October 29, 2023
Evening Service

English Standard Version

·        I am thankful tonight that The Bride of Christ still practices expository preaching and teaching.  You might be thinking, “oh no, what is he talking about?”  Expository teaching is simply explaining the bible by what it says.  We are not in the practice of using the latest self-help technics from books such as:

o   The Power of Positive Thinking

o   Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life

o   Think and Grow Rich

·        2 Timothy 3:15, “…how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”

·        God, through our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, has given us the grace to seek our guidance from the Word of God.  We have come to understand that our strength and assurance comes only from trusting the work of Jesus Christ – his death, burial, and resurrection is where our hope firmly lies tonight. 

·        I am also thankful that we have men like brother Greg, brother Sam, and brother Andy who are able, and willing, to teach the Word to us.  Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15, “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”  I am thankful for these men tonight.  God is faithful.

·        As we begin our study tonight in the seventh chapter of Romans, we will see yet another question that Paul presents and then provides a response.  This has been a common occurrence in the first six chapters of Romans.  Why is this?  Let me read Acts 17:1-2, “they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.  And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”  Again, in Act 18:4, “And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.”  These questions are most likely real questions that people asked Paul, and he was giving instruction through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Let’s keep this in mind as we progress through our study tonight.

·        Chapter six began with one of these questions from the Jews – “are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”  Paul is quick to quell that thinking and goes on to explain that through baptism in Jesus Christ we died to sin and are now alive to God.  In the second half of chapter six he further explains that since we died to sin, we are no longer slaves to sin, but are now slaves to righteousness.  Beginning in chapter six verse 22, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Chapter seven….

Released from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brothers^[aa]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.^{[ab] 3} Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.^[ac]

·        Paul repeats his explanation from chapter six, that when we were baptized into Christ, that we died to sin and are no longer slaves to sin.  Let’s look at Chapter six, verses six and seven.  “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.”

·        Before we were baptized into Christ, we were bound by law to sin while we lived.  But since we have been baptized into Christ, and now place our faith in Jesus, we are now set free from sin, just as the woman, when her husband dies, is released from the law of marriage.

·        And look at verse six – we are released from the law, we have died to what held us captive, so that we can serve in the new way of the Spirit.  Have we heard this before?  Chapter six, verse 11, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Released from the law (died to that which held us captive, namely, sin).  We can now serve in the new way of the Spirit (alive to God in Christ Jesus).  The Holy Spirit’s teaching through Paul is so powerful!

·        Remember now that Paul is speaking mainly to the Jews here (v1).  The Jews know the Law.  The Jews think very highly of the Law.  They think that it is by the Law they are saved! 

o   The Jews might have been thinking at this point that Paul is very close to speaking heresy!  “What are you saying Paul?  We are released from the law?  Serving in the new way of the Spirit?  Not in the old way of the written code?

§  Are you saying it’s bad that God said, “You shall have no other Gods before me?”

§  Is it bad that God said, “You shall make no graven images?”

§  “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain?” – Bad?

^o     Paul, are you telling us that what God handed down to us through Moses and our fathers is bad?  Are you saying the Law is sinful?

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means!  Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

·        Paul quickly puts a stop to the line of thinking or questioning that the Law is bad.  One commentator said this “by no means” was the strongest response Paul could have given in the Greek language.  May it never be!

·        Paul explains that the law is not the culprit.  In fact, if the law did not exist, we would not be able to know what it is to sin.  Look at verse seven, “Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.”

·        He puts the blame squarely on sin in verses eight and eleven.  “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.  11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”  Notice how sin is active!

·        He exonerates the law in verse 12 by stating the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

·        I think we need to pause here for a minute and ask ourselves a question.  Does our thinking, and our lives, line up with Paul’s thinking?  Do we really regard the law as holy, and the commandment as holy, righteous, and good?

o   Some today might argue with us that we are being legalistic to think this way about the law.  But we need to distinguish that it is only legalistic if we think that we are saved by keeping the law.  Paul says the law, in itself, is good.  Remember, verse seven says we would not know what it is to sin had it not been for the law.  I believe having the correct mindset about the law also helps us set boundaries for our lives.

o   I think this is important as we think about the culture today and how believers want to “fit in” and “influence” the culture for Christ.  While our intentions are good, our methods of “fitting in so that we may influence” could very well be dangerous and deadly.  Sin in our culture today, and sometimes in our lives, has a foothold, and when it’s not confronted it is considered normative…or the normal way to live.  This creates a different baseline than the baseline that Jesus set for us.  The baseline Jesus set for us is clear in 1 Peter 1:15, “but as he who called you is holy (talking about Jesus Christ), you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  And this is why it is dangerous to think we will fit in to the culture with no regard or thought for the culture influencing us.  Remember we are set apart for Christ, and what Paul says in Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

o   We have to remember, and believe, that we don’t have to conform to the culture around us in order to influence it - God is able to save lost souls without us conforming to the culture today!  After all, I don’t think we will be able to minister effectively to someone that thinks “I’m ok”, “I’m a lot like you.”  It’s when someone comes to realize they want something different than what they already have, that they’re not ok the way they are, it’s at this moment when they are receptive to personal ministering.

·        Verse 12, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”

¹³ Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

·        Paul reiterates that sin is the culprit, not the law.  And haven’t we heard Paul say before that the commandment exists so that sin might be shown to be sinful beyond measure?  Chapter 5:20, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass…”

¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷ So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

·        Wow – Paul mentions here that he does not understand his own actions.  Every believer can relate to what Paul is saying here.  We all struggle with sin (our sin nature) and have this war waging within us – how we want to do good, but we don’t do it, we do the thing we actually hate.   We can see how this brings the apostle Paul to a state of despair when he says “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

·        We should all have the same attitude that Paul has when it comes to sin in our lives!  We should hate how we allow the sin nature to sometimes take over within our minds and hearts.  Our attitudes about our sin distinguish us from unbelievers, because the unbeliever does not struggle with the sin nature as we do.  Look closely:

o   Verse 15 – “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  The unbeliever doesn’t think this way.  The unbeliever doesn’t hate sin like the believer does.

o   Verse 18 – “For I have the desire to do what is right.”  The unbeliever doesn’t have this desire.

o   Verse 19 – “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”  The unbeliever isn’t bothered by this situation.  You can see how our attitudes towards our sin should be aligned with Paul’s.

o   Psalm 51 was written by King David after Nathan the prophet called him out for his affair with Bathsheba.  Look at David’s attitude starting with verse 1 of Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”  Verse 10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

§  We see King David pleading for God’s mercy; pleading to be washed and cleansed from his sin, and asking God to restore him.

·        One commentator, speaking about the Christian life, explained that there are three aspects of sin that we have to deal with…

o   Penalty of sin, which is physical death and spiritual death (separation from God in hell) - the way we deal with the penalty of sin is through Justification….in Romans 3 we learned that as we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Justified…we are declared Righteous….just as if we had never sinned.  So, we overcome the penalty of sin through placing our faith in Jesus and we are justified.

o   Power of sin – the power of sin is progressively broken in our lives by Sanctification (being set apart for God).  As we live in Christ we are being conformed to the very image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8: 29)…so it’s a process. 

o   Thirdly is the issue of the presence of sin, which we experience in Glorification, when we shall be with Christ and appear as he is, when our bodies will be made new as His was made new.  At that time we will not only be saved from the penalty and power of sin, but also from the very presence of sin. 

o   One commentator described our Christian experience as “already, and not yet.”  We are justified by faith in Jesus’s blood (this is the already), but we are being sanctified day by day, better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today, we are growing in Christ, conforming to the person of Christ, but we will not see perfection until we are united with Jesus in Heaven (this is the Not Yet). 

o   This commentator gave the example of Pharoh finally letting the children of Israel go, they are delivered across the Red Sea, Moses is up on the mountain and the people build a golden calf!  It takes longer to get Egypt out of Israel than to get Israel out of Egypt!  Let me say it again – it takes longer to get Egypt out of the children of Israel than to get Israel out of Egypt.  This thing is hard!  It’s a battle!  It’s a war!

·        So Paul finds himself in this moment of despair….” Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  Gut wrenching!  How does Paul overcome?  He doesn’t!  Jesus Christ does!  Look…verse 25…

²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

·        Paul knows he cannot deliver himself from this!  And we cannot stand on our own righteousness either.  Remember what Paul says in verse 18, “nothing good dwells in me.”  Our only hope is in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross.  We are to live in anticipation with hope in Christ.  I love the old hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.  I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.  On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

·        Let’s finish…

So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

·        Paul ends chapter 7 with a final note on the war that rages within us.  And, as Paul’s final note was on war, we should continue to act like we are in a war, but we should do it with the attitude that we will be victorious in Christ and we will gain the reward that awaits us!