Alright brethren, we're going
to begin. We'll be starting in Romans 7. Romans 7, verses 7 through 13. Alright. Now this week Paul explains to
us how the law is used, how the Spirit uses the law to reveal
sin in the converted. sinner, right? The soul that's
been converted, the spirit takes the law and it reveals sin to
us. It shows us the exceeding sinfulness
of sin so that we're taught not to trust in the flesh, to have
no confidence in the flesh, to stop looking to the flesh for
our salvation and to work a righteousness for ourselves before God. The
spirit, remember, salvation is a revelation so The Spirit's
going to reveal this truth to us and show us, and shut us up
rather, to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have no other hope any
other way. And actually it says in verse
14, we're not getting there today, but he says, for we know that
the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. This
flesh is carnal. It's not going to be improved
in any way or manner. And so it takes the Spirit of
God to reveal these things to us. Because by nature, we're
in darkness. We're corrupted in Adam. We have no spiritual life, no
means of saving ourselves. We've got to be brought to see
that our only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our title is The
Law's Ministration of Death. The Law's Ministration of Death. And first we'll look at the question
that Paul raises. Is the law sin? Is the law sin? And then we'll see when the Spirit
reveals, when He takes that blindness off our eyes, and we see the
light of the law, what the law is showing us, then we see what
sin's response is in us to the law. Then we'll see what sin's
response is under that light of the law, so that we're brought
to die to self. So again, Paul's clarifying for
us what the purpose of the law is. Paul's doing this wonderful
job by the power and influence of the Spirit, just showing us
and building this doctrine, this hope that we have in Christ.
He's stripping us down in the flesh, and turning all our heart's
focus on Christ, to glory and rejoice in Him alone. All right,
so no longer are we married to the law. The law is not the believer's
lawgiver. He's not our husband anymore.
When we were in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, in the flesh,
we didn't know We had our husband in the law. Our husband wasn't
Christ. We didn't know the truth of Christ, but now we're dead
to that law, that we may be married to another, even the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, verse 7, Romans 7, 7 says,
what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Is the law sin? God forbid, or
absolutely not. The law is not sin. But instead,
the heaven-born soul, the heaven-born saint, born by the Spirit, is
going to learn the spiritual use of the law and what the law
does upon a converted soul. and shining the light upon our
sin. And we'll know this by experience.
So he says, verse seven, what shall we say then? Is the law
sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. And he gives us an example. For
I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt
not covet. Now, if you remember up in Romans
7, verse one, Paul tells us who he's speaking to. He says, I
speak to them that know the law. And I'm speaking to those that
know the law. And we saw a couple weeks ago how that those that
know the law are those who have been converted. Those who now
know what the Spirit is teaching us, showing us that we cannot
be saved by these works of the law. We hear what the law is
saying. And the legalist, the one who
has confidence in the flesh, they think they know the law.
And they would accuse you who hope in Christ alone. They would
accuse you of not knowing the law. And they think they know
it. And they're proud of their accomplishments
in the law. And they're trusting in the law. But we know that anyone who finds
a righteousness in looking to the law, those that look to the
law and say, I'm doing pretty good. I'm doing better and better. They are the ones who are yet
carnal and fleshly. They're walking in the flesh.
Their confidence is in the flesh. And in reality, While they think
that they're holy and righteous, they're actually serving the
body of sin. They're yet members of the body
of sin. They have no part in the body
of Christ. They're not under His rule and
authority. They're under the rule's authority. I mean, they're
under the law's authority and rule, which was given to that
body of sin, which was given in Adam. and were corrupt in
Adam, in the flesh. So the legalist hasn't heard
the law. And so Paul says, I had not known
sin, but by the law. So in other words, now, being
converted by the Spirit, now he knows the law. And now he
knows what sin is, because it's been revealed in him. He's been
brought to see, I'm the sinner. I can't work a righteousness
of my own. He becomes acquainted with the
law and what real sin is through experience and the Spirit showing
him what he is by nature according to the law, according to the
light of the law. So, the saved sinner is brought
to know and to see that prior to salvation, everything I thought
about the law, whether the law of Moses or I thought by the
light of nature in my own conscience, conscience, what I thought was
right, I now see was all wrong. Everything I hoped in, everything
I tried to do, all turned out to be wrong, vile, offensive
to God even, right? And so we see that we were zealous,
Religious, you know, zealous in religion, but we were zealous
for a false religion and religious error. We were zealous for those
things, all right? And so the reality is even though
I had law, some form of law, and I was doing my best at keeping
it and thinking I was doing a pretty good job, the reality is I was
no better than a manslayer or a thief or a liar or a whoremonger. I was no different than any other
sinner in the flesh. Now, when the Spirit came with
power, Paul says, my blindness left me. It was taken away. And that's when I saw sin in
me. And that's what he's teaching
us here. Over in Acts 9, verse 17, in Acts 9, verse 17 and 18,
we're told about Paul's conversion. And the Lord revealed Saul's
conversion, right? He revealed to a man named Ananias
and said, go to Saul, and revealed him, preached the gospel to him.
And so in verse 17, Acts 9, 17, He comes in and says, Brother
Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way
as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy
sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there
fell from his eyes, as it had been, scales. It really happened
to him there, but it's a picture of every single one of us by
nature. We have scales on our eyes, a
veil on our heart. We're shut up to the things of
God. We have no spiritual sight. We don't hear or see. So this
law which is given to us in Adam, we don't understand it. We don't
see the spirituality of the law. We don't know the truth. And
what the law is showing us is we're dead sinners corrupted
in Adam. This is righteousness and you're not me. You're not
coming up to the righteousness of God. You've come short of
the glory of God and his righteousness and holiness. And so, these scales
fell from his eyes and he received sight forthwith and arose and
was baptized. All right, so now he had light.
He could see light and he saw over the course of, what was
it, 13 years when he went away and nobody heard from him for
a long time. The Spirit was revealing these truths to him and he saw,
wow, I thought I was righteous in the law. I'm nothing but a
guilty, totally depraved sinner. I need the grace and the glory
of God revealed to me in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's
what God did for him and what he does for every single one
of his children. Now, in that light, let me show
you something. Look there at Romans 7 verse 6. Romans 7 verse 6 But now we are
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held,
when we were shut up to the things of God and couldn't see our need
of salvation, He says, but now in Christ we are delivered from
the law that we should serve in newness of spirit and not
in the oldness of the letter. He uses those terms, the oldness
of the letter. Now, turn over to 2 Corinthians
3. Hold your place in Romans 7 and
go to 2 Corinthians 3. And look at the end of verse
five. I'll show you a few verses here in 2 Corinthians 3. At the
end of verse five, Paul says, our sufficiency is of God. In
other words, there's nothing special about me, or you, or
any of us in Christ. Our flesh is just dead, corrupt,
hunk of flesh. But our sufficiency is of God,
meaning that God is the one revealing to us his righteousness and the
truth of our salvation that it's all fixed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse six, who also hath made
us able ministers of what? The law? No, able ministers of
the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. Why? Because the letter killeth, right? The letter killeth, but it's
the spirit that giveth life. So we're called to preach Jesus
Christ to minister to you what Christ has accomplished in his
death when he justified us by the shedding of his own blood
and what he accomplished in his resurrection that we now as he
lives so we live in him and by him meaning everything necessary
for our sanctification and our walk and our life is all fixed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without Him, we're nothing. In
Him, we have everything necessary to stand before God for all eternity
in perfect holiness and righteousness. And so He sends forth His Spirit
to reveal this in our hearts by faith. We preach it, but He's
the one that reveals it to each of you as it pleases Him. Alright,
now when the Spirit comes and gives light, even while we're
yet ignorant of these truths, and ignorant of these things,
the Spirit is the one that removes this blindness. It removes the
scales from our eyes, and it removes the blindness of our
heart, and that's when the letter killeth. does its work, the letter
of the law, because now, being awakened by the Spirit, we see,
wait a minute, I was looking to and trusting in this law,
not seeing all the while I was condemned by it. I wasn't pleasing
God. I was a filthy sinner all that
time, thinking that I was doing righteousness and good before
God, and so all our righteous works, like Paul, become dumb
to us. They become filthy rags, worthless,
and have done nothing for us, to profit us before holy God. But, all right, so that's the
ministration of the law. It's ministering to us death
in ourselves, death in confidence of the flesh. All right, that's
what it's showing. It's showing us this is the truth
of God, and you're not measuring up. But the Spirit ministereth
life to you. So even though the law says you're
a guilty sinner, the glory, the good news is that, yes I am,
but in Christ I'm alive. He's my hope and my glory and
my joy, my justification. He's my life and my sanctification. And so now we walk in newness
of spirit. never looking back to the law.
The law is good, it's right, but we don't look there, because
as we'll see, when you start looking at the law, it provokes
that flesh again. But when you look to Christ,
your mind's not even on the things of the flesh. And when your flesh
is provoked and lusting for things, you look to Christ, and all that
is put away by His power and His strength and His glory. You're
never going to put it away looking to the law and beating yourself
with the law. It's never going to be put away.
It's just, Lord, I see what I am in the flesh, but thanks be to
God for you, for your work of justification, for shedding your
blood and putting me to death in you that I might live together
with you in your resurrection. were saved looking to Christ.
And in the Old Testament, that's how every saint was saved as
well. No saints were saved in looking to and having confidence
in the law. They were saved looking to Christ,
believing the promise of God given to the woman there in the
garden, that by her seed, God would provide a child, a man
child, that would come and crush the power of Satan, crush his
head, destroy him. that he would do that. They were
saved looking to Christ. But how many millions were alive
under the old dispensation, under the old covenant, just as there
are millions now under the new covenant, yet having no understanding
of it and not seeing the light of the law, yet being blind and
dead in trespasses and sins and having no knowledge of what the
law's purpose is for us. And this is what Paul is saying
to us in 2 Corinthians 3, look at verse 9, 4, if the ministration
of condemnation be glory, that's what the law is doing, the law
is saying we're all sinners, condemned in the flesh, if that's
glorious, that's the work of God doing that for us, much more
does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. The ministration
of life to you. Yeah, looking to that law, we
are condemned sinners, we're filthy sinners. Looking to Christ,
hoping in Him, trusting in Him, we're righteous. We see our righteousness
in Christ. But, verse 14, but their minds
were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done
away in Christ. So that's how the law is an administration
of death to us. And we'll see this more now.
Let's go to our next point, which is sin's response under the light
of the law. And I'm excited to show you these
things because this wording here in this part of the text can
be a little confusing, especially to us It could just be kind of
confusing, so I hope this will shed some light on what Paul
is saying. So Paul here is confirming this
truth to us about the law's purpose. And he says, verse 8, but sin,
right? So now he's alive. He's heard
the gospel. But sin, he says, taking occasion
by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. That word concupiscence means
lust. It's the same word as the word
in verse seven that's translated lust, but here they translated
it concupiscence. And it's talking about our natural
inclination to sin. The fact that we in Adam are
sinners, our flesh is corrupt, it's vile, and we have this lust
in the flesh to sin. Now, that word is the same, lust
and concupiscence, and it means, listen to this, desire. craving,
longing, desiring for what is forbidden. What God forbids us
to have. It's lust. That's what the lusts
in the flesh are. It's desiring that which is forbidden
from us, that we're not to touch, not to have. And so the root
of that, if you think about it, what's forbidden, what does that
sound like? It goes right back to the garden,
doesn't it? The fruit was forbidden from
Adam and Eve. You can have every other fruit
of the tree here in this garden, but of the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. It
was forbidden to them, and it provoked there, in our sinful
flesh, When something's forbidden from us, that's the very thing
that we want. We say, wait a minute. You're
saying I can't have that? Well, watch this. And we go and
we take it. We want to do that. And so the
law's work is to discover that root of sin in us. It discovers
that root of bitterness in us, that enmity that's in us, that
desiring of that which is forbidden, which was discovered in our father
Adam. From which we descended. We're
corrupt just like him. And it's exposing that to us.
And so to the degree that the natural man understands the law,
right? Because even in nature we could
have a certain understanding of things. When you submit yourself
under the law, you're putting yourself under its constraints,
right? And so naturally, they're looking at what the law is saying,
don't do that. And so now they're trying to
resist that in the flesh, as far as they can see it, or at
least understand it, right? And so they're trying to resist
those lusts and that which is desirable to the flesh. And they're
doing so in the power and strength of their own flesh. under the
law, trying to use the law to make themselves righteous. And
they don't see that they're not righteous. They're not provoked
by it because they have a veil over their heart. They don't
see what the law is saying. They don't see that at the root
of it, oh, at my very core, I'm sinful. I'm dead in sins. And
so they don't have that light. And so they're not provoked by
what the law is saying to them. They're not provoked. I mean,
some people don't even bother. That sounds like it's constraining.
I don't even want to be religious. And so they just go their own
way. But some people, right, they delight. They try to be
religious. They try to be faithful to it. And so they're trying
to do in their flesh what they think the law is saying. And
for many, they think they're doing a pretty good job because
they have a veil over their heart. And that's what Paul says in
verse 8. Look back now at Romans 7, verse 8. He said, for without
the law, sin was dead. And what he's saying there is
when I was dead in trespasses and sins, I was blind to these
things, sin lay dormant, asleep in me. It wasn't active. It wasn't
provoked. It wasn't pricked. Everything
was fine. I wasn't provoking sin. It was inactive. And so I was
blind to the truth or to the constraints of the law. It only
went so far so as I was capable of doing what I thought the law
was saying. And I had no light, so it wasn't
getting to the root of the matter. It wasn't forbidding me from
what I really wanted to do in the flesh. It wasn't touching
me yet. I didn't prick it at all. But after his eyes were
opened by the Spirit, light of the gospel, when he revealed
Christ to him, then his soul felt the constraint of the law,
and he saw that he was desiring that which was forbidden from
him. And then it began to get to the root of the matter, and
then that sin which was laying dormant in him was put to the
real test. under the light of the law. And
he saw the spirituality of the law and saw, wait a minute, I'm
a filthy ragged sinner. I've got no hope or righteousness
in me. And so it's the spirit, it's
in that light of the spirit, in the light of the spirit that
brings to light the law so that it awakens and goes to the root
of the matter in us and shows us what we are by nature. You
think about in John 4 when Christ was speaking to the Samaritan
woman, think about the Samaritans. They had somehow managed to justify
their very rebellion against the light of the law. And they
knew that they were taught that they were to worship in the temple. And they were to sacrifice their
animals there at the temple. But there was a schism, so they
managed to justify their rebellion against God. And the woman had
said, well, You say we're supposed to go, you know, you Jews say
we're supposed to go to the temple, and we say that up here on this
mountain we're supposed to worship, right? They were all confused
and convinced themselves that what they were doing in sin was
acceptable to God, because that's what we can do, right? In the
strength of our own flesh, we can convince ourselves that whatever
religion we stumble into, that's good enough for God. And Christ
said to her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father. So forget about your petty little argument between
you and the Jews, because all of you are sinning. You on this
mountain and them down there in Jerusalem, you're all full
of sin. None of you are keeping the law.
But, he says, verse 23, the hour cometh and now is when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit,
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth. So before that, when Paul was
a spiritually dead Pharisee, he was happy with the understanding
that he had of the law. He thought he was doing good.
But verse nine says, as he says, I was alive without the law once. I had the law. but no real spiritual
understanding or light about the law, so I was proud of all
my accomplishments in the law. I was happy. I thought I was
making real progress as a Pharisee under the law. But when the commandment
came, and it forbid everything to me that the law contained,
and I saw, wait a minute, I'm desiring these things, and I
want these things, and I have these lusts, But now I'm seeing,
with the light of the law, I'm seeing that I'm a sinner, right? And it says there, sin revived. Once it came striking at the
root, when the commandment came and it struck at the root of
my corruption in me, in Adam, then sin revived. It awoke in
me and I died. He said, I knew then and there,
I was a totally depraved sinner who cannot save himself. Even
with this understanding, I can't change the fact that I lust for
those things that are forbidden me in the law, all right? And so, at that point, his days
of lawmongering and his contentment in being a Pharisee was over. It died. And he died. It all
died. And he became nothing. And all
his hope was fixed in Christ because now he was shut up to
having any hope or confidence in the flesh. he said he saw,
he saw I am a filthy sinner with nothing to boast him. And it
was then and there that everything he did and accomplished as a
Pharisee, it was done. And he said, I don't want anything
to do with it that I may win Christ. And that's why he tells
us in Galatians, for example, he said, I through the law am
dead to the law that I might live unto God. He stopped looking
to the law for righteousness and trying to work a righteousness
under the law. And he committed himself to God. which he did by the Spirit, by
the power of God. That's the only way that any
of us trusts and hopes in God. And so under the law, he said
in Acts, I was zealous toward God, zealous toward God, but
I was zealous in ignorance, zealous in religion, zealous in dead
works. It didn't do me any good. All right, so now with the spiritual
understanding alive in Christ, Paul says in Romans 7, verse
10, and the commandment, which was ordained to life I found
to be unto death. The whole law is contained here
but it seems to have a peculiar focus on the 10th commandment. That was the example he gave
us, the 10th commandment which In Exodus 20 verse 17 says, thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his
ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. And you
think about it, why is that so hard? Because it forbids the
providence of our God. And in breaking that 10th commandment,
You've now broken the whole of the law, the whole thing, because
you're saying, God, why didn't you give me this? I want this.
And God says, I didn't give you that. But what I gave you, be
content with that. No, I'm not content. I want to
do this. I want to do that. I want this and that for me.
I deserve that. Why does my neighbor have that?
Why can't I have that? Why did you deny me of that thing?
Now you no longer love God and serving Him and trusting Him.
You're now your own God. You're an idolater. That's what
we become. It exposes what we are by nature. And then we hate them in our
hearts and we want what they have and want to steal what they
have and take what they have and lie about things. It all
gets broken there. in that 10th commandment. And
that's what he says then in verse 11. For sin taking occasion by
the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. Paul was deceived until Christ
came and then sin in him was put to that true test. Then it
began to show him and be revealed in his heart everything that
he is by nature, that corrupt sinner. But by grace, Paul came
to know, with an understanding now, I'm totally depraved, and
he ceased trying to work a righteousness. And that's what the Spirit does
when he reveals to us what we are. When we see what sinners
we are, we give up trying to convince ourselves that we can
do it. and we fall upon the mercy of God asking him to forgive
us and have mercy upon us and the only way we find that mercy
is in the grace of God in Jesus Christ his son which he reveals
to us through the gospel and gives us his spirit whereby we
hear what he's saying and are so convinced by the light of
the gospel that yeah when I keep looking back to that law I see
there's no No protection there. There's no hiding place there.
It's just a bright light. that shows me my sin, but in
Christ I see that it's all His mercy and grace and glory and
power which saves me and puts away my sin. All right, verse
12, wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and
just and good. It's not enticing me to sin,
it's not telling me to sin, but my flesh is. Verse 13, was then
that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. What the
law does do is it reveals our lusts and our passions for what
they are. It shows us that they're sin. That's what he says, verse 13.
But sin, that it might appear, sin. Sin is the death of us. And so the Spirit's revealing
that to us. This is death. And you're not
going to be saved by trying to beat it with the law because
of the weakness of your flesh. Verse 13 again, it's working
that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is
good. So sin takes the law which is
good. It takes the law which is good
and that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. So it takes that which is good
and it slays me. It kills me. It brings me to
see I'm dead. So that's what the light of the
law is showing us when the Spirit reveals it to us. So that we
stop trying to work a righteousness by that law. So it's the Spirit's
work that makes us hear the perfection of the law. And then sin's awakened
in us, provoking us, and it works that death in us so that we see,
I'm nothing in my flesh. And we're made willing and glad
to hear. the gospel of Jesus Christ. And
we're given that faith by the Spirit to believe and trust Him. So, I'm going to just read Romans
7, verse 5, followed by verse 13, because I think they pair
nicely together. Because before the law came,
we were proud sinners, proud of our fruit, even though it
was fruit unto death, and an act of the Spirit comes and gives
light to the law and shows us what sinners we are, we cease
trusting in it. So Romans 7, 5, for when we were
in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did
work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. That's
why as yet we were deceived in darkness. Verse 13, was then
that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin,
that it might appear sin, working death in me, by that which is
good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."
So I hope that provides more clarity on what Paul is saying
there and teaches us that, yeah, indeed, don't trust in the law. You're not going to find any
hope there. Look to Christ. That's how we continue to walk.
We don't now, in Christ, look back to the law. That's only
going to provoke the flesh again. But keep your eye fixed upon
Christ. And by his spirit, you'll walk. and newness of life, trusting
Him, being thankful to Him for what He's accomplished in the
salvation that He wrought for us by the death of Himself. All
right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank You for Your glory, Your grace, Your mercy, Your salvation
in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, take these weak, feeble
words of clay and reveal them in the hearts of your saints.
Lord, make it known and make it plain that there is no hope
of salvation in the law, but that we see what sinners we are,
totally depraved sinners unable to work a righteousness in ourselves.
And Lord, show us Christ. Show us our need of Him and show
us perfect satisfaction and peace in Christ our Savior. It's in
His name we pray and give thanks. Amen.