We turn in God's word to Romans chapter seven, verses seven through 13, to consider how we gain knowledge of our misery. in one of the shortest questions and answers in the catechism, we're told very pithily in question and answer three, that the law of God tells us of our sin and misery. It's not just that we are sinful and in a state of misery, that's certainly true ever since we're conceived and born, but it's that in order to know comfort, remember, that's the overriding theme of the catechism, We must know certain things. We must know how great our sin and misery are, how we are delivered or saved from our sin and misery, and how we are to serve God or be grateful to God for such deliverance. So sin, salvation, service, or guilt, grace, gratitude, to use the letter G to alliterate. And so we come now to the first section on sin, knowing our sin and misery through the law of God. Paul was very much acquainted with the law and his own sin, and he tells us as much in this God's holy word, Romans 7, verses 7 through 13. What then shall we say that the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. 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. 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. Amen, thus far the reading of God's word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Almighty God, in this hour now, brief as it may be, Grant us to love you and love, Father, the way you have revealed yourself to us and the way you have revealed, Father, our sinful nature to us, which is through your law. And Father, help us to not shrink back from your law, but to use it wisely and properly, both to not only guide our gratitude to you, but to help us to understand who you are and who we are in our sinful selves. Father, apart from Christ, there is no hope, but in Christ, Father, there is salvation to the uttermost. And for this, we give you thanks. In Jesus' name, amen. You're driving down the road and you think you're going fine. You think you're going the speed limit, but then all of a sudden you see in your mirror police lights. Police pull you over and they come to your side of the car and they say, sir, we've pulled you over. I've pulled you over. Do you know why? And because you have a modicum of common sense, you say, was I speeding? Yes, you were. Sir, do you know how fast you were going? Sorry, officer, I don't. You were going 55 in a 25 mile an hour zone. How do you know that you are in a predicament? Because the police has told you. This is the way the law principle operates. Did the police create your problem? No, they didn't. Would you be guilty even had they not pulled you over of going over the speed limit? Yes, you would be. But at the same time as function as the police is in that moment, they cannot change your heart. Can a speed limit sign change your heart? No, it cannot. That's how the law principle operates. And that is what we have here in view today. Something analogous to that. In the first instance, in question three, we're told that we know our sin how? We are sinful, we would be sinful and miserable even without this knowledge, but how do we gain knowledge of our comfort if not through gaining knowledge of our sin? But how do we gain knowledge of our sin? because the law of God reveals it to us. The law of God does not create our problem. The law of God cannot change us apart from the spirit of God. And you would be guilty of your sin and of your corruption apart from the law. The law hasn't created your problem. You are your problem. Our sins are the problem. But the law of God, you see, is God's appointed tutor, God's appointed teacher, like that policeman next to you in your car that instructs you in the knowledge of your sin. Last week, we began to know that comfort is not comfortable. It's not that which is easy and which we can indulge in. Comfort really has to do with strength. And perhaps the best way of summarizing what is your only comfort in life and in death is that now you belong to the king and live in the strong castle of the king. But the law of God tells us, and it tells you, how far you are from the strong castle and fortress of the king. You want to know how far you are? You have to look at God's law. You have to read God's word. Another synonym for law is simply word. The word of God, the testimonies of God, the statutes of the Lord, always and everywhere confront us with the demands of God's will. The law reveals God's perfect and holy character and who you were meant to be, who you were created to be, and how, apart from Jesus, you have gone so far from God and from the strong castle of your King. We see this particularly in Romans chapter seven in the text we've just read from God's word. Notice there with me the verses as we go through them one by one very briefly. In verse seven, Paul says that which he has said already in Romans chapter three, verse 20, that it is through the law that we know our sin. It is through the law that we know our sin. The law of God is specific. It's explicit. It's not ambiguous. You shall not murder. You shall not murder, right? To use one example. We understand from God's word that God has given us a conscience and God has given a general revelation in society and in creation. But that general revelation that also includes our conscience needs to be supplemented and needs to be reinforced by God's codified special revelation, by His law. You might kind of know what the speed limit is, but there is no ambiguity when you see a speed limit sign that says 25 on it. This is also instructive for us as parents of younger children, is it not? Our children have embedded in them a general sense of right and wrong, notions of good and evil. But that's not enough. As a parent, you have to teach. You have to verbally teach them right from wrong. You cannot. And parents, we make a mistake as our children get older to simply assume that they know what's right and wrong. They'll figure it out. No. Yeah, they know in their conscience, but they need you to verbally teach them right from wrong. Just as God verbally teaches us right from wrong. We know our sin through the law of God. But notice what it says in verse 8. And then in verse 11, my sin, right? It's, but sin, but it's, it's my sin, right? Really. Seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Again, he repeats this phrase in verse 11. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. What he's saying is that apart from the law, sin lies dormant, and I'm alive, right? That's what he says at the end, at the beginning of verse nine. I was once alive apart from the law, apart from the law, right? I'm alive, sin lies dormant, and I think I'm all right. I think I'm good. And how many people in this world believe themselves to be all right, to be good, to be holy, good people? But when the law came, he says, verse nine, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. When the law came, my supposed righteousness was slain. I was wrecked. My holiness, quote unquote holiness, was shattered by the law. Because the law was defining my sin. It was pointing it out. It was needling me. It was drawing attention to my sin in my own mind and in my own conscience. And what Paul says is, when the law came, I saw my evil for the first time as it really was. I wasn't alive. The law promised life, but by itself, it proved to be my death. Why? Because the law of God deceived me? No. The law of God deceives no one. Rather, I perversely misunderstood the law's intent. And we can pause here to just point out what was said earlier, right? The policeman who stops you because you've gone over the speed limit hasn't created the problem. The policeman who's pulled you over hasn't deceived you. And the policeman who's pulled you over cannot change your desire and your heart And that's what Paul is saying here. I am a sinner and I cannot be regenerated by the law. The law does many things, but by itself it cannot transform man's heart. It is, as Paul says in other places, a dead letter that condemns sinners. The law can never save because I'm a sinner and because salvation, secondly, was never to be by keeping the law. We could never gain salvation by doing the commandments of God. And we've been noting this time and again, that in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, salvation is the same way. By faith in God's promise. By faith in that which God has revealed as we entrust our lives to God alone. What happens is that our perverse human heart latches on to God's commandments and thinks it can keep God's moral standard to be saved. And this is what we see in Jesus' day. This is what we see in Paul's day as well, right? That there are those Jews in their day in first century Israel, in Palestine, that think they can, in keeping the law, be saved. But Paul here is adamant. By the works of the law, no man shall be saved. So in verse 12, he says, is the law the problem, right? So close the association is with my sin and the law, could we say that the law is problematic? No, verse 12. And this, we need to remember this. As Christians, as Reformed Christians, so the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The law has, one could say, and theologians have said, a triple function. It restrains sin in society. It teaches us our sin. And later on in the catechism, we'll see that it's meant to guide our service. If you love me, Jesus says, follow my commandments. In Christ, the law has the function of leading us into holiness and righteousness and the goodness of God. But the law in and of itself is not the problem once more. Verse 13, did the law bring me death? No. My sin brought me death because my sin opposes God and His law. And as that law is revealed, and as I hear it, as I am a sinner apart from Jesus Christ, I gain knowledge of my law, of my sin, and my sin, as it were, flies into a rage when anything resembling God comes near it. And as a result, to oppose God and His law is nothing but death and condemnation. The law is not the problem. My sin is the problem. But the law, as it's revealed to me, reveals my sin. And beloved people of God, if we are to know the comfort of Christ, we must know our sin. We must know, if we are to know the grace of our Savior, what Jesus has saved us from. And although we do not lie presently, and this is important to know, we do not lie presently in our sin and misery, we are to ever give God thanks for what he did for us and how Jesus even now forgives us of present sins. And we know this by the word of God, by the law of God. Through the law, we gain knowledge of our sin and misery. And then this is of course, something that can be applied to our society in general. This has great application, not only to your personal life, but to corporate life here in America. How and why have we become sinful and miserable in our society? Because we have departed from God's law. And how are we to then return to the comfort of our king, to his strong castle by knowing, first of all, the law of God? And that's question and answer three. We are to know the law of God. But secondly, we are to know God. And God reveals Himself to us in His law. The law not only reveals our sin, but it reveals God. The law is simply summarized as found in question and answer four from Matthew 22. And in Matthew 22, Jesus is of course summarizing the law from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19.18 that are footnoted there. The first and greatest commandment You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It's so interesting here at this point that the 10 commandments aren't brought in for Jesus to go through them, to show us how sinful we are. There's no need for that. When Jesus did that once to a rich young ruler, what did that rich young ruler say? Oh, yeah, yeah, I haven't murdered, I haven't committed adultery, I haven't stolen, I haven't borne false witness, right? But one thing he lacked, he was covetous and he needed to go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor and follow Jesus. The law need not be detailed for us, it's simply summarized. And at its heart, what is the summary of the law? It's so interesting, isn't it? It's not do's and don'ts. The heart of God's law is love. The heart of God's law is do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? A Reformed minister from the early 20th century, 1900s, Henry Beetz, who was part of the Christian Reformed Church said, God's moral law will continue forever because at its essence is something that God will always require of man. And that essence is love of God. That's why all the ceremonies of the law, are nullified. They're kind of obsolete with the coming of Jesus. And that's why the civil laws, although they remain in our day, they too will fall away on the last day when Jesus returns. But what remains? Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Love of God is the essence of the law of God. And the love of God that meets God's standard is what? If you look at Matthew 22 in the catechism, answer four, it's a love that is total and complete. Your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole soul, all that you have by way of strength. There cannot be one part of yourself that you reserve to yourself and do not give to God. The love of God that meets God's standard is a total and totalizing love. The love of God that meets God's standard is a love that loves what He loves. Righteousness, goodness, truth, as God defines these. It's a hatred, furthermore, of what God hates. Lies, violence, idolatry, discontentment. It's important to know what is the first and greatest commandment and what flows out of that first and greatest commandments. It's a love of God. It's a love of God. As we love God, The law of God tells us we are also called to love our neighbor. You cannot love God and despise your neighbor. And conversely, God tells us as well, that you cannot truly love your neighbor if you despise God. All right, that's why the refrain during COVID that was bandied about and weaponized, right, love your neighbor, love your neighbor. You could see through it, right, that it was a false statement because of one simple truth, that love of neighbor flows out of a love of God. We do not love God. We cannot ever love our neighbor. You see, in his law, God is telling you who he is, who he made you to be in Eden. And yet, what has your sin made you now? Who is God? God is holy. God is perfect. God is righteous and just. And who did God create you to be? To be holy like him. But how do you measure up to his divine law? That's what we find, finally, in question and answer five. We are to know our sin, we are to know God and His holiness, and we are to know, thirdly, our nature, our nature. How do you measure up against the law of God? If the law of God, in its summary fashion, is love of God, love of neighbor, beloved, you fail in both instances. The Decalogue will be explained later with greater detail to guide believers in their love of God, but it is enough here simply to give a summary. That in our sin we do not love God completely, wholeheartedly, promptly, joyfully. In fact, we hate God. We positively hate God. We are at war with God and we are at enmity with our neighbors in our fallen state. And this is enough to cut down our self-righteousness, that this is something, not necessarily that we choose, right, volitionally, but it is in our nature to fall away from the king who alone is our comfort, to wander away from his strong castle, which is our only comfort. Look at a number of passages. We begin in Romans 3 here in the letter to the Romans, chapter 3, verse 9 and following. Paul says, what then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. That's a very important phrase. We are under sin. We are under the subjection, the tyranny of Satan. We are bound and enslaved under the power and sway of sin. And then verse 10, he continues, as it is written, and here follows a long string of quotations from the Old Testament. None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. And then Paul goes on to show that our bodies are given over to our sinful nature. But notice what he says, no one in themselves seeks after God. There is no natural seeker for God. If someone is seeking for God, it is because God has moved them. God is at work in their hearts. He says in verse 12, no one does good, not even one. We use that word, of course, colloquially. And in some sense, we know some notion of what we're referring to, right? Oh, that's a good guy. You know, my neighbor, he's a good neighbor, right? But truly, really, what good is done before the throne and before the presence of God? Not one person does good. It is not in our nature to do good, to seek God, to love God. It is in our nature rather to hate God. Romans chapter 8, few chapters later, chapter 8, verse 7 and 8. Paul says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. The unregenerated self, the person that has not been converted and transformed in his inmost being by the Spirit of God cannot, cannot please God. Cannot means unable. Unable, not just unwilling, not just doesn't choose to serve God, cannot serve God, is unable, does not have the spiritual resources to please and to love God. They are, as it were, at enmity, in hostility, in a posture of war against God, hating God and hating their neighbor. And then finally, Ephesians chapter to the first three verses there, Paul outlines who we were, who we were apart from Jesus Christ, and what every person apart from Jesus Christ, apart from the power of the Spirit is presently. Verse one, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Paul here says that there was a threefold slavery in our natural state apart from Jesus. We were enslaved to the course of this world. We were following the prince of the power of the air, who is at work in the sons of disobedience. We were enslaved to the world, to Satan. And then thirdly, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. We were enslaved to ourselves. And we did all this because, verse three, we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. There is nothing in our natural state different about us believers from the rest of the world. There is not something that God saw in us, in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives that moved God to save us. No, we were like the rest of mankind. God was at enmity with us. We were children of wrath because we were at enmity with God. Because as Heidelberg catechism question and answer five says, we were inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbor. That is of all the prejudices in the world, of all the biases we could have, that was the one that characterized our lives. We were biased against God. We are to know our sin, we are to know God's holiness, and we are to know our nature apart from Jesus Christ. And here you see, as we conclude, we find then the summary of the law of God. The law of God humbles sinners. It brings us low. It tells sinners that they are wicked, they are unjust, they are dishonoring to God in their very nature. It tells sinners, it tells the world that they cannot save themselves. No amount of striving, of struggling, no amount of good works on their part can ever save them. They can never find their way back to the strong castle of the king because in themselves they have no comfort and salvation. One commentator put it thus very simply in a syllogism, major premise, minor premise, conclusion. The Bible teaches, cursed is everyone who does not follow the law. I do not follow the law. I am cursed. But you see, the law must be revealed. It must be fixed in our minds and hearts. in order to prepare us for a salvation outside of ourselves, in order to prepare us for the work of Jesus Christ. Knowledge of our misery drives us to hope in Jesus Christ. The law tells you you are a dying man eating poison, but Jesus, Jesus is true food for your soul. The law reveals to you that you are diseased, but Jesus is the great physician of your soul. The law points out that you are dead in your sins and misery, but then it points out Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, who raises you from the dead. And so to know our Savior, beloved, we must, we must be acquainted with what he has saved us from. We must know our sin and misery. And we'll continue this next week, Lord willing. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, do help us and guide us, Lord, to recognize that you have saved us from our sin and misery, revealed to us in your law, that Father, your great salvation rescued us from the condemnation of the law, which we could never keep because of our sinful selves. not because of any problem or any deficit in your law, but because of an utter moral deficit in us. And yet, Father, we thank you that you have rescued us. We thank you that you have freed us in Jesus Christ from the condemnation of the law to now, Father, walk in that law, not seeking by it to gain salvation, which will be caused to be saved, but because we have been saved as a consequence, now to live in the way of your commandments. And yet, Father, use that law, use your word evermore to prick our consciences. Father, because we do go astray even now from the strong castle of the King, Father, and by that law reveal our failings and our sins, By the power of your spirit and through the promise of Christ, evermore renew in us repentant hearts that Father, we would follow you and return to you now and again. You are, Father, we confess, the God of our salvation. Father, would you help us and guide us in these things for we ask them now in Jesus' name, amen.