Alright brethren, we're going
to get started. And our text is Romans 7. Romans
7 verses 5 and 6. Romans 7 verses 5 and 6. Now last week we were looking
at the believers and the laws relationship to one another. And in the text there, verses
one through four, we saw how that believers are delivered. They were delivered from the
dominion and the rule of the law as a rule of life for us
now. We're delivered from that in
Christ. because we died, we died to the
law in Christ. Now we're no longer under the
rule, the law of Moses, we're no longer under its dominion
any longer. And Paul used the illustration
of marriage. One of the things that we see
in the scriptures is that the Lord gives us these things like eternal truths for us in Christ. He didn't just conveniently use
marriage, but rather marriage was given to illustrate for us
what we have in Christ, in our deliverance from the law as a
rule of life. And so now in Christ, because
he's our husband, The fruit that we bear is of our husband Jesus
Christ. It's spiritual fruit, and this
means that God is pleased with it. It's acceptable to Him. That fruit, born of the Spirit,
born by Christ in His people, is acceptable and pleasing to
God. So in Romans 7 verses 5 and 6,
Paul returns for a moment, in verse 5 at least, to that former
relationship that we had with the law when we were in the body
of sin. He just looks back in verse 5
to that former relationship and he does this to show us this
truth that any fruit born under the law, that work, any work
that we do, any fruit that we do under the law is not spiritual. It's not acceptable to God. That's why he returns to it,
just to emphasize and make sure that we understand that that
which is born under the law While we are yet in the body of sin,
it's not spiritual fruit, it's not accepted with God. And he does this because that
false hope rises in man, right? In the flesh, there's that hope
that, oh, there's something I can do, something that I can do for
God that'll be pleasing to him, and therefore I'll be accepted
of him for my works. but we learn in the gospel that
the only fruit that's acceptable to God is the fruit born of our
husband Jesus Christ, that which is spiritual, that which is true
and pleasing to God because it's from his darling son. Our title
is Serve in Newness of Spirit. Serve in Newness of Spirit. And
we'll just look at verse 5 and then we'll look at verse 6 at
the end. So verse 5, this verse deals
specifically with the fruits that we produced. That is the
fruits that we, that were raised up in our flesh, while we were
yet living in the flesh. living under the law's dominion,
dead in trespasses and sins, okay? So verse 5, Romans 7, 5. Four, 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. Alright, now let me just say
first, When Paul speaks of the flesh here, he's not talking
about this flesh. He's not talking about our skin
and our bones and our muscles and all of our systems in our
body. That's not the flesh that Paul
is speaking about. He includes himself in it. He
says, when we were in the flesh. So Paul's not talking about,
he's not writing this letter from heaven. He's not writing
this letter from heaven. He's in that flesh of skin and
bones when he's writing this letter. So when he says, when
we were in the flesh, he can't be talking about just this body,
this flesh. Instead, we understand it to
mean he's talking about before we were converted. before we
were born anew of the Spirit of Christ. Before our conversion,
when we were yet in the flesh, when we were in the flesh, it's
a time when our birth was only of Adam. We came forth of Adam. We were of Adam's corrupt seed
at that time. And all we knew were the things
of Adam. We weren't spiritually alive and knowledgeable of the
things of God. We were yet under the law. in
Adam, we were yet part, a member of that body of sin. We were
all just there at that time. And so, because of that truth,
when someone is saying, when someone is talking to you and
they're telling you that believers are under the law, that they're
under the law now, that they go back to the law and they're
looking to the law to produce some righteousness, Whether it's
for justification or for sanctification, what they're confessing to you,
what they're saying to you is, I'm yet in the body of sin. I'm yet a member of the body
of sin. I'm still under its authority
and its dominion. I don't know what the voice of
Christ is saying. I don't hear His voice. I'm still listening
to the authority of the law, i.e., I'm still a member of the
body of sin. That's my hope. That's what they're
saying. And so if you remember, Paul
is writing in Romans 7 verse 1, he says, I speak to them that
know the law. That's who I'm speaking to here.
Them that know the law, that have heard the voice of Christ
and now hear what the law is saying and understand the purpose
for which the law was given. I'm speaking to them that know
the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as
he liveth, Does he mean liveth in the flesh? This flesh and
bones, is that what he's talking about? No, meaning so long as
he's still alive in that old man Adam prior to conversion. He's saying He's saying as long
as someone's still alive in that body of sin, they're under the
dominion and the rule of the law. It has dominion over them. And so Paul concludes in verse
four saying, 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. So you see in verse 1 when he
says, as long as a man liveth, right, he has to be talking about
that aspect of the flesh which is in Adam, our life prior to
conversion. Because now, here we still are
in His flesh and bones, and yet we're dead in Adam. We died to
the law. We're alive now in Christ. And yet here we are in His flesh
and bones. So when He's talking about the flesh, He's saying
prior to conversion, when I yet walked and did everything by
the flesh, without the Spirit, having no knowledge of the truth
of God. Alright, so anyone who's still
serving under the law of Moses, they're telling you, I don't
even know or understand what you're talking about in the body
of Christ. I'm still a part, I'm still a member of that body
of sin. That's my hope. My fleshly carnal
hope is laboring under the law for some form of righteousness.
That's what they're declaring to you at that time. Now, there
are believers that there's times just like we can fall into sin,
right, just like we can give ourselves over to the lust of
the flesh at times and have to be delivered from that, so we
can look to the law at times and need to be delivered from
that as well. I'm not saying just because you sin or look
to the law at times, that that means that you're cut off forever.
I'm saying those that, just like those who practice and love sin
and live in sin, have no part in Christ, they show they have
no part in Christ, so those who live and practice the law for
righteousness are showing they have no hope in Christ. It's
the same logic there, the same thing there. We that have heard
the voice of Christ hear now by the Spirit what the Law is
saying. And we hear it and we have no hope in it. Those that
yet have a hope in the Law and yet look to the Law for some
part of their righteousness haven't heard what the Law says. They
haven't heard what the Spirit says. In 1 Corinthians 2.14,
I'll read it, It says, but the natural man
receiveth not the things of God, or receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God. Why not? Because they're foolishness
to him. He doesn't get it. He doesn't
understand. Salvation is still a very carnal
thing. It's still something that we do, that we earn, that we
merit for ourselves and our works under the law. So the Spirit
Faith, that's foolishness. They can know the doctrine of
it, right? We can talk to one another and use those words because
we see them in the Bible, but they have the Spirit and salvation
by faith in Christ, through Christ and His faithfulness is just
foolishness. It doesn't even enter the mind
of the natural man. He can't understand it or receive
that which we have in Christ. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. And so, if you don't have the
Spirit of Christ, which all his people have, right, they're given
in the time of love, he gives them the Spirit, that's how we
discern and know the things of God and understand the things
of God, by his Spirit. So, if we're still talking carnally,
trusting in something in the law, then we show I'm still carnal,
I'm yet in that body of sin, still practicing and laboring
in the body of sin. All right, let's read this text
again, Romans 7, 5. We'll read that verse once more.
For when we were in the flesh, The motions of sins, and that's
what we're going to talk about now, the motions of sins, which
were by the law, and we'll look at that, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. So remember, Paul's talking in
this verse, he's speaking of a time prior to our conversion.
before we knew Christ here in this verse. And he talks about
these motions of sins. And what he's saying is that
in that time before Christ came, we were motivated and driven
by the lusts and the passions in our flesh, the things that
men and women get excited about and pursue and go after. with
their power and their strength and their wisdom and their might
and all the resources that they can bring to bear on it, that's
what we pursue in the flesh. He, in Ephesians 2-3, gives us
a help to understand that time. He said, among whom, Ephesians
2-3, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past,
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. He's saying when we were still,
for all intents and purposes, we appeared to be nothing more
than the children of wrath. We were just like everybody else,
whether we were in religion or out of religion, we were just
children of wrath, and we were fulfilling those lusts and passions
in the flesh, and we couldn't please God, whether we were practicing
religion or not practicing religion. We couldn't please God. Turn
over to Romans 8. Because in that light, in that
knowledge and understanding of what we were, Romans 8, look
at verse 5, and we'll read down to verse 8 together. Romans 8,
5. He tells us this truth, for they
that are after the flesh, whether it's religious pursuits or non-religious
pursuits. They that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, For it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God." Alright, so that's what we understand
by the Spirit now, that we're not going to work, no matter
how hard we labor and try, even in religion, even in the true
religion, talking about Christ, No matter how hard we try, we're
not going to please God in the flesh, in those works trusting
in the flesh. Now, in this skin and bones,
sure, in Christ we please Him, because it's not of this flesh,
it's not done under the law, it's in faith by the Spirit of
Christ in us. So again, I'm not talking about
this flesh and bones, I'm talking about what we are in Adam. prior to conversion, if that
helps. Now, back in our text, Paul tells
us that these motions of sins, these lusts and passions that
are still in the flesh, and we'll see that as we go through chapter
seven, that these lusts and passions, that are the motions of sins,
were by the law, he says. They were by the law. Let's look
at that for a moment, by the law. Does the law cause men to
sin? No, not according to verse 12. Romans 7, 12 says, wherefore
the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. All right, well then does the
law incite or encourage a person? Go ahead, it's okay now, you
can sin. Does the law do that? No, not
according to verse 13, where he asks, was then that which
is good made death unto me? Did it drive me? into sin, God
forbid, right? It doesn't do that. But what
the law does do, because, you know, when we're in the body
of sin, what the law does do is it makes known to us This
is what sin is, and what trespasses are, and iniquity, and what we
are in Adam. Paul showed us that earlier.
It reveals to us that the lusts, and the passions, and the motivations
that we have, and the pursuits that we have in this flesh is
sinful. And it doesn't rise up to the
level of God. And the more you understand that, the more you
see, all I am is sin. There's nothing good in me. All
that I do is sin, constantly. I'm constantly looking to the
flesh and pursuing the things of the flesh. We need salvation,
grace, because we can't. It's so easy in the flesh to,
alright, maybe we don't do that sin, but we go right over to
this one and we do this here. So, we need grace. And just finishing
in Romans 7 verse 13, Paul confirms that. He says, but sin, that
it might appear sin, working death in me, by that which is
good, right? The law is good, it's holy, it's
right, it shows the truth. That sin by the commandment might
become exceedingly sinful. So that's what the law is doing. It's making sin appear what it
is to us, exceedingly sinful. And it's deep and far and what
we are in Adam is just corrupt. We're not going to work a righteousness
for ourselves in this flesh. Alright, remember what Paul said
in Romans 5 20, he says, moreover the law entered that the offense
might abound. That's why the law was given,
to make it abound and be more clear to us that we're sinners
and no, even under the law, we're not going to work a righteousness
for ourselves. So, the purpose of the law is
to make sin known to us, it's to define what sin is, It's to
show us this is the punishment that you mete out towards sin,
this is how you deal with it, and you put it to death so that
it ends. It doesn't continue to be practiced
because it's swift punishment, judgment upon it, so that it's
done. That's what the law showed us. It didn't have any grace or mercy,
it just put an end to the sin through death. That's what the
wages of sin are, is death. So the law shows us in Adam that
every one of us All the children and descendants that came from
Adam's seed, because that's what we are here, we all descended
from Adam's seed, were all sinners, i.e. were all children of disobedience. That's what Paul said, I think
it was Ephesians 2, 2. And then all died, Ephesians
2, 3, that were all children of wrath. We all have earned
and obtained judgment upon us by nature in Adam. Okay, so in that body of sin,
what we find, what we know when we reflect upon it and we're
honest with ourselves is that the law doesn't sit well with
us. We don't like being told what to do. We don't want to
be told, we don't want our hand being smacked and told, don't
do that. Don't you dare do that. In fact,
we consider it to be binding and forbidding, and it doesn't
sit well with us. We don't like to be told what
not to do or what to do. We don't want to hear it, and
it's not in our nature to want to submit to that law, even though
we're under the law's dominion. We are to hear what the law says
but we have no power and no desire to fulfill or do what the law
says. So it's restricting, it irritates
us, it inflames the passions all the more. It stirs us up
so that there's enmity. And that's why, you know, when
you talk to people and they're just sick of religion, you can
hear the utter enmity against God. They don't want nothing
to do with that. They've been burned, they've
heard it before, they've seen all they need to see, and they're
done with religion. And so James says in James 1.14,
he says, every man is tempted. when he is drawn away of his
own lust, right, there's various people have different things
that they lust after, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, when it's
done its work, it bringeth forth death. That's what we are in
Adam. Alright, so there's that aspect,
but understand that Paul's talking about more than just whoremongers
and unclean persons and covetous persons. He's talking about more
than just that. He's talking about people in
religion. He's including people in religion. His main focus in
the epistle up to this point has been focusing on the sin
of self-righteousness. It's not just the sins against
our neighbor, lying and stealing and murdering. It's more than
just sins against our neighbors. It's also robbing God of His
glory in self-righteousness and making ourselves to be God and
making ourselves justified in the sight of God with our own
works and what we do and our personal merits. So, any righteousness
Any righteousness which is not the righteousness of Jesus Christ
is a righteousness that's done under the law in the flesh, and
it doesn't earn us any favor with God. When we've done that
which the law tells us to do, we haven't increased or profited
God in anything. All we've done is that which
is our duty to do. We didn't go above and beyond.
We only did that which the law says, hey, this is what you've
got to do. This is it. And so there's no merit. There's
no going above that. But in Christ, we meet it perfectly
and are accepted by God because it's His fruit and His work.
All this motion of sins, what it comes down to is, it's the
pride of man. It's our pride. It's what drives
our carnal nature. And so, when you think about
self-righteousness, it's always tied to the law. In some way,
it's always tied to the law, whether that law is the law of
Moses, or it's the law of conscience, how you were raised or what you've
come to consider to be good and right. It's always the law, and
we always recount our righteousness more so probably by things that
we don't do than things we do, and we find a lot of justification
because of what we don't do. And what I mean is, have you
ever found yourself justifying your sin, saying, well, I'm not
as horrible as that person. I don't do what they do, all
this and that and the other thing, so surely this little thing that
I do and keep to myself, surely this is acceptable with God.
As though God was just gonna take the bottom 10% of the worst
of humanity and put them in hell and bring the rest into heaven,
right? Or even the bottom 50% or the
bottom 90% or the bottom 99.9999999% No, 100% we all have earned the
wages of sin, which is death in hell. It's only in Christ
that we are received of God, that we are made 100% righteous
in Him. His death obtained eternal justification
for us, and His life ensures eternal sanctification for us.
It's all His power, it's all His grace, and all His glory.
What He began, He shall finish, and it's all His work. And that's
why now we live in the Spirit, having a spirit, not going back
to the law, not going back in Adam to try, under that law of
Moses, to try and work a righteousness for ourselves. The Lord tells us, He says, come
out of that. He's exposing to us the falseness
of that righteousness. He's making known to you and
to me that any work there in the flesh That is, anything under
the law, whether it's sinning against your neighbor, or it's
what you call righteousness under the law, which is an offense
to God. It's robbing God. It's stealing
glory from Him. All of it is sin and worthy of
death. And he says, don't touch that
unclean thing. Come out of that. Come out of
that dead religion. Be separate from that false lie
which the body of sin, all those in the body of sin are under.
Come out of that and have no part with them. I'm going to
destroy them. So you're delivered from that.
You keep looking to Christ. Now that brings us to verse six. And what Paul does is, having
looked back there at what we were in Adam, he comes back to
Christ and he shows us our spiritual life now in Christ our husband,
our union to him. Verse six, but now we are delivered
from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we
should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter. We're saved now through spiritual
birth. We are born again. We only know
this and believe this and walk in this faith by the Spirit of
Christ. He's the one that reveals this
to us. He's the one that shows us all those works in Adam were
dead works. Everything we did in Adam was
fruit that only brought death. It was fruit unto death. It wasn't
unto God, even the best of the works. It was all dead fruit
that came up short of the glory of God. And all we did was earn
the wages of sin, which is death. That's it, all right? And so
we're now born, Christ having done his work of justification.
Christ having risen again for our sanctification is now all
communicated to us and brought to us with power by the Spirit
of God where now we are made alive born again to know these
things and to hear these things and to be settled and rooted
in Christ and to grow up in these truths and the knowledge and
grace of our God and what He's done for us through Son by applying
that blood and making us to know our forgiveness and assuring
us of our forgiveness in Christ. and we get scared and we're troubled
when we see the sin in our flesh but we believe by faith. Lord you said I am justified
by Christ and he gives us the faith to believe him and to carry
on and to go on because if it came back to our works it would
be a horrible thing. And that's where we start getting
into lies and trickery and hypocrisy. Oh, I didn't sin, it was a mistake. You know, we make up different
words for it to smooth it out. You don't have to do that. If
we sin, we sin. And don't do, don't sin. But if we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, our righteousness. And we confess
our sin and ask Him for forgiveness and to be delivered from it.
and to walk in faith believing that he has put away that sin
and that he's the one that will deliver us from that sin and
turn our hearts and help us and give us strength to walk in him
before him and not keep going back to that vomit. Alright,
so Christ our husband loves us. and he speaks tenderly to us
and he speaks to us in grace. The law, that former husband,
he didn't speak to us like that. He was, do this and you'll live. We'll get along fine if you do
this. Don't do this and I'll beat you. I'll kill you. I'll
put you to death. That's what the law said. The
law wasn't kind at all to us. It showed us what is perfection
and righteousness and anything short of that came up short of
it and that was it. But Christ is loving and kind
and gentle to us and he woos us with words of love and forgiveness
and encourages us and gives us his spirit to hear it and to
believe it and to desire him and thirst for that fellowship
and righteousness and and to be in union with our God. And so we live now by the power
of His resurrection. That's what He shows us, by the
power of His resurrection, not by the threats of the law. And
some people think that now in Christ we can go back in it in
some new kind of strength and some new kind of power and go
back under the law. And that's not what he's saying.
It's not back under the law. It's in the spirit. That's what
he means by we should serve in newness of spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter. And the same wording he used
back in Romans 6-4, he called it walking in newness of life.
It's the same thing as serving in newness of spirit. We're walking
in newness of life. We're walking by Christ, looking
to Him, believing. Right? It's faith. It's faith. It really is faith, which is
a fruit of Christ in us. It's His work in us. So, trust the Lord. He's met
every condition. He's met every condition required
in the covenant of grace. He's done that for His people,
and we're to rest in Him, believe Him, and serve Him, knowing that
our salvation is secure in Christ. So, alright, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank You. for the gracious and tender work
which You did for us, Lord, in sacrificing Yourself to put away
our sin, and in sending Your Spirit whereby we now know what
You have done for us and accomplished for us both in Your death and
in Your resurrection. Lord, keep us ever looking to
Christ Don't let us be turned back to the flesh, back to the
law, looking to the law for some righteousness. You promise, Lord,
that you do all things, and we trust you, Lord. Keep us trusting
you and believing in you. Father, we pray for our brethren. We thank you for for everyone
here this morning and we pray for those that are sick and recovering. We thank you for the success
you've given to our brother in his surgery and Lord, we pray
that you would heal him and comfort him and those caring for him. Lord, we pray that you keep us,
watch over us, protect our hearts, keep them ever faithful to Christ
our husband. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks, amen.