God’s Law Is Good!
Romans: Building the Church Through the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 11 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Text: Romans 7:7-12
Review Sermon Series - “You Can’t Do It!” – The Impossibility of Following God’s Law Flawlessly!
Review last week’s passage - Romans 7:1-6
Review last week’s sermon in a sentence - Main Idea - You Are Freed from The Law’s Demands to Serve in the New Way!
ENGAGE
Grab attention to set the stage for the encounter of the text
ENCOUNTER
Using something odd to get a stain out of your favorite shirt. Like peanut butter to get out a paint stain.
We ought not be surprised when this is ineffective. Stupid peanut butter! That stuff is worthless!
Main Idea - Three Beautiful Benefits of the Law!
Three Benefits!
The Law is Not Sin!
The Law Awakens Sin!
The Law Reflects God!
1. The Law is Not Sin (vs. 7)
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.”
Explain -
A rhetorical question to people who understood the law (vs. 1).
A familiar response. “By no means!” a response that Paul uses a total of 10 times in this letter. “May it never be!”
Paul begins to make the case that the law is not only not sin, but it makes clear what actually is sin.
An illustration on how the law revealed Paul’s covetous heart.
Our hearts are not basically good. Especially the pre-conversion or unregenerate heart. It wasn’t until the law came along and woke up the heart to sin, that we would know there was a problem.
Friends, this is the kind of “wokeness” we should pursue. Helping people wake up to their own sin.
This is Ray Comfort’s approach to sharing the gospel. He starts with the law to reveal sin. And He uses an Old Testament Psalm to prove his point.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The Law is not sin, it is the tool God uses to wake us up to our sin. As the Psalmist says, it revives the soul.
Every one of us, if we are born-again, had to come to terms with the fact that we are sinful creatures. You cannot just add Jesus to your life and “be saved.” No! You must understand something about yourself. You must understand that you have broken God’s law over and over again and that you are in significant trouble with God as a result.
The law, God’s law is definitely not sin. Instead it is a tool in the hands of God to wake up people regarding their sin.
Illustrate - Story of how God used His law to help me see my sin pre-conversion as well as in my sanctification.
Apply - While this is not the main thrust of this passage, we would do well to help our unconverted friends understand the law and its purpose. It is effective to help them see their need for a savior.
Review - Three Beautiful Benefits of the Law!
The Law is Not Sin!
Transition (use good transitions) –
2. The Law Awakens Sin (vs. vs. 8-11)
Explain - So, the Law is not sinful, but it is purposeful in God’s hand. How so? Paul tells us in verse 8...
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
Paul personifies sin and makes is sound like it has a visceral response to its confrontation with the law of God.
Sin seizes and opportunity and uses the commandment of God to overwhelm the sinner with the reality of their sin. In this case, covetousness.
The contrast here is, without the law, sin is dead. Another way to think about this is without the stimulus of the law, ignorance is bliss.
This is Paul’s point in verse 9...
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
I was alive in the sense that nothing mattered to me. I didn’t care about sin. I didn’t give it a second thought. It frankly didn’t bother me - until I was confronted by God’s law. It was then that I realized that I was in trouble with the Creator God of the universe.
When the commandment came, sin was aroused and everything changed. I was no longer alive in my ignorance. I had died because the reality of sin overwhelmed my heart. Look at verse 10...
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
What does this mean? The law, in an of itself, while it appears to promise life cannot because you do not have the wherewithal to perform with the law demands. In this sense, the law cannot save you from death. All the law can do is stand by and watch while you die from sin’s poisonous bite. This is what Paul says in verse 11...
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Here is this personification language again! Sin, now alive and well, grabs at the opportunity presented it through the law!
It is this opportunity that sin deceives the person. By the way, this is what sin does.
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Sin is a murderer!
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
This is the harsh reality all people must and ultimately will come to terms with. It is not God’s law that kills but the sin that dwells within each person that has ever lived! It is sin that is this deadly killer.
Illustrate - Lactose intolerance is an allergy to milk. The problem with this condition lies not in the milk but in the biochemical makeup of a person. The flaw lies with the person who ingests the milk. The milk only reveals that fact; it doesn’t cause it. The law of God is perfect in every detail. Nothing’s wrong with it, but there’s something wrong with us.542
Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 183.
Apply - So, the law isn’t our problem. Not at all. The law merely points out our problem. Sin is our biggest problem. The sin that lives in us is a killer.
For the unbeliever - Sin is the cause for your dead spiritual life today and your eternal spiritual death. You cannot recover from your sin sick condition by following the law. any Law. The mosaic law, the civil law, even the moral law. Not one of these iterations of the law are capable of making you right with God. There is only one solution for your sin sick soul - Jesus Christ.
For the believer - after all, believers are Paul’s intended audience for this letter.
Sin’s sting of eternal death was removed at the cross of Christ, there is still a deadly sting for those Christians who want to play with it. Sin is still a murderer. And when we cave into the deceitful desires of sin, deadly implications and ramifications are often the result. If nothing else, there is a deadening of our soul toward the things of God. Especially His holy word.
Do you ever wonder why you do not have a hunger and a thirst for righteousness?
Does it ever concern you when you look at gathering with God’s people as a dread instead of a delight?
Does it ever bother you that you would rather spend your time on social media than mining for the rich truths of the bible?
It’s because sin is reasserting itself in you. Be aware of this reality. You must be ever vigilant against this cunning murderer. While you cannot lose your salvation, you can, by succumbing to this foe that lives in you, destroy many blessings in your life.
Examples of how we can succumb to sin
Ways to combat this familiar foe in our flesh.
Review - Three Beautiful Benefits of the Law!
The Law is Not Sin!
The Law Awakens Sin!
Transition (use good transitions) - Probably the best way to fight against the sin that still dwells in you is found in verse 12 and leads us into the last point I’d like to make from this passage.
3. The Law Reflects God (vs. 12) -
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Explain - To make his point clear from the rhetorical question found in the first part of verse 7...
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.”
Paul was accused by his detractors saying that he is disparaging God’s law. Paul loves God and His law. Why? Because it is a perfect reflection of God Himself.
God is holy and so is His law -
God is righteous and so is His law -
God is good and so is His law -
No one can rightfully accuse the apostle of communicating that the law is sinful - to think this about God’s law is the height of insult and heresy.
We dare not conflate the law and sin. They are two very different entities.
And we do well as Christ followers to understand that because the law is a reflection of God’s character, we should, by the power and enablement of the Holy Spirit, follow it.
Now, to be clear, I am not talking about following the Mosaic law - the 613 law of Moses found in the Old Testament - you know like...
1 “You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 3 “You shall not eat any abomination. 4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. 8 And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. 9 “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you. 11 “You may eat all clean birds. 12 But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, 13 the kite, the falcon of any kind; 14 every raven of any kind; 15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; 16 the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl 17 and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, 18 the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat. 19 And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. 20 All clean winged things you may eat. 21 “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Okay friends, are you not glad that we are not bound by this portion of the law of Moses?
But we are still to be a lawful people. Certainly! We as followers of Christ must follow the two other aspects of Law - Civil and moral. We are bound by it - not in order to be saved, but because we are!
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Isn’t it interesting that the Lord says His followers must keep His commandments (civil and moral) knowing full well their inability to do so?
But immediately follows it up with the promise of the Holy Spirit - to whom He aptly refers “The Helper”! parakletos = one who comes alongside to help!
Help us what? Live out the moral and civil law!
Civil law - laws of the land that do not contradict God’s law (we obey God rather than man)
Moral law - laws that are rooted in the character of God as revealed in His word.
And our motivation is what Paul reveals in verse 12...
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
The law is not our problem - sin is. The law is a reflection of God holy and righteous character.
We should not hate the law, but the sin that dwells within us!
Illustrate - Many Christians react to the law by trying to work hard to obey all of the laws and do all of the right things. They are like the circus entertainer that spins plates. They put each plate on a stick and try to keep them moving, working hard to keep all plates spinning and in balance.
Just like the entertainer, Christians run all over the place trying to do the right things and keep all of the key areas of the Christian life spinning. They spin the religion plates of going to church, reading their Bible, and giving tithes, and it wears them out.
They are reverting back to a standard that the Bible says will kill you. “The letter killeth.” The law will kill because sin will go crazy when it is faced with the divine standards of God.553
Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 186.
Apply - In light of this, what should our relationship with God’s law be?
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
Okay, so with Paul’s warning in mind, how do we relate to God’s law that is Holy, Righteous, and Good?
Pursue (in the power of the Holy Spirit) all things that are holy, righteous, and good.
And by doing so you will accomplish two things.
You will comply to God’s law - again, not to save you, but as a result of your salvation.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Love God...
Describe what this looks like in the life of a believer -
Love Others.
Describe what this looks like in the life of a believe -
You will kill the sin that is trying to murder you!
You following God’s moral law as a believer is like Dorothy throwing water on the wicked witch of the west - “I’m melting!”
For the believer - the true follower of Christ, following God’s law is not a drudgery but instead a delight! Give example...
Why is this so? It is because the Holy Spirit is manifesting His life in and through you. You develop the same mind as the Spirit of God! You are becoming like Christ!
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Review - Three Beautiful Benefits of the Law!
The Law is Not Sin!
The Law Awakens Sin!
The Law Reflects God!
Transition (use good transitions) -
Conclusion
Review Application
While this is not the main thrust of this passage, we would do well to help our unconverted friends understand the law and its purpose. It is effective to help them see their need for a savior.
2. It’s because sin is reasserting itself in you. Be aware of this reality. You must be ever vigilant against this cunning murderer. While you cannot lose your salvation, you can, by succumbing to this foe that lives in you, destroy many blessings in your life.
3. Pursue (in the power of the Holy Spirit) all things that are holy, righteous, and good.
WHEN is the last time a policeman pulled you over to congratulate you for going below the speed limit? When have they ever stopped you to congratulate you for stopping at a red light? They don’t do that because the law is not in place to congratulate you for the laws you keep but to curse you for the laws you break. God’s law is not there to congratulate you. It is to show you and me how unlike God we are in terms of meeting His divine standard.544
Can I give you some good news? There is One who always obeyed God’s law. He was perfect at it. Never slipped up once. Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ lived this perfect life for a reason. His purpose for a perfect life was for your salvation.
Why? Because your imperfection disqualifies you for everlasting life with God. Yet God didn’t like that option so he prepared another way. Jesus is that way.
Jesus died in your place to pay your sin debt against God. He was buried proving conclusively He died, and on the third day He rose from the dead to live.
Those of us who by faith place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the answer to our big problem with God, will be saved from God’s judgment. You must repent of your sin and place your faith in Christ and you will be forever rescued. This is why Christ came to this earth and lived a sinless life - to rescue you from God’s wrath.
Are you saved?
Are you telling others how to be rescued as well? The law can’t save them! They need christ and you have the answer to their greatest problem.
The law is good because it is a reflection of God, but it cannot save. Only Christ can save. Tell them!
Connection Group Questions
How would you describe the relationship between the Law and sin?
Why do you think Paul is addressing this concept?
How have you experienced God’s law arousing sin in you?
In what ways can sin still “kill” the Christian?
How can we live out God’s big command in Matthew 22:34-40? Give some practical ideas.