Romans chapter 7. This has 25 verses in it. Let's
read them. Our subject today is the war
within. The war within. But there's two
more words I want to add to that, and you'll see why in a minute.
The war within the believer. I want to begin here in verse
1 and read down through verse 25. If you have your Bibles,
turn there with us this morning. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath no husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband.
We're having some kind of problem. Can you all hear that? Is that
just me? Turn the speaker. I don't know how to do that. They just started doing that,
so maybe had it up a little bit too high. OK. David, you stand there. Somebody get him a chair if he
needs to sit down. Let's start over, OK? Verse one. Know ye
not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, now that
the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the
woman which hath not husband is bound by the law to her husband
as long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she
is loose from the law of her husband. So then, if while her
husband liveth she be married to another man, she shall be
called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is freed from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in
the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we
are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held,
that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness
of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taken occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence,
for without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin, taken occasion
by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was
then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but
sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which
is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. But we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, soul under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. But what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If
then I do that which I would not, I consent, I agree with
the law, that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me,
that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would
not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin." You will have to be patient with
me this morning. This may go just a little bit
long. I hope it doesn't. But Paul begins
here in verse 1 through verse 3, and he proves two things concerning
the moral law, what we call the Ten Commandments law. First of
all, he proves that it is holy and a just commandment. Whatever
the law commands, you can know for sure that it is holy. It
is a right command. It is a just command. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. That is what the law says, isn't
it? And here in verse 12 that I read to you, he says this commandment
is holy and just and good. That's a good commandment. It's
good for society. It's honoring to God. And all
of the commandments are that way. Thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not kill. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. All these
commandments are holy and they're good. Now, somebody will say,
Bruce, you're from the old school. You know, you're among the Neanderthals. I've had people tell me that.
Bruce, that's Neanderthal teaching. We don't need that anymore. We
walk and do what's right in our own eyes. We have our own standards. Well, how's that working out
for society? How's that working out for society? Not too good,
is it? Somebody said, well, I just don't think we should teach that.
I don't think we should live by that. I don't think we should
have to submit to those commandments. Well, this brings us to the second
thing. about these commandments, and
it's this. These commandments are not mere
suggestions. They're not mere recommendations,
but they're binding upon society. Look what he says again in verse
1. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man so long as he lives." The law has dominion over society. This word dominion means to exercise
lordship over. The law hath dominion over society. A man is never too young. And
a man is never too old that he loses his obligation to submit
to God's commandment, to God's holy law. And when we break this
law, you know what it's called? It's called sin. It's called
transgression against God. The breaking of the law, James
says, is transgression. That's what it is. It means to
trespass, to go to that place. That's forbidden. In verse 3,
Paul says the only way a woman can be freed from her marriage
to her husband is for her husband to physically die. That's what
he tells us in verse 3. And here in verse 4, the only
way you and I can be delivered from the law and its curse is
for Jesus Christ to die physically. See what he said in verse 4?
Wherefore, my brethren, we also are become dead to the law by,
and read it like this, by the dead body of Jesus Christ the
Lord. How can a man be delivered from
the law? Well, you can't be married to
the law and Christ at the same time. If you're married to the
law, you're not married to Christ. You have to be dead. And how
did we die? We died by our union in Jesus
Christ. He died under the curse of the
law. He hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, then made a curse for us. Christ died for our sins. And it's that death that delivers
us from the curse of the law, and then we can be married to
the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord Jesus had not come
down from heaven, and died in our place, you and I would have
lived and died married to the law. And what's it like to be
married to the law? Well, he tells us here in verse
5 and 6. Look at it again. Well, when we were in the flesh,
the motions, the passions of sins which were by the law did
work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Now that's what it means to be
married to the law. Let me explain it something like
this that all of us can relate to. To be married to the law
means that husband comes home every night, and the minute he
sees you, he puts a frown on his face. And you've worked all
day long, you've scrubbed every dish in the house, You've got
them on your hands and knees and cleaned the floor. You've
washed all of the clothes. And you think, boy, this is good.
He's going to be pleased with me. But as soon as he comes home,
he puts on his white gloves and he starts rubbing over the doors
and around the windows, and you see a frown come on his face.
And he looks at you and he says, you've failed again. You have
failed again. And he raises his voice. And
you take him into the supper table and you think, man, what
a dinner I've cooked. And there's just a little brown
crust around the cornbread. And he says, you know, this is
not right. I don't like this like this.
And he begins to beat you. And he condemns you and says,
you're guilty. You cannot live up to my standard. Do you remember that? The more
you tried to please the law, the less satisfied he was with
you. He was a burdensome husband,
wasn't He? And everything you did was just
death. You brought forth fruit unto
death. That's what it's like being married
to the Law. You can never satisfy Him. What's it like being married
to Christ? What's it like being married
to the Son of God? Oh, it's altogether different,
isn't it? He comes home, and the first thing you see on His
face is a smile. And He hugs you and He kisses
you with the kisses of His mouth. And you see things that you've
not done right. But He's so tender about it.
He's so forgiving about it. He encourages you. Don't you love to be married
to Jesus Christ? Isn't He just the Husband for
us? Surely He is. And we love Him
for it, don't we? We serve Him, well, he says here
in verse 6, in newness of spirit. It's not like serving our old
husband. We serve Him because we want
to. We serve Christ because we love
to. And we see the utter failure
that we make. But yet He loves us. And we love
Him. And we just can't do enough to
please Him. And it's not done out of a legal
spirit or self-righteous attitude. It's done because we know He
loves us. And He's so gracious and so kind
and so tender. Don't you love being married
to Christ? I love being married to Him. He's a lot different
than Moses, isn't He? Moses with his old big long beard
and his frowning face and condemning you and beating your conscience
all the time. Oh, I love being married to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And now here in verses 7
through verse 13, the Apostle Paul is going to tell us of his
past conversion. He's going to tell us why it
was necessary for the law in his spirituality to be revealed
to his conscience. See, Paul did not know the nature
of God's law. He said, I was alive without
the law once. Now, he's not saying he was alive
spiritually. He's not saying he had the life
of Christ in his heart. That's the only kind of life
there is. He was saying, I was alive to
myself. I lived with confidence in my
own righteousness. The Lord Jesus said it like this,
if you find your life, you'll lose it. Paul had found his life,
and it was one of obedience to the law for justification before
God. He was working out a righteousness.
He did not know how just and spiritual the law was. He thought
as long as I didn't steal anything, I'm not coming to Him. And then
he saw one day, oh man, I've never stole anything with these
hands, but I wanted to. My heart coveted something and
it just coveted over and over and over again. And this law
came to Paul and said, Paul, here's what you've done. And
he said, oh my, I've sinned. I've sinned against God. I've
sinned against His law. You know what? We cannot know
the nature of sin until we know something of the nature of God's
holy law. And that's what Paul is saying
here. He said, before I was converted, I thought that I was pleasing
God. From my youth up, my parents
laid the foundation. They circumcised me when I was
eight days old. When I was a teenager, they signed
me up to sit at Gamaliel's feet and be taught of him. But he
said, I never knew what it was to be a sinner. I never knew
what it was to be afflicted in my conscience that I'd sinned
against God. And therefore, I never needed
a Savior. Well, this is what we're lacking
in our day, is it not? I talked with a man this week
about sin, and he has professed Christ since he was a young man.
And he stared at me like a deer would stare into headlights when
you're about to run over it. Just stared, and I knew you don't
know a thing about sin. Not heart sins. Everything he
thinks he does against God, he does it with his hands. Or he
does it with his feet. Or he does it with his eyes.
And if he can abstain from looking at evil and committing evil with
his hands or walking somewhere, then he's not sinned against
God. That's the same way Paul was. And he said, One day I was
on the Damascus road, and the Son of God appeared to me and
said, Saul, you're persecuted. You're not my friend. I'm the
Lord. I'm God. And you're against me
and you're against my law. And boy, then the law came to
his conscience. showed Paul how holy it was,
how demanding it was, how he had failed to keep it. And you
know what he said? Oh, sin is exceeding sinful. I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble
with God. I'm in trouble with the law of
God. Here's something I've trusted in all my life, and now I've
seen I've been a lawbreaker all my life. Why must we know the
nature of God's law? that we may see the nature of
sin. That's all the law can do. When
it does that, that's all it can do. You're a sinner against God. Now, this is Paul's past experience
concerning the law. It let him see sin in its true
light that was exceedingly sinful. And were he used to trust in
it? for his righteousness, now he sees himself condemned by
it and under its awful, awful curse. And without excuse. Let me give you two illustrations
of what it means to be under the law and own it. Own it. I'm responsible. One man gave
an illustration and he said it was something like this. when God had made Adam and put
him in the garden and told him to kill the garden. You know,
keep it clean. Keep it beautiful. I've given
you this garden. I've given you the tools to work
with. I've given you the ability to do it. And you can do it.
And you'll enjoy doing it. Only don't do this. Don't get
around that pit over there. If you get around that pit and
you fall in, you can't get out. Well, about a week later, the
Lord comes back to check on Adam and he noticed the garden is
becoming a mess. And he said, Adam, where are
you? What's going on? And he said, I'm over here. I'm
over here. I'm in this pit and I can't get
out to till the garden. And God said to him, what are
you doing in the pit? Did I tell you to beware and
stay away from that pit? If you fell in that pit, you
could not till the garden. You could not keep my commandments. Here's an illustration that I
like to use. Suppose you needed a roof on
your house and you called a roofer and he shows up to roof your
house and he's drunk as a skunk and he's got a whole trailer
load of shingles, and he starts putting them on upside down.
And you go out to see him, and he's got large places where he's
not even put a shingle. And you know good and well what's
going to happen. Your house is going to leak. It's going to
mess up your ceiling. Your carpet's going to get wet.
Your floor's going to buckle. And you're going to have to contend
with a mold. Why could not Adam till the garden
any longer? He got himself in the pit. Why
can't this man shingle my house? He's drunk. Now, if I'm going
to let him off, am I going to say, well, you're drunk, you
couldn't have it, and send him on to my neighbor? No, I'm not. I'm going to tell him I called
you in good faith. We agreed on a reasonable price,
and you can't do the work because you've showed up drunk. You've made yourself incapable
of doing the job. And that's the way it is with
the law, is it not? That was the time, brothers and
sisters, in our first parents, we could have kept the law of
God. But no more. But no more. And Paul says it's
not the law's fault. The law is good. The law is holy. And the law is just. But we're
fallen sinners, aren't we? And listen to this. Will God
lower His standards to accommodate us? Will He come and say, Sarah,
I know that you've failed to keep this law, but don't worry
much about it. I know how weak you are. And
you know, so He won't do it. He won't lower his standards,
will he, to accommodate sinners when they break his law. If a man does not continue in
everything that's written in the book of the law to do him,
God will condemn him. A just and holy God will find
him guilty. And listen, God has created a
hell for that. And Jesus Christ has obtained
eternal redemption for His people to deliver them from the curse
of God's holy law. Paul looked at this law, and
he realized that he was an awful sinner. But he took responsibility. When the Lord said, Why are you
persecuting me? He didn't say, Wait a minute,
I've not been that bad. Boy, he realized right then,
I'm in trouble. And I'm responsible. We're living in a day where people
don't want to take responsibility for nothing, do they? Blame your
parents. Blame society. Blame some circumstance
that you find yourself into. But when this Holy Spirit comes
in power and convicts our conscience, we take the blame. And then we
seek after a Savior to save us. Now here in verses 14 through
25, Paul is going to speak in the present tense. Did you notice
how he changed this? He has been speaking in the past
tense. Now look what he does in verse 14. For we know that
the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. And he says that in verse 24.
O wretched man that I am. He had been talking in the past
tense, giving us his experience, and now, He comes to present
tense. He's speaking as a believer. That's so important, isn't it?
And I'll tell you why that's so important. There are some
commentaries that just twist these verses to say this could not be Paul. He would never speak of himself
like that. Well, look at it. Look at it here in verse 14,
I am carnal, sold under sin, sold into slavery. Look at verse
17, sin dwelleth in me. Verse 18, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Verse 20, sin dwelleth in me
again. Verse 23, I am captive to the
law of sin which is in my members. Verse 24, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Verse
25, with the flesh I serve the law of sin. Man alive. That's serious, isn't it? That is serious. If he's applying
this to himself as a believer, and he's not an apostle, That's
serious. Is this really something that
he's experienced, that he sees in himself? Sin dwells in me? I'm a wretched man? I serve the
law of sin? If I'm somewhere in a bookshop,
or somebody shows me a new commentary, I'm online to find a new commentary.
One of the first scriptures I turn to is Romans chapter 7. And I
begin there around verse 14, and I want to see what that commentator
says about this experience. And if he starts trying to explain
it away and say that was Paul when he was still unconverted,
I just gently close the book and lay it up on the shelf and
say, I don't need that. That's not my experience. My
experience is this. And to be honest with you, if
you're a believer this morning, this is your experience. You
are in a war. You're in a battle. You're in
a conflict. Just like this apostle was. Paul identifies his new life
in Christ as two men. One, he calls here a wretched
body of sin and death. And he calls the other one this
inward man. One serves sin, the other delights
in the law of God and in holiness. And when you get these two men
together, you've got a war on your hands. And neither side
is going to yield until the other side is dead. They hate each
other. This word warring that the Apostle
Paul used here in verse 23, I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind. This is a military term. And
it presents to us the view of two opposing armies, and they
join battle, hand-to-hand combat. And neither side will yield.
They hate each other with enmity. And one of them is not going
to stop fighting until the other is dead. The little Shulamite woman in
Psalms of Solomon chapter 6 verse 13, Solomon's wife, his lover, he made this statement concerning
her. He said, Return, O Shulamite,
return, that we may look upon you. And what will we see in
the Shulamite? As it were, the company of two
armies. Two armies in the Shulamite woman. My lover, my wife, what's in
her? Two armies and they're opposing each other. They're fighting
each other. Remember when Rebecca, Isaac's
wife, couldn't get pregnant and Isaac went and sought the Lord
and said, Lord, would you please let my wife conceive? We want
a son. And she conceived in her womb
and there was twins in her womb. Remember that? One of them's
name was Esau, and one's name was Jacob. And she noticed that
they started struggling in her womb. They were wrestling in
her womb. And she couldn't sleep. She couldn't
be comfortable. And she went to the Lord, and
she said, Lord, what's going on? You blessed me to have these
twins, and now they're struggling in my womb. And the Lord said
this, there's two nations in you. There's two manner of people
in your womb. One's a reprobate. One I hate. One I've rejected him. He's a
profane man. He hates God. He hates holiness. He'll hate his brother. He'll
sell his birthright for a bowl of soup. And the other one, Even
before he's born, he's wanting this birthright and he's fighting
his brother to get it. He'll be seeking the blessings
of God all the days of his life. He'll wrestle with God sometimes
all night and say, I'm not going to let you go until you bless
me. There is two manner of people in your womb. And brothers and
sisters, I'm telling you this morning, there's two manner of
people in you. If you're in Christ this morning, you've got a new
man and you've got an old man. And they hate each other. And they're going to fight and
wrestle until they die. The old man's going to die. The
new man never will. And they'll never quit fighting.
I want to show you some Scripture. If you'll turn there with me
right quickly, I won't take up so much of your time. Look in the epistle of Ephesians
and look in chapter 4. Look how the Apostle Paul says
it here in verse, look in verse 19. Begin in verse 19. Ephesians chapter 4 and look
at verse 19. And being past filling. Speaking
about those Gentiles who do not know God, they have given themselves
over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned, Christ, if so be that you have
heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus,
that you put off concerning the former compensation, the old
man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
See how he describes a Christian? He's two men. He has an old nature
that remains in him, and what kind of character does he have?
He's corrupt. He didn't say he was corrupt,
but God has remodeled him. He says He is corrupt at this
present time. What about the new man? He is
created in righteousness and true holiness. Some people say,
well, why do you insist on the believer being two people? Because the Bible insists on
it. Before you and I were born again, we lived in our flesh. We lived according to our nature.
That's all we were was flesh. We walked according to our human
nature, our fallen nature. But when the Lord puts a new
man, is this a new man? Is it a pasted on holiness? No. You're created in righteousness
and true holiness. You're as much a creation as
what you see around you. The same God that created everything
in this universe created a new creature in you. If any man be
in Christ, he's a new creature. And brothers and sisters, he's
a pure creature. He's a holy creature. He's a
righteous creature. But you're still the old man
too. And what happens? These two armies, two mannered
people, they fight. They war. They try to get the
upper hand one against another. Look at another place. Look in
Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 and look
in verse 8. A couple of more places. Colossians chapter 3
and look in verse 8. It says almost the same thing.
Colossians 3 and verse 8. But now ye also put off all of
these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him." The inner man and the outer man, the new creature and the
old creature, the new nature and the old nature. Look in one
more place. Look in 1 Peter with me. 1 Peter 1. And look in verse 22. 1 Peter 1, verse 22. I love this
passage of Scripture here. I love what it teaches. I think
I know it means just what it says. Look in verse 22. seeing
you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned, sincere love of the brethren. See that
you love one another with a pure heart firmly, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed. by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh
is grass, all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass.
The grass withereth, the flower thereof fadeth away. But the
word of our God, the word of the Lord, endureth for ever.
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Wherefore, lay aside all malice in God, and hypocrisy, and envy,
and all evil speaking, as newborn babes. Desire the sense of the
milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Paul of Peter is
saying exactly the same thing in just a little different way
than the Apostle Paul is saying. Paul talked about the old corrupt
man and the new man that was created in righteousness and
true holiness. Peter says it like this. When
you had your first birth, you were born of corruptible seed. What does he mean by that? Well,
we know what he means, don't we? My dad begot me. And when he begot me, he begot
somebody just like him. Corruptible seed can only produce
its own kind. Corruptible seed produces corruption. Why do I think the way I think? Why do I act like I act? I'll tell you why. Because my
dad was a sinner. And when he begot me, he begot
a sinner. That's all he could do. He was
a sinner and I'm a sinner. It goes all the way back to our
first father who sinned against God and fell. What would happen? If God, the
Heavenly Father, the Holy Father in Heaven, begot a child with
this incorruptible seed, what would that be like? Oh my goodness,
that would be an incorruptible child. That would be a holy child, because
this seed is incorruptible, and it always begets its kind. An incorruptible seed cannot
beget a corruptible child. You are born of the Word of God,
which is incorruptible. Therefore, that new creature
that is in you is incorruptible. It cannot corrupt anything, and
it cannot be corrupted. It is born of God, isn't that
amazing? I was reading one commentary
and he said, it's just as though they're holy. No, it ain't just
as though. They are holy. They're incorruptible. This is hard to see. Isn't this
hard to see? You can't turn your eyes within
and say, Bill, he's there. There's an incorruptible seed.
I've begotten of the incorruptible seed. But it's there. And Peter
said, just as that child that's born of his natural father begins
to lie and covet, and you have to keep him beat down and not
let him steal and cuss, this newborn babe, he desires the
one who begat him. He desires holiness. He has love
for his Maker and Redeemer. He's a newborn babe that delights
in the milk of the Word. And he grows by eating that Word.
And he's always coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says,
My Savior is precious to me. So you've got two men, haven't
you? You've got this old corruptible man. Then you've got this incorruptible
man. And brothers and sisters, that's
why you're in a war. That's why sometimes you get
so discouraged and weak. And this is why the Lord Jesus
Christ has to come to you and support you and uphold you and
encourage you. Because there's enough in this
warfare to discourage us that we would just throw up our hands
and quit. But He won't let us, will He? He won't let us. He creates this new creature,
then He upholds this new creature. He gives this new creature grace
to believe, and then He upholds that faith in Him. I had no idea what was going
to happen to me when the Lord saved me. I thought I was just
going to float into heaven on the clouds. It didn't happen. I woke up one day and realized
what a battle I was in. A war. It's a war. One time I
called this a contest within. One time I called it a struggle
within. And I thought, no, friends can have a friendly contest.
Friends can get in a wrestling match with each other. No, that's
not strong enough words. This is a war. This is two armies. This is the old man that's corrupt
warring against the new man that's holy. If you're in a battle this morning
with yourself, this is why. Let me show you one more verse
in Galatians chapter 5, then we'll wrap this up. Look in Galatians
chapter 5. I think the best commentary on
the Bible is the Bible, don't you? And Mr. Baker has talked
about that so many times. If you want to know what the
Bible means, just compare it with the Bible. What does this
verse mean? Compare it with that other verse.
And usually it will tell you. And these guys that deny the
warfare within, then what do they do with a verse like this
in chapter 5 of Galatians and verse 17? Look at this. lusteth against the Spirit, that
means it's opposed. The desires of the flesh is opposed
to the desires of the Spirit. And the Spirit and His desires
are opposed to the desires of the flesh. And these are contrary
one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you
would. This word contrary means antagonistic. It means repugnant. Boy, that's what a testimony
against our own nature. He looks at the work of the Holy
Spirit and what does he say? You're repugnant to me. I hate
you. And the spirit looks upon the
old nature and says, you're repugnant to me. I hate you. And I long today to put you off. Don't you experience this? You
do. You sure do. Let me tell you
something Paul is not saying about this war within. This is
very important. He's not saying you don't want
to get drunk, but you just can't help it because you're a sinner.
You don't want to lie to people, but you just can't help it because
you're a sinner. You don't want to steal and use
vulgar language and tell filthy jokes because you just can't
help it because you're a sinner. You didn't want to commit adultery
against your spouse, but you're a sinner and you just can't help
it. That's not what he means. This war that's going on is within. The old man is just as much sinful
and vile and a drunk and an adulterous as he was before the Lord put
a new man in. He just can't have his way. He
wants to break out. And with these members of his
body commit all kinds of sin. And the new man, the Holy Spirit,
is here to control him and to keep him from breaking out. But
it's taking place within, the sin within me. Those that are justifying, they're
willingly falling into sins by these verses. They don't know what this warfare
is. You can't see it outwardly. It's taking place within. Opposing
natures. And you cannot avoid it. It's
the experience, more or less, of every sincere and honest believer. Five things we can learn from
this right quickly. And it's this. What's the effects
of this warfare? Well, first of all, it makes
us miserable. Makes us absolutely miserable. This word, Oh, wretched
man that I am, means miserable. Oh, miserable man that I am. I'm a burden to myself. And verse
23 in our text, he likens it to being captive in a filthy
cell. I see another law in my members,
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. Can you imagine
if you were in a battle and you were taken captive by your filthy
enemy, and he put you in a little cell, and there was no bathroom
in there? There was no toilet paper in
there? There was no water in there? And you stayed in there
every day. Can you imagine what it would
smell like? What you would look like? That's
the same ideal he has here. I'm captive in this miserable
dungeon of sin. In verse 24, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? There was a practice back in
the early church. century at least, that Rome,
if they caught a man who had murdered somebody, they would
take that dead body and they would secure it on the back of
the man who killed him. And you carried it around until
it decayed and all that was left was a skeleton. Can you imagine
that? This body of death. And that's
what he lackens, this old man too. This rotten, filthy, stinking
body of death and it makes me miserable. Secondly, it keeps us right where
we belong, down and humble and low. And this is a good thing,
is it not? What in the world have we got
to be proud about? in a day when self-esteem has
run amok, and you can't even reprove anybody without them
being mad at you? How good this is to feel ourselves
in this war that we know what we really are. Everything we
do is mixed with sin, and it keeps us low at His feet right
where we belong. I tell you, brother and sister,
I'd rather see my sin and be humiliated and kept low than
to look at my pride and get lifted up. Wouldn't you? Oh, how good
I'm doing. Just look at Bruce. Look at Bruce.
What messages he preaches. Oh, my goodness. Can you imagine? You folks, you don't know what
it is to be a pastor. And everybody comes around. Oh,
man, that was a message. Oh, my. Somebody sends you a
note. Oh, what a message. And then you go last week, and
I'll blame Gail partly for this, you go last week and write me
all of these notes. Oh, thank you for your messages.
Oh, you're the best pastor in the world. This and that. How's
a man supposed to stay low? I'll tell you how I'm staying
low. About the time I get lifted up, the Lord said, look what
a mess you're in. Look what a mess you are. Look
at yourself. You're wretched. You're miserable. And down I go. Oh, my Lord, I
thank you that they love me. I thank you for all the cards
and everything. But you don't know me. You just
don't know me. And I'm glad I don't have a window
on my heart for you to look in. You'll come up and say, I need
that card back. You still got that check I gave you. Can I
have it back? It keeps us down. Nothing wrong with being down,
brother and sister. Nothing wrong with that. as long
as you turn your eyes upon Jesus. Thirdly, it should make us watchful
against sin and self. If there's such a man in us,
if we still have this old wretched nature, and it's us, it's me,
and it's so opposed to the Spirit, it's so bold that he'll stand
right in the face of the Spirit and say, you're repugnant to
me. If there's a man in us like this, we better watch. And we
better be careful. We better not be flipping about
this and say, well, I know I'm a sinner. I ain't watching. I'm
not praying. We better be careful. And we
better pray and watch against sin and watch against self. The
Bible says crucify. And he's struggling to get off
of that cross. And if you don't keep those nails
tacked down and he pulls loose, you're going to get into trouble.
And it's going to be bad. Fourthly, this should keep us
cleaving to the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I think God, Jesus Christ is
going to. He's going to do it. Oh, what grace that's into the
Lord Jesus Christ. What love, what mercy. The only
way, dear believer, that you can get through this world is
cleaving to your Savior. In Him is everything. No sense
looking anyplace else. There's this little note I keep
in my Bible. I have to get it out almost probably
three or four times a week and read it. It says, if you want to be discouraged,
look at yourself. If you want to be disheartened,
look at others. If you want to be encouraged,
look to Jesus Christ. Keep your eyes upon him. Read His Word. Embrace His promises. Always be praying to Him. Plead
to Jesus Christ. And fifthly, this warfare keeps
us hoping for a complete and eternal deliverance. Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God. There is
deliverance is coming. Sometimes you read about, I can't think of his name now.
He was Hudson, I think was his name. Judson. Judson and his wife went over
to India and they arrested him and put him in a filthy prison.
You couldn't hardly breathe. It was so filthy. Waste, human
waste on the floor. Sometimes a man would die and
they wouldn't even drag him out for days. Judson would put his face to
the bars and try to suck in some fresh air from the outside and
long for deliverance from his prison. That's what you and I
do all the time. We press our face against the
Word in hope, turn towards heaven, trying to breathe some of that
fresh air in from on high. hoping for the day that we'll
be delivered from this stinking, vile body of death. And brothers and sisters, it
won't be long. We'll be breathing heaven's air.
That pure air. He hath delivered us from so
great a death, and He doth deliver, and He will yet deliver us. And lastly is this. This warfare
is good because it makes us thankful. I thank God. I thank God. Thank God for choosing me. Thank
God for redeeming me. Thank God for calling me. Thank
God for making me new. Thank God for upholding me and
giving me hope. I thank God. Thank God. Father, thank you. Oh, thank
you, our Father in heaven, for your blessed word. How mysterious
your kingdom is. Oh, Lord, we know so little of
your ways and your work. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for these things that we experience in our own souls.
And thank you, Lord Jesus, for being a mediator and advocate
with a father. a faithful and merciful high
priest to get those everlasting arms underneath us and hold us
up when we begin to sink under this warfare. Thank you for the
sword of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for grace to embrace
it and to get a firm hold upon it. It is the weapon of our warfare. Thank you for this dear people
that have come here today. Thank you for their kindness
and their patience. We pray for them. Oh, our Father
in Heaven, bless this people. Bless those who are suffering. Those who are in great trials.
Bless Brother Lathar and Jean. Uphold them and strengthen them.
Help Jean as she cares for him. Give her grace. Give her strength.
Bless all of these dear people. We pray these things for your
glory in Christ's name. Amen.