Romans 7:1-6 "The Believer and The Law" - 3/22/2018

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] water my head that groans father mm-hmm projected on the side the Billy [Music] [Music] so Aaron do you get that last pay so did you put it back down here so you ladies ladies how much time we got then there Johnson oh yeah look you can hear I'll dress it up that's right looking sharp got to yeah we try to position our sharp are looking people on this end of the table oh yeah yeah you can buy a game yeah guys well it's great to be with you again and we're not gonna be able to meet for a little while we'll pick you this back up in April April 22nd a month it hurts yeah in a month is it April 19th yeah so we're correcting we're correcting can't one more time so I you know there's a new hashtag called be nicer to kids and it's kind of a national movement so we'll we'll be back up and going in a month and I'm gonna be going to Columbia and England and a bunch of places but we'll be back in a month so that's why we've put these consecutively for these weeks just kind of so we can meet but we'll be off and we're gonna meet downstairs in the new coffee shop Amy's house herbs house so let me begin in a word of Prayer father as we come to this time to open your word I pray that you would open our eyes that we would behold wondrous truths in your word illumine and enlighten us by your Holy Spirit as we look into your word I pray that it would not only renew our minds but that it would affect the very way we live our lives lord I thank you for these men and their commitment to you and to your son the Lord Jesus Christ and that they would wake up early and come so regularly and faithfully to a Bible study like this may the fullness of your blessing rest upon their heads and upon their lives and as they go back to work may they be renewed and revived in their in their spirit I pray for those who are watching us on livestream around the world may you fortify their faith may you make them strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ so father we pray this in his name amen amen all right we are in Romans chapter 7 Chris got a spot right here for you sir right here we put the a team up close so all right Romans chapter 7 I had more to say on verse 23 of Romans 6 that I did I think we just need to keep moving and keep making some progress so as we come to Romans chapter 7 the central theme is the law and the title on this first session is the believer and the law and as we look at this we're gonna look today the first six verses Lord willing but I want to well let me just read the first six verses but I want you to have a heightened sense of awareness for the for the law okay or do you not know brethren that I'm speaking to those who know the law that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives for the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living but if her husband dies she is released from the law concerning the husband so then if while her husband is living she has joined to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her husband dies she is free from the law so that she is not an adulteress though she has joined to another man therefore brethren my brethren you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another to him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God for if while we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death but now we have been released from the law having died to that by which we were bound so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of the letter so central theme in these verses is the law and its most prominent in fact in verses 1 through 6 the law is mentioned eight times in those six verses in verses 7 through 13 which I did not read the laws mentioned six times that's a total of 20 excuse me 14 in verses 14 to 25 the laws mentioned another six times and in the first four verses of chapter 8 is mentioned four times so that's an that's a total of twenty four times in just Romans seven and the first four verses of Romans eight the laws much it would be impossible to read these verses and not hear the bell ringing the law of the law of the law the law so don't lose your ball and the weeds as we go through this it's all about your relationship to the law of God now in addition the word commandment is used six more times and the commandment refers to one of the Ten Commandments and one of the commandments of the law so that's a synonym for the law because the law is not suggestions or options they are Commandments from God and then the word principle of the new Americans and is found which is translated from the Greek word for law so when you add all this up it's 32 times that the word law is used or commandment is U so that's the central thread running through these verses now Paul has already told us much about the law and I'm not going to chase this rabbit you can do this on your own I woke up early this morning took my ballpoint pen and I underlined the law every time Paul mentions the law in chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 that this is not a new subject that he's bringing up now this is the last thing most Christians talk about is the law and there are hyper dispensationalists who think that the law has no effect on us in New Testament times and Paul's argument we will see here nothing to be further from the truth and nine out of the 10 Ten Commandments are reinforced in the New Testament the only one that's different is on the Sabbath concerning the Sabbath so we need to understand what is our relationship to the law to the law of God now the law can be divided in three sections and I just want you need to know this by way of introduction the law as its found in Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy three divisions of the law the first is the moral law which is how to live how to live a godly life how to pursue personal holiness and it is rooted and grounded in the Ten Commandments the moral law and I just want to tell you that's still in effect children are still to honor their parents you are not to steal you are to tell the truth you are not to come you are to have no other gods before you you are not to take God's name in vain you are not to build something out of metal to aid your worship of God anyone says those Commandments are not still in effect I mean your train left the track a long time ago okay so the law the moral law is still in effect it's still binding and you come to Ephesians chapter 6 and Paul makes his case on why children are to obey their parents what does he do he goes back and quotes the law when we come later in the book of Romans on that we're to love one another Paul goes back to the law to bind the conscience of New Testament believers so we've got to figure some things out on this so first there's the moral law second there's the ceremonial law which was the whole sacrificial system high priests priests sacrifice burnt offerings Day of Atonement scapegoat etc etc etc that ceremonial law was fulfilled in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ really in the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ so there is an end to the ceremonial law that's why on Sunday morning we don't attend a church where they the pastor is slitting the throat of a of a lamb and laying it on the altar and taking the blood and sprinkling the mercy seat and all of that so that's the ceremonial law Christ was both our high priest and our sacrifice as he offered himself up upon the cross for our sins to make the only atonement for our sins and the everything in the law as related to the ceremony was to be a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ ceremonial law it's fulfilled in Christ in his life and death it's over it's abolished third aspect of the law is the civil law how how how they were to function as a society under the theocracy of the nation Israel in the promised land that is not binding upon us outside of the promised land and out without a king of Israel over us however there is much for us to learn from the civil law and and our whole Western system of jurisprudence is based upon timeless principles that were in the civil law however there were many cases that constituted the death penalty such as rebellious children those are not binding upon us as we live today however there are timeless principles and there there are I believe there is to carry over the death penalty if you take someone else's life then your life needs to be taken and I think in Romans 13:1 day when we get there we can demonstrate that that God has given the sword not the toothbrush but the sword to the government too and you with a sword you take someone's life so that is still in the hands of the government but it's it's based upon the civil law so when we talk about the law our relationship to the law you've got to break out the law into those three divisions or it's going to be very confusing now there are two extremes to go that people go to as it relates to the law and this is all by way of introduction we need to have this front door our front porch laid before we go into the house of this text the to exceed Ange heurists extremes as a Christian today would think about the law one extreme is what we'll call legalism legalism comes in many different shades in different forms so when you say legalism it's almost like today saying Baptist well my goodness that covers form A to Z you're going to be more specific legalism three main ways for legalism number one you have to keep the law in order to be saved well Paul has so repudiated that position I'm sure none of us around this table would be in any danger of thinking that I would have to keep the law in order to be right before God but that is one aspect of legalism another is that you would have to keep the ceremonial or civil law in order to be sanctified and there are some Christian teachers who pull some stuff out of Exodus Leviticus and Deuteronomy and want to impose it in their parenting and in their views on child-rearing etc you need to understand that part of the law has been abolished so and not the other form of legalism is you add to the law and you come up with your own traditions your own preferences that you don't have chapter and verse for what you just said and so you come up with your standards that a man's hair cannot be longer than a woman's dress cannot be whatever then jewelry cannot be whatever then you cannot listen to any music that has a drumbeat to it you cannot dance whatever that's legalism you you can't find chapter in verse for that now that's fine if you want to live that way but for you to impose that on someone else and say a good Christian doesn't do this and a good Christian will do this you're just a card-carrying legalist I mean you you've just added to now that you're fine for your preference but don't don't be imposing that on me unless you've got chapter and verse so that's legalism and what we're gonna look at today and verses 1 through 6 is Paul's assault on legalism now there's the other side of the coin which is what we call antinomianism which is anti means against or in opposition to no man comes from a Greek word no mas which is for a law means against the law so you're totally against the law on the other side of the spectrum you're even against the moral law and if you ever say the word obedience people in those churches just rise up against you and it's just like oh you're you're a legalist because you're talking about you have a duty to obey the law of God don't talk to me about that I'm free in Christ to live however I want to live well that's nonsense absolute nonsense and but but there there are pockets of that that that are out there this is not a hypothetical extreme to go to so you've got these two extreme positions regarding the believer and the law one is legalism the other is we'll call antinomianism if you want to litter ate it it's license I've just got a free license to live however I want to live now that is covered in verses 7 through 13 and we'll get to that when we come back provided we can cover the first six verses right in the middle it's where we need to be where we honor the moral law of God you shall have no other gods before me you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain you shall not make for yourself a graven image or an idol children are to honor their father and their mother you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness you shall not covet etc we honor the moral law but we realize we can only keep it not in the flesh not in our own trumped up self efforts but only in the power of the Holy Spirit only by divine enablement can we keep the law of God from the heart as we should and let me just give you a footnote right here in Ezekiel 36 I think it's like verses 23 24 25 26 right in there it says in the new birth God takes out your hardest stone he puts in a heart of flesh and he writes his law upon your heart and he puts his spirit within you to enable you in fact the verb is to cause you it's even stronger to cause you to walk in its statutes so whenever someone is born again God gives that person a new heart and he writes his law upon the heart and he puts his spirit within you to powerfully cause you now to walk in obedience to this law and because you have a new heart you actually have a new want to you now want to follow the the moral law of God now we're going to look at that in verses 14 to 25 and that naturally creates Kahn flicked within our heart because we still have a sinful flesh and so there is this conflict between the flesh and the spirit in keeping the law of God and Paul will kind of lay bare his soul and lay bare his heart regarding this spiritual warfare that goes on inside of him to walk in obedience from the heart to the moral law of God so all of this has been by way of introduction so are you with me can I get an amen don't make the preacher beg for an amen okay it was free to get in this worship service is gonna cost you to get out so so alright let's look now verses 1 through 6 and I want to walk through this and what Paul has in his crosshairs is the legalist now that only covers part of the issue on the law okay so I've got a world-class outline for you ok so you ready I want you to note first the legal axiom that's in verse 1 and when I say axiom and axiom is a general principle it's a general rule it's a it's a truism it's what an axiom is in business you would say buy low sell high that's an axiom that's just a a general rule Kent's got a little sign out there says show me the money that's an axiom no he does actually so that's just that's an axiom it's just a general fundamental foundational principle and and everybody knows it if you're breathing you know the the axiom so look at it and vert in verse 1 or do you not know so if you're breathing you should know this this is fundamental in life and he's drawing this out of everyday life okay or do you not know brethren that and that's important he's addressing not unsafe people here he's addressing safe people for I'm writing to those who know the law and when he says the law here he's not necessarily referring to the Mosaic law he's just referring to how society operates in general as a citizen in the Roman Empire Rome had its laws and every citizen has to function under the laws of the land if you lived in Egypt if you lived in Persia if you lived in Asia if you lived in the Roman Empire wherever it is you lived you know that you have to keep the law if you live in that Empire that nation or that country so or do you not know brethren that I'm speaking to those who know the law that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives and that's a rhetorical question the answer is yes you know this so the word jurisdiction comes from the same root word for Lord like the Lord Jesus Christ it's the verb form of the noun Lord and it means to lord over do you not know that the law that the law has authority over your life you have a moral obligation to keep the law of the land as long as it is not in conflict with the Word of God itself and I'll remind you in Romans 13 as Paul says that God has established even the government officials to be ministers of God and but anyway the law has jurisdiction has authority it has lordship over a person's life for how long well as long as he lives I mean once you reach age 65 and and you get you know and a AARP card that doesn't mean that your obligation to the law has ceased no matter how old you are if you're living you're under the law so this is the principle Paul gives first and foremost and and Paul is such a brilliant teacher he is presenting an argument to us that's building up to the spiritual application so it begins with just the axiom with a legal axiom if you're breathing if you're alive you are subject to the law Roman numeral number two is in verses two and three and this is the marital analogy the marital analogy and as I read these verses you may have thought wow that's kind of a strange departure that suddenly now we're talking about a husband and a wife and adultery and remarriage and where did that come from I mean how did that get into the flow of thought well here's how it gets into the flow of thought it's an illustration of the axiom so verse one is the axiom verses two and three is the analogy of the axiom and after we look at this we're going to make the application to the Christian life but let's look now at the illustration at the analogy beginning in verse two four and you notice it begins with the word four and I've pointed this out to you the word four introduces an explanation of the previous verse so having given the axiom he now wants to explain the the axiom with an analogy so for the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living that's that nothing new there it's a very basic principle that you enter into an agreement with your spouse and as long as your spouse is alive I'm legally married to you he goes on but if her husband dies she is released from the law concerning her husband and the idea there is legally she's now free to remarry if her husband dies but as long as her husband is alive then she can't get out of this she is legally bound to remain married to him now this is all by way of illustration so verse 3 so then and that introduces a conclusion so Paul draws a conclusion in verse 3 from what he said in verse 2 so then if while her husband is living she is joined to another man she just up and leaves she just punts on first down and and she goes and marries another man so what's the result of that when the law says no you're still married to this man we read she shall be called an adulteress now today we would give her the academy award you know for being a Hollywood movie star but back then back then she was called an adulteress because she is bound under the law as long as her husband is living to remain married to him now I need to quickly add a footnote right here that the New Testament gives to exception clauses to this lest someone around this table has gone through this very scenario or listening I just need to add this there are two grounds for divorce in the New Testament one is sexual adultery by the other partner and that is in Matthew 5 and in Matthew 19 the other is desertion by an unbeliever and that is in 1st Corinthians 7 now I don't want to chase all those rabbits right now but I need to at least in that that there are those two exceptions even to what Paul is saying here and he will delve into that as he writes to the Corinthians but those two exceptions aside she shall be called an adulteress now in the middle of verse three but if her husband dies she can breathe a sigh of relief she she has the loophole that she needs the poison worked if her husband dies she is free from the law now this is an important point that Paul is making here that she is no longer under obligation to remain married to a dead man she may now have freedom under the law to marry someone else and she will not be considered an adulteress she will be considered an adulteress if she does this while her husband is living and she has no ground so this is the analogy and Paul is a great teacher and a picture's worth a thousand words and I hope you got the picture of what Paul just said in front of us it's a picture of verse one the axiom so now you may be saying so how does this relate to my own Christian life we come now to verse four and it's the personal application the personal application Paul now brings it home to the matter of sanctification and our daily Christian living so verse four therefore which is another way of saying on the basis of the analogy and the axiom therefore my brethren and he has brethren to really bring this home to our hearts you were made to die to the law and the you refers to the Brethren not referring to unsaved people as referring to save people Paul is addressing Christians not unbelievers you were made to die to the law now that verb you were made first of all it's a statement of fact there's nothing you have to do to bring this about there was a time in your past if you're a believer when you were made to die to the law now you'll also know that nothing that we did we were passive God was active we were made to died to the law we did not kill ourselves to the law this is something that the grace of God did in our lives and you'll notice that it was in the past and he's looking back to the time of our conversion he's looking back to the time when we were justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ he's looking back to that time when we went from being a slave of sin to a slave of righteousness we were made to die to the law now in what sense were we made to die to the law we were made to die to the law in the sense that we no longer have to meet its qualifications in order to gain acceptance eternally with God in heaven now we have not died to the law as far as the moral law as far as our daily Christian living he will address that in verses 7 through 13 let me just get ahead for us for a second he he says is the law sin may it never be and he says in verse 12 the law is holy and the commandment holy and righteous and and good so the law is a good thing the law is a holy thing but we were made to die to the law in the sense that you no longer have to try to obey it perfectly to gain and merit acceptance before God in heaven now the reason for that is Jesus perfectly obeyed the law for us and in his 30 plus years of life under the law he met all of the demands of the law on our behalf not only did he die for us he also lived for us not only did he sacrifice himself upon the cross for us he also obeyed the law in our place all of those years but we have now died to the law so how did that come about he tells us in the middle of verse 4 through the body of Christ the body of Christ is not referred to the church the body of Christ it refers to the physical body of Christ in his in his body in his life in his death Jesus fulfilled the demands of the law and as the great high priest he offered himself up as our sacrifice upon the cross to fulfill the ceremonial law now here's the results so that you see that in the middle of verse 4 so that here's the reason here's the reason why I did that so that you might be joined to another so you've died to your old spouse or excuse me your old spouse yeah you died to your old spouse and now you're free to remarry and you're free to remarry to someone else and that someone else is identified as him who was raised from the dead you are now the Bride of Christ you are now joined to Christ the two have become one just as in marriage it's a picture of our union with Christ so we're joined to another to him verse 4 who was raised from the dead in order that says it's kind of a domino effect here's yet the further extension of the reason in order that excuse me we and the we refers to believers not to unbelievers to believers all for him Christ died and all for whom Christ was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God and that fruit is personal holiness this fruit is a life that has lived that is well pleasing to God we are now married to Christ and by being married to Christ his power that raised him from the dead is now operative in our lives to enable us to fulfill the moral law of God to walk in obedience to the Lord so you need to understand your new relationship I mean verse 4 is is just very clear we died to the law we now are married to Christ now look if you will at verse 5 and I want to call this the sinful arousing in verse 5 talks about our pre conversion days and just a little bit we're gonna look at verse 6 which is our post conversion days so verse 5 are your BC days before Christ he says for while we were in the flesh and when we were in the flesh refers to an unbeliever you were under the Dominion the power of sin you were in the flesh you were in slavery to sin and you obeyed your old master sin so you were living in the flesh you were living under the control of your sinful flesh so for a while we were in the flesh the sinful passions refers to the lusts and the greed and the envy and the egotism and the covetousness it says the sinful passions were aroused by the law I mean every time God said you shall not that made you want to do it and every time God said you should I mean god says you shall do this you said no way I'm doing my own thing I'm going my own way I'm gonna live however I want to live and so it was the law in a strange way that was provoking and stirring up your sinful passions you tell me I can't do that I'm gonna do it that's that's how wicked our sinful flesh was and this is across the board let me remind you this every believer before you were converted you weren't in a special category over here you were a nice little kid now even if you grew up in a wanna even if you grew up and and go into a Christian elementary school etc there was still before you were converted in you sinful passions and the law of God was like a stick in a toilet bowl stirring it up and causing it to rise to the surface they says the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work your sinful passion never never took a day off never went on sabbatical your sinful passions never went on vacation your sinful passions never went to sleep 24 hours a day seven days a week it was working hard in you to oppose the law of God whether with omission or Commission and then he adds in the members of our body and in your mind your sinful thoughts and your heart sinful lusts and desires with your eyes sinful objects that you were gazing upon with your ears sinful conversations that you are listening to with your hands sinful things that you laid hold of activities with your feet sinful places you went to with your tongue and mouth sinful conversation and words that that came out of you that's what Paul says two different degrees depending upon the influences and the restraints that were around you to bear fruit for death it was a it was a rotten harvest that was coming from your life I mean you were sowing your Wild Oats and praying for crop failure I mean it was it was bearing fruit for death and this death is a spiritual death because even Christians die physically it was a spiritual death that would end up in the second death which is hell so that was our relationship to the law before our conversion the law actually was arousing our sinful passions because there was no desire from a pure motive for us to obey the law now come to the final in verse 6 the spiritual antithesis verse six is in stark contrast to verse 5 verse 5 before we were a Christian verse 6 now that we are a Christian now that we are a believer verse 6 but now we and the read the we refers to all believers to brethren in verse 1 in verse 4 my brethren that's who that we is we have been released from the law we've been released from the law in this sense we no longer have to obey it in order to be justified before God or to attempt to be justified before God we are released from from the striving and that's why Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and lowly in heart you shall find rest for your souls from my burden is easy and my yoke is light before Christ we were trying to keep the law in our own efforts and it was a heavy yoke that we could not fulfill we were having to pull the the whole wagon of the load of the wagon by ourselves and we just couldn't do it and we were worn out but Christ takes that yoke off of us well in reality he becomes yoked up with us and he now pulls that wagon and we now walk with him in obedience to keeping this moral law but let me finish this we have been released from the law having died to that that refers to the law by which we were bound so that we might serve serve Christ and serve the moral law in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter it's not new ballgame we now that we're justified by faith in Christ who kept the law we now will live in obedience to the moral law of God in the power of the Holy Spirit and not by gritting our teeth and with our sinful flesh trying to keep the law so I want to be clear on what Paul is saying here we are released from the law in the sense of trying to keep it to gain our justification but we are not freed from the law in the sense of any obligation that we have to the moral law we now are to live in obedience but we do so in newness of the Spirit in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit now causes my heart to soul of God I don't want other gods in front of me it's so he is so at work in my life I don't need some stupid object for me to focus my attention on I can worship God in the whole the mayflower I can worship God in a Roman catacomb before they throw me to the Lions I can worship God in a Roman prison cell I can worship God you stick me out in the middle of the desert I don't have to be someplace with all kinds of you know candles and and statues and artwork and and all of that around me because the Spirit of God within me is so magnifying the greatness in the glory of God I don't need the external stem stimuli or stimulus and and it's the Spirit of God that causes me to say use his name for his glory and if I take his name in vain which simply means you don't mean anything by it I mean sometimes someone will say Oh God and you say hey you shouldn't take the Lord's name in vain and you and he says well I didn't mean anything by it that's the whole point of the word vain you didn't mean anything by it that means God doesn't mean anything to you if you just used God's name flippantly obviously God means zero to you or you wouldn't be just tossing his name around like that once you use your wife's name then instead of God's name so it's the Holy Spirit who is at work in us who is leading us down a path not a freedom to live however I want to live but freedom to pursue obedience to the moral law of God which are all steps that lead us into the blessing of God it's it's the Spirit of God in me that convicted me when I was in my early 20s that I need to start respecting my father I need to stop assuming I know more than my father knows I need to humble myself and I need to repent of my sin my sin to God and confess my sin to my father and say dad I'll do what what what you you think I should do because it was the Spirit of God leading me to honor my father and my mother it was the Spirit of God that convicted me not to steal like I need to study on my own and not try to get copies of the exam before I go into the exam and come under conviction that that this is wrong and the opposite is true that if you're not to steal you're to work hard and by your hard labor earn your own living and it was the Spirit of God convicting me to be disciplined to work hard to rise up early to give a fair day's work for a fair day's pay to be in submission to the to my boss and not to be trying to correct him but to show up on time and to do what he asked me to do that's the Spirit of God at work in a believers life and not to bear false witness the opposite is true but to speak words of edification two other about other people to use my tongue to build people up not to slander them or to spread gossip or to hard to tear them down and I became convicted that I was using my tongue incorrectly to make everyone in a room look down on someone and I probably should feel convicted for doing this to Kent but I could use my maybe not that but I could use my humor in an improper way and suddenly I become a pastor of a church and I'm in the pulpit and thinks I you can't say certain things in the pulpit that that you might say with with with some guys just joking around I mean I came under deep conviction of my sin and I should have come under deep conviction of my sin on how I am using my tongue and I you know covetous and like wanting a better this or a better that or someone else has that and rather than being content with what I have where I am with what God has provided for me at this time in my life in this station of my life so it's the Spirit of God in verse six that leads us in this newness of life to walk in obedience to the moral law of God and the only one that really is modified is the Sabbath but I still believe you need to be in church on Sunday which is the Lord's Day and to be with God's people just without all the ceremonial restrictions I think you can go to a restaurant I think you can fly on an airplane that I have many preachers that I preach with that earn many some who you know won't eat on Sunday in a restaurant and won't fly on an airplane that's fine that's their conscience that that that that aspect of that part of the law is still binding for me it's not we've got ten minutes here so this is our waiting out into the water of Romans seven which is a gnarly little chapter I mean it's a hard there are a lot of knots in this chapter that have to be untied and if you don't untie some of these knots you're gonna make false assumptions like when he says you're released from the law oh okay so I'm just free in Christ I can just have an adulterous relationship I don't have to know oh okay I'm free to just dishonor my parents now if that makes me feel good I wonder if you're even a believer to talk like that so it's the spirit not the letter of the law meaning I just I don't want to do this but I just have to do this know God's giving you new heart now that makes you want to do this and when you don't the Spirit of God even convicts you that you're you're you're you're not living up to this now there's a lot in the law every time God says you shall the opposite is to be assumed you shall not do the opposite and every time it says you shall do this it actually begins in the heart it begins with the attitude and we know that from Matthew 5 how Jesus interpreted the law I mean you say you haven't murdered but but you have hatred in your heart for this person over here you are a murderer you say you've not committed adultery well yes you have you have lust in your heart for that person that you saw so it begins in the attitude and it carries over to the action and as long as I'm going on this let me just add this then we'll open it up but if it says you shall not steal the opposite is implied you shall work hard if you shall not tell a lie the opposite is implied you shall use your mouth for good and you shall edify others if it says you shall not covet the opposite is true you should be content with what you have and where you are that says you shall not commit adultery the opposite is true you should love your wife as Christ loved the church and sacrifice for her and if you should honor your father and mother that actually begins a path in which you are living in submission to those authorities over you it begins at home but you should honor your schoolteacher you should honor the policeman you should honor the judge you should honor the politician who is who is over you you should honor the football coach you should honor whatever authority figure is over you it starts at home with honoring your father and your mother and if your parents didn't discipline you to honor your mother you can't talk to her that way it's gonna spill over to how you talk to your teacher and how you talk to others here in authority over you so I just went off on a while because I'm looking at that old clock up there so having said all of this I am now hitting the emergency brake I'm dropping an anchor I'm gonna be quiet and I will throw out the question so what do you think what are your thoughts like this don't like this if you don't like this take it up with God okay so it's the Word of God yeah no society can survive without the essential tenants of the Ten Commandments the breakdown of the home the breakdown of the work ethic and replacing it with great agreed and rebellion and anarchy coming out of the Reformation Kelvin articulated three uses of the law let me just throw this out on the table use number one was to give the knowledge of sin you know that you're a sinner because you have been measured by the law and in Romans 3:20 says that by the law comes the knowledge of sin that's why we should use the law in our evangelism that's why Jesus used the law with the rich young ruler what must I do to inherit eternal life keep the commandments Jesus said I mean we in our evangelism classes we would never say that to someone but Jesus did with the intent to reveal the knowledge of sin to the rich young ruler that's the first use of the law that came out of the Reformation second use of the law was for any society there must be law in order no society can survive without law and order and no society can survive there has to be a standard so what is right and what is wrong and it is found in the moral law of God and I understand hey we're not a Christian nation but you're gonna have to come up with some standard of what's right and what's wrong you've got it in in synopsis in the second half of the Ten Commandments the fifth or the tenth commandment just establishes the home it establishes the work ethic etc that's why in the Reformation there was the re-establishment of what's called the Calvinistic work ethic people became hard workers and productive and prolific as a result of the Reformation because they preached the law the third use of the law was to guide you in Christian living this is the path of sanctification this isn't something to discard you just discarded the roadmap to get you to personal holiness that's nuts you just took the GPS off your cell phone for you to try to live your Christian life without the moral law of God its point is the flashlight pointing you down the narrow path showing you the essential benchmarks and how to live a life that honors God it's it's the fruit of life is what it produces so that's the third use of the law that came out of the Reformation with Calvin's teaching and he was spot-on I I will add another which really is implied but it gives the knowledge of God we know what God is like we know the attributes of God we know the nature of God by simply reading the Ten Commandments I've done a DVD series on the attributes of God I could for Ligonier I could have just taken the Ten Commandments and given fourteen lessons on the attributes of God just from the Ten Commandments I mean what do you know about God well number one you know he's sovereign he has the right to impose law upon us he is the authority over our lives it's a matter of lordship there's the holiness of God he makes distinctions between what is good and what is evil what is right and what is wrong you know that from looking at the law you see the love of God in the Ten Commandments because God is pointing us in the direction of his blessing if you will follow this path it will lead you into fuller expressions of God's blessing and if you go away from this you will experience God's loving discipline etc etc etc the sufficiency of God if you will not covet and if you will work hard he will provide for your needs anyone I said I would stop preaching you know really relaunched okay bill thank you for that Chris and demise of society people don't want to be told what to do yeah and you said but if we do what we're told to do the benefits are you can't you can't fathom the benefits of living a godly life but because we're told to do it yeah because they're so short-sighted they take it as a negative when actually it's gonna be free like you've never been free before your life sure sure every time God says do not it's like a parent's a parent telling a child do not put your hand on the stove when it is orange no is that a cruel thing or a loving thing do not lick your finger and stick it in an electrical socket is that a is that a bad thing or a good thing no that's a good use of the law when the parent says do your homework that's not a bad thing that's leading you so that you can do well in school so the law is always pointing us into the epicenter of God's will for our lives and it is leading us into a fuller experience of his blessing and when we go away from the moral law of God we're just cutting ourselves off from from what God's desire is for our life and as a society I would like even my unsaved neighbor to know the moral law of God in that I don't want them stealing from me I don't want him coveting my wife I don't want him you know lying about me and and even with an unsaved person we saw this in Romans 2 that the law is put on our conscience you remember that they come back to Romans 2 it's it's it's put on our conscience Romans chapter 2 and then and then I'll stop and we can go on a break verse 14 for when the Gentiles who do not have the law they don't have the written law of God do instinctively the things of the law of these not having the law or a law to themselves even an unsaved person who doesn't have the law knows in their conscience you should not kill you should not steal verse 15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts it's not written in the Bible but it's written in their heart their conscience and everyone has a conscience it's like a smoke alarm inside of them that goes off when you violate even the law that's written on your heart their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately alternately accusing or else defending them well it's like using them a whole lot more than its defending them verse 16 on the day when according to my gospel God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus God's stamped the wall on every man's conscience so you go ahead can't can't live with it the only way he knows to escape is conscience in there if the law wasn't in there he wouldn't care yeah and so he kills himself and end it all yeah he kills himself and goes to hell yeah and lives with it intensified a thousand times over in his conscience haunting him throughout all eternity with no relief well it's true that this is all truth thank you all right I'm being nicer I've declared today today I'd be nicer to Kent day okay it's a national holiday I can't wait for tomorrow so anyway it's cold today Hot Tamale so anyway I need to close in a word of Prayer guys thank you for hanging in here and we've only begun to look at Romans seven and think about our relationship to the law father we asked for your illumination as we looked into your word today and only your Spirit who is the author of this book can ultimately give us the insight that we need so may we be spirit taught use me as a secondary instrument as a teacher that you have given to the church to help us understand what is here I pray for these men I so respect them and love them and I pray that as they go about their business today even things that I've talked about in this session will be reinforced in their thinking and that they will give a full day's work for a full day's salary to the man to whom they answer and may they be industrious and productive without being worldly pray this in Christ's name Amen amen guys anyone who wants to stay can I've got to get to the dark so I'm taking the dart somewhere yeah yeah well hit me with one and you're free to slip out whatever yeah I was reading about who was a missionary to a remote unreached place in Papua New Guinea and these people did not have their own language yeah very well she spent years there help them get out of the written language learned it you know slowly over time and then she sat down with him one day and she was like tell me like list out some things like no man should ever do like well she killed him shouldn't take anything Tigers you should see why they listed like six or seven notes and just out of their own heart either own heart yeah yeah sure it's got Paul from Grand Bay Alabama asks I heared you many young men in the ministry today who are teaching that quote freedom in Christ then accepts us from restrictions on our outward behavior what would you say to these young men get in the Bible next question yeah I'm in now me seriously you don't know that you don't know let's just begin with something very simple the Bible let's just take the New Testament is written not only with indicative x' it's written with imperatives and imperative as a command let's just take Ephesians 4 verse 1 you know to walk in a manner worthy of your calling that that is morally obligatory and binding upon a Christians life and to teach that no one is free you're just free from sin now to be free to God to obey God but but that's incredibly superficial and shallow to say that and I think a lot of those guys need to go to seminary I think a lot of them need to go to a good seminary I think a lot of them need exposure to an adult portion of truth and need to be taught how to interpret the Bible need to be taught the original languages need to be taught how to study the Bible need to be taught how to make observations from the Bible I mean that's just a loose cannon going off to say something what like that and I and I I oppose that with all my might simply because I love God and I want people to love God yes sir Bob Paul's constant referring back to the God of the Old Testament yeah no that's that's true see that that person needs to even just take a basic class and systematic theology and and to understand God is the same yesterday today and forever the God who said I am Who I am is the God who never changes not not I will be who I once was or I was who I will be no I am Who I am it's a constant Malachi 3 verse 6 I the Lord never change you know welcome to the Bible yeah the preach count the cost yeah to preach obedience then preach self-denial Dupre should take up a cross and follow Christ to preach mortify the deeds of the flesh to preach resist temptation to preach buffett your body and make it your slave less after preaching to others i should be disqualified yeah that's a tougher fixing our eyes on Jesus yeah yeah yeah with regards the legalism I know my role as a husband I would like to skill up and my wife could work abroad and teach English you can pay for my degree plus I can focus on my studies I'm unable to work and I can't you do the visa situation so he said he'd kick me if she supports him while he goes back to school and provides for their family he says well I disobey God and not recorded him as I'm working this is an instance where we don't have a chapter in verse that gives the specific answer and so wisdom should prevail and this is simply my counsel on that that you could enter in to a short-term agreement with your wife for you to work to get me through medical school but once you graduate do not come to her and say now I want to go to law school and then when you graduate from law school now I want to go to seminary and you just keep putting off being a productive male adult so you can keep going to school for the rest of your life while your wife is working hard though I realize it's hard work to go to school but there is it's not the same as being productive I think you can if if your wife is in agreement that I will work for these three years so that you can get this degree so that for the next 60 years you be able to work hard for us as a family but I think there needs to be disagreement on the front end that the wife knows what she's getting into that's just my personal opinion or a stronger than opinion I think I think there's a certain degree of wisdom there but that cannot be an extended long-term deal and he needs to take his schoolwork as if it is a job and pour himself into that and to be disciplined with that to rise up early and study hard etc and make the very best grades you possibly can and maybe he could do it in two years instead of three years so that his wife can be have a family and they can have a family okay what else you got down there Jonathan yeah Deuteronomy 25 one through four says you are to stay in the state and which you are so so if if you have remarried without biblical grounds do not now divorce your second wife to go back to your first wife or just to get out of this you are to stay where you are and and and in other words stop while you're behind and don't dig the ditch any deeper just stay where you are and love that woman as Christ would love the church and you may need to repent and confess your sin for what you did in in the first marriage and you you probably need to go to that person and asked for forgiveness and repent to them that I mean that would be a confessor sins one to another 25 134 which is the first mention of divorce in the Bible and it's not God commanding divorce it is already going on so there one more and then we'll break the huddle and this is Sean I don't think it has anything to do with pre or post millennialism I think it has everything to do with soteriology not eschatology so but thank you for the question and there been many great men who have been post millennialist Jonathan Edwards for one which just means that the church will become better and better and larger and larger and and eventually Christ will return once the knowledge of Christ is spread over the whole earth it has nothing to do with eschatology it has everything to do with Souter ology which is the study of salvation okay well I need to let everyone go to work though I'd be happy to sit here the rest of the day but I know you've got things to do and I've actually got a truckload of things to do as well you can pray for me I'm going to Chattanooga on Sunday and Monday Tuesday Wednesday I'm holding a one passion conference in an african-american church this is like my fifth or sixth year in a row to go I'm excited they keep inviting me back and I keep going and I can't repeat myself each year I go there and so this year I've come up with a brand new conference I've never done before I'll lecture Monday Tuesday Wednesday on preaching the sovereignty of God and I still need to do some some some hard editing of my notes before I get on the plane Sunday and fly there but I'm hugely excited for this because with the recent reformed resurgence that's that's a reality has taken place there are a lot of churches especially older members of churches that this is like a new message we've never heard this and it can be a stick of dynamite in a church if the if the membership is older than age 30 and so how do you teach the sovereignty of God the doctrine of the sovereignty of God to a church that's never really had this without splitting this thing wide open and so I'm gonna do that and and there's no guarantee you won't it's such a powerful truth but there are some things you can do to try to help the medicine go down proverbs 15 2 says that a wise man knows how to make knowledge acceptable so you can present this as the glass is half-empty or the glass is half-full and a wise man has a positive presentation of the sovereignty of God not a negative harsh what we would call Calvinism but a positive energetic triumphant Calvinism okay guys thank you Dan thanks for wearing a pink shirt today that haha real real men wear pink thank you thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 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Channel: OnePassionMinistries

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Id: j856Lm5S1mU

Length: 99min 30sec (5970 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 22 2018