Ron Dunn Podcast - The Law

Episode Date: January 17, 2018

Ron Dunn preaches from Romans on the law.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. And I'm going to read that same passage, or most of it, out of the Williams translation. And so if you don't have this translation, you just listen, and I think it'll make it all a lot more clear to us. What are we then to conclude?

Is the law sin? Of course not. Yet if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was. For I should not have known what an evil desire was if the law had not said, you must not have an evil desire. Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law sin is lifeless. I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived and then I died. And so in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death. For sin found its rallying point in that command and through it deceived me and killed me.

Now let's look at verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery of sin. This past week, I talked to three different men. One man came into my office. He was saved in our services a few weeks ago, he and his wife both. They had lived in Houston for several years, a number of years. They had gone to another denomination all their life, and they moved into the apartments behind us, and they had never been to a Baptist church, and so they just decided they would visit one Sunday morning since it was close. And for the first time, in his words, he heard what it meant to be lost and what it meant to be saved. And that Sunday morning,

they both were saved. And he said this past week, he said, up until that time, I had always thought that if I did enough in the church and if I lived the right kind of life, somehow this would get me into heaven. I lived, he said, under the illusion that what made me a Christian was what I did. Joining the church and being sprinkled and teaching a Sunday school class, I thought that if I did enough, this somehow would merit my salvation. Later in the week, I talked to another young man about the Lord, and he asked me this question. He said, I try to do the right things, but when can a fellow know when he's done enough to be saved?

How can I know when I am saved? He was living under the illusion that a person is saved by what they do. I talked to another man about the Lord. In the conversation, I asked him if he knew that he was saved. He said, I feel like I am. Because he did certain things, because he lived a certain kind of life he felt that if anybody was saved he must be saved and the conclusion that I come to and I didn't have to talk to anybody to come to this because the bible has been saying this all through the book of Romans but the conclusion that we come to is that the religion of the man on the street

is if you do enough and if you obey the law and through your self-effort, somehow you're going to merit salvation. Paul thought the same thing. Paul came to two wonderful discoveries in his life. And I want to say to you this morning that every person here is going to have to come to both these discoveries if you're ever going to know the fullness of life that is in Jesus Christ. This morning I'm going to talk about the first discovery, tonight the second discovery. The first discovery that the Apostle Paul made and every person must make if they're to be saved is that human effort, keeping the law, cannot bring life to a lost man. It cannot do it. There is absolutely no possibility of anything a person doing by keeping God's law, the moral law, the law of conscience, the law of the state, keeping this law can never bring salvation to a

man who is lost. And when Paul discovered that, it completely revolutionized his life. And when that man in my office discovered that, it revolutionized his life. By his own testimony, all things are different. And these other two men, if they can ever discover that, it will completely transform their lives. Now, verses 7 through through 13 Paul is talking about his pre-conversion experience. Verses 14 through 25 he's talking about his post-conversion experience. We're talking this morning about his pre-conversion experience and his experience was this, I did the best I could and I thought by doing the best I could, God who's a God of love and mercy and who

wouldn't send anybody to hell who really were doing their best, I thought somehow God would save me if I did my best. But the law, keeping commandments, obeying the laws of the land, living up even to the demands of your own conscience, the Bible says cannot bring life and cannot bring salvation to a lost man. Why? First of all, because of the inadequacy of the law. If I were to walk among you this morning and say, do you believe in the Ten Commandments? Do you believe you ought to try to keep the Ten Commandments? Maybe one or two would say, no, I don't think I ought to try to keep them.

But if you didn't believe that, you probably wouldn't admit it. You'd want everybody to think that you're respectful and decent. But the average man on the street believes that it's wrong to kill. A lot of people believe that. The average man on the street believes that it's a sin to steal. Thou shalt not steal. He believes that it's a sin to steal. Thou shalt not steal. He believes that it's a sin to lie. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

And I am constantly amazed at how many people really believe that by merely accepting the truth of God's law, somehow this will commend them to God. But Paul made a startling discovery. He discovered that God never gave man a conscience in order that by living according to that conscience he could be saved. He never gave the law in order that man by living up to that law could be saved. God gave the law for only one reason, and that was to prove to us that we're sinners. For Paul said, until the law came, I had no sin. What do you mean by that?

Well, how do you know it's a crime to drive 50 miles down the street, MacArthur Boulevard, unless there's a sign up there that says speed limit 35? Now, some of you don't pay any attention to that, but you know that it's a crime, you know that it's a misdemeanor, you know that you're breaking the law to drive 80 miles an hour down Beltline Road because there is a sign there, there is a law that says speed limit 60 miles an hour. Now, if the law had not revealed to us that, we wouldn't know it was a crime. This is what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, when God said, thou shalt have no other gods before me, when God said, thou shalt not

commit adultery, when God said, thou shalt not bear false witness, he was not intending that we, by our human effort, should try to live up to that and thereby be saved. He gave that to us to prove to us that we were sinners because none of us can keep that law. Nobody can keep that law. And yet the average man on the street believes that if he doesn't murder anybody,

you ask somebody, listen, you're in for a surprise if you never witness. I challenge you this week to go out and just to begin to talk to people and ask them, do you think you'll go to heaven when you die? Do you think you'll go to heaven when you die? And what do you think a fellow has to be in order to be saved to go to heaven when he dies? You'll be amazed at the questions, the answers you get to that question. Well, I've never murdered anybody. I've got a clean record.

I don't have any violations. I don't have a record as long as my arm with the police. I'm not a drunkard. Well, once in a while I may lie a little bit about my income tax and a few other things that are necessary, you know. But I'm not what you'd call one of your out-and-out sinners. That's what the average person believes. And Paul believed that. I wish we had time to read over in Philippians chapter 3. A lot of people believe that because of what they are, this is going to come in and with God. And Paul says, listen, if anybody has any reason to brag about what they are. I'm more. If you want to know a fellow that has always lived

according to the law, look at me. Here I am. Surprise, it's me. Paul goes down the list. He says, listen, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I kept the law of Moses. I was immaculate as far as touching the law is concerned. You could not pick up the Ten Commandments and point out one failure in my life. And Paul says, all of this I realized was just junk. And the only way I could ever be saved was to realize that my ability to keep the law was so much garbage and I had to give it up in order to be saved. You know what a mirror is for, don't you? You have that mirror in the bathroom. Well, it's not only just to tell you how pretty you look, but it's to tell you how ugly you look sometimes. It's to reveal dirt. I can go into the bathroom and look in the mirror there and I'll know if I've got a smudge on my

face. I'll know if my hair is a mess. I'll know if my tie is crooked. But I want you to know something. I've never tried to wash my hands with a mirror something I've never tried to wash my hands with a mirror I've never tried to comb my hair with a mirror I've never tried to straighten my tie with a mirror that would be ridiculous the purpose of a mirror is to reveal to me my condition it can't change that condition I can take a yardstick and I can measure a piece of wood and find out that piece of wood is too long, but I don't try to saw off that piece of wood with a yardstick. The purpose of the yardstick is just to reveal the inadequacy of that piece of wood. Now, the law is never meant to cleanse us.

It's never meant to save us. It's never meant to commend us to God. The law has only one purpose, and that's to reveal to every one of us that we're sinners in the sight of God. And your human effort and your best efforts and your sincerity, Paul says, cannot in any way save you because of the inadequacy of the law. You see, it has the power to tell you what's wrong, but it doesn't have the power to help you to obey it. I mean, the law may tell me that it's a sin to tell a lie, but when I'm tempted to tell a lie, that law cannot give

me the dynamic and the power to refuse from telling that lie. It's weak. All it can do is be a mirror, a yardstick that shows me my deficiency. But there's another reason why keeping the law can't save us. It's because of the inwardness of sin. The inwardness of sin. I don't want you to miss this. You look at verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin except by the law. For I had not known evil desire except the law had said, thou shalt not have evil desire. Now Paul says, listen, if you had read to me those nine commandments, those first nine commandments, I was batting a thousand. I was batting a thousand as I went down those first nine commandments. But I came to that last commandment, I came to that tenth commandment, and it slew me. It killed me.

Because that last commandment says, not only shall you not commit the act of adultery, but you should not even have the desire. Not only shall you not steal from your neighbor, but you must not even want what he's got. Not only must you refrain from ever killing anybody, you must not ever even have a desire to hate anyone. And suddenly he made that startling discovery that sin is not an outward thing like a bad tooth that you can just pull out and be done with it, but sin is inward. It's inward. And I might obey strictly, legally every commandment in the book, but I cannot do a thing about that evil desire that's

there. Some of us pride ourselves because we have never committed the act of immorality. But Jesus said, if you even look on another person with a desire, you've done it already in your heart and you stand guilty before God. Jesus said, thou shall not kill. But I say unto you, if you hate, if you have malice, if you have a vicious disposition in your heart, you're guilty of murder in the sight of God. Now you may never have killed anybody, but have you ever had malice and hatred and a vicious disposition in your heart? You certainly have. You may never have committed the outward act of immorality, but have you ever had the impure desire, the impure thought?

You certainly have. You may never have stolen that which did not belong to you but have you ever coveted have you ever desired to have what another person has you certainly have the law has no power my human effort, my ability has no power to take this inwardness, this evil desire that's in my heart away

it just cannot do it you remember one day a young man came to Jesus inwardness, this evil desire that's in my heart. Oh wait, it just cannot do it. You remember one day a young man came to Jesus. The Bible calls him a rich young ruler. And he said, Lord, I want to know what I have to do. See, there's a religion of the man on the street. I want to know what I have to do in order to have eternal life. And Jesus said, what are you asking me for? You know the commandments. He sized him up right away. He said, you know the commandments. And he named them. And the rich young ruler said, all of these have I kept from my youth up. We'd say that fellow was a hypocrite and proud and egotistical.

But I want you to know Jesus didn't rebuke him. Jesus didn't call him a liar. You know what Jesus did? Now, Jesus knew that that young fellow hadn't kept all the commandments. There was one he hadn't kept. And so he's going to show this young man that there's one commandment he hasn't kept. He said, all right, you've kept all the commandments from your youth up. Now I know that you're a rich young fellow. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to take all of your possessions and I want you to sell them.

And I want you to take your money and give it away. And the Bible says that young man's countenance fell because he had great possessions. There was one commandment that young man had not kept, the tenth commandment, Thou shalt not covet. He was wallowing in covetousness. And I want to say to you there is one commandment that there is not a person in this building this morning has kept, and that is that tenth commandment, thou shalt not have an evil desire. And then you pick up James 2.10 where it says, if a man keep the whole law and yet offend

in one point, he's guilty of all of it. You can keep the first nine, but if you violate the tenth, God says in my sight you're guilty of all of them. You've broken them all. The law cannot bring life and salvation to a lost man because of the inwardness of sin. But there's a third reason. It's because of the inability of human nature. The inability of the human nature.

Paul says in verse 14, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of frail flesh, and I am sold into the slavery of sin. Paul says, Even when I want to keep the law of God, I cannot do it. I cannot do it. I cannot do it.

I want you to listen to Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. It is one of the most important verses in this book. Because the carnal mind, that means the old nature, you as you are in the flesh, in person, the carnal mind is enmity against God. Now listen, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. My flesh, my nature, human nature is not subject to the law of God. We do not yield to God's authority. And more than this,

we cannot do it. We cannot do it. That which is flesh is flesh, and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And man in human nature can never subject himself to the will and the authority and the law of God. He just cannot do it. And no matter how desperately you want to try to please God and obey God, you just can't do it. Oh, Simon Peter wanted to pray. He knew something was up. He had never seen his Lord look like this. He saw the furrows in his brow.

He knew that something was on his mind, and this is a strange thing to go out here to the Garden of Gethsemane. He's been here times before, but this is the first time he's ever brought us like this. There's something up, something different. And Jesus said, I want you to watch and pray with me. Simon Peter said, oh, I want to pray. I want to pray. I want to do what Jesus asked.

I want to please him, but he can't. He falls asleep. Jesus comes back and says, wake up. Couldn't you just watch with me one hour? Couldn't you just give one hour of obedience to me? And they wake up and they rub their eyes and I imagine they make their apologies and Jesus goes away again to pray. And Simon Peter, I'm certain, just does his best to stay awake. He wants to pray, but he can't do it. Jesus comes back and he finds him asleep. And you know what Jesus says? Truly, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Simon, you wanted to do right, but you couldn't. You wanted to do right, but you couldn't.

And there may be the desire in your mind and your heart this morning to please God, but you couldn't. And there may be the desire in your mind, in your heart this morning, to please God, but you cannot. You cannot. Then you know the only way out is for a man to give up on himself. Just to give up on himself. And I want to say to you that until you come to this discovery this morning where you realize that it's not by anything you can do, not by your efforts, not by your goodness,

not by your environment, not by your heritage or your background, there's absolutely nothing that you can do to please God and you give up on yourself. You say, Lord, I admit that I'm a worthless, frail, incapacitated, lost creature in your sight, there is nothing I can do. I give up on myself, and I just cling like a beggar to Jesus Christ for mercy.

That's when God puts that man's name down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now, when the devil went about to try to destroy the work of the cross, there are a lot of things he could have done. He tried to kill Jesus in the wilderness. He tried to have Jesus stoned to death on another occasion. He tried to destroy the work of redemption by having some people try to throw him over a cliff on another occasion. He tried to destroy the work of redemption by having some people try to throw him over a cliff on another occasion. He tried to slow down the processes of world salvation

when he came to the cross and he slew the Prince of Glory and all the demons of hell thought they had won the victory. Man is going to be lost forever. There is absolutely no possibility of man being saved now because we've crucified the Lord of glory. And on the third day, Jesus burst forth from the bonds of death with the keys of death

and hell in his hands. And Satan and all the minions of hell realized they had made a fatal mistake. Jesus was alive. Satan said, maybe it's not too late yet. Maybe I can still,

maybe I can still destroy the process of salvation. And so he began to send out little lies. Well, they just stole the body. And it was a figment of their imagination. They had an epileptic fit and all sorts of things. But 2,000 years, 2,000 years, Jesus has been alive and living in the hearts of men. You know what Satan has done?

You know what Satan's up-to what Satan's up to date method is to try to destroy the process of world redemption he'll say I'll get men to believe in themselves I'll flood the market with books and courses

on self-improvement and self-motivation I'll get men to believing in themselves and I'll just vaccinate men with pride and egotism and haughtiness and self-sufficiency and I'll get him to believing he's able he's able just by living a good ordinary decent life to

satisfy the claims of God and you know the devil's been highly successful in that all came to a place where he says I admit I acknowledge it in my flesh in me there dwelleth no good thing listen this is so important this is the most important truth that a lost man will ever realize. I do not know how many church members in the past year and a half have come to me and said, Preacher, you know, all my life I thought that by joining the church and working in the church and doing these things all of my life, I thought somehow this was what salvation was. Oh, the devil has been terrifically successful in this. God can never give you salvation. You can never know the joy

of forgiving sin until you give up on yourself, until you're willing to humble yourself in the sight of God and give up. Have you done that? Have you ever done that? Has there ever been that moment in your life? Has there ever come this discovery in your life? Have you ever come to this place in your life when you've made this discovery and you've realized

that the only way you can ever satisfy God is by giving up on yourself and like Paul says, just embracing Jesus Christ in faith and hanging on for dear life. And when you do that, God saves you. Has that ever happened to you? Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.