WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:31.439 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.280 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:15.200 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. Father, we ask your blessing on the children, 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:20.319 these precious children as they go to Sunday school. Bless their teachers, bless their caregivers, 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:24.719 their families, bless grandparents, or all who love and care for these children. 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:31.599 And Father, we ask that you would bless us this morning. Bless us with true knowledge of ourselves, 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:38.879 and we thank you, Father, that you grant us true knowledge of ourselves in a way that doesn't shame 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:47.199 us or break us or destroy us or humiliate us, but a true knowledge of ourselves that we will allow, 00:01:47.199 --> 00:01:54.239 that encourages us to turn to you and grow. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:02:05.359 A couple of years ago, I better set my timer. A couple of years ago, I had to go to Indigo to get 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:12.319 some books there and some other stuff. And while I was there, I decided to get some work emails done. 00:02:12.799 --> 00:02:18.159 So I went to the coffee place and sat down with my phone and started to get some of my work emails done. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:24.560 And just not the table right beside me, but the table went over. There was a young mom there with her 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:29.759 little daughter. I don't know if she was three, three and a half, four, you know, tiny, but very active. 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:35.919 The mom had given her chocolate milk. I still remember this chocolate chip, 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:44.079 chocolate milk and a big chocolate chip cookie. And the mom immediately buried herself in her phone 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:50.880 doing stuff. The kid devoured the chocolate milk and the cookie. And then within moments after that, 00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:56.960 became very restless. And before you know it, they happened to be towards the edge of the coffee area 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:03.120 and where the Indigo began, the books began. And the little girl got up off of her seat and started to 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:10.640 go over to the display and touch all of the gift items and the picture books. I mean, like the coffee 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:16.399 table books and stuff like that, knocking things over, knocking them on the ground. And the mom kept 00:03:16.399 --> 00:03:23.439 saying to her, and this is a very memorable line for me. So what did she say to the kid? She said to 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:32.239 her daughter, I'm assuming it was her daughter, stop it. You are making me unhappy. That's what the mom said 00:03:32.239 --> 00:03:39.359 to the kid. Stop it. You are making me unhappy. And I thought to myself, really, that's the moral lesson 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.120 you're trying to teach the girl. Like I sort of like afterwards, over the years, I thought it'd be 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:49.280 interesting for a psychologist to follow her, because if that's always her moral advice to her 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:54.000 daughter, she's communicating to her daughter, amongst other things, your entire existence involves 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:59.600 making me happy. Not that, you know, it was wrong, you're going to break it, it's not yours, like nothing 00:03:59.600 --> 00:04:04.160 about that being wrong. Just you are making me unhappy. And that's why she had to sit down. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:11.759 Now, I mention this story because on one hand, we see this, I think most of us would agree, 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.719 that's not the way that you would communicate to a three and a half year old to try to teach them 00:04:16.719 --> 00:04:22.639 that they shouldn't be knocking over the store's goods and throwing them on the ground. Like that's, 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:26.560 you shouldn't do that. There's, it's wrong in all sorts of ways. We probably all agree with that, 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:30.879 maybe disagree on exactly how to speak. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that the little girl 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:35.199 wanted her mom's attention. She should have got off her phone and moved on, but that's a whole other 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:40.879 separate thing. But I mention this because it's actually a bit of a window into what we're like, 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:47.439 and in a surprising way. So last week, this is in a sense about part two and a continuation of a 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:53.439 question that was asked last week. And the question was this, if the gospel is true, why on earth would 00:04:53.439 --> 00:05:01.040 anybody ever do a good thing after they have been saved, after they've been born again, after they 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:05.759 have been united with Christ? And just to put it like in a bit more practical thing, I became a 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:10.879 Christian when I was in grade 12 and I was 16. I'd skipped a grade, so I was 16 in grade 12 and I 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:15.920 became a Christian. Now, I'm not going to tell you how many years ago that was, but I am way, way, 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:23.040 way, way, way north of 16 now. And when I became a Christian at 16, what happened is at that moment, 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:29.360 when I gave my life to Christ and I enter into him, I'm united with him, at that moment, 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:37.520 every sin that I have ever done and every sin that I would ever do has been forgiven. It's been 00:05:37.520 --> 00:05:45.120 forgiven by God, the penalty for it has been paid by Christ, and I am reconciled to him, I am his child 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:52.560 by adoption and grace, and that's true. And let me tell you, I've accumulated lots of sins between 16 and 00:05:52.560 --> 00:06:00.480 now. Like piles of them. Piles is too small in imagery. A Mount Everest of sins I have committed, 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:06.160 probably, since I was 16. And if God grants me another 20 years, if Jesus doesn't come back, 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:11.920 or 25 years, there's still lots more to go. And so the question is, George, if at 16 you give your 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:17.199 life to Christ and every wrong thing that you've ever done and every good thing that you should have done 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:22.319 and you're morally responsible for having done and you didn't do, if every single one of them 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:30.399 was forgiven, why on earth would you do anything that was good? Now, I think all of us can feel the 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:36.000 force of that question, and I have to confess that for quite a few of the early times when people would 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:42.639 ask me that, I gave a very poor answer. Because it's a question which I think most of us can resonate 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:48.399 with when it's put very bluntly and plainly like that. Often it's not put so bluntly and plainly. 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:54.800 But here's the thing. You know what that question and the obviousness of the question, you know what it 00:06:54.800 --> 00:07:03.120 reveals? It reveals that we naturally don't do good things and we naturally want to do bad things. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:12.240 Doesn't it? That's what it reveals. That in and of myself, if it wasn't for external types of things, 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:19.199 like I wouldn't do good things. In fact, it actually, it's very, it's a very revelatory that 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:24.639 the force of the question reveals something very deep about each one of us. And what it means is 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:30.879 that really at the end of the day, I only want to do things that make me happy. And so if in fact, 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:35.439 like I don't know, giving some money to the church, if that ends up, you know, getting me some credit or 00:07:35.919 --> 00:07:40.639 making people like me a little bit more, then I'll, you know, I'll do that. If I'm going to be kind to my 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:44.319 neighbors just because at the end of the day, I maybe want them to be nice to me or I, 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:48.959 if I don't do that, I don't want to have the consequences of dealing with neighbors like that. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:53.919 And I can pay a traffic laws because I don't want to deal with the consequences if not. And I want to 00:07:53.919 --> 00:07:59.279 make sure I don't have an accident. And if everything that I do is actually not motivated because it's 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:05.439 good in and of itself, but because it's going to give me some type of benefit or save, either in terms 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:11.040 of getting something or avoiding something I don't want. And if really what is making me happy 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:14.719 is what's really driving me, it actually means I never do a good thing. 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:24.639 Because obviously, if you only do a good thing to get a benefit for yourself, you're not really doing 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:32.000 a good thing. The motives matter. So it's actually a bit of a shock for us to realize 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:38.399 that the force of the question, if all of your sins are forgiven, why on earth would anybody do anyone 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:41.600 any good, it actually reveals what we really think we're like. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:46.320 Now that's not what we were expecting. 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:57.120 Every single one of us in our core is that mom saying, don't do that or do that because it makes me 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:03.120 happy. Don't do that because it makes me unhappy. We are that mom. I am that mom. 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:07.200 So, 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:16.480 what does the gospel have to say about this? And it's only, I think, really, if you start to understand 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:23.600 the fact that how we believe the question is very reasonable, why do any good if all your sins are 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:29.360 forgiven, that we can start to hear what it is the gospel says, which is really, truly good news, 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:37.120 why we need to have the gospel, and how the gospel changes, how it begins to change how you live your life. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:45.040 Because, you see, I'm acknowledging that most people, I think most people, not maybe be 100% good, 00:09:45.040 --> 00:09:48.399 but the areas that they'd like to be good in, I think they really want to be good. 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:54.000 Not just in appearances, but deep in, like all the way up and all the way down, they want to be able 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:59.519 to be known as someone who does things which are good, which are just, which are true, all the way 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:04.720 down. So how does the gospel actually, rather than discouraging right and wrong, doing good things and 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:09.199 avoiding wrong things, why does it actually help? Well, that's what's going on in the text today. 00:10:09.199 --> 00:10:14.079 It says, said part two last week. So if you turn to Romans chapter seven, verses one to 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:22.720 12, that's what we're going to look at today. And it's a second part. So last week, as part of the 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:29.520 way to answer the question, Paul used an example from slavery, or servitude. And what he was trying 00:10:29.520 --> 00:10:36.240 to communicate was that no human being belongs to themselves. And the question is, will you belong 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:44.240 to that power which is in rebellion against God, and usurping God, and not wanting God to be God, 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:48.240 because you want His position, and you want to be over God, and you want to be the center, you want 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:54.320 everything to make you happy? Are you, you're either in servitude to that, or you're in servitude 00:10:54.320 --> 00:11:01.440 or serving God. And you either belong to that project of usurping God, or you belong to Christ. 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:05.920 And those are the only options. And so that's what he was looking at last week. This week, 00:11:05.920 --> 00:11:09.360 he's going to look at it from a slightly different way, but he's still trying to answer that thing, 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:15.040 why would you do anything good, in a more intimate way by drawing an analogy to marriage. 00:11:15.920 --> 00:11:22.720 So the text in the original language is very, very complicated. And that's reflected in the 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.000 translations. So I'm going to read the first six verses, and then I'll say a few words about it, 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:32.559 but then I'll jump back, and I'll try to tell you what's going on with the analogy. It's very 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:38.799 profound. So here's how it goes. Chapter 7, verse 1. Or do you not know brothers and sisters? Right? 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:44.240 It begins with or. So he gave you one analogy, or metaphor, and now he's giving you a second one. 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:48.720 Or do you not know brothers and sisters? For I am speaking to those of you who know the law, 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:58.560 that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. Sorry, the law is binding on a person 00:11:58.560 --> 00:12:06.080 only as long as he lives. For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives. But if 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:13.600 her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:20.560 adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is still alive. But if her husband dies, 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:27.840 she is free from that law. And if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. 00:12:28.800 --> 00:12:34.480 Likewise, my brothers and sisters... So likewise means sort of in a similar type of way, not exactly, 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:41.360 but a bit similar, my brothers and sisters. You also have died to the law through the body 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:49.360 of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead. You've 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:57.279 been united with Christ to belong to him, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:06.080 living in the flesh, what the word flesh there means doesn't mean body. It means the human nature is 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:14.240 is sort of bent in such a way that it desires to have God excluded, and God serve you, and you to 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:21.759 have that position of God. And that's what's a major part of every human being's nature. That's what the 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:27.040 flesh means. I'll read it again. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the 00:13:27.040 --> 00:13:33.680 law... Notice it doesn't say our passions. We're not Buddhists. You can have good passions. 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:40.239 Our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members. That's all of the bits and pieces 00:13:40.239 --> 00:13:46.399 that make us us. To bear fruit for death. Very strong statement. But now we are released from the 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:53.199 law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we may serve in the new way of the Holy Spirit, 00:13:53.199 --> 00:13:57.519 and not in the old way of the written code. This is very complicated. You probably couldn't follow all of that. 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:09.759 And here's the big idea about why this is really, truly good news. So, one of the things that Paul is 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:16.079 trying to get us to understand is that it's not just that we're completely separate individuals who 00:14:16.079 --> 00:14:22.000 just are making our own choices all of the time, but that in a sense we are part of a culture, 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:29.759 culture, and we're under... The word he often uses is dominion, and we're under a dominion, 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:36.399 and we have a ruler, and that ruler is this motivating principle of, God can't tell me what to do. 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:45.759 I want to be like God. I want to have his role, and that is this part of us that's always bubbling 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:52.559 along. And so, therefore, when we're... Part of us doing wrong things is because we're actually part of 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:59.519 this culture, and we're formed by our culture. So, there's something inside of us that desires to be 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:08.000 in rebellion against the triune God, but we're also part of a people that has the same desire. And 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.879 because of that, we have, like, you know, if you use fancy languages, like our plausibility structures, 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:19.679 our criteria, our customs, our habits, they're all formed by this bigger culture. 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:27.679 Like, we in Canada aren't aware of how much we're Canadians. You only really know that if you get 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:32.720 to go to another culture, not as a tourist, but to actually live there, and especially if you go to 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:38.559 another culture which is quite different than us. So, for instance, when I went to Zimbabwe just recently, 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:43.599 and I'm amongst those... I'm in that area of Zimbabwe where tourists would never go because I'm... 00:15:43.599 --> 00:15:50.159 I was helping pastors who minister to the poor and the lower middle... The lower class and the poor. 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:56.959 So, I'm in a completely different area. And even on a superficial level, I mean, in Zimbabwe, 00:15:56.959 --> 00:16:03.279 the currency's different. In fact, actually, the currency is garbage in Zimbabwe. If you actually found 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:09.039 some Zimbabwe currency, they might not want you to pay with it because they want U.S. dollars. 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:14.240 And there's a whole way of understanding that. And in that culture, you don't give change. And nobody 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:18.319 gets mad about it. They just don't give change. If you have a 10-cent item and you give them a dollar 00:16:18.319 --> 00:16:22.399 bill, then they don't give you 90 cents back. That's just their culture. You drive on a different 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:28.240 side of the road. You get my point. The job opportunities, the language... You know, the example I 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:33.759 gave a couple of weeks ago is in that culture, it would be like in this... Imagine you go to the 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:39.279 construction site and one of the big, you know, one of the construction people want to talk to their 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:44.320 boss because they have a problem. And you just can't imagine in our culture, the construction boss 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:50.639 would take the hand of the construction worker and walk hand in hand in a corner to talk. That would 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:55.919 never happen. But that's just common in Zimbabwe. The culture's different. And so, one of the things 00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:59.919 that Paul's been trying to do is to get us to understand that there's not only something within 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:06.720 each one of us that wants to usurp God's place, take over God's place, that we're part of a culture 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:13.359 that forms us in that particular way. And so, now the analogy that he's going to say is it's not just 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:17.680 like being in a culture and it's not just like a life of servitude. It's also like marriage. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:24.319 I'm sure some of the people here, some of those who have been watching, you may have made a mistake 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:30.000 with the person that you lived with, for instance, which is like it's common law marriage in Canada 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.839 or even the one that you took vows with and you discovered that they were in fact actually quite 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:39.119 abusive and quite cruel. And marriage changes everything. It changes the whole, all the, your 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:43.759 plausibility structures. There's gaslighting, so they try to make you feel like you're insane and it can 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:47.359 be really, really, really bad marriage that you have to end up getting out of because of the abuse 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:52.639 or, you know, the cheating or other type of stuff like that. And so, Paul is saying, 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:57.599 just think of what I'm talking about, why it is that you want to be good. Think of it about like 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:06.959 marriage. And so, it's as if you are married to this principle of being in rebellion against God 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:12.240 and you're married to it. But we all know about marriage that if the person you're married to dies, 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:17.440 you're free to marry somebody else. So, what you need to understand, George, is that when you gave 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:25.839 your life to Christ at 16, it's as if God, you now become united with Christ and when Christ died 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:31.120 on the cross, that was your death as well. The same means by which all of your sins were put away 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:36.640 and the same means by which you're going to be clothed with his righteousness is also the means by 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:44.400 which you died. And that means you're no longer married to this principle, this power of usurping 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:51.920 God's role. That what happened is at the same instant that you were no longer married to that, 00:18:52.800 --> 00:18:58.320 Jesus takes you and you now with his church are married to him. 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:07.519 Now you belong to him. And whereas the analogy that he gave last week of slavery could sound very 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:14.000 impersonal, it's tried to be very, very stark. This is an image to say that it's a matter of intimacy 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:22.639 that you belong and it's a matter of intimacy why you obey. In a good marriage, you see, 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:31.360 the demand, love demands a type of obedience as well. And the more intimate the love, the more 00:19:31.360 --> 00:19:39.360 an obedience is sort of obvious to the person involved in it. I mean, a simple example, if, 00:19:39.360 --> 00:19:46.720 um, if, you know, when I was 16 and if I had come across Louise for some reason and she said, 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:56.400 hey you, go get me some milk. Well, I'm like, what? Go get me, go get your milk? Like, who are you to tell me that? 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:04.559 But 10 years later and we're married and she said, George, can you go get some milk? 00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:08.640 That she could have used the polite form in both cases. Well, of course I'm going to do that. 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:16.960 And, and the obedience is a, like, the marriage changes everything. And, and so why is it that 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:21.840 Christians are called to do good things? Why is it that when you're married, when you're, when you give 00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:27.200 your life to Christ, there's, becomes rather than just saying, oh, now my, all my sins are forgiven 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:31.360 and therefore I can do whatever the heck I want and I don't have to worry about it. In fact, you see, 00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:37.840 what this is doing is it's revealing the fatal flaw of a lot of Christianity, which a lot of Christianity, 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.319 it, it, it sounds Christian and, and I know that, and people can still benefit from it even though 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:48.959 it's quite seriously wrong, but the betrayal is one of fire insurance. That when I gave my life to 00:20:48.959 --> 00:20:55.679 Christ at 16, it's as if God now stamped me and tattooed me, not going to hell, only going to heaven. 00:20:55.679 --> 00:21:01.759 That's what I mean by fire insurance. And so now that I have my fire insurance, I, well, I mean, 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:06.959 that's the whole thing. If, if, if all that, if all that salvation is, is fire insurance, you're not going to go to hell. 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:14.559 Well then, why do anything good? And, and that's why churches that often slide into portraying 00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:21.199 salvation as something like fire insurance, what often very quickly develops is a highly legalistic 00:21:21.199 --> 00:21:28.319 culture, or a highly therapeutic culture, or something like that. And now what you do is you 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:33.759 go to pop psychology to give you principles about how to have successful marriages, or how to get that 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:40.559 promotion, or how to have more money, or how to look more youthful, or, and that's the therapeutic 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:44.559 type of, of church, because you know that you got your fire insurance, but now they don't have anything 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:49.200 to do with the gospel about how you live. And you read the Bible trying to create, I mean, I can't 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:54.879 imagine, remember how many times when I was in my early years as a Christian, people would look at maybe 00:21:54.880 --> 00:22:00.640 Jesus talking to the, the woman at the well, and try to come up from that as if this was a whole series 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:05.200 of therapeutic advice about how to have conversations. Like, really? That's not what that's about. 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:10.960 Therapeutic advice about how to have a good therapeutic conversation. Like, that's ridiculous, 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:16.080 actually. I didn't say that then. I felt it, but couldn't say it, because I was intimidated by their 00:22:16.080 --> 00:22:20.560 education, their learning, their position. But it's a ridiculous idea. Like, really, it is. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:26.399 Or you become highly legalistic with all these rules, and do's and don'ts, and stuff like that, 00:22:26.399 --> 00:22:31.039 because you want to protect people in a different way than the therapy does from doing bad things. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:38.079 But the gospel is irrelevant to it, and the gospel provides no motivation to do anything. But Paul is 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:43.359 trying to say, listen, the gospel changes everything. When you give your life to Christ, it's, it's, it's as 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:49.839 if you've left an abusive spouse. Later on, he's going to talk about, and maybe it's even in that part, 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:54.399 how, like, in under, when you're, in a sense, married to this principle of, I'm going to do good 00:22:54.399 --> 00:23:01.039 things because I want to avoid the bad consequences. So I'm still actually just doing good things with 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:06.559 allowing that principle of sin. I'm so married to sin. And, and, and, and, and really, if you 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:12.720 understand that all that does, if you're just doing good things to look good and to avoid bad consequences, 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:18.720 it means you're perpetually insecure. Or you go through periods where you're secure because you're 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:22.640 nailing it. You're just nailing these things one after another. But then all of a sudden, 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:27.600 you get a little bit old or a little bit poor, or you realize there's some actual evil in yourself 00:23:27.600 --> 00:23:32.960 that you never thought of. And then you crumble, you know, you just, you, you just, you just crumble. 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:37.680 It, you can't manage it. And, and, and, because if you're married to that, you're still ultimately 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:42.799 ruled by sin. And you're trying to just do good within that context. If you're always insecure, 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:49.039 you're unstable, and you're unhappy, and your, increases your anxiety. Because that's what it 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:55.039 does. And, and so it's like captivity. And when you leave, so in a sense, becoming a Christian is a 00:23:55.039 --> 00:24:01.039 little bit like when you put your faith in Christ, and you ask him to be your savior and your Lord, 00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:07.119 he says yes. And he takes you into himself. You are united with him. You are in union with him. 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:12.159 And now it's almost as if you, not just you individually, but you as the church, 00:24:13.199 --> 00:24:19.359 you're now out of an abusive marriage into the most spectacular marriage beyond all imagining. 00:24:20.479 --> 00:24:26.000 I mean, good grief, he left the glories of heaven to die for you. That's how much he loves you. 00:24:28.399 --> 00:24:32.159 And now you're married to him. And that marriage is going to change everything. 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:38.560 If he asks you to do a hard thing, well, he's asking you to do a hard thing because he loves you so much. 00:24:38.560 --> 00:24:43.920 Like if he asks you to do, like, it changes everything. 00:24:45.840 --> 00:24:53.200 There's, and there's a desire, a natural desire, to have that marriage, that really good marriage, 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:58.400 to shape everything in your life. And it's freeing. And there'll be times in your life that you keep 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:03.440 wanting to be worried about it or go back to the other thing or worried that those old abusive type 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:08.800 of marriage is what's now there. But the part of the purpose of church and communion is to keep 00:25:08.800 --> 00:25:14.800 reminding you are in something like marriage where you now belong to Jesus. And the belonging and the 00:25:14.800 --> 00:25:20.720 obedience is all at one with the intimacy desire that he desires to have with you. It changes everything. 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:28.799 But some of you might have noticed a weird thing that Paul said. If you go back to verse 5, because 00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:34.799 Paul's going to do a little bit more about what this sin rule and reign and dominion actually means. 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:40.400 He wants us to realize that it's way deeper than we actually realize. And that's partially what he's 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:44.720 going to talk about next week. And then we're going to take a pause for a moment. And you'll have to 00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:51.759 wait to get more of the good news in chapter 8 and on in January. But look at verse 5 again. It says, 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:59.519 for while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our 00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:04.880 members to bear fruit for death. And so you think, well, that's weird. Like, I thought the law was good. 00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:08.000 Like, aren't Christians in favor of the Ten Commandments? Like, isn't that one of the things 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:14.400 they're in favor of? Is that sort of saying that the Ten Commandments comes into me and it actually 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:20.880 makes me do things that lead to death? Like, that seems weird. So Paul anticipates that. He's a 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:26.320 little bit like a stand-up comedian who intentionally, like a really good one, who puts in a little bit 00:26:26.320 --> 00:26:31.840 of a phrase so that's an opening for them to move the conversation on to the next part. And so he 00:26:31.840 --> 00:26:38.400 catches that. And look at verse 7. What then shall we say that the law is sin? By no means. That's what 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:43.519 he says. By no means. No. Just saying no doesn't cut it, right? So the next few verses are going to 00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:50.799 unpack what this idea means about what is the impact of having a law, a true moral commandment of 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:58.879 something which is actually good. If God sends a true moral commandment into me, who lives in under 00:26:58.879 --> 00:27:05.039 the reign of sin, is married in a sense to sin, and I want to be good within the context of that 00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:11.519 overarching project of taking God's place. What is it like when God invades or powers in 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:17.680 a true moral commandment? Like, that's actually good. So that's, I'll just read it again because 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:22.160 it's very complex and I'll unpack it over the next 10 or 12 minutes to explain what it means. But here's 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:30.079 what it says. What then shall we say that the law is sin? Verse 7. By no means. Yet, if it had not been 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:38.079 for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not 00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:44.079 said, you shall not covet. That's the 10th commandment, and I'm going to circle back to talk about the 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:50.799 significance of that 10th commandment in Paul's own personal life and in ours. But sin, verse 8, 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:57.039 seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:03.839 For apart from the law, sin lies dead. What on earth does that mean? I'll explain it in a moment. Actually, 00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:08.639 I'll just tell you right now what it means. It's, in the original language, what it's saying is that 00:28:08.639 --> 00:28:14.639 sin is always there, but it's dormant. In other words, there's parts of you that are way worse than 00:28:14.639 --> 00:28:21.599 you've ever possibly imagined. It's like a sleeping dragon. And you know, some people, we know that 00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:26.240 there's some people we don't want to cross them because the dragon isn't sleeping, it's always there. 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:33.120 But Paul is, in a sense, saying every single human being has a sleeping dragon. And sometimes it's 00:28:33.120 --> 00:28:40.400 God's word that provokes the dragon, wakes it up to be dragonish. I'm not talking about having dragons as 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:44.400 pets and your best friends and sages. I'm talking about the old view of dragons. I'm talking about 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:50.880 Lord of the Rings dragons and the hobbit dragons. They eat you, okay? They eat you. That's the type of 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:56.320 dragon the Bible is talking about. Verse 9, I was once alive apart from the law. I'll explain what 00:28:56.320 --> 00:29:04.640 that means in a second. But when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:11.520 that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, 00:29:11.520 --> 00:29:18.160 deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and 00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:24.640 good. So what on earth is Paul talking about within all of this? So it's very interesting he's using the 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:31.840 word covet. So you see, one of the very first things is that the problem of sin, the problem of being, 00:29:31.840 --> 00:29:37.279 in a sense, trying to follow moral laws when you're in this whole reign and rule of sin, 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:45.920 is that inevitably what it focuses on is external behavior that allows you to justify yourself and 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:52.480 feel good about yourself. But it's external. And so why does that, so why does he use the word covet? 00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.080 You see, here's the thing. If you go back to the Ten Commandments, I'm not going to say all of them, 00:29:56.080 --> 00:30:00.240 but okay, the first one is, you shall ignore the gods before me. You say, okay, I'm wearing a Jesus 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:06.320 saves t-shirt all day. Check off the first one. And then the second one is, don't bow down to idols. 00:30:06.320 --> 00:30:11.600 Okay, I walk by my neighbor's house. There's a Buddha there and another one with an idol. I don't bow down to them. 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:17.679 Check off number two. I'm two for two. Number three, honor the day, the Lord's day, and keep the 00:30:17.679 --> 00:30:22.559 Sabbath holy. And I'm saying to myself, boy, listen, I go to church because I'm paid to go to church. 00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:28.240 And I'm at my age, a good Sunday afternoon is falling asleep and then having a nice meal. I've 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:33.119 kept the Sabbath. Check off number three. Honor your fathers and mothers. Well, and for some of you are 00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:38.000 saying, well, I sent my mom a Mother's Day card. I'm going to send my dad a Father's Day card. 00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:43.039 Number four, check it off. And then you go through the others. Okay, well, I actually haven't slept with 00:30:43.039 --> 00:30:46.880 another man's wife. I actually haven't murdered an innocent person. I haven't robbed a bank. 00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:52.000 And I haven't lied about anybody. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. I'm perfect. 00:30:53.839 --> 00:31:00.079 Now, here's the thing. Some of you who are bosses, and I'll use the military as a perfect example for 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:05.200 those of you who have ever been in the military. But anybody who's had employees or who's been an employee 00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:12.480 knows this. Ask anybody who's an officer, and he knows that they have people who obey him. And on the 00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:18.160 surface, they're completely and utterly nice and quiet and do what they're told. But inwardly, 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:24.559 you know they hate your guts and think you're the biggest idiot in the world. And that if the world 00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:30.960 was better organized, you would be that officer and you could be bossing them around because they 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:37.039 are a waste of rations. In other words, what Paul realized is that at some point in time, I'm guessing 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:45.519 that this is connected to his conversion. One day, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He was checking off 00:31:45.519 --> 00:31:51.920 all of these commandments, thinking he was like the best guy ever. And inwardly, he was saying, 00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:58.160 look at that Gamaliel. Like, I'm just as smart as him. You see, coveting and envy, coveting is 00:31:58.160 --> 00:32:05.200 you want what other people have. And you don't like that other people have because you think you 00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:09.759 deserve it. And envy is very similar. You think you're better than them. You think you're above 00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:14.720 them. And you hate the fact that they're over you. And you would do anything to have them lowered. Even 00:32:14.720 --> 00:32:21.279 if you don't get it, you're happy to have them lowered. And it's not like ambition. It's just a pure 00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:27.920 wanting. Like, a lot of tax the rich stuff is just pure coveting and envy. People resent that other 00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:32.240 people have had money and they want to have it taken away from them. And it doesn't even matter 00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:36.799 if it completely and utterly impoverishes the province or impoverishes the nation. They just 00:32:36.799 --> 00:32:42.000 want to bring them down. Our entire culture has a huge problem with coveting and envy. And Paul came 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:49.920 to realize one day that outwardly, he was scoring 100%. And he had never paid any attention to the 00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:55.600 coveting thing to realize, yes, he was going there and he could bow down and he could do his services. 00:32:55.600 --> 00:33:00.800 But all he was doing while he was doing the services was internal sin after internal sin 00:33:00.800 --> 00:33:06.080 after internal sin, and even doing the external acts of righteousness just purely so people would say, 00:33:06.080 --> 00:33:08.560 my, look at that, Paul. Isn't he so pious? 00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:15.360 At the same time, not realizing they're in really saying, look at that guy. He's so stuck up. I'm better 00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:21.039 than him. Like, why is he getting those roles? And I should be. And so that's what he means by, 00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:26.079 on one hand, he was living life as if he was fine. He was alive. And all of a sudden, the commandment, 00:33:26.079 --> 00:33:31.359 you see, part of what God's word does is to convict of sin. Part of the whole purpose of the law is to 00:33:31.359 --> 00:33:38.240 make you realize that you're actually far worse than you really knew, and you need God to do a massive 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:44.399 rescue operation. Like, the fact is that it's not that my giving my life to Christ is a virtuous act, 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:51.280 but I give my life to Christ out of mercy because I'm helpless. And he reaches down and gets me. He 00:33:51.280 --> 00:33:58.320 takes me in his hands. He takes me into himself. He is the one who saves me. He is the one who makes 00:33:58.320 --> 00:34:05.040 me born again. He transfers me into a new kingdom. He transfers me into a marriage. He does everything. 00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:13.440 I do nothing. I do nothing. Hallelujah! If you start to realize what's going on within you. 00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:20.079 And then the other thing about it is that the law makes the sin dormant, that you didn't realize that 00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:25.440 you have it. It actually, when it comes, makes it worse. Now, how do you know that? So let's just say, 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:28.320 I mean, one of the problems we have is, let's say, you know, it's like sometimes we'll say, 00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:33.519 how can I share the gospel with that? I'll use just the example of a, you know, maybe a Rockcliffe matron, 00:34:35.200 --> 00:34:39.360 or, you know, a Kanata soccer mom, and how can I share the gospel with them, right? Because they're 00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:44.720 just so good. Well, how good are they? Imagine that God was to come and authoritatively say to them, 00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:51.760 give 10% of your money to the local church. And then he said, no, no, no, no, don't go away. 00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:58.720 10% right now to the local church. Well, then you'd see what they think of God. 00:35:01.120 --> 00:35:06.720 And whether they said it out loud, or whether it would be inside, they would be using foul language, 00:35:06.720 --> 00:35:09.760 which I shouldn't say here in the pulpit, but you could well imagine. 00:35:12.240 --> 00:35:16.560 Or if he was to say, you have to keep the Sabbath, what? I have to go to church on Sunday? 00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:27.279 How dare you tell me that? There's a diocese in another country, and in terms of that country, 00:35:27.279 --> 00:35:31.039 it was at an international gathering. They were all talking about this particular diocese. 00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:36.880 And the joke amongst the other people from other diocese was that the priest in that diocese, 00:35:36.880 --> 00:35:44.000 we'll call it the Diocese of Alpha, the priest in the Diocese of Alpha, that they weren't real 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.320 Anglican priests because they weren't at all obedient to their bishop. And the bishop couldn't 00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:52.880 tell them what to do. And they finally said that to a bishop from Alpha, and the bishop from Alpha 00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:57.199 just smiled and said, that's completely ridiculous. That's not true of my diocese at all. And they said, 00:35:57.199 --> 00:36:02.239 no, you know it's true of your diocese. He said, every bishop in the Diocese of Alpha knows how to get 00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:08.559 the clergy to do what he wants. They say, that's impossible. He said, no, all I do is tell them that 00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:15.920 they have to do something. And they'll do the opposite, just to show me that I can't tell them 00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:20.639 what to do. So I just tell them the opposite of what I want them to do, and then they all do it, 00:36:20.639 --> 00:36:24.719 just because they're going to show me that I can't boss them around. Of course, we all laughed. 00:36:25.759 --> 00:36:29.039 But we can all relate to that. How dare God tell me to do those things? In fact, 00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:35.519 God, I'm purposely not going to church. I'm purposely not going to give any money. 00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:41.759 There's something within us that when this law and the command comes, it actually creates this 00:36:41.759 --> 00:36:48.639 thing within us that makes us want to do the opposite. But when it says that the actual, 00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:53.199 the commandments and all are good and true and beautiful and worthy and life-giving, 00:36:53.199 --> 00:37:00.639 what he means is this. And this is partly what it means now to understand that I've died. I'm now 00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:05.119 married, in a sense, with the church. I'm married to Christ. I'm in a different marriage. I'm in a 00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:10.799 different relationship. And I'm in a relationship with the one who tells me I shouldn't covet. 00:37:11.519 --> 00:37:16.639 And if you think about how profound that commandment is and how life-giving it is, 00:37:16.639 --> 00:37:24.559 it's to understand it's as if Jesus takes you to a huge, huge, huge expanse of land. 00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:32.320 And on the side is a steep cliff that you would die. And he said, there's guardrails around this land. 00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:38.079 And you can see it's thousands of acres. You know, he gives a supernatural power to see the edges. And 00:37:38.079 --> 00:37:46.079 he said, the guardrail around these is don't covet. And life happens between the guardrails. 00:37:46.079 --> 00:37:52.559 And what happens? What is the life that coveting is warning us against? 00:37:54.400 --> 00:38:01.759 You see, what it's calling us to is to be fruitful. It's calling us to be generous. 00:38:03.039 --> 00:38:09.840 It's calling us to be filled with gratitude. You see, if you're filled with coveting and envy, 00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:14.480 you're not going to be fruitful because you're just filled with anti types of thoughts. But he's 00:38:14.480 --> 00:38:19.519 saying, listen, it's protecting you from that. What I'm calling you to is I'm calling you to 00:38:19.519 --> 00:38:26.240 to gratitude. I'm calling you to fruitfulness. I'm calling you to generosity. I'm calling to you to 00:38:26.240 --> 00:38:33.680 admire and to rejoice and to create and to emulate. And I'm calling you not to think of everything like 00:38:33.680 --> 00:38:39.360 a zero-sum game, but to think about multiplication. Not think, look at that artist and how they are. 00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:46.320 I hate their guts because I'm better than them. No, no, no, no, no. You get rid of all of that. 00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:51.760 That's the guardrail that you plunge to your death. Isn't it far better to say, gosh, that artist is so 00:38:52.400 --> 00:38:58.640 spectacular and talented. I'd like to learn from them. And why wouldn't it be even better to have 00:38:58.640 --> 00:39:05.039 two spectacular artists or five or ten? Not to look at a person who can dance really well and says, 00:39:05.039 --> 00:39:11.119 I hate his or her guts. I'm a better dancer than them. No, imagine if everybody could dance like them. 00:39:11.119 --> 00:39:16.639 That's the world I'm calling to. That's life. Who doesn't want that? 00:39:16.639 --> 00:39:29.920 That's what he's calling you to. To admiration and enjoyment and gratitude and generosity and 00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:38.400 inspiration and emulation. And don't go off the guardrails into your death. And I have married you, 00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:43.360 and that is what I am calling you for. There will come a time that that original promise to human 00:39:43.360 --> 00:39:50.639 beings to be fruitful and multiply and to make the whole universe a garden, that that will once again 00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:58.160 happen when I come. And those who are in me, who have been married to me by adoption and grace, 00:39:58.160 --> 00:40:04.960 changing the imagery, that is the rest of your story farther up and higher up and farther in. 00:40:04.960 --> 00:40:12.800 And that is what you begin to learn in me and into eternity. 00:40:14.960 --> 00:40:23.920 Be fruitful. Be generous. Be grateful. Look up with joy and longing. Bring others along. 00:40:25.039 --> 00:40:31.360 That is my call to you in Christ. You are married to me. That is what our marriage looks like. That's what 00:40:31.360 --> 00:40:35.519 our culture looks like. That's what our churches are to look like. That's what our families are to look 00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:39.440 like. That's what our mentoring is to be like. That is what our worship is to be like. 00:40:42.400 --> 00:40:43.360 I invite you to stand. 00:40:46.720 --> 00:40:47.760 Just as you stand, 00:40:49.840 --> 00:40:57.360 you know that just as my relationship with Louise was very, very, very, very, very, very, 00:40:57.360 --> 00:41:05.680 different. Before I said, I take you, Louise, to be my married wife, to have them to hold from this day 00:41:05.680 --> 00:41:11.519 forward, to love and cherish. And she said that to me. And so it is. The Christian life really begins 00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:17.360 when Jesus, who is looking at you right now, if you have not said that, say, Jesus, I want to be yours. 00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:23.039 Please be my Lord and my Savior and thank you. And he will say yes. 00:41:25.599 --> 00:41:31.920 And then it's a different adventure. And you will begin to breathe different air and eat different food. 00:41:33.360 --> 00:41:40.160 Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, thank you that you have called us into intimacy 00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:47.920 with Christ. Thank you that we belong to him. Thank you, Father, that we are in union with him, 00:41:48.480 --> 00:41:54.879 that he will never cast us out or put us aside. Thank you, Father, that even his hardest words are 00:41:54.879 --> 00:42:02.799 words of love, words for our good and our thriving and our fruitfulness. And so, Father, we give you 00:42:02.799 --> 00:42:08.639 thanks and praise that we belong to Jesus. And we ask that you would bring this truth home to us day by day 00:42:08.639 --> 00:42:15.759 and week by week. And Father, we ask that you help us as a congregation to so tell that story and so 00:42:15.759 --> 00:42:21.279 encourage each other that we together are built up and put it within our hearts to bring others along 00:42:21.279 --> 00:42:27.920 as well, Father. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:40.639 Amen. 00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:40.639