I'm married to the law or Christ. I'm married either to the law
or Christ. I hope we'll understand this
by the end of this message. We're going to look at the first
six verses of Romans chapter seven, but we need to see these
verses in context to what Paul was saying in order for us to
understand them. In verse 20 of chapter 5, Paul
said, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound
and overflow. If you have ever understood,
if I have ever understood the law, all I see about myself is sin
abounds. It overflows. Now, if you have
never seen that, you've never seen the law. For wherever the
law enters, sin abounds. That's what Paul says. But where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. You find me a place
where sin abounds. God's done a work of grace for
that person. Grace does much more abound and
overflow. Then he says in verse 21, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Here we read of the reign of
sin and the reign of grace. Now what's reign mean? Reign
means, well, somebody reigns, their will is done. They control. That's what reign means. When
we talk about the sovereignty of God, we say he reigns. Now, Paul talks about the reign
of sin, that as sin hath reigned unto death. Now, how much ability
do you have to prevent death? None. Absolutely none. Well, That's how much ability
you have to prevent sin. The reign of sin. You cannot
not sin. Now, if you believe you can,
all you prove by that is that you have no understanding of
who you are or what God's law is. You can no more prevent sin
than you can prevent death. But in the same manner, As sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign. You can't prevent grace any more
than you can prevent death. If God intends to be gracious
toward you, he is going to be gracious toward you and there's
nothing you can do to prevent it. There's nothing you can do
to mess it up. Grace reigns. Now, Paul. anticipated what he
knew our response would be to that. And this is, we've all
had these two responses. Paul said, what should we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now somebody's
going to say, now that kind of teaching will lead to sin. I
mean, you're talking about grace doing everything. Well, where's
our responsibility to be holy and to be obedient? That kind
of teaching will lead to sin. If you really believe that salvation
is by grace to the extent that you can't stop it, it's unstoppable. God's grace saves. It doesn't
make salvation available if you do your part. It saves. That
kind of teaching will lead people to indifference about personal
obedience. Why bother to obey if grace saves
that way? And somebody else will say, well,
if that's the case, I can live in disobedience. It doesn't matter.
Grace is going to save me anyway. So my conduct, my life doesn't
matter because grace reigns. Those are the two responses that
the natural man has to the gospel, either legalism or licentiousness. It's always that way. Now, Paul
goes on to prove that it is impossible for grace to lead to sin. It's impossible. Look what he
says in verse 14 of Romans chapter six. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. And then he picks back up in
verse 15 to the end of the chapter to show us it is impossible for
grace to lead to sin. Now understand that. Now someone
might warp something and twist something and say, well, that
makes it okay. But you can't get that from the
scriptures. It is impossible for grace to lead to sin. Now, picking up in chapter seven,
verse one, when he taught how that it was impossible for grace
to lead to sin, because you're not under law, law leads to see
it. Grace leads to holiness. And
he's speaking of two marriages. married to the law or married
to grace. Now he says in chapter seven,
verse one, no, you not brethren. For I speak to them that know
the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as
he liveth. Now, when he's talking about
the law, he could be talking about the law of God established
with Adam before the fall. He could be referring to that.
You can't eat of this tree. That's law. When you eat of this
tree, you'll die. He could be talking about the
Ten Commandments. He could be talking about the
ceremonial law, the Mosaic law, all the civil laws, just God's
law. The law has dominion over a man. It has control over a man. It
dominates a man as long as he lives. It has authority over
that man as long as he's alive. Now let's say a man here in the
United States truly believes it's immoral for the government
to require him to pay taxes. He's a true conscientious objector. He sends out literature to people
how we ought not have to pay taxes. It's wrong that we have
to pay taxes. And he really believes that.
He believes it's wrong that he has to give money to Social Security. This is wrong. We should not
have to do this. He really believes this. Well, he says, I'm not going to pay
taxes. What's going to happen to him? Well, he's a conscientious objector.
We can't expect him to pay taxes. No, he'll be thrown in jail,
won't he? The law has dominion over that
man, whether he likes it or not. He may not agree with that law,
but it doesn't matter whether he agrees with that law. That
law has dominion over him. And if he doesn't pay taxes,
he'll go to jail. And the only time that a man
is actually excused from paying those taxes is if he's dead. That's the only time. The law
has dominion over a man as long as he lives, whether he agrees
with it or not, whether he likes it or not. He'll still go to
jail if he fails to pay his taxes. Now, verse two, he starts talking
about the biblical law of marriage. Now, understand this. Marriage
is from the scriptures. God instituted marriage and there's
some specific things he says about marriage and what he says
is authoritative. It's true whether you and I agree
with it or not. It's true what God says regarding
marriage. Now he says in verse 2, for the
woman which hath an husband is bound is obligated by the law
to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be
dead, she is loose from the law of her husband. So then if while
her husband liveth, she be married to another, she'll be called
an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that
law so that she's no adulteress, though she be married to another
man. Now, Marriage. This is of God. It was before the fall. What
God says about marriage is authoritative. The Bible is the word of God
and we believe and we bow to what God says regarding all things. The Bible is authoritative. Now
marital bliss is a great blessing. Marriage is beautiful. Two people
who love one another, committed to one another for life. I love seeing people who've been
married a long time, don't you? They're committed for life. It's
beautiful. A happy marriage. You know what? There are a whole lot of unhappy
marriages. There are more, a whole lot more
unhappy marriages than there are happy marriages where both
men and women feel like they've been wronged. They feel like
they've been defrauded. That's the word Paul uses in
1 Corinthians chapter 7 regarding one spouse not treating the other
as they should. You feel like you've been defrauded.
You feel like you've been wronged. I didn't sign up for
this. This wasn't what I thought was
going to take place. I thought I was going to be happy. Let's
say a woman is married to a man that makes absolutely no effort
to provide well for her. He's a deadbeat. He makes no
effort to work and he's always critical of his wife, criticizes
everything she does. Criticizes everything she says.
He's never complimentary. He never makes her feel loved. He never makes her feel special.
He never spends time with her. He's always out with his buddies
having a good time, and he comes in late at night, and he's given
this woman a long list of chores to perform, and if she hadn't
done them, he's going to berate her mercilessly. He comes in
with a white glove to see how clean everything is. I mean,
this man is a monster. He's not a good husband. Now, if this was going to be
this woman's life for the rest of her life, she was going to
be married to this monstrous man. You'd hope a car hits a man and
kills him so she could Have a happy life. I mean, if you saw it wasn't
going to change and he was going to stay that way and not be good
to this woman, just be mean and merciless and hateful, you'd
be happy for her if that man died so she could be married
to somebody else who would treat her well. You'd love that. You'd be thankful for that. Does this woman have a biblical
grounds for divorce? No. No. She does not have, I'm talking
about what the Bible teaches. I know that this society doesn't
go on with this, but I'm talking about what the Bible teaches.
She does not have a biblical grounds for divorce. The only
biblical grounds for divorce adultery, our Lord taught that
in Matthew chapter 5 verse 32, or willful and final abandonment. That could be argued from 1st
Corinthians chapter 17 verse 15 where he says, if the brother,
if the unbeliever depart, let him depart. A brother or sister
is not under bondage in such cases. Now, this woman has no
ground. Let's say a man is married to
a woman and he He wants to be a good husband to this woman.
He seeks to treat her well and to be a good provider for her. And this woman doesn't care a
thing about him after marriage. I remember one time when I worked
in Armco in the summers. There was a guy I got to be friends
with. I was amazing. I can't remember his name now,
but I liked him. We'd talk every day, working together. And he
was getting married that summer. He was in college. And he got
married, and he went on his honeymoon. And he came back a week later,
and I was all excited for him. I said, well, how is it? He said, I married a monster.
And he really meant it. I mean, he was upset. What if
a man married a monster? She doesn't care anything about
him. She never gives him any affirmation. She never seeks
to... She just doesn't care about being
his wife. She just... There's all kinds of things I
could say, but I'd probably get in trouble for saying them, so
I won't say it. She's a bad woman, just like that man was a bad
man. Does he have a ground to divorce her? No. You may be happy for him
if she gets killed in a car wreck and she gets to marry somebody
else. But does he have a biblical ground to divorce this woman?
The answer is no. They're both bound by the law
to their husband or to their wife. The only way they're free
is if their husband or their wife dies. Verse three, so then,
if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man.
Now who, what if this woman was married to this horrible, horrible
man who did not treat her as she should have been treated
with love and kindness and respect and decency. He was just bad
to her. He wasn't unfaithful to her,
but he was bad to her. He didn't, I'm not saying he hit her or
anything like that, but he was just a bad husband. What if she
said, I've had it, I'm leaving him. And she marries somebody
else and he's good to her and he's kind to her. And all of a sudden she feels
like she has a good relationship with this man. What does the
law call this woman? An adulteress. Now that's what
God's law has to say. God's law calls this woman an
adulteress. She's broken the marriage vow.
It's only if the man dies that she's free to marry another man. Now that's what the scripture
teaches. I know all kinds of people will
make all kinds of objections here and there, but this is what
God's word teaches and God's word is authoritative. Now, verse
four, wherefore my brethren, You also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ. You know that was a bad marriage,
wasn't it? That was a bad marriage. Now the problem wasn't with the
law, the problem was with us. We're the bad wife. But it was
a bad marriage. The law didn't do anything but
condemn us. The law didn't do anything but
criticize us. The law didn't do anything but
expose us. There wasn't any mercy in the
law. There wasn't any love in the law. We weren't happily married. We didn't love the law. We resented
the law. We resented God's strictness.
We resented God's requirements. We didn't feel any love in the
law. We were scared. We were scared of our husband.
He wasn't a loving husband. He was a loving we were afraid
of. Afraid of what was going to happen to us because of it.
The marriage to the law is compared to a bad marriage. And once again,
the problem is not the law. Problem is us. God's law is holy
and just and good. We're going to be looking at
that next week from Romans chapter 7, verse 7 to 13. But if I'm
married to the law, I don't have a good marriage, but there's
nothing I can do to get out from under it unless the law dies. unless I die and become dead
to that law, so that law has nothing to say to me. Now look
what Paul says, wherefore my brethren, you also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God. Now he speaks of the fruit
that the marriage to the law rendered. And it was bad fruit.
It was bad fruit. You know, anybody that's married
to the law, you know, I observe this. If I ever start trying to bring
you under the law, God forbid that I do that. I know that I'm
capable of it, but if I ever start trying to press you under
law, you can bet this, you can write this down, it's so, it's
because I'm practicing lawlessness. Every time you have someone wedded
to the law, and married to the law, and pushing the law, and
trying to bring other people under the law, you can write
this down every time there's a life of uncleanness underneath
all of that. Someone who pushes the law is
always a lawless person. Oh, they'll promote righteousness. They'll promote, this is the
way we need to live and this is what we need to do. But underneath
it all, there's always dark immorality. That's what the law does. That's
what the law produces. That's the fruit the law produces.
It doesn't produce holiness. It doesn't produce graciousness.
It doesn't produce goodness. produces bad fruit. But he says,
you're dead to the law. And here's here's what took place.
I love thinking about this. Like I said, this is not a slam
against God's law. I love God's law. I love every
commandment of it. I love what it what God's law
says about God and his character. But the only way I can love God's
laws when I see it's fulfilled, and it has nothing to say to
me, but he's good. He's good. I love God's law.
Now, if I see that it condemns me and and has something against
me, I don't love God's law. I'm scared of it. Don't want
to have anything to do with it. But oh, if I see that God's law doesn't
have anything to say to me. You see, we become dead to the
law by the body of Christ. Christ Jesus, the Lord, took
in his own body all of the sins of all of God's people. who his
own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. You know, there isn't anything
that makes me feel worse or better than that. It makes me feel terrible
when I think of him experiencing the filth of my sin. That makes
me feel terrible. He never committed sin, but He
experienced everything about sin except the commission of
it. He felt the shame of it, the guilt of it, the fear of
it. Oh, and when I think of the Lord,
when I think of my sin becoming His and Him bearing the filth
of it, it makes me feel terrible. But you know what else? There isn't anything else that
I have any hope in. but that He actually took my sin and my
sorrow and made it His very own and bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. He put away my sin. He answered the law's demands
against sin. The law demands death to the
sinner. He died. The law has nothing
more to say to me. I'm dead to the law. I'm no longer
bound to the law. I'm free to be married to somebody
else. You see, I didn't have a good
marriage with the law. All the law did was condemn me and expose
me. Nothing else. It scared me. There wasn't any love in that
relationship, nothing but fear, nothing but dread about what
was going to take place with me and what my husband was going
to do to me. But now I'm dead to the law. Law has nothing more to say to
me. What's the law have to say to
a dead man? Can the law make a dead man pay taxes? No, law
can't make a dead man do anything. You see, our Lord, when he died,
and I love thinking about this, our Lord's death did something
that no other death did. How many billions of people have
died? I don't even know. I mean, sometimes
I try to wonder how many people die every minute, or even every
five seconds. I mean, this big, giant world.
How many people have died, and you know not one of them, by
their death, have ever been able to satisfy God? Never satisfied
the justice of God? That's why hell is eternal. You and I don't understand this,
but sin is so infinitely evil, hell lasts forever because a
sinner can never render satisfaction to the justice of God. It can't
be done. But this man, when he died, rendered
complete satisfaction to the law of God, and now the law has
nothing to say to that person that Christ died for except,
not guilty. That's it. Our bad marriage is over, our
first husband is dead, that we might be married to another.
You know, marriage is given to picture the relationship between
Christ and church. Turn to Ephesians 5. This is
what marriage is all about. I love marriage. I love being
married to my wife. I love marriage. But I love this marriage a lot
better. This marriage is glorious. Beginning in verse 22, wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Wives are called on to submit
themselves to their own husbands. And the only way that a woman
can do that is because she wants to do it. That's the only way
it can be done. Not because she's forced to or
she's afraid not to. That's not submission. The only
way a woman can do that is because she wants to. That's her desire
to submit herself to her husband as unto the Lord because she
has some understanding of what marriage really is. For the husband,
verse 23, is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head
of the church, and he's the savior of the body. Therefore, as the
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their
own husbands in everything. Husbands. You know, I try to
put myself in the wife's place if I had to submit myself to
Lynn, but you know, I think about it, I do submit myself to Lynn.
We submit ourselves to each other. That's what happens in a good
marriage. It doesn't mean that you've got this man barking out
orders and the woman, you know, do what I say, you know, submit.
No, we submit one to another in the fear of God. We bow to
each other's wishes and each other's desires. That's what
you do in marriage. But I've often thought, well,
the wives are called upon to submit, to be subject to their
husbands and everything, even as the church is subject to Christ. But you know, the husbands are
given a harder commandment. Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it. that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself." You know, that's become one of my favorite scriptures.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself. Before I understood
what it meant, I thought we weren't supposed to love ourselves. But
this is talking about Christ's love for the church. He loved
his wife. And in loving his wife, he was
loving himself. That's how true and vital and
real this union with Christ is. When He loves me, He loves someone
who's just like Himself. And He says, you're holy, you're
beautiful, you're without spot, you're without blemish. I'm loving
myself. That's what Christ loves when
He loves His church. He loves Himself. Isn't that
wonderful? What a glorious union this is. Verse 29, for no man ever yet
hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the
Lord the church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh and
of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. Now this is a great mystery,
but understand this, I'm not talking about human marriage.
I'm talking about Christ and the church. That's what marriage
is about. Christ and the church. Now, when Christ marries us,
he gives us a new name. We take on his name. You know,
Len's name is Len Nybert. It used to be Len Moore, but
it's not Len Moore anymore. It's Len Nybert. Well, my name is
Jehovah Tzikinu, the Lord our righteousness. That's my new
name. And Just as he took on all of
my debts and willingly paid every one of them. And what a provider
he is. He provides his own righteousness.
What a protector he is. He says, I give unto my sheep
eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. They're so secure. They're so
complete. What a lover he is. He says,
thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Now that's what he says when
he looks at us. There is no spot in thee. And our reply is, let him kiss
me with the kisses of his mouth. I am my beloved's and he is mine. What a marriage this is. You
know, our greatest desire is to be submissive to our husband,
isn't it? I want to be a submissive wife
to my husband. And that's not because of fear.
It's because of what a glorious husband he is. Now, when a believer
desires to be under law, and what is amazing about it is every
one of us do it. It's as natural to us even as,
now the new man doesn't do it, but the old man does. You got
this old man and, but that's like this woman having this wonderful
marriage, all of a sudden want to leave it and go back to where
she was at. You'd say she's crazy for that. Why would she want
to go back to that? Well, because men are crazy,
that's why. What if she wanted to have a
have the coffin with the body of her old husband laying where
everybody could see it, you know, and you'd say, what's wrong with
her? I love what Paul said. Tell me
you that desire to be under law. Don't you hear the law? Don't
you hear what it says? Now, through this marriage, we
are to bring forth fruit unto God. Turn back to Romans 7. Wherefore, verse 4, wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. Now, the fruit every believer
brings is the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, and peace
toward God. longsuffering, gentleness and
goodness toward men, faith, meekness and temperance toward self. You
know, the Lord said, you've not chosen me, but I have chosen
you and I have ordained you that you should go and bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain. Oh, the fruit that comes
from being buried to Christ. Yet the only way I'm going to
bear this fruit is if I'm married to Christ. Verse five, for when
we were in the flesh, now what's it mean to be in the flesh? It
means you didn't have the spirit. You didn't have a new nature. You
didn't have a holy nature. When we were in the flesh and
all we were, the only marriage we had was the law. For when
we were in the flesh, the motions, the passions of sin, which were
by the law did work in our members. to bring forth fruit unto death. Now, the only fruit that the
law brings is fruit unto death. Not good fruit, not the fruit
of the Holy Spirit, but fruit unto death. Now, like I said,
all the law does is condemn and you find me somebody under the
law and I'll find you a lawless person every time. There's nobody that's good under
the law. They may try to present themselves
as good, but if you could see what's going on in their hearts,
or if you could see what's going on in their lives where no other
man sees, you would see fruit unto death. That's all the law
ever produces. It stirs up sin, actually. That's
what it does. It stirs up... All I've got to
do is tell you, don't think about that. What are you going to think
about? Whatever I do, whatever I tell you not to do, that's
what you're going to do. It's just our nature and it brings
forth fruit unto death. But, verse 6, now we are delivered
from the law. that being dead wherein we were
held, we couldn't deliver ourselves from the law. We couldn't get
ourselves from out of under its bondage, but we were delivered
from the law by the Lord Jesus Christ. But now we are delivered
from the law that being dead wherein we were held, that we
should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter. Now we were stuck in an unhappy
marriage. that had claims on us that we couldn't deliver ourselves
from. But now, because of the death
and resurrection of Christ, the law's claims have been answered
and our relationship with the law is dissolved. It's dissolved. Now, before the
death of Christ, I couldn't say regarding the law, well, I've
got irreconcilable differences with the law. It won't do me
any good. No, no, I was under it and I couldn't get out from
underneath it. But now that I'm dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that relationship with the law is dissolved and we have
a wonderful marriage. We no longer serve in the oldness
of the letter. Now, what is the oldness of the
letter? Here's a summary. Do and live. You do this, you
do this and you live. If you don't do it, you'll die. That's the only understanding
an unbeliever has of the law. Somebody that's married to the
law, all they understand is do and live, don't do and die. And they have no understanding
of what God's law is for. They're in complete ignorance
of the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law is to
show me you've broken me. Look to Christ. That is the spirit
of the law. The spirit of the law is to show
me I've broken it. I'm to flee to Christ as my husband
who fulfilled the law for me. That's the spirit of the law.
The letter is works. The spirit is grace. The letter
is do. The spirit is it's done. It's
done. There's nothing for me to do.
My husband looks at me as a perfect wife. He looks at me as not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. I'm attractive to him. I'm lovely
to him. I'm desirable to him. I'm the
perfect wife. Wouldn't you love to have a husband
who felt that way about you? Well, you do. You do. You have a husband who sees no
stain in you whatsoever. Newness of spirit, not serve
in the oldness of the letter, but the newness of spirit. Now, what that means is I'm a
new creation. Now you think a new creation.
That means I don't have the same history as the old creation.
I know I'm saying this a lot. Hopefully somebody will hear
it or somebody will Ask me a question. I don't know, but I keep loving
to think about the fact I've got a new history. A new history. It's from this new creation.
You know, it's not the history of the old creation. That's been
blotted out. And I've got a new history and it's all good. You
can't dig up any skeletons on me. You know, somebody wants
to dig up evil on me. Try it before God. Who is he
that condemns? God says. It's Christ that died. It's God that justifies. We have
a new history, and that's because of a new testament, the testament,
the covenant of grace. We have a new doctrine, the doctrine
of Christ. We have a new name. My name is
not Todd Nyberg, my name is Jehovah Zekinu, the Lord, our righteousness. This is the name where we shall
be called the Lord, our righteousness. We have a new song. Worthy is
the lamb that was slain. We have a new motive, not fear,
love. We have a new commandment to
love one another as he loved us. We've got a new garment,
that fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of the saints.
We have a new city, the new Jerusalem. In a new heaven and a new earth,
all because of him who said, I make all things new. Only he can do that. Married to the law, all it does
is bring forth fruit unto death. Married to Christ, the fruit
of salvation. He saved me. He saved all of
His people. I'm speaking as a representative
of every one of His people. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people. from their sins. And beloved, that's what I need
to be saved from, my sins. That's my enemy. That's my problem,
my sins. But thank God he has saved his
people from their sins, from the condemnation of them, From
the defilement of them, I've been saved from the power of
sin. I can now believe. There was a time when I couldn't,
I can now. And one of these days, bless his holy name, I'll be
saved from the very presence of sin because of my marriage
or because of his marriage to me. That's probably the way I
ought to say that. Because of his marriage to me, what a husband
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, how we thank you for
our husband, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Master and Lord,
our prophet, priest and king, our all in all, our righteous