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Save a sinner from hell.

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It is incapable of redeeming a person from his sin, giving him new life in Jesus Christ.

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And secondly, the law cannot make a person holy.

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It cannot sanctify a person.

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What then is the law for?

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Would be the question that we're asking.

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What good is the law?

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If God didn't give it to save people and God didn't give it to sanctify people, why the

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law?

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What is its purpose?

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Well, it tells us that there are four works of the law in our text.

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Our text is Romans 7.

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I'm going to begin reading in verse 7.

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It says, What shall we say then?

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Is the law sin?

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May it never be.

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On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law.

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For I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, You shall not covet.

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But sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind.

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For apart from the law, sin is dead.

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And I was alive, once alive apart from the law.

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But when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.

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And this commandment which was to result in life proved to result in death for me.

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For sin taking opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me.

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So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

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Therefore did that which is good become cause of death for me?

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May it never be, rather it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting

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my death through that which is good.

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That through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

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Four works which the law is to accomplish.

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What good is the law?

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Let me give them to you.

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And by the way, all of these are in the life of the sinner, though we're going to make

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some application today to the saints as well.

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And I would draw your attention to the fact that the apostle Paul is giving a personal

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testimony.

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Beginning in verse 7, he starts using this personal pronoun, I.

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In the verses we have read, he is sharing with us his experience with the law before

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he was converted on the road to Damascus.

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Now it is true that up to a certain point Paul knew the law, he knew it intellectually,

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from a youngster he had been trained in it.

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But there came a time when the law did a deeper work in his life.

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He shares with us very transparently his own experience.

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The first work of the law is that it reveals sin.

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The apostle tells us his own experience, I would not have known about coveting if the

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law had not said, you shall not covet.

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Now he knew the commandment before that, but the commandment about coveting was never personally

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applied to him.

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That is, he never experienced conviction in his own heart about it until a certain point

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when the Spirit of God began to use the law to reveal his personal sinfulness.

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And after that Paul could never be the same again.

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Up to that point he could boast about the fact he had kept the law externally as people

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would look at him.

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And yet the Spirit of God now shows him that internally he is vile and perverse, he is

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corrupt and wretched.

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And that's what he means when he says, I would not have known about coveting.

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He would not have known personal conviction for his sinfulness if the law had not revealed

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that specific sin in his life.

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I believe a person cannot be saved until he first comes to the point of recognizing his

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sin.

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He must be able to do more than theologically define it.

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Paul could have done that as a youngster.

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He must come to that place when he senses his personal undone-ness before God.

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He has to come to that spot when he senses his shame and his unworthiness before the

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Holy God of the universe.

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A man cannot simply say, well, I think I'll try Jesus, I've tried everything else.

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He can't say, well, Jesus sounds like a good way to go, I'll put him on the shelf with

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the rest of my gods.

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No way.

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A man has to come to the place of his personal bankruptcy before God and turn in faith to

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Jesus Christ.

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The law must reveal his personal sinfulness.

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But the law does more than do that.

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It also revives sin, verses eight and nine.

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There was once when Paul felt alive himself when the law before the law had done its work

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in him.

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That is, he was alive to his own righteousness and he felt pretty good before God.

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But then the commandment came, the law came to him, and the result was that sin within

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him, which he had not recognized to that point, spring to life.

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It was aroused by the law.

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The prohibition only caused the coveting within him to explode.

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Apparently, the commandment revealed one sin of coveting.

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And when Paul recognized that, suddenly the curtain was drawn back and he saw his heart

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as it really was, defiled with coveting and every other kind of sin.

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And that sin began to explode in his life and he was guilty before God.

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He says, sin became alive and I died.

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You see, he died to his self-righteousness, to his sense of personal well-being before

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God.

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Man cannot be saved until he experiences the same thing.

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As long as a person comes to God and says, well, you know, God, I'm a pretty good guy,

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but I'm willing to accept Jesus too, he's not going to be saved.

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He must come to God as Paul did, recognizing death to his own self-righteousness.

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He must die to what he thinks is good about him, those meritorious things, those pluses.

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He must die to those, recognize that they are but, as Paul says, loss, that he needs

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Jesus Christ to be saved.

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Have you ever done that?

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Or are you still dealing with sin and trying to hide it and push it back into the closet

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rather than confessing it, repenting of it, and trusting the Savior?

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Let me apply this to a Christian for a moment.

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Because you know, there are Christians who think that having been saved by grace, they

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can now best please God by keeping rules.

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That's called legalism.

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They think that they can become holy, that they even grow in Christ by keeping certain

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man-made, often cultural standards and rules.

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And some even go to the point of saying, well, I have to obey the Mosaic Law in order to

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please God.

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That is what the Bible calls legalism.

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And I'd like you to know that legalism will never lead a Christian to true holiness.

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Actually, when a person turns to legalism, what it does is to arouse the sin principle

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that still is within him, and it only creates more problems for him.

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The Galatian believers are an illustration of this.

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They were genuinely saved by faith in Christ.

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Christ had set them free, says Paul.

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But then they voluntarily submitted themselves again to rule keeping.

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And they said, now if we're going to please God, we've got to obey the law of Moses.

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We've got to go back and do these things as Christians if we're going to please God.

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They were very legalistic.

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And you know what that produced in them?

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Biting and devouring, and they consumed one another.

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Did it make them more holy to keep rules?

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No.

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It didn't make them more holy.

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It only unleashed further the sin principle within them.

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They went downhill instead of uphill.

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It'll happen every time.

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Now, I'm not arguing that there aren't rules to keep.

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I mean, that's part of life.

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There are rules to keep at work.

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There are rules to keep for the government.

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We just passed one rule, April 15th.

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There are places for rules, but my friend, when it comes to spirituality, when it comes

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to our pleasing God as Christians, we must recognize we do not do that by keeping rules,

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by obeying the law.

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How do we please God?

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We please God the same way that we're saved, by walking with Him in faith.

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We are saved by grace through faith, right?

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As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, that is in the same way, so we are to walk

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in Him.

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We're to recognize that our relationship to Him is one that is based upon grace, and

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we walk with Him day by day in faith, in love and devotion, not out of a sense of obligation

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and restriction and rule keeping.

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Legalism only revives sin.

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Now, let's go to the third work of the law.

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Actually, we've been reviewing up to this point.

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Last week, we talked about the two works of the law that we've mentioned.

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Now we come to the third work of the law that we've not covered before in this series.

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The law results in death to the sinner, verses 9 through 11.

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Paul concludes verse 9 by saying, sin became alive, I died.

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This commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me.

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Paul makes an interesting statement.

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He says, the law was given to result in life.

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Does that mean that God gave the law so that people could be justified by faith and could

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have eternal life that way?

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No.

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Man can't do that.

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What does he mean it was to result in life?

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Well, God gave the law to Israel so that through their obedience, they would produce a way

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of life that was well pleasing to God.

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You see, God knows how man can live a full and meaningful life.

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He knows how that can be experienced.

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And so in the law that he gave to Israel, he established for ancient Israel a pattern

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which, if followed, would have produced life for them, a meaningful, satisfying life, one

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pleasing to God.

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Happiness and holiness are twins.

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They go together.

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Now the problem is that man is a sinner.

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He can't live up to that pattern.

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And therefore the sinner cannot know this happiness that can come through the law.

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But a Christian can, not by keeping the law, but because the Christian has the law written

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in his heart.

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Now we're going to get to that in chapter 8, so hang on until then.

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But it says there in verse 4 that the righteousness of the law is right now fulfilled in us.

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We walk not after the flesh, but after the what?

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After the Spirit.

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So as I allow the Holy Spirit to empower me and as I obey the Lord, then I may know the

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happiness, the life that God intended that the law should have produced.

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Only I know it through grace, through the working of the Spirit.

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Paul says though that this law, this commandment that was the result in death, actually did

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what?

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Well, it proved a result in death for him instead of life.

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That was because sin used the law.

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And notice that word opportunity again in verse 11.

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We saw that last week in verse 8.

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It means a base of operations, a beachhead.

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He says that sin used the law as a beachhead to do two things.

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First to deceive him, verse 11, and then to kill him.

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That word deceive in verse 11 is a very strong word.

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It means to utterly and completely deceive.

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It's the same kind of deceit that Satan used on Eve back in the garden.

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He says that sin utterly deceives through the law.

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What does he mean?

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It probably means that because the law seems to say do and live, people think that if they

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attempt to do it, that they will live before God.

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And that is not true.

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Sin is utterly deceitful.

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It is subtle.

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It is beguiling.

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Let me just give you some examples of this from everyday life.

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We have learned more about the effects of alcohol on the human system in the last 25

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or 50 years than men have probably known throughout history before that.

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We know that it kills the brain, that literally when alcohol enters the bloodstream, there

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are cells of the brain that are irreparably damaged and destroyed.

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We know what it does to the liver and other parts of the body.

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And yet do people stop drinking?

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Are there liquor establishments going out of business these days?

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No.

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For even though we know the consequences of drinking, we think that somehow we'll get

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by with it.

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When I say we, I mean editorially.

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People who drink think, well, it's going to happen to other people, but not me.

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What about smoking?

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We have learned a lot about smoking in the last 10 years.

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What it does to the lungs, what it does to the heart, etc., etc.

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And yet does that encourage people to stop smoking?

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No.

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They know the consequences of smoking, but they still smoke.

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They're deceived into thinking, it won't happen to me.

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It happens to other people.

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I have seen people, I remember one man in a hospital bed who had had part of one lung

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out, he had envezeme and what he had left, and he was smoking there in bed.

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Is that smart?

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No, it's dumb.

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But the person is deceived.

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What about pornography?

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People think, well, if I just take a peek, it won't hurt anything.

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Stop thinking, not realizing, being deceived, that once that begins to come into the mind,

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it starts destroying the character and the thought patterns that are right.

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You see, sin is deceitful in life, though we see its consequences, though we experience

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its pain and its agony, sin continues.

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Sin is deceitful about eternity.

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There are people who say, well, you know, I'm a pretty good guy.

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I mean, I do the best that I can.

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I live up to my moral code.

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Not God's, but his own.

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He says, surely God couldn't send a person like me to hell?

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Why, it's ridiculous to think that I would go to judgment.

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No intelligent person could believe that God would send a nice person like me to hell.

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He's deceived by sin.

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There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,

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says Proverbs 14-12.

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Sin is deceitful, and sin can even use the law to deceive.

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As we've said, the law seems to say do and live, and sin deceives the human heart into

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thinking that it can do and live.

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It deceives a person into thinking that as long as he doesn't do the deed, he's not

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guilty before God.

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But the fact is, as Jesus said, if a man thinks it in his heart, he's guilty of it before

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God.

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Sin uses the law to make us think that it will deliver one thing when in truth it delivers

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the other.

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We think that it will bring us life, and yet it brings us death.

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Sin used the law to kill Paul as well as deceive him.

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That's why in 2 Corinthians 3, 16, the law is called the ministry unto condemnation.

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Why is that?

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Because the law delivers the sinner to judgment, to death.

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Paul was alive once, but when the law did its work, he died.

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Sin brought him into condemnation.

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He was ruined and devastated.

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What he thought was pretty good about himself before he suddenly saw his rags before God.

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Sin results in death to the sinner, or rather the law results in death to the sinner.

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It brings him to ruination.

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That's why, my friend, if you are still today under law, not having trusted Jesus Christ,

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you are utterly and completely hopelessly lost.

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The law that you are now trying to keep, thinking you will please God, will someday deliver

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you to the doors of hell and condemnation.

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Now let me apply this to the Christian for a moment.

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Law keeping results in death for Christians too.

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I don't mean losing salvation, but I'm talking about spiritual deadness.

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You know, there are a few things that are more dead than a church that is orthodox and

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legalistic.

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Some of us have been in situations like that, where churches are fundamental, they believe

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in the inerrancy of the Bible and all the rest that we believe in, and yet because they

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are legalistic, they are spiritually dead, dead, dead.

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No life there.

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They boast about the rules they keep and the high standards, quote unquote, that they have,

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and in their fleshly energy they try to live up to those standards and they fail miserably,

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but they don't admit it.

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And the result is that there is no spirit in the church.

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It is a church of the letter, church of the law, not the church of grace, a church of

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the spirit.

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And so often in that kind of church, as some of us have experienced, that legalism causes

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members to judge one another.

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The other guy is not doing what he ought to do.

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Now don't worry about me, but he's not doing what he ought to do.

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He's not living up to the standard he ought to live up to.

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And that finger pointing begins and condemning each other begins, and that results in fights

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within the church, and the fights finally mature into splits, and it leaves everybody

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bitter.

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Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about because you've been to that kind of

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a situation, been through it.

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Legalism brings death to a church, just as law keeping brings death to the sinner.

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I pray God we will forever avoid that.

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Oh, there's a time when there have to be rules, and there are in the word of God.

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There are standards for us.

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But when we think that our spirituality as a church depends upon our rule keeping, or

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we think that we're going to grow in Christ by establishing certain man-made standards

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and rules, then we're mistaken, and we're heading toward death and deadness.

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There's nothing worse than dead orthodoxy.

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And a commentary.

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The news media is very keen on this, and love to portray dead orthodoxy, which is harsh.

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And which is condemning as being what fundamentalism is all about.

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So that today that term is used of that kind of legalistic Christianity.

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I deny that.

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I am not ashamed of the term fundamentalist.

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It's too bad that it's been twisted and applied to a certain group of people that are very

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legalistic.

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But to be a fundamentalist is something not to be ashamed of.

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That means that we believe in the fundamentals of the word of God.

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Let me go on to point number four before I get into trouble.

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The fourth work of the law.

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It reveals sin's sinfulness to the sinner.

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Verses 12 and 13.

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He says, so then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

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We began the paragraph with the question, what shall we say then?

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Is the law sin?

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And Paul has already said no, the law isn't sin.

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And here he clearly says the law is holy and righteous and good.

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Now he uses three terms there.

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This law that brings the sinner to the point of condemnation, this law he says is holy.

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In other words, it comes from a holy God.

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And it's holy because it searches out sin.

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It probes, it puts the spotlight on.

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Actually, the law is the opposite of sin because it shows up sin.

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And he says the law is righteous.

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In other words, it's just.

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It lays just requirements upon men.

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It condemns sin righteously and justly.

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Sin should be condemned.

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Now sin likes to tell us that the law is unfair, that God is unjust in condemning us.

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That's part of its deceit, you see.

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The sin tells us God isn't fair to do that.

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God isn't that kind of a God.

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But the law is absolutely righteous.

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In fact, the law warns us in advance what the consequences are for disobedience.

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That's just.

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That's righteous.

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In a sense, God gave a law to Adam and Eve in the garden.

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He said, don't eat of that tree.

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If you do, you will what?

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Die.

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God warned them what would happen in advance.

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But it didn't stop them, did it?

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And when they died, was God then unrighteous?

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No.

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It was absolutely just because God had warned them.

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They disobeyed.

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They paid the penalty.

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It's not the law's fault.

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Thirdly, he says the law is good.

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The law is good in that its aim, its purpose is to bring life.

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Now how does the law do that when one is a sinner?

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How can the law have a part in bringing a sinner to life?

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We'll turn to a couple of passages with me.

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First Timothy chapter 1 will be the first passage we'll look at.

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We'll begin reading in verse 8, and Paul says the same thing about the law here.

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He says, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

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In other words, if it's able to accomplish why it was given.

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Realizing the fact that law is not made for righteous men, but for those who are lawless

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and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who

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kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers

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and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.

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By the way, it could not be more clear there, could it?

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That the sins that are mentioned are in contradiction to the word of God?

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He says the law was given so that those kinds of things can be exposed and revealed.

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That's why the law was given.

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By the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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Now with that background, turn to Galatians chapter 3, and it is said here so clearly

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that a child can understand it.

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Why is the law good?

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Well, he tells us in Galatians 3, beginning in verse 19, why the law then?

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I'll tell you.

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He says it was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the

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agency of a mediator until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.

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Who is that seed, by the way?

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The Lord Jesus Christ.

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Now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one.

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Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

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May it never be.

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For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, that is impart life in itself,

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then righteousness would indeed have been based on the law.

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But the scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ

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might be given to those who believe.

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But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith

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which was later to be revealed.

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Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified

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by faith.

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Now it could not be more clear than in those verses as to why the law is called good.

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The law is called good, my friend, because it exposes your sin and mine.

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It is used of God the Holy Spirit to convict us of unrighteousness in our lives.

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And when we have that conviction bubbling and churning within, when we see the perversity

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inside us, the law has actually been a school teacher that brings us to Christ.

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So it is good, you see.

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The aim of the law is to provide life by bringing us to Jesus Christ.

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And it says we are justified, made right with God, declared right before Him by faith.

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Not by doing works of the law, but by faith.

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So that is why it says the law is holy, it is righteous, and it is good.

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But now go back to Romans 7.

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I want you to see the real point Paul is trying to make here.

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He says, Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me?

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In other words, he says, do I blame this death on the law?

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May it never be, he says.

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God forbid.

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Rather, it was sin.

403
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:48,640
That is where the blame belongs.

404
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:57,360
It was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that

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which is good.

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That through the commandments, sin might become utterly sinful.

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I believe Paul's main point is this.

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Sin is so evil that it takes what God meant for man's good and uses it to bring him to

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death.

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00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:26,320
The nature, the real nature of sin is in this exposed.

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It's perversity.

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It takes what God intends for good, twists it, and uses it to condemn man.

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The law isn't to blame, but sin is to blame.

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It's important that we understand how sinful sin is.

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That's why I think that we need more preaching about the law, about God's standard of holiness,

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because that's what the law is.

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It is the revelation of God's moral standards, His holiness.

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We need more preaching about that so that we can understand how utterly sinful sin is.

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I believe that we as a church need to preach about sin and against sin and be specific

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about it.

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We need to be confrontive with sin, because until we see sin's wickedness, we will not

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oppose it.

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A sinner needs to see how sinful his sin is.

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So often we think, yeah, it's a bad side of me.

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It's a dirty little part of me, but really I think more of me is good than bad.

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That's sin's deceit right there.

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We think that somehow God's just going to overlook that bad little part of us.

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We accept it, and we allow it to be a part of us without realizing how utterly offensive

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that sin is to a holy God.

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00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:16,320
Even one sin will keep a person out of heaven.

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00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:20,180
Are you guilty of one sin?

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If you sin once in your life, then you will not enter heaven except that sin and all the

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others that you don't admit be forgiven.

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00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:40,360
You see, breaking the law, I've heard compared to breaking a pane of glass, it's not that

435
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:44,000
just a little piece of it's broken and the rest of it's still there.

436
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,440
When it's broken, it's broken.

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And we're guilty before God.

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My friend, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ today, you are under the law's condemnation.

439
00:33:57,320 --> 00:33:58,600
You have broken it.

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00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:04,040
It will deliver you unto death, and I mean eternal death in hell, in separation from

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00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:06,480
God.

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00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,080
It's utterly sinful.

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You need to realize how offensive your sin is before God.

444
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:21,320
But let me apply this to Christians for a minute.

445
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:30,960
There are so many of us who allow sin to remain in our lives without dealing with it.

446
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:36,400
I'm talking to Christians.

447
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:43,240
There are too many of us that have little pet sins that we feed and nurture in our lives.

448
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:46,600
Oh, outwardly we've got it all together.

449
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:53,240
We come to church, we sing the hymns, and beautiful Christian.

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00:34:53,240 --> 00:35:01,160
But on the inside, there is sin that we refuse to deal with.

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00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:07,580
My friend, when that is the case, when that is the case, there will be no spiritual power

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or fruit in your life.

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00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:15,680
It may be that within you today, you are harboring the pet sin of lust.

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Now nobody knows you think the thoughts you do and that you have the thought patterns

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00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:24,840
you do, and maybe even do some of the things you do.

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00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:25,840
Basically it's hidden.

457
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:30,280
It's under the surface, and you are harboring that sin.

458
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:35,740
You are protecting its turf in your life as a Christian.

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00:35:35,740 --> 00:35:42,280
I want to warn you about the sinfulness of sin and how offensive that is to God that

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00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:46,120
you should do that.

461
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:50,560
It may be that you are harboring bitterness.

462
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:55,080
Someone has wronged you and you just cannot forgive them.

463
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,000
You say, well, they haven't asked me to forgive them.

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It doesn't make any difference.

465
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,000
You're to forgive them anyway.

466
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:04,040
You're to forgive them in advance.

467
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:09,920
And yet you struggle with that and you refuse to give up that bitterness.

468
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:15,400
And it has become like a piece of candy in your mouth and you just kind of roll it around.

469
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:16,800
You don't want to swallow it.

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00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:24,000
You just want to roll it around, enjoy that bitterness, get all you can out of it.

471
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:29,760
And you don't realize it's deceiving you and you don't realize how that is damaging

472
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:35,460
your life and your family and your walk with God.

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00:36:35,460 --> 00:36:40,800
We too need to see the sinfulness of sin, my Christian friend.

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00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:44,000
We need to see what it does to God.

475
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:50,360
We need to see how offensive it is to a holy God when we allow sin to remain unchallenged

476
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:56,280
in our lives, when we compromise with it and live with it, when we are, as God Himself

477
00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:03,320
says, spiritual adulterers who claim to love Jesus Christ and at the same time are committing

478
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:08,000
whoredom with sin.

479
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,720
It is serious business.

480
00:37:10,720 --> 00:37:14,180
What we need to do is to hate sin.

481
00:37:14,180 --> 00:37:17,280
We need to repent of sin.

482
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:21,960
I want you to know that repentance is not in addition to faith.

483
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,600
But where there is genuine faith, there is repentance.

484
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:27,320
It's part of it.

485
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:28,320
What does it mean to repent?

486
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,480
It means to change the mind.

487
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:36,240
If you've never trusted Jesus Christ, what you need to do is to change your mind about

488
00:37:36,240 --> 00:37:40,420
your sin, to see it for its awfulness.

489
00:37:40,420 --> 00:37:43,160
You need to change your mind about yourself.

490
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:46,760
God is not pretty well pleased with you.

491
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:52,920
You're condemned by His law, His just, holy, righteous law.

492
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:54,840
You need to change your mind about God.

493
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:58,920
He's not being mean and unfair.

494
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:02,840
He's a holy God who loves you.

495
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:08,320
And you need to turn around and come to Him in faith and receive from Him forgiveness

496
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:12,320
and eternal life.

497
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,880
My Christian friend, you may need to repent too.

498
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:19,680
You do if there's sin in your life that's not confessed.

499
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:24,400
If you're harboring sin, you need today to change your mind about that and to see what

500
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,920
it is doing to you and your walk with God.

501
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:31,520
In Ephesians 422, it talks about deceitful lusts.

502
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:36,160
In Hebrews chapter 3, it warns us about the deceitfulness of sin.

503
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:39,360
Do not be deceived any longer.

504
00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:45,800
That little sin that you pit and you hold so dear in your life is bringing you down,

505
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:49,200
down, down.

506
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:54,960
And you need today to repent of it and come to the Savior and establish His Lordship again

507
00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:57,080
in your life.

508
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,800
How lost we would be without Him.

509
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:02,560
Do you love Him today?

510
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:05,320
Oh, you say, I love Jesus.

511
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:06,320
A.J.

512
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:11,560
Gordon said, my Jesus, I love Thee.

513
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:14,600
I know Thou art mine.

514
00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:20,760
For Thee, all the follies of sin, I resign.

515
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:22,960
Will you do that today?

516
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:29,640
Father, I pray today You will help us to deal with sin.

517
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:36,960
May it be exposed in our lives for the enemy that it is.

518
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:44,840
I pray that the Holy Spirit will press hard upon our hearts and will bring us to the place

519
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:49,560
of repentance this day for our sakes.

520
00:39:49,560 --> 00:40:07,960
And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.