If you would turn with me in
your Bibles to Romans 7. Our text will be in Romans 7,
verse 15. I've titled the message this
morning, The Struggle Within. Here in Romans 7, verse 15, Paul
writes, For that which I do, I allow not. Paul here is admitting
to doing things that he doesn't approve or consent of. And then he continues and says,
for what I would, for what I would do, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. This describes a struggle within. Do you struggle within? I do. We all struggle within if we're
honest with ourselves. Have you ever heard the phrase,
the heavens are as brass? It comes from Deuteronomy chapter
28, verse 23. And when someone says the heavens
are as brass, they usually mean that they feel cut off from divine
help and guidance that God is deaf to their petitions and their
cries. It feels as though God is ignoring
their prayers, their cries for help fall on deaf ears. The heavens
are as brass. My words are not getting through
to God. And it's a metaphor for spiritual
drought and silence from God. It's just if the Lord hides Himself
for a while. And He does so to allow His sons
and His daughters to see just how wretched they are by nature
if God were to leave them to themselves. You know, if the
Lord would leave us to ourselves, just let us have our way, our
will. We can fathom the depths to wickedness
that we would fall. Have you ever felt or experienced
the heavens to be as brass? I certainly have. And I confess
to you this morning, even as of late. However, the scriptures
declare that the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us, not
his people. not the true child of God. So
when this spiritual dry spell takes place, you can be assured
that the problem is not with God. This problem results from
what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter seven, and that's
the dwelling sin in a believer. It's the ongoing struggle within
with sin and self that remains even in the elect people until
their sinful nature is in the end fully and finally removed. That's what Paul's describing
in our text. For that which I do, I allow
not. Now that word allow there means
no. In other words, Paul's saying,
I don't know why I do what I do. You know what? Neither do I.
I don't know why I do what I do. Well, I do, in dwelling sin. The sin within me is why. Why do I allow these things when
I know they're wrong? I don't know why I did that again. You ever said that? I don't know
why I did that. And usually I say, I don't know
why I did that again and again and again. Why do I keep doing
that? That's what Paul was saying.
Have you ever said that? I don't understand why I do the
things that I do. I know what I should do, but
that I do not. It's a struggle. And then Paul
adds something that is very apparent to me about myself. He says,
but what I hate, that do I. Even right before I do it, I
tell myself, don't do that, don't do it, don't do it. Don't think
it, don't say it, don't act upon it, but I do. And I hate that,
I hate it, I hate it. How do we as believers find any
comfort, any assurance, any encouragement that we're saved when we do these
things over and over and over again? I'm fixing to tell you. The same way as God's elect did
who went before us. We must get into the Scriptures,
the Word of God, to see what God's chosen people throughout
the ages before us did and how and why God delivered them. We must open the Word of God
and seek and search to find this comfort, this hope and assurance
that we are truly in the Lord Jesus Christ who does everything
for us. He kept God's law for us. He
satisfied God's justice on our behalf. And now when God looks
at you and I, when we're in Christ, we are conformed to Him, and
He sees His beloved Son instead of the wretches we are. Christ
in you, friends, is the hope of glory, Colossians 127. And
recently, I mean recently, I've asked myself the same old questions
that I've asked myself many times through all the years. How could
someone who professes and believes to know God and trust Christ
think and say the things that I do? And I'll tell you something
that makes it even a little more difficult for me in the last
15 or so years, and that's to add to the fact that I am a preacher
and a pastor. It's because I'm first a sinner. It's because sin's what I am. How could I, the guilty sinner
that I am, have such feelings of judgment toward others when
God has spared judgment on me? The Lord Jesus said, judge not, and
you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not
be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Yet I still struggle. Struggle within. judging others,
condemning others, and not forgiving others. There's something wrong with me. It's
called sin. How could I, to whom Christ has
been so patient, so long-suffering, be so impatient toward others?
How could I, who the Lord has every reason to ignore and discard
and condemn, be so cold and distant to others who do not act as I
think they should? These are the things that have
inspired and encouraged me to bring this message this morning. I've got to confess to you, and
maybe I shouldn't, that many times because of these things
that I struggle with within, out of guilt and unworthiness,
I just feel like quitting. I feel like I'm such a failure. How can I encourage you to strive
to press on when I myself struggle to do so? I'm ashamed of what's
inside of me. I feel as though you deserve
better than me as an under shepherd. Why do I keep doing the things
that I do? You ever ask yourself that? And then I look in God's Word
and I see that I'm not the only one. Even the Apostle Paul, a
man highly used of God, wrote the majority of the New Testament. Says in verse 19, for the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do. Then in verse 21, he adds this,
when I would do good, evil is present with me. Friends, God is revealing to
me more and more that evil is present. The evil that is present
with me is me. Look at verse 22. Paul says,
for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Paul's
been born again. He's been made a new creature
in Christ. But he says, and after that inward
man, I delight in the law of God. But, verse 23, I see another
law in my members, warring. against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity, into bondage and slavery to the law
of sin, which is in my members." And what does he conclude? Oh,
wretched man that I am. Now, a lot of folks that profess
to be believers say, I used to be a sinner. I used to be wretched. Paul said, I still am. I'm the
wretched one. I'm telling you this morning,
I am the wretched one. It's deep within me, it's in
my members. By nature, sin and wretchedness
is what I am. Look up at verse 18. Paul says,
for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, in my members dwells
some good thing. It's mostly good, not perfect.
How many times have you heard folks say, oh, I'm not perfect,
but I ain't all that bad. I sure ain't evil. I'm basically
good. No! Dwelleth no good thing. For to will, to will to do good
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I
find not. I can't find it. I look within,
I can't find it. Paul is describing the battle
within himself. We see Paul's struggle and ours
in these verses. It's the conflict of two natures.
The inability of the law to save, and most importantly, The need of
Christ, it always, always comes back to that, our need of Christ. Do you see your need of Christ
this morning? Oh, if you have that struggle within, you do. To our believer, to a believer,
our text is one of the most relatable verses in all the scripture.
I can so relate to this. When Paul says, oh, wretched
man that I am, I can relate. Most who struggle with sin see
it as a sign of failure. That's always been my struggle. Our failures cause us to feel
like we don't have any faith. Self-will's not enough. You know,
I can, and I have, I can say to myself, don't do that anymore,
don't do that anymore, I'm not gonna do that anymore, I'm not
gonna do any of that more, just willing it to be so, and it never
happens. It's not enough. Paul's frustration
shows that just knowing the right thing isn't enough. I know that
what I do, I shouldn't do. That's what Paul's saying. But
I do it anyway, and I hate it when I do it. It's a struggle. Many people try to overcome sin
through willpower alone. Willpower will not do it. We
cannot not sin. And Romans 7 teaches that human
effort cannot defeat sin. No matter how we try, we need
the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit Our struggle
with sin should cause us to see the importance of God's mercy
and grace. It's so easy for us to start
looking to ourselves instead of looking to Christ. And how
many times, those of you who have heard me preach often, have
I preached and encouraged you not to look to yourself. Keep
your eyes on Christ. And I need to remember that I've
got to do the same. Preachers aren't exempt from
it. Pastors not exempt from it. Believers are not exempt from
it. We've got to keep our eyes on Christ who did for us what
we cannot do. Who did for us what God requires
of us that we cannot do. Pastors, preachers, most mature
believers are not exempt from sin. Paul wasn't. Peter wouldn't. John wouldn't. James wouldn't. None are! We're
all sinners. We must too keep our body under,
keep our flesh in subjection. Keep believing or we ourselves
will become, Paul called it castaways. You know what a castaway is. That word castaway in the scripture
means disqualified. It means rejected. It means unfit. And none of us are exempt from
unbelief. It's full of all of us. And that's what this is talking
about. Looking to self instead of Christ? What's the epitome
of unbelief and disobedience? And it'll disqualify you. It'll
make you a castaway. Why didn't Israel enter into
the land of promise? Hebrews is very clear, because
of unbelief. Unbelief. It's the one thing
that'll keep you out of heaven. Of eternal fellowship with God. Unbelief. It'll cause you to quit. It'll
cause you to give up. Paul said very adamantly that
a man can preach to others and himself be disqualified from
grace, be a castaway. Oh, I sure don't want that. We must
endure to the end. We must remain faithful. For how long? To the end of our
trial? Most definitely. To the end of
our life? Absolutely. And I'm not certain
what the end here signifies, but I do know that the only way
any of us will endure to the end is by the love and grace
of Christ to us. You see, speaking of the Lord
Jesus, the Bible says, for having loved his own, his people, those
that he died for, not the whole world. He said his own, which
were in the world. That's who God loves, his people
in the world. He loved them unto the end. To whatever end we endure, we
will be the same end unto which Christ loved us. If Christ didn't
love me to the end, no way I'll endure to the end. His love for us will keep us
enduring and keep us persevering. And we persevere only because
Christ has preserved us. And what great encouragement
this is to me and my struggles within. My struggles with unbelief
and sin. I remember an old friend of mine
who's no longer with us. He was a professing believer.
One time he was professing his concern and sin to me about exactly
what I'm talking about. How could a believer think the
things I think, say the things I say, act the way I act? In
an effort to try to comfort him a little, I said, I know, I'm
the same way. And he said, well, no offense,
but I don't find much comfort in the fact that you're going
to hell with me. We don't find comfort there.
We're all in this mess, this shape, have this struggle within. I need some confidence that somebody's
done something for me and that person is Christ and Him alone. Psalm 121, 7 and 8, the Lord
shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. That's the encouragement that
I need. Christ makes me perfect and he
keeps me perfect. Psalm 37, 28, for the Lord loveth
judgment, and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever,
but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. Psalm 145, 20, the
Lord preserveth all them that love him, but all the wicked
will he destroy. The Lord Jesus said, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. and I'll
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish."
Boy, I like the sound of that. Never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. That's preservation. That's the
Lord enabling me to persevere because I'm in His hand. No man
can pluck me out of God's hand. We're in the hand of our great
Preserver. 1 Peter 1.5 says that we're kept,
how? By the power of God. 2 Timothy
4.17 says that God will preserve us unto His heavenly kingdom. Jude 1.1 says that we're preserved
in Jesus Christ and we're called. Jude 1.24, now unto Him. that
is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." This is
our hope. This is our confidence. Being
confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. What
does that mean, Luke? That means He's gonna keep me
to the end. That means I'm in His hand to the end. Nobody gonna
pluck me out of it. Just try. You'll fail. How wonderful and encouraging
it is to know that though our battle will continue, the victory's
already won. It's finished. The Lord said
that from the cross, it's finished. The work's accomplished. We've
got to rest in it. Now our text describes our ongoing
struggle, but in the next chapter, Romans 8, Paul shifts the focus
of our victory to Christ. He says, now there's no condemnation,
not in those who believe in Christ. Our eternal life as believers
is not about us trying to accomplish perfection, but relying on Christ
to provide perfection for us. That's what substitution is.
It's not a hard doctrine. We watch sports and we know what
a substitute is. This is in an infinite degree. May God enable us not to focus
on our insufficiencies, We do, we can't help to because we're
with them all the time. Nobody knows my failures like
me and I might add my wife, those that live with us, those who
know us well, but we need to focus on being
on Christ who is our sufficient substitute. I will not be condemned
for all my sufficiencies because now, right now, there's no condemnation
to them which are where? In Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ? No condemnation if you are. No
condemnation, my. Wonderful two words, no condemnation. Jesus Christ has made me free
from the law of sin and death. Now, look at verse 16 here in
Romans 7. Paul says, if then I do that
which I would not, I consented to the law that is good. Paul
is saying that when he sins against his own desires to do good, he's
actually proving that the law is right and good. It's the law
of God that reveals our sin and our wrongdoing to us. That's
why God gave the law. Not for us to keep, but to show
us we couldn't keep it. To cause us to lean on Him and
Him alone to fulfill the law for us. Look up in verse seven. What
shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. And what Paul is saying
there is clear that God's law isn't the problem. Sin is the
problem. And that sin is within us. That's
why the struggle is within us. The law itself is not sinful.
Rather, it reveals sin. It shines a light on sin. Without the law, people wouldn't
even recognize certain actions or desires as sinful. And in this case, Paul uses coveting,
desiring something that isn't yours. And he uses it in an example.
He says that he wouldn't have even realized that coveting was
wrong unless the law had pointed it out. The law isn't sinful. The law exposes sin. The law
is like a mirror. Listen, the law doesn't make
you filthy. It just exposes the dirt that's
already there. The law is holy, but it doesn't
have the power to save. It reveals our sinfulness, which
does what? Shows us our need of Christ. The problem lies within us, not
in God's commandments. The good news of the gospel is
Christ came into the world to save sinners. He didn't come
into the world to save good folks, those that are already in their
own mind, well, I've done, you know, like that rich young guru.
The Lord said, go and do this and do that. He said, well, I've
already done that. I've done that from my youth up. Then he met
him where he was and he said, He was blessed. He was a blessed
young man. He said, go sell all you got. Give it to the poor
and come and follow me. And then he went away sad. He
couldn't do it. Christ does for us what we can't
do for ourselves. Why do I keep doing the wicked
things that I do? I don't have any strength. I'm
sold under sin. I'm a slave to sin. Paul said
in Romans chapter five, verse six, that when you and I were
without strength to do anything ourselves, Christ died for the
ungodly. Paul's emphasizing the persuasive
nature of sin here in our life. Even for believers, sin is still
an internal force that must be resisted. He's not absolving personal responsibility,
but he's endeavoring to explain that struggle with the end. That
struggle that every believer faces, which again is the very
thing that reveals to us our need of Christ. Look at verse
17. Now then, it is no more but I
that do it. but sin that dwelleth in me.
I am a new creation, Paul is saying, created in Christ. I'm
born again. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. And friends, if you and I, especially
me, could truly get a hold of that, it would help us to understand
ourselves and others so much better. In my explanation of
this, some would say that I'm attempting to dodge responsibility
here. They accuse Paul of it. Oh, I
get it, Paul. You're not the problem. It's what's in you. Is that right? Do I understand
that right? Paul said, yes. If you understand
that, you understand it right. Paul is not saying it's not my
fault. Instead, he's dissecting the
human condition under sand. He's saying this is the problem.
This is why I don't do what I should. This is why I do what I shouldn't
do. He's recognizing there's a deeper
power at work here, and it's called indwelling sand. And I believe that this verse
so well describes and explains my problem and my personal failures that often cause me to want to
give up. And as I said in the first hour,
knowing what is right is not enough. The law shows us but
it can't fix our problems. It just exposes our problems.
What fixes our problems? No, who fixes them? There's only
one. Who can? The sin that dwells
within keeps pulling us off course. Paul's building a case here which
explains that without Christ and without the Holy Spirit,
we find ourselves stuck in a losing battle. Paul's explaining the
frustration of wanting to do right, and at the same time being
enslaved by sin. Boy, that's a struggle. The sin that still dwells in
us. And it's not a cop-out. Paul
is talking about that old man within that we must crucify daily. And Paul in his writing talks
a great deal about that old man. Turn back a page or two to Romans
6. Look at verse 6. Paul writes, knowing this, that
our old man, our old self, who we were before Christ came into
our lives, is crucified, destroyed with Him, with the Lord. being
put to death when he was crucified, that the body of sin, that body
ruled by sin, this flesh that we dwell in, might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. Sin doesn't own us
anymore. Sin is not our master any longer. Verse seven, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. Death ends obligations. A dead man's not under the law.
If I go out this afternoon and commit a crime and get arrested
and sentenced to appear in court and I die, how's that law gonna
extract justice from me? I'm dead. We'll put his dead
body in prison. What good's that gonna do? I'm
dead to the law, dead to the sin, dead to the obligations,
no longer under sin's rule because we're dead with Christ. Sin has
no legal claim over us, nothing to claim from us. Well, Mr. David Edmondson, you owe $400
fine. How you gonna get it? Nothing to claim from us. Verse
8, now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also
live with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead, death hath no more dominion over Him. Christ
died and then rose again in a new life. The believer now lives
a new life in and with Him. Verse 10, for in that he died,
he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto
God. Christ's sacrifice for sin was
final. He died unto sin once. And sin
for the believer has been put away forever. You're not gonna knock on my
door in heaven's glory and say, hey, you know, we still found
this debt that you owe way back. No, uh-huh. It's paid in full. My Lord paid for it. Verse 11,
likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God. How? Through Jesus Christ our
Lord. The child of God in the same
way is dead to sin. Once we're dead in sin, but now
we're dead to sin. That's much better. We no longer
respond to sin. We're disconnected from sin.
You know, I get a little tickled because of modern day technology,
but you know, I've lived in a time where we had those Old phones
that had the rotary dial, you know. It'd take you half a day
to call somebody. And kids see that today, they
go, what is that? What is that? Kind of like someone
handed a young child not long ago a photograph. And they looked
at it and they went, trying to make that photograph bigger.
It don't work. Like it does on phones. Well, I said that to
say this. A dead phone won't answer a call. It's dead. We're dead to sin,
but we're alive under God. How? Through Jesus Christ. Verse 12, let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust
thereof, and neither yield ye your members as instruments of
righteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those
that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God. Sin doesn't control us anymore. Yield. Present. Offer. Beg God to help you with your sin. Beg God to help you to yield.
That word instrument literally means weapon. Our members' hands,
mouth, thoughts. Tongue. Unruly member. Can be a weapon for sin or a
weapon for righteousness. We've got to train our thoughts
to reflect God's truth. What did God say? Lord, you promised you said.
Help me. He said you would. We don't feed
our mind lies and lust and bitterness. Our mouths must be used as weapons
of righteousness to speak life and truth and grace. Not gossip
and hate and manipulation. Oh, if I could just catch myself before I do it. still fail so often. We must
not use the time we're given on our self-indulgence. Life
is short. And some of us are at the end
of it. We ought to be doing better,
for lack of a better term. We ought to be further along
than we are. I'm talking to me now. I said
earlier that the first message and this message is for me. May God enable you to listen
in if you need it, and I know you do. Oh, I've got to learn to treat
people with love and forgiveness and kindness, not hatred, unforgiveness,
and unpleasantness. Look at verse 14. For sin shall
not have dominion over you. Sin is not your master to rule
you. For you're not under the law,
but under grace. Whose grace belong to? The one who loved us and gave
Himself for us. The law condemned us when we
broke it. Grace sets us free from the law
of sin and death. We don't obey the law to earn
salvation. We obey the law because we already
have it. Verse 15, what then? Shall we
sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. If a man is no longer under the
law, and if grace now covers all his sin, can he just keep
on sinning? God forbid. Absolutely not. Don't even think about it, is
what Paul said. Watch the spit in the face of
Christ. You know, if you were drowning,
let's say you can't swim, you fell in, to deep water and someone
saves you, would you go jump back in the water just because
you know that that person could save you again? You say, well,
that's ridiculous. Exactly. It is ridiculous. And
that's just what men do when they continue in sin. That's
what sinning while being under grace is. It's abusing the very
thing that rescued you. It's spitting in Christ's face. Grace isn't a license to sin. Grace is a freedom from sin. If we use it as an excuse to
sin, then we don't understand grace at all. Now in closing,
I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4, just forward
a few pages. And I'll wrap this up. Ephesians
chapter 4, verse 22. That you put off concerning
the former conversation. That word conversation there
means manner of life. former manner of life, that old
man, the old man, which is what? Corrupt! According to the deceitful
lust. Our old man, our old self is
corrupt. Corrupt means rotting. It means
decaying. We're to put it off. We're to
take it off like dirty clothes, strip it off, throw them away. Don't try to clean the old man
up. Discard the corruptness. Burn
it. Starve it. Crucify it. It's out to do you harm. There's
an old story. I'm sure you've heard it. If
not, it's worth telling again. There was an old Cherokee Indian
chief who was teaching his grandson about life. And he told the young
boy, he said, son, there's a fight going on on the inside of me,
and it's a fight between two wolves. The young man knew what
a wolf was. He said, there's a dark wolf.
and a light wolf. And he said, the dark wolf is
evil. He's full of anger. He's full
of envy and sorrow and regrets and arrogance and self-pity and
guilt and resentment. He's inferiority complex he has. He lies and he's full of pride
and has an awful ego. And the light wolf is good. He's
full of joy and peace and love and hope and serenity and humility,
kindness, benevolence. He has empathy, he's generous,
he's full of truth and compassion and faith. And he said, son,
the same fight's going on within you and everybody on this earth. And the grandson thought about
this for a moment. And then he asked, grandfather,
Which wolf is gonna win? And the old Cherokee smiled and
simply said, the one that you feed, the one that you pay. I'm learning that that old man
of sin, he's still around, he will be until God gives me a
new body, glorified body. I'm learning that that old man
of sin, though dead in Christ, is still alive in me. And he'll
continue to rule as long as I feed him. And if I spend all my time feeding
the old man, I'll never have the time to strengthen the new
man. And Paul asked this question,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then
he answers, and he says, I thank God. He's the only one that can.
How do I thank him? through Jesus Christ our Lord. By worshiping Him, and loving
Him, and endeavoring to be obedient to Him, and relying upon Him,
and depending on Him, and asking Him to help me at every single
turn when evil is present with me. It means that deliverance is
possible but only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, friends,
is our only hope. We've got to keep pressing toward
the mark of the high calling. You can't give up. You might
feel like it. But that mark of the high calling
is in Christ, and we must feed the new man with the preaching
of the Gospel. You know, the Lord Jesus didn't
preach good morals and ethics. He preached Himself. and the work that he accomplished.
That's what this book is about. And by God's grace and God's
mercy, that's what I'm going to do if the Lord enabled me
to do so. And may God be pleased to enable
us all to do just that. For Christ's sake, our good and
the glory of God.