Brethren, if you will, we turn
to Romans chapter 7. I love it. Whenever the Lord works His providence. I asked Brother Cass to read
right before we started. I didn't know what he was going
to read. And I was thankful for that. Paul and Barnabas went
down and preached those men in Acts 13. And it says, After the
Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these
words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. After those
men that were under the law were told they're free from the law.
That's what Christ has performed. Those people left. And the ones
that weren't under the law said, tell me more about that. Can
I come hear that again? I'll see you next week. Hopefully
we'll be able to see it tonight. But if we look here in Romans
chapter 7, again in verse 1. Know ye not brethren, for I speak
to them that know the law. how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is 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
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. 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. For when we were in
the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 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." I want us to look over one page there in Romans
6. Paul's giving an example here of what it is to be dead to the
law, freed from the law. Right there, just on the left
of the page, Romans 6 verse 14. What's this law we're free from?
Romans 6 verse 14, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for
ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law? But under grace, God forbid. People read that and they rarely
ask, what sin are you wanting to commit? Is it going to be
a sacrificial sin? Are you not going to bring a
lamb to the synagogue? People don't consider that, do
they? Are you going to have more than one God? Do you have a God
other than the God? In my garden, I have Kentucky
Wonder pole beans planted right next to my sweet corn. And that
way my corn grows up and that pole bean grows up the corn stalk.
I don't have to stake it. I don't have to go out and work
to make a stake. If I planted squash on the ground, they call
them the three sisters. That's a common term in gardening. That's
against the Levitical law. Because I'm under grace, do I
willingly go out and plant beans with my corn? What are they talking
about? I don't think they're talking about that. I don't think
most people nowadays are concerned about that, are they? Is Paul talking about the ceremonial
law? Yes. We are now under grace. Is Paul talking about the judicial
law? Yes. And we are now under grace. Is Paul talking about that mosaic
law we all worry about, the Ten Commandments? Yes. Is he talking
about the moral law? Yes, we're under grace. Now,
as far as I know, everyone in this room was not given the Mosaic
Law, and you were not given the Ceremonial Law. Now, unless you've
converted to Judaism, or you're a natural-born citizen of that
physical Israel over on the other side of the world, it's not to
you. The Law was never given to you
in the first place, just like these Gentiles are in Acts 13.
The Law wasn't given to them. But what is this moral law? That's
the ceremonial and the judicial, the ceremonial and the mosaic.
What's the moral law? In the Hebrew language it's called
Mishtapim. That's the moral law. It relates
directly to the justness and the holiness of God Himself. How does that relate to us? If
that relates to Him, how does it relate to us? It's not the
outward following of an ordinance, it's the inward following of
an ordinance. So now we have the ordinance
of the Lord's table and baptism. It's not just if we get into
that water. It's not just if we eat that
unleavened bread and we drink that wine. It's what's inside
of us whenever that happens. That's what he's talking about.
It's not the outward act, but it's the inward motive. Our master
made this so clear. And that sermon on a mountain,
Matthew 5, he speaks concerning anger. He speaks concerning lust,
divorce, oaths, revenge, and loving your enemies. And he shows
us clearly that it's not just the outward action that matters,
it is the attitude in which we conduct ourselves. That's what
matters. It's not just the sin of the
flesh, but it's the sin of the heart. That's what condemns us. That's what we're under. My pastor
growing up used to say, it's not only the manners that you
have, but it's the motive that you have. Not just the manners,
but the motive. Now turn over to Romans chapter
5. Some people may say, well if
I'm a Gentile, I don't have to worry about any laws regardless. If I'm not under any law, I can
just keep on living the way I'm living. things don't affect me."
Not so. No, no. There in Romans 5 verse
12, Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude, in the same way that Adam's transgression,
who is the figure of him that is to come." Uh-oh. If death
still reigned from Adam to Moses, and there was no written law,
it would appear that man's natural state is lacking. It would appear
that every one of us, Jew or Gentile, we're in trouble. The
motives of our heart causes death. That's what gets us. Turn over
to Genesis chapter 2. We're going to take a look at
where this first commandment came from. Genesis chapter 2. Every human
born of Adam is required to obey and honor God in all things at
all times. We know this in our heart. We
have to have a pure motive. In loving, we have to have a
pure motive in honoring, and we have to obey God at all times
with a good motive, with a pure heart. Love in our hearts. So
here in Genesis chapter 2 verse 16, And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest of it, thou
shalt surely die." Now this commandment was given and then Eve was made. Eve was not directly told by
the Lord not to eat of the tree. It happened after, I'm sorry,
she was made after this commandment was given. Now look there in
verse 6, I'm sorry, Genesis 3, 6. Genesis chapter 3 verse 6,
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes
of them both were opened. And they knew that they were
naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden. They knew they were guilty. They
heard the Lord come and they went and hid. Look at verse 10,
Genesis 3.10, And Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden,
and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And the Lord told him, Who told
thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou should not eat? Now here's a father
dealing with his child. Our God and Savior was not confounded. This is a teaching question. He wasn't caught off guard. Look
here in verse 12. And the man said, the woman whom
thou hast gave with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.
I didn't do nothing wrong. That woman you gave me. It's
her fault. It's your fault for giving her
to me. Look at verse 13. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me. I did eat. It ain't my fault,
it's the serpent's fault. Whose fault was it? Someone else's. That's it, isn't it? Is this
what happens to small children? My children, on things I've never
told them not to do, I didn't expressly tell them what they
did was wrong, and they did something, and they knew it was wrong, and
they ran and hid. I remember being a little fella
and I ran and hid. I'd always hide behind a couch
next to the wall. There was a little tiny gap. I'd go hide. And they blamed someone else
or they blamed something else as the fault, not themselves.
Do we teach them to do that? We never had teachers. I didn't
have to be taught that. That's my nature, isn't it? I'm
just like my father Adam, but I'm the same way. All right,
look at verse 17, Genesis 3, 17. And unto Adam he said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife. Here's the
primary cause. This is the first thing addressed
is disobedience to God. It's the intent and motive and
source of Adam's decision to eat. It was not honoring to God. And hast eaten of the tree. The action of eating is addressed
second. The outward act is addressed
second. The inward act is addressed first.
Of which I commanded these, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Now
verse 24, Genesis 3, 24. So he drove them out, the man,
and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of
the tree of life. Man was cast out of the presence
of God primarily because of a moral reason. The second cause was
a physical reason, a physical action. It seems that that motive
of the heart is important, doesn't it? It sounds like that moral
law affects all of us and it's important. We need to pay attention
to it. Now that Adam was cast out of the garden, no one could
break the law. If we're only looking at the
letter of the law, you can't eat the tree of life. Well, we
can't get to that tree now. There's cherubims with flaming
swords. I can't break the law if I wanted to. They still died,
didn't they? After the similitude. We're still
bound to obey God. We're bound to hearken unto Him,
every man, woman, and child, first and foremost. Can I back
that up in Scripture? We turn to Romans chapter 2. Now remember we saw a couple
weeks ago, sin was imputed to us by Adam. We are charged with
sin because Adam, our seminal head, sinned. Sin was imparted
to us by Adam, by birth. Two zebras have a baby, it's
a zebra. Two sinners had people, and we're sinners. And it's acted
on by us in our own desires, in our own actions, in our own
lusts. We choose to sin from a young age. Romans chapter 2
there, verse 14. For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, the Gentiles, having not the law, never given to them,
are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written
in their hearts, their conscience also bearing them witness, and
their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing another
one. one another. The same law written
on every man and woman's heart, it continues to curse us if we
have failed it, if we fail it now, or if we've kept it all
the way and we're going to fail tomorrow. It's going to curse
us. It's going to get us if we're not fully and completely obey
it. And by instinct, we excuse ourselves
and we accuse someone else. We make excuses for ourselves.
Well, I was sick that day. I had COVID-19. I couldn't come
to church. Whatever. We find an excuse or
we blame somebody else. That's true. James wrote this. He said, if you fulfill the royal
law, the royal law, according to the scriptures, that thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well. But if you have
respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the
law as transgressors. For whom so shall keep the whole
law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." He's guilty
of all the law. We'll probably see this again
in a second, but if I'm doing 55.1 miles per hour, I'm breaking
the law if the speed limit's 55. I broke the whole law. Every bit of it. So if we're
not born under that ceremonial law, if we're not born under
the mosaic law, we are born as the seed of Adam and we're under
the moral law. We are to love God with all our
heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. That's what we're
required. Now each of us fall short and
each and every person, we know we fell short. We know it. No matter what defense you take,
no matter the excuse you give, no matter who you blame, just
like Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming that serpent, we are
guilty. I've heard a lot of people say,
well, I do pretty good. I don't sin every day. What'd James say? You fall short in one spot, you're
dead. Moral, ceremonial, or judicial
doesn't make a difference. It's what God requires. From
any point of view you have on the law of God, Paul spends the
whole sixth chapter of Romans laboring that those that Christ
died for, we are free from the law. We are not saved by any
law. We are saved by free and sovereign
grace of God alone. That's it. Now in our text here,
Romans chapter 7, Paul speaks to those who he knows is going
to get real mad because he just said that. He laid everything
out for them, the first six chapters, and he's like, I know who's going
to be angry over this one, and I'm going to address it. I'm
going to talk to them. It says there in Romans 7 verse
1, Know ye not brethren, for I speak to them that know the
law, either those Jews, natural born Jews there or those that
cling to it, how that the law hath dominion over man as long
as he liveth. Now the apostle is focusing on
the Jews in Rome at this time, but today this applies to any
person that is in favor of the law over grace. any law over
grace. In our day, many women and men,
they think they've got to be justified by observing some of
the ceremonial law, or the judicial law, or the moral law. Or that
Christ saved them, and now they must make themselves holy by
obeying the law. And most only pick the laws that
are the easiest on the flesh. If you're going to pick one,
pick a hard one. Work hard. Laws that make the least effort
in action and that the intent and the motive can't be seen.
What do I mean by that? Many keep the Sabbath. They'll
say, well, I don't play basketball on Sundays. I'm keeping the Sabbath. I don't go out and do something.
But they'll use their DVR and they'll record that football
game they're not supposed to be watching so they can watch it Monday.
It's like my Jewish friend, they put a clapper on the TV so they
couldn't get up and touch the TV to turn it on, but they could
clap or set a timer and it'd come on and they'd watch it.
Baptism. All you have to do is get in
the water, and you don't even have to do that by yourself. Somebody helps
you. They help you down in there and help you back up. And many
folks have done it multiple times, and if it didn't work the first
time, just keep trying, they say. Tithing. That's simple math. One-tenth. I remember me and Brother Don
was in Missouri, Kimberly was there with us, and two men were
arguing over if they're supposed to give 10% before taxes or 10%
after taxes. And my jaw was probably dropped
open, and Don sat there quietly. And they made the mistake of
asking Don what his opinion was. And he told them, he said, if
you only give 10%, if I was you, I wouldn't give nothing at all.
What? If I remember right, he would
not explain to them what giving was. Your time, your prayers,
your effort, your love, everything else. Give your whole self over
to somebody. If it's just 10%, if it's legalistic, just keep
it. Attendance, just showing up. Church membership, just sign
a piece of paper. That's an easy one. Daily devotionals. Somebody sits down every morning,
I read my Bible for 20 minutes every morning. Well, the whole
time you're reading, you might be thinking about that 10% you
was given that you could have went and bought a jet ski and
went riding on Sundays. But what does everybody see?
You're just standing there reading the scriptures, sitting in the
easy chair. Because you're seeing of men, and they have the reward
that they want. All these things. They do all
these things so people see them. Be seen of men. And if they can't
find a rule that's easy enough to follow, they'll make a new
one up. I've heard some stuff that, you
can get that out of the scriptures. I don't know where they come
up with them. But if you're alive, whatever
law you're under, that's your master until you die. That law
does not go away by performing it. That's why they say on this
road out here, speed limit's 45 miles an hour. If I go out
there and I obey the speed limit from here all the way up to my
house, does that sign go away? Does that speed limit stop being
45? No! I gotta keep it tomorrow. It
ain't gonna go away. Now when I die, that sign can
rust. It don't make a difference. I'm
dead to it, it's dead to me. But Paul's giving us an example
here everyone can understand. Look here in Romans 7 verse 2. for the woman, which hath a husband,
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband is dead, she is 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
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. We're saying, so I'm under the
law of God and I have failed to totally observe it from birth
and in birth, my payment is death. That's what's required. I must
die to be freed from that law. But, but this puny being that
I am, it ain't going to make a swift payment. My soul as payment
for my sins, eternal, eternal damnation. What's our hope? What
hope can I have? If the Lord showed me, I haven't
kept any of these things. If He's been gracious enough
to show me, I haven't kept one of them. Believers are made one with Christ. We died when He died. He's satisfying
the death and propitiation is applied to us equally because
we're wed to Him. He's our heavenly husband. We
are His bride. Look here in verse 4. Therefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that ye should be married to another, to him who is raised
from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God."
Because Christ fulfilled all the law. He fulfilled the ceremonial
law, the judicial law, and the moral law. I am dead to the law. People say, did Christ really
fulfill All that law. Am I really one with him? Remember
that leper he healed? And he said, you take those two
turtle doves and you go to the temple and give them to the priest.
That was the only man that ever healed a leprosy that came in.
Them priests, I bet their jaws dropped. They knew him. Here he come with the right payment.
He fulfilled the law. All of it. And just like that
woman whose husband died, I'm free to be married to another.
There's nothing wrong or illegal about it. We're all free to do
so. This freedom does not come from our death, but it comes
from the death of Christ. But since we are in Him, and
He is in us, those that He died for, when He died, I died. When He satisfied divine justice,
you've satisfied it. You've satisfied it. We're one with Him. He became
me, and I became Him. He was made sin. Everybody fights
over that word's a noun. He became Kevin. He became Cass. He became us. And then I became
righteous. Nobody argues over that. That's
a blessed benefit, isn't it? The believer is both justified
in Christ and sanctified in Christ through Christ's fulfillment
of the law and Him willfully giving us His robe of righteousness.
Turn one page to the right, Romans chapter 8. Because He's accomplished
all this, it's done. It's finished. Romans 8.1. There is therefore now, right
now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. I wish I could
rest in that whenever I get mad during the day and I get frustrated
and my cares of this world get tied up. Right now, as I stand,
there is no condemnation for me to the Almighty God. Well, I wish I could know that.
Look, all right, let's go back in our text, verse 4, Romans
7, 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. Now we are married
to Christ. What's the result? Do we begin
to sin abundantly now? We got a new husband? We're out
from underneath that law? No. That we should bring forth
fruit unto God. I attempted to drive this home
a few messages ago, but we are free to serve God. We're allowed to serve God. He's
freed us to serve Him. A true believer wants to bear
fruit. We no longer want to serve sin,
but we desire to serve the one whose name we bear, the one who's
given us a new name. We know what joy is now, and
we want to continue enjoying knowing our Savior. and learn
more of Him. We know what true love is, and
being filled with that in our heart, it being shed abroad in
our hearts, it overflows out of us in praise and in worship
to our God, and in care and tenderness to our brethren. We can't keep
from it. And those that Christ has been
wed to, we can now bring forth true fruit that originates in
our heavenly husband. He's the vine, we're the branch. Being delivered from the law
is not only for our justification, but it's for our sanctification
also. They go hand in hand. You can't
have one without the other. They're together. Let's turn
over to Galatians chapter 3. I hope I'm terribly plain on
this, Christ redeems and justifies His people in Christ and He makes
them holy. The Lord redeems us and justifies
us in Christ and He makes us holy in Christ. He sanctifies
us in Christ. We are not saved from the curse
of the law through death only to be put back underneath it
to make ourselves holy, to improve ourselves. It didn't work the
first time it was underneath that law. What makes us think
it's going to work the second time? Brother Henry put it best and
he said, the law cannot make an evil man good and it cannot
make a saved man holy. Ain't gonna work. It's sole purpose
is to point us to Christ. Show us our death. Look here
in Galatians 3 verse 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you. This only would I learn of you.
Receive you the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing of faith.
How was you saved? Was you saved by hearing or by
doing? Well, we were saved by hearing, Paul. Look at verse
3. Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Paul is driving us home. that
the sinner saved by grace is made and is kept holy by that
same loving grace of God through Christ. If someone thinks otherwise,
the scriptures say you're foolish. It's the Lord's word, not mine.
It's what He said. Alright, back to our text. We'll
wrap this up. Romans 7, verse 5. For when we were in the flesh,
The motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. When we were only looking to
that law and not looking to Christ, did law make our sin restrained? Did law keep us from sinning?
Did it suppress our sinning? Did it hamper it? No. That law
aggravated our sinful nature. It inflamed our sinful nature. Right now, if I go down to Albertsons
and they said, the only way you can come in here is if you don't
have on a red tie. What's the first thing that goes
through my head? Put this tie on, make sure it looks pretty.
I want to see if I can walk through that door. It's horrible, isn't it? That's
what I am. Made that way. If you want somebody
to do something, just tell them that they can't do it. Verse 6, 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. It says there newness of spirit
not the oldness of the letter. Now we do not obey God and honor
him because from Genesis we're told to. Now we do it out of
love. We're constrained by cross love
for us. Now we have a proper motive.
We want to serve God, give Him all the glory, obey Him, honor
Him, because that love planted in us, that seed of life put
in us, incorruptible seed. Now we're married to Christ.
We serve Him in love, just as a wife or husband serves her
spouse in love. In the evenings, we'll be sitting
on the couch, Kimberly's worked all day, and she'll say, I'm
thirsty. Here's the order of events. I stand up, I turn towards
the kitchen, and I say, what do you want to drink? When I come home in the evenings,
my clothes are washed, I go open that drawer up, and I got brand
new socks, clean, folded up. Nowhere in our wedding vows did
either one of us say anything about that, did we? There's no
law to make her do that or me do that. Why do we do those things?
I love her. She loves me. Those are simple
things, aren't they? Nowhere in our vows does it say
it, but we have a desire of love for one another. Same with our
Master. Nowhere in the law is it written for us to do these
things. We have a desire to do them.
I pray that every believer sees Christ's love for us. See what
He's given for us. And through that, we ought, out
of that debt of gratitude, serve Him, honor Him, love Him, Respect
him do what we can to help our brethren that he's died for he's
given so much for Because he has loved us and loves us still
right now. We have no condemnation what
a blessed thought in Heavenly father, thank you for
your word today Lord. Let us understand Show us the liberty that we have
in Christ and Lord, open our hearts, break them. Let us overflow
with love towards him and desire to serve him and further this
gospel and be tender to our brethren and long suffering. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us
for what we are. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
saving sinners. What a blessed thought. Thank
you for our brethren that you've sent hard trials to. What a blessed
place to be, Lord, to be humbled and have everything stripped
from you to only be able to look to Christ. Keep us pointing to
Him always, Lord. It's in His name that we ask
it. Amen.