Tempted to preach from that,
Greg. It's been a while since I read that. All right, let's
turn to Romans chapter seven. Romans chapter seven. Paul had
spent the first five chapters of Romans declaring that all
are sinners. Jew or Gentile, all are sinners.
And he declared we're justified by the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus, by his obedience. And when God gives us faith,
we trust him. And it's by his obedience that
we shall reign in life. just as Adam's sin caused us
to die and death reigned in us, by Christ's righteousness we
shall reign in life, be kept unto eternal life by our Lord. Now having spent five chapters
on that, he poses a question in Romans 6 and he said, he said,
shall we then sin that grace may abound? And he said, God
forbid. He knew Who would ask that question? The folks that opposed the fact
that we're justified by Christ's obedience, they call that the
doctrine of the gospel licentious. They say, you just preach that
and you're going to make people sin. And Paul said, God forbid. He said, how shall we? And he
showed the impossibility because we have died in Christ, we're
risen with Christ, and we have this promise of God. He said
in Romans 6, verse 14, he said, for sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace. It's
the promise that because Christ justified his people, and because
Christ reigns in the new man, in the new heart, we shall never
be condemned by sin, nor shall he permit sin to dominate us
and make us fall away, in apostasy. He'll never permit that. God
will keep us yielded to Christ. It's by him that we have a new
holy heart, And he made us obey the doctrine that was delivered
to us. And he freed us from the dominion
of our sin nature. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. Being made free from sin, you
became servants to God. You have your fruit unto holiness
and the end everlasting life. So rather than making us want
to sin, that grace may abound, the gospel creates a new heart
and makes us yield our members to Christ. Now having declared
this, somebody might think that Paul would begin the next chapter
instructing us to avoid the greatest, most lewd lust a believer wars
against. And that's exactly what he does.
That's exactly what he does. He begins with the good news
that Christ has delivered his people from the law. He said
in verse seven, know ye not, brethren, I speak to them that
know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long
as he liveth. He said, sin shall not have dominion
over you. You're not under the law but
under grace. And he said, but the law has dominion over a man
so long as he lives. But he declares here in verse
four, my brethren, you are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. We died with him. We died in
Christ, crucified in Christ. That you should be married to
another, even to him who's raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God, all by Christ. For when we were in
the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we
are delivered from the law, that being dead when we were held,
that we should serve in newness of spirit." Newness of spirit,
not in the oldness of the letter. Now he poses another question.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? You saying the
law sin? Man, always go to the extremes,
you know. You saying we just sin and grace may abound. No,
we're dead to the law. Christ's gonna keep us yielding
to him. Well, is the law sin then? Well, God forbid. No, listen
to Paul now. He's gonna speak of when he was
taught by Christ, he said, nay, I have not known sin, but by
the law. For I have not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. It wrought in me everything the
law forbids. For without the law, sin was
dead. You know, some think Paul was
the rich, young ruler. And while Paul was spiritually
dead, Paul's sins made him use the law to do everything the
law forbids. This is how sin's not gonna have
dominion over us, brethren. This is what was happening with
Paul when he was spiritually dead. The law made him, his sin
made him use the law to do everything the law forbids. It was not all
manner of lewd sin. It was worse than that. By his
outward conformity to the law, sin made Paul think he had kept
the law, that he had made himself holy, that he made himself righteous,
just like the rich young ruler thought. This was not the law's
fault, it was the sinfulness of Paul's own heart. He said,
verse nine, for I was alive without the law once. Remember how the
rich young ruler, he really thought he had eternal life because he
thought he had kept the law outwardly. or that he had kept it, period.
And that's what Paul thought. He said, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. Paul said, I didn't know sin
except the law said, thou shalt not covet. Remember how the Lord
told the rich young ruler, sell everything you have, give it
to the poor and follow me. And he went away sorrowful for
he had many riches. Well, Paul said, when the commandment
came, sin became alive to me and I died. He saw he was covetous. He said in verse 10, the commandment
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taken
occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me.
Paul thought the law was ordained to give him life. That's what
everybody by nature thinks, that the law was given to give you
life. But when Paul was given spiritual discernment, he found
that the law was given to be administration of death. to minister
death to all goodness in us. He said later in Galatians 3.21,
if there had been a law given which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture
hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ, by his obedience, might be given to them that believe
on him. So sin had deceived Paul. It
had dominion over him, making him think he was righteous and
holy by his doing, by what he was doing. But Christ made him
find it was all fruit unto death. Every bit of it was fruit unto
death. He saw all his righteousnesses were filthy rags when the commandment
came. He saw all his holiness was ungodliness
in reality. Verse 12, wherefore the law is
holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that
which is good make death unto me? God forbid. Again, he asked
this question, was the law made death to me? No. Sin, that it
might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good,
by the law. By the law he saw he was dead.
Sin by the commandment, that sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful. The purpose of the law is not
to make men holy. The purpose of the law is not
to make men righteous by our deeds. The law is not the cause
of the disease. The law shows us how unholy we
are and how unrighteous we are. The law is not the cure of the
disease. The law is the revealer of the disease. That's what the
law is for. So Paul shows here that sin's
not going to have dominion over his people anymore to make us
think we're justified by the doing of the law. He's not going
to let us go back to that and imagine we made ourselves justified,
righteous by the doing of the law. But now he's going to spend
the rest of the chapter showing us sin shall also not have dominion
over us and deceiving us into thinking that we're sanctified
by the works of the law. So the way God's gonna keep sin
from having dominion over us, when he has truly sanctified
us, created a new holy inner man, he's gonna make us know
this right here, verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. Paul says, for we know. It's
only those born of the spirit of God and taught giving spiritual
discernment, but we know this. We know this. Before now, Paul
was talking in the past tense. He was talking about what he
was doing when he was dead in sin, trying to justify himself
by the law. Now he's speaking in present
tense. He's speaking as a sanctified believer who hears the law now. And he says, we know that the
law is spiritual. The law is spiritual. It comes
from the spirit of God, and it reaches to the thoughts and intents
of the heart. It's spiritual. It requires a
holy heart without sin. A holy heart without sin. Holiness
in nature, with no sin, only perfection. When the law says,
thou shalt have no other gods before me, It means not only
are we to have no graven images, it means we can't even have a
thought in our heart permitting anything to come before God.
And when we're trying to justify or sanctify ourselves by the
doing of the law, this is the paradox, that's exactly what
we're doing. We have another God and it's
ourselves. When the law says honor thy father
and thy mother, it means not only never dishonor them outwardly,
it means never even have a dishonoring thought. And when we're trying
to come to God by the law, we're dishonoring our heavenly father.
Trying to make ourselves holy, we're dishonoring him. Thou shall
not commit adultery, not only the act, but not even one lustful
thought. And when we're trying to come
to God by the works of our flesh under the law and make ourselves
holy, we're committing spiritual adultery against Christ, the
husband of his bride. The law requires we worship God
in spirit. It's spiritual. It requires we
worship God in spirit and in truth. That means with a new
holy heart. with a new holy heart. It requires
we love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, all our mind,
and love our neighbor as ourselves without one sinful thought. Without one sinful thought. But
in our flesh, Paul says, I'm carnal, sold under sin. The law
of spiritual, we know this, but we also know this, we can all
say this who are taught of the spirit of God, I am carnal, sold
under sin. Paul said that in the present
tense as a sanctified believer. The law shows us that the nature
we received by our first birth is sin. The nature we receive
from Adam is sin. Therefore, the law declares every
imagination of the thoughts of our natural hearts are only evil
continually. And Paul is saying, that's what
I am right now as a holy child of God. That's what Paul's saying.
He discovered that not only could he not be justified by the works
of the law, he discovered he could not be holy by the works
of the law. He couldn't make himself sanctified by his doing. The law can't make a fallen sinner
holy, nor can it make a regenerated man holy. We need Christ's righteousness
to justify us, and we need Christ's holiness to make us holy. We
worship him in the new spirit, which is holy and without sin. That's the creation he creates.
Now that's the first way sin's not gonna have dominion over
you. He's gonna keep you knowing Christ is your righteousness,
he's your holiness, not your doing, not your doing. But the
law teaches us, secondly, that in our inner man, this is where
he teaches us, in the inner man, this new holy heart, this is
where we have this discernment. And he's teaching us that our
sin nature prevents us from doing what our new man wills to do. Our sin nature prevents us from
doing what our new man wills to do. He said in verse 15, for
that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. In
the new man, Christ has given us a will to obey God. That's
the will he's put in the new heart, a willingness to obey
God. Now, it's not that Paul never
did anything he willed to do in the new man. He did a lot
of things in obedience to God, but whenever he did anything
as he ought to have done, he glorified God. He said, yet not
I, but the grace of God which was with me. But the law makes
the sanctified child of God confess what I would do, what I'm willing
to do, what my inner man is willing to do, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Now
in the new man, we hate vain thoughts. We hate unclean desires. We hate revengeful lusts. We would have our affections
set on Christ continually. We would entertain kind, good
thoughts of one another and never sin. And yet the law makes us
confess what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that
do I. In the new man, we hate sin. Our new will is to obey God in
all inward and outward acts of obedience. That's the heart of
the new man. And never sin. And yet, by the
Spirit of God teaching us what the law says, teaching us what
our sin nature is, we confess, what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. This
is how God's gonna keep sin from having dominion over you. that
awful lewd sin of thinking we're partially saved by something
we do. In the new man, we delight in the law of God because of
this. We really and truly delight and honor the law of God because
of this, because of what he teaches us. He said in verse 16, if then
I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it
is good. He didn't know this before, but
now he knew this, and now he said the law is good. The law,
when blessed by the Spirit in the new man, makes the sanctified
believer take sides with the law against our own selves, makes
us consent unto the law and say our sin nature is sin, and we
do not do what we're willing to do in the new man. God's gonna
keep sin from having dominion over us by keeping us knowing
that in our flesh dwells no good thing. Seems paradoxical, doesn't
it? Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under
the law but under grace. How's he gonna keep sin from
having dominion over you? By keeping you knowing that in
your flesh is no good thing. In your flesh is only sin. Verse
17, now then it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. You know that when he
says in my flesh, he's talking about the nature we got from
Adam, the corrupt nature. But through the gospel, the spirit
of God created a new holy man within his child. And that new
holy man does not sin. He does not sin. While every
born again child of God still has an old man of Adam, an old
sin nature that is only sin and only sins. We have these two
natures, these two different men, one old from Adam, one new
from our Lord. We get all the credit for our
sin. Paul's not denying the sin was
his. Both the old and the new man
are us. We get all the credit for our sin. But God gets all
the credit for our new will and for anything we do that's honoring
Him. Paul's not denying that it is
him that sinned. He's declaring here that he could
never put confidence in his works. He could never put confidence
in his flesh. If he did, it would be the same
sin of coveting the glory that belongs to Christ that had dominion
over him before. It'd be the same sin. That would
have dominion over him again. And God said he won't let that
happen. But when Paul says it's no longer I, he means it's not
the new man created of God. It is sin that dwells in the
old man of Adam. He's not denying it's him. He's
not denying the sin is of him. He's just saying it's the new
man. It's not the new man that's of God. It's the old man that
is of the flesh. The new man is holy. He's without
sin and he cannot sin. But our sin nature is sin. It's not been refined. It's not
been purified. It's not been made better. It
will always be sin and it will only be sin until it goes back
to the dust. But God's created a new will
in the new man to obey God. He has put that in the heart.
Look at verse 19. For to will is present with me.
That's not natural to us. This is not just a natural will
that men have, which is a will in bondage to the sin nature.
This is the new will in the new man by the power and grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a willingness to submit
to the Lord. It's a willingness to believe on Christ and follow
after him. but Christ is going to keep us
knowing that without the Holy Spirit, without the Holy Spirit,
without Christ, we cannot do the good that we will to do in
our new man. He put this new will in us, but
without Christ, without the Spirit of the Lord, we can't do what
we're willing to do. He said, for the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. He's saying, I don't find it
in myself. I don't find I have the ability. That's exactly what
Christ taught us, brethren. He said, without me, you can
do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing.
You remember when he brought the apostles with him to the
Garden of Gethsemane, and he said, watch and pray. And he
had put a willingness in their heart to watch and pray. But
he comes back in their sleep. And do you remember what the
Lord said? He said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak. The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. They could not find it in themselves to do what
they were willing to do. Now that's how God's going to
keep sin from having dominion over you and me. Paul declares
that due to his sin nature, without Christ, he could not do the good
he willed to do. Instead, he did the evil he did
not want to do. Look at verse 19. For the good
that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. God's
gonna keep his child knowing. We have no strength in ourselves. That's what he's declaring here.
We have no strength in ourselves to will or to do. Paul wrote in Philippians 2.13,
he said, it's God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure. He works the willingness in us,
and if we're enabled to do, it's God who worked it according to
his good pleasure. But God sometimes gives you the
willingness, but not the ability to do. And by that, he keeps
us knowing without Christ, we can do nothing. But it's to keep us from running
back to the law, it's to keep us from looking to our flesh,
it's to keep us from thinking something has changed in this
promise God has made that sin shall not have dominion over
you because you're not under law, you're under grace. God
is also gonna keep us knowing that when we sin, It's not the
new man, it's the old nature. He said, verse 20, it's no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now, why is that so very
important? How is that gonna keep sin from
having dominion over you? To let you know, to keep you
knowing, it's not your new man, it's the old man, the old nature. Because the good news of the
gospel is this, brethren, this is the good news of the gospel,
God has created a new man in you. You that are born of God,
he's created a new man in you. He's given you a new heart, a
new spirit, and God looks on that heart he's made. That's
the man he acknowledges in his children, is the new man that's
of his creating. And every believer that's born
of God, there is this new man who's created after God's image. We're not growing up into God's
image. We're not gradually being conformed to God's image. When
God created Adam, he created him in his image. Now, he may
have grown after that. He may have, you know, grew up. I don't know how old he was when
he created him. but he didn't grow more into God's image. He
was in God's image by creation, by creation. This is what Paul
was saying when he said, it's not circumcision that avails
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, a new creation. It's
God creating a new man in you in the image of God. And when
he creates you in that image, That new man's holy, and because
that new man is pure and holy, he causes you to look out of
yourself for all that you need to Christ, and through faith
the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you. And that's what
Paul was declaring when he said the new man is created after
God in righteousness and true holiness, in the righteousness
of Christ and the true holiness of Christ with a true heart that
knows Christ is all our holiness. He said in Colossians, this new
man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. Our new man's renewed in knowledge
after the image of Christ that created this new man. The new
man and his children is holy, is holy. Now, God's going to
have to teach us this to keep sin from having dominion over
us and keep us from either trying to be justified by our doing
or sanctified by our doing or think we're unrighteous or unholy
because we haven't done as we ought. We've sinned. That's what
Paul is declaring here. This new man that he's made in
you, born of incorruptible seed, cannot sin. We can practice sin. That's what Paul's plainly declaring
in this passage. It doesn't mean you can't practice
sin. It doesn't mean that you can't commit acts of sin. You
can, in thought or in deed. But he declares here that our
new man does not and cannot sin. It's not the new man, he said. When I sin, it's not the new
man. I don't care. Men always want to hedge this,
you know. Well, he's not talking about acts of sin. He's talking
about thoughts of sin. You can drown in two feet of
water the same as 20 feet. Sin is sin. But he said, none
of it has come from the new man. It is not the new man that sins.
He's saying what John said, whosoever is born of God does not commit
sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because
he's born of God. Now the good news of the gospel
is this, that before the law of God, before God himself, our
old man of sin, was crucified in Christ on the cross. that
the body of sin might be destroyed. Now that does not mean, and this
is what I've heard some people say, my sin nature was eradicated
in Christ from the cross. No, that is not what that means.
That is not what that means. It means we were justified by
Christ. It means we were made the righteousness
of God in Christ. It means our sins were put away
by Christ. Legally, before God, we are justified,
we are righteous. But we have a sin nature. It
is what it has always been. It is sin. But God looks on the inward man
that he's created, which is holy after Christ's image. For the
Lord seeth not as man seeth. Aren't you thankful? For man
looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. It's the heart he's made. It's
the heart he's made, holy. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make men
of no wisdom. This is where he teaches us,
makes Christ our wisdom, is in the new man. Now the way Paul
was able to confess, I'm carnal soul under sin. The way he could
say, in my flesh dwells no good thing. The way he could say,
what I'm willing to do, I don't do. What I hate, that's what
I do. The way he was made to say this, is because God had created a
new Holy Spirit in him and taught him this about himself, that
in his flesh dwell nothing good. In the new man, by continuing
to teach you that Christ is your holiness, Christ is your righteousness,
and he keeps you looking to him, in the new man. And by doing
this, God's going to keep you from going back under the dominion
of sin, imagining we make ourselves righteous or holy by our works. There are some good works that's
going to come from him creating this new man, but those good
works is not what made us holy. It is what God's worked in the
heart And then you behold, it's Christ in his holiness of heart
by his perfect obedience to God that made us righteous. He's
our holiness and our righteousness. In the new man, God teaches us
our utter dependence upon Christ for all. That's the whole point
of what Paul is declaring. So thirdly now, God's gonna keep
sin from having dominion over us by making his saints know
sin is mixed with the good we do. Paradoxical, isn't it? God's
gonna keep sin from having dominion over you, but making you continually
know sin's mixed with all that you do. Look at verse 21. I found in a law, this is a standing
rule, this is how it's gonna be the rest of our days on this
earth. I found in a law when I would
do good, evil is present with me. When God works in us, to
will and to do of his good pleasure, when he gives you the willingness
and he gives you the ability to do what he's pleased with,
we cannot put confidence in ourselves or what we've done. Because God
has made us to know that while we did something that was good,
evil is present with us. Sin is mixed with it. That's
so all the time. That means there'll never be
a day in our life when we will fulfill the righteousness the
law demands by our doing. Never. If God marked iniquity,
none of us could stand. Now you might be better than
Joe Blow down the street, but before God, if he marked iniquity,
you and I could not stand. Evil is present with everything
we do. Our very best holy deeds have
evil present. We cannot justify nor sanctify
ourselves by our doing because we are carnal, sold under sin
in our sin nature. And when we would do good, evil
is present with us. God has to make us know this
and keep us knowing this or we'll come back under that dominion
of sin that Paul was under. Paul not only goes to this immediately
after he says sin won't have dominion over you, you're going
to yield your members to righteousness, to Christ, unto holiness. He
not only deals with it in this chapter, he deals with it for
four more chapters. He dealt with it for five up
to that and deals with it for four more before he ever says
anything about good works. And when he says something about
good works, he says, by the mercies of God. Present your bodies a
living sacrifice unto God, already holy. And then in the third verse
he says, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to
think. You know what I'm getting from that? Our very worst problem
we have in our sin nature is trying to make ourselves righteous
and holy ourselves, ourselves. But in the inner holy man is
no sin. God has made us delight in the
law in the new man. He's made us worship and serve
God in his new holy heart. We serve him acceptably by faith
in Christ, believing on his son as he commands. And we do what
we do from the motive of love and gratitude for what Christ
has done for us. Verse 22, for I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. True holiness and true godliness
is a heart created holy by God in which we delight in the law
of God. in all the Word of God. Until
then, all we did was mind the things of the flesh. We minded
what says, thou shalt, thou shalt not. It says, do this, don't
do that. And that's all we had our mind
on because we were carnal. But by the Spirit now, we really
delight in the whole law of God. We delight in the law and we
consent that it's good because the law tells us we are the sinner. That's what Paul began with.
I consent to the law that is good. It shows me I am carnal,
sold under sin. That's why I delight in it. That's
what it was given for. I delight in it. I've declared
it's doing what it's given to do. evil is present with me. I must have Christ. That's what
I find out by the law. And I delight in the law because
by God-given faith we behold Christ has made us the righteousness
of God in him. He has fulfilled it by his obedience
in every jot and tittle on behalf of his people, justified us,
put away our sin, made us righteous in him. I delight in the law
of God. We walk by faith in Christ, constrained
by his love. Christ is our righteousness,
he's our holiness, and we are complete in him. That is why
we delight in every word of God. So to keep sin from having dominion
over us, God, now here's your real paradox. To keep sin from
having dominion over us, God will at times permit our sin
nature to bring our new man into captivity. He says in 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. Now Paul had declared
in Romans 6 that sin shall not have dominion over you for you're
not under the law but under grace. That's God's promise. Wouldn't
it have been better to prove that promise by saying the law
of my mind, the inner man, enables me to free myself from the law
of sin which is in my members? Wouldn't it have been more Wouldn't
it have been better to say it that way? Or to say, my new man
has power to keep the law of God, to sanctify myself, and
no more come into captivity to my sin nature. But he said just
the opposite. He said, this law in my members,
this sinful flesh, wars against my new man, my law of my mind,
and brings me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. See? If he'd said it the other
way, that would be permitting sin to reign over us. If he said,
I, by my strength of my new man now, I can put this sin away,
and I'm never gonna be brought into captivity of sin again,
that would be having the sin having dominion over us, just
like it did when Paul was dead, thinking that by the works of
the law, he was justified or sanctified. Do you get what I'm
saying? The promise is that sin shall
not have dominion over us. It doesn't mean that we will
ever be without sin in this life. Evil shall always be present
with us. Nor does it mean there'll never
be times when our sin nature It doesn't mean that our sin
nature will never bring us, our new man, into captivity to sin. There will be times when that
happens. Sin in thought, and there'll be times when sin in
act. But it means this. This is the
promise. It means by God's grace, by the
Spirit of God working in the new man, God shall keep us knowing
that we are sinners, using this very sin nature that's in us
to show it to us, that we don't have power to just keep ourselves
from coming into captivity to it. And he will do that to show
us we're sinners so that he keeps us entirely yielding our members
to Christ to deliver us. He'll keep us crying out, 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. Brethren, Christ has delivered
us, and he shall deliver us. And he's gonna make us know he
delivered us. When you come into captivity
to your said nature, he gonna make you know he delivered you
from it. And this is gonna keep us humbled in the inner man.
It's gonna teach us two things. It's gonna teach us I can do
all things through Christ who strengthens me. And it's gonna
teach us at the same time, without him I can do nothing. That's how God will not prevent
sin to reign over us. He will not allow us to vainly
imagine we're justified or sanctified by our strength or by our works. That's what Paul thought when
he was dead in sin. Instead, God's gonna keep us
worshiping and serving God in spirit in this new man. He's gonna keep us rejoicing
in Christ Jesus only, and he's gonna keep us from putting any
confidence in our flesh whatsoever. But this warfare, by it, God
will keep this good news in our heart. Read verse 25. The second
part says, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God.
I do. With your new man you serve the
law of God. But with the flesh the law of
sin. There is, now look where he goes right next. This is what
he makes you know by this, but continuing to deliver you and
showing you Christ is your righteousness and holiness, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit, who are not trying
to do it by the flesh, but who know it's by the spirit. For
the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me
free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could
not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sent in
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
We worship and serve him in newness of spirit, not in oldness of
the letter. And he's gonna keep you doing
that. by showing you over and over that in your flesh your
carnal soul is under sin. When you're willing to do, without
the Spirit you can't do it. And when you do what He's made
you willing to do, and you do it by the power of the Spirit,
evil is still present with you. And sometimes He lets you just
come into captivity to your sin nature. to deliver you out of
it and keep you knowing He's your righteousness, He's your
holiness, He's your redemption, He's your wisdom, He's gonna
deliver you all the way to the end. This is how He makes it
so sin won't have dominion over you. It's because you're not
under the law, you're under grace. I pray that's a blessing. Father,
we ask you, Lord, that you would bless this to our hearts. Make us see what we are in our
flesh. We ask you, Lord, to keep us
seeing what we are in Christ. Keep our hearts renewed, the
new heart renewed, that we might see how fully you have fulfilled
all righteousness, how fully Christ is our holiness, how you
continue to keep us separated from us And Lord, when we fall,
when we sin, You know, Lord, You know the heart You've given
Your people. You know that we love You. You know our desire
is to please You. And Lord, we ask You to have
mercy on us for Christ's sake. We ask You to fulfill this promise
You've given us, that sin shall not have dominion over us. We
thank you for your grace. We thank you, Lord, that you
keep us from going back to the letter, to our flesh, to our
works, and you keep us constantly looking to Christ. Lord, teach
us this. We ask you, we beg you to show
us more and more, make us more dependent upon Christ, and Lord,
forgive us for Christ's sake. Thank you for these blessings
in his name. Amen. All right, brother. Bye.