Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Purpose of the Ten Commandments, Part 8 of 26

TEXT: "What shall 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 not have known covetousness unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful" (Romans 7:7-13).

IDEA: The Law reveals the power of sin.

PURPOSE: To help listeners recognize the way sin works in our lives.

I have a friend who went to a doctor's office for an annual exam. He was feeling great. The doctor was concerned about something he heard through his stethoscope and had my friend x-rayed. They discovered that he had a blockage in 3 of the 4 valves in his heart. In fact, the physician wouldn't even allow him to go home to get some pajamas, but rushed him to the hospital and he had a four-way bypass operation. Would it have been reasonable for my friend to say that he was going to cut out every annual exam and never allow another x-ray because it just created a great deal of trouble for him? It put him in the hospital. He had a massive operation. And it caused him a great deal of pain.

I . There is a way in which the Law of God does that to us. Romans 7:9-11: "I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me."

Before the Law came Paul lived comfortably with himself. He was better than most people and did not have a severe conscience that anything he was doing was wrong.

When the Law came (when he realized what it said), he felt utterly condemned because the Law revealed the awful force of evil that was inside him.

II. The example Paul uses is the tenth commandment, "You shall not covet."

We've been discussing that commandment for several weeks. How does it make you feel? What was our concern? Was it to make people very uncomfortable?

I would think that many people who listen to this radio program were tempted to turn off the radio. We would rather not deal with covetousness in our lives. In fact, we might think that the tenth commandment was unreasonable and restricting.

We have also pointed out that the commandment would be bad for business in a capitalist society. So we'd rather leave it alone.

III. That reaction is as senseless as believing that we are far more comfortable not having a diagnosis of heart disease than having to deal with it.

The Law is good in revealing that in us, just as an x-ray is good in revealing a blockage in our heart.

Although the Law and the x-ray cannot cure the heart, by making us aware of the evil in us, it can cause us to deal with it.