The last time that we studied
from this chapter two weeks ago, we saw that in the first six
verses that Paul illustrated the truth of the fact that believers
are dead to the law. dead to the law by the sacrifice
of Christ. And he used the illustration
of a woman who was married and under the law, she was free from
the law of her husband, marriage law, when her husband died. And he turns that around somewhat
and shows that that is how we have become dead to the law. by the death, not of our husband,
but of Christ, that Christ in our stead and in our place, that
he died under the law, and in him, our head, we died to the
law, and we died in order, notice in verse four, that we might
bring forth fruit unto God. Brother Lance Heller mentioned
that last Sunday evening, I believe, pointing out that the union that
we have with Christ is the way that we bring forth fruit. We
can't produce any fruit in ourselves, in our own strength. We can't
even think a right thought, really, apart from God the Holy Spirit
working in us. but in union to Christ and believers
bring forth fruit, as the scripture says, unto God, unto the glory
of God. We live unto the glory of God.
And Paul also made this statement in verse five about the law. He tells us that in our unconverted
state, before we were saved by the grace of God, before we were
regenerated in the new birth, before we received God's effectual
call and brought to Christ that the law provoked, he calls it
the motions of sins. Notice that in verse five. For
when we were in the flesh, remember our Lord said that which is born
of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We all, when we're born into this world, we are only flesh. And as he says there, for when
we were in the flesh, we didn't have a new nature. We were not
born again. We were in the flesh, the motions
of sin, which were by the law. And I pointed out how that the
law irritates the flesh. When the law commands that we
should not do something, that's the very thing we want to do.
When we hear that we're not to do a certain thing, and I gave
you the illustration, rather, that Brother Johnson, I heard
him use many years ago about leaving his children at home
and telling them when he left, don't you open that closet door.
Whatever you do, don't open the closet door. Well, he knew if
he had not said anything, most likely they would not have opened
the closet door. But because he gave that law,
that command, they had to open that door. And that was the motions
of sin. But then that caused Paul to
begin the text we're looking at tonight, these seven verses,
verses 7 through 13, by asking this question. Is the law sin? If the law provokes man, the
command not to do something, causes these motions, he calls
them motions of sin, in us, then is the law sin? And Paul uses,
once again, that very strong denial. God forbid. I can just see him writing this
and thinking, how in the world could you ever think that? But
knowing men as he did, he knew that some could misconstrue what
he had said about the law, and therefore they would think, well,
then the law is sinful. If it provokes emotions of sin
in us and our fallen state, then it must be sin. God, God forbid. Sometimes in preaching and in
teaching the word of God, when you're preaching and teaching,
you have things in your mind and you just assume everyone
who is hearing you has the same thoughts, it follows along with
you. But that's not always the case,
and you cannot always anticipate every thought that might, every
reason that might come into someone's mind. I remember preaching in
a Bible conference several years ago, and I was illustrating the
fact that one of the charges against those of us who believe
in sovereign grace commonly called Calvinist, is people will say,
well, you're one of those people who believe God puts babies in
hell. That's been a charge against
sovereign grace people, I guess, from years, centuries. You're
one of those who believe, believes that God puts babies in hell. And I made the point, that's
not to say I said, I've known a few sovereign grace preachers
in my life. I've never known one who believed
that. I've never known one. And I've
read quite a few articles by men who are sovereign grace men,
books, and I've never found one who believed that. And yet, rather
than answer the scripture because they have no answer from the
word of God to deny God's sovereign election, they just paint the
messenger, you know. Well, you just believe God puts
babies in hell. Well, I made that point and I
said, That's not to say that there hasn't been some sovereign
grace preacher sometime over the 1600, 1700 years or 2000
years, whatever it's been, who hasn't believed that and didn't
preach that. But I've never met one. I've
never heard of one. We had an article in our bulletin
last Sunday morning. by Charles Spurgeon about this
very subject, about babies who die in infancy and how they go
to be with the Lord. That's been the belief that those
who die in infancy are the elect of God. And that's one reason,
according to Spurgeon, he was convinced that in the end, when
this thing's all over, that there's going to be more people saved
More people in heaven than there will be in hell with Satan. And of course, his number one
reason was because the Lord's going to have the preeminence
in all things, in all things. But anyway, after I finished
my message, I think someone else maybe preached after me, I don't
remember, but a man came up to me and he said, well, He said,
judging by what you preached, what you said in your message,
then you believe in abortions. Huh? How could you have understood
me to be saying that? Because I said that I believe
that the babies, those who die in infancy, go to be with the
Lord. Well, his reasoning was, well then, the more babies who
are aborted, the more Heaven will be populated, I guess. Well,
I never thought anything like that. Never entered into my mind.
But God gave me an answer to him. I said, well, that's just
part of the word of God. Remember, there's another part
of the word of God. Thou shalt not kill. Amen? Thou shalt not kill. Well, my point is that the apostle
Paul by his questions. We're going to look at another
one in just a minute. But he knew that someone was
going to misunderstand or misconstrue what he had said about the law. And reason, that meant the law,
was sinful. It was no good. In these seven
verses we're looking at tonight, Paul answers that question. Is
the law sin? Notice that in verse seven. What
shall we say then? Because I have said that the
law stirs up passions in a lost person to disobey the law. Is the law then sin? Is the law sin? God forbid. And now he answers this by giving
his own personal testimony, his own testimony of what he had
experienced in his life in God saving him. Nay, notice, nay,
no, no, no. Here's my experience, Paul said.
Had it not been for the law, I would not have known that I
was a sinner. I had not known sin, but by the
law, for I had not known lust, that strong desire, except the
law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taken occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner. of lust, same
word that's translated lust in verse seven or verse eight, yes. Saying all manner of lust, for
without the law, sin was dead. The word lust, as I said, it
means a very strong desire. And by this lust, the inclination
to sin, man's depravity, That's the result of man's depravity
and every fallen son of Adam. Without the law, he said, I would
not have known that the desire, just the desire for something
which is forbidden is sinful. And I'm convinced of this. He
lived believing as a Pharisee as long as he was not guilty
of outwardly breaking one of God's commandments, he was free. He obeyed God's law and he was
on his way to glory. He didn't need a savior. He didn't
need a savior because he didn't see himself as a sinner. He said, when God showed me this
commandment, he knew it was there all of his life, but he hadn't
seen it. Thou shalt not covet, covet the desire, just the desire,
the sinful desire. The thought of sin is sinful. William Hendrickson, this matter
of thou shalt not covet. Now, I assume most of us think
that covetousness we associate only with riches or something
like that. We covet money or something like
that. But William Hendrickson, in his
commentary on this passage, he brings out these several things
that are called covetousness in the scripture. The parents of the human race,
Adam and Eve, they coveted the forbidden fruit. Had nothing
to do with riches. They coveted the forbidden fruit. Joseph's brothers, they coveted
the place of privilege that Joseph's father showed him. And you see
what that resulted in, selling their brother into slavery. They
coveted that place. Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many
colors, didn't give them one. They coveted. Achan, remember Achan, when they
came into the land of Canaan, marched around Jericho, and God
caused the walls to fall down, but God had commanded that nothing
in that city was to be taken as spoils. It was all dedicated
to the Lord. And there was a man by the name
of Achan, remember. And he saw a beautiful garment,
and he saw some silver, borrowed some silver, and he coveted it. And he carried it to his tent,
didn't he, and buried it in his tent. And you remember what that
resulted in. Him and his wife and all of his
children, they were all stoned for disobeying God. Covetousness. Ahab, oh, King Ahab, had a terrible
wife, didn't he? Jezebel. You men need to thank
God. I need to thank God for our wives.
We have a good wife, encourages us in the things of the Lord.
But Ahab, he was a weak man to begin with, but he had a wicked
wife. Remember, he was king. He had his own vineyards. But there was one closer to the
palace that was owned by that man by the name of Naboth. And he coveted Naboth's vineyard. And his wicked wife told him,
well, no problem. You're king. Take it. How am I going to take it? Well,
they hired two men to lie on Naboth, didn't they? And they
said, well, we heard that man blaspheme God. And in the mouth
of two witnesses, he was stoned. And Ahab, covetousness, he got
the vineyard. Amon, one of David's sons, he
coveted to lay with his sister, Tamar. And that resulted in an
awful thing, didn't it? Absalom. He saw that crown on
his dad's head and he just coveted that. Oh, he wanted that crown
so much. Caused him to rebel against his
father. Ananias and Sapphira in the New
Testament. Remember, they sold a piece of
property and it was theirs. They could take the money and
go on a vacation. They could do anything they wanted
to with the money, but what they wanted was prestige. They wanted
everybody in the church to say, well, look at them. They've given
that money to the Lord. And they kept back part of it,
didn't they? They sold it. Peter said, you've lied to God. You lied to the Holy Spirit. What a testimony there to the
fact that the Holy Spirit is God. You lied to God. You lied to the Holy Spirit.
Why? Because they coveted that prestige. Simon, the sorcerer, in Acts
chapter, I believe it's chapter eight, remember when he saw that
The apostles that came to, came from Jerusalem down by laying
on of their hands that there was miracles and other things,
signs that they could work. And he coveted that power, wanted
to buy it. What did Peter say? Thy money
perish with thee. And then there's that man that
was a, he was one of Paul's fellow workers. He traveled with Paul. No doubt he was a great help
in the ministry to Paul many times, but eventually Paul had
to write and say, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world. Covetousness. And then there's
that man by the name of Diotherphus. Remember him, John wrote to the
church and Diotrephus, he was seeking preeminence. That's what
he coveted in the church, was preeminence. And he wouldn't
even receive the letter from the apostle John. You know, most church problems
that I've noticed over the years, is the result of someone seeking
preeminence. Someone seeking preeminence. Well, that's that command, said,
thou shall not covet. Just a desire that was in a person's
heart. And Paul realized that. He said,
I wouldn't have known. I thought I was perfect. I was
keeping the law. I'd never committed adultery.
I'd never lied. I don't see how he could have
said that or thought that, but obviously he did. He said, for I was alive. Notice
the next verse, verse nine. I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. What is Paul saying there? He's
saying what I've just said. There was a time in his life
when he lived such a life that he thought that he kept the law
of God. In Philippians 3, he wrote, as
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, blameless. Look with me in Luke chapter
18. We're all familiar with this man who came to the Lord Jesus
one day. Many times we refer to him as
a rich young ruler. Luke chapter 18 and verse 18. And a certain ruler asked him
saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why
callest thou me good? None is good save one, that is
God. And you know what our Lord was
doing there. Do you recognize me as God? There's
only one good, that's God. Don't call me good unless you
know I'm God, unless you accept that I'm God manifest in the
flesh. There's none good but one. Then
he answered this man's question accordingly. You see, the Lord,
if someone asked you that question, how would you answer it? If someone
came to you tonight and said, listen, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? How would you answer that? I
think most of us would say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Just the same thing that Paul
and Silas told that jailer. But you see, here's the difference.
The Lord, he knows what's in a person's heart, doesn't he?
And he knew what was in this man's heart, what he was trusting
in. And the Lord said, you know the
law. Do not commit adultery, do not
kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor thy father
and thy mother. And he said, all these have I
kept from my youth up. That man was alive without the
law. Now he had the law. He could
quote the law. He could recite the law. But
he couldn't keep the law. But he thought he did. Why? Because he was of the opinion
that this could well have been Saul of Tarsus here. I don't
believe it was. Some people think it was. I don't.
But you could have asked Saul, told Saul this same thing until The commandment came in power,
in power, the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Until that time,
Paul could have well said the same thing this man said. I've
kept all those commandments. All these have I kept from my
youth up. All the time. You might say,
well, how could anyone do this? How could anyone say that? Well,
Paul confessed that that was his case. And our Lord put his
finger on this man's damnable point of rebellion. And it was
covetousness. Our Lord said, sell everything
you have and give it to the poor. And the man went away sad. Why? Because he was wealthy. and he
coveted his wealth. All the time believing that he
was on his way to everlasting glory. Paul said, I was alive
in his opinion. He wasn't really alive spiritually. He was spiritually dead, but
in his mind he was alive because he kept the law. He obeyed the
law. But then when the commandment
came, he says, Verse nine, for I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The day came, Paul said, in my
life. We know when that day was, when
he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. The
law came in power, power of the Holy Spirit. And what happened? He died. He then knew himself
to be spiritually dead, that he was not alive by his keeping
the law. All of his hopes, all of his
hopes of being saved by what he was or what he did in relation
to the law, they all went out the window that day. They were
gone. And from that day forward, Paul
began to preach, by the deeds of the law shall no man be justified
before God. It's not by words, it's by grace,
saved by grace through faith. And that not of ourselves, it's
a gift of God. What is it that the law demands?
Well, look back in Mark. You know this, but look back
with me in Mark just a moment. Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12 and verse 29. And Jesus answered him, the first
of all the commandments is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is
one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with
all thy strength. This is the first commandment,
and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. That's the law right there. loving God with all the heart,
all the soul, all the mind, and all the strength, and loving
our neighbor as ourself. This explains, I believe, Paul's
statement in Galatians 2 when he said, for I through the law
am dead to the law. The law killed me. I through
the law, through hearing the law, through hearing the command,
I through the law am dead to the law, that in order that I
might live unto God. And this is always God's order
in salvation, isn't it? God kills before he makes a life. God strips before he clothes. That's always God's order. Verses 10 through 13, let me
just read these. And the commandment, which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taken
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good. Notice he asked another
question. Was then that which is good made
death unto me? Can something that is holy and
righteous and good, as he confessed that the law is, can that be
good and yet bring death? Well, it's not the law that brings
death. It's the disobedience to the
law. Let me try to illustrate this.
Suppose a man kills another man and he's charged and convicted
by a jury and the judge sentences him to death and the sentence
is executed. Would anyone say that the jury
caused his death? That the judge caused his death?
that the warden up in Huntsville caused his death? No. He caused his death. He broke
the law. And he's punished for the law. You can't say that the law was
responsible for his death. No, he was responsible. I think
sometimes in our society today, there's a tendency to excuse
people who break the law and somehow blame the law. No, the
law is like the law of God. It's holy, just, and good. It's
not the law. It's when we break the law, when
men break the law. Well, I mentioned William Hendrickson
just a moment ago. He closed his comments on this
passage with this poem. by Robert Murray McShaney, and
it's a poem about Jehovah Tiskanu. You all know that that's one
of the eight compound names of Jehovah in the Old Testament. The Lord, our righteousness,
it's found in Jeremiah, Jehovah Tiskanu. I once was a stranger
to grace and to God, I knew not my danger and felt not my load. Though friends spoke in rapture
of Christ on the tree, Jehovah Tiskanu was nothing to me. Off read with pleasure to soothe
and engage Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page. But even
when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree, Jehovah Tiskanu was nothing
to me. Like tears from the daughters
of Zion that roll, I wept when the waters went over his soul,
yet thought not that my sins had nailed him to the tree. Jehovah
tiskadu, t'was nothing to me. When free grace awoke me by light
from on high, then legal fear shook me, I trembled to die. No refuge, no safety and self
could I see. Jehovah Tiskanu, my savior, must
be. My terrors all vanished before
the sweet name. My guilty fear banished. With boldness I came to drink
of the fountain, life giving and free. Jehovah Tiskanu is
all things to me. Jehovah Tiskanu, my treasure
and boast. Jehovah Tiskanu, I never can
be lost, and thee shall I conquer by flood and by field, my cable,
my anchor, my breastplate and shield. Even traveling the valley,
the shadow of death, this watchword shall rally my faltering breath. Far from life's fever, my God
sets me free. Jehovah, my death song shall
be. The Lord, our righteousness. Is it your righteousness? Are you trusting in your obedience
to the law? Is that your righteousness? You
know what God says about your righteousness? Filthy rags. Filthy rags. That's all it is. Thank God for Jehovah Tisken,
the Lord, our righteousness. I'm going to ask the men, if
you will, to come now at this time and we'll Observe God's
table, the Lord's table.