The Loving God Gives His Law

Good morning, everyone! Hope everyone is doing well. We had a wonderful Young Adult Singles Bible study last night. Just a great group. And it's exciting to see their excitement. And we have a good activity coming up on Thursday after services. Any of you young adults that weren't able to be there, more announcements to come on that tomorrow. Well, it is wonderful to be here. And I'd like us to start off by turning to Isaiah 2. If you'll turn with me. Isaiah 2, in verse 2. This is a wonderful place to start, because here in Isaiah, we're going to see a time that is spoken about this millennial period that we're observing today. Isaiah 2, and we'll pick up in verse 2.

This is the beginning here of the millennial reign. And we will see something that is absolutely extraordinary about this time. So Isaiah chapter 2, in verse 2, it says, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God and of Jacob.

And He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. And then He says, So they will be flowing to this mountain, to the Messiah's future throne, flowing to Jesus Christ to learn His way and to learn to walk with Him.

And then what will Jesus Christ then be pouring out amongst them? What will He be pouring over them? The law, the commandments, His Word. And so Isaiah describes a time here that's completely different than the one that we are in today.

Because it will be a time in which all the nations, all the people will flow unto Jesus Christ to learn His law and to live according to it. And as a result, society will have a completely different orientation. In fact, the very nature of man will change due to this law being poured out upon them. And Isaiah goes on to speak about a role that you and I are training for right now.

As he speaks of us as future teachers, that will be the one that takes this way, that takes this law and says, This is the way. Walk in it. And so with this incredible future responsibility of directing the very steps of those who will be looking to obtain eternity, you and I must today not only learn to live by this law, by this way, but to love it, to internalize it.

Oh, how love I thy law, it is ever with me. That would have sounded much better with a band behind me. I won't sing anymore. I promise. But in that song, there is a key phrase where it says, I have more understanding because I dwell upon it. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to dwell upon God's law and through Scripture, be able to get a closer understanding to what Isaiah would point to, an understanding that will lead us to that fulfilling of that future role that we are looking to prepare for. We're also going to see today that our very salvation rests upon our attitude, understanding, and treatment of this holy law.

Well, let's get started. Let's go back to the very beginning. Turn with me to Romans 5, Romans 5 and verse 12. Romans 5 verse 12. This is the perfect place to start as we're about to see the purpose as to why the law was revealed to mankind. This will help us in our our fullness and understanding. Romans 5.

We'll read verses 12 through 14. It says, What a set of Scriptures! Within just a few Scriptures here, Paul is able to explain why the law was revealed to mankind. What does it say here? Well, it says, Even before we knew it, even before we realized, we sin had brought us what? Here. Death. It says that we needed to be saved, and we didn't even know. Death had spread to all men. Sin had done this. We were in this fatal condition, it says, through one man's sin entered and brought death with it, and death spread to all men, it says.

Adam, from that point centuries ago, decided to reject the commands of God. He and Eve decided for themselves that they could decide what was right or wrong. They could enact their own instruction, enact themselves to decide what was in or out. They decided to depend on their own ways, and this was a law of the flesh, if you will, instead of relying on God's spiritual commands.

And so therefore, living outside of God's instructions, well, that's called sin. And sin then brought death to Adam and Eve and every man and woman since that time. And so God, the first and foremost thing that he had to do in beginning this journey of giving us the fullness of this understanding was to allow mankind to see the condition that they were in.

And the means by which God would reveal that man was in this fatal condition was through the revelation of his spiritual law. In verse 13 points out here, it says in verse 13, For until the law sin was in the world.

In other words, for even before the law was given, prior to, up to, until the law sin was in the world. So even before the law had been written down on those tablets and given to mankind by Moses, even before the tablets, sin was in the world. And that is a clear statement here that flies in the face of those that believe that the law only came into existence by Moses to the Israelites.

But what this is making clear here is that the law was also before, even from the beginning of the world. How do we know this? Well, because the charge had already been made. Sin had already made its charge. Death was charged to all people. If there hadn't been a spiritual law in place prior to that being written on the tablets, then death from sin, it wouldn't have been imputed. It wouldn't have been charged. But what this says here is that death had been imputed because of one man decided to live by his own way, a fleshly law outside of God's spiritual law.

Death reigned, it said in verse 14. Even if you hadn't sinned in like manner of Adam, it doesn't matter, death still reigns over you. But again, mankind didn't know this and wouldn't innately know this eternal death condition that we're in. God had to show us that sin existed and its damage had been done. And that alone, this alone, what we just spoke about, this is foundational. And this is the understanding that we must internalize as we go through this.

Because make no doubt, we will be confronted on these matters that we're going to speak about today. So let no man think that there was no sin prior to the written law that was given to forbid it. The same simple acts that were forbidden after the written law was given were the same simple acts before.

God wanted us to be aware and have a complete understanding that the wages of sin is death. And death has been imputed to all mankind. All have earned death eternal. And so God said, here's the law, now you know. And this is what Paul is speaking about here in verses 12 through 14. And this is the reason why you and I dearly love it, because without it we wouldn't know.

You've heard that the law is a mirror. And that's a good analogy, a mirror that revealed that we were dead. No hope, gone hers. And so we sing about our love for it. We thank God for it, because now I see my condition. In a sense, we're this grateful dead, not the band. But that leads us to the next question, where we say, thank you, Father. Thank you for showing us through this law. But I hope the story doesn't end there.

Let me ask, Father, is there anything then that can be done about this condition that I find myself in? Let me quote the great Martin Luther King, where he said, great Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, only in the darkness can you see the stars. Only in the darkness can you see the stars. No loving father would allow his children to stay in darkness, to stay in this death, without a remedy to this condition. And here at the end of verse 14, we just see the smallest mention of what holds the best news that you and I could ever hear. The remedy to this solution. The smallest mention here. Verse 14 says, Nevertheless, you're dead just as everyone since Adam. Death range from Abadam and Moses. But Adam, though, being a type of someone to come. It says Adam is a type of him who is to come. Ah! But what is this? Who is this? Who is this him here? With the capital H. Well, it would turn out to be the cure. He would turn out to be the one who would have the answer, the remedy, the resolution, the response to this condition of death that we have found ourselves in. He, the him here, would be the great Savior who would now come to redeem us, recover us. He would be the one that would pull us out of the grips of death, and he would be the one then that would give us life once again. But I'll stop talking and let the Scripture here tell us perfectly of what this one, Jesus Christ, would come and do for us. Stay here in Romans 5, but let's look at verses 6-11. Romans 5, verses 6-11. This is beautiful. Verse 6, Verse 9.

We should be saved from wrath through him, saved from death. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled, we should be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received this reconciliation. We have been delivered, reconciled from death. We grasp this. Future teachers that Isaiah spoke about. By the time the law was held up to you and I, by the time we were able to see our wretched condition we were in, a solution had already been provided. We see here a Savior by the name of Jesus Christ had already come and saved us ironically through his death first and then through his life as he was risen up. Let's read more about this rescue here. Stay here in Romans 5, in verse 18-21.

This is, therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men. That's Adam's offense, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Let's stop there for a moment. Through one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Obedience to what? Obedience to what? Christ's obedience to God's spiritual law was the catalyst to bring many to life and to bring many to righteousness, as it says here. Verse 20, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. So these are eternal life matters that we're speaking about today. So again, once that mirror, once that law was held up, it revealed the sin in us, and it revealed that that offense abounded in us, brought us death. But the gift had already been in place to be given. The gift of grace, and that grace then given by Jesus Christ would be applied to us, and the result would be access to eternal life. His death and his rising up once again would be the act that would make this gift available to us, this gift of grace that would result in the justification to be brought back to life. It was now justified for the Father to have life eternal made available to all mankind. It was justified now. In grace it said, far outmatched sin. Grace and life would have bound in us much more than death and sin ever could. It was no match. Grace, this undeserved favor that we receive from God, and it includes this gift of forgiveness. Grace and forgiveness made possible through the blood of Jesus Christ, through his sacrifice. And then he rose up, and his life then would have the power to extend to all men, all women.

This is why God the Father sent his Son, because Jesus Christ brought with him the solution to mankind's condition. And so the law and grace together are both wonderful gifts of God. The law shows us our wretchedness due to living outside of his spiritual law. And then grace, this favor, is then shown to us to rescue us from that death condition that that brought. And we've been able to see all that. Just a few scriptures here in chapter 5. It's amazing. And so sin, and it's condemning us to death, no longer remains. A solution had been given. Life has conquered death. Life made possible through Jesus Christ. And so through Jesus Christ then, there is no condemnation to death. But wait, wait. We're going to continue to read here. And what we're about to see is that there's something that comes along with having this condemnation lifted from us. What we're about to see with regards to the lifting of this condemnation from us. There is a requirement of the one who gives this gift. There is a requirement of the one who has lifted this condemnation from us. Verse 18 says, it's a free gift to all men, resulting in the justification to life. So Christ now has this gift to give, this justification for us to be brought back to life. So he has this gift now to give to us. So the big question, how do we receive this gift? How do we receive it? Well, the key we will see here, it is profoundly simple and profoundly plain to see. It is not hidden from you and I. In Romans 8, verse 1 speaks of this. Go to Romans 8, verse 1. How do we receive this gift of grace, this gift of no condemnation to death? Romans 8, verse 1, it says, These two scriptures there that we've just read, these aren't being directed to the world here. This is speaking to the future teachers that are training for that time that Isaiah spoke about. Those who are truly in Jesus Christ, speaking to the true Christian, if you are not in Christ, you can read those words that we just read and they will have no effect on you. Absolutely no effect. Ah, but if you are in Christ, then these words mean everything. The condemnation to death is only lifted from those who walk a certain way. The gift of no condemnation comes with a condition. The gift of no condemnation, the gift of grace where you have favor shown to you only comes to you by one means. It comes and is given to those who are in Christ. And you are in Christ only when you walk a certain way, and that is the way of the Spirit and not the way of the flesh. Adam chose the law of the flesh, which is the law of sin and death. He said, this is the law I'm going to walk according to.

Some of the pulpits in the world teach of a belief in Jesus Christ, and they have no idea what it means to be in Christ. Because if they did, they wouldn't preach what they preach. That God's spiritual law has been done away with. But what is the fullness of what we are reading here? Reading in full, there is therefore no condemnation to who?

To those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. God's spiritual law revealed who we were. That law revealed that we'd been living outside of God's spiritual law, and that lawlessness then brought us death. And so Jesus Christ came, and He rescued us from this death. And now that we've read there, therefore, to receive this gift of no condemnation, we are not to walk as we did, following our own ways.

We are not to walk according to that. Now, that we've been rescued, we are to walk according to God's spiritual law that began this whole understanding. Go back to Romans 8, verse 2 here. Let's read verse 2 again. It says, verse 2, This is such an interesting Scripture here. You know, people look at Paul's writings, and understandably so, it can get a little convoluted in what he's trying to convey. But these two verses here, this verse in verse 2, really solidifies what Paul is trying to get across here.

Paul is speaking of two laws and how we can be free from one of them. Again, verse 2, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has then made me free from the law of sin and death. What exactly is he speaking about here when he refers to these two laws? We'll keep your finger here in Romans. We're going to come right back to it. But turn over to Galatians 5, in verse 16 through 18. Galatians 5, starting in verse 16, what we're going to see here is that Paul is now speaking to the Galatians.

And he speaks of now to them, and he refers to this law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ and the other law, that of sin and death. It gives us a little bit more understanding here. Galatians 5, in verse 16 through 18, he says, Romans 8, verse 2, says that we are free from the law. And now, here, we're reading that we are not under the law. When we walk according to the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ, what law are we not under?

When we walk according to the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ, what law are we freed from? We are freed from, and not under, the law of sin and death. We are freed from the power of sin and its consequence, which is death. This is the understanding here that Paul is trying to get across here. As Romans 8, verse 1 through 2 said, There is therefore no condemnation to death to those who are in Christ, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

And then he mentions those two laws, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death. And here in Galatians 5, verse 18, we read, If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Again, what law are we not under when we walk according to the Spirit? Is it the law that Moses gave those commandments? Is that the law that we're not under?

Don't believe it. Don't believe it. What are we reading here? When Paul speaks about not being under the law, he speaks about not being under the law of sin and death. We are no longer under that law that pulls at our flesh. We are no longer under that bondage to sin. We are no longer under the control of sin. That law, the law of the flesh, it has no power over us.

Why? Because we are under a far greater law, and that's the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ. That law, those commandments that have been written on our fleshly hearts, that's the law that has made me free from the law of sin and death. Sin and death no longer rule over us.

That law, that law of sin and death, it's no longer a curse over us. Through Jesus Christ, the believer, the true Christian, is free from sin's power. It no longer rules us. Are you ready? Are you ready to change the course of history? That course that Adam and Eve have set us upon, that is not your course. You are called to forge a new course. God has called you to change history. A new course you are to forge, a course led by the Spirit and not by the flesh. This is what you've been called to do, to change the history that Adam and Eve set us upon.

Go back up to Romans. Back to Romans 6 and verse 5. Romans 6 and verse 5. This is so fascinating what we're about to read here, because we'll read more about how and why we are free from sin's power and the death that it tries to put upon us. With Jesus Christ, we're no longer slaves to sin. Romans 6 and verse 5 through 7, it says, God has died and has been freed from sin. Our old self is buried with Jesus Christ. Continuing here, verse 8.

But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Verse 11. Likewise, likewise, you also reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse 12. So therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. What law? What law are we not under? What law no longer has power over us? What law no longer has dominion over us? We don't obey that law, that law of the flesh leading to death. We don't let that law reign in us, that law that Adam chose. We have a different law reigning in us. And that's the law of the spirit of life in Jesus Christ. That's who we now obey. The law that's been since the beginning of time. The law that was later to be written down on those tablets and given to all generations at Mount Sinai. That is the law that has dominion over us. That is the law that we are under. And did you see this understanding here in verse 11? Romans 6 verse 11 here again. It says, You also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. This is the position that we now find ourselves in. The method by which Christ solved our condition of being slaves to the law of sin and death, that law of the flesh, is to bring us into the death with Him. Unite and in the likeness of His death, as verse 5 said. So that old man, that old woman, is gone. Reckon yourself today that He is gone. She is gone. Crucified with Jesus Christ. Look upon yourself today, yourself as dead to the appeal and power of sin. Today is a new day. We have the power to resist and not allow sin to reign in us. And with the law of the spirit of life and Jesus Christ living in you, sin can never be your master. You are no longer living under the law of sin and death. Your old self has come to an end. When sin hits, when it strikes you, it has no effect. It's as if it's striking a dead man or a dead woman. A dead man, it can be said, is free from the power of sin. We're unresponsive to it. So the working of the law of the spirit of life and Jesus Christ in us has made us free from the downward pull of the flesh. We have Jesus Christ living in us, and so we don't walk according to that old way. We will fight. We will fight that law of the flesh, that law of sin, that brings me death, and we will fight to the better end. Romans 7, verse 21 here, Paul sums up this battle perfectly between these two laws here. Look at Romans 7, in verse 21 through 25. Paul had a great understanding of what we're talking about today. Romans 7, verse 21, he says, I find then a law that is evil, is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to 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 will deliver me from this body of death. And then he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.

So Paul is speaking about the law of sin here. He speaks to our flesh, and it makes us want to walk according to it. But if we walk according to that way, then Jesus Christ will not lift the condemnation from us. Ah! But if we fight, if we fight every day to live according to the law of spirit of life, Jesus Christ, then there will be no condemnation.

Go back to Romans 8, verse 3 here. Let's continue here.

Romans 8, verse 3, we're going to continue here, and this is going to give us more understanding about this fight, this relationship between the physical flesh and its corruptibility and this perfect spiritual law living in us.

Romans 8, let's read verse 2 again, and then verse 3.

Romans 8, verse 2, For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. But, verse 3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.

So what is verse 3 saying there? The law is not weak.

It was made weak through and because of our flesh.

Paul is expressing just the absolute depths of his understanding here. Once the law was held up in his life, it exposed who he was, and he saw that he was not who God intended him to be. He saw the wretchedness. He needed saving. He saw a wretched man who needed a Savior. He saw that he was dead and there was only one that could now save him. So he was in this battle in his mind. He served the law of the spirit of life in Jesus Christ, but in the flesh, the law of sin.

The law revealed who he was, and the law made it known that, and brought to light his lawlessness.

But the law in and of itself could not bring him back to life. Only the one who came could do that.

And so a simple thank you he gave. But even though the law could not save him, Paul wanted to get across this incredible understanding. He wanted to make it clear that there is power in the law and that it's able to define and reflect the sin in us, the law that says, this is the way. Walk in it. We can't determine for ourselves what's in or out, what's right or wrong. That's the first mistake that Adam and Eve made, thinking that we had the discernment to determine that.

What was right or wrong? That's the fruit that they ate of. But we reject that tree. We reject that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because now we turn to God for our full understanding. And we are shown that the way we should walk is through His spiritual law.

But when we come up against God's law, again, the flesh just weakens it. Because the holy righteous law is written on our imperfect flesh, and it actually stirs up in us and provokes us. Did you know that? Did you know that the perfect law, this perfect law, actually stirs up in us and creates this battle? The abundance of our sin is brought forth, and it's brought into life, and then this battle begins. Go to Romans 7 and verse 5. Let's see this. Romans 7, verse 5 and 6.

It says, Romans 7, verse 5, For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, were at work in our members, to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. So the spiritual law here from God actually stirred up in us, stirred up in our members, to bear fruit to death. What does that mean? Well, God's spiritual law was held up, and innately, the flesh wants to do just the opposite. We saw that with Adam. And so the flesh pulls us in the opposite direction of what God's law is instructing us to do. And so the revealing of God's law actually stirs up in us fruit to death, it says. And this battle, it only intensified when Christ came. This inner battle only intensified when Christ came, because He expanded this oldness of the letter. The letter of the law was amplified. And so now it's just, now it's not just, don't murder, but don't hate. And Christ said, I'm not even done then yet. You have to love your enemies. And every one of the Ten Commandments was amplified and magnified and held up to us, for us to see who we really are. And so the law exposed and it provoked, and it stirred up sin in me, Paul says. And I don't know. Is this a good thing we could ask? Is somehow this a bad thing for it to do, to stir up sin in me? Well, let's continue here. Verse 7, chapter 7 and verse 7. It says then, what should we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would have not known covetousness unless the law had said, You shall not covet. But sin, taking the opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire, the fleshly desire that wants to go against God's law. For apart from the law, sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but then the commandment came and sin revived. And I died. And the commandment, which was to bring me life, I found, brought me death. For why? For sin, taking occasion of the commandment, deceived me and killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. Let's stop there. Our flesh has a desire to live outside of God's law. The flesh innately has a desire to be transgressors of that in which we're told to walk in. So what is happening here? Sin is taking advantage of the holy law through our flesh. The law is holy, just, and good. It takes that law then. Sin takes that law and twists it. Makes it serve its own purpose. Serves the flesh. Sin says, you decide what's right or wrong. Eat from that tree. And so the problem is, not the holy and just and good law of God. The problem is, it falls on our flesh. But what the law was powerless to do, not that it was unholy or unrighteous, but because it was weakened by our sinful nature, what the law was powerless to do, God did through Jesus Christ. Romans 8, verse 3 again, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on the account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. Perfect God. Perfect law in perfect flesh.

God made Jesus in the likeness of sinful man. He was man in every aspect, except He would be the only one who would not be tainted by sin despite being in the same flesh that you and I are in. And because the sinless Savior died and rose again, God is able to look upon Him and show favor to me. Think of how incredible that is. Because He did this for us, God is able to look upon Him and then show favor to us and give us that wonderful grace. What a gift it is. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of that sinful flesh. Incredible. It even gets better. There's something else that occurs here in this process. Something that God the Father actually allows you and I to participate in. And it's an incredible privilege. And it's found here in the next verse, Romans 8, verse 4. Let's see the something God has given us the privilege to participate in. Romans 8, verse 4, He says, He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. He condemned flesh in sinful man, in order that... Did you see it? In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully bet in us, who walk according to the Spirit. You see, every day. Every day that we overcome that law of sin and death, every day that we remove ourselves from being under it, every day that we demonstrate that we are freed from it, every day that we have victory, the righteous requirement of the law is being fulfilled in you. Christ fulfilled all that God demanded in His perfect life. And as a result, then, that indwelling power, that Spirit, dwells in us, in us then, turning again and again back to God's spiritual law and fighting, just like Paul did, fighting to turn back to that and resist the flesh, then we begin to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.

Christ does this through us. That righteous requirements of the law begin to be met in us. Can you believe it? Can you believe that that's actually being fulfilled through us? And then the world is able to see the perfect Savior demonstrated through us. What an honor that is! What an absolute honor and responsibility! Let's conclude. Staying here in Romans 8, we will conclude here by looking at verse 12. All that we've studied today, it all results to us being debtors. Debtors to a loving God that has given us all. Romans 8, verse 12, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live for as many that are led by the Spirit of God. These are the sons of God.