Romans 7:1-12 “Delivered From The Law"
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· 6 viewsIn light of sanctification, Paul addresses the law, which is holy, to clarify that in Christ believers are free from the law because the law instructed people to Christ, but then the Spirit guides in Sanctification.
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!
Last week we announced that on Wed, March 26th we will be hosting a Messiah in the Passover Seder.
If you’ve never attended a Passover Seder… it brings new light to Easter and the Resurrection.
Jesus was a Jew and was in Jerusalem for the Passover…
And, the whole meal… that Jews have been celebrating since the Exodus… is full of symbolism pointing to Messiah.
We miss so much of the Jewish context of scripture living in the mid-west… and being Gentiles…
So, I hope you will join us… and invite friends.
There are a couple options we are looking at for this event regarding if we will have a full meal or simply some Matza Ball Soup..
With either of these events, there will be tables to set up… place settings… food prep…
I could use some help with either food prep or set up… which is very Biblical… in Acts 6… men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom cared for the needs of the people…
… allowing more space for the Twelve to be devoted to prayer and the word of God.
So… if you are of such a caliber of person… man or woman… and want to step into a service opportunity… there is a sign up sheet for volunteers to help with this event…
And, I thank you in advance.
Let’s now begin our study of the word of God today. Please open your Bibles to Romans 7. Rom 7:1-12 today.
In Romans 6-8… the broader context of what Paul is discussing is Sanctification.
This is an experience unique to those who have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ… and it’s important the you keep this context in mind as we go through these chapters to not mis-interpret what Paul is teaching… especially what we read in Chapter 7 today.
Last week we concluded Rom 6… which focused on knowing that we are united in Christ, we should walk in newness of life… and reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Doing so paves the way for us to present our bodies to God as His slave of righteousness, bearing fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
All of this is massive grace… before Christ we were slaves of sin… leading to shame and death…
And, it’s a blessing… to KNOW that we now identify with Christ…
Romans 6 describes the WHAT of sanctification… What sanctification looks like in our lives…
And, Romans 8 describes the HOW of sanctification… How to live this life.
But Paul does skip ahead from Chapter 6 to 8 without first introducing Chapter 7.… where Paul takes a detour to describe a struggle many Christians face in sanctification.
Unfortunately many Christians get stuck in sanctification… in what you could call “Romans 7 Christianity”… where they attempt to achieve sanctification by means of law…
… by keeping some set of rules be that Mosaic law or ANY set of legalistic rules to achieve sanctification.
You DO NOT want to live stuck in this place… but unfortunately many do… for the entirety of their lives.
So, Paul addresses this… because we cannot simply understand what we learned in Chapter 6… that we identify with Christ and are dead to sin…
… we also need to deal with the sin nature that expresses itself in our thoughts and actions… creating internal conflict… and hindering sanctification.
Thus, Paul does not proceed to the HOW of chapter 8… until he spotlights in Chapter 7… what PREVENTS many Christians from ever reaching Chapter 8.
So, today… in Chapter 7… Paul provides valuable insights to assist Christians to come to a place of victory in Christian Life…
In the first twelve verses of Chapter 7 Paul expounds on the law… and that in Christ we have been “Delivered From The Law”… our message title today.
Let’s Pray!
In reverence for God’s word, please stand as I read our passage.
Romans 7:1-12 “Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”
Praise God for His word, please be seated.
In V1… Paul addresses “brethren… those who know the law…”
Key words to indicate Paul is addressing Jews… specifically Jewish Christians… anticipating the question of what relationship a Christian has to the law?
And, in V1 Paul again brings up the idea of “dominion”… third time this word is mentioned since Chapter 6…
Dominion means “to be lord of” it speaks of rule and jurisdiction. And, Paul ties dominion to life and death in two Rom 6 verses…
Rom 6:9 “Death no longer had dominion over Him” (over Jesus)
In Rom 6:14 because of our unity with Christ, “… sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” … a verse that links to Rom 7:1…
And, death is suggested in both verses… Death could not hold Jesus Christ… no more than sin can hold us as we “reckon ourselves dead to sin”…
Now… in Romans 7:1 again mentioning ‘dominion’ and suggesting ‘death’, Paul writes, “do you not know… that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?”
Once faith comes… the work of the law is completed…
The law does not have dominion over you because you died.
The old man of sin who lived for the flesh died… and you are now alive in God in Christ Jesus.
The law has no power and nothing to say to a dead man. You are no longer under the law, but under grace…
The law has a purpose… Galatians 3:24–25 “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”
It is a misuse of the law to apply it towards sanctification because the law was never intended to make one holy.
I don’t know about you… but it bothers me when someone takes a knife and tries to use it as a screwdriver.
That’s a mis-use of that tool. A knife is intended to cut.
It’s not a hammer… it’s not a screwdriver.
And, the law is a tool… a tutor.
It doesn’t justify… it doesn’t sanctify. It had a different purpose.
The law was a tutor or a trainer to help unsaved / spiritually dead people understand that they are sinners… they are incapable of keeping the law… and they need to have faith in Jesus Christ… He alone can save them.
Once saved… more specifically… once justified… the law has done its work, and then you are no longer under the law of Moses or any other man-made law.
You’re now under the law of the spirit.
It is a great temptation, even within Christianity to supplant the Holy Spirit and to add some man-made law (or as we like to call it “religion.”)
Don’t be deceived. You will not be victorious in Christian life by going back to law.
You will not be sanctified by man-made law.
Be aware of this temptation. Don’t fall into the trap of Romans 7 Christianity, where you have been saved from the penalty of sin…
… and now you want to try to save yourself from the power of sin by your own human effort.
It doesn’t work.
For a Jew… if they grasped this… it would be tremendously freeing…
So many Jews attempted to achieve righteousness by keeping the law… to come to the place of faith in Messiah… and freed from the penalty of sin NOT by works… but declared righteous by faith… How freeing is that?
But then the struggle… what do we do with the law now?
And perhaps you’re thinking… what does this have to do with me? I’m not a Jew…
I’ve never felt bound to keep the Mosaic Law… is this just a history lesson?
It’s much more than that… in the context of sanctification… understanding freedom from law is a very relevant topic… even for Christians today.
Many Christians attempt to accomplish victorious Christian living by law.
Perhaps NOT the Mosaic law, but they have their Bible… and some are deluded to think that by keeping all of God’s word in tandem with a bit of human determination… they will achieve holiness… set apartness… sanctification.
And thus, their Christian experience is torturous… because they remain in Romans 7 which is not where you want to live… not for a day… not for hour. But some do.
Some think “aha… now that I have Roman’s 6, I can just roll up my sleeves and with a bit of elbow grease… I’ll nail this sanctification thing down.”
And Paul says this is not possible… this thinking chains you to Romans 7… and you’ll never enter Romans 8.
If you like misery, go at it… try to achieve sanctification with your own strength.
Just like justification, in sanctification… to be victorious… you need to cry out to your Savior… you cannot save yourself on your own.
It’s quite humbling really. But also freeing… because WE CAN surrender it to Him and trust He has the power to do the good work in us that we can’t do on our own.
Paul continues his point of V1 with an illustration of marriage… a relatable human example… to teach a broader lesson about sanctification.
V2…a married woman is legally bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if he dies, she is “released from the law of her husband” meaning the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.
And, we all understand this example. This is how marriage is structured still to this day… “till death do us part.” (Don’t get any ideas ladies)
I find the word “bound” an interesting word to describe marriage… lit. it means “to tie or bind” but could mean imprisoned or prisoner.
It’s sad when marriage feels this way, and for some it does.
I pray you find the breakthrough you’ve been praying for… the wisdom in how to navigate your marriage.
In the height of my alcoholism… it’s safe to say my wife felt bound… but through prayer… and the Baptism with the Holy Spirit… I was delivered from alcoholism…
And… marriage has been all sunshine and rainbows since. It’s like we ride off into the sunset every night.
It’s still work… and requires intentionality… and we have our moments, but God is central.
And just as the Holy Spirit plays a key role in our sanctification… His presence in our marriage helps us where we don’t feel bound in a negative way.
Which is just a side-note and NOT Paul’s point here… so let’s continue…
In V3… Paul continues with the illustration of marriage… if a woman were to marry another many while her husband were alive, this would be adultery…
… unless her original husband died… then she is free to re-marry. A widow would not be guilty of violated marriage laws.
And… we could easily open a can of worms and turn this into a sermon about marriage… and divorce… and what God views as permissible… but that’s NOT Paul’s point in light of the broader context of sanctification.
The point is… V4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ…”
There’s the parallel. Just as death breaks the bond of marriage… so too as the believer “died to sin” (Rom 6:2) and thus is “set free from sin” (Rom 6:18, 22)… thus is dead to and set free from the law… “you are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14)
It’s not that the law died. The law remains doing its work in the world to condemn sin… and point people to Christ.
The law condemns the sinner to die, but in grace Christ paid the death penalty in our place… as stated in V4 “through the body of Christ”… pointing to His body being crucified.
So, as He died… the believer dies.
Jesus met all the righteous demands of the law, therefore the Christian is dead to the law… meaning we are not under it’s requirements… we are free from the law, but NOT free to sin.
Paul already addressed that in Romans 6:15 “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”
So, through death… we are not under the law… and therefore we may be joined to another… just like in the marriage example.
As Paul wrote in V4 you have become dead to the law “…that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”
There’s a new marriage… a bond we are under in our joining to the risen Christ.
In Chapter 6, Paul wrote we formerly were slaves of sin, but now slave of God. And in Chapter 7 he writes we were married to the law, but now are married to Christ.
There’s a NEW Master… a New Husband in Christ.
Paul also mentions Christ being “raised from the dead” which reminds us of Rom 6:9 death had no dominion over Him… and He died to sin once for all…
Now He lives to God… and we too rise from death to live to God.
And the result we can bear fruit to God… just as the fruit of marriage is descendents… our marriage to Christ produces fruit.
In being united with Christ… NLT reads, “As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.”
In Jn 15… Jesus instructs as we abide in Him we will bear much fruit.
In Gal 5:22–23… the fruit of the Spirit is pictured… is love, joy, peace, patience…
In many and various ways… in our new life and marriage to Christ… we are intended to bear fruit to God.
So abide in Him… for He is the source… and the key for us to bear fruit.
As Jesus said, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Now fruit is always a result of the life we live… even prior to Christ we bore fruit… it was just rotten fruit… corrupt and perishable.
Look at V5 “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.”
Now… don’t mistaken the law to be bad.
The Law is not bad… no more than a speed limit sign is bad… it’s neutral… it just communicates what the standard is…
What’s bad is not having salvation in Jesus Christ, because then you remain under the law and not under grace.
What’s bad is our flesh nature that when see a prohibition… sinful passions or sinful desires are stirred up and our body is drawn to break the law… to sin… the the fruit of sin is death (Rom 6:21; James 1:15)
I can think of all kinds of examples of my life before Christ… and when I discovered a prohibition by my parents… a law if you will… that I was drawn to break their rules.
They coded my Dad’s VHS tapes… and I wasn’t allowed to watch the Rated R movies… which I believe I honored, but if the movie was playing on Cable television… loophole.
In third grade… there was a D.A.R.E. presentation… “Just say no!”
I didn’t even know what pot was, but remember after that presentation I thought, “I’d like to try that someday.”
In grade 3 I experienced what we are reading here in V5!
My best friend’s Dad hid cigarettes under his back porch. Clearly we were not supposed to find them, but when we did… we smoked them.
And, never got in trouble because his Dad wasn’t hiding them from us… he was hiding them from his wife.
If we got in trouble… he got in trouble.
David Guzik shared a story about a waterfront hotel in Florida concerned that guests would fish from their balconies… so they posted signs saying, “NO FISHING FROM THE BALCONY.”
And, they had constant problems with people fishing from the balconies… disturbing other guests… breaking windows with their sinkers…
The problem stopped though… when they removed the signs.
The signs put the idea to fish in their heads… and the prohibition fanned the flames of the sin nature.
Most of us can relate to some example of how we never would have broken a law or a rule… except that our sinful flesh was tempted by ‘forbidden fruit’… thus we did not walk in obedience.
This was the error of Adam and Eve… and their sin truly bore fruit to death.
God told them, “… for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Praise God… that through faith in Jesus Christ… spiritual death and eternal death is NOT OUR REALITY…
Look at V6 “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
In our union with Christ we have been delivered… or released from the law… we died to the law and no longer are under it’s power.
If you are under the law… then you can only be saved by keeping the whole law perfectly… which is impossible… except for Jesus Christ.
That’s why grace through faith is vital for spiritual and eternal life.
And, through faith… our former service… our former slavery to sin is over.
We are now slaves to God and righteousness… a key topic of Rom 6.
And, our service… which is the work of a slave… is carried out by living in the Spirit… not by obeying the letter of the law.
The law was powerless to give life and to produce service acceptable to God… there’s NO life in the law.
In our Genesis study this past Wednesday… we read how God ‘breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life...”
Life comes from life… from a divine origin God imparted life into Adam…
And, for every person who has faith in Jesus Christ… they are ‘born again’… and the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual life into that person.
Don’t overlook in V6 the mention that we serve in the “newness of the Spirit.”
Perhaps underline that the Spirit… who is the Holy Spirit is mentioned in V6…
This is a little preview from Paul on how sanctification is successful in our lives.
Sanctification is not a work of the flesh… it’s a work of the Spirit… as Paul will expand upon in Chapter 8.
This mention of the Spirit anticipates Chapter 8… where we will see “Spirit” mentioned 21x… far more than any other chapter in Romans.
Number 2 is Chapter 15 which mentions “Spirit” only 4x.
Maybe read Chapter 8 later today… to be encouraged… so you don’t feel stuck in Romans 7.
It’s not cheating to read ahead of the teacher… I encourage it.
You’ll find in Chapter 8 that this Christian life is only victorious through the power of the Holy Spirit.
But… continuing to V7… Paul once again anticipates a question… and objection “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
Starting in V7, Paul moves from “we” to “I” now sharing testimony his own personal experience with the law.
And just One of the Ten Commandments caused him to fail in keeping the law.
Paul begins V7 clarifying he was in no way suggesting the law of God… the Mosaic law was sinful.
“Certainly not!” He replies to that suggestion.
If ever there was a perfect law… it was the Mosaic Law…
Paul testifies the law raised his own personal awareness of sin in his life.
And, Paul doesn’t need to look to the entirety of Mitzvot… the 613 OT commandments found in the Torah…
Paul only needed to look to the first Ten Commandments in Exo 20.
And… his perception of himself as a “Hebrew of Hebrews”… or what he wrote of himself “… concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” (Phil 3)
As Paul goes through the check list of the Ten Commandments…
“No other gods”… check
“No carved images”… check
“Don’t use God’s name in vain”… check
Sabbath… Honoring parents… murder… adultery… theft… bearing false witness… check… check… check…
He goes through the whole list and then he comes to the Tenth Commandment “You shall not covet.”
And, I don’t know what, but there was something in the heart of Paul… a desire to have something for himself… and this brings him to his knees.
Coveting… more than the other Ten Commandments… is easily concealable, unless it manifests into a behavior like lying, stealing, killing…
… misappropriation of Government funds… embezzlement… kickbacks…
None of that is coming to light in the news right? Numbers 32:23 states “… be sure your sin will find you out.”
So true.
For Paul… he personally testifies that as he read the law and prohibitions against coveting… it raised awareness of God’s standard to him.
Because of the law… he knew coveting was sinful and his secret sin was exposed. The law served a good purpose to expose Paul of desires in his heart… that testified he WAS NOT self-righteous…
This is, in part, why we teach the whole counsel of God… so you know the standards of God.
So when the world says “Truth”… you can compare what they say is true… to the word of God.
The world lies… it kills me how many people who proclaim Christ WILL NOT bend to the word of God.
They support evil which the Bible clearly teaches against… like abortion or homosexuality…
It baffles me how many Pastor avoid teaching every verse of the Bible… because they are so concerned about offending people… SO they offend God.
It baffles me how many Christians do not have an appetite for the whole counsel of God…
Rather prophetic Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:3–4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
This is the time in which we live… if the Pastor prepares a Ted Talk… and a motivational feel good sermon… that is 25 min long… and I’m greeted by a white mocha latte…
Survey says… “that’s my kinda church.”
Paul… on the other hand… full of self-righteousness… reads the Ten Commandments and then he is exposed.
And he wrestles… perhaps externally he looked all put together… nice and white-washed…
But in an honest evaluation of sin in our lives… we need to look inward.
And inside… Paul was a tomb… full of dead man’s bones.
MacDonald wrote, “His outward life may have been relatively blameless, but his inward life was a chamber of horrors.”
I also like how Expositors put it, “In analyzing sin, one must go behind the outward act to the inner person, where desire clutches at the imagination and then puts the spurs to the will.”
And in an act of vulnerable transparency… the Apostle Paul does just this… really from V7-25 of Rom 7…
Paul shares personal testimony of his personal struggle with sin.
In Chapter 7 alone of Romans… Paul writes “Law” 23x… “Sin” 16x… and “I/me/my/myself” 50x…
I love how open Paul is being in this chapter about his struggle with keeping the law… and sinning in face of the law…
This has led some to think Paul must be recounting his “before Christ”… his B.C. experience…
But it’s not. The context of Chapters 6-8 in Romans is Sanctification…
Which is set apartness… which is holiness… but IS NOT sinless perfectionism… don’t be misled.
I imagine proponents of sinless perfectionism and Lordship Salvation would steer their followers away from thinking Paul is describing his Christian experience.
Which is not only a contextual error in Romans, but also puts a steep hill to climb… a lot of weight on each person’s shoulders for victorious christian living.
Chuck Smith would probably say, “They’re trying to lay a trip on you.”
Don’t forget… Paul is leading up to Chapter 8… and the role of the Holy Spirit in sanctification.
He walks this road with you… sanctification is not about spiritually ‘pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.’
Listen again to the struggle Paul lays out… V8 “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.”
Paul is saying as he became aware of the law… his rebellious sin nature stirred up all kinds of covetous desires within him.
Sin took “opportunity.” That word opportunity lit. means “starting point” and I’ve heard it taught that this is a military term for the point where an attack is launched.
Sin using the prohibition as the starting point to make a attack.
Paul is saying that if he was not aware of the law… sin would have been powerless.
Which says NOTHING about the Law… and EVERYTHING about the sin nature in each of us.
There’s a saying, "Let sleeping dogs lie"… and sin is like the dog in that idiom.
Once aroused… it will stir up all kinds of trouble.
And so be cautious Christian… because we have a nature that is drawn to that which is forbidden… and the fallen nature once it tastes the forbidden fruit wants it all the more and it leads to death.
Proverbs 9:17 declares, “Stolen water is sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
Be cautious… our flesh is drawn to that which is illicit… to that which is forbidden… there’s a curiosity and a draw to engage in that which is prohibited… to engage in secret sin.
Now… prior to the awareness of law… Paul writes in V9 “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”
When Paul didn’t understand the law, he was… alive… his sin nature was relatively dormant… the sleeping dog lie…
The phrase “ignorance is bliss” comes to mind. Paul in his ignorance of sin… walked in covetousness without conviction.
There was a time when Paul was indifferent to the demands the law made on the inner self.
He lived in blissful indifference that external obedience was sufficient… which was characteristic of his sect of Pharisees… Paul formerly was a Pharisee (c.f. Acts 23:6 & 26:5)…
In Matt 23, Jesus condemned Pharisees for being like whitewashed tombs… ‘beautiful outwardly, but inside full of dead man’s bones… outwardly appearing righteous to men, but inside full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’
Many of us can relate to formerly either living indifferent toward sin… or being self-deceived to as to our own righteousness.
I remember living in sin and feeling no conviction.
But a day came when my heart began to change towards sin.
I remember distinctly… when I first started to attend church for myself… not being forced to go by my parents… a church of my choosing…
Though it wasn’t a Bible Teaching church… there must have been some spattering of Scripture… even a drop of water is pleasing to the thirsty…
And, I felt convicted of sin… and repented.
Paul, when he became aware of the law not to covet… He doesn’t say that he repented… he writes “sin revived”…
He went in the opposite direction… sin came alive… the sin nature awoke…
… and Paul died… figuratively meaning he was now aware of his depravity.
He could not keep the law… despite his best efforts.
Any hope he had to achieve salvation by keeping the law was now destroyed.
He realized he could not be justified by good works.
What confidence he had in SELF was now gone.
On this same topic V10 “And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.”
The commandment “Thou shall not covet”… like all of the law was intended to bring life.
Walking in God’s word and law is not designed to be a burden.
If you drive up a mountain… and the road is winding and you’re on cliffs edge… are you angry that there are guard rails?
Of course not… guard rails protect you… they are a safeguard… they save your life.
And, so it is with God’s law… it’s not designed to stop your fun… it’s designed… as Paul states here “to bring life.”
Leviticus 18:5 declares, “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.”
Blessings were promised in keeping the law. Deut 28 is full of blessings upon careful observance of the law…
The Law is the divine ideal…
Paul admits it brought death… not because of the law… the guardrails don’t kill…
Bad driving… mistakes while driving… these cause you to go off the cliff.
And, this was Paul’s problem… in sinned and was aware of his fall.
Still with the same thought process V11 “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.”
That verse reminds me of Adam passing the buck… “The woman whom You gave to be with me”… it’s her fault.
What Paul is saying here is that the law is not to be blamed, but indwelling sin.
Paul personifies sin here… treating sin like it has volition… and it willed to deceive Paul.
The picture here actually does fit nicely with the fall of man… not so much with Adam blaming Eve…
But, in the picture of what Satan… the serpent did to Eve. For he indeed deceived her…and that was the blame Eve cast upon him, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
And, this lead to her spiritual death… and eventual physical death.
Most of us have lived enough life to know that sin is deceptive.
It doesn’t live up to it’s promises… it’ doesn’t bring lasting joy… it doesn’t bring freedom and fulfillment. It’s deceptive.
Paul recognizes that he too wrestles with a deceiver.… but the problem is from within.
His own human condition deceived him… or tricked him into thinking he could eat the forbidden fruit and go on living.
We have to be so careful of that subtle voice of sin that softly suggests we can sin and all will be ok.
Yes there is forgiveness, but perhaps NOT before sin causes all kinds of havoc on your life.
I think of the life of Samson… who appears in the Hall of Faith.… Hebrew 11…
He was a man of faith… and yet never being able to reign in the lust of the flesh… he found himself betrayed… powerless… bound, blind and grinding as a slave in the prison of his enemy.
Sin can take us there.
I read recently, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go… KEEP you longer than you want to stay… and COST you more than you want to pay.”
Ironically, that quote is attributed to Ravi Zacharias.
Who did not end his race well… sexual sin indeed ensnared him… and his legacy is forever tarnished, but there is truth in the quote.
Scripture says “Sin is a passing pleasure” (Heb 11:25)… meaning it does not continue to satisfy.
And, Scripture warns… sin will be exposed in time… as cited earlier… “be sure your sin will find you out.” (Num 32:23)
And, sin does not simply seek to rein you in and ensnare you… in time it will betray you and expose you… and as Paul wrote in V11… it’s end is to kill you.
Sometimes quite literally… I lost several former friends and acquaintances to drugs… and suicide… and violence.
And, sometime that death is a slow death… killing you spiritually to live in deadness of life apart from God.
This is not the intention of God. God wants you near… God wants you coming to Him… not running from Him… even in sin.
The Father ran to the prodigal son. That’s the heart of God.
Sin personified is a liar and a murderer… and boy does sin know how to manipulate our flesh…
Our flesh that gets a rush off entering into the forbidden.
Part of victory in christian living is knowing these things… recognizing our limitations… doing what we can… like building wise hedges of protection around the weak areas of our lives…
And crying out in prayer to the Holy Spirit… for a fresh filling… I pray that daily…
Eph 5:18 states “be filled with the Spirit.”
In Acts… post Baptism with the Holy Spirit…
Peter as he addressed the Sanhedrin was “filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 4:8)
Paul… when confronting the Elymas to sorcerer… was “filled with the Holy Spirit...” (Acts 13:9)
The disciples in Acts 13:52 “were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
D.L. Moody often encouraged people to be filled with the Holy Spirit… and was once asked why?
"Well," he said, "I need a continual infilling because I leak!" He pointed to a water tank which had sprung a leak. "I’m like that!"
This should be a daily cry of your heart, “Fill me afresh with your Spirit Lord.”
Every church service… at Calvary Chapel Ellicott City… my original home church…
They close service with hymn “Spirit of the Living God”…
Which goes… and I’m not going to sing it…
Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me
Melt me, Mold me, Fill me, Use me
Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me
Don’t go it alone… you will not be victorious in Christian Living by your well intentioned discipline of keeping God’s word.
We all need to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Victory comes by the Spirit… Not by the letter of the law.
Well… closing out… Paul had one more thing to say about the law… which is it is holy.
V12 “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”
“Therefore” is a capstone word… a summary to look back on what was previously said, and in summary…
Paul is not against the Law… the law is not evil… or sin.
The Law is holy… and it’s commands are holy, just and good.
Holy refers to that which is sacred or separated from common condition… set apart if you will.
Just refers to that which righteous or correct.
And, good refers to that which is beneficial or profitable.
There is nothing wrong with the law… the problem is within us.
The Law was given by God… it’s an expression of His will… and His ideal… and was given to His people.
It raises awareness of sin… and instructs us to look to a Savior to deliver us from the penalty and the power of sin.
As we close out today… I want to invite you to pray if you’ve never accepted Jesus as your Savior.
Enter into that relationship today.
Let’s Pray!
If you need prayer for anything, there will be people on the sides to pray with you before you go.
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’
