S. THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS

THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS Dr. W. A. Criswell Rom 8:2-9 10-10-54

You’re listening to the services of the First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas. We welcome to our congregation this morning more visitors than I’ve seen in a long while.

You’ve come to Dallas to the Fair, for the merchandising marts, for business, for football, for fun and a host of you today, for the worship of God. And in this beloved church, a tremendous part of that dedicated worship is the innovation of our souls to its highest spiritual usefulness, the attendance upon the preaching of the word of God. The flower fadeth, the grass withereth, but the word of God abides forever. In this pulpit ministry, Sunday by Sunday, every Lord’s day morning, again in the Lord’s day evening, we are preaching through the Bible, where we left the service before, we pick up the service at present and carry it through. Our message today is in Rom 8:1-39. And in your Bibles turn to it. The message is found in Rom 2:1-29 -- in Rom 8:2 and Rom 8:9. And the title of the message is THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS. I read in Rom 8:1-39. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Now, Rom 8:9 : “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be not in you, the body is dead. The Spirit of life is a spirit of righteousness. And if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

If you live after the flesh, ye shall do I: But if 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.” The children of God.

All of which is an elaboration of my text and my subject: THE SPIRIT OF LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS. From a boy, from a youth, all of us have been taught one of the great chapters of the Bible is Rom 8:1-39. Rom 7:1-25 ends in defeat. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

There is a spirit in human hearts, the spirit of carnality. The spirit of sin. The spirit of defeat. And no man is able triumphantly and successfully to war against it.

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver May from the body of this death?

How can any man ever be saved? How could he? How can he? The answer is found in Rom 8:1-39. Paul said: There is a liberation, there is a deliverance, there is a salvation. And it is found not in the keeping of the law, not in morality, not in epicure philosophies. Not in regenerations of a man’s own ableness. Not in the power boy which he can refashion his life. But it is found, Paul says, in the gift of a new heart, of a new spirit, of a new inner dedication, a new inner motive. A new inner motive. The triumph is found, Paul says in the new spirit. We who are in Christ, are children of a different order and do follow and are dedicated to a different spirit. When Jesus was with his disciples going through Samaria, he set his face as though he would go to Jerusalem, which is an insult to any good Samaritan, and they didn’t receive him. So James and John came to the Lord Jesus and said: “Master, shall we bid fire down from God out of heaven like Elijah did and burn them up?” And Jesus said: “Nay, not so. Not so. For ye know not what spirit ye are of. And the son of man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save men’s lives. Ye know not what spirit ye are of.” You are of a different spirit. Ye are of a different kind. Ye are of a different order. And the difference lies in the spirit. The great thesis of Paul in Rom 8:1-39 is that. The difference in men. The difference in the Christian lies in his heart. It lies in his spirit.

Now, could I digress to say for this moment that the difference in any man lies in his spirit. All the rest is peripheral. All the rest is external. All of the rest is on the outside. It is just incidental. It is not essential. It is not dynamic. The difference in men is difference in spirit. It is the spirit that makes the difference. A man can -- a man can live heroically and have a tremendous spirit. And be in a cage or a dudgeon or a cell. And a man can be a slave and live in a palace. The difference lies in the spirit. All else is transitory and temporal. The eternal lies in the spirit. I could keep on digressing for a moment, could I say that Napoleon was not an immense hurt to France. He did many noble things. He could have defied the laws of France.

One of the great works of all time. He did many noble deeds. He said many great things. He was a genius beyond compare. Never has been in the history of the world a man of the dramatic ingenuity and battle strategy -- in battle strategy of Napoleon Bonaparte. But the man has to be judged by his spirit. And what kind of a spirit did Napoleon have? He was selfish and ambitious and grasping. Typical of him.

Before the battle of Lotstead, his generals came to him and said: “Sir, if we fight this battle, we shall lose one million men.” And Napoleon answered incontumally: “What is the loss of a million men if my ambition to rule the world can be achieved?” He was inordinately selfish and ambitious. And if spirit makes the man, he is judged by his spirit. In contrast could I take the honored father of our native land, George Washington. In no way spectacular and dramatic and ingenuous and able as Napoleon Bonaparte. But he was wonderfully humble and his heart was filled with goodness for his people and toward his country. When an Englishman came across the sea to visit the continental Congress, he asked one of the men, “Which one is General Washington?” And the man replied, “When Congress goes to prayer, the man who kneels will be General Washington.” And the judge the man by his spirit. In back of all of these concordances and treaties, the United Nations assemblies and all of the things whereby on the international scene we are trying to achieve a lasting and orderly peace, it is as nothing, it is less than nothing unless there lies back of a nation to enter in those contract a worthy and a glorious spirit.

It is the spirit that makes the man. Now, may I return to my text? Christ says: Our deliverance and our salvation lies in the new spirit; the new heart; the new regenerated soul; the new motive that is found. A gift from heaven on the inside of the child of God.

“For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

It is on the inside. It is in the heart. It is in the spirit. The Spirit of Christ, and you’ll find it here as I open my Bible and look at it. The Spirit is capitalized. The law of the Spirit -- capital S -- of life in Christ Jesus.

If any man hath not the Spirit -- Capital S -- the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Now, I am not able to enter into the mystery of the divine and holy and adorable Trinity. But the third person of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is God in us and God among us. God working. God moving. God doing. God manifest. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus. Our holy savior was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Through the yielded life of a maiden girl, born, conceived of the Holy Spirit. His life was God because of his conception by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord was baptized, set aside, dedicated, his messianic ministry, through the Holy Spirit. Our Lord was filled with the Holy Spirit. Our Lord was led by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord died and was raised again by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Apart from the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus himself was not able to do his mighty works. He was not able to speak the revelation of God. The yielded life of Christ in the hands of the Spirit of God achieved that holiness and that blessedness that we read and love and adore and trust in the Lord Jesus.

Now, it is that Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that is to be our faith and our strength. Our inner motive. God dwelling inside. Be ye filled with the Spirit. Our whole life permeated with the Spirit of God. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus gives us a triumph and the victory, the dedicated purpose, the holy commitment that makes one the child of God.

Now, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus manifested itself in so many places, wonderful, excellent, beautiful ways. When I think of the spirit of our master, I think of holiness and reverence and goodness and enthusiasm and joy and victory and faith and assurance and triumph and obedience and dedication and compassion.

All kinds of things comes to my soul as I think of the spirit of God manifesting itself in the life and in the ministry of our Lord Jesus. I thought this morning in the time that I had, I might take two or three and spoke of them. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

All right, the first one. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If a man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the first one, it is the spirit of a great assurance and an illimitable trust in God our father. The reality and the presence and the ableness of God practicing the presence of God, living in the reality of God.

Now, by that I mean this: When the Lord Jesus drew aside and knelt down to pray, he felt -- it was the Spirit of Christ. He felt, he was talking to somebody who heard.

Now, if I stood by his side and I wouldn’t see anybody. I wouldn’t see anything. It would be just be as when you kneel in your bedroom by the side of your sleeping cot, by the side of your soft bed.

You kneel down and there is nobody there. There is nobody you can see and nobody around. And a heathen and a pagan and an unbeliever could come and watch you and wonder just what are you doing? The Spirit of Christ was more of an illimitable trust in God. And when he knelt and when he spake, he was filled with the assurance that there was somebody who bowed down his ear to listen and to hear. And when the Lord stepped out on the waters, he had the perfect assurance there was somebody who was to sustain him and hold him up. And when he took bread to bless it and to drink it and to feed the five thousand, he did it in the perfect assurance that as he did it, God would multiply the loaves as he fed the fish -- as he fed the vast number of people. And when our Lord went about all of his ministry, he had the perfect assurance that when he spake, it would be done. When he spoke, and the dead were raised. When he touched the leper and the leper was cleansed. When he touched the eye of the blind and the blind could see.

He did that in perfect assurance and in trust that God would see it through. And when the Lord died, he yielded up his Spirit. He gave it to God in the perfect assurance that in his death, God would take care of his Spirit and would raise him again according to his word the third day.

He lived his life in absolute assurance, in complete trust in the reality and in the saving power and presence of his Father God. And that is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If a man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

We are to be filled with the Spirit of persuasion, of assurance, of faith, of commitment, and the reality, the truth, the ableness of Almighty God our Father. When we kneel to pray, he’s there listening. When we seek to do our work in his name, he is there helping by our side. When we face the insoluble and the mystery that surrounds all of our life, somehow he understands and he will see us through.

About your child, what will become of your child? You read the paper and you think about the things that go on in the world. And your child grows up. And how do you know? You don’t know? But you can trust God. Live in perfect assurance in God. And what of all of the sorrows and heartaches and pitfalls of our lives? What of them and what meaning do they have? Don’t understand. Don’t know. Can’t explain. Don’t have to.

Just leaving it to him. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It is a Spirit of an absolute and utter dependence upon God. It is in his hand. It is in his care and that is enough. We live our life, in his will, trusting him. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, depending upon God. Now, I say the second one. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of an absolute and complete obedience to the father. In Rom 15:1-33, Paul speaks of Christ our example as not pleasing himself. He pleased not himself. In Heb 5:1-14, the author of Hebrews spoke of our Lord Jesus as this: “Though his son, though his son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” Our Lord Jesus in the gospel of Luke, as a youth, as a boy, our Lord Jesus, the Bible says went down to Nazareth and was subject unto his parents. That is, when his mother told him this, he did it. When his stepfather told him that, he did it. He was obedient to his parents. His life was committed to their care. And as they guided, so he walked. And as they spake and directed, so he did. He was subject to his parents all of the days of his youth. He was the only child who ever knew more than his parents. But he was subject to his parents. And when he became of age, and entered his messianic ministry, our savior again was subject to somebody else. As your savior, he was subject to God. No will of his own. But doing the will of God. He pleased not himself and he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. That is, what God called him to do was the thing he didn’t want to do. I don’t suppose any man on -- and Jesus was a man on -- I don’t suppose any man would rejoice in being cast out. In being repudiated by his people. In being buffered and slapped and spit upon. In being crowned with thorns and mocked and ridiculed and the crowd hailed: King of the Jews. With a regal scepter in his hand, I don’t suppose any man would look with anticipation upon a death by execution, by a crucifixion. He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. He was under authority. His will, somebody else’s. Not my will, but thine be done. The Spirit in Christ Jesus. So with the Christian. So with us. Obedience, doing the will of the Father. It is a path. It is a suffering. It is a commitment. But no man ever followed Christ except in those holy and terrible and awful and -- and tremendously costly words of our savior when he said: “Except a man deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple. For if a man would save his life, he must lose it.”

If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Not our will, but God’s. Not what pleases me, but what pleases him. His will be done. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And may I take one more? The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. I turn now from the inward heart, our own souls stand naked before God. Praying, yielded, obedient, looking upon the face of God, speaking his favor and his will and his pleasure.

I turn now to the Spirit of Christ as it is manifested in what you’ll see in us. What you’re able to observe. What you’re able to know. What you’re able to follow. As a man lives his life, the Spirit of Christ, it is always one of compassion. Of sympathy. Of understanding. Of goodness. Of yielded ministry. The Spirit of Christ Jesus.

If you ever think, the most beautiful parable the Lord ever spoke of those parables of compassion, as he came down the road, the Lord said: A traveler, thieves set upon him, took everything that he had. Beat him and left him by the roadside to die. And then he told the story of the good Samaritan. That’s the Lord. Again, the Father who had two sons. And the younger was prodigal and left his father and wasted his substance in hilarious and drunken and riotous living. And coming to himself turned his face back home. And you have the parable of the compassionate father receiving once again his prodigal boy.

There are not stories in all literature, in Greek, in Latin, in English, there is not story in language that the beautiful stories of the Lord Jesus, speaking of the compassionate heart. The beautiful Spirit of our Lord as it manifested itself in the work of his hand was one of compassion. A blind man moved him. The blind man, it had a reverberation, it had a repercussion in his heart. It was like pulling a string on the piano. It would vibrate. And when the Lord looked at a blind man, something on the inside of him vibrated. And when the Lord looked at a leper, going down the road with his hand over his mouth crying unclean, unclean, unclean. That one on the way, he was there stepped out on the road and in the way not to let him pass. And the Lord saw an unclean leper shouting that awful word as he walked down the street or down the road, it did something in his heart. There was a vibration, he felt it. When the Lord saw people weeping and crying, there was a strange thing about the Lord. When the Lord saw people crying, he cried with them. Jesus at the tomb seeing Mary and Martha weeping, he shed tears himself. And he knew what he was going to do. Did he cry because there was no victory? There was no triumph? Well, he had triumph in his hand. He had victory in his soul. It was a human manifestation of the human heart of Jesus. Just to see people cry, made him cry. The compassionate heart of the Lord Jesus. His great deeds of ministry were deeds of compassion. I don’t think there’s a sweeter verse in the Bible than in the 9th Chapter of the book of Matthew when Matthew described his Lord and said: And the Lord healed all of their diseases and all who were brought to from early in the morning unto late at night. All who were brought to him healed him every one, that it might be fulfilled the word which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying -- listen to it -- himself took our diseases and bare our infirmities. That is, it had a repercussion in himself. When somebody cried, he cried. When somebody was hurt, he was hurt. When somebody was downcast and troubled, he was downcast and troubled. When they were in the valley, he was in the valley with them. And that is preeminently the new Spirit of the Christian. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

I want to say a word this morning in defense of something you say now we ought to take him out in hang him. We just ought to do it. There is no man in America that ought to stand up and say what that preacher said. You ought to shoot him as a traitor.

All right. It is the truth and you ought to know it. I’m going to say a word this morning in defense of socialism and communism. Socialism and communism is a Christian heresy.

Don’t you ever sit down with yourself and don’t you ever ask yourself what is this thing? Here is a brilliant man. An intellectual, a professor and a great university. And he’s a communist. Don’t you ever ask yourself why?

You read the paper and you say: Why he’s crazy. He’s inane, He’s insane. He’s dumb. You’re the one that is inane and dumb. Why don’t you find out why that intellectual -- and he may be a preacher. He may be the pastor of a wonderful church. He may be the head of a great denominational organization and he’s a socialist. Or he’s half-communist.

Why don’t you ever ask yourself why? Another thing. Why do you suppose that there are people in this world by the millions who will don a uniform and will take up a gun and will fanatically lay down their lives against you and against anybody? For socialism and for communism. Oh, you say, they have all been fed opium. They are all drunk. That’s what our paper might say. But that’s not so.

There are men who lie back of those moving, marching millions who are dedicated men. They are committed to a tremendous thing. What is that tremendous thing?

Now, I’m going to show you. We had one here in America. Stuck him in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia and he died not long after he was liberated. He was a socialist. And rabid and a fanatical socialist. Did you ever hear -- because he died in your lifetime -- did you ever hear of Eugene B. Debs? All right. They stuck him in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. He was leader of the famous Pullman Stripes. He was a pacifist. He was against war.

They put him in the penitentiary. In that penitentiary, the life of the prisoners were changed. And the warden went up to Sam Moore and said to Sam Moore, an embittered man facing a life sentence, “What changed your life?” And that embittered, hardened criminal replied, “Gene Debs, he was the only Christ I ever knew.” In the Atlanta penitentiary, he drew up his creed. And I read it to you:

While there is a lower class. I am in it. While there is a criminal element. I am of it. While there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

How do they fool the people of Indonesia? How do they fool the people of India? How do they fool the people of China? How do they fool the people of Indochina? How do they capture some of the intellectuals of the world? How do they pull into their orbit?

Some of our very preachers, I’ll tell you how and why. They are committed, some of them, the leaders. The men who wrote the philosophy, not the political battle men, but the men who writes the books and the men will achieve the philosophy, they are committed to a tremendous humanitarian ministry. And they never tell their dupes about their police state. They never tell their dupes of the awful concentration camps and the trips to Siberia. And the terrible tyranny of an awful dictatorship. The intellectual says all of that is a passing thing. And pretty soon you’ll have nothing but peace and goodness back again. I told you it is a Christian heresy. Who are the people who ought to be saying: For while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. Who are the people who ought to be saying: As long as there is a poor man, starving and in need, in the city, I’m with him? Who is it ought to be saying that?

You say a communist. You say the socialist. No. I say the child of God. The Christians who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to be saying those words. We ought to be counting -- have prayer for the uncounted masses of the poor and outcast in India. We ought to be ministry in the foreground to the great subjects of people of the world. It ought to be the ministry of Christ.

Instead of that we have gone -- I don’t know what. And so the socialist and the communist sets in and he says: I am your hero. I am your champion. I am your savior. I am your liberator. And he’s a liar. He leads his people into death. And into tyranny and into dictatorship and totalitarianism and to destruction. He leads them into hell. He does. But the Christian who has the word of life, and ought to have the Spirit of Christ, he’s doing something else.

Oh, Lord, oh, Lord. May the Lord forgive us as he forgave us of our sins. May the Lord help us as a people to champion the lost of the world. To pull our lives into the ministry of Christ.

It is the as long as the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ. If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his. The Spirit of compassion. It is a care to us whether the people are saved or lost. It is a burden to our hearts whether the people know God or not.

It is a care to us whether the orphan has a home or not. Whether a man has a job or not. Whether the poor or fed or not. Whether the nations of the world are oppressed or not.

It is a care to us and the Spirit of Christ is one of compassion. Of care. It matters. It matters. We are sensitive to it. And we offer Christ and him in life and help. That’s what it is to have the Spirit of Christ in your soul.

Now, I’ve got to quit. We’ll sing our song. On the first stanza, on the first word, on the first note, would you step into that aisle and down here to the front and by my side?

Pastor, today, the best I know how, I give my life to the Lord Jesus. I give it to him. I give it to him. I trust in him. I want to put my life in the fellowship of this precious and blessed church.

While we make appeal, would you come. In that topmost balcony chair to the back seat, somebody, you, anywhere, anywhere? On the first note of the first stanza, would you come? Would you come?

Pastor, here’s my hand. I have given my heart and my life to God. And while we sing this song, would you make it now? Would you make it now? While we stand and while we sing?