We're gonna look at verses 7 through 13 this morning. Again, my name is Andrew Shank. It's good to be with you all this morning. Mike has been saying for three years that we need to get you down here, and so even if it comes at a, you know, Tuesday afternoon invite, it's really good to be here. We're going to talk this morning about two kind of big theological concepts that we hear a lot about, the law and sin. But the question this morning is how are these two related? Lots has been written about the law and what it is and its applicability and which parts of it are still incumbent on us to believe and obey today. Lots has been written about sin. What is it? What are the seven deadly ones? All that. Paul in this passage puts the two up against each other and says, how do these two things relate? And it's good that he does that because in the book of Romans, he says several things about the law before he's gotten to this passage. In chapter five, verse 20, he says, the law came in to increase the trespass. In chapter six, verse 14, he says we're not under law, but we're under grace. Earlier in chapter seven, verse four, we've died to the law. Verse six, we're released from the law, which leads to a natural question. Is the law a bad thing? Is the law sin? If when it comes in, the trespass increases and it's no longer something we're under, but we're under grace instead, is the law sin? Let's look at Romans chapter 7 verses 7 through 13 to see how Paul answers this question. What then shall we say that the law is sin? Paul's really good at anticipating our questions right. Is the law 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. 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. Let's pray and we'll talk about what that means. Father, we thank you for your word, for the truth that it reveals about who you are, about who we are, and what you've done to bring us back to yourself. As we look at Paul's words in Romans 7 this morning, I pray that you would help us to understand how our own hearts work, and help us to understand even more how you work to redeem our hearts. Through this we pray, for we ask it in Christ's name, amen. So, is the law sin? Right off the bat, Paul answers the question, he takes that option off the table. He says, by no means, which in the original language has the force of no way, Jose. Like, are you kidding me? Seriously? Of course not. Right? The law is not sin. No way, Jose. May it never be. But that still leaves us with a question, okay? If they're not identical, then how are they related? Three answers that Paul gives to this question in this passage. The first answer, the law identifies sin. The first way that the law and sin are related is that the law identifies sin. It identifies what sin is. Look again at verse seven. Paul says, 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. I want to define some terms a little bit here at the beginning so that we know what we're talking about, we know what Paul means when he talks about the law. He's not talking about the law of the land, he's not talking about the Constitution or civil laws. He's talking about three different kinds of laws that you see in the Old Testament. Traditionally, in Reformed theology, we talk about a civil law, a law that is applicable to Israel as God's people, under a theocracy, under His rule. These are laws that include things like the role of the king, the work of scribes, and particular punishments for particular sins. These are laws of restitution often. What happens when my ox falls in your ditch and breaks its leg? How do we make that right? What happens when my ox gores your ox to death? How do we make that right? The restitution and just civil harmony is what's included in the civil law. These particular laws don't apply to us anymore because we don't live in theocratic Israel, but we don't ignore them. The principles behind them still endure. We don't deal with oxen and donkeys anymore, but restitution, restoring what's been lost, what's been damaged, still very much applies. So the first kind of law is the civil law. The second would be the ceremonial law. This includes things like how to become clean after touching blood or what to do with lepers, or how priests should dress, or certain sacrifices for certain sins, and the book of Leviticus. These particular laws no longer apply because Christ has come in fulfillment of these laws. His sacrifice cleanses us once and for all, but at the same time, we don't ignore these laws. The principles behind them endure. For example, touching blood no longer prohibits you from coming to worship, but the fact that the holiness of God demands that we be pure in his presence still applies. So first type of law, civil. Second, ceremonial. Finally, the moral law. And this is summarized in the Ten Commandments. And these laws were binding on all people at all times and never pass away. Because these laws are rooted in the character of God himself. God commands us not to murder or not to kill because he is the God of life. He commands us not to commit adultery because he is a faithful God. He commands us not to lie because he's the God of truth. And because these laws are rooted in the character of God, they never pass away. This is what Paul has in view when he talks about the law or the commandment in this passage. He has in view the moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments. And again, because that law reveals the character of God, what he loves, what he hates, it identifies what sin is. It doesn't create the sin, it identifies it. It's like when I wake up in the middle of the night and I'm just a little bit hungry. And I've lived in my house for three years now, I feel like I know where everything is and I can navigate in the dark from my bedroom to the kitchen. I can get there, I can do that. Except every single time, what do I do? I stub my toe, I step on the cat, I bump my knee against the door that I thought was open and it rattles and then my newborn wakes up and my wife is frustrated at me. All of these hazards exist in my home between my bed and my fridge. But if I turned on the light or if I pulled out my cell phone and turned on the flashlight, I would be able to navigate around all these obstacles and Legos and animals and like pinky toe catchers. Now it would be ridiculous for me to say that when I turned on the light, that therefore created all the obstacles. No, the light identifies them. It helps me see where they are and what they are. In the same way, the law doesn't create sin. It's a flashlight that identifies them and helps you see what it is and where they are. So simple application, don't let anything other than the word of God define sin. There are plenty efforts in the world today, in the church today, to define what sin is, right? Sin is not wearing a mask, or sin is wearing a mask, or sin is gathering at the church, or sin is not gathering with the church, or sin is all of these different things. Resist the urge to do that, because the law of God is what gets to define sin. The law doesn't just identify sin, though. It turns and it shines that flashlight on us and identifies us as sinners. Look down at verse nine. Apart from the law, Paul says, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. Paul's saying here that it's through the law that he comes to the realization that he himself is a sinner. Before the commandment came, he was fine, right? He was alive. Ignorance is bliss. Sin? What sin? Right? I'm a Pharisee. I know a lot about the Bible. I'm working really hard to put these Christians to death. What sin? I'm fine. But when the commandment came, it identified Paul as a sinner. Ignorance might be bliss, but it's a dangerous bliss, and his confidence His holiness, his righteousness, all his efforts to keep the law crumble, and he sees them as filthy rags. Again, the law didn't make Paul a sinner. It identified what was already true about him. The law identifies us as sinners. There's a story in 2 Chronicles 34. I'm sure you know that off the top of your head. Danny Beck does. He's studying for his scripture exam, so yeah. Second Chronicles 34, Josiah, this young boy, becomes king, and he's one of the few good kings. And when he becomes king, he starts clearing out all these sites of pagan worship, these idols, these astra, these altars. And once he does some of that work, he thinks, it's about time to restore the temple, right? It's been built several generations ago. You know, the kitchen's nice, but the shag carpet, like, we could get rid of that. So he gets some workers and Josiah sends his secretary to look for money to pay these workers, to restore the temple of God, to restore the household of God to its glory and to invite people into it. And then you read 2 Chronicles chapter 34 verse 14 through 21, we won't look at it this morning, I'll just try and tell you the story. They're dispersing the money, right, because they go into the temple to look into the storehouses, and one of the scribes comes out and he says, hey, while we were looking for ways to pay these guys, we found this scroll, we found this book, like in the basement, gathering dust, and it's the law of God, right? Genesis through Deuteronomy, in a basement, gathering dust. And Josiah instructs for the scroll to be read and the scribe reads it in front of him and he hears the law. And what Josiah, who has been restoring the temple and tearing down altars, does is he tears his clothes and he weeps. He says, woe on us. We have sinned against the Lord. He's doing all these good things, but when confronted with the word of God, he is undone. He sees his own and his people's sinfulness clearly, because the law identifies us as sinners. Has this happened to you? Have you seen your own sinfulness through the word of God? Or when you read the word of God, are you only seeing everyone else's sinfulness? Are you only seeing the ways that you're already obeying the law? Or are you seeing and feeling the weight of your own sin? Don't ignore the word of God when it points out sin in your life. Yes, it's uncomfortable. Ignorance is bliss, but it's a dangerous bliss. Don't avoid the word of God because it points out sin in your life. You see this all the time in my students. They start a relationship that they know they shouldn't be in, or they start doing something that they know they shouldn't be doing, and all of a sudden, they wonder why they struggle to read their Bible. They wonder why they struggle to connect with God. They're avoiding God because he's gonna point out sin in their life. If you're not a believer this morning, if you've never let the word of God identify you as a sinner, you're in a dangerous place because you will not run to the solution to your sin unless you see your need. And if you're a believer today and you're not regularly letting the word of God identify areas of sin in your life, you too are in a dangerous place. Let God's word identify your sins so that you might bring it to the cross and grow to look more and more like Christ. This is Paul's first answer to the question, how are the law and sin related? The law identifies sin. It points it out, it shines a flashlight on it, and it would be great if that's all that happened, right? If the law identified all these sins and then we could say, oh great, I see the Legos on the floor, I'm not gonna step on them. But sin doesn't just sit back and let this happen. Sin abuses the law. This is the second relationship between the two. The law identifies sin, and in turn, sin abuses the law. Look at verse eight. Paul says this, sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. He said first, I wouldn't have known what it is to covet if the law hadn't said, do not covet, but then sin, seizes an opportunity and produces in Paul covetousness. Sin subtly takes the law which identifies sin and uses it to produce sin in us. Because sin knows how to capitalize on our natural inherited sinful rebellion. The essence of our sinfulness is a rejection of God's rule over every aspect of our lives. When the law points out an area of sin, our natural sinful response is to push the bounds of it, say, you're not the boss of me, and run away from God's rule into sin. This is what Adam and Eve did in the garden. This is what you and I do every day. Because what we love is not the sin, but the rebellion. We see this all over the place. We see it in children. Our oldest, Sophie, is five and a half now, but when she was a little toddler, crawler, scooter, that kind of stage, we lived in a thousand square foot apartment in Hilton Head, where I had my first call as an assistant pastor. And in this apartment, it was mostly carpeted, except for the kitchen, which was this very nice linoleum, and had this nice metal strip separating the carpet from the linoleum. And we really only had one rule for our daughter when she was scooting around, don't go in the kitchen, because there are hot ovens, there are sharp knives, there are dishwasher doors that fall down at her level, All these things. So the rule was Sophie's not allowed in the kitchen. And there's this really clear line of demarcation between the two, right? This metal strip between the carpet and the linoleum. And if you have kids, if you've had kids, you know exactly where this is going. She would crawl, she would scoot up to the line and then like do that fun thing where they lean back and fall over and her arms flop and one of the arms is over the line. And she looks up at Trish as if to say like, is this okay? Am I in the kitchen if just my arm is? Or she'd be playing with a toy and oops, it happens to roll into the kitchen. She looks up and is like, am I allowed to go in if I'm getting something? Right like as a nine month old, she's testing the bounds of the law. We see it not just in children, we should see it in ourselves, and not just in spiritual things. But any time we run up against a law, our natural inclination is to push back. At Western Carolina, there's this bell tower that you can walk underneath. It's got these four columns and then it rises up into the sky. And the unspoken rule at Western Carolina is that if you walk underneath the bell tower before you graduate, you won't graduate on time. all of my students have walked into the bell tower, right? They don't do it in broad daylight, right? I will because I'm 34, I'm graduated, I'm not superstitious, but they will like go out of their way to move around the bell tower, unless it's like two in the morning, and then they'll like dare, it's like I'll do it if you do it. Same thing with the fountain, they're not supposed to swim in it, all of it has swum in it, it's a rite of passage. An article from the Atlantic last year called Intuitive Eating, the diet that tells you to quit dieting, right? There's this article about intuitive eating which looks at all the different diets out there and sees all the rules and counting calories or avoiding carbs or only eating fish or like whatever the weird diets are these days and says none of those seem to be working for people. They did all this study and said most people have tried multiple diets and still haven't seen good results because what happens is you set up all these rules and then the craving takes over and you break a rule and then you binge on it. If the rule is no carbs and you're at a party where there's some pizza and you just have a slice, before you know it, half the pizza's gone because you've already broken the rule and pizza's so good, who cares? But intuitive eating says like, you know, they find that you eat what your body tells you you need, right? Vegetables, water, meat every once in a while, that kind of thing. And the binge is actually decreased, right? Because those people go and they eat half a pizza in one sitting, and then they feel like they ate half a pizza in one sitting, and they know that they shouldn't do that anymore. Here's what's written in the article. The theory is that if you can have pizza whenever you want, it feels less essential to eat it until you're uncomfortable when the opportunity presents itself. Telling yourself you can't have something, meanwhile, gives it undue power and allure. Here's what one person said. I didn't understand that the binges were created from the restriction. the law incites the rebellion, right? The sin abuses the law and uses it to do what the law forbids. I see this again all the time with my students when it comes to things like pornography. They come to me, they say that they struggle in this area, that they failed, and they make a hard commitment to never do it again, right? Like, I'm only gonna use my computer if I'm sitting in the middle of campus, and they make all these rules and commitments and laws And then three weeks later, we're having the same conversation. Because the law creates the rebellion. Because the rebellion is in our hearts. So when the law points out an area of sin, our natural sinful response is to push the bounds of it, say you're not the boss of me, and run from God's rule into sin. This is the subtlety of sin. Abusing the law through our natural rebellion so that it actually excites sin in us. Application for this, keep watch. Because sin is subtle, trying to hide from us. So be on guard. Are you teaching your children about the importance of honesty? Be on guard for deceitfulness in yourself. Are you frustrated at your spouse's impatience toward you? Be on guard for your own lack of patience towards them. Sin is really good at jujitsu, at taking our own motivations and our own attempts at obedience and flipping them and pushing us into sin. Generally, we think of sin just as these particular actions that we do, but the way Paul talks about sin producing covetousness or sin producing sin, it's not just actions, but a disposition. It's a force that acts subtly and acts strategically. Look at verses 10 and 11. Paul says, 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. When Paul uses this phrase, seizing an opportunity, he's using strategic military language. It's a picture of claiming an outpost, a forgotten outpost somewhere, so that you can more effectively harass and defeat your enemy. because sin is aware and alert and ready to capitalize on any opportunity and will do so because sin is your enemy. Do you see sin like that? I often don't. I often see sin more just as a nuisance or a distraction, right? It's like a gnat or it's a mosquito flying around my head and if it lands, I'm gonna give it one, but if not, it's just a mosquito, it's just a gnat. Sin is not a gnat, it's a lion. It's hunting you, it's seeking to devour you. It hides and it stalks and it waits, not revealing itself until it's too late for you to stop because sin is your enemy and sin wants to kill you. So fight against it. Give no opportunity to sin, to the flesh, to the devil. Fight with prayer. When you see sin in your life, pray that God would help you defeat it. Pray that you would remember that he's paid the penalty for it. Fight with watchfulness. When you don't see sin, don't relax, don't let your guard down, don't assume that it's not there. Fight it with community. Invite others into your life that can help you identify and guard against sin. Sin is your enemy, subtly and strategically abusing the law to destroy you. So Paul's shown us these two things about the relationship between sin and the law. The law identifies what sin is, it shines that flashlight on it and says, look, this is what sin is, which is good and that helps, but in turn sin abuses the law and incites our rebellion. It's not the law's fault that sin takes advantage of it, which is why Paul says in verse 12 that the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Again, this law reflects and reveals the character of God. So it's holy and righteous and good, but all of that leads to another question in verse 13. Did that which is good then bring death to me? Right, if sin was going to abuse the law and bring death, why give it in the first place? Did this good thing become an instrument of death? And Paul responds again in verse 13, did that which is good then bring death to me? No way, Jose. By no means. Are you kidding me? Of course not. And then he points out the third way that sin and the law are related. The law exposes sin. So if your outline people were on number three, the law identifies sin, sin abuses the law, the law exposes sin. And some of you are thinking right now, Andrew, you're cheating. Right, you can't use the same point twice. You already said the law identifies sin, and now you're saying the law exposes sin? Well, here's where I want you to pay attention to the Scooby-Doo illustration. If you've ever seen an episode of Scooby-Doo, you've seen them all, because they're very formulaic. It starts off with the gang showing up at some place, because their van broke down, and it's either an abandoned mansion, or an abandoned wharf, or an abandoned warehouse, or an abandoned fill in the blank. And it's kind of creepy, there's cobwebs and like crates and boxes, but there's one person there, right? There's this old caretaker or there's this old fisherman or there's this old carnival worker or some old blue collar somebody who is complaining about something weird going on. And very early in the episode, you realize that there's a swamp monster or there's a mummy or there's like a vampire or something that's causing all kinds of shenanigans at this abandoned place. And you identify early on in the episode who the culprit is, right? You identify that it's the swamp thing, it's the mummy, it's the vampire. But then after some chases, after a musical number, after some jinkies and the gang splitting up, they eventually conspire to catch the monster. and they pull off the mask and it was, oh look, it was the blue collar worker all along, right? They expose what's really going on. The law identifies sin. It says, look, that's the monster, but it also exposes sin. It pulls the mask off and exposes the ugliness of sin. Look again at verse 13. Did that which is good bring death? 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. The law unmasks the ugliness of sin and shows its ability to corrupt and to twist and to take that which is good and use it for evil purposes. Because as human beings created in the image of God to respond to beauty and goodness, we can't watch something beautiful and good be abused and mishandled and warped and not respond with horror. towards the thing causing that abuse. Imagine that you are at the Louvre and you're standing looking at the Mona Lisa or one of the other fabulous paintings that are there and you're just kind of marveling at it, the skill, the beauty, the creativity, and someone rushes up from behind you with a knife and slashes it to ribbons. You're gonna respond with horror at someone who could do such a horrible thing to such a beautiful thing. The law exposes sin's ugliness, which makes us hate it. which aids in our repentance. Because true repentance involves more than just a hatred of and sorrow over the consequences of our sin. True repentance involves hatred of the sin itself. True repentance says, even if there were no consequences, I hate this sin. It says, even if the consequences of this sin are to my benefit, I hate this sin. The law exposes the ugliness of sin, which makes us to hate it. and it exposes our helplessness against sin. When you look at the weight of this whole passage, it should be clear that we have a great opponent because sin is crafty, subtly using the law against us. Sin is powerful and abusive to take something so good as the law and to twist it. The law identifies sin but has no power to stop its abuse. The law promises life but gives no ability for us to actually follow it. The law identifies us as sinners but gives us no power to eradicate sin from our lives. It exposes our helplessness against sin and our great need. There's a story, a section, a parable, whatever you want to call it, out of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian comes to a mansion, and in this mansion are several rooms in this part of the book. They walk around the house, and in one case, they walk into a room that is covered in dust, and somebody asks, how is this room going to be made clean? and somebody comes in with a broom and starts to sweep up the room. And all that happens is the dust flies into the air, stirs around, and isn't cleaned up. Christian asked the question, like, what does this mean? Like, I watched the attempt to clean this room and I almost choked, I almost suffocated from the dust in the air. And the interpreter, the guy who's always walking around with Christian, says, this room is your heart. This is the heart of a man. And the dust is our sin, all right? It covers everything. This inward corruption has defiled the whole man. And when you come in and you try and sweep it up like that, that's the law, right? As soon as the law comes in and starts to try and clean things up, the dust flies about so much that the room can't be cleaned. You're almost choked. And Bunyan writes, this is to show you that the law Instead of cleansing the heart from sin, only revives, puts strength into, and increases it in the soul, even as it reveals sin and forbids sin, for it gives no power to subdue sin. All the law does is stirs up sin in our hearts that kills us. This is what we've seen in this passage. The law stirs up the dust and helps us say, look, the room is dusty, but only aggravates it so that it overwhelms us. So what do we do? Bunyan goes on in the illustration, and a woman comes in, a lady standing by, and he says, bring some water and sprinkle the room. And when she had done this, the room is swept and cleaned easily. And Christian says, what does this mean? The interpreter answers, the lady that brought water and sprinkled the room is the gospel. After she sprinkled the room with water, it was cleaned with pleasure. This is to show you that when the gospel comes, with its sweet and precious influences to the heart. Then I say, even as you saw the lady subdue the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so sin is vanquished and subdued and the soul made clean through the faith of it. And as a result, fit for the king of glory to inhabit. All the law does is bring a broom into a dusty room and stirs up dust. But what the gospel does, what the grace of God does is it sprays water over that dust, which makes it ineffective, and it's actually able to be cleaned up. Here's another example of what I'm talking about, what we always, I think, try to do with the law. Yesterday, I spent probably like eight hours working in my yard. It was a nice day, but I run hot, so I'm a sweater, running the lawnmower, the leaf catcher, the weed whacker, all this kind of stuff. And at the end of the day, when I walk inside and finally go to the bathroom, I look in the mirror and I look like Radagast the Brown, if you're Lord of the Rings people. He's the one that can talk to animals and has the rabbit sled. He's got sticks in his hair and he's just kind of generally dirty. There's grass clippings, sweat cemented to my face. I'm sure it was about the level of Mike after he spent a day plastering his pool, right? white and crusty and just filthy. And so I did what you always do when you look in a mirror and you say, oh, I'm really dirty. I'm sure Mike did this as well. I took the mirror off the wall and I rubbed the mirror over my whole body to clean myself up. No, of course not. But that's what we do as believers, right? The law is a mirror that shows us our sinfulness, that shows us our corruption, that shows us our need for cleansing. And instead of using the law to identify our need and run to something that can actually fix it, we pull the mirror off the wall and double down and say, I'm really gonna try and obey the law this time. I'm really gonna put in the work, put in the effort. Instead of getting in the shower, right? Of being sprinkled with grace. of covered with the gospel that can actually cleanse us. The law exposes our helplessness against sin, not so that we might try harder, but so that we might run to the only true help in our fight against sin, Jesus Christ. He's the one who perfectly obeyed the law. The law did not drive him to sinfulness. He had no sin, he had no rebelliousness to be excited by the law. So don't look to the law to cleanse you, because it can't. Instead, let the law drive you to Christ. You might find forgiveness. Can't you see the power of God in this? Sin always tries to make a mess of things, right? Sin causes Joseph's brothers to sell him into slavery and then Potiphar's wife to betray him and then the baker to forget about him. Sin causes Haman to plot against the Jews in the book of Esther. Sin causes men to kill Jesus Christ on a cross. but God will not be thwarted by the purposes of sin. Sin's greatest successes even end up working against it. Joseph tells his brothers, what you intended for evil, God intended for good. Haman is killed on the very gallows that he builds to eradicate the Jews. And Christ's death on the cross, right, sin's most apparent victory is actually the thing that defeats sin and death itself. We have a great enemy in sin, but we have a greater Savior in Jesus Christ. Don't let sin's abuse of the law discourage you. Let it drive you into the arms of your Redeemer. Let's pray. Father, we confess that we are weak and needy. We know your law, and often we choose to run the other way. We're like Augustine in the garden, stealing pears, not because we're hungry, not because they're tasty, but because we love the sin and we love the rebellion. Father, we're all like little infants testing the boundaries. We're all like college students breaking the unspoken rules. Father, sin is at work in us, abusing your good and holy law. I pray, Father, that you would help us to see that, help us not be deceived by sin, help us to see what it's doing, to be able to see its plots and its schemes in ourselves and in one another. Father, I pray that you would draw us close together, that we might help one another in this fight against sin. But above all, Father, I pray that when we do see our sin, when we do see our need, we would despair of our own ability and instead run to you, that we would be quick to run into the arms of our Redeemer, who had no sin himself and who gives us his very righteousness even as he takes our sin. Father, I pray that that would be our gut reaction to seeing our need, not to work harder, not to resolve more, but to rest in one who is weak and lowly in heart and gives us rest for our souls. Do this, we pray, for we ask in Christ's name. Amen. RUF down in Western and teaching the truth to students in our region. So we are going to do our normal practice. So if you in the back start funneling outside, we'll sing our last hymn outside and have the benediction.