Romans 7:1-12 • Shadow Chasing
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Our men in choir have sung of only Jesus, which became a watchword of the Reformation, Christ alone, our only hope of salvation, not what we have done, but what He provides. Why did that become so crucial, so important? In some measure we'll discern as we think how deep the hole the Apostle Paul has dug in the book of Romans before the chapter we're about to consider.
Paul has already declared there is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But then he just ended chapter 6 that we considered before saying, "And though all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the wages of that sin is death."
God is a deep hole and we need Christ to get us out. He promises His guidance and blessing. Let's see where the Apostle Paul takes us next as we look at Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 7 verses 1 through 12. Let me ask that you would stand as we would honor God's Word and consider our path now as we consider the great gift of eternal life and where it leads us.
Paul writes, "Do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law,
that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.
For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she's released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive.
But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
What then shall we say that the law is sin?
By no means.
If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin, for I would not have known what it is to covet.
If the law had not said, you shall not covet.
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me, all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died.
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.
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good.
So we need to look at it. Let's ask that we do so with God's help. I said to the first service this last week I had the privilege of teaching in one of America's largest schools for African American pastors, met a new friend. And just as I was coming to preach this morning, that friend sent me a prayer. And I thought about why he had done so in the Holy Spirit's timing. The passage, this chapter we're about to consider, one of the most controversial in all the Bible.
So I worry a little bit about preaching it to you. And so this friend wrote me these words. I'm going to make them my prayer as I pray for us. Let's pray together.
Father, we are so thankful that we never have to do Your work alone because You are always with us.
Even when we may not be fully ready, You are always fully present. In us to do Your will.
So turn our inadequacies into Your sufficiency so that Your Word will transform the hearts of the hearers.
Don't allow our humanness to get in the way of Your perfect will in this preaching moment. Have Your way as we preach Your life-changing Word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.
Over 5 million visitors to the Grand Canyon every year.
And yet my wife Kathy and I have discovered a way to have the Grand Canyon all to yourself.
Go the first week of January before dawn when it is 11 degrees above zero.
You'll have it to yourself.
And we did.
And yet as the sun came up and the dawning light began to come into the canyon, we who had never been there before were still unprepared for what we were about to see. Now we've seen the pictures, but they are inadequate for expressing to you the magnitude and the majesty of the Grand Canyon as the dawning light begins to show the canyon in that severe clear of the 11-degree cold. The brilliant crimson and orange and yellows, so much so that you just can't believe it's as big and as beautiful as it is.
You're just forced into wonder and awe at the hand that made it and continues to paint it.
We sang a hymn. We read some Scripture.
We cried a little bit at the beauty of what God had prepared.
And we weren't alone for long. As the sun rays came in to the Grand Canyon, the crowds began to gather even on that January morning. And the most common expression was, "Wow!" I mean, not the "wow" of "isn't that a rockin' dress you're wearin'?" Not the "wow" of "isn't that a great price on apples this season?"
I mean the "wow" that says, "I don't even have the words to express this. I can't capture this. It simply makes me reflect in awe and wonder and for believers in worship for the God who has done such things." And it's that "wow" factor that the Apostle Paul was after at the end of chapter 6 where he said to all of us, "The wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." As though he has dug the canyon so deep you can't begin to perceive how to get out of it. And then comes the dawning light. But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. When you're on this side of the canyon, when you recognize how deep is the pit, the wages of sin is death, and you see on the far side, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You wonder, you're in awe at the beauty, but you've also got some questions.
How do I get from here to there?
I've got to live this life now. How do I not retreat to the shadows of the canyon? How do I stay in the light?
And that's what the Apostle Paul is describing in this beautiful chapter as he makes clear what the shadows are, but helps us know how to stay in the light of a redeemed people who know the goodness and the greatness and the majesty and the wonder of the God who has provided our salvation. How do we drive away the shadows from the life that we have to live now?
The Apostle begins just by reminding us of the shadows that can darken the canyon of life in which we still live for a while. He talks about them in the opening verse. He says, "Do you not know, brothers," for I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. The law is binding, and yet if all that you perceive in the law is that binding nature, the obligation of obeying God, if that's all you perceive from God's Word and God's nature,
that's going to be a great shadow on your life. Now, the Apostle does mean it when he says the law is binding. Now make no mistake, the Ten Commandments are not ten suggestions.
They are things that are meant to bind our hearts because they are revealing God's heart and helping us know the way that we might live and the beauty that He designs for our lives. When God says, "You shall not steal," He's showing His own concern for our possessions, and not just our possessions, but others so that we would safeguard our relationships in our community and our work and the fruit of our work and justice.
All of that is being indicated by the command, "You shall not steal," as well as the commandments of not lying and not commit adultery. Here's God saying, "I want security in your life, and so I provide commandments of what is good and right."
And it's not just our possessions that He has in mind. When God says to us, "You shall not covet," He's concerned for the peace of our hearts, that you're not always churning about what somebody else has and you don't have the same thing or as much or as quickly. He says, "Trust me, you don't need to covet other things. I'll take care of what you most need." And He's not just concerned about the peace of our hearts, but in His commandment, He is revealing about how close He wants our hearts to His own.
And so He says, "Don't make idols.
Don't have any other gods in front of me, and don't take my name in vain. Don't make frivolous my name in your curses or in your jokes, because you need me and I need you close to me, and I don't want you to belittle or think that I'm just something just a throwaway term. I want you to know the greatness and the goodness that I am, and so that our heart could be close to His heart." He reminds us to safeguard our understanding of who He is. All that is right and good as God is revealing the beauty of His heart, even in saying, "Here's my law, this good and safe path. You wonder how to live. You wonder what you ought to do, and I'm going to tell you, this is a good and safe path that I've put in front of you." But the Apostle is sharp.
He knows that's not the way everybody perceives the law of God, and even his own language. When he says, "The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives," that's the language of slavery.
The law is binding. It puts you in bonds as long as you live. And if that's all that you perceive, the law is just obligation. The law is just that commandment of God so that He can get you if you step out of line. If that's how you perceive the law, then it is just going to be a shadow, a burden on your life.
So far, the Apostle has made clear what that burden would be. He began talking about this law of God way early. We're in the second chapter in the 17th verse. He said, "Now those of you who boast in God because you have the law, you boast in the law, but at the same moment you dishonor God by breaking the law."
Oh, we're privileged. We have the law. We know what to do. Oh, great. How many of you have done it perfectly?
Now it's just a shadow. Now it's just a burden. Paul will write in Galatians, "We who are Jews by birth know that no one is justified by keeping the law and made right with God by keeping the law. So if all you know is a law that says, "Do don't do," that obligation is ultimately going to kill you and your relationship with God because you begin to see only the burden of obligation by that which is perfect and its perfection that you cannot match. Now the way that Paul expresses that is maybe even a little humorous if you take it in the way that he intends. He says at the end of verse 1, "The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives." And then the example he gives is this, "For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives." How could a law, something that's good, a safe and good path, be a burden to you, bind you?
Well just imagine if you were married to a perfect person.
I don't mean they thought they were perfect.
I mean they were perfect.
They never did anything wrong.
Not they didn't think they'd never done anything wrong. They never did anything wrong. Every opinion was entirely correct.
Every action was entirely correct. Never did anything wrong. All correction of you was entirely right. Never took a wrong turn. You don't have anything on them. It would kill you.
And the Apostle Paul is making it clear that's just exactly what the law would do to us. A married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he lives.
And what that means, of course, is if she is perfect, is he perfect, the other is not going to be, and ultimately the beauty and the perfections in the marriage gets spoiled by the reality that no one can live up to the expectations of the other or the example of the other if they are perfect. The law, which was intended to give life, says the Apostle, actually brought death. That's his conclusion in verse 10. I'm just going to run you forward there a little bit. Look at what it says.
Verse 10, "The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me." It was promising. Here's a way to live with God. Just be perfect. Sounds simple. One problem. No one's perfect.
"The very law that was meant to give me a living relationship with the Holy God instead became death to me because I could not keep it." That's the shadow in the canyon of our lives even now. God gives expectations, but if all you perceive is the expectations, that's just the way it's going to be, dark shadow again.
And so the Apostle moves from there to begin to bring some sun rays into the canyon of our dark lives. And the first sun ray is what the Apostle said at the end of verse 1. "The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives."
Hey, dead people don't have speed limits.
The law is binding on you only as long as you live.
Dead people don't get grounded.
Well, actually, they do get grounded in a certain sense, but in another sense, there are no groundings of debt, but you don't get busted for cheating on an exam.
You don't have to meet a work schedule. You don't have to punch the time clock. Dead people don't have a law that binds them, including the law of marriage.
The Apostle's example, of course, is that dead people don't stay married, right? Verse 2, "A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she's released from the law of marriage." Now, Paul's readers think they know exactly where this is going to go.
So far, the Apostle has been extolling the beauty and the wonders of grace in the book of Romans. Remember, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Grace, grace, it's our hope, it's our life, it's what God provided by faith in what He has done. The grace of God applies to our lives. We have grace that is overcoming our disobedience to the law of God. Now the Apostle is saying, "And what that means is you know that if somebody dies, the law of marriage no longer applies." And what everybody's expecting Paul to say is, "Now because of Christ, the law is dead,
so you don't have to obey it anymore."
It's not what he says.
He does not say the law is dead. Why does it not apply?
Because you're dead.
Not because the law is dead. Verse 4, "Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another." It's the wonderful message we talked about in Romans 6 of baptism. Who died in your baptism?
You did. You by your baptism are signifying your union with the death of Christ. Just as he was crucified, the Apostle Paul will say in Galatians 2, remember, "I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live who lives. Christ lives where? In me. And the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." My baptism is the indication that I am dead to the law.
But all the law had in terms of condemnation, all the law had not just in instruction but in penalty, was put on Christ.
And what that means is because I'm dead, the penalty does not apply to me. It was put on Christ. The wrath of God, the penalty for my sin, entirely put on Christ. So what that means for you and me if we are dead is that the law's penalty as well as its obligations to make us right with God, they don't apply. That cause it's dead because we're dead.
Why is that actually a hopeful message?
Because of what we know we carry with us. We carry guilt and shame.
We carry baggage from our background. I think we sing the song with such fervor, "My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul." Why do we sing with such fervor? Because we rejoice that our past, that our background, that our sin, not just of years ago, of this very day, of this very moment, of this very thought that's in us of rebellion, of lust, of anger, of bitterness, of unforgiveness that strikes us even as I mention the terms,
that that is nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ and we bear it no more. My sin and not just mine but sins of others against me. It's not the baggage I take through life. Think of the people you know. Every year one of those people, I know at times I am, where we bear the baggage of our childhood, the mistakes of our parents, the difficulties of a mother or father that we are now debriefing through all of our own adult years to actually say, "That's dead.
The sin, the shame, the difficulty, that is nailed to the cross." Why? Because the Apostle says, verse 4 right in the middle, "You belong to another."
That life is dead. That obligation, that penalty, that awfulness, it is crucified with Christ. And because of that, you can marry another, not married to the law with its penalty and shame. You are now married. You belong to Christ.
Doesn't mean anything to us. We have to go through the struggles. We have to go through the shadows to understand what it actually means to say, "That baggage of the past, what I did or was done to me, that's not where I belong. It no longer clings to me. I am married. I belong to another."
A pastor in a previous generation, R.E.O. White, talked about what it would mean. He talked about a man in his church who at some point had had wonderful respect and privilege and an affluence in his community.
But then the alcohol took over.
And he lost his position.
He lost his home and he lost his marriage.
And he ended up in the gutter.
And it was there that the Christianity of faith in Christ, not the Christianity of comparison to others, "I've done better than you. I did better than you." But absolute dependence on Christ alone. He is my hope. He's the one that makes me right. When that captured his heart, he became a believer and committed his life to God with an understanding that things could be different.
But it wasn't magic.
Even though he knew the past had been put away, he still wrestled with the demons of the alcohol, the addiction that had held him for so long.
So Pastor White said to him, "Listen, any time that is pressing on you, any time that the influence becomes so hard that you feel you cannot resist, come see me."
And Pastor White said he came by often.
One day as they were praying, the reality of what had been a man of influence and position and respect, and now the reality of where he was in depravity, deprived in a gutter life, he said to the pastor, "But please tell me this is not where I belong.
Please tell me that I do not belong to the gutter."
And said Pastor White, "No, you do not belong to the gutter. You belong to Christ.
It is my claim. It is your claim. We look at our past. We look at our difficulties, whether what we did, whether what we did this very day, and we say, "That is not my master anymore. That is not what I'm characterized. My failing, my difficulty, the things that people blame me for, maybe it's all true.
But I don't belong to that.
I belong to Jesus.
And because I belong to him, he is my identity. He is my reality because I am in a new union, a new reality that he himself provides." And what is it supposed to do? This new marriage, this new reality that we have in union with Christ.
Just like any marriage, it's intended to bring fruit.
So the Apostle talks about that at the end of verse 4. Do you see that? "We belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
We belong to one who has been raised from the dead." It's what the Apostle Paul will say in other places. He has given life to our mortal bodies. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead exists in us by his Holy Spirit. So the passions and the addictions that once held us that we were enslaved to because we couldn't by our own ability obey the commandment. God is now saying, "That does not control you anymore because you are united to the resurrected Lord and his Spirit in dwells you." Verse 5, "While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were working our members to bear fruit for death, there was a time that whether it was the chemical or whether it was the screen or whether it was the family, the relationship, it just seemed to have its clutches on me. I couldn't break free.
But now the Apostle says, Romans 6, we said it before, "You are no longer a slave. You have to believe that. You have been released from the law of sin and death. You have been made new. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus, loved by the Father, united to Christ, indwelt by the Spirit, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. You are not a slave. What that means is Satan will come to us and whisper, "You can't help this. You can't be fixed." And we say, "By the authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I tell you that is a lie.
I can be changed. Transformation is possible because I'm not on my own." Verse 6, "Now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. There was a time I thought I was only going to be right with God if I kept the rules. And now I say, I am right with God because Jesus kept the rules and died as a perfect sacrifice for me, rose from the dead, and sends his Holy Spirit to help me." You have to believe that because if you don't believe you can have victory, you've already lost the battle. And so the gospel comes with zeal and power, the apostles saying, "Your passions, your lust, your anger, your addictions, they do not hold you captive. Don't listen to that. Are they powerful? Yes, they are. Do you need help? Yes, you may.
But God has put you in a body of believers, given you his Spirit that you may hear and respond to his Word, and as a consequence, you are no longer a slave. The past is not your future, and it is not your cell.
God is changing you and has given you power to change. I mentioned I was at a conference this past week. I was in the airport coming home. As I was seated in the airport, man started walking toward me pretty rough in appearance, pretty muscular and big. I must have raised an eyebrow because he said, "You don't have to be scared of me."
He said, "I saw you at a conference, so I want to tell you my story." He said, "My father had at least 17 children by at least six different mothers.
I was raised on the streets basically without mother or father, made my way selling drugs until I got big and strong, and then I became an enforcer for my supplier."
He said, "I liked being big and mean."
And he said, "That's why I thought one day on a bus that a guy got up and left leaving his New Testament on the seat.
I thought he was just scared of me, and that's why you forgot his book."
So I picked up the book, and as I thumbed through the New Testament, I didn't know what was in there, I came across some pages that had the name Mark across the top.
He said, "My brother's name Mark, one of my brothers."
And so I wanted to see what was about Mark in the book.
I had no idea what was going to happen, he said, that God would reveal in that book of Mark a Savior who called disciples off the street and died for them and rose to pay the penalty for their sin. And when he did that, he called them to active service to bear fruit for the very one who had died in their behalf.
He said, "It changed me. I can't even tell you how it changed me. I don't know. The Holy Spirit just did something in me." He said, "I went and talked to my friends, and I told them what was happening to me." He said, "Some of them just scoffed, but some of them listened, and they were changed too.
And I became a preacher," he said, "and because I'm mixed race, I could minister on both sides of the tracks.
And because the Lord began to bring power and blessing into my life, he said, "I got a PhD."
And now he said, "I train pastors from every background and walk of life and demographic and ethnic change transition," and he said, "and God is doing this through me who was raised on the streets."
Now I know preachers who are supposed to tell those kind of stories.
I want to tell you it's real, and I just learned it this week, and you can learn it again.
Not just by hearing about other people, but by leaving the same God who saves you by paying the penalty for your sin with the death of His Son is willing by His Holy Spirit to give you new hope and new life and new fruit and a new way to go. It may begin with just some child care in the churches. You begin to care for people who can't care for themselves. It may become you being a pal gal to pioneer girls here. It may be you just caring for your family and your spouse who are the people you can't deal with very well now, but God is changing you so that you begin to care for people who have all kinds of faults, just like you did, where the law now is not just saying they're not measuring up. The law is saying you didn't measure up, and God loved you anyway.
And as a consequence, you can live for Him now, and He will bring fruit through your life. If you begin to believe that, that God didn't just save you one act past, but He means to use you to bear fruit in this life through those that you know, through this church, through the world around you, through your workmates, through your schoolmates, that God actually intends to save you to bear fruit, you've got a question.
And the question you have is, "How do I serve Him?"
I want to know what He expects now.
And the Apostle begins to express that too. What's the sun that comes into the canyon of your life that's going to make you fruitful?
And believe it or not, what he talks about is the law again, not the law that would save you. You're going to be good enough for God. No, if you try to make the law God, it'll kill you.
But if you try to make it a guide, God, what's good and right? What will help people? What will help me? What will bless my life? Lord, tell me. Then he says, "Look at my Word.
Let me tell you the things that will help you." And imagine what the opposite would be.
"Listen, I want you to live for me," says God.
You obey me and follow my Word.
Great Lord, what do you want?
Well, I'm not going to tell you.
No, no, Lord, really.
How do you want me to live? What do you want me to do?
Well, I'm not going to tell you.
Now you would say that's unfair. You would say that's even cruel.
And so God is reminding you, this law, the very thing that would have condemned you if you're trying to measure up to God by measuring it up to it, that's going to be dark shadow in your life. But what you say is, "God has given me the light of his own Son, the beauty and the reality of pushing my sin into the past so that it's dead to me and I can live for him now." Now he says, "Now here's something beautiful." Remember the very thing that I told you was a reflection of my character, the good and safe path? Let me show you what that is. After all, just read verse 12. What does it say? So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Here's something that will show you what's right and good. And God has given it to us to follow. Those reformers that we are celebrating today, they said there's actually three things the law can do, not a one of which is to save you, by the way.
But one of the things the law can do is it can be a guide.
Like a bridle on a horse, it can say, "Here's a good path. I can steer you in a good direction." That's what Paul talks about in verse 7, right? What shall we say then that the law is sin by no means?
If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." If I didn't know that just churning after other people's possessions or relationships or stature, I would just toss and turn every night thinking that was an okay thing to do. But if I recognize, "No, I can trust God to provide what's best for my life," I don't have to covet. If that's part of God's guiding me into a better place for my heart and my life itself. And this law of God is not just guiding me.
It's also a mirror to who I am. Verses 8 for 11 are saying that. I'm not going to read all of that. We read it before, but think of what it's saying. Verses 8, sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Wait, I'm told not to do it, and yet if I look at myself, I'm doing it.
It tells me not to be bitter, but I get angry at people. It tells me to be forgiving, and I have so much trouble forgiving those people who've hurt me or my family. It tells me not to take things from people, not even take their good name, and yet gossip comes so easily to my lips.
I begin to find the very thing the law forbids is what I do, which means the law is not just a guide, it's an amazing mirror to my own spiritual condition and my need of a Savior.
That's what Paul said. The law was our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. I would begin to recognize my shortcomings, my need, my sin.
We're celebrating this day, that 500th anniversary of the Reformation when Martin Luther nailed supposedly on the Wittenberg door the 95 theses.
If you were to go to the Wittenberg church today and go inside, you'll see there's all kinds of commemorations of Martin Luther.
And one of them is a famous painting by Lucas Cranach.
Now you've all seen the Da Vinci Last Supper, right? You know what I'm talking about, the painting of the Last Supper? Well, Cranach has his Last Supper in the Wittenberg church. He was a contemporary and a friend of Martin Luther. And so when Cranach painted his Last Supper, there are not 12 disciples, there are 14 at the table.
14?
Because one of the disciples he added was Martin Luther.
He painted him into the Last Supper. Now there's a part of it that goes, "Well, that's kind of arrogant, you know, adding Luther to the 12 apostles."
But it's not the message.
Not there are 13, there are 14 at the table.
And the 14th is a servant with whom Luther is sharing a common cup of the Lord's provision.
As if to say, "I'm no better than you.
You're no greater need than I." As much as I need the Lord's provision, you need the Lord's provision.
Because Luther well-understand, the law is this mirror to say, "I need a Savior as much as anybody." There's no temptation taken you but such as is common.
There's nothing out there the seeds of which are not also in here. If I've broken one command, in essence, I've broken them all. I lie in need of a Savior beneath the weight of the law. And that's actually part of its purpose, to make me see. I need Jesus. I need Jesus. But that's not the end. Not only is the law this guide of the good and safe path, not only the mirror to how much I need a Savior and His Spirit to help me, ultimately the law is to be a magnet to the heart of God. That 12th verse is so important. The law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
If you didn't think that the law was being described, what would you think was being described in that verse? Holy and righteous and good.
You would think God was being described. And that's the point that what God gives us for life, the guideposts, as well as the reflection of how much we need Him, is a reflection of His own heart. So when God is saying, "Here's a good path," and we recognize it's just reflection of His own heart, it would be like a magnet to the heart of God. We'll say, "If that's what Jesus wants, if that's what He's calling me to, if that's what He wants for me, I know that's got to be good. I love Jesus so much that as much as lust and anger and greed and others are pulling on me, this has got to be better because it's reflecting Jesus. And so that's what I'm going to go after. With the power of the Spirit and the love of God, I'm going to go after that path because this law of God is really an expression of God's great love for us. Not if you plan on it saving you, but if you plan on it being a wonderful guide and reflection of the heart of God." How do I know that?
You know, I thought until several hours ago that I knew how this sermon was going to end.
I was going to talk to you about the scoff laws, those who have scoffed at the law of God who are in the headlines right now. You know the Hollywood and Washington scandals that are so much in the headlines right now, of people who have mocked the law of God in their art, in their productions, and in doing so have taught a culture that the law of God is irrelevant, makes no difference. And yet as the stories are coming out, what are we discovering? That those who would live without the law of God, I don't mean to be disrespectful, I mean to be real, almost become animalistic in their behavior, cruel to other people, using power and wealth and influence for the satisfaction of sexual desires and then totally not satiated. So for decades, decades, they pursue it to the demise of their own marriages that become loveless and distant. And all the while they're telling us how wonderful, happy, and proud they are of the lives that they're living. And we say, "No, that is the end of living apart from the ways of God."
And maybe I should in there, but I must tell you, it wasn't ultimately what came to me, that Hollywood powerful life of people far away. I thought, you know, there is a message much closer to home.
And I began to think of my own life where my parents, though living in the same home so much of their life had lived apart.
And then in my adolescence and young adult years, they did live apart until the Lord united them again, later, much later in life.
And I recognized that if people would look at me in the church, they would say, "Well, there's a boy from a broken home."
And I look at the influence through my siblings, and I haven't told you all the stories all the time of the multiple siblings that have been in addictions, in and out of marriages, in and out of jail.
And I recognize that could be me so easily.
And I look what the Lord did just by saying, "Here's a different path, Brian," and took me to Kathy, and she dealt with so much of my baggage in our early years of marriage and endured with me because she was following the path of God, too.
And how the Lord has given us children who love Him, and I watch them on the videos that they send having their children memorize Scripture and say catechisms. And I think to myself, "The Lord has been good to me."
Not just by saving my soul, but by giving me a tremendous path of life, which has been my great blessing, not because I think it'll make me right with God, but because He says,
"Here's a wonderful way to go from the heart of the one who loves you." And so I follow Him.
I pray you will too.
I pray that even in a message like this you might think, "God, there's some things I need to repent of.
I've just acted like you're this referee on the sideline of my life and frowning at me all the time, so I'm just going to hate you and do my thing."
Maybe just ignoring Him.
It's again a time to say, "The God who saved your soul has given you a good path, a sweet good path.
Walk in it and bear the fruit of the God who loves you." Father, I pray for the people here, I pray for my own heart, that you would challenge us from your word and comfort us and convict us and lead us to the Savior who by His Spirit gives us strength for new and different and better ways.
Grant your Spirit to guide, your Word to teach, and may we walk in the path that is beautiful
because you gave it for our soul's content. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.