Dr. Cecil A. Fayard - 2001 Sermons
Sunday, July 1, 2001   

INTRODUCTION: The one thing that really stands out in this passage is the fact that the law makes sin real to the human heart, soul, and mind. What Paul says in verse thirteen really hits home: "..that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful". This is why the liberals hate the Bible and fight to keep the Ten Commandments off the school house wall. Whether you believe it or not, sin is exceeding sinful in the sight of God. And Friend, when it is all said and done, He is the one who counts.

The law cannot save you (3:20), and it cannot save me. But it can rebuke us and show us our sinful state causing us to see that we stand guilty before God. The law also manifests to us that man is not able to get into heaven by his good works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Man is not able to keep the law (James 2:10), to live good enough (Isaiah 64:6 "But we are alias an unclean thing, and all our righteousness' are as filthy rags...

1. VERSES 7-8, THE LAW EXPOSES AND AWAKENS SIN
   1. Verse 7, The law exposes sin.
      
      1. Paul makes it clear that the law is not sin, and that the child of God cannot disregard God's holy standards, live as he pleases, and please God.
         
      2. "God forbids" God's law is not sin; it cannot be for it is from God, the command of God. No commandment of God can be sinful.
         
      3. "I had not known sin, but by the law..."
         
         1. God has His divine standard of holiness and anything else is sin.
            
         2. The existence of the law makes the transgression of it possible (I John 3:4, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
            
         3. God's law helps us identify sin. When we break the law, we have sinned.
            
            1. The Ten Commandments need to be memorized and heeded.
               
            2. Of the Ten Commandments only one is positive, the first one (Exodus 20:12). The other nine are negative (Exodus 20:13-17). We are to measure our spiritual lives by the decalogue.
               
            3. Remember the words of Romans 3:20: "...for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
               
         4. The written law gives knowledge of the extent of man's depravity. Man is responsible without the written law for there is a law written in our hearts (Romans 2:15).

            Note that Paul says "1" and "me "over and over to the end of the chapter. What is Paul saying? What is the truth he is driving home? Paul is telling us that the Holy Spirit worked through the law in his heart Paul knew the law; he zealously sought to carry it out even by wrongly persecuting Christians (Galatians 1:13-16). It was not the keeping of the law that saved Paul. It was the Holy Spirit revealing Christ in him and his trusting Christ that saved him.
            

      4. "For I had not known lust except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet."
         
         1. A part from the law, Paul says that he would not have known sin particular, he would not have known what it meant to covet: "except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet."
            
         2. The tenth commandment is a commandment dealing with the inner man, while the others are more or less dealing with the external character of man. It was the tenth commandment that got to "the rich young ruler (Matthew 19-21-22). It is the tenth commandment that gets to the heart of sin, man's sinful, depraved, evil heart of desire.

   2. Verse 8, The Law Awakens Sin
      1. Again we find that the law is not sinful, but it does awaken our awareness of sin.
         
         1. Sin is in the heart and it grasps every opportunity by the commandment to produce all kinds of coveting.
            
         2. Man by nature is rebellious and resents being told no or being commanded to do righteously. Tell man to not touch the painted wall, and he is tempted to do just that.

            The many kinds of covetousness that can be wrought in the human heart is well illustrated in the Bible.
            

            1. Adam and Eve coveted the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6).
               
            2. Joseph's brothers coveted his position (Genesis 37:4).
               
            3. Achan coveted the spoils of Jericho (John 7:21).
               
            4. Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard (I Kings 21:1).
               
            5. Amnon coveted his half sister Tamar (II Samuel 13:1).
               
            6. Absalom coveted the throne of his father David (II Samuel 15:1).
               
            7. Ananias and Saphira coveted praise (Acts 5:1).
               
            8. Simon the Sorcerer coveted healing power (Acts 8:18).
               
            9. Demas coveted, "This present world" (II Timothy 4:10).
               
            10. Diotrephes coveted pre eminence in the church (III John 9).

      2. "For without the law sin was dead."
         
         1. Take away the tenth commandment, and sin lies dormant.
            
         2. The law brings with it an overwhelming number of ways it can be transgressed.

2. VERSE 9, THE LAW REVEALS SIN'S POWER
   1. Before the law came along, Paul was alive on the fleshly side, and sin was dormant.
      
      1. There was a time when Paul felt secure, having no conviction of sin.
         
      2. He thought that he was doing good morally and spiritually. He thought that he was living a life pleasing to God (Philippians 3:6).
         
      3. Many religious folks today believe they are doing good; yet they are headed to hell.

   2. "But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."
      
      1. When the tenth commandment came to him, revealed for what it is by the Holy Spirit with it's "Thou shalt not covet," he saw himself as a rotten sinner condemned to eternal death.
         
      2. What did Paul see?
         
         1. He saw the holy demands of the law.
            
         2. He saw that he could not live up to it.
            
         3. He saw the need of a Savior.
            
      3. "I died," - he came to the end of his self-satisfied, self secured, selfish life.
         
         1. He saw himself and all of his so-called religious achievements as trash (Philippians 3:7-8).
            
         2. For the first time in his life, he saw himself as spiritually dead; he saw himself as lost and undone.

3. VERSES 10-11, THE LAW REVEALS THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN
   1. Verse 10, What Paul had thought to be a way to gain eternal life (the law) turned out to be the way of death spiritually.
      
      1. The law of God cannot bring peace to the unbeliever because the lost man is condemned, spiritually dead.
         
      2. The law cannot produce life because no man can keep the law's standard of perfect obedience. Because of this, man's inability, the law brings death not life.
         
      3. What we could not do Christ did for us (Romans 8:3-4).

   2. Verse 11, Sin takes advantage of us through the commandment and deceives us.
      
      1. Sin is a deceiver; it deceived Paul, and it has deceived some of you.
         
      2. A deceived person thinks that he is acceptable in God's sight because of his own good works and his own merits. Self-righteousness is not righteousness; it is sin.
         
         1. The deceived person believes it is Christ plus baptism, good works, etc.
            
         2. It is Christ alone that saves (John 3:16, 18, 36).
            
      3. "Slew me." Whenever the law is unable to give life, it brings death. "The condemnation of the sinner must necessarily be death through his inability to fulfill the law" (Thomas 187).

4. VERSES 12-13, THE LAW REVEALS THE EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF SIN
   1. Verse 12, the law of god is itself, "holy, and just, and good."
      
      1. "Holy"- because it exposes sin.
         
      2. "Just" - [righteous] because it condemns the sinner to death.
         
      3. "Good" - because of its ingrained spiritual purpose. p>
   2. Verse 13, Notice the words, "but sin." That's the problem. The law is good, and sin is bad. "The wages of sin is death."
      
      1. When a man is convicted and sentenced to death for murder, there is nothing wrong with the law; and there is no fault with those in charge of upholding it. The fault is with the one who broke the law. The law is good; breaking the law is evil.
         
      2. "But sin," the law does not cause spiritual death; sin does.
         
      3. "But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good...."
         
         1. God's pure, undefiled law, exposes sin's deadly character.
            
         2. Psalm 19:7-10.
            
      4. "That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."
         
         1. Sin is "exceeding sinful," in light of God's holy, just, and good law.
            
         2. Man today wants to make fun of sin, to excuse sin, to cover sin; but Friend, sin is "exceeding sinful" in God's eyes.

1. The law is intended to reveal sin- it tells us that a certain thing is wrong.
2. The law is intended to condemn the sinner- it shows man's inability to keep the law.
3. The law is intended to constrain and conduct the awakened sinner to Christ- the law cannot show mercy so it brings us to Christ who can.