It was the law that pointed sin out to me as sin, the same as you, otherwise it'd be a free for all. And we have, you know, we live in a time, not the first time in history, but we have a generation that is trying to redefine what sin is. To revise God's declaration.
In the courthouses, it's because it convicts them of sin and of righteousness at the same time. And now here's Pastor Rick in the book of Romans chapter 7 with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. That's the lesson handed to us in this seventh chapter that started in chapter 6, this topic. He is anticipating objections.
And that's why he's gone back to the question and answer format. And if you've preached and pastored, you know when you make certain statements, you anticipate objections. Things don't, you know, people don't agree.
They maybe have been exposed to another opinion and they think that's the right one. But Paul, he is correct, of course, and this is what he is addressing. By preaching grace, are you condemning the law, Paul? See, that's one of the objections he knew he would hear if he were there in Rome. He knew it would be happening in the congregation and some could use it to cause great divisions. Are you saying the Old Testament law is useless, Paul, now that we have grace?
He's anticipating that, too. Has Jesus made the law sin? Well, even if those in the congregation, largely Jewish, with some Gentile converts to Judaism, but now all Christians, they would still have family members in relations with people in their community who would have said these things to them if they didn't say it themselves. And Paul is, of course, very mindful of this. These teachings that we're getting, especially in chapter 7, come from one who served God more than most. And the more he served God and the more successful he was because of God, he had a greater realization of who he was in the presence of his God. Paul knew that he was a sinner, and it didn't die down because of his achievements.
It actually increased his awareness, his realization. I'm not better than anybody else. And, you know, the flesh would say, well, according to the merit system, you are. But he's not in the flesh. And this is important.
Maybe I'll repeat it next session. I don't know because there's so much information in verses 13 to 25, but I'll say it now and maybe you'll remember that I said it when we get there next session. In the year 55, oh, about 20 years after his conversion, he wrote to the church at Corinth just recently about the time he's writing this church to the Romans. He says, I am the least of the apostles who are not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. So here he is conscious before this too, but it's in print 20 years after his conversion thereabout. He says, I don't deserve to be an apostle.
I am one. And he upheld that. And then maybe six years later, as he's writing to the Ephesians after shipwrecked, after stonings and being chased and all of the things that were going on in his story, he's now in jail. He writes to the Ephesians, to me who am less than the least of all the saints.
This grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. So he's now, as he's continued to serve, continued to stack up the victories, not only is he the least of the apostles, he's least of all the Christians. That's his view. That's what he was saying about himself. This is important because the things he's going to say as he progresses through chapter 7 are about a man who is not a spectator, but a participant in Christianity.
By the time he writes to Timothy in his first letter to him, perhaps two years after that Ephesian letter, he says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. I am the biggest sinner of them all. This is not false humility.
This is genuine. Coming from a man like this, all of us should be mindful that we shouldn't be self-impressed. So Paul confirms firsthand his experience as a sinner, even after years of being used unlike most people. So this is the man who's writing the things that we're going to consider this morning because anticipating again the challenges, look now at verse 7 if you would. What shall we say then? Is the law sin?
Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. Well, the grace has overruled the law. Looking back at verse 6 when he's answering his last statement, but now have we been delivered from the law having died to what we were held by so that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter? But then, see, then it's connected. It segues right into the other one. And so grace has overruled the Old Testament law without destroying it.
I don't have to repeat some of the things we've been going through because it's a little tricky. Wouldn't have been tricky to his audience because they were guilty of this. They lived in this world. They lived in a world where Moses had given them the Old Testament and the rabbis had given them even more stuff that they should not have, but they did anyway.
They lived in this world and so did Paul. God's word points sin out as sin, as a crime against God. Also against man, but always against God. Sin. It's in the law and it points to my defect.
The law points to my defect. And since the verbs are in the past tense, he's going back to the time of his conversion, not when he was a Pharisee. And I'll plan to hit that pretty well so that you'll understand it. And, you know, this is a lot of controversy in this chapter with many of the study Bibles and commentators. Everybody's trying to get Paul out of sin. Every while he's not talking about himself. Paul says, don't you put me on that pedestal.
I'll have none of it. I am the chief of sinners. And so it's best to take the seventh chapter as Paul talking about himself. When he gets to verse 14 through the end, the verbs are in the present tense and refer to his present experiences as a Christian. He says, I try to do everything right according to God, but I fail.
Not everything, but enough. It only takes one mistake, one sin, to really irritate a true believer. So he is clear. The law itself is not sinful, nor has grace made it sin. Instead, the law identifies sin, which is the role of the law. He says, I would not have known sin except through the law. This is autobiographical. Again, this is not the language of a spectator.
This is the language of a participant. This entire chapter is a language of somebody who struggles with their own sinful nature, just like the rest of us. Not every single moment of every single day, but it doesn't take much. It only takes one sin to damn a soul to very potent stuff.
So keeping himself off the pedestal, he says, I'm not above reproach. I'm just like you. I'm identifying with you.
How awful it would be if Paul was speaking down to them. I know how much you struggle. I don't, but you do. If you're messed up, I no longer am. Christian perfection is not achievable even if you serve like Paul.
The legalists can't bear that. You'll be disillusioned after a while if you think at some point you're going to be perfect in this life. It's a hard, knock-down, drag-out affair, and the best of them in Scripture have stumbled. So again, as I mentioned last session, there are those that will admit that we are sinners, but they're reluctant to admit that they do sin. Years later, after this Roman letter, around the time of the Ephesian letter, he says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. In his own words, he's saying, I'm not perfect.
I struggle in life also. Well, thank you, Lord, for giving us these testimonies of men like Moses, who struggled with anger, men like David. You know, sometimes I read the Psalms of David and I say, you know, you're whining. Stop your whining.
They're persecuting me. But it's because he was in it. He was pursuing the righteous life. The Holy Spirit was in that man. And that's what God told Samuel. He's got the heart that I want him to have.
He's got a heart after me. Paul was a Pharisee. And here's what the Bible says Pharisees lived like, Luke chapter 16. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, that's what it says. So we're getting an idea of who this man was before his conversion, before he writes these things in the midst of his Christian life. He continues, you are those, Jesus said to them, who justify yourselves before men.
But God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Well, the Pharisees hated hearing that. How much did they hate hearing that, Pastor?
Enough to want to kill him. And they began to plan his death. It was the law that pointed sin out to me as sin, the same as you.
Otherwise, it'd be a free for all. And we have, you know, we live in a time, it's not the first time in history, but we have a generation that is trying to redefine what sin is, to revise God's declaration. Why the Bible Haters Club cannot stand the Ten Commandments in the courthouses is because it convicts them of sin, and of righteousness at the same time. Man's sense of sin is always awakened by God's law. And remember, when we use the word law in Romans 7, it's, the basic meaning is the law of Moses, and the prophets, you could add the rest of the scripture, but mainly the law of Moses.
That's the hub. But the human side of the whole equation is this. The rabbinical Pharisees had muddied up the waters. And so Paul can't just talk about the beauty of the Old Testament without being mindful that his audience, many of them, have wrong opinions about their own law. In fact, he, a Pharisee once, had wrong opinions about his own God. Or else there would never have been a Damascus encounter with Jesus Christ.
But there was. Man's sense of sin is awakened by God through his word, and sneaky sin will even leave a sinner feeling self-righteous if they obey the law. That's why, when we get to verse 13, he says that sin is exceedingly sinful. Very potent stuff.
I'm amazed that sometimes, you know, we try to deal with sin and the sinner, and on one hand you get those, you're too hard, and on the other hand you get those, you're not mean enough. Well, the law in one sense is not so much a thermostat that influences its surroundings. That's what a thermostat does. It makes changes to the environment. But it is more like a thermometer that tells you what's going on in the environment. And the law does that. It tells you what's happening in your heart. The Phariseedical mind only looks at the thermometer when it comes to others. The Phariseedical heart, the legalist, pulls out the law when it's about others. So he says, for I would not have known covetness.
Well, what is that? The hidden desires of the heart. The Ten Commandments were largely, you know, external. If a person had an idol, you could see the idol. If it was in their theology, it would show up.
But what about a person who's craving something that doesn't belong to them? That does not always show up on the outside. You can get away with hiding that one. And so again, the great function of the Mosaic Law was to expose sin. And Paul is saying, it did with me.
It exposed it for me. Sinfully desiring the possessions of another one, Exodus 20 verse 17. The Ten Commandments, they scan us, the inner self, but without the Holy Spirit. It can be ignored, largely.
Much of it can just be sidestepped. Covetness, for sure. Psalm 32, this is David writing. Once Nathan the prophet had exposed David for his sin, David went to write more scripture after that, and one of them was Psalm 32. And in that Psalm, he talks about what he was going through when he was ignoring the law, when he would not come under the conviction of the scripture.
He says, when I kept silent, my bones grew old. Through my groanings all the day long, he was resisting God, he was miserable. But he would not confess his sin until he was confronted. And so we can camouflage the outer self, and others won't see what's going on, but God, of course, sees. Going back to Paul upholding the law, he wrote to the Hebrews years later, for the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul, and the spirit, and of the joints, and the marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. You can't hide from God.
And that tenth commandment, you shall not covet, is talking about the heart. It would be criminal to take a bottle of poison, in bold letters, poison, with a little skull and crossbones. Some of you might remember the iodine bottles.
My first, I used to like to just look at the bottle. Where else did you see that? Anyway, what if you took that label and instead you put nectar of champions? And instead of the skull and crossbones, you put a dove. You see the crime you'd be committing? Well, that's what sinners want to do with the teachings of Scripture, with sin.
They want to change its name. It's not perversity, it's gay. It's not murder, it's abortion. It's not adultery, it's an affair.
And they do this, they try these euphemisms, they try to, you know, put a bow on things, but it's poison. It's alienating you from God. And the Christian knows if they've been guilty of those things, God is eager to take you and make you his own. And you'll never think the same way about those things ever again. You'll still struggle with sin, but you won't condone it.
And this is a widespread practice and we're seeing it right here in our lifetime. So once more the function of the law is to give sin its proper name. It is poison. Keep the skull and crossbones on it. It's deadly. It's not the nectar of champions.
It does not bring you the piece of a dove. Zephaniah makes this little statement, the unjust, the wicked know no shame. Yeah, because they've worked to take shame out of sin.
The very thing the law refuses to do. And so we look at someone like Cain. He had no problem killing his brother without remorse. But he looked out for himself still.
Your punishment's too hard. Balaam had no problem enriching himself against God's word by cursing others. I'm going to try to get rich by cursing others. And when he couldn't do that, he gave instructions on how to do it. Then there was Korah. He enjoyed being delivered from Egyptian slavery under the leadership of Moses. And then he defied Moses and led a rebellion against Moses.
And the ground opened up and swallowed him and the others that were with him were killed with a plague. These swim in the pond of the self-will. And that's what sin is all about. The self-will, the carnal nature, the sinful nature, and the carnal nature.
We'll get to that more in detail next session. But here is a short list of those who suffered consequence because of covetness. Balaam, he lost his mind.
Peter called him insane. David lost his testimony. Gehazi lost his ministry.
Ananias and Sapphira lost their lives. All of those coveted first. All of those wanted what was not theirs to have. Lucifer. He wanted the throne of God. That's right there in Isaiah 14, verses 13 and 14.
And what is the outcome? What is the final note on Lucifer? Revelation 20, 10. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast, that is the antichrist, and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So this is a big sin.
Just because it's the tenth of a list of ten doesn't mean it's somehow not as important. Holiness plays hardball because sin is not tinkering with us. Sin is not tinkering with humanity.
Just look at the animal kingdom. How vicious it is. Covetousness. It is the subtlest of all sins and perhaps the most perpetrated of all sins. And so Paul says unless the law had said you shall not covet, I would have wound up doing it without any problem. You shall have no evil desires. That's what the commandment says. God had to point it out. Just like parents have to point out to toddlers. What is the law?
What is harmful? And we tend to think well, you know, now that I'm a Christian, I don't really need so much of that maybe. Maybe you think like that. I hope not. What do you think happened in the crowd when Jesus said on the Sermon of the Mount, I say to you whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Do you think that type of sin is only limited to sexual desire? Of course not. You could look at other things with the same, you know, licking of the chops.
I want that, but it's not yours to want. And so again, the Bible cuts to the inside and we who love the Lord, we know it, we love it because we know him. We know how gentle he is. We know what grace is. But Paul is writing to those who is still confused about this or again have family members and associates who will be challenging this New Testament teaching. And so in verse 8 he says, But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire, for apart from the law sin was dead. But sin, that rebellion, taking opportunity, that word opportunity in the Greek is actually starting point.
The law exposed sin and the sinner's nature for what they are, harmful, poison, skull and crossbones. And before Christ came into our lives, we decided what was sin, what was right and what was wrong. After Christ, that all stopped. Once you come to Christ, everything's now filtered through him. You want to know if you're born again? Well, you think about it, you know, you see things through the eyes of Christ. You're going to line up with that. You may still struggle, but you're going to line up with him.
That's what you want. Had God not forbidden such sins, then there'd be no such thing as evil. And now thinking, but the harm would still be taking place. Adam and Eve were told at the beginning, don't touch that tree.
And they did it anyway. Don't eat from that tree. And so it was forbidden because it was harmful.
And now we know. And the trespasser acts on that covetous attitude, finds themselves where they don't belong because of their fallen nature. And so Paul says this produced in me all manner of evil desire. What strikes me here is not the word evil desire as much as the pronoun me.
Produced in me. You can't say, well I just did it for Paul. Maybe covetousness is not a problem you suffer with. There's something else and you know what it is too. Paul was willing to give up, say I do covet. What else do you do Paul? Well that's none of your business. Law exposes the hidden nature of sin and the sinner.
Here's an example. How about those cameras on traffic lights? Do they arouse in you a spirit of resentment? I hope they don't come to my neighborhood. Why? Abide by the law. You don't have to worry about them. Well I might not. They're taking away our chance to break the law. That's how the heart is. We see that.
And if it's not with that, it's something else. I'm a little irritated by speed limits that are too small. What's the thing with the school zones?
Let the kids learn how not to cross the street when the cars are moving so fast. Experience is a good teacher. These things expose me for who I am. Just little things like that. They expose me. The sinner is in there.
The angels won't think like that. What are you talking about? For apart from the law sin was dead in the sense of the conscience. But God's commandment exposed Cain for who he was. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to CrossReferenceRadio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio, so make a note of it, CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio.
