Until I tell you otherwise. After
today, the reading schedule changes a little bit. Just for that guy.
Just for him and Levi. It's going to wait a little bit. Yeah, Joanne's not feeling good,
so. Let's begin our second service
by standing and singing 328, close to the 328. Now I everlasting portion, more
than friend or life to me. All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior, let me walk with Thee. close to Thee, close to Thee,
close to Thee. All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior, let me walk with Thee. Not for ease or worldly pleasure,
nor for fame my prayer shall be. Gladly will I toil and suffer,
only let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee,
close to Thee, close to Thee. Gladly will I toil and suffer,
only let me walk with Thee. Lead me through the vale of shadows,
bear me Your life's pitiful sea. And the gate of life eternal,
may I enter, Lord, with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee. And the gate of life eternal,
may I enter, Lord, with Thee. If you would turn to 242, Jesus
I come, 242. Out of my bonded sorrow and I,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into Thy freedom, gladness, and
life, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my sickness into thy health
Out of my want and into thy wealth Out of my sin and into thyself
Jesus, I come to thee Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into the glorious gain of Thy
cross, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of her sorrows into thy balm,
Out of life's storms and into thy calm, Out of distress to
jubilant song, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of unrest and arrogant
pride Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into Thy blessed will to abide
Jesus, I come to Thee Out of myself to dwell in thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above, Upward foray on wings
like a dove, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the fear and dread
of the tomb, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into the joy and light
of thy home, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the depths of ruin
untold, Into the peace of thy sheltering fold, Ever thy glorious
face to behold, Jesus, I come to thee. Thank you. Good morning. I'm going to be
reading from Isaiah 26, starting in verse 1. Isaiah 26. In that
day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a
strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation, which keepeth truth, may enter in. Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee." And I felt a good commentary verse for that
was Philippians 4 verse 7, And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Even though we don't understand
what God's doing, we can have peace. For he trust ye in the
Lord forever. Back in Isaiah. For in the Lord
Jehovah is everlasting strength. For he bringeth down them that
dwell on high. The lofty city he layeth it low.
He layeth it low even to the ground. He bringeth it even to
the dust. All the proud who trust in themselves
and don't trust in the Lord. That's who that's speaking of.
The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and
the steps of the needy. The way of the just is uprightness.
Thou most upright dost weigh the path of the just. Yea, in
the way of judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee. The
desire of our soul is to Thy name and to the remembrance of
Thee. With my soul have I desired Thee
in the night. Yea, with my spirit within me
will I seek Thee early. For when Thy judgments are in
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness.
In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not
behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when thy hand is lifted
up, they will not see, but they shall see and be ashamed for
their envy at the people. Yea, the fire of thine enemies
shall devour them. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for
us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. In Ephesians
2 verse 11, 2 verse 10 says, We are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works that God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Verse 13, O Lord our God, other
lords beside Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will
we make mention of Thy name. They are dead, they shall not
live. They are deceased, they shall
not rise. Therefore Thou hast visited and
destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. Lord, we come before you. We
ask for your blessing on our time this morning. We ask that
you'd bless us with your spirit, that we might hear your gospel. We ask that you'd be with Eric
as he declares this gospel. Give him what he needs, not only
today, but also from week to week in his studies. We ask that
you'd be with us as a congregation here, that you would We bless
us with your spirit that you'd grow us in the knowledge of our
Savior and of the love of one another. And help us, Lord, to
bear the cross for one another and to declare your gospel to
this world. We ask all this in Christ's name,
amen. Alright, let's turn to Romans
7. We're going to look at the first
four verses this morning. Now, what we have here in these
verses, it regards the believers and the laws relationship to
one another. And what I want us to see here
is that all who seek a righteousness by the law, whether that law
is the law of Moses or it's the law of nature, something that
you've learned, some philosophy you adhere to or how you were
raised, whatever that law is, All are guilty before the law
of God. None are justified by God. None
are justified before the law. We all come short of the glory
of God. And what the scriptures teach
us is that the only deliverance that we have from the law's dominion,
the only way we are out from the law's dominion is to die
under its penalty. We have to die under its penalty
because every one of us is guilty. And so the beauty in the gospel
is that all of the redeemed have paid that penalty. We've all
died to it in Christ. We're already dead to the law
in Christ. And so Paul here in this passage. He's speaking to those who know
the law. And so as we look at this, ask
the Lord, Lord do I know the law? Do I know what Paul is saying here. Do
I know these truths? Alright, so our title is, To
Them That Know the Law. To Them That Know the Law. And so we're first going to look
at the law's dominion over a man in verse one, and then we're
going to look at verses two through four at marriage, which Paul
uses to, it's an illustration to prove the point of what he's
been teaching us in verse one. Alright, so Romans 7, 1. Romans
7.1 Paul says, Know ye not brethren? Know ye not brethren? For I speak
to them that know the law. So Paul here is addressing brethren
who know the law. And what he's doing is he's speaking
to those who have come to know the law. You that are brethren,
you've come to know and to understand what the law is saying, and he's
indicating that you and I who believe have a spiritual understanding
of what the law is saying and why the law was given. We have
a knowledge of these things, an intimate knowledge and understanding
of what the law is, why it was given, and to whom it was given
for, so that according to the gospel, Paul is saying, or what
he means is that we've been delivered from the Law's dominion through
the Gospel, through the knowledge of the Gospel by the Spirit's
revelatory power to us, revealing this to us to show us that in
Christ we have been delivered from the dominion of the Law.
Because we know, in Adam, we're all sinners. In Adam, all died. And we did not keep the law.
We didn't please God. In Him, we became corrupted,
defiled, sinful, darkened, cut off from the knowledge and fellowship
of God. That's what we are in Adam. We
all became sinners in Him. and therefore we all came under
the curse of the law in Adam. But now in Christ, you that have
heard the gospel, you that believe in hope and the righteousness
declared to us that we are in Christ of what he's done, we
know, Galatians 3.13 says, 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 so, it's that revelation
of the Spirit, being made alive in Christ, born of His spiritual
seed, to hear what the Spirit says to the Church, to know what
He's declared to us, that we are now delivered from that dominion,
delivered from that law, and that we stand full and whole
and complete in the Lord Jesus Christ before the throne of God.
We're delivered from the dominion of the law. Now, under the gospel
light, there's a people, therefore. There's a people that know the
law. By the gospel's light, by the
revelation of the Spirit, there's a people that know the law of
God. And that means that there's also
a people who don't know the law of God. Interestingly, they think
they know the law, right? There's a lot of people who don't
know the law, but they think they know the law of God. And
what that means is they're practicing, they're looking to the law for
some part of their righteousness, all of it or part of it. They'll say things like, well,
I know, you know, many people today will say, I know it's not
for my justification. I know that Christ has justified
me before God. But now the law is the believer's
rule of life. And so they go back to the law
and live under the law for life. for sanctification, for holiness,
and they'll use those terms. It's their holiness. They've
got now to cooperate, bring this flesh to cooperate with the Spirit
of God under the law, is how they do it, and trust that that's
some part of their righteousness. They won't confuse it with justification,
but everything they say is justification. You can't separate sanctification
from justification because the gospel doesn't separate them.
It puts them together and shows us that in Christ, he's all the
believers salvation. And I hope to show you that as
we go through this message. So Paul isn't addressing those
whose rule of life is the law. He's not speaking to those whose
rule of life is the law because they don't know the law. And
he says, brethren, you that know the law and those that live by
the law don't know it. They do not know the law of God. In Galatians 4.21, he asked those
men, he said, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do
ye not hear the law? Don't you hear what the law is
saying? So they don't hear it, let alone
know it. Those that are living by the
law, they don't even hear what the law is saying, let alone
know what it's saying. So, the sad thing is that those
who maybe profess Christ for justification, but trust the
law for sanctification, they're saying that Christ isn't sufficient. There's a big gap left in our
salvation. There's a big gap and it's called
sanctification and that's our part. That's what man does. He
brings in sanctification as his part under the law to work righteousness
so that he might have glory in himself. And all it does is provoke
the flesh and it provokes anger and judgment right against others because
if you have been good about something and someone comes in a brother
so to speak comes in and does something in liberty and causes
you to stumble you get angry with them right how dare you
do that in front of me Now you're angry with them because now you
feel like they've caused you to stumble. So Christ isn't sufficient
for these holy men who trust in the law for their sanctification.
And what Paul shows us as we get there in Romans 10, if you
look there at Romans 10, he's showing that actually they don't
know the law, they're ignorant of the law. They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. Look at Romans 10, verse 2, the
second half. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. That's not who Paul's addressing
in our text. He's addressing those that do
have knowledge, that know the law. So they have a zeal, but
not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
one that believeth." And what do lawmen say about sanctification? It's their righteousness. They're
making themselves more righteous, more holy today than they were
yesterday. because they're chipping away
at the law and getting a little better at it, and a little better
at it, and they're sanctifying themselves in righteousness.
It's their holiness, it's their righteousness. But Christ is
the end of the law for both justification and sanctification. And once
you see it in the scriptures, you can't unsee it. You'll see
it more and more clearly as the Spirit reveals it to you. So
when you hear what the Spirit says to the churches, then you
will have knowledge of the law. You'll know what Paul is saying
because you'll know the gospel that Paul declares. Romans 1.16,
1.16 and 1.17. He's just constantly building
this beautiful gospel for us. And started here, Romans 1.16,
he boldly declares saying, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. When you're ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, you turn back to the law so that you can appear righteous
before others, so that no one will talk bad about you, and
no one will knock you down like the early church. Some of the
Jews that were zealous for the law were doing of Paul. They
were speaking ill of him and saying, this man's against the
law. And he's saying, no, you're the lawless ones. You're the
ones who aren't, you're not hearing the law. You're not submitting
to Christ and God's righteousness in Christ. You're still putting
some confidence, some trust in your flesh, leaning on the law. for some part of your salvation,
and that's not what the Lord has done in salvation. And he
says, I'm not ashamed of this gospel. I'm going to keep preaching
this gospel and declaring Christ, not the law, for Christ is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the
Jew first, and also to the Greek. So there's not a different salvation
for some and another one for others. For in the preaching
of Christ, in the preaching of Christ crucified, therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, that just shall live, be sanctified, live by faith,
by our faith. And Paul tells us, and the law
is not a faith. The law is not of faith, but
the man that doeth them shall live in them." You sure you want
to turn back to the law and put your neck under the law and live
by the law for your sanctification? Because once you do, you're now
circumcising the flesh. You're trying to cut the flesh,
to cut it down, to cut out sins out of your flesh, which is nothing
more than circumcision. You're trying to do a spiritual
work of cutting the flesh through looking to the law. And he's
saying, once you do that, you're bound to the whole law. You better do it perfectly because
now you're guilty before the law and before God. And so I
don't understand why men want to be found having their own
righteousness, which is of the law. Philippians 3.9. Because
Paul said, I don't want to be found at all having my own righteousness.
I don't want any part in this thing. I want to be seen entirely
in Christ's righteousness because therein is the righteousness
of God. That's my salvation. That's right where I want to
be found. And I know where that righteousness is. It's in His
resurrection power. So only the redeemed from the
law's dominion, they're the ones that know it. They hear the condemnation
of the law. They know that their works are
tainted with sin and corruption and every vile thing, that if
they're measured by how well they're doing, under the law
now. They come up short still. We
still come up short of the glory of God and so it's this inability
of the flesh, this weakness and infirmity of the flesh, this
old man which we know is dead but we're waiting for the return
of Christ to lay this flesh down and be done with it and not be
burdened by its warring against the truth anymore. So they know
that the second half of Romans 7 verse 1. Let's finish that
verse. How that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. That's what it says. So you that
know the law, you know. If you're under the law still,
if you're still walking in the flesh, you're under its dominion.
you're still subject to the law. If you're trusting and walking
in the flesh, you're still subject to the dominion of the law. You're
still under its rule and power. And so we've got to die to the
law. That relationship has to be severed. And it's severed in Christ. That's
our hope, is that Christ now has become our righteousness.
Completely not anything that we do in the flesh not trusting
to the flesh By the power and strength of the law which gives
no power and no strength and no help to you It just tells
you whether you're doing righteousness or not. That's all that the law
does it doesn't give you any power Not before salvation and
not after it has no no it has nothing to say to you anymore
that are in Christ. 1 John 3.2 says, though it doth
not yet appear what we shall be. But we know, or he says, it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when Christ
shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is. That being our hope, we purify
ourselves believing him. How do we purify ourselves? By
faith. By casting all your hope and
all your care upon the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. and you
keep looking to Him, and you don't be turned back to the fiery
Mount Sinai for any help, because it ain't going to help you. It's
going to thrust you through with the dark, and you'll be dead
under the law at Mount Sinai, all right? So that's how we purify
ourselves, through faith, looking to Christ, believing Him, resting
upon Him, having all your confidence invested in Him, because that's
the righteousness whom God has provided for His people. Alright,
turn back to Romans 6. Let's look at a couple of verses
that we've seen recently. Romans 6 and verse 5. Right, having that word of John
ringing in your ears, though it doth not yet appear what we
shall be, Romans 6 5. If we have, this is our promise,
this is our hope, if we have been planted together in the
likeness of His death, you know what that is, the likeness of
His death? That's your justification. If we've been justified with
Christ, well, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. You know what that is? That's
your sanctification. If you died with Christ, you'll
live with Christ. That's your sanctification. He's
telling it to you right there in the scriptures. Justification
and sanctification are both met in the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright,
it's everywhere. It's everywhere. Look at Romans
5 actually. Go to Romans 5. Let me get there. I'll show you another one. It's
everywhere. Romans 5 verse 9. He says much more then, being
now justified by his blood, when he shed his blood it was in his
dine, well we shall be saved from wrath through him. Tell
me more Paul. for if when we were enemies we
were reconciled or justified to God by the death of his son,
guess what brethren, much more being reconciled we shall be
saved by his life." Meaning, not only did he justify you,
but he's sanctifying you now by his life, by his sitting on
the throne, interceding on our behalf, ensuring that we have
everything necessary to receive, to hear, believe, and remain
faithful to the promise of God. That he that hath begun a good
work in you shall perform it unto the end. The whole thing.
He that justified you is sanctifying you. It's not going to change
by the Lord. So, though we still see the weakness
in our flesh, look at verse 6, Romans 6 knowing this, that our
old man, here it is again, our old man is crucified with him. That was our justification that
the body of sin might be destroyed, that fellowship with that body
of sin and all its members, the whole entirety that's wrapped
up in sin and in death, when Adam sinned and then sin entered
into the world and corrupted him and his seed, and death through
that sin, all that body and that dominion now that we became subject
to, was destroyed by Christ, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. In other words, he's doing the
whole thing. He's going to continue doing
it. For he that is dead is freed from sin. So that right now we
are dead to sin. We're dead to that body. It has
no more dominion over us. The law has nothing more to say
to you. You died in Christ. That relationship
is now severed, so that here, brethren, we walk by faith. Listen to this word in Hebrews
12 verse 2. We walk by faith, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him, he endured the cross, where he worked and
obtained your justification, despising the shame, and is set
down right now at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider
him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself."
And what he's saying is, you keep looking to Christ because
he that endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, you
too by his strength and power shall endure the contradiction
in your sinful flesh, warring against the Spirit of Christ.
You have that promise and that power, you endure it, and don't
be turned back like the Jews that the Hebrew writer was writing
to who were turning from Christ and going back to the law Well,
don't now, after you've confessed Christ and believed Him to justify
you, are you now going to be turned from Christ for your sanctification,
going back to the law? Not at all. No, don't. He's saying,
endure the contradiction. You're not going to whip and
beat this thing into submission by the law. The only way you're
going to walk in faith bearing fruits of Christ is in Christ,
looking to Him, trusting Him, enduring in our Savior, all right? So that's what we're to do. And he says, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds, right? Which means, lest you be turned
back to the law, because you grow tired and you say, maybe
I do need something more. Maybe I do need the law now to
straighten me out. No, look to Christ, beg Him,
cry out to Him, Father, have mercy on me, save me, Lord, deliver
me from this sin. Right now in Christ, we're delivered
from that body of sin, delivered from its dominion, and that means
all the workings of that body of sin, including the law of
God that was given to constrain the flesh, you have no part in
it. It was given for those in the
body of sin. That's why the law was given,
to constrain that wicked, sinful flesh from just doing whatever
it wanted to do, whoever was the strongest. it constrained
that flesh so that there was at least some civility under
governments and things like that. That's why it was given, is to
keep us from going hog wild in the flesh, because we didn't
have the Spirit. Now you who have the Spirit,
the Spirit constrains us. The love of Christ constrains
us. So those who go back to the law
to train and constrain their flesh, what does that tell you?
They've not yet heard the spirit. They haven't heard the gospel.
They may confess to believe it. They may have a certain knowledge
of it, but they don't know the law. They don't hear what the
law is saying. They haven't heard the gospel. They don't understand
and hear the whole salvation of Jesus Christ. And so that's
why, you know, when people come in who delight in the law and
want the law for their constraining, They don't want to hear Christ.
They think, oh, that's just baby stuff. I've heard that before.
I know that. I just want to get to the deep stuff now. What are
you talking about? You haven't even understood the
gospel yet. Why are you going right past
Christ? You still think that salvation is in some work of
the flesh. That's what they need to hear
so we ought not to despise the gospel of Christ, all right? So Christ didn't just accomplish
justification for his people. He accomplished their sanctification
as well. It's in Romans 6 that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk, that's our sanctification, our
walk in newness of life. So we both live and walk in Christ. That's where we're stayed. Stayed
upon our Savior. We don't move from Him. It's
by His resurrection power. And so a man who is yet ruled
by the law is a man who is yet living and dwelling in the body
of sin. They need the law. If you need
the law, then you're saying, I don't know. I don't know anything
about the power of the resurrection. I need this law here to keep
me in line. That's my dominion, that's my
rule. So they're in the body of sin,
because that's why I was given, to rule over that body of sin,
to keep it in check, alright? And so they're saying, I'm yet
an unrighteous man. I don't know about the righteousness
of God, because I need the law to constrain this flesh. That's
a scary thing. That's why Paul said, I'm afraid
for you, brother. I'm afraid for you. When he said
that to the Galatians, I'm afraid for you. You've so easily departed
from Christ and the liberty that we have in Christ by his spirit. Let's move on to the second point
here where Paul gives us marriage to prove a point. He's proving
our relationship to the law now in looking at marriage. It's
not a sudden discourse suddenly where he's just stopping talking
about what he's saying and now he's talking about marriage.
He's showing us through a type that this is our relationship
to the law now, okay? So when we were in that body
of sin, living unto the lusts of the flesh, just fulfilling
the lusts of the flesh and whatever we wanted to do and we're dominated
by sin, right? At that time, you could look
at it as though we were married to the law. The law became our
rule, right? He became our husband. He was
given to those in the body of sin to say, this is what you
need to be doing. You need to do this and this
and do it like this and you need to do this and that and stop
that and don't do that anymore. Do this. And it was like an overbearing
husband telling you what to do. And what happened? Well, we were
little rebels. We hated that. We don't want
to be told what to do. And so we were like a wife who
just despised the rule of her husband because he was just,
he didn't help us all. He just told us everything that
we were doing that was wrong. He just pointed it out. And so,
but we had no power to do it. Some people try, right? There's
some good wives, so to speak, that try as hard as they can
to please this guy, but he can't ever be pleased. It's not that
what he's saying is wrong. It's just we have no power or
ability to do it and And there's just this nothing there and that's
why it was given to constrain the flesh so we couldn't fulfill
its demands look at Romans 7 to That's what he's saying here.
For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband
so long as he liveth. Like it or not, that's the law
of marriage. She's bound by the law of her
husband while he's alive. But if the husband be dead, she's
loosed from the law of her husband. So if the law is dead to you,
you're free from the law's dominion. If you're dead to the law, you're
free from the law's dominion. Either way, if one party is dead,
you're free. You're delivered from it, you've
satisfied its demands, it's got nothing more to say to you. 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
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. And the scriptures teach us,
you that are the chosen, elect people of God, you are betrothed
to Christ. You are betrothed to Christ in
eternity, right? According as he hath chosen us,
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without spot before him in love. We were betrothed
to Christ in eternity, but then in Adam we fell, and we were
deceived, and we came under the rule and dominion of another
in Adam, and we came under the rule of the law. And like marriage, we were under
its rule and its authority. But we couldn't satisfy God. We couldn't do anything to please
our God and our Savior. So it's an eternal love, an eternal
betrothal to Christ. And he says in Hosea 2.19, And
I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in
mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. So that though we and Adam fell
and came under the law's dominion, our Savior, who loved us from
eternity, though we fell and defiled ourselves and sinned
and polluted ourselves, yet He came, faithfully remembering
His word to you, His bride, and He took care of everything. He
paid the debt. He took care of the law so that
in Him we die to the law. And that law now is severed.
It has no more dominion over you and me and Christ. We die
to it. It's satisfied. We're free now to marry Him who
betrothed us in eternity and chose us and loved us and came
and fulfilled every requirement for the law so that it's satisfied. There's nothing more for you
to do for the law. That's not your husband anymore. You don't
have to listen to him. You listen to Christ. You have
his spirit that teaches you the law of faith whereby we walk
before him, all right? When Christ was crucified, we
were crucified with Him, and there's nothing more that we
owe. That old man, which is born of Adam's seed, is dead. We know
that by faith. You say, well, I still see this
weak flesh. I know, I see it too. But we know that's the problem. justified in Christ. We are sufficient
and ready to stand before him today as the day we first heard
it and believed." We are sufficient. There's nothing more to be done
except that which he's purposed for us to do. That's what he's
working what He's working in us. So we're alive unto Christ
by that resurrection power of the Spirit whereby we walk by
faith in Him, believing Him. And that means, and we know this,
we're now in the body of Christ. We're not in the body of sin.
That's not our inheritance. That's not our hope. That's not
our standing. We have no part in Adam. God's
going to deal with Adam. And God's gonna richly bless
and give us all the inheritance of our husband, Jesus Christ,
because we're his body, we're his bride, we're his people,
we're his now. And so that's where we stand,
is in the body of Christ. All right, now while we wait
for him, we serve him in love. 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15 says,
that the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that
if one died for all, then we're all dead. Every one of us were
dead sinners, but we died in Christ, and that he died for
all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves
but unto him which died for them to justify them and rose again
to sanctify them. The promise of our sanctification.
He did the whole thing. It's everywhere in Paul's writings. He's constantly showing that
we died in Christ. That's our justification. and
he rose again, that's the promise of your sanctification by the
spirit. You're his now, you're in his body, he's providing everything.
And so Paul reveals to us in our text, using the type of marriage,
look at verse four, it pictures our union now with Christ. Romans 7.4, wherefore my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. I'm
not making this stuff up. This is what Paul is telling
us. You're dead to the law by the body of Christ. So that,
that old man having died, we're now in Christ's body. They, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we, see there's that resurrection, raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So there's
the promise of our sanctified walk. We're going to walk in
sanctification in the Lord Jesus Christ so that the law isn't
going to produce any fruit in you. Unless you're an adulteress
and you go from your husband and you go back to the law. That's
an adulteress. Looking for the law to bear fruit
in you. and that's not what we do. We're Christ's bride. He's
our husband. He's the one who bears fruit
in his people, all right? I like what Mahan said. He said, the law cannot make
an evil man good, and it cannot make a saved man holy. All right,
that's Christ's work. He's the one who is your holiness
and your sanctification. All right, I'll just read another
example, and we'll be done shortly. Galatians 2.19. Paul says, I
through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. God isn't dealing with me and
Adam anymore. I don't have that law over me. There's no dominion.
There's no fellowship there. I now live unto God and am in
his fellowship. And then he says, I am crucified
with Christ. There's my justification. Nevertheless,
I live. There's my sanctification. Yet
not I. It's not me and my power, it's
Christ. But Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I
do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness, sanctification,
holiness come by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. He didn't
have to do what he did. I could have done it some other
way. All right, so the faithful gospel reminder is to you that
know the law. You're the ones that know the
law, that believe Christ for all your salvation. You know
the law, all right, and that you're dead to the law in Christ. You know the righteousness of
God is Jesus Christ, both in his death, when he justified
us, and in his resurrection power, by which He sanctifies us by
His Spirit and His power through faith. So just flee from Sinai's
fiery curse. Don't go back there, brethren.
Don't go there. Trust Christ for all your salvation,
justification and sanctification. Trust Him. He's faithful. Faithful
as He who laid down His life for you. He's going to do it
also. There's another good one there
like that. Where is it? It's in 1 Thessalonians. Yeah, 1 Thessalonians. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5.24 He called
you, He's gonna fulfill everything necessary for your salvation.
So trust Him, believe Him. That's how we bear fruit. So
I pray the Lord will bless that word to your hearts and comfort
you. You that believe Him, you stay
right there. Don't be moved from the truth of Christ. All right,
let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your power, for your wisdom in Christ and sending
Him to work a full and complete salvation for us. so that he
is our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, and our wisdom. Lord, we thank you that you have
made him all things to your people so that we, Lord, know the law,
we hear it, and Lord, we don't want to be brought under the
mist of darkness and confusion by it. Lord, we trust you and
believe you. Help us now to walk by your spirit,
looking unto Jesus Christ, the author and the finisher of our
faith. Lord help us to be faithful to
you and to walk by faith in Christ. Lord that we would not be turned
back to the law, that we would not be turned back to sin and
to give in to the lusts of the flesh, but Lord continue to deliver
us by your resurrection power and Lord enable us to indeed
experience and walk in that love of And Lord, help us. Lord, you
know our weaknesses and our infirmities. You know our frailness and...
Lord, how fragile life is and how fragile we are in this world,
Lord. We ask that you would remember
us, that you would put a hedge about us by your spirit and protect
us, Lord, that you would keep us safe in stressful times and
in dire situations, Lord, that you would keep us in Christ and
that you would indeed help us to love one those that are weary, we ask
that you would bless them, comfort them, keep them, Lord. For we
have nothing of ourselves, no strength of ourselves, and Lord,
lest we be turned from Christ to trust in something of the
flesh, Lord, prevent that, keep us, show us, indeed, over and
over again, the faithfulness and the power of our God through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks, amen. Our closing hymn is 446, Satisfied. lifelong I had painted for a
drink from some clear spring that I hope would quench the
burning of the thirst I felt within. Alleluia, I have found
Him whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Leaning on a husk around me,
till my strength was almost gone, longed my soul for something
better, only still to hunger on. Alleluia, I have found Him
whom my soul so long has prayed. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Or was then sought for riches,
something that would satisfy? But the dust I gathered round
me only mocked my soul-sad cry. Alleluia! I have found Him whom
my soul so long has prayed. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Well of water ever springing,
Bread of life so rich and free, Untold wealth that never faileth,
My Redeemer is to me. Alleluia! I have found Him, Whom my soul
so long has craved, Jesus satisfies my longings, through His blood
I now am saved.