WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.640 This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church. 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.679 For more information in our church, please visit grandparkway.org. 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:08.960 If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Romans chapter 7. 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:11.439 And if you're our guest today, let me just tell you what we're doing. 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:13.279 We are preaching through the book of Romans. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:14.640 We just go verse by verse. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:23.760 We believe the way you nourish a congregation as a pastor and as a staff, all the pastors on staff here, we believe that the way we nourish you is just to teach you the Bible. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:25.839 We don't want to treat you like little kids. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:31.120 We want to treat you like men and women of appetite, whether you're 14 or 84. 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:37.840 And we just want to put the truth out there and let your mind and your heart and your hands grapple with it. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:44.000 And so we come to this part of Romans chapter 7, and I want to talk to you this morning about the beauty of God's law. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.000 The beauty of God's law. 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:50.880 Or if I had to title this sermon differently, I would call it Why My Dad Is Right. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:53.200 And you're like, well, we never met your dad. 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:54.320 We don't know what you're talking about. 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:58.399 You will before we get to the end, but let's stick with the beauty of God's law. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:00:59.759 Romans chapter 7. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.560 I'll start reading actually in verse 7. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:03.920 And here's what the Bible says. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:05.920 He says, What then shall we say? 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:07.519 That the law is sin? 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:08.719 By no means. 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:13.680 Yet if I had if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:18.959 I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:25.439 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:28.560 Apart from the law, sin lies dead. 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:34.959 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:45.920 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me, for sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:51.359 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:54.079 Did that which is good then bring death to me? 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:55.200 By no means. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:06.159 It was sin producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:07.359 We'll just stop right there. 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:10.800 If you would, just keep your Bibles open because we'll come back to that passage now. 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:13.759 Let me just say up front, if you're our guest today, just relax. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:22.960 This is not a this is not like a class for engineers or or scientists or chemists or whatever, or whatever your hardest subject in class in school was. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:24.400 This is not a class like that. 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:27.680 God wants his word to be understandable to you. 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:34.000 And so he kind of breaks it down in bite-sized pieces so you can get your head and your arms around it. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:44.639 And I say the beauty of God's law, and what I mean is that there's a beauty, God intends his word, the things that he says, the things that he ordains to be seen for what they really are. 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:49.280 And last week when he talked about, Paul talked about the law, and in chapter six, he talks about the law. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:54.319 And he basically, if you're not careful, you start thinking, last week we talked about why the rules don't work. 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:57.280 And if you're not careful, you can look and go, oh, the rules are bad. 00:02:57.360 --> 00:02:58.719 Those are trying to keep me down. 00:02:58.879 --> 00:02:59.680 No, no, no, no. 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:01.840 There's a beauty to God's word. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:03.360 There's a beauty to God's law. 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:07.840 Now, when Paul talks about the law, he's not talking about like what we read in the New Testament. 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:09.919 That's God's ordinance, that's God's law as well. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.560 But all they had was mainly what they had was the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch. 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:18.319 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:20.000 Have you read the book of Numbers lately? 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:24.560 It's that kind of thing that Paul would read, and he was kind of like, man, I uh uh. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:26.719 But there's a beauty to it if you can see it. 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:28.159 And there's three things I want you to say. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.199 What do you mean, the beauty? 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:33.120 Three reasons why, uh what what what I mean when I say the beauty of God's law. 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:36.000 The first one is what makes it beautiful is it defines sin. 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:37.360 It defines sin. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:39.039 Look in verse 7, if you would. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:40.639 He says, What then shall we say? 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:42.000 That the law is sin? 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:43.039 By no means. 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:47.520 Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:53.599 I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had said, You shall not covet. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:04:00.000 Now, what Paul says is, hey, the law defined sin for me, and the sin that he struggled with was covetousness. 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:01.599 Did you know that's one of the Ten Commandments? 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:02.800 I think it's number 10. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:04.319 Thou shalt not covet. 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:05.680 And you say, no, what do you mean? 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:11.599 Today, if you turn on your TV to watch the fourth round of the Masters, uh, you're gonna see a few commercials on that. 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:15.360 But if you watch something else, like at my house, we watched Chopped 24-7. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:20.639 I didn't know that show came on that many times in a day, but there's commercials on there, and they appeal to you. 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:27.040 They make you like I love my house until I go to my friend's house and have a bigger, nicer house, and then I come home and I hate my house. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:28.160 You say, What is that? 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:30.560 That's covetousness in me, in your pasture. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:31.680 I have to deal with that. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:34.560 I love things until I go and somebody's go, oh, you got that. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:42.720 I love my golf clubs until I play with someone who's got a newer set, and then I go, Oh, I hate my golf clubs, and I think I'd be a better golfer if I had those. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:50.319 Listen, if they invented golf clubs on the space shuttle, okay, that were like super technologically advanced, it wouldn't help my game one bit, okay? 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.560 I would still be the same golf hack that I am. 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:53.600 But that's what Paul says. 00:04:53.759 --> 00:05:01.120 Hey, I wouldn't have known, I wouldn't have had words for this feeling inside of me unless I'd read God's law and it says, do not covet. 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:04.399 And then I was like, oh, that's what that is inside of me. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.959 The law defines sin. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:11.920 And that sounds simple and cut and dry, but yet there's three problems in our culture that we've got to be aware of. 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:18.240 The first one is this left to ourselves, left to themselves, people cannot define sin. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:20.079 Let me say it again. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:24.240 Left to themselves, people cannot define sin. 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:27.199 The Bible says that sin is hamartia, is a Greek word. 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:28.560 It means missing the mark. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:32.480 Sin means to miss the mark, which suggests that there's a mark out there. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:38.879 This objective standard by which we do life, by which God has established right and wrong. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:41.920 But left to ourselves, we cannot define sin. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:51.120 Don't turn there, but sometimes if you ever read through the book of Proverbs, if you're bored on a rainy, Tuesday afternoon, you read through the book of Proverbs, which is a collection of the sayings of the wise. 00:05:51.279 --> 00:06:01.439 It's like you pulled your car up to a Hebrew nursing home and walked into all the 80 and 90 year olds with about six teeth in their mouth and said, Hey, what's the three best lessons you've learned in life? 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:02.879 That's what Proverbs is. 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:04.959 It's this collection of wisdom. 00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:10.079 All through the book of Proverbs, if you read, you would see this phrase, do not move the ancient boundary stone. 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:12.639 Do not move the ancient boundary stone. 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:15.279 It's kind of why they like there's a show on TV. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:17.199 I didn't know this until my kids informed me. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:19.120 And the show is called, I think it's on the History Channel. 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:21.279 It's called How the States Got Their Shape. 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:22.319 Have you ever seen that? 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:26.720 Have you ever noticed up on the, like if you go up to the Northeast, everything's all squiggly and stuff like that? 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:32.000 Because people would say, My property's this river, or it's this tree to that tree, to down around that river. 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:41.279 And then, but when they got surveying equipment, if you move to the central Texas and out west, everything is very clean and linear because they got surveying equipment. 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:42.800 They got stuff they could do that with. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:47.040 Well, in the biblical days, they would take, they would mark property with what's called a boundary stone. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:52.560 They would take a rock and they'd put it right there and they would say, This marks the boundary between my property and your property. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:58.319 And the Bible says, do not move the ancient boundary stone because people would come along in the middle of the night. 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:01.360 Your neighbor's yard would get bigger and yours would shrink. 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:03.680 And you'd be thinking, I thought we had four acres. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:04.879 Now we got three. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:08.480 And then a year later you got one, and you're like, what's going on here? 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:10.319 The Bible says the same thing happened. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:17.120 The reason we need the law to define sin, and it's beautiful, is because left to ourselves, we cannot define sin. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:20.639 Matter of fact, everything is a sin until your kids do it. 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:24.639 And then it's a mistake. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:27.439 Or it's a poor choice. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:30.160 Or she lacked discretion. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:31.439 She knows better. 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:32.639 Let me tell you something. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:35.199 I said this before, and my wife hates this, okay? 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:40.639 But my dad used to look at us and say things like, Hey, that's wrong, okay? 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:41.839 What you did is a sin. 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:45.839 And then my dad would go the extra mile and say, Shame on you. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:50.319 One of the reasons that we don't have shame anymore, and I'm not saying tell your kids shame on you. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:52.560 My wife's like, please don't ever say that to our children. 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:54.240 I'm like, I don't say it to my children. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:55.920 I just beat them until they obey. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:58.000 It's just a joke. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:07:59.759 If you're visiting today. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:01.920 My kids took after their mom, okay? 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:06.800 My my my wife's parents could look at her and go, Marcy, we're so disappointed, and she would cry. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:10.560 If my dad ever said that to me, I'm like, that stinks for you, loser. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:12.079 So my dad never said that. 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:14.160 My dad said, What'd I tell you to do? 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:14.879 What'd you do? 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:17.279 Like dirty Harry showed up talking through his teeth. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:18.160 What'd you do? 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:22.639 You had to tell my dad what he told you and what you did, and then he said, Bend over. 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:26.000 And if you didn't bend over, he just started whipping whatever he could get his hands on. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:28.399 I walked around most of my childhood like this. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:29.680 I'm just just go ahead and whip me. 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:30.160 I'm ready. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:30.720 Go ahead. 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:32.240 I'm sure I deserve it. 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:35.360 Because left to ourselves, we cannot define sin. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:39.279 Because we say, hey, well, this is just kind of who I am. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:41.759 It's just me doing what I prefer to do. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:47.200 Or we come along and we say, well, you know, it's it's kind of here's the second problem. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:50.639 People never naturally think of themselves as sinners. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.919 People never naturally think of themselves as sinners. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.799 No one believes this apart from the supernatural revelation from the Holy Spirit. 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.759 God's got to reveal to you that, hey, now wait a minute. 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:10.320 Not only is there sin in the world, there's many, but but but but but I'm by nature not only a sinful person, but I'm a sinner. 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:14.639 Now see, this doesn't happen because we define sin in terms of ourselves. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:28.559 That's why, in whatever situation you find yourself in, when people find themselves uh uh in a situation that the Bible would define as sinful, they say they go to the relationship to establish the rightness or wrongness of it. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:30.879 Like right now, I'm so sick of hearing about gay marriage. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:31.679 It is everywhere. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.200 It's on the Supreme Court, it's on the news, it's on the media, it's blah, blah, blah. 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:37.360 That used to be a sin issue a long time ago. 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:43.600 And because they sat in a room and kind of figured out this political action committees, now it's a civil rights issue. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:47.200 See how what happens when you move the ancient boundary stone? 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:49.919 And it used to become, hey, this is right or wrong. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.759 Now, by the way, if you're visiting today, we're not hateful towards the gay community. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:56.159 I have friends of mine that live the alternate lifestyle. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:01.120 And every once in a while, when they want to walk on the wild side, they'll call their preacher friend Neil and say, hey, can you meet me for lunch? 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:02.080 Absolutely. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:04.080 I'm not embarrassed to be your friend. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:05.039 Not at all. 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:07.440 I I we're we're gonna fundamentally disagree. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:09.679 Well, I just want to check in and see if you've changed your mind. 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:11.519 Has the Bible changed its mind? 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:12.879 Well, I don't think so. 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:14.799 Why have I changed my mind? 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:24.080 I'm not, I don't have the right to say of the Bible, I see what the Bible says, but I disagree and then call myself a person that is a Christ follower. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:26.080 Uh-oh. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:27.360 Did you feel that? 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:30.720 Some of you pulled back a little bit, like, easy, easy. 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:37.200 See, see, this is how you know Jesus says, hey, by this all men will know you're my disciples. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:39.200 That you have loved for one another? 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:40.080 Absolutely. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:43.759 I tell my friends during that lifestyle all the time, you know I love you, right? 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:44.879 I know, I know. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:46.000 Come on, let's hug. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:47.519 I'm not comfortable with that. 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:49.919 Hey, dude, you got a boyfriend, okay? 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.159 I should be uncomfortable. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:54.639 See, but what happens is here's what we do. 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:56.000 And by the way, it's not just that. 00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:05.840 If you're in this room right now and you're having an affair, or if you're living together, here's what you say: you say, we love each other, we're monogamous, we're committed, we're all these things. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:11.919 And what happens is sin has eroded in America to only that which we can get people to agree about. 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:14.559 And if we can't agree about it, then it can't be wrong. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:15.840 It's just a difference of opinion. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:16.320 Why? 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:20.480 Because people never naturally think of themselves as sinners, which is why we need the law. 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:21.840 It defines sin. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:28.480 Thirdly, uh the third problem we run into in defining sin is that we prefer these impersonal generalities. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:32.399 We talk about bad things I've done, uh, but this misses the point. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:37.279 See, this makes sin sin, define sin in relation to you and its effects upon you. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:39.840 Well, I've done some bad things in my life, but nobody's perfect. 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:40.960 Absolutely. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:49.200 But see, these impersonal generalities, when you talk about bad things and not specific sins, then you never know what you're being forgiven for. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:51.759 You never get the vast wonder of the cross. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:53.120 You never understand. 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:55.600 Man, I by nature was a screw up. 00:11:55.679 --> 00:12:03.919 I used to belong to an accountability group, and we would begin every meeting, every Tuesday, by talking about the sin, specific sin we struggled with that week. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:12.960 And one time, uh uh a guy that's on staff at a church, uh, it's a good church, but very slick and smooth and kind of like a kind of like a corporation. 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.399 He says, I want to come to y'all's community group, but I mean you're you're your accountability group. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:17.600 I said, No, you don't. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:18.559 He said, Why? 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:23.200 And I said, Because it's it's bloody and it's great and it's transformational, but you got to be honest. 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:24.559 He goes, Oh, I'm great, all right. 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:26.320 Well, we we talked about it, prayed about it. 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:27.200 Come on, join. 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:28.399 He comes first time. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:33.279 The guy's just leading it, sipping his coffee, just looking at it as he said, All right, man, let's confess our sins one to another. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:34.159 Who go first? 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:40.559 One guy raised his hand and said, Man, I lost my temper with my wife this week, and I spoke dishonorably to my wife, and that is sin. 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:41.600 And I need to confess that. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:43.279 I need y'all to pray for me over that. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:48.399 Because the way I treat my wife sometimes, I'm great at the office, and I come home and act like a jerk. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.279 One of the other guys says, I overeat this week. 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:55.919 Because just like an alcoholic that drinks too much, I eat too much, I medicate with food. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.200 I looked over and this cat that was new, his eyes were this big. 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:02.879 It got to him and my buddy is leading and said, What about you? 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:07.360 And he said, Well, I got some struggles and I got some unspoken prayer requests. 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:08.960 So if y'all could pray for me. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:12.159 And all of a sudden, ding ding, somebody rang the bell. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:14.960 That cat looked at him and said, Hey, bro, we're not here. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:18.720 We didn't get up early, okay, and come over here to hear about some unspoken prayer requests. 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:22.960 If you can't be honest with five people, how can you be honest with the 2,000 people in your church? 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:25.360 Either be honest or get up and leave. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:29.200 And y'all are like, whoo, I'm glad I'm not in that group. 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:35.600 No, what it was was he could not think of a specific sin that he had struggled with. 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:38.320 And I just suggested, hey, let's crucify him. 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:40.080 Clearly, he's perfect. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:44.159 Because I like to help things when they get bogged down like that. 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:46.879 And here's my point. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:56.320 He had been in church, and finally, through tears, he looked at us and he said, I've been in church my whole life, and no one's ever asked me what specific sins do you need to confess? 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:58.000 And I said, Do you know how to do this? 00:13:58.080 --> 00:13:58.879 And he said, Not at all. 00:13:58.960 --> 00:13:59.919 And we turned to James 5. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.879 I said, You know, the Bible says, hey, confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so you may be healed. 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:06.799 Have you had like secret sin? 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:09.840 I bet you've had the same besetting sin most of your life. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.399 He's like, Yes! How'd you know? 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:15.200 Because the Lord's giving me a word of knowledge right now. 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:17.120 Pull out some paper. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:18.960 Here's the wing lottery numbers. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:22.080 I said, No, because secrecy is the power of badness. 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:27.039 How do you break the power of canceled sin if you don't practice a discipline of confession? 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:30.720 And he said, I just never thought of myself in these terms. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.639 Because we prefer these impersonal generalities. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:36.399 You say, Why are you telling us this? 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:37.279 Here's why. 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:41.039 Because in America, you've heard this phrase, we've lost our moral compass. 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:47.120 That sounds so much more politically correct than saying we've kind of lost, forsaken God's law. 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:51.600 We didn't, see, we didn't just move the ancient boundary stone, we forgot where we hid it. 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:53.919 And now we can't go back and get it. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.320 It's never too late to go back and do the right thing. 00:14:56.639 --> 00:15:02.799 No matter how far you are down the road of disobedience, hear me say this morning, grace is greater than your sin. 00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:07.519 Grace, this God of grace, beckons you back, and he's not saying, See, I told you so. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:09.679 You better come back here, you scum sucking dog. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:11.600 You ought to feel bad about yourself. 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:12.720 No. 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:16.879 Grace says, Oh, it doesn't, grace doesn't dismiss the law. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:24.879 Grace magnifies the beauty of God's law, and you come back and you reorient yourself around that and go, This is the way I was created to live. 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:28.480 The beauty of God's law is number one, is it defines sin. 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:29.919 Number two, it provokes sin. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:31.360 That's what Paul says. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:32.879 Look if you would in verse 8. 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:33.759 You still with me? 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:39.279 He says, But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetedness. 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:41.919 Apart from the law, sin lies dead. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:47.440 But look at it sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:50.799 See, the law, that's the commandment that says, do not covet. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:54.720 Paul says in him, hey, this produced in me all kinds of covetedness. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:55.440 So what do you mean? 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:57.840 That it just kind of no, it exposes it. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:03.919 The law just kind of pushed it out, it kind of made it obvious because Paul realized, hey, maybe I covet a little bit about that. 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:09.679 And then, once kind of provoked about covetousness, all of a sudden it becomes, wow. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:11.440 It's like when your kids went off to college. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:22.320 Remember they went off to college and they took like freshman psychology and they come back and all of a sudden they're a psychologist and they want to psychoanalyze everybody in the family, and you're just sitting there cutting your meat thinking, listen, you keep talking to your mom like that. 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:24.799 I'm gonna slap the taste out of your mouth, boy. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:27.600 It just becomes this prevailing world. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:28.559 That's what Paul says. 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:30.639 Hey, this meant provoke. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:39.519 I thought I was doing okay, and then I understood what it meant when the law said, do not covet, and then all of a sudden, ooh, all I wanted to do was covet. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:41.519 Let me paint this picture for you. 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:43.120 I have a friend, Bob Hendricks. 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:46.000 Bob Hendricks is Bob has kind of a lead foot, okay? 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:50.879 Bob's an executive, he's now retired, he was vice president of a large, large company. 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:54.960 Uh and he's driving down the road and he was notorious for his lead foot. 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:57.360 And he said, Uh, I'm not gonna get a radar detector. 00:16:57.440 --> 00:16:59.840 I'm not gonna lie, I just like to drive fast. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.279 And so he's driving through Arkansas, going to see his parents. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:09.200 And I don't know if you've been in Arkansas, not a lot of four-lane, you know, divided highways there. 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:13.039 It's a lot of just two-lane over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house. 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:14.480 He said, We were stuck in a parade. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:15.680 He said, I just couldn't take it. 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:17.440 It was going 55 miles an hour. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:18.720 I said, What's wrong with that? 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:20.160 I like to drive 70. 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:21.279 What was the speed of it? 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:22.000 55. 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.880 And he began to count the cars between him and over the hill. 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:26.799 There's like nine, nine or ten cars. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.359 And he's like, I gotta get up here to the front of the line and see what's going on. 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.240 Maybe there's a farmer with a tractor slowing everything down. 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:34.400 So he won by gun, he began to pick them off. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:38.319 And he got up there and he saw that in the very front of the line was a cop car. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:43.519 And the cop was doing 55, and pretty soon he's right on the bumper of the cop. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:50.240 He said, Now I don't know what happened, but I mean, I was just the I was so agitated, he's just doing this to make a point. 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:52.240 I'm like, no, he's not making a point. 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:53.440 That's the law. 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:58.480 He said, I uh his wife said, Let me tell the rest of the story. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:09.759 He couldn't take being told how fast to drive, so my husband put his blinker on, pulls out, and floorboards it and passes the cop and takes off 70 miles an hour. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:16.720 And the cop just turned on the sirens, pulled him over and said, Excuse me, you didn't see me back there? 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:20.000 And he said, Yeah, handed him his license and said, I saw you. 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:22.000 I just couldn't take it anymore. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:25.680 And the cop said, Excuse me. 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:28.240 He said, I just thought I'd take one for the team. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:38.880 And all those cars just went by, eh, the Bible says that's what the law is like. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:40.079 It provokes you. 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:43.039 You're just like, I can't take it anymore. 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:49.359 Third beauty of the law, and I'm gonna drill down on this one, is it brings us to the end of ourselves. 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:50.799 Romans chapter 7. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:52.000 Look at verse 9. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:54.079 It brings us to the end of ourselves. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:56.160 Look what he says in the first part of verse 9. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:58.880 I was once alive apart from the law. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:00.720 Just stop right there. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:02.400 I was once alive. 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:04.079 What are you talking about? 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:07.039 There was a time when I felt good about myself. 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:10.000 I felt so good, I felt like I was alive. 00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:13.839 And then after this, I felt so bad, it was like being dead. 00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:15.359 What's he talking about? 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:19.920 If you've got a Bible, turn to the right to Philippians chapter 3, or it'll come up on the screen. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:21.839 He says, I once was alive. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:26.480 There was a time when Paul was religious, but he didn't have a relationship with God. 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:30.640 He describes what he was like during this time in the book of Philippians chapter 3. 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:32.000 I'll start reading in verse 3. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:44.000 He says, For we are the real circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:53.039 In other words, he said, if you want to compare notes about confidence in your flesh and what you can do, I let me give you my resume. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:58.240 He says, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:07.200 Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee. 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:10.319 As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:14.640 As to righteousness, under the law, blameless. 00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:17.039 Now stop there for a minute and think about that. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:25.039 As to righteousness, as to what it means to be rightly related to God, according to the law, Paul says, I was blameless. 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:26.960 I kept all the rules. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:32.079 I was the most zealous, religious person there. 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:39.359 As I told my friends of the prison on Tuesday night, you know that you can know the Bible and love the Bible and never know God. 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:41.759 Jesus says in John 5, don't turn it. 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:49.920 Jesus says in John 5 about verse 39 and 40, you search those scriptures because they testify of me, but yet you refuse to come to me and have life. 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:55.279 That's how you know a person knows God is that there's there's something supernatural about their life. 00:20:55.359 --> 00:20:56.240 There's something different. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:01.440 That doesn't mean crazy stuff happens every day, but it means that they kind of oriented their life differently. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:02.799 It's what you saw in Norm. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:04.079 I went and saw him yesterday. 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:07.200 And my confession to you is I don't go see him to comfort him. 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:10.079 I go see him so he can convict me. 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:13.680 He's laying there on his back porch in his porch swing and the wind's blowing. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:14.799 He can't keep his eyes open. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.039 And he's like, I'm gonna pay, yeah, I'm in agony. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:18.960 And I'm like, okay. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:21.759 This is a good front-end alignment. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:25.279 Because left to myself, I love this world too much. 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:31.519 It's good for me to be around somebody who's just how long do you think you got? 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:32.880 Two weeks, four weeks? 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:33.920 I don't know. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:36.559 Crazy old man? 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:39.200 That's beautiful. 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:45.599 Paul says, hey, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:49.680 You gotta ask yourself, what must that feel like? 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:54.400 Well, he tells us in Romans chapter 7, starting in verse 14. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:59.759 Let me just read it to you, but before I read it to you, let me just remind you just tell you about this little thing called the historical. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:00.960 Present. 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:05.440 It's it's it's you see it in literature, you see it in the in in in the biblical times. 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:07.279 You say, What do you mean historical present? 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:13.839 It's the use of the present tense when narrating a past event, and the purpose is to make these past events more vivid. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:15.759 Now that's the preacher and me talking. 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:17.359 Uh let me put it down here where you live. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:22.160 You ever get around your buddies from high school and you start retelling a story about something y'all did in high school? 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:23.200 Hello? 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:30.559 Like one time, me and my friends, this is before I was a Christian, we kind of had uh too much to eat and drink. 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.440 And we went out to the lake, and the lake wasn't quite filled up yet. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:37.200 It was still kind of filling up, and a friend of mine had a jeep, a big old jacked-up jeep. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:47.680 We used to go mudding, and we sunk that thing all the way down to the axles in the middle of the lake, and then got out, and we started walking, and the mud was about up to our thighs. 00:22:47.920 --> 00:23:01.279 You ever walked a half mile in mud, and every step you take is and you got to kind of crawl up and then I could go back to my small East Texas town I grew up in and start talking to one of my buddies, and we would talk about that like it happened yesterday. 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:03.920 Because one of them was like, I can't make it. 00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:08.000 Just kick mud on me and bury me, just put a marker, remind my parents. 00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:12.240 And one of the guys just walked back and grabbed him by the foot and started just dragging him through the mud. 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:14.319 Drugged that cat for a quarter of a mile. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:18.319 Come loose on me! Come loose on me! Shut up, you're drunk. 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:19.279