Alright, Romans chapter 7. Now, as I was reading over this
passage recently, I saw a word that I never noticed before.
The word is also. It's something how one little
word in scripture can just open up the scripture to you. Every
word is significant. And this little word also, I
want you to see it here in Romans 7 verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. In Romans 6, Paul declared that
the believers are dead to sin by the body of Christ. He said back there in Romans
6, because we're dead to sin by the body of Christ, we're
freed, justified from sin. Look at Romans 6, 6. Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed. that henceforth we should not
serve sin, we should not be the slaves of sin, and sin won't
reign over us. Remember how in Romans 5 he said,
ìAs sin reigned unto death, grace shall reign through righteousness
by Christ Jesus.î He's saying, once you're justified from all
your sin, sin won't reign over you anymore. And then, being
risen with Christ and having Christ reigning in us by the
new birth, through faith, through the gospel, he says we're set
at liberty from sin's reign and sin's dominion over our persons.
Look here at verse 17, Romans 6, 17. But God be thanked, you
were the servants of sin. You were slaves to sin. That's
all you could do. You could not believe on God.
Look at this, but you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you being then made free. That word means
set at liberty from sin. Then made free from sin's dominion
over your person by his grace. That's how we believe on Christ.
And so he's saying here He says, you became the servants of righteousness.
And so, Paul is showing us, he showed us in Romans 6, it's impossible
for a believer to continue in sin. It is an utter impossibility. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? He's not saying, since we're
dead to sin, we ought to. He said, you can't. You can't, because we're justified
from sin and because Christ has the dominion in the heart of
His child. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Now in chapter 7, Paul declares something else that Christ accomplished
for His people. Verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. The
same as chapter 6 assures every believer that sin shall not have
dominion over us, chapter 7 assures every believer that the law shall
have no more dominion over us. God gives this assurance to every
sinner who trusts His dear Son. He said back there in verse chapter
6, sin shall not have dominion over you. And here's the reason.
For you are not under the law. Because the law does not have
dominion over you. But you're under grace. Grace
reigns. Grace reigns supreme. That's
why. That's why. So here's our divisions. First of all, there's a known
fact. Verse 1, Romans 7, 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, hatheth a law, hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth? And then here's the second point.
We have an illustration of this using marriage. For the woman
which hath a husband's bound by the law to her husband so
long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's
loose from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she should be called an
adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she's free from that
law, so that she's no adulteress, though she be married to another
man. And here's thirdly, this is the main point, this is the
good news, verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married
to another, even to him who's raised from the dead, that we
should, and the word there shall, bring forth fruit unto God. And then lastly, He gives us
the difference between being under law and being under grace. Here's the difference. Verse
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 when we were under the
law. Sin had dominion over us and the law had dominion over
us. We didn't produce anything. Verse 6, But now we are delivered
from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we
shall serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the
latter. Now let's look at these. First
of all, a known fact. Verse 1, Know ye not, brethren,
for I speak to them that know the law, that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth? Now Paul's not only speaking
to Jews here, he's speaking to all brethren, all believers,
Jew and Gentile, who know the law. And he says here, this is
a known general fact, as long as a man is alive, the law is
alive to the man. The law hath dominion over a
man as long as he liveth. That's true of all law. You know,
the laws of New Jersey, And the laws of this country have dominion
over us till the day we die. And then they don't have any
more. They can't say another word to us. Period. We're free
from them. Free from them. See, when you're
dead, when you're dead to the law, when the law looks at you
and says, well he's dead, I can't say anything else to him anymore.
That means the law is dead to you. Because the laws, rules
and regulations have no more dominion over you. So as long as we live, the law
of God has dominion over us. It demands perfect obedience,
it demands death to all who disobey. As long as we live. Now listen
to this, let me ask you a question. You know how Paul talked about
the law that was contrary to us and Christ took it out of
the way and nailed it to His cross? Was he talking about the
ceremonial law? That's what, you know, most people
divide the law and they say, well, he took that away, but
he didn't take the moral law away. What was the law that condemned
us as guilty sinners? The ceremonial law was a shadow
of good things to come. It pictured Christ and showed
us all about Christ. The moral law is what condemns
you as guilty. That's what declared us guilty
sinners. That's why Paul said that it's
the ministration of death written and engraven in stones. When Moses went up to the mount,
he wrote the Ten Commandments. And it's the ministration of
death. It's meant to minister to you
and declare you guilty and bring you to the end of you and kill
you. That's what it's for. That's
what it's for. God gave it to reveal to His
people our great offense in breaking His one law in the garden when
we send in Adam. He said He gave it that the offense
might abound. That offense in the garden. Adam
and all his posterity were bound to obey that one law in the garden. And Adam and all his children
were under that legal covenant. Adam and all his house were under
that legal covenant, brethren. And when Adam sinned, we died. We broke it. We broke that law. And He gave the law at Mount
Sinai to show us how offensive We are to God because we transgressed
that law. And this is so of all men because
Adam is the father and head of all who would be born of him
and that's everybody. And so we all died, we all became
guilty in Adam. And so that law which was contrary
to us, that law, that moral law at Sinai is a ministration of
death to us. Why is that? Because in Galatians
3.10 Paul said, as many as are of the works of the law. And
the legalists will say, now he's just talking about ceremonial
law. He didn't say that. He said, as many as are of the
works of the law. He said, you just pick whichever
one you want to be under, you're under all of them. As many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. All things. James 2.10 says, Whoever shall
keep the whole law and offend in one point, he is guilty of
all of it. And the Lord told us now, we
are talking about in the heart. We are talking about your thoughts.
So the law of God declares all sinners guilty and the wages
of sin is death. And that law has dominion over
a man as long as he lives. We have to be, in other words,
the law has dominion. It's got to be honored. We're
going to have to die. We're going to have to die under it before
we can be released from that law. Now secondly, here's an
illustration using marriage. Verse 2, the woman has a husband,
she's bound to the law of her husband so long as he liveth.
So long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's
loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she's
free from that law. So that she's no adulteress.
No, she'd be married to another man. Now, there's a scriptural
exception to this law in the case of fornication and abandonment. But Paul's not dealing with that
here. And so we're not dealing with that here. He's given us
his illustration to show us something about the law and about Christ. Now the law of marriage must
be honored. He says here, a woman is bound
by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. If her husband
lives, she marries another man, she's an adulteress. But if her
husband be dead, she's free from the law. She's free from the
law. She's no adulteress, though she
be married to another man. Now get what he's saying. Here's
what he's illustrating. He's illustrating how that every
sinner by nature is married to the law of God by nature. As we come into this world, you,
me, and everybody are under obligation, bound to the law of God. We are married to it in that
sense because we broke it. We broke it in Adam and the law
must be honored. Justice has got to be carried
out. We must be slain by the law. Just like he's saying here, a
wife must honor the law of her husband. He's saying here,
he's telling us that God's holy law has got to be honored. God's
just, it's got to be honored. So the law has dominion over
us as long as we live. Until that law executes us, we're
bound to it under its curse. It's got to execute us. for God
to be just. So we got to die to the law in
order for the law to be dead or for us to be dead to the law
and be free from that law. But once that law kills us in
justice, once it kills us in justice, we're no longer bound
to the law. We're free from that law so that
we can be married to another husband. Now, here's the good news. Here's
the good news. This is his main point right
here. This is what he's illustrating. Verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Believer,
the same way that we became dead to sin, We became dead to the
law. The same way, by the body of
Christ. Look back there in Romans 6,
6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him. He's talking about our old man
of sin. That the body of sin might be
destroyed. that henceforth we should not
be the slave and be under the dominion of sin. For he that
is dead is freed, and that word is justified from sin. That's what Paul is illustrating.
If you're dead, the law has no more dominion over you. And likewise,
he says here in verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ. We are dead to sin by
the body of Christ crucified on the cross and we are dead
to the law by the body of Christ crucified on the cross. The Son
of God took that body of flesh like unto His brethren and His
bride which the Father prepared unto Him, He loved her, all His
elect, the church, His bride and so He came forth and was
obedient unto the death of the cross as the representative and
head of his bride, of all God's elect. And brethren, his obedience
to the law is the obedience of every believer to the law. Men
will tell you, well you got to keep the law, the moral law.
Brethren, I have kept the moral law as perfect as a man can keep
it. Christ did it for me. Christ
did it for me. Go back to Romans 3. That is
exactly what this means. Verse 31. Do we then make void
the law through faith? Are we antinomians that have
been accused of being? God forbid. Yea, through faith
we establish the law. because Christ established it
for us. If you don't believe me, like I said to you before,
read the next chapter. He talks about Abraham having
fully established the whole law of God 430 years before the law
ever gave it at Mount Sinai. All the way he did that was believing
on Christ the Lord. His obedience is the believer's
obedience and his death to the law is our death to the law. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And Paul says, Wherefore,
my brethren, not only does sin not have reign over us anymore,
neither does the law. Because you also are dead to
the law by the body of Christ. Indeed, He fulfilled all the
types of the ceremonial law. He fulfilled all those two. They're
all fulfilled, but it was that moral law that cursed us. It
was that law. It was the Ten Commandments engraved
in stone that declared us guilty. That was the ministration of
death. And Christ took the place of His elect, of His bride, under
that law, bearing our sin, and He stood there condemned in our
room. Instead, we just sang it in the
first song we sang. Being made a curse for us, He
honored that law establishing it in full for His people. And I've heard people say, that's
just how He justified it. That's how He fulfilled the righteousness,
the perfect positive side of it too. He said, love for God
and our neighbors, the righteous fulfillment of the law. Didn't
He? Remember that? He said, love,
you love God and your neighbor as yourself, that is the righteousness
of the law. He's the only one that ever did
it. He loved God, His Father, and He loved His bride so much
He was willing to come forth and bear our sin and bear our
punishment to declare God just and justifier and to save His
people from all our sin. That is the positive righteousness
of the law and what it requires. Is it not? John tells us in his
epistle, brethren, he laid down his life for us. We ought to
lay down our life for one another. That's the fulfillment. It's
love. It's love. He perfectly loved
the Father. He perfectly loved all His brethren. And in Him, we perfectly love
the Father and we perfectly love all our brethren. Perfectly. And He did it by bearing the
sin and justifying us from the penalty of that law that we broke.
The positive and negative wrapped up right there on the cross is
totally, thoroughly fulfilled by Christ Jesus the Lord. You
remember how before Moses died, Moses represents the law. Moses was the one through whom
the law came. Grace and truth came through
Christ Jesus. So God wasn't going to let Moses
take the children of Israel into the promised land. For the law
can't take you into God's presence. It can't take you into the promised
land of heaven. It can't. And so Moses had to
die. And who took him in? Joshua. Jesus. Savior. He took him in. But right before he died, do
you know one of the things, there were several things Moses did,
and they're all significant, point of the cry, but one thing
specifically he did, he laid his hands on Joshua. He laid his hands on Joshua and
he bore witness that he was full of the Spirit and full of wisdom
and that he approved of him. That he would deliver God's people
to the promised land. That's what he bore witness to.
The law of God lays its hand on Christ. Remember, the righteousness
of God is manifest without your keeping the law, but it's witnessed
by the law. The law of God lays its hand
on Christ Jesus and bears witness and says, He's full of the spirit
and wisdom. He is the holiness and justice
and goodness that I am. He's the manifestation of it.
He's the fulfillment of it. He's the one that honored me
and magnified me, the law says of Christ. He bears witness of
Christ that it's all fulfilled in Him. He's the holiness and
justice. He's the wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption of His people. He's going to
deliver them into the promised land. He has, He is and He shall.
And I want to be lost. You see brethren, this is what
I'm trying to tell you. We're far from being anti-law, anti-gnomia. We're far from that. We saw Thursday
night, the man who says he can keep the law, The man who says
he can give that law what only Christ the Lord does, he's the lawless man. He has
no regard for that law. The only way you can even pretend
that you're keeping that law is to bring it down to your level
and leave off some of it and make it not apply to your nature
in which you are. That's the only way you can pretend
and it's just pretend. We can't keep it. Here's why
we're not antinomian. We agree with the law. We agree
with the law. We lay our hand of faith on Christ
and we confess that we're nothing. We're sinful. In us is nothing
good by nature. And we lay our hand on Christ
and confess He's the only righteous righteousness of the law that
we possess. He's it. And in Him, we trust
the whole law is fulfilled, established. So we're no longer bound to that
first husband, the law. Now we're free. He said, that
you should be married to another, even to him who's raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. When Christ
arose to newness of life, Paul covered this in Romans 6. When
He arose to newness of life, Christ's bride arose to newness
of life with Him. Married to Him. One with Him.
We've been married to Him. We've been betrothed to Him from
eternity. And we're betrothed to Him. We're
espoused to Him now. But remember, betrothal, espousal,
is binding as marriage. We're gonna come and have the
marriage supper and be the wedding, but it's done. We're married
to Him. Go over to Ephesians 5. This
is what God's been declaring ever since the first marriage
of Adam and Eve. He made marriage to typify this. He made it after the pattern
of Christ and His bride. Look at Ephesians 5, 29. He said, A husband should love his wife,
he says there, even as his own body. He that loveth his wife
loves himself. You love your wife, show her
affection, show her love, show her tenderness, show her whatever
she needs, you provide it for her. That's what he said. Love
her. Love her. Don't be a ruler like the first
husband was over her. The way you rule over her, he
said he'd love her. It's the goodness of God that
leads you to repentance. The goodness of God leads you
to repentance. Not the whip of the law. The
whip of the law just showed you there ain't nothing good in you.
It was the goodness of seeing Christ and what He did, that
second husband, that brought you to repentance. They'll look
upon me whom they've pierced and mourned for me. It's the
goodness of God. So he says here, "...for no man
ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,
even as the Lord the church. For we're members of Christ's
body, and of His flesh, and of His bones. We're one with Him,
and it's for this cause." This is why God ordained marriage
and said, "...a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall
be joined to his wife, and they too shall be one flesh." And
he says, this is a great mystery. I'll admit, brethren, we talk
about some things that men say, well, I can't reason out how
that could be. Here's a great mystery. We're
bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. We're one with Him. This
is a great mystery, but I'm speaking concerning Christ and the church,
Paul says. Go over to Hosea chapter 2. It's been a while since we
looked at this. Hosea chapter 2. You know, This is a lawful union
now. That's what He's saying. This
is a lawful union between us and Christ. And God hates putting
away. So this union is never going
to end. This marriage is never going to come to an end. It's
going to last forever. And it was Christ speaking of
Him and what He did for His bride. It was Christ speaking through
Hosea. Hosea is speaking about Gomer, his bride, who played
the harlot and who he went to redeem. But this is Christ speaking
of his bride. Listen to this, Hosea 2.19, I
will betroth thee unto me forever. I will marry you to me forever.
Look at this. I will betroth thee unto me in
righteousness and judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies.
What happened on the cross? Justice and mercy met together
in harmony. I'm going to betroth you to me
in righteousness and in mercy. I'll even betroth thee unto me
in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord. I'm going to come
to you and make you know me. He went over there. Hosea went
over there and he paid. He said what? Nobody was bidding
on Gomer. Nobody wanted her. You know why?
She was a whore. That's why nobody wanted her.
And you know why you couldn't satisfy the law? You're a whore,
that's why. That's why. Is that too harsh?
That's so. That's exactly right. He said,
I want her. Hosea said, I want her. What's
the cost? And he paid it. And he said,
and I redeemed her to myself, and I told her, I'm going to
be a husband to you, and you're going to be a wife to me, and
you ain't ever leaving again. And that's what, and when you
see what Christ did, you ain't ever leaving Him again. Not ever. For thy maker is thine husband,
the Lord of hosts is His name, the Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of the whole earth shall He be called. Now
lastly, let me show you the difference between being under law and being
under grace. Actually, let's hear God show
us. Look here. First of all, not being under
law but being under grace means now all our fruit is produced,
not by our flesh, but by the Spirit of Christ our husband. You got some husbands here, some
wives here. You have children. Any of y'all
produce that child by yourself? Any of y'all produced that child?
Who put that fruit in you? Your husband did. Your husband
did. And who puts fruit in his bride? Christ does. He says there at
the end of verse 4, He married us that we should bring forth
fruit unto God. Fruit by the Spirit of Christ
our Husband. When you read the second half
of Romans 6, the things Christ commands us, those are things
that the Spirit shall surely produce in His people. That's
what they are. He makes us willing and He makes
us to like to yield unto Him. He said, don't yield to sin,
yield your members to God. He makes us willing to yield
unto Him. We have become the servants of God, He said, and
He said, and you have your fruit, which is the result of being
made holy. And when this is all over, it's
going to end in everlasting life. You have it. Listen to Paul.
Let's go to Galatians 2.20. You've got to see this. I know
I've shown you this a lot, but we're going to get this sooner
or later. Look at this. Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. All this is by the body of Christ
crucified. Paul didn't say it was as if
I was crucified with Christ and God is treating me as if I was
crucified. Paul said I am one with my husband and I was on
that cross with him. And my body of sin was destroyed. Justice, the law was poured out
on me in full and justice was established. He's satisfied. Nevertheless, I now live. Yet
not I, but Moses lives in me. I'm still married to that husband. No, Christ lives in me. And the
life which I now live in this sinful flesh of mine, the life
I'm now living, is by the faith of the Son of God. If your Bible
says by faith in the Son of God, throw it away and get you one
that says by the faith of the Son of God. Because he's saying
the way we live now is by the faithfulness of Christ living
in us, working and making us to will and do of His good pleasure.
That's what he's saying. He's saying this in opposition
to the Judaizers who were telling the people, you've got to go
back to that other husband and be under the law. And be under
his rigor and his bondage again. Paul said, no! That's not how
I produce fruit. I'm married to Christ. And the
fruit I produce is produced by Him. By His faithfulness. It's the same One who loved me
and gave Himself for me. He abides in me. Look over Galatians
5.22. What is it? What does His faithfulness
produce in us? Look at Galatians 5.22. The fruit
of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and longsuffering and
gentleness and goodness and faith, meekness, temperance. Against
these things there is no law. Well, what about the law in my
sin? You that are Christ, you've already been crucified with Christ. Those that are Christ have already
crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts. Paul
said, I'm crucified with Christ. That's done. You see, to be under grace. Go
back now. Let me show you this. Let me show you what I'm getting
at. Christ is such a good husband. He produces this fruit in us,
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Where do we learn all of that?
Where do we learn all of that? I know it's produced in us by
Him. Where do we learn all of it? By looking to Him and how
He treats us as our husband and always has. So to be under grace
is to be in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit, no more living
unto ourselves and serving the dead letter of the law by our
flesh. He says verse 5, Romans 7-5,
when we were in the flesh, we were. the motions of sins which
were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit
unto death. He said we were in the flesh. You look over Romans
8 and he says verse 9, Now you're not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if you
don't have the Spirit of Christ, you're none of His. But if His
Spirit dwells in you, you're not before God because Christ
honored that law. And because you're born of Him,
you are not in the flesh anymore. You're in the Spirit. All worship
is spiritual. Christ said you've got to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. There's no other way to worship
Him. No other way. He says, here's what happened
when we were under the law. When we were in the flesh, the
motions of sins did work in our members. He's saying everything
we did outwardly came from sinful passions and affections from
our carnal mind, from the lust of our depraved heart. He's saying
what God saw when He looked upon men in Noah's day. He's saying
every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts was only evil continually. And God looks on the heart. And
these motions brought forth fruit by the law. They brought forth
fruit by the law. The law didn't produce these
sinful motions. The law didn't do that. But the
sin of our wicked hearts, the sin that we are by nature, was
provoked by the law. It aggravated by the law because
it commanded righteousness that we hated and it forbid the sin
that we loved. Is that not right? Paul said
down the page, it wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.
You know what that means? Desire for what the law forbids. That's what it wrought in me.
You go home today and you sit in the middle of the living room
floor and you tell your child, don't touch that. And you walk
away and see what happens. And you don't have to teach him
to do it. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he didn't appear outwardly
immoral. What's he talking about by this
desire for what the law forbids? He didn't appear outwardly immoral
at all. He said it's touching the law.
Outwardly, if you looked at me, you'd have thought I was blameless. But Romans 8.5 says, But they
that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh. For to be carnally minded is
death. Look at verse 7. Because the carnal mind hates
God. And it's not subject to the law
of God and neither indeed can be. So then they that are after
the flesh cannot please God. Oh, we served after the letter
of the law. I think every man does it, whether you're religious
or not. We all had the law written on our heart. He said Gentiles
have that. You know what's right and wrong. All men by nature
try to put on the best show they can in front of other men. Because we are trying to escape
hell. We were doing everything from
a legal motive of a dead heart. We were serving from a guilty
conscience or in pride and arrogant self-righteousness. Sometimes
one, sometimes the other. Covetous to be seen and praised
of men, stealing God's glory for the works that only Christ
can do. It was spiritual adultery of trying to come to God by the
works of the law. You go read those works of the
flesh, that's just above that, Galatians 5, above the works
of the Spirit. All of that first and foremost is against Christ.
Because when you try to come to God by your works under the
law, you're breaking every law and doing exactly what God told
you not to do. You're making yourself the idol.
You're stealing His glory. You're trying to rob Him of the
glory that belongs to Him alone and you're murdering Him in your
heart. You're breaking every one of
them. So our fleshly heart brought forth in our members fruit unto
death. Paul said, all my religious deeds
that looked so good to men was dead fruit to God. Get rid of
it. But look at this, being under
grace and not under law, having the Spirit of Christ in us, we're
not in the flesh, we're in the Spirit and now we serve in newness
of spirit. Look at verse 6. Now we are delivered
from the law. that being dead wherein we were
held. Since we're dead to the law now,
the law is dead to us. Look at this. That we shall serve
in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Since we're dead to the law, since Christ has honored it and
established it, and we've honored and established it in Him, the
law that bound us is dead unto us. We're free to be married
to another husband. And it's lawful. We're free to
be married to another husband. And that husband loves us and
he provides everything that that first husband only demanded but
never gave. That her first husband-in-law
demanded perfect righteousness and perfect holiness of heart.
It demanded. You can only give it perfect
righteousness from a perfectly holy heart. Because God is looking
on the heart. That's what He said here. Our
hearts were corrupt and so everything we brought forth was corrupt.
But now we got a new spirit and Christ dwells in us and the fruit
is love. and long-suffering, and meekness,
and joy, and peace, and all these things. Now, we see what a loving
husband we have and for the first time we discover what it is to
be under the rule of faith which works by love. And that's a far
superior rule than the rule of law. Now we sing free from the
law of happy condition, Christ had bled and there's remission.
Cursed by the law, ruined by the foe, Christ has redeemed
me once for all. Now what if that woman's first
husband, you know, when we were under the law, it demanded everything. It's like a woman who's married
to a husband who's harsh and he makes all these demands upon
her. And He never shows her any love whatsoever. He never provides
anything for her. He never gives her anything whatsoever
to help her out. All He ever does is criticize
her. All He ever does is tell her
how horribly far short she came of satisfying Him. That's all
He ever does. And then one day that husband
dies. And a husband comes along that is so much better to her. He loves her. And she sees that he's loved
her even before she knew he loved her. And he provided everything
that first husband never provided. So that she don't have to lift
a finger at all. She don't have to do anything. It's all done. It's all finished. He's robed her in the finest
jewels. He's robed her in the most beautiful
garments. He's robed her in the gold of
Ophir. He's made her his queen and she
has everything. What do you think that husband
would think then if he found out she was going back to the
grave of that dead husband? And every day, looking over all
His rules and regulations and saying, Oh, I've got to do this
stuff. If I don't do this stuff, I'm
going to be in trouble. We won't do that though. God's
people won't do that. That's what Paul is declaring
in Romans 6 and Romans 7. It's because you're dead to sin.
You're justified from sin. And because He's reigning in
you, He's not going to let that sin have dominion over you. And
God's not going to let you leave Him and go back to the law. He's
not going to let it happen. He's not going to let you mix
law and grace. He is not going to let that happen.
You know what most of religion is teaching men? Polygamy. That's what they're teaching
men. Tell them you've got to have two husbands. You've got
to have Christ and you've got to have the law. They're teaching you to be an
adulteress. That's what they're teaching you. That's what Paul
just said. Christ took us from that, gave us a new spirit and
by His blood He purged our conscience from all those dead works. And
now you know what we do? We really serve the true and
living God. We live unto God. We don't live
to ourselves anymore. Trying to put on a show for men.
We're living unto Him. We're living unto Him. He's given
us the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. We've not received the Spirit
of bondage again to fear. We receive the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit bearing witness with
our spirit that we're children of God and if children then heirs
of God in joy and heirs with Christ, if so be that we continue
in Him. This is what we've been taught.
And we know that in Christ we have no sin. We know we're free
from that law. We know Christ honored it. I'm
not saying there's anything wrong with the law. It's holy, just
and good. God gave it to do what it did to us. He gave it to make
us see we're nothing but sinners and to kill us. And then He shows
us Christ who fulfilled it so that now we're married to Him
and all our fruits of Him. That servant and newness of spirit
is to They that are after the Spirit mind the things of the
Spirit. You know what we come here to
hear about? Most people go to churches to hear about what I
need to be doing so I can serve that first rigorous husband while
at the same time I'm supposed to be married to Christ. We come
here to hear about what Christ has done for us. You know why?
Paul said in Titus 3, this is a faithful saying, I will that
you confirm these things constantly. How that we're not saved by the
works of our flesh, we're saved by His mercy, by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which He shed
on us abundantly through the blood of Christ making us heirs
of God. Declare that all the time because
that's how you're going to mortify the deeds of the flesh. That's
how you're going to make my people no more try to come to me in
their rotten sinful flesh, in their works, and live in immorality
behind the scenes when nobody's looking. You're going to make
them mortify that body and treat it like God says it is dead and
live to Christ. Live to Christ. You've heard
this. I'm just going to give it to
you. Go to Galatians 5 while I'm doing it. You've heard this
and I'll just say it. Give it to you again. I don't
know who the original preacher was that gave this illustration,
but it's been passed down. Every bunch of preachers have
said it, and it's a good illustration. I'm going to use Melinda as the
illustration. Suppose me and her were not married. She comes to my house, and I
hire her to clean the house and take care of the kids. Well,
we don't have kids. Take care of stuff. Clean the
house, take care of stuff. I give her a list of everything
I want her to do, tell her what I'm going to pay her if she does
it. So she shows up every day because it's her job. She shows
up there and she tries to get that whole list done because
it's her job. Because she's trying to get a
paycheck for it. But then I get to noticing what
a pretty woman she is. And I get to talking to her.
And we fall in love with each other. And we marry each other. Now, she's abiding with me all
the time. And she's doing the thing she's
doing now, not because she has to, not because it's a job, not
because she's looking for a paycheck. She's doing it because she sees
how I love her. And she sees And she loves me. And she does what she does because
she wants to do it. That's being under grace. That's
being under grace. The love of Christ constrains
us. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then everybody he died for were dead. And now
are dead. So that now that we live, we
shouldn't live unto ourselves anymore, but unto Him that loved
us and gave Himself for us. His love makes us do what we
want to do. That's our rule. The law is not
of faith. The rule we are under, we believe
on Christ and do everything from the love of Christ. So look at
Galatians 5.1. Here is the application. Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold,
I, Paul, say to you, if you be circumcised, and you can put
there whatever law you want to put there, whatever it is, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is becoming no effect
unto you, whosoever you are justified by the law. You are falling from
grace. For we through the Spirit, we've been circumcised in the
heart. We worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. So he says, we
through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. That's our rule, faith. For in
Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter if you are circumcised or you're
not circumcised. What he's saying is, it don't
matter what goes on in your flesh. Here's what matters. Faith which
worketh by love. That's it. And in the letter
he says that's called being made a new creation. Being made new
and married to Christ. Now let's come to this table
and remember him. Remember him. Brother Kevin and
Brother Kevin will you all