Romans 7:7-13

0:58We'd all like to pretend like our sins aren't our fault, but they are our fault. But in the passages that we've studied so far in Romans, it sounds almost like Paul is saying that his sins are the law's fault. Sounds like he's blaming the law. He said some very difficult things about the law, about the Mosaic law. Law. He said, righteousness of God is apart from the law. He said, by the works of the law, no person will be declared righteous. He said, the law produced wrath. The law increases the trespass. The law slipped in. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And so we spoke last time about how now Paul has some explaining to do. If the law was something to be cherished, something wonderful that we hear all over Scripture, the law was given to God's people as a gift. If that's true, then how can Paul be saying these things about the law?

2:12Is he saying that the law is bad? Is he saying that the law is sin? Is he saying that the law causes death? And so in this chapter, Romans chapter 7, he's spending some time describing our relationship to the law. How should we think about the law? What's our relationship to the law? Last time we heard that when we became a Christian, we died with Christ. And since we died with Christ, we died to the law. And so we're free from the law and free from the law's demands.

2:48And so we can bear fruit for God. We can reject the flesh. We can serve in the spirit. These are themes that he'll continue throughout the rest of the book of Romans. But in our passage today, he... Asked the question that we've been waiting for. He asked the question that we've been wondering about, verse 7. Romans 7, verse 7. What then shall we say that the law is sin? That's the main question, the main point of our passage today. What shall we say is the law sin?

3:23And in a rare event for the book of Romans, he switches to the first person. He hasn't really done that. But for the whole rest of the chapter in Romans chapter 7, he's going to be speaking about his own personal experience, explaining what was it like for him when he encountered the law. And then, after he becomes a believer, even then, what is it like for him to still have the flesh, to still struggle with sin? Well, the main point for today is that the law is not sin. Sin is sin. It's pretty clear, right? The law is not sin. Sin is sin. It is not the law that is to blame. The law is good.

4:11But our sin is sinful beyond measure. It is our own sin. It is us. It is our own sin that is to blame. And so as Paul explains this, he's going to give us three traits about our sin. Three traits of our sin. Three traits of our sin. Sin is twisted, sin is lethal, and sin is excessive. Sin is twisted, sin is lethal, and sin is excessive. And I think this will be so helpful for us because as we go through this, we can remember that, yes, we have been saved from our sins. Romans 6: yes, sin is no longer our master. And yet, we still live in these tents, we still have these sinful bodies, this flesh that we're waiting for, for God to completely change and renew and redeem and change forever.

5:11We're waiting for that. While we wait this morning, we can learn a little bit about how to fight that sin. We can learn a little bit about our sin. So, follow along as I read Romans 7, verses 7 through 13. What shall we say then? That the law is sin by no means. Yet, 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.

5:51But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies. Dead. I once was 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.

6:26Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. Pray with me. Father, we pray that you would help us. As we study this text, we need your help. We need your help to understand these things, to understand the law, to understand our sin, to understand our salvation in Christ.

6:58So, Father, we do pray for your help. We're so grateful for your word. It's such a thrill for us. It's such a joy for us to be able to come before your word and learn truth, truth that we can trust, truth that we can depend on forever. So, Father, as we come, I pray that you would help us come humbly before this passage. I pray that you would help us learn through the apostles' words, learn about the law, learn about our sins. Sin, be better equipped to fight our sin.

7:36We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the first trait of our sin is that it is twisted. Sin is twisted. The law teaches, but sin twists. The law teaches, but sin twists. Look at verse 7. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet 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. So he asks the question right away, and he answers it right away. Is the law sin? No. No way, by no means, no chance. The law is good. It is not sin. The law is good, and the law teaches us. If it had not been for the law, he says, 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.

8:54Now we know from Romans chapter 1, we've studied this together already. We know that. The entire world is in sin, Romans 3, but Romans 1, that God has given up, even people who don't know anything about the law, God has given them up to their own desires. They desire to sin, they know it's rebellion against God, it's rebellion against nature, against God's creation, and He gives them up to chase after their own desires. The world knows what it's doing, and yet those sins, as the world, chases after this downward spiral of sin, in a sense, it's unformed until we hear the commandments of God.

9:48For the Jew, this came through the Mosaic law, summarized by the Ten Commandments, and we get the tenth one as an example here: you shall not covet. So, before hearing this law, we still have covetous desires, we still sin, but something about hearing that law makes us want to sin even more. And the law teaches us, it puts a name to our guilt, it shows us what our desires, you know, before we hear the commandment of God, we covet.

10:30We might call it something different. We might pretend it's not that bad. We might be chasing the American dream or something like that. But when the law comes, it says you shall not covet, and that is named, that sin is named for what it is, and our guilt is exposed. That's what the law does. It magnifies what's there, it puts it in clarity. You know, if you have trouble reading because it's blurry, and you get a magnifying glass, and all of a sudden it makes it clear.

11:07Or better, did you ever play with those red lenses? I don't know if this is common, but like, you know, you look at, when you're a kid, you'd have like a sheet of paper and have all the little red dots on it, and you look through the red lens and you can see the picture underneath. You know what I'm talking about? No? Okay. Some of you. Some of you, yes, some of you know. But, you know, you look through the lens and all of a sudden that picture is defined. It's there. It was there all along. But it's called out for what it is. That's what the law does to our sin. It calls it out. It exposes it. It's a good thing for the law to do that, but our sin is so twisted that it takes that good opportunity where we should be convicted, where we should be repentant.

11:57It takes that opportunity and it. Produces just a more well-defined, active, educated rebellion against God. That's how twisted our sin is. Verse 8, but sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. So, yes, the law is good. Yes, the law teaches, it exposes what the sin was, but our sin is so twisted that it just seizes the opportunity of hearing the law to sin even more.

12:44The sin is always there. It's like something lurking. The sin is already there, and when it hears the law, it sins even more. It takes that as an opportunity to pounce and sin even more. We know this is true, right? We know this is true of our own heart. We see it that knowing that something is wrong makes me want to do it. We see that in our flesh all the time. Knowing that something is wrong makes me want to do it. We see it in our kids. When they learn that something is wrong, now all of a sudden they really want to do that one thing. You know, the one toy they can't have, that's the only thing they want.

13:30Fruit becomes more enticing when it is forbidden. We want the forbidden fruit. One time in his confessions, Augustine writes about how he and his friends, I think they were pears, they stole some pears. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but they stole some pears and then they threw them away later. They didn't even want them. He just wanted the act of doing something wrong as a sinner. And he said, This, I stole something which I had in plenty and of much better quality. My desire was to enjoy not what I sought by stealing, but merely the excitement of thieving and doing what was wrong.

14:17So, fruit, and in his case, literal fruit, but for any of us, fruit becomes more enticing when it is forbidden. Our sin is so twisted that when we hear that something is forbidden, our flesh wants it more. This is our fault. It is not the law's fault. That's Paul's point. The law is perfect. The law teaches. It's well-designed. You know, just because someone takes a well-designed, sturdy folding chair and uses that folding chair in a world wrestling match.

15:00For something wicked that doesn't all of a sudden destroy the dignity of that engineering that went into making that chair sturdy and well-designed. You can take something noble and good and use it for wicked purposes. He's saying that's what our sin does with the law. It takes something that was good, that is holy and righteous and just, and it uses it to sin all the more. The law instructs as a positive, but even a positive number all the way to infinity, when you multiply it by a negative, it becomes a negative, right? And our sin is always negative. It ruins everything by taking what is good and twisting it into something, an opportunity for more evil. Verse 8, since the law, sin lies dead. You know, he's saying it produced all kinds of covetousness. He already had covetous desires, but it's producing all kinds of covetousness. And really, that's a good example because in the law, if you remember, in the Ten Commandments, he gives examples for the covetousness. Some of the other ones, he just says, you know, you shall not murder. But for covetousness, he lists off all kinds of covetousness. You know, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not covet this. You shall not cover that. That, covet that.

16:32Paul's saying here, when he heard that command as an unbeliever, all it does to our sin is make it want to covet even more. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. What does he mean by that? Apart from the law, sin lies dead. He can't mean that before we hear God's commands, that we're sinless, right? He's already made that so clear for the whole letter. He can't mean that our sin is lying dead as in we're sinless. I think what he's describing is kind of figuratively this picture of this dormancy of sin lying there, ready to be woken up.

17:22The law, when it comes and it instructs, sin comes alive, it wakes up and it pounces and it takes the opportunity to sin even more. Which leads to our next point: sin is lethal. Sin is lethal. The law was meant for life, but sin kills. Look at verse 9. I once was 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.

18:13I once was alive apart from the law. Again, I don't think he can be saying something like he was sinless, he was living apart from the law. We know from the book that Paul himself has already made the point over and over that we all sin even before we hear the commandment. And so I think he must be saying something like he said in Romans 5:13. Do you remember this? He says, For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Sin is not counted. It's not invoiced, is what we translated that word as when we studied it. It's not specifically invoiced, it's not counted.

18:58Yes, people, before the law was ever even given, yes, they were sinning, and there was death as a consequence of those sins. But then when the law came, it specifically started to name those sins. And the result was death. Death for any individual who hears the law. Because when we hear it and we're still in our sinful flesh, it only condemns us. It only causes this death. And it only causes. Sin to rear its head and sin all the more. You know, this is the same thing that happened to Adam, right, when he hears the commandment of God.

19:40Now, all of a sudden, that fruit is enticing. This is the same thing that happened to Israel over and over, who had the law, the full Mosaic law. They break it over and over. I think what Paul is describing is the outcome of any individual in the human race that hears the law. Our response is death. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. It's not the answer, like we talked about a few weeks ago. If somebody is wallowing in their sin and they want to be saved, the answer is not. Give them the law, give them religious deeds, pretend that they can do some rituals or ceremonies to make up for what they've done. That's not the answer. We need the grace of our Lord. So the law promised life, he says. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Just want to point out what he's talking about. We already read in Deuteronomy chapter 30 in the scripture reading this morning, we read about how he's saying, These words are your life. You need to obey them to stay in the land. And now in Deuteronomy chapter 32, this is near the very end. End of his life, Moses' life.

21:04In fact, if you look at Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 48, it says, That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, go up this mountain of the Abarem, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession, and die on the mountain which you go up and be gathered to your people. Verse 51, because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah. And so God is commanding him on the day that he receives the words that we're about to read. God commands Moses to go up on that mountain and die. And so Moses gives one final blessing and then goes up on the mountain, sees the land that the people are going to get to enter, and then dies on the mountain. Well, right before this, right before those final actions of Moses, these are the last words. Look at verse 45. When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law, for it is no empty word for you, but your very life.

22:24And by this word, you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. Death. You see what he's saying there? These are some of his final words. And Moses is challenging them, saying, when you get in the land, don't treat this law, these commandments, don't treat them as empty words, as having nothing to do with you. No, these words, this law is your very life. And so to the nation of Israel, as they enter the land, these words, these commandments, this law, it is their life. It is what promised life for them. But on an individual level, when you're talking about the individual sinner, Paul says that even as an Israelite, on an individual level, when you hear the law, it condemns, it brings death. Because we don't keep the law perfectly, we do covet and everything else.

23:26And so the only response is not, I broke a law. Oh, I need to keep a law, keep a law, keep a law, keep a law, and then it'll be summed up to zero. I'll be okay again. That's not the answer. The answer, like righteous King David, when he sinned, is to admit I can't keep the law, to beg forgiveness from God. Yes, for the nation of Israel, you're not. God promised life to them in the land. But Paul is saying here, and you can turn back to our text, Romans 7, Paul is saying here that when an individual reads this law, all that happens is he's condemned. He's dead.

24:16It spurs him on to sin even more, though it promises life. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. Why? Verse 11. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed me. Sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it, killed me. So again, the law is not the answer to our need for forgiveness. We cannot do enough righteous things to make up for the wicked things we've done. The only answer is a heart change, something that's accomplished by God on our behalf, where God steps in and changes us. Our sin is so wicked, so twisted, that no matter how many good things you feed it from the law, it's only going to twist and twist and twist and lead to death and death and death.

25:24It's not an issue of increasing the quantity of the law that we're going to be. You receive. The law is already good. Our sinful heart just takes that and twists it and produces more evil. It deceives and it kills. It betrays us. The only answer is to be changed by God Himself. So, seizing an opportunity, when He says that, that speaks of kind of this treacherous betrayal of our own sin against us. You know, you can picture that, right? Seizing an opportunity, it pounces.

26:03It was the same for the most famous treachery in our nation, right? Benedict Arnold. That though, in present time, it seemed to them like this was out of nowhere. That this person that was trusted, you know, suddenly something weird happened and he just betrayed. That's what it seemed like, but the reality is this was already festering in his heart. Do you remember? He was snubbed over and over for command positions. He was looked over, and his peers were promoted instead of him. His wife incurs this huge debt that they can't pay off, and they're in trouble. His wife is actively encouraging him to betray the Americans and join the British. And so, all of these things, you can tell it's just building up over. Time and so that all that's left waiting is a good opportunity. And that's the same as the sin in our heart. When Benedict Arnold is finally trusted by George Washington and given the command post at the fort at West Point, he seizes that opportunity to deliver on what was already festering in his heart. And when our sin hears the law, that which was festering below the surface hears that law and seizes the opportunity to come and kill.

27:39It's lethal. It's twisted. It's lethal. And the third trait of our sin is that it is excessive. Excessive. The law is perfect, but sin is excessive. So first he goes back to this overarching point of this whole chapter, verse 12. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Again, just making that so clear for us. The law, I think, as a whole, the law is holy. The law is sanctified. It is holy. It is perfect. You can't charge the law. You can't point at the law and say that is. Sinful because it caused more sin in my life. No, you can't do that. The law is perfect.

28:38Not only that, but it seems to be like he's saying the specific commandments from God. So he says the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So he says the same thing about the commandment: that it is holy. It is perfect. It is sanctified. Even individual commandments, like you shall not covet, you know, that is something holy. You can't point at that and say that is unholy, or that is bad, or that is unrighteous. No, it is holy and righteous and good. It's righteous in that it was right for God to give it to them.

29:17You can't charge God with wickedness for giving the law. You can't say that law made me sin even more. And so God was not right to give it to me. No, the law is righteous. It was a righteous, upright thing for God to give the law. And he says that it is good. The commandment is good. You can't say that it was bad for God to give the law. No, the law itself was a manifestation of God's goodness. It was a kind, good thing for God to give the law, even though it led to more rebellion. He still gave a good command. So, verse 12 again: So the law is holy, the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Verse 13. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?

30:07By no means. It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. So, did the law bring death? That's the new question in verse 13. Did the law bring death? No. The law is good. Good things do not bring death. The law did not bring death. Death resulted when the law came, but it's not because the law brought death. It's because our sin brought death.

30:48Even in response to something good, it was sin, he says, producing death in me through what is good. Sin producing death in me through what is good. Why? What is the result? Paul says, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. Sinful in the extreme. The law shows the true nature of sin. First, like we already said, because it defines it. Because it names it, it calls it what it is, it says you shall not covet.

31:36But beyond that, the law shows the true nature of sin because it provides that opportunity for sin to rebel all the more, to rebel in the face of the law, so that we sin beyond measure, we sin to the extreme. And so the law, beyond merely defining our sin, it reveals the true hidden nature of our sin. It makes it come out. It's like a sting operation. I don't know if you guys read the articles this week, but I read in the paper that there is this global sting operation. Did you guys hear this? With the FBI, the FBI teamed up with Australia's version of the FBI. And they had made these devices that for the last 18 months they had spun the tail that these devices are so secure and they got them infiltrated into all these underground criminal networks. And so they're sending each other messages on all these devices. And all this time, the FBI is just listening to these criminal organizations. And it says, this massive international sting involving 16 countries has netted more than 800 suspects. A seizure of eight tons of COVID. Cocaine, 22 tons of marijuana, 2 tons of methamphetamines, 250 firearms, and more than 48 million dollars. It's a lot, right?

33:10Operation Trojan Shield, you can look it up. But when these criminal networks had this opportunity to sin in a way that they thought was secret, they seized on that opportunity and made the depths of their criminality known and obvious and out in the open. And I believe that that's what Paul is saying here about the law: that when sin, when our own flesh heard the law as an unbeliever, when we hear that God wants something from us, our sin in that moment is revealed in the depths of its sin, in that we rebel against what God wants. And it becomes that much more out in the open. It becomes that much more wicked, sinful beyond measure, sinful to the extreme. He says, sin is shown to be sin. And through the commandment, becomes sinful beyond measure.

34:15You know, our sin is not satisfied by just a little bit of sin. Our sin never wants to just dip its toe in the water. Our flesh never wants to stop at just a little bit of sin. It wants to go all the way. It wants to, when it hears the law, instead of saying, Oh, well, that was enough sin, you know, I'm going to be done with that. When it hears the law, it instead is spurred on to just sin all the more.

34:54Remember, again, Romans 1: this is the cycle that you see, that spiral. God gives them up to their own desires. But the world doesn't then say, Oh, that was very satisfying, we're done. No, they just desire more, and then God gives them up to those twisted desires, and then they desire more, and God gives them up to those twisted desires, and it just goes on and on as the world rebels against the Creator. Sin is never satisfied, it's excessive, it's going to go to the extreme always.

35:37The same goes for our flesh as unbelievers. No, of course, I'm not saying that we sinned as bad as some other person that we can say sinned worse than us. But I am saying that our sin as an unbeliever seizes on these opportunities to go all the way. Specifically reacting against the commandments that we hear from God. It's just like when you take that first bite of food, you weren't even really hungry, but then you take the first bite, and all of a sudden you're starving, right? The hors d'oeuvres make you really hungry. I know that's happened to you.

36:21It's the same with our sin. We sin a little, and all of a sudden we want to sin to the extreme. We're not satisfied, we want to keep going. That's our flesh. That's the flesh that we still live with. The law teaches, but sin twists. The law promises life, but sin kills. The law is perfect, but sin is extreme. There's no wickedness in the law. We can't point our finger at the law and say that was wicked. That was not right for God to give the law. No, it was holy and righteous and just. But our sin is so twisted and so evil, so sinful beyond measure, that it takes something good and holy and just and twists it into an opportunity for evil.

37:04So, how should we apply this reality as the church, as believers who have already been set free from the slave master of sin, as we studied in Romans chapter 6? Well, I think first, I think we should know and remember this reality of our sin. Remember where we were, remember how stuck we were. You know, it's like we had a sickness that when someone tried to give us the medicine, it only made us more sick. We were so stuck that no matter how many times somebody told us the commands of God, that only made us want to sin more. There was nothing that we could do to break that cycle.

37:51There's no amount of rules we could hear that would suddenly make us want to be righteous. So, as believers, we should give thanks to God that though we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he made us alive together with Christ. We should be grateful. We should be thankful. We should never stop remembering that truth. The second application, I think, is to know your enemy, know what you're dealing with. Again, yes, you have been set free from that slave master of sin.

38:24Before you were a believer, you had no choice. You were in bondage to sin. But as a believer, you're still in this mortal flesh. We're still waiting for our redeemed bodies. We still are tempted to sin. And I believe that sin uses the same strategies that it did before. I believe that it is good for us to know that sin is twisted, that one of the temptations that's going to come to our flesh is to take something good and twist it into an opportunity for evil.

39:00Something innocent and pure and wonderful and twist it into something wicked. I believe that while we're still in this mortal flesh, our sin is still deceptively lethal. That something sounds satisfying and sounds like it'll give life or enjoyment. And then we partake in that activity and we just get crushed by the guilt that follows. I believe it's good for us to know that sin is deceptively excessive. While we're still in these mortal bodies, that we pretend as we're fighting sin, we have this big bad sin in our minds. And so we say, okay, well, I'll just kind of satisfy myself by compromising, just sinning a little bit so that I don't go there.

39:49You're going to go there. It's not how it works if you're struggling against temptation. It doesn't work to compromise with sin and try and just sin a little to satisfy yourself. Your sin is excessive. And so I think that if we're aware of this deceptive nature of our own sinful flesh, then I think we can be better armed to fight it, knowing that our sin is twisted and lethal and excessive. We no longer have to serve sin, but we have the option to serve sin. And so I think while we have the option in these bodies, it's good for us to understand. A third application, a positive one for the believer, the same as we Studied last time we were in Romans, that we should love the law. Again, he has exonerated the law itself. He has proven that it's never the law that's wicked. The law is not something to be despised. It's not a part of your Bible that you can just never turn to.

40:49It's not a part of scripture that we throw away. The law is something we should love. It is holy and righteous and just and pure. It is good. It shows the goodness of God. And so, as believers, I think, again, we should be people that cherish the law, that seek to study it and meditate on it and chew on it, so that we can understand: okay, what was God's character behind giving this law? What was his desire for them? Why did he give this commandment? And how can we seek to obey those same desires, even though we're free from the law? How can we seek to please God?

41:28So we shouldn't avoid the law. We should love it. One more application, a final application for those of you who aren't believers yet. If you're still in your sins, children at VBS, if you still have that burden that you haven't come to the cross with, if you're still in your sins, if you haven't trusted in Jesus, if you haven't repented and turned from your sins, chasing after moralism and religious deeds. It's not going to work. Training yourself in what is right and what is moral and what is holy, that's not going to work to get you out of your sin. It's only going to stir up more sin in your heart. You're going to be trapped. You can try it if you want to, but you're going to be trapped. You're just going to sin more. You're never going to be able to get rid of your sin. You're never going to be able to get rid of the penalty of your sin, the punishment, the condemnation that you deserve, that I deserve for my sin.

42:34So I just encourage you to ask God for forgiveness. Ask Him to free you from these sins. Your sin is deceiving you. But don't hear that and think that you're some kind of victim and that your sin is not your fault. Your sin is your fault. My sin is my fault. But our sin also deceives us. It makes us think that everything's fine when everything's not fine. Condemnation awaits the sinner. We need to be forgiven. So come to Christ and ask for forgiveness. Pray with me.

43:23Father, we do give you great thanks that as believers we have the joy and the freedom of being free from our Sin forever. We thank you that there is no penalty for our sin any longer because the penalty has been paid by Jesus Christ Himself on the cross. We thank you that you caused us to be born again. You brought us life. You changed us so that we're no longer dead in the trespasses and sins of our flesh.

44:04Instead, you brought us out of that cycle of being trapped. You brought us out of that cycle of always sinning and sinning more, and sinning against the law, against your commandments, against your desires. You changed us. You changed our heart. And I pray that you'd help us give thanks to you. I pray that you would help us in our fight against sin. Your scriptures are so clear about how sin works and how sin deceives, and what a privilege it is for us to read that and learn the secret behind sin's game that we could fight it better, that we could not fall for those temptations.

44:45And so help us, Father, even this week, as we seek to fight sin in our life, as we seek to not give in to temptation. I pray that you would help us understand sin's nature so that we can live in a way. Moment by moment that pleases you, even this week, while we still live in this sinful flesh. Help us love the law. Help us meditate on it. Help us learn from it. Help us be joyful.

45:19We thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, Amen.