alright everybody welcome to your word Baptist Church thank you all for coming out you'll go ahead and find your seat and we'll get started here. Turn your hymnals to song number 63 what a day that will be. What a day that will be. Song number 60. Go ahead and turn to your next song. Song number 131 Christ is all I need. Song number 131 Christ is all I need.
So the week is Psalms 47 verse number 8. God reigneth over the keep and God sits upon the throne of his holiness. You're able to quote that verse by Thursday. When you're under 18 you'll be able to get a free ice cream. In our service times we have Sunday morning at 1030 a.m. Sunday evening at 530 p.m. and then Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. We have our church wise bow winning times here with the respective bliers.
and salvation. Do you have any salvation reports today? Seven. Seven? Am I getting that right?
So the great bow winning. Anybody else? We'll update that. Upcoming guest preachers we have
Pastor Stephen Anderson coming on July 7th. And expecting ladies we have Green Garnell
expecting in June any time things like. And Christian Rogers expecting now.
Coming events we have on August 18th to the 20th. Dead Fast Baptist Church Mighty Men's Conference.
We have a prayer request also the Goodwin family for healing and comfort.
Brother Edward for help. Liberty's daughter-in-law's mother Catherine for breast cancer.
Brother Joel unspoken, first work Baptist Church for blessing.
And also some church minders, just keep an eye on your kids and don't let them be on the stage.
Just be with them and look over them. That's about it for the announcements.
We're going to turn to our third song, song number 143. Song number 143, Blessed Assurance.
[Music]
Chapter number seven, Bible says, "Know ye 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 an 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 carried to another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law. So that she is no adulteress, she is free from that law."
"So that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another."
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead through the law by the body of the dead."
"Ye should be married to another, even to him who raises from the dead."
"That we should bring forth fruit unto God."
"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."
"But now we are delivered from the law."
"That being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit."
"And not in the oldness of the letter."
"That we shall, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid."
"Nay, I had not 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 the manner of concupiscence."
"For without the law, sin was death."
"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."
"Was then that which is good made death unto me?"
"God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin."
"Working death in me, by the which is good, the sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."
"I know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal."
"God sold under sin."
"For that which I do, I allow not."
"For what I would, that do I not."
"But what I hate, that do I."
"If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that is good."
"Now when it is no more that I do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."
"For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing."
"For the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not."
"For the good that I would not, but the evil which I would not, that I do."
"Now if I do that I would not, it is no more that I do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."
"I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me."
"For I delight in a law of God after the inward man."
"But I see another law in my member, warring against the law of my mind."
"And bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my member."
"O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
"So then with me, mine, myself, serve the law of God."
"But with the flesh the law of sin."
Is that a quick prayer?
Amen.
Alright, well great to see you all again.
I've really enjoyed how much I've been able to come down and see you guys a lot more than usual.
And thank you Pastor Shelley for being the one to give me that opportunity.
And I do have a message to relay from him.
He wanted me to tell you guys that he misses you guys very much.
He wants to be here. He wants to be able to see you guys and preach for you guys.
And I believe that next Thursday he'll be able to do that.
So he wanted me to relay that to you guys, just thinking and praying about you guys.
So we are here in Romans chapter number seven.
And if you remember last time in Romans chapter six, you know,
we talked about how we should reckon ourselves dead unto sin.
Since Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, he paid for all of our sins,
we're able to, you know, be buried with him in baptism.
And then we should walk in newness of life.
And what that comes down to is a choice of wanting to serve God,
of wanting to do what's right, of wanting to do the things that God tells us to do.
And now we're going to transition to Romans chapter 7.
Let's read verse number 1. It says this,
"Know ye 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."
So now Paul starts with this question and he's talking about the law.
And so the first thing I want to talk about in this chapter is the dominion of the law,
the dominion of the law. Now what is dominion?
The definition of this word is the power or right of governing and controlling sovereign authority.
Now with that definition in mind, let's read that verse again.
It says, "Know ye 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."
And you know, guess what? No matter what people say, no matter what people like,
the law of God has authority, the law of God has dominion
over every single person on this planet that ever has lived and ever will.
Because obviously the law of God is written down in our heart, right?
So the law of God has dominion over mankind.
And there's so many people today, the atheists, those that hate God,
that want to mock God's law, that want to mock God's word.
And sometimes the law of God can be referring specifically to the Ten Commandments
or the law of Moses. Sometimes it can be just referring to the Bible in general.
And let me tell you, there's a lot of people that hate the law of God in general.
But the Bible says that the law of God has dominion over man as long as he live it.
So whether people like it or not, they will be judged someday according to the law of God.
According to the word of God. Go to Revelation chapter number 20 and keep your place there
in Romans 7 throughout the sermon. Revelation chapter number 20,
let's start in verse number 12, it says, and I saw the dead. We learned last time.
Those are the people in hell, small and great stand before God and the books were open
and another book was open, which is the book of life.
So you have the books which were open and then the book of life.
The books, I believe, is in reference to the law of God. Why is that?
Well, look what it says. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written
in the books according to their works. Sounds to me like the laws of God are going to be open.
And it's going to be shown under these people that they've broken God's commandments.
And guess what? The law of God has had dominion over them because they're not saved
and they will be judged by the law of God. Verse 13.
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
This is the sad reality of the future of the people in our country and world that reject the gospel, that reject the word of God.
And many of them even despise the law of God, but guess what? The law still has dominion over them.
And, you know, a good example of this is last week, Pastor Shelley, myself, and several other members of Said Fast Baptist Church actually went to a city council meeting in the city of Arlington.
And there was a huge group of sodomites there, and there was, I would say, probably 200 sodomites there and maybe 15 to 20 Bible-believing Christians there.
And we had to sit there and listen to these sodomites blaspheme the word of God, threaten the Arlington mayor, threaten the city council.
All these people hate God, hate the law of God. And then we got up and basically just said what the Bible says.
We weren't there, you know, say, hey, vote for this or, you know, elect this person to office.
All we were there doing was warning them and just telling them what the word of God says, telling them what the law says, which has dominion over them.
You know, these people that are in government, the Bible says to obey the higher powers.
There is a higher power than the mayor of a city, just so you know, there's a higher power than the governor.
There's a higher power than the president.
There's something that has dominion over every single person, and it's the law of God.
And so all those sodomites that hate God, all those people that showed up and would speak against the word of God, this is their future in Revelation 20.
The law still has dominion over them.
If you're unsaved, the law of God has dominion and will continue to have dominion over you for all of eternity.
Go back to Romans chapter number 7.
Actually, go to Isaiah chapter 10, sorry, Romans chapter number 10.
And basically the issue why people were going to this is because the mayor is deciding on whether or not he's going to issue this gay pride proclamation in the city of Arlington
and basically declare Pride Month in Arlington because obviously the wicked President Barack Obama declared that nationwide we're going to proclaim pride throughout the month of June.
But not every city in America has enacted that. There's still plenty of places in America where at least cities haven't recognized it, counties haven't recognized it.
Well, in Arlington, in the middle of the Bible Belt, that's what happened in 2020 and the mayor gets to, I guess, decide again whether or not that's going to happen.
But look at Isaiah chapter 10, look at verse number, I believe it's verse number one, it says, "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and that right grievousness which they have prescribed."
Now, I cannot think of a more unrighteous decree than to say that as an entire city we are going to actually go ahead and celebrate people that hate God, people that boast themselves against the Lord.
The Bible says that everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to God and what we're going to say to God is, "Hey, we're celebrating pride down here."
And the Bible says, "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees."
What are they doing? The city of Arlington just wants to decree, wants to proclaim, saying, "Hey, we're going to go ahead and just proclaim that we're going to celebrate pride in this city."
The Bible says, "Woe unto you, woe unto that mayor who, by the way, is a member of a Baptist church."
church. What happened to our country where even Baptists that are in positions of power don't give
a rip about what God thinks. Don't give a rip about the law of God that has dominion over every
single person. That's a sad state that we're in. But hey, it's still true that the word of God,
the law of God does have dominion over that mayor, over that city council, over that entire city,
and over the entire world. God is in charge. The law of God is the one that has the right to govern.
And look at verse number two, it says this. So after they decree their unrighteous decrees,
verse two, it says this, to turn aside the needy from judgment and to take away the right from the
poor of my people, that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless.
Notice, what is the result when these unrighteous leaders decree their unrighteous decrees? Is it
just harmless? Is it just harmless when you say, hey, we're going to proclaim pride in our city?
No, notice what happens when unrighteous decrees are proclaimed. Innocent people get hurt. Read
that again. It says at the end that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless.
You know, there's actually consequences to these rulers' wicked decisions that they make.
And we need to stand against it as Christians, even if we can't change the law,
which, you know, Lord willing, we would have the law of God as the law of this country.
But let's be honest, that's probably never going to happen. But hey, regardless of whether it
happens or not, we can still stand up and say, hey, just so you know, the law of God has dominion
over you and you'll be judged someday according to the word of God, whether you like it or not,
whether you believe in God or not, whether you want to believe that the sun is going to come up
tomorrow or not, it's going to happen. It's not going to affect what happens just because of what
you believe. You know, God's word has dominion over all of us. Romans chapter number seven.
You could turn back there and I'll read Ecclesiastes 8 11 says because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully
set in them to do evil. And since our country is not enacting the laws of God, since the laws of
God in practice in law aren't having dominion over our country, what do we see? The hearts of men,
their wickedness is just fully set in their heart. They have no fear of God. They have no fear of
authority. This is why our protesters are flipping us off in front of the police. This is why our
protesters are trespassing on private property in front of the police, because they know that the
police won't do anything, because everyone is afraid of this bully LGBT mafia, because they
don't want that protest to march on down to the police precinct. They want it to stay at
St. Fast Baptist Church. But hey, at St. Fast Baptist Church and at Pure Words Baptist Church,
we're at least going to proclaim, saying hey, the law of God has dominion. The law of God is the
highest form of power that there is. Romans 7 verse number two. Now he's going to use an illustration
to illustrate this fact that the law of God has dominion over us. Look what it says,
"For the woman which hath an 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 free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man."
So he's using an illustration to prove his point that the law of God has dominion. What is he saying?
In the same way that a wife and a husband are bound by the law to each other. And it used to
be, even in our country, that the law of God and the laws of man coincided on this, and it was
illegal to get a divorce. And this isn't the subject of the sermon or even the subject of
the chapter. But let me just remind you, because it's in front of our faces right now, that God
does not permit a divorce. God does not say that it's okay. The Bible says that God "hateth
putting away." Divorce is a wicked sin that is never condoned in the word of God. There's never
a situation where it's okay. It's never accepted, even though our country's accepted it. No, it's
not the case. That's why Paul's even saying this, because he's comparing it to the dominion that
the word of God has is the same binding nature that a marriage should have. It's unbreakable,
unless one thing. Notice, notice the release of the law. We talked about the dominion of the law.
Notice the release of the law. Let's start reading in verse 3. It says this, "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, 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 ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. Notice how is it that you can righteously get out of a binding marriage
contract? There's one way, death. Death of the spouse. If you're married and your spouse dies,
the Bible teaches that it's okay, it's perfectly righteous, it's perfectly permitted by God's word
to go ahead and get remarried. Now, if you're with someone else while your husband or your wife is
alive and you're with someone else, the Bible says that's adultery. It's adultery to get remarried
after getting divorced. The only way to have the release of that law of marriage is through death,
and notice the same way spiritually. How do we get the release of the dominion over the law?
It's by the death of Jesus Christ. That's why marriage is such a beautiful picture,
and that's why you should never want to just flippantly break your vows, because there's a
spiritual picture here that just like the only way out of marriage is death, well, the only way out
of the dominion of the law, the way that the law has dominion over us is by the death of our Savior
Jesus Christ. That allows us to no longer be under the dominion of the law. Now, of course,
God's Word still has authority over us. God's Word still is the highest form of authority,
but it doesn't have the dominion over us in the same way that the unsaved do, because the dominion,
the capture that the law of God has over the unsaved, they can never escape. They're going
to go to hell because they can't live up to that standard. But the death of Christ freed us from
that dominion that the law had over us. Now look at Romans chapter number six, verse five. We read
this a couple weeks ago, but look where it says, "For if we have implanted together in the likeness
of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin." Notice this, "For he that is dead is free from sin." And so when our physical bodies die,
the law is not going to have any dominion over us anymore because we have no sin. We have no sin
nature. You know, sin is the transgression of the law. If we're never going to sin ever again,
how could the law have dominion over us? It can't. So by the death of our Savior, spiritually,
we're released from the dominion of the law. And when we physically die and go to heaven,
hey, we literally will be released from the dominion of the law. We will be completely free.
Now, go back to Romans chapter 7. And another point that we could draw out of this is that
this new union, because he's comparing it to a marriage. He's saying, you know, now you should
be married unto Christ. And what is the point of this marriage is to bring forth fruit. Look at
verse 4 again. It says, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body
of Christ," so we're freed from that old relationship with the law, "that ye should be married to
another, even to him who is raised from the dead." Why? That we should bring forth fruit unto God.
And let me tell you what, if you don't like the doctrine of soul winning, you're going to get
tired of reading the Bible because soul winning is all throughout the Bible and especially
throughout Paul's epistles being that he brought the gospel like to the whole world himself,
basically. You know what I mean? So Paul, he's constantly writing about soul winning. And what
is the whole reason why Jesus Christ freed us from the law to be in this new union with him,
this new marriage with him in a sense? It's to bring forth much fruit. By the way,
that proves that God's desire for married couples is to bring forth fruit because in this new
spiritual union, we're supposed to be bringing forth fruit with Jesus Christ. Now, it's not
talking about babies here. It's talking about winning people to the Lord, getting people saved.
Go to John chapter number 15. John chapter number 15 says this in verse one, "I am the true vine,
and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away." By the
way, watch out if you don't go soul winning before he takes you out, before he takes you away,
right? You know, if you're just that worthless salt, you're just trodden underfoot of men,
it's worthless, the Bible says. God might just take you out if you're not bringing forth fruit.
And look what it says, "And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit." So Romans 7, the desire is that we bring forth much fruit. In John chapter 15,
Jesus' desire is that we bring forth more fruit. And so that should be the goal of our lives,
is to bring forth as much fruit for God as possible, because that's the only thing that
matters. We already learned in Romans chapter 6, you know, "What fruit had ye in those things,
whereof ye are now ashamed?" For the end of those things is death, right? When you lived in the
world, when you lived in your sinful past, and all you cared about was the booze, and the girls,
and the cars, and the money, and all that stuff, what fruit did you have in that? Nothing. But now,
now that we have this new union, God's desire for us is to bring forth fruit. That's why,
if you look at this bulletin that we have, you know, there's time set out because this church's
desire is that people will bring forth fruit. And if you want to learn how to do it, you show up
at all these soul-winning times, Sunday at two o'clock p.m., Thursday at five fifteen p.m.,
Saturday at two o'clock p.m. Hey, if you want to learn how to bring forth fruit, there's people
here that can show you how to do it. There's veterans that have been doing it for a long time.
That's God's desire for us, and that's this church's desire as well. Why we have those
soul-winning times. That's why Pastor Shelley did the soul-winning seminar, trying to get people to
become better soul winners. Why? Because this is the whole point. This is the whole point of this
union with Christ being free from the dominion of the law, is to bring forth much fruit. Look at
verse three. It says, "Now you are clean through the word which I've spoken unto you. Abide in me
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye
except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing." So God's desires that we
bring forth much fruit, that should be our desire as well. And so what do we need to do?
Abide in Christ. Keep reading the words of God. Jesus Christ is the Word. Abide in the Word of God.
Stay filled with the Spirit. Stick in church. Stick going with soul winning. Abide in the vine.
And together, we obviously can't do it without the Lord, right? But He also can't do it without us.
It is a team effort getting people saved. Obviously when it comes to paying for our sins,
He did 100% of the work. But when it comes to preaching the Gospel, He's not doing it.
We're doing it. We have to partner with Him. We're co-labors together with God. We have to abide in
the vine to get saved. By the way, this also proves that you have to be saved in order to bring forth
fruit, because you have to be plugged into that vine to get people saved. And if you're unsaved,
sorry, you're not abiding in the vine. It makes no sense whatsoever. Go back to Romans chapter
number seven. Romans chapter number seven says this. Verse five, "For when we were in the flesh,"
did I skip a page here? I might have. Let me see. Romans seven, five, "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."
Like I said, it's very similar to Romans six, where you're saying we had no fruit in those
things that we're now ashamed. Look at verse six, "But now we are delivered from the law,
that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the
oldness of the letter." What is this saying? Is this saying, "Well, we're delivered from the law,
so now we don't need the word of God anymore. We don't need any of the laws of God," because
that's what the liberals would tell you. The liberals would tell you, "Hey, we don't need
God's law. You guys are legalists, even talking about God's law." No, that's not the case
whatsoever. He says that, "Listen, you've been delivered from the law, and because of that now,
the way that you serve should be in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
There's a lot of people that are out there following the laws of God. They're not doing a
good job at it. They're failing at it all the time, but they're constantly trying to follow
God's commandments, and they're doing it to the letter because they're thinking it's going to
get them to heaven, right? You think about the Mormons. Why do they go out and preach the gospel?
Because they're trying to get to Kolob, okay? They're trying to get to the Telestial Kingdom,
and the only way that they can do that is if they wear their magic underwear,
they take their weird sacrament at 18 years old, you know, they they go on their mission field,
they have as many wives as possible, and create the spirit babies or whatever.
It's a weird religion, folks. It's a weird religion, okay? But they're doing all these
works, and I've literally had Mormons tell me to my face when I've run into out-souling. They're
like, "Why are you out here even doing this if you don't think it's getting you to heaven?"
Guess what? They're serving the oldness of the letter, not in newness of spirit. Because what
does it mean to serve God in newness of spirit? It means to actually love God. It means that, hey,
we're not trying to follow the law of God to be saved. Hey, we know that the dominion of God's
word, we've been freed by that, by the death of Christ. But that doesn't mean that we just
throw out God's word, throw out the law of God. No, rather now we should be doing it from our hearts
out of love for God. Go to Matthew chapter number 22, and I'm going to read a few verses for you.
John 4 24 says this, "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth." And hey, I'm all for the truth. I'm, you know, thy word is truth, the Bible says.
I'm all for the letter of the law. I'm all for following lists. I'm all for following standards
that are based off of God's law. I think all of us should do that. But God says that he also wants
us to worship him in spirit and in truth, meaning coming from our heart, coming from an actual love
that is within us, that we're not just following these set of rules because the Bible says so,
but we're actually following these rules and following God's word because we love God, because
we love God's word. And this is why the Mormons are so confused why they would see you out here
in the heat on a Saturday, in the heat on a Sunday afternoon, on a Thursday afternoon,
saying, "What are you doing out here if you're already saved, if your ticket's already punched?"
Because we're trying to serve God in the Spirit and in truth. Yeah, the Bible commands us to go
soul winning, but I'm not just going soul winning because God says I have to go soul winning. I'm
going soul winning because I love God, right? You know, hopefully wives aren't just obeying their
husbands and plugging their nose while they're doing it. You know, hopefully they won't obey
their husbands, yes, because their husbands said to, but also because they love their husbands.
What to God? Children would not just obey their parents because yeah, their parents have dominion
over them. Their parents have authority over them, but because they actually love their mom and dad.
They actually want to be pleasing in their sight. And that's how we should be as Christians. We
shouldn't just want to follow God's word because it's the only way to get to heaven because guess
what? That's not how you get to heaven. And people that are trying to do that are actually
going to go to hell. We should be following God's word because we love him because we want to be
pleasing in his sight. I'll read for you John 14, 15. "If ye love me," Jesus said, "keep my
commandments." We should keep God's commandments. We should do that which is right. We should follow
God's rules. But hey, not just because we're trying to follow the law, the letter of the law,
but because in our actual spirit we want to serve God. That's what we should do. Matthew chapter
number 22. Matthew 22. Look at verse 36. Matthew 22. Let me get there myself. Verse 36. Look at this verse
here. It says, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" You want to talk about
following the law, following the letter of the law. This is what Jesus said the greatest commandment
in the Bible is. Verse 37. "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." This is the first and great commandment.
You want to follow God's law? Okay. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your mind. That's what God desires from you. And if you love God, you have a desire to serve Him,
you're going to want to follow God's commandments, not because you're scared of hell,
but because you love God. And you know, it's fine if you're a baby Christian and you're just
learning about God's chastisement and you're like, "Well, you know, I don't really want to get this
right, but I don't want to be spanked by God." That's okay. That's okay to start there. But you
want to eventually get to a point where you want to do what's right because you love your Savior,
because you love your Heavenly Father, because you have seen all the great things that He's done for
you in your life and in the life of people you love and in this church. And He's delivered your
soul from hell. And you should say, "Hey, I want to serve you with my spirit. I want to love you
with my spirit." That is God's desire from us. God didn't just take the dominion of the law off of us
so that we can, you know, get tattoos and cause our daughters to be prostitutes and have sodomites
and have adultery. That's a wicked way to view salvation by faith. That's a wicked way to view
the grace of God. The Bible talks about those that turn the grace of God into lasciviousness,
wickedness, to try to turn God's grace into excusing wickedness. Let me tell you something.
Jesus did not die on the cross so that we can violate God's laws. He knows that we're going
to violate God's laws. He knows that we're sinners, but He's not excusing our sin. He's not excusing
wicked sins. And the sins, by the way, in the Old Testament that He said should be worthy of death,
He's not saying, "Oh, death penalty's gone now." Never said that. No, He wants us, since we're
freed from the law to serve Him from our own free will, because we love Him. Now let's notice the
purpose of the law, Romans chapter number 7. The purpose of the law. So the dominion of the law,
the release of the law. Let's look at the purpose of the law, Romans 7, verse 7. It says this,
"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law,
for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Now, just a quick pause
before I get into the purpose of the law. This is a quick preaching tip from anyone who ever wants
to preach or does preach in this church, a preaching tip straight from the apostle Paul,
and that is you want to ask and answer questions when you're preaching. Just a little quick
commercial break right here. This is something Paul always does. He anticipates questions that
people might be asking. No one really asked him any question, but he's asking these questions and
he's answering them for people. Look what he says, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin?"
Did someone ask Paul if the law was sin? Oh, but he asked that question. Let me just show you really
quickly a couple examples of this. Go to Romans chapter number three, Romans chapter number three,
and look at verse one. It says, "What advantage then hath the Jew?" No one asked him that,
but he's anticipating thoughts that people might have, and he's going to answer it. "Or what profit
is there of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles
of God." Look at verse number three, "For what if some of them did not believe? Shall their
unbelief make the faith of God without effect?" He's asking these theoretical questions that
people didn't even ask him. Look at verse 27, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what
law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith." Look at verse 29, "Is he the God of the Jews only? Is
he not also of the Gentiles?" Yes, of the Gentiles also. Look at verse 31, "Do we then make void the
law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law." Look at Romans 4.1, "What shall we say
then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?" Asking a question.
Look at Romans 6 verse 1, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" You know, have I made my
point? This is something what a good preacher does. And have you noticed great pastors like Pastor
Shelley, Pastor Anderson, Pastor Jimenez? Have you noticed in their preaching they'll be like,
"Well, Pastor Shelley, do you really mean that?" That's exactly what I mean, right? Yeah, I mean
that. He's asking a question. No one asked him if you mean that. Pastor Shelley, we know you mean
that, okay? No one asked him. But that's a good thing to do because that's actually biblical.
It's actually what good preachers in the Bible do. Anticipating questions, and obviously I'm
being silly with "did you mean that one?" But that's used all the time where you're
constantly thinking about okay what would someone that's combating this doctrine think about? What's
a question that someone that doesn't understand think? And then providing them that answer out
of the word of God. That's a good thing to do as a preacher, and it's nothing I came up with. It's
something Paul came up with because he's doing it, and obviously something Jesus Christ did as well
ask a lot of questions. So back to my point here, what is the purpose of the law? And it's to show
us that we're all sinners. It's that simple. Let's read that verse again, Romans 7. What shall we say
then? Is the law sin? Is there something bad about the law? Is the law sinful here? God forbid,
nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said,
thou shalt not covet. So the word of God is the final authority on what is right and wrong.
And how do we determine what's right and wrong? How do we determine what a sin is?
Do we ask Nancy Pelosi? Do we ask our governor? Do we ask, you know, the House of Representatives
and the Senate and say, you guys figure out what's right and wrong? No, we ask the word of God.
The word of God tells us what's right and wrong. And hey, we would not even have known
that sin of lust if the word of God had not said, thou shalt not covet. And so anything that God
says is always right. If you have a different opinion about it, you're wrong, period. I have
a different opinion about what the word of God says. God's word says it, it's right, I'm wrong,
every single time. And so that's why you always have to submit yourself to what the Bible says,
not what any man says. And even ourselves, don't even trust yourself, because our carnal minds
are nowhere near having all truth, having everything right, being completely righteous,
our flesh. And we're going to get into that quickly. But I'll read for you Galatians
3.24. It says this, "Wherefore, the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ,
that we might be justified by faith." What's a school master? It's like an old word for like
a male teacher. You know, the law is our school teacher. And what is this school teacher telling
us? Basically, it's bringing us to Christ, saying, "You need a savior. Look at the lust that you just
had in your heart. Thou shalt not covet." Saying, "Hey, you've missed the mark. You're not good enough
to get to heaven. You're not righteous enough. You broke God's commandments." And guess what it's
pointing us to? The Lord Jesus Christ. And the entire word of God points us to one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the whole purpose of the Bible, to bring us unto Christ. Now,
there's basically, you know, two extremes when it comes to views on the law of God. And one extreme,
I kind of mentioned it earlier, is that the law of God's outdated and we don't need it anymore.
You know, don't tell me that it's the law of morality, it's the standard by which we know
right and wrong. You know, I like when Ben, if you saw the video of the city council meeting,
I like when Ben went up there and he just held up the Bible and he's like, "I just want to let
everyone know that what I'm holding in my hand is the ultimate standard of right and wrong. Amen."
That's what the Bible says, right? But there's people today that say, "We don't need the law,
it's outdated, it's bad." Let me read for you Psalm 19.7. It says this, "The law of the Lord
is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."
The Bible says that the law of God is perfect. If anyone else wants to have a different opinion on
that, you're wrong. If anyone wants to speak against that, you're wrong. God's word is perfect.
God's law is perfect. It's not outdated. It's not out of style. It's right about everything. Look at
our nation, and it's just a testimony to Leviticus 20.13. What happens when you don't enforce those
laws? It turns into hell, right? Go to James chapter number two while I read for you Matthew 517.
Jesus said this, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come
to destroy but to fulfill." So did Jesus Christ think that we should get rid of the law of God,
that it was outdated, that it was out of style? No. He says, "Don't think that I've come to destroy
the law." Any doctrine that wants to teach that the law is destroyed, that the law is outdated,
that's actually a satanic doctrine because it's going directly against what the Lord Jesus Christ
said. That's red letters in your Bible right there. It's wicked to say that the law of God
is outdated. We don't need it anymore. You're there in James 2. So that's one extreme. Then
there's another extreme that says that we actually need to keep the law of God to be saved. Now,
this is equally ridiculous. This is what your Catholics believe. This is what a lot of people
believe. And sometimes when you knock on the door and you ask them, "What do I have to do to be
saved?" Sometimes they'll literally say, "Keep the law. Keep the commandments." That's another
extreme view. That's not true. Look at James chapter number two. It says, in verse 10,
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he
that said, 'Do not commit adultery,' said also, 'Do not kill.' Now, if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." And so, you know, these people that
believe in work salvation, they're always trying to make void the law by bringing God's standard
lower than it actually is. And they'll say, "Well, at least I haven't murdered anyone.
You know, at least I've never gotten an abortion. You know, at least I'm not a sodomite.
You know, at least I never, uh, you know, commit adultery." And they'll just lower God's standard.
But wait a second, God said that the thought of foolishness is sin. Oops, all of us have broken
that one. You know, not bearing false witness? Really? You've never told a lie? If you've told
one lie, then you're guilty of all, because the law of God has dominion over you. You're unsaved.
So that's a ridiculous extreme as well. I'll read for you. You can go back to Romans 7. I'll read
for you Galatians 2.16. It says, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Jesus Christ." Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be
justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. "For by the works of the law
shall no flesh be justified." Man, that's a clear verse. Man, that just clearly spells it out,
not justified by works, justified by faith in Jesus Christ. There's no way to get around this
verse. Verse 21, "I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law,
then Christ is dead in vain." You know, and a good question to ask these people that believe
you got to keep the law of God to be saved, why did Jesus Christ need to die then? Because if you
can get saved by following God's commandment, well then why did God's precious only Son have
to come down here and be spat upon, have his beard ripped out, and be made fun of, and to be cursed,
to be smitten, and to be nailed on a cross, and to take all of the sins of the world in his own body,
and to burn in hell for three days and three nights? Why did Jesus Christ have to do all that
again if you could do it all by yourself? Christ is dead in vain, if that's the case.
Do what the Bible is teaching. His death is pointless, if that's the case. But of course,
that's not the case. Salvation is not by keeping the law. It's completely impossible. Galatians
5.4 says, "Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are fallen from grace." You know, you want to trust 90% in Jesus Christ and 10% in yourself,
Christ is of no effect unto you. It's 100% Jesus or it's 100% hell, period. Romans chapter number
7, look at verse 8, says this, "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all
manner of concupiscence, for without the law sin was dead." So what does this phrase take occasion
mean? It means basically to seize an opportunity. So, you know, the apostle Paul, he's kind of like
personifying sin and he's saying sin has taken this opportunity by the commandment, you know,
as if sin like was able to think or something like that. Sin sees the commandment of God
and he's taking this opportunity to rot and that basically means to shape or to form in us,
what does it say in verse seven, or I'm sorry, verse eight, all manner of concupiscence. So this
is what the law does. It exposes to us, it shows in us how wicked we really are. It's just shining
a flashlight on all of our sin, and before you were saved, maybe you didn't know it was a sin,
but guess what? The law of God, it's showing, it's taking this occasion by the commandment,
and it's shaping, it's rotting you all manner of concupiscence. And there's people that are so
foolish to think, well, you know, I'm not that bad of a guy. Let me tell you, you read the Bible
cover to cover, and you'll realize what a sinner you actually are, and what a sinner I actually am.
When the light of God's word, you know, takes occasion by the commandment, and it shapes in you
all manner of concupiscence, shows all sorts of wickedness that's in our heart. And whether you
were aware of that before you got saved or not, or before you read the Bible or not, doesn't change
the fact that you were still on your way to hell. You still were condemned because of your sin.
Every single person that doesn't believe on Jesus Christ is condemned to hell. Look at verse number
nine. It says, "For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived,
and I died." Verse number 10, "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." So Paul talks
about how he was once in this state of life, and when this commandment came, then it slew him. Then
he was dead in a sense. And so, you know, I'm not going to touch on this too long, but this is a
good place to go to show that babies, those that are too young to understand God's Word, will go
straight to heaven when they die. I don't believe for one second that a baby that doesn't know his
right hand from his left, doesn't know what state he lives in, doesn't know anything about the world,
God forbid if he was to die of a medical issue or a car accident or some freak accident, I don't
believe for one second that there's a single baby in hell. Now there's Calvinists that literally
believe that there are some babies in hell because God just picks and chooses and preordains some
people to be saved and preordains some people to go to hell. That is wickedness. That is not true.
Paul said that there was a time where he was alive then the commandment came and sin revived
and he died. So there comes a point in the life of every person where you realize you understand
sin. You understand that you've broken God's commandment. You understand right and wrong.
A one-year-old child does not understand right and wrong. He can't even understand the words
that you're saying oftentimes. He's not going to understand God's law. So anyone that wants to tell
you that a baby would go to hell obviously is completely ignorant of God's word and is a wicked
person. It's a wicked thing to teach. Babies, I believe, 100% go to heaven every single time.
By the way, not just babies. I believe anyone that's under the age, you know this phrase is
often used the age of accountability. I can't point to you an exact age of what that is,
but before a person is able to fully understand their sin, understand the commandment of God,
if they were to die, I believe that their spirit has not yet died, they still have not sinned,
and that they would go to heaven. That's what I believe. So also let's talk about the perfection
of the law, because Romans 7 is a lot about the law of God, if you haven't noticed.
Romans 7-12 says this, "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just,
and good." He's repeating it. He kind of wants us to understand. There's no issue with the law here.
It's almost like he would foresee people that would talk crap about God's law. Verse 13,
"Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin,
working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding
sinful." Now, is the law of God good or bad? Obviously, it's good. Think about the first
commandment God gave. Go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter number two. The first commandment that God
gave, was it good or bad? All right, let's answer that question. Genesis chapter two, verse 16. The
Bible says, "And the Lord God commanded the man," this is the commandment, right, "saying of every
tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat." Now, that's good news, right? God's giving you free will.
He's saying, look at all these trees you can eat from. Look at all these great choices you have.
Look at all these great things I created for you to enjoy. Verse 17, "But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die." Now, was this commandment good or bad? Of course, it's good. This commandment God gave
to protect Adam, okay? Because the whole reason that sin even exists is because this commandment
was broken. You know, sin is the transgression of the law. This law, this commandment that came out
of the mouth of God was broken, and because of that we have sin. Because of that, human beings
have sin nature. But was there any problem with God's commandment? No, it was actually there to
protect him. Yet wicked people would point to the word of God, would point to the law of God and say,
look how restrictive these laws are. Look how outdated these laws are. You know, why do
Christians have to live such a straight life? Why can't Christians have fun? But it's like,
the laws of God are good. They actually help you. They actually enrich your life. They actually
protect you from the evil of this world. And so it's always, always, always in our best interest
to obey God's commandments. Because God's law is perfect. And every single commandment
that you will find in the King James Bible is perfect. Now obviously there were commandments
and things in the law that were purely a picture or a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ, of things
to come. Things like the Sabbath, things like the cardinal ordinances, the feast days, the cardinal
washings. All these things the Bible specifically does away with in the New Testament. But that
doesn't mean those things weren't good. They were good because they were picturing the Lord Jesus
Christ, right? Now in all the other laws that are still in effect that God still views as legitimate
laws, they're all good. They're all there to protect us. And right now our societies become so
brainwashed where they will actually look at disgust at God's law at Leviticus 2013. They would
call it hate speech. They would actually have the audacity to look at the perfect law of God and call
it hateful when there's nothing hateful about God's law. The Bible says that love is the
fulfilling of the law, right? Because if you love your neighbor, you're not going to murder your
neighbor. And if you love your neighbor, you're not going to commit adultery with your neighbor's
wife. And if you love your neighbor, you're not going to have child molesting pedophiles exalted
in your society like we're doing this month in Pride Month. There's nothing hateful about God's
law. All of it is love. All of it is perfect. All of it is just and holy and good. Like Romans chapter
seven said, you know, "Oh, why can't you drink?" It's like, why would you want to drink? Not drinking
is helping your life. Nothing good ever happens when you're drinking alcohol. Nothing good has
ever happened from people getting drunk. There's no, there's been no good DUI car crash, right?
There's been no good, you know, fight with your spouse that you got divorced over while you were
drunk. There's been no good time where a husband got drunk and beat his wife nearly to death.
Oh, your Bible's so restrictive. No, sin is restrictive, and the consequences of sin is
restrictive, and it's actually a blessing to follow God's commandments every single time.
Now, what is it that brought death to Adam and Eve? Are you still there in Genesis? Genesis
chapter number three? Look at verse one. It says, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast
of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said,
you shall not eat of every tree of the garden." And so you see the devil's goal is always to attack
God's word. And today when we're preaching God's word and people are attacking us for saying God's
word, they're not attacking us, they're attacking God. Just like the devil was attacking God by
attacking his word. Verse two, "And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be open, and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil. But when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did.
And because of that sin, all of humanity was cursed. This is why Jesus had to come back and
make things right, die on the cross for our sins, be buried and rise again, was because of this right
here, because of the failure to obey God's Word, God's perfect, holy, just Word. That is the issue.
And notice, notice what she says. She said that it's good for food, it's pleasant to the eyes,
it's a tree to be desired to make one wise. This is why in Romans 7 that the Bible says that the
commandment should make sin exceeding sinful, because sin is always going to look pleasurable.
And by the way, sin is going to be pleasurable for a season. The Bible talks about the pleasures of
sin for a season. You know, no one would be out sinning if it wasn't pleasurable. Of course,
there's short-term pleasure in sin. Of course, the tree looks good for food. Of course, it's
pleasant to the eyes to make one wise. Of course, she desires that. But does that mean it's actually
good for her? Absolutely not. And do not be deceived by sin. Don't be deceived into thinking,
"Well, you know, I know God told me this, but I think I'll be okay breaking God's commandment."
Don't ever have such a foolish and stupid thought to think that you could break God's commandments
and that there won't be consequences for that. You know, it may have looked good. It may have
tasted good, but guess what? It condemned her. It condemned humanity because of it. And sin always
will have punishments and consequences far beyond you ever expected when you go outside of the bounds
of God's law. This is why it's so damaging, why it's so dangerous for Christian preachers to get
up and say, "Oh, don't worry about any of God's laws. We're all free in Christ. There's no
consequences anymore." No, that's wicked and needs to be called out because people will actually get
hurt from that. Oh yeah, sure fornication looks tempting for a season, but how about having an
STD for the rest of your life? Does that sound good? Sure. Yeah, alcohol, it might go fine going
down the gullet, but what happens when you get in a car accident and you kill someone's wife
and you kill someone's child and you kill yourself and you lift up your eyes and inhale? You're
unsafe. Yeah, sure. You know, snorting cocaine seems good for some people. I know nothing about
it. Amber Heard kind of looks like she's doing it in the middle of her trial. I don't know what's
going on there, but yeah, it might look good. But guess what? It's going to destroy your life.
Sin will destroy your life. And so God's word is perfect and holy and just. Now, last part about
this chapter that I want to focus on is Paul's carnality and his inner conflict. We talked a
lot about the law. Now, because of that, Paul has this inner struggle. Let's look at verse 14, says,
"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." Now, real quick,
there's this guy, Paul Washer, that he literally said that there's no such thing as a carnal
Christian. It's just like, what do you do with this? Like, I am carnal, sold under sin. So we
either have to say that Paul's not a Christian, and so therefore, you know, he's carnal, or we
have to say that there is a carnal Christian. Let me tell you this, the vast majority of Christians
are carnal Christians. You know, how many people has this church gotten saved this year? Is there a
number up there? Is that up to date? Read me the number, Brandon. Okay, is there 181 people in this
church right now? No. Why is that? Because the majority of Christians are carnal. That's why.
Because they're watching the stupid TV. They're watching their baseball games. They're watching
their football games. They're drinking their beer. They're snorting their Coke. That's what they're
doing. They're living in lives of sin. They're carnal because that is the nature of man. Okay,
so yes, most Christians are carnal. Now look at verse 15. It says, "For that which I do, I allow
not." Paul's saying, "The things that I do, the sins that I commit, I would tell you I don't allow
it. I'm against it. No, you shouldn't lie." You know what Paul's saying? That he lies. "For what I
would, that do I not." Paul would tell you, "Hey, I would like to go soul winning today." Guess what?
He's not doing it. He doesn't do it. Then look what he says, "But what I hate, that do I." Oh man,
I hate that sin. Hate it. He does it. Oh, a lot of people say, "Well, Paul's definitely not saved."
Because if you don't, if you're not following God's command, if you haven't made him the Lord of your
life, if you're not just jumping out of bed and singing songs and memorizing scripture all day
and soul winning all day and reading the Bible all day, bless God, you're not even saved. That's
the type of preaching that actually goes on by these Lordship salvationists. But Paul's saying,
"There's things that I do, I would tell you not to do them. There's things that I want to do,
that I don't do. There's things that I literally hate, that I do." And guess what? If you're saved
in here, every single person understands this because all of us go through this. Because all
of us have this inner struggle inside of us where we want to do right and we fail. Where there's
something that's wrong in our life that we want to get rid of and we don't. There's something that we
hate, just a besetting sin that's in our lives that we want to get rid of so bad and we just
fall into it again. What is that? That's our inner struggle because of our carnality,
because of our new man and our old man. Our old man is what sins, our old man is still,
that is with us. Now let me read for you, you can stay there and I'll read for you Ephesians 424,
it says this, "And that she put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness." So the redeemed brother Dylan, the redeemed brother Brandon, the redeemed
Apostle Paul is completely perfect, has true holiness, is completely righteous. That new man
is perfect and will never sin, but that old man is still as wicked as he was before and if we walk
in the flesh you'll still fall into the same sins that you did before you were saved. There's
nothing that changes in your flesh when you get saved. Now your spirit is completely new,
you have a completely new man, but your flesh is still the exact same and so till the day you die,
this right here will be your story, unfortunately, where you're doing things that you don't like,
where you want to do things that you fail to do. Now of course we can minimize this in our life,
we can work really hard at praying and being in the spirit and singing psalms and reading
the word of God and we can walk in the new man a lot of our life and that's what we want to go for,
but don't think you'll ever reach a point where you'll stop sinning. And by the way, you know,
just because you sin, you shouldn't beat up yourself so much to where you quit on serving God.
You should realize that if the Apostle Paul constantly was failing, constantly was sinning,
you know, you shouldn't beat up yourself too bad when you do as well. Now I believe you should be
sorry for your sin. I believe you should repent and ask God to forgive you of your sins, but don't
ever beat yourself up so much where you think you're unworthy or something like that to come
to church. I don't care what sin you did today, you know, as long as everyone's in here is not
a reprobate and is not given to unnatural affections, I don't care what sin you did
yesterday, you should serve God today. I don't care what sin you did yesterday, you should go
soul winning every chance you can. I don't care what sin you committed yesterday, you have the
opportunity to be in church tomorrow, you should do it. You should read the Word of God every day
no matter what sin. You know, sometimes people will sin and it'll just drive them away from the
things of God because of guilt. But you should realize that, you know, if the Apostle Paul
was this way, you're going to be the same way. And you know what the righteous thing to do is not to
sit there and feel sorry for yourself and sit there and pity yourself that you're not good enough to
serve God. You know, the righteous thing to do is just ask God for forgiveness and move on. Pick up
your Bible and read it. Pick up a hymnal and sing Psalms. You know, go to church. Preach the Word
of God to people. That's the right thing to do. Look at verse number 16. It says, "If then I do
that, which I would not." So he's doing something that's simple, something he doesn't like. He says,
"I consent unto the law that it is good." Now here's my question to you. Is Paul a hypocrite?
Is Paul a hypocrite? My answer would be no. He's not a hypocrite. Here's why. He's admitting that
he's a sinner. He's admitting, he's saying, "There's things that I would tell you to do
that I'm not doing. There's things that I would tell you to not do that I am doing. There's things
that I hate that I'm doing." But notice his attitude. He says, "If then I do that, which I
would not, I consent unto the law that it is good." Is he making excuses for his sin nature? Is he
making excuses for his mess-ups? No, he's saying, "You know what? I'm jacked up, but I'm consenting
that this is good. Every time I mess up, that was right, I was wrong." That's not a hypocrite, okay?
If a hypocrite is just somebody that sins, then all of humanity would be this, right? At all times.
We're all sinners, right? No, rather, a hypocrite. Think of it this way. What if you were to sin,
but it's not a sin when you do it? Well, you know, the Bible says not to get drunk, but I
just had a couple beers. No, you're a hypocrite. You really are. Or if you're professing to believe
things that you don't actually believe, that would be a hypocrite. And obviously in the definition
that we use in our modern vernacular, saying one thing and doing another, there is a grain of truth
to that for sure. Absolutely. Don't get me wrong. But I don't think Paul's a hypocrite for saying,
"Hey, I'm a sinner. I mess up, but guess what? The word of God is right." And that's what you
should do any time you sin, any time you mess up. You shouldn't try to make an excuse for it or be
like, "Oh, you know, it's a sin when other people do it, but it's not a sin when I do it." "Oh yeah,
can you believe so-and-so got a divorce over some stupid reason, but I have a really good reason."
Right? That's what people do. That's hypocritical. Paul's attitude here is not hypocritical. He's
consenting unto the law that it is good. He knows that he's the one that's jacked up. Look at this,
Romans 7, 17. "Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." 1 John 3,
9 says this, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Hey, isn't it nice that you have someone else to
blame, right? Because Paul's saying, "Yes, it is me, but it's also not me." Because it's the old
Paul, right? And when I sin, it's not the new Dylan. I get to blame the old one. I get to blame
sin that's wrought in the old Dylan. And thank God, when you get to heaven, you're not going
to have a list of your sins read before you and have to answer for every sin you've ever committed,
because that would be like, you know, me committing a crime and then asking brother Perry,
"Why did you do that Dylan?" It's like, that's a completely different person. What are you talking
about? That's not fair, right? That makes no sense. The old Dylan's not going to heaven.
The new Dylan is. The old Dylan that sinned. Hey, forget that guy. Bury that guy. Leave that guy
alone, right? Until it's revived a new body, perfect, glorious, right? So don't, you know,
don't beat yourself up too bad. It's the old guy. Blame it on him. Blame it on the old guy.
Now look at verse 18. For I know that in me. Notice what he's saying. That is in my flesh.
So he's differentiating between the new man and old man. For I know that in me that is in my flesh.
Well, it's no good thing. Nothing good in his flesh, he says. For to will is present with me,
saying I want to do these things, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. And if
you are living in the flesh, if you are trying to fight life's battles in the flesh, you might have
the will to fight those battles, but you'll never find how to perform it. You'll never be successful
living in the flesh. You'll never be successful fighting the battles, the spiritual battles in
the flesh, never will. Let me read for you this. Psalm 146.3 says, "Put not your trust in princes
nor in the son of man in whom there is no help." We often read this verse and point it to other
people. Don't trust the government. Don't trust Trump to save you. But hey, don't trust yourself
either. Don't trust your old man either. Don't trust your old flesh to be able to fight the
spiritual battles either because there's no help with that guy. There's nothing good in that guy,
Paul says. So every single day you have to realize it's a spiritual battle. And if you're trying to
fight it in the flesh, you will fail. There's nothing good in that flesh. Look at verse 19.
We're almost done here. It says, "For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,
so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
You have to realize that every single day we are in a spiritual battle and you want to know who the
number one enemy in that battle is, is yourself. It is yourself. You know in Romans chapter eight
we're going to read how you know there's nothing that can come against us. If God be for us who
can be against us, right? And here's the thing, the only one that could really defeat you is you.
When you give in to that old man and you just decide to quit, to just get discouraged and just
to quit. When you're like those hundred plus people that decided to live in their carnality,
to walk in the flesh and to not be in church, that's the only way to get yourself out of the
battle is to literally quit. It's true and so you have to realize every single day the battle
is not a carnal battle, it's not fought with guns and knives and swords and bows and tanks and all
these things, it's fought with your mind. Every single day you have to gird the loins of your
mind, you have to walk in the spirit and make the decision to serve the Lord that day because you
do have two natures inside of you and if you're constantly just feeding the flesh you can't just
expect to just constantly be living a carnal life, feeding the flesh and then to somehow succeed
spiritually. It's not going to work like that. It's not going to work like that. You must decide to
get your mind in the battle and to read the word of God, to go to church, to pray, to sing Psalms,
do all these things that we talked about. This is how you fight back. This is the weapons that you
actually use. Let me read for you this in Galatians chapter 5 verse 16. It says, "This I say then,
walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Notice it says ye shall not.
It's a promise. You walk in the spirit, ye shall not. So all of our sin failures, it's just a
guarantee it's a failure of you and it's a failure of me to walk in the spirit because if we do that
we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's guaranteed. Verse 17, "For the flesh lusteth
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary, the one to the other,
so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." That sounds very familiar, right, to what Paul
was saying. He's wanting to do things and he's not doing them. He's not wanting to do things and
he's doing them, right? How do we fight against this? Well, I'll read for you Psalm 119, 11. It says,
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against." That is the answer right there,
hiding the word of God in your heart that you will not sin against God. That's your weapon.
Remember, what does the law do? It illuminates to us our sin. It shows us our sin. And of course,
we're not under the dominion of sin in the sense that it's not, or of the law in the sense that
you have to keep the law to go to heaven. No, we want to do what's right. We want to serve in
newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. So a good way to do that, to save yourself,
because here's the thing, if you're full of the spirit, you're not going to be sinning,
right? It's going to be easy to follow God's commandments. But what about when you're not in
the spirit? That's why it's good to have scripture memorized, because then all of a sudden, boom,
it's illuminating your light again, saying, "Oh yeah, I forgot what the word of God says. Let me
remind myself what God says." And so it's a great thing to do to get into the habit of memorizing
scripture. This is a very, very hard thing to do. It is not easy. I think it's probably like the
hardest things to do when it comes to like, you know, the things we do as Christians, Bible reading,
prayer, soul winning, going to church, singing. To me, it is the hardest thing. And some people are
just incredibly amazing at it. And it's because they put a lot of work into it. But I'm telling
you, it's worth it. You'll never regret it. Every single verse that you ever memorize, it's profitable
Bible says that in all labor there's profit. There's never gonna be, it's never gonna be not worth it
to memorize God's Word. So that's one thing that you should get out of the sermon, a way to apply
the things that we've learned tonight is to try to memorize God's Word to prevent us from sinning
against the Lord. Of course we talked about singing Psalms. I'll read for you just real quickly and
we'll wrap it up. Ephesians 5 18 says, "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled
with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord." You know, when we go through our songs as a church, it's not just
some like vain religious exercise we're doing. We're actually trying to get filled with the Spirit.
Because like I said, this battle, you're not going to be able to fight it successfully in the flesh.
You can't get up here and preach a sermon in the flesh and expound God's Word in the flesh,
and you can't sit there and soak up God's Word and have the Holy Spirit teaching you through
God's Word if you're just in the flesh, you know? That's why, you know, as men, you got to take
control of your families and lead them and not let your kids just playing on video games on your
phone and having the wives just playing around in the mother-baby room. No, church is important,
and take control of it, make sure that everyone's trying to be in the Spirit. That way you can
actually get things out of church. That way you could actually win the spiritual battles in your
life. So thank you all for listening. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you
so much for this day and thank you for Romans chapter 7. I pray that you please just help this
church to continue doing great things for you. I pray that every single person here would be
steadfast, that they would just apply the word of God to their lives, their hearts. I pray that
every single person in here would not just hear the preaching of God's word, but also that they
would read it for themselves, because we know that it's the ultimate source of truth in this
world. We love you so much. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.