Turn with me to Romans chapter 7. And we'll read this whole section again beginning in verse 1 all the way to chapter 8 verse 4. May the Lord help us to hear his word. Romans 7 verse 1. Or do you not know, brethren, for I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she has joined another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now, We have been released from the law having died to that by which we were bound so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law, for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said you shall not covet. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind, for apart from the law, sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me, for sin. Taking an opportunity through the commandment deceived me, and through killed me. So then, the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be. Rather, it was sin. in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment, sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh sold into bondage to sin. What I am doing I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 4 I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. 5 For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 6 For the good that I want I do not do, but I practice. the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find in the law that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God! through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus 4 THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS HAS SET YOU FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND OF DEATH. 5 FOR WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, WEAK AS IT WAS THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD DID, SENDING HIS OWN SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH and for sin, He condemns sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Let's pray. Father, Your Word is, as John calls it on the island of Patmos, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And so we pray now, Lord, today, that you would abase all flesh, that you would put down the loftiness of men, And we pray earnestly, Lord, that this word would run and be glorified. We pray, Lord, that you would do exceeding things today through it. We pray that you would make it plain. We pray that you would come to us like those disciples on the road to Emmaus and open up our minds that we might understand the Scriptures. We know, Lord, that these are words not taught by men, but by the Spirit. And we know, Lord, that You have given us the mind of Christ so that we may know the things freely given to us by You. And so, Lord, we pray as little children Give us the Holy Spirit. Teach us. Heal us. Help us. And I pray, Lord, save today. Let salvation come to someone here. In Jesus' name, Amen. In John 4, 38, Jesus said that other men have labored and you've entered into their labors. Well, as we come last week to verse 7 in this section where I said the content, it's heating up the controversy. I've entered in greatly into the labors of Martin Lloyd-Jones. In particular, the labor of the context. We started last week following in his footsteps, I am, because it's very sinful and wrong and futile for us to commit what's called the sin of chronological snobbery. and think that we don't need to stand upon the shoulders of 2,000 years of Christian history, especially when we come to controversial texts. And in Martin Lloyd-Jones' first sermon on verse 7, as he notices that the controversy is heating up, he had this to say, The history of interpretation of this chapter, and especially from this point to the end, is a most interesting and fascinating one. As I have already been suggesting, I believe that much of the disagreement has been due solely to the fact that so many have not troubled to be guided by the context, but have just come to the chapter in and of itself, and especially this section, and doing so have gone astray. So our whole approach has been to zoom out before we go any further and set before us the context. And maybe I can venture a fresh illustration for this week about how this should work for us. Suppose you were with this group that went to the abortion clinic yesterday. And suppose you had no knowledge of the context of this trip. You didn't know that this clinic was in Shreveport and therefore it's north. You had no knowledge. You just knew we're going somewhere to evangelize. And suppose in that mind frame you pull out and they take a highway to the east. Go in the eastern direction. You might be prone to think maybe it's this direction, our destination. But if you knew ahead of time the destination is Shreveport, and that's north, even if you take a slight eastern turn, you know, because you know the context, somehow this eastern turn connects to our northern destination. And our whole approach has been to not come immediately to this last half and start pointing out little bitty terms that Paul is making. We're backing up to see what is his Shreveport, if you will, what is his goal in this letter, and therefore we know whatever our interpretation of Romans 7 is, it must connect to his purpose, his goal, his Shreveport, what his eyes fixed on as he writes this letter. Last week, we looked at the first context that I call the focus of the whole letter. We backed all the way up for the whole letter. And we said you can see three purposes. This is just plain history of interpretation. But there's three purposes, like Martin Lloyd-Jones says, is not paid attention to. Three purposes in the Book of Romans, number one, we saw there was a gospel message purpose. And that is, you just see all through here, Paul is preaching the gospel. He's explaining the gospel. He's explaining how we're made right with God. He's explaining what happened on the cross. What's the significance of the resurrection? How do you get connected to it? Faith or words? What are the results? The Holy Spirit? All this stuff. But we said he's not just writing a systematic theology. This is not like the salvation belongs to the Lord book. This is pastoral theology. In other words, there's a specific situation going on. He did not just decide, I think I'll put down my thoughts for some brethren to read a book. So we said he is explaining the gospel message, but that has a higher purpose, a second purpose was not the focus on the gospel message, but that exists for the sake of his focus on what I call the gospel mending. And over and over you read this letter to the Jew first, also to the Greek. He chose, he predestined a group not from among Jews only, but also Gentiles. You see it all through there. We looked at it. calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek. He says the same Lord is Lord of all abounding in riches to all who call upon him. And so when you get to chapter 14 and 15, you really see it. What he's doing is he's taking this vertical issue of how we're all made right with God. And he's saying that vertical issue has horizontal implications. That's what he's doing. The gospel message, that's the vertical issue. And he's saying if God has overcome himself and found it possible to warmly receive this brother, are you going to hold him at arm's length? That's his argument. God doesn't have a problem with him. You don't like this particular practice of his that he eats pork, but God has warmly received him. And so he uses the gospel message for gospel mending, though we said he really has his eye even past that. As you get into chapter 15, we read, where's his eye fixed? Does anybody remember? Where does Paul want to go? Come back to Asia? Spain, yeah. Alexi doesn't live too far from there. I was looking at it on the map last week. Pretty good ways, but to me it's in the neighborhood. I could see it on the map as I was looking at Spain. So we read that in chapter 15. Paul wants, he says, I'm going to come your way in passing, and be sent there by you. He's already preached the Gospel over here in the Middle East. He was a frontier missionary. He was not a pastor, but stayed. He said those who have no news of Him shall see, and those who have not heard will understand. That was his goal in life, to speak where Christ had not been named. And so you put the three together, and what you have is the book of Romans. Like I said, it's not a systematic theology. It is an unveiling of the gospel message. He's focusing on that, but he has his mind's eye past that on the gospel mending so that there will be a flourishing church so that when he gets through giving the money to the Jerusalem saints and he comes back through, the gospel mission can advance. So let me ask you, does your interpretation of Romans 7 have anything to do with that Shreveport of Paul? Or are you going way off somewhere else? Was any of the Jews or the Greeks in this church, do we have any evidence that they were wondering whether or not Christians struggle with sin? None. Or, kind of the Wesleyan, I'm not sure John Wesley had, I don't think he did, but if people from him This kind of deeper life view where you've got to get out of Romans 7 and Romans 8. It's a carnal Christian. In Romans 7, he needs to learn how to walk in the Spirit. Was anybody struggling with that? Do we have any evidence that they needed a deeper life? Nothing. But it makes absolutely perfect sense that he would talk in Romans 7 about the law, doesn't it? Jews. Greeks. explaining the gospel, to do some gospel mending? I've never read in the whole scripture that Jews in grief, something they needed to be mended on was whether or not Christians struggle with sin. So I say, if your interpretation cannot connect to what Paul has his minds outfixed on, your interpretation is wrong. Moving on today then, I want us to look at, zooming in a little further, context number two that is critical, is what we'll call the flow. So last week we had the focus on the whole letter. This week, the flow from chapter five into six and seven. from chapter five into six and seven. So focus your attention with me then on chapter five. It's been a little while, but somebody tell me what would you how would you sum up chapter five? If you had to do it in one word. That's pretty tough, but just One word. Okay. That's a good one. It's always good to have one right in the text. What are you thinking of something, Alexei? Three words. Justify by faith. Okay. I mean, it's actually the whole book of Romans. Justify by faith. Apart from works. Yeah, I mean, every one of those is in here, and in a sense, you could say that's what it's about. But the particular twist that Paul's doing in Romans 5 with the doctrine of justification by faith, or you could call it what Monique mentioned, reconciliation. What he's doing with it is expounding the doctrine of assurance. Now let me just show it to you again since it's been a while since we looked at it. Notice the word hope keeps coming up in verse 2. We exalt in hope of the glory of God. Paul in Romans 5 is excited about the absolute certainty of glorification. He's exalting in the hope of the glory of God. And in verse 4, he lists all these things that work at the very end of verse 4, hope. In verse 5, and hope does not disappoint. When you lose your assurance, you're disappointed, you're doubting, you don't know. Paul is not doubting in Romans 5. He's not disappointed in Romans 5. He's full of hope. Look at the other words for assurance or certainty. After he finishes his argument down there at about verse 9, he says this refrain twice. We shall be saved. Verse 9. We shall be saved. Verse 10. So Paul is looking ahead and he's exalting in the hope. He's absolutely certain about the hope, and he's just got this big banner over the Christians. They're saying we're going to get there. We one thing I know is we shall be saved. Look at the other words. He's not dry, is he? I mean, is he just saying like, well, turn the page? Hey. The quote is we shall be saved. He's exalting. Look at it in verse 2. We exult or glory or boast in the hope of the glory of God. In verse 3, is he kind of gritting his teeth through tribulations? He says he's exulting in it because he went through it and he saw it was real, therefore he boasts in his autism. Or whatever your lot is. He gloried in it, was more than a conqueror through it. Look down at verse 11. What a marvelous verse is this. And not only this, not only everything I've just said, but we also glory or boast or exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was a Jesus Christ boaster. That's what he did. Redeeming love had been His theme and it would be till He died. Christ, to live is Christ, to die is Christ, to gain Him. But the ultimate foundation for assurance and hope and certainty and the guarantee is the last half of Romans 5. How can it be that Paul can exalt in hope and say, we shall be saved? How can it be? The thing I want you to think about before we look at it is this. If you're here today and you're a Christian, and you're disappointed, and you don't have very much hope, or it's dwindling, you're losing hope for one reason or another. Or you're a lost person, or you're not sure you're a Christian, and you're wondering, is there possibly some kind of pure, absolute, certain, divine hope for me? The answer is yes. It's the last half of Romans 5. If you ever struggle with assurance, read Romans 5. That's the theme. I know we often say, go to 1 John. But Romans 5 is about assurance. If you want to be not disappointed and you want to have hope, go to Romans 5. Well, what's his argument? How can he be absolutely certain? Let me ask you, what is the rock bottom? I mean, get down to it, brethren. What are you hoping in? Are you just kind of sucked in. This is a gospel net here. Somehow you got in it as a fish. Are you just swimming around? Or do you know in whom you have believed and you're persuaded? Because Paul is standing here like in Acts. And the ship is going everywhere and is being tossed by no small storm. And he tells those men, those men said something about hope. They said from that point on, all hope of our being saved was lost. And Paul stood up and he said, men, the angel of the God whom I serve stood beside me this night. and said, You must stand before Caesar and God has granted you all the men with you. And he said, Therefore, brethren, keep courage. That's what Romans 5 is saying. You may be tossed, but Paul is saying it's possible for you to still have hope. It's possible. He's saying you shall be saved. It doesn't matter. You can have hope now, today. You can come in here Hopeless and leave out. Think of it. If God would come during this sermon to one of you just in a small measure and give you open the eyes of your heart a little bit, you could walk out of here exulting in hope of the glory of God. Joy, unspeakable and full of glory. So what's your argument? I'm interested in it. Are you? So obviously, then, verses 12 to 21, the first thing we could say about it is he's holding up for us Adam and Christ. That's obvious. Back and forth. So the question is, how does this work? Why is he doing this? Why is he putting them before us? And if you remember, I use this analogy My two labs are dead now, but I used it. Daisy was a yellow lab and Fresca was a black lab. And I said, suppose I took a trip. And I said, I'm going to leave Daisy with you. And while she's with you, just play with her, just run around, have fun, and just jot down two, three, four things you see and recognize and notice. about Daisy and I said you would probably write down she's hyper, she loves to retrieve, she really don't listen too good, and she's yellow. I said suppose the next time I took a trip I not only left with you Daisy but I put with her Fresca. I said keep them, have fun, play, And I gave you a little sheet of construction paper, maybe one of the kids, and I said, write down for me the things you notice about Daisy by looking at the parallel between her and Fresco. The similarities. And do you know what? Though you had Daisy already, your eye had never been drawn to the obvious fact that she has two eyes. You didn't write that down. That she has four legs. And you get to looking, Fresca has a tail, Daisy has a tail. Fresca has fur, Daisy has fur. Has a mouth, Daisy has a mouth. Has a nose, Daisy has a nose. You begin, your eyes, when you hold two things beside each other and look at the parallel, you begin to notice something about this And it becomes clarified and zoomed in that you may not have been focusing on. Now, notice what Paul says in verse 14. At the very end of the verse, what does he say about Adam? Who is a type of him who was to come? So why are you bringing up Adam, Paul, to make a point that he's like Christ? Now you know what a type is. It means to strike in such a way that you leave an impression. It's used of rings in their day. You leave an impression that when you remove the object you struck with, holds the form of that object. So some of you kids, you ever walk in the mud and you pull your foot up and what's there left in the mud? An impression. Looks like your foot. That's the word type. Or you do it with Play-Doh or something. Or cookies you're making. Paul is using this word and he's bringing up Adam and he says Adam is a foot mold of Christ. He's like Him. And this is the vein he's running in. Notice in verse 18, these words come up, so then as, and then he writes a few things and he says, Even so, verse 18, look at verse 19, for as he says something about Adam and then he says, even so. His point is the parallel. And so he's he's raising up Adam and Christ to get you to see this is his ultimate certainty. Now, what is the truth? Well, we broke it down into two pieces in verse 18 and 19. Truth number one is that all men upon this planet, all men in existence, today, everyone in this room, you're either justified or you're condemned. I heard Jeremy say to the lady If you don't believe, you're condemned already. Everybody in the world is either, Paul says, condemned or justified. All men. So there's no one who's working towards something. No one is in a process. No one is, quote, pretty good. In God's sight, you are either precious or, as I said, a maggot and loathsome. In His sight, one of the two. I mean, think of it. A bug crawls out sometime in the house and the object is so loathsome, you just, without instinct, grab a shoe and kill it. The sinner is loathsome to God. He, with patience, endures Him. And one day he will vent the disgust that he has against the wicked. And so you're either like that, or you're my beloved son or daughter with whom he is well pleased. One of the two. Let me show it to you. Verse 18. Notice he speaks of condemnation to all men. That covers the entire globe. And then again, he speaks of justification of life to all men. And then in verse 19, he speaks of the many were made, the word is better, appointed, like a declaration. Appointed sinners. And then again, the many will be appointed Righteous, that's the first truth. But the groundbreaking thing is the second truth. And oh how I wish that everybody would see it. The Bible teaches that sin leads to death. You eat from this tree, you will die. Ezekiel, the soul that sins, it will die. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. And you read the book of Genesis and what you see is such and such lived 300 years and he died. He had other sons and daughters. They lived this amount of years and they died. And that's what's going to be said of you. Your father lived so many years and he died. He had you and other sons and daughters. You lived so many years and you died because of sin. So we're all dying because of sin. We know that much. But the Bible also teaches that it's righteousness that leads to life. We read it in Romans 7. This commandment which was to result in what? Life. Lord, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? Well, how do you read that law? Love God with everything? Love neighbors yourself? What did Jesus tell him? Leviticus 18, 5. Do this and you will live. These verses, though, are saying the verdict of death and the verdict of life that is resting or can possibly rest upon all men is not dependent on their own individual actions. Notice it. Verse 18, he not only said condemnation to all men, but he specifically is at pains to say through one transgression, all men in the earth perish through one. Only one. So and so had sons and daughters and died and his children had sons and daughters and died because one man sinned. Not because they sinned. Look at it in verse 19. For as through the one man's disobedience. Are you worried about your disobedience? Don't be. Ultimately, this is the disobedience to be concerned about. This is your problem. This is why infants die. Because they're in Adam. They obviously have not done anything. But look at the flip side. Verse 18. This is it. If you're ever going to get it, I mean, this is it. Martin Luther said Romans is the very purest gospel and the Apostle Paul has reached the climax and he's holding them up. He's saying this is it. You've got to see it. And look what he says, verse 18, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. Verse 19, even so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. As I've said before, your deeds, whether they be righteous deeds, whether they be acts of obedience or acts of disobedience, I'm talking about even the Christian life. Not only do they not justify you, they don't even ultimately condemn you. Can you put it another way? Everything needed to send you to hell happened before you were ever born. Everything needed to send you to hell happened before you were born. That's what Paul is saying. But, everything needed to catapult you to glory happened before you were born. Do you see? I mean, the gospel just like comes into the world of religion. Like with the word of Ecclesiastes on its lips, it says vanity. Vanity of vanities. It's all vanity. Every bit of it. I mean, you think of the Pentecostal. Well, it says right here, you know, we need to speak in their wrangling. And Paul's saying that the Azusa Street revival that Pentecostalism came from happened in the 1900s. Your problem happened in the garden. And the solution happened 2,000 years ago. That is irrelevant. Totally irrelevant. Has nothing to do with it. All men are condemned or justified, truth one. Truth two is because all men are connected to either Adam's transgression or to Jesus's righteousness. Let me let Martyn Lloyd-Jones bring it home. He says to a Christian, look at yourself in Adam. Though you had done nothing, you were declared a sinner. Look at yourself in Christ and see that though you have done nothing, you are declared to be righteous. That is the parallel. And I love this phrase. He says we must Get rid of all thoughts of our actions. You know, in a sense, to be converted, to be saved, you must get rid of all thoughts of your actions. He says, we do nothing All we are and have results from the obedience of the one our Lord. There is no boasting. Now listen to this. If you're a Christian, God does not want you to be an introvert when it comes to assurance. You know what the Song of Solomon says? Oh, daughters of Jerusalem, gaze on the King. It's about Christ. That's what you're to do. Gaze on Him. He said, if I'm lifted up, I'll draw Him into myself. He's to be lifted up and you're to look to Him like that serpent. And you're healed. All the time looking at yourself, we know you're wicked. Everybody knows that. Everyone in this room knows that. But He says if they look away and look to Him. Listen, here's the deal. Paul is on the horse of assurance here because of this. If your salvation, I mean, any bit of it had to do with your deeds, then it would not be certain. You will always be running around wondering, because you're weak. What if you mess it up? But if your salvation, if our salvation has absolutely zero to do with our deeds, then it can be certain. Look at chapter 4, verse 16. reason it is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace so that the promise will be what? Guaranteed. Why is it by faith that it might be guaranteed? Are some of you in here hard of hearing? Have you never heard Jesus say it's finished? I mean, think of it. The religious guy who's still trying to get right with God by doing something. He is hard of hearing. Hearing and he does not hear. He cried out. I mean, he says he knew that all things had already been accomplished. But yet, he said, I'm thirsty. Give me something to drink so that I can cry out. It is finished. It was not a whimpish cry. And that Roman soldier there knew it. He fell down and said, truly, this man was righteous. This is the Son of God. It was a cry of victory. That man had never seen that before. I mean, a man, I mean, he saw him sovereignly. He yielded up his spirit. Isn't that what Jesus said? No one takes my life. Don't weep for me. I'm laying it down as the good shepherd. Listen. Martin Lloyd-Jones says you must get rid of all thoughts of your actions. For anyone in here, it's the message the same whether you're a saint and a child of God, or whether you're in here and you're uncertain. It's the same message. You must humble yourself. You must turn absolutely away from anything, any religious idea you've ever had or thought of other than Jesus Christ. You must. Just like Spurgeon said, I love this quote, the door of salvation is so wide that anybody in here can fit. the greatest of sinners can fit. But it is ever so low that no pride may pass through. You must repent. You must turn away from your baptism. You must turn away from your heritage. You must count every possible idol raised up as dumb and useless. You must not just coddle it. view it as vile and sling it from you like the plague that it is. Dagon must be chopped down. He must come down, whatever the idol is. If it's tongues, if it's prayer, if it's whatever, if what comes out of your mouth is not, I know in whom I have believed and I am persuaded, your persuasion is false. That's the gospel. That's what we've been seeing. So, the Christian, you know, Paul writes this letter to Philemon, this is the Christian, and Paul's telling Philemon, I want all this and this to stay with me, to remain with me. And he says, if he's done anything, if he owes you anything, I'll pay it back. And he says, Receive him as you would me. So Onesimus goes with a letter of recommendation back to Philemon. And the Christian goes to God with a letter of recommendation. Receive me as you would your son. Is that how you go to God? The psalm would say, By your perfect sacrifice, I've been brought pretty close, no, near, into the veil. I sometimes say to people as we're evangelizing that to try to illustrate when Jesus said it's finished this, suppose a man is mowing his grass. And he spends really tedious amount of time on it. I mean, he mows it, he weed eats it, he doesn't leave like, you know, like I do, twigs sticking up here and there, I'll get them later. I mean, he weed eats it all, he cuts it all, you can't see anything. It's a hot day, he sits down on the tailgate of his truck, and he says, well, I'm done. Pours him a cup of Gatorade. Now, not only would it be a dishonor for you to pull up with your cutting equipment, get out, crank up all your stuff, get your weed eater, and go try to finish. Do you realize what a dishonor it is to Jesus? Even to think that you've got to cry or something to get to God when you sin, you do not. You're dishonoring Him. But here's the thing, not only is it going to be a dishonor, you can't do anything when something is finished. If the grass is cut, it doesn't matter how bad you want to cut it. If it's all cut, it's cut. And you cannot do anything. And so what you must do, and do again and again throughout the Christian life, even if you're a Christian here, to draw strength is you must remember every day is the Sabbath day. The work has been done. Now I shall rest. That's what you're doing. Resting. Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art. That song we sing. The gospel is that it's the Sabbath day. Rest. God has completed his work. Rest. Come, all you weary. Take this yoke. You'll find rest for your soul. And there's no one in here you can't say, Well, I messed it up, and I've got so much sin. You don't know how much sin. I haven't shared with you my sin. I haven't shared with you the violence of thought. It doesn't matter. It says where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Believe me, there's more ointment of His grace than the wound of your sin. And you can't say, well, I've gone too far. I haven't listened. I've spurned what I've heard. What if I come to Him? Well, He says, come to Me, all the ends of the earth. And will He hold me at arm's length? He says, no. Every one that comes to Me, I will not cast out. So this is what we've been hearing. This is the context of the book of Romans. The gospel. So what I've sought to do today is preach to you, even if you're a Christian, the story we love, the gospel. Monique was reading that book by Milton Benson. I've since heard a lot about it. Gospel Primer. I've heard it says a lot about every day, reminding yourself the gospel. It's for Christians. Paul said he's eager to come to Rome and preach the gospel to the Christians. So we need to be reminded now, this is the great context of chapter five, and what I want you to see is that. Six and seven flow out of this is easy as a bird. Look in verse 20, this is where they come from. Verse 20. And if all that Paul has said is true, have you ever wondered why he just says, the law came in? Uh, thought we were talking about Adam and Christ. No break in stride. He says the law came in. And he tells us why. Why would he do that? Because he has just stressed the irrelevance of exertion and work and deeds and effort to such an extreme that they're wondering, why did God ever give a law that required exertion and effort and deeds? And he says, not for the reason you think, to fix the Adamic problem. But he says that the transgression might increase, that we all might become our own Adam and fail. Then he says, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. And then he writes, Chapter 6 and chapter 7. Chapter 6 deals with that statement. There's more grace than sin. Paul, if I'm hearing you right, it does not depend, if you go out and tell people, the grass has been cut, it's all done. Paul, people are going to say, well then, it doesn't matter what I do, let's continue in sin. Let's take the prodigal and let's go back and forth all throughout the Christian life to the pigsty and let's have repeated parties. That's how people are going to take this, Paul. So he writes chapter six to deal with that objection. If you don't ever get that objection, you have not declared the gospel in an apostolic manner. You ought to be telling people it is so done, it is so finished, it has all been accomplished, it is salvation accomplished. Done. He sat down. God raised him from the dead, exalted him, and he sat down. But when the objection comes, you also need to be biblical and answer it the way Paul did. So chapter 6 is written. As we know, I'm just reminding us to explain Paul, shall we continue in sin, based on what he said. So chapter six is a ripple effect of the rock of the gospel thrown down in Rome. That's what it is. It comes out of it. It's an implication of it. But the same thing for chapter seven, it is written to explain Paul's statement that the law came in to increase the trust So, the context this week, we've moved from the focus of the whole letter to the flow of chapter 5 into 6 and 7. So we're zooming in. Let me ask you something. Does your interpretation of Romans 7 have anything at all to do with this negative effect of the law? Explaining the law? Explaining how the law uses sin to bring forth death? And how you've got to come out from under that and serve in newness of the Spirit? Or does your interpretation of Romans 7 have to do with whether or not Christians struggle with sin? It is not mentioned anywhere. Do you see that? Where is it at? Where? It's nowhere. But what's here is the gospel has been proclaimed and the implications of he's wanting to wrestle with to bring about gospel amending has to do with the law. So next time we'll move a little bit closer, zoom in further and further in. But these are the first two observations, the context, number one, the focus of the whole letter. Context number two, the flow of chapter five into six and seven. Let's pray. Father, we come before you today. Lord, I just pray for everyone here. that they may experience, not just in a small measure, but in the full measure, the exalting and the glory and the boasting in the Gospel. Lord, I pray for any troubled heart, any unsure heart, any heart wondering, am I saved or not? Could there be hope for me? Or if hope is waning in dripping away, that they might see this great fountain opened up for sin and impurity, that they may hear the prophet's call, Come, you who have no money, buy. What a gospel! We buy without cost. Lord, how then shall we live? Help us to keep going, Lord. Help us to stay with Paul. This love of Christ constrains us to go to the abortion clinic, to do good works, to speak truthfully with each one our neighbor, to look at each other and to lift one another up Show honor to one another and edify and help and bear one another's burdens as You have borne ours. You bore our burden at Calvary and suffered and died alone. How marvelous! How wonderful! Is this good news? It is truly called good news. Lord, make us to have beautiful feet. Lord, teach us how to share it. Get it into our bones, into our souls. Have it richly dwell within us, Lord, we pray. Help us to become just a spring of water squirting out the water of life. to one another in the world. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.