a man is dead, the law has no more meaning over him anymore because he's dead. Separated. Separated. But as long as I'm alive in the sinful flesh, I'm a condemned man, and in order to satisfy that condemnation, I must die. And I died with Christ on the cross, and I think that's how the fulfillment was done. I agree. Totally. Anybody have a problem with that? You do? She should point it to you. No I don't. I have more problems than I think of my daughter. Alright. What's the problem here? Is there a problem yet?

Unbeliever's state. Unrighteous. Is in the flesh. and is controlled by sin. Believer's state, righteous in the flesh, controlled by sin? Not controlled by sin. Not controlled by sin, okay. So where does the condemnation occur? We just read it. In the middle, at the cross. Okay, we'll put that there. Here's a question I have for myself.

Is sin condemned for the unbeliever? No. Why? So this is interesting. The unbeliever's sin has been paid for. So we'll write that over here. What does that mean? It means the penalty for everything that he did, sinful, has been paid for from God's side because God has to be satisfied about the insult of sin. But the cause or the source of that sin has been condemned, not paid for. So his sin nature is condemned. The problem is that he's still tied to it.

That's where I'm at. It's paid for. It's been judged. It's been declared for what it is. The problem is, he is not separated from it. Because there's no death, and death means separation. So it's paid for. It is condemned. It's been judged. The problem is he's still connected to it. There's no severance here. So here you have no spirit. That's a key factor, not just the fact that, yeah.

Oh, sorry, in the middle of your sentence. I had a verse, John 3, 18, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. So in the middle of there would be salvation? No, I mean between the believer state and the unbeliever state.

You're talking about two things here. One is that the penalty for the sins of the believer have been paid for just like the penalty for the sins of the non-believer have been paid for because the sin issue was between God and God. The difference is that the person... Explain God and God real quick, because you mentioned this last week and I just want to make sure you're clear on that again. The situation between God and God has been settled. Yeah, the situation between God and His Son about sin has been taken care of. For this guy. For everybody.

Because the offense of sin was against God only. He was the one who was offended and He has fixing that offense through Christ because he was the only one worthy it was the insult against his holy righteousness that sin created and so God can't let that go because he's holy and righteous and so he resolves that situation through Christ by becoming a man and dying he pays all of the penalties for all the sins from his perspective it's all done But we still have the issue of the source of the sin, which is the sin nature.

So he condemns the sin nature, which we've just been talking about. The problem comes when, am I connected to the sin nature or not? And my identification with Christ on the cross separates me from the condemned sin nature. So that when I leave the planet, the sin nature doesn't I don't go where the sin nature goes, like I said last week, it goes to Arvada. But the non-believer, when he dies physically, he's still connected to that sin nature and so condemnation is where he's headed.

So he goes to Las Vegas. I thought Washington, D.C. I joke about this. I'm just right up here for reference, but it's like me giving. It's like I'm giving a million dollar check and you never cash it. Do you have a million dollars? No, you don't. You didn't cash it. So we'll just say no. It's only when he comes out of the bank It shows you the cash. It gets deposited in your account.

And that's what happens here. And what do we get as a deposit? The Spirit of God. And guess what? Now, what do we do with this guy? Because it's still here. As sure as you are sitting in that seat. What do we do there? He's not going to stop. But we believe in the authority of Christ. That's right.

So I say the word reject. What is reject? How do we reject the flesh? What are the mechanics of that? Faith. That's it. By faith. So if we're rejecting by faith the flesh, is that it? How do we get moving? I've got to shackle you to the pew. Anybody available for Sunday school service? Because we need some help. You can get a little spiritual notch in your belt if you help me out. So now we get to reject by faith the flesh and by faith we get to do what? Yield to God. I like it. Yield is a good word. Believe God about the creation.

We get to walk. And walk. Now we get to walk. Who's doing the walking? You're doing the talking, but who's doing the walking? We get to sit, walk, and stand. All that stuff. Who did that book? I don't know. Oh, Watchman Nee. That's a really good book. So the verse says that we walk by the Spirit. So we are functioning. We're functioning. But who's doing the walking? The Spirit.

And that's why I've already said a long time ago, I've never forgot it, don't just do it. It's not your job. Your job is to, by faith, reject this guy barking constantly. It has no authority. It's been condemned. It's been judged. We yield or we rest and walk in the Spirit. I was talking to a buddy last night, or yesterday, about this concept of rest, and it was just so new to him. Like, he'd never thought of believers resting. We're supposed to be busy, right? We're supposed to... No. The Spirit does... It's your unsigned out front.

Focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word. And what does He do as a result of that focus? Causing a rest. conforms us, transforms us. All the things that God is doing in the life of the believer happens when we focus on the Lord Jesus through his word. Because we have been separated from the sin nature while it's present in terms of its voice, it has no authority whatsoever.

Go ahead. One of Miles Stanford's great sayings was that everything in Christian life happens from a position of rest. Everything. Everything that Are we always resting? No. What if things happen to us when we're not resting? We're being child trained. I might go, maybe go so far as to say every, every aspect of our Christian growth happens in rest. You know what I mean? And that's where we grow. Resting? We grow? Does it seem so counterintuitive? Well the point is we're not doing it. Oh, I agree. I think you're right. That is why it works. We're yielding and resting and as a result we get to walk by the spirit. So it's passive? You're a vessel. It's more than passive though. It is more than passive. You're involved. I didn't want that to happen.

One other thing I was thinking about going back to When you say spiritual insanity, I always think about this on the unbelievers. The spiritual insanity is not accepting this. There is nothing you have to do other than believe. Everything has been paid for, done. The spiritual insanity is not accepting this, not believing. That's where I think the real insanity is. As you said, you've got a million dollar check. You have eternal life with Christ, and you deny that. That's where I think the real spiritual insanity comes.

We do that when we fall back. What should we call this? Partial? Believer of spiritual insanity. You're going back to this, you're not believing. Spiritual insanity is not believing. And we do that over here when we're not believing about who we are in Christ and we're sitting here. Listen to this guy who has absolutely zero authority in our lives. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't Alright, I'll stop. I was going to fast-track 9 and 10, but... Alright, let's pray.

Father, we just thank you so much for the truths that we see here in Romans about who we are in Christ. And we are so thankful that you have not only condemned flesh, but you have given us your spirit that we might walk in, and that spirit yielding and resting, and allow you to do the living as we focus on you through your word. We thank you for the truth of who we are, our identity. And we're just so grateful for how these truths not only lead to that rest and that peace, but also that intimacy of getting to know you more. And we just thank you for that, Lord. It's in your name we pray. Amen.