You Died to the Power of the Law
First B Jackson
2016-06-19

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Well, I'm a call Scott and Florine up to the front if they'd gather up here. We're gonna try a different style, worship style this morning, and it's kinda whatever comes out. I'll sell the songs that Florine had. I'd like to play bass. Let me text Scott and see if he'll bring his guitar.

So, here we go. It's Beach Blanket Bingo meets Barjay Chuck Wagon. Yeah. It is the week for our vacation Bible school to start up. So, this kind of luau looking theme is a surf shacks.

The surf shack is the the theme for the week. Would you stand up and we're going to sing something akin to bluegrass kind of? I can. If you would sing along with us and sing loud to try to drown us out, we'd appreciate it. Yeah.

So, victory in Jesus. Singing it like we mean it.

Alright. Alright. You ready? Everybody ready? Yes.

We're praising God. Amen? Amen. Alright. Joyful noise.

Joyful noise.

Well, thank you for indulging us. That smattering of applause is

indicative of the way we feel

out here. So, no, it's it's fun. It's fun to get together. Let's sing this and sing Jesus sings. Yeah.

Since Jesus came into my heart, would you join us?

Come on. We're praising the Lord together. Put a smile on your face and let's let's praise God. Amen.

Amen. Alright. We're going to.

Alright. Alright. Any kick off over there? You got anything? There

we go.

Wow. You gotta Jesus. Jesus come into your heart.

So, would y'all have a seat and I've got a few announcements. It's just a couple really this morning. We'll get back to singing some more. The welcome first of all. If you're here and you're a first time visitor, this is no more bizarre than what we usually do.

We enjoy this but the beach theme up here today is because of Vacation Bible School. We're doing that and so all week long, you'll see Hawaiian shirts and people wearing flip flops and we are trying our best to get the word of God into the hearts, into the hearts of the kids. And so, just relax, God. Monday nights at First B is actually not happening at First B this week. It's Monday nights but we're doing it at Mike Yockel Park.

So, it's a couple of bucks that way. Pay no attention to the slide that just said it was gonna be Philbox Park. It is not. Mike Yoko Park. Up from here, we're gonna have food and fellowship this week.

So, come on and join us. That'll be a fun time. The connect hour still happens between services and the Surf Shack VBS. Thank you for bringing in all the supplies. You can see that the area has been staged thoroughly.

We've got Steve Drecker brought his surfboard in. Let us use that. We've got all kinds of folks that have brought all kinds of stuff and the purpose for the week is to share Christ with this community and with these kids. We've got about 100 that are scheduled to come in, register to come in. If you would like to be a part of it as a volunteer, come on in tomorrow morning a little bit early ahead of nine if you want to.

Be a volunteer and if you have a child that needs to be registered, bring them in. It's not too late to register. We just did a pre registration up through Friday. So, bring em on in and we expect to have upwards of 100 and something kids and just pray for us this week too. This is the time.

Yesterday, you should have heard the list of Crispa and Carl's day yesterday as they're preparing for VBS. We had one crazy happening after another. You can pray for Aiden who has pneumonia and hives. You can pray for Indy, their dog who almost swallowed a tennis ball yesterday and you can pray for Krista who stuck her hand in his throat that far and broke something, pulling the tennis ball back out. So, all of those things and I wanna mention one more.

Naomi Anderson has been here as a travel nurse. A lot of y'all know her. She usually comes to this service. She's back there now. She's in the next to the back row and Naomi, it's Father's Day today and we've been praying for his for her dad and he passed this past week.

So, whereas Father's Day, happy Father's Day, all you dads but there are a lot of us who are missing our dads because we're 2,250 miles away from em or because they have recently gone on to be with Jesus and he has and we're thankful for that but as as you think about your dad, Debbie, think about Naomi too. Would you stand and greet one another? Well, you know what? Wait a second. Call it off.

Off. Call Don't be greeting anybody. We don't wanna be friendly. No. I'm just kidding.

We have a skit for Father's Day. So, I'm gonna ask the father and son to come forward, and we'll prepare the stage here for just a second. First, b players.

Hey, dad. I just wanted to tell you that I love you.

Okay. Which window did it go through?

Which window did what go through?

The basketball.

Oh, the basketball didn't go through any window. I just wanted to tell you that you're the greatest father.

Okay. Go get it. Get what? The report card you're hiding.

I'm not hiding any report card.

Then, how much is it going to cost me?

How much is what going to cost you?

The advance on your allowance. What's it gonna be? One week? Two weeks?

I don't need any advance on my allowance. I just wanted to tell you to take this opportunity to tell you that you're the greatest father.

Alright. I'm sure I can fix it.

Fix

what? The appliance that you've broken.

Really? I didn't break any appliance.

Oh, no. The doctor called with my test results, and I only have two weeks.

Well, that's true. What? Don't jump to any conclusions. The doctor called. You're perfectly healthy.

You just have two weeks to pay your bill.

Oh, okay. Okay. So let me guess. You've lost my favorite screwdriver. You've worn my last clean t shirt.

And Friday, you're going to have a party here for 300 of your closest friends. I

wish. No. None of the above.

There's nothing wrong?

No. I just wanted to tell you that I think you're the best father I could have. Really? Really. Wanna go shoot some hoops?

If you think you're man enough to take on your dad.

Oh, I'll see about that.

Up and greet one another and we'll bring you back together with another peppy song.

Are you ready? We're waiting for the kickoff. I don't

know how this goes. Alright. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Now, I'm gonna invite the frontline team to come forward.

God, thank you for the fun we get to have. I just thank you that you have gifted us the way that you have. We overlook it sometimes and sometimes we just want what other people have, the talents or the prestige or the position. God, but right now, when we come to this time of offering, we can only give that which we have and so lord, to show that we love you and that we respect you and that we we give back some of what you've given to us. Financially, lord, if you've blessed us, we wanna show you that we trust you and we give it back knowing that spiritually you have blessed us.

God, would you take these offerings that were given back and would you bless them and multiply them to do the work of the gospel? Would you set people free from their sins? By virtue of this offering that we give. In Jesus name, lord, we thank you and we acknowledge you. Amen.

Thank you, Florine. If you'll excuse me just a minute, I'm a worry about this if I don't do it. And Scott would probably not pay attention much either since it's his guitar. I wanna start off this morning. Do y'all know this book, Mere Christianity?

Have you read this? Any of y'all read this? So, this morning, I brought it in for before the sound check and everything and I mentioned that I might, I was looking it over and I felt like this had some bearing on the sermon and so I might use it an example and before I got to the front of the church, just walking in the back door, three people said, oh man, God use that book in my life. It changed my life. That's incredible.

CS Lewis is great at that. So, I wanna use just the first part. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's one that two people after church said, I keep that book with me and I reread it and one of em had it in her purse. She says, I just read it anytime I'm waiting along.

So, right and wrong as a clue to the meaning of the universe is the first chapter. That's the title of the first chapter. I wanna read the first two paragraphs. If y'all would indulge me, I wanna talk about right and wrong. Capital R, capital W, right and wrong.

The law of human nature as CS Lewis Lewis calls it. Everyone has heard, everyone has heard people quarreling. Sometimes, it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things that they say. They say things like this, how'd you like it if anyone did the same to you? Or that's my seat.

I was there first or leave him alone. He isn't doing you any harm. Why should you shove in first? Give me a bit of your orange. I gave you a bit of mine.

Come on, you promised. People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated people and children as well as grown ups. Now, what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man's behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies, well, to hell with your standard.

Nearly always, tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against that standard or that if he does, there's some special excuse. He pretends that there is some special reason in particular why in this case, he took that seat first or it should not or should keep it or what things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange or that something he has turned up which lets him off from keeping that promise but everybody agrees, Lewis says, that there is a standard and nobody can live up to even their own standard. Now, today, when we get on into the sermon, we're gonna get to this part of Romans where Paul is talking about the law. He particularly mentions the 10 commandments. He mentions one of em in particular and when he mentions that when it'll be obvious that he is talking about the 10 commandments, he grew up Jewish, makes sense that that would be his law that he's talking about but I want for you to apply this sermon and to think about what he has said in this chapter on any standard.

Any of that capital r right and capital w wrong. It does exist. And if right and wrong exists, then it's a standard. It's objective. It is one thing.

You can disagree about what it is, but it still is. Does that make sense? Are you with me? Okay. We're gonna start there.

And I'm crackling like crazy, I don't know why. I've tried to pull every wire on me. Renzi, can we just get a handheld mic up here to keep from being annoying?

Check, check.

Read 14 through 25. I'm gonna give you a head start this week by reading it to you. Last week, I asked everybody that was here, if you would read all of chapter seven and have that kinda in your mind, you're already wrestling with it before you get here. So, if you weren't here last week, you didn't know that. I'll still give you a charge here in just a second.

Seven, four, and six begins this way. Four through six begins this way. So, my dear brothers and sisters or therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point. Don't you love it when somebody tells you exactly what they're talking about and they say, this is the point. That's what Paul is saying right here.

Now, he's just used in the first three verses an analogy to marriage. He's saying, there is no question that when a husband dies, that releases the wife from that marital contract, that law. Does that make sense to you? He's saying, there's no question about this. Even if someone were saying, no, she couldn't remarry for whatever reason.

If he were alive, when he dies, that releases her of all legal binding to that guy. So, the first three verses talk about that and four says, so my dear brothers and sisters, based on that analogy, this is the point. You died indicative. Matter of certainty. You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ.

And now, you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. He states this as a matter of fact. He says that he's writing to Christians. He's not writing just an evangelistic letter to everybody who'll read it. He's writing primarily to Christians.

He says, so, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point. You died, Christian, to the power of the law when you died with Christ and now, you're united with the one who is raised from the dead. You are united with Christ last week. Union with Christ is what it's all about and as a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. I underlined and highlighted can because it's a different type of verb than anything that's come in the last little bit here.

Now, for the last two weeks, I've mentioned this each Sunday. There's indicative and imperative. Indicative just state fact. They express certainty. They can ask a question too to clarify something, but the speaker is sure that something is the case.

An imperative is a command. So the speaker desires that something would happen and he might use that and say, you know, do this or do that. In his last chapter, he said, yield to righteousness. That was the only command in that section. It expresses a command.

That's what I started on two weeks ago. This week, we hit a verb that is subjective. Now, for you English, grammar, nerds, and me, you know what subjective is for everybody else? The speaker is presenting something that is possible based on a contingency. Some people say that subjunctive is based on wish or doubt.

It's contingent, though. It means that something is possible. Like, let me just say, those are the three right there. And we still have all three in English, although the subjunctive is disappearing in English. Modern usage lingo is dropping the subjunctive.

Most of us, who cares? Most of y'all, who cares? For me, I care. It matters. Subjunctive makes a difference.

Makes a tremendous difference in the Bible. And Tanya and I, when we were in language school, the hardest thing to help somebody learn in another language, especially if they don't use subjunctive in English, is subjunctive because there are like 25 different rules. I'm oversimplifying horribly by saying this, but I'm gonna give you some examples right here. Okay? Grammar lesson will be over in three and a half minutes, but listen to this.

Indicative, imperative, subjunctive. It matters. Indicative. Carl is paying attention to the sermon. Carl is paying attention to the sermon.

That is I was certain of that. Carl was sitting there and he was rubbing his chin. He was looking directly at me. He was listening. Carl, I might say for this time, Diane is paying attention to the sermon because she's in here.

Ryan was enjoying a tasty breakfast sandwich and if you know Ryan, you know that's true. I'm expressing certainty. He enjoys his sandwiches. Is Eugene playing with the band this Tuesday? I'm asking because I wanna be sure so that I can go hear him play.

Is Eugene playing with the band this Tuesday? Yes, he is. So the imperative, play guitar. Play guitar. Play guitar.

If don't you know it, John Cougar Mellencamp said that. He was telling us to play the guitar. Please, Florine, play a song for us. That's it is expressing a wish, a request, a command towards Florine. Play a song for us.

Subjunctive. The subjunctive is a mood of contingency or possibility. It expresses wish or doubt. You see indicative and imperative a lot and Paul even uses indicative to say, you are a Christian. And then in a command form, he'll say, be what you already are.

Act like it. If you are a Christian, act like it. Subjunctive, propose, Ray, I propose that Rich Stig would preach in my absence. I love it when Rich preaches, I like to hear him preach. I know he's a good guy.

I know that he is prepared. I know that he'll be loving and caring and kind. So, I propose that Rich Stig would preach in my absence. Now, that's my proposal and that's my will involved but it depends on Rich Stig, his will. If he is willing, then, our two wills line up.

Well, it also depends on the elders. So, it's still contingent. Does that make sense? It's a possibility. I'm expressing my wish that he would do it but I'm leaving it up to him or to the elders to decide.

Does that make sense? Are you with me? There's a possibility and I'm trying to influence that possibility. I pray lord that you would heal my aunt's illness. Now, I am not commanding God to heal my aunt's illness.

I'm saying, lord, I pray that you would. This is my request. I bring it humbly to you and I leave space for your will to be involved in this. Do you get it? You understand what I'm talking about?

So, those are the primary uses, the kind of uses that you'll see in scripture mostly. I have one more example. It may be a bit crude but you will remember it. It expresses something that is contrary to reality. We don't see that as much in scripture but if I were built like her, I would wear a bikini to my Bible study, okay?

I have heard that before. I put quotes around it. That is to say that I'm not but there is a possibility and if that were the case, I would wear it to the Bible study. Do you understand? Okay, that's the subjunctive too.

We'll get to that hopefully, not ever but anyway, Romans seven goes on to say from four. So, dear brothers and sisters, this is the point. You died to the power of the law. That's indicative. You died.

This is a statement of fact. It happened. You, Christian, when you said, I will accept your gracious offering of your perfect life on my behalf. You died to Christ. Yeah, I mean, you died with Christ.

I'm sorry. You died to the power of the law. The law no longer have power over you when you accepted Christ. You died to the power of the law. When you died with Christ and now, Paul says, you are united because union with Christ is what it's all about.

You are united with the one who was raised. He doesn't have any doubt about whether or not Christ was raised from the dead. He knew it and he expresses that certainty. You are united with the one who is raised from the dead and as a result, this is subjunctive. It is possible.

It is now possible because of the death of Christ, because of your union with him, it is now possible that you may, might, can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. When we were controlled by our old nature, back in the past before we accepted Christ, when we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us and the law, this is either the law of nature, right and wrong. I'm asking you to go with me on this or for Paul, there's no doubt it was the law, the 10 commandments. Maybe as much as the 613 other Jewish rules around the 10 commandments, the hedges. The sinful desires that were at work within us and the law aroused those evil desires and produced a harvest of sinful deeds resulting in death.

Now, you see harvest and harvest. He's using that little device there. It is possible now. You can, you may, you might produce a harvest of good deeds for God. Whereas before, you were only producing a harvest of sinful deeds resulting in death and death.

But now, we have been released from the law. When? Paul says up here, you died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. But now, we have been released from the law for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now, we can serve God.

It is possible. Now, he doesn't say we will. He doesn't say we are serving God. He's saying we can. That's subjective.

The will of God is clear. Our sanctification is what God wants. He would like for us to do our good works so that he receives the glory. There's no doubt that God would like for us to walk out a loving path and glorify him through our good deeds but it's contingent on whether or not we will do it. God is not gonna interfere with your your free will to do or not do what he'd ask you to do.

Do you get it? Are you there? Paul's gonna keep on. This is really really important. This is central to our practice, how we live our lives.

Now, we can serve God. Not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law but in the new way of living in the spirit. Now, this week because there this chapter is so honestly dense and difficult. Hard. And so many people, commentaries, and commentators are all over the map on this subject as to exactly what Paul is driving at here.

The first part of this, pretty much everybody agrees is about death to the law. Yes, we died to the power of the law when Christ died. When we accepted that. The we can serve God. This is a new living translation of the Bible which is a great translation.

It's modern and it's easy to read. It's simple and if you're a simple person, by all means, grab the New Living. I love it. I really enjoy it. Carl uses it every Monday night.

That's the main thing that we use. That's New Living and it gets the sense of it perfectly. We can serve God. It's possible. This is a straightforward, just a wooden translation.

If you go directly from the Greek, this is what you'll get. Just as straightforward and it sounds a little bit clunky in English but now, we have been released from the law. Having died to that which we were bound, which is the law, in order to serve. It's a purpose clause right there. That in order and that's an infinitive.

So, in order to serve. That's why he did what he did. In order that we might serve. So that it would be possible for us to serve. He gave us grace and it's in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Now, we say all the time that Christ lived and was completely without sin. You hear it every Sunday from me, virtually every Sunday that Christ lived a perfect life. He never sinned. Now, according to the letter of the law, did Jesus sin? Yes.

The Pharisees called him out on it. Each time they caught him doing it. Did he ever step away from the spirit of God? No. This should be a watershed moment for some of us.

We are now able to serve in that manner the way that Christ was serving the people by the spirit of God and not according to the letter of the law. So, that's a straightforward wooden translation. This is my translation. There's no y'all in there because it he doesn't get to that but now, we have been released from the law. Having died to that which we ourselves.

Bring that out. We ourselves were formerly bound. When he says ourselves, I think he's hinting at, there are still other people who are bound up by this law, people. When we ourselves were bound to the law, now we've been released, Expressing the freedom that we have in Christ. In order that we might serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the letter.

And honestly, that we might serve those who are still bound. But now, we've been released from the law. We died to it and we're no longer captive to its power. Now, we can. It is possible.

We might. We may serve God. Not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law but in the new way of living in the spirit. We can produce a harvest of good deeds for God and that the reason that you can call this infinitive right here, subjunctive is because of that. It controls that.

If you're a grammar nerd and you need to know, you know. Okay? John Murray, a great commentator. He's got a big thick book on Romans. I had read everything I could possibly get my hands on for the last month.

I've been reading about Romans seven and I got to his last and it was like a breath of fresh air. In his outline on Romans, he calls this section death to the law. The only reason I mentioned that is because one through six is one thing. He transfers in seven through 13 to something else and then 14 to 25 is something else. So, death to the law.

He connects it very strongly with Romans six fourteen. For sin shall not be master over you, for you're not under law but under grace. So, if you are a believer in Jesus and you have died with him, you've identified with his death, then, you are under grace. For the rest of you, law still applies. Unfortunately, whatever law you apply, whether it's the 10 commandments or those Jewish Torah or your own set of standards, like CS Lewis said, you don't live up to those either.

So, we fail morally. We fall short of the mark. That's what the Bible calls sin. Alright. Just when this question was coming up in the early church, Acts 15 records a time where the apostles and elders got together in Jerusalem and they were trying to decide something.

They were deciding whether it would be required of Gentile believers in Christ that they were circumcised or that they had to follow the Jewish traditions and the Jewish law. And Peter stands up. I wanna read this little section, just a few verses from Acts 15. So the apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue. And that issue was whether or not Christians had to follow the Jewish law.

At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood up and addressed them as follows. Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the good news and believe. So that they could hear the good news and believe. That's a purpose clause. He chose Peter to preach so that they could hear the good news and believe.

Now, God knows people's hearts. Everybody agrees with that and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, Peter says. He made no distinction between us and them for he cleansed their hearts through faith, not through law. Do you get that? It was through faith.

So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? Peter is saying, although he was Jewish and very Jewish and liked his Jewish traditions, we see it throughout the gospels. He felt more comfortable with his traditions. He didn't need anything while he was in Samaria because that would have been unclean. We see it in Acts 10.

Why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we're all saved the same way by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus. Grace through faith, not law through works. You get that? Okay.

So, we'll walk back away from Peter for a second to Paul. This is a new section. One six and then we get to seven. Well, then, Paul's backing up, raised as a Pharisee, raised as a Jew. Am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful?

Five twenty, he says, the law came in so that transgression would increase. That sounds like, well, if the law is making sin worse or making it bigger, then maybe I'm blaming the law. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness, to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our lord. Now, we've had this before and we have this whole section following. Six, seven, and eight follow this and this is the theme for six, seven, eight, the whole time, whole time.

Am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Well, of course not. Meganoito, absolutely not. May it never be. For perish the thought.

God forbid. In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. Paul saying this, he's speaking first person. It was the law that showed me my sin. Now, John Murray and his outline of Romans calls this one a transitional experience.

Paul is relating a transitional time and transitional experience in his life. What was it exactly in the law that made the difference? Transitional experience as in Paul's. It was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, you must not covet.

Now, if you think about the 10 commandments, if you ever think about the 10 commandments, if you think about em, some of the other ones stand out but coveting is probably not the one that you think of the most. For Paul, that was it. Now, he was raised in a Jewish household. Everything that his parents were supposed to do by tradition they did for him, you know, having him circumcised at the right time, on the right day. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews.

He knew this stuff, The Shema they had shared with him all of God's law since the time that he was little. So having any other gods before God would have been unthinkable to Paul. Right? Good Jewish boy. Not making any graven image.

Not likely to do that. Paul was not likely to sculpt something and worship it. Didn't make any sense to him. He knew who God was from early on. Actually, I always think it's that almost always when you see the 10 commandments, they are graven images.

Just wondering. That's engraved right there. It's engraved in stone. It's a graven image. Anyway, they thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

He wouldn't have done that. Not Paul. He wouldn't have done that. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. My goodness, there are tons of rules built up around the Sabbath so that you would keep it holy.

Born in that house, he would not have even thought of breaking the Sabbath. Honoring his father and mother. Well, certainly, not killing. No, Paul? Saul?

Little Saul? Would he have killed anybody? Wait a second. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute and kill Christians, right? But no, he had maybe he was just bringing him before the law.

He didn't kill anybody that didn't deserve it, okay? Adultery? No. Not Paul. Thou shalt not steal.

Nope. No problem with that one. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Lying, he speaks his mind. We know he speaks his mind.

But thou shalt not covet. Think about that one. That's internal. That's a different thing. As Western capitalist, it might be hard for us to imagine, but think about this.

Wanting something that belongs to somebody else. Wanting to have what they have. Whether it's their talent or their resources or their persona, whatever. Wanting something that else has. The two specific examples in the Bible are their donkey or their wife.

Paul doesn't mention the specifics. He mentions coveting though. He says, I would never have known that coveting is even wrong in the first place according to the law of nature. I never would have even known it except that the law of God says, you must not covet. Thou shalt not covet but sin used this command in Paul's life and his transitional experience.

It was when he realized that he coveted what other people had, that it just floored him. He goes on to say, that's what killed him but sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me. If there were no law, sin would not have that power. At one time, I lived without understanding the law. Now, he knew it from the cradle but he didn't understand it.

You know when he understood it? When he realized he was breaking it. When he realized that he actually internally, though he had not done the others, he was coveting what someone else had. It might have actually been their knowledge of the law. It might have been their zeal for God that he was coveting but when he figured out that he was coveting, it awakened all kinds of evil desires in him.

Says, at one time, I live without understanding the law. Now, he obeyed every bit of it that he understood but he lived without understanding it and he says right there that he lived And that is to say that he lived somewhat in bliss. He understood not. You get that? He lived ignorantly of what the law really means.

The law really just shows you your faults. It shows you where you lack. It it has no power to save you. When I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life and I died. So I lived ignorant that I was breaking all these things, but when I figured out that, oh my goodness, me too, I died.

So I discovered that the law's commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. Sin took advantage. This indwelling sin, this part of me, my inmost part, my human sinful nature, sin took advantage of those commands that God had given which are good and deceived me and it used the commands to kill me, to slay me, the old King James says. Do you remember John Bunyan's story? I've used this slide before.

This is actually a woodcut illustration of a passage from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Christian is walking along the way and all of a sudden, he's completely blindsided and he's knocked down and as he tries to get up, he's knocked down again and again and again and he is pleading with whoever's hitting him and saying, let me up. Let me up. Let me up and then he realizes that someone else comes along and picks him up and has mercy and grace and defends him before the guy who is smacking him and when Christian is relaying this story, Christian is in Pilgrim's Progress, relaying the story and as he's relaying it, he goes, oh, the guy who was hitting you was Moses. Moses is hitting you with the 10 commandments. There's no mercy in the 10 commandments.

It's do or don't do. That's it. And he says, he his repeated beating is you. It's like Paul finding out that he's coveting. It awaken all kinds of evil desires and it was just one smack after another.

Until the grace of Christ. So, there we are. Transitional experience for Paul. Was like that but still, the law itself is holy. He wants to back away and say, now, I'm not saying that the law is bad.

I'm not trying to blame the law. I'm saying, the law is holy and its commands are holy and they're right and they're good but how can that be? Did the law which is good, is is that what caused my death? Really? Did the law do that?

Of course not. Mega Neutto. May it never be. God forbid. No, absolutely not.

Sin is what causes death. The ways of sin is death. Three twenty three. Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation unto death. So we can see how terrible sin really is.

It really is that bad and it really is down that deep within us all. So, we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses even God's goods commands for its own evil purposes. It wants to drag us down. I think it for some reason, Flip Wilson, the first crowd wouldn't have known who Flip Wilson was but Flip Wilson, when he was like, the devil made me do it.

You know that? There's the sin that's down within us and it is a part of who we are. Our sinful nature is a part of us and this is hard. It's really hard. Martin Lloyd Jones preached on Romans from 1955 to 1968.

Thirteen years in a church in London preaching on this book and he said, this chapter is one of the most controversial in the Bible. One of the hardest ones to preach too, by the way. I've been studying for this for a long time. It's controversial because nobody agrees on exactly what it says. Nobody agrees exactly who this is talking to this next section.

So, we've gone through death to the law. If you understand indicatively that you died with Christ and you are united with him and you can walk in newness of life, subjunctive. It's possible for you. That's great. You can walk away from the sermon and be happy about that.

It is possible to please God now because he's given his spirit because he has united you with Christ through Christ's death. Amen. If you get that, walk away, great. I'm gonna read this next part. I asked everybody else.

I told you I'm gonna give you a lead in. With this being the most controversial, I wanna read 14 through 25 24 mainly, 14 through 24 and say, I want you to see if you identify with this and see where you come down on it. See where Paul is saying. Now, he's gonna speak in the first person. He's gonna use present tense.

I want you to think about yourself sitting there and see if this resonates with you. If you can identify with him. 14 says, so the trouble is not with the law for it is spiritual and good. Okay. There is such a thing as right and wrong people and the trouble is not with whether there is a right and wrong.

He says, the trouble is with me. For I am all too human. A slave to sin. I don't really understand myself. For I want to do what is right but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I'm doing is wrong, it shows that I agree that the law is good. Do you get that? The fact that you know what you're doing is wrong saying that the law is right. Do you agree with me?

Okay. Does this hit you? Are you identifying with Paul here? But if I know that I'm doing what I'm doing is wrong Renzi, just switch over to this. Hey, here we are.

I know that what I want to do is throw this microphone against the wall. Okay. But if I know that what I'm doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I'm not the one that's doing the wrong. I've got something in me that knows that it's wrong but I still do it.

It's sin that's living in me that does it. My sinful nature. I know that nothing good lives in me on my own. Nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature.

I want to do what is right but I can't. I want to do what is good but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway. Does anybody agree? Can I get amen?

Amen. 20, but if I do, what I don't want to do, I'm not the really the one that's doing wrong because I don't want to do it. It is sin that's living in me that does it. I've discovered this principle of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart.

Now, how can the same person say those two sentences? I love God's law with all my heart. But there's another power within me that's at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that's still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am.

I actually prefer the King James right there. Oh, wretched man that I am. Oh, what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and by death? Now, twenty five goes on to say, thank God the answer is in Jesus Christ our lord.

I'm glad there's a little hope at the end of the chapter there but if you've ever struggled with an addiction, if you've ever struggled with anything, a repetitive sin, a habitual sin in your life, this resonates with you and if you read this and you think, I don't have that problem. I never sinned. You're still living in that ignorance is bliss phase, okay? Sorry, but that's true. You are, you are right now living life not understanding the law.

If you feel like you're living up to it. The answer is in Jesus Christ, our lord. See, so you see how it is. In my mind, I really want to obey God's law. I want to do what's right but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to sin.

Now, the question on this is who the man? Okay, who is this person? Paul is speaking first person so we can say it is Paul but is it Paul now in the present time when he's writing or is it Paul before he was a believer when he was a Pharisee? Is it Paul speaking first person but from the unregenerate man and unbelievers standpoint presenting that as a lost person or a non believer? Who the man?

In fact, I'll just do this. In Romans seven fourteen and twenty five, various commentators have come down in different people. Is it an unregenerate person? A non believer, unbeliever, someone who is identified with Adam, an unregenerate, not born again, somebody. Is it a man who is under conviction of the Holy Spirit but he's not yet persuaded that Christ is the answer.

Is that a possibility? Some people have put that forward. Is it a carnal Christian? Now, this opens a whole another can of worms. This is what some people would say does not even exist.

There's no such thing as a carnal Christian. Once you become a Christian, you are by God's decree, a spiritual being and you will be sanctified. You will be coming towards him. Paul uses the term though, fleshly and he in this passage absolutely says, you know, I've got both things going on. I'm drawn this way but I do this.

Is it a carnal Christian? Or is it a bonafide straight up believer that is still at war with his own sin? I think I knew where I came down and the reason I didn't preach this message last week is because I wanted to explore all of those other options by everybody who believes that. I still think I know where I am but I'm going give you a week to think about it, okay? Is it one who has achieved moral perfection?

I think we can cross that one off the list. I don't think Paul thought that about himself and I don't think Paul thinks that about any of us. He knows that there's a sanctification process. It's interesting. I read three articles this week.

One of them was by Tom Shriner and it was entitled Romans seven does not describe your Christian experience, okay? I read the next article on the same website and it was Romans seven does describe your Christian experience by John Piper. I agree with both of these guys. I love their writings, both of em, most of the time but they're in absolutely opposite views on this one and then, D Martin Lloyd Jones, the guy who preached for thirteen years on this book, said, believer or unbeliever is not the point of Romans seven. What he went on to say was, the point of Romans seven is there is a very real struggle between doing and being.

That make sense? He says that the key to this whole thing is that Christ and the Holy Spirit are not mentioned at all in 14 through 24. That struggle that Paul was going through is within ourselves no matter if we're unregenerate, regenerate, carnal, or bonafide. Does not matter where you fall on that context. If you're trying within yourself on your own to do good apart from the Holy Spirit and apart from Christ, you can't do it and you're going to find yourself contradicting yourself all the time and stay admired down in slavery to sin.

That's what he says is the point because anybody could read this chapter and get something out of it. I like this quote. It's not exactly what I'm talking about but I liked it enough to still share it with you anyway because some of us are perfectionist and I see y'all. I actually am not a perfectionist in most ways. Really?

You've heard me do the announcements? Yeah. I'm a motivated type B personality. I'm not a type A. I'm not a CEO.

I don't want to be. I enjoy people. I really, really, really believe that God loves people. I love God. I love people and I try not to get caught in the perfection trap but I know some of you do.

The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. I would agree with that. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time. Amen. I agree with that too.

Edwin Bliss said that but it's not this Paul's sentiment though. Paul's sentiment is in there. When he was a Pharisee, he was trying to shoot for everything but he could not get over that coveting thing when he was honest with him himself about it. So, in place of hoodie man, let's look, which one are you? Which man or woman are you?

Are you an unregenerate, not born again, somebody? You're just going through life and you hadn't really ever considered this question and even when you fall short, you just don't know what you'd do about it. You hope there's nothing after this. Are you unregenerate? Are you under conviction?

I mean, you're in a church but you're not yet persuaded Jesus is the answer or that Jesus is the only answer. Are you a carnal Christian? Are you somebody that absolutely believes that Jesus is the Christ but you still struggle and you do it enough where you'd say, I'm more fleshly than I am spiritual. If you admit that, that'll go a long way, I think. Are you a bonafide believer that's still at war with his own sin?

Or have you achieved absolute moral perfection? Because if you have, I would be glad for you to preach next Sunday. I'm just kidding. I have not come even close. I I feel like it's this one.

I'll give you a week to think about it but I feel like it's that one. It's somebody who's honest about their walk. And I think that's it. My Jesus, I love thee. We will try this bass guitar and piano trio one more time.

Would you stand with us and sing, my Jesus, I love thee. Now, finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice and aim for restoration. Comfort one another and agree with one another. Live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit would be with you all. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.