[0:00] If the Lord will enable me, I would draw your attention again to the text that we had this morning. You'll find it in the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the 3rd and 4th verses.
[0:19] For 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 foreseen, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
[0:48] As we were enabled a little this morning, feebly, we tried to set forth the wonderful mercy of God.
[1:00] God the Father in the first place, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in sinful flesh, but no in a pure holy humanity, which he joined, united forever to his divine person.
[1:24] He will never relinquish that humanity. And oh how blessed it is when the Holy Ghost gives faith in the heart of the believer.
[1:36] Oh it is sweet to feel that Christ in that humanity is the great high priest over the house of Israel.
[1:50] You know under the law in the Levitical priesthood, what he had to be a wonderful person, the great high priest, he had to be a sympathetic person, he had to be a person who understood the cases brought to him, and with a sympathetic ear listen to them, and attend to them.
[2:23] It was no mean office, the office of the high priest, literally. But oh when we come to the Son of God, in his humanity, sometimes it has been so sweet to me, to think that in humanity, in a human way, he understands and knows all about us.
[2:50] Well it is an infinite mercy, but we tried as enabled to set forth the goodness of Christ in coming into this sinful world, bearing all that he did to redeem his people from their sins, bringing in an everlasting righteousness for them, suffering, bleeding and dying under the wrath of God due to their sins, bearing all the hell that should be theirs in the justice of God out of love to them.
[3:32] And we touched on the work of the Holy Ghost. His love is just the same as the Father's and the Son's for this people.
[3:44] He is God, a person in the Trinity. And he is almighty. He is to be worshipped. He it is, who in the covenant of grace decreed that he would deal with this people.
[4:03] Every one of them whose names are in the book of life, he'll deal with them in this time state, in his sovereignty, just in what way he will, using what means he sees fit.
[4:17] And at what time in their life he sees fit. But none of them will be left. No, no. Oh, what a triumph there would be in hell if one sinner, whose name is in the book of life, could be left to perish.
[4:36] That never will be. No, no, no. Oh, then, what a merciful salvation this is.
[4:46] How it sets forth the love, the mercy, the grace of a three-one God. All the persons in the Trinity are concerned in love to the election of grace.
[5:00] And each have their work in redemption. how necessary. It is sweet when you can meditate upon it at times.
[5:12] But I want, if the Lord will enable me, to come more to this fourth verse in the text. Here, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.
[5:26] Walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. that is the reason why I read this previous seventh chapter. How many have blessed God for this seventh chapter of Romans.
[5:42] Some say that we must pass through the seventh before we can come into the eighth. But I feel in real experience one very often is brought into some inner measure into the eighth.
[6:01] And then they learn more about the seventh after. In a wilderness journey as the Lord deals with them. And how the apostle wonderfully describes that in his flesh dwell no good thing.
[6:24] And the confessions that he makes peace. 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 and even go so far as to say bringing me into captivity.
[6:48] You know what that means. Captivity means a power taking hold of you and you are too weak to do anything.
[7:00] Bringing me into captivity to the law sin sin in my members. What a solemn thing. One if the apostle had not put these things in the scripture by the holy ghost we should have thought he was above all this in his life and his preaching but oh what a mercy was constrained by the spirit and he indicted in his heart to write this chapter.
[7:34] How useful it has been to the Lord's people in all ages and will be to the end of time. But he often comes to this and you and I will often come to it all wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
[7:57] Well now I believe as the Lord mercifully deals with his people after maybe he has given them some hope in his salvation the holy ghost having quickened their dead soul and caused a concern in their heart about their sins brought them face to face with a holy holy God who cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance made them to understand in a measure their wretched ruined fallen state and brought forth a cry out of their heart for mercy and in his own good time and way has revealed the way that that mercy can come only through Christ who is the way the truth of the life that no man can approach the father a holy holy
[9:00] God except through him and it is blessed to have this experience and if the Holy Ghost has gone further and blessed the poor soul with a hope in salvation making Christ unspeakably precious bringing into the heart that peace that passes all understanding which comes off forgiven sin what a blessing what a great thing this is for I've often said and I repeat it you can't have a greater blessing in this time state under the sun than to receive the forgiveness of your sins a revelation of Christ in the preciousness and glory of his person to be brought into the banqueting house his banner over your love you can't have a greater a more blessed experience in this time state it's heaven in your heart while the
[10:13] Lord keeps it there but oh he usually after this if they're blessed with this in their young days as I was in my twenties oh sooner or later they come into a wilderness journey they have to walk in some little measure in the footsteps that he walked in in this sinful world and in their measure they have to know something of what he suffered but yet yet this this verse here this fourth verse is experienced and it is in their life that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for if the
[11:18] Holy Ghost has blessed us with life and blessed us with some hope in his salvation though there will be this terrible conflict often between sin and grace within the heart yet underneath it all living faith will be there it comes with the new birth it never leaves the soul until it lands it in heaven but it is off now to sight off now to feeling but what a mercy there will be this in we believe in practical religion and we believe that where there is a real work of grace fruit will follow oh yes it will it will bring you out of the world it it it it it it it it it it will bring you out of it and false religion whatever notions you may have had that are false and contrary to this blessed book he will bring you out of them and he will cause you to walk in this world righteously righteously and in a sense in your experience and mine we shall show forth this righteousness of the law it will be fulfilled in us in your walk and conversation not perfectly ah no we would that it could be but no no not perfectly but it is the effect the fruit of the work of grace within will be that your life will be more or less righteous righteous oh when
[13:27] God begins the work of grace in the heart the Holy Ghost he gives that person the fear of the Lord a tender conscience and though even as the apostle says in this seventh chapter often sin will lead them into captivity yet yet where there is a slip and a fall he will bless them sooner or later with repentance a sorrowful heart because of their sins and they will learn they will learn that there is two principles within them what will you see in the Shulamite we find in the song of Solomon there you will find two armies which suggest warfare and these two armies are opposite to each other they can never agree all together with one another no no no no there will be this principle of grace a holy principle which
[14:41] John speaks of in his epistles that principle within which never sins which is holy as God is holy it will remain in the soul but there will also remain until death this carnal heart this sinful mind and the two will be opposite to one another and when the Lord sees fit to bring trials into your path and mine for it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom when he sees fit to bring into your path that which is opposite to your inclination and your mind what happens oh very often this sinful old man rouses up in rebellion in opposition to God's will if it is kept within it's a mercy but it isn't always kept within is it and then oh the liability that there is in us when things seem fairly easy in our path oh the liability to wander away every imagination of the heart of man is evil and that continually it wasn't before his regeneration he finds it worse and worse as he travels along and he finds the enmity of
[16:22] Satan too in temptations and many a time he comes in with the hymn writer where he says seldom do we see the snare before we feel the smart but God deals with his people he loves them he loves them with an unchanging love but he permits all these things and will bring them into their path to teach them to profit one would think wouldn't we when we first started out and we were favoured oh we thought we believed in a measure that it was through much tribulation but we couldn't understand it then as we hope we do now and we certainly couldn't see the necessity for it as we hope we do now no no if this people are a favoured people loved of
[17:28] God with an everlasting unchanging love why should they be permitted to come into such afflictions afflictive dispensations such trials sometimes in providence sometimes in their pathway in the circumstances of their life and in within within too oh why why should they be left at times to the assaults of the enemy why should they be left to the rebellion of their heart which and all the evil and iniquity of their fallen nature rising up sometimes why why to make them know that it's there they wouldn't know it they would never learn it in a smooth path no no oh what a nurse it is but yet at the same time why
[18:34] I I often say I believe it's true that the person who feels more of his dreadful sinfulness and feels it often almost constantly that person will live more uprightly in this world than the one who has no trouble much about his sinful nature ah yes oh that person who is constantly plagued and tempted and tossed about pestered with Satan with unbelief with fears with apprehensions about the future and with everything sometimes to try him and like the hymn again says he often mourns an absent God and his earthly joys are from him torn and it seems sometimes as if the Lord will aggravate his case and if he has made any idols he'll bring them down he'll smash them before his eyes sometimes and oh we have this experience of the saints all down this blessed book the way the
[19:53] Lord has dealt with them look at his dealings with Jacob with Moses with David all the troubles and trials they pass through you know when when the Lord mercifully sent Samuel to anoint David to be king over Israel he poured oil on him and anointed him to be king over Israel why it seemed as if from that very moment his troubles began as the maidens sang in their dances Saul has slain his thousands but David his ten thousands all the enmity the enviousness the wrath of Saul was raised up and he would have slain him on the spot if he could but the Lord preserved him but oh it meant that he must wander he must wander he must live in caves and strong holds in the earth as
[21:02] Satan as Saul pursued him but in all these troubles oh how the Lord kept him and it was in this pathway of tribulation that he was kept kept and sought the Lord in everything and how the Lord answered him mercifully speaking to him leading him and guiding him ah remember though that when he got onto the throne and every enemy was subdued and he was left to himself then oh how he fell fell more times than once but the Lord didn't leave him no no but it is all there for our instruction my dear friends it teaches us this you may grumble and you may complain about the trials in your pathway but as the
[22:09] Lord uses them he'll bring forth righteousness in your pathway and you'll live more uprightly in this world the more you are tried and the more prayer will come out of your poor heart even if it's only groan and sighs tears and this will be manifest and there will be that within you which dreads to be left to walk after the flesh that is to walk after your natural mind and after the world the fear of the Lord is an unctuous light to all that's right and a bar to all that's wrong and it will be in exercising your heart as you are tried in these things doesn't it show us that the Lord has a purpose in these things to keep you busy at a throne of grace and if you had a nice easy pathway that flesh always likes oh we would have it easy if we could wouldn't we we wouldn't have a single ripple upon the ocean we wouldn't be tossed up and down would we no no we wouldn't have unbelief and carnality working in our heart no we wouldn't have a trial in our pathway certainly and we wouldn't have an affliction or a pain no no no we'd have everything nice and easy if we could wouldn't we but where would your soul get would get like
[23:51] David's did you would fall into sin oh it is a wonderful mercy it is a mystery I know I can't explain it all together but it is the mysterious working of the Lord in the pathways of his people to keep them humble before him depending upon him for help and bringing them continually into those places where they need his help this is real experience this is the pathway to heaven no there is no no you may oh the deceivers that are the deceitfulness in this world but I tell you the Lord deals with his people to teach them to profit and though he may sometimes leave them to wander from him and use the rod to bring them back again to him oh what a mercy it is and when that rod has done its work you'll find it has been steeped in atoning blood softened and that all has been in love in love oh have you ever been brought to repentance not only at the beginning of your religion but many and many a time since when you realise what a sinful silly fool you've been how guilty you are of certain things
[25:33] I can't paint a perfect picture of God's people and I can't set forth a sweet easy pathway for them in this world it's not in this book it's not in my experience neither no no it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom but oh what a mercy it is he'll fulfil this word in your experience through it all that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us and it will be these very trials I and temptations and these very things that flesh hates and loathes that will be a means in his hands of keeping you upright for there will be that continuous need of the Lord felt and realised in your soul in your experience really and you will feel how liable you are to fall and if you do fall this little member in our mouth which
[26:46] James tells us no man can tame no he says big ships can be steered by a very small rudder most wild beasts can be tamed but not so this little member in the mouth the tongue and what guilt it sometimes brings us into but you wouldn't have that guilt if the fear of the Lord wasn't in your heart would you you would go carelessly on carnally minded and it wouldn't trouble you what a mercy it is when you're pulled up sharp sometimes and you say where have I been what am I saying oh my sinful tongue but if the Lord leaves you to slip by it to have many a fall by it he'll not leave you to sink into despair no no he'll return to you and you'll return to him with weeping and with supplication and you'll confess your sins what a blessed thing repentance is oh
[28:00] I wish I felt it every day it is a most blessed thing Christ said didn't he in those parables in the 15th of Luke there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine that need no repentance or think they need no repentance but oh what a wonderful mercy it is to be blessed with it sometimes unexpected sometimes you may you may it may be far from you in your feelings when perhaps something some word perhaps from the pulpit or perhaps in private some word may touch you or even without any means sometimes the Lord will touch your heart and he'll bring you down completely before him and give you repentance
[29:04] Christ is exalted a prince and a saviour for to give give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins they're not forgiven because they repent no no no no that it's a sweet blessed gift is repentance and that with it always there is a full confession of your sin nothing is kept back nothing is withheld when the Lord softens the heart brings you back as it were to his feet you you weep inwardly if not outwardly and you say Lord what a sinner I am what a fool I am canst thou ever love such an out of the way sinner as I am oh it's a wonderful mercy but by these things men live and in these things
[30:09] Hezekiah said is the life the life of my spirit and if you and I had a smooth path and we had all that we could desire in this world where would this be fulfilled in our path that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit if we were left if the Lord didn't use these trials and these things that upset you and if he didn't permit Satan to pester you and if he always kept down on belief and favoured you always with a faith unchallenged where would you get to why you would get left to the flesh and your carnal mind instead of being after the spirit but these things are brought into your path and mine to make us to bring us into that condition that we're after the spirit we're after it we need it we feel our need of it by these things others oh I hope you understand what I'm meaning what I'm trying to set forth it is my own experience and I believe it is according to the word of
[31:35] God it is through it is through these things that the Lord brings his people into afflictions afflictive dispensations trials temptations and those things that is all together against their natural mind sometimes and they think sometimes it will be their end oh can you look back sometimes now upon your pathway and do you not wonder however you were brought through certain things things that you feared would be your end perhaps and things you feared that would be the end of your religion oh how many times have you come to the end of it oh how many times have I come to the end of it how many times have I preached me last time felt it utterly impossible or impossible that I could ever enter a pulpit again such a vile sinner a stench in the nostrils of God and yet yet oh how the Lord mercifully keeps us on holds us up and holds us on in this way all the saints passed in their measure through this way a way of trial a way of temptation a way of suffering a way that would bring down and crucify their flesh and what a mercy it is to know something of it it is indeed but I repeat that in all these things you will be after the spirit and as you are brought to see deeper and deeper your own or to helplessness your ruined state will bring you to seek for the spirit more than ever to hold you up and hold you on if you go to the is it the 51st psalm after
[33:51] David's dreadful fall after the Lord recovered him who would have thought that he would ever have penned that beautiful psalm oh he said take not thy holy spirit from me no there was that in him that was after the spirit just as much as to say if thou takes thy holy spirit from me where shall I be I shall fall again my carnal mind is sinful lustful oh it is only thy holy spirit that can keep me and hold me up and hold me on against all these things that are against me and he says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit oh it is as though he saw himself as nothing but sin weakness shame and confusion are you ever brought there before
[35:01] God secretly not before man but in the feeling of your own heart in a private personal religion between you and the holy God are you ever brought there that you confess before him Lord I'm nothing but sin and evil oh mercifully hold me up and hold me on oh well this is being after the spirit you're after the spirit to hold you up and to keep you here you learn by these things that you can't keep yourself oh you learn your own weakness and all this is to the glory of God all those who are already that glorified host in heaven passed in their measure through this tribulation teaching them in a wilderness journey what they couldn't learn otherwise and this makes the song very very loud in heaven unto him that hath redeemed us and washed us in his own precious blood unto him be majesty glory forever world without end it is this pathway that will fit you and me to sing that song no the pathway will no no no oh what a mercy it is then that though we are sinners and sin will dwell in us to the very last and it will be a trouble to you a mercy if it is a mercy if it is a trouble to you if it is a trouble to you there will be this in your outward pathway though you don't realize it perhaps and perhaps if you were told it is so you can't believe it that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us oh walk not after the flesh no no not after your carnal mind always and if you are left to this the
[37:21] Lord will sooner or later deal with it he's a jealous God but what a mercy it is to be kept and preserved upright and for the Lord to use these afflictive things in your pathway and mine painful things things it's never the right thing is it if you were pain somewhere it's never in the right place is it if you were trouble in your pathway it's never just the right thing you could have done with something else couldn't you it's never right what God does until he shows you that it is and when he gives you to see light in his light you bless him for it oh yes and sometimes perhaps you can look back and see how these things have been the means in his hands of keeping you upright where would you have gone but for the trials and the troubles where would you have gone you would have gone after the flesh but it is these things in your path and mine that cause us to be after the spirit done we brought down in utter and absolute weakness ruin and sin time after time oh
[38:49] I know it painfully but it it has this effect as the Lord sanctifies it it brings us to this that we are after the spirit oh blessed holy ghost oh do dwell in me do keep me, do keep me upright, do subdue the sin of my nature do control Satan's power within me daily uphold me in thy fear and mercifully preserve me unto thy heavenly kingdom at last, he only can, he only can, well what a mercy it is to know something of these things in our pathway to know something about this third verse what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, the law is not weak but our flesh is weak and the law can never save us the law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did that better hope is the finished work of Christ and nothing else well
[40:06] God sent his own son, the son of his love into this world in the likeness the likeness mark the words of sinful flesh and for sin condemning sin in the flesh and if you have this experience within you by the Holy Ghost it will cause that the righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in you in a measure oh not perfectly no no but in a measure and you'll long to walk in that law not the ten commandments but the law of Christ in the gospel you'll long to walk in his fear and this righteousness will be in your heart you know the Lord gives his people two righteousnesses Christ has worked out for them painfully painstakingly a righteousness in fulfilling the law for them that righteousness is imputed to them as though they had never sinned but in their lifetime here he blesses them with a righteousness that is the fear of God a tenderness against sin who desire a longing to walk uprightly in his fear to his honour and glory in this sinful world oh I know you'll feel like me you'll come far short of it far short of it but it will be the aim of that faith that is in your heart you'll be after the spirit and not left altogether to be after the flesh what a mercy this pathway will end in a glorious heaven at last for all the people of God the days coming when he'll all be collected all together and it will be a number that no man can number redeemed from among men at last clothed in the glorious righteousness of Christ shining as the sun in the firmament in that righteousness he will claim his bride he will say to them come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world but oh if you look at the others those millions who will cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the face of him that sits on the throne of judgment at last oh how solemn how solemn oh if you're unable to think of these things in the right way you will be there will be that within you that will be subdued and you will say oh give me
[43:20] Christ and the path of tribulation rather than that oh may I prove that my name is in thy book worthless though I own but here I must leave it the time is gone may the Lord bless his word to us amen amen