Romans chapter 7. Romans the 7th chapter. In this passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul is applying in the most practical way the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. He is declaring to us the inward conflict inward to conflicts of every believing soul, the flesh and the spirit, sin and righteousness, those conflicts and warfares that go on in our hearts.

He says, Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, you who know the law. Don't you know how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? And he gives an illustration. For the woman which has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. That is, she's no longer in any way obliged to her husband. He's dead. So then, if while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called But if her husband is dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Wherefore, my brethren, in exactly this same way, you also are become dead to the law. Now underscore those words, dead to the law. It doesn't matter what a man has done. It doesn't matter what crime he has committed. It doesn't matter how vile his offenses have been. Once he's dead, the law has nothing else to do with it. Once he's dead, it's all over. Once he's dead, the law has no power over him. It cannot execute any wrath upon him. It cannot punish him.

Talking merely in a carnal sense, if a person has committed multiple murder, mass murder, and mayhem all over the country. Once he's dead, he's dead. He's gone. And the law has no power over him. All right. Paul uses the same thing now in a spiritual sense. You also are become dead to the law. Totally, completely, permanently dead to the law of God by the body of Christ. Now, this is exactly what that means. when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross as our substitute. He incurred upon him the guilt of our sins in the sight of God's law. And God Almighty, taking the sins of his people that were imputed to Christ, punished our sins in Jesus Christ to the full satisfaction of his infinite justice, so that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was slain under the law. His body was killed under the law for our sin. And when he died, Larry, we died in him. And now, what does the scripture say? You're dead to the law by the body of Christ. The proof that we're dead is Christ died and was buried.

Read on now. That you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead. that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Paul says we became dead to the law. We now no longer, listen to me, we now no longer have any bondage of any kind. We now no longer have any commitment of any kind. We now no longer have any responsibility of any kind to the law. We're dead to the law. That's our first But we are now married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, Jesus Christ the Lord. Married to the Son of God, married to the Risen Savior, married to him who is the Lord our righteousness.

Read on now. We're married to him that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, these fruit of the Spirit, against such there is no law. For when we were in the flesh under the law, the motions, the passions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." That's what Paul talked about in chapter 6. We were the servants of sin, and being the servants of sin, we were slaves to sin. and we perform sin in the passions of our flesh, bringing forth fruit unto death. But now, but now, we are delivered from the law. Do you see how he interchanges this thing? Sin and law and flesh all go hand in hand. Because the sin that we commit is against the law and the law demands punishment and the sin is the fruit of our flesh.

And now we're dead to the law and dead to sin and dead to the flesh. Read on. That being dead wherein we were held, held in bondage under the curse of the law, that we should serve in the newness of spirit and not in oldness, not in the oldness of the letter. We're now brought into a life of spirit, not a life of flesh. We now no longer live after the flesh, but after the spirit. We live by faith in Jesus Christ.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? No, no, no, no. Hundred thousand times no. Don't ever imagine such a thing. God forbid. Nay, I have not known sin. I have not known sin, but by the law. For I have not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, sin, this is what I am. This is what I do. This is my nature. These are the motions of my flesh. Taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. all manner of evil, all manner of corruption.

But without the law, sin was dead. Without the law, sin was dead. It was a non-issue. Without the law, sin was something I had no awareness of. Without the law, sin was something I had no real knowledge of.

Now look at verse 9. Here's our text for this evening. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. I want to talk to you this evening about the purpose of God's holy law. I am often asked, isn't there some sense in which we are under the law? And if we say that we're not under the law, do we not then of necessity relegate the law to a useless position?

If you want to turn to Galatians 3 for just a moment, we're going to look at a number of passages of scripture tonight. Turn to Galatians chapter 3. This is the very same thing that Paul faced in his day. Paul said to the Galatians, he said, now we're not justified by the law, and we're not sanctified by the law. Folks said, well, you're throwing the law out. They said, well, if that's the case, what's the purpose of the law? Look at what it says in verse 19. Wherefore then serveth the law. If the law can't justify us, the law can't sanctify us. If the law doesn't rule us, if the law doesn't govern God's saints, if God's people are altogether free from the law, wherefore then serveth the law.

The Apostle says it was added because of transgressions. You see that? The law was given because of sin. There is a direct correlation between the law and sin. Were there no sin, there'd be no need for law. It was added because of the transgressions till the seed, not seeds, ceased. till this seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, should come, to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Now just in case you don't know exactly what law Paul is talking about, He is referring to that law given in Exodus chapter 20, commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments, which he received on the mount when the angels of God gave him the law, which the children of Israel continually broke, and you and I have continually broken as well. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid, for if there had been a law given, which could have given life, if there had been a law given, which could by any possibility, by any means, given life, there only righteousness should have been by the law. In other words, if it were possible for righteousness to come by something that you do, if there was any possibility that righteousness should come by you obeying something God gives for you to do, then Christ died in vain. That's what Paul said in verse 21 of chapter 2. If righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. He died for nothing.

Oh no, the law is not intended to bring in righteousness. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, verse 22, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, you were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster, underscore, the law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

But, after that faith is Has faith come to you? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you look to Jesus Christ alone as your Savior and Lord? What does this book say here? After that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Well, what does that mean? I'll tell you exactly what it means. Just exactly what you think it means. Just exactly what you think it means. You mean we're not under the law? That's what it means. That's what it means.

I was discussing this with a young man who was converted just a few years ago when I was preaching out in California. Discussing with him this week. He said, don't you think that the law, it's good to use the law as a rule of life so that we can gauge our lives by this with Christ? No. No. Absolutely not. There's young man's fiction to get married.

And Paul uses a perfect illustration here. When the church was in her childhood, in her infancy, in the Old Testament, that's the picture he's giving us here. When we were In that state of infancy, prior to the coming of Christ and the full revelation of the gospel, we were under the law, a schoolmaster. And in those days, men would hire a schoolmaster who would come in and he would have the responsibility of training the children, raising the children, and disciplining the children.

But now, when that child reaches his maturity, When that child comes into manhood, when that child becomes an adult, that schoolmaster doesn't dare raise his voice against that child. But rather the schoolmaster is under the man who has now come to be the master of the house. He's an adult man. He's no longer under the law.

And the same way with us as children. We are raised up in our families. Our fathers and mothers have dominion over us. They rule over us. They give us rules and regulations by which to live. And we are obliged to do so. And good mommas and daddies make certain that you do. Good mommas and daddies make certain. They inflict pain if you don't obey them. They inflict pain because they're determined to make you profitable, mature adults.

But once you grow up, live out on your own. And you're paying your own bill. Now, it don't count if mom and daddy still payin' your bills. But once you're out on your own, and you're payin' your own bill, mama and daddy don't have any right to come along and say, now son, you do this with your money. Now son, you do that with your money. Son, you comb your hair this way. You do this, you do the other thing. They may offer suggestions, but they are no longer your masters in that sense of the word. You have come to maturity, and you are free as men to live as men. This is what Paul says, in Jesus Christ, having come to Jesus Christ by faith, we who believe are no longer under the tutelage of the Lord, but we're children of God. We are now the full-grown, mature, perfect sons of God, perfect in the sense that we have all things complete in Jesus Christ, and we're no longer under the schoolmaster.

Now I want this evening to show you the proper biblical use of the law in preaching. The person who knows the proper place of the law and the glory of God's free grace in Christ, the person who can rest in Christ alone for all that the law requires and all that justice demands, that person knows the gospel. But that person who mixes law and grace in any measure whatsoever, as a matter of acceptance with God, has not yet learned the gospel aright.

Now, there are no two things in the world more completely opposed to one another than law and grace. Light and darkness, fire and water, that's nothing compared to the contradiction between law and grace. Law and grace simply cannot mix. No more than water and oil can be mixed together. Law and grace cannot be mixed together. The scriptures are explicit and clear. Turn to Romans chapter 11. Romans the 11th chapter. This is to you a very familiar text of scripture. Verse 5. Even so then at this present time, There is a remnant according to the election of grace. Election by the grace of God. That's the only kind of election there is. And if by grace, then it is no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Do you see what Paul says? If you put works into this thing called salvation. I don't care whether you put in a drop or a gallon. If you put works into this thing called salvation, then it's not grace. If you put grace in this thing and require it to be all together of grace, then it's not works. You cannot, you cannot, you cannot to any degree mix grace and works. It cannot be done.

And yet, there is within men an amazingly well-established opinion that it can be mixed. In the distorted minds of men, all men by nature have the notion that somehow law and grace will blend. The law and the grace of God are diametrically opposed to one another.

Yet the depraved human mind is so void of spiritual understanding, so thoroughly turned away from God, that the most difficult thing for a man to do is to discriminate between law and grace in this matter of our relationship with God. Man keeps insisting on mixing together that which God has positively and permanently put asunder.

This thing is what Paul constantly opposes throughout all his epistles. You begin right here in the book of Romans and go through all of the Pauline epistles and you will find him constantly opposing this mixture of law and grace. And the further he goes along, if you read his epistles and read them in their historical setting, as he goes near the end of his life, as he recognizes that now he's imprisoned in Rome and his death is at hand.

The stronger he gets in discriminating between law and grace and says you can't mix them, you can't mix them, you can't mix them. And though he seems at times to have been tempted himself in the book of Acts, you'll remember on one occasion at James' request he shaved his head and took a vow. Yet the apostle goes on and he says no, We must not, to any degree, bring the Gentiles under the law, because we're free from the law.

This thing's over with. God has forever settled this issue. Grace and works cannot be mixed.

Now, I want you to look in the Scripture with me. I want you to see clearly. And I want everyone who hears this message to see clearly. I'm not talking out of my head. I'm not talking to you about something that I've invented. I'm telling you exactly what the Scripture says. The scriptures state in the most clear, emphatic language possible what I'm preaching to you this evening.

Look in Romans chapter 6. Now folks come along and say to me, Don, you can't preach like this. You can't do this. You've got to have the law, not for justification. but for sanctification. You've got to have the law not to bring me into Christ, but to cause me to live for Christ. You can't just say we're not under the law.

Does anyone know what the subject of Romans chapter 6 is? It's sanctification isn't it? Paul has been dealing with justification in chapters 3, 4, and 5. Now in chapter 6, he's dealing with sanctification. He says in verse 11, Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, God reckons you righteous. Reckon yourselves to be righteous and live as righteous men for God in this world.

Look what it says now in verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are under the law and under grace. Oh, no, that's not what it said. But sin shall not have dominion over you because you're not under the law, but under grace. What then, shall we sin? Since we're not under the law, what then? Let's go have a good time. I'm having a good time, but not in sin. Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Twice, he says, you're not under the law, but under grace. You're not under the law, but under grace.

We've already read chapter seven in verse four. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Look in chapter eight of Romans, verse three. For what the law could not do. and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, that is, because of sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Look at chapter 10, verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that they lead. Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness. Christ is the completion of the law for righteousness. Christ is the termination of the law for righteousness. That's what that word end means isn't it? Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.

Now when you read those texts that we just Were it not for the perverse religious notions of men, no one would ever imagine that believers in this day and age are still under the yoke of the law. Look at one more text. 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. This is not what men call antinomianism. Let them hurl the charge as they will. Antinomianism is that which is against the law. That's not what Paul's teaching at all. 1 Timothy 1 verse 8, he says, but we know that the law is good. The law is good so long as you use it the way God intended. The law is good if it means you use it lawfully. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man. That's it. believing on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a righteous man. The law wasn't made for them. It was not made for righteous men, but for the lawless and the disobedient, for the ungodly, for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that's contrary to sound doctrine.

Now does this mean that Paul was opposed to the law in his writings? Of course not. Does it mean that he thought the law was an evil thing? Certainly not. In the seventh chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul is describing his attitude and every believer's attitude toward God's law. The true believer recognizes the purpose of the law and he highly reverences the law. It is his desire to live in perfect conformity and compliance with everything revealed in God's law, and recognizing the law's perfection.

Now listen, recognizing the law's perfection, we refuse to seek acceptance with God on the basis of legal obedience. We recognize the law's holiness. It's just, it's good, it's perfect, and we can't fulfill it. So we refuse to seek acceptance with God on the basis of legal obedience.

The gospel preacher is faced with three tremendous obstacles in preaching the gospel. As I seek the conversion of sinners, these three tasks confront me constantly. The first difficulty in conversion is to get a person lost. I mean really lost. The hardest thing in the world is to find the sinner who is really lost. I go literally around the world preaching. And in these years of preaching, I have met very few people who are lost. Most folks say, don't worry about me, I'll be there. I know I'm not perfect. I wouldn't dare suggest I'm perfect. Nobody is. And that's our excuse. I'm not perfect, but neither are you. I'm not perfect, but nobody ever has been. I'm not perfect, but who expects that? God does. God does.

Most folks will probably even admit that they're sinful. They've done some sinful things. Weak and need a little help. Sinful and need some kind of atonement. Need some kind of, some kind of a recompense before God. And yet they're convinced that somehow they can, by their works, make recompense and restitution to God Almighty and God will accept them. Most folks have the notion that when they stand before God, The scales are going to be there, and God's going to weigh your good works, and God's going to weigh your bad works, and if your bad works outweigh your good works, you're going just there. But if you've managed to do more good than you've done bad, and you better always convince yourself you have, then everything will be all right. God will smile at you.

Your works are worthless. I don't care what they are. Your best notions, your best feelings, your best deeds are worthless because your best works are sin. The best works we perform are filthy rags in God's sight so that God will not accept anything that we offer him by the works of our hands. The works of our wills, the works of our hearts are the works of our beings in any degree, whatever. In fact, he is man by nature is totally, totally Totally lost utterly condemned and shall be eternally damned by the justice of God Apart from the free grace of God in Jesus Christ the Lord

First thing to do is get both lost So we preach the Word of God and declare the depravity of man and Seek by the grace of God to put our fingers right in the hearts of men I endeavor constantly, I endeavor constantly to get beyond the shroud of outward behavior to your heart, to your heart. What you look like to me doesn't matter to a hillbilly. What you look like to yourself doesn't matter to a hillbilly. God Almighty looks on your heart. He sees the heart and He judges according to the heart, not according to your profession, not according to your baptism, not according to your taking the ordinances or accepting sacraments, not according to your walking down the church aisle, not according to your church attendance, your Bible reading, your good works. God looks on the heart. That's enough.

You try and you tear back, tear back, tear back, tear back the side and make us understand what we are in our heart. My good friends, Keeps using language that you almost kind of wish you wouldn't use and then you stop and think, wait a minute. Wait a minute, that's exactly right. He's a nothing but a garbage can. Now I got news for you. We are nothing but garbage cans. Nothing but sin before God Almighty at our hearts. I mean the best of us, the very best of us.

The second real difficulty in conversion is to teach sinners the gospel of the grace of God. Few people in the world have ever heard it. Few are still believing. The gospel of God's free grace in Christ comes to sinners without any return on their part. Will you listen to me? Salvation by grace. means that God saves you free. Bobby Estes, he doesn't ask anything of you and won't accept anything from you. Free. No strings attached. No strings attached. Free people. Free people. It comes without cost, without obligation to any man in the part of that man earning anything before God Almighty. cost him dear, but on your part it's great. Even repentance and good works, even faith itself is the gift of God's grace.

It's difficult to get men and women to see this. Not only is righteousness a free gift, not only is atonement a free gift made by Christ's obedience, but faith is a free gift. Repentance is a free gift. Preservation is a free gift. Salvation in its entirety from beginning to end is a free gift. He be bestowed upon sinners by God Almighty. Why won't men accept that? Looks like anybody would accept that. Looks like anybody would. I guarantee you. I guarantee you. Not if you go over to Matthew and persuade him that you were telling the truth. Persuade him that you were telling the truth. That big kick. If you could persuade them, you would tell them the truth. Every man working in that shop with you, if you could persuade him by crawling across hot coals on his hands and knees for a hundred yards, he could make atonement for any one sin of his choice, just one. I guarantee you they'd stop crawling. Absolutely.

Men love the notion of works, no matter how painful it is to them. that salvation by free gift through the righteousness of a divinely appointed substitute is opposed to man's pride. I won't have it. I won't have it. We're so blooming proud. I'm like this and you are too. Every time somebody does something for me, I'm going to do something for you. I'm going to do something for you. That's the way we are. We don't want to be indebted to anybody. We don't want to owe anybody. We don't want to owe God. It's contrary to our wisdom, for man by wisdom just thinks, well, you know we've got to do something for this. Contrary to our religious prejudices, the upbringing we have, we have all been lied to, we have all been deceived, every last one of us by religious folks around us who mean the best for us. Supposed our traditions.

But there's another tremendous difficulty. If I can convince you that you're lost, and convince you that the gospel presents salvation by free grace and love, the third difficulty is to bring sinners to trust Christ. To just rest in Him. I mean, completely rest in Him.

And I've been preaching to you for pushing 17 years. I've been preaching this message to you for pushing 17 years. I've been preaching it to myself for nearly 30 years. And I still have trouble with it. Because it's contrary to our nature. It's contrary to our nature. We keep wanting to look to our religion. We keep wanting to look to our feelings. We keep wanting in our pride to get hold of something, get hold of something that we can point to in ourselves and say not bad, that's welcome. That's the basis of my acceptance with God.

You're going to have to rest your soul entirely upon Christ, entirely upon Christ. I talked to a young lady the day before yesterday afternoon, and she said to me, tears streaming down her cheeks, she said, I know what you're saying, son, and I want to believe on Christ, but it seems I still have one foot back here I just can't bring to rest on Him. And I said, you're exactly right. She said, what can I do? And I respond, your problem is you've been doing too much. Been doing too much. You think that if you pray enough, repent enough, go to church enough, you think that if you, if you just, if you quit this or quit that, last foot into the kingdom and rest on Christ alone. You're flat. Trust Jesus Christ. And Bob Ponce, you can't do it. You can't do it. You can't do it. It does not lie within the realm of possibility for a fallen, depraved, dead, doomed, damned sinner ever to rest in Christ. Only if God gives you faith. Can you rest in Christ?

Valid. We who rest in him must never grow beyond him. We are to live all the days of our lives trusting that same grace and love that first took us in. We are chosen, redeemed, called justified, sanctified, and kept by the grace of God alone.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home."

A preacher, if we're saved by grace, justified by grace, sanctified by grace, kept by grace, assured by grace, have peace by grace. What's the purpose of the law? The purpose of God's holy law is just one thing, just one thing. The law of God was never given as a code of moral conduct or moral ethics. The law of God was not given to be the believer's rule of life. The law of God was never intended to be a motive of Christian service. The law of God was never given as a measure of sanctification. The law of God has nothing to do with real assurance before Christ. The law of God is certainly not the basis of our reward in heaven.

I realize that those who had the Prayer taken out of our schools and reading the Bible taken out of our schools and we tore the Ten Commandments off the walls in our schools. I realize those who engage in that activity will reprobate rebels who despise God. I fully understand that. And I make no apology to any of them for saying so. You can air it wherever you want to air it. I'll stand by it. But I don't have any regrets that folks don't have Ten Commandments hanging on walls every time they walk in the school room. No regrets. I don't have any regrets that men and women are not teaching our sons and daughters in our schools that somehow good boys go to heaven and bad boys go to hell. I'm telling you right now, good boys go to hell along with the bad ones. It is not your obedience to God by your works of obedience and righteousness that will bring you into acceptance with God Almighty.

But what's the purpose of the law? That's not it. Turn to Romans chapter 3, verse 19. The purpose of God's holy law is to expose man's sin, and so expose our sin as to shut us up to Jesus Christ alone for acceptance with God. Romans 3, 19, now we know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Who's under the law? I read it to you in 1 Timothy chapter 1. The law says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the words may become guilty before God.

Why was the law given? To shut your mouth. so that you have no excuse for your sin. To shut your mouth so that you have no way to justify yourself. The law was given to do to you what it did to Job. Job said, if I justify myself, my own mouth will do to me. The law was given to shut your mouth. so that you stand before God naked in your sin, without excuse, without justification, without hope, to shut your mouth before God and make you acknowledge your guilt before Him.

Look in Romans chapter 5, verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. The law entered not to make you more sinful, but to make you understand the abundance of your sin. The law entered to aggravate and stir up sin in you, so that you may understand your sin is not just what you've done. Your sin is not just your drunkenness. It's not just your adultery. It's not just your fornication. It's not just your theft. It's not just your lying. It's not just your cheating. Your sin! is what you are! And the law enters to make you see that sin is what you are!

Oh, may God cause His heart. Because wherever sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Oh, when a man knows himself, when a woman knows herself, to be exceedingly sinful, the grace of God is abounding, super abounding in Jesus Christ to what that says.

Now look what Paul says in Romans 7 verse 9. I was alive without the law once. That's strange language for this man. This fellow was a Pharisee. Read Philippians chapter 3 and you'll see what kind of Pharisee he was. He was a pharisee of the pharisees. Saul of Parsif. He was somebody in the religious world in his day. He was not some peon on the backsides of Jerusalem. This fellow was in the forefront of the limelight of the religious world. He was a pharisee of the pharisees. He was in the top ranks, the highest echelon of the religious leaders of his day.

He was a very religious man, zealous, devoted, straight, kept the law, the letter of the law, and kept it perfectly. He said, with regard to the letter of the law, he said, you're not going to show me anything I've done wrong. I've lived right. I've lived right. We're not talking about a fellow who cheated on his taxes. We're not talking about a fellow who would fudge and get an extra half hour of work when he only worked seven and a half years putting in for eight. Oh no, we're not talking about a fella who'd lie to you and tell you that he'd do something he had no intention of doing. We're talking about a Pharisee who lived uprightly, outwardly, beyond any of his equals. Rarely.

This man was religious, and being religious and devoted, while he was dead in sin, he was joyful and peaceful. full of confidence before God. He had hope of everlasting life. He had faith. He had assurance. He had security. But Bob, it was a false joy, a false peace, a false confidence, a false hope, a false assurance, a false faith, a false security.

His proud, self-righteous security made him zealous in his religion so much so that he looked down upon others with disgust who didn't measure up to him. He was a good man. And he became a ferocious persecutor. You see, as soon as you think yourself better than someone else, you become the judge of others. And the next step is carrying out your sentence upon others. That's what makes for persecution.

There are many things which support men given security in self-righteous religion. The biggest thing that solves the problem, as he describes it here, is he was ignorant of the law. He didn't know what the law was. He didn't know what the law required. Look in verse 17. 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.

We're just like it. We're just like it. Our whole society is just like it. When we think about lust, what do you think of? Just like that. Sensual pleasure. Just like that. Oh, lust is talking about those folks. Pimps. Prostitutes. Those perverts. Lust is talking about Alaska. Oh no, that's just part of it. That's just part of it. That's just part of it. Lust, according to the law, is coveting. It's wanting what God hasn't given yet.

John Gill says, like the rest of the Pharisees, Saul thought the law only regarded the outward actions and did not reach to the spirits or souls of men, the inward thoughts and affections. You see, self-righteousness stems from a failure to understand the spiritual character of God's law. Uncleanness of mind in God's is as obnoxious as uncleanness of life. You ought to write it down and you ought to think about it. Uncleanness of mind, in God's eyes, is as obnoxious as uncleanness of life. That means, Rex, that as far as God's concerned, An unclean thought is the same thing as a doctrine. We don't halfway believe that. If we did, we wouldn't act like we do. As far as God's concerned, unjustice is the same thing as murder. Same thing.

Now try to wear your garments of righteousness Oh, you mean preacher? God Almighty judges me according to my thoughts? As though I had actually fulfilled the evil I thought? You have actually fulfilled the evil you think. That's what you are. Let me pull up a rug somewhere and hide. That's what we are. God tempts covetousness to be theft, and love of ourselves to be idolatry.

Saul said, I was alive without the law once. He had a wrong view of God's justice. He didn't understand that the law of God demands perfection, not only outward perfection, inward perfection. And then he said, when the commandment came, sin revived. This is the purpose of the preaching of God's holy law in its true spiritual character. Before the commandment came, piercing his heart and soul, sin was to Paul a dead thing. He mortified the flesh. He had sanctified himself outwardly. He did not believe that there was really any great sin in it, in his own estimation. And in the eyes of others, he was a truly holy man. What does Paul mean by this statement, then, when the commandment came, sin revived? He means the commandment of God exposed his sin.

You walk into a dark cellar. You haven't been in it a long time. It's been through the winter. You haven't been in there. Now in the spring, if you know there's some rotten potatoes and some rotten onions in there, you got to get them out of that cellar. And so finally, one day before it gets too awful hot, you go in in the spring, you open that door and you turn on the light. And oh, my soul, the smell and the stirring that you see is just revolting. Now the light didn't create the smell or the stirring of those creatures. All the light did was expose it. That's all. Just exposed it. That's what the law of God does when it speaks by the power of God to expose your sin.

The law of God aggravated his sin. The commandment came and sin revived. The commandment came. I said I will. See, man by nature hates God. He hates the notion of being ruled by God. He hates the idea of God dealing with him as he is. And then Paul said, I died. What was it in this man that died? The biggest thing about it? I. I. I. It was so good. I. who love myself so much, I, so secure, I, so proud, I, so holy, so zealous, so godly. That is to say I saw that I was justly condemned to die. And I saw that all my hopes for my past life All my religion, all my works, all my zeal, all my feelings, all my experiences, all my dreams, all my religion was dead. And my hopes died. All my anticipation of the future died. And here I am, dead before God, condemned. waiting execution.

Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no length could know? All for sin could not atone. Christ must save and Christ alone. Do you understand that? When the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The thunderbolts of Sinai dashed all his hopes to pieces. The iron cold sword of the law had wounded and slain his spirit. And then, but not till then, we hear a broken man cry, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

Have you ever been slain by God's holy law? I have. I saw my own sinfulness. The sin of my deeds, that's tough enough to face. And then the sin of my nature. Then I was made to see the sin of my righteousness. I mean the very best I could do was correct. I saw something of the infinite holiness of God's holy law. God requires perfection. He cannot and will not accept less than perfection. I saw that the only hope for a sinner like me is a perfect substitute. I've got to have somebody to obey God's law for me. I've got to have somebody to atone for my sin. And that substitute is Jesus Christ the righteous.

But then I was made to realize that faith in Christ is the only way a sinner can ever have acceptance with God. You've got to believe on the Son of God. You must have faith in Him. Well, I believed then. I tried. And I tried, and I tried to believe. And I was made to understand that faith in Christ is the gift of God. I was alive without the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And all my hopes died. So that I could do nothing but like that publican in the temple, cry God, be merciful to me. And that's why God gave the law. That's the purpose of God's law.

And now, free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus hath bled, and there is remission." Martin Luther King, I don't reckon had any idea of the application I would make for what he said. But I sure do like one thing that old man said. He said, free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.