We are in the last portion, our
last observation of Romans chapter 7. And in Romans chapter 7, the
title of our message, which is taken from our text, verse 24
and 25 of Romans chapter 7, O wretched man that I am, the last line
is a question that we want to contemplate. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? This is not the frustration or
the expression of a frustration on the part of the apostle Paul
as if he does not have the answer. The apostle Paul is not just
breaking out in a sense of just utter and total bewilderment,
a loss for words, because he's so frustrated with this process,
this experience that you and I have been looking at for the
last several weeks. It's not the expression of a hopeless
sort of anxiety rooted in an aimless cry for someone to save
them. And you shouldn't draw that conclusion
either unless you have not been going through the series with
us. You know that Paul is going somewhere, is he not? And so
his cry, his cry is simply the affirmation of a reality that
exists within him. And he knows why he is going
this way. He is, if you will, he is leading
his auditors. He's leading certain listeners
of whom you and I have spoken about. He's leading them in this
conversation with the objective that they agree with him. That
they would come to the same conclusion that he has come to. that they
would render a verdict based upon a deep analytical approach
to Paul's own inward struggle, dramatically set forth in verses
14 through 25. Does anybody know what Paul is
going through? Have you experienced this in
your own soul? When you hear these terse, repeated,
Phrases that are choppy and difficult of which I use the analogy of
running on the water rapids Bumping and going the good that I would
I do not the evil that I would not do I find myself doing I
see therefore a law in my members that when I would do good evil
is present would be Bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin and death. All of those are choppy sentences
that make no sense To the carnal mind or to the natural mind unless
you've been through those rapids Now, if you've been through those
rapids, you may not be able to understand the way he phrased
it, but you certainly know the experience. And so Paul is talking
to a group of people of which we have identified long ago for
which he is leading them through this experience. He wants them
to remember this experience and affirm with him the very facts
of what occurs when a man or a woman or a people group try
to do the will of God, burdened by the law of God and burdened
by a sinful nature that still has every intention on causing
you to stumble and keeping you from doing the will of God. He's
talking to them, seeking to get them to give an amen to the struggle. He wants them to say, Amen, Paul,
we agree with you. We agree with you that it has
been frustrating to try to do the will of God in the flesh.
That it's frustrating to try to do the will of God burdened
by a legal system to which we have been married, to which we
owe every debt every time our husband, our former husband,
the law says, that was wrong. That was wrong. That was wrong. That was wrong. And on top of
that, not given a remedy for that which was wrong. All he
did was indict us. And he's right! We're wrong,
are we not? He's right. We're wrong. But
the problem is he brings no remedy to the table. He only increases
the burden. And so the apostle is saying,
do you agree with me, my Jewish brethren? Do you agree that by
the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight?
Do you agree, my Jewish brethren, that when you and I consider
the law of God, all it does is give us a knowledge of sin. Do
you agree, my legalistic brethren, that when you consider the impeccable
nature of God's Word, that what it does is it magnifies sin and
makes sin even more exceedingly sinful because it's right? Do you agree, my dear brothers
and sisters who have sought legal religion, salvation, or a sanctification
by the works of the law, that it is utterly frustrating because
at the end of the day, if you are honest with yourself, And
only an honest person is going to heaven. At the end of the
day, when you tally up all that you were supposed to have done,
and then you tally up all that you did not do, and then you
tally up having done what you were supposed to do, but not
the way you should have done it, nor with the attitude you
should have done it, At the end of the day, when you look back
on your good works, will you not agree with the Apostle Paul? Oh, wretched man that I am. See, that's all he's getting
you to do is to think about it for a moment before you lie on
God or lie on yourselves. He's getting you to tally up
your good works over against your bad works at the end of
the day and ask yourself, how well did I do today? Come on
now, let's tell some truth right now. How well did you do yesterday? That's all he's doing. That's
all he's doing. He's getting us, he's bringing us to a place
where we can be honest about our need, what you need. If you're going to be able to
do the will of God from the heart with a sense of joy and freedom,
you need something more than simply an external legal code
placed on your neck. Telling you this is what you
should be doing. You need more than that So this
brings us to a set of reminders that I want to address as we
work through this whole proposition Again, the apostle paul's objective
is to get them to understand that when we are believers in
christ We are no longer married to the law. We are married to
whom? We're married to jesus christ You need to get that and
when a man is married to a woman and a woman is married to a man
the twain become what? I want to make sure you get this
today because one of the critical doctrines that we are drawing
out of our text One of the critical doctrines that we are drawing
out of our text is the believers identity in Christ And you and
I get to ask the question. What is my identity? Who am I? Because that question will determine
what you do. I See, the Apostle Paul said,
I know I'm in Christ. And here's how I know. When we
get to verse 18, chapter 7, verse 18, he was willing to explain
this crazy stuff that's going on in him. Mark what he says
in Romans 7, verse 18. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh. He's making a distinction now
between his new nature and his fallen nature. Now, if you don't
know that the believer is both simultaneously righteous and
what at the same time? Sinful! Then you can't understand
my struggle. But I'm gonna help you understand
how I resolve my struggle. I know who I am. And I know that
I'm born of God, and I know that the incorruptible seed of Christ
is in me, and I am Christ, and Christ is mine. And I know that
that which also dwells in my whole being, my total being,
my body and my inner man, is a principle of sin that's rooted
in my fallen nature that God has not yet finished working
through. I know that. And this is the cause of the
internal conflict. This is the cause of the battle
that goes on within. Is there a believer in the house
who knows what I'm talking about? If you don't know this, you have
not yet been born of God. See, every true believer knows
that they are and are not what they are supposed to be. Pastor,
that's bad grammar, but it's good doctrine. Every true believer
knows that they are and are not what they're supposed to be.
Every true believer knows that they are struggling with realities
that are yet to come in terms of the promises of God. Every
true believer knows that within them also is an earnest, legitimate
desire to know God in the fullness of his glory and grace. Every
true believer knows this. And so he parses his struggle
by saying His flesh that is his fallen nature not the physical
skin dwelleth what some good things See he made an analysis
by observation and reflection of how his fallen nature acts
He says hmm when I watch myself and see how I think and see how
I act I Any time of the day, here's what I discover. I never
think right nor act right with regards to my fallen nature.
See, he's observing himself and he's admitting what he sees.
This is what we call honesty. Do you guys know what I'm talking
about? You know how you listen to yourself and you observe yourself
talking and thinking? Don't you talk crazy? Don't you
act crazy? Don't you have these, you don't
want nobody knowing how you think but God. And you don't even really
want God to know that unless he has a package of grace that
can handle your mess. Am I making some sense? But within
the confines of your being, you are observing yourself do some
dastardly deeds in your mind. You think stuff that blows you
away sometimes. How on earth could I think like
that and be a child of God? And this is what Paul is doing. He's indexing his true being,
which is born of God, possessing the incorruptible seed that stands
over against his fallen nature, which he owns as he is too, and
says, the I that does this crazy stuff is not the I that's in
Christ. I told you we got two egos we
are dealing with here. Two egos. And understanding that
will help you get through this battle if you're truly a child
of God. And again, I must make application
to this crazy culture into which you and I have been born and
live. If you do not know the Lord Jesus
Christ, your identity will always be rooted in what you do. And
it is for this reason people don't mind saying, I am a homosexual. I am a lesbian. I am an adulterer. I am an alcoholic. I am a dope
fiend. Because they are attaching their
identity to what they do. And so long as they don't have
Christ, they have nowhere else to attach their identity. Are
you guys hearing me? Are you hearing me? Please listen
to me. Please listen to me. When Paul
cries out, who shall deliver me from this body of death? That
brother already had the answer. He's really using it as a rhetorical
device to ask you, have you been delivered from yourself through
the person of Christ? So that while you got to put
up with this old wretched man, you still have a hope for glory
that allows verse 25 to come to pass. See, he didn't close
at verse 24, he closed at verse 25. Verse 24 was the outcry of
the reality of his everyday life. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God. Do you see that? The brother
is praising God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and then he
explains, so then, this is sort of a final statement, so then,
with the mind, I myself serve the law of God. and with the
flesh, the law of sin. He says, this will be the case
until my body is renewed and made perfectly compatible with
my new soul. I will have to struggle with
this until Jesus comes or I die and go be with him. Am I making
some sense, saints? It's very important for us to
understand that. And so as we work through our points, what
I want you to consider now is point number one, where I want
to remind you of a number of things just briefly as we Address
points two and three point number one six things. I want to remind
you of he's speaking to jewish christians. You got that? Jewish
christians, that's romans 7 1 anytime you want to understand a context
start at the chapter Sometimes the chapters will give you the
beginning of the chapter will give you the context You might
have to back up before because chapter verse divisions are not
inspired Sometimes our translators started at the wrong place and
you have to back up This is a running commentary But the reality is
Paul has been targeting his Jewish Christian brethren all the way
back to Romans 2 17 when he said now you call yourself a Jew and
you trust in the law and Now you call yourself a Jew and you
are trusting in the law. And what he's saying to them
is if you trust in the law, you can never be justified by another. And so long as you are not justified
by another because you trust in the law, you will experience
utter and total failure and condemnation all your life. Because by the
works of the law, no flesh shall be what? Not in the sight of
God, they won't. And so Paul is talking to his
Jewish brethren and particularly those who have adopted Christianity,
but are struggling with how does an individual liberated, freed,
extricated, emancipated from the condemnation of God's wrath,
justified freely by God's grace, live a life of obedience and
love to Jesus Christ without some kind of mechanism or source
in his life. They ask that question because
they don't know what grace is. And some people today don't know
what grace is. But this brings us to my second
point. Not only is he speaking to Jewish Christians, but he's
seeking to persuade them of the what, saints? Superiority of
grace. The superiority of grace. And
it's seen in Romans chapter 5 verse 17 and then verse 21. Let me
remind you briefly of the superiority of grace. Chapter 5 verse 17
says these words for if by one man's offense death reigned by
one that's Adam one much more They which receive what of grace? Abundance of grace and of the
gift of righteousness. I want you to watch this last
line. We call this a promise shall reign in life The believer
who has the grace of God not only has grace, but he has an
abundance of grace, which he has received for this very objective,
in order that he shall reign in life. God mandates our reign. And in fact, if you are in Christ
Jesus, you reign right now. The promise in this text is that
grace provides the capacity for the believer to be able to live
for the glory of God, which amounts to reigning. But watch the last
line, we only reign in life by one, even whom? So John chapter
15 around verse 5 and 6 says, without me, you can do what? See, what the lesson that Paul
is drawing out is teaching his Jewish brethren is you've got
to let go of that law system and you've got to cleave to Christ
because Christ is your life and He is your strength. Christ is
the one that's going to get you through this thing. You've got
to understand that. You're not saved to do this thing
by yourself. You haven't been redeemed to
walk freely on your own and try to sort of make your way to heaven.
When Christ redeemed you, we learned it last week, He also
what you? Married you. Not only did he
redeem you, paid for your sorry tale, purchase you by his blood
out of hell, but he also married you and brought you into nuptial
oneness with him. I love that term married in Romans
chapter 7. It literally means to become,
to be brought into existence with the purpose of becoming
one. The literal word married means to become, to be brought
into existence with the purpose of becoming one. You know what
this means? Whenever a couple get married,
what we typify in our marriage is the union between Christ and
the church. And that phraseology and that terminology goes all
the way back to Genesis chapter 2 where God had put Adam into
a deep sleep, remember? And took from his side a rib
and built a woman and brought her to the man and when he awoke
he saw her and he said what? Bone of my bone, flesh of my
flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of
man. Therefore shall a man leave his mother and father, cleave
unto his wife and the twain shall become what? See, so what I'm
getting at is this. When a man or woman understands
that to be born again means to be one with the Prince of life. You and I have no excuse not
to be able to draw from the resources of our husband to be able to
do what he wants us to do. Am I making some sense? That's
the second point. Persuading them of the superiority
of grace. Look at verse 21 of chapter 5. He says, that as sin
hath what? Now see, I want you to mark that
because what he does in chapter 5 triumphantly demonstrate the
success of Jesus Christ by his death and resurrection over what
was necessary to justify us and that is the killing of that old
man that Adam man our federal head in whom when Christ died
we also died you guys remember that why is it that the believer
no longer continues in sin because he's dead Where is the believer
dead? He's dead to his first Adam. That means when Christ died,
our Adamic relationship to the first Adam was broken. It was
broken. The power of Adam one no longer
dominates the life of the true believer. He's not your head.
He's not your head. But I made a distinction of which
I'm going to address in the future between Adam 1 or what we call
the old man Adam and your fallen nature. Because when you read
your Bible carefully, what you discover is the scriptures emphatically
teach that the old man is dead, not dying, dead. And yet here you and I are discovering
that we still have an old nature, a fallen nature that's very much
alive. What's the point, pastor? Adam
one, the old man, deposited into us his fallen nature. But when Christ was crucified,
we were cut off from the life source of that Adam, plugged
into the life source of the last Adam, and we are now experiencing
new life through Christ, but we still have to deal with the
remaining sin. Our fallen nature this takes
us back to Romans chapter 7 verse 18. Don't go there yet I'm gonna
show you what I'm talking about. So that as sin reigneth to death
even so might what grace reign through what? unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ notice the reigning factors of grace and Righteousness
are never first and foremost in you or in me. They're always
in whom Christ. Let me say that again So you
can get your gospel straight Because we mess up the gospel
when we attribute to ourselves intrinsic virtues of holiness
that only belong to God in Christ. The moment you start telling
people you are the righteousness of God, you have just lied. Now
you have told the truth when you say you are the righteousness
of God in Him. But the moment you cut off the
proposition in and the pronoun him, you make yourself a liar
and you make God a liar too. Because outside of Christ, there's
none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
do it good. There's none that seeks after
God. There's none that understand we're a bunch of nuns on our
way to hell outside of Christ. Am I making some sense? So you
better give Christ the glory for any root of righteousness
in your life. Even a good thought comes from
God. Even a good thought comes from
God. Do you understand that? You can't
even think right without Christ. So what I'm getting at is that
when Christ died on Calvary's tree, he nailed, he killed, he
destroyed the covenant between you and Adam 1, which reinforced
the strength of your sinful nature that led you to hell. In Adam
all what? That's right. You guys are starting
to get it. I'm glad. because this gospel
truth and these frameworks help you explain to people the mystery
of godliness. It's a mystery. You got to understand
this stuff. So why am I thus? It's because I am and am not
at the same time. I am completely free from my
old man, but I am not completely freed from my fallen nature.
I'm free from Adam 1, but I'm not free from the seed he deposited
in me when I was born. Am I making some sense? This
is good. Now watch this. There is a weakness. There is a brokenness. There
has been a major, major blow to my sin nature when once it
was separated from Adam 1, the source, the wellspring, which
strengthened me. And once I was plugged into Christ
and quickened by Christ's Spirit, I have grace in me that allows
me to be able to subdue my fallen nature. I simply have to learn
how to appropriate that. That's where we're going in chapter
8. Are you guys hearing me? So I just want you to know this.
As much as your sin nature is designed to give you trouble,
and it is, greater is He that is in you than he that's of the
world. I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. Do you understand there are promises
in the Word of God that makes it very clear that Christ works
in you the will and to do of His good pleasure? That's our
year's theme verse, is it not? That God is working in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. So I have the promises
of God, I have the presence of God, I have the power of God,
I have the Word of God to assist me in moving forward in obedience
to Christ. Is that true? But I'm never going
to do it by myself. And I'm never going to do it
presumptuously, that is, just neglecting my walk with God.
Some of the reasons for which Christians are not getting along
in their walk is because they don't take Jesus seriously. Let's
go back to Romans chapter 7 verse 18. Let me affirm the latter
part of that text so I can keep going. And I'm going to echo
what I just stated because some of you guys caught that. The
reason that I am not further down the line in my walk with
God, why I'm still stuck, and tripping is because I don't take
Christ seriously. The reason why I have not made
some gains in certain areas of my life, certain hindrances,
certain obstacles, certain traps and snares and gents, certain
practices that I find myself continually engaging in is because
I'm not real when it comes to crying out for help from God.
In reality, I actually like that dysfunctional relationship. We've
just exited for a moment, taking a side road called dysfunctional
relationships. We wonder sometimes why two people
coexist when all they do is fight and argue. Isn't that right?
But it's because they become addicted to dysfunctionality. And so it is with believers.
Because they're not serious about Christ, certain areas of their
life is completely jacked up because they love dysfunctionality.
Can I get a witness? I just need a few hands. Tell
the truth now. I don't want to admit it, but I just love that
old crazy doctor and Jekyll Hyde relationship. It's true. It's
true. And to that degree, I heard it
this morning and I'm going to be quoting the verse here shortly.
I heard it this morning in Sunday school, as oft I do. Because
when the spirit of God is working, he confirms his word out of the
mouth of two or three witnesses that God gives every man a measure
of faith. That's exactly right. And that measure of faith is
proportioned to not only his sovereignty in your life, but
your obligation to respond to the faith given. To whom much
is given, much is what? And to him that hath more shall
be given. So to the degree that you and I don't seriously pursue
God, you can expect God not to give you an extra measure. Do
you hear me? You go into heaven, but that's
it. For I know that in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present. That's Philippians chapter 2,
12 and 13. He works in me both the will
and to do. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. The emphasis
is on how to actually execute my desires. That's where you
and I need to be going to school in the school of Christ and learning
how to Resource the graces that he gives us in order that we
might discover Actual obedience to the things that we know that
we should be doing Can I give you a few examples because I
know you lost in the clouds right now Give you a few give you a
few like you should be reading your Bibles. I Can stop right there I was listening to a good pastor
friend of mine and he was saying that he had done a poll about
20 years ago in his church because he had heard about this real
lapse in Christians and their Bible. And he had done a poll
in his church. And after the poll went around
the first time, I guess about 70% of the people actually took
the poll. He thought that he was going
to try to get all 100% of the congregation to do the poll.
But he got up in the poll pit the week after the poll. He said,
you know, I did a poll this week to see how many of you guys read
your Bible and how frequently in the course of a week. He says,
and I was so depressed. I was so depressed. that I just
told the guy, stop the pole, stop the pole. I don't want to
hear the rest because it's dismal. The actual evidence that's out
there concerning professing Christians and how little you read your
Bibles and how you still expect grace to filter into your soul
when the mind is not transformed by the renewing of the spirit. And yet you expect to advance
in your walk with Christ. It will never happen. That's
why we're weak. How to perform that which is
good? I find that this is the Apostle Paul in the midst of
that struggle. Going back to our reminders, I want to get
through these. We're speaking to Jewish Christians.
We're persuading them of the superiority of grace. Also, we
are reminding them that their freedom in Christ is because
of union with him, right? Listen to Romans 6 6 and then
verse 11 again our freedom in Christ is because of union within
verse 6 of Romans 6 Knowing this that our old man now remember
who I told you the old man was Adam is present tense what crucified
with Christ in order that the body of sin now the body of sin
here is what we're dealing with in chapter 7 and The body of
sin here is what we're dealing with in chapter 7. The old man
is crucified, the body of sin is what we're dealing with now.
You guys got that? Very important. Watch this now. Knowing this,
that the old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be what? So whenever the Apostle or the
New Testament writers use that phrase might be it's in a subjective
form It's a conditional form. That means this is what we anticipate. This is what we desire, but it
requires Certain factors before it becomes a reality that it
might be destroyed now here in this context what the Apostle
Paul is talking about is the old contract of the Adam was
broken and In order that, here's the last line, that henceforth
we should not serve what? Got it? The contract was broken
in order that you might be resourced in your life so as to no longer
serve sin. Before Christ died for you, before
you were born again, you served sin and all you served was sin. You served sin because sin was
your master. It ruled over you, it reigned
over you, and that was your identity. Stay with me now. This is why
the church must recover in terms of the claims of the gospel over
against the culture that is glorifying its sin as its identity. This
is why the church must recover the gospel, because our culture
is glorifying its sin as its identity. Is there anyone in
the house who does not understand what I'm saying? I told you Mr. Bruce Jenner is a perfect model
today of the transformational process that our whole culture
is going through right now under the assumption that you can define
yourself. You can change who you are. Well,
if you're not in Christ. You can become anything. Because
you don't know your identity. And because sin rules. Sin will
tell you, you were born this way. This is a matter of genetics. Or sin will tell you, God did
not know what he was doing. but because you don't have your
identity and the immutability of a perfect God who sent his
son to give you his identity so that you can stand over against
a crazy world that's redefining itself every day. You don't have
any strength to oppose that system and there are tons of Christians
right now capitulating collapsing under these trends and these
arguments. Well, I don't know. I mean, you
know, they say they feel like a woman, but you know, and they
got big throats, 17s, foot shoes, big old gorilla hair. Oh, it's
so deep. I feel like a woman. Listen to
me. Listen to me. Your DNA tells on you. Your DNA
tells on you. Do you, do you, do you not understand
that all the labor you got to put into with these, these synthetic
hormones to transform your body in order to try to appear like
you feel makes you nothing but a Neo Frankenstein? Frankenstein,
that whole model was anticipating the day we're in now. Frankenstein. That's all we're dealing with.
But because of technology, because of technology and because of
superficiality of the mind, people are superficial. You are deceived
by what you see because you are not walking by faith, but by
sight. But let me give you a little
cue on that one, too. From a distance, it looks one way, but just get
on up on it. And you'll come to discover something
ain't right here. They can spray paint the magazines
all they want to and make that boy look good from a distance.
But when you get up on him, you come to understand this ain't
authentic. Ain't nothing real about this. You better get what
I'm saying. Ain't nothing real about this.
And what's sad and tragic What's sad and tragic is that superficial
Christians who don't think it through and are not anchored
in God's Word cannot know the truth. And so long as you do
not know the truth, you can't be set free from these lies.
You will be taken in by these lies because you don't know the
truth as it is in Christ. You don't know it. The reason
why he broke the power, destroyed the contract, is so that you
and I no longer should serve sin but fight against it. Look
at verse 11 of our text. Are you there? Likewise, reckon
ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Didn't we work that through?
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. See, this is the estimation of
every biblically informed believer. You know what they say? I'm dead
to sin. Why do we say that? Because God said it. Well, why
are you saying what God says? Because I'm God's. Well, just
because you're God's, do you have to say what God says? Yes,
because God is my authority. He's the basis and grounds of
my reality. God is my truth. And because
what God says is true, I can hold on to that with great authority,
no matter what the world says. And see, this is called walking
by faith in the Word of God that anchors you and grounds you and
supports you as you deal with this crazy world. Thus said the
Lord. This is how we make it through
this world. What does the Bible say? You know, I feel this way.
But what does the Bible say? What do you know? I think this
way. But what does the Bible say? You know, I want to do this.
But what does the Bible say? You know, everybody's doing this.
But what does the Bible say? Now, for you Christians who are
pretending to have a Bible, you have no argument. I talk about
it every Monday on the show. What authority does the Christian
have to oppose people's profoundly and deep experiential feelings? Because you know, they're getting
ready to throw us in the jail for opposing how people feel.
Do you understand that? We're getting ready to go to
jail for saying, I am not calling you Caitlyn, boy. I'm not calling you Caitlyn.
You don't look like a Caitlyn. Your name is Bruce. That's the name your daddy gave
you. And you look like a Bruce for almost 900 years and now
you want to look like Caitlyn? Jacking up everybody in your
family. By the way, what he gonna do next Sunday? Come on now. What are you going
to do next Sunday? What are you going to do next
Sunday when he's been celebrating Father's Day all his life? It's
coming next Sunday. But by the way, and I did that
tongue in cheek. I knew it was going to catch
up with you about a minute later. We're all slow, but it's OK.
You got it now. Watch this now. This is why the Christian cannot
give away ground. Because you can't give away biblical
ground. You can't retreat. You can't
give up here. You can't give them a line there.
Because by the time it's all over with, we're not celebrating
Christmas. We're not celebrating the resurrection.
We're not celebrating heterosexual marriages. We are not celebrating
he versus she. We're not celebrating Mother's
Day. We're not celebrating Father's Day. Because this world has gone
absolutely crazy. Do you hear me? That's where
we're going. And logic would teach you this.
Logic would teach you where we are going. The implications of
certain practices lead to inevitable consequences. It is right now
that it's hard for us to get Christians to gather together
on holidays because we're so broken. It is right now very
difficult for Christians to get together on noble holidays. Because we tear up the family.
We tear up relationships. Now we're jacking up gender factors,
gender bending. All of this, when once accepted,
minimizes any enthusiasm to do holidays. Am I making some sense? So what happens when your mama
says, hey, you guys, I feel like a man. And we come around to
Mother's Day. and she didn't take taking the
hormone shots and cut her hair off, all buffed and everything,
and her voice is deeper than the pastor's. What you gonna
do? You gonna pretend that she's
not your mother? This is the great lie of Romans
1 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 11 through 13. because
they did not have a love for the truth that they might be
saved, God gave them over to a strong delusion that they should
believe a lie and that they should perish because they loved the
pleasures of unrighteousness more than they did the truth.
I hope that you are not in that camp today professing to be a
Christian. Let's get to our next point.
Underheading reminders. Let me move quickly. There's
freedom in Christ and it's because of our union with Him. Moreover,
that union with Christ comes with what we call a what? Grace
package. You better learn that one. That's
good, isn't it? Freedom in Christ, union with
Christ comes with a grace package. You know what that means? A supply
of grace that you can dip into any time. Do you need justification? There's a supply of grace for
that. Do you need the forgiveness of
sins? There's a supply of grace for that. Do you need reconciliation? There's a supply of grace for
that. Do you need strength? There's a supply of grace for
that. Do you need guidance? There's a supply of grace for
that. Do you need companionship with Christ? There's a supply
of grace for that. There is a supply of grace in
Christ to meet every need of every believer no matter what
they are going through. Am I making some sense? There's
a supply of grace. You won't ever stand before God
in Christ on the last day and say, I came to you to help me
meet my needs and you didn't have the resources to meet my
needs. He will say to you, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
workers of iniquity, because the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want He will meet
every need in my life. He will lead me. He will guide
me. He will rest me, and he will
bring me into my eternal state. He can't lie. He can't change. He can't fail. That's the God
we serve. That's the God we serve. This
idea that there's not enough grace there. There's enough grace
in Christ for you, me, and a million worlds. Are you hearing me? It's
whether or not you are going to be serious about Jesus. It's
all a matter as to whether or not you're going to be serious
about Jesus. Let me move on. Under our fourth point then,
I guess, yeah, here I am. The allegiance to Christ is the
consequence of a new nature. Do you see that? The reason why
I titled the message last week, I Pledge Allegiance to Christ,
is to affirm this one truth. That when you're born again,
the new nature in you is committed to Jesus. Is that right? Kind
begets kind, doesn't it? Let every seed bearing herb bear
fruit after its own kind. You cannot be born of God and
not love God. You cannot be born of God and
not love God. You cannot be born of God and
not love God's law. You cannot be born of God, not
love His law, and not be committed to His glory. When you're born
again, there's a natural allegiance to Christ, which means there's
a natural war in your members. That's our next point. There
will be, what? A conflict. Does it accept that,
child of God? A fight. A struggle. Until the day that our bodies
are what? You know, when you were born again, and God raised
you from the dead, opened your eyes, gave you a knowledge of
his glory. That was a happy day, wasn't
it? That was a happy day. And then one day you woke up
and you smelled something and you went, man, that stinks. What's that awful smell? And
for a while you was looking everywhere else. And then the Holy Ghost
taps you on the shoulders and say, hey, hey, that's you. That's you stinking. That's your
fallen nature. that rotting corpse to which
you are tied to according to verse 24. Oh, wretched man that
I am. Are you guys with me? Oh, that's
the thing that's stinking. It's not your neighbor. It's
not your husband. It's not your children. It's
your fallen nature that you have to live with. It's stinking.
You can try to put perfume on him all you want to, but that's
not going to work because he's a rotting corpse. to which you
are tied, which weighs you down and makes it difficult for you
to do the will of God. Literally, that word wretched
man literally means a heavy burden that's filled with calluses because
it's been a long time dead. A heavy burden filled with calluses
because it's been a long time dead. Now, watch this before
we move on. Watch this. Can you imagine being
strapped to a dead carcass, which is what the Roman Empire did
whenever a man committed capital punishment. If he killed somebody,
they would take the body of the person that they killed and strapped
him not to the back. That would be bad enough. If
you had to walk around with the person that you killed on your
back and he was rotting, wouldn't that be a burden? Right. But
no, they strapped him to the front. You know what that means?
His head was to your head and his mouth was to your mouth.
And they made sure that all of the rotting toxins that were
in that corrupting body went into you in order to kill you.
This is the way Paul is describing our fallen nature, which hinders
us from doing the will of God. I got one more thing to say about
that proposition in order for you to get it. Only true believers
can agree with what I just stated. And in many cases, it requires
a level of maturity in Christ for you to come to that reality.
Because when you're born again, generally you are not as sensitive
to your corruption as you will be five years from now. Because
you remember, every night you tally it up and you end up in
the negative every night. Just run that out about five
years. Just keep it stacking up. The next thing you know,
you got way more negatives than positives. Is that right? And
that's because of your fallen nature. Now watch this. When
someone comes and tells you that has to do with the fact that
you still need to be redeemed and part of your being. you're
a true believer guess what you say I fully and totally agree
with that see Jesus used this word in Revelation chapter 3
verse 17 pull it up Revelation 3 verse 17 he was talking to
a church that represents and reflects our present culture
is called church at Laodicea now the church at Laodicea boasted
itself in being wealthy and and being prosperous and being self-sufficient
and not needing God. All of those attributes are negative
and they are liabilities for the believer, are they not? Wealthy,
prosperous, independent, needing nothing. Watch this. But because
you say, I am rich, when in reality, you're poor. You want God's blessing? You better own your poverty.
Do you hear me? Because there's no intrinsic
wealth in you or me. You and I are vacuous. We are
empty. We are bankrupt. If we're going to have riches,
Christ has to give them to us. Is that right? And then you say
you're increased with goods. What that means is you actually
know how to increase your wealth. You know how to make your money
grow. You and I don't have any life in us by which we can cause
spiritual life to grow in us. You and I are dormant and dead
by nature. If our father who is the husbandman
doesn't prune us that we bear fruit, we will simply be a dry
vine. Am I making some sense? Watch
this now. And you do not know that you
are what? I want you to catch that line
because the master of the church said to this hypocritical professing
church called Laodicea, you don't know what you should know. You don't know what every true
believer does know. You guys get it? See, so you'll
meet religious folk who will talk like they got the world
by the tail on a downhill slide. And they're quoting all of the
triumphant verses. Our elder just quoted one, Isaiah
54 verse 17. No weapon formed against you
shall prosper. Every tongue that rises up against
you in the judgment you shall condemn. And they make that verse
all about them. When that text is all about Jesus,
all about what Jesus did to justify us before the bar of God's holiness,
so that you and I will never be called guilty before God because
of what Jesus did. Not a personal battle that we
have with the enemy. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? My safety comes from the Lord. My protection comes
from my God. My confidence that I will never
be condemned is not rooted in me, it's rooted in Him. And that's
what that text is teaching. But Christ said to that church,
you do not know that you are wretched and what's the word?
That's the word that we translate in Romans chapter seven, wretched. This church was wretched, miserable,
poor, blonde and naked. Isn't that a mess? Now it wouldn't
have been a problem had they known it. They just didn't know
it because you can't know these things until you're born again.
Are you hearing me? Let me run through my other point,
my second point. Let me run through these quickly so we can fellowship
with the Lord and fellowship with one another. Point number
two, watch this saints. There are three benefits to our
inward conflict. That is why I am thus. There
are three benefits. Why would God leave you and me
in this struggle? There are three reasons, okay?
I want you to get this. There are benefits to being in the
struggle. First is, it allows us to give a right assessment
of ourselves. You got that? Struggle allows
you to tell the truth. See, even after you're born again,
you still will lie. I know that shocks you, but you
still will lie. You will tell people you're more
than what you really are. Come on now you'll pad the books.
You'll say you have more than you really have You'll say you've
accomplished more than you really you'll say you're more than you
ain't any of that That's the remaining sin in you That has
dominion because you are not comfortable with taking your
place with jesus and simply telling the people telling people the
truth You know what? I am What I am by the grace of
god See, that's not enough for the carnal man. The carnal man,
he wants to be all puffed up and let people think that he's
this, that, and the other. When in fact, you and I are nothing
outside of Christ. You get that, then God starts
becoming your shelter, your strength. A right assessment of ourselves
is the benefit of this inward conflict. And again, Romans chapter
12, verse 3 says it like this. Let every man think soberly according
as it is written. God has given unto every one
of us a measure of faith. You know what he says be sober
When you think about yourself, don't be drunk on delusions of
grandeur Thinking that you are something that you are not Say
about yourself what the Word of God says about you. I am the
righteousness of God in Christ and Are you hearing? I am a son
of the Living God. I am a child of the Living God.
I am a lamb of God. I am a servant of the Most High
God. I'm a slave of Christ. I am a king. I am a priest. I
am all sorts of things, but only in Jesus Christ. Let me say what
the Word of God says, then I'm telling the truth. If I say more,
I'm lying. This is so very important. And
so you know what happens when you get beat up enough, you stop
lying, don't you? Some of y'all got that. No, I'm
telling you God beat you up enough and you realize it does not pay
to lie because most people know you lying Anyway, they just won't
let you know it So a right assessment of ourselves
Fundamentally is being able to judge ourselves as the scriptures
judges. And here's what I told you last
week If you're true believers, you're pregnant. Is that true?
You and I are pregnant. The incorruptible seed of Christ
is in us, right? There's a day when that pregnancy will show
and then ultimately manifest itself in the perfections of
glory. Is that true? It's a seed within you. While
that seed is in you and you're not showing, you know it because
there are radical changes that take place on the inside. You
pregnant women know what I'm talking about, right? But no
one else sees it. Only you see it. But over time,
if we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, we start
what? Showing. That's right. Now, tell the truth.
Don't lie. Pregnancy is not all that. See,
when you're pregnant, you get sick, nauseated, upset stomach,
low energy, cranky, cantankerous, mean, confused, troubled, depressed. That's cuz you're expecting I'm
telling the truth. See name. This is a Christian
life. Did I just explain the Christian life? confused troubled
depressed anxious Struggling heavy not even liking the way
you look, you know when you get pregnant ladies, you know this
You don't like the way you look you gain so much extra weight. I don't like the way I look you
get insecure Get insecure And all that goes on in the Christian
life. All that goes on. All that means is that we're
pregnant. It's called life. Are you hearing me? It's the
humility before the honor. It's the humility before the
honor. So it's very important. Point number two. The benefit
of our inward conflict is that it produces in you and me a hope
that demands true dependence on God. Is that so? Okay, I said
I wasn't going to expand on these and I'm not. If you understand
what I've been saying thus far, what the Christian learns in
his walk is to really, really, really depend upon God. That's
what he teaches you. Point number C. Here's a very
important truth that you need to comprehend around the internal
conflict. God will not use you. He will
not use you in anybody else's life to bless them. If you appear
to them like you have no troubles, He will never use you. If you
always on top of your game, always. I mean, you don't miss one payment.
You got that? You don't ever get to work late.
Not one hair is out of place. See, sinners don't want people
like that talking to them because they don't get a sense that you
identify with their struggle. See, this is the miracle of grace.
Here's the miracle of grace. This is why you and I have to
fight every day against religion. Because our religion will keep
us from actually being able to effectively reach sinners. This
is the problem with religion. We all are in danger of too much
self-righteousness. And then we'll look down our
narrow noses at other people and actually we won't say it,
but we will actually think we're better than them. These poor
wretched Gentiles are a curse, because they don't have the law.
We can talk just like that. We can talk like that, because we
don't have any struggles. Are you hearing me? Struggles
will cause you to sympathize with lost sinners. And when you
come to work and you got an attitude, and your girlfriend over in the
next stall got an attitude, she see you got an attitude, and
then she see you say you trust in Jesus, she might be interested
in your Jesus now. because you got an attitude just
like her. And then when you talk to her from where she is because
of where you've been, now you can sympathize with that girl.
Girlfriend, I know how you feel. See, this is what we call evangelism
in the Christocentric sense. And here's the problem with religious
folks. Watch this now. God has called
sinners to be the means by which sinners are saved. Do you get
that? God has called sinners to be
the means by which sinners are saved. So the moment you stop
becoming a sinner because you got all your doctrines right,
because you got a nice little pattern of life that keeps you
from any major overt sins, he's no longer going to use you. You're
not going to be able to talk to lost sinners who smell bad
and look bad and curse every other sentence because you can't
handle that because you're no longer a sinner. which means
you're no longer pregnant. Because when you're pregnant,
you are a sinner. When you're pregnant, you are a sinner. Pregnant
women will tell you, those are not good days. But they're the
best days. Because life is on the inside. And that's what a Christian is.
Am I making sense to you guys? This is important for you. This
is important for you to keep the gospel right. So, moving
to our third and final point, I want to close here. This is
very important. Point number three, as we wrap
this up, what is the Apostle Paul wanting us to do? He wants
us to answer the question, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? There are three answers that
I want to render. The first one is this. It is a who that must
deliver us. Y'all got that last week in the
outline. It's not a what. Things don't deliver you. Psychology
can't deliver you. Psychiatry can't deliver you.
You can go to the gym 24-7. and gravity's still gonna pull
it down. Gravity gonna pull it down. Those
10 pound weights, after a while, gonna still end up feeling like
12 and a half pounds. Cause gravity gonna pull it down.
You can change your diet all you want to, but that monster
in you gonna wanna get up in the middle of the night anyway.
Do you hear me? Anyway. Listen, There's nothing
that can deliver you from you but God. It's a who that must
deliver us and there's three good things we need to know about
that. He already did. Isn't that good? He did having
redeemed us already. Didn't he pay for us? Didn't
he die on the cross 2,000 years ago? Didn't he already shed his
blood? Isn't it clear in John chapter 18 where Jesus says,
it is finished? 1931, by the way. He has already
paid the sin debt. Has he not? He's already redeemed
his people, redeemed his elect. You and I have already been justified.
Do you believe that? He's already redeemed me. More
than that, he's already married me. Are you married to Jesus?
Listen, he has married us and because of that, he delivers
us every day. That's his job to deliver us
every day. He brought us into union with
himself and he doesn't mind being called your husband so long as
you don't mind being called his wife. And our lovely Boaz has
all of the resources necessary to make us make it through this
world. And one day, every child of God,
every sinner that trusts Christ, everyone that's looking to Christ
will be gloriously arrayed with the totality of his righteousness.
when we enter into that final, final stage of celebration at
the wedding feast of the Lamb. This is where the believer today
rejoices in hope of glory, don't we? We rejoice in hope of glory. I want to nail this home and
we'll have the offering and the Lord's table now. Please understand
this, our deliverance, our ultimate deliverance is on the last day
when He comes back again. Our ultimate deliverance is on
the last day. And in the meanwhile, you and
I experience a measure of grace just necessary for us to make
it till tomorrow. Did you get that? Give us this
day, not tomorrow, this day. When tomorrow get here, we'll
start all over again. Amen. Amen.