Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. It's always a pleasure
to come into your homes and preach the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in His word,
the Bible. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles today with today's message, the base text that I'm
using for this message is in First Timothy chapter one and
verse eight. Now, the past three messages
I've preached on this subject, the title being Using the Law
Lawfully. Using the Law Lawfully. And today's
message is the last in that series. I think there's four messages
altogether. The first message, I dealt with
the context. You know, if you follow this
program much, you know that I'm big on context. That is the placement
of a text within the Bible. Where is it? And who's speaking? What are they talking about?
And who are they speaking to? And what's their subject? What
is their goal? I think that one of the biggest
problems that we have today people reading and studying the Bible
is what my old pastor used to call versitis, not bursitis,
versitis. People have pet verses and they
take them out of the context and quote them and try to make
them mean something they don't mean. One of the reasons I wrote
the book that has to do with scriptural interpretation called
Rightly Dividing the Word. It's part of the series of self-examination,
what I call the self-examination series. One whole chapter is
devoted to context. Scripture has to be interpreted
within its context. So the reason I'm saying all
that is I'm just gonna read verse eight and then we're gonna go
to Romans chapter seven. That's where we're gonna go to
today. But I want you to understand, I'm not taking this out of its
context. What Paul is talking about here
in the context is he's exposing false teachers who claim to be
Christian, who claim to be preaching Christ, and who claimed, who
desired to be teachers of the law. talking about the Old Covenant
law. But as I said last week and in
other messages, that the law is God's commandments. Whatever
God says, that's law. God doesn't make suggestions.
God gives commands. His word is law. So whether it's
the Old Covenant or the Ten Commandments or the New Testament law, whatever.
But these desired to be teachers of the law. Look at verse seven.
of 1 Timothy 1. He says, desiring to be teachers
of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they
affirm. They desired to be teachers of
the law, but they were wrong. They didn't understand the law.
And he says, verse eight, but we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully. And so that's what I've been
talking about in these messages, using the law lawfully. Well, I wanna give you a scriptural
example of that. of the law being used lawfully
in the salvation of a sinner. And what I'm going to show you
is what God the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write in
Romans chapter 7 here concerning the law. Now this is what Paul
had been talking about. Over in Romans chapter 1, Paul
had revealed the gospel of God which concerns the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, if I hear and know the
gospel, then I know these two things, who Jesus Christ is,
and what He accomplished when He died on the cross, when He
died, was buried, and arose the third day. The death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. It's not just historical facts. There was a man named Jesus who
walked the earth 2,000 years ago in Palestine. And even saying he's the son
of God, that's all true. But who is he really? And that's
key. Well, Paul shows that he's God
in human flesh. without sin, he's every bit God
and every bit man without sin. That's who he is, that's the
kind of person that it takes to save sinners from their sins. And then secondly, what did he
accomplish? Well, the accomplishment, not
what did he try to do now, this is key, but what did he do? And it's summarized in this phrase
called the righteousness of God. Paul wrote in Romans 1, 16 and
17, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
to the Greek also. For therein, verse 17, for therein
in that gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now Paul
wrote over in 1 Timothy 1 that the law was not made for a righteous
man. Well, what is a righteous man?
Well, the righteous man is a justified person. The just shall live by
faith. And that means by looking to
Christ. Live by looking to Christ. Living in Christ. Having assurance
in Christ. It's all in Christ. Beginning
at Romans 1 and verse 18, Paul begins to show why we need the
righteousness of God. And he does that from Romans
1, 18 all the way over to Romans 3, 20. And his conclusion is
that we are all sinners and we cannot be righteous by our works.
You see, that's the problem. I mentioned this last week. That's
the whole issue about salvation and a right relationship with
God. God is righteous and we're not. Now man by nature has always
sought to find righteousness by his works in the law, or by
something he does, something he tries to do, or something
he decides. And so that's the problem. That's
the religion of Cain. But the law was not given for
that reason, and it's not to be used that way. Any preacher
who sets you to try to keep the law in order to attain salvation
or maintain it is using the law unlawfully. Any preacher who
tries to motivate you to obedience with the whip of the law, you
know, you've heard preachers preach on giving, haven't you?
Give or burn. You give that money or God will
take it out the back of the church in a pine box. All that kind
of ideas. That kind of preaching. You see,
that's legalism. If you don't do, you will die. That's what the law says. Do
and live. Disobey and die. That's using the law unlawfully. If you don't do this, if you
don't do that, you'll go to hell. That kind of thing. So the law
was not given for that purpose. I mentioned this last week, the
law was given to show us the perfect standard of righteousness
that can only be found in Jesus Christ. It was given to show
the impossibility of our being righteous by our works. We're
unrighteous by nature and it was given to show us our need
of grace. Well, have you ever heard the
term slain by the law? In the Bible, we have a prime
example of that in Romans chapter 7. And I'm going to begin at
verse 4. And again, I'm not taking this
out of context, but I want you to see this. Time will only permit
me to use certain verses, obviously. But Paul says in verse 4 of Romans
7, Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law. Now what does that mean, dead
to the law? He said we're free from the law. To be dead to the law means this,
it means the law cannot condemn me. Think about that. If I'm dead to the law, the law
cannot condemn me. Now, I'm a sinner. And I deserve condemnation. You
see, this is the point. If God were to ever give me what
I've earned or what I deserve, it would be condemnation. It
would be death and hell. You see, salvation, my salvation
is not a matter of what I've earned or what I deserve. My salvation is all of grace. All of grace. But my friend,
God cannot and will not show grace apart from justice satisfied. So, how can I say I'm dead to
the law? Let me say this too before I
go on. Dead to the law not only means the law cannot condemn
me, But it means that the law cannot demand anything from me
so as to attain salvation. In that sense, it's already fulfilled,
so I'm dead to the law. Now, how did I become dead to
the law? Now, look at it again, Romans 7, 4. Wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law, underscore this, don't miss
it, by the body of Christ. There's the issue. There's the
ground of it. There's the power of it. It's
not by my works. I didn't become dead to the law
by my works. It's not by my suffering. And let me tell you something
here. It's not even by my faith. Somebody
said, well, I'm dead to the law because I believe. Don't know
you're not. If that's what you think, you are sadly deceived. Well, aren't we supposed to believe,
preacher? Yes, absolutely. And we will
believe if we're one of His. But the issue is what is the
ground of salvation? You see, the ground of salvation
is one thing, and then the means and fruit of salvation is another
thing. Don't get them confused. The
ground of salvation is the body of Christ. That's His death,
friend. He's how I become dead to the
law. The means and fruit of salvation is believing in Him. That's how
a sinner for whom He died enters into the realization of it, the
knowledge of it, the enjoyment of it. You see that? And without
faith, there'll be no salvation. Because if you never come to
believe, that means Christ didn't die for you. That's what the
Bible teaches. The body of Christ. Christ went
under the justice of God's law and took all the wrath that His
people deserved and earned based on their sins imputed, charged
to Him. That's what it means when it
says in 2 Corinthians 5 21 that He was made sin. And in return,
He imputes His righteousness to them so that they're justified. You see that? Now, the law cannot
condemn me. Why? Because it condemned Christ
in my stead. The law cannot demand obedience
from me in order to gain or maintain salvation. You understand what
I'm saying? God's Word demands a lot from
a believer, but not in order to gain or maintain salvation.
Christ already did that. Christ is my righteousness before
God, and He's my only righteousness. So He says in verse 4, now look
at the whole, Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another,
united to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God." And what is that fruit
unto God? Well, we're married to Christ
if we're one of His. Christ died for His church. They're
called God's elect and they're also called His bride. The church
is the bride of Christ. That doesn't describe some special
segment or denomination. That means anybody who believes
in Christ is part of that bride. And so we're married to Christ,
united to Him. He's the husband. His church
is His bride. And He says, even him who's raised
from the dead. See, that's why I cannot be condemned,
because Christ was raised from the dead. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ, who walk not after
the flesh, but according to the Spirit. That we should bring
forth fruit unto God. He's the power. He's the life. He's the vine. We're the branches. We don't produce fruit. But we
who are in Christ, we bear fruit. We bear it because of the life
of Christ within. And that fruit is faith, repentance,
and obedience motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. Now look
at verse 5 of Romans 7. He says, For when we were in
the flesh... Now when Paul uses that phrase,
in the flesh, he's not talking about given moments in time when
believers are disobedient. Somebody said, well, when I did
that, I was in the flesh, and when I did that, I was in the
spirit. Now, there are times that believers give in to the
flesh, which is sin, and there are times when believers are
submitted to the spirit, but that's not what Paul's talking
about here. To be in the flesh here means to be unregenerate,
an unbeliever. Let me show you that over here
in Romans chapter 8. when he says in verse eight,
talking about believers and unbelievers, the difference, he says in verse
eight, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Verse nine, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit,
if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So you see,
now that's what I mean by context. Keep it in its context. If you
want to talk about believers being disobedient, for example,
in certain areas of life, and needing to be called back in
godly sorrow and repentance, go to a book like 1 Corinthians. That deals with that, for example. But here he's talking about two
segments. One, in the flesh, unbelievers. the other in the Spirit, believers. Alright? So he says in verse
5 of Romans 7, For when we were in the flesh, when we were unsaved,
unbelief, the motions, that word motions is passions, you may
have that in your concordance, the passions of sins, now listen
to this, which were by the law, did work in our members, the
members being our physical body, our hands, our eyes, our ears,
to bring forth fruit unto death. When we were in the flesh, when
we were in unbelief, he says, the passions of sin, the passions,
the motions of sin, did work in our members to bring forth
fruit unto death. And it was by the law. Now how
could it have been by the law? Because the law of God is good.
We see what Paul's teaching here is this. The problem is not the
law. The problem is us. We're the sinners. The law is
good. The law was not made for a righteous
man. The law was brought in because
of a sinful people. And it's a standard by which
we can be measured and know our sin. For all sin becomes sure
of the glory of God. Now these passions of sins which
were by the law, what is that? Well, I believe you can put it
in one of two categories. Now you think about it. Talk
about unbelievers. Unregenerate people. Okay? They usually go one of two ways.
One way is what I call abject rebellion. You know, there are
just people out there who are just plain criminals. Just people who are rebels, who
hate the law, hate any rules and regulations. Their whole
life is bent on breaking laws. We can talk about robbers, thieves,
drug peddlers, whore mongers. I mean, they just don't have
any respect for the law. That's the passions of sin which
were by the law. And it's almost like if you,
you know, you've heard the old saying, if you draw a line in
the sand, they've got to cross it. You know, they cannot stand
any boundaries. There's those kinds of people.
But, think about it this way, here's the second segment of
society. There are those who are bent on keeping the law,
even being religious, to be saved by their works. That too is the
motions of sin, which were by the law. Think about Paul, the
apostle himself, before he was in the spirit, before he was
a believer, what was he trying to do? He said, I was a Hebrew
of Hebrews. He said, I was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees, just touching the law, blameless, trying to
be the best he can be. Religious people, false Christians,
they're unbelievers. And everything they do is sin
in the eyes of God because it falls short of the glory of God,
the righteousness of God revealed in Christ. And all that they
can produce is fruit unto death. But look at verse 6 of Romans
7. But now we're delivered from the law. Back up there in verse
4 he said dead to the law. Here he says delivered from the
law. Same thing. that being dead wherein
we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and
not in the oldness of the letter. Now having been made dead to
the law by the body of Christ, that is, not guilty, righteous
in Him, not guilty by His blood, forgiven by His blood, justified
before God, based upon Christ, righteousness imputed. I'm delivered
from the law. Not that I should go out and
sin. You know, a lot of people, their argument against imputed
righteousness is they say, well, that gives you an excuse to sin.
No. You see, if righteousness is
imputed to you, You will be brought to faith in Christ. The Spirit
will abide in you. Life, you'll be given a new heart
and a new spirit and a new mind to not break the law. We'll always
be sinners, but we'll have a desire to serve God in newness of life,
but not in oldness of the letter. Now, what is oldness of the letter?
That's legalism. That's the bondage of the law.
That's the law imposed upon a person to force them under legal threats
of punishment or mercenary promises of earned reward to obedience. Sounds like most preachers today,
doesn't it? You know, a lot of people, they say, well, you're
saved by grace, but you earn your rewards. That's legalism. That's not biblical. You say,
well, the Bible speaks of reward, singular. Yeah, it's the reward
of grace. It's the reward that Christ earned
and gives to his people. It's his glory, not ours. God
never puts himself in a position where he owes us anything by
way of blessing. We're blessed, if we're in Christ,
Ephesians 1, 3, we're blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What I have by virtue
of my salvation by God's grace is an inheritance. Christ earned
it, we get it. That's the thing about it. But
he says here, serving newness of spirit. That's obedience and
service to God, motivated not by legalism, legal threats of
punishment, or loss of reward, or mercenary promises of earned
reward, not that, that's bondage, that's legalism, but motivated
by grace. Motivated by love. Paul said
the love of Christ constrains it. Motivated by gratitude. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. You see, now what we have there
is using the law lawfully, but go on, verse seven of Romans
chapter seven. He says, what shall we say then?
Is the law sin? Well, is the problem with the
law? No, God forbid. Nay, I had not
known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust. That's
an unlawful desire. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. Lust, covetousness,
is a sin of the heart. Pharisees were commonly preaching
that it's something like, it's not a sin to think it, but it's
a sin to do it. No, the Bible says, thou shalt
not covet. That's a sin of the heart. That's
a sin that comes from within. Christ taught that to His disciples. He said, it's not what goes in
your mouth that defiles you, it's what comes out of the heart.
Sin is a heart matter. And Paul's saying here, look
at verse 8 of Romans 7, he said, wrought or worked in me all manner
of concupiscence. That word concupiscence is related
to the word lust. It's an unlawful desire, for
without the law, sin was dead. Now think about this, using the
law lawfully. Paul, before he was converted,
before he was convicted of sin and slain by the law, by the
Holy Spirit, what was he doing? He was trying to keep the law
in order to be saved. And he thought he accomplished
that. He thought he was successful. And that's what he means when
he says, for without the law, sin was dead. Without a real
understanding of the extent of the law, the righteousness of
the law, what the law required, I thought sin was dead in me.
I thought I was okay. I thought I was righteous. But
he says in verse nine of Romans 7, for I was alive without the
law once. Without knowing the reality of
the law, the spirituality of the law, the requirement of righteousness
in the law, I thought I was alive spiritually. I thought I was
saved because I kept the law. But verse nine, when the commandment
came, When God the Holy Spirit showed him the reality of the
law, sin revived. He saw that his sin was not dead,
but his sin was well alive within him. And he says, and I died. I saw that it condemned me to
death. And he says in verse 10, and the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. The law says do
and live, disobey and die. That's what it means, the commandment
which was ordained to life. In other words, all who kept
the law would live, but nobody keeps it. And Paul said, I found
it to be unto death, verse 11, for sin taking occasion by the
commandment deceived me and by it slew me. Now the law didn't
deceive him, sin did. And it was the sin of self-righteousness. And the Holy Spirit slew him
and drove him to Christ. for righteousness. That's using
the law lawfully. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.