and reading. What shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence
For without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without
the law once, but then the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, the
commandment is holy, and just, and good. Was then that which
is good made death unto me? God forbid, and listen to this,
but sin, that it might appear sin, working in me by that which
is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Now, again, I want to speak on
the subject Paul's encounter with the law from this text here. Now, Romans 7 is a veritable
treasure chest of wonderful jewels and gems to be found in the Word
of God. And Romans 7 begins with that
wonderful spiritual portrayal of the death of the law by the
body of Christ using the example of a wife whose husband dies
and the wife is then free from the law of her husband that she
might go and be married unto another and not be reckoned an
adulteress. Even so, Paul writes in verse
4, and let's enter that into our record this morning, Wherefore,
my brethren, ye 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."
Now, we look at Romans 7, and particularly the part where we're
treading this morning, we might as well acknowledge that there
is controversy and controversy big time about the meaning of
the rest of Romans chapter 7. And especially from verse 14
under the end. The question among preachers
and theologians is debated whether or not Paul is referring to himself
as a lost man or as a Christian in this passage of the Scripture? Does Paul have these conflicts
as a Christian man, or were these the experiences of Paul or Saul
when he was yet unconverted? Now, to shortcut about that,
the answer, I firmly believe, is that he is speaking of himself
in a state of grace as a Christian man because, as many good commentators
have noted, there is not a thing here but what is consistent absolutely
with the Christian experience. And I think any real spiritual
Christian could affix their name to this confession that Paul
has made in this place. But before we settle into our
text this morning, let's first take up a note about something
in verses 7-13, and then in verse 14-25. Those two paragraphs are
sections of Scripture from the Apostle Paul. Now, note if you
might, that in the first section, that would be verse 7-13, Paul
speaks generally in the past tense. And that's
pretty important, I think, that he is speaking here in the past
tense. While, when we come to verses
14 through 25, he begins to speak in the present tense. He changes
from the past under the present tense. For example, he says,
I am in verse 14, I find in verse 21, I delight in the law of God,
in verse 22. I see another law in my members,
verse 23. And then look at verse 24. Paul
writes, wretched man that I am. Now, he does not say, wretched
man that I was, but wretched man that I am, even as he wrote
this epistle to those at Rome. Now in our text, the apostle
speaks, very personally by the way, of an encounter which he
had with the law. Meaning law, not the mosaic,
not the ceremonial law, but the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. And in particular, the Tenth
Commandment. And in these verses, the Apostle
lays open his very heart and his very soul. He opens himself
to all that come upon this passage of the Scripture to be aware
of some of the experiences of Paul. Now, the question that
we have, what leads the Apostle to speak of his encounter with
the law? How does he come to this? Why
does he feel the need to speak unto this? Surely it has some
pertinence to the subject that is at hand and some relation
to the subject matter that is being discussed here in Romans
chapter 7. And again, why that question
in the beginning of verse 7? Look at it again. What shall
we then say? Is the law sin? Paul ever the great anticipator. Paul could anticipate when an
objection might be brought or raised against something that
he had said. And he realizes, being the great
anticipator, that he has just said something or written something
that might be taken in the wrong way. Some might read Paul and
say that Paul is teaching that the law is bad and that it is
the cause of sin. And what had the Apostle said
that might give some people that impression? What had he said
that some might accuse him that he is making the law out to be
sin? Or to use it to lay Paul under
the charge that he was Nothing more than an antinomian. And then to charge the law with
being the cause of sin. Or to say that Paul is transferring
guilt from himself or from the sinner unto the law. Now, I raised the question, why
does he raise that question? And I think the nearest and the
surest answer is found back in verse 5. And let me read verse
5 in our hearing. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sin, watch this, which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. The motions
of sin, the margin probably has its passions of sin. the motion
or the passions of sin, which were by the law." Not only that,
but they did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Now, I ask you, is not that a very intriguing verse? Have you read
it? Have you caught the tone of it?
Have you heard it? Then you can see how that it
would afford the legalist Jews and how they might take it the
wrong way as seen by the question of the great anticipator in verse
7. So look at verse 5 and verse
6 where a contrast is made. First of all, in verse 5, when
or while we were in the flesh. Verse 6, but now we are delivered
from the law, that is also delivered from the power or the dominion
of the flesh. And having heard that the law
stirred up the motions or the passions of sin, the need to
become dead to it, a carnal person, especially a Jew in that day,
would almost certainly get the wrong impression from what Paul
has said. And so he minces no words. The
law brought to bear, he says, upon a fleshly person will not
only not subdue sin in that person, neither will it overcome sin,
nor break its power, but it will actually aggravate and irritate
sin in a fleshly, carnal, or unregenerate person. Let me illustrate,
if I might, by some example. Imagine a dung pile sitting out
by the barnyard somewhere. The rain and the sun shine down
and beat upon it. And the sun and the rain upon
that dung pile will actually increase the stench and the filthiness
of it. Its filth will be more revealed
by the rain and also by the sun. Again, the sight of a judge on
a bench or a policeman on the beat will arouse feelings of
animosity in one who is a criminal and therefore hates the law. The discipline of a parent sometimes
will give rise to resentment in the heart of the rebellious
child. The wind may stir up the mire
and the filth of the sea, yet the wind did not put the filth
or the mire in the sea. It only stirred up what was already
there, but somewhat settled until the waters are stirred and are
agitated. So here in v. 7-13, Paul uses
his very own experience to illustrate what he had said in v. 5 concerning the passions of
sin stirred up by the law. But before we get to that, let
us remember something. That Paul, first known of course
as Saul, Saul of Tarsus, this man had two very impressive and
important encounters in his life that changed his life once and
for all. First of all, as you are aware,
in Acts 9, he had that encounter with Jesus of Nazareth on Damascus
Road. When Christ met an apprehended
Saul, called him by his grace, and save the soul of the archenemy
of Christ and of the gospel. The archenemy of the Christian
church in that day. May I remind you that Saul had
no intention of becoming a Christian. He had no intention of believing
on or serving the Lord. But he had an encounter with
Christ that forever changed his life. And it will be so with
you and with all others, my friends. But the second encounter that
we're looking at this morning is an encounter with the law
described here in Romans chapter 7, by which all of his self-righteousness
was swept away in one swell blow of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
the first time sometime during this experience, he saw himself
as a sinner. For the first time in this man's
life, he realized that he was a great sinner before God. And
that's because the law found in him sin that he had never
been aware of before in all of his days. The law went down into
his heart and soul and stirred up sin that he did not know was
there. Sin which he never would have
believed existed until the law discovered it in him and stirred
him up. Now we must remember something
about this man who is the subject of our text today. This man was,
before that encounter with Christ, a Jewish zealot. Yes, one of
the most ardent before his powerful encounter with Christ. And then
the law that Paul, in Philippians 3 and verse 6, considered himself
to be blameless before the law. He and all of his compadres thought
that Paul was blameless before the law. Being blameless before
the law. Listen to that. That was his
opinion before his encounter described in Romans 7. And then he said, concerning
the law, he lived a Pharisee with all the do's and the don'ts
and the touch nots and the taste nots and the handle nots. And
in Galatians 1 and verse 14, he said that in that state, he
progressed beyond all of his contemporaries who were his own
age. In Acts 26 and verse 5, he says,
all that knew me would testify that after the straited sect,
I lived a Pharisee. His religion was as a Pharisee. That means he practiced the most
strict practice of any of the Jew. Phariseeism, who might claim
that they went beyond what the law even required, and was content
then that he met the righteousness of the law. And until that encounter,
he never thought of himself as a great sinner. Until the law
came, in the sense described in Romans chapter 7. Thus, looking
at verse 7, in responding to any objections raised because
of verse 5, Paul answers the objection by using his very own
experience. He lays out what had happened
unto him. The question, is the law sin? has Paul's usual answer. God
forbid, no, may it never be. But he said, I had not known
sin, but by the law. Now, he does not have reference
to sin in the abstract, for he saw much that he considered sin
in other men in the world around about him. He saw the idolatry
of the Gentiles, and he knew that to be sin, but he speaks
of himself. that the law came to him in such
a way that he saw himself in a way he had never been aware
of before. And brethren, that's one of the
most intriguing experiences one can ever have. He saw himself
sinful, which he had not done before. The law discovered sin
where he thought there was none or where none could be. so that
he went from thinking himself to be blameless before God and
the law, to seeing himself as sinful in the sight of God. And how did that occur? It was
by the law that he came unto that knowledge. Now this is not
surprising, for he had said in Romans 3, verse 20, for by the
law is the knowledge of sin, He has said in Romans 4 and 15,
the law worketh rad. So let us learn all the lessons
that we can this morning from Paul concerning his encounter
with the law. First, what law does Paul have
reference to here? What law? Let's try to identify
the law that he has in mind. Does he mean the ceremonial law?
with all of its washings and pourings and purifying and such? Or the Mosaic Law, as it is sometimes
called? No. Does he mean the law of nature
that is found working even in some hearts? No. Does he mean
the civil law, the law of Rome, the law of the kingdom? No. Paul does not leave us in doubt. The law which he specifically
mentions is The tenth commandment, Thou shalt not covet. That's the commandment that God
him. He speaks the ten commandments.
God's holy moral law. The one given yonder in such
glory and wonder at Mount Sinai. Second, which of the ten commandments
did Paul say brought him to the knowledge and awareness that
he was sinful? Was it the one prohibiting idolatry? Thou shalt have no other gods
before me? No. Was it those prohibiting
theft and murder and adultery? Not at all. Because like most
Pharisees, he boasted that he was not guilty of this class
of transgression against the law. And you can see that, Mark
10, 19 and 20. Luke 18, verse 11 and 12. Had these laws come to Paul or
to Saul, that is, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not steal, he would have deflected them
as having nothing with which to accuse him. Again, it was
what seemed the least of the Ten Commandments. The least of
the Ten Commandments in the minds of many. Thou shalt not covet."
One of the great lessons learned from this text is the error held
by most Jews in that day and many modern Pharisees who teach
the people under their ministry that only the outward act is
a sin. That's a very common belief in
Christendom today. We have no doubt. heard some
great Bible scholars, so they call themselves, say, it is not
a sin if you think it. It is only a sin if you do it
or put it into action. And Paul shows the fallacy of
such a view, even though many believe that because we cannot
present evil desires and thoughts and envy and such like, entering
into our heart that it is not a sin, since we are powerless
to stop these thoughts from coming in. But even desire can transgression
be. And we learn that by the Ten
Commandments. Paul says it was so with him. What did the Lord
say about this matter of the heart and the feelings and motives
and such like? What did the Lord say? Matthew
5. 21 and 22 concerning murder. And what did he say in Matthew
5 and verse 27 and 28 concerning adultery? Just this, Whosoever
is angry at his brother without cause is in danger of the judgment. And whosoever looks upon a woman
to lust after hath committed adultery already in her heart. Now, Paul learned that he was
sinful when the commandment came. And let's read again verse 7,
the last part, and verse 8. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead." Now we have heard Paul say, He came to know coveting
when the law entered into him that said, Thou shalt not covet. And that sin, taking occasion
through the commandment, worked in me all manner." That is, every
kind, lusting, desiring of every kind. Please note, who can say
why the translators here of the King James use three different
words to translate the one Greek word that is in place in all
three of these. We see three English words here
that is in the King James. We have lust in verse 7. We have covet also in verse 7. And in verse 8, the word concupiscence
is translated. But they are all from the same
Greek word. And they all could be translated
by the same word. Whether that word be covet, whether
it be lust, or whether it be desire, or even concupiscence,
it is one and the same word. So let's hear the rest of Paul's
experience with the law. He learned that he was full of
coveting by the law. Not the law concerning murder
or theft or adultery, but the law concerning covetousness. He learned when the law came
that there was all manner of desire in him. Now look at verse
8. Paul kind of does some tongue
twisters here. Takes us back and forth. Let's
be careful. Let's keep up and give him our
utmost attention. Verse 8, he said, For without
the law, sin was dead." Now, this was before the law came,
C-A-M-E, in verse 9. During that time, when the law
had not yet penetrated deep into the conscience, sin was not absent,
but it was dead. I like the word dormant, meaning
that it was inactive. It was asleep. as if it were
in hibernation. It was a state of death-like
sleep. I have read that hibernating
animals, that their breath and their pulse slow down just barely
breathing and beating during the time of their habitation. And that their bodies take on
the temperature of the burrow in which they are hibernating. Now this deadness of sin Paul
speaks of James Fraser said this, and I love his book, quote, When
the law had not entered with its authority and force, sin
was, as it were, asleep without such behemoth and sensible motion,
and so comparatively dead, unquote. When we really think about it,
it seems reasonable that this can only be the case and only
be true with Number one, a self-righteous person. It would take a self-righteous
person to have this experience and think that they were free
with sin and for sin to be dead in them. Secondly, it might occur
to one who had an abysmal ignorance of the law. Paul had all of his
life, in the first one, a self-righteous Pharisee as to his religion. So putting v. 8 and v. 9 together,
there are interesting contrasts here for us to note, such as
him saying, sin was dead in v. 8. Sin revived in v. 9. And in v. 9, I was alive. Then he says, I died. So we have
when sin was dead, Paul was alive. When sin revived, Paul was dead. Now, being alive and dying, Paul
does not have any reference at all to natural life or to the
physical death of the body. And that's seen in the verses
that follow that this is the case. When Paul says, using the
term alive, and I died in a unique way. Now, before the law came,
I was alive. This refers to his very own judgment
and estimation and opinion of his spiritual condition. And
again, Fraser said, he was alive with respect of the confidence
and conceit of his own good state. Meaning that he was in himself
confident that he had the favor of God and that eternal life
was his. John Murray, another exegete,
weighed in on these words. And he said, and I quote, he,
Paul, is speaking of the unperturbed, self-complacent, self-righteous
life which he once lived before the turbulent motions and conviction
of sin overtook him. But there comes the time the
commandment of God came home to him in power and in authority,
and brought with it great conviction of sin. And by the coming of
this commandment, sin was aroused up and back as it were with a
fury. He said in verse 9, sin revived. This is the proper order. Notice
it. The commandment came, sin revived,
I died. There's the order. And when the
law became as a flaming hot arrow in his conscience, he found it
armed with a cursed rack when it came. It slew him. It put
him to death. For the first time in his life,
he saw himself as a great sinner in the sight of God. In verse
10 and 11, the commandment by which Paul expected life instead
He found death in his place. He at one time thought himself
blameless before the law. He feared nothing from it in
the way of condemnation. He thought that he kept it fully
to the satisfaction of God. But alas, that very law he found
to be unto death. And how? Verse 11, sin taking
occasion by the commandment, deceive me, And by it, that is
the commandment, slew me. It puts us in the mind of 1 Corinthians
15 and verse 56 where there is an amazing statement that says
this, the strength of sin is the law. Sin uses the law to
do us great harm. The law itself is not sin. It is not sinful, nor does it
favor sin. But anyone that is under the
law will also be under sin. Romans 6 and 14 is a very important
verse. And freedom from sin required
that he be made free from the law by the body of Christ or
the death of the Lord, which he was. Now at this point, we
are nowhere told in his writings or in others' writings in the
New Testament What was this exact time of Paul's experience? When he had this encounter with
the law. We're not told exactly when it
occurred. But one thing is, I believe,
undeniable. It was not while he was an unregenerate
Pharisee practicing Judaism. Nor, as some have thought, during
the earliest years of his childhood when he was very young. It had
to do with his conversion unto Christianity, his being called
by Christ, and his becoming a Christian. Was it simultaneous with the
experience then of the Damascus Road? Was it the three days following
when Saul was without sight and without food and without water? Was it when he was caught up
into the third heaven? as he describes. Or was it when
he was in Arabia according to Galatians 1 and verse 17? However, the most important thing
is not the time, but the experience when a man who was the most devoted
zealot ever under Judaism, sure that he was practicing the right
religion and serving Almighty God, that man is made to see
himself as a great sinner. And sin, using the law, put him
to death. The thing by which he expected
life brought him, on the other hand, death." Now, if you look
at verse 12, it answers the question in verse 7, is the law sin? And the answer is, not at all. The law is holy. The law is just. The law is good. Though it stirs
up passions of sin, and sin took occasion by the law to deceive
him and to slay him, yet he says the law is good. Good in every
respect. Notice then that verse 13 raises
the question whether his death as to the first cause came by
the law or by sin, which put him to death, which was the instrumentality. Had there been no sin in him,
the law had passed him by, for it had no quarrel with him. Just
as God passed over the Israelites without smiting them where the
blood was. But then, there is sin. The law, when it comes, as it
did to Paul, we'll find it. If there is sin in anyone, the
law of God will find it. Because as Paul learned, the
law forbids covetousness. The law forbids impure thoughts. The law forbids unlawful desires. Sin by the commandment, therefore,
in verse 13, is made exceedingly sinful. The law reveals the sinfulness
of sin. Because the law is holy, it therefore
always finds sin. Would you tolerate an illustration? This made an impression on me.
I haven't forgotten. I use it every five years. My
sister-in-law was telling me of an experience. Her husband
was in the Air Force and was an officer. And they had own
base homes that they could live in. And when it was time to move,
they had to clean them absolutely spotless. As spotless as they
found them. And when the inspectors came
by, she said, he pulled out a white glove. He put on a white glove
and he began to wipe up under the stove exhaust and around. and came out dirt, dirt. The white glove test, they call
it, found it. And my friend, if I may make
an application to Paul's experience, there are many today in the bowels
of Christendom sitting in the church right now who have no
idea of how sinful they are in the sight of God. Who, like Saul
of old, are persuaded that they're living a good and a righteous
life. They do not consider themselves
a great sinner before God at all. And how could they? The doctrine of total depravity
is never preached in their hearing. They go to church, they don't
hear the absolute total depravity of man. The law of God is not
thundered out and preached to people in our day. And the holiness
of God, nor the sovereignty of God is preached in places. Not even the gospel is preached
in so many places in our day. Their self-righteousness, therefore,
is never challenged. Their self-righteousness they
hold without ever really being challenged. Like Saul, they are
deluded in the most dangerous and deadly conclusion that they
are not sinners, that they have no sin, and are not great sinners
in the sight of God. They go to church and what do
they hear? They hear the love of God, but never the wrath of
God. Sinners have become hurting people
rather than sinners in the sight of God. How many preachers you
hear today refer to hurting people? You don't hear them refer to
them as sinners. They are hurting people. Sin has been renamed. It has become an addiction that
needs not grace but medicine. They are sick and not sinful
as a result of following psychology into the pulpit. And that's why
they have no sense of their sinfulness in the sight of God. They always
tell them how much God loves them and what a good, gracious
God He is, and therefore have deceived so many. strong expression
or opinion, but I have strong doubts that a person can be saved
without seeing themselves a great sinner in the sight of God. When it will come, who can say?
But none can be saved without seeing themselves as a great
sinner, if not at the very first, yet soon and somewhere along
the way. When the word of the gospel comes
in power, When the blessed Spirit lays open the sins of our heart
to ourself, at some point a regenerous person will see that sin dwells
in them and that they are indeed exceedingly sinful in the sight
of God. Therefore, we can only say, thanks
be to God for the unsearchable riches of His grace that has
saved us from our sin. and provided us a Redeemer. Then I'll close with this, my
friend. Flee to the law, if you will. Try to find justification
by the law. Go stand yonder at Sinai, if
you would, waist deep in molten ashes, and try to find justification
there. You will not. It is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. People are misguided when you
talk to them and they say, oh, I just keep the law. Paul found
out he had not, and it stirred up sin in him. I just live by
the golden rule, some will often tell us, but when the law of
God, when the Word of God, when the truth of God enters in, it
will discover the sin that lays within our own heart, perhaps
we were not aware of before. And that's what happened to Saul.
The law came, sin revived, he died. The law came, sin stood
up and roared, and used the law, used the law to slay him. My, what a text and what a testimony
from the great apostle. All right, thank you for your
attention. Let's stand, please, for a word of prayer.