Romans chapter 7 I Titled This message The war
within There is a war I Heard one person
Who I read I read one person called it a civil war within
a struggle between two natures. Between two, one that's born of God and one
that's nothing but sin, came from Adam. And these two never
get along. They never get along. To give
you somewhat of an idea of this war within, I want you to turn
to Genesis chapter 25. This will kind of give you the
picture of what Paul is saying when we get to verse 15. Genesis
25. In verse 21 of Genesis chapter 25, And Isaac entreated the Lord
for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated
of him. And Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
And the children struggled to gather within her. And she said,
if it be so, if it's your will, Lord, for me to have this child,
why am I thus? Why is this struggle going on
in me? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. Why is this such turmoil seems
to be going on, this struggle? And the Lord said unto her, two
nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels. Two different people in you.
One's the promised seed, One by promise, and the other one
is the flesh. Two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. And as I was looking at that
yesterday, I read it to Vicki. I said, this is what Paul was
talking about, this struggle that's going on. And it said,
the elder shall serve the younger, That old nature, before I get
into Romans here, that old nature will serve, it will serve that
new nature, that younger. That old nature which we were
born with, it will serve that new nature. It will serve the
purpose of God. And I thought that when I saw
that last night, I thought, wow, that's interesting to me. That's interesting. That means
that old nature That elder is not going to rule. He's just
going to serve. He's going to serve God's purpose
as He prepares us to come home. Now Paul says here in verse 7,
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Is the law the
root of my sin problem? Is that the problem? And he says,
God forbid, in no way, it's not the law. The law is not the problem. He says, I wouldn't even known
sin, or I wouldn't even known sin, or I wouldn't have known
covetous or lust, except the law said, thou shalt not covet.
I wouldn't know what sin was inwardly. Inwardly, I would not
have known. I would not have known that to
desire what I don't have, to crave what I don't have is sin. As long as I didn't commit the
act, I thought I was just fine. I thought I was fine. I was thinking
of this last night and I called Jason and Rebecca to see if I
could do this grammatically, if it was correct. But Paul,
listen, Paul always saw sin as an act. And as long as he didn't
do it, he wasn't sinning. And I was asking them if I could
use this grammatically to make it correct. Paul always saw sin
as a verb, but never as a noun. He always saw it as an action,
and as long as he didn't do the action, he was fine. Well, Vicki
looked it up in the dictionary for me last night, and it says
this, as a noun, sin is spiritual death, separation from God. As
a verb, sin is what we do that violates God's holy standard.
So Paul only saw the second part of it. He didn't see that he
himself is sin. That's what I am. That old man
is me. Sin is me. When the Scripture
says that Christ was made to be sin, I look at it, I understand
it, that Christ was made to be me. He took my place. As a substitute, He was made
to be what I am. I am sin. That's me. It's more
than just an action, it's me, it's who and what I am by nature. And that's the way Paul saw it
until God saved him. Now, after God saved him, then
he has this struggle, then he saw the spirituality of the law,
then he understood, he understood the purpose of the law, the work
of the law. And on that premises, we'll look
at this. And he says, okay then, what
shall we say? Is the law the root of my sin? No. No, he said,
I wouldn't even know what sin. I didn't really understand sin
until the Holy Spirit took the law and convicted me with it. Then I realized my thoughts,
my thoughts are more wicked than anything I've ever done. My thoughts
are. And God looks at the heart. God
looks at the heart. Over in Matthew in chapter five,
our Lord said this to the Pharisees, to look on a woman to lust after
her is to commit adultery. He said, you say thou shalt not
commit adultery. That's right. He said, but if
you look on a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery
already. If you hate your brother, thou shalt not commit murder.
Well, if you hate your brother, Without a cause, you hate your
brother, you've committed murder. You are guilty of murder. That's
the part that Paul never got until God saved him. Until God
saved him, and every child of God in this room knows this.
You know this. Your thoughts never bothered
you. They never bothered you. You
never had a real conviction that I shouldn't think like that.
No, no, you didn't. That didn't bother you until
God saved you. And now the very thought of sin
is troubling, isn't it? It's troubling. But Paul says here in verse 8,
but sin, but sin. See, this is the problem. The
law is not the problem. It's the sin in me. That's the
problem. But sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, lust,
evil desire. For without the law, sin was
dead, it was dormant." That's what he's saying. But let me
read this to you from another translation. But sin, finding
opportunity in the commandment to express itself, took a hold
of me and aroused all manner of evil desires that were just
laying dormant. But when the commandment came,
it said, Thou shalt not, He said, then when the commandment, listen
now, when the commandment came in power, because the commandment
was always there and Paul read it, but when the Holy Spirit
applied the commandment in power, he said when it was applied in
power, it made all these desires, these things come alive. Instead
of subduing these desires, it only stimulated them. You see,
the law can say, thou shalt not kill, but it cannot keep me from
killing. It can't do it. And it sure can't
keep me from wanting to. And of course, Paul thought,
as long as I didn't kill anybody, I'm not guilty of murder. I'm
not guilty of adultery. I'm not guilty of these things
because I haven't outwardly done them. But inwardly, we've done
them all, haven't we? Inwardly, we've done it all.
It's a cesspool of sin in us by nature. Until the commandment came, sin
was dead, it was dormant, it was not very active. And Paul's
saying this, I thought I was really a good person. Remember
that young man said, all these I've kept from my youth up, what
lack I yet? Is there something missing? Tell
me about it. Because I've done all these things, I'm a good
person. Paul honestly believed he was
a good person. And every person in this room believed they was
a good person until God saved you. Every person here thought
there was some good in me. I'm not, I know I'm not perfect. Well, God said it must be perfect
to be accepted. That's what God said. So it's
either be perfect or not. And in Christ we are. But he
says here in verse nine, for I was alive without the law once,
But when the commandment came, when it came in power, sin revived,
and I died. Now what's he saying here? I
was alive without the law once. When Paul was a Pharisee, he
lived that Pharisaical life. He believed he was just fine. He believed he was alive. He
believed that he was accepted of God, that he had God's favor,
and everything's just fine. Everything's all right. But when
the commandment came in fire, when God sent the gospel to him
and the law came to him and he saw it and the spirituality of
it, he said, then sin revived. Then I saw sin is sin. And I
died. It slew me. It didn't give me
life, it slew me. He was trying to seek life by
the law and the law was slating. He said, it was like a sword,
it just cut me in two. and the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death." You see, the commandment
says this, do this and live. This is the way Paul thought
when he was a Pharisee. The commandment said, do this
and live, and so I did. He thought he did. That man believed he did. So
I did, and I believed that I had life by it, but it really only
proved to be death. because I really didn't do any
of it. I didn't do what it said at all. Not perfectly, and that's
exactly what God demands. That's what the law of God demands.
The law demands no less and no more than God demands, because
the law is a reflection of God. But the problem, he says, is
this. Here's the problem, sin. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
deceived me and by it slew me. Sin, taking the opportunity and
getting a hold on me by taking its incentive from the commandment,
beguiled me and entrapped me and used it as a weapon against
me and slew me." He's saying here that Sin, taken occasion by the commandment,
deceived me." Sin deceived me. The commandment said, do and
live. And sin took an opportunity there and laid hold of that and
it killed me. It didn't give me life, it killed
me. My sin nature even used the law to deceive me. You know,
the scripture says, The heart is deceitful above all things,
desperately wicked. Who can know it? Your very nature
deceives you. That old man, that sinful nature
deceives you into believing that you can do enough good to please
God. It deceives you. That's what
Paul said, it deceived me. It took occasion by the commandment. The commandment said, do this
or don't do that. Paul said, I did this and I didn't
do that. And all along I was being deceived. All along I was
being deceived. I've been deceived into thinking
I was keeping the law, which proves me to be an even greater
sinner. Here's the worst way to be. Deceived
into thinking you are right because of something you do, when in
reality, you're wrong and you're dead and you're far away from
God. You're far away from God. and
you're resting. And here's one of the most scary
things I think there is. When a person is resting in a
false refuge. Well, they hang on that because
that's their life. That's what they hope in. They
hope in it and it's a false refuge and it won't save. And they don't
want to even listen to you unless God takes hold of them. Unless
God gives an ear to hear, an eye to see, and a heart to receive,
We don't want to hear it because we're deceived. We're deceived. When a person really sees, and this is why you don't have
to give the invitation for people to come down front and all, when
a person, when a sinner convicted by the Holy Spirit under the
preaching of the gospel, when they see what they are, who they
are, they're going to run to Christ. They're going to run. You don't have to beg them to
accept Jesus as their personal Savior. You just get out of the
way. Just get out of the way. Because
they're going to come to Christ when God makes that known to
them. But until then, there is no interest here. There's just
no interest. And they'll be deceived all the
way to the grave, all the way to judgment. They'll be deceived.
Lord, we preached in your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We, we, we, we, we. All the way home. And their home
was hell. That's where home is for them.
We did this. We did that. You know, if one
of them would have said, Lord, didn't you die for me? Did you
not work out a righteousness for me? He'd have said, enter
in. None of them said that. None
of them said that. They all said, we did this, we
did that. Deceived all the way to judgment.
That's the worst way to be. For sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by that commandment it killed
me. Wherefore, the law was holy,
and the commandment holy, and just, and good." There's no problem
with it. There's no problem with the law.
He said, there's no blemish on the law whatsoever, not at all. "'Was then that which is good
made death to me? Was the law made death to me?'
No, you're already dead." You're already dead. That's what you
don't, that's what men and women don't understand. They don't
understand spiritual death. We come into this world already
dead. Wasn't there a program on television,
The Walking Dead? I've not watched it, but I know, I've heard of
it, seen the name. That's what we are. That's what we are by
nature. We are the walking dead. Until
God saves us. Until God gives us life. That's
just what we are. Was then that which is good,
the law, which is holy, just, and good, made death to me?"
No, that's not the problem. Then he comes right back here,
but sin. Then he keeps saying, he keeps saying, but sin. Sin,
sin, sin. That's the problem. That it might
appear sin. That sin, the law of God in the
hands of the Holy Spirit really makes us to see and understand
the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Not just our actions, our nature. You notice he speaks here in
plural, but sin, sin, it's the nature of sin. Sin is what we
are. Sins, plural, is what we do because
of what we are. And here he's saying sin, that
it might appear, sin, that it might appear exactly what it
is, exceeding sinful. But sin, that it might appear,
sin, working death in me by that which is good, using the law
against me, that sin, by the commandment, might become exceeding
sinful. Paul's saying, now, through the
light of the law and the hands of the Holy Spirit, I see what
I am. I am a mass of sin. That's what I am. I'm a mass
of sin. If you want to describe me, you can describe it in one
word, sin. That's what it is. That's what
I am. Here's the problem. He says in
verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but Paul didn't
know that until God saved him. He didn't know that. To him, the law was written on
the commandments, on the tables of stone. He's talking here about
the moral law. It was written on stone, and
it's like you go back here and read the 10 commandments, Okay,
I've done ten of them here, so I've done one, two. You check
them off. You don't realize that those commandments is speaking
to you, to the inward man, to your heart, to who you are. Who you are. For we know that
the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. That's
the problem. He's saying here the law is spiritual.
I'm a creature of flesh and not spirit. I've been sold into slavery
under the control of sin. The nature of the law and the
nature of flesh are totally opposite of each other. And being dead
in sins and trespasses and sins, I had no idea of the spirituality
of the law. I had no idea. Now, Paul's going to give us
this warfare. Now he's going to turn and speak
of this warfare that goes on in the heart of every child of
God. This is after God saved Paul.
Paul didn't have this warfare until God saved him. You don't
have a warfare. Listen, you got to have two to
fight. You can't have a fight unless
there's another person involved. So if there's gonna be a struggle,
if there's gonna be a warfare, a spiritual warfare going on,
there's two people. One spirit, that which is born
of the spirit is spirit, and one is flesh. That's what we
were born with originally. So Paul gives us this example,
and I read this to you over in Genesis where it's kind of an
example where she had, there was two twins in her, and they
were fighting. And God said, you got two nations
in you. Two. Two different people. He's saying
you've got two different people in you and they are at war with
each other. So he says here in verse 15,
and every child of God in here will identify with what Paul's
talking about. For that which I do, I allow
not, I don't approve. I don't approve of it. How many
thoughts a day you have that you don't approve of? How many
times you say something a day you don't approve of? I wish
I hadn't said that. I wish I wouldn't think like
that. It's like the buzzards. Remember when Abraham offered
the sacrifice and the buzzards started coming down on the sacrifice
and he had to shoo them away? That's what I feel like in my
head. I'm constantly shooing the buzzards away. I don't want
those thoughts. And you're constantly fighting
against them. Everybody here that believes
God knows that. For that which I do, I don't
approve of. I do not allow. I do not approve
of the sins that I do, is what he's saying. I don't approve
of it. For that which I do, I allow not. Over in the margin it says,
I know not. I don't know. It's not that he
don't know what's happening, but he's like, I don't recognize
him, I'm not a part of it. I'm not associated with that
old man. That's what he's saying. I'm not associated with that
guy. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that's
what I would do. What would you do this morning?
You would worship God. With all your heart, with all
your soul, you would sing praises to Him with full expression of
heart and love. You'd love Him with all your
heart. For what I would do, I do not. I don't do it. What I hate, that
do I. It's that warfare. It's that warfare going on. It's very real. It's very real.
Every child of God identifies with Paul here. We hate sin,
yet we sin. We hate evil thoughts, yet we
have evil thoughts. If, he says here, if then I do
that which I would not, I consent to the law that is good. This
struggle, now listen, this struggle that goes on within a believer. This struggle shows, you know
what it shows? That you are in full agreement with God's law
against yourself. You actually, for the first time,
take sides with God against yourself. See, the natural mind is enmity
against God. You never take sides with God.
But when the gospel comes to you in power and in demonstration
of the Spirit, you take sides with God's law. You say, it's
good, it's right. You shouldn't hate your neighbor.
You shouldn't covet your neighbor's wife. That's wrong. You shouldn't
do that. That's just not just saying an
action, but it's saying right in the heart. That's right. That's
right. God's law, God's commandments
are right. I take sides with it. David did
that over in Psalm 51. Look in Psalm 51. In Psalm 51,
listen to verse 3 and 4. David says, For I acknowledge
my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee,
and thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.
And listen to how he justifies God here. That thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. He's taking sides with God against
himself. That does not happen until God
saves you. That doesn't happen. That doesn't
happen. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent to the law that is good. Now then, it's no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." Let me see if I can work my way
through this one. Paul is not denying responsibility for his
actions. He's not saying that He's not
responsible for what He does, that's wrong. He's not saying
that. He's saying that the old nature
is still present in us, but it does not dominate us, but it
does influence us to sin. And He's telling us there's two
distinct natures in us. Two totally, they have nothing
to do with each other. Nothing to do with each other.
One is spirit, Listen, that new man is born of God. When God
saved you, there was a new birth, there was a new creation, nothing
of flesh entered into it. That which was born in you, that
new man, is spirit. It's more than just spiritual.
That's more than saying that you're spiritual. You have a
spiritual nature. You do, but that nature is spirit. It's not
flesh. So Paul's not saying that, you
know, he's not saying, well, I didn't, that wasn't me. Yes,
it was me. And that's why the Lord chastens
us. But we still, he's saying here
that we still have that old nature. You know, Paul said this in one
place. He's talking about his labors in the ministry. He said,
it's not I, but the grace of God that was with me. I labor
more abundantly than hell, but it's not I, but the grace of
God with me. Paul's not saying that he didn't perform the labor.
He did. He did. But that he performed
the labors under the power and influence of the spirit of God.
So even so, sin cannot act alone. It doesn't act alone. I act. I do it. I do it. When I sin, I do it.
I do it. Sin is the influence that motivates
the act. And that's that old nature acting
up, coming out. That's what that is. And it troubles
you. It troubles you. It burdens you. It makes you mourn. You mourn
over your corruption. You mourn over that because it's
still there. It's still there. But what Paul
is doing here when he says, Now then, it's no more I that do
it, but sin that dwells in me. He's laying the axe to the very
root of the problem. It's that old nature that's still
there. You know, sin and that old nature is not eradicated
when we are saved. It's still there. But listen,
it serves the younger. The elder serves the younger. Even though we don't see that
and we mourn over our sin, yet in the purpose of God and under
the power of God, it's serving that new man. It's serving it. Then Paul says here in verse
18, "'For I know that in me,' that is, in my flesh, dwells
no good thing, for the will is present with me, but how to perform
that which is good, I just find not.'" I know that in me, this is what's
going on in me. That is, in my flesh, he says,
dwells no good thing. He clarifies it. Because in me
there does dwell a good thing. The Holy Spirit dwells in you,
doesn't he? He dwells in you. That new nature
is good. Spirit of God in you is good.
But the flesh is no good. It's no good, and it never will
be. You know, salvation is not renovation. God said, I make
all things new. It's new. Paul says here, I want to do
what is right, but how to do what is right without sin. I
don't know how to do it. I find not. I wish I could pray
without sin and sing without sin, worship without sin, love
you without sin, love God without sin. But he says, I don't. It's
not possible. He said, I can't do it. I find
not. I find not. I can't. For the
good that I would do, for the good that I would, I do not.
But the evil which I would not, that I do. I fail to practice
the good that I desire to do. How many times, how many times
have you and I said, I'm going to pray more. I'm gonna seek
the Lord more, I'm gonna read more, I'm gonna give more, but
I don't do any more. I don't do it. Something comes
up, this happens, you know, it's just one thing or another. Remember
our Lord said to these disciples, the spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. The flesh gets in the way. But the evil that I desire not
to do, that just seems to come so easy. You know, I can remember
ornery jokes that I heard when I was in elementary. Now, why
is that? It's because that old nature,
it's just easy to do. Try to remember Scripture verses. It's harder to do than at least
remember an ornery joke. It is. That's the flesh. That's what
Paul's saying, that which I would not do, I wish I couldn't even
remember them. I do. And I can't, you know, it's just,
that's who we are. Now, if I do that, I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but sin, that nature of sin that
dwells in me. And he's making a distinction
here between two natures. The new nature never sins and
the old nature never quits sinning. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. Paul calls it a law because it
has the force and strength of a law. It's the law of that nature. It's the force of that nature
that every time I would do good, Evil rises up. You know, you
think about doing something for somebody or giving something
to somebody, giving them something. You know, something is laid on
your heart for somebody and you think, I'm gonna help them, I'm
gonna give. Then all of a sudden, you start thinking of, well,
I owe this, I gotta do that. That's the evil nature coming
up, giving us excuses not to do what's laid on the heart.
And you gotta fight that every time. You've got to fight it,
because when I would do good, evil is always present. Our most
sincere prayers have to be prayed over. I mean, there's
evil in everything we try to do, or sin, it's always attached
to it. Verse 22, and I'm going to close. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. Do you not delight in the gospel?
Do you not delight in the whole Word of God from Genesis to Revelation? Do you not delight in God's law?
God's law is good. We don't seek life by it, but
God's law is good. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. I love God's law. That new man
loves God's law. That old man hates God's law. But he says here, I delight in
the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law of
my members warring against the law of my mind. In bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members,
I never get away from it. I never can get it separated.
Let me read this to you out of another, I think it's the Amplified
Bible translation. I discern in my bodily members
in the sensitive appetites and will of the flesh a different
law, a different rule of action, a war against the law of my mind,
my reason, and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells
in my bodily organs." It's a constant warfare. It's
a constant warfare. Is this your experience? If you
have no struggle with this, it's because you're lost. Because
as I said, there has to be two to have a war. And if there's
no war, there's only one person there, and that's the person
you were originally born to. Dead in trespasses and sins.
And Paul says, oh wretched man that I am. And you'll notice
he doesn't say, oh wretched man that I was. No, he acknowledges
that He acknowledges that He still has this sin nature. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who? Thank God there is an answer.
Thank God there is a who. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. He's the one who has delivered
us from this body of death. You and I have been delivered
from it. It doesn't rule over us. Remember Paul said, sin shall
not have dominion over you. Remember Paul said, you are dead
to sin, that is to that power, reigning power of that sin nature.
You are dead to the law. It has no grasp on you no more. We've been delivered. We are
experiencing because God's given us life,
what He saved us from. Now we can see. Now we can see
what God has saved us from. God has saved me from myself. That's who God saved me from.
God has saved... Let me put it this way. God has
saved me from Himself. God has saved me from myself.
He has saved me. God, through Jesus Christ, will
deliver all His children from this body of death. through his
death and resurrection. And one day when they lay us
in a cemetery, that old man's not coming out of it. It's over
with. This body of death is gone. It's
called a body of death. It's like carrying around a dead
body tied to you, strapped to your back. It's like having a
dead corpse strapped to your back, and you're carrying it
around, and it just stinks the things up from time to time.
Really, think about this. I thought about this this morning
when I was reading this part. Why do we have to perfume up
this body? Why? It's decaying. And if you don't wash it and
clean it up and smell it up, it's gonna stink it up because
we are decaying. We're dying. We're dying. And we're thinking
that this body of sin and corruption stinks everything up. And we
have to drag it along. It's like dragging it along all
the way until we get to the grave. And then we dump it in the grave
and it's over. And that real you that's in Christ goes right
to glory. Goes right to glory. And we will
receive at the resurrection a new body. a new body that doesn't
stink things up. Because there's no sin in it.
There's no sin. I thank God, Paul said, through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. The victory's ours.