Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Romans 7, the chapter that
we read. And reading from our text, the
last two verses, verses 24 and 25. Romans 7, verse 24. 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. Romans chapter 7 and verses 24
and 25. This chapter speaks of the experience
of the Apostle Paul and also of the people of God. In the Book of Psalms we have
mostly the experience of God's people that are set forth in
the feelings and exercises of their souls. But here we have
it with the Apostle. And I would bring before you
the vital need that the Word of God brings about in our souls
an experience. That is, there is that which
goes on within that is brought about by what we read, what we
know, of our sin and of the Saviour of sinners. By nature we are
spiritually dead and there cannot be any of those exercises. And this chapter is a very good
example of what spiritual exercise is. Some have thought and some have
questioned. I remember when we first came
over from Australia, I had an office in Cranbrook and someone
who had the other office was professing Christian from another
denomination. And one day they were talking,
we were talking about this chapter And he was wondering, he says,
I think this was written when the Apostle Paul was not converted. And I said to him, no unconverted
person would ever have the exercise that is in this chapter. And
by nature, we do not know what sin is. we may be able to rehearse
it as in the word of God, sin is the transgression of the law
of God. But we do not know its actual
working within as an opposing principle, because we are nothing
but sin and disgrace. There's nothing to oppose it,
to stem it. You might say, well, Isn't tradition
something? Isn't the way we are brought
up by parents? Isn't our conscience that which
is also opposing? But none of those things make
up for the new birth, for a new nature, for a new principle within. And none of those things will
ever raise up an opposition against sin from a right motive. It will always have a wrong motive. It won't have the motive of the
honor and glory of God in it. And so the apostle here, and
it is very important for us to realize that what he is speaking
of is what he is feeling and the struggles that he is having
after he has been called. by grace. In fact, some 20 years
afterwards, because we believe that this portion was written
some 20 years after the Damascus Road conversion that the Apostle
had. And he's not writing about someone
else in this. He's not just describing what
other people go through. He's saying in our text, O wretched
man, that I am. And he's including himself. He says not, O wretched man,
that I was, but that I am. And he's speaking of it as himself. And when he's speaking of deliverances,
he says, who shall Deliver me. He is still in this body. You and I are still in our body. And that body one day will be
laid in the tomb. It is the body already under
the sentence of death. And it cannot escape, it will
die. And the Lord has ordered it that
His people are saved in such a way they still remain, while
they are in that body of death, they still remain sinners. They're
not by conversion made to be as those that never ever sin,
spotless and pure and never sin. They are still in a body and
that body is a body of death. And so what is going on in the
Apostle's thoughts, his life, his experience of sin, his wrestlings
with sin, he explains it, he puts it here. Now do see the Lord's help that
might be able to bring a little out from this, because many of
the people of God, they will have the feelings that are here,
but won't be able to put them into words. One of the tasks,
as it were, of a minister is to bring out from the word of
God that which the people will say, yes, I agree with that. That is what I feel. That is
what I experienced. But I couldn't have put it into
words. I couldn't have described it like that. It's not something that is strange
that's brought before you. It's something that actually
you recognize. And I hope then to be able to
do that. So I want to look firstly at
the wretched man that is described in this passage. A passage you
and I have probably read many, many times before, but may we
see how the apostle is describing himself and is describing a child
of God. The second thing I want to consider
is his question, the question that is asked, who shall deliver
me? Who shall deliver me? And the
third thing is the deliverance through Christ, and we'll see
that in verse 25, but we'll also see the encouragements that are
had throughout this passage of deliverance already and help
already. But firstly, we have the wretched
man that is described in this passage. You might say, well,
where does he begin? Where did he begin to feel like
he feels? Because there was a time that
he didn't. And he says that it was that
time that he was alive without the law once. There was no trouble with sin. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He viewed his life as being acceptable
before God. The righteousness that he had
in obedience to the law and the ceremonies was, in his eyes,
sufficient to stand before God. And that is where we are by nature,
and it may well be that those of you here this afternoon, that
almost subconsciously you think you have sufficient to stand
before God, that you do not need anything
but your life as you live it now. And if the Lord took away
your life now, you could stand and hold up your head before
God. All of us subconsciously will
be resting on something, we'll be leaning on something. The Apostle was in this path
until the law came. In verse 9 he says, I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died. Sin was revived by the commandment
of God. And he calls that the commandment
is good and right and it is holy. He is the one that is falling
before the commandment of God. And there's a big difference
in that. You know, the government has made a lot of commandments
or laws, if you like, trying to stem the virus. There are some people that say
they don't agree with what they're doing. In fact, I don't think
there's a virus, they say. It's a conspiracy. And so they
don't see any motive or any real reason why they should obey the
law, why they should do these things at all. And because they
don't see any reason, then they don't feel guilty if they don't
obey. And the law does not have any
power, as it were, over them, any authority over them. And
by nature, we are like that with God's law. Why? They're unjust laws, they're
wrong laws. Why do we have to obey them? We have our own standard
of morality. We will decide what is right,
what is wrong. We decide what is acceptable
and what is not acceptable. And if there's any disagreement,
well, it's the word of God that is wrong, not us. But the apostle says the commandment
came, and that changed. And he saw the commandments of
God as holy and pure and upright, and that the fault, the failing
was with him, not that. and he fell under it as a guilty
sinner. And in that way, his hope of
heaven died, his spiritual life that he thought that he once
had was as dead. And he came through the commandment
coming to him as an authoritative commandment. Now sometimes we
might have it in a literal sense, In the land, we might have heard
many, many times that there are laws over speeding or traffic
offenses, but we've never, ever been caught. So we never, ever
realize the force of the law until one day we do get caught
with a speeding fine. Then we suddenly realize, well,
the law does have a power. They do know where I live, and
they do require a fine. And it does come unto me, and
it's a different thing by just knowing about it and by it actually
coming right into our lives and it bearing down upon us. There are many, many laws in
our land that most of us, through our lives, we never have a personal
experience of because we've never either broken the law or we've
never had to use it. The young people that are starting
off in their families, and then they start to, they buy their
first house. Suddenly they've got to know
all the different laws about requiring this to the house owner. Never had to know that as a youngster,
a young person, as a person in your parents' household. But
suddenly you find all of these laws, and they apply to me. And
ignorance is no defense. If we own a property or are responsible
for a property that is a listed building, like many of our chapels
are, a chapel at Cranbrook, we can't just do what we like with
the building, make any changes or whatever. We've got to say,
well, there's actually laws that we are under and cover, and we've
got to comply with those. We might think that we do, but
if we find out that we don't, we find the weight of the law.
That's a different thing than just knowing about it. And so
the apostle here, the law was made very real to him. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. He so offendeth in one point
is guilty of all. And it was a very real thing. We may ask ourselves, have we
had a beginning like the apostle did in being brought to have
a knowledge of what sin is, and it's a personal knowledge, it's
within, and it brings us in guilty before God's bar. This was the first thing that
brought the apostle to say that he was a wretched man, because
he was a sinner, He was under the law and yet he could not
keep that law. And that law slew him to all
hope of heaven in his own works, in his own deeds. Immediately
he cut off any hope from himself. He had to look outside of himself. And that is reinforced as we
go through this experience of the wretched man. It's reinforced
more and more, and I pray it may be with each one of us that
we more and more know, if ever my poor soul be saved, tis Christ
must be the way. And if that is the case, it will
be on the side of the wretched man that is known and felt to
teach the preciousness of Christ and the vital necessity of Him. In verse 13 we read that the
law, or sin and the transgression of the law, was working death
in him. He says, but sin that it might
appear sin, working death in me by that which is good. By nature sin does not appear
sin, but the apostle says sin does appear sin to me, and it
appears it because it is working death in me. How many have you
feel and you say, I feel so deathly within, so cold, so far off,
so lacking a spiritual life, so lacking of love. I feel to be but dead. And the apostle says it worked death
in me. Now you might not be able to
put your finger on what it is that's working death, but you
might be able to say, death is in me. The apostle says, this
is how it worked, death in me. Then he says that he was carnal. In verse 14 he says, for I know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. He says in another place that
the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. It is base, it is worldly, it
is the opposite to spiritual. In chapter eight, we read, to
be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life
and peace, a direct comparison between the two. So part of his
wretchedness there is because of his carnal mind and being
sold under sin. Verse 15 he speaks of it and
verse 19 in a further way of opening up how that carnal mind
was working. He says in verse 15, for that
which I do, I allow not. There's things that he was doing
and he didn't allow them, they were wrong. And yet he did them. For what I would, that I do not. There was things that he would
do ways that he would walk in that he wasn't walking in, and things that he hated that
he was doing. We read in one place about the
secret of the Lord which is with them that fear Him. The natural
mind would say this, if you don't allow something, well just don't
do it. And if you want to do something,
you just do it. And if you hate something, don't
do it. And you might have had many reasons
with your own self in that way. But what the Apostle is speaking
of here is a power, is a working in him of this carnal mind sold
unto sin. that was more than he could deal
with, more than a match. It is a spiritual warfare, a
spiritual matter that the carnal mind couldn't work against itself. The Lord was accused at one time
of casting out devils by the prince of devils. He says that
a house divided against itself cannot stand. And a carnal mind
cannot fight against a carnal mind. And a natural man cannot
deliver from a natural man. It must be from outside. It must be a power more and greater
than that. And this is what the apostle
was feeling. And he says in verse 18, I know that in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing." Another aspect of the wretched man that
he felt, that there was nothing good in him, no good thing. Isaiah says that we are full
of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, there is no sound spot
in us. All we like sheep have gone astray. You have in verse 23, that he
sees a law in his members that is warring against the law of
my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. Now the aspect
of the wretchedness of his case was that he kept being brought
into captivity to his lust, worthy-mindedness, carnal mind, to whatever besetting
sins that he is prone to, whether it anger, or covetousness, or
hatred, or lust, or pride, whatever it is. And each one knows his
own sin and the own way that sin works within. The Apostle
had these things that actually made up so that when he said
that he was a wretched man, there was a reason for it. And you
might say there's a reason why I feel in such a wretched low
case. May we then notice and compare
what the Apostle is saying here, is what he really feels. And you say, I really hated some
of the things that I have done and thought and said. I really
made resolutions, I wanted to be free from those things, but
cannot get free, and feel in captivity to them. You know,
there's such an example in that. The children of Israel when they
were in Egypt, you know, they were servants, they were bondage
there, they were in captivity there. But it didn't appear how
much they were in captivity until they tried to get free. Until
the Lord appeared for them, and then he started to bring the
signs and wonders, and each one was with the word, set my people
free, let them free. But Egypt was utterly destroyed
and still. Pharaoh would not let the children
of Israel go. The apostle is speaking of a
captivity here that makes him feel wretched and he cannot get
free from that. And the children of Israel knew
that. And every one of the children of God will also know that. They won't be left in any doubts
that there is no help in self like the hemorrhoid disease no
help in self I find and yet have sought it well the native treasure
of my mind is sin and death and hell and I would say again before
we move on to the next point this is speaking of someone that
is born again of the Holy Spirit, someone in which the holy law
of God has been put into their heart and mind, someone who is
groaning under a body of death, who feels sin to be what it is
and cannot get free from it. And so our second point is the
question that is asked, who shall deliver me? Who shall deliver
me? And it may be that this is a
question that you have asked, asked yourself, maybe even asked
others. How can I be delivered? How can
I be changed? How can I be free? How can I
walk in the way that I desire to walk in. Who shall deliver
me? I believe you know that the Holy
Spirit, when he teaches and leads a child of God, he'll do two
things. He'll shut up deliverance where
deliverance will not be found, and he'll open up where deliverance
will be found. And sometimes it may be that
one is shut before the other is fully opened. When the Lord
was teaching in John 6, there's some hard truths. That no man
can come unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, I'll
raise him up at the last day. Except you eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.
Those things that, there were those that said, this isn't hard
saying, who can hear it? And many walked back, they went
no more with him. And the Lord said to his disciples,
will you also go away? And they said, to whom can we
go? They have no doubt that they
didn't know clearly at that time all of the way of salvation,
they didn't know any more than those that were offended. But one thing they did know was
that there was salvation in none other. Whom else can we go? They'd had the way shut up every
other way, but one way. A shut door is as good a direction
as an open door. We think of that in Providence.
But in a spiritual way, it is so as well. If we could put it
the other way, so if we were to come to Romans 10, where the
apostle is speaking of his countrymen, and he's speaking of them not
as having much hope, in fact having no hope, And the reason
is because they were finding or seeking a righteousness of
their own, going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. They had a zeal of God, and yet
it was directing in the wrong way. He pictures them as one
would be today, that in what they know about sin in their
own heart, they make every effort they can to restrain that sin,
with the thought that they'll obtain salvation that way. I
know when I was first brought under conviction of sin, and
you some think of the wrestlings of this chapter, And I thought
all I needed to do was to make some quite good laws. And so
I wrote down what I should do from the time I got up to the
time I went to bed and to deal with those idle times or those
times when sin got in or temptation got in. And I made myself some
laws and put on the wall and lived on my own. And you know,
I hardly gone through the day that I broke my own laws, broke
my own regulations, and seen yet more. It's like someone that's
got a computer, they look on the internet, they say, I don't
want to. I don't want to look at these things. I don't want
to fall into temptation. I'm going to set the child lock
on it. So they set the child lock. And
the next minute when the temptation comes on, it comes on so long,
they go and they unlock the child lock and they look at what they
were going to... They didn't want to look at, but the temptation
is too much and they've got the means to just break through the
barriers of it. And it breaks through every barrier
and every restraint. We should make every effort we
can to avoid sin, to flee from it, to not fall into it, and
avoid those occasions when we're most likely to fall. We certainly
should. We should not put ourselves in
temptation's way. But if you're looking at that
way and thinking, well, if I master this, if I overcome this, then
all will be right. then I've mastered that sin,
I've overcome it. It's right when we desire to
do it to the honor and glory of God, but if we're trying to
do it to make ourselves acceptable for heaven, instead of learning
the lesson here, instead of the question asked, who shall deliver
me? Our answer will be saying, I
shall deliver myself. I shall make some more laws,
some more regulations. Now the Jews in Christ's time
had some 638 or so laws of their own. Not just laws for hygiene,
but things of washing of cups and of saucers in a religious
way. They had to do it. These duties
were to obtain favor of God. And the Lord said, they laid
burdens on men that were grievous to be born. They got them no
closer to heaven, no closer to holiness at all. The law was
given that sin might abound, and it was given that sin might
appear sin, that no flesh might glory in his presence, that all
the world be brought in guilty before God. When the apostle
says, who shall deliver me? He's coming in as a guilty sinner. Already he has cut off from himself. He's looking out of himself already
because he says, who? And then he has the answer. And I'll give the answer, the
deliverance through Christ, in point three. But I want to just
notice some encouragements that are in this portion. In verse 16, we read, if then
I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it
is good. What an encouragement. Here is
a sinner, a wretched man, that is consenting unto the law that
it is good. Is that you? Is it me? There's
an encouragement. You might have come this afternoon
with no hope, no encouragement, feeling all is black and all
is dark. But if you come into verse 16
and consent that the law is good, One lesson in the school of Christ,
the apostles says, the law, who is a schoolmaster unto Christ,
is learnt. Then we have in verse 17, a realization that if he is doing
that which he would not, It is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwelleth in me. How can that be? He's speaking
of, through this passage, a sin as a law. A law in his members. In verse 23, bring me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. And what has been
shown to him here is this secret of sin dwelling in him as separate
from that of his mind. We could really understand it
if we had someone that had an affliction that was an involuntary
affliction. Maybe how they walked, maybe
with their their limbs not able to control them. They want to
walk in a straight line, but they can't. They want to hold
something steadily, but they shake. It's not for the lack
of the want or desire, but their body just won't do what they
want it to do. It's a completely involuntary
thing. And this is what he's saying
with sin, the law of sin. That his mind, he can want one
thing, but his crap-fallen nature does another. And he views this
distinction. I remember one time the Lord
was pleased to to bless my soul. And I was sitting at my meal
table. I felt so far off from the Lord. I hardly knew how to open my
Bible. And the Lord just dropped in,
plead the name of Jesus. And so I did. And I tried to
plead the name of Jesus. And the Lord softened my heart,
he drew me to himself. He really blessed my soul then. I sat there at that table with
that sweet blessing in my soul. And then in came these evil thoughts,
lusts and desires. And I can still picture the scene,
I can picture the time and how I felt. And it was as if I could
hold the two, one in one hand and one in the other. I had the
blessing of the Lord in all its sweetness. On the other, I had
these thoughts and these evils coming in. And they're so distinct
and so separate, it grieved me with the evil, but that it was
there, it came in, uninvited, unthought, straight in. And we
have these. Two natures. We have sin as a
law in our members that will sin. Because we are corrupt,
we are fallen, and we remind that as the natural man, the
carnal man, even when we are born again and converted. This is the wrestling, this is
the conflict that is here. So he says in verse 20, and again,
it is an encouragement to any that are walking this path, that
if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. Sometimes it is very hard for
us, and I have so many reasonings in my own soul. You're making
excuses for your sin. That's all you're taking comfort
in. You're making excuses for your
sin. You should try a bit harder.
How can you really say that you would not when you feel and seem
to be so much involved in your sin? Maybe you've got wrestlings
in that way as well. Very hard to distinguish sometimes
between the flesh and the spirit. except that there's a conflict.
And you can't have conflict where there's just one. And so there's
those encouragements that are actually here. Verse 22, I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. Something in him, something
in you, something in me, blessed be God, that delights in the
law of God. He's not all negative throughout
this, even though he's a wretched man. There's something that he
does delight in. I see from far thy beauteous
light, in thee sigh for thy repose. My heart is pained, nor can I
be at rest till I find rest in thee. So where is the deliverance? He says in verse 25, as an answer,
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Before we even look
at the spiritual reasons or how the deliverance is to be found,
what a blessed thing it would be this afternoon if those of
you who feel in the wretched case of the apostle here were
to go from the Lord's house and you can clearly say, my deliverance
must come through Jesus Christ. My soul has been brought up under
the sound of the truth all my days in this chapel, and I've
heard that so many times. You know, the most profound and
most simple truths are the saving truths, the vital truths, and
to actually have one focus, one aim, one person, one name given
among men whereby we must be saved. In the places that we get in
our souls is when there is an authority. You know, Satan will
try and muddle things up. He'll try and make out that salvation
and deliverance is something like our medical problems with
our bodies. If it's with an eye, you go to
an eye surgeon. If you've got a broken head,
you go to an orthopedic surgeon. And if you've got a heart problem,
you go to the heart surgeon. And he tries to think, well,
you're not sure where you're gonna go. You're gonna go this
way, that way? No, one way, one name, one way
of salvation, one deliverance. is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there's such a comfort, a solidity, a refuge
in this. Other refuge have I known, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. And it focuses that soul upon
that one place and one name, and will not move from it. Satan
will try and move the people of God away from their Savior,
away from the only help and only name that is given among man. Well, the apostle says, I thank
God through Jesus Christ. And may you go out from the house
of God today and you say, I thank God that through Jesus Christ,
I will be delivered and I will be saved. 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. Those
two aspects of the deliverance that the apostle could see through
Jesus Christ. One was outside of himself. what the Lord Jesus Christ had
done for him on Calvary's tree. That is, that the Lord Jesus,
as the spotless, pure Lamb of God, had taken his sins, and
those sins were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And he bore
those sins away, all those sins that he's laboring under that's
making him feel so wretched, He had laid on Him the iniquity
of us all, and He bore those sins away,
and He put them away, and the wrath of God fell on Him, and
the judgment of God, that He should die in the place of His
people. You might say, well, that's all
very well, but how do I know that I'm one of His people? This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. And the apostle says, of whom
I am chief. And we've read of how he's felt
his sin here. And if you come in as a sinner,
It takes as much the work and power of God to show a sinner
that he is a sinner as to save that sinner. Nebuchadnezzar,
when he knew that he'd had a dream, but couldn't remember what the
dream was, he said to his wise men, you show me the dream. and I will know that you can
tell me the interpretation thereof. You show me someone who the Lord
has made to know that they are a sinner, and I show you the
same person, and that same Lord will show the saviour of sinners. We say in our articles of faith
that we believe that the Holy Ghost never enlightens the non-elect
in making them capable of receiving grace. The conviction, he which hath
begun a good work in you, it begins with conviction, it begins
with sin, it begins with death, and it leads to life. The work
of the Lord goes from death to life. That is how that he is saved
also, upon the cross, in dying upon the cross and rising again. That is how it's set forth in
the ordinance of baptism, buried with him in baptism, risen again
in newness of life. The two signs are put together. They're not isolated in the word
of God. So the apostle has in this his
wretched man, but I thank God through Jesus Christ. What was
done at Calvary is the only sacrifice that this world will ever know
for sin. All of the sacrifices of the
Old Testament never put away sin, and there was never and
never will be another sacrifice for sin. What was done was done
there when the Lord died on Calvary. That is when the sins of all
of the people of God were put away. And the Lord said, it is
finished, it was done. And the apostle, he could see
this. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. The deliverance was done there.
It was done in what was accomplished at Calvary. And it is in what
the Lord lived a perfect life. And those that believe on his
name He gives them His righteousness to stand before God, not their
wretchedness, but His righteousness. That is how we shall lift up
our head with joy amongst the sons of God, because we shall
be clothed in His righteousness, what He has done, not what we
have done. You know, if we were told, well,
you've got to go and appear before this important person, and you've
got to give an account of all the things you've done in your
life. And you'd go over them and you'd think, I can't tell
that, and I can't tell that. And you're told, look, it is
not just your outward deeds, it's your thoughts as well. How
fearful you would be. That if someone said, no, not
what you've done in your life, that's been buried in forgetfulness. That's been all forgiven and
blotted out. It's been removed as far as the
east is from the west. But you can tell what your substitute
has done in his life on your behalf. And that that will be instead.
of your sin-stained life, you will appear in what His life
has been. And that's how it will be for
the child of God. It will be when Christ, who is
our life, shall appear. Then shall we also appear with
Him. We shall be like Him. We shall
see him as he is, appearing in the presence of God, clothed
and faultless before the throne. So when the apostle says, I thank
God through Jesus Christ, he is viewing, looking right away
from all the conflict that he has, and he believes his sins
which are many are put away. and the righteousness that he
doesn't have in himself he has in Christ, and that is enough
for him, that will save him. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed be a sin that double cure and cleanse
me from its guilt and its power. But then he gives a second interpretation
of how he shall be delivered through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh the law of sin. In one sense, he's looking back
over all what he's felt, and all what he's come to the
conclusion and realization of the body of death, of the sin
in his members, it no longer being him doing it but sin, and
he's saying, this is God's will for me as a Christian. This is how God would have his
people to walk here below. Not walk sinless, but walk in
conflict with sin, walk in warfare with sin, walk with a distinct
difference between the spiritual mind and the carnal mind, acknowledging
and knowing that difference between them and seeking for grace and
help from the Lord. to walk worthy of his precious
name. You know, it'd be like if a young
person was to go and get lodging, and they lodge and they've got
someone else in the room, in the house with them, and they
find that this other person's the most obnoxious person, and
they're all the time doing things that they wouldn't do, and all
the time wanting them to do it with them. And I think, well,
we'd love to get another lodging, another house. You say, no, that's
it. You've signed your agreement.
You've got to put up with it. You two have got to be in that
house together. When you seek from day to day,
Lord, teach me how to act towards this person. Leave me not to
give in to them. Help me to resist. what they're
trying to get me to do day by day. Help me to not be partakers
of another man's sins, but to do that which is right. And it's
living with that other person in the house. And as it were
with the apostles, he says, here I've got to learn to live with
this carnal nature. I've got to learn to live as
a wretched man, but relying solely upon the help in Christ. And
the solemn day for one that makes the profession of a Christian
is when they get to the day there's no more conflict, there's no
more trouble. That will be so at death, when
we leave this mortal in the grave and ascend up to heaven. Blessed
soul then, But if before that time while we're in the flesh,
we find suddenly a parting has been made, a peace has been made,
we go back to our old sins and sin is no more a trouble and
there's a pact made and we can just go on our way. Really what
we have here is the path the Lord would say to his dear children,
when I convert you, You still feel sin in your members, and
yet you are truly converted. Those sins still act within you,
yet those sins have been put away on Calvary's tree. And the
effect that you will see is that mind that I will give you that
loves me. that loves the law, that loves
the right things, that would do good, though evil is present
with you. And the apostle says, when he
had the thorn in the flesh, that Lord said, no, that thorn is
not gonna go, it's gonna stay. He said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. And I say to any here that feels
this wretched man, my grace, God's grace, Wrestle on, not seeking your
own righteousness, but with eyes solely on Christ, resting solely
on what He has done. Who shall deliver me? What a
blessed deliverance through Christ. The Lord give us that clear faith
to view what He has done for us, to clearly see that the token
of that is that He's made us to rely solely upon Him. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee, and to know as well that the Lord
is able to give grace, and he will give grace here below, and
then glory. He shall give grace and glory. The greatest need that you and
I have for grace, or need of grace, is to live in a body of
death, feeling our wretchedness, and yet clinging unto Christ,
and seeking for grace, that grace might reign triumphant over all
the workings of sin, so that sin does not have dominion over
us, because we are not under the law, we are under grace. The next chapter begins with
those beautiful words. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. May the Lord bless this word
and deliver any who've come in this afternoon feeling such a
wretched man, wretched woman, wretched child, or those who
are listening online, and you'll be able to see clearly where
your deliverance is. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.