I probably don't say it enough, but I so appreciate the folks that are part of the worship team and the sound crew and camera and all that we do here on Sunday morning with a lot of people on vacation. I can think of eight or ten families that I know of that are not here, and it just, it's still, we don't miss a beat, and it, I appreciate y'all. I thank you for what you do. We've been in the Book of Romans now for 14 weeks, 13 weeks, in a series called Read It Yourself. There's so much confusion sometimes around the different doctrines within different denominations, and I think sometimes folks believe things that they've really never read for themselves. And the Book of Romans by far has more doctrinal information or as much doctrinal information as any other book in the Bible. And chapter 6, which we did last week, we'll do chapter 7 this week. And chapter 8 next week is the crown jewel of all chapters, in my mind, in the entire Bible. And if you miss these three chapters next week, we won't get through chapter 8. I can tell you there's just too much in it. I hope you're reading this and not just taking my word for it. So many people believe things because somebody said it and that doesn't make it the truth, at least if you read it for yourself. you can understand. Romans 7 deals with the Christian and the law. Many denominations think we have to live by the law in order to be saved. And since we are saved by grace, some even argue that we are free to live as we please. which we describe as an extreme license to sin. And human nature, though, does it not draw us to the extremes in life? I mean, you know, we just have something within us that draws us to the extremes. We are saved by grace, we've established that in the past few weeks, but we cannot ignore God's law. And others argue we are saved by grace, but we must live under the law if we're to please God, and yet we know that is an extreme expression of legalism. anything that adds to or takes away from grace, Paul said, let it be a curse. And whether it's legalism or whatever, you know, we have to constantly, you know, keep a happy medium. And Paul answered the first group, the one that says we can live as we please in Romans chapter 6, which we covered last week. And he answers the second group this week that says, well, we must keep the law or live under the law in chapter 7. The word law, which is talking about the law of Moses, the 627, some will tell you different dos and don'ts and rules. The word law is used 23 times in this chapter, so he's trying to get a point across, obviously, when he talks about the law and the relationship with Christians to the law. Last week Paul told us how to stop doing bad things. Know, reckon, and yield. And many of you made comments, thanks, I needed to hear that, I didn't understand. And yet this week he tells us we are not justified or saved by doing good things. And I think every Christian can relate to both comments, you know, what is really coming across to us through Romans chapter 6 and chapter 7. Once we learn how to know what the truth is as we grow in our Christian walk and we reckon those things to be true and then we start yielding to the Holy Spirit, we start getting to a place that we feel like we have victory in our life over certain habits of the flesh. I mean, I think we all would testify, yeah, I think I got that under control now. I've, you know, I'm doing a lot better. Yet, we feel like we're becoming more spiritual. We will even get a tinge of, you know, holier than thou. Man, I've really got this down. I'm doing good. And we start setting higher standards for ourselves. And we have these ideals of what a Christian, you know, walk really looks like and I'm arrived, you know, I'm doing well. And for a while we seem to attain our standards and can live up to and then all of a sudden And we like the attic that relapses, the wheels fall off and everything collapses. We have this time that we just feel like we're backslidden and man I can't get anything right. Have all of us not experienced that at some time in our Christian walk? I mean, I think we all do. And some maybe yesterday or the day before, but the fact of the matter is we all have those times that we just, it's like a peak in a valley, a peak in a valley, a peak in a valley. And we see deeper in those valleys when we're just not, we know we're not right with God, we see deeper into our own heart. We discover we're not perfect, even though we thought maybe we were. And we discover sins in our own hearts and in our lives that to be, you know, the reality is that some of them we may have never committed before. And God's holy law takes us to a new power, or takes on a new power, and we wonder if we can ever do anything good. I mean, if you just take the Ten Commandments alone and start looking at them, there's things within those as far as coveting, you know, and the little things that we don't think a lot about, you know. We can say, well, I never murdered anyone. But when it comes to some of those, you know, those sins of, well, coveting. Do I really covet what somebody else has? You know, we look at some of that. We discover that, wow, can I really live out the law within itself? And without realizing it, we have moved our own hearts and minds into legalism. We've learned the truth about sin and about the law and ourselves. Many would immediately ask, well, preacher, what is legalism? What's the terminology? And you hear it used often in churches and in different preaching. And legalism is simply this. It is a belief that I can become holy and please God by keeping the law. We legally think that we can save ourselves by doing good. It is measuring spirituality by a list of do's and don'ts. Well that person's a good, how many of you ever heard that one? That's a good person right there. We measure their spirituality by the things they do or do not do. It judges one, legalism does, by an outward appearance. not an inward act of the heart in trusting Christ. And legalism fails to understand the relationship between law and grace, and that's what we're going to try to establish this morning. Over the past 45 years, I say that and I think, wow, that's a long time, I've watched what legalism does to folks. And many people have suffered spiritual damage, emotional duress even, because they've tried to live this holy life on the basis of all these high standards. You know, and I've heard stories of those, it's almost weekly, at least monthly, you hear stories of folks who have been criticized by the holier than thou group, the Pharisees, so to speak, or the legalists, and I've seen the consequences of those attempts to live to this set of high standards or the consequences of those that criticize others because they're doing things that we feel like maybe they shouldn't do because they haven't reached the same plane that we're on maybe yet. And many, many a well-meaning legalist have drop-kicked young Christians that are struggling to the curb. And they've, we use a phrase, cut their ears off. You know, Peter takes a sword and cuts, marks the ear off. And Christians cut other Christians' ears off because of, you know, they're struggling to do the right thing. And what I've noticed, those folks that happen, either a person becomes a pretender, a fake or a fraud, or they suffer a complete, just a total collapse, and they abandon, you know, their desire to live a life serving God. and in one of those two categories, whether they can't live up to their own standards or they are being criticized and drop kicked to the curb because they're not living up to somebody else's standards and being criticized for it. The thing that really, you know, I've seen many legalists, and I'll get to the message in just a minute, who are hard on other people. They are just, you know, they can be vicious almost, critical, unloving, unforgiving. But it always amazes me how that people stand in judgment and criticize and condemn and hurt others, yet expect mercy and grace and forgiveness and understanding for themselves or for their family or for those that they like and keep company with. It's just amazing. And what we see is Christians can be the meanest, the cruelest people on the face of the earth when it comes to legalism. And Paul is trying, in this passage here, to keep his readers away from those devastating experiences in what he talks about. And he uses three topics. I want to read Romans 7, 1 through 6, and then we'll give you those three different topics that he talks about. Beginning in verse 1. Or do you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law. He's talking to those who, to this Jewish church that is there in Rome. That the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. And he's asking a question, for the woman, and then he uses this illustration of marriage. He says, for the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is no adulteress, though she has been married, has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law having died to what we were held by so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. And take note to that last line, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not by the oldness of the letter. The written law is what he's saying. In these six verses, and I know it sounds like it can be very confusing, Paul uses this illustration of a husband and a wife to show that the believer has a new relationship to the law because of his union with Christ. The illustration is a simple one though with profound application. And in this passage, Paul is not discussing divorce. He is simply using marriage as an illustration. Marriage, and what he says is marriage is a physical union, one flesh, Genesis 2.24 is where that's substantiated, and can only be broken by a physical cause, one of which is death. And in such case, as he makes this point, Then he makes the statement that clenches his argument in verses four and five, and we were unsaved, we were condemned by the law. And just as we are when married under God's law of marriage, we're bound by the law. But when we trusted Christ, We died to the law. That's his statement. And just as we died to the flesh and when we trusted Christ we died to the law, but in Christ we arose from the dead and now are married or united with Christ to live a new life. And the law did not die. The law didn't die, we died, and in turn has no dominion over us. So all of that was said and that illustration was to show that the authority of the law is simply to illustrate to us and show us That we are sinners. If you use Roman's robe, you establish to someone that they need a savior before you even start witnessing to them. They have to realize, I'm lost. I have sin in my life and I need a savior. I'm going to spend eternity in hell. And so the law is that authority that is over us. However, once we trust Christ according to what Paul says here, we are delivered from the law. And it's a logical conclusion. He's not off in space somewhere. He says the law cannot have authority over a dead person. Because we died, it's a picture of baptism, we're buried and rise again to walk in newness of life just as Christ was buried dead, died on the cross and arose the third day. And so what he's saying is this conclusion that the law cannot have authority over a dead person. Verse 6, now we have been delivered from the law having died to what we were held by. so that we should serve what? The statement. In the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Those 627 rules. The do's and don'ts, the list. I use that little ditty that I don't know where I picked it up. I don't smoke and chew and I don't run with those that do. All those list of things that we think Christians should not do. And yet Paul says, we're not bound by those rules anymore. We're not, we died to that old law, and yet the oldness of the letter. We now live in the newness of the spirit. And you say, well, what's that simply, what's that mean? It simply means that the motivation for our Christian walk, our lives now, does not come from the law. We don't have to go back to the law and say, I gotta see what I'm not supposed to do today, and every time I go to do something, is it okay by the law? We as Christians were born again, put our faith and trust in Christ. We have a Holy Spirit that lives inside of us. And the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you once you've trusted Christ speaks to you as to how you should live. I call it the still small voice that we hear and we were delivered that we might serve Christ and the newness of the Spirit that lives in us. You are led by the Spirit of the living God and that in turn is The way that we live out grace and this life, newness of life and newness of the Spirit is through the Holy Spirit's power. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 and 3 gives us this. It says, written not with ink, But by the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone. How much more literal can it be? Read it yourself. But on tablets of the flesh, that is the heart. Not the authority of the law anymore. We're under grace, we're under living in a life of where the Spirit of God, you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit and it's not now that you've got to go look and read all of that, nothing wrong with it. I'm not saying you shouldn't read the Old Testament, you shouldn't. That's not what I'm trying to say, but the relationship with the Holy Spirit is step by step, day by day, moment by moment. And when you go to do something that is contrary to the way you should live, walk, and talk as a Christian, if you're saved and you've trusted Christ, there's a still small voice that says, you shouldn't act that way. And it's so much easier because He's with you 24-7, 365. Always there, leading and guiding us as Christians. Do we read our Bible? Yeah, so we know what the Bible says and how we should live, but it's the Holy Spirit that prompts us and helps us to live out that relationship. The law still reveals sin. Obviously, we read our Bibles because it reveals what sin is. Coveting, murder, stealing, adultery. We can go on and on and on. We still have a sinful nature. Paul is saying that in those verses that we read. He's still saying that we have this nature. And believers who try to live by a list of rules and regulations, They discover that their legalistic system, their rules and regulations just create more lists of rules and regulations. It just grows bigger and bigger. It's like a tough piece of meat. The more you chew it, the bigger it gets. And yet, the problem is that legalism, we cannot live to that standard. My dad, I'll never forget, he had all this list of stuff that you shouldn't be doing this and you shouldn't do that. And I said, okay, but are you living to that same lit one of? We can't, because we're not expected to. What we're expected to is as Christians, is to live to what the Holy Spirit leads and guides and direct us because we're all on a different plane and the Holy Spirit speaks to us differently. The young Christian that just got saved that, you know, is just nailed at the altar doesn't get up and change their life completely immediately. They're just learning and growing. And yet some of us that may have been saved for 40 or 50 years, we know better. And so the Holy Spirit speaks to us about different things. And in turn, helps us to live our Christian life. You say, well, I don't know that I believe that. Okay, let's read verses 15 through 20 and see what Paul says about this struggle that we're talking about. He says, for what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now it is no longer, here it is, I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil that I will not to do, that I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. We're back to that sinful nature that we inherited. What we read is the struggle of two natures, the old and the new nature. You were born with a sinful nature. I don't know anybody that would say, I taught my kids to lie. And yet, how many of your kids ever told a lie? I don't know anybody here that would say, I taught my children to steal or to be selfish. But how many of our kids has taken a bubble gum from the rack at a grocery store? Yeah. How many of our children, we don't teach that, it's because it's our nature. We inherited it from Adam in the beginning. Just like we inherited a new nature from Christ and the Holy Spirit that lives in whenever we put our faith and trust in Christ. And the Holy Spirit comes to live us with, and so these two natures, are in a constant struggle as long as we are here on this earth. Every Christian has experienced what Paul was describing, that which I would not do, I do, and that which I would do, I don't do sometimes. We all have that struggle. An old Indian once was asked about it, and he said, yeah, who wins out? The one that I say, sick him to. If you're constantly feeding your old nature then you're going to struggle with sin in your life. And yet if you're constantly feeding into your new nature, the scripture, prayer, church attendance, the things that we know as a Christian, the three to thrive, then you're going to win out and there's going to be a higher balance of this spiritual-led life. And we so many times forget, you know, we want to go. Let's go to the law and see what makes it spiritual. Now let's go to Galatians chapter 5 and find out what the spirit-filled life looks like. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, kindness. There's no list there of do's and don'ts. It's the way you are to live and the actions and the attitude of the heart and mind is the spirit-filled life. It didn't say anything in there about the things that we should not do. It's talking about our attitude and our heart and the way we treat other people. By this shall all men know you're my disciples. What? That you keep this list? Is that what it says? No. What's it say? That you love one another. Love's a universal language of a Christian. And yet so many Christians don't practice love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, kindness, and all self-control. And yet they'll want to say, look at this, look at me. I don't do this, this, this, and this. And yet, I don't do love, joy, peace, long-suffering. And that's the fruit of the Spirit. that lives in us when God lives in us. We have to realize that a spirit-filled life is not a list of do's and don'ts. It is simply practicing what the Holy Spirit guides us and we know the Spirit guides us because a spirit-filled life is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, gentleness. You'll do all the right things if you're living the spirit-filled life under love, joy, peace. There's a struggle though and we read it and Paul learned though it is a matter of yielding, presenting himself and letting the Spirit of God live through him. Folks struggle in their walk and the reason that they struggle is because when the Spirit of God speaks to them and prompts them about things they should do, they don't yield. They don't obey the Spirit of God. And as we grow in our walk, we'll yield more to the Holy Spirit in our lives. He also taught us something that we need to learn. In verse 18, he said, in me, in me. Now you think about that. Here's a guy that wrote 13 books of the New Testament. Let's just digest that a minute. He wrote, some say 14 if he wrote Hebrews. What is that, 14 out of 25, 26? Here's the Apostle Paul who obviously was being given the scripture through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then he makes this statement and he says, in me dwells no good thing. Man, if we all could learn what Paul was telling us, otherwise If we don't, as Christians, be reminded of that often, you know, in me dwells no good thing, our sinful nature. If we're not reminded of that often, what happens to us? We become proud. What else happens to us? We become self-righteous. Well, I'm better than so and so. We start comparing ourselves to someone else instead of the Christ of the Bible. What else happens to us? We become individuals that live pious lives, thinking that, man, I've got it going on. And so in turn, when we compare ourselves to others, We don't have that. In me dwells no good thing. And when we get to that point, we quit glorifying God with our lives. Humility is something that is just not there in us, and we become of that legalistic nature, that Pharisee that is always saying da-da-da-da-da and pointing fingers at other people. This is a saved man that is obviously a patriarch of the scripture and he tells us that our lives are not glorifying to God when we have those attitudes and those ideas about who we are. And nor are we giving him the honor and glory and the praise for the good that he has wrought in us. Verse 24, and I'll put with these closing remarks, he says verses 24 and 25, oh wretched man that I am. How many Christians do you hear saying that? How many people of stature, pastors, theologians, think who said that? O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And then he says, I thank God through Christ Jesus our Lord. So then, what? With the mind that I myself may serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. What's he saying in that? He's saying my only hope is in Christ. If I'm gonna live the Christian life, it's through Christ and Him living it through me, through the Spirit. A saved man that was exhausted because of the struggle of his old nature and his new nature. We all struggle. Who wins out? Who we say second to is the best illustration I've ever heard. You can go through anything and you say, well preacher, what are you talking about? What is that list of sins? Anything that controls you that God doesn't have control over. Anything that controls you that God doesn't have control over in your life. Your temper, your desires, your attitudes, your relationships with others. We want to go back to all these things that would material that we can say, well, you know, I don't smoke and chew and I don't run with those. But what about these other things that are attitudes of the heart that control us that God doesn't have control over? Save man struggled, and yet he states, I thank God who gives deliverance through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. For way too long we've believed and bought into that the Holy Spirit is just simply somebody that makes us shout and hoot and holler and all this idea of excitement in a time of worship. How about the Holy Spirit is the one also, and I'm not saying that that doesn't happen, but what about the one that also, the Holy Spirit that lives inside, that controls us in the time when we're about to lose it? The one that you have a relationship that lives within and He walks with me and talks with me and tells me that I am His own. How about the one that when you're about to do whatever is your besetting sin that says, do you really want to do that? Do you really, really think that's the best thing to do? That's what He's talking about. how to live the Christian life is yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within. It's not a list of do's and don'ts that you can check off every day. this struggle that we've seen the deliverance through the power of the Holy Spirit and chapter 8 will give us the fine detail of what Christ provides is all we need. And I hope chapter 8 is salvation and sanctification and it runs from one end clear to the other to security in chapter 8. Someone once said, Run, run, and do the law commands. Better news the gospel brings. It bids me fly and gives me wings. Let's stand. Father God,