Welcome to the Thy Word Has Settled in Heaven radio broadcast brought to you by Cary Baptist Church. We're at Athens, Alabama. I'm Pastor Donohue. Today, it's our privilege to preach out of Romans chapter 7. He's going to talk about the law of God, and we're going to read from verse 1 down to verse 12. Know you 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 a 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, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is freed from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you 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 the spirit. and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I would not have 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, wrought in 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. Brethren, we're gonna stop our reading there at verse 12. We've read about halfway through. Romans chapter seven. The main point that the apostle is going to make here is that we are dead to the law and we are alive unto Christ. He's going to use an analogy from marriage to point out our relationship to the law. So we want to focus on this particular passage, ye also are become dead to the law. As we get into this passage, we want to understand in the scripture what this word law means. I find in the Bible at least seven meanings for the word law. We'll go through quickly these seven possible meanings. Number one obviously can mean the law of Moses. The law of Moses often spoken of just has the law. Or it could be spoken of the moral law, that is the law that God puts in all men's hearts. We find that referenced in Romans chapter 2 speaking of the conscience it shows the work of the law written in their hearts that it would be the Gentiles Have God's law written in their hearts because their consciences will accuse them of breaking the law. Number three, the word law can mean principle, as in the law of sin and death can mean the principle of sin and death. Obviously, the law can mean the law of men. It can mean the law of kings, as in Daniel. We have the law of the Medes and Persians. We can think of law as a natural thing, like the law of gravity. And there is a spiritual law also, like the law of sowing and reaping. Men shall reap what they have sown. These are the different meanings I find of the word law here in Scripture. And again, we want to understand what the Apostle says in chapter 7, ye also are become dead to the law? In what sense are we dead to the law? In what law are we dead to? And how are we dead to the law? These are the questions we want to answer. Before we get to that answer, we want to say some things about the law. That is, the law of God is what it is because of the nature of God. The law is not arbitrary, but it comes from the heart of God. God is against things. That's just the way our God is. He is a holy God, and the law emanates from His nature, as does mercy. God is a merciful God, and mercy emanates from His heart. Yes, our God is a God of law. He is the lawgiver. He is the governor of the universe. and also God is a God of mercy. Both of these emanate from his heart, from who he is, from his nature. So let us break down the phrase that we want to get into here in Romans 7, where he says, ye are become dead to the law. We want to look at each one of these. We'll begin with the word ye. Who is he speaking to? The ye in this passage are the believers in Rome. Ye are become. That is, they have changed. Before, they were under the law, but now He says, now ye have become dead to the law. And so they were alive to the law before, now they are dead to the law. So what happened? What happened to them? Let's look at Romans chapter 7 verses 2 through 3 and he's going to give us this analogy. From the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loose from the law of her husband so then if while her husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but If her husband be dead, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. So the analogy is laid down, and that when a woman's husband dies, she is legally free to marry another man. And so we have here, we are dead to the law because we have been married to another, that is, the one whom God has raised from the dead. And so that's what he's using the analogy to show us that we are now dead to the law and that we're now united in union with Jesus Christ. The church is often called the Bride of Christ. And so he's using this analogy to point out the fact that we're now dead to the law because we're married to another, Jesus Christ. When we're saved, we were put in union with Christ, a frequent phrase in the New Testament, is you're in Christ. We're in union with Christ, we are married to Christ, as he says here in Romans 7, And our first husband has died and we're married to another, that first husband being the law. So now we want to know in what sense? In what sense are we dead to the law? Remember we read in verse 12 of Romans 7, the law is holy and just and good. And we mentioned before that the law emanates from God. It's no arbitrary thing, it's something that comes out of the heart of God. So we want to ask the question, if we are dead to the law, in what sense are we dead from the law? The Bible says we are freed from that law. In what sense are we freed from that law? I believe this is the point of the first half of chapter 7 of Romans. And our answer is, we are dead to the law's ability to condemn us. Now, the law is holy, just, and good, and reveals our sin. And the law is that which also condemns us. Men that are unsaved that stand before God will be judged by the law. They will be found to be guilty. Now, we have it written in the book of Revelation that when men are standing before God, the books were opened and every man was judged out of the books according to their works. And so if men are judged by works, they will be condemned. But the Bible says, and we are now dead to the law in the sense that it can no longer condemn us. Yes, the law cannot contend the Christian because he is no longer under the law. He is under grace because he is dead to the law and he's married to another, Jesus Christ. So what has happened is the law demands death for sin. And Christ Jesus himself fulfilled and answered and satisfied that law. When he became man and died in our place, he died for us. Who lived without sin, yet he died for us. And he fulfilled and satisfied the law. He also fulfilled the law by living a perfect life for us. He satisfied the demands of the law that demands obedience to God in everything. Just before Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist hesitated and said, Lord, I need to be baptized by you. not you by me, and Jesus said to John, suffer it or allow it for now, for we must fulfill all righteousness. As Christ came to fulfill all righteousness, Jesus said in the Gospels, I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Scripture says elsewhere in the book of Romans, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He is the end of that requirement of the law, to be perfectly righteous, for He was perfectly righteous, and He died and lived for us. For Jesus said in John chapter 6 and verse 40, He that seeth the Son, and believeth in Him, is passed from death to life, and shall not come into condemnation. Notice, the believer will not come into condemnation because Jesus has fulfilled the law in his place and the law can no longer condemn him because Christ has paid the penalty that we owe to the law. He's lived a perfect life and satisfied the law, therefore he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Then he amplifies that in verse six by saying, but now we are delivered from the law, being dead wherein we were held. Yes, we were held by the law. There's only two ways to stand before God in heaven. One is to stand under law, and the other is by grace. I'll repeat what I said before. You're not under law, but you're under grace. And that's two believers. The apostle says this most forcibly and distinctively in Galatians 3, verse 13, when he says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Brother, the law is holy, just, and good. It's a reflection of God's will. And we elevate the law. We don't despise it. We honor it. It is just and holy and good. And we elevate and honor it for what it is. It is the law of God. It emanates from God. and God is attached to his law. The law comes out from the heart of God. But it is not something that will condemn believers on the judgment day because it no longer has the power to condemn a believer because we are dead unto that law and married to another because Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law becoming a curse for us. So that part of the law that is no longer applicable to the believer would be its condemning power on judgment day as we've passed out from under it and we've gone to Christ, we are his bride, he is our husband, and we are legally bound to our husband. As he said himself in John 14, in my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, but I go away to prepare a place for you, so that where I am, there you may be also. Our destiny is linked to Christ, we go and join him in heaven. As we go back to Romans chapter seven, focusing in on that verse, Wherefore my brother and you also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you may be married to another." Now we're going to notice in verse 6 something that goes beyond that. Notice in verse 6, but now we're delivered from the law being dead, we're in hell that we should serve. In newness of spirit and not in the oldness of letter. Not only are we saved, but he says we serve in newness of the spirit. And now service to God is a delight. It's a joy. We serve him by love. The Apostle Paul would say, the love of Christ constrains me. And brethren, that's the best motive, the motive of love, the motive of delighting in your God and serving Him because of your joy, your delight, your love for Him. Paul says, now by the three, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. The greatest motive is love. Now when my children were small, and I have two daughters, Helen and Jessica, They obeyed their daddy and their mother because they might be punished if they disobeyed. My girls got spankings. But now that they're grown, Jessica's 31, Helen's 22, they serve me because they love their father. Oh, how much better it is when your children serve you because they love you and delight in you. They do more than you ask, and they anticipate your needs, and before you even ask, they're doing stuff for you. That's because they do it out of love. Brethren, here we have the same theme in verse six, that we should serve in newness of the spirit. And it says, and not in the oldness of the letter. In the oldness of the letter, the deadness just going through the motions. No, we serve Him in newness of the Spirit. So these things go together. We've been delivered from the condemning power of the law. We serve Him, not by the oldness of the letter, but by the newness of the Spirit. Oh, how good it is to be a Christian, to have all these blessings and privileges. Chief among them is to be delivered from the condemning power of the law. That's what Jesus does for us. Ye being dead to the law are now married to another. What a glorious truth. We're about out of time, so we better close it up here. You've been listening to the Thy Word is Settled in Heaven radio broadcast, brought to you by Cary Baptist Church. We're in Athens, Alabama. I'm Pastor Ben Donohue. Let me thank you for listening. We hope you join us next time. And until then, we'll say goodbye.