Good morning and welcome. Turn
in your Bibles to Romans chapter 7. An extraordinary thing is that God
has given us in his word wonderful and glorious truths
about himself and then extraordinary and disturbing truths about who
we are. And then, again and again in
the scriptures, we actually have these extraordinary pictures,
as Romans 7 is, of what it is to be a believer in this world
right now. There are some critical things
in it. If we are to go to heaven, will
go to heaven like Paul went to heaven. If we are to be in heaven,
Paul's testimony will be our testimony. Things that Paul experienced
are things in some measure that every believer throughout time
has experienced. Psalm 119, 130 says that the
entrance of your words brings light. When God's word, when
God's revelation of who He is and who we are comes into the
lives of people, everything is turned upside down. That was Paul's experience. That's
the experience of many of you here. whether we were just pagans
and we met God, whether we were, like Paul, remarkably religious
and remarkably zealous and remarkably proud of our attainments. When
God comes along, everything is turned upside down. My great desire, isn't it, in
Romans 4, 7, 4, he says, he describes these people as my brethren.
I would love for us, I'd love for myself to be a brethren of
Paul's. And in verse 10 he says he found
something. He found something. In verse
14 he talks about things that we know. All the brethren, all the Christians,
all of the apostles, All of the saved members of the church in
his day said that word, they know. Verse 18, for I know. At the end of verse 18, he had
found something. In verse 23 he says, I see. And verse 24, he makes that remarkable
declaration, a wretched man that I am. And in verse 25, I pray
it's where we'll finish today. He thanks God. Brethren find things. Brethren know things. Brethren discover things about
themselves and about God, and it's extraordinary to them. It's
life changing, it's life transforming. What a wonderful thing it is
to have everything turned upside down. Last week we saw in Song
of Solomon that her struggles were internal struggles and Paul's
struggles that he's talking about here are struggles in a very
large measure within himself. He's not talking about the grotesque
sins that we see publicly and that we have done publicly and
that we are openly ashamed of. He's talking about sins as she
did, sins that happen in a sense in the closet in her bedroom. And as with her, so with Paul. You see, what was she doing in
Chapter 5 of Song of Solomon? She'd washed her feet. She'd
taken off her coat and she'd hopped into bed. Nothing particularly
wicked about any of that, is there? And then the Lord came. The Lord came to her and the
Lord spoke and the Lord put his hand, as it were, into
that doorway, the doorway of her life, and then sin was seen
to be sin in the most extraordinary of ways, wasn't it? She then
says, I have, and she rejects him. So when the Lord comes,
the Lord comes and He interrupts our lives, and what we think
is good and what we think is righteous and what we think is
honoring to God are all turned completely upside down. I was just going to read all
of Romans 7 and then we'll comment most particularly on the last
12 verses, but it's really good to know the context He's speaking to those that know
the law. "'You know ye not, brethren,
for I speak to them that know the law, how the law has dominion
over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which has a husband
is bound by the law to her husband, so that as long as he lives,
She's bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives.
But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her
husband. So then if, while her husband
lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband is dead, be
dead. She is free from that law, so
she's no longer an adulteress, even though she's married to
another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also
became dead to the law by the body of Christ. When Christ died under that just
punishment of the law, you died with him, if you are a believer,
that you should be married to another, even him who is raised
from the dead. You're married to another, betrothed
and married to the Lord Jesus who has risen from the dead,
who has put the law aside, he's honoured it, he's magnified it,
he's caused it to be seen as holy, and we are dead to the
law. God's children. Paul's brethren
are dead to the law by the body of Christ and married to another. And the result of that marriage
to the resurrected Lord Jesus, the one who is now in heaven,
is that we should bring forth fruit unto God. The fruit that
he produces by his Spirit's work in the lives of his people. In
me is thy fruit found, he says. In verse 5 he says, 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. When we were carnal as Paul was,
when we were like him as a Pharisee, They worked in our members to
bring forth fruit unto death. We think the law is going to
bring us life, and the law brings death. But now we are delivered from
the law, being dead, wherein we were held. We're delivered from it. We need
to be delivered from the law that we should serve in the newness
of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. To go
back to the law, to go back to the law for finding your holiness
and your righteousness and your justification or anything with
God is to go back to administration of death. I know the religious world tells
us we can go back to the law. We were told, I was told years
and years ago that the law sends us to Jesus and then the Lord
Jesus sends us back to the law to work out our sanctification. Paul and his brethren say, absolutely
not. That is a cursed place to be. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. No, I would not have
known sin, but by the law, for I would not have known lust,
except the law said thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion
by the commandment, brought in me all manner of covetousness. For without the law, sin was
dead." So sin takes occasion by the commandment and brings
into people all manner of covetous, all manner of sin. You know it,
don't you? You see the sign, wet paint,
and what immediately comes in your heart? How can I touch it?
As someone once said that there were signs on trains, you shall
not spit. And as he got to reading the
end of the sentence, suddenly the phlegm was rising up in his
throat. That's how we are. When we see
law, all it does All it does is bring sin. See what Romans
7 and 9 says, for I was alive without the law once. Paul was
as alive as you could possibly be. He was marching down that
broad road to Damascus. He was, according to Philippians
3, someone who kept the law perfectly. He says that he was blameless.
613 commandments, and he kept every single last one of them. He was alive. He was so full
of his own self-righteousness importance. He could look upon
the Lord Jesus and judge Him. He could look upon a righteous
and holy man like Stephen and in Paul's righteousness he could
stand there and he could approve. He could be the master of ceremonies
at the murder of a saint who was preaching and praying and
seeing the Lord Jesus, and he thought he was alive. But when the commandment came,
he thought he was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. He saw sin in a new light. He knew the commandments off
by heart, brothers and sisters, but the commandment had to come
in its true and spiritual force and it did in a very powerful
way in his life and it does in the lives of all of God's children. Sin revived and I died and the
commandment which was ordained to life I found to be under death."
The very laws, the very rules that he thought he could keep
which would bring him life, bring him life and life eternal, he
found those things to be death. The very things that the religious
world thinks are good. Law obedience. your personal
activities of progressive sanctification, the do-do-dos of this world, I think in my flesh they're going
to bring me life. For found that they be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me. The sin plus the commandment
of God deceived him and it slew him. Therefore, the law is holy. The law is one holy package and
the commandment is holy, just and good. God's law is holy. God's law
is just. God's law is good. It's good. The problem's not
with God's law. The problem's with the flesh
of man. The problem's with me. The law is holy, just and good. was then that which was 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 exceedingly sinful. When
God's commandment comes, When God's commandment comes with
life and with power, we see sin in a new light. Sin seems like
a small thing, doesn't it? It seems like something that
we can wink at. It seems like something that
we can pass over. It seems like something that
we can do some meritorious work to balance it somehow. Sin, by the commandment when
it comes to life, It's shown to be exceedingly sinful, surpassingly
sinful. For we know, all of God's children
know, that the law is spiritual. So there was the heart of Paul's
problem, wasn't there? He thought that by doing 613
things, positive and negative things, he was actually keeping
the law of God. He really did believe that he
was good. In fact, the law, according to
his understanding of it, said that, Paul, you are a righteous
man and worthy from heaven because of what you have done. And then he discovered that the
law was not measured by man's measuring of things. The law
is measured by God's measurement. Sin, all of a sudden, doesn't
become an issue between a man and a man. Sin becomes an issue
between a man and God. As David said, against you and
you only. have I sinned." We spoke last
week about Paul's journey on that road to Damascus, how he
thought he was alive, how he was doing so well, how he had
so much reason for pride. And then all of a sudden he met
the Lord Jesus. And all of that law-keeping,
all of that law-keeping, he saw was nothing but dung. All of
his good works, he saw as nothing but dung. So we know, we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. Our friend Todd Nybert did a
sermon in in his church a few weeks ago on this chapter of
Romans 7. He's preaching through Romans
and he asks a question and it's a good question to ask and he
asks it repeatedly through his sermon. He says, Are you a Romans
7 sinner? Are you a Romans 7 sinner? Are
these descriptions of Paul's experience under the law and
saved out of the law, delivered out of the law. Are these experiences
your experiences? Can you say amen to what Paul
says? Because he says in verse 14,
doesn't he, we know, we know that the law is spiritual but
I am carnal, sold as a slave under sin. sold. No longer having the freedom,
no longer being, as he says in verse 9, being alive, being powerful,
being able to do as he wished. Now he's sold. sold as a slave under sin. In these next verses he goes
on to talk about a reality which is a powerful and important reality
about who we are. As believers we are people who
live in this world with two natures. See Paul when he was alive without
the law was a man who just had one nature. He wasn't a wretched
man. Paul said that he was blameless. Paul lived proudly. Paul thought he was righteous. Paul thought he was so righteous
that God must not only accept him for his righteousness sake,
but God must reward him for his righteousness sake. And then the law came. The law
became a spiritual law, and he saw the holiness of the law in
the face of the Lord Jesus, and he saw that against him personally
and him only had he sinned, and then he acknowledged. He acknowledged
as everyone who is converted acknowledges, that I am carnal,
sold unto sin, And then verse 15, he says, for that which I
do, I allow not. For that which I do, I don't
approve of. For what I would, that I do not. But what I hate,
I do. Just listen to him describing
himself. So he doesn't approve. For that
which he does, he's not approving of it. He's not saying that sin
is acceptable. He's horrified by sin. He's realised
that sin now is a spiritual problem that he has with God. For that
which I do, I don't recognise it as good. For that which I
would, that I do not. That which I wish to do, that
I do not. But what I hate, that I do."
Does this describe you, brothers and sisters? See, I lived I lived like Paul
for a while where I thought it was my job. My job was to tell
people how to live so that they could be sanctified by their
own activities. How much of our religious activity
was based on getting other people to do the things that we wanted
them to do. And we weren't being honest,
brothers and sisters. You see, Paul's an honest man. Christians are honest people.
What he's saying is just clearly what he's experiencing. But what
I hate that I do. See, he's not talking about big
and outward and grotesque sins, even though they come into believers'
lives. Just ask David and many, many
like him. Just ask Peter. What he's talking
about is so much of that inward struggle. But what I hate that I do. He hates the sin that he does. but he sees that that sin is
there with him. If then I do that which I would
not, if I do the things I wouldn't want to do, I consent under the law that it is good. God's law is not the problem. God's law is good. It's perfectly
just to condemn me. God is right. God is holy. Then in verse 17, he says these
words, and these are meant as comfort for God's people because
they are the reality of what's going on. in the lives of believers. For then it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwells in me." Paul sees in his life, experiences
in his life, greed and everything in his life, that he sees that
there is something that dwells in him. that does these things. He's not denying that it's him,
but he's saying then there's no more I, no more I the new
man that doeth, but sin that dwells in me. So there's an inward
conflict, isn't there? We want to be holy. We want to
be heavenly. There is a panting after the
Lord. There is, as we read in Psalm
32, that sort of crying out after God. There is, in God's people,
a loving the things that God loves. And there is inside of
us this sin, this old man. the old man which grows corrupt
according to deceitful lust, this old man which is totally
corrupt, this old man which is thoroughly and entirely depraved,
this old man that's perpetually striving against the holy principle
within us. There is within us a continual
presence that's lusting after evil, and opposed to everything
that we see as a soul deliverance from God. There is, in this carnal
man sold unto sin, a continual seeking after gratification. There is the old man which grows
corrupt according to deceitful lusts, says Paul in Ephesians,
and there is a new man which is created according to God in
true righteousness and holiness. There are these two principles
inside of us. For those who don't know those
things, the reason is simple. Where there is no new man, all
there is, is an old man. And the old man can be polished. The old man can look religious. The old man can do all of those
things that Paul did. And the reality is, until God
brings light, what people think is righteousness. What people
think is good will stay there as good and stay there as self-righteousness
until God comes and dethrones a man and shows him who he really
is. Two things must be seen, mustn't
they? We must see who we are and we'll only ever see who we
are in light of seeing who God is. Verse 18, is this something that
you know? Are you a Roman's seventh sinner? For I know, says Paul, that in
me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. No good thing. Do you know that, brothers and
sisters? Has God revealed that about yourself? for the will
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I
find not." Are you a Roman 7 sinner? Do you know that? Do you know
what Paul knows? Have you found what Paul has
found about himself? Verse 19, for the good that I
would, the good that I wish to do, the good that I desire to
do. I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Again, I remind you, Paul is
not excusing sins. He's just talking about what
is the inner conflict. of a holy man. See this is a
portrait of a holy man. This is the portrait of a saint. Well done, says the Lord to Paul. Good and faithful servant. And he's good and faithfully
serving us in the most wonderful way by exposing what he really
is. What a great comfort it is for
us to hear the Apostle Paul say that. For the good that I would,
I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. My daughter Jennifer went to
a famous church in Sydney just a few weeks ago and she brought
me home their little bulletin thing. And in Anglican churches,
if you go to an Anglican church, the one thing that you... They
can change all sorts of traditions, but there's one tradition that
they cannot change and that's the tradition of having confession
of sin. Public confession of sin. Sounds like a great idea. It
just becomes a religious activity. Listen to this and tell me whether
this is a Roman seven sinner. This person says, and leads this
congregation to say, please forgive us for those moments when we
walk in darkness. Please forgive us for those moments
when we love the world. Please forgive us when we fail
to keep your commandments. Please forgive us when we fall
short of loving our brothers and sisters. Is that the confession of a Roman
7th sinner? What did we just read our brother
Paul say? No wonder in these days of progressive
sanctification and progressive religious holiness, in the Bible
colleges almost throughout the land, it's almost impossible
to have someone just read these verses and say, this is Paul
saying what he really said. They want to say this is Paul
speaking about some other time in his life, or Paul speaking
about someone else, or Paul speaking at the times when he goes back
and wants to live under the Jewish law. Brothers and sisters, this
is the Word of God, the Holy Spirit to us. We can just read
the Word as it's plainly stated. we can acknowledge with thankfulness
to God that He's caused His Apostle Paul, as He caused His Apostle
Peter and Moses and David and all throughout history to just
be seen to be frail and weak sinners. The standard of holiness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Standard is not some standard
that's set by men, no matter how religious they are. See, Paul knows. Paul's brethren
know. The apostles know. Do you know? Are you a Roman seven sinner?
For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Does that describe you, brothers
and sisters? Paul was happy to have that description
of himself. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. What about
his performance? Verse 19, for the good that I
would not, for the good that I would, I do not. For the good that he wishes to
do, he does not. but the evil which I would not,
that I do." What a remarkable statement from an apostle of
God. What a remarkable thing to read
before a bunch of people, eternity bound people. It's a remarkable
thing, isn't it? Here we are, and we are destined,
in the not-too-distant future, to just be us, alone, before
God. And we must meet God. And we
will meet God. And it'll be a time where you'll
have no one else there. Just you and Him. And here I am reading His Word,
reading these solemn testimonies, reading about the things that
Paul declares he knows. And I have to stand before you
and acknowledge that this is what I am. The good that I would,
I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. What is more important in all
this world than declaring the truth about the Lord Jesus? And
yet, like everyone else that stands in this place, I stand
here and I prepare and so often my thoughts linger and I think,
how can I do this in a way which can please men? horrible wickedness. Paul says of himself if he seeks
to please men, he's no longer a servant of God. We want gratification. I don't
know who the preacher was, but there was a preacher many years
ago who delivered a sermon and someone came up to him afterwards,
straight after as he was getting down from the pulpit, and said
that was just the most wonderful sermon, powerful sermon, great
truths. And the man, the preacher, might
have been Newton, I'm not sure, he looked at the other fellow
and said, don't you worry brother, Satan told me that before I got
down from the pulpit. Satan will tell you all sorts
of things about yourself. The one thing that he will never
tell you about yourself in any clear way is how big a sinner
you really are. I know, says Paul, that in my
flesh dwells no good thing. If I do what I would not, it
is no more I that do it, but sin that lives in me, that dwells
in me. The evil which I would not, that
I do. You see, there is just this man
called Adam. that lives in all of us. When
David said that he was conceived in iniquity, he's not talking
about the wickedness of what happened in that marital bed. It's undefiled, the marital bed. He's talking about the fact that
he, as a child of Adam, is nothing but sin. How did the Lord describe
the people in Genesis? In Genesis 6 verse 5 he said,
the thoughts and inclinations of their hearts are only evil
continually. He saw the wickedness of man
was great on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And you would think after that
great judgment of the flood, there would be an improvement
in these eight people that are left behind. In Genesis chapter
8, when God renews the covenant, promises there will not be a
flood, promises seed time and harvest, He says in 8.21, He
smelt this sweet aroma of the Lord Jesus in those offerings
on the altar. And the Lord said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the
imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Nothing had changed, brothers
and sisters. Nothing had changed in man. In
his heart a man says no to God. and that's just the nature of
man and the nature of sin that dwells in us. That's Adam, isn't
it? That old man which grows corrupt
according to deceitful lusts. It's there with us all the time
and it doesn't get better. God's people grow and they grow
in grace and knowledge. What is it to grow in grace?
To grow in grace is to grow down. Christian growth is a growing
down and down and down, to Paul could say at the end of his life,
he's the chief of sinners. He's not worthy to be called
an apostle. He's the least of all of them.
Grow down and down and down. We are but dust. If we raise
ourselves an inch above the dust, on the basis of our own holiness
and our own performance, we're an inch too high. That's Adam. And we only see
Adam. We only see who Adam is in us
when God indwells us. So this is a picture of a Roman
seven sinner, a real sinner. But this is a picture of a real
saint. someone who's been indwelled
by God. Until God indwells someone, they
have no concept of these things. He says in verse 21, I find a
law, he finds it a principle, something that demands obedience,
something that demands gratification. I find a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. Are you a Roman seven sinner? When you do good, when you would
do good, do you find evil is present with me? Can you think
of one thing that you've ever done which is good that you didn't
immediately want to find someone to just tell them about, even
if it's just quietly? Have you ever done good and not
wanted to have it to be seen by other people? See, that's
evil, isn't it? That's man wanting the praise
of men. For I delight, he says, he delights
in the law of God in the inward man. He delights in the law of
God which reveals God's holiness, reveals His justice. Do you delight
in the law of God? Can you look at the law of God
now? Look at those 10 commandments
and can you find them a delight? The inward man delights in them. The inward man delights in them
because they've been kept. The law has been kept, brothers
and sisters. The law has been perfectly kept
by the Lord Jesus. What did he say in Matthew? He
says, don't think I've come to destroy the law. If I haven't
come to destroy the law, he's come to fulfill it. If I kept pouring water into
that glass, it would be full. And if I fill it to the top,
it's fulfilled, isn't it? Completely filled. The law of
God in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus has been completely
fulfilled. not only in all of its outward
activities that people would see, but it's been fulfilled
spiritually before God. You must love God with all of
your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of
your strength to get to heaven. And you must have loved your
neighbour as yourself. Anyone? Anyone think that they've
reached that standard? Do you for one second think that
you've reached that standard? God's children, all of God's
children, all of those who are one with the Lord Jesus have
perfectly kept that law. I can go to the law of God and
I can read Leviticus and Numbers and Exodus and I can delight
in them because they told me about the Lord Jesus. They tell
me how glorious He is. They tell me how holy and perfect
He is. They show me His righteousness,
the righteousness of God. He delights in the law of God
after the end of man, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind. So he sees another principle.
Do you see another principle in your members, warring against
the law of your mind, that mind that delights in the law of God
after the inward man? But do you see that other law,
do you see that other principle operating in your members, warring
against the law of your mind, bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members." A Roman 7 sinner, a
saved sinner is someone who feels a captivity. He sees that law
of sin, captivity. He sees that war, that war continually,
that war which is raging perpetually, that war which will continue
until mercifully God takes away this body of flesh. And what
sort of body do we get? We get a resurrected body. But whose image is that resurrected
body made in? It's not made in Adam's image.
It's made in Christ's image, a perfectly resurrected body.
Until that resurrected body comes along, we are at war. See, Romans 7 sinners see the
war and acknowledge the war. It's what's going on in their
lives continually. They want to pray. They want
to trust God. They want to just live simply
and humbly and with holiness before God, and they find a war. They find a war. It's a war that's
begun when Christ comes in. It's a war which God sovereignly
and wonderfully and graciously rules. over in all departments. He sets the limit. He begun the
war. You see, Romans 7 sinners are
not people who cry out and want others to see how righteous they
are. Romans 7 sinners are wretched Who's a wretched man? Who feels
the wretchedness of themselves? The wretchedness of what they
are. Wretched man that I am. Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? The illusion there is
a horrible one, but for murderers in those days they used to tie
the dead person who had been murdered to the murderer as their punishment. That's the
illusion Paul's talking about. Carrying around, tied to us,
continually polluting, continually aggrieving us, continually warring,
continually attacking us. See, we have to be delivered.
We don't have to be delivered from things that we're doing.
We have to be delivered from things that are attacking us, don't
we? It's continually there. A wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? You see, Roman
seven sinners thank God. They only ever thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. are thankful to God for His deliverance. They know that in themselves
they have no power, they have no strength. They need a God
who is absolutely sovereign. Roman seven sinners, wretched
man, need a God of grace. They need a God of comfort. They need a God who has the power
to deliver. They can't survive with a God
who tries and then leads it up to the wretched man to do the
best that he can, a God having done the best that he can do.
If God loves everyone, and Jesus has died for everyone, and the
Holy Spirit is wanting to save everyone, and it's left up to you, what does
the Romans 7 sinner say? The Roman 7th sinner is left
in the most desperate place. So if we need wretched men, we
need a God who is big, a God who is sovereign, a God who is
gracious, a God who has successfully put away the sins of his people,
a God who loves with a powerful love. I need to be rescued, to
be delivered from a wretched state. I need a great and awesome
and sovereign God. I need a God who is a holy God. I need a God to take that law
and magnify it and honour it and put it away altogether. I need a God who moves my heart
and works inwardly in me. I need a God who will be honest
with me. honest with me about who he is
and cause me to be honest with myself about who I am." See the
Jesus Christ that we present in the Gospel that we believe
here is a Jesus Christ that we can thank God for. Thank God
for his deliverance. He has a deliverance because
he has a deliverer, and then he has a reality. So then, verse
25, with my mind myself I serve the law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin. It's just an ongoing battle. Thank God that the Lord Jesus
has won that battle. Thank God that He causes us to
be honest about ourselves and honest about the struggles. Thank God that He protects us
from feeling that we have to display some righteousness before
people. that we have to be protected
from that idea that we can display some righteousness before God.
We are unprofitable servants, as Luke 17 says. As Galatians
6 says, when you think you're something but you're really nothing. So we deceive ourselves. This
is a great truth. There's some great articles in
our bulletin and more on our website. I encourage you to go
and read them. This was something that was the
experience of Paul, was the experience of the apostles, and has been
the experience of God's saints all through time. And if it's our experience. We
are Romans, seven sinners, but we're whole people, saved by
God. People who really, in their hearts,
thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And people who are
really honest about the struggles that are just life in this body,
the flesh. Let's pray.