Good evening. We're going to
have just one hymn this morning. We'll have hymn number 38. So
if we'll all stand together. Hymn number 38 from the Hymns
of Grace, a little spiral hymn book. Come, every sinner saved by grace,
You who by faith God's Son embrace, Tell all you hear your voice
to know, Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. He left his father's throne above
and came to earth on wings of love. For us he lived, the perfect
man, and so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire
and died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee, All that I am or hope to be, I owe alone,
O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose, And triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rode, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From heaven Christ will quickly
come and bring his ransomed people home. There we shall see his
lovely face and chant the praises of his grace. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. I'll be speaking to you this
evening out of Romans 7, beginning in verse 14. Father, we come before You tonight,
Father, wanting to glorify God and glorify Christ, Father, to
spread the Gospel. We'd ask, Father, that if it
be Thy will, You'd give me the grace, Father, to speak the words
that are in my heart, Father, that I might show Your love for
us, Father, and the things that You've done for us, we ask in
Jesus' name, Amen. When we came here, I knew almost nothing about sin,
believe it or not. I knew that Christ died on the
cross for my sin, and I knew that my sins had been forgiven,
and that was just about the end of it. You would wonder how. A man could
be strong on a sovereign God, strong on an eternal salvation,
and still not know how to handle personal sin. Y'all have been
here for what, 20 years? You've heard this again and again
and again. But when you've never heard it,
I told before we started this message, I told and I said, I've
never in my whole life heard a message on the two natures
of man. And if you've never heard that,
if God hasn't opened your eyes to it, you have absolutely no
assurance. You don't have any kind of a
hope like you should have. You read the Scriptures and it
just scares you to death. The wages of sin is death. Well, you can live with that
because everybody died, but how about this? Whatsoever is not
of faith is sin. That covers just about everything. Hebrews 12, verse 1, seeing we
are covered about with so great a crowd of witnesses, let us
cast aside every weight. What that means is this, if you
are not able to lay aside the weight of your responsibilities
with your family, and your job, and the world, and politics.
If you can't lay that weight aside for even just a little
while, it's not a faith and it's a sin. And the sin which does
so easily beset us. If you think there's not any
sin that's going to easily beset a child of God, that in itself
is a sin. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us. If you murmur against the providence
of God, if you don't realize that we're going to have to get
through this life to get to heaven, if we don't run with patience
the things that God has in store for us, that's not a faith and
it's a sin. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. If you don't believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the author of my faith, that's a terrible
sin. That's blasphemy to believe that
I have anything to do with it. I'm looking to Christ and I'm
looking to myself. That is a terrible sin. It's
not a faith. If you don't believe He's the
finisher, that's also not a faith and that's a sin. Well, when
you don't know how to handle sin, those things will scare
you to death. They'll go about in a depressed
state of mind. You feel like a hypocrite all
the time, which I do anyway. You just feel like that there's
something wrong in here because I'm supposed to be a new creation
in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things will become new. But they're not new. I still
have some of the same thoughts I had before God called me. I
still say some of the same things I did before God called me. And
unless God opens my mind to the fact that there's no good thing
in the flesh and I'm still living in the flesh, I'm never going
to be 100% happy. I'm never going to be able to
exercise faith like I should. I'm never going to be able to
lay everything on the Lord Jesus Christ if I'm watching my own
sin. If I'm watching my own sin, I'm
not looking unto Jesus. The author and finisher of my
faith. Now like I said, y'all have been
living with this for 20 years. Greg's the best preacher I've
ever heard. So you don't have any problem
with it. The two natures of man. But it's a problem for a lot
of people. It's what the Puritans called
the Christian warfare. They'd mention a warfare and
they'd forget it. I studied extensively after the
Puritans. They were legalists. They were
Sabbatarian. As far as they were concerned,
Christ forgave you sin and fast and you had to take care of the
rest of it. That's just exactly what most Calvinist preachers.
But that's not true. That is not true. A sovereign
God who will ordain the way of salvation, who will ordain me
to eternal life before the world ever came to be, He will take
care of everything. Everything's been taken into
account. So the warfare that we're going
to take a look at tonight is common to all of us. We're in
Romans 7 and verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, soul under sin. Now this is the man that was
well-versed in the Old Testament Scriptures. He was a teacher
of the Jews. They say that he was one of the
leaders in the Sanhedrin. This is the man that when God
called him, it was visible to everybody around him. Knocked
him right off of that horse down on the ground, blinded him, and
spoke to him with an audible voice from heaven. This is the
man that was caught up to the third heavens. This is the man
who saw Christ. And yet he says, I am carnal. and I'm sold under sin. That's
the thing that we're going to talk about tonight. The two natures
of man. We're going to be discussing
the law of sin and death because that's what this is all about.
And what is the law of sin and death? Most people say it's the
Ten Commandments, but it's not. The Ten Commandments have their
place. I would never deny that. But
there's a law that came before them that is the law of sin and
death. Because the law of sin and death
has to apply to everybody. Everybody has to be under it.
Now anything God tells us to do is a law. Believe it or not. People say, what is sin? Sin
is whatever God says it is. Sin is the transgression of God's
law. Sin is the transgression of God's
law in this respect. The children of God's sins are
forgiven. They believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that is
God's law. So they've not transgressed the
law. But what is the law of sin and death? Genesis 2 and verse
17 is the first mention of anything about law and sin and death. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Out of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." That's a law. That is the
law of sin and death. That's what's going to happen
if you transgress that law. Now the transgression of that
law is in Genesis 3 and verse 6. And when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes. And a tree
to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave unto her husband with her, and he did
eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they
were naked." That's such a short account of such a big thing. In just a few minutes, ever how
long it took Eve to reach up and take that fruit and take
a bite of it and give it to Adam, ever how long that was, just
a few minutes, Adam killed every man, woman, and child that's
ever been born and ever will be born. He gave us the law of
sin and death. Everyone that's ever been born
is under the law of sin and death with one exception. And that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God. The angel
told Joseph, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is
of the Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
the seed of Adam. He's the seed of the woman. Sin
comes through the line of the man. We inherit it. Adam stood
in our place. Every one of us, everyone that's
ever been, everyone that ever will be, was in Adam's body when
he was in the garden. Now whether Adam knew it or not,
I don't know and I don't care because it's already been done. The sin was taken care of before
the foundation of the world, but it doesn't change the fact
that the natural man The man in the flesh is carnal and stays
carnal. Now how bad is it? Well, the
Scripture says in John 3 and verse 17, that God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Him shall
not be condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten
Son of God." And this is that condemnation. That light has
come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil. He's not just talking about the
people of that day. He's talking about us. We are
born into the kingdom of darkness. We are conceived in sin and shaped
in iniquity. Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ
told the Pharisees, that ye are of your father the devil, and
the sins of your father ye will do. He's not just talking to
them. We are all children of the kingdom of darkness, and
He is the God of darkness. Now, people don't like hearing
that, but it's true. It's true. Colossians 1, verse
17, speaking of God the Father, says this, Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
even the forgiveness of sins. If we're born into the kingdom
of darkness, and were translated out of that kingdom and into
the kingdom of God, at what point did we ever belong to ourselves?
At what point did we ever claim to have free will to turn to
God? Born in darkness, translated
into light. No in-between. No in-between. The law of sin and death took
us over and it strangled the whole human race. We'll never
be free from it until we die. Never be free from it until God
takes us home. As long as we're in this flesh,
we're going to be under the law of sin and death. Verse 15. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. We're
all familiar with that. You can have the best, or me,
I can have the best intentions in the world. And somewhere along
the line, I'll lose sight of them and I'll do something silly
or something stupid, something I don't want to do. And after
it's all over, I'll look back and think, why in the world did
I do that? The flesh, the carnal man, the natural man, doesn't
really pay any attention to anything but itself. And that's still
part of us after God calls us. The things that we want to do,
we can't do them. The things we don't want to do,
we seem to wind up doing them. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent under the law that it's good. The law said
do this and live, don't do it and die. So whenever you don't
do it, you know you're under the law of sin and death. Now
then is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now that is the problem right
there. The sin that dwelleth in me. Because the Scripture
says that I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus. I'm under the
impression there ain't going to be no more sin in me. I'm
a new creation. I'm a good boy in the Gospel.
Sin should never bother me again. That's the impression I had.
I felt like that 1 Corinthians, I think it's chapter 6 and verse
18. It says, "...know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God? You are not your own. You are
bought with a price. Glorify God therefore in your
body and in your mind." How in the world can I reconcile sin
living in me if the Holy Spirit is there? You see what I'm talking
about? Depression and confusion and
everything else. It takes a miracle. It takes
a miracle from God to straighten our minds out about this. This
is what they call the Christian warfare. That's what theologians
call the Christian warfare. The fact that we're not supposed
to have sin in us, but we do. We're supposed to have the Holy
Spirit, but we don't. We want to do this, we can't
do it. We don't want to do that, we wind up doing it. It's just
on and on and on. And unless God gives you assurance
and grace and mercy, you cannot live with it. Because you know
all the time you're falling short. I don't care how sovereign you
believe God is. I don't care if you think that
Jesus paid it all. Somebody like the Wesley brothers
could write a song, Jesus paid it all. They didn't no more believe
that than nothing. It's not what comes out of here.
It's what comes out of your mind and out of your heart. And if
you're confused about your own salvation, you're confused about
sin in your life, you're not a productive Christian. You're
a confused Christian. So that is what's called a Christian
warfare in verse 18. For I know that in me, in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with
me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. Kneel down
by your bed. and try to pray for five minutes.
Somewhere along the line, your mind will wander and you'll be
thinking about pickup trucks and deer hunting and shotguns
and everything. You'll go, what am I thinking?
And you'll go back. You can sit out in the pew and listen to
a gospel message and try to keep your mind on it. The things that
you don't want to do, you wind up doing them. You wonder, how
in the world? This has literally happened to
me. We'd work 12 hours a day, seven
days a week, and I'd sit in church, because if you don't go to church,
you'll probably go to hell. I'd sit in that church and I'd
doze off and I'd wake up and I'd think, how can a child of
God sit in front of a Gospel preacher and go to sleep? It's
the weakness of the flesh. In this flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And when the dust settles, and
you're looking back at your former life, and you know that God has
called you, and you want to hear the things of Christ, and you
want to be with the people of God, and all of a sudden you
realize there's not been a great big change. Not really. Not really. It really will do
a number on your assurance. You see, the people of God are
in the same mud hole as the people of the world before God calls
them. Scripture tells us in Ephesians 2, verse 12, that before that
time, speaking of the time we were called by the Lord, born
again and called by the Lord, that before that time, you were
without Christ, You're a natural person. I was a natural man.
I didn't know anything about Christ. I didn't care anything
about Christ. I didn't want to hear anything
about Christ. You were without Christ. I was
an alien from the commonwealth of Israel. This is the commonwealth
of Israel right here. I didn't want to be around the
people of God. I didn't want to hear anything
from the people of God. I didn't want to even associate
with them before God called me. I was a stranger to the covenants
of promise. I didn't care anything about
the eternal covenant of grace. I'd never heard of the eternal
covenant of grace. I didn't want anything to do
with it. I had no hope. My hope was my job and my family. I hoped I'd keep healthy enough
to keep working until I had enough money saved up to quit working.
I hoped that my wife wouldn't get tired of me and leave me
because I'm hard to live with. But I had no hope about heaven
or Christ or the things of God. And the final thing was this,
without God in the world. I was at enmity with God. I was
just like everybody else, every natural born person. That's what
I was before God called me. But after God called me, I could
not reconcile myself to the fact that I still sin. It's only been
about the last two years that I've learned to discern between
being free from condemnation and being free from sin. And
that's what it boils down to right there. We are free from
condemnation, but we're still living in a body of sin. and
there's no help for it. For the good that I would 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 then a law, and this is
the law of sin and death. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. Now, where the Christian falls
short is this, where I fall short. About 4,000 years ago, give or
take about 20 years, there was an old man over 100 years old,
well over 100 years old, and a young boy climbing up the side
of a mountain in the country of whatever. And the boy's carrying a load
of firewood, and he's carrying some coals of fire. They carried
them in a little clay vase. They put coals in there, and
they had little holes, and they would stay hot, and you could
build a fire. He's carrying a load of firewood, and he's carrying
the coals of fire. And he said, my father, And Abraham
said, My son, here am I. And he said, Here is the wood,
and here is the fire, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for
a burnt offering. And we lose sight of the fact
that if God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering,
He'll provide everything to go with it. He'll take care of everything. He's not going to leave anything
undone. He chose us before the foundation
of the world that we would be holy and without blame before
Him in love. He gave us to the Lord Jesus
Christ in whom we have redemption through His blood. He predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. He
did all of these things. And then He made a world for
us to live in. And even when Adam ruined this
world, the Lord Jesus Christ was not Plan B. God doesn't make up plans as
He goes along. The Lord was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. All of these things were taken
into consideration, and I'd be a fool to think that my own personal
sin after God caused me was not taken into consideration. We're weak in faith. That's what
I am. And all I can do is cry, Lord,
increase my faith. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. Verse 23, 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. And we go through life trying
to overcome our own sin, trying to atone for our own sin, trying
to pray it through, trying to be a better man, trying to be
a better woman. We do all of these things and
none of them are going to work. Not one thing we can do is going
to add to our salvation. It's all been taken care of. But we come to this point, O
wretched man that I am, Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? But I'm going to tell you something.
God will send a gospel preacher to every child of God sooner
or later. And He'll bring a gospel message. And this gospel message is this. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Cry unto Jerusalem that her warfare
is accomplished. I'm not in a war. It's already
been won. There is no warfare. Christ has
taken care of everything. Praise God there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Verse 1
chapter 8. Them that walk after the Spirit
and not after the flesh. There is therefore now no condemnation. Now that the Lord Jesus Christ
has chosen me before the foundation of the world and made me His
child. Now that He was born into this world in the fashion of
a man. Now that He lived a sinless life. Now that He pleased the Father
every second of every minute of every hour of His whole life. Now that He died on the cross. Now that He rose from the grave,
now that He's ascended up into heaven and sits on the right
hand of God the Father and ever maketh intercession for me, now
there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Still
in sin, still living in the flesh, but free from condemnation. That's the thing. God will take
care of my sin. You know, whenever God calls
you, before God calls you, you think killing somebody is a big
sin. After God calls you, you think losing your temper is.
Sin kind of shrinks down into more personal things after God
calls you, but even then, They've been taken care of. Greg preached
the best message I've ever heard in my life last Sunday on forgiveness. I didn't even get home. I'm probably
thinking bad thoughts about somebody that I don't like. All of these
things are accounted for and taken care of. He's not going
to leave us comfortless. He will send a Gospel preacher
to show us that our sins are gone. I'm not going to die for
my sin because I don't have any. The Lord Jesus Christ has already
taken care of that. I don't know why I worry about
little mundane things every day. It's because we're still in the
flesh. Because there's still a law in our members that's fighting
all of our good intentions. There's still the old man that's
hanging on to you and not going to let go until the Lord takes
you out of this life. But one thing I do want to point
out, there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ Jesus, you've
always been there. There's never been a question
about our condemnation. We went into union with the Lord
Jesus Christ when He accepted us from God the Father. We are
in union, in eternal union with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me in the life that I now live in the
flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me. If you were in Christ, you've
already overcome the devil. If you are the Son of God, command
these stones that they may bread, as it is written, Man does not
live by bread alone, but every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God." You were there in Christ when He did that. He
did that for us. He's overcome Satan. He's overcome
darkness. He's overcome sin. He's done
everything. The only thing lacking is when
I lay this sinful body down and my spirit goes up to be with
the Lord. Then it will be complete. If you're in Christ, If you can
confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. If you're in Christ, you will
do that. You will do that. God has taken
care of everything. Do I walk after the Spirit or
do I walk after the flesh? A walk is a daily life. There's no way, no possible way
that I can love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my
body, with all my soul, and with all my mind. I wish I could,
but Christ has done that for me. Do my thoughts dwell on earthly
things? Or do my heart and my mind, do
they reach up to God for help? Grace to help in time of need? Do I depend on my own strength
to get through something? Or do I ask God for the grace
to do it? Do I walk after the flesh or
do I walk after the Spirit? If I walk after the Spirit, I'm
in Christ. I'm in Christ. If I walk in the
flesh, I'm not. Those that walk after the Spirit
and not after the flesh, verse 2, For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. Now we're going to die. You know
that as well as I do. So that's not the death it's
talking about. Scripture does say that the Lord
Jesus Christ came to take away the bondage of the fear of death.
It does say that. But there is a second death. If I am still under the law of
sin and death, I'm going to die the second death. But I'm free
from that. The Lord Jesus Christ has ransomed
my soul. He's died on the cross for me. To think that I can add anything
to that to me is the worst kind of blasphemy that there can be.
To think that God would have the covenant of grace before
the foundation of the world. To think that the Lord Jesus
Christ would create this world and everything in it to think
that God would maintain the balance of nature for going on 7,000
years now, to think that God was a supreme being, and to think
that He had to ask you or depend on you to accept Jesus Christ
don't even make good sense. He's either God or He's not.
If He's God, He doesn't ask anyone's permission. We are content with the fact
that God chose us before the foundation of the world. We pray
for others that God will bring them to a knowledge of the truth.
2 Thessalonians 3, verse 12. He says, we're bound to give
thanks unto God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord.
For God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth are two things that are
outside of this flesh. They're two things that only
God can do is set you apart in the Spirit Open your mind to
the truth. Now, if we have a problem with
sin, we need to lay it at Jesus' feet. And that is the truth. We need to go to the Lord and
say, Father, forgive me for what I've done. Forgive me and give
me the grace to forgive others. I can honestly say right now
at this particular minute if I change what I get on, I don't
have anything against anybody. I dearly love everybody in this
room. Even if you're not here, I don't hold it against you.
Because except for the grace of God, I'd be out there and
you'd be in here. But I need to realize that I'm
not going to make it on my own. The flesh is stronger than I
am. And I need to quit thinking if
I could pray more, if I was more spiritual, if I could just say
the right words, that things would be different. But no matter
what comes out of my mouth, unless God applies it to your heart,
it's not going to make any difference. It's not going to help one way
or the other. We're so fortunate to have Greg
here. I've never seen a Gospel preacher
as well balanced as he is about the Scriptures. And even if I
am bragging on him, it's not going to lift him up. He's not
that kind of a man. But the Lord has blessed me and
Deanna more than I can ever tell you bringing us here. Content. Down there in Texas in a little
bitty Calvinistic nest, bragging on each other what we knew about
the Scriptures and all that kind of stuff, preachers preaching
to each other, never entered our mind that there was a whole
world of truth that we weren't even touching. A whole world
of good things that God has in store for us that we didn't even
know about. fighting the Christian warfare. I told a preacher that God used
when He first called me, I said, I wish I had a list of things
to do so I could do them and quit worrying about them. You
know what he told me? He said, that would be nice. There's nothing I can do. Not
one thing. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. The carnal mind, and Paul said
he's carnal, his body's carnal, but his mind is not. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. He's talking about people that
walk after the flesh, who devote their time and their energies
to doing things to make them feel good. doing things to give
them assurance that they're a good person, really a good boy, really
a good girl, because I gave money to the Salvation Army. None of
these things matter. None of them matter. What we
do is what God gives us opportunity to do. God will very carefully watch
over His children. He brought us here to hear the
truth, didn't He? Look at me. I'm never over one
breath away from dying. I'm old. But God brought us here
to give us peace of mind, to teach us that the things that
you fight are not important, to teach us that our warfare
is accomplished. Give it up. Stand still and see
the Lord. That's it. Ask that You'd watch over us,
Father. You'd give us the assurance that we so desperately want,
Father. That You'd show us the Lord Jesus
Christ in all of His glory, Father. That You'd open our hearts and
minds to each other. That You'd give us the grace
to bear one another's burdens, Father. To love one another. To go out of our way to be kind
to one another. We'd ask, Father, that You'd
give us all of these blessings, Father, because You loved us
before the foundation of the world, Father. We ask that you
do these things in Jesus' name, amen. Let's close with 232 from
the AmeriCad tenor. I'd like to sing this song, Archipelago. 232 Christ our Redeemer died on the
cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul
with the blood of the Lamb, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, When I
see the blood, When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will
save. All he has promised, that he
will do. Wash in the fountain, open for
sin. And I will pass, will pass over
you. When I see the blood When I see
the blood When I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over
you Judgment is coming, all will be there, each one receiving
justly his due. Hide in the saving, sin-cleansing
blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood When I see
the blood When I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over
you O great compassion, O boundless love, O loving kindness, faithful
and true. Find peace and shelter under
the blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the
blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will
pass, I will pass over you. Ready? Press.