When we were last together, we looked at the beginning of Romans 7, and we're going to continue today. The purpose really of the first six verses of Romans 7, we said, was that we are as believers now in Christ We are dead to the law and we have new life in Christ. We also looked at how we grow. How do we grow in sanctification and holiness that's produced in the life of a Christian? Well, today we're going to continue in Romans 7. We'll be looking specifically at verses 7 through 13. So if you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn there, Romans 7, beginning in verse 7. What then shall we say, that the law is sin? By no means, yet if it is not been for the law, I would have not known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. Well, it's a wonderful section of verses that really looks at specifically the law and its relation to our sin. Dr. Carl Menninger was a lifelong Presbyterian. He was the founder of the world famous Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. And he wrote a book in 1973 entitled, Whatever Became of Sin. His answer in this book was that in his lifetime, sin, and that is the culture primarily, the culture had redefined what sin actually is. First, he said, sin had been redefined in its first as a crime. That is, it's a transgression of the law of man, but not a transgression of the law of God. And second, sin had become more like symptoms. Since symptoms are caused by things external to the individual, they are seen as effects for which the offender is actually not responsible. Thus, it happened that sin against God had been redefined and dismissed as the unfortunate effects of bad circumstances and no one is to blame. Now, certainly if that was true in 1973, it is true today, 51 years later. He's speaking specifically about how culture has redefined the meaning of sin. In the mind of the culture and even some, yes, unfortunately, in the broad evangelical community, they think about sin as being an offense to others. but don't really think so much as how it grieves the Lord. Furthermore, they believe that sin is not intrinsic to the individual, but it's rather extrinsic The argument is this, people are in their natural state relatively good, got more good than bad when I'm born. And so any sin that happens is a result of external stimuli, outward circumstances, maybe people even. We see this even in the first sin committed in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve blame other people. Who does Adam blame? Blames God for giving him that woman and he blames Eve. Who does Eve blame? Well, she blames the serpent. Genesis 3, 12 through 13, the man said, the woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So they both entered into blame shifting instead of acknowledging their own decision and choice to sin. You and I do this today. How does it go for you men when you do something wrong and you blame your wife? Not very well, right? But we do. How many times that you as parents and have children in the home, your child lashes out in anger and you say, what's going on? And he said, well, I'm tired. What are they doing? They're blame-shifting. They're blaming outward circumstances. They're blaming the fact that they're tired to justify their sin. When we sin, we need to be humble enough to admit our sin, realizing that our sin, first of all, is an affront to God. And secondly, our sin arises from our depraved, sinful nature. We see the grievous nature of our sin in Genesis 18, 20, and 21. The Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. The Lord is grieved when we sin. Of course, we've also seen in numerous verses, even in our brief study of Romans so far, that we are born with a sin nature. One such verse is 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him, and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. So this is exactly Paul's point in this section of verses in Romans 7. He really wants us to see the point here and underscore the fact that we cannot blame something outside of us. In Paul's case here, he's speaking about the law for our sin, to justify our sin. I want us to consider this text really under four headings, all dealing with the law. Now, in preparation for this this week, I looked at a few different commentaries, but I really like the way John MacArthur outlined this. I thought it was really a helpful way to understand these verses. So, this is on your handout. We're going to look specifically, first of all, at how the law reveals sin. That's in verse 7. Secondly, we'll look at how the law arouses sin in verse 8. Thirdly, the law ruins the sinner found in verses 9 through 11. And fourth, the law reflects the sinfulness of sin. I actually like the word exceeding sinfulness of sin. We're going to look at that in verses 12 through 13. First of all, let's consider that the law reveals sin. Paul, of course, thus far in Romans has already discussed this in some detail, right? The law revealing sin. We saw in Romans 3.20, through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is no violation, Romans 4.15. So in our text today, look with me at verse 7. What shall we say then that the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. So Paul's getting personal, he's talking about perhaps a personal struggle that he had with coveting, but he also is, in getting personal, he's using the personal pronoun I. In this case, we see his humility and the fact that he's actually speaking to us from personal experience. Now, we know Paul to be a great man of the faith, but we also know him to be a humble man, don't we? He calls himself the chief of sinners in 1 Timothy 1.15. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. So how did Paul become aware of his sin? He's the chief of sinners, he says. How did he become aware of the sin? Romans 7, 7, by the law. How do you and I become aware of our sin? Through the law. Charles Hodge wrote, the law, although it cannot secure either the justification or sanctification of men, performs an essential part in the economy of salvation. It enlightens conscience and secures its verdict against a multitude of evils, which we would not otherwise have recognized as sins. Listen to this, it goes on to say, it arouses sin, increasing its power, making it both in itself and in our consciousness exceedingly sinful. It therefore produces that state of mind which is a necessary preparation for the reception of the gospel. Conviction of sin, that is an adequate knowledge of its nature and a sense of its power over us is an indispensable part of evangelical religion. Before the gospel can be embraced as a means of deliverance from sin, we must feel that we are involved in corruption and misery. And this is why, let me just go on a little tangent for a brief moment, this is why pastors, when they preach the gospel, have to also preach the law. How else is one to just hear the good news without hearing the bad news? They go hand in hand. But what's he saying here? In order to come to saving faith, we must first be regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit who enlightens us and helps us see our sin. We can also go further than that because even as believers, children of the Heavenly Father, we need to be reminded and be continually confronted with the law of God so that we can be convicted of sin and be revealed to us. We see this in the Sermon on the Mount, the focus on the Sermon on the Mount. As you know, we did a study on this a couple of years ago. The focus is not on the external, but it's rather on the internal. the heart motives which can be sinful in and of themselves and often drive us to committing further sin that is external. What did Jesus say in Matthew 5.48? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Well, how can we do that? There is a perfect standard of righteousness that's required for you and for me, which surpasses the external and hypocritical righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Thankfully, how do we get that? Thankfully, it is the very righteousness of Jesus Christ who is imputed to us. And this is what Jesus was getting at in Matthew 5.20, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. What's he saying? As believers, we have the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ versus the scribes and Pharisees who are relying upon their own self-righteousness, which in and of itself is worthless. But here's what we want to see, too, with that preaching on the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus reveals that sin is not just an external act, but it's rather an internal motive. Do you get that? It's not just an external act, but rather an internal motive. In God's sight, the person who, for example, hates his brother is guilty of murder, Matthew 5, 21 and 22. The person who lusts, is guilty of adultery, Matthew 5, 27 and 28. The person who divorces his or her spouse except on the grounds of unfaithfulness is an adulterer and causes the spouse to be an adulterer, Matthew 5, 31, 32. So again, it's not just the external that's sinful. It is the internal that is also sinful and it's the law that helps reveal inward sin. This certainly applies to homosexuality, a hot topic in today's culture. The Old Testament makes it clear, among other passages too, that homosexuality is a sin. Leviticus 18.22, you shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination. And yet there are some that adhere to what's been called Side B gay Christianity that believe they are not sinning because they are celibate. These are people that identify themselves as being homosexual. Yes, they have homosexual desires, but because they are celibate, they actually believe that they're not sinning. What's the biblical response to that? You're wrong. I love you, but you're wrong. Why? Because it's the internal heart motives that are also sinful. We just saw that in our brief exposition on the Sermon on the Mount, right? It's the internal heart motives, the internal desires that are also wrong, not just the external acts. And so again, this points to our first heading of today's lesson, that the law reveals sin. We could also say that the law reveals internal sinful inclinations, not just outward physical sinful acts. Secondly, The law arouses sin. We read in our text today in verse 8, but sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. F.F. Bruce writes helpfully, the villain of the peace is sin. Sin seized an opportunity, afforded it when the law showed me what was right and what was wrong. In his book, Principles of Conduct, John Murray observes that the more the light of God's law shines on our depraved hearts, the more the enmity of our minds is aroused to opposition, proving that the natural mind is not subject to the law of God. So we see the law arousing sin. We can see that practically with our children. You go to the park and you see signs that say, keep off the grass. And what do the children want to do? They want to go right toward it and stay on the grass. Maybe you're going down the road and you're driving and you've been behind a slow poke for several miles. And you know that whenever you get to the point you can pass, you're going to. But you see this sign, do not pass. And you do it anyway. Why is that? because of your rebellious heart. Now certainly these are smaller examples, but we do justify our behavior, don't we? We know we shouldn't be given to anger and yet we give in to anger. because of our rebellious hearts. James Boyce calls this sin's sad use of God's law. And he lists two areas in which we see it. First of all, sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment creates a surge of rebellion in our hearts. creates a surge of rebellion in our hearts. If we go back to the previous example that I've already given in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve's sin, remember before they sinned and before they sought to shift blame, they were told by God to what? Not eat from what? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 2.17, the law was clear before them, it was given to them, but sin, seizing an opportunity, produced in Adam and Eve a covetous desire to have that which God forbade. Another example of this was written by St. Augustine in his confessions. He tells of a story from his youth where he and his friends went into a neighbor's field at night to steal pears. They shook the neighbor's pear tree, collecting a large quantity of pears, and they went off into the night. Afterwards, he began thinking about what caused him to steal the pears. Was it the beauty of the pears? Certainly they were beautiful, but that was not why he stole them. Was he hungry and needed something to eat? No, that was not the reason either. Did he want to be approved by others, his friends? Yeah, that may have been part of it, but at last he got to the real reason that he stole the pears. And he writes this, I only picked them so that I might steal. I loved nothing in it. except the thieving." Well, if we were to be honest, that can describe us at times. Augustine rebelled against the prohibition to go into a neighbor's field and steal, not because he wanted the pears, but because he liked the idea of thieving. Secondly, Boy states that sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, creates a desire to sin in ways that were not even thought of before. He tells of a personal story when he was a little boy. The principal of his school came into the classroom to discuss the dangers of fireworks. and also the fact that in Pennsylvania fireworks were prohibited and against the law. Furthermore, he said if any students brought fireworks to the school, they would be immediately expelled. Well, Boyce explains that he had never owned fireworks. He had never even thought of it. However, just the mention of it and the thought that they were illegal got him curious. And so he went to another boy's house who had fireworks, But what the boys didn't expect was that the lit fuse burned the friend's finger, who at once dropped the fireworks, resulting in a massive cloud of blue smoke with small bits of white paper. Of course, the principal comes running in, what's going on in here? And he just is beside himself, and he's exclaiming, the principal, I had just made the announcement. I had just told them not to bring any fireworks into the school. I just can't believe that they actually did it. Well, this is what the law does. Maybe you as parents have children. As soon as you begin saying not to do this and before it even comes out of your mouth completely, you find your kids doing the very thing that you've told them not to do. Why is that? Because sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, creates a desire to sin in ways that were not thought of before then. Thirdly, the law brings ruin to a sinner. We see this in verses 9 through 11. Paul writes, I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Of course, we've seen in a previous passage, Romans 6.23, that sin and the wages of sin brings death and destruction. There was a time certainly in Paul's life where he was faultless, or at least he thought he was. And he was according to Jewish law. He tried to uphold Jewish law. Leon Morris writes, he, that is Paul, was alive in the sense that he had never been put to death as a result of confrontation of the law of God. But then he was confronted with Jesus on the Damascus Road, and his sin was ever before him. It brought up and revealed sin. Like us, when confronted with the law, Paul saw that he was guilty of having broken the law, and in his natural state, instead of wanting to keep the law, he actually wanted to break it. The law awakened the sin, revealing it for what it was, and eventually, if our sin is not laid at the cross of Calvary, then our sin will lead to destruction and death, not just temporary on this earth, but eternally, an eternal separation from God. Now notice in verse 11 that sin deceived Paul. To deceive means to cause someone to believe something that's not true. Paul was deceived because he believed he was righteous. However, he was righteous in his own eyes, not in God's eyes. Paul was deceived because he thought he, in his own strength, could earn God's favor, but how wrong he was. Deceit is still one of the most powerful weapons that Satan uses today. John MacArthur writes, self-righteousness is not righteousness at all, but is the worst of sins. Both by the standard of the law and by the standard of grace, the very term self-righteousness is a self-contradiction. It's true. The law reflects the exceeding sinfulness of sin. We read this in verses 12 through 13. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death in me that through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. What's he saying there? Paul states the law is holy. And it's not the law's fault that I brought death on myself, it's sin's fault. Sin produced death. Listen to what John MacArthur says, to use the analogy of a murder trial, it is not the law against murder, but the committing of murder that actually merits the punishment. The law itself is good. It's the breaking of it that is evil. How much more is God's law good and how much more is the breaking of God's law. So sin is the problem, not the law. Sin is so sinful that it can pervert and undermine the purpose of God's law. It can twist and distort the law, deceiving us into thinking that sin brings life when actually sin brings death. The law, on the other hand, is good and perfect. In his book entitled, The Evil of Evils, Jeremiah Burroughs writes this about sin. Sin is so dark that it is incapable of light, so bitter there is no way to make it sweet, so venomous there is no way to make it wholesome." It's true. So, we've seen just today that the law reveals sin, the law arouses sin, the law brings ruin to a sinner, and the law reflects the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Well, what's the purpose of all of this? The purpose is that as we become aware of our sin and as it's aroused and as we understand that it brings death and destruction to the sinner, that it would drive us to Jesus Christ. He was the one, after all, who fulfilled all the demands of the law for you and for me. A passage that we'll get to in just a few weeks, Romans 8, 3 and 4, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." So I said earlier, and a few times throughout today's lesson, the law should really remind us of God's grace that was shown toward us. And as we think about God's grace that was displayed on the cross of Calvary, we have to think about the law that put Him there. We did not fulfill the law perfectly. We could not. Adam and Eve could not. And as our federal head and our first parents, we cannot. But Jesus did. And so it's good for us to be in the New Testament and be reminded of God's promises to us and what He's done for us. But it's also good for us to be in the Old Testament and be reminded of the law and how important it is still for us today as Christians that are seeking to grow in our faith and follow Him. Listen to this last four verses I'll share from Psalm 19 in closing. Psalm 19, 7 through 11. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, for in keeping them there is great reward." Let's pray. God in heaven, we pray, Lord, that you would help us to be people of your book, to delight, yes, in your law, to love your law, to read upon it, to meditate upon it, to see our sin, to be reminded of it, and to be reminded too of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Oh, Father, would you help us to take these words, and apply them to our lives, even this week, that we might live faithfully unto Thee. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.