THEME God’s rules (the Law) perfectly prepare us by Humbling us on the one hand and Guiding us to God’s help on the other.

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS 1.There’s just one God & yer not Him! 2.God is always your #1. 3.Watch your mouth about God. 4.Git yourself to Sunday meeting. 5.Always value yer Ma & Pa. 6.Protect the lives of others. 7.Respect the other fella’s gal. 8.Respect the other fella’s stuff. 9.Watch yer mouth in front of your buds. 10.Keep yer eyes on your own stuff.

What Would Life Be Like Without God? We would not know who we are. –We would guess We would not know why we are here. –We would guess We would not know what to do. –We would guess We would not be able to do the right thing –We would try

Romans 7 Tells Us… What life would be like without the HOLY SPIRIT to guide us. The Spirit personally informs us about the right thing to do. What life would be like without GRACE to enable us. Grace is divine enablement to actually do the right thing.

1. God Gave Us Rules To Follow. What are the rules for?

7:1 Do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to men who know the law--that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? A. Rules Are For A Lifetime, Ro 7:1-3

4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. B. Rules lead us to a useful, fruitful life, Ro 7:4

Before We Knew God: We treated Him like an alien, we treated Him like an enemy. The rules were impossible keep, as we had no way to keep them His rules became an inconvenience to be avoided or manipulate for our own gain After We Came To Know God: We treat Him Like A Father (which He is) We love Him and can’t do enough for Him Pleasing Him is the highlight of our life. Before Knowing Him: We were alienated from God and kept company with sin. After Coming To Know God: We love God and sin became our enemy. C. Summary: The Relationship Between God, Rules & People

5 …We were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. 7a What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law… 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 2. Before We Found Christ: The Rules Revealed And Aroused Our Rebellious Nature, Ro. 7:5-12

3. After We Found Christ: The Rules humble us and reveal our inability to do good without God’s help, Ro 7:13-20

13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. A. Our Struggle With Sin Without Grace

The Rules are Good. It Is Sin that is BAD! If the rules go away, –We would not know we are sinners –We would not know God’s will –We would not know how much we need God’s help to do good Without God’s help (Grace) I am always frustrated If we are frustrated now it is because: –We are depending on our own strength to do His will –We are depending on SELF to follow His rules B. Our Struggle Explained

4. Summary: I Need God Every Minute To Do His Will, Ro 7:21-25

21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? A. My Difficult Situation

25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. B. God’s Magnificent Plan To Rescue Me!

THEME God’s rules (the Law) perfectly prepare us by Humbling us on the one hand and Guiding us to God’s help on the other.

GOD LOVES US We matter to God. He made us, and He wants to have a relationship with us.

WE BLEW IT We rebelled against God. Both actively and passively, we've all disobeyed Him. And our sins have separated us from Him, and broken off the relationship.

SEPARATION Most of us are aware of our distance from God. And so we start doing things to try to get back to Him like being a helpful neighbor, paying our taxes, going to church, and giving money to charities. There's nothing wrong with these, but the Bible makes it clear that none of them can earn us God's forgiveness or re-establish our relationship with Him.

PUNISHMENT Furthermore, the sins we've committed must be punished, and the penalty we owe is death, which means both physical death as well as spiritual separation from God for eternity, in a place called hell.

GOOD NEWS But there's good news; God did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, by building a bridge back to himself.

HOW?? CHRIST PAID FOR IT by dying on the cross as our substitute. He paid the spiritual death penalty that we owed, and he rose from the dead to give us HIS life.

JUST KNOWING IS NOT ENOUGH We MUST receive Him. We must follow the path that He has laid out for us.

WHERE ARE YOU? Are you on the Far Left? In the Middle Left? On the Left Ledge?