Let's turn back to Romans chapter 7. Now, my subject this evening is one that only those whom the
Lord has called or is calling, can experience,
I believe. And perhaps, maybe, it may be only a message that those who
have known the Lord a little while can relate to. I feel like because of a young
believer's tenderness, because of his weakness, We're always
weak, but because of a young believer, he's so tender, so
frail, like a newborn baby, that the Lord doesn't allow him to
go through any real hard things at first, like this right here. But I'm talking about an inward
heart struggle with sin that the believer goes through. I'm
talking about a severe conflict. a battle, a war that rages within
every believer. And it seems like it grows stronger
and fiercer as the years go by, rather than things getting easier,
it seems to get harder and harder. A struggle that makes you cry
out with the Apostle Paul, who's going to deliver me? And why
am I this way? Why do I do what I do? Why do
I think what I think? Listen to this old saint. You've
heard this many, many times, but you can still derive comfort
from this every time you hear it. John Newton, the man that
wrote Amazing Grace, he was a great saint used by God in such a marvelous
way to preach the gospel and the salvation of many souls.
In his early years, Let me tell you a little bit about his background.
In his early years, he was actually a slave trader. He lived in England,
and he was a slave trader, a vile, wretched, blasphemous, cursing
sailor. I mean, backer, chewing rum,
drinking, cursing, swearing sailors that went down to Africa and
got slaves, black people, and sold them into slavery. A vicious,
vile, you know, anybody who worked construction or sailors, they
say the worst curse like a sailor, you know. Well, this was John
Newton. And the Lord saved that man. It's a marvelous story how
the Lord saved that man. John, the Lord actually put him
in slavery for a time. He turned the tables on old John
Newton and shipwrecked him and put him on an island and made
him a slave to some black people. He really did. And the Lord,
and I believe this was the case, that some of those black people
knew the Lord. And he heard a little bit of
gospel here and there. And the Lord saved that old boy.
And you know, all his life, he never did get above, he never
did forget what he once was. And he always referred to himself,
even in his older, later years, he always referred to himself
as the old African blasphemer. Somebody asked about it and he
said, yeah, the old African blasphemer. Yeah, he ain't much. And this
is what he wrote. "'Tis a point," he wrote this
in his later years, after he'd been walking with the Lord many
years. He said, "'Tis a point I long
to know, and oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or
no? Am I his or am I not? And you
can say the same thing, some of you. If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who never knew his name. Could my heart so hard remain,
and prayer a task and a burden prove? And every little trifle
give me pain if I knew the Savior's love. When I turn my eyes within,
that is, look at myself, all is dark and vain and wild. I'm
filled with unbelief and sin. Can I deem myself a child? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it thus with you? Yet, I mourn my stubborn will. I find my sin a grief and a thrall. Should I grieve for what I feel
if I did not love at all? See, this is the work of the
Holy Spirit, making a man see what he is. That's what Paul
was saying there. Could I joy his saints to meet and choose
the way I once abhorred? And find at times this promise
sweet. If I did not love the Lord, no,
couldn't do it. Lord, decide this doubtful case.
Thou who art the people's son, shine upon this work of grace,
if indeed it has begun. And let me love thee more and
more, if I love at all, I pray. And if I have not loved before,
let it begin today." Now, that's an old saint writing that. And
he's talking about our subject tonight. He's talking about this
fight between the two natures, the old man and the new man. The old man, which can do nothing
but sin, and the new man, which John said in 1 John, cannot sin.
Born of God, can't sin. It's confusing, isn't it, really?
But nevertheless, it's true. And I'm not going to argue about
the fact whether or not, some people argue the fact that there
are two natures. That's ignorant. Let the pot
sherd strive with the pot sherd. It's very clear to every believer
and child of God, there's two natures within us, isn't it?
Paul said it in Romans 7. Some people say, well, he wrote
that before he was saved. Well, what about the first six chapters?
Did he write that when he was unsaved? No, Paul said in 1 Timothy 1,
15, this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners of who I am chief
right now. Was he unsaved when he wrote
that? Was he unsaved when he said, I'm less than the least
of all saints? Was he unsaved when he said, I'm not fit to
be called an apostle? No, no. He's just an old, mature
believer knowing what he really is. through years of studying
himself in light of God's Word. But all you have to do is briefly
study the lives of all the saints throughout the Bible, and you'll
see that there is this war between these two natures within every
believer. Listen to Job. Listen to these different saints.
Job said, now you remember what God said about Job, don't you?
That none like old Job, he's a fine fellow, a perfect man,
that is a mature Job was a believer, albeit he was in some self-righteousness.
That's all of it. But Job was a mature believer,
perfect, God said, perfect or mature, an upright man, one that
eschews evil. Job said, I abhor myself. Abhor means utterly detest and
despise and hate. I'm odious to myself. I don't
even like to be around me. He said, I abhor myself. Abraham
said, I'm dust and ashes. What good is dust and ashes?
Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean lips. John the Baptist, Christ
said, there's never been a man better, born a woman, better
than John the Baptist. John the Baptist said, I'm not
worthy to be a sunshine boy. I'm not worried if Ty, he should.
I must be Christ. Peter said, when he saw Christ,
he said, depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. I don't need to be in your presence.
Paul said, O wretched man that I am. He said, I'm the chief
of sinners. Now, if the greatest saints felt this way, how about
you, Violet Bird? Should you feel less or any different? How much more we should expect
this if the greatest of saints who I believe probably walk a
little closer with God than we do? Well, here it is. There are two natures. Look at
the text back here at Romans 7. Paul said in verse 22, ìNow
I delight in the law of God, the word of God, the precepts, everything that comes from God.
I delight in it after the inward man, but I see another law in
my members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. There is the
law of the mind and there is the law of the members. There
is the spirit and the flesh. There's the new man that's created
in Christ Jesus that loves holiness and righteousness, and there's
the old man that loves only sin. Now, let's look at this old man
briefly. Let's look at him first, because
he was first, the old man. Now, all of us are born with
a nature that we derive from our Father Adam, this sin nature. We're conceived in sin, and the
Scripture says we're brought forth from the womb speaking
lies. That's the reason you don't have to teach these darling little
girls, sweet little innocent little rattlesnakes. You don't
have to teach them to lie. It comes natural. Did you break
that? No. Nobody else in the house. It's you and her, you know. Something
gets broke. Did you break it? No, no. It
comes easy, doesn't it? Brought forth from the womb,
speak and lie. This is natural. It's natural. This is that Adamic,
or damnable Adamic, Adam-like nature that has its desires and
its passions and its evil in the flesh. Here's three things.
You remember when Eve, when our mother Eve first fell, she looked,
this is how she fell. She fell by looking, by being
tempted by Satan. with that forbidden fruit. And
here's what she saw. She saw that the tree was good
for food. Now the scripture says, talks
about the lust of the flesh, good for the food. And it says
that she saw that it was pleasant to the eyes. The scripture talks
about the lust of the eyes. And she saw that the tree was
to be desired to make one wise. That's the pride of life, the
scripture says. These are the three things that
are behind all sin and evil. It's in our nature that totally
fills our nature about everything. The lust of the flesh, the passions
within us that want to partake of anything and everything that's
unclean. The lust of the eyes, everything
appeals to this flesh through our eyes. And the pride of life. We are somebody. We want to be
somebody. And it's quite evident It's quite
evident that the natural man has but one propensity, or that
is one nature, and that's to sin. One nature within us. Men have, this is the reason
natural men that are out there and sin, living in this world
in the gutter in hope and wickedness, homosexuality and all that, this
is the reason they have no conscience. Homosexuals have no conscience.
As a matter of fact, they are liberal, or they are militant
with this thing now, aren't they? I mean, they're storming the
countryside saying, you've got no right. And as Christians,
so-called Christians that are homosexual, and this and that
and the other, men are warped, aren't they? They have no conscience.
That is, the law of God is not written upon their heart. No
conscience, the natural man. The natural man receives not
the things of God. Foolishness unto him. That old
Bible, it talks about This thing of homosexuality being a sin,
an evil, an abomination to God, that's foolishness. That's old-fashioned.
A natural man receives it, not the things of God. No conscience,
no morals. If you have no light from He
who is goodness itself, you have no morals, no scruples, no restraints. Anything and everything goes.
If it feels good, do it. That's the saying today, isn't
it? If it feels good, do it. Now, when I was, and some of
you may be, when I was dwelling in open sin, And in the gutter,
I never gave a thought. Really, I never gave a thought
to some of these things. Did you? I never really gave
a thought to what was right. My conscience did not convict
me. My actions went unchecked. Live like the devil, you know.
And that's what I was, a child of the devil. And he said, live
it up, boy. And I, all right. No conscience,
no morals, no restraints. And then, too, Here's another
thing. Now, that's the open person in
open sin and wickedness. Then, too, there are some natural
men, some carnal people, that are controlled by self-righteousness,
religiousness. And that's just as bad. That's
controlled by the flesh, too. Not living in gross sin, but
full of pride and self. I've never drank, never smoked,
never cussed, never chewed. God is pleased with me. like that Pharisee. He could
come right in the face of God Almighty and say, I thank the
God that I'm not like everybody else. Now, that's just as wicked to
God Almighty, isn't it? That's the flesh, too. The pride
of life. You see, lust of the eyes, lust
of the flesh, pride of life. It manifests itself in different
ways, but it's still the flesh, the old man. And the old man
is just as alive in religion as he is in the honky-tonk, in
the honky-tonk. And these all have that one nature,
flesh, old man. Now, this is the heart of our
theology. Stay with me, I believe this
will be a blessing to you. This is the heart of our theology,
and we said it this morning. God is holy. We are altogether
sinful. Christ said, I'm from above.
You're from beneath. God is light. We're in darkness. God is life. We're dead. This
is the heart of our theology. You miss this and you'll go wrong
everywhere. The law is spiritual. God is spiritual. I'm carnal. I'm flesh. Unless the Spirit
of God moves in me, I'm an animal being controlled by my passions.
And you see that. I know people that have never,
well, I know people that are worse than brute beasts. I was
one, worse than a brute, controlled by my instincts and my passion,
just like an animal. But God is spirit, and I'm carnal. And this is the heart of our
theology, too. Christ is all. I'm nothing. I'm nothing. Now listen, you
cannot improve on the old man. You can't do it. You cannot improve
on the old man. He's dead. You can't improve
a dead man. People try, don't they, when
people die? When they die, they spend a lot
of money and a lot of time trying to make the body not look dead. But it's dead. And I don't care
what you do to it. It's dead. It's dead. You give it long enough, I don't
care how much formaldehyde you fill it full of. Is that it?
It's going to stink eventually. It's dead. And the natural man
is dead to God. Dead. Ears, eyes, insensible
to God Almighty. Loves sin, hates righteousness,
hates light. Why do people, why does evil
take place at night time? Why is it that people like the
darkness, the night time? You think you're hidden, you
know. Get in the privacy of your home at night time. Just turn
loose, you know. They hate light and they hate
God. The Scripture says the carnal mind, that is, the natural mind,
the natural mind is enmity with God. The enemy hates light. Don't turn the light on. It cannot,
the carnal mind, we saw there, well, in Romans 8, verse 6, or
verse 7, it says the carnal mind is enmity against God. That is,
it cannot ever be made friendly to God. The natural mind can't
do it. And while the old man is dead to God, the old man,
the carnal mind, must still be put to death daily, must die
daily. And we've got to destroy him
because he seems to be very much alive in us. Now stay with me
here. I hope I'm not losing you here.
Now God told Adam, he said, in the day you eat thereof, you're
going to die. Now Adam did not die that day,
did he? At least not physically. He lived
another 970 years, I believe it was. He did not die physically. That
old Adam, you know that hate Adam? He was alive, very much
alive for 900 and some odd years. But he died spiritually, didn't
he? Now Adam, there was a time when
Adam the man when he was in perfection, when he was in holiness, when
he hadn't sinned against God yet, when he was able to live
with God, and that's eternal life. Eternal life's not necessarily
the duration of it, the quantity of it, it's the quality of it.
Eternal life is the life of God. Eternal life is having the Spirit
of God in you. God, you know, when God breathed
in Adam and he became a living soul, that's the life of God.
When the Holy Spirit of God, the life of God is being with
God. You see, God is life. To be separated from God is death,
right? Well, when Adam sinned, he lost
the life of God. He lost eternal life. He'd have
lived forever, John, if he hadn't sinned. He'd have lived forever.
But he didn't, so he died spiritually, cut off. from the presence of
God. God is life. It just makes sense, doesn't
it? God is life. You be separated from God, you're
dead, right? You're as good as dead. You don't
exist. You're dead. And so when Adam
was holy before he had sinned, he had this spiritual life. But
when Adam sinned, Adam the man, the spiritual man, died. God's
too holy to even look upon him, except through a sacrifice. He
died unto God. Judicially, to God Almighty,
he was immediate. Actually, here in the flesh,
he was very slow. It took a long time. Now, that's
the old man, dead to God, just dead to God. God doesn't acknowledge
the old man, he's dead. He's as good as gone. He's condemned
already, dead. Now, let's look at the new man.
Look over at Galatians chapter 2. The old man is insensible
to the things of God, does not like to retain God and his knowledge
by nature, reprobate or void of all judgment and understanding. The natural man is dead spiritually. And it can be said of us that
we are dead while we live. But if God is pleased, if God
is pleased, he can give life to a dead man like old Lazarus.
He can put the Spirit back in a man. And this is called the
new birth, the new birth. Look at Galatians chapter 2,
verse 20. And this is where it takes place
on the cross when we die, like that corn of wheat falling into
the ground and dying brings forth fruit unto life. This is where
this happened. This is actually where the new
birth happened. Verse 20, I am crucified, killed
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet it's
not I, but it's Christ that liveth in me. In the life that I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me." Now listen, see if I can
make good on this. The new birth is when God implants
this seed right here, this incorruptible seed in the of every one of his
children. He plants this word in the heart
of a man and generates belief. He waters it with the effectual
prayers of that righteous man, with the intercessory prayers
of our Lord himself, waters it with the blood of Christ, generates
belief or faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is faith. Faith
sees Christ upon the cross as its only hope. and believes in
him, trusts in him, loves him, and when Christ died, when Christ
died upon that cross, he takes the old man with him. He takes
the old man with him, and when Christ rose from the grave, we
rise with him to walk in newness of life. A new man came out of
that tomb with Christ. He had never been born yet, but
eventually that new man, that new person is put in, yes, a
new life created in Christ Jesus. It's no longer Paul Mahan that's
living, really. Oh, you see, you see me. I look very much alive, don't
I? Well, I may look like them. You do too. You look like you're
on your last leg. But we are. This physical body
is dying. Old man Terry's dead. In God's
eyes, Paul Mahan does not exist. He's dead. Dead. But there's
a new man. I'm living. I'm very much alive.
Alive to the things of God. Alive to the Word of God. Alive
to the Spirit of God. Who is that? What is that? That's
the new man created in Christ Jesus. The new man. It's Christ
in me that truly lives, that does or thinks anything that's
worthy of being called life for God in us. He is life. I hope
I'm not confusing you here. But it's Christ in me that loves
God, that loves righteousness. That old Paul Mahan, he doesn't
love God. He doesn't love righteousness.
He hates it. But the new man in me, the new
creature created in Christ Jesus, hates sin and loves righteousness
and is obedient to God. Christ in you is your only hope
of glory. This new man is created in righteousness. Paul Mahan is still a sinner,
but Christ living in me is a saint. Accepted, holy, unblamed, wonderful. You say, Terry, I can never be
that way, can I? Never. But Christ in me. It's like a root out of dry ground,
though, like Christ himself. When he was planted upon this
earth, he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God
and man. And that's the new man planted
by faith in every believer. Planted, it's like a root out
of dry ground. What is it? Oh, hearts of dry
ground in it. Dry. But God plants this incorruptible
seed and all of a sudden up pops a shoot. Now the old man is just
reigning and ruling and tries to mash, tries to step on that
new plant, but it just keeps growing as the years go by. And
the old man gets weaker and frailer. He's still around, but he's dying. He's dying. And the new man is
growing, being conformed to the image of Christ. And the old
man is dying. die to a family when this whole thing is over
with. That new man bursts forth out of this life in holiness,
in the very image of Christ himself. And I am gone forever, thank
God. I'm gone, dead, done away with. Get rid of that old corpse even.
Kill it. Put it away. Dust and ashes.
And we are made like crap. But until then, we live with
this body. Paul called it a body of death
there in Romans 7, 24. He said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body, the body of this death,
or this body of death? Now listen, there was an ancient,
I read this somewhere, there was an ancient method of torture
for people who were convicted of murder. I read it, I really
did, I'm not making this up. This really is a good illustration. Some ancient pagan countries,
when a man was convicted of murder before they killed him, they
strapped the body of the man he killed on his back and made
him carry that corpse around several days. I mean, it started
stinking. He killed that man. He was guilty. And he had to carry that load
of guilt, that burden, and that old man, that dead man around
with him, reminding him of what he had done. And that's us. That's
us. We're encompassed, the Scripture
says, encompassed with infirmity, liable to sin, full of sin, beset
with temptation. And this old man is a dead corpse
we carry around with us. And he speaks to us, doesn't
he? And he waves it down. Oh, I'd like to get him off,
wouldn't you? That's the reason, Henry, we
long to be rid of this old thing, long to get rid of this old thing. And we feel this old man, we
smell him everywhere we go. Everywhere this man, this murderer
went, that body was with him. So get rid of him. And that's
us. Everywhere we go, this old man's
with us. Everything we do, we're reminded. of what we are. Everything
we do, he's in on it. He's in on it. He prevents us
or that he restrains us from doing what we want. That's what
Paul says. That what I would do, I do not. He restrains us
from doing good. Keeps us from it. And that what
we want to do, we can't. What we would not do, that's
what we do. He constrains us to do that which is evil. Even
good things. We read that in Newton's poem.
It said, prayer, a task and a burden prove. How is it with you? I don't know how it is with you,
but with me, when I try to pray, why, my soul, I can think about
the most horrible thoughts. I mean, the most wicked and evil
and horrible thoughts come through my mind, and I think, what in
the world is wrong with me? Approaching this holy God in
prayer by my head, father, and something just perverted and
evil and wicked, something comes in your mind, and you think,
what is wrong with me? And all I'm made to cry out is,
God help me. Like that old publican, God be
merciful unto me. Be merciful. When I read, when
I try to read the scriptures, if you want to really get a good,
nice rest, take your Bible to bed with you. And you can take
a magazine, you'll stay up all night, engrossed in it, sitting
before the TV, you'll be totally enwrapped in it. And you want
to get a good night, anybody got insomnia, just start reading
the Bible. It'll happen, won't it? Go ahead
and do all the things of God. Reading, or your thoughts wander. Worship. That's really where
you can get some rest. Just come in here. Let's take
these beacons. Take these pads off these pews
and start tomorrow. You come in here, and I'm laughing
now. I usually don't laugh about this.
Oh boy. But it's so, it's a constant
struggle to pay attention in the worship. I know. I've sat
there more than I have stood up here. Constant struggle just
to pay attention to the Word of Life. It's unbelievable, isn't
it? I mean the Word of Life. Oh, it's awful. It's this old
man. This old man. And this old man is in league
with Satan. And Satan tries to keep him alive
best he can by appealing to these things, by inserting these things.
Do you know... And like I said, the new man
cries out, how can I do this awful thing? How can I think
this thing? You know, if the new man wasn't
in you, you wouldn't even think about it. Like I said before,
when I was in sin, I didn't think about it. It didn't bother me.
You know what I mean? The most horrible, evil things
can come, and I do them. Who cares? So be it. You know
the old saying about good old boys, good old country, rednecks
or whatever, he doesn't give up. That's just, that's, people
are proud of that. He don't give a flip for nothing. Good old boy. That's the nature
of it. That's our nature of it. Don't
give a who knows what. And this, do you, do you know
what it is to have a violent tendency toward thoughts and things that
come in your mind? The thought of which is detestable
to you and the flesh is... Do it. Do it. Do you? And you fight it and
you struggle against it. And it seems like the harder
you fight, the stronger it becomes. Do you know anything about that? Have you ever had that? Listen
to this. Have you ever had cursings and blasphemies? I hate to hesitate
to repeat this, but John Bunyan hadn't said it in his Pilgrim's
Progress. Have you ever had actually cursings
and blasphemy against God Almighty come into your mind? I mean, you just think, God's
going to kill me right now. John Bunyan said this in that
Pilgrim's Progress. He said the old man or the devil
would come up behind him and whisper things in his ears. Whisper
blasphemy and cursings and so forth. And Bunyan said he thought
he was the one that said it. But it was the devil standing
over his shoulder, and he thought it was him that did it. But look
at verse 23 again. He says, I see another law in
my members, warring, at war against the law of my mind, bringing
me into captivity, the law of sin that's in my members. I've used this illustration before.
It's like two men living in a three-story house. One man on the third floor
and one on the first floor. And every now and then they meet
on the middle floor and have a fight and battle it out. And eventually they go back to
their respective places. That's the believer. But we are,
sometimes we feel like we're in bondage to evil thoughts and
desires and temptations of flesh, and they constantly beset us,
and you feel like you're never going to get rid of them. Never. And chained to them. And then,
and then there are times of reprieve. There are times when you think
maybe I finally got a victory over this. I remember calling
one of my preacher brethren several years ago. I found the answer. I've got it. I haven't had any. I think I finally got this thing
lit. And I remember him just kind of laughing. Well, he said,
I hope so. But I think it's the next day. The next day it just overwhelmed
me. You know, every now and then
the old man just goes to sleep. Just goes to sleep. But it's
like a stick of dynamite. It fuses. It just needs a spark. Just a spark. Any little temptation,
lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of the life. It's
like a match. It blows up again. Just a spark. Like a sleeping snake. The snakes
are okay. They're alright. If they're asleep. You raise one up. I mean, if
you rouse one up, disturb it, and you'll see what it's made
of. So the fight goes on and on until you feel like you can't
take it anymore. And even to a believer, sometimes
I say this carefully, sometimes suicide is not even totally out
of question. And somebody says, I hear men
talk about, well, you got a long way to go or so forth. And I
think to myself, I don't know. Rick, I don't know if I can live
with me another 30 years. I'm 34. I've got, naturally speaking,
another 36 years. I don't hope I can make it with
me. It's like living, the proverb
says, better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than to
dwell with a contentious woman. Well, that's me, a contentious
person. And sometimes you feel like,
boy, I just wish I was dead. God would kill me and put me
out of my misery. But God's the author of life
and the finisher of life, and you don't take your own life.
But there are times when this old man keeps hounding you and
keeps bothering you, and the more you fight it, the stronger
it seems to get, and you wrestle with it until it finally seems
to have the best of you, and you cry out with the Apostle
Paul here in verse 24, Oh, wretched man! Who's going to get me? Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Well, here's the answer. I've
taken too long to get to it. Verse 25. He came up with the
answer quicker than he came out with a question. I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how. That's how. I thank God. Thanks be unto God
for His unspeakable gift. for sending his Son. Thanks be
unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Thanks be unto God which always
causes us to triumph in Christ. And folks, we've got to look to Christ right
now in the face of our evil, in the face of our evil selves
and in fighting. And you know what it is to mortify
our members? Paul said to mortify your members. That's to kill them in Christ.
That's to crucify them on the cross. That's to see them dead
in Christ. That's to look to Christ. And
by grace, Sid, I know this old man is rearing his ugly head,
but he's dead. How do you resist the devil?
With the blood. You see, he has nothing in Christ.
He can find nothing in Christ. He can find a whole lot in you,
can't he? If you try to fight him yourself, That would be like me wrestling
Arnold Schwarzenegger. He can find something in you.
Satan can. You try to get him on his own
turf, oh, you're not even any match. Christ said to Peter,
Peter, Satan has desired you. He wants to sift you like wheat,
and boy, he could. Even Michael the archangel wouldn't
fool with him. Too much for me. The archangel. of darkness and high places,
I can't handle him? Who can? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. When one stronger than he can
bind me, and the Scripture says he is, he's bound in chains of
everlasting darkness, waiting until the day of judgment. He's
on a leash at Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress. When he was making
his way toward that celestial city, he said, they came upon
a place and there were two lions in the road, he and Faithful,
Pilgrim and Faithful. were on the road to Celestial
City, and there were two lions up ahead, just roaring and screaming,
one on one side and one on the other. Oh, they were scared to
death, scared to death, and they didn't want to go, and they wanted
to turn back and go the other way. But one of them said, no, wait,
look, they're on chains. They're on leashes. And he's
God's devil, he's Christ's devil, but how you resist this line,
this roaring line that desires to sift you like wheat. And Christ
said, but I've prayed for you. And we have a high priest who
prays for us. And how we resist him is not
in the power of the flesh, not in the strength of the flesh,
but in Christ. We don't say, get away from me,
devil. Oh, no. He just, and we'll melt. What do we say? Lord, help me. He's the only time I want to
heal. And we say to Him, Satan, you
have nothing in me. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
came down here to die for my sins, and He put them away, and
they're no longer. I'm dead. You're just fighting
a dead man. You can't find anything. I'm
holy. I'm sinless. In Christ, I'm a son of God. You can't touch me. in Christ. You can't, can you? Can you? You keep looking to Him. But
we've got to look to Christ the same way when we came to Him
with our evil, wicked selves, guilty before God Almighty, asking
for forgiveness, looking to Him, looking unto Jesus to save us
from our sin. We've got to go to Him now the
same way. The same way. The same way. Just right now,
as we did at first. You know, there's still no hope
within us. Still no hope within us. Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. Look here at Romans
8, and I'll quit. Romans 8, chapter 1. Now, Paul,
he just said, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then,
with the mind, I serve the law of God." Now, the mind is this
new mentality, new spirit, new person, new creature in Christ
that thinks on God, that thinks on His Word. There is this mind
or this affection that thinks on things above. I serve the
law of God. Well, this flesh, this old man,
this old man still very much serves the flesh, doesn't he? Very much serves the law of sin,
very much. And you are a liar if you say
you don't. You're flat out a liar. But he says, the good news is,
chapter 8, verse 1, there's no condemnation for them that are
hidden in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit, that is, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption is all in Jesus Christ, in Christ. Those that are in
Christ are represented by him. We keep our eyes on him, everything's
all right. Take our eyes off Him for a minute.
Like John Newton said, if I look within, all is vain and dark
and wild, if I look up, I see a smiling face. I see my sins
put away on that cross. And if you're in Christ Jesus,
you're safe. Come hell or high water, no matter
what. If you're in Christ, the old
man, the devil, or anybody else may say, anybody else, You can
say this with the Apostle Paul, there's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. It's Christ that died, yet rather
it is risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for me. And Satan and self, and I don't
know which is worse. I don't know who's the worst
beast, Satan or me. They're one and the same. That
old man is a child of the devil and he resembles him. He's just
like him. And somebody said there's a holy
trinity, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and
then there's an unholy trinity, Satan, sin, and self, the spirit
of sin and this old self, the son of Satan, our Father. But someday, and this is the
good news, this is the comfort, that Christ, that God doesn't
see you in that old man, even though you still sin right now.
He doesn't see you. He doesn't see you in that old
man. He doesn't consider you in that old man. He considers
you in Christ. And that's the good news. And
someday, this old man, we're going to shed this old body.
We're going to shed it. And that old man, that old sin
nature, and someday we're going to dwell in the righteous. That's
hard. You can't even comprehend it,
can you? Henry, someday, We're going to think holy thoughts
as easily as sinful thoughts come to us right now. I mean,
never a thought of sin. Never a thought. And that's the
desire right now. That's the desire of every true
believer is to be, not to escape hell, but to have their sin put
away. Delivered from their sin and from their evil self. But
I thanks be unto God. I thank God. through Jesus Christ
our Lord. He delivered me from this old
man. He killed him on the cross, and
now I live. But the life I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God. Our Father, we take great comfort
and encouragement. Our hope, our peace, our joy
is in seeing our sins put away. Christ our scapegoat, Christ
our sin offering, we thank You for Him. And we need so desperately
to see Him more clearly all the time. And we need it so desperately
for you to cause this new man to grow in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to mortify our members in us,
to restrain us from evil, and to constrain us to good, to keep
us from all manner of wickedness that we're so prone to. And Lord,
we ask you that you continue the work that you've begun. Lord,
don't let it remain stagnant or don't let it remain the same. Enable us to grow. And we know
that we do grow by the sincere milk of the Word. So we ask You
that You cause us to desire that sincere milk of the Word that
we may grow thereby, and thus having some peace and some comfort.
in this life some joy, some real joy in walking with our God. We thank you for the gospel.
Thank you for Christ. Mold us and make us and conform
us according to your predestinating purpose to the image of Christ. In his name we pray. It's my
prayer for every one of these people and myself. In the name
of Christ, Amen. So we're going to go ahead and
get started. So we're going to go ahead and
get started So I'm going to go ahead and
click on that. And I'm going to click on that. And I'm going to click on that. And I'm going to click
on that. I don't think there's much that
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this out. So I'm going to go ahead and
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click on it and I'm going to go ahead and click on it and
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to do this. So I'm going to show you how
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turn it off.