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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Please join me this morning in Romans chapter number 7. We'll look at verses 7 through 14 in Romans 7.

[0:13] As you're turning there, you know, school is ending for many teenagers this week, and even college students, and I guess they're aware of that fact. I know Adam, smiling real big, is aware of it. Him and Santiago graduate in the next couple weeks.

[0:26] Yeah, there you go. And several others, not next Sunday, but the following, we'll take time and honor our graduates, college and high school. And how many of you enjoyed school growing up? Would you raise your hand?

[0:37] All right, a few of you. I hope you do, Coach, as a teacher. And some of you enjoy it and some of you don't. There's different things. And I like to, we come into a new season in the summer. I like to encourage you at 520 today.

[0:49] Brother Robert will teach us in the meeting today, and we'll be getting ready for a children's three-day camp in the summer. And really want to put some emphasis in those ministries this summer. Some of us like school.

[1:00] Then when you get older, you like some subjects and you hate others. One class you love, like gym, and the next minute you're in English class and you hate it. And it goes back and forth because there's some lessons you like to learn and others that you don't really care to learn.

[1:13] It's exciting to see an Adam and Santiago, not age group. It's because the church has been here for seven years. We now have people that were in our children's ministry now graduating. And that's the wonderful thing about being around.

[1:24] I lost a lot of money on that one, but they are graduating. And we're excited. We're excited for them. But being taught is a hard thing. And so I said in the cheesy, horrible, comical illustration about a Q-tip being misused, the law has a desired purpose in our lives.

[1:41] And oftentimes we allow it to do more than it's supposed to do. It's a great teacher, but it cannot fulfill what it teaches us is wrong in our lives. And that can only be done by our precious Redeemer in Jesus.

[1:52] And so we'll see that today. Let's read Romans chapter number 7, verses 7 through 14. And then I'll pray. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law.

[2:05] For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought to me all manner concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead.

[2:15] For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained, the life I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

[2:28] Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me. God forbid, but sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good.

[2:43] That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. And we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, so it under sin. Heavenly Father, I pray that you illuminate our minds, Lord, as we study your word today.

[2:55] Help us have understanding of the proper use of the law. Help us, Lord, as we share the gospel, Lord. We help people see where the law applies to our justification, seeing our need of a savior.

[3:07] Lord, help us as Christians desiring to grow into your image. We'll see the law in its proper place, Lord. And once again, it will drive us to run to you and to trust you alone.

[3:18] Lord, I pray that we will live lives in the spirit of Christ, Lord, allowing you to work through us. And I ask that you'll help us today, Lord. I pray that these words, your text, Lord, will speak to your people.

[3:30] In Jesus' name I pray, amen. So up to this point in here, you would almost think that Paul was making grace into a license and you were making law into sin.

[3:41] Or at least that's what he's combating here when he says that. When he answers a question, then apparently the people listening are, they're asking that question. What shall we say then? Is law sin? He says no. And you might come to that thought by now.

[3:54] And verses like in Romans chapter number 3 and verse number 20, Paul is speaking and he says, Therefore by the deeds of the law, therefore shall no flesh be justified in the sight.

[4:05] For the law is the knowledge of sin. Then and down in verse 28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Then in 520, Moreover the law entered and the offense might abound, but where sin abound, the grace did much more abound.

[4:21] So as we look at those verses, we could very easily begin to think, then what is the purpose of the law? It seems to only cause damage and there seems to be no use for it when we look at those verses.

[4:32] But as he did in chapter number 6, he defended grace. And he explained that grace didn't give us a license to sin. In chapter 7, he's going to defend law and says, Law does not create sin in your life, but it exposes something that you need to know about yourself.

[4:48] The most important lesson that we'll ever teach to our teenagers or kids is his lesson that the law is going to teach them. Paul answers in chapter 6 is this, That no justification by grace through faith does not lead to more sinning.

[5:02] And on the contrary, it is only sure and hopeful base of operations for which the fight against sin can be launched. So he's saying that grace here doesn't give us a license to sin, but understanding grace is the only footing that we can have to fight against sin when we realize that Jesus, in his goodness, is saving us from sin.

[5:20] And now in chapter 7, he makes a three-fold argument. It's tremendous here. He says that the law is not sinful. It's holy, just, and good. He says that the law reveals sin.

[5:32] It arouses sin. And that the sin, it was used to slay us. It was something good as the law that accomplishes these results because there's something radically wrong inside of us. And the conclusion is, see how sinful sin is that we can use something good like the law to produce such tragic results.

[5:51] We have a way of taking anything in God's creation and manipulating it into something that it wasn't created for. You see that in unnatural affections. You see that in what we do with where we worship creation over the Creator.

[6:04] And then we see that in our sinful nature, we take the law, which was supposed to expose the fact that we are sinners, which was supposed to lay down a ruler, if you will, to our lives and say that you're sinners, and we take it and somehow think it's going to accomplish our salvation.

[6:19] So verse number 7 said, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? And answer, say it with me, is the law sin? No, it is not. Not only is it not sin, it says here, but it's good. It says it's holy, just, and good.

[6:32] So we understand holy means completely separate. And so it's the standard there. But not only is it a standard for rightness, and not only is it just, but it says that it's good.

[6:43] You're probably familiar with the passage in Romans chapter number 5, verse number 7. It speaks that, it says that we would die for a righteous man. But it says, per venture, a good man, some would even dare to die.

[6:54] And it talks about a righteous man, and also talks about a good man. If you told me about a person, and I knew that he was a good man, he was just, he was a good citizen, and you asked me if I wanted to die for him, I might make that decision to do that, as people would do in our military, they would make decisions.

[7:11] But if you asked me about a person that's good, that a person that his intention for my life is good, somebody that I know, maybe one of the men of the church, and I know that they have cared for me, I would most certainly be more interested.

[7:25] I haven't made any promises to you guys yet, okay? I want to make sure I phrase this properly here. But I'd be much more likely to know the fact that somebody is good. And so it says here that we know that the law is holy and just, and I think we know that.

[7:37] We know that the Ten Commandments are holy and just, and the law given in the Old Testament there. But you also know it's good, meaning that God gave it with good intention for you, that it was given not to harm you, but to help you, that it was given there to do a wonderful work in your life.

[7:54] That's how the word good here is used, is that that intention here is for you. The Old Testament writers seem to love the law. In Psalm 1-2, the psalmist said, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law does he meditate day and night.

[8:08] Psalm 119-97, O how love I the law, it is thy meditation all the day. So we find that people love the law, but if you're like me, in the book of Romans here, we begin to wonder what is so lovely about the law, it only seems to cause problems.

[8:24] In the process, sin may flare up even more than it did before it was exposed. That's what we see in verse number 8. It says, but sin taken occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for without the law, sin was dead.

[8:38] So that it will flare up. But just because when the law was exposed, that our sin showed its head and it flared up, it does not mean that the law created that sin in us. And we see examples in the Bible.

[8:49] Before the law, we know that Noah, he gets off the boat and he gets drunk and there's sin there. We know that the Tower of Babel happens before the law is given. We see a brother killing a brother before the law was ever brought to us.

[9:04] And I'm also thankful to seeing, Galatians 3.17, that 430 years before the law, justification was brought. So I want to start with that, because we find that there's sin before the law is brought.

[9:16] We also see there's salvation before the law is brought, and justification. Because the law does not sanctify us, and also the law does not save us. And so the two places that it's misused, as the Q-tip is misused in your ear, and I imagine some of you will not take my warning, and you'll still continue on your Q-tip ways.

[9:35] But there's two ways in which the law is often misused, and one being in justification, as the gospel is shared, and then also in sanctification. And we'll see that here in a little bit.

[9:47] So what does the law accomplish in our lives? If we're so much aware of the fact of what it's not supposed to accomplish there, what does it do? In verse number 7, it says that it makes us aware of our sin.

[9:59] How would I have known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not cuff it? It's a great illustration Pastor gives about the horrific pain of knowing our sin, and the message has been preached about Dr. Law and Dr. Grace, and how thankful he was when he went in there, and the doctor said, You have cancer in your kidney, and he did not look at the doctor with hatred, because the doctor was just diagnosing a problem that was there.

[10:23] Well, the law does the same thing in our life. It exposes not only sin, but it exposes a sinful nature. I have found that people so oftentimes are willing to acknowledge sin, that they do not want to acknowledge the sinful nature.

[10:37] And the law does that here. Sin brings about all manner of concupiscence, it's said. And so it says, Sin brings sin, as it would seem. But Paul's mind here is something beneath the sin here of coveting, which is producing coveting.

[10:50] That there's something at who we are that produces a desire to covet, that produces this outward sin. And we call that our sinful nature. It's the fact that we sin because we are sinners.

[11:03] And that the result of being born in Adam, we know right and wrong and we desire rebellion. And there's no microscope, there's no self-help book, there's no guru, there's no philosopher that could reveal to us the truth about our sinful nature like the Word of God does.

[11:19] How does mankind know that we need a precious Redeemer? But He gave us the law, and as we see it, we're aware of it. And when the law says don't sin, we learn of our sinful nature as we try our best not to sin, but our failure on the do level exposes to us our be level.

[11:34] Yes, Pastor and others and I have made, have kept referencing the pyramid not being on the wall so much that Robert brought it back up there for us. But it says here that the law brings a point to us in speaking to the unbeliever here, and it shows us what the law is, and it reveals something to us on the be level that we are not lovers of righteousness, that we do not love His way, that we want our own way.

[11:58] And then verses 8 and 9, it says that the law, it arouses sin in our lives. 1 Corinthians 15, 56 goes on to say that the sting of death is sin, but the strength of sin is the law.

[12:10] So that we find that the sin has a strength here in the law. And since we have a sinful nature, the law is bound to arouse the nature that a way of magnet would draw the steel.

[12:21] You know, we say this about our children, and it's true about us, that if you give us a roll to break, we want to break it, right? There's so many things, little videos on YouTube, you leave a kid in a room with a cookie and tell him he can't have it, and you just watch him there.

[12:35] Or if we were to paint something and say do not touch, it's just there. And that's funny at times, unless it's your kid, somebody else's kid is funny. But it's funny at times, but not only is it funny, but it's biblical.

[12:46] In Romans 8, 7, we're told of the unbeliever that the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be. That the unbeliever cannot submit itself to God's law because it doesn't want to, because it's that sinful nature inside of us.

[13:01] We saw on Thursday, Abimelech can do these outward things of morality, but he can't be, he's not righteous. He doesn't desire to honor and glorify God. He desires to preserve his life, and if you can give him a reason that is good for him to do right, he wants to do it.

[13:16] But if you bring him something, and you say the only reason this is right is because God says it's right, and it's that his glory, he won't be interested, and he can't be, because that's his sinful nature.

[13:26] In verse number 8, Apostle Paul took, he took one example, he could have taken any, but he decided to take covetousness here, and he gives an example, and you might ask, why concupiscence, why this thing, covetousness, and the reason here is that it may be the clearest commandment dealing with the desires of our heart, as opposed to an external behavior.

[13:46] Why do we covet after things? It's just a clear indication of our view of ourselves, and what we deserve. When you look at something, and you devise a plan to get it, it tells you so much about that sinful nature that we had, that we have a view of ourselves that is different than what it should be.

[14:04] Coveting comes when we lose satisfaction in God and desire more. We have eaten of all the trees of the garden, and we desire what is forbidden. There and in the garden, it was there, they had everything.

[14:15] So you're familiar with the passage, Galatians 3, 24, it says, Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. So sin, or the law, it exposes sin to us, and because of our sinful nature when we're unbelievers, it arouses sin in our lives because when you give us a rule, we just want to break it, but we're also told that that law is a schoolmaster, and it tells us that we need the Savior.

[14:40] It doesn't, the law does allow us to see sin, and it should bring us to an understanding of our need of Jesus. I'm all for having Ten Commandments everywhere that we could. It's a shame of any place that it's taken out.

[14:52] It should be put back in any place that it's taken out and probably put into a million places else. But it shouldn't be put in there so that America can look at it and say the Ten Commandments and say these are the roles we live by, so it's great people.

[15:04] But it's every time we turn to look at it, any judge, any school teacher, any public, in the public school, we should look at it and say, man, we are in need of a Savior. And that is the desired purpose of the law here.

[15:17] The law not only desires to have authority over right and wrong, why do little children, if you reason with them why they want to do something, why do you want to not share with your brother or sister, and you see that, simply because I don't want to.

[15:33] They think that's enough, don't they? They don't think they have to give much reason just because I don't want to. And then sometimes as adults we get the same way too. What is our line of authority? It's our desires. What makes something right or what makes something wrong?

[15:46] It's our desire. And that's very common today in society. How do we decide what's right or wrong? How can you make a law against this because I desire differently? Because they have decided that their desire is authority.

[15:59] And they do it on a big level, but we do it all the time on a small level, don't we? We decide how to make our decisions based upon our personal desires. But the law comes in and reminds us of something that was placed upon our heart in Romans 2 that we're told to have a conscience that we are not the law, that we are not authority, that there's something that is above us that we must submit to and it reminds us of that.

[16:23] The law comes in and says there is a standard outside of us and above us and that is God's will revealed to us. So Paul said in verse number 9 that before, as a child he grew up, he didn't know the law and he lived, but when the law came, it brought death to him.

[16:38] You think about the Apostle Paul, he trained in the best schools that he could. Many things are said about his education, but he's referencing a time when he was a little kid and he wasn't even taught those things.

[16:49] But as he got older and lesson after lesson was being taught to him about to fulfill, it brought a death to him. Could you picture a young Paul and he goes there in the first day and they say, this day we're going to teach you, you shouldn't eat pork.

[17:02] And he goes home and he's like, I got this one, you know, I can just not eat pork. And if he never had it, it wouldn't be near as hard as it would be for you and I that quit doing that. And then he goes back another day and they give him another one.

[17:14] And he says, okay, I can do this by day six, day seven, by a few years of that, it just gets to a point where it just brings death into his life. And that's what it's made to do here in his life.

[17:26] And then we see him accepting Christ and turning to him. So when I said that it's misused in justification, the law cannot save us. It has the power to expose sin in our heart, but it does not have the power to heal us.

[17:38] The law asks the sinner, requires the sinner, and it demands and commands the sinner to do something that is absolutely contrary to the sinner's will and desire for it. It's like taking a nocturnal animal like an owl and saying, tomorrow morning when the rooster crows, I want you to rue with the rooster.

[17:56] I want you to cock-a-doodle-doo or whatever, crow with the rooster, and I want you to enjoy the day. And that's what the law would ask of us. It would ask us something that is completely contrary to our nature.

[18:07] We will never make the owl and the rooster switch places because that is not who it is. If it wants to use the law to clean yourself up because of the big interview that you will have someday, you must fulfill all of it.

[18:20] You meet people all the time and you ask them how they're doing if they believe they're going to heaven and they say, I think I have a good chance. It isn't that a most horribly misplaced statement in all the world.

[18:30] You think you have a good chance which means they think based upon the system that I understand about God, about what He wants me to do, I think I have a good chance. And I would say even based upon your own logic, you don't have a very good chance because if you're saying that you're a good person and that you're a pretty good chance because you're a good person, you're not near as good as you think you are.

[18:51] Deuteronomy 27, 26, Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of the law to do them and all the people shall say, Amen. Galatians 3, 10. For as many are as are the works of the law are under the curse for it is written Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

[19:10] He says, if you're going to do one thing to merit your own salvation then you're going to have to do all of them. That comes up in the conversation with Titus where Titus there wasn't able to be circumcised and they were saying that he needed to do it.

[19:21] He said, well Titus has to do this for his sanctification if he has to do this then he has to do all of them. You can't just pick and choose. That's why the law will never save anybody.

[19:32] It only exposes sin. If it's sinful to break God's law then how doubly sinful must it be to break God's law to use God's law to break God's law.

[19:43] Sin here in verse number 11 it says it hijacks it. That sin takes the law and it uses it for an occasion to sin. Our sinful nature uses the law to deceive us.

[19:54] When the sin meets the law it says one or two things. When we come to the law and take the unbeliever it says one or two things. It says first of all ignore it. You'll never be able to fulfill it.

[20:05] And so there's many people there's many unbelievers that will do many things that will not come anywhere near where the Bible is being taught. They wouldn't desire to come into church or anything like that. And because they just say ignore it.

[20:16] If it can't be done why even worry about it? If you want to frustrate somebody give them a job that you know that they can't accomplish. If you had an employee at your work and you wanted to get rid of them just give them a job that they'll never accomplish and allow them to keep running and running and in that frustration they'll want to leave.

[20:33] And we're there so many times. And in our Christian life we get to a point and we just think well this is all that it said and I'll never accomplish it. And so we become carnal in our way of acting just because what can be done?

[20:45] So we see one group of people they ignore it and then the next group of people here is they place their bets on it. Well they think well I can accomplish that as well as 50% of everybody else in the world and so I'm just going to tackle it.

[20:58] And so whatever is brought to me I'm just going to do it and I go after it. But can I tell you here that the person that ignores the law because they think they can never accomplish it and the person says yeah I can handle that on my own they're both on the same ship on the same seeking ship even though they're on opposite sides of that same boat.

[21:15] if you look at it and they think they can accomplish it or they ignore it. If either offers hopelessness relieved either by self-indulgence or hopefulness supported by self-righteousness and both of those will keep people from understanding embracing and loving the gospel.

[21:36] Do you see how I say that the law is used so incorrectly? That there's religions that have filled buildings today there are places of recreation that are filled today of people wanting to ignore it because it was a misunderstanding and a misapplication here of the law.

[21:51] So we see there in justification. So if you're an unbeliever in here I want you to think along those lines. If you're a person who shares the gospel would you be careful in the way that we would use the law and never hand it to somebody for them to accomplish but make sure it points them to Jesus.

[22:06] Paul's main point in verses 1-6 is that the law only governs the living. Remember pastors said that a lady was married and then her husband died and so she's no longer bound to him because at death the marriage bond would be broken there and she would be free here.

[22:25] And the same said as us we were people that are now dead into the law and we're alive in Christ which means that our responsibility to the law has been changed here.

[22:35] Since the believer is dead to sin the law cannot be the answer. Have any of you had an x-ray in the last year? Have you broken anything that you would need an x-ray for? Well if you went into an x-ray technician and you're there and he does an x-ray on your leg or whatever it may be and the x-ray technician says you know what I see this all the time and I'm pretty sure that I can fix it for you right now.

[22:59] Don't tell the doctor let's just do this right here on the x-ray table. I watch it happen all the time. They're getting paid considerably more than I am as an x-ray technician. Let's just give it a shot and you'd ask them have you ever tried this before?

[23:12] Oh yeah. Have you ever been successful? Never. Well but it'll save you a few dollars. You would not do that would you? You would not ask the person just because they know the problem doesn't mean that they're qualified to fix it for you.

[23:24] But here's a crazier idea is that an x-ray technician would show up at the funeral and say I can fix this problem here. Person being already dead. That the law cannot fix the problem it can only expose it.

[23:37] The law cannot provide for our sanctification because in Romans 8 3 it says that it is weak. Therefore there is no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after spirit.

[23:50] For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sent it his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.

[24:06] It was weak and it could not do it. We see that in the story of Ruth in the Old Testament. You're told there there was a nearer kinsman and that she was good after her husband had died that the next relative should have taken her into the home and cared for her and we know that Boaz takes her in but we know there was a relative that was closer and he doesn't want anything to do with her.

[24:28] He did not want to provide for her and the law cannot take you in. It cannot provide for your justification or for our sanctification as Christians. It cannot give life but the law cannot give this life but the law that is found in the spirit of Christ here and of Romans 8 2.

[24:47] You know the law cannot make you a loving person. We need a new law that is written upon our hearts. Believers we try to live by rules and regulations discover that the legalistic system only arouses more sin and creates more problems.

[25:00] In Galatians 5 15 we see the church Galatia they were legalistic people and sin abound because the law will arouse sin just as telling somebody not to do something will.

[25:12] So what would be the purpose in the law? We see how it's misused but what's our purpose? Is that God would give the law if it does not produce holy in our lives but what purposes did God have in mind?

[25:24] It reveals sin as we said in verse number 8 verse 7 verse number 8 it energizes sin it agitates the nature verses 9 11 it slays the sinner and deceives us and makes us realize that we're too weak to meet God's standard and the law reveals the sinfulness of sin and not just our outward actions but especially our sinful attitudes.

[25:44] So the law when it's introduced to somebody it shouldn't just point out hey you covet you steal and you do that it should point through those things to a sinful nature. If you've never in here realized that you were an unbeliever that you had a sinful nature that you could not fix yourself you couldn't correct the problem that there's a problem that was much deeper inside of you then you've never seen your need of a redeemer and that's what the law has done.

[26:09] And maybe when we share the gospel we don't we tie the hands of the law and we do not allow its rightful place when we talk to people because how many of you want to make the person feel bad when you talk to them?

[26:21] Does it feel like a very comfortable conversation when you sit down with them and they say have you ever let's just look at these ten laws known as the ten commandments? Have you ever stolen? And they say yeah.

[26:31] And then what's our next reaction we want to say? Well don't feel bad about that. So have I. Have you ever did this? Yeah don't feel bad about that. But we need to let them see you've done that for a reason and the reason is their sinful nature.

[26:43] So what should we do today concerning the law? Unbeliever you must die to the law and be accepted by God for justification. Not because the law is sin but because our dreadful sinful condition we must have Christ as the ground of our justification.

[26:59] The cancer of sin runs much deeper into our core than you could ever imagine and we need a new life. It isn't that things just look a little bad and we just need a little bit to fix it up.

[27:11] As a person like Nicodemus would go to Jesus and say hey I've taken all the laws that I've heard before if you've got some new ones for me add them on I'm pretty good at this game. And he says you've got to be born again.

[27:22] That this sinful nature of yours goes all the way to the core of you and without Jesus you're dead and you'll spend eternity in hell. You may know there's such a thing as sin but you do not realize your sinfulness.

[27:35] The law today should awaken you to the sinfulness that is in your nature. Die to the law and live the God through the crucified Christ. Romans 1 16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and the salvation that everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

[27:53] It's the only message in the world that gives hope both to the ungodly self-indulgent and to the ungodly self-righteous person is that yes you cannot fulfill the law but somebody has done that for you.

[28:05] So if you're an unbeliever in here today could I ask you to come to the great physician. This is why Jesus died in your place and he arose again. He sends the Holy Spirit to work in the world and he offers forgiveness for rebellion and justifies by faith in Jesus Christ that your condition is much worse than you could ever imagine.

[28:24] And as you compare yourself to me it may not look that bad and you compare yourself to other people but when you compare yourself to the holy law and to his authority you must know that your sinful nature will never be remedied by the law.

[28:36] Believer we must die at the law to bear fruit for God not because the law is sin or poison but because it's our dreadful sinful condition we must have Christ the power of sanctification.

[28:47] The goal of the law is that we should have Christ's righteousness for all who believe and the fruit of the law of love is inspired by Christ. Listen to what it says in Romans 8 2 for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

[29:01] That there's a law of the spirit of Christ that has now replaced the law of sin and death. And it's not by turning to the law that we fulfill the law and lead lives of love is by turning to the living Christ.

[29:14] Romans 8 9 and 10 But you're not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man had not the spirit of Christ he is none of his and Christ being you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

[29:29] The spirit is life because of righteousness. So this is only going to be fulfilled here by allowing Christ to live through us. We say we should walk in the spirit.

[29:40] If you walk in the spirit your heart is resting in the promises of God. And wouldn't you say that's the million dollar question speaking to the believer in here. We say that we're not supposed to live in the law. We're not supposed to be legalistic.

[29:51] We're not supposed to just do everything on the do level but we're supposed to know our identity in Christ on the be level. And many times those cliches just go past us because we're not exactly sure what that means.

[30:02] Can I tell you if you want to walk in the spirit then you have to have your heart resting in the promises of God. If you want to walk in the spirit then you have to live a life of faith and do not scheme when times get tough.

[30:13] If you want to walk in the spirit when you praise God when you do not see by faith you can only see by faith the goodness of God. It's been so interesting that in the book of Romans we have Abraham illustrating for us what it means to walk by faith and what it means to not walk by faith which is to look by sight.

[30:32] And so one of the ways that we take our eyes off of Jesus is when we we minimize it to just a list of things that we can do and we think that we can manipulate God into blessing us or loving us more because we take our eyes off of him and we bring them down to just a list of rules.

[30:49] Will a person walking by the spirit that loves Jesus and that focuses on him will he fulfill the law? No. But the Holy Spirit through him will fulfill the law because Jesus Christ is already the fulfillment of these things.

[31:02] And so I say that is the million dollar question. It says in our heart that faith produces love. That faith pushes out guilt, fear and envy and all the other works of flesh.

[31:14] Sin comes on this new level that we talked about when disbelief comes to us in our hearts on the B level. That when God's not good enough to us and we deserve more we covet.

[31:26] When we desire anything other than what he has for us it comes from a disbelief that he is good. So if you want to walk in the spirit today as we're commanded then you're going to do it by faith believing.

[31:39] Galatians 5.6 But for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love. So meditating on his goodness, his trustworthiness, how precious he is and the promises our hearts are free of fretting and guilt and greed.

[31:56] And closing here Galatians 2.20 says I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[32:10] So stop trying to fill the emptiness of your life with a hundred pieces of this world and put your soul to rest and God in his goodness. Today in our adult Bible fellowship class and I encourage all of you to attend one we're in the book of Philippians and it says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

[32:27] And that is such an easy thing to say but it's so hard oftentimes to apply it and one of the ways that we have such a hard time applying it to our lives is we don't even know how to go about it. Is it applying more rules to us?

[32:38] Is it applying more standards? But what was being taught today was so wonderful in the fact that it is Jesus Christ living through us and that in the everyday life he can do a work that is in and through us.

[32:50] So unbeliever in here and if you're a Christian in here you probably thought I've heard this a million times I'm saved and I know that the law couldn't see me and it seems so easy to see that as I look across and I if you're an unbeliever in here and you came forward and you said well I'm trying my best I would be able to very easily look at that and say that's craziness because your best will never be good enough.

[33:10] The law wasn't made for your salvation. I see that so clearly but as a believer when it comes to sanctification I so much desire to do something on my own because I'm so tired of being carried by somebody else.

[33:23] I don't want to be fully reliant upon him. Anytime something good happens I don't want to say that it was his work in me. I would really like to accomplish something that I could fully take credit in and go to him and say look what I did for you.

[33:36] I did this on my own. I don't know if your kids have ever tried to cook for you. I tried to make my mom a cake when I was younger for her birthday and I poured raisin bran in a bowl because that looked like cake stuff and I made a bunch of eggs and I took it to her and I said I made you a cake and you didn't help me.

[33:53] And she probably looked at it and says it looks like I didn't help you at all. And so many times in our Christian life we just want to do things apart for him and say I did it on my own. Here's a gift for you.

[34:05] And he would say I would never want that because I never ask you to do anything on your own. And so how is it that he works through us? It's by faith believing. It's the same message Christian.

[34:16] You never graduate from this. You got saved by faith in the work that he did for you and you live out the Christian life by faith and believing in the work that he's already done in your heart and what he wants to do through you.

[34:29] So can I challenge you in here Christian to not live a life that is only dictated by the law. To stop chasing after that as your only standard. To allow the spirit of Christ to work in and through you in faith and trust in him in everyday decision.

[34:44] Don't you see in the Old Testament when they had to build a fence around the law. They had to keep adding rules because they would have a law and it would only take them so far and then they would get into an area where they didn't have a law and so they'd have to make another one.

[34:56] And no matter how far they kept going they had to keep making laws because they could not live outside the law. And in our Christian life we have certain rules that we live by but because we're living based upon just the law to perform we get into this other area and we don't have a law or principle for it and we just live to ourselves.

[35:15] But when we allow him to live in and through us then there's a principle, there's a law written in our heart for every occasion. A law tells us that we should all be here this morning on Sunday and honor a day once a week and give it to the Lord.

[35:28] A law would tell you that. But a love of God inside of our heart tells me that tomorrow morning when I wake up what I'm going to do matters and it's important and I don't have to have a law written in a book about that because I have him living through me and in me and we minimize it.

[35:45] We think that we're doing the harder work when we just adhere to a bunch of laws but it is much more rewarding and loving than what we're intended to do with every day of our lives. We say I don't want to live the day but I want Christ to live in and through me and we must believe it by faith.

[36:02] Heavenly Father I ask that you'll be with us today Lord. If there's an unbeliever in here Lord I don't know the hearts of people and there may be somebody in here Lord not today by the law that will recognize their sinful nature.

[36:14] They'll realize Lord that not only have they broken the Ten Commandments but they will continue to do so because they are simply in rebellion to the God of heaven. And if that's their case today Lord I pray that they'll come to know you.

[36:26] Lord my prayer also this morning is for the believer and we hear the talk of the law and we think that we've claimed victory but so many times it sneaks in and we want to perform in our own flesh Lord.

[36:38] We want to do like Abraham and we want to create an Ishmael. We want to do things our own way. We don't want to just have faith in you to do only what you can do.

[36:49] And so I pray today that Christians and non-Christians in here will decide Lord that they will not misuse the law but will have its desired good intent in our lives. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia.

[37:02] For more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.