All right, we're in Romans chapter 7, verses 1 to 6. Romans 7, 1 to 6. And this is Wednesday night, the 23rd day of July already. And so, as we start off these verses, Let's just work our way through them because there's going to be just a lot involved here. But we're going to make it simple and keep after it. All right, Romans 7 verse 1. First thing I want you to see is who he's talking to, which is very important. Verse 1 says, know ye not brethren? For I speak to them that know the law." He's writing to the Jews at Rome. If you look down in verse four, verse four starts off, wherefore my brethren. And so Paul is speaking to these Jews. And if there's anything they were tied to, of course, was the law, right? So he's going to go after this and then try to bring these men away from the law. And so he's gonna find a physical illustration to bring about a spiritual application. All right, and so that's what he's going to do. So we find in verse one, no, you're not brethren for I speak to them that know the law. So, He's going to talk and reason with these men that know the law, have been living under the law, they've been practicing the law, they've been subject to the law, they failed at keeping the law, everything you can think of. How that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives. In other words, we're subject to the law. Paul was saying here, you're subject to this law. As long as you live, you're subject to this law. Now, why is that? First of all, because it's God's law. And you might say, well, God gave the commandments, like the 10 commandments to the Jews to start off with, you know. But the thing of it is, is these are God's laws for humanity. He gave those laws and they apply to all humanity. Thou shalt not kill. You let the murderer die, and guess what? He's gonna be subject to God's judgment because he broke God's law, whether he had ever walked into a church or not. And so it is, whether he's a thief or adulterer or adulteress, makes no difference. I mean, they're God's laws. And so when it's all said and done, the Muslim and everybody else is going to have to deal with God. And they'll have to deal with God's laws. They'll be subject to God's laws. And so the Mormon or whoever it is, they can talk, do all they want. The Hindu, makes no difference. They're going to be subject to God's laws. They're going to be judged by God's laws. And so one thing that we must never forget, those things that God has introduced into the universe are subject to them. If God's introduced the law of gravity, then the law of gravity is subject to God. Everything is. He's the maker of it. And so never forget, regardless of who you're talking to and their opinion of it, which don't count, that there's a reality here. When God sets forth His laws, His laws trump everything else. That's all there is to it. And so when it's all said and done. Now let's look at verse two and three and see what Paul is going to do here now to bring about, he's trying to get these Jews and to look at something. The fact is that the law has Certain things in it where you're not subject to that part of the law no more. And so let's see what it is. He said, verse two, 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 we understand that death, all right, you're no longer under the law. The law has laws that you live by. And the law says, well, I'll deal with you in this situation, but now if he dies, now you're free from this particular part of the law, you see. And so we look at it and realize that God has laws for his laws. and then his laws are complete. They touch every aspect of the life. All right? Now verse three, 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 that law. See that, see the word that? You might wanna circle that underline or whatever it is, right? She's free from that law, okay? And so we find then, so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man. So now Paul, in his first three verses, he lays out this part of the law and the physical part, this illustration of you can be free from the law, then you can be free from that law, and he's writing to people, like he said, I speak to them that know the law, okay? Now, Verses 4, 5, and 6, we get into the spiritual application of this. And that's the one thing that you and I have got to deal with. The spiritual application of things at times just blow our minds, I mean, what takes place? I mean, when you realize that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleansed us from all sin, that's a spiritual act, isn't it? Well, we don't, we have a hard time comprehending how that works. We just know if God said it, it works. If God said it that way, it works. That's all that counts, isn't it? All right, so now here we go. Here's the meat of the lesson. So he's going to start explaining this now, and he's gonna go from physical to spiritual. Verse two and three, physical. Now verse four, spiritual. Wherefore? In other words, in like manner, because of that. You see that, how it's laid out there? My brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. See the spiritual application? So every saved, born again person, is what? We have become dead to the law. Now, you can write all kinds of laws on the books and do everything you want to. You know, the IRS can look at me, whatever they want to, but then if I'm dead, I'm dead. Ain't nothing they can do. Law's over with, you see. Ye also, now look what he says. Ye also are become dead. See that? He's taking these saved Jews from the physical part of the law, bringing them under the spiritual aspect of the law, the spiritual aspect of things. Ye also are, present tense, become dead to the law. How? By the body of Christ. What? A most wonderful statement. Ye also are, present tense, what? Become, what? Dead to the law. How? By the body of Christ. Amen, praise God. Have you noticed that over the past few weeks, as we've looked at some of this, everything, when you get to looking at this, everything that Christ has done for you as a saved person, I mean, when you get to looking at this, it becomes almost overwhelming. The fact that his blood's washed all your sins away. You're in Christ, you're free from sin, you sin not. Then like this right here, how are we brought away from the law? Right, by the body of Christ. I mean, when you keep looking at this stuff, the only thing you just want, I mean, if we, you just want to stand there and say, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, because it just keeps building more and more and more and more as you realize it. And now look what it says, that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Wow. In other words, if you're going to have a relationship now, you're going to move away from the law, which is paperwork, we'll see that down here in a minute, the letter of the law, you're moving away from a thing to a person. And so now what we find, as we look at this, we say, well, I'm moving away from the letter of the law to a person, to a relationship. That you should be married to another, even to him, this is verse four, who is raised from the dead. Look at this. Rather than having this relationship with the law now, We're having a relationship with the Son of God now. We've gone from trying to be obedient to the law, to the letter of the law. All right? Now we're just going to do this. We're going to have this relationship with Jesus Christ. that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Our relationship with Christ allows us to bring fruit unto God. Listen, in Hebrews it says that fruit What's it say in Hebrews 1 to 13? The fruit of our lips giving praise to Him. One of the fruits that's produced in the life of a saved person is praise and thanksgiving and gratefulness. When we talk about that we should bring forth fruit unto God, that's praise unto God. That fruits a lot of things, but one of the things, one of the fruits of our lips giving praise unto God. You go through the Psalms, you'll find that mentioned, that the fruit of your lips giving praise to God. You look in Hebrews and it's the fruit of our lips giving praise unto God. You see, God considers that type of praise and thankfulness and gratefulness and appreciation as fruit. Why? Did you have that type of fruit in your life before salvation? No. But now, after salvation, the more you realize what Christ has done for you, the more we praise Him, don't we? You see, that's the fruit of our lips giving praise unto Him. That's why we find this here, even to Him who is raised from the dead, Why that relationship? That we should bring forth fruit unto God. And boy, that fruit of praise. Lord, thank you for your son. Thank you for the blood. Thank you for the plan of salvation. Thank you for redemption in Christ. God, thank you so much for putting this most wonderful plan of redemption together for us. You see, redeemed by the blood of the crucified one. Oh, praise Him for that, you see. And we stand and say, you know, amazing grace. Well, that's what we've been talking about. That amazing grace. All right, now watch this verse five. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. How do you like that? Well, when we talk about fruit and fruit, right, there's good fruit and bad fruit in there. Now, what we find is this, we cannot keep the law. We just can't, not in us. So what we find here then, for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. In other words, we broke the law one way or another, each day, lying, lusting, Whatever. In the smallest of forms, we might say, well, you know, he exaggerated. Well, we can call all those words, you know, we can soften a lie by saying, well, you know, he added a little bit to it. He exaggerated it. But what is exaggeration? It's just a lie, isn't it? You see, and we can use all them other little terms, you know, that deal with saying something or adding something to it, you know, but the truth of it is, it's still a lie. It's not the truth, is it? And so what we see here then, we cannot keep the law. And what happened is that it did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. The law, the letter of the law had condemned all of us. The letter of the law was killing all of us. The letter of the law had brought all of us under condemnation. And so what we find then, oh, this extremely horrible condition we were in. We were, look in verse one, no you're not brethren for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives. Do you realize that apart from Christ, the law had dominion over you? The law had dominion over you. In other words, we were subject to the law. Now, when I say that, what does that really mean to you and me? You might say, well, I don't know all the law. You might say, well, I didn't know that. You might say, well, so on and so forth. But what that means to you and me, the fact that we're, the law had dominion over us. You see that in verse one? Now here's what that means. That means, when you say it had dominion over you, it means that it was constantly condemning you. It's what he's saying here. Because nobody can keep the law, the law had dominion over you, And it had placed everybody, like it said down here in the red, we were all producing fruit unto death. You see that? The law had dominion over us. And so every unsaved person, the law has dominion over them. That's why they are condemned when you read John 5, 24, and so on, and John, what, 336, 318. What do you find there? You see, they were condemned already. The Bible says, now the reason they're condemned already is because the law has dominion over them. So every lost person you know, they are condemned already. Why? Because the law has dominion over them. You see that? And so that's the way it was before God saved you. The law had dominion over you. then God saved you. And then by the body of Christ, as you read right here, you became dead to the law. Praise God for that. In other words, we were brought out from underneath the condemning dominion of the law. See that? Ever so important for you and me. And so, everybody you know that's lost, they are under the condemning dominion of the law. See that? And so, religious or not, if they're not saved, they're under the condemning dominion of the law. All right. Now let's take the remainder of our time and deal with verse six. First of all, I want y'all to realize this. Look at the first two words of verse six. It says, but now. See that? Well, now those two words are extremely important to us. Paul is writing, to these brethren, and he explains this to them. Then when he gets to verse six, he says, but now. You see that? But now. In other words, something has happened to you. He's explaining this to those Jews that are saved. And he says, but now. In other words, you're not what you used to be. Something has changed with you. But now. And so, what we find here then, salvation is not progressive, like some people teach. Not at all. When you're in Christ, the day God saved you, when in knowledge, you might be a child, but in position, you're in Christ already. But now you might say, I don't know much. Well, that can be remedied. But the fact of it is, we've got to deal with our position in Christ now. That's what it says, but now. You see that? He's tried to explain this to these people that had just gotten saved. And look what he does, he tells them, but now. You might not know much about this, I'm trying to explain it to you, but now. Now. And so something has changed. So what has changed? Look at this now. We are delivered from the law. That's what has changed. So now can you imagine Paul explaining this to Jews that have lived under the law, they have lived under the condemnation of the law, and now he tells them, but now, and he includes his self into this, Why? Because he's a Jew. And he says, we are, we are, we are what? Delivered from the law. I mean, an old Jewish writer was making comments on that passage of scripture right there. And he said, every time I read that, I just want to stand up and shout. Good reason, huh? But now we are delivered from the law. What does that mean? That means he's telling them we are delivered from the condemnation of the law. Because as long as we're under the law, we're condemned. Because we cannot keep the law. So we're not under the law. Now, folks, listen. That's why one of the things that we've got to pay close attention to, just like me, we're going through the Old Testament, right? Well, we've got to be careful to make sure That we, when we get to some of these things, we better understand that when God gave the law, he gave it to them. He gave it to them. We got to make sure that we don't put ourselves under the law. You see that? Because we're not under the law. We're not subject to the law. Even the saved Jews are not subject to the law. And so going through the Old Testament, for us to properly preach through the Old Testament and deal with those things, we've got to look at it practically. We've got to look at it how they had this relationship with God. But we better be careful because we cannot apply those laws to us. We're not under the law. And so, as I find some people want to reach back into the Old Testament and grab law things, and then try to put the New Testament believer under the law things, that is totally unscriptural. Matter of fact, that's gross misinterpretation of the Word of God. Because you're trying to reach over here and grab this, first of all, this Gentile, right? And you're gonna try to pull him back here and put him underneath the Old Testament law. That is total misrepresentation. of things, and we can't do that. So as I put these lessons together for you, going through Samuel and Chronicles and all these other things we've been doing, that's the one thing I've got to watch out for. I got to keep my eye on that. Why? Because I'm not going to put you under an Old Testament law, right? Paul was trying to get the Jews out from under the law. So why would a New Testament preacher want to put New Testament people under the law? That's totally unscriptural, you see that? And so when you get around somebody and they want to try to put you under the law, don't you let them do that. Because, like he said, but now we are delivered from the law. See that? Okay, very important, you get it? All right, let's go on. That being did, wherein we were held. All right, in other words, man, the law had just, we were just held to it, all right? Now look what he says, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. You see that? And so what we have now is this, that we being dead, wherein we were held, in other words, we were dead to the law had held us, but we're dead to the law now. said that we should serve in newness of spirit. Now, if you notice the spirit, the word spirit there is not capitalized. You see that? So it's not talking about the Holy Spirit. It's talking about the spirit in which you serve. In other words, your mind, your attitude. In other words, you're going to serve let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You're gonna have a willing mind. You're going to have a peaceful mind. You're going to have a hungry mind. You're going to have a mind that's held by Christ, you see. And that in newness of spirit, have you ever been around somebody That boy, to start off a project or something, I mean, their attitude just stunk, boy. I mean, you know, just terrible. And then something happened and man, they had an attitude adjustment, right? Well, that's what he's talking about here, in newness of spirit. Boy, your mind changes about it. You have an attitude of gratitude now. You have a different attitude about you. Boy, you're willing now. You're kind now. You're communicative now. You're part of the team now, you see. And so everything changes. And he's looking at These Jews, they say that we, notice he keeps including himself into this, that we should serve in newness of spirit. In other words, a new mind, a new attitude. Boy, if there was anybody that had to change, Paul did, didn't he? Man, he had a radical change, didn't he? You see, I mean, that was a few days in his life that brought about a huge change. And so he was going to serve now with a new mind and a new attitude about Christ. And then he said, and not in the oldness of the letter. And that's the law, isn't it? You see, in other words, we need to serve If we're truly saved, the saved were served in newness of spirit. Their mind toward serving Christ will be different. That's why, you know, you find some people where, boy, just serving God is just a fight for them. I mean, man, it's just a struggle for them and stuff, you know. I look at those people and I don't see how in the world they could be saved. Because truly born again people, they have a new spirit about them. And their mind changes. They have a new mind about it. An attitude change about it. And so they're willing to get in on it. And praise God for those that do, amen. And remember something, there's treasures laid up in heaven for the doer. You know that? A willingness of the mind and a different attitude around the people. And so we find a knot in the oldness of the letter. The letter was condemning. The letter was dominating. The letter was having dominion. The letter was forcing you. And that's the difference. You see that we should serve in newness of spirit. In other words, now you're going to serve because you have an attitude of gratitude. Now you serve because you love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you're going to serve because you love others. And now you're going to serve because you want to. You see, where the law forced everything. Now, grace and the love of God, the Bible says the love of God is shed abroad in your heart. You see, well, you never read that about the law, do you? No, no, no, no, you don't read that about the law. You see, the law was never shed abroad in your heart. But God's amazing grace is. And so, what happens to us? We find ourselves then, willingly, mentally, spiritually, with a new attitude, wanting to serve the Lord. Now we serve, because of the love of God that shed abroad in our hearts. You see the difference? And so what we find then is this, when you find people that do not willingly serve the Lord in the things that really should be done, there's something wrong with their relationship with the Lord. Why? Because when you look at one person, God saves them, and man, they're all about serving God. They're all about, come on, let's get it right, let's do it right, let's try to pray, let's study, let's read the word of God, let's, you know. But then the other person, they say they're saved, but then they hold back. And they serve the Lord, if you want to call it that, according to them and not according to a desire. Let me give you an idea. There's verses in the Bible that should motivate us tremendously. I've been asked over the years, you know, why is church attendance so important to you? Years ago, man, even before God ever called me to preach. I read one verse one time, and that changed my whole attitude about church. It's simply this, where two or more gather in my name, I am in the midst. And I thought to myself, everybody that misses church, they miss out on being in the presence of the Lord. And on the other side of that, I'm greedy because you never know what God's going to do. And I want to be there when he does it. I mean, I wanna see it, hear it, witness it, whatever. Man, for God to move on somebody, move on something, do something, and may not be there. Oh, that just wears me out. I just can't even. And so, what's my option? It's simple. I'm gonna go to church. As long as I don't have some dreaded disease that I give everybody, I'm showing up. Why? Because he's there. Or two or more guys with my name, there I am in the midst. And so for the people that don't come to church, what they're saying is, I really don't want to be in the presence of the Lord. I don't want to be in a place where the Lord is. You see that? And as a saved person, I have a hard time comprehending that mentality. Because if the Lord said, where two or more gathered in my name, I am in the midst, that's where I want to be. If he's gonna be in the midst, I wanna be in the midst with him, amen? And so as I close, just know this, that we should serve in newness of spirit. How is your attitude about serving God? Listen. Boy, always self-check yourself about that stuff. How's your attitude about it? How's your mindset about serving God? Oh, I'd hate for the Lord to show up me doing something for Him when I really didn't want to do it, when my heart wasn't in it. Wow. And so, in newness of spirit, in other words, you got a new mind, and a new attitude toward the things of God. You got a different value system. Now you value these things. You appreciate these things. You love him because of these things. And guess what? Boy, because of that, you have an attitude of gratitude. You know that? And you just want to say, thank you, Lord. And that's very, very valuable. All right, gather around, let's pray.