Romans chapter 7. The text will
be found in Romans chapter 8. So let's read our text first
in Romans chapter 8, looking at verses 12 through verse 16. The apostle says, therefore,
brethren, We are debtors not to the flesh to live after the
flesh. For if you live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if you through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may also be also glorified
together." Now tonight, as we look through these scripture
verses here, I want us to first of all see, as Paul describes
it in these chapters, the description of every true believer in Jesus
Christ. He gives a description of every
true believer in Jesus Christ. And second of all, I want us
to see the struggle of every true believer in Jesus Christ.
And then I'm going to give us an example. I want to show us
an example of this struggle in a man in the Scriptures, an example
that the Lord has given us. So first of all, let's look at
Paul's Paul's description. Paul's description
of a believer in Jesus Christ. Now, the apostle begins this
in the previous chapter, and he declares to us his own personal
condition. His own personal condition. Look
over the previous chapter. Paul says this about himself
in verse 9. He says, For I was alive without
the law once. Paul testifies that once he was
content with his conduct, his religion, he was content with
his obedience to the law, Paul was satisfied at one time with
his relationship with God. He says, when I was alive without
the law, once. Paul was the top of his class.
Paul was the man, the brightest star in the Jewish religion. Paul was the most likely, he
was voted most likely to succeed in his seminary. He was it. He was the pinnacle of his religion. And Paul was not only a vocal
man in his religion, but he was also a doer. He didn't just nod
his head, he actually took action. He was a man of action. He not
only called Christians heretics, but he was actively engaged in
their arrest and consenting to their death. This man was content
with his religion. Until... until God came to him
in holiness. Until the holiness of God was
manifest, he thought that he was in compliance with the law
of God until, until the commandment of God came in power and exposed
him of his sin. But, Paul says, when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. When God came and revealed Himself,
all of Paul's righteousness became filthy rags. His sin became exceeding
sinful. He says that in verse 13, but
was that which is good, speaking of the law, made death to me?
God forbid, but sin. that it might appear, sin, working
death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment
might become exceeding sinful. He saw that his heart was evil. Evil. He saw that he was corrupt,
not just in his outward experience, but in the very core of his nature. The Apostle said, For the law
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Verse 18, For
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Paul began to see his condition. God in grace came to Paul and
revealed to him his condition as he does to every true believer
in Christ. Everyone that he saves, God reveals
this to. God gave him a new heart. God
gave him a new nature. God created in him a new... in the new birth, new life from
the dead. This salvation that is of God gives us such eyes as to see
our corruption of our flesh. That flesh was always there,
wasn't it, believer? This carnal nature, it was always
with us. And at one time, we, like Paul,
were content. We were content to go along in
our religion. We were content with everything.
We thought that we were good enough to be accepted of God. But God, in grace, when He comes
to the sinner, the first thing He does is open our eyes to our
sin. And we begin to see this, that
in our flesh, in our nature dwelleth no good thing. Paul said, when this new nature
came to will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good I find not. Isn't that so with you? When
this nature came, we desired to follow Christ. We want to
be like Christ. But then we found out this, We
can't. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. That's what Paul found, and that's
a testimony of us all who are born of God, that there is no
goodness in our flesh, yet in my heart, in my new nature, I
find a desire to do good. I desire to be like Christ. It is my heart's desire to be
holy and righteous. This is a work of God. But in
the flesh, I know this, all I do is sin. All I do is sin. Therefore, in my heart is faith
in Jesus Christ. I know this, that Christ is all
my righteousness. Christ is all my sanctification,
all my redemption, all my wisdom. And my love for him is manifest
in my desire to be like him. But there's always this in every
believer, a struggle. A struggle. Because the new nature
did not destroy the old. The new nature did not destroy
the old, and this is why Paul cries out in verse 24, O wretched
man, that I am. He said that I am, not that I
was, but that I am. And every believer in Jesus Christ
understands this struggle with the flesh, this struggle with
the old nature, that we are in ourselves, we can do nothing
good. And yet God has given us a holy
nature, a new nature, and therefore we cry. The cry of every believer
is this, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this rotten corpse? Is that not your desire to be
delivered of this flesh? This is the desire of every believer's
heart to be rid of the old nature, to be rid of the old nature.
And so when we cry this as a believer in Christ, what is the answer
of the new nature? What is the answer of the heart
that God has given us? Paul says in 25, verse 25, I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the answer
of the new heart, thanksgiving to God. Believer, though we struggle
with the flesh, our hope, our confidence is in Jesus Christ
alone. I know that He has delivered
us from the guilt of sin. He has delivered us from the
power of sin. And one day, He will deliver
us from the very presence of sin. This is our hope. This is
our confidence in Jesus Christ. Our assurance is that through
Christ, there is therefore what Paul says in verse 1 of chapter
8, there is therefore now no condemnation. to them which are
in Christ Jesus. Now listen, I know some men that
struggle, that have struggles with sin. I know some men that
hate their sin. They weep because of their sin.
They regret their sin. They truly struggle and try to
become more moral, upright people. Have you ever met people like
that who really struggle with these sins? and not struggling with sin against
God, but rather struggling with the consequences of sin. They may wanna clean up their
lives and that'd be great, that'd be good. Nothing wrong with that,
clean up your life. They desire to make amends to
family and friends, well good, there's nothing wrong with that.
But they have no desire to come to Jesus Christ. They see coming
to Christ as a one-time event or knowing Christ as an academic
exercise. But for those who are quickened by the
Spirit of God, we know this. We know our constant need of
Jesus Christ. We know our very present need
of Jesus Christ. One who is truly quickened and
one who has a true struggle with sin knows our constant need of
Christ. We need to constantly hear and
be reminded, there is therefore now. I like that. Now, no condemnation. Theirs therefore when? Now! No
condemnation. Theirs therefore now. And now,
and now, and now, and now, no condemnation. To who? To those who are in Christ Jesus. Those who are in Christ Jesus.
And we know our need. We are in Christ Jesus. We know
our constant need of Christ Jesus. And we desire to be forgiven,
pardoned, redeemed, and cleansed, not by men, but only by the person
and work of Jesus Christ. This is all our hearts desire. And because of this constant
filth, Because of this constant filth of indwelling flesh, we
know our constant need of hearing this message over and over and
over again. We need to hear it. We need to
be reminded of it. We need to be reminded of it
because there's always a struggle. There's always a struggle. Are
you struggling believer in Christ? Are you oppressed by your own
conscience and flesh? Then remember, keep this in your
mind by the grace of God and cling to it with all your heart. There is therefore now no condemnation. No condemnation to you who are
in Christ Jesus. This is the cause of our freedom,
even our union with Christ. This is not to those who are
outside of Christ. This message is not to those
who have not come to Christ. This is a message to those of
us who are in Christ. In Christ by faith. But to us
who are in Christ. Remember, you are in Christ by
a union. A union. We are in union with Christ even
because God put us in union with Christ. Isn't this a blessing?
You know this, your faith did not put you in union with Christ.
It was God who put you in union with Christ. And He did that
before the foundation of the world. This is the gospel message. That according to His grace,
according as He had chosen us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. This all according to His grace
and mercy. In 1 Corinthians 1.30 He said,
But of God are you in Christ Jesus. Of God you are in Christ
Jesus. Therefore, when Jesus came into
the world, you and I were in Him. Consider Him as He condescended
to become a man. He came to be our representative. And as He lived and walked in
this world, we lived and walked in Him, our representative. When
He honored and obeyed the law of God to the fullest extent,
we were in Him. We were in Him. It's what Paul
continues to say, and for the law of the spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, and that it was weak to the flesh.
Oh, there's nothing wrong with the law, is there? It's perfect. It's perfect. There's nothing
evil about the law. Is there anything evil about
the commandment to love God with all your heart, with all your
soul, with all your mind, with all your strength? Is there anything
evil in the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself? No,
the weakness is not in the law. The law is strong. The law is
good. We're the problem. We're the
problem. Our flesh is the problem. The
weakness was in our flesh. Therefore God, sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin
in the flesh. Jesus Christ came into this world,
and as our representative, he actually obtained the righteousness
of God. And for sin, Because of our sin, God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to do what? To redeem us. Sin, our sin, must
be paid. Justice must be satisfied. God is nothing like us. God's
justice must have been satisfied. We have all kinds of love without
justice, don't we? We're unjust people. You can
overlook me, and I can overlook you, and without any payment
whatsoever. God is nothing like us. God could
not have mercy at the expense of His justice. But God, desiring
to have mercy, satisfied His own justice. How? By imputing
our sins to Christ. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we should be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Jesus Christ in His flesh suffered,
and God condemns sin in His flesh. for what purpose that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. Isn't this wonderful? That's that law that I could
never, that I've never thought about obeying. I've never even
come close to thinking about obeying that law. I just couldn't.
Nothing in me that could do it. Yet God in grace has taken the
righteousness of Christ and made it mine. in me. He not only charges it to my
account but he creates in me a new heart of righteousness
wherein dwells the spirit of the living God in my flesh. This is amazing. It's a miracle
of grace. Christ fulfilled the obedience,
and now He imputes it and imparts it to every one of His people. And His righteousness should
be filled in us. And as we are in union with Him,
when He accomplished, merited the righteousness of God, even
so now has He by the Spirit of God become one with us. Jesus says in John 17 23 I in
them May God give us just a taste
of what that really is I Tell you the only way we can
see that is by faith I You're not gonna be able to look in
the mirror and see that, are you? You're not gonna get up in the
morning and say, oh, there's the righteousness. No, you won't be able to see
it. You know you won't be able to see it in the things you do,
will you? You know what all I see? I see sin. Sin is mixed with
everything I do. That's all I see. And believer,
I'm gonna take away the surprise, that's all you're gonna see. The only way to see this is by
faith in Christ. By faith. Now what is the result
of this? The result is this, is for they,
it says in verse 4, that the righteousness of the law might
be filled in us, listen, here's the result, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit. There's always a result when
God comes in mercy, when God exposes our sins, when God reveals
to us Christ, when we look to Christ by faith, which is a gift
of the Holy Spirit, I tell you this, everything changes. Everything
changes. We who once only had one nature,
which walked totally after the flesh all the time and could
do nothing else, but now, by grace, we follow the Spirit of
God. We are led by the Spirit of God. Anyone who's not led by the Spirit
of God, they're not the sons of God. The Spirit of God leads
us. And we are the sons of God. And we walk after the things
of the Spirit of God. Now, false professors of faith
say, I believe in Jesus. But what's the difference? We
say we believe in Christ. Well, the difference is those
who truly believe in Christ do not walk after the flesh but
after the Spirit. We no longer live after the flesh. These professors of faith are
not just men of wicked character either. But these are some men
who come into the church undetected. Jude says they've crept in unawares. They are moral men, religious
men, and may even conduct themselves better than some believers. How then are they exposed? They're
exposed by the false gospel of starting by grace but finishing
by the flesh. How do you know if a man's following
the spirit of God or after the flesh? You'll know it by this, by the
gospel he believes. If he believes the gospel that
salvation is by grace alone, that salvation is completely
of God and completely of Jesus Christ. that we start by faith
in Christ and we finish by faith in Christ. The false professor
believes a totally different gospel. He believes in a gospel
that starts by grace and finishes by his own obedience, his own
works. That's a man who's walking after
the flesh. A man who's walking after the
Spirit continues to live by faith. We know this. The Scripture says
the just shall live how? By faith. By faith. These who have only one nature
fail to know that the carnal mind is hatred and enmity against
God. They fail to see that the old
man despises the law and cannot by any means obey it. But if
you have begun by grace, But sin seek to finish by works,
listen, you are living after the flesh. That's what it is
to live after the flesh. But believer, listen, if you,
if Christ be in you, Paul says this, verse 10 of eight, the
body is dead because of sin. The body is dead because of sin. I know that in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing, and it never will. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. It will live flesh, and it will
die flesh. But I know that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit, and I know that that will live by
the grace of God. It'll live by faith in Jesus
Christ. Therefore, believer, we are alive
under God. We are made righteous before
God, and we have hope that one day Jesus will come again, and
this flesh that only can sin now, one day, he'll make it perfect. Isn't that something? You know,
this flesh is gonna, it's gonna fall to the ground unless Christ
comes, but I know this. In my own eyes, I shall see God. Isn't that something? That He
who has redeemed us in our soul has also redeemed this body that
one day He's going to raise this body and it's going to be like
His own body. One day He'll come and we'll
have this body, it'll match my nature. Isn't that something? The new nature that's in me,
one day this body will match it. Right now it don't match,
does it? It don't match. But until then, so long as we
live in this flesh, so long as we are in this body, listen,
you are at war. You're at war. So long as we are in this flesh,
we are at war with the old man of sin. So ever keep this in mind. Verse
12, therefore brethren, Is this your condition? Are you saved by the grace of
God? Then listen to this. We are debtors. Not to the flesh to live after
the flesh. Believer, keep this in mind as
you struggle with yourself. You don't owe yourself anything. You owe God everything. Is that
just not reasonable? That's just reasonable. I'm told
that within the depths of my soul that I am a debtor to grace
and not to me, not to the flesh. It was by grace we were chosen.
It was by grace we were redeemed. It was by grace we are called
and it is by grace we are kept. And it's by grace alone that
we all, every one of the elect, will be brought safe to heaven's
eternal shore. So believer, the question is,
seeing that we owe God a debt of grace, how then should we
conduct ourselves? Seeing you have an old nature
that won't quit. Seeing that you have an old,
filthy nature that won't get any better. And seeing you have
a new nature given by God, what kind of people should we be? What kind of conduct should we,
how should we conduct ourselves? We should conduct ourselves as
debtors to God's grace. Seeing we are debtors to grace,
what do we owe the flesh? What glory does your flesh deserve? Surely our flesh cries out for
satisfaction constantly. As you've been sitting here,
have you not experienced that? As I've been preaching, I've
been experiencing that. The flesh is crying out, it always
is crying out to be satisfied. Surely our flesh says, you owe
it to me. But listen, believer, we are
no debtors to the flesh. Nor are we debtors to the law,
but rather to the grace of God, to the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Paul says in verse 13, he says,
make no mistake about this, if you live after the flesh, you'll
die. If you seek to satisfy the lust
of the flesh or seek to be justified by the law, which is only natural. You know, that's just natural.
For a man to try to justify himself, that's just natural. That's just
what man does. It's the carnal nature. And Paul
said, if you live after that, you'll die. But are we who are born again,
what are we to do? If you live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, you shall live." Now, what are the deeds of the
body? We know these things. Go over
to Galatians and you can see them all. This is not an exhaustive
list, but it's an extensive one. Galatians chapter 5, Paul says
this concerning this struggle. He says, The flesh lusteth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and they're contrary
one to another, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
But if you're led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance,
emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, evil, envies, murders,
drunkenness, reveling, and the such like. Of which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which
do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And listen, in another place
he says this about us, and such were some of you. But you are washed. You're washed in the blood of
Christ. You've been made a living creature. Believer, we know that our conduct
is no influence regarding our salvation, our righteousness
before God. But because of the new nature,
our conduct is forever changed. Because of God's grace, we who
were by nature wicked, self-righteous men, now we desire only to abstain
from those things because we are saved by grace. See, I'm
not going to abstain from these things to save myself like men
do. I don't want these things because
I am saved by grace. We now follow not the flesh,
but the Spirit of God, for we are led by the irresistible grace
to faith in Jesus Christ. We are led by the Spirit of God
to become and believe on Jesus Christ. Now, if you believe on
Jesus Christ, listen, this is our hope, our confidence. You
are a son of God. You are a son of God. John says, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. So then let us ask ourselves,
if we are sinners by nature, by birth, and receive such love
and mercy from God, what type of man are we ought to be? We
ought to be believers in Jesus Christ. We should trust God. That's what kind of people we
should be. We should rest on the word of God. If Jesus laid
down his life for our sins, he has perfected us before God,
what should we answer the flesh as it cries for compromise? No. No is a good answer, isn't
it? No is a good answer. And now then, for the last couple
of minutes, I want to show us an example of someone who is
an eminent type of a believer but who gave in to this compromise. Go over to Chronicles chapter
17. There's a man here who is by all accounts a believer in
Christ. This man Jehoshaphat And Jehoshaphat
reigned in his father's stead and strengthened himself against
Israel. And verse 3, it says, And the
Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of
his father David. This man Jehoshaphat was a believer
because he walked like David walked. How did David walk? By
faith. He was a man of faith. He was a faithful man to hear
God's Word. Look at that in verse 7. In the
third year of His reign, He sent His princes even to Ben-El and
Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathanael and Micah to teach in the cities
of Judah, and with them He sent the Levites, even the priests.
And they taught in Judah, and took the book of the law of God
with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and
taught the people." Isn't that your heart, believer? To hear
the Word of God preached? To long to hear others hear the
Word of God preached? Jehoshaphat's a man that was
saved by grace just like us. He desired to hear the Word of
God preached, and he desired others to hear. But in chapter
18, something happens. Now Jehoshaphat had riches and
honor and abundance and joined affinity with Ahab. Here's the problem. He gave his
son to marry Ahab's daughter. And we know this, that these
two nations are a picture. The nation of Judah, which Jehoshaphat
was king, is a picture of the church of believers in Jesus
Christ. You know what that old Israel
is a picture of? Your flesh and false religion. That's what
it's a picture of. And so what was the compromise
here? He gave in to this warfare. You know, his father did the
same thing. We went over that before. His father, he got tired
of this warfare and he schemed a way around it. He tried to
get around it. This way, Jehoshaphat confronts it by affinity. He
sends his son and says, oh, let's make peace together. Let's make
peace together by joining our families. And so he sends his son over
there, marries his daughter, and then he goes over to visit
his in-laws, Ahab, a man that God hated, a man that God had
pronounced judgment on, and yet Jehoshaphat's now kin to him.
And he goes over, and you know what the king begins to do? He
says, hey, I got a little problem over here with Ramoth Gilead.
I tell you what, I want you to help me, help me out here. Help
me out. and Jehoshaphat being what I
like to call a stupid Christian. He says, sure, sure I'll help
you out. He said, but first I gotta have
a word from God. You know, I gotta have God's
word. And so Ahab says, I got plenty
of people to tell you that. He got 400 prophets to come in
and tell him that it's alright for him to go on up. You know, if you want to justify
sin, you can find 400 people to help you. You know, you can. Just talk to people, and they'll
love to help you justify sin. They'll love to help you. Oh,
don't you know so-and-so? She's just so... You know what
I want to do? Well, you should. You should.
You know, she probably just deserves it. So there'll be a whole bunch
of people tell you you should. But he said, you know what, I
need to hear, those people just aren't good enough. I need to
hear from God's man. And so he goes, there's one man,
but he don't say very good things about me. He said, I'll just
send him in anyway. Let's hear what he's got to say.
And of course, the prophet comes in. He says, you know what? If
you go up, you'll die. You'll lose. Jehoshaphat, you'll
lose. And Ahab, you'll die. And you know what this believer
did? He ignored God's man. He ignored God's word and went
up anyway. Who among us has not done the
same to our shame? I tell you, I'm sad. I can identify
with him. I can. I've been just as ignorant
and just as rebellious. And you know what I found? I
found the same thing he found, a whole lot of trouble. He went on up against God's word, and the enemy surrounded him, looked as though he was going
to lose his life. But you know what Jehoshaphat
did? Look over this in chapter 18 and verse 31, And it came
to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat,
and they said, It is the king of Israel, therefore let us compass
about him to fight. But Jehoshaphat cried out, He
cried out. Heard a preacher tell about this.
He said it means to shriek. To shriek like an eagle. A young eagle would shriek after
his mother when he's in trouble. He shrieked. He yelled out. He cried out to God. Well, what
do we do when we are in trouble? What does the every believer
do? We cry out to our God. You know what every believer
finds? The same thing Jehoshaphat found, help. If you can't find anything else
to pray, maybe you should just say help. That's a great prayer,
isn't it? Help! Cry out to your God and
say help. And look what happened. He cried
out. And the Lord helped him. Did
he deserve the help? Neither do you. Neither do I. But because you are a son of
God, he will always help you. Even when we're stupid. even when we've rebelled. Can you find mercy so rich as
that anywhere else? He cried out for help. And I
tell you, God sent his man back to him in chapter 19, and he
gave him a message. He said, shouldest thou help
the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord. Should you help your flesh that
truly hates God? Should you compromise with it?
Should you try to make peace with it? No. There can be no peace with your
flesh. You know when you'll be at peace
with your flesh? When it's dead. That's when the war is going
to stop. It's not going to stop until then. So in the meantime, what do we
do? Believe on Jesus Christ. rest your soul only in his merits
and have no confidence in the flesh that's what it is to be led by
the Spirit of God you who are led by the Spirit
of God You are the sons of God, not
because of anything you've done, but because of grace. And I'll tell you, I'm so thankful
for grace. I'm thankful that grace chose
me. I'm thankful that grace saved me, redeemed me and keeps me
all by the grace of God. May God help us in this struggle
that we have, and we should always look to Him. Let's stand. We'll
be dismissed in prayer.