Let's go to work a little bit
romans chapter 7 we are in a very very important transition for
the apostle paul he is Dealing with the target group that I
told you last week is not Is not you and me directly you and
I are third party participants in a dialogue whereby the apostle
paul is trying to convince a certain category a certain group of believers
Why it is that they're questioned? around the issue of the sufficiency
of Jesus Christ is a moot question. The premise upon Paul's exhortation
in Romans 7 is this. The question was raised, what
is the motivation and what is the basis upon which the people
of God love him, love Christ, and serve Christ since the people
of God have accrued to themselves through the merits of Christ's
obedience and righteousness a perfect justification, a perfect standing
of righteousness, so that from the standpoint of God, the true
believer never ever has to worry about being rejected by God,
or cursed by God, or condemned by God ever again. The necessary
implications of a free and total justification on the part of
people who do not understand the aim and goal of that kind
of scandalous redemption is what then will motivate the believer
to serve God since he or she is free! And what the Apostle
Paul is teaching in Romans 6 and 7 is this, that the believer
who has been redeemed by Christ is not just redeemed, but what
did we learn last week? Married. So we are not just free
if Christ has purchased you by His blood. You are married because
He brought you naturally to Himself in the holy matrimony and bonds
of union by His grace and His Spirit. So that you and I are
married to Jesus Christ if you're a believer. Do you believe that?
We're married to Jesus Christ. Now, mark this now, for men and
women who used to, and are used to, are more comfortable with
having had an experience of being married to the law, not really
knowing what it means to be married to Christ, are struggling with
the idea of being divorced from the law by the death of Christ,
and then being married to another by the resurrection of Christ.
They are struggling with, well, help me understand, Paul, how
this thing works, because what we are hearing from you is that
the law has no purpose, the law has no benefit. And in fact,
some of us are thinking that you are an antinomian and that
you basically hate the law. One of the struggles that Paul
dealt with in the Jewish church of Israel was that when they
were preaching the gospel in the book of Acts, Two charges
were raised against the apostles. The first was they are speaking
against the temple. You guys remember that? Speaking
against the temple. In fact, one of the charges they
raised against Christ was this. He speaks against the temple
when Christ said in John chapter 2, destroy this temple. And I
will raise it up again in three days. And they twisted that language
to make it a carnal argument for Christ demolishing the physical
temple. And he was talking about the
temple of what? His body. And they were arguing against
the apostles in the book of Acts around that same claim. Now it's
true that when you properly comprehend the gospel, what you realize
is that the old system, the old pattern of things, those old
external methods and typological pictures that God gave us through
the pedagogue of the law necessarily must fall to the wayside. You
guys understand that, right? We no longer worship God in temples. We no longer go to a certain
place to worship God. We no longer worship God on Sabbath
days. No new moons and no feast days. None of those carnal commandments
that Hebrews chapter 9 says were imposed upon the people. Imposed upon the people. I want
you to mark that term because we're getting ready to learn
something about the difference between religion and the gospel. The Old Testament church had
a system imposed upon them, according to Hebrews 9, imposed upon them
until the time of reformation of all things. I call that an
external restraint system, ERS. an external restraint system. It was the law imposed upon them,
shutting them up until Jesus would come. But what you and
I have learned through the history of Israel is, even though God
gave them good laws and good statutes, they never kept them. See, you and I can't be changed
by an external restraint system. It requires an internal response
system to change our lives. and what the gospel brings to
the table for the sinner needing salvation is an inward work of
grace and a relationship that brings God alongside of the believer
in a marital context by which the believer now has the resources
to live to the glory of God. Am I making some sense? The argument
then that we are going to work through today is understanding
that when a man or a woman is truly born again, They know the
Lord Jesus Christ in the context of him being there Boaz and they
being his rule That fruitfulness is a necessary outcome. Didn't
we learn that last week being fruitful to God is God's aim
This is the reason why he redeemed us and this is the reason why
he married us and the Apostle argues for this in Romans chapter
7 verse 6 But now we are delivered from the law Do you guys see
it? It's an emphatic statement. But
now we are delivered from the what? That being dead, being
dead, wherein we were what? That's called bondage, ladies
and gentlemen. Bondage. That being dead wherein we were
held, that we should serve in newness of the Spirit and not
in oldness of the letter. Now this is the aim and objective
of what it means to be delivered from the law and yet be in union
with Jesus Christ through his redemptive work. Paul says we've
been delivered. See that word delivered? Rescued!
Delivered rescued taken out from under the bondage and tyranny
of the law Which had a right to condemn us every time we sinned
and we learned this last week. The law is good, isn't it? The
law is right. The law is just the law is holy
and i'm getting ready to affirm that as we work through our propositions
no Biblically informed or knowledgeable christian when you properly understand
the glory of god will ever despise god's law No biblically informed
Christian will take a casual or an aloof attitude toward the
law of God because the Christian, being biblically informed, recognizes
that God's law represents his character. And if you love God,
you will necessarily love his law. Am I making some sense,
ladies and gentlemen? Now this is going to be important
as we go into the text, because some will think that you can
have a successful and productive relationship with God, and at
the same time despise His commandments. Now that would truly be what
we call antinomianism, anti-nomos, meaning against the law of God.
No true believer, no matter how solid he is in his understanding
of grace, will frame his theology or his worldview to shun or push
away or reject God's law. At the end of the day, what God
did with his law was to take it from the outside, which was
written on two tables of stone, and placed it in our heart so
that it's in our heart as a guiding principle as we walk in love
with our Savior. Am I making some sense? very
important for us to understand that so then what we are dealing
with in the portion of scripture that I am going to address verses
14 through 26 today briefly we are dealing with a Proposition
that I want to set before you which is the title of my message
And then I'm going to argue my point with the Apostle Paul through
these verses and that's this when a man or a woman is truly
born again, and they are confronted with the crossroads between sin
and law and law and sin and grace in Christ, the born again soul
will always say, I pledge allegiance to Christ. The born again soul will always
say, I, Ego, pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ. I pledge allegiance
to Christ and to no other. He is my Lord. He is my life.
He is my king. He is my savior. He's my ruler.
He's my God. He's my everything. Christ is
all for me. The new born again soul will
always pledge allegiance to whom? And that will determine whether
or not you truly know God in the midst of the battle. So let's
work through our outline and see if we can discover this to
be true. Under point number one, here's
our observation, and it's starting at verse 14, which we're going
to work through a little bit exegetically, but basically I
want to just build expositorily my argument for what's being
described in Romans 7, verses 14 through 25, is the experience
of all believers, to some degree or another, based upon your personality,
based upon your background, based upon your experience. Let me
lay this caveat out. Romans 7 verse 14 through 25
is the experience of all believers to some degree or another. Based
upon your personality, based upon your background and experience,
you will be able to identify with the dynamics of verses 14
through 25. Am I making some sense? Follow
this now. It's not the same for everyone. If I were using a graph
I would say that the peaks and valleys on the graph are different
for everyone. In other words, there are levels
of intensity within the framework of the struggle that Paul is
describing here that's different for everyone. Certain personality
types won't necessarily go through the radical intense conflicts
spiking up as it were, that Paul is describing concerning himself
because of your temperament, because of your background, and
because of how much you understand the grace of God over against
that law system that's going to expose you for still yet being
a sinner, even though you're a believer. Am I making some
sense? If I wanted to, I could drudge up church history and
deal with different men and different women who understood the struggle
of being simultaneously righteous and sinful at the same time.
I'll just use Martin Luther briefly. Martin Luther was an individual
who was highly, highly conscious of his sin. And he struggled
enormously in the Catholic religion, which is a pseudo and neo-Judaism
that I've told you before. Catholicism is nothing but Judaism
and New Testament garb. And as Paul was under the weight
of that system of Catholicism, telling him he had to not eat
hamburgers on Friday, See, that would be a weight for me. That
would be a law I couldn't keep. But many other things to boot
caused Martin Luther to struggle. And even when he went to confession,
as he's speaking to his confessor, the one who takes his confession,
he said to his confessor, man, you know, I've sinned about 50
times since the last time I talked to you. And his father would
say to him, well, Luther, listen, don't be so uptight about all
that. The Lord is gracious. But Luther
says, you don't understand. Every time I think contrary to
the law of God, it brings about guilt and punishment. In fact,
Luther would say, I'm sitting against you right now because
I'm not telling you the whole truth. And the confessor would
say, listen, you've got to lighten up, brother. You've got to lighten
up. You're putting too much weight on me. I'm giving you the new
contemporary version of it. What people would call Luther
is neurotic and compulsive, obsessive. But all Luther was, was honest
about the piercing nature of the law over against his sin.
And the problem with us is we're not honest about how sinful we
are. And to that degree, the grace
that's needed to deal with the true nature of our sinfulness
is not available because we're not honest. Luther was the one
that God used to nail the 95 theses on the door at Wittenberg
to break open the gospel from the 17th century, 16th century
rather, to the present day. The reason why you and I are
breathing air freely and comfortably and enjoying the grace of God
right now is because of justification by faith apart from words, which
he was willing to die for. Are you ready watch this when
God revealed the glory of a total justification by the grace of
God in Christ by faith alone Luther's soul said are you ready? I pledge allegiance to Jesus
Christ and from that day on he fought the whole of the Catholic
Church Which wanted to anathemize him for saying salvation is by
the grace of God alone apart from human words What was Luther
doing? He was affirming the fact that
he was a true believer who actually was married to Jesus but had
to learn how to divorce himself from the legal code that did
not give him the grace to be able to live to God honorably.
Am I making some sense? Point number one then, the believer's
evaluation of himself in the light of the what? The believer's
evaluation of himself in the light of the law. Verse 14 says
this, for we know that the law is what they right there this
is the believers evaluation of the law going back to our power
what does the believers valuation of the law his evaluation of
the law is this that the law is spiritual point point a A
spiritual understanding of the law is what you and I must comprehend
when it comes to God's word. So I'm gonna briefly lay this
out to you. For you to believe that the law of God is bad, but
God is good is a faulty contradiction, is a flawed paradox. Here's the
truth. God's law proceeds from God.
It is, if you will, an extension of his nature. God's law proceeds
from God and therefore because it proceeds from God, it rightly
reflects God's attributes. Am I making some sense? It's
spiritual because it comes from a spiritual source. It's spiritual
because it comes from a spiritual source. In other words, if you
actually thought that the law had its derivation or its origin
from men, then you would be right. It's carnal, it's fleshly, it
has no benefit. But if you actually believe the
law came from God, that God spoke the law, that God wrote with
his own finger the commandments, you must therefore know that
the law is spiritual in its origin. That means therefore you and
I are to highly regarded. Is that true? That's Deuteronomy
4, 12 and 13. You don't have to go there. In
Deuteronomy 4, 12 and 13, what Moses told Israel was, you guys
are the most privileged people on planet earth. Because when
God spoke to you, you saw no similitude, no face, no image,
no body by which to bow down as an idol and worship. Watch
this. All you heard was a voice. You saw no similitude, you simply
heard a voice speaking out of the fire to over two million
people saying, thus said the Lord. The Lord wrote his word
with his own finger on two tables of stone, gave it to Moses to
give to you. What is the origin of God's law?
God himself. He spoke it to us. That's what
makes it spiritual. And therefore, the second point
under our heading, the spiritual understanding of the law is this. Not only did it come from God,
but it's designated to your heart and mind. What makes the law
spiritual is this, that its aim is your heart. Are you ready? Watch this now. When God gives
his law to you and me, he gives his law to you and me that we
might love him. Not just serve him as slaves, but love him.
You guys remember what jesus said in matthew chapter 22 around
verse 37 through 39 do not go there 27 37 through 39. He said this is the whole of
the commandment Are you ready to love god with all your heart
soul mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself? You know
what? We call that spirituality Why because the designation of
the law is the heart? It's the heart In other words,
we're not loving God and obeying God merely to go through external
commandment keeping. This is why, as I told you earlier,
what the new covenant does is takes the law of God from the
outside and places it on the inside. Am I making some sense?
Follow me now. So the law has its origins in
God. The law is designated towards
the what? The heart. And from the heart,
the law is designed to make you look like God's son. When the
Spirit of God is done working on you, you look like who? Jesus.
And what we mean and what Paul means when he says we know that
the law is spiritual, what he is saying is those who were part
of the Jewish stock, the we is in what we call the first person
plural, we know that the aim of the law is to affirm our sonship
with God. The law comes from God, the law
tells us what we are to do, how we are to act, and the law ultimately
is leading us to Christ that we might look just like Jesus
Christ. And so the law is a schoolmaster
to bring us to whom? And this is what Paul means in
his first observation under only true believers delight in God's
law. Here's my first point that I want to use to affirm my point.
When you say I delight in God's law, ladies and gentlemen, if
you mean that, This is an evidence of the inward man, and that inward
man is who? Christ. Do you see that? This
is a beautiful truth. If you discover yourself really
loving God's law, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now,
one of our pointer passages that developed for us the whole of
what we call biblical theology is Psalms 40 verse 7. And in Psalm 40 verse 7, here's
what Jesus himself says. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book, It is written of me verse 8 watch this watch this now.
I Delight to do thy will. Oh my god. Your law is within
my heart Do you see that? That's an echo of what Paul just
stated, isn't it? Watch this then when Christ is
placed in the heart of the believer Christ in you says I love the
law of God When Christ is placed in the heart of the believer
by the Spirit of God through the gospel, Christ in you says,
I love the law of God. And now when we read Psalms 1,
which says, Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor stands in the seat of sinners, nor stands
in the... There it is. Blessed is the man
that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in
the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful verse
2 But his delight is in what? That's Christ and That's Christ
in you the hope of glory See so what we're arguing in Romans
chapter 7 verse 14 is this watch this now It is true that all
believers love God's law because of Christ in them You guys got
that? It is true that all believers
love God's law because of Christ's name. There's a person resident
in our soul who loves God and God loves him. And because of
that, we love God and we love God's law. Am I making some sense?
I needed to drive that point home. Let's go back to our PowerPoint.
You're jumping ahead on me, brother. So now we're going to back to
point one. I want to address these other two points. The believer's
evaluation of himself in light of the law. First is a spiritual
understanding of God's law. Secondly, The attitude of a biblically
informed believer in the light of the law is seen in verse 14
point B. This is where we're getting ready
to go to work. First Paul says, for we know that the law is what?
But I am what? Sold under sin. So now let's
work with this for a moment because this is very important as a pivotal
point for moving us into this terse language of a dynamic we
recognize as a conflict. We know that the law is spiritual,
but we also know this, that we are carnal. So let me define
this in a way that does not allow you to slip on one side of the
ledger into extreme. The term carnal there can be
translated in this context, human and therefore sinful. human, and therefore sinful. When he uses that phrase, we
know that the law is spiritual, but we are carnal, what he is
saying is, we know that the law is spiritual, but because of
who I am in total, I still got issues. So the phraseology is
used to help you and I understand how important it is to be honest
about the totality of our experience with God while as yet I still
am partially physical and therefore carnal and therefore weak and
therefore sinful. He's acknowledging at least by
implication that there must be stages in my walk with God of
which I have not yet arrived. Are you following the logic?
So actually what he's getting ready to do is give you in a
sort of an adumbrated statement the reason why when you watch
me and I kind of do this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing, I'm
letting you know it's because I'm still human. Are you following me for a second?
This is important to know. Now when he uses that phrase
in verse 14 part B, he is not denying his spirituality. In
fact, it's his spirituality that gives him the clarity to acknowledge
his carnality. Now watch this now. So religious
people who do not know what grace is or may have not been born
again, do not have the comfort in themselves to acknowledge
that they're still sinful. People still debate with me over
the assumption that when once you become a saint, you can't
still be a sinner. And we have had people walk out
of our church when we have sang, only a sinner saved by grace,
only a sinner. They walk out of the church.
This is my story to God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. Is that true? Is that true? You
better give him some glory for that then. So now watch this.
Watch this now. Watch this now. They don't understand
the duality of the Christian in between grace and glory, do
they? They don't understand that grace necessarily will lead us
to glory, infallibly get us there, because we got a forerunner in
heaven already there. And we are linked to him, right,
by a golden chain called the Holy Ghost that's going to make
sure we get there. But between grace and glory is a process
we call what? Sanctification. And within the
realm of sanctification, you got to deal with conflict, brother.
You got to deal with a process of transformation we call the
whip process. For those of you who are new,
WIP, write it down, write it down. I am, there goes your ego
in me now, this is what I am. I am a work in progress. So if you don't understand that,
then you can't get with why I can say I'm carnal and yet affirm
my spirituality behind that proposition. I recognize fully that I am still
mortal. I recognize fully that my mortal
body is still corrupt. I recognize fully by virtue of
the revelatory work of the Spirit through the law that I still
have struggles and challenges that I got to deal with till
Jesus comes. Am I making some sense? So under again point number
one, we understand the spirituality of the law. It's not carnal.
It's from God. It's designated to the heart. It will ultimately
by the work of the Spirit confirm us to Jesus. Our attitude as
biblically informed believers is not to pretend that we're
perfect. In fact, I want to share with
you a few verses surrounding that to lay this principle down. Philippians 3, verse 21, the
apostle Paul describes what it's like to be a believer whose citizenship
is in heaven, but at the same time we live here on earth. Philippians
3, verse 21, he says, Jesus Christ shall change our what kind of
body? Vile body. Is it a vile body? Now, when you understand the
Greek term, it doesn't necessarily mean nauseating. It simply means
that it is so weak and so flawed and so inept that in comparison
to the glorified body that you and I have awaiting us, it's
vile. Let me see if I can help you
with the analogy a little bit better. Sometimes saints who enter into
deep realms of graceful walks with God and experience fellowship
at levels that are greater than other men, such as Isaiah, and
such as Daniel, and such as Job, where the Spirit of God has operated
in their life imminently to where they have acquired a reputation
for being holy men. Even Job, Isaiah, and Daniel
would have to admit from time to time they lose their mind.
And because of the powerful effusion of grace in their life, and the
gifts that God has given them, and the influence that they have
on people's lives, and everyone else calling them holy men, they
actually buy into the proposition a little bit that they're holy.
Now they won't tell you this, and they won't tell me this,
but they will struggle with the possible thought contemplation
that they are a little bit better than someone else. until God
gives them a revelation of his glory. And when Job says, I have
heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes have
seen you, I put my hands on my mouth, I put my face in the dust,
and I say that I am a vile creature, not even worthy to be in the
presence of God. You see what a glory of God will
do to the most eminent man or woman? Same thing happened to
Daniel. Daniel chapter 9 and 10 particularly
chapter 10 when Daniel saw the glory of the what we would call
pre-incarnate post-resurrected Christ warrior he fell on his
face and remember what the text says he lost all of his strength
all his companyness comeliness melted in him the word comely
is an old English term which means form and structure Daniel
was a handsome man right along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And they all were lauded as super wise men. But what did Daniel
do when he saw the glory of God? Fell on his face. Remember Isaiah
Isaiah chapter 6 I saw the Lord high and lifted up sitting on
his throne and his glory filled the temple his train ran out
throughout the universe He's glorious and I saw the cherubim
and the seraphim saying holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty
the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord. Remember that
I And for five chapters before, Isaiah was saying to the whole
nation, woe is you, woe is you, woe is you, woe is you. And when
he saw the glory of the Lord, you know what he said? Woe is
me. He had his estimation off because
he judged everything from a horizontal level instead of a vertical level.
And what Paul is doing in Romans 7 is describing what happens
when believers actually see themselves in the light of God's glory and
we line up over against God's law, we must admit that we still
keep coming short of the glory of God. My argument is this,
only believers talk like that. Now let me show you that that's
also Christ in you, the hope of glory. Go back to Psalm 40
verse 7 and watch what the progression out of Psalm 40 verse 7 does,
arguing both for an affirmation of a delight in the law of God,
as well as an affirmation of the weakness of our human nature
and the vileness that exists. Now you and I know that messianically
Christ is speaking in Psalm 40, is he not? Is this Jesus speaking
in the first person? Lo, I come in the volume of the
book. It's written of me. Who is this Bible about? Verse
8. Watch verse 8 now. Here it is.
I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart.
Isn't that where the law is to be designated? In the heart?
Verse 9. Watch this now. Watch it now.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, you know. What is Jesus?
He's a preacher. He preached the gospel to the
saints everywhere with the law that was written in his heart
because he came to do God's what? Will. Now look at the next verse.
Watch this now. Are you ready? I have not hid your righteousness
within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness
and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving
kindness nor your truth from the great congregation. Isn't
that a faithful pastor? Verse 11. Withhold not your tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let your loving kindness and
your truth continually do what? Stop right there. Jesus is a
model for you and me. What Jesus is doing is demonstrating
not only a disposition of his heart to love God's law, but
he's dependent upon God. He's calling out to his God saying
what? Preserve me. And this is what
I've been teaching us recently, haven't I? that if you and I
are walking around unconscious of the fact that we are being
independent, autonomous, separated from God and walking in our own
strength, that's a recipe for failure. When the believer realizes
that he must depend upon God totally, that as Christ is divine
and we are the branches, we are to continually say to the Lord,
Lord, preserve me. Is that what Jesus is doing?
He's teaching us that we must depend upon God. Verse 12. Watch
it down. Watch it. Here's verse 12. For innumerable
evils have come past me about. Do you see that? Watch this.
My enemies, or my iniquities rather, have taken hold of me.
Now, I'm here to tell you that's the same person that was talking
in verse 7 that's talking in this verse right now. Watch what
he says. My iniquities have taken hold
of me so that I'm not able to what? Child of God, do you have
days like that? Have you had days when the iniquity
of your heels, when the burden of the cares of this life, when
the temptations of sin have weighed you down so much you couldn't
call on God? See, I warned you earlier that
you have to be careful about what Romans 7, 14 is dealing
with because some of us don't have these extremes and others
of us do. Some of us have temperaments
and characteristics that are just a little bit more radical.
And so for us, the conflict is much more intense. Christ is
describing what it means to be human. Let me make a dichotomy
right here real quick. You guys are in theology class.
You don't even know this. Hear me now. Our master never
once sinned. But he didn't have to because
he bore a human nature. And because he bore a human nature,
the weakness of humanity allowed him to experience the burden
of sin that came not from him but from us. And the weight of
that sin justly allows him as a man to cry out to God. Are you guys hearing me? Why? Because he legitimately took
our place, if you are a believer, as a real man, very man of very
man, as he was very God of very God. But while as a man, he had
to depend upon God as if he was not God. In order to be a legitimate
representative for me, he had to bear my iniquities. He had to know my infirmities. He had to know the weight, the
weight, the weight of a fallen world system, my own humanness
and my sinfulness. The difference between Jesus
and us is that Jesus had a human nature that was weak. You and
I have a human nature that is both weak and sinful. Are you
following the logic? And this is why he as a faithful
high priest can sucker us. because he bore the weight accumulatively
of all of us from the beginning of time to the present hour,
the weight of sin so heavy upon him. And might I say this for
those of you who don't know, Christ bore more of your sin
than you will ever bear at any time in your life, as sinful
as you still are. You and I will never know the
weight that Christ bore for you, because in Him bearing it for
you, He left you with a very, very light yoke. The troubles
you and I go through will never even come close to comparing
the troubles of that man of sorrows acquainted with grief. All we
like sheep have gone astray and the Lord laid upon him the iniquity
of us all. Tons and tons and hundreds of
tons of sin upon that one man. He therefore could cry out as
if he were you and me about the burden of sin that would tempt
his holy soul Are you hearing me? Tempting his holy soul now
the one thing our master didn't do which we do frequently is
yield Are you hearing me? The one thing our master didn't
do which we do frequently is you let me close out this line
They are more than the hairs of my head and that was true
for him as is true for us. Job said our iniquities are infinite. They are countless. You never
come to the end of the iniquities that you and I commit while as
yet you and I are still breathing. Follow the logic. The only time
we stop sinning is when we die. While as yet we are not dead,
our sins are infinite. Are you following the logic?
They go on and on and on. And imagine this child of God
the massive weight of them Christ bore so that you can still smile,
you can still rejoice, you can still laugh, you can still get
up and face today, you can go about your life with some normalcy
even though you are a vile, corrupt sinner. Am I making some sense? All right, let's go back to our
first point so I can keep moving. My argument under the first point
is when the question is raised, what Paul describing in Romans
chapter 7 verses 14 through 25 legitimately the experience of
the believer my argument is it must be it must be not only because
believers have a spiritual component by which we affirm the law of
God but because Christ is in us the hope of glory we get to
experience the totality of what it means to still yet be fallen
waiting for the redemption of our bodies this is a necessary
confession So under point number one, the believer's evaluation
of himself, a spiritual understanding, and then the attitude of an informed
believer. And finally, a summation of its
power to expose and condemn sin in me. A summation of its power
to expose and condemn sin in me. That's verses 11 through
verse 14, where our elder had read it earlier. But let me share
with you once again, verse 11. 13 to show you again the point
that we must confess that these things occur when you and I are
Experiencing a conscious awareness of the law of God over against
our actions Paul says the commandment which was ordained to life verse
10. I've found to be unto what? for sin taking occasion by the
commandment did what deceived me and by it in what I Wherefore,
the law is holy and the commandment good and just. Was then that
which is good made death unto me? What's our answer? No. God
forbid. It was what? Sin. That it might
appear sin working death in me. Stop right there. That line is
important. So then, maturing believers are people who are
learning to walk in the light of truth. And one of the things
you're going to come to discover is you are more sinful than you
thought. Oh, this is true. Oh, this is
true. You're going to be liberated
today. You don't want to take the Lord's Supper next week. Watch this.
The goal of the law is to help you have a right estimation of
what God's word says about you. If no one else in the world agrees
with God, you will not only because you have the presence of Christ
in your heart, but you have also the law of God written on your
heart. To remind you, you ain't all that. Are you following me? Watch the logic. Watch the logic.
The goal of the law is to expose sin in proper light so that you
don't minimize sin. Because you will minimize sin.
You and I will minimize sin. But the law won't allow you to
do it. Oh, I'm getting ready to do some good stuff right there.
I've got to lay this foundation. Because you know what we'll do?
We'll deceive ourselves. What Paul said was, sin deceived
me. Deceived me into thinking that
it's all right to live like hell and not suffer consequences,
but the law told me that doesn't work See the law is there to
let you know you run that stop sign they're gonna be consequences
He says but seeing that it might appear sin working death in me
by that which is good now What is that which is good the law?
What was working death of me not the law what sin? Got it
Now, if you don't understand that little phraseology, working
death and me, it simply means separation. Sin is always separation. Follow the argument. When you
and I do wrong things, there's a break. Always. Whenever we do something wrong,
there's a break. Death is separation. When I sin
against my wife, there's a break. When she sins against me, there's
a break. When I sin against my neighbor,
there's a break. When my neighbor sins against
me, there's a what? Break. When I sin against God,
there's a break. This is why we say people who
are not saved are dead in trespasses and sins, because there's a break.
God is our life. And without God, we can't live.
In order for us to live, we have to have union with God, right?
But when we sin, things break. The point is, is that brokenness
is an ongoing experience you and I have that we can only overcome
by the grace of God. Y'all follow that logic? Very
important. And therefore, what you're going to learn in Romans
7 here is how to negotiate your fallen nature over against your
renewed nature, your regenerate nature, your born-again nature,
so that you can enjoy your walk with Christ. Because if you don't
get this, you'll be in conflict all your life. If you don't understand
how to work out the principles of what it means to walk in the
Spirit, that's chapter 8, you will struggle all the time with
never ever making progress in your relationship to Christ because
you will be constantly ignorant of the dynamics that bring you
into captivity, lead you into sin, cause you to have a break
in fellowship with God and struggle over and over and over and over
again. By the way, the two extremes that approach this text that
we're dealing with One extreme is an extreme that I've already
told you is called antinomianism, where you basically disregard
God's law as totally irrelevant. I'm under grace. I'm not under
law. Don't judge me. I can do whatever I want. That's
a false notion of grace. Y'all do understand that, right?
Just stay with me. But then the other extreme is
a kind of what we call defeatist mentality. And this goes on in
grace camps as well. You know what that defeatist
mentality is? It's this. I'm so sinful and I'm so broken.
I can never do any good at any time. I'm just a mess. Don't
expect me to do good at any time. Don't expect me to do right at
any time. I'm so much of a mess. Don't
even look at me. That's an extreme that violates
the tenor of scripture and denies the glory of God and the grace
of God in the life of the Christian. Are you hearing me? Those extremes
are unwise and imprudent. Christ did not save you. for
you to be impotent, standing still, paralyzed in your transgressions
and sins and simply affirming that you're nothing but a hell-bound
sinner. I'll go back to my basic proposition. Every true believer
is both righteous and sinful at the same time. Do you guys
accept that argument? What that means is there are
things that you and I do that honor God intrinsically because
of the new nature. There are things that you and
I do that honor God intrinsically because of the new nature. When
you and I are born again, according to 1 John 3, 9, He places within
us what is called the incorruptible seed. And that incorruptible
seed in 1 John 3, 9 cannot sin. Are you with me so far? Now we
got a fallen nature that sins. In fact, it cannot not sin. But then I got a new nature in
me that cannot sin. Welcome to the civil war in Jesse
Gistan's life. Are you with me so far? Follow
the argument because you got to get this. This is why you
want to have a whole Bible. You get these people that just got
the New Testament, don't listen to them. You get these people
that just have the Old Testament, don't listen to them. I got to
hear everything God says to get it right. Is that true? So stay
with me now. Here's the point. Whosoever is
born of God does not continue committing sin for his seed remains
in him. That seed is Christ in you, the
hope of glory, and it remains in you. It will never abort.
It will never abort. It will stay there and do the
job. It remains in you so that it cannot sin because you are
born of God. Aha! Going back to Romans chapter
7, let's see if I can make good on this proposition. Watch how
the Apostle Paul puts it. We're back in Romans chapter
7 dealing with verse 14 now. Verse 15 as we work through our
second point. summation of its power to expose
and condemn sin in me is what the Apostle explains in verses
6 through 11 where he says it brings me into captivity and
then it slays me through The law notice what point number
two says only true believers died delight in God's law. Do
you see that? Only true believers delight in God's law. It's a
consequence of the inward man. That's in you We've looked at
that Psalm 40 verse 7 The three points under that that I need
to deal with quickly are the two other points, points B and
C. The believer's union to Christ grants him this experience. And I've already dealt with that.
I think we moved to point two too quickly. Point number C under
there, the wicked hate God's what? Are y'all with me there?
Okay, so let me build an argument around how dangerous it is for
you and me to actually talk as if we have an aversion to God's
law. Only unregenerate men and women
hate righteousness. Only unregenerate men and women
despise righteousness. Jesus said in the Gospel of John
chapter 3 verse 19 these words, men love darkness. and they hate the light. In John
chapter 3, verse 19, he lays out the fact that he has come
into the world a light. He says, and this is a condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. Is the law of God light? Proverbs
6, 23 tells us that it is, because the law represents God's nature
and it exposes sin, doesn't it? Men love darkness. And if your
nature loves darkness, you're not going to like the light of
the law, are you? My argument then is only unregenerate people
fight against this whole concept of morality, of absolute truth,
of objective truth, of the standards of God's rule. Ladies and gentlemen,
I am describing to you the present predisposition of our world right
now. Everything that God calls good, it calls bad. Everything
that God calls wrong, they call it right. Everything that the
law of God says is the boundaries that God has established by which
you and I can have a happy life They want to break all those
boundaries every category that God has set up by which the world
can experience his blessing They want to break through those categories
more the distinction of those categories and redefine themselves
whatever way they want to isn't that what we're learning and
This is because they hate the light Follow the argument. Jesus says light is coming to
the world and men love darkness rather than light because they're
what is evil? Ah Am I boring you watch this
remember what we said last week We said that if you don't know
God and Therefore do not know that your identity is to be rooted
in the nature of God. I Your identity is going to be
defined by your sinful tendencies. Isn't that what we said last
week? I'm so glad you're listening. Because our present culture is
defining itself not by virtue of the God that created it, but
by virtue of their sinful tendencies. And because their deeds are evil,
rather than admit what believers admit, that these are evil deeds.
Even when I do them, I must admit they are evil. If I'm going to
walk in truth and be a blessing to a lost person who wants God,
I better tell the truth about how I lust and how I lie and
how I pervert the truth when I do. I better tell the truth.
Are you hearing me? I better tell the truth, but
I better help the unbelieving person who may be blessed with
struggling. Understand that that struggle
is designed to point you to Jesus. so that you don't begin to define
your sinful tendencies, your evil ways as being who you are. Am I making some sense? So follow
it now. The true believer recognizes
that his or her identity is in God. That they are identified
by their union with Jesus Christ. The twain become what? One flesh. As Jesus is, so am I. Jesus is
so am I so my identity is in Christ you want to really know
what I look like look to Jesus You want to really know what
I think like look to Christ Do you want to really know what
I'm going to be when the finished product has appeared look to
Jesus? Therefore the new nature in me constantly says I pledge
allegiance to Christ and I'm ready now for the warfare I Because
the non-believer who does not have his or her hope in Jesus
Christ as their Redeemer and as their husband, to bring them
into a vital union and walk with them by which the transformational
process not only begins but culminates in glory, all they can do now
is take the most forceful experience they have and identify themselves
with it. Watch this. Sin is the most forceful
experience we have when we don't have that which is greater than
sin Which is God while as yet we don't have God The simple
tendencies that mark our life the simple inclinations that
mark our life the simple proclivities that mark our life Will cause
you and me to identify ourselves with our sin. I In Romans chapter
7, here's what Paul does. I'm just going to open this up
a little bit and close for today. He opens up by saying, over in
verse 15, after acknowledging he understands where the law
came from, he understands it's designated to the heart, he understands
that it leads us to Christ, but he also acknowledges, in the
totality of me, I'm still carnal, sold under sin. We'll deal with
that more fully next week. But here's where he begins to
explain to us the struggle that leads to his allegiance to Jesus
while acknowledging he still has to deal with the conflict.
Did that make sense? Verse 15. For that which I do,
I, in my text, says, allow not. Some of your texts say, understand
not. Is that true? Some of your text
says, know not. For that which I do, I allow
not, or know not, or understand not. I want you to park it at
that line so I can explain something to you in the grammar. I hate
dealing with this, but you have to. Because in English grammar,
words have equivocal meanings, and that is, one word can be
defined many different ways. In the Greek, the language is
a little bit more technical, and so it has univocal meaning,
that is, one word will have a clear meaning over against another
word. In the Greek, there are lots of words for the term to
know, or to understand, or to see. And the best way to understand
this word as we make our progression is this way. For that which I
find myself practicing, I do not agree. Do you see that? Watch this now. For that which
I do, it's in the present indicative, for which I am doing, for that
which I am doing, I am acting, I'm practicing, I don't agree
with that. That's the best way to translate
that. I don't agree with that. Let me help you with the word.
It's the greek term gnosis and it's common in the new testament
and it's described as a man having intimacy with a woman and mary
knew not a man until jesus was born See the word no That's our
word now watch this in that mary and jesus mary and joseph did
not come together intimately They were not allowed to come
into a state of oneness In that they did not come into conjugal
union, their oneness was not allowed. Are y'all following
the argument metaphorically? So watch this. So when Paul says,
what I am doing, I'm not in agreement with, I'm not one with this.
I'm not identifying myself as what I'm doing. I'm not saying
the way I act and what I like and what I find myself doing
is the essence of who I am. Am NOT married to that conduct. That's good. You don't even know
it You don't even know it. That's good I'm not married to
that and see what he has just done is introduced us to the
new man in him He just introduced us to the spiritual man. He says
you want to meet the real ego in me. This is who I am I'm the
dude that does not agree at all with what I just did. I know
that's crazy. I Know that's crazy Because I told some of my men
earlier in the year that when we go through Romans chapter
7, you've got to accept the proposition that believers have two egos.
Or you can make no sense grammatically or syntactically out of these
verses. Who's the I here? We're the two I's here. One is
the new man in Christ who never sins. The other is the fallen
nature, which all it does is sin. And we've got to negotiate
how to get control of that latter due. Because he would love to
tell everybody that's who I am. But I'm here to tell you, I am
not that dude. I pledge allegiance to Jesus
Christ. I pledge allegiance to Christ
and to Christ alone. He bought me. He married me.
I'm one with him covenantally. Spiritually, I love him. Spiritually,
I know him. Spiritually, I want him. And
so naturally, I oppose all that in my fallen nature craves to
do that's contrary to God. Is that good? You have to be
able to understand that. So he says, for that which I
am practicing, I don't agree with that. I don't know that.
I'm not married to that. For what I would, ah, there it
is. That's the new ego. What I am
desiring, that I am not doing. So he is desiring to do what's
right, but he's recognizing that the right is not occurring. Stay
with me. Don't draw a conclusion. Here it is. But what I hate,
that I find myself doing. I would assert to you that this
becomes an opportunity to ask the question, do you love God's
law? Because if you love God's law, you hate evil. That's another
evidence that you're born again. Saints, do some of y'all remember
like I remember what it was like when it was just you, yourself,
and I? Remember the days when you loved what you did and there
was no conflict there? You woke up and you said, Sal,
I want to do evil today. And you salivated after that
evil, and you schemed, and you connived, and you planned, and
you went after it. There was no civil war. There
was full and total agreement between your nature and your
passions. And the only thing you didn't
like about it was the fact that you didn't accomplish what you
wanted or the negative consequences that came out of it. I'm bringing
you to another point now. One of the evidence that you're
born again is not only that you hate the consequences of sin,
because the unbeliever can hate the consequences. I mean, you
can get AIDS from indiscretion, and you can hate the fact that
you got AIDS. My father died of AIDS. You can hate the fact
of consequences coming. You can love stealing and hate
the fact that you're going to jail, brother. And you can be
remorseful that you got caught, but you're not remorseful that
you did it. You understand the argument? Stay with me for a
moment. It's important. There's nothing in you that said,
now, Jess, Jess, I am not in agreement with you about what
you're about to do. And if you have more power than
me and you go ahead on and do that thing, when you throw us
in prison, I'm still going to tell everybody in prison, I didn't
do that. Sin in me did that. Are you hearing me? Because my
allegiance is to Jesus. Now they may say, fella, you
still got a problem. And I would. And the problem
is this. Is there a power available to
me that agrees with my holy nature, that what my fallen nature wants
to do is wrong, able to stop my fallen nature in the tracks
and keep me from doing what my fallen nature wants to do? Is
there a power available to that? That's where Paul is going. Are
you guys hearing the argument? That's where he's going. He's
taking us to the place where the believer understands what
it means to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh But he's
taking us through it logically and deeply Analytically so you
can see how he reasons with his brothers who believe that you
can't be holy without the law He said uh-uh. I can be holy
if Christ is in this thing If Christ is in this thing, He will
help me not only affirm the right decision, but stop my fallen
nature from going down that path. Are you hearing me? Yeah, so
it's important. Going back then to our second
point so we can wrap it up and get to our third, and I'll close.
I actually want to work through some of these texts. So I said
that the wicked hate God's law, and the Bible's clear in that.
Psalm 50 verse 16 and 17 do not go there. What have you to do
with my law since you have cast it behind your back and you agree
with thieves and you agree with adulterers? God says to the wicked
people, you do not hear my words. Psalm 10 verses 4 and 5, God
says, his thoughts are not in their mind, his law is high above
their head. In other words, when you and
I are in a total sinful state, we do not think God's thoughts
after him. Does that agree? And sorrowfully
so, in Hosea chapter 4 verse 6, God told Israel over and over
again, my people perish for lack of knowledge. And then he explained
that that lack of knowledge was a consequence of them rejecting
his word every time he preached it. So church folk can be just
as raggedy and scandalous and disobedient as unsaved people
when you continually reject God's law. Are you hearing me? And
should you continually reject God's law, though you come to
church, we must assess that you don't have the new nature in
you. Because the new nature in you is going to love God's law
and is going to be resolved to fight, declaring its allegiance
to Jesus. You hear that? PowerPoint number
three. Point number three. The two natures
in the believer will always what? Yep, I'm going to run through
this quickly and come back and pick it up next week. So please understand
this, ladies and gentlemen. God gives you the third person.
And who is he? The Holy Ghost. God gives you
and I the third person. as a resident in our life to
conform us to Jesus, right? To give us revelation. Is that
the role of the third person? And when He, the Spirit of truth,
has come, He will convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. He will take the things of mine
and show them to you. He will not speak of Himself. He will
glorify Christ. He will guide you into all the
truth. He will conform you to the image of Christ. He will
teach you. He will correct you. He will admonish you. He will
grow you up into Jesus. Is that what He does? The Holy
Ghost is the resident teacher. When you were under the law,
the law was your pedagogue, but now the Holy Ghost is your pedagogue.
You know what that means? He speaks most vividly in your
soul. Say, hey Jess! Hey! Now you must
be asleep, because that other dude that you and I disagree
with, he's starting to take control. Now let him know, let him know,
that if he gets the right to do the wrong thing, I'm not going
to whip him, I'm going to whip you. Am I telling the truth? Am I telling the truth? It would
be great if the Holy Ghost would whip my fallen nature. But he's
not going to whip my fallen nature, he's going to whip my new nature.
He's going to chastise me for falling asleep on the law, on
the job. He's going to convict me of sin.
He's going to correct me. He's going to admonish me. He's
going to chastise me. Remember what Jesus said? Innumerable
evils. They have overtaken me and weighed
me down. How does the Holy Ghost do it?
He backs up a few feet on you because there's nothing worse
in the world than to sense the visible departure of God's presence
in your life, to leave you by yourself. And then he's speaking
to you from a distance. Hey, hey, hey, you like this?
You like the distance between you and me? He's cold over there,
isn't it? See, two are better than one.
A three-fold cord is not easily broken. Two can keep each other
warm. Holy Ghost says, cold over there, isn't it, Jess? Oh, by
the way, you realize now that you still don't have any strength
to stop that knucklehead, do you? Because without me, you
can do nothing. Am I making more argument with
you, Saints? that what Paul is describing in Romans chapter
7 is depicting the believers transition from law to grace
so that he can actually have a helper, a helper, a husband,
a redeemer to help him do, help her do, help us do what we cannot
do ourselves. So when I make the proposition
that the two natures in the believer will always disagree, that's
verse 15 that we're working through, point A, it's a matter of conflict
Necessary for our enemies are rather for enemies and this is
Galatians chapter 5 verse 17 go there I'm just gonna deal
with these two sub points to latter sub points and I'll come
back mark what the Apostle says here treating the same subject
for the flesh lusts against the what He's saying the same thing
that Romans 7 is saying where Romans 7 is saying I find in
my members a law that That when I would do good, evil is present
with me, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death.
That's called the flesh. That's the sarkinos there. That's
the flesh. You're falling. It's not your
body. I told you this. Don't don't be pinching. Don't
be doing this. Don't be doing this. All you're going to do
is get, you know, bruises when you do this. Stop that. Because
your body, this physical body is nothing but a servant. This
would be Gnosticism to keep pointing at this, like this is the thing
that's causing you to sin. This is not the thing that's
causing you to sin. It's the thing inside here that's
causing you to sin. You know what it's called? The
fleshly heart, the carnal heart. Are you hearing me? Feed your
body, get your rest and tell your body you are a servant of
the King. and then command your body to
do the will of God and ask the Holy Ghost to help you get it
done. Do not yield your members to unrighteousness, to sin. Listen,
your members are just standing there saying, okay, just what
y'all want to do? What y'all want to do? I'm here, man. What
you want to do? I can't do anything other than
what you say do. I can't just take you over and
just go do something crazy. I'm trying to help you because
if your Christianity is flawed, if your Christianity is flawed,
you will never experience the grace of God and you'll be blaming
it on the wrong thing. Don't blame it on the law. Don't
blame it on the law. Don't blame it on your physical
body. Blame it on your heart. Am I making some sense? Blame
it on your heart. And so what you and I are supposed
to do is recognize that sin shall have no dominion over you because
you're not under law. You are under what? And grace
is not an abstract, impersonal concept. It's a person with power
to prevail in your life personally, because he not only redeemed
you, but he married you and he has purpose for you to make him
look good. Did you get that? The Lord Jesus
has purpose for you to make him look good. And he sent the Holy
Ghost to make sure that happens. To make sure that happens. And
watch this. By the way, he has given you
such a resource of grace that when you mess up, all you have
to do is acknowledge it. Are you hearing me? Just acknowledge
it. See, that's the resources of grace that he's giving you.
When you mess up, just acknowledge it. I've done wrong, Lord. I've
sinned against you and only you have I done this evil. Have mercy
on me. Have mercy on me. And if you
confess your sins and if you forsake your sin, he will have
already justified you and cleansed you by the grace of God in Jesus
Christ. He'll simply say to you, child,
get up, keep moving. We got a good fight to fight.
We've got a race to finish. We've got a course to run. Leave
that thing behind. Press toward the mark of the
high calling, which is in Jesus Christ. Keep your eyes fixed
on your Savior. Are you hearing me? And continue
to pledge allegiance to Jesus. Amen.