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Gracious Father, help us as we open up again to the book of Romans, that it would be understandable.
And applicable practically to our lives, to we.
Commend ourselves to Thee. We give thanks, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Romans, Chapter 7.
Romans Chapter 7 and verse one.
Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how? That the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth should be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law.
So that she has no adulteress though she be married to another man.
Wherefore, my brethren, he also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid? Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, rotten me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died, and the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me.
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, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would that do I not?
But what I hate that I do?
Then I do that which I would not. I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwell within me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do now if I do that I would not.
It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
Perhaps for those that have just gotten here, we took up chapter 5, the first reading, chapter 6, the 2nd, and now we are in Chapter 7 and in chapter five. We noticed that from verse 12 on we are dealing with the question of sin in the flesh.
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That sin nature that we are all born with and how to deal with it and how God has dealt with it in the person of the Lord Jesus. We are now looked at as dead to sin.
And as we were mentioning in chapter 6 and verse 11, it says, Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. In other words, think like you're taught in this Scripture.
So in chapter 6 we are dead to sin, but in Chapter 7 now we find we are dead to the law. The law is a very real thing and there's nothing wrong with the law. The law is perfect and good. It says here, but it's us that have the problem. And so in the first verse here he says he takes up the question of the law.
The law had dominion over a man as long as he liveth.
And then it goes on to give the illustration of a woman who is bound by the law to her husband while he lives. And it's when her husband dies that she is free from that law to be married to another. And so he's applying that to us who are believers. The Lord Jesus has died for us. And so now we are free from the law to be married to another, to the Lord Jesus, to be united to him.
So the law is not the standard of life for a believer, it's the person of the Lord Jesus that is the standard of life for the believer.
So it's a very real thing.
And in verse six it says we are delivered from the law.
So we are free from the law. We are delivered to the law from the law. We are dead to the law.
Here's a dead man on the floor, stretched out there.
Can he keep the law? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and with all thy strength. Any power to do that?
He's dead.
He can't respond to that in any way. That's our position to the law. And I remember.
Speaking to a 7th day Adventist once and of course they like to make the Allah still applicable to the believer. They believe that's the standard of life.
I said and they said to me, if you're going to say that, why? You can do anything you possibly want to in life and get away with it.
I said, have you ever seen a dead man get it? Do anything he ever likes?
All he does is lay there dead.
He's not only dead to sin, he's dead to the law. And it's important for us to understand because the law is perfect. It was the test that was given to man in the flesh.
But.
Man completely failed. Every single person that has ever been born in Adams race has never been able to keep that standard.
And so it condemns us to death. And once we're dead.
Were delivered from that law.
Not to go back, but you just said something that I think sums up that 6th chapter. It's very, very good. And if the young people are here, write it down. You said how God deals with it. Verse one to 10 is how God deals with it from 10, from 11 on, and that chapter is how we deal with it. That's perfect way to outline that chapter. The 1St 10 verses is how God deals with it.
From 11 on to the end of the chapter is how we deal with it. We reckon it there. That's very good.
But I think this chapter is very helpful if we can.
Get over it, brethren, to because.
What is the struggle of this man in the 7th chapter? What he needs is what we find in verse 24 right at the end.
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Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Deliverance. It's the question of deliverance.
And I must say, brethren, it's interesting to me to hear different ones who have struggled with the question of sin and the law too.
And how they struggle for a time and then all of a sudden the truth of Scripture comes clear.
And what is the result? Deliverance. I have to say I struggle for that for quite a while.
I had tendency. I like to joke around.
I mean, that's not that bad of a thing, that's the way I reasoned, but I always felt afterwards I'd grieve the Lord.
So I go to the Lord and say, I'm sorry, Lord, I know that wasn't right.
And I determined as I get up not to do it again, I'm not going to give it in. And before I knew it, I was doing it again.
And I couldn't figure out where is the answer.
Until I found, like Jim said, you can't fight it.
You can't find it and I just simply accepted what God had said. You're dead.
And a dead man isn't fighting to keep away from sin, so it's accepting God's testimony, and that's what gives deliverance.
Not only was it a person at the end of the chapter that he found deliverance in, but there's another step too. Not to skip ahead, but as we say, we want to get a little outline of this, but in the 17th verse, I think there's something very important.
A conclusion that he finally came to. He said now then it is no more I but sin that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. He came to the realization of what we spoke of yesterday and that is the place that God had put him, what he was positionally. And I believe, brethren, there are many Christians that suffer because they they don't understand their true position before God. They don't see that God has put them in a new light.
We are a new creation in Christ Jesus.
We're seen in all the light of the new man at that perfect life. And so this man here that was struggling in our chapter, he finally realised and accepted what God said. It's no more I So when I sin, it's the old Jim Highland. It's no more I it's not the way God sees me and until we come to realize as we said yesterday.
Our standing in position before God, we're going to struggle with these things all our all our Christian life. And if I can just say this that I believe the more we enter in and appreciate our standing.
The more it is going to take care and rot of our state, our state of soul is going to depend on how well we understand and appreciate the fundamental doctrines that we have taken up in these readings already. Because as soon as I understand what God has, the position God has put me in, in Christ before him, then it's going to give me a peace and a rest of soul in my heart.
And we have often said that sound doctrine leads to sound behavior, and that's why these doctrines are so important. These fundamental doctrines are so important to get a hold of. I say that and I want to give a little warning in that regard because I've heard people say, you know, doctrine's not so important as the older brethren used to think. I've actually heard people, some young and some not so young, and those that we know very well.
Well, let's get on with the practical side of things. Why do we need these, these fundamental doctrines like we've been having in these readings? Brethren, you cannot have sound behavior, proper behavior, without sound doctrine. It's the basis. And that's why in the Epistles you always find the doctrinal part of the epistle at the beginning, not at the end. It's always at the beginning and then the practical side of things and the behavioral side of things.
Taken up after based on what has been laid out at the beginning of the epistle. So these these things to get ahold of in our souls of the difference between sins and sin, the difference between the, the, the sinful flesh, the old man, the new man. All these things are vital if we're going to go on in a practical way in our Christian life and have settled peace in our souls. It doesn't change the truth of what we are.
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But it does mean it does have to do with our state of soul and whether we're really in the enjoyment and peace of these things.
Yeah, that's very important, isn't it? And in this chapter, it's not just the law, is it? It's law at the principle of law. Now, the law was the Mosaic law. The Gentiles were never under the Mosaic law, but many Christians.
Put ourselves under the principle of law, and what is the principle of law?
Well, it's that I can attain to a certain level of behavior with my own strength and energy. And that's again what much of Christendom is teaching today, the self help folks. You want a better marriage? Do this XYZ and you'll get a better marriage. Well, it maybe works for a while, but then we look at the end result and we find that the marriage of evangelicals fails just as much as the marriages in the world.
It doesn't work. I'd rather Bill Frost had a meeting in Walla Walla and he mentioned what we heard some years ago. Just say no. That's the law, isn't it? Just say no, but we need something higher than ourselves. One of the keys in this chapter is I haven't counted it out, but somebody did. They noticed that there's over. There's 40 references to self. The law occupies me with myself. I'm going to do better. I'm going to pull myself up by my bootstraps and do better.
Doesn't work, not for very long. And then we fail again, and we wonder why we keep failing. Why can't we get better? So it's not just the law, which is the Mosaic Law. Most of these people were Gentiles who were never under the law of Moses. But it's the principle of law. And again, we had the promise keepers. I'm going to keep a promise. I'm going to be a better husband. That's the principle of law, not the law per SE, although they like to mention the 10 commandments.
God's moral laws don't change, that's true. But we're going to see in the 8th chapter the secret to practically keeping the law is by what we've been mentioning is by having something above ourselves. And that's why somebody said in Romans 7 the apostle Paul is speaking about someone who has eye trouble 40 times. It's all about me. That's not going to work. It's not I, but Christ. That's the rule of life for the believer, and that's the only way we can rise above.
The principle of law. And that's the secret to practical Christianity. And that's the difference between Christianity and all the other religions of the world. The other religions of the world have a system. Do this and you'll be a better person. Well, it works to a certain extent, but usually there's a, there's a, there's a problem, there's a there's a man can only rise so high.
What we need is an object outside of ourselves. That object is Christ. And again, as Jim said, and we mentioned it yesterday in a little talk yesterday afternoon, that's why doctrine comes first. When we realize the position the Lord has put us in, not only the position, but communion with Him is necessary. I am the vine here, the branches. We cannot walk in these things apart from communion.
And unfortunately, much of Christendom teaches that, well, just do this, this, this, and you'll be, you'll be a better husband and you'll be a better father and so on. It doesn't work very long. That's the principle of law. But if we put the Lord first, we spend time in the Lord's presence, we seek to honor the Lord, then we are a practical Christian.
That's what we have here, isn't it?
This man was this chapter assumed that a man is born again but not indwelled with the Spirit. So he has all of the affections of that life of God, but he has no power.
And and that's why there's a struggle because he is born again. He does have that new life. And so immediately there's this struggle. And I've talked to some who had this struggle.
And they've doubted their salvation had recent opportunity to talk to a young man. He was very distressed. But I said to him, perhaps the reason that you have this struggle is because you do have life. You are born again. And so we need again to go back to the scriptures and rest on what God has has said, because it's the work of God for us and in US doesn't change our our emotions, our feelings aren't going to change the work of God.
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Innocent for us and in us, but we are going to, as we've said, have settled peace in the measure in which we have faith in what God says. Again, it's a little different, but you go back to Egypt The night they ate of the Passover lamb. What made the children of Israel secure? Not their feelings and emotions. It was obedience to the word of the Lord and having slain the Passover lamb and the blood applied on the door, God said when I see the blood, not when I see your.
Know your emotions are right or you understand things.
But in every house, I'm sure there were different levels of feelings as to security, but that didn't matter. It was the work of God. It was what God had provided for them when they got in into the wilderness. They never left the will. They never got back to Egypt. They were positionally redeemed and delivered, redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb, delivered by a mighty hand through the Red Sea, it says in their hearts they returned into Egypt.
But thank God they never got back there positionally. So again, it's to go back and rest on the Word of God that is going to give us this confidence. And as I say again, it's going to raise our state of soul in the measure in which we appreciate and rest on what we've had before us in these chapters. I just want to say this too, in a practical way in connection with what Eric said, because the enemy Satan is very clever and he comes in different subtle ways.
Even in different generations, you know, in my father and grandfather's day, people were concerned about getting to heaven by keeping the law or doing good works, maintaining a certain outward moral lifestyle and so on. But you know, people are not concerned about that so much today. I don't think to preach to an audience and tell them they to to not do keep the law or do good works is going to keep them out of heaven because people aren't people are so indifferent. What they need is to be impressed upon that they're sinners and they need to repent and so on.
That gospel was more relevant a generation or two ago, but Satan has come along today in a day of indifference with the unbeliever, and he's attacked the believer, saying not, not, you don't have to keep the law or do good works or some code to get saved, but you need to do it to maintain your salvation, not to obtain it, but to maintain it. And so there are many Christians who are all in a tangle who don't have the settled peace that we have been talking about.
Or the teaching that we have had by the mercies and grace of God before us in these meetings.
And they think that they have to live a certain code to maintain their salvation. And wasn't that the problem in the early church? The Jews came the the believing Jews came along and said, well, the Gentiles need to be circumcised and they need to keep the law to be part of the church. And it wasn't to obtain salvation, it was to maintain it. That's what Paul was talking about when he wrote to the Galatians. The Galatians had started out by being saved by grace.
He said you've started out by grace. Now he said you're going to go back and and swallow the teaching that you've been saved by the grace of God, but now you've got to maintain your salvation by keeping the law or some code of ethics. He said, no, brethren, what we learned from this is that there is no spark of good in man. I know in the schools of man they teach us that there's a spark of divinity and if it's fanned and put in a proper environment, it'll spring up into something wonderful. No, brethren.
What these chapters teach us is that we are we were ruined through and through.
There was number hope for us apart from what God has brought in through Christ by His grace and brethren, if we can revel in that, what a difference it will make in our souls.
If just for a second, we could go back to Vern's comment, because he made a comment.
That this is this is a man that's born again, but not sealed with the spirit. I want to say there's there may be a number of people in this room, number of, of believers in this room that that statement confuses them because there's many evangelists that get up at the podium and say.
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This is the gospel. You must be born again.
But born again does not mean that you're saved and sealed with the Spirit of God and fully have accepted Christ as your Savior. So if a if a brother would just take the time to define that difference, because sometimes defining those differences will unfold and begin to make sense of what we're trying to talk about. But if they don't understand that we've already lost them. So we're dead in trespasses and states. That's the natural man. And as Bob said, you put a a dead man on the floor.
He's never going to respond.
You can give him all kinds of appeals and commands. He will never respond. And that is our condition. Naturally speaking, we're dead in trespasses and sin. We would never respond to the gospel if God didn't impart divine life to us. And we don't know when that happens in a soul. Because the Lord said to Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
And so if God didn't impart divine life to us, we never would respond to the gospel because we are dead. How does God do it? Well, we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. It's the Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit that God uses to impart divine life to us. That's why when we preach the gospel, whether it's on the platform, whether it's speaking to a sole individually, we always want to use the Word of God.
My explanation or my illustration isn't going to save a soul. It might be helpful. We so speak that many believe we trust, but it's the Word of God in its living power that God uses to impart divine life. Once that happens, then he that hath begun a good work in you will complete it under the day of Jesus Christ. You're not going to go to hell if you have divine life. You might, you might not have come into the good of salvation and be sealed with the Holy Spirit.
But once you have been imparted divine life, you're going to be you're going to heaven. God is God is sovereign, and he'll complete that work, whether it's the completion of that work here in our souls, as we find with the man here and you go on to the 8th chapter, or whether it's a person that's taken home to glory without ever coming in to the good of these things that we have been Speaking of.
The moment a person is sealed is in Ephesians chapter one. It may be helpful just to read the verse Ephesians one and verse 13.
The last word of verse 12 is Christ, and then verse 13 says in whom?
Ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth. That's what you're mentioning, the gospel of your salvation, in whom after that ye believed. You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So it's not merely believing in the Lord Jesus.
But it is believing the gospel of our salvation and in the gospel, that's why it's important to present the finished work of Christ on the cross, how he answered to God for the full questions of of sin and sins, and he completely satisfied God and God raised him from the dead. When a soul rests there, it's as if God says now he's resting where I rest.
The work of salvation is complete and he seals that soul with his Holy Spirit. That's the moment a person is sealed. But between those two points is a time. And I find in speaking to souls that everyone's different. Nobody is exactly the same. And so the struggle that goes on that relates to this.
In Chapter 7 of Romans.
Is different with everybody I remember reading.
The story of Martin Luther, it's very interesting.
He had heard enough of the Scriptures that he realized that he needed to be saved, but he didn't have it clear. The Gospel in that system that he was the Roman Catholic system isn't clear. And so he was struggling. I think it was a question of several years. He struggled. He was a monk. I think you probably have heard that. And he would take a whip and whip himself if he was going to try to kill that sin nature inside of him.
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And he would torture himself.
It was interesting because it was a superior of the monastery that came to him one day and said, young man, why are you torturing yourself like that?
Don't you know that Jesus did it all on the cross? And it was interesting. He used that man to give him the gospel, and it came clear to Martin Luther that it was not what he did.
It was what Christ did on the cross and it was a change for Martin Luther. Of course, he had a lot of struggles in a lot of ways. But I say in every one of us, I see that the Lord allows us to go through struggles. And I want to say.
Brother Jim, you mentioned verse 17, and I think that is a crucial verse because there he finally identifies the problem within himself. It's not me, it's sin that dwelleth in me. And notice he says the same thing in verse 20. Now if I do that, what I would not, It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
That sin nature, it's still there.
It will be there.
But how do you treat with that?
And I think the reason why the Lord allows these things in our lives, these heavy struggles, is to bring us to what we have in verse 18.
He says, I know that in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Wowie, that's a hard sentence. Nothing good. Come on, I thought there was something good.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
That man that was dead, what do you do with him? You take him out and bury him.
How often do you go out and uncover that grave and see how he's doing?
Don't do it, because every time you do it, it's going to get worse.
Don't be occupied with yourself and I see so many young people sometimes.
They're analyzing themselves.
Let me tell you, it's a painful operation. Don't do it.
Take God's word for it.
In me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. God looks at us as Dad and buried.
And when it's buried, leave it there. Don't go ticking it up again. We get the doctrine of it in the 1St 4 verses. And perhaps it would be good to take it up systematically. That's the doctrine that's put forth. And then the experiences from then on. So perhaps it would be good to just have somebody give a little dissertation on those four, first four verses.
Well, we talked about it a little bit before. I think, Brother Vern, that he uses the illustration of a man or a woman that's married to a man and she's bound to that man as long as he lives. But when he dies, then she's free from the law of that husband to be married to another if she is to another man.
While her husband is living, she's called an adulteress, and that's what Brother Jim was mentioning. Yeah, we're saved by grace, but the law is a rule of life.
You are an adulteress if you say that. Don't say that. That's not proper. We are completely freed from the law. I use another illustration. Sometimes it might help a bit. I say here we are in the United States of America. We are in American territory here. The Constitution of the United States is the law of the land. But we're going to take a trip and we go across.
At the border.
Into Canada.
And now we are on Canadian soil.
Now, is the law of the United States valid?
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Is it valid?
Are you trying to undo the law, the United States by saying that?
No, you're not. What you're simply saying is that you have changed your position.
Your place now is in Canada, and there is another.
Constitution of that country. So we have changed positions and that's what happens when we are baptized. We are disassociated with this world where we have lived. We are now associated with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yeah, and that's what Paul was saying in Galatians, wasn't he? He says I am crucified with Christ because it's the cross of Christ that separates us from this world. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The Galatians were trying to live by the rule of the law to maintain their salvation. Paul says the life that I live, I live in Christ is Christ.
And so, as we said earlier, the it's not living the rule of the law, but it's Christ who is our life. And it's interesting too, that when you come to New Testament principles, they always supersede what you had under the law. I'll give you an example. So the law said, thou shalt not steal.
But in Ephesians we read let him that stole steal no more, but working with his hands and not quoting it exactly that he might have to give to others. That's beyond the law. So a man under the law was simply took. The Mosaic law was simply told not to steal. In Christianity it's far more than that.
We have the divine life, we have the power for that life in the Spirit of God, and we're not only not to steal, but we're to work so that we can provide for others who have need. And there's many examples of that. So it really is far greater. The Christian life really rises. We in the power of the Spirit of God. We rise far above what the Mosaic law gave in the Old Testament because we're we're led by the Spirit of God. So it's not stick your hands in your brother's pocket and take something out. Stick your hand, your own pocket and give them some right. So that's.
But these first four verses tell us just exactly what you've said. You know that we're not under the law, we're not under the law. Then the rest is an experience, how we arrive at that, how we arrive at that, and it's.
The thing that it develops for us is that in chapter 5 and verse 12 on in that chapter, I mean in that, yeah, in that chapter we we find that we have two heads. So we're no longer identified with the with the first head. We're identified with the second head. This is taken up with husbands, isn't it? So it's taken up with two husbands. The first husband was the law. The second husband is the Christ. So on the first one, if you're dead to that.
You're no longer under the burden of the law, but if you're married to Christ, then you're you're married in liberty. And so it's it's developing these two contrast so that it can afterwards tell you about this struggle that you're going through. And you know, and I don't want to go back, but but you know, before you were ever saved before, before you have any awakening to the fact you're responsible to God.
You, you did what you wanted. You were a Sinner, you were had no strength, you were an enemy. You did what you wanted. You were dead in trespasses and sins. But one day you heard the word of God, and the Spirit of God took that word and produced life in you. That awakened you. Awakened you to what? Awakened you to your responsibility to God. Every one of us in some degree has gone through that awakened, awakened you to a responsibility to God.
You did something wrong and you and you went.
I'm responsible to God for what I did. What am I going to do? I'm going to go to hell. So all of a sudden you cared about whether you went to hell or not. All of a sudden you cared that you knew about a God that you're responsible to, but you didn't know how to have peace with Him. That's being under the law, isn't it? It's that you're trying to do good and you can't do it. You try to do good and you can't do it. You fail and you come and you go. What in the world am I going to do?
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And then what happens after that? Well, the faithful gospel is presented to you. You see that the Lord Jesus Christ loves you and he died for you. And all these doctrines that we've had up to this point have been developed. And you see that that he put away your sins and he puts you away. And you say, that's exactly what I need. I need that Savior from myself. And when you did that, you were saved.
And that's what the Chapter 7 is developing. It's developing what you were when you were dead in trespasses and sins and under the law, and what it was to have that new husband and then feel that struggle that goes on through your life. And then the end of this chapter where he only sees Christ as the answer to meet all of his needs. And it's beautifully developed in this chapter, isn't it?
So in verse six, we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter. We are delivered from the law. And like Eric was saying, it's not merely the law, the Mosaic Law, but it is the principle of law. And I find that sometimes maybe we think, oh, the meeting doesn't allow that.
Or my folks wouldn't be agreement with that. And so there's always some framework that we are relating to.
And as long as we are struggling under the framework, it is the principle of law. And the problem is he takes up this question of the law here. And I take it it's the Mosaic law here. But it's it's the principle of it that there's no problem with the law.
The problem is inside of me is the lost sin, he says in verse seven. God forbid nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, or if I had not, I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet or lust, but sin taking occasion by the commandment because.
That sin nature that we have is provoked by the law. You say to a child, don't do that.
There's a natural inclination that want to do that. And if you say do this, there's a natural inclination that doesn't want to do that because that nature is at enmity with God. And so when the law comes out, it just provokes them in the wrong direction.
And that's why the law isn't the answer. The law is only there to make us aware of sin. Sin taking occasion by the commandment rotten me all manner of concupiscence. For without the Law sin was dead. But I for I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. And then he comes to this conclusion in verse 12, which is important.
Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. There's no problem with the law. That's not the problem. And sometimes people try to say, why do you try to put the law to one side? I say I'm not putting it to the one side.
The law hasn't changed. One wit who has changed is me. I have taken another position now.
I'm not under law, but under grace.
Bob, it's good to bring out what you see that somebody may have missed that, but he's really talking about this person doesn't know.
He has an old nature. He he just says he sins. He has a wide sinning. He can't keep from it. He doesn't learn.
That it's something in him down to the 17th verse. In the 17th verse, he starts to learn that there's something in me that's causing me to do this.
17th and the 20th verses he repeats it the same thing. Both the 17th and the 20th verses he repeats the same thing. It's no longer I but sin. Oh, there is something else inside me. I want to do what's right. And that does every time it does what's wrong, and he finds out that Christ is dealt with that.
That's the point. He realizes that he's no longer seen in that position. He recognizes sin, but he says it's no more I. And I think that's vital.
00:45:04
Just say this too, that often the objection to what we have talked about in this meeting is raised by some that well, if you say if what you say is true and we believe it is true on the authority of God's word. But if what you say is true, then that just gives Christians to live their own life. That if we're not under some kind of rules and regulations or the law or the some code of conduct. Well then everybody can go out and do their own thing. But let's remember again, as we've stressed in these meetings.
We have divine life now. We have the the new nature, the very life of Christ. It cannot sin. The new life cannot sin. We have the Spirit of God as the power for that life, and we'll notice that in the next chapter particularly. But I think we need to stress that because the divine life has no power of itself. It is a dependent life, and the power for that life is the Spirit of God. Plus, as we've already said in yesterday's meetings, there's a new motivation.
So the Lord said, if a man love me, he will keep my commandments and my commandments are not grievous. Why is it we don't go out and and break the law? Why is it we don't go out and live the way we please? It's only in the measure in which our hearts affections go out to the one who's accomplished all this for our blessing. And so the love of Christ constraineth us. What keeps us walking for God's glory and, and, and in the power of the Spirit and so on. It's in the measure in which our hearts affections.
Are centered on Christ. It's in the measure in which he we have to we're walking in communion with him. All these things are what are going to preserve us to live.
For God's glory, so that it is the Newman that is manifest in the power of the Spirit. And when we do that, what are we really doing? We're unconsciously starving that sinful flesh that is still there. It's like the illustrations been used. Somebody comes to the somebody comes to the door. And who do you let answer the door? Do you let the sinful flesh or do you let the new man answer the door? Temptation knocks, and it knocks every day in our lives.
But who are you allowing to answer the door? If the new man is being fed and we're walking in the power of the spirit, he's the one that's going to have the energy to to answer the door. And that's really the key, isn't it? Augustine of Hippo.
Had a Christian mother. He lived back in the early century of Christianity, but he he was rebellious when he was young and he lived a profligate life style.
Well, the time came when the Lord caught up with him and saved his soul and he became a giant. I don't say he had everything right, but nonetheless he became a giant in influence for for good and Christianity. And after he was saved, there was a lady that saw him on the street and he ignored her and she said Augustine, it's I. And he said yes, but it's not I. He knew that he now that Lady that he had sinned with before, he now had a new life.
And that's the secret I wanted to mention too, not to go back too far, but to show the two conditions we're talking about. Romans 623 is often used in the gospel, but it even goes beyond that because he's writing to Christians for the wages of sin is death. That's when I was. That condition I was in before leads to death. Morally and spiritually and ultimately physically. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, don't we want to have eternal life? Not only have it, but walk in the newness of life. And then we have verses 5:00 and 6:00 go together. For when we were in the flesh, that is, when I was under the burden of the old man, the motions of sins which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit under death. Is that the life we want to live, one that has only its fruit?
That that brings forth fruit unto death.
But then verse 6. But now this is the new condition, the new husband, which is Christ risen. That's when he became the second Adam. The last Adam, I should say, was in resurrection. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of letter. That's eternal life. So when the Israelites were.
00:50:03
Being delivered from Egypt.
Before they cross the Red Sea, they came to a place called Pai Hai Roth.
Long name, but it simply means the gateway or the entrance to liberty. What's the real secret for Christian liberty and what's the real secret for Christian fruitfulness and Christian joy? Well, it's seen in the Red Sea. It's entering into these things we're talking about to realize that we're identified with Christ in his death, but then we're identified with Christ in resurrection, and that's newness of life, and we have the joy to walk.
In the liberty that the Spirit gives, that's eternal life, isn't it? That's newness of life. That's true liberty. Liberty isn't just doing what liberty it is. Isn't it all doing what the old man wants to do? Because once I have a new nature, the only true liberty then is to walk in newness of life and honor the Lord. Because that's what the new nature wants to do. That's what the Spirit of God directs me to do. And one of the most miserable people in the world is a Christian.
Who's not walking in newness of life? We're more miserable than the natural man. The natural man doesn't know better, but the Christian does, and he has a nature that is contrary to what he's doing, and the Spirit of God that indwells him is telling him what he's doing is wrong. There's no person more miserable than the Christian that's walking in the flesh. But true liberty, true fruitfulness, true happiness is in this new condition.
Newness of life. That's true liberty.
Maybe it would help if we why used to sit in these conferences years and years ago and you never left one of those conference that you didn't hear this. There's no substitute for communion. I can't do that for you. You can't do that for me. I must be in the presence of the Lord. We said we live in the Spirit. Let us walk in the Spirit. And if we walk in the Spirit, the Spirit is not going to give us to do anything.
This dishonours Christ, not because we're under the law, but because we're seeking to please the Lord. So do I pray to the Spirit? He's in me? No, I keep in communion with the Lord and the Spirit guides me. So remember that we need something that's concrete and practical and that is practical. I can't do it for you. You. It's a, it's an individual thing.
You can't do it for me.
And I grew the day I I don't practice this as much as I should, but if you stay in communion with the Lord, you keep talking to the Lord, keep taking every difficulty to the Lord every.
Experience from the Lord and stay in his presence and we know that that's that sounds mystical to anybody who is sitting in this room who's not saved, but it's not mystical to us that are saved. We know what that is to be in the presence of the Lord right now.
It's easy here, but when we're driving down the road we have to be then too. So there's no substitute for communion if you stay in communion, if you talk to the Lord and you're in his company.
The Spirit of God will guide you.
So that you're so the commandment, you won't you won't do anything. He will never lead you to steal. You know, it's like he says, he will never lead you to stick your hand in somebody else's pocket, but he will lead you to be gracious and and give to your people.
The New Testament probably are more than the commandments of the Old Testament, but they are always addressed to a man in Christ, and they are the guidelines that guide us. And we need those commandments, commandments of the Lord Jesus. And so we do have commandments, but it's not on the basis of law, the principle of law. It's not addressed to a man.
Just like to mention here the struggle that he has because I know this is the experience sometimes the people verse 15 that that which I do, I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that I do. If then I do that which I would not I can send into the law that it is good.
And then finally he comes to the conclusion, that is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
00:55:02
And then at the end of the chapter, as we're getting down toward the end of this meeting.
He concludes and what I say, brother, and it's it's deliverance that we need deliverance from the law, deliverance from sin in the flesh. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. That's verse 22, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind.
And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And then he cries out, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
What a cry. Who right? That's right.
But it says I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's the answer. It's the Lord Jesus that is the answer. I understand that.
In old Roman Empire, one of the ways of of.
Punishment for crime was they strapped a dead body with chains to a person's back and they had to live with that until it rotted off their back.
That was the punishment that they had, and this is the figure that we have here, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
So all the resources and power are there to live in newness of life. And there we want to make it clear that at the end of this meeting that they're available to every believer here. This isn't just something or a position that certain ones have been brought into. These resources are there. So Paul said, I can do all things through Christ, which which strengtheneth me because there might be somebody at the end of this meeting and say, well, it's OK for your brothers to talk like this.
Who've had experience in the path of faith and so on. But this is for everyone and it's in contrast to what you have. When Adam sinned, When Adam sinned, he did. He and Eve did receive the knowledge of good and evil, but they quickly realized they no longer they didn't have the power to do good or the power to refrain from evil. But brethren, we've been brought into a position now. And that's what the law showed in the Old Testament. Peter said. Neither we nor our fathers were able to keep it.
It showed how short man fell, that he couldn't keep God's standard. He didn't have the power to do good or the power to refrain from evil, naturally speaking. But brethren, we have the power now. We have the resources, and this is available to everyone who has come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Yes, there are those struggles and maybe some struggle their whole life, but let's remember this, we're not, we have not talked about a select group of believers who have reached a certain plateau.
Of spirituality or understanding of the Word of God. These resources, the resources of power in and through Christ are available to you this this morning. If you will rest on what God has said, avail yourself of that power and believe the position you've been brought into, then the practical side of things that we have spoken of will take its place naturally speaking unconsciously even. And what you mentioned before, I want to emphasize that.
There are resources, but this new life is a dependent life, just as Vern was saying. It cannot survive apart from communion with Christ. We need to cultivate that day in and day out. And that's the way God intended it. He wanted us to be in intimacy with Himself, and that's the source of true joy and blessing and fruit and meaning in life too. Men struggle for a purpose in life, but when we walk in communion with the Lord, we have that purpose.
Because we're consistent with God's purpose and we're fruitful and we're happy.
I do believe that the reason that some struggle so long. I don't know that I can say it's the case and everyone that it is a lack of coming to the conclusion that he comes to in verse 18. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing in our culture we are told.
To have self esteem, there are certain qualities I have that are really great and that God can use and until we come to that point of recognizing, I know that in me that is in my flesh no good thing. That is a tremendously hard sentence. Can we accept that? Well, we if we're going to get deliverance, we have to accept that.
01:00:14
A lot of young people here are just.
Recount something that I heard along that line recently. It was a statement that Brother Darby supposedly made or I believe he made. I was listening to an old tape. We have that resource to look up a meeting, I should say, on our smartphones and whatnot. I can't tell you who was speaking, but he was a, you know, meeting from the 60s, I believe, and he was recounting an event where.
Mr. Darby was teaching, I believe, I don't know if it was a meeting where he spoke or if it was a reading meeting, but a young brother came up and you know, was impressed with Mr. Darby and he, he said that I'd sure like him impressed with all you know from the word of God. I'd certainly like to study and learn how to you know what, what should I do to, to learn as much as you have. And Mr. Harvey said, well you want to study, I'll give you 4 words. Study these. The flesh profiteth nothing.
We could and there is, you know, we know what is accepted, you know? I mean, there's many who know what the brother tries.
You may do things and and go on, but if it's not done for the Lord, you're a good citizen, but you're not a spiritual person.
Unless it's done in communion with the Lord.
So you might be a good Pharisee and and compare yourself with other people.
But it's not, unless it's in communion with the Lord.
It's not of any. I've often said the Christian's motto is not I, but Christ. I've often said the Christian's motto is not I but Christ. That's a great secret, isn't it? If we remind ourselves. And that's what brings fruitfulness and joy, not I, but Christ.
And.
Wisdom.
I.
Loving God and Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast delivered us from this body of death.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you that you have brought us into a place of blessing, a place where self is to be put aside.
We are to reckon ourselves dead to the flesh.
Be brought into full communion with thee.
With thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, we thank thee for these things, and we pray in your precious and alone worthy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.