Now let's look at John chapter
16 and verse 8 is where we want to start. And what I want to
say, before we get to Romans 7, is you know there are a lot
of people who talk about the Holy Spirit today, the work of
the Spirit. And there's a lot of speculation,
there's a lot of emotionalism that's attached with people's
false understanding of the work of the Spirit. There's a lot
of myth, you know, how people see the work of the Spirit. Well,
listen to what the Lord says to His disciples here concerning
the fruit of His finished work on the cross. And that's what
He's talking about here. Because he says there in verse
7, look at verse 7 of John 16, he says, nevertheless I tell
you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. It's
necessary for you that I go away. Now what does he mean go away?
He's talking about going to the cross as the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer of his people to put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself. shedding of his blood, the establishment
of that righteousness that enables God to be just and justify. That's
what he's going away to do. And he would die, he would be
buried, he'd be raised again the third day, but then he would
ascend unto the Father where he ever lives to make intercession
for us. Well, out of that death comes
the fruit of life for his people. And the Holy Spirit, the third
person of the Trinity, is the sovereign applicator, if you
will, of that life that comes to us through Christ. And this
is what he says, it's expedient for you that I go away, for if
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if
I depart, I will send him unto you, talking about the Holy Spirit.
And it says in verse eight, when he has come, he will do three
things. Now listen to this, he says he will reprove. The word
reprove means convince or convict. He will convict the world of
sin. Now we know what he's talking
about, the world of his people. How do you know that? Because
whoever he's talking about, they're gonna be convinced of sin. And
he says he's gonna convict the world of righteousness and of
judgment. Now listen to verse nine. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my father and you see me no more. of judgment because the
prince of this world is judged. Now what does that mean? These
three things. If I want to know if the Holy
Spirit has done a sovereign work of grace within me, I know these
three things. He's convinced me of sin because
I believed not on Christ. I believed, past tense, not on
Christ. He's convinced me of righteousness
because Christ went unto the Father. And he's convinced me
of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Now
we could go to a lot of different passages of scripture to find
out the meaning of all three of those things, but I'll tell
you where you can find them is in Romans 7 and Romans 8. Romans
7 and Romans 8. And what he's going to show us
first When he says he's convinced the world of sin because they
believe not on me, we're gonna see that beginning here in verse
seven of Romans seven in the lesson entitled The Exceeding
Sinfulness of Sin. And then what he shows here is
this. It is the Holy Spirit's work
to convince God's children of the reality of sin in the light
of Christ. that without Christ, it's nothing
but sin, and to convince the world of righteousness, God's
people all over, of righteousness, because that's what Christ established
on the cross as our surety, substitute, and redeemer, whereby he went
unto the Father. How did he go to the Father?
He went to the Father as the one who finished the work, you
see. That's why he was resurrected
from the dead, because in his death, sin was put away. Our
sins imputed to him, they were put away. And righteousness that's
been imputed to us was established. And righteousness demands life,
he couldn't, the grave couldn't hold him. So he raised from the
dead, and he went unto the Father, and he seated at the right hand
of the Father, that's the right hand of acceptance, because he
did the work. Remember in John 17, his high
priestly prayer, he said, I finished the work which you gave me to
do. And what was that work? It was to put away our sins and
establish righteousness. And then to convince the world
of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. Now
I'm going to be preaching on that this morning, about Satan
as the accuser of the brethren. But his accusations don't stick
because we've already been judged for our sins in the person of
Christ as they were imputed to him and he died for them. So
therefore we cannot be condemned and how does Romans 8 start?
There is therefore now no condemnation. So you see, no condemnation to
them which are in Christ. So if you wanna know the work
of the Holy Spirit, look at passages like John 16, eight through 11,
and then look at passages like Romans seven and eight to explain
it to us. That's what we've got there. Well, what Paul does from
here to the end of this chapter, Romans 7, seven, he says, what
shall we say then? From here to the end of this
chapter, What he's going to do is show us the purpose of God's
law in the lives of God's elect. What is the purpose of the law
in our lives? Whatever law, not just talking
about the law of Sinai, even though that's included, but we're
talking about the law of God that commands us to be perfect. What is the purpose of that law?
And here from Romans 7, 7 through 13, he's going to show the purpose
of the law in the hands of the Holy Spirit to convict us of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. To show us the exceeding
sinfulness of our sin, which we do not know and will not accept
by nature. This is a work of God through
the Holy Spirit. and to drive us to Christ continually
for salvation. And then from Romans 7, 14 through
25, he's gonna show that that is the same purpose that the
Holy Spirit uses the law in the continual life of a believer
to continually convict us of sin and continually drive us
to Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all
righteousness. You see, that never stops. Am
I right, believers? That never stops. I'm continually
being shown by God through His word, by the power of the Spirit,
that I'm a sinner, saved by grace, and I have no hope today, and
tomorrow, and the next day. Now I saw that initially when
the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin. That's what Paul's gonna
talk about in the first part here, Romans 7, 7 through 13. But it's still the same today.
You know, people talk about getting better. Am I getting better?
Well, let's sit down and talk about it, you know? And maybe
we'll have a debate on it. I feel like there's some things
I do better than I used to, but I'm still just as much or even
more of a sinner as I always was, and I'm still just as much
in need of Christ and his righteousness and the grace of God as I ever
was. I'm not getting better in that
sense. I'm not getting holier in that
sense. I'm not getting more righteous
in that sense. The only righteousness I have
today that'll recommend me unto God is the same righteousness
that I saw when the Holy Spirit first convinced me of sin, the
imputed righteousness of Christ. And nothing I've ever done, even
that which I've done to the praise of the glory of God's grace,
Can eclipse that or add to it? And nothing I've ever done by
way of sin can diminish it or take it away. It's totally his. Now that's what the point of
these verses are here. So let's look at it. He says
in verse seven, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Well, the law cannot
save me. The law cannot justify me. based on my works, the law cannot
make me righteous in myself. The law cannot do it. All the
law can do based on my character and conduct is condemn me. That's
all they can do. That's the problem, you see.
But the fault is not the law. The problem is not the law. Let's
not blame the law, the law's not evil, the law is not sinful,
it's me, I'm the problem. You see, that's what Paul's saying.
He says, God forbid, the law is good. Now, the fact that the
law cannot justify me or make me righteous based on my works,
here Paul said earlier, he said, I'm dead to the law. He said,
I'm not under the law. But all of that put together
in your mind now, it shows absolutely no fault in the law. The law
of God is an extension of his holy nature. The law of God is
good, always good. The problem is us. And so Paul,
but now he's gonna turn and look at the law for the purpose it
was given. and how it is in the hands of
the Holy Spirit. He says in verse seven, no, nay. He says, God forbid, there's
no problem with the law. He says, I had not known sin. Now that's the most common word
for sin in the New Testament. It means to miss the mark. It
means to fall short of the standard of the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in one person based on one work, and
that's the work of Christ. And he says, nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law, I wouldn't have known the reality of sin,
except for the law. He said, for I had not known
lust. Now what is lust? Well, that's unlawful desires. Now lust is a sin of the heart. In other words, it's something
you don't have to, you don't have to commit an act to be guilty
of lust. You just have to have an unlawful
thought Now didn't Christ teach this in the Sermon on the Mount?
In Matthew chapter five? You know how he preceded that,
don't you? He said he'd come to fulfill the law. That's what
he came to do. The Bible says Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Christ
is the end of the law. He's the finishing of the law.
He came to fulfill it. And he said that in the Sermon
on the Mount. He said I didn't come to break the law. I come to fulfill
it. Every jot and tittle. And he's
the only one who ever did that. And then secondly, he says, but
except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven. In other words, whoever you think is the best of the
best, that's the context there. You know, we look back on the
Pharisees with, in hindsight, and with the advantage of the
word of God. But what you have to understand
is that the Jewish population back then looked at the Pharisees
as people today look at the people when they go into the religious
bookstores today and they see this book by this guy and this
book, how they look at those guys, that's how the Jews looked
at the Pharisees. Highly esteemed them. And Christ
said, now your righteousness has got to be better than theirs.
And then the first thing he does, and you know, I hear people say,
well, that means you've got to be more sincere than them and
blah, blah, blah. Or even some say that's faith
in Christ. Well, how do you know that's
not true? Well, look at the context. What's the next verses do? From
Matthew 5, 21, all the way over to the end of the chapter. It
brings in the law. To do what? To show us how good
we are? Well, he starts out, he says,
you've heard said by them of old, thou shalt not kill. He
said, I'm here to tell you to be angry enough to wish a person
dead is just as much murder according to the perfection of righteousness
required by the law as if you actually killed them. Now, he
wasn't teaching there, if you think it, you might as well do
it. That's stupid. He's just simply showing this
is reality. He said, you've heard it said by them all, you shall
not commit adultery. The act of adultery is awful.
He said, I'm here to tell you that to lust after a woman or
for a woman to lust after a man, that's sin. That's sins of the
heart. So Paul's saying, he said, I
would have not known the reality of sin except the law said, thou
shalt not lust. He later on, he says, thou shalt
not covet. Look at it, he says, for I had not known lust except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. That's one of the
Ten Commandments, isn't it? Somebody said, well, the Pharisees
looked at sin as just an act and not an inward thought. Well, maybe some of them did
come to that point. We had a man stand up here one
time years ago, teaching a lesson. He said, it's not a sin to be
tempted, it's a sin to give in to temptation. Well, that's the
kind of Pharisaical attitude that many people have. It's not
bad if I think it, but it's bad if I do it. Well, it's bad if
you think, but the law said thou shalt not covet. Now, how do
you covet? That means you desire something
that someone, you have the unlawful desire to have something that
someone else possesses. Hey, I think in the law he used
that thy neighbor's wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife. But that's what covetousness is. The Bible speaks of covetousness,
which is idolatry. What I think it's talking about
is an unlawful desire of something or someone that divert you away
from the glory of God. In other words, it becomes an
idol to you in that sense. Becomes the goal of your life.
Well, Paul said I wouldn't have known that had it not been for
the law. Is that something we need to
know? You bet we need to know it. Because if we don't know
that, we have that idea, well, it's not a sin to be tempted,
it's a sin to give in. No. What is the temptation to
sin in us? It's because we have unlawful
desires, or we wouldn't be tempted at all. You know, when Satan
tempted the Lord, He was tempted like as we are, yet without what? Without sin. How is that? Well,
you remember when he was on the Mount of Temptation, and he had
gone without food 40 days and 40 nights? How would you feel
if you'd gone without food 40 days and 40 nights? You'd be
hungry, wouldn't you? You'd desire some food. And you
remember what Satan did? He said, I'll turn these stones
into bread, you know? And Christ said, man does not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. Now what was the difference between
my, if I were in that position, and Satan offered me bread, and
the Lord, what's the difference? Well, in me, there is the flesh,
which is unlawful desires, unlawful thoughts, sinful thoughts, that
I would be tempted to deny the glory of God in order to relieve
my hunger. I would be. But in Christ, even though he
was just as hungry as you or me would be, in that situation,
there was no spirit in him that would cause him, tempt him to
deny the glory of God in order to relieve his hunger. He's just
as hungry. He's tempted like as we are.
He was just as hungry as any of us. That's his humanity. That's the infirmities of the
flesh. But there was no sinful nature,
as people call it. That's all right. There's no
sinful nature in him that even caused it to enter in his mind
to deny the glory of his father in order to relieve that hunger.
But now there is in us. Yes, it's a sin for us to be
tempted. It is. What does that show us? It shows us that we need a righteousness
that we can't produce. You say, well, I'm gonna go live
in a cave so I won't commit any sin. You got your thoughts, you
got your brain there. You got your memories, you got
your dreams, you got your desires. See, all of that. Well, that's
what Paul's saying here. Now look at verse eight, he says,
but sin taking occasion by the commandment. See, the commandment
wasn't the problem, it was the sin. It was my sinful human nature,
my unlawful desires. They took occasion by the commandment
wrought or worked in me all manner of concupiscence. Now concupiscence
is just another word for lust, inward lust. And that word occasion,
it means a place from which a movement or attack is made. It's like
a base of operations. And what he's saying here is
my base of operations, when I looked at the law, all right, and however
I looked at it, however I determined I was gonna deal with it, the
law says thou shalt not covet. What was my base of operations?
Sin. That's what he's saying. In other
words, and what does that do? Well, it works in me all manner
of unlawful desires, all manner of lust. He says, for without
the law, sin was dead in verse eight. What he's talking about
there is this, Paul was, now think about, Paul was never without
the law in the sense that he never heard the law or read the
law. He heard it and read it from
his childhood. He was a Jew. He grew up hearing that law.
So he was never without the law as far as its teaching, hearing
what the law said. But, and you know, he says that
in Philippians 3, you remember, when he's talking about what
he, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
that's touching the law, all of that. Without the law is Paul's
way of describing the time before his conversion. when he didn't
know the reality of the law. Even though he knew the law forbidded
covetousness, he really believed that he could work his way into
righteousness. Now, if you're trying to work
your way into righteousness to be accepted with God, I can tell
you, you don't know the law. Do you remember what Paul said
to the Galatians? When these Jewish Judaizers were
coming in trying to bring them back under the law, he said,
tell me, you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear
it? Do you not hear the law? Somebody
says, well, I'm just gonna try to keep the law for my salvation.
Don't you hear what the law says, son? My goodness. You might as well say, I'm gonna
just do my best to jump up and kiss a cloud. Do you realize what the law of
physics says? Do you realize what the law of
gravity says? You can't do that. Somebody says,
well, I'm just going to jump off the building and I'm going
to trust God to save me. Huh? Well, go ahead. There's
laws, law of physics, law of gravity, going to teach you.
And whose laws are those? Those are God's laws, aren't
they? Well, do you not hear the law?
So Paul says without the law. That means when he studied it,
he read it, he tried to keep it, but he was without it in
the sense that he didn't really know what it was saying, what
it required. He was ignorant of God's righteousness. Remember Romans 10? They who
are going about to establish their own righteousness are ignorant
of God's righteousness. They're then they're not submitted
to the righteousness of God. They think they are, but they're
without the law in the sense that they don't know the reality.
And look at verse nine. He says, for I was alive without
the law. Once what he's saying here is
this. When I didn't know the reality of the law, I thought
I was keeping the law enough to be, to gain life. You know,
if somebody would have come to Saul of Tarsus and said, Saul,
you're a spiritually dead man, he'd say, oh no, he said, I'm
alive, spiritually. I'm a child of God. And so what
he's saying here, I was alive without the Lord, but when the
commandment came, now when did the commandment come? When God
the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, because he believed not
on Christ. You see, Christ, is the only
perfection of righteousness of the law that can be found. You can't find it in men or women. You can't find it in the Pope.
You can't find it in the church. You can't find it in religion.
You can't find it in good deeds. What are you looking for? Perfection
of righteousness. That's what God requires and
what the Bible says. Where are you gonna find it?
And that's what he's saying. When I found out, when the commandment
came, when the Holy Spirit showed me the law that I thought I was
keeping but found out I was breaking, when the commandment came, he
says, He says, when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died. See, he's saying I thought I
was keeping the law enough to claim that I wasn't sinful anymore,
and I was alive, but when the Holy Spirit showed me that it
can only be fulfilled in the person and work of Christ by
the grace of God, sin revived, I found out I was a great sinner.
The chief of sinners, Paul said, didn't he? He found out what
he's later gonna state. Oh, wretched man that I am. When one of these people who
believes in progressive holiness or progressive sanctification
asked me, said, have you grown? Are you getting holy? I said,
all I can tell you is this. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who's
gonna deliver me from this body of death? That's when the commandment came.
Sin revived. He died. Paul realized by the
power of the Spirit who convicted him of sin that if God were to
judge him based on his best efforts to keep the law, he'd be condemned
to death forever. Now that's what he says in Philippians
3, I count it all but done that I may win Christ. Well, look
at verse 11. or verse 10, rather. He says,
and the commandment which was ordained to life. See, the commandment
of God only commands that which is good, good for us, and it
only forbids that which is evil. But he said, the commandment
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. Now, why do
we find that which is good in the law to be unto death to us? Because we're sinners. For all
have sinned and come short of the glory. That's why. Again,
the fault's not in the law, the fault's in me. I'm a sinful person. And that's why I say right now,
if God were to judge me right now, if he were to charge me
with sin, impute sin to me, what would happen? I'd die. I'd be condemned. And that's
what he's saying. But verse 11 he says, for sin
taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me.
Now what deceived Paul? Not the law, sin. And what form did that sin take
in Paul? Self-righteousness, religious
pride, self-love. What does it take in, you know,
you've got family members, don't you, who claim to be saved but
they don't know the law, they don't know the righteousness
of God. What's their problem? Well, they think they've done
enough, whatever enough to them is. Some of them say, well, I
made my decision for Christ, I believe. Some say, well, I
did that and I repented, I turned over a new, all kinds of things.
It doesn't matter what it is, though. If it's anything other
than Christ crucified and raised from the dead for all righteousness,
it's a deception. Isn't that right? So he says,
sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. Put me to death. So verse 12,
wherefore for this reason the law is holy and the commandment
holy and just and good. You know that's a good, now you've
heard people talk about being slain in the spirit. Well to
a lot of people that means that some preacher who's an entertainer
just smacks them on the head and they fall down, that's crazy.
That's deception, that's satanic. Slain by the Spirit is slain
by the law, and that's what he's describing. He says, that's a
good thing. It's a good thing that God the
Holy Spirit has slain you by the law. Because why? Because what does he do? He doesn't
leave you in the slew of despond, does he? No, he brings you to
the bosom of Christ. He brings you to see God's grace. And so he says in verse 13, was
then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but
sin. You see, the law is good, and
the law in itself wasn't made death unto me. God forbid, but
sin that it might appear sin, you see. He'll convict us of
sin because we believe not on Him. Before we're convicted of
sin, the way Paul's describing here, we don't see the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, the sin that's in our best efforts. John 3,
19, light exposes that our deeds are evil, that which we highly
esteem. And he says, but sin, that it
might appear sin, that it might, the reality of it, the exceeding
sinfulness of it, and working death in me, showing me that
if God were to judge me based on my best, it would be death,
that which is good, worked in me that which is good. I need
to know the truth. I need to know reality. And that's
good. And he says that sin by the commandment
might become exceeding sinful. How exceeding sinful is sin? Well, here it is. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. And you know what that means.
That's how sinful it is. Why is it so sinful? Because
it denies the glory of God. Because it makes void in our
minds the work of Christ. Paul said, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ died in vain. Every sinner who doesn't
see the righteousness of the law fulfilled in Christ by which
God ensures the salvation of every sinner for whom Christ
died, everything they think, say, and do in religion is them
testifying that Christ died in vain. And so that's how sinful it is.
It exalts the sinner and denies Christ. It gives the sinner room
to boast and denies Christ. All right.