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SIN / SELF

Dead to the Law

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 20 July 2025 · Romans 7:1-12 · 56:12 · 9,038 words

Romans S13 · 7:1-12 Grand Blanc

Listen to this message

Romans chapters 6 through 8 are examined as three places a person can be in their lives. Romans 6 describes a life dominated by sin, Romans 7 the frustration of trying to live righteously by one's own effort, and Romans 8 the victory found through the Holy Spirit. The message asks whether you are relying on your own strength to please God or on His power. It calls those stuck in sin to turn to Christ and believers to stop depending on themselves and embrace the Spirit.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

law 110 try 44 effort 14 eight 18 dishes 7 seven 15 chapter 48 master 11 marry 12 stuck 10 intense 7 anymore 12

Topics

The Law 28 Sin 9 Salvation 8 The Holy Spirit 5 The Flesh 2 Prayer 2 Grace 1

Scripture referenced 63

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 7 2:29 Romans 7 2:34 Romans 7 2:41 Romans 7 2:47 Romans 6 3:06 Romans 1 4:09 Romans 2 4:16 Romans 3 4:24 Romans 4 4:39 Romans 4 4:39 Romans 5 4:53 Romans 6 5:03 Romans 6 5:08 Romans 6 5:40 Romans 8 5:45 Romans 5 5:51 Romans 8 9:54 Romans 8 10:02 Romans 7 10:13 Romans 8 10:13 Romans 6 10:25 Romans 6 10:28 Romans 6 10:39 Romans 6 10:46 Romans 7 10:54 Romans 7 10:58 Romans 7 11:02 Romans 7 11:07 Romans 7 11:12 Romans 7 11:28 Romans 7 11:38 Romans 8 11:38 Romans 8 11:41 Romans 8 11:49 Romans 8 11:54 Romans 8 12:08 Romans 8 12:27 Romans 7 13:00 Romans 8 13:03 Romans 8 13:06 Romans 8 16:37 Romans 8:2 28:26 Romans 8:3 29:02 Romans 8:4 29:41 Romans 8:4 29:44 Romans 8:5 31:31 Romans 8:6 46:27 Romans 8:7 47:28 Romans 8:8 49:11 Romans 8:8 49:52 Romans 8:9 49:58 Romans 8:10 50:36 Romans 8:11 51:04 Romans 8:12 52:03 Romans 7 52:45 Romans 7 53:51 Romans 8 53:51 Romans 7 54:00 Romans 8 54:04 Romans 6 54:09 Romans 7 54:53 Romans 8 54:53 Romans 6 55:00

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

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Well, good morning.

That music feels so ominous, especially with it like dark outside and everything.

It's good to see you.

Good to be together with you this morning.

Feels like we have not been together in, it feels like forever, honestly.

So last week was our See You at the Fair.

How many of you?

You were at the See You at the Fair.

Just an incredible time.

For those of you that don't know, once a year, we all meet,

all nine river locations meet in one place.

And that was the Oakland County Fair for one large gathering.

Had probably around 2,500 people.

Had over 20 baptisms.

It was amazing.

Yeah, incredible.

Some of you were baptized there.

Pretty amazing.

Sorry to ask this.

How many of you showed up here?

How many of you showed up here to find out it was not here?

There's always a hand, but this time, maybe not.

Maybe you're like, I'm not going to raise my hand.

It happens every year.

We try to warn everybody.

And then the week before that, my wife and I and my kids, we were able to get out to

see our kids in Colorado, held my granddaughter for 10 days, and just didn't care about doing

anything else, you know?

So yeah, pretty awesome.

We tried to trick them into getting into our car and just driving away with them, but they

realized what we were doing.

And so...

So they didn't come back with us.

But thankful to Donnie for speaking two weeks ago, as always, did a wonderful job with God's

But it feels like we've been away forever, so let's grab our Bibles and let's open God's

If you have a Bible, Romans chapter 7 is where we are today.

Romans chapter 7, incredible book of Romans and an incredible passage of Scripture.

So, Romans chapter 7.

It is so very important.

It is so important.

I would encourage you to be here next week as well because the conclusion of Romans 7

is literally life-changing.

There is no other way to say that.

And so, just a very, very important passage.

But before we jump into it, we have to back up just a little bit.

Before we pray and jump into this morning, we've got to look at what chapter 6, 7, and

8 is kind of as a whole.

They're sort of a unit.

The book of Romans is really, it's a two-part book.

It's got 16 chapters.

You can pretty much split it right down the middle.

Chapters 1 through 8 and then 9 through 16.

Well, I tell you this because chapters 1 through 8, it's one idea that is building towards

And it's a very important conclusion.

It is a conclusion that will literally change who you are as a person if you understand

it, if you allow it to do what it wants.

It's trying to do in you.

But the first eight chapters is really a question.

It's this question.

How can a person be made righteous before God?

Is that possible?

How does that happen?

And so, the book began by trying to convince us of our need to be saved, right?

Of our need to be made righteous.

That's how the book begins.

And so, chapter 1 showed us that the godless in this world.

They need to be saved.

And we go, well, of course.

But then chapter 2 showed us that moral, like nice people, good people need to be saved.

And we go, oh, okay.

But then chapter 3 goes even further and tells us religious people, churchgoers, Bible keepers,

cross-chain necklace-wearing people need to be saved.

And you go, oh, it convinced us, right?

Then we come into chapter 4 and chapter 4 tells you how to be saved, that the only way

To ever be saved is simply by believing.

We hammered this point over and over.

Chapter 5 shows you the blessings of what it is to be saved.

It's incredible blessings in him because you have simply believed in the Lord.

But something happens in chapter 6.

And it's very important.

Chapter 6, Paul begins a topic that every Christian needs to hear and needs to understand.

The question is, now that we are saved, how do you live righteously?

And that is really the question.

When you come to Christ, now how do you glorify him?

How do you live in a way that honors the Lord and pleases him?

How do I day in and day out live in a way that God is happy with?

Is it even possible?

Well, that is what Paul takes up in Romans chapter 6.

And it culminates in Romans chapter 8.

And he tells us how to actually do this.

See, you might be tempted to come out of chapter 5 thinking, well, now I'm saved.

And so I'm going to, everything's going to be perfect.

Everything's going to be easy.

Anybody had that mistaken idea when you came to Christ?

Easy street from then on, right?

No problems at all.

I am only going to do what's right.

I'll be faithful to the Lord.

I will not sin.

I will not fail.

I will be like Peter.

They all might deny you, but not me, Lord.

I got it, right?

I got this.

We might think, hey, now that I'm saved, I'm only ever going to do what is good and what is right.

And you quickly find out that is not how it works.

You quickly find out.

Listen, when I came to know the Lord at 16 years old, I immediately wanted, like all true believers,

I wanted to do what God wanted me to do.

I wanted to obey him.

I wanted every single thing in my life to be honoring to him and pleasing to him.

That is what I wanted.

Then I found a problem.

And the problem was this guy, right?

That was the problem.

I was the problem.

I wanted to be faithful to the Lord, but I continually failed.

And so, listen, I would try harder, right?

Okay, it must be an issue of effort.

I will try harder, and I would do well for, you know, like a minute.

And then I would fail again.

And so then I would be like, you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to double down.

If you've ever met me, I'm a pretty intense person.

I'm a pretty intense person.

I'm a pretty intense person.

I'm a pretty intense person, right?

Not very passive.

And so I'm like, you know what this is?

This is an issue of putting your head down and grinding.

That's what this is.

I'm going to make it happen as a Christian.

And so I doubled down.

I tripled down.

I don't even know if that's a thing.

But listen, right?

I was like, I am going to do this and promise God that I'm going to do what's right.

I'm going to be right.

I'm going to think right.

I'm going to speak right.

I'm going to do what is good.

And guess what?

I'm going to do what is good.

As hard as I tried, I failed just as hard.

You in this loop?

I found myself to be miserable.

They say the most miserable person in the world is a Christian who is caught in sin, right?

Because you know enough to be miserable, right?

And so I wanted to please the Lord and I wanted to do what was right,

but I failed continually, constantly.

And it just beat me to death, honestly.

But listen, this is the.

It's the same story for every person who is actually saved.

It's the same story for all of us.

All truly born again people are stuck in this problem, this issue.

We want to live our lives in a way that pleases God.

We want the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart and the actions of our lives to be pleasing to God.

Is that not in your heart today as a follower of Jesus Christ?

Don't you have this desire deep within you that if you could instantly press a button,

you would only ever do what God wants you to do.

Don't you have this in you?

If you don't have that in you, that should be an alarm bell that you are not actually a born again person.

You are not saved and you need to turn to God before it is too late because born again.

People want to please God.

We have this deep desire, but then there is this, this thing, this fight,

this trouble that we can't carry out what we want to be able to do.

And Romans is trying to show us how to actually carry this.

All truly saved people want to please God, but you are either, and this is true of you today.

You are either stuck in the frustration of not being able to, you are stuck in Romans seven.

You'll see what I mean between this week and next week.

You're stuck in Romans seven, or you have gloriously moved into Romans chapter eight.

And Romans chapter eight is, is blessing.

It is victory over sin.

It is consistency.

It is, it is in, it is life changing.

It is transformation completely to move from chapter seven to chapter eight.

And you're stuck in one of them.

If you're a follower of Christ, you're either, you're either in seven or you're in eight.

The question is what chapter are you in today?

Are you living in chapter six?

Listen, the most used word in Romans chapter six, do you know what it is?

The most used word.

It is the word sin transgression.

That's the, that's the key word of chapter six.

The result of it is death.

Donnie talked about it.

Are you living in Romans chapter six, where your life is dominated by sin wrapped up in it and it's killing everything in your life?

Or are you living in Romans chapter seven?

Romans chapter seven is all about human ability to live righteously.

You know what the key word of Romans chapter seven is?

The most used word, personal pronouns.

I, me, my, that's the key word of Romans chapter seven.

And what it does is Romans chapter seven ends with total failure.

And what it means is, is you and I cannot do it.

It makes it crystal clear that human effort is not enough to live in a way that pleases God.

Sin will exhaust you is where you get to in Romans chapter seven.

Is this where you're stuck?

The desire to do what is right, to be godly, but exhausted and frustrated.

Are you in chapter seven or are you in chapter eight?

The blessings of chapter eight, often called the most beautiful chapter of the Bible.

And I would agree with that.

I,

I have since first hearing the words of Romans chapter eight.

I remember being in Bible college and hearing the words of Romans chapter eight and,

and,

and literally feeling like I needed to run outside and scream.

It seemed too good to be true.

And that is what Romans chapter eight is.

Romans eight shows you that it is not possible for you to overcome sin and to live righteously,

but God's power is available to you.

And he enables,

he enables us to live in a way that pleases the Lord.

Romans chapter eight is a game changer.

And so the most used word,

the key word of Romans eight,

it's not sin.

It's not personal pronouns.

It's the word spirit 61 times spirit.

And it is because it is by the Holy spirit of God that we live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

And we're going to talk through it.

We're going to work through it,

but if you get it,

it will change your life.

So you can think about these three chapters as the three places that any person is in their lives.

You're either stuck in the death and defeat of Romans six,

or you are stuck in the frustration of chapter seven,

or you are in living in the blessing of chapter eight.

Well,

I pray we will all move into chapter eight by the time we get through it.

Well,

let's pray and let's ask God to help us this morning.

And I would encourage you between you and the Lord to ask him to help you.

we need you today.

We ask for you to speak.

help us to hear you and to understand your word.

Give us eyes to see you and ears to hear you.

It's in Jesus name.

We pray.

All right.

Well,

that's the question this morning.

Are you trying to please God?

Are you trying to live in such a way that God is happy?

Do you have this deep inward desire to do what God wants you to do?

Do you want him to be happy with the way you think and with the things you say,

with the things that you do?

Every,

every true believer has this desire.

But if this is true of you,

I want to ask you,

how are you doing that?

How are you trying to please God?

Is it by your focus,

by your effort,

by your strength,

by your promises,

by your faithfulness,

that you are trying to accomplish this by your effort to not do bad things.

I'm going to try my best.

Not to sin,

not to give into temptation,

not to compromise,

not to tell people what I think about them when they do things that are annoying to me.

Right?

I'm going to try with all my might to stay on the straight and narrow.

I'm not going to let those words come out of my mouth.

I'm not going to,

not going to do those things.

I'm going to,

I'm going to grip my teeth.

I'm going to make it happen.

Is that you?

Is it by your focus and your effort that maybe you're not,

it's not that you're not going to do things.

It's by your focus and effort that you are going to do things.

So man,

I'm going to do my best to give and I'm going to do my best to help and serve and care for others.

And I'm going to try with all my might to do what is right.

Is it your determination?

Is it your reliability that,

that you will do what God wants you to do?

Is that how you are trying to live this life?

Are you living this life by your effort or by his power?

There is only one of two ways you say,

what does that actually mean though?

Well,

let's get very practical.

Do you stay away from God?

Do you stay away from the bottle by your effort or by his power given to you?

Which one?

By your determination to not drink or by hear this,

your reliance on him for his power to keep you from it.

Where does the power come from?

Where does the ability come from?

Do you,

do you think right thoughts by your own effort or by his power given to you?

Which one is it?

By your focus to only think right things or by your reliance upon,

on him to keep you in the right place in your mind and in your heart.

Do you keep yourself from wandering in error by your determination?

Or do you rely on the Lord to keep you from wandering?

Which is it,

right?

Are you a Romans seven Christian or have you moved into chapter eight?

You see,

Romans seven begins with this question.

if we know this,

do we know this about life?

Look at verse one.

Paul says,

do,

do you not know brethren?

Who's he talking to?

Brethren Christians.

Do you not know Christians?

He's not talking to the unsaved person.

He says,

for I speak to those who know God's law,

that the law has dominion or power or control over a man.

As long as he lives,

Paul is talking to Christians who are trying,

trying their best to live righteous lives,

lives that are,

pleasing to God.

But he is talking to Christians and you might be one of them who are trying to do this by

their own ability.

it is through the effort of trying to keep the law of God.

Again,

this might be you.

It certainly was me.

Christians who are trying with their best effort to live godly lives and to not fail

and to not fall.

It is by their effort,

by their faithfulness,

their ability to keep God's laws.

Is this you?

Is this where you're at right now?

You know the consequences.

You know what it means for you to fail.

And so you're going to grit your teeth.

You're going to make it happen.

You're going to do it.

Trying as hard as you can.

Well,

Paul asks the person that is trying to do this.

He says,

don't you know,

do you not understand that this is not the way to live righteously?

That's what Paul's getting at.

This is not the way.

It's not how it works.

You cannot put your head down and grind this out.

It does not work like this.

And then he gives us,

it's a picture to help us understand.

And maybe surprisingly,

it's a picture of dying.

Paul uses death here to tell us something.

Look what he says.

Verse one,

the law has dominion or power or strength over a man.

As long as that man is alive,

Let's talk about the law of God for just a moment,

because Paul's really kind of pointing to this.

The law we're talking about,

you know,

the commandments,

10 commandments.

We're talking about the law,

given to Moses.

Here's what God did,

right?

God gave the law.

And here's what he said.

God said,

if you keep these commands,

In other words,

you'll be saved forever.

If you break these commandments,

Meaning you will be lost forever.

You will be separated from God forever.

This wasn't optional.

This wasn't a suggestion.

If you break these laws,

right?

God wasn't saying,

this might be a good way for you,

to go in life.

You might think about trying to keep the 10 commandments.

It brings blessing.

That is not what happened.

Keep them,

break them,

That's what God said.

It was his command.

Keep them and be saved,

break them and be lost.

Now we've said it many times.

It was not actually possible for man to even keep the law perfectly.

And so what,

Well,

this made everybody a law breaker.

We're all in the same spot.

We've,

we've all sinned.

We've all broken God's commands.

And this is actually the point of the law.

You say,

why did God give the law?

The law is designed to humble you and me to show us.

We're not as great as we think we are.

We're not,

we're not strong.

Like we think we are.

We're not faithful.

Like we think we are.

We're not good.

Like we think we are.

The law humbled us,

We're not good.

We're not faithful.

We're not strong.

We are at heart law breakers.

Paul's going to show this.

But what this means is,

is we all need to be saved.

That's the point of the law.

And this is how the law helped you.

It helped you.

You go,

how did the law help?

Well,

it reveals the truth that we are all law breakers.

It reveals the truth that we're all sinners.

We're all in the same need.

We all need to be saved.

Every person sitting here today,

nobody gets a pass.

Nobody gets heaven because you were born to Christian parents or you went to church or you have Bible.

That doesn't mean anything.

You are saved if you personally recognize your need for salvation,

turn to God in repentance and receive forgiveness of sins and salvation.

That's the only way.

And so we all need to be well,

the law pushed us to the Lord for forgiveness for mercy,

Well,

once you understand this,

that the point of the law was not to try to make us law keepers,

but to show us where a law breakers read verse one.

Again,

it says the law has.

Dominion or power over a man as long as he lives.

So now Paul gives a really simple illustration for Christians.

Here's what he says.

Okay.

He says the laws of the land that we live in,

they are in authority over us,

but they are in authority over every person who is live,

right?

This is true in our city.

It's true in our country.

It's,

it's true,

right?

The law is in force for every person who is living,

but once a person dies,

the law,

no longer has any authority over them,

right?

This is really simple to understand.

A dead person does not need to worry about traffic laws,

right?

They don't need to worry about changes in tax law.

They're dead,

right?

The laws of the land do not apply to them anymore.

The law has no more authority over them.

They are dead.

But as we said,

this is just a picture.

Paul's trying to give us to help us understand something.

Please hear this.

The law of God,

Paul says is no longer the authority.

It's no longer the authority over you as a Christian.

It's no longer.

It's no longer about trying to keep the 10 commandments or the 613 commands of the law.

It is no longer about,

you know,

dietary rights and rituals and feast days and faithful this and faithful that.

It's no longer.

The law of God is no longer the master over our lives as Christians.

We have a new master and his name is Jesus Christ.

And this is.

Because you have died.

You say what?

Yeah, listen,

let me explain.

This is a major doctrine in the Bible.

It's so important you understand it because it really changes everything you are.

You are.

Let me just say it this way.

You are never going to have victory over sin.

If you do not understand that you have died when you've come to Christ,

you'll never have victory because you have to understand that you have died to the old you.

Listen to this.

When you come to Jesus Christ for salvation,

something happens to you.

It's not a figurative.

It's not ideal.

You know,

sort of idyllic like it didn't really happen.

It'd be great if it did.

It actually happened to you when you came to Christ.

You died not physically.

the old you died and I'm really grateful for that.

In my case,

I'm not a big fan of the new one either,

but I'm just saying the old one.

Am I allowed to say that by the way?

I don't know.

It's fine.

We'll replace it.

The old you is you before Jesus Christ.

It's the BCU before Christ.

You it's the old you.

It's your old thinking.

It's your old pursuits.

It's your old ways.

When you come to Jesus,

two things happen.

You die and then you are born again.

You're born a new you die to the old you.

You're you're not that person anymore.

If you don't understand this,

you'll never,

ever have victory in Jesus Christ.

You have to understand when you've come to Christ,

the old you has died.

Donnie talked about this in in Romans six.

You have to continually remind yourself you the old you is dead.

Now the amazing thing about the old you is as dead as the old you is.

It seems to be very alive sometimes,

right?

Like every time someone cuts you off on the freeway,

you're like,

what is right?

I'm going to murder somebody.

there's the old me again,

right?

But then when you're like,

praise the Lord,

bless you,

right?

You're like,

look,

I'm a new creation in Christ.

Okay.

All right.

So you die right to the old you and you're told to constantly consider the old you what you were dead.

You are not that anymore.

You're not the drunk anymore.

You're not the drug addict anymore.

You're not the pervert anymore.

You're not,

you're not the thief anymore.

You're not the liar anymore.

That is not what you are anymore.

Watch this.

You've been born again.

Second Corinthians five 17.

When we come to Christ,

we have become new creations in Christ Jesus.

Old things have passed away.

all things have become new.

If you have come to Jesus Christ,

you're not some renovated version of you.

God took the remains of whatever I was and just sort of painted it.

You know,

the word that is used is completely new creation.

You are a,

literally new creation.

You're not even the same person anymore.

You are now born again.

And so this means that you are now alive spiritually to God for the first time ever.

You're alive to God.

You're in fellowship with God.

You can talk to God,

respond to God,

be moved by God,

right?

But it also means that the master over your life has changed.

There is a new authority,

the Lord or master.

The Lord of my life before Jesus was sin and death.

And really at the heart of it,

me,

I was trying to be Lord and master of my life,

but I died.

The old me died and I've been now reborn.

And so the Lord of my life is now him.

Can you say this?

The Lord of your life is now Jesus Christ.

The Bible says you can't even say that and mean it apart from the Holy Spirit of God living within you.

No man can say that Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit of God.

Now you can just say it,

but you can't say it and actually mean it.

So Paul says that because we died to the old us,

the law of God is also not our master anymore.

The law has done its job.

It brought us to him.

We are his now forever.

We belong to him now forever.

He is how we are saved,

not the law.

He is who leads,

not the law.

He is who speaks,

not the law.

And so he gives us another picture.

To help us understand this time,

it's the picture of marriage.

Look at verse two for the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.

But if the husband dies,

she is released from the law of her husband.

So again,

another picture of death here,

but it's a really simple picture.

A married woman.

She is bound to her husband as long as he is alive.

If she,

if he dies,

she,

she is no longer married to him,

no longer bound to him anymore.

In legal terms,

she has been released.

Okay.

Released picture goes on verse three.

So then if while her husband lives,

she marries another man,

she's going to be called an adulteress.

But if her husband dies,

she is free from that law so that she is not an adulteress,

though she has married another man,

right?

So again,

very simple.

If she's married,

she goes and marries another man.

She's broken the law of the land.

She's also broken the law of God.

She is called an adulteress.

if her husband dies,

she's no longer married.

She's no longer married to the one who died.

She is free to marry someone else.

Again,

all of this is just a picture to get us to verse four.

Look at verse four.

with all of that in mind,

my brethren believers,

you also have become dead to the law through the body of Jesus Christ.

That you might be married to another to him who was raised from the dead that we should bear fruit to God.

So in the picture before you were saved,

you were sort of married to the law of God.

You were bound to God's law to keep it or die,

right?

That that's you know,

you're unable to do it.

And so you were guilty and condemned and there was no way to get out of that.

There's no way to just like say it doesn't matter to me.

I don't follow the law.

And so it doesn't apply to me.

It doesn't really matter if you don't follow it.

It applies to you.

You couldn't free yourself from it again.

Keep the law and live,

break the law and die.

That's universal.

But when you came to Jesus Christ,

you died to the old you.

And when you died,

you were released from the law as master as keep this and live over your life.

You've been released from that.

You are now married to another to the Lord.

And so now you are in Jesus.

And I wish we had the time to go through this.

I told my wife I had such a hard time.

I've been prepping this all week long.

I have pulled out so many things which we had time to talk about being in Christ.

But you are now in Christ rather than in the flesh.

Look at verse five for when we were in the flesh.

This is talking about when we were unsaved people.

Bible says you are in Christ.

You are in the flesh.

So it means to be unsaved all throughout the New Testament.

Flesh refers not just to skin.

It's a description of the human right in contrast to God.

So flesh is a word that describes temporary weakness decay,

you know,

That's what flesh describes.

It's a word that summarizes the unsaved person's life and thinking and desires.

They're dominated by the.

Flesh in contrast to the spirit of God.

That's the contrasting word throughout the New Testament, especially in Romans.

The word spirit refers to the God centric life refers to loving the Lord and knowing

the Lord and wanting to serve the Lord and coming to him and asking for him to lead your

It's a word that describes a saved person.

And so these two words are set in contrast.

You're either in Christ, you're either in the spirit or you are in the flesh, unsaved,

Or saved forever.

And so either flesh is your master or the Lord is your master.

You're either controlled by the flesh, led by the flesh, or you are led by the Holy Spirit of God.

And so read it again with that understanding.

Verse five, it says for when we were in the flesh, when we were unsaved and without Christ and without hope,

it is at that time.

Look at how our lives were defined.

Verse five, sinful passions were aroused by the law.

The word sinful passions there.

It refers to intense.

Intense evil desire, very graphic word, honestly, intense desire for evil.

That's a scary person, right?

And yet that was all of us prior to Christ.

This is the reality you come to in the gospel.

I've not done good.

I have not been good.

I've not done right.

I've not been right.

I need to be saved.

Sinful passions, these strong desires for things that are wrong.

It says verse five, they were aroused by the law.

They were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

Let's camp there for just a second.

What does it mean that that evil desires, sinful desires were aroused by the law?

It means that because we are, we were unsaved, we're unrighteous.

We were drawn to evil because of our rebellion to God.

When the law would say, don't do this.

We wanted to do that.

I read an example that someone gave.

If a store.

Owner painted on the front of their window.

Do not throw rocks at this glass.

How long do you think it would be before a rock went flying through that glass?

Not very long.

It's almost like if you tell people don't do that, they're like, I want to do that.

That's what I want to do now, right?

The law would say, do this.

And we go, I don't want to do that.

By the way, you can test this theory out to see if this works.

Take a piece of candy and your child or your grandchild.

Just take a piece of candy, set it on the table in front of them and say, I'm going

to go into the other room.

Don't eat that.

Don't touch it.

Don't look at it.

Leave it alone.

You can leave the room.

Come back in and you will find that child like staring, touching, right?

Is it running down their face?

Did you eat that?

It's red.

It's running down their face.

You know, you know, what's going to happen.

That's silly example.

It shows that the doing wrong is not something you have to teach.

It's inside of us.

Those sinful desires.

They are continually at work.

That's the point of the verse.

They are inside of us.

Sin is our master by default, pulling at our desires, leading the way in our lives.

And, and all of this produced death in us.

Our evil desires did not produce anything good or beneficial.

They produce shame and pain and guilt and sorrow.

Paul even asks in Romans, what fruit do you have now of the things you used to do that

you're so ashamed of?

There's no fruit from those things.

There's no fruit from those things, but now we have been delivered from the law.

So you say, in what way have we been delivered from the law?

Well, we have been delivered from the law, from the demand of the law to be perfect,

to be accepted.

You see the law demanded that you keep it perfectly in order to be accepted, but get

this as a true follower of Jesus Christ, not, this isn't true of church goers.

It's not true.

It's not true.

It's not true of people trying to be good.

If you are trusting Jesus Christ, you are already accepted and you're not perfect.

You are what Ephesians says accepted in the beloved.

How good, how good is this news?

You're not perfect.

And yet you are accepted in the beloved.

You say, why, what did I do to deserve that?

That's the point.

You didn't do anything to deserve it.

Well, what did I do to earn it?

That's the point. You didn't earn it. What do I do?

To pay for it?

No, that's the thing.

You can't pay for it.

Well, how do I get it?

See, but that's not fair.

I know it's called grace and it is the only way anybody will ever be saved.

You try to earn it.

You won't get it.

You try to pay for it.

He won't give it.

You try to deserve it.

It won't be given to you.

You must admit your need.

Come to God for mercy.

He will give it.

If you've come to Jesus Christ in genuine repentance over, over your sin, if you've

come to him for mercy and salvation, not just for insurance.

After life, if he is truly your Lord and savior, then you have already been accepted.

You don't need to try to be accepted.

And this is what it means that the law is no longer in effect in your life.

It's no longer master over you.

You do not have to do anything to be accepted.

If you are trusting Jesus Christ, I don't know who needs to hear it.

If you're trusting Jesus Christ today, you make it, you make it, you make it.

The Bible confirms this over and over.

You make it not because of what you've done, but because of what he has done.

Let me quickly explain how this works.

The law is like writing out the character of God.

It's like what God would want, what God would do.

The law was given to man, as we said, to show that we are not law keepers.

Very, very important.

It's a mirror revealing the problem that we love wickedness.

We love ourselves.

So the law proved, then the law, God took this law and he moved it.

He moved it from tablets, the Bible says of stone, and he wrote it on the heart of every

single person who has ever lived.

It's written on your heart.

God says he moved it from tablets of stone to tablets of flesh, to the heart.

So that every single person has this standard with them at all times.

Every single thought, every single action is judged against the law of God written in

And each thing we do, each thing we think, each thing we say.

If it goes against what God wants, it is wrong.

And so we are guilty and we compile that compounding every single day.

We are compounding wrong.

But then if we are doing what aligns with God's word, then we are doing what is right

according to the law.

And so we're doing good and right.

And so then we're not guilty and we're not condemned in those things.

This is happening in every single person, whether they know the Lord or they do not.

The law of God has been written on the heart of every person.

Now the law was given to show you just how good you have to be to enter heaven by being

How good do you have to be?

You have to be perfect to enter heaven.

You have to be perfect.

So the law, of course, since no one's perfect, made everybody guilty because it demanded

But listen, this, this is what the law was designed to do.

It made you run to God for mercy, for grace, to run to God for the forgiveness of sins.

I'm telling you all of this is because of what happens after once the law has done its

job and it brought you to Christ.

It's what we said before you died to the old you, you are now in Jesus.

You are now alive because he's alive.

And then something happens inside of you.

Something happens inside of the true Christian in, in, in regards to keeping the law.

Guess what happens?

You become a law keeper.

You become a law keeper.

But get this.

You, you begin to do what is right.

And what God would want, not because of anybody pushing on you, not because of anybody forcing

you, not because there are laws over you to make you afraid.

That's not why you do what's right.

You have now become a law keeper, not because of these things, but because you have been

accepted by God.

And so you begin to want to, you don't have to, you want to.

You want to do what God wants.

We want to obey him, please him, make him happy.

We're not trying to get away with stuff.

We're not trying to, to, to beat the system.

We're not trying to just have enough religion so that we can get into heaven.

We're not trying to earn God's love.

We already have it.

We're not trying to earn salvation.

We already have it.

We're not trying to earn acceptance.

We already have it.

We don't do good to try to earn these things we do good because God's been good to us.

Does this make sense?

It's such a difference.

Let me illustrate it a very simple way.

What is the difference between demanding that my child do the dishes, threatening them with

what will happen if they do not, and then them doing the dishes out of obligation and

with a bad attitude?

You're like, you just described our morning, right?

What's the difference between that scenario and this one?

What's the difference between loving on them, showing kindness to them, giving grace in

grace, and then them doing dishes out of gratefulness for us as their parents?

Doing the dishes maybe unprompted or when asked but with a great attitude and thankfulness

in their heart.

What's the difference?

The dishes are being done either way.

What's the difference?

Some of you are like, the only thing you can think about right now is, wait, kids do dishes

unasked, right?

Like the dishes are being done either way, but the difference is massive.

The difference is everything.

The difference, please hear this, willingly, willingly.

Can I tell you?

Nobody's pushing on my life to make me be good, to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Nobody's doing that.

That is an inward thing.

I want to honor the Lord.

I want to follow.

I want to obey.

I want to please him with my life.

Nobody has to come along and push on me inwardly, not because I'm afraid of anything, I want

to please him with my life.

This is how you die to the law.

This is the game changer.

We become law keepers because we want to.

We want to follow him as closely as we can.

I remember sharing the gospel with my boss one day at General Motors several years ago.

And he said, he had, he was going to have a party or something and he said, oh, he said,

I didn't invite you because I know you, I know you can't party because he knew I was

He knew I love the Lord.

He's like, you can't.

I said, dude.

I have no desire to do that like it's like a negative, a thousand desire to do that.

I have absolutely like not even understanding, thinking that, and that's what religion is.

It pushes on you from the outside to conform, but man, relationship, such a difference inside.

You begin to want to be like him because he has been so good to you.

William McDonald put it this way.

He said, our service is motivated by love, not fear.

It is a service of freedom, not bondage.

It is no longer a question of slavishness.

We are not slavishly adhering to minute details of form and ceremonies, but of the joyful

outpouring of ourselves for the glory of God and the blessing of others.

That's so true.

Leon Morris put it this way.

He said, we engage in upright living as the result, but not the cause of our salvation.

In other words, we are not trying to earn salvation.

We already have it.

And right living comes out of that because we want to please God.

This is the game changer folks.

Religion will crush you.

It will kill you every single time.

Relationship changes everything.

We'll look at verse six again.

We've been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by so that we should

serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

So what we just described is what it means to serve in the newness of the spirit.

Are you serving in this way?

The Lord in the newness of the spirit, it means to live in that willing response to

Does that describe you?

Are you afraid of, of going to hell?

And so you're going to, you're going to go to church and going to, you know, do right

things or whatever.

Are you, are you afraid of what will happen?

Are you, are you living this life in the newness of the spirit or in the oldness of the letter?

It's referring to the law of God before Jesus, the demand to, to keep it perfectly while

we're told we died to this.

And this leads to a very natural and logical question.

Does this mean that the law is broken or evil?

Verse seven says it.

What shall we say then?

Is the law sin?

Paul says on the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.

Listen, the law did not cause us to sin.

We sinned because we wanted to.

The rules in place do not make people break the rules.

People break the rules because they want to.

The rules just reveal that they want to.

The rules are there to make people aware of what is to be done and what is not to be done.

So Paul says, is the law sin?

There is no problem with the law of God.

We are the problem.

As I said at the beginning, I am the problem, not God's law.

So Paul says, I wouldn't have known, uh, essentially what sin is except through the law.

Basically, um, I wouldn't have known I was breaking the rules until the sign posted said,

these are the rules.

So he gives an example from his own life for 70 says for, I would not have known covetousness

unless, unless the law had said, you shall not covet.

So Paul says, uh, one of his own personal struggles was to covet means to have a strong

For what someone else has.

And Paul says, I didn't know I was coveting until I read the 10 10th commandment.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house or your neighbor's wife or his male servant

or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything else that is your neighbors.

Paul says, when I read that, I realized I covet.

And so it's like sitting on the grass and somebody comes and nails in a sign that says,

keep off the grass.

Now the law has made you aware that you are a lawbreaker.

It makes you guilty.

So Paul says, verse eight, but sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in

me all manner of evil desire.

So this is what we said before.

As soon as Paul knew what the law said not to do, suddenly he had a strong inward desire

to do those things.

One man said it this way.

The sinful nature is like a sleeping dog.

When the law comes and says, don't the dog wakes up and goes on a rampage.

It's like doing excessively whatever is forbidden, man.

So true.

Again, William McDonald said, we come to realize that whenever an act is forbidden, our fallen

nature wants to do it all the more.

So Paul says, verse eight, for apart from the law, sin was dead, meaning it wasn't active.

Paul didn't know anything about what God said before he was a believer, but verse nine,

I was alive.

Paul said once, meaning I didn't even know about these things without the law.

But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died before Paul was saved.

The body was fine.

And this is true of every unsaved person.

It's the great deception of unsaved people.

They think they're fine.

They think that they're not so bad.

They think that they are better than others.

And this is just not even close to true.

It is not until the law of God comes that we realize we need to be saved.

So verse 10 and the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

You know, the Jewish person thought that simply knowing the law of God, knowing the scriptures

made them saved.

But to the person who actually tried to keep it, they only learned that they couldn't.

And so instead of it bringing blessing and joy, the law did its job and it condemned every

person as a law breaker.

So verse 11, Paul says, sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it killed

me.

And when Paul says that it deceived him, he's expressing his frustration.

You're going to see it at the end of the next, at the end of this chapter, he's expressing

his frustration.

You see, Paul had the idea that he could obey the law.

The law in his own power.

Paul had the idea that he could put his head down and grind through it, make it happen.

Stay away from those things, do these things.

Paul had that idea and he said it deceived him.

He thought he was strong enough and maybe you think you're strong enough.

He thought he was faithful enough and maybe you think you're faithful enough and he thought

he was able.

And maybe you think you're capable to live righteously in your own effort.

You are going to find out that is not the case.

And if you're honest, you already know it.

It's not the case.

We find out we are not able to.

It deceived him.

He thought he could.

So verse 12, his summary, and this is where we conclude this morning, Paul says, therefore

the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good.

Here's Paul's summary.

The law is good.

I am not.

The law is good.

I'm the problem, Paul says.

And you're going to see this in incredible detail in next week, but this is where trying

to make it happen leaves you.

Frustrated, defeated, worn out, just tired.

And you might be there today.

And this is the point.

So Paul's trying to say in Romans 7, your effort is not enough.

You have to die to the idea that you got this.

That message is going to bury you.

You don't got this.

You've never had this.

In fact, everything you've had, you need to not have.

That's been your problem.

That's been my problem.

You don't got this.

You can't put your head down and make it happen.

That's the reason you keep failing because it is your power that you're relying upon.

You have to die to this idea.

You must die to the idea that you're able and capable and strong and faithful.

And you go, what about my self-esteem?

You've got enough self-esteem.

More than enough.

Dear Lord, all we ever do is think about ourselves, but listen, it is only then when you finally

die to all that, it is only then that you turn to him for his power.

And this is the secret.

This is what Romans 7, this is how it leads you into victory in Romans 8, is you give

up on your power and on your ability.

It is only then that you can move from the frustration of Romans 7 into the blessing

and victory of Romans 8.

More next week on that.

Maybe today you are stuck in Romans 6, a life that is dominated by sin and by death.

What you need to do today is in reality.

In humbling yourself, you need to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness

of your sin.

The law is designed to push you to him.

You have not yet turned to him.

You can do that right now.

Only he can break the power of sin in your life.

Only he can make you a new creation.

But if you will turn to him, he will do it.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for your word.

We thank you for the truth of it.

We thank you, Lord, that these things are real.

I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to move.

From Romans 7 to Romans 8, Lord, may you give us mercy and grace for that.

I pray, Lord, for any person here today or watching online that's stuck in Romans 6.

Sin just dominating and creating death in their lives.

I pray right now, if that's you, talk to Jesus.

Humble yourself before him.

Admit your need.

The Bible says you must do two things.

You must repent and believe.

To repent of sin means to come to God admitting it, admitting that you're a sinner, admitting

that you need to be saved.

And then believing that what Jesus Christ did on that cross was for you.

It wasn't symbolic.

It was for you.

He paid for your sin.

You must come to him in belief now.

You must ask him.

You must ask him to save you.

He will do it.

Turn to the Lord now.

He's listening to you.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you for your love for us.

Thank you for your word.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

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