Less Law ≠ Lawless (Romans 7:1-25) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: I don't know if, uh, you've ever felt this before, but there's been a few

times where I've realized that I've been doing something wrong my whole life.

Has it ever happened to you?

You, someone shows you something and you're like, I've been

been this wrong my entire life.

This happened to me.

Um, and of course it has to do with rice, but it does.

So, um, I was heating up my rice in the microwave.

And I was about to put it in and I was at, I was, um, I was at the, this

wasn't, this is at a different church.

I was at church though, and this guy, he comes up and he's

like, why are you putting your rice in the microwave like that?

And I was like, what do you mean?

How do you put your rice in the microwave?

And he goes, you gotta put a paper towel over it and put

like a wet paper towel over it.

Because you know, when you heat up rice in the microwave, it gets really

dry and it loses all the moisture.

Especially if it's like fast food rice, like panda express rice.

That's also a good way to judge a place's like rice quality.

Is, uh, if you heat up the rice in the microwave, how does it do?

Um, anyway, there's probably too much that you wanted to know about rice,

but, um, basically when you heat up rice in the microwave with the wet

paper towel over the bowl, it stays like it, it's like you just made

it, it's, it's, it's got moisture.

It's not grainy and, and dry and hard, you know?

Um, and so.

I learned at the age of like 19 that I had been heating up rice wrong my entire

life, which rice is a big part of my life.

Um, you can decide why that is, but rice is a big part of my life and

so it changed my life from then on.

Every time heated up rice or this works with tortillas or any kind of.

Uh, grain, right?

If you wanna heat it up in the microwave, you wanna make sure it doesn't dry out.

You wanna make sure it, it's, it keeps the moisture in with soup.

Same thing.

Anyway, so that's for free, but I realized I was doing it wrong my whole life, right?

The 19 years of my life, I was doing it the the wrong way.

And maybe for you tonight might be the night where you

realize that you've been doing.

Christianity wrong your whole life.

You may have the wrong perception of what being a Christian is.

You might have been heating up your Christianity in the microwave without

a paper towel and ending up with this lame, tasteless, dry form of

Christianity that's not very good.

Um, and not really what God wants us to do.

And so if your Christianity is all about following the rules.

It's not about, um, God, if it's just about a bunch of rules, a bunch of

things that, that you're trying to do, a bunch of right actions that your

parents told you to do a right of, just to look a certain way and act a

certain way and be a certain way, if that's all your Christianity is, you've

been doing it wrong your whole life.

What we're gonna see in our passage tonight is that Christians

don't live by the laws and the commands that God gave them.

They live by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so we're in Romans seven, which.

Comes right after Romans six.

Big surprise there.

And in Romans seven, what we've been happening, right?

So think about what's, what's been going on in Romans so far.

We, we talked about how we're all sinners in Romans one, right?

And we had a bunch of sermons in a row that probably felt like you were

getting beat up, um, spiritually about how we're all guilty before God.

And, and you're even worse than you thought you were.

'cause it's not just that you do some wrong things, right?

It's not that just I messed up and broke some of God's rules.

The problem is that I'm actually a bad person.

I do bad things because I don't love God, because I love myself more than God.

And that sin isn't just, you know, oh, I messed up a couple times, but

really it's part, it's, I'm producing these bad actions from bad motives

because I love things more than God.

And then we talked about how this isn't just a problem for some

people over there who don't go to church or don't know much about God,

but it's a problem for everyone.

All of us fall short of God's.

Perfect standard.

All of us love things more than God.

And then we talked about how the only way to fix that problem isn't

by us trying really hard and doing a bunch of things and making up for it.

The only way to fix that problem is for us to trust Jesus.

And that's why we talk about faith and we, we use that big word justification to talk

about, well, I need a perfect report card to get into heaven, and I can't do it.

I can't make up for all of my f minuses and I, I can't

do enough A pluses to get in.

And so I need Jesus to give me his perfect report card, and

that's called justification.

I get his righteousness, he takes my sin.

And then because of that, do we just keep on sinning, right?

If, if Jesus paid for my sin, if God's gonna forgive me anyway, can't

I just keep doing whatever I want?

Right, and that's how some Christians live, or it's people who

say that they're Christians live.

And we talked about how that's not how Christians live, because when you become

a Christian, what happens is God changes.

You remember we talked about how God takes over the castle of your heart, right?

And he changes your desires.

So instead of wanting to sin, now you want to live for God.

And so that's what brings us to Rowans Chapter seven is what's happening here

is remember Paul's writing to his people who maybe some of them were Jewish,

some of them knew the Old Testament really well, and they're saying, Paul.

I thought that the Old Testament was all about doing what God said.

I thought the Old Testament and, and the history of of God and his

word was that God gave us a bunch of rules and we're supposed to do them.

Isn't that the point of like, maybe you're doing our daily

Bible reading all of these rules.

You read Deuteronomy and all these things.

Aren't we supposed to just do all these things?

And that's why God blesses us.

That's why God calls us His people, is because we are following God's laws.

What we're gonna see in this passage is it's not about.

The laws, even though, um, the laws are important and the laws are good, how

come getting right, being freed from the law doesn't just let people be lawless.

Right?

That's their title of the sermon, right?

Less law does not equal.

You need that from math class, right?

I keep talking about math in sermons and it's probably unhelpful for you, but

Less law does not equal Law List, right?

So what's we're gonna see is that.

Christians are freed from the law.

Remember, we saw this in Romans six.

We're not under the law, we're under grace.

Right?

You went from the the law room to the grace room, and now we're gonna see, okay?

Does that mean I can just do whatever I want?

No.

Well, why not?

It's because we're, we're changed by who we are.

Well, then is the law bad?

Maybe you hear words like legalism, right?

That's like a bad word for some Christians is, oh, you're a legalist.

And it's like, not legalist.

Don't say that.

Um, and well, it, the law's not bad, but what the law does is it.

It shows us how bad we are, and we're gonna see that in our sermon, and then

we're gonna see, well, do Christians keep doing the same thing that the

Jews did and trying to obey the laws?

Or how does that work?

How do we keep obeying God's law?

Do we keep obeying God's law?

What?

What do Christians do about the law if we're not under the law anymore?

That's.

Probably more confusing than helpful, but that's where we're going in

Romans chapter seven is how do Christians interact with God's law if

they're not under God's law anymore?

And so first we're gonna, we're not gonna go through every single

verse, but we're gonna look at, um.

We're gonna kind of summarize parts of this and we're gonna jump into

certain parts that I think are the key parts for us to understand.

Okay?

So look in your Bibles, I hope you bring your Bibles too.

Don't just depend on the screen.

Um, I want you to bring your Bibles and look and your Bible

when we talk about verses two.

Okay?

So look at chapter seven verse one.

So we just talked about how Christians are.

Freed from sin, right?

And they don't keep on sinning, they're slaves to God.

And then in verse one of chapter seven, Paul says, or do you not know?

Brothers, don't you know that I'm, I'm speaking to you

guys who know the law, right?

Who know the Mosaic covenant, you know, the 10 Commandments, you know, stuff

like that, that the law is binding on a person only as long as they live.

So it basically, if the, if you're under the law.

Once you die, you don't have to obey a law anymore, right?

The law is not in control of you if you're dead or you can't get a

speeding ticket if you're dead, right?

Um, and here's an example he uses in verse two.

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, right?

They, they made a covenant, they made promises to each other, and so

they have to keep those promises.

But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage, right?

They're in a covenant.

They made promises.

They have obligations if right, if, if, um.

If you got married to someone, right?

You made commitments to them.

You said, you know, I'm gonna love you.

I'm gonna protect you.

I'm gonna provide for you, I'm gonna forgive you.

You said things like that if you got married to someone, um, and if

you died, you wouldn't have to keep those commitments anymore, right?

If, if the person died, right?

Let's say, um, you were married to someone and, and they died.

Do you have to keep being faithful to them?

Can you go marry another person?

You can, you can go marry another person because they're dead.

Your covenant's over.

You're not under those same laws anymore.

So look at verse three.

So, um, someone's released from the law, if they're dead accordingly, she like

the, the, the woman who's married, she's called an adulterous if she lives with

another man while her husband is alive.

But if her husband dies, she's free from that law.

And if she marries another man, she is not an adulterous.

Right?

Pretty simple.

If your spouse dies, you can go get married again.

If your spouse is still alive, you probably shouldn't do that

because if you're still married to them, you'd be sinning.

That's essentially what we're saying is if you're dead, you're free from the law.

And so he says, likewise Christians, you also have died to the law.

So just like the that married person who died and now they don't have

to be married anymore, he says, you Christian, you've died to the

law through the body of Christ.

Remember we talked about Romans six?

You're connected to Jesus as a Christian.

So if Jesus died, you died.

So you're, you've died to the law through the body of Christ so

that you may belong to another.

So it's kind of like you used to be married to the law and now the law's dead.

So now you can go marry Jesus.

That's kind of what he's saying here, so that you may belong to another.

To him, Jesus, who has been raised from the dead in order

that we may bear fruit for God.

So long story short, here, Paul is saying, Hey, if you're a Christian,

it's like your old spouse.

The law is dead and now you go get married to Jesus.

And so instead of having to do all the things that you used to

do when you were married to the law, now this is what you do now.

You have a relationship with Jesus.

You have a relationship with a new person, right?

You, you, the law's dead.

You don't have to worry about it anymore.

Now you have a relationship with Jesus.

That's what happens when someone becomes a Christian, right?

And the law here is the.

Commands that God gave Moses, right?

Think of the 10 Commandments, right?

The Sabbath.

Think of all the things you read about in Leviticus or Deuteronomy, right?

All your favorite books of the Bible.

All of those things that they had to do to be part of God's people.

He says, Christians, you don't do that anymore.

You're dead.

Don't worry about it, right?

It's like, it's like your spouse died laws, you know Mrs.

Law is dead, and now you're married to a new person, right?

So.

Then Christians are released from the law.

That's what we go on to see here.

While we were living in our flesh, our sinful passions were aroused by the law.

They were at work and our members to bear fruit for death.

But now we are released from the law.

See that if you're a Christian, you don't have to do it anymore, right?

You don't.

You can wear mixed clothing.

You can eat seafood, right?

You can have a bacon cheeseburger.

You, amen.

Right?

Um, you can do all of these things.

Now, 'cause you're not under the same set of rules.

You're not, you're under a different set of rules now because you are dead.

It's like the law held you prisoner.

Right?

Some people who don't like marriage say that being married

is like being in prison.

Right.

And he's saying it's kind of like that so that we serve in the

new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

So what the main point he's trying to.

Help us see here is that Christians are released from the law.

We don't have to obey the law to have a relationship with God anymore.

We get a relationship with God a different way, right?

We get a relationship with God, not by doing all these things for God.

We get a relationship with God a different way.

We're not under the same set of rules anymore.

So we talked about at the beginning, right?

Maybe if you think Christianity is all about keeping a bunch of rules, right?

If someone asked you what does it mean to be a Christian?

And you said, well, I have to go to church, I have to read my

Bible, I have to pray, and you just said, here's all the things I have

to do to be a Christian, right?

You've been heating that rice without a paper towel in the microwave.

You've been doing it wrong, you whole life.

Obedience as a Christian is not about checking off a bunch of a bunch of things.

So you can say, I kept all the laws.

I'm good.

And that's not why Christians obey.

But Christians don't have the, they're not under the law anymore.

You don't have those same responsibilities anymore, right?

You don't have to say, well, um, I know that I'm right with

God because I did X, Y, and z.

I got baptized.

I read the Bible.

I, that's not what you point to, to say.

I have a relationship with God.

You don't point to the law anymore.

So our first point tonight is don't use obedience to earn.

Don't use obedience to earn.

Because what happens, and maybe you've never put it this way before, what happens

when someone is trying to use their law keeping as their, what they point

to, to say that they're right with God.

Right.

Maybe, um, you said, well, I'm a Christian because I read the Bible or

I'm a Christian 'cause I go to church.

Well, what you're doing is you're saying, my church going, earns a spot in heaven.

My reading, the Bible, my praying, my being better than that person

is earning something from God.

I'm doing these things and God's like, oh, that's great.

Now you get this.

It's a transaction, right?

Saying, oh, I did this.

God gives me this.

I obey God.

He gives me righteousness.

I obey God.

He gets me into heaven.

I, it's a, there's a transaction happening if you are using

obeying God to get stuff from God.

To get favor from God.

To get love from God, right?

Oh, if I read the Bible more, maybe God will love me more.

If you're using obedience to get stuff from God, then you

don't understand the gospel.

We've been talking about this for a few chapters now, right?

If, if you're saying, my obedience to God is so, God does things for me, you

don't understand the gospel, you've got it all mess messed up because obedience

is not about getting things from God.

It's kinda like, so, um, when I grew up, I didn't have an, i, I didn't have an

allowance, but I really wanted one 'cause all my friends had one and I wanted money.

Um, but I didn't have an allowance.

But the thing is with an allowance, I think a lot of my friends, they

didn't understand this about their allowance, is they thought that

an allowance was like a salary.

They were like, oh, I take out the trash, I do the dishes.

I deserve an allowance.

Right.

You ever think that way?

Oh, I do chores.

I made my bed.

So my parents pay me to do that.

Now really what's happening when, when someone gets an allowance, are they

getting paid for the work they're doing?

No.

Right.

If your parents give you an allowance, it's not because they're paying you.

Oh, you emptied the dishwasher four times this week, here's $20.

Right?

They're not doing that.

An allowance isn't earning something from God or from your parents, right?

It's a gift they give you, but it's not a transaction.

An allowance is not, oh, you do.

It's not a salary.

Right.

It's not wages.

An allowance isn't, oh, you did this much work around the

house, you get this much money.

Right?

So

this happens right with with God when we think about it, you're not

doing things for God, and then God's like, all right, here's some grace.

It's not like, oh yeah, I read my Bible five times this

week out of seven days, God.

And he's like, great, here's some, here's some grace for you.

That's not how that works, right?

God's not like, oh, I love you more now that you started praying more

consistently, or, I love you more now that you memorized this Bible verse,

or, I love you more now that you know, now that you sit through the

whole main service without zoning out.

God's not like, oh, yep, you're definitely saved.

And they're just kind of saved.

'cause they check their phone five times during the sermon, right?

That's not what he's saying.

Obedience isn't a way we earn stuff from God.

'cause there's not a, there's not the same contract anymore in, in a lot of sports.

Um, American sports, when a player gets traded, they keep the same contract.

Right?

That's a big problem for a lot of trades.

'cause there's a salary cap and like in basketball, there's all

these rules and, um, you have to figure out, oh, who, how do we fit

this guy's contract onto our team?

In soccer, this doesn't happen.

So in European soccer when a, a player changes teams, they just rip up his

contract and they sign a new one.

Don't have, they don't have to worry about his old contract.

Right?

When you became a Christian, your old contract to the law to keep the law

gone, done, right, there's no carryover of, well, you became a Christian, but

you still have to keep the Sabbath.

It doesn't happen anymore, right?

That's what Paul is telling these people.

When you become a Christian, you don't add anything else to Jesus righteousness.

You're not earning any extra righteousness from God by doing good things for God.

That's not why Christians do good works.

The reason Christians do good works is because their relationship to God changed.

It's not that they owe God.

It's not that they're trying to make up for their sin.

It's they love God.

You have a new relationship with God.

It's like you're married.

If you're married, you don't take out the trash to stay married.

You take out the trash 'cause you love the person.

If you're married, you don't do the dishes because, oh, I need to stay married.

You do the dishes because you love them.

You want to, you wanna help.

That's Christian obedience.

Christian obedience is not, oh, I need to do this to get stuff from God.

Right?

It's relational.

It's, I, I obey God.

'cause I love him.

I wanna do what he says.

I trust him.

So I wanna do the things that God wants me to do.

Right?

So if you're someone who's trying to gain acceptance to God by working for it, Paul

would say, you're living under the law.

Right?

You're, you're still.

Under the, the old relationship that you don't need to be under anymore.

Right?

That person's dead and you're still trying to be married to them, right?

If you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, then we're gonna talk

about what else the law does for you.

But you can't gain acceptance from God by working for it.

You can't say, God, now that I've started doing better, now I can

trust you and turn for my sin.

And, and now you'll, you'll accept me and, and let me be a Christian.

That's not how it works.

God just saves you and then he changes you and that's how you change.

Or sometimes maybe you're a Christian and you think, well, um, I can't ask

God for forgiveness right now because I just sinned, so I'm gonna like do

a little better for a day or two, and then I'll ask God for forgiveness.

Right?

Functionally what you're saying is I need to obey God to get some,

like good street cred with God, and then I can truly get forgiven.

That's not how it works.

When you sin, you can come right to God and ask for forgiveness if you're

a Christian, because you didn't take away anything from Jesus righteousness,

and that's an awesome thing, right?

You don't have to say, well, God, let me make it up to you for a little bit.

And then like, you know how, um, sometimes if you get in trouble with your parents,

but you like, want to go do something fun, you don't ask them right away, right?

Because you, you think, oh, if I wait and I, I do good for enough, they'll like feel

better about it and they'll let me do it.

I used to this with my parents all the time, right?

Oh, I want to go do this thing, but I just got in trouble.

I'm gonna wait a day or two and then I'll ask them, right?

Um, be on their good side a little bit, right?

That's not how this works with God.

'cause you're standing with God didn't change if you're a Christian.

'cause Jesus is the one who gives you all the acceptance before

God you could ever ask for.

So don't use your obedience to earn stuff from God.

Then you may be thinking, what's the point of the law?

Why did God spend thousands of years and all of this?

You know, more than two thirds of my Bible telling me all these laws.

What's the point?

Right?

Why?

Why are some of the longest books in the Bible, all of this

stuff that doesn't matter to me?

Then if I'm a Christian and the Bible is for Christians, then why

is all this stuff in the Bible?

Maybe you've been feeling this 'cause you've been doing our

daily Bible reading, right?

Maybe you're like, man, why do we have to read Deuteronomy?

And we already read numbers and we already read Leviticus.

Why do we have to read Leviticus in the first place?

The second half of an of Exodus was already hard enough, right?

Maybe that's what you're thinking.

Uh, what's the point of the law if we're not supposed to

use it to earn stuff from God?

Well, that's what we're gonna find out in the next part of our chapter.

Okay?

So our second point tonight is see the law's true purpose.

What's the point then?

If the law was never meant for me to work my way up to God, if it wasn't a ladder

for me to climb, to get accepted by God, if it's not really a way that I could.

Get on God's good side.

What's the point?

Why?

Why does God give commands if I don't get anything from obeying them?

Well, let's look at verse seven.

Okay, so we talked about how Christians are not under the law anymore.

So then he says, well then is the law bad?

Is the law sinful By no means?

Not at all.

Definitely not.

But if it hadn't been for the law, I wouldn't have known sin for, I would

not have known what it is to covet.

If the law had not said, you shall not covet.

It's kind of like if I said, don't think about a pink elephant.

Don't think about a pink elephant.

Whatever you do, do not think about a pink elephant at all.

Not for one second.

Don't think about a pink elephant.

You're all thinking about a pink elephant, right?

So the point right, is the law.

Define sin for you.

The law shows you, oh, he said don't.

It's like she said, don't covet, and now you're like, oh,

but I kind of want to covet.

I kind of do like those things that the other people have.

My friend, he does get more stuff than I do.

His parents got him that for Christmas.

So the law shows us what sin really is and it shows us how sinful we.

Really are,

um, I'm terrible at drawing anything artistic.

I could draw a curve line with a ruler.

Um, I'm horrible at art.

And so these things, you know, the color and the lions things are horrible

for me because if I try to do this.

This is supposed to, what is this supposed to do?

This is supposed to help you draw a nice picture, right?

That you're supposed to be able to say, oh, I, I can't draw a person,

so what I'm gonna do, I'm just gonna color inside the lines, and then I'll

be able to draw this person, right?

This is supposed to help you draw, but for me, what does it do?

It tells me you should never pick up a marker or a colored pencil or

a crayon ever again in your life.

That's what it tells me.

It tells me you need to stay far away from anything remotely colorful, ever.

Um, that's why I don't eat vegetables.

No, just kidding.

Um, but what this is telling me, right, it's supposed to

say here, this is a slide.

This is how you draw a slide.

That's what it's supposed to tell me.

But instead it says, Lewis, you suck at drawing slides.

That's what it tells me.

It says.

Lewis, you're horrible at shading.

That's what it does for me.

So maybe you see these and you're like, oh, that's so fun.

I love coloring.

And I'm like, no, this is horrible.

This tells me never do anything artistic ever in your life.

That's what God's law does for you.

God's law gives you lines and you try to color in the lines and you mess up.

You end up coloring, you know, this guy's face green and you

end up coloring, you know?

Oh, why is, why is there like spikes coming outta his back?

Well, it's because you just colored too far.

You know?

Um, maybe I'm the only person who thinks that, but that happens to me regularly.

So when, when you see God's law, right?

When you see something like, oh, don't covet, you're like, oh man, I do that.

It's like a mirror.

It shows you, oh, you actually do covet.

And you read in God's law, oh, um, man, you shouldn't have

any gods before, before Jesus.

You shouldn't worship anyone more than Jesus.

You shouldn't love anyone more than Jesus.

And you're like, oh, what I do, or love the love your neighbor as yourself.

And you're like, well, actually, I like myself a lot more than

I like my, my classmates.

Or it says, uh, you should be thankful in all circumstances.

And you're like all of them really, all of circumstances.

I don't do that.

What God's commands do is they actually show you how bad you really are.

That's the point of the law.

The point of God's law is not just, oh, I'm supposed to do those things.

The point of God's law is I can't do those things.

That's why God gives his law, especially the old covenant.

The old covenant is you can't do it, and that's actually the

whole history of the Bible.

When you read the Bible from cover to cover, like hopefully

you're doing with us this year.

Most of the Bible is people suck.

That's most of the Bible you're reading and you're like, oh, uh,

Abraham, he's a pretty cool guy.

Oh, he actually like commits the same sin over and over and tries to

tell everyone his wife is actually his sister and not trust God.

Right.

And then you're like, oh, what about, um.

Well, we, we saw that, um, Noah was a pretty cool guy.

I guess this is before Abraham, right?

Noah is a pretty cool guy, and then he gets drunk and,

you know, does weird stuff.

And then you're, you're, he keep reading.

You're like, Moses is awesome.

Moses is so courageous and he trusts God and he's so patient with Israel.

And then you're like, oh, well, he hit the rock and says, speaking to it.

Outta the promised land, right?

Not Moses.

Moses isn't, isn't perfect either, and you keep reading and you're like,

oh, this Joshua guy's pretty cool.

Um, but I guess he's not really the Messiah either.

And then you keep reading and you're like, David is awesome, man, after God's

own heart writes all these psalms, boom.

Adultery with Bathsheba, right?

And then you're like, oh, Solomon, why is this man to ever live 700 wives later?

Nope, not Solomon, right?

Um, so the whole Bible is showing you look, people aren't good enough, right?

People are sinful.

We need God to come do something about it.

That's the story of the Old Testament in a nutshell, is God has to come

down and do something about our sin.

And when you read God's law, when you read God's commands, part of

what they're supposed to do for you is to show you, I can't do it.

I'm not good enough.

I can't color inside the lines.

When you, when you see God's command and you're like, I don't

do that, I don't feel that.

I don't love that.

I don't want that.

I don't trust God like that.

Part of what that's supposed to do is to show you I need help.

And really, you don't, don't need help.

You need saving.

And so the part of the law, the point is for you to say, I, I just can't do it.

There's no way I'm gonna be able to do it.

And maybe some of you, you've tried really hard, you try really hard to

be a Christian and it doesn't work.

And that's probably God's showing you.

You can't do it on your own.

You don't just need to add God to what you're doing.

You need God to come in and, and, and change everything, right?

You just don't need to stop that one sin, and then you'll

finally feel that peace with God.

You need God to save you.

You need Jesus righteousness, not just some of Jesus righteousness

and some of your good works.

So I wanna ask you, when you read God's word, you hear a sermon

and you're convicted, right?

You feel, man, I don't do that.

How do you respond?

What do you do when you're, when you are feel guilty about your sin?

What do you do?

Where do you go with it?

How do you feel?

How do you respond?

Some people, what they do is they, um, they rely on their works, right?

They say, well, um, I, I know that I'm not perfect, but.

I do a lot of good things.

I'm really nice to, to my friends.

I pray before meals.

I go to church, I serve at church, I serve in kids' ministry.

Um, people, some, some people what they do, they feel convicted about

something, but they're like, but look at all the other stuff I do.

That's good.

So I can't be that bad.

Right?

Or maybe you compare, maybe you say, well, I'm not as bad as those people, right?

You should hear the jokes that my friend at school makes, or, oh, you

should see what they talk about.

Or you should, oh, he, he goes to church and he's even worse than I am.

Maybe that's what you do when you feel convicted about sin.

Or maybe you say, well, if my siblings weren't so annoying, I

would be so much more patient.

Maybe that's what you.

And you, you make excuses for your sin or you rationalize it, right?

You say, well, I wouldn't be so anxious if my life wasn't so

hard, or it's just the way I am.

I'm just an angry person, or I just, it's just not how I work, right?

It's just not my thing.

I don't like reading.

That's why I don't read the Bible.

Or maybe you distract yourself, right?

This is probably some of you right now, you feel convicted by God's law and you're

saying, well, it, it doesn't matter.

It's not a big deal.

I'll figure that out when I'm older.

Or you feel convicted after it's true north, you have a conversation with a

leader, and then you go home and you just watch videos and scroll and get it

outta your head, or you're laying awake at night and you're like, what do I do?

What's gonna happen to you when I die?

And you're like, oh, well that's too, that's too important.

I'm not gonna think about it right now.

Maybe you distract yourself, maybe you change, maybe you wanna change God.

You say, well, God loves me anyway and he'll forgive me.

That's the God I know wouldn't sell.

Send anyone to hell.

Maybe that's what you do.

You try to change who God is when you're convicted by your sin.

Those are all bad responses to God telling you you're not good enough.

The right response to when, when you hear, man, I am so guilty.

I'm so wicked, I'm so selfish.

And you feel that you read God's word, you hear a sermon and you, and you see

that, and your heart, right, the, the spotlight of God's word goes on your

heart and you're like, man, I suck.

I'm terrible.

The point is for you to, to come to Jesus and say, Jesus, I need you.

I don't need you to do better.

I just need you to try harder.

I don't just need to to pray some more.

I need you to do something about me because I'm unfixable on my own.

That's why we say Jesus saves people, right?

We don't say Jesus helps people.

We say, Jesus saves people.

And until you realize that Jesus needs to save me, not

just boost me up a little bit.

You might not ever become a Christian because you're too worried

about finally saying, I'm not.

I just can't do it.

And part of what the law does is, is show you you're not good enough.

You'll never be good enough.

You can't just fix a few things and then God will like you more and

you'll be good enough to go to heaven.

So the point, even if you're a Christian, if you're a Christian, maybe you're

saying, well, I keep giving into this sin.

The point for you is to say.

I need Jesus.

He has to do, he has to help me, right?

I can't just read another Christian book or talk to my

leader and that'll fix everything.

Your leader can help you, but only Jesus can save you, right?

Your, your Christian book or that really, uh, wise person in your life

or, or your parents, they can help you.

But who actually changes you?

Jesus does.

Who actually forgives you?

You doing better for a few weeks doesn't make up for your sin.

It never does.

That's not the point.

So when you feel guilty, when you feel as a Christian, you, you

sin and, and you feel convicted.

You, you, you feel, man, the law is putting that

spotlight on me and I'm guilty.

You go to Jesus and you say, Jesus, just, you're the only

reason I, I can be a Christian.

I need you and you confess your sin.

And we'll talk about how to deal with your sin in chapter eight.

But um, yeah, we need Jesus.

To do everything, not just some things, right?

So then maybe you're asking yourself, if we can't keep the law, then what do we do?

Right?

If the law isn't, is I can't do it.

I can't ever love God with all my heart, I can't do it.

What do I, what do I do?

I just give up.

Do I just keep trying hard and hoping I can do it?

Like, what do I do if the, if the law is really just about exposing

my sin and my need for Jesus, then do I just say, yep, I need Jesus.

That's all I do.

I don't have to try, I don't have to do anything.

What do we do?

Well, I think a couple of these verses help us see what we're looking for here.

So, um, in verses five and six, I want you to see there's a, I made it

Christmas colors 'cause they clash.

There's a contrast here.

So in the past, living in the flesh now, but.

If you're a Christian, you serve in the new way of the spirit.

Okay?

So what Paul is saying is in the past you were under the law and um,

you were dying, but now you're alive and you're doing it by the spirit.

The, the Holy Spirit is the difference maker here, the the

old person under the law, flesh, death, new person, life spirit.

That's the contrast I want you to see before I'm a Christian.

Flesh.

Death can't do it right?

The law condemns me.

I'm guilty.

Now we have the spirit and we're released from the law and

we live in a new way, right?

New way, new life.

The Holy Spirit is what gives Christians the ability to

really do what the law says.

To really actually obey God in a way that pleases him.

Before you're a Christian, you can't do it.

All the law does before you're a Christian is say you can't

do it, you're not good enough.

After you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit, now instead of the

law, the Holy Spirit is what gives you the power to actually do it.

The problem that we're gonna see is that the holy, the, the law, God's

commands don't give you the power to do them right, the the god's commands.

Just say, here's what you're supposed to do.

They don't help you do it.

Right?

You ever have a, a coach like that?

They're just like, well just do this.

Right?

It's usually the coaches that, like former players, they're like, well,

yeah, you just do that and it happens.

And I'm like, uh, how do I do that?

I can't do that.

Right?

I'm not strong like you.

I'm not fast like you.

I can't do that.

That's the law.

The law says you, you can't do this, but you need to.

And the spirit says, here's how you do it.

The spirit gives you the power to do it.

And so the rest of this chapter.

Describes this person.

Chapter eight describes this person, so chapter.

So the rest of the chapter, chapter, uh, verses 1325, is all about someone

who's living not by the spirit.

Someone who's not relying on the Holy Spirit's power.

They're relying on their own effort.

The re and then chapter eight is all about the Holy Spirit.

So what we wanna focus on is the Holy Spirit is the one that gives us.

Power to obey God.

So 0.3,

pursue spirit powered love for God.

The the way to obey God isn't to try really hard to obey his commands.

The way to obey God comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit helps you obey God.

Otherwise you can't do it.

So if you're someone who is just trying on your own effort to obey God, maybe

you're not a Christian and you want to be a Christian, or you grew up in a

Christian home and you're, you're trying to fit in with, with Christian culture at

our church or in your home, or maybe you are a Christian and you're not relying

on the Holy Spirit and you're, you're just trying really hard to impress God

and, and you are a Christian, but you're mostly just saying, I need to do this.

I need to, I need to.

Focus and, and read revival and pray and do all these things.

This is probably how you're gonna feel.

Okay.

This is kind of an overview of the chapter.

There's a lot of things that are discouraging in this chapter that

the author says about himself.

He says, I'm of flesh sold under sin.

He's like, he feels like he's a slave to sin.

He feels like he can't.

He sins his master.

He can't do anything about it.

He says, I wanna do the right thing, but I don't do the thing I want.

I do this thing I hate.

And maybe you're saying, I wanna obey God, and I just feel like I can't.

I wanna do the right thing, and I just can't do it.

I keep sinning.

I keep being anxious.

I keep giving into lust.

I keep being impatient.

I just can't do it.

He says, nothing good dwells in me.

There's nothing.

There's zero good in my life.

Again, I don't do the good thing I want.

He says, I'm captive to the law of sin.

He says, with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

So he's like, I just feel like sin is in charge of me.

This is someone who's not living by the Holy Spirit.

They're trying really hard, but they're, they're unable to

do the things they want to do.

It's kinda like those things at, um, arcades, you know, these things.

Um, these things don't work.

Okay?

Okay.

You can try really hard to, to get thing in the claw and pick it up and pick up

the right one that you want and bring it.

This one doesn't even have an exit, I guess.

Um, but you can bring it to the right place and try to drop it

in, and you can try really hard.

You, you could even like, shake the machine and do all the stuff.

I've seen people do this, right?

They try really hard to, to pick up the right stuffed animal or

the right whatever, and put it in the, the box and they can't do it.

They're trying all this stuff to do it, but they always drop the

toy in the wrong place, right?

Partly because they're designed to do it right.

Um, they're designed to rip you off.

Um, that's kind of like trying to obey God without the Holy Spirit.

You can try really hard.

You can do all the right things.

You can, you can move the controller the right way.

You can press the right buttons.

But if you're doing it without the Holy Spirit, you're gonna drop

the, drop the ball, so to speak.

You're not gonna be able to do it.

You're gonna be, you're gonna feel like this person, I can't do it.

I'm, I want to do the right thing.

I wanna pray, I wanna focus, I wanna read the Bible.

I wanna stop saying those things and, and thinking those thoughts.

And this is how you're gonna feel.

If you're not doing things by the Holy Spirit, I wanna show you, um, something

interesting about these two chapters.

These are all the times the Holy Spirit's mentioned in Romans chapter

seven once, and these are all the times.

The Holy Spirit is mentioned in Romans chapter 8 21 times.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Okay?

So what's happening is Romans seven is about someone who's

trying to do things on their own.

No Holy Spirit.

Romans eight is someone who is doing things by the Spirit.

And the point is that the way Christians obey God is not by the

law, not by trying really hard, but it's by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So in the future, when we get to Romans eight, we'll talk about the Holy Spirit

and how that works in Christian's life.

But for now, what I want you to see is that obeying God without the spirit leaves

you, discouraged it leaves you frustrated.

Because that's not how you're supposed to obey God.

You're supposed to obey God with the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is why Christians can't obey God.

You can try really hard if you're not a Christian to do all the right things,

but you don't have the power to do it.

You're just moving the claw machine around and you're always gonna drop the ball.

You're never gonna be able to do it.

But if you do live by the Holy Spirit.

You can honor God.

Galatians five 16 gives us a very simple statement.

That's awesome.

It says, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Gratify means like complete.

So think of like, okay, um, if I'm walking by the spirit,

I have these sinful desires.

I don't finish them, right?

They just, they, they don't, you know, like something's loading.

They don't go all the way to the, to the end of the loading bar.

They just stop.

So if you're walking by the spirit, you won't do these things.

So then how does that work?

What does it mean to walk by the spirit?

Well, and a few verses later, Paul says, to keep in step with the spirit.

And I think that's helpful, at least for me.

'cause I was a nerd and I was in marching band, right?

And in marching band, uh, we would do, we would go running together

and the guy would have, uh, the.

Our, our lead percussionist, he would have this like really loud

clicking thing he would like,

and it was super loud.

Um, and basically what he would do is he would do that beat

and we would run on the beat.

And so all of us were running in step, we were all running,

uh, with the same rhythm.

We were just keeping up with the metronome the whole time.

So that's kind of what Paul wants to do with the Holy Spirit.

It's like the Holy Spirit is setting a pace.

The Holy Spirit is setting a beat, and what you do is you keep up with that beat.

You keep up with the tempo, the the rhythm of the Holy Spirit.

Now, how does that work?

Well, first of all, you have to know what the Holy Spirit's tempo is, or you have to

hear his tempo, and wouldn't it be nice if the Holy Spirit wrote a whole book about

how to live the way he wants you to live?

And he did, right?

All scripture is breathe out by God, right?

It's the Holy Spirit right there.

Um, so that's how you know, oh, what's the spirit's tempo?

How does the spirit want me to live?

Well, here's how right.

He gives you direction on how to do that.

Um, so if anyone tells you, oh, the Holy Spirit told me this, you can

say, well, did he already say it?

Or does it contradict what he said?

Right?

Some churches, they say, oh, well, the Holy Spirit told me this.

He may have, but where do you check right here, right?

This is what the Holy Spirit already said, and the Holy Spirit is not gonna

say, actually, I know in the Bible I said this, but I really want you to do this.

Right?

So whenever someone says, oh, the Holy Spirit told me this, we

want to use the scripture to say, well, did he really say that?

So how do I know what the Spirit wants me to do?

Well, you listen to his words, right?

They're, they're in the Bible.

And then you believe his promises.

We already talked about this, right?

You live by faith.

You believe what he says.

You don't just know what he says.

You believe what he says, and then you act on it.

And this is so interesting because you really need to do the right things.

That's why you do this right?

I pursue spirit, power, love.

You are the one who does it.

You don't just say, all right, holy Spirit, I need your help.

And you wait.

Right?

Let's say you really wanna read your Bible in the morning, um, and

you say, holy Spirit, please help me read my Bible in the morning.

And so you wake up and then you snooze your alarm, and then you say, holy

Spirit, please wake me up and you fall asleep and then nothing happens.

Right?

Well, what's wrong with that picture?

You are the one who acts by the spirit's power.

The Holy Spirit doesn't just like.

You know, zombify you and, and take over your limbs, right?

You have to get outta bed, you have to turn the pages.

You have to think about the words, right?

Just the example of reading the Bible or being patient, right?

You really have to be patient, but it's by the spirit's power.

It's not me trying really hard to be patient alone.

It's the Holy Spirit using my effort to do that.

And so when we talk about walking by the spirit.

We are completely dependent on the spirit, but we also really do the things right?

You really do trust the Lord.

You really do say encouraging things.

You really do the actions, but it's the Holy Spirit's power in you, and that

is what the law is really all about.

That's how you really keep the law.

Later on in Romans, Paul says that love fulfills the law.

What as Jesus says, right, that all the law is love God and love

others, and the Holy Spirit is the one who helps you do that.

Let's pray and, um, we'll have a little bit of time in small groups.

God, we want to remember that you are, um, the one who saves us.

We don't just.

Add you onto our life.

Um, we need you to come in and change everything about us.

And so, God, I pray for anyone here who's relying on themselves to, um,

be right with you, that they would let go of their own righteousness and they

would trust Jesus for his righteousness.

And I pray for the Christians in the room that they would re rely on your

spirit to empower their love for you, that they would use the resources,

the Holy Spirit's given them.

To follow you.

Um, we pray for a good time in small groups.

We pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.