back to index2016-10-02 Law and Sin - Part 1
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We're going to be reading Romans chapter 7 verse 7 through 12 00:00:08.980 |
and but as you're turning your Bible there one of the questions that I asked you on Facebook if you guys were able to look 00:00:16.440 |
Who is Paul referring to? Okay, so I'm gonna read it again, and I'm gonna 00:00:21.100 |
Ask you guys to just kind of think through and then we'll deal with that before we jump in 00:00:25.960 |
but when Paul says I would not have known sin for I would not have 00:00:29.440 |
Known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet 00:00:34.080 |
And then he says once I was I was once alive verse 9 apart from the law 00:00:38.280 |
But when the commandment came sin came alive and died so is Paul talking about his personal experience 00:00:49.840 |
The nation of Israel before and after the Mosaic Law or is he referring to mankind? 00:00:57.840 |
in the context of mankind like Adam and Eve and how they were alive before the law came and how they fell and 00:01:05.720 |
So is he talking about Adam and Eve representing mankind? 00:01:08.520 |
Is he talking about the nation of Israel or is he talking about his personal experience because based on how? 00:01:14.320 |
Strictly you interpret that you may have a different understanding of what Paul is gonna say 00:01:19.660 |
Not only in this text, but for the rest of the book of Rome the chapter 7 00:01:24.780 |
So what we're gonna be talking about this morning about that 00:01:27.360 |
I'm just gonna mention it briefly and then hopefully that'll help us carry on and understand the text next few weeks as well 00:01:34.020 |
Okay, so having said that let's read this passage verse 7 through 12 00:01:38.140 |
What then shall we say that the law is sin by no means? 00:01:45.460 |
I would not have known sin for I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had said not 00:01:50.860 |
Have not said you shall not covet but sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced to me all kinds of covetousness 00:02:01.380 |
I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came sin came alive and I died 00:02:06.120 |
The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me for sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment 00:02:13.100 |
Deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good 00:02:28.420 |
Just asking father God that your Holy Spirit would do what we are not able to do by our own strength or will 00:02:35.980 |
That you would use these words to illuminate our hearts our minds our lives 00:02:43.020 |
That we may be surrendered Lord God not with just lip service that we may be changed Lord not just in mind 00:02:48.940 |
But our very hearts and lives and wills as well 00:02:51.940 |
So we ask Lord God that you would be gracious to us as you are always gracious 00:02:56.540 |
Bless this time Lord in Jesus name. We pray. Amen 00:03:00.060 |
I'm gonna give you a quick answer to that before we jump into 00:03:03.700 |
What Paul is saying here the quick answer to what I the question I asked is yes all of them 00:03:10.780 |
Okay, he's referring to in my opinion all of them and I think Douglas Moo and John Stott agrees with this and again 00:03:16.820 |
There's various opinions on this but I go I believe according to the text and again 00:03:21.220 |
I've wrestled through this text so many times and the best interpretation that I find is that Paul obviously is 00:03:31.620 |
The Jewish community and and how they viewed the law and how he's trying to correct them in the way that they saw the law 00:03:38.420 |
Him himself saying he was Pharisee among Pharisees uses himself as a first person, right? 00:03:44.140 |
So if you remember the text the context that Paul is talking about he says in earlier in chapter 6 00:03:49.140 |
I am talking to you who have the law specific to the Jews 00:03:52.940 |
the larger context from chapter 1 all the way to chapter 7 00:03:57.980 |
Because they had a hard time believing that the law did not save them and Paul is trying to argue with them all have sinned 00:04:04.740 |
So the whole context Paul has been talking to the Jews a correct understanding of the law which brings condemnation 00:04:10.420 |
Him being a Jew among Jews before he was converted uses himself as a first person 00:04:15.340 |
But having said that that doesn't limit it to the nation of Israel 00:04:20.780 |
Because how a Jew understood the law was no different than how a Christian would understand a Bible 00:04:28.500 |
when we hear the word law we ask the question is he talking about the Mosaic law the ceremonial law the moral law the civil law and 00:04:35.540 |
We compartmentalize different parts of the law and we're trying to identify what specifically it is 00:04:40.820 |
But a Jew when he heard the word law he to him. It was the Bible 00:04:45.820 |
Instructions giving in the given in the Bible on how you ought to please God and worship God 00:04:51.660 |
So even in the New Testament we can divide it into civil law how we ought to behave in society 00:04:57.420 |
we can divide it into ceremonial law how we have 00:05:00.920 |
Communion and baptisms and the teachings about the church or moral laws that are repeated in the New Testament about you know 00:05:09.020 |
Honoring your father and mother and not to covet and not to steal 00:05:12.140 |
But just like you and I would understand when we read the scripture 00:05:17.700 |
What does the scripture mean the old in the Old Testament the Jews when they heard the word law to him? 00:05:24.620 |
Right the Word of God and how they understood God's Word. So when he Paul's talking about here 00:05:30.640 |
he's he I believe the application is really to all mankind even though he's speaking in the first person as a 00:05:40.740 |
Israel is a smaller illustration of the larger picture of mankind. So the reason why I think this is important 00:05:47.580 |
I don't want you guys to read this and study this and say well, okay 00:05:50.760 |
That's relevant to the Jews because the Jews struggled with this 00:05:53.620 |
The problem that he's dealing with is a struggle with mankind 00:05:59.500 |
So I want to place that so that the next few weeks when we are studying through the book 00:06:04.060 |
The Romans in particular chapter 7 that nobody sits in here thinking like oh, okay 00:06:09.240 |
That's that's the problem that the Jews have it is very much relevant to us 00:06:17.140 |
You know, how many guys know who Jim Jones is? 00:06:24.500 |
Wow, even less than the first server first service. We had three. Okay. Now we have one 00:06:36.100 |
in the 1970s or 1950 60s and 70s and he took a bunch of 00:06:42.540 |
Disenfranchised Christians who fell out of the church and joined his church and eventually this man was so charismatic 00:06:48.620 |
He sold himself as the Messiah. And so he was a very charismatic leader 00:06:53.780 |
And so he began to gather to himself thousands of people 00:06:56.740 |
And then their rumors started to come out that within his church that he established in 1956 00:07:03.020 |
The name of it was people's temple and there was a lot of stories of abuse 00:07:08.060 |
That sometimes that even in his worship service 00:07:10.900 |
He would make men and women strip naked and dance around and he was just asserting his authority and when this news came out 00:07:16.540 |
He sold himself as being persecuted and he took over more than a thousand people moved all the way to Guiana 00:07:25.740 |
Well people were so concerned about what was happening to this cult 00:07:29.620 |
they went after him even the government US governments went after him and there was a lot of 00:07:34.820 |
Lot of persecution or or beating and abuse that was taking place 00:07:39.780 |
and when they found out that the government was coming all the way over there to shut them down and possibly 00:07:45.220 |
Extra died him and take him into prison because of the abuse he decided that he was going to have everybody commit suicide 00:07:54.340 |
918 people to and commanded them to drink cyanide in the form of a fruit punch and 00:08:06.900 |
So again this happened in the 1970s and and I think people who lived in the 70s 80s 00:08:14.180 |
I mean everybody knows who Jim Jones is because it was such a horrific story 00:08:17.260 |
Can you imagine all those people who committed suicide? 00:08:22.540 |
realizing that at the end when they wake up and 00:08:26.740 |
They're gonna face a holy judge and realize that the Messiah that they thought was the Messiah was the wrong Messiah 00:08:32.140 |
They're absolutely instead of finding life that there was gonna be condemnation for what they did 00:08:48.380 |
The law was given to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 27 verse 6 00:08:54.860 |
Moses stood and he said cursed be anyone who does not confirm 00:09:00.340 |
The words of the law by doing them and all the people shall say amen and they cried out. Amen 00:09:07.980 |
when they received the law is that if you do not obey this command let them be cursed and 00:09:14.140 |
The whole congregation of Israelites said amen 00:09:17.720 |
So we can understand why the Pharisees of the time of Jesus took the took the commandments so seriously 00:09:27.980 |
They had over six hundred and thirteen laws that every faithful Jew was to follow 00:09:35.060 |
out of the six hundred and thirteen laws two hundred and forty-eight were commands of things that they ought to do and 00:09:44.060 |
But you can understand why they were so meticulous in in obeying this command because the whole nation of Israel 00:09:51.100 |
Received the law saying if we do not obey let us be cursed. Amen. Amen 00:10:00.500 |
Paul says in Galatians 3 10 and 11 for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse 00:10:06.940 |
For it is written curse be everyone who does not abide by all things 00:10:11.460 |
Written in the book of the law and do them now 00:10:14.380 |
It is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. The righteous shall live by faith 00:10:23.100 |
1,500 years after they receive the commandment in Deuteronomy 27 26 Paul now says 00:10:31.580 |
Everyone who thinks that by keeping the law that somehow you're gonna live he is already under a curse 00:10:37.980 |
He is not and does not get justified by the law 00:11:00.020 |
You see how difficult of a task for a possible Paul 00:11:03.220 |
For not just one not a small group not just one generation for generation after generation after generation 00:11:11.700 |
That if we just keep this command if we keep the meticulous see we will be saved 00:11:17.740 |
So we can understand why they had such a hard time and 00:11:29.140 |
They accept Christ and his grace and faith and it's a wall. That's true. We believe that we've seen eyewitnesses 00:11:35.620 |
We had our brothers and sisters healed so we can't deny the fact that he was the Messiah and he was raised from the dead 00:11:40.900 |
We can't deny that there's too many people who know who've seen it 00:11:44.420 |
Yet even then they wouldn't let go of the Judaistic law 00:11:55.380 |
If the law brings condemnation then what was the law given for you mean for all these years not just me my parent my great 00:12:03.020 |
Grandparents the high priest the Pharisees the scribes for generations. They were all wrong 00:12:13.980 |
That's the question that Paul's been trying to answer in the last chapter 00:12:19.020 |
Then what is the law for if we're not saved by the law? 00:12:21.900 |
Then what is the law for so in verse 7 through 12 Paul is going to be discussing again. It's 00:12:27.780 |
It's not limited to these 12 verses but for this morning for 7 through 12 00:12:31.780 |
He's going to be discussing what the purpose of the law was for 00:12:43.780 |
Okay in the middle yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin 00:12:48.060 |
I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet 00:12:53.780 |
So the first and most important thing that Paul says that the law was given for is to reveal sin 00:13:02.420 |
When he says that the law came to reveal sin he's not saying that the law somehow made them of made them 00:13:12.100 |
Made them a better whatever like again as an illustration if those of you took CPA exams or board exam for medical for medical school 00:13:20.060 |
Or to become a doctor or or lawyers who had to take the bar. Those are very intense tests 00:13:28.980 |
Right. The test doesn't make you a good attorney or a doctor or or or an accountant 00:13:35.760 |
They only reveal what you already know or don't know 00:13:40.100 |
So the first thing that the Bible says that that the Word of God came and does the first thing 00:13:58.260 |
Somebody who look who hears the Word of God and does not practice them 00:14:02.500 |
It's like somebody who stands before a mirror and he walks away and he forgets what he looks like 00:14:06.260 |
Right. I mean we have all kinds of different purposes for having a mirror at home 00:14:10.780 |
But the primary reason is so that you can do your hair before you come to church, right? 00:14:15.620 |
Make sure your socks match that you don't have toothpaste on your nose 00:14:20.660 |
That whatever you ate this morning, you don't have green things sticking in the middle of your teeth so you can present yourself 00:14:26.300 |
Well, I mean the primary reason is to see yourself in the mirror and to see what you need to fix 00:14:35.140 |
Individual who looks into the Word of God the mirror and keeps looking at it 00:14:39.660 |
And he doesn't see his own sin is an individual just walks away. It's like, okay 00:14:49.020 |
It was a period when the Israelites were very religious 00:14:55.380 |
Financially, they were doing well because of periods of peace. So there was a lot of sacrifices being made at the temple 00:15:02.820 |
But yet God sends prophets and keeps warning them that the judgment is coming. And so they were they were confused 00:15:12.460 |
Look how busy we are at the temple. Look how many sacrifices that we're making I 00:15:17.380 |
Can understand his hatred toward the Assyrians and the pagans? 00:15:21.540 |
But that's behind us. We're worshipping Yahweh at the temple. Why would he be angry with us? 00:15:29.700 |
Yet at the book of Amos God says he was going to bring a plumb line and measure to see to show them 00:15:35.660 |
Where they have gone wrong and the plumb line that he was referring to was the Word of God 00:15:41.300 |
It was like a modern-day leveler that on the surface you may look like is that I looks alright 00:15:46.660 |
But God's gonna bring the plumb line and show you just how crooked the temple is and just how crooked the Nation of Israel is 00:15:52.940 |
So the scripture says first and foremost was given to reveal sin 00:15:59.180 |
That we can identify the sin in our own hearts 00:16:02.020 |
See where God has primarily placed his glory. The scripture says it's in his word 00:16:17.440 |
Every time we see people who are encountering God the first 00:16:22.900 |
Response that we see from them is a sense of awe and terror 00:16:27.180 |
Because they recognize sin that they didn't see before 00:16:30.420 |
Do you remember Isaiah when he saw a glimpse of the throne of these creatures? 00:16:35.700 |
Flying around. Holy. Holy. Holy. The first thing he recognizes is not the sin of his nation 00:16:49.540 |
And he falls down and he says woe is me. Woe is me 00:16:52.800 |
I am a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips. He recognizes his own sin 00:16:57.900 |
Not only his own sin, but in light of that he says I'm from all these people who are also unclean 00:17:03.220 |
The first and most important word for worship is 00:17:08.380 |
Proskuneo in the Greek and the word literally means to bow down to prostrate to fall down in honor and in terror 00:17:17.540 |
That is the most common word in the New Testament translated for worship 00:17:22.620 |
most common word that is also translated from the Hebrew word worship translated in the Septuagint is 00:17:32.620 |
Every instance those of you who are with us in Wednesday Bible study a few weeks ago 00:17:36.780 |
We talked about the holiness of God and every instance whether it's Ezekiel in chapter 128 in the presence of this Holy God 00:17:48.300 |
Matthew chapter 17 verse 5 and 6 when the disciples at the Transfiguration hear the voice of God 00:17:57.220 |
In Revelations 1 17 when Apostle John sees a vision of his throne same response 00:18:03.620 |
He recognizes his own sin in proskuneo and he falls face down 00:18:09.060 |
Revelations 5 14 the four beasts and the 24 elders in the presence of this Holy God 00:18:14.420 |
Recognize their own sin and they fall down prostrated 00:18:24.060 |
When God's glory is revealed the first thing that happens is recognition of their own sin 00:18:31.620 |
See the scripture first and foremost was given to us 00:18:40.100 |
Now again as we said in the very beginning if you take the law of God's that well, we're not under the Mosaic Law 00:18:48.220 |
So we don't have that issue as I mentioned that Paul is not simply talking about Jews. He's talking about the Word of God 00:19:04.500 |
The nation of Israel did not reject him because he wasn't handsome enough. He didn't give enough food or he didn't heal enough 00:19:15.340 |
Because he kept on revealing their sins and they didn't want to hear it if you remember in the early part of Jesus's ministries 00:19:23.060 |
The scribes and the Pharisees and the leaders of Israel heard about Jesus 00:19:32.180 |
That they've been preaching the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribe 00:19:36.580 |
They were the ones teaching the nation of Israel that the Messiah is coming Messiah is coming and when he comes 00:19:42.580 |
Everything that we lost to the pagans are going to be restored 00:19:47.020 |
So they're the ones who've been preaching to wait for the Messiah to look for the Messiah 00:19:50.980 |
So when they started hearing that maybe Jesus is the Messiah 00:19:54.220 |
Initially, they were very intrigued. They didn't reject him right away. They went all the way to Galilee 00:20:04.140 |
That that went all the way up to Galilee a several days journey just to see who he is 00:20:11.140 |
Even when John the Baptist came out and all these people were going out to the wilderness to hear could he be the Messiah? 00:20:17.900 |
What did they say when they saw these Pharisees coming? 00:20:27.180 |
Bear fruit in accordance with your repentance. He called them out 00:20:30.740 |
That's exactly what Jesus said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand 00:20:35.300 |
So the very first message that he gave was exactly the opposite was probably what the Pharisees were thinking 00:20:41.600 |
because if anybody kept the law by the by the 00:20:45.500 |
Standard of righteousness that anybody would use at that time and probably even today the Pharisees were righteous 00:20:56.900 |
They gave more than anybody else. They weren't stingy people 00:21:03.740 |
They even made disciples and proselytize they travel far distances to make disciples more than anybody else 00:21:10.660 |
So by any human standard they were the righteous ones. They knew the scriptures. They were the PhDs in theologies 00:21:26.220 |
And that's why they didn't like him if Jesus embraced him and so okay now you follow me and made them his disciples 00:21:38.740 |
Instead he took tax collectors. He took sinners common people 00:21:45.620 |
How could he use them as disciples and just completely bypass us he can't be the Messiah 00:21:53.860 |
If that was the Messiah, he would recognize who we are 00:21:57.380 |
And because he doesn't recognize our righteousness 00:22:00.380 |
He clearly can't be the Messiah because to say he's the Messiah means 00:22:04.980 |
Everything that they were thinking about where they stood before God was wrong 00:22:14.460 |
The Word of God was given to us to reveal sin 00:22:18.540 |
The rich young ruler that came to Jesus in Mark chapter 10 said what do I do good teacher? 00:22:26.300 |
Jesus knows exactly what he was thinking. He said you must obey all the commandments perfectly and he says in arrogance I did 00:22:32.920 |
And I'll bet you he was probably more moral than the average person. I bet you in his mind. He did he kept everything in comparison 00:22:41.480 |
Yet knowing exactly what he was thinking he pinpoints and it wasn't a challenge to him 00:22:47.580 |
It was basically Jesus shutting the door in his face 00:22:52.740 |
Sell everything that you have give it to the poor and come after me 00:22:56.780 |
To tell a rich young ruler to sell everything basically means to die 00:23:07.460 |
Give up your wealth your prestige that maybe the money that your parents earned your grandparents earned 00:23:12.780 |
And maybe you earn give it all away and start over if you want to enter the kingdom in that way 00:23:20.620 |
Expert of the law who kept the law meticulously 00:23:23.940 |
How do I get saved you must be born again? How do you do that? 00:23:31.140 |
Jesus was shutting the door if you think that that's how somehow you're gonna be saved. That's how you measure righteousness. You're wrong 00:23:38.860 |
Because first and foremost the Word of God comes and judges the thoughts and intentions of our hearts 00:23:47.780 |
Not the heart of our brothers and sisters in Christ 00:23:52.820 |
Or other people around us first and foremost when we read the Word of God the initial intention of encountering God is to reveal 00:24:04.740 |
If it is not revealed in us you missed the whole point of the Word of God 00:24:08.900 |
George Whitfield in training young pastors to become preachers would often say you must wound them before you heal them 00:24:17.980 |
Until they are wounded the healing will be superficial 00:24:23.260 |
And that's exactly what Paul is trying to say here in this passage that the law was given to reveal your sin first and foremost 00:24:34.060 |
Speaking of a superficial revival that was taking place during his generation says this 00:24:38.640 |
Sometimes we are inclined to think a great portion of modern revival revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing 00:24:46.320 |
Because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have known their misery 00:24:51.420 |
Restoring the prodigal to the father's love and never making him say father. I have sinned 00:24:58.380 |
Unhumbled they come into the church on humble. They remain in it and on humble they go from it 00:25:04.300 |
Unless the law of God and the Word of God first convicts us and humbles us it has missed the mark 00:25:11.860 |
See the Jews their problem was they thought that God created righteousness on a curve 00:25:17.380 |
No Jew would ever stand before God and say I am perfect 00:25:23.820 |
But they thought God created righteousness on a curve 00:25:26.900 |
That they were maybe B students and they were looking down on C students and these tax collectors were F students 00:25:34.060 |
Not realizing that they were all F students just in different degrees 00:25:39.820 |
See they thought God created on a curve not realizing that even one sin 00:25:49.860 |
Would make them unrighteous and deserving of death 00:25:55.340 |
The condemnation that came into their life and to all mankind as a result of their sin was one sin 00:26:03.500 |
Genesis chapter 3 in chapter 2 does not describe years and generations of depravity 00:26:17.780 |
They broke one command and as a result of that one command that one sin was so hideous before this. Holy. Holy. Holy God 00:26:32.340 |
See the problem is we see sin in light of other people's sins 00:26:38.680 |
So as long as we are not as sinful as the people who are around us 00:26:43.260 |
We feel safe and that's exactly what the Pharisees were doing that God was grading them on a curve and on a curve 00:26:50.100 |
Yes, they were much more righteous. Of course, they're more righteous than a tax collector 00:26:54.460 |
Tax collector was cheating people out of money poor people. I 00:27:02.180 |
They weren't adulterers. They weren't prostitutes these guys their mistake was they were serving at the temple. Maybe not with the right heart 00:27:11.060 |
How can they be greater sinners if so, if God created them on a curve they would have been on the top of the list 00:27:23.980 |
See Jesus during the 40 years of test of 40 days of testing 00:27:30.580 |
Satan was trying to tempt in and if he fell even in one sin, it would have disqualified him 00:27:39.540 |
Because the sacrifice had to be perfect and just have Adam with one sin brought condemnation to the world 00:27:45.740 |
Jesus with one sin could have been disqualified to save us 00:27:52.900 |
See Matthew 5 48. It says you therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect 00:27:58.100 |
Again in Matthew 5 20 and it says for I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees 00:28:05.180 |
You will never enter the kingdom of heaven. How can you exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees who kept? 00:28:15.100 |
How can their righteousness be exceed the scribes in other words you can't 00:28:27.220 |
In fact in John chapter 8 when Jesus says he will bides in my word and my words abide to him 00:28:32.460 |
He is my disciple. He shall know the truth and true shall set you free 00:28:35.980 |
When we hear that we say wow, that's that's awesome 00:28:42.540 |
But when the Jews heard this they became angry 00:28:48.580 |
We've never been slaves. We're children of Abraham 00:28:53.980 |
and so the argument goes back and forth with Jesus in John chapter 8 and 00:28:58.540 |
They would not back down Jesus what you're saying does not make any sense 00:29:01.860 |
Clearly, you're not an average prophet. Maybe you are the Messiah, but if you are how do you not recognize who we are? 00:29:13.860 |
The meticulous way we sacrifice to stay righteous and clean 00:29:18.980 |
how can you not recognize that and say like with any other sinner that we need to be set free and 00:29:25.500 |
They just could not accept that and as a result of that Jesus calls them out in John chapter 8 44 00:29:32.460 |
You do not understand me because you are not from where I am 00:29:36.220 |
He said where are where are we from then? Who is our father? Your father's the devil? 00:29:41.620 |
That's why so you see the first thing that Jesus distinguished between a Christian and a non-christian a 00:29:49.340 |
Christian is the one who comes before God in his word and recognizes and is humbled and is convicted 00:29:58.220 |
And he said that's the first and foremost thing that the Word of God was given for 00:30:02.300 |
There is no sin that is more dangerous in our lives than a sin that we we are not aware of 00:30:08.140 |
There's no sin that is more dangerous in a church and a sin that we are not aware of or we just kind of swept 00:30:16.980 |
Or we dismissed it or we compared it with other people and say it's not as bad 00:30:21.940 |
Of course, no one's perfect, but I'm not as bad as them. There is no sin that is more dangerous and more 00:30:27.260 |
Destructive in a life of an individual or a church or a generation than the sin that he does not see clearly 00:30:34.580 |
So the first and foremost the Word of God is given to expose sin and that was what it was intended to do 00:30:46.540 |
It judges the thoughts and intentions of my heart 00:30:53.220 |
That there's hatred and murderous thoughts in me 00:30:56.760 |
That there's coveting in me not just them in me 00:31:03.380 |
There's hatred and divisiveness in me. There's slandering it coming out of my mouth 00:31:14.260 |
So first and foremost if we want to draw near to God the Word of God exposes all of that 00:31:23.060 |
He who does not recognize his sin will not repent 00:31:28.620 |
First step of justification is recognizing and owning up to his sin 00:31:36.780 |
But the second third fourth and every other step is no different 00:31:44.100 |
Not only does it reveal sin in verse 8 it said aggravates in 00:31:48.440 |
But sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness 00:31:53.460 |
Apart from the law sin lies dead when he says here it produced in me 00:31:58.300 |
It kind of has a wrong understanding at least in the English. We think it was created but the word there 00:32:05.340 |
To stir it up. I think the best way for us to understand it is if you've ever seen a 00:32:12.020 |
You know a bucket of water or something and it was dirty and you let it sit for a while 00:32:15.820 |
You know how the dirt kind of sinks to the bottom and then the good water is up on the top and you look at it 00:32:24.740 |
Until you stir it up and all of a sudden the dirt gets all stirred up and you realize oh my god is filthy 00:32:30.060 |
So that's a description that Paul is giving when the law came sin was dormant 00:32:35.420 |
But when the law came it stirred up in me all kinds of passion to reveal this in 00:32:42.180 |
if you've never read this book, I highly recommend those of you who are theologically astute and you you want to get into it if 00:32:49.380 |
you haven't read that I highly recommend because 00:32:55.420 |
This in this particular subject of sin and grace 00:32:59.540 |
Augustine was a man who was very honest with his sin, you know 00:33:05.540 |
And I think that's what made him such a great theologian and a Christian because he never excused his sin 00:33:11.020 |
He was he was very open and honest. That's why the book is called confession. It's basically his testimony 00:33:18.340 |
He had sex. I mean adultery. I mean drugs, whatever 00:33:24.420 |
I mean you could think of any kind of debauchery could think of he practiced it to the fullest 00:33:28.540 |
He had the resources to do it, but he says in his book the second book of confession 00:33:34.500 |
The sin that bothered him the most was a sin when him and his friends went to his neighbor's yard to steal some peaches 00:33:42.220 |
He said of all the sins that bothered him that's in bothered him the most 00:33:51.700 |
This is like a drug dealer, you know, only thing he didn't do was murder somebody he might have done that 00:33:57.540 |
I don't remember, you know, but he said of all the sins and this is why he doesn't he he describes why that's in in particular 00:34:04.340 |
Bothered him more than any other sin. This is what he says 00:34:06.340 |
It was not the pairs that my unhappy soul desired 00:34:09.460 |
I had plenty of my own better than those and I picked them so that I might steal 00:34:14.300 |
For no sooner had I picked them then I threw them away and tasted nothing in them 00:34:21.780 |
He says he had better peaches in his own house 00:34:25.820 |
And it wasn't because he wanted peaches. It was just a thrill with his friends 00:34:32.900 |
In another passage that since I had no real power to break God's natural law meaning that he recognizes his limitation 00:34:39.340 |
He can't fly, you know, he can't hold his breath underwater. He can't do what God does. He can't break God's natural law 00:34:45.160 |
Was it that I enjoyed at least a pretense of doing so? 00:34:48.900 |
Like a prisoner who creates for himself the illusion of liberty by doing something wrong when he has no fear of punishment 00:34:57.620 |
He's examining his own heart. Why did I do that? 00:35:01.500 |
And he's just contemplating possibly could it be the feeling of power? 00:35:06.460 |
And then he finally says I must have gotten pleasure from the crime itself from the thrill of having partners in sin 00:35:14.060 |
This was a friendship of most unfriendly sort bewitching my mind in an inexplicable way for the sake of laugh a little sport 00:35:21.180 |
I was glad to do harm and anxious to damage another all because we are 00:35:25.780 |
We are ashamed to hold back when others say come on, let's do it 00:35:32.140 |
Confession is the reason why that's in bothered him more than anything else is that sin more than any other sin revealed his nature 00:35:43.580 |
See Paul is saying not only did sin reveal it that when sin when the law came it stirred up and in me all kinds of 00:35:51.580 |
Passion why does when God says not to do something does it cause us want to do it? 00:35:56.820 |
Anybody who's raised children know exactly what I'm talking about. It doesn't work all the time 00:36:00.580 |
But it works a lot of the time you're trying to feed them peace 00:36:04.660 |
They don't like it, but you know the health benefits of peace and you try to shove it in their mouth 00:36:11.260 |
And all of a sudden you you you become an expert parent and he said, okay, you can't have it 00:36:16.340 |
Your brother's gonna have it you can have any of it. It's like oh, no, no, no 00:36:20.020 |
No, you can't have it. Your brother's gonna have it and the brother eats. It's like do you like it? Yes, I 00:36:25.740 |
Like it right just to show the younger brother and as soon as he sees his brother enjoying it and he can't have it 00:36:37.900 |
Why does he all of a sudden desire something that he can't have but when we ask him to have it he doesn't want it 00:36:46.580 |
Did he go to some hard school was he in prison for a while and that's where he picked up these bad habits 00:37:02.800 |
And that's why the scripture says the law was given first and foremost to reveal what was in us 00:37:09.720 |
Because until we recognize the sin in our own hearts not in our nation not in our neighbor not in our husband and wife our kids 00:37:27.360 |
And always thinking that I will be a better person if other people were better around me 00:37:31.400 |
And the Word of God all it does is it feeds me to better see the sins of other people 00:37:37.140 |
First and foremost the law was given to reveal sin 00:37:43.600 |
When Paul met Christ for three days, can you imagine he was blind at Damascus and he was thinking all his life 00:37:53.440 |
People think that he met Christ in his early 30s all his life 00:37:57.600 |
He tried to keep the law perfectly and by his own definition. He said in comparison to other Jews 00:38:04.080 |
he said he was perfect when it came to the law a Pharisee among Pharisees a Benjamite and 00:38:13.160 |
When Jesus throws him off of his horse and all of a sudden he sees the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ 00:38:20.120 |
And what was his confession in Philippians 3 in? 00:38:26.800 |
Every righteous thing that I pursued became dumb 00:38:30.880 |
Every measure that I measured righteousness in was dumb 00:38:37.000 |
What I thought was giving me life actually was condemning me that's what Paul means here I 00:38:49.280 |
Pursued it thinking there was life there, but I was deceived and all it did was bring death 00:39:01.880 |
Are we under when we open up the Word of God when the Word of God is taught 00:39:15.840 |
Not like the Pharisees thank God. I'm not like those people I paid tithes and I go to the temple and I give worship 00:39:23.400 |
First and foremost the Word of God comes to make us like that tax collector beating his chest 00:39:45.480 |
Understanding the condemnation that I deserve 00:39:55.400 |
Year after year decade after decade century after century. They said amen to this curse and 00:40:07.880 |
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He can't be talking about me 00:40:15.600 |
Can see why he's saying to those people but not me 00:40:18.680 |
If the Word of God does not humble us you've missed the whole point 00:40:26.080 |
If the Word of God does not break us you've missed the whole point 00:40:39.840 |
Did God give us the law does that mean that God doesn't expect us to keep the law if that all the law did was to 00:40:47.000 |
Does that mean that we just thank God that you say this by grace and you just kind of go on and living? 00:40:55.400 |
Romans 3 31 do we then overthrow the law by this faith by no means on the contrary we uphold the law 00:41:02.520 |
All the law did was reveal what was dormant in us if the law is not sin 00:41:07.920 |
In fact, what does he say? The law is holy the commandment is holy and righteous and good 00:41:18.360 |
Absolutely. The problem with the Jews was that they thought that somehow they were going to be righteous through the law 00:41:27.400 |
It was a sin that was dormant in them that they did not recognize through the law 00:41:39.040 |
How Paul is trying so hard to change the paradigm of a Jew who had one way of thinking about righteousness 00:41:52.200 |
These Pharisees who lived hundreds of years generation after generation 00:41:56.080 |
Thinking that they were righteous and all of a sudden the church is established and you have tax collectors teaching them about righteousness 00:42:04.840 |
You have fishermen who are deacons and elders in the church leading the church while these ex-pharisees and even Sadducees are sitting there 00:42:12.360 |
Listening to these fishermen exposit the scripture to them the scripture that they had PhDs in and all of a sudden 00:42:33.000 |
So all didn't break them it made them self-righteous and it deceived them thinking that there was life no the law is good 00:42:42.320 |
What I believe the scripture teaches and how do we measure 00:42:50.760 |
First the sign of spiritual maturity is a brokenness over his own sins 00:42:55.920 |
Not someone who's broken over the sin of our generation our nation our church or anybody around us 00:43:01.520 |
not even over our husband and wife or children first and foremost a 00:43:04.880 |
maturing Christian is a Christian who is broken over his own sins because he is in front of the Word of God and 00:43:15.080 |
The corruption in his own heart and so he's broken over it 00:43:19.520 |
And not only is he broken over it as a result 00:43:27.640 |
That because of his brokenness that the only way that he could have been saved was by the grace of God and he recognizes 00:43:33.000 |
That he is where he is because by grace and gross grace alone, so it humbles him 00:43:42.480 |
Man who's been saved by the grace of God cannot be proud 00:43:47.160 |
By very definition you got what you didn't deserve 00:43:57.760 |
He has compassion and not disdain for those who are not yet delivered a 00:44:03.160 |
man who's been drowning and a lifeboat comes and grabs him from the shoulder and 00:44:09.840 |
Yanks him on the boat does not sit on that boat pointing at other people who are not saved and say you fools 00:44:20.000 |
See that's a contradiction you would automatically think that that guy doesn't recognize what just happened 00:44:29.760 |
Christ the Son of God came and yanked us from our death and made us alive 00:44:34.920 |
So how can we be sitting on the boat and looking at other sinners and condemning them? 00:44:40.840 |
Instead if we really recognize what it is in us 00:45:01.160 |
See the whole system that the Pharisees created was flipped upside down 00:45:12.160 |
We can look at that and say well, we're not Jews we don't have the Mosaic law 00:45:15.600 |
We don't have the temple so that doesn't apply to us. No it applies to us 00:45:19.520 |
Think of the way that we measure righteousness 00:45:26.680 |
When you read the scriptures do quiet times I did quite I 00:45:38.840 |
And yet very purpose of quiet time is to break us 00:45:52.160 |
Growing Christian is a Christian who is constantly repenting and celebrating 00:46:05.920 |
It's such a simple truth and it's so foundational to everything that we know of Christianity 00:46:11.440 |
And yet if we get this wrong, we miss the whole point 00:46:15.600 |
Let's take some time to pray as we come before the Lord 00:46:21.160 |
Every single one of us is susceptible to Pharisees 00:46:27.760 |
When we see other people's sin is more hideous than ours 00:46:36.440 |
Let the Word of God reveal the thoughts and intentions of your heart 00:46:40.720 |
The passages that you've read the quiet times that you've done the Bible study 00:46:47.240 |
What has that revealed about where you stand before God? 00:46:51.320 |
And if you're convicted, we are not without hope 00:46:57.520 |
But in our condemnation to remind us that we have hope in Christ and Christ alone 00:47:03.200 |
So let's take this time as we come before the Lord and as we are convicted to come before the Lord and thank him