The Point of the Law, Part 2

If you would take your Bibles
and return once again. To Romans chapter 7. Which chapter and which section
we are in the midst of considering. We have been looking essentially
at the continuing to look at the subject of sanctification
and that’s that work of God. done by him in our lives, which
is a process of slowly transforming us and bringing us into conformity
with his will and into the image of his own son. We certainly
have come to realize, even as the middle stanza of that song
articulates so well, that We look upward to Christ, who made
an end of all of our sin. And it’s because the sinless
savior died that our souls are counted free. It is justification
by faith alone, which Paul is articulating here. And it’s not
only salvation by faith in Christ alone, but it is also our sanctification
that. God. works into our lives. It is not by the law, which Paul
has been articulating now for several verses. The question is raised, though,
that perhaps the law is worthless. Perhaps the law is evil. Perhaps the law is sinful. Perhaps
the law doesn’t have anything to do with us. Those are the
questions that Paul is answering. They have been prompted by some
of the things that Paul has said, and some could misconstrue Paul’s
words and suggest that Paul has disdain for the law or Paul is
belittling God’s law. And so Paul moves to address
those things immediately, and he does so beginning in chapter
seven, verse one. Would you go back again with
me? We’ll take those verses in their
completeness versus one through 12. Where Paul writes, or do
you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the
law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. For the married woman is bound
by the law to her husband while he is living. But if her husband
dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So
then if while her husband is living, she is joined to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she
is free from the law so that she is not an adulteress, though
she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also
were made to die to the law. through the body of Christ that
you might be joined to another to him who was raised from the
dead. That we might bear fruit for God, for while we were in
the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law
were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
But now, having been released from the law, having died to
that by which we were bound so that we serve in newness of the
spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What should we say,
then, that the law is sin? May it never be. On the contrary,
I would not have come to know sin except through the law, for
I would not have known about coveting if the law had said
had not said you shall not covet, but sin taking opportunity through
the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart
from the law, sin is dead. And I was once alive apart from
the law. But when the commandment came,
sin became alive and I died. And this commandment, which was
to result in life, proved to result in death for me. For sin,
taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me. And
through it, killed me. So then the law is holy. And
the commandment is holy and righteous and good. We began to consider
last week with Paul’s seemingly disparaging comments about the
law in his wake. Paul moves to address the purpose
of the law. What is the point of the law?
What is the true nature of the law and the work of the law? Particularly with regards to
the Christian, Paul isn’t talking about historically what where
the Jews were with regards to the law. Paul isn’t going to
go there just yet, but he does want to address what is the specific
purpose of the law? What is the function of the law,
particularly with regards to the believer of what use is it
to us? And he asks that initial question.
In verse one, and he spent no little time getting to the point. He asks this question. Do you not know, brethren, that
the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives,
and even by asking that question, He puts the answer squarely before
them. That the law does have jurisdiction,
but it only has jurisdiction while a person is alive. The
law has jurisdiction over a person as long as they’re alive. And
the whole point of the illustration in verses two and three is that
once a person dies, once a husband dies, the woman is freed from
the law. Once we die to the law, Because of our faith in Christ.
We, too, are released from that law, the application flows from
that in verses four through six, and we saw that it’s important
there to keep the application separate from the illustration.
The whole point of it is that we are now in union, we are literally
in Christ, we are bound to a new master. And we are bound for
the purpose of bearing fruit, but we no longer come slavishly
to this master. He is our beloved and our friend,
and we are eager to come before him. We come now in newness of
the spirit. And not in oldness of the letter.
Well, Paul wants to address another question, and he begins to do
that in verse seven. So if that’s the case, if we
have died to the law, And the law we already saw is only that
which stirs up the sinfulness within us. Is the law evil? Is the law sinful? Paul says,
what should we say then? Is the law sin? Well, Paul doesn’t
even pause for a second. He says, may it never be. The
law is not sin and we began by looking last week at point number
one the law is not sin the law is not sinful. Paul echoes his
previously used statement the strongest negative that he could
use God forbid. He vehemently denies that the
law could in any way be accused as participating or prompting
or promoting or bringing about our own sinfulness. The law is
not sin. The law is not sinful. It does
not produce sin or lead to sin or participate in sin in any
way. Simple point. The second thing that we began
to learn about the purpose of the law, not only is the law
not sin, but secondly, the law identifies and reveals sin. That’s the purpose of the law,
and that’s what Paul begins to get into at the end of verse
seven and verse eight. Paul said it this way, on the
contrary, I would not have come to no sin except through the
law, for I would not have known about covening if the law had
not said you shall not covet. Some, as I pointed out, suggested
that this was hypothetical, that Paul was just musing about the
possibility of this being the case. That somehow he’s thinking
outside of the box. Instead of looking inward at
his own heart. To me, it’s plainly evident Paul
was talking about himself. He’s giving us his personal testimony.
It’s not the same one that we read about in the Book of Acts.
This is what was going on in his heart. That is, Paul began
to read the law and meditate upon the law when he really began
to understand. What God’s word meant by thou
shalt not covet. That’s when he really began to
know of his sin and of his sinfulness. And there the function of the
law becomes evident that. As Paul meditated upon the law,
The law showed him what he really needed to know about himself,
that he was a covetous sinner, just like the rest of us. One
pastor writing on these things said it this way, obviously,
the apostle is not saying that once that at one point he was
not aware of the fact of sin. Anybody who sins knows enough
about God that When we sin, there is that inward conscience that
tells us so. In every culture, even those
that are completely devoid of anything religious, they know
the difference between right and wrong. They have a standard
of right and wrong, even if it is rudimentary. He goes on to
say obviously the apostle is not saying that he was once not
aware of the fact of sin of the fact that he had not that he
had sinned and that others had sinned. Paul knew well that many
people had sinned. There are many non-Christians
who are well aware that certain things are wrong. His meaning
Paul’s meaning here is that he was not aware of the real nature
of sin until the law made it clear to him. And the law made
it clear to him he could have used any one of the Ten Commandments.
But he chose this particular one and I think it’s interesting
we’ll see why in a moment. So the law is what brought him
to a right understanding of the nature of sin and even his own
nature. Paul says I wouldn’t have even
known about it. If it weren’t for the law, the law exposes
sin. The law identifies it. It shines
the light upon it and it brings us to a right understanding of
what sin is and in our culpability in it. One pastor said, the moment a
man understands the true nature and character of sin, he becomes
troubled about his soul and he begins to seek for a Savior.
I remember years ago something that rather J.I. Packer said that in our society
and the way that we present the gospel, we have people saved
before they even know they need a savior. Before they even feel
that compunction of sin. And when we cut the whole discussion
of sin out of our gospel presentations, we rob them of the key element.
that brings them to repentance. He goes on and says, so the trouble
with people who are not seeking a savior. Who don’t feel the
need for salvation is that they do not understand the true nature
of sin. It is the particular function
of the law to bring such an understanding to a man’s mind and conscience. Paul says, you know what? Without
the law, I wouldn’t have even known I was doing wrong, I wouldn’t
have even known that I had had aired before God and transgressed
against him, I wouldn’t have known. For I would not have known,
Paul goes on to say, I would not have known about covening
if the law had not said thou shalt not covet. It’s interesting. I suggested last week and. There’s
something different about the 10th commandment. if you notice
it. Everything else is thou shalt
and thou shalt not. But in the 10th commandment there’s
something different about it in that it’s not something that
we do necessarily. Now to covet I understand the
argument is essentially something that we can do in our minds but
it’s not something we physically act upon. That it’s that it’s
sinful enough just to let it reside in our mind. And that’s
new in the Ten Commandments. That’s a different kind of command. And this is the one that Paul
selected because I believe this is the one that probably most
chiefly bothered him. See, Paul was an expert at living
out the law, right? Remember, that’s his testimony
in Philippians 3. that Paul had become an expert
at living out the law, and yet all of a sudden he found himself
seized by the very law that he claimed to be an expert at fulfilling. You shall not covet. You see,
the Pharisees, as one pointed out, they thought of sin only
in terms of external actions. As long as a man did not perform
an evil act, he was not guilty of sin. An evil desire, they
said, is not sin. It only becomes sin when a man
does the thing and carries out the desire. You see, this is
exactly what Jesus was addressing, and I believe that’s exactly
why Paul brings up the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet. Because it’s the motive. It’s
the thoughts and tensions of our heart. It’s where sin really
begins, doesn’t it? That’s exactly what Jesus was
addressing in Matthew chapter 5. When he said, you’ve heard
it said that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder.
He’s essentially quoting the Ten Commandments there, isn’t
he? You shall not commit murder and whoever commits murder shall
be liable to the court. But I say to you and Jesus goes
not to some other external act. He goes to the heart of the matter.
He goes to our thoughts and our intentions. Verse 22. But I say to you that everyone
who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.
Whoever says to his brother you good for nothing should be guilty
before the Supreme Court. Whoever says you fool should
be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. You write somebody
off in your heart and your mind. And you’ve just committed murder
in your heart. That’s what Jesus says. He gives another illustration
and you know it. You’ve heard it said. Quotes
a different commandment. You shall not commit adultery. You know the commandments. He
says you’ve heard that. But I say to you. Let’s look
at the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Let’s look at the
real cause of this problem. You’ve heard it said that you
shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lust for her has committed adultery with
her in his heart. That’s what seized Paul. Paul
knew that he couldn’t get past the 10th commandment. Paul knew
the thoughts and intentions of his heart, regardless of what
his outward life was like, he knew fully That he was a sinner
before God, just based on the testimony of his own heart. Look at verse 8. The sin taking
an opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every
kind. It just awakened this sinful
tendency in his heart. It’s just like, you know, in
our house, the cookies, right? The cookies are there. You can
smell them. But as soon as it’s said, Don’t eat the cookies. What do we want to do? Our natural
tendency. And that’s what we talked about
last week is that this sin taking an opportunity, it begins to
get a foothold in our life. And that’s exactly as soon as
Paul heard you shall not covet. Soon as he was told not to do
something. Covetousness. Having gained a
foothold in his life, just began to breathe and multiply and flourish
in his life. It produced, he says, coveting
of every kind. The word is an interesting one,
this word produced, it’s in the old translations wrought. Worked. It means literally to bring to
a firm conclusion, to accomplish something. It’s not that sin
made a good, valiant effort at bringing us down. This sinful
tendency produced. It took him down. It bore fruit. It had a terrible effect on his
life. Paul knew that where sin began,
sin ultimately would breed. It would grow fruit. I’m concerned sometimes when
people speak of people in this regard, they say he has a good
heart. No, he doesn’t. They say, oh,
look to your heart and bring out bring out the good that’s
within. There isn’t anything good in.
Genesis 6 5, God looked at the hearts. It says that then the
Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth
and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. That’s what Paul began to see
in his own life. Paul began to see himself as
a sinner and he hadn’t been hit yet with the bolt out of the
blue. God’s laying the groundwork in his life by first pointing
out that Paul, you know, You’re a sinner. You’re a sinner just
like the rest of them. And you are in desperate need
of a Savior. And if you don’t find that Savior,
no work of any law of mine will ever secure salvation. You say, how does the law operate? How does that work? How exactly
does this sin that takes opportunity By way of the commandment, thou
shall not covet, how does it produce coveting and coveting
of every kind? How does that work? One commentator laid out, it
says it does so by arising in us an element of rebellion. That’s true, isn’t it? You know
your own heart. We are all born rebels. We are all born with
an antagonism to God within us. The law comes and addresses us
as a man and it wants the antagonism to God that is innate within
him natural to him. The spirit of rebellion is aroused
and aggravated and his self assertiveness comes into play. He has not prepared
to bow to anyone. And so he resents the idea of
law That’s true, isn’t it? You know
it of your own heart that we don’t like to be told no. We don’t like rules. And yet,
the very law of God, the pure, holy Word of God, as it comes,
it tells us no. It brings restraints. It brings
its restrictions. It brings its law to us. And we hate it because of it.
And it stirs up our hearts and our hatred. Because we can’t do what we want
to do. And it stirs up within us the desire to do the very
thing that the law prohibits. Paul discovered that. The law identifies and reveals
sin. Paul saw it for what it was.
But there’s a third. aspect to the law that we only
introduced last Lord’s Day. Not only do we discover from
these passages that the law is not sin, not only do we discover
that the law identifies and reveals sin, but thirdly, we learned
only by the title that the law exposes a death wish. The law exposes a death wish. The law doesn’t kill anyone. The law really exposes within
us the desire to be killed because we are going to do what we are
going to do, regardless if it takes our life. Look at verses 9 through 11.
Look at verse 9. And I was once alive apart from
the law. I was living this blissful life,
happy, ignorant, ignorant and happy. Paul goes back to some state
or condition and there were. It’s interesting that there were
those that this is where they said this has to be hypothetical
because Paul was raised under the law. What Paul does is go
back to a state and condition before he really even grasped
The nature of the law and the nature of sin and his own nature. But at that point, as one said,
he was untouched by number numberless demands of the law. There were
those that he saw and could grasp and could attain to, and there
were others he was clueless about. Those accumulated in time, they
came to him in time with his moral development. And at that
period, whole regions of his life were purely impulsive. And one after another, they came
under the touch of the law and with each new pressure of law
upon his consciousness, his fear was enlarged. In other words,
the more Paul began to learn about the law and about sin,
really learn about it and really understand. Look at one more time. There
was a time where he felt alive. There was a spring in his step.
He was at peace with the world. He thought he was pleasing to
God. He was self-righteous. He thought
he had arrived. He really did. Obviously, what
he’s talking about here is a relative statement. When he says that
he was alive, there was a point in time where I was alive, relatively
speaking. Because there’s never been a
time in our history the history of mankind where we were utterly
and completely without law. Paul was alive in the sense that
he was oblivious unconscious to the law of God. Oblivious
to the fact that he had transgressed it oblivious to the fact that
he was worthy of death. Some suggested, as I pointed
out a moment ago, that he’s talking about his life as a child. No,
he isn’t. Not talking about his life as a child, he’s talking
about his life as a Pharisee. Philippians chapter three. Verse
four says this, although I myself might have confidence even in
the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to
put confidence in the flesh, I far more. Circumcised the eighth day of
the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, the Hebrew of Hebrews,
as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the
church. You know what? This wasn’t the only time he
had recited these things. This was Paul’s calling card,
this is his trophy case, and he’s taking us to look at his
trophy case. Look at all that I was. And there was a time in his life
where he really and truly was proud of those things. Those
were his achievements. And you know where Paul ends
up. Paul says all of that is rubbish. In fact, to put it in
its context, that verse in the context, we’re forgetting about
what lies behind. You know what? A lot of I’ve
heard a lot of people talk about that verse as being all this
sinful life that I used to live, forgetting about what lies behind.
I press. That’s not what he’s talking
about. You know, he’s talking about he’s talking about his
trophy case. Forgetting about all that that lies behind. Forgetting
about even the accomplishments in Christ. I forget about all
that. And press forward towards Christ.
It wasn’t a time in His life as a child before He came to
know the rudimentary principles of God’s law. It’s about His
life pre-conversion. Up to that moment when He met
Christ on the road to Damascus. It is that condition that he
was in. It was a state of security. Relative ease where he thought
he was exempt from any kind of trouble or turmoil. Because of
the sin that he had yet to even acknowledge, he pictured himself
as being in this pleasant and happy and desirable state. He
had no fear of God, he had no dread of any kind of Punishment
or hell, no real recollection or knowledge of any real consequence
of sin in his own life. But note that it says when the
commandment came, sin became alive. Uh oh. When the commandment came. Well, that’s an interesting statement.
Because Paul was alive, we just read his testimony as it were. We just read his list of accolades. He certainly knew about the law.
The law had been given years before Paul ever came onto the
scene. What do you mean when the commandment came? Paul had no doubt read those
words dozens of times, perhaps even hundreds of times as a strict
Pharisee. You’re talking about the Ten
Commandments. Certainly, he should he had read before thou shalt
not covet. What does he mean when the commandment
came? One pastor said when a true understanding
of the commandment came, when it came to live in resident in
his heart, when it really began to shine the light on his own
heart. He began to see himself as he
really was and began to understand how far short he came to the
laws standards. It’s then that sin became alive.
He came to realize his true condition in the full evil and destructiveness. Paul says that he had known about
the law for a long time and all of a sudden the law came in and
took residence within his heart. And he began to take it for what
it was. And I’ll tell you, this is exactly my testimony. I had
heard of the gospel for a whole long time. I knew all the constituent
elements of the gospel. Jesus died. Yeah, I know the
Bible. Yeah, I know all of that. Jesus
died for sinners. I got it. And then. In a class at a secular
university, I read a little sermon by a guy named Jonathan Edwards,
sinners in the hands of an angry God. And for the first time ever,
I knew that I was the sinner in God’s angry hand. And that’s
exactly where Paul is. It’s exactly where he is. The
commandment had always been there. The law had been given centuries
earlier by Moses, Centuries before Paul was ever born, the commandment
didn’t just burst onto the scene in Paul’s day. Sin here, he pictures it as an
invader, doesn’t he? Invading suddenly his own heart
and soul. It had been dormant for some
time. He was dead to it. He was he
didn’t even believe that it really and truly existed. The sin is no longer dormant.
And as soon as it becomes alive, Paul says, I died. What does
he mean by that, because he didn’t literally die. Christ hadn’t
died on the cross yet, so it can’t be said that he died with
Christ. What does it mean sin became
alive and I died? It means exactly what we read
last week when Isaiah coming into the throne room of God,
As soon as he did, what did he say? Woe is me. I am undone. I might as well be dead. Paul
sensed and saw that immediately the law applied to him and that
he had utterly transgressed it. And as a result, he knew that
before God, he was a dead man. Even though he continued alive,
he was a walking dead man. He was under a death sentence,
as one said, the moment he realized that sin was alive, he died.
He was not aware of the power of sin up to then and the truth
about himself. He thought that sin he thought
that sin was dead and that he was alive. He felt well, full
of life, strength and power. And it was the opposite that
was true. He suddenly realized that he was utterly dead. The commandment came. And as
soon as he saw God’s law for what it was, he knew that he
was in trouble. As Charles Hodge said, every
believer, every believer can adopt the language of the apostle.
He can say that he was alive without the law. He was secure
and free from any painful consciousness of sin. But when the commandment
came. When he was brought to see how
holy and how broad is the law of God, sin was aroused and revealed
and all his imagined security and goodness disappeared. He was bowed down under the conviction
of his desert of death as a penalty and under the power of spiritual
death in his soul. This is what Paul, by God’s grace,
had been brought to. Sin became alive and I died.
I died to myself. I died to my ability. And no
wonder Philippians 3 continues with these words. But whatever
things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss
for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things
to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. Paul was brought
to that point. Because the law killed him. And
it wasn’t even the law that did it. It was his own death wish. Look at verse 10. Where Paul
says, and this commandment. He can’t get over it. This is
the commandment in God’s Word. These are the 10 commandments.
This is God’s law we’re talking about. And this commandment,
which was to result in life, proved to result in death for
me. You see, the law says, do this
and live. That if only people would keep
the commandment, if that was even possible, it would have
led to life. If you live according to this
law, you’re going to be blessed. Exodus 19, five, if you will
indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be
my own possession among the peoples. For all the earth is mine, that’s
what God said. God had told them in Leviticus
18, five, so you shall keep my statutes, my judgments by which
a man may live if he does them. That’s the promise, this commandment,
which was to result in life. You know what, Jesus addressed
the exact same thing, remember, in the context of the Good Samaritan,
which wasn’t a story about going and doing good. You know what
the story was about? It was about telling a good Samaritan,
telling a lawyer what the law of God does for you. Nothing. The law of God will not save
you. The law of God is not It’s not going to save you, but
the law of God will point out your sin. And that’s what Jesus
was trying to do to the lawyer. The lawyer stood up and put him
to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? And he said to him what is written
in the law, how does it read to you? And he answered, you
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor
as yourself. And Jesus, in His mercy, turned
to him and said, You have answered correctly. Do this and you will
live. What the lawyer failed to do
is take spiritual inventory of his own life. He hadn’t fulfilled
that law even for a single day. That’s what the story of the
Good Samaritan is about. All we have to do if we want,
if you want eternal life, Walk out of here right now and go
love practically every person you ever come across, because
that’s your neighbor. Every person that you ever come
across or hear about, love them, serve them perfectly for the
rest of your life. And eternal life is yours. It was an act of mercy on Christ’s
part. The law said one was designed
and adapted to secure life. But it became, in fact, the cause
of death. Life includes the idea of happiness
and holiness, the law was designed to make men happy and holy. Death,
on the other hand, includes the ideas of misery and sin, the
law came. Became rather the means of rendering
the apostle and us. Miserable and sinful. How vain,
therefore, is it to expect salvation from the law? So the law. Long way from giving life, holiness
and happiness, it essentially did the opposite in Paul’s life,
didn’t it? What it did is what it does to all of us, it condemned
him, it showed him his absolute failure, his utter sinfulness,
his need of a savior, and it stirred up those passions within
him. Look at verse 11. How did it happen? How did this
all come unraveled? Watch and you know it because
you know it from your own heart. For sin, taking opportunity through
the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Paul reiterates verse eight,
essentially. And he points to deception, much
like what took place in the garden. With the serpent deceiving Eve.
Where the Satan as the tempter took this opportunity. To deceive
the woman and Adam. Regarding the character of life.
The character of God, rather. And the serpent. Did what Paul essentially points
to here that sin does it deceives it distorts what we know about
God and what we believe about him what the law says and doesn’t
say. And it ultimately made Eve to
believe that God wouldn’t punish sin. One of the greatest lies
that is believed by the masses today. There’s no hell. God’s
a good God. God wouldn’t punish people by
sending them So we have essentially an echo
here not only of Genesis but really of a principle in Scripture
that is repeated by Paul. That of sins deception Genesis
3 says it 313 the Lord God said to the woman what is this that
you have done the woman said the serpent deceived me and I
ate. Paul alludes to that in 2 Corinthians
11 3, I’m afraid that the Serp as the serpent deceived Eve by
his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity
and purity of devotion to Christ. Paul repeats it in 214. It was
Adam. It was not Adam who was deceived,
but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Sin just deceives. The more immersed within it,
the less clear you see things. And Paul says it and it’s a fascinating
passage, the way he says it, he personified he makes this
sin a person like the devil in snakeskin. Sin taking opportunity
through the commandments, he put it on a silver platter. Said you should not covet. Oh,
coveting, you know all that you’re misinterpreting that. Downplays the consequences of
it. And trickery ensues. And ultimately. Paul says. The trickery wasn’t
enough. It’s the sentence that followed
that got Paul. It’s the sentence that followed
that gets all of us. Sin taking opportunity through
the commandment deceived me and through it killed me. Paul knew that he was a walking
dead man before God. And so no wonder Paul comes full
circle. And gives forth the fourth essential
purpose of the law. Not only is the law not sin,
not only does the law identify and reveal sin, not only does
the law expose a death wish, but the law is a reflection of
God’s character. The law is a beautiful thing.
Look at verse 12, so then, and this is Paul’s conclusion after
all that he had just said what the law did. So then the law
is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good,
and in a sense, those things essentially echo what Paul has
just said about each point. Not only is the law not sin,
it is holy. The law identifies and reveals
sin because it is righteous. It will tell you what’s right.
Have you ever had a friend that good? A good enough friend that
you ask them a question and you know what you’re wanting to hear.
You’re wanting them to give you back platitudes. Oh no, Ron,
you’re not like that at all. And they have the love for you
in their heart to tell you what the truth is. That’s what God’s
law does. It’s righteous. It will tell
you exactly who you are every time. Not only that, but it’s
good, holy and righteous and good. It’s a reflection of God’s
own character because it exposes in our heart this death wish.
We’re living like we want to live. The law is good enough
to tell us and show us. Look at them one by one in closing.
The law is holy. The law is holy because it’s
God’s laws. It comes from him. It’s derived from him. It reflects
God’s goodness and glory. One pastor said, of course, it
must be holy. It cannot help being so, for
it is an expression of God’s character. It is the function
of the law to give us a revelation of God and his being in character
in order that we may learn what we have to be in order to become
in order to have communion and fellowship with him. God is holy. The law is righteous. God’s commandments
are just. They’re fair. They point out
exactly what God’s desire is and they’re fair. There’s no
one that can point to God and say your standards were too high. You’re too rigid. I didn’t like
that rule. Another said sin is in its deceitfulness
is always trying to persuade us that the demands of the law
are unjust, unfair, indeed impossible. Talk to a young couple. About
maintaining purity in their relationship, talk to an unsaved young couple. And listen to the unrealistic
demands of God’s word. Paul’s teaching that the law
is absolutely just. It is just and right in what
it demands of us. It makes no unfair demands. There
is nothing unfair in man in the two men in the Ten Commandments.
It is perfectly just and justified in the pronouncement and in the
sentence that it passes upon all sin. It’s perfectly just. And it’s good. The law is holy
and just and good. That it’s there for our well-being.
It reflects the character of God. It tells us of what God
is like. And it tells us of our death
wish. As one pastor said, it’s goodness
extends to all its purposes, all its objects, all its effects. It shows us what sin is. It shows
us what we ought to be, how we ought to live, how we ought to
conduct ourselves. It is by the law of God supremely. That a man can learn what is
good for him. And what is best? Paul says. Not only is the law
not simple, not only is the law not irrelevant. The law is holy and just and
good. Let’s humble ourselves before
the giver of that law. Our merciful God, we come before
you and we humble ourselves in your presence because we know
that the law is holy and just and good. And Father, I pray
that if there are any in this room still seeking to save themselves
or to squeak by on their own goodness, I pray, Father, that
you would bring them to a humble repentance. That there are none
that can achieve salvation by living according to any standard,
especially God’s. The Lord Jesus Christ is already
provided everything necessary for salvation, forgiveness of
sins because of what He accomplished on the cross. O God, we pray, deliver that
to any who lack this morning. It’s in Jesus’ name that we plead.
Amen.