Alright, if you would open your
Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 7. This morning I want to talk to
you a little bit about this subject entitled, Knowing Our Enemy. Knowing Our Enemy. Now, we've
been talking in the past few weeks and months concerning Christian
warfare. what we normally think of as
the warfare of the world, and of the flesh, and of the devil. And I've really tried to stay
with the scripture concerning those subjects. Whatever that
warfare is, whatever it involves, the nature of the warfare, the
weapons of the warfare, how we attain victory in the warfare,
I know this, it all has to do with something the natural man,
the unregenerate, unbelieving man, does not know and cannot
attain. It can only be attained and known
in Christ by the power of the Spirit of God. It's the only
way. I dealt with the warfare that
the church, not only the church collectively, but Believers individually
have with the world we define the world and of course that
warfare is won because we have victory in Christ the Lord told
his disciples before he Ascended into glory. He said he said in
the world you'll have tribulation trouble opposition persecution
But he says be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. That's
that's our good cheer It's not that we overcome it and win the
victory he has And he did that in his obedience unto death on
the cross. He defeated the world. And he's
doing it now in his providential government. He's in control. He's on the throne. He's working
all things after the counsel of his own will. And I know a
lot of people don't like to think about that, but I love to think
about it. It's my comfort. Christ is in control. He's on
the throne. And now we're talking about the
warfare of the spirit and the flesh. That's the warfare within
each and every one of us. There is a warfare. It's an everyday
warfare while we're on this earth. We won't be rid of this warfare
until we're rid of the flesh. And Paul speaks of that later
on in the passage that Brother Terry read in the next verses.
We'll look at them next week. But look at Romans 7. We're going
to begin at verse 7 on knowing our enemy. If we're going to
fight this warfare properly, we have to know our enemy. It's
necessary that we know our enemy. Because if we fight without knowing
our enemy, we're going to be fighting the wrong thing. And
every time I read this passage, Romans chapter 7, there's a lot
of controversy about Romans 7. People argue and debate. over whether or not Paul was
talking about him, especially from verses 14 on. We won't get
to those today. But from verses 14 on to the
end, was Paul talking about himself as a lost man or as a saved man?
Well, I think it is so obvious in Romans chapter 7, the whole
chapter, that Paul is speaking of his own struggles with sin,
both as a lost person and a saved person. I'll show you what I
mean by that. And what he's teaching us here
is that the enemy is us. Some of you fellas, people who've
been around for a lot of years, you might remember the old comic
strip Pogo. I don't know if you remember
that or not. Pogo, it was a comic strip in the newspaper. And Pogo
was a possum with a political point of view. You say that fast
several times, but that's what he was. The most famous quote
that came out of Pogo is when Pogo, recognizing the political
atmosphere of the day and what people were fighting and trying
to rid themselves of, and he said this, he said, we've met
the enemy and he is us. And I think that's what Paul,
I know that's what Paul is saying in this warfare of the flesh
and the spirit. Paul is saying he's met the enemy
and he is me. We've met the enemy and he is
us. And what he's really showing here, let me get down to the
basics, is this. Now think about it. Most people
in religion spend their time talking about the law and morality. If you'll listen to preachers
on television quite a bit, they don't preach the gospel, they
moralize. Now, we certainly need to be
moral. There's no doubt about that.
There's no argument there. An immoral person needs to change
from immorality to morality. We need to be responsible citizens.
We need all that. But here's the thing about it,
and this is one of the basic issues of Romans 7, and what
Paul is showing here by inspiration of the Spirit, is that the law
Whatever law, whatever form, whether it's the Old Testament,
Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments, or the Law of Conscience, there
was a law before Mount Sinai. You know that, don't you? Paul
proved that in Romans chapter five easily. Adam had a law. The Gentiles, who have never
been under the Old Covenant, we have a law. But what he's
saying here is the law and morality cannot save a sinner. Now that's so. I can moralize
to you this morning, but I'm telling you morality cannot save
you. Should you be moral? Yes. I should
be moral? Yes. But morality will not save
a sinner. The law and morality cannot make
a sinner righteous before God. Cannot do it. You take the most
moral person that ever lived among sinners in this world,
born of Adam. That person cannot, could not
be saved before God or made righteous before God by their best works
and efforts to keep the law. And that's why salvation is by
grace. That's why it's a free gift.
That's why the law cannot justify a sinner. And Paul talks about
that. He talks about before conversion,
before he came to a saving knowledge of Christ, before he came to
a saving knowledge of himself, before he came to a saving knowledge
of God, the law could not save him. The law could not forgive
him. Do you know that? Listen, the law can show us our
sin, but cannot cleanse us from our sin. The law can show us
our need of righteousness and the standard of righteousness,
but cannot give us righteousness. Cannot do it. And Paul shows
that here. And then he says, even after
our conversion, even as a saved sinner, even as a Christian,
in the spirit, walking in the spirit, the law still cannot
save me or make me righteous before God. Do you understand
that? You know, a lot of people have
the idea, they may not state it out theologically or doctrinally
this way, they kind of have the idea that you get saved and with
most people that salvation is based upon a decision they make,
which is totally unscriptural. And then you get busy to work
your way into God's favor or to earn your blessings. And the
motivation for their obedience is, I think I made this statement
last week, the motivation for their obedience is threats of
punishment or loss of reward. And that's the way most, I used
to think that way. That's what it is. Threats of
punishment, loss of reward. And what you have there is not
a willing, loving, bond slave of Christ. You have a mercenary.
It makes you a mercenary. Why do mercenaries serve in the
army that they serve in? For pay. And if they don't get
paid, they don't serve. And that's the way it is. And
I've had people who call themselves Christian, when they hear me preach, they
say, well, what's our motivation for obedience then, if it's not
to get paid? They don't say it that way, but
that's really what they're saying. You know, why should I be any
better than the fellow sitting next to me if I'm not going to
have a better mansion than him in heaven? That's the mentality. Now, you know what I'm saying
is true. That's the mentality. And I told
him, I said, well, what about love? What about serving God
out of love and grace and gratitude? What about serving God Here's
a concept that's foreign to people. What about serving God because
it's the right thing to do? Well, that's just not enough.
That's why Paul had to answer the question over in Romans chapter
six and verse one. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, if
my morality and my law keeping or my efforts to keep the law
do not save me or keep me or earn me something from God, some
points or something, whatever denomination you're in, I guess
it depends what the something is. If my morality or my law
keeping, my church going, my praying, and my baptism, if it
doesn't earn me something from God, then why do it? That's the
natural man talking, you see. That's the natural way of thinking. Whereas when God saves a sinner,
brings him to a knowledge of himself, who I am, what I deserve,
what I have earned, what have I earned? I've earned death.
The wages of sin is death. What I deserve. And then shows
me what he's given me in his son. He that spared not his own
son, that gave Him, gave Him, gave His only begotten Son to
save a wretch like me. You know, people don't like to
hear that language, but they all go around singing Amazing Grace. I had a lady one time say, she
said, you ought not call yourself a wretch. Well, let's just stop
singing Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. That saved
a what? A wretch like me. I guess we ought to sing an amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a mistake like me. Or a not so bad guy like me. I know people don't think about
what they say. But I want to tell you something
now. The Bible is clear on this subject. Think about this. Here's what Paul's showing. Look
at verse 7. He starts out by showing the
depth of sin. The depth of it. How deep does
it run? How deep? Who's to blame for
this? You know, He said that when I
was in the flesh, when I was unregenerate, when I was an unbeliever,
that all I could do is bring forth fruit unto death. Why was
that? Who's to blame? Well, was it
the law? Was God being too strict? Was
He being unfair? Was He expecting too much? Well,
look at verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? Is the law unfair? Is the law
unreasonable? Is the law bad? Is there something
wrong with the law that I can blame for my predicament that
when I was an unregenerate unbeliever all I could do is bring forth
fruit unto death even in my best, my religion? That man at his
best state is altogether vanity? that I couldn't be saved by the
law, I couldn't be made righteous by the law, I couldn't be made
holy by the law. Is there something wrong with
the law? And he says, God forbid. No, the problem's not with the
law. You say, nay, he says. Oh, no,
no, no. The problem's not with the law.
You know where the problem is, don't you? It's right here. You're
looking at the problem. If you go home and look in the
mirror, you're looking at the problem. The problem's not with
the law, the problem's with the sinner. And listen to what he
says. He says, I had not known sin
but by the law. In other words, I really would
know the reality of sin, the depth of sin, if it had not been
for the law of God. And this proves right here that
where there is no law, there's no sin. What is sin? Define sin, what does the Bible
say? The Bible doesn't define sin
as a mistake. The Bible defines sin, 1 John
3, 4, transgression of the law, breaking the law, that's what
sin is. The Bible defines sin as falling
short of the mark, Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, missed the mark. What's the mark? Righteousness, perfect righteousness.
That's the mark. Has anybody ever done that? Not
among sinful men, but one did, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
mark. The Bible defines sin as iniquity,
inequity. That's what that comes from.
Iniquity, it's unequal. In other words, it doesn't equal
righteousness. It's kind of the same thing as
falling short of the mark. But it comes from a term in the
Old Testament that meant weighing the scales equally. It's like
a mercantile, a merchant term. When they would come in, they
were gonna buy something and they'd weigh whatever they're
gonna buy with the money that they had and had to equal out.
And that's where the old merchant, if you wanted to cheat, he kind
of put his thumb on the scale and all that so he could get
more, all that. In other words, had to equal
out, iniquity. You remember in the book of Matthew
chapter 7 and verse 21 where Christ said, Not everyone that
calleth me, that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father. He said,
For many in that day shall say, Lord, haven't we prophesied in
thy name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And then he says, Depart from
me, you that work iniquity. He said, for I never knew you.
In other words, they're casting out demons and they're preaching
in his name and they're doing many wonderful works. It was
iniquity because it didn't equal out. Didn't equal out to what?
Righteousness. It didn't equal out to holiness. So whatever
you plead before God, you see, if it doesn't equal out to righteousness
according to God's law, it's iniquity. No matter how good
it appears to men. And I've often used this example.
I've preached the gospel for almost 30 years now. Not all those gospel sermons
together that I've preached equal out to righteousness. In other
words, when I stand before God at judgment, what am I going
to plead? Well, I preached the gospel for
30 years, Lord. Well, that's iniquity. You say,
well, preacher, that's not sin, not in and of itself, but it
doesn't equal out to righteousness. In other words, my preaching
doesn't make me holy. My preaching doesn't make me righteous. There's
only one who can make me holy and righteous, and that's Christ,
washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness, imputed
to me. I quote this song all the time,
what can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace, this is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. When Satan accuses, we're reading
this in our Sunday school in Revelation 12, when Satan, who
is the accuser of the brethren, when he accuses us before the
Lord, what do we plead to put down his accusations? Well, those
preachers in Matthew 7, they said, well, we preached in your
name. We cast out demons. We did many wonderful works.
Well, what does Revelation 12 in verse 10 and 11 tell us to
plead? The blood of the Lamb. That's the only thing that's
gonna turn him back. Because it's only the blood of the Lamb that equals
out to righteousness. It's not iniquity, it equals
righteousness. You see? So anything that doesn't
equal righteousness in the court of God's justice is iniquity.
No matter how it appears. I mean, you can give a million
dollars to charity, and that's a, listen, that's a good thing
to do. But it will not equal righteousness. And you know the proof of that?
God sent his son. And if anything else could have
equal out to righteousness, anything that we do or don't do or try
to do or promise to do, if anything else could equal out to righteousness,
God would not have had to have sent his son. But he sent him. To do what? For Christ is the
end, the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. That's the reality of sin, folks.
Look over at Romans chapter 6 and verse 19. He says in verse 19, I speak
after the manner of men because of the infirmity, the weakness
of your flesh. And you all know this flesh is
weak, isn't it? For as you have yielded your members, that is
your physical members, your body, servants to uncleanness and to
iniquity unto iniquity. Now you know Paul includes himself
in that. And he says, even so now yield yourselves, yield your
members servants to righteousness and to holiness. What does that
mean? That means submit to Christ, follow him. He says for when
you were the servants of sin, that is when you were unregenerate
slaves in bondage to sin, you were free from righteousness.
What does it mean to be free from righteousness? It means
you had none. What fruit had you then in those
things whereof you are, underscore the word now, now ashamed. He's talking about something
there that before you were brought to Christ and saw Christ, before
the Holy Spirit brought you to see your sin, you weren't ashamed
of it at all. And I thought about this. He
says, those things which you are now ashamed, for the end
of those things is death. You know, We all know immoral
people. We know immoral people. We know
people who are just abject rebels, don't we? You can go down to
the post office and look at their pictures a lot of times. But you know people whose pictures
aren't up there who are immoral, just immoral people. I would dare to say that not
one of them are seeking salvation and acceptance before God by
their immorality. Now, there may be some fool like
that somewhere, but I dare to say that, you know, you go and
find a bank robber, would you think robbing that bank will
save you? Well, no. He just doesn't care. All he's
in it just to get the money himself. You take the drug pusher. You think pushing drugs will
save you or make you righteous before God? Well, no, they don't
think that. The natural man knows better than that. But what about
religion? You say, what about preaching
in his name, casting out demons, doing many wonderful works? What
about joining the church, getting baptized, giving your tithe?
Will that make you righteous? Now what do most people think
in those terms now? Now when you see Christ and His
glory, when the Holy Spirit brings you to see what God requires
for salvation, Righteousness. When God brings you to see your
sin, that's what Paul's saying here. I had not known sin but
by the law. The Holy Spirit opened his eyes,
gave him spiritual eyes to see the reality of his sin and what
he really deserved. Those things which you were so
proud of before, now you're ashamed of them. Now you're ashamed. Look back
at Romans 7 and verse 7. He said, for I had not known
lust. What is lust? Well, that's an unlawful desire.
Except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. What's covetousness? That's an unlawful desire too.
What's he saying here? He's saying that nothing we do
and nothing the Holy Spirit enables us to do equals righteousness
because we're sinners through and through. It reaches the heart. It reaches the heart. This shows
the extent and purpose of the law. Why was the law given? Look over at Romans, look across
the page to Romans 5 and verse 20. Why was the law given? He says,
moreover the law entered that the offense, what is the offense? That's the sin, might abound. In other words, show the abundance
of sin within me. Now he goes on, thank God, to
say, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Now
it doesn't say where sin abounded, morality abounded more. It doesn't
say where sin abounded, church membership abounded more. It
doesn't say where sin abounded, charity abounded. It says grace.
Grace. Where am I going to find grace?
Look at verse 21. That is, sin hath reigned unto
death, all sin deserves death, even so might grace reign through
Righteousness. How? Unto eternal life by Jesus
Christ our Lord. There's your key. There's the
key to righteousness. Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing I do, nothing you do,
that's the purpose of the law, to show me my sin. And in the
hands of the Holy Spirit, Paul says, I wouldn't have known except
the Holy Spirit showed me my sin. Look at verse 8 of Romans
7. Now here he personifies sin,
and this is what trips a lot of people up. This is where you
get the black dog, white dog theory. You know, the jack on
high. He says, but sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought or worked in me all manner of concupiscence. That's just
a big word for lust, unlawful desire. For without the law, sin was
dead. When Paul says sin, he's not saying sin is another person
that's not me. He's just tracing all this to
its source and using this kind of language to help us understand
the problem, know our enemy. He's simply saying, I'm a sinner.
And sin in me, what is sin? It's unlawful desires. Do you
have any unlawful desires? Any desires that aren't perfectly
righteous, pure, holy, in every way? You ever have any of those
desires? You have them all the time, don't
you? And you know what? You can't stop them, can you?
Try it. You can't stop them. What'd the Lord say about all
that? In Matthew 5 and verse 20, he said, well, to be angry
with a person is murder. That's sin. To lust after a person,
that's sin. That's what he said. What was
he showing them there? He's shown you all better straighten
up and get busy trying to get rid of that. No, He's shown them
the extent of sin to show them as He's shown in Matthew 5 and
verse 20 that you must have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees. What they're telling you to do
to be righteous? Get busy, get to work, do this,
do that, don't do this, don't do that. You've got to have one
that exceeds that. How far exceeding does it go? We said in Matthew chapter 6,
I think it's verse 33, it said, Seek ye the Lord and His righteousness. You've got to have the righteousness
of God. Well, how do I get the righteousness of God? Where is
the righteousness of God? It's Christ. Look to Christ,
believe in Him, rest in Him for all righteousness. Sin here is
our own selves in opposition to the glory and revealed will
of God in Christ. It's opposition of faith. It's
the flesh. That's the depths of it. Look
at verse 8 again. He says, for without the law,
sin was dead. What he means by that is this. Until God the Holy Spirit showed
me the reality of the law and what God requires, I didn't think
I was a sinner. Sin was dead. I thought I was
holy and righteous in myself. Thought I was saved. But then
look at verse 9. Now here's the sentence of sin.
He showed us the depth of sin. It reaches the heart. It's not
just what we do and what we don't do. It's not just outward. It
reaches the heart. It reaches to the thoughts, the intents,
the motives, the feelings even. So here's the sentence of it.
He says in verse nine, for I was alive without the law once. In
other words, before I knew the reality. Now Paul was raised
under the law. Saul of Tarsus was raised under
the law. Remember Philippians chapter
three there that Terry read. He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. That was
an honored tribe because they went with Judah instead of going
with the Northern kingdom. They stayed with Judah. I was
of an honored tribe. He said, Saul of Tarsus was raised
under the law. So what does he mean when he
says I was alive without the law once? He was never without
the law in his Jewish religion. But what does he mean? He means
I was alive when I didn't really know what the law said. I thought
I was saved, justified, righteous before God until until the law
came in the hands of the Spirit and showed me reality. It's like
walking in ignorance, walking in darkness. He says, verse 9,
but when the commandment came, when God the Holy Spirit brought
the reality of the law to my mind and my heart, sin revived. That sin that I thought was dead
in me, it came alive. I saw the reality of that. Here's
the enemy, and he's me. And I died. What does he mean?
I deserve death. I was slain by the Spirit. That's
what it means to be slain. People talk about being slain
in the Spirit. And what most of them are talking about is
some preacher standing on a stage calling people up there who are
sick and hitting them in the forehead and then falling to the ground.
That's not slain in the Spirit. That's just a preacher hitting
you in the head and knocking you down. And the only faith they got is
that somebody behind them will catch them. That's not what it
is, folks. Here's what it is to be slain
in the Spirit. It means when the Holy Spirit
shows me my sin, I see that I'm spiritually dead. I deserve death. That's what it means. The commandment
came and I died. And he says in verse 10, that's
the sentence now. What do I deserve? What have
I earned? Think about it now. I deserve
and I have earned death. And that includes today. That
wasn't just back then. If God still gave me what I deserve
and what I've earned, it would be death. Eternal death. Do you understand that? Now that's
what the law does in the hands of the Holy Spirit. I deserve
death. You mean you preach it? Yes,
me. Me. And so he says, look at verse
10, and the commandment which was ordained to life I found
to be unto death. That commandment. When God gave
the law to Adam, he told him, he said, you can eat of any tree
of the garden except one, the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. That's God's standard. That's God's sovereign right
to set the standard of what's good and evil. And he says, for
in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt what? Surely die.
Genesis 2, 17. Now that commandment was ordained
unto life. If Adam had kept that law, he
would have lived. Now, all of this, we know, was
in God's foreordained plan, even for Adam to fall. I know people
don't like to hear that, but that's the way... Satan did not
sneak up on God and take him by surprise, folks. Don't ever think he did. But see, salvation, eternal life,
everlasting righteousness is by the grace of God in Christ,
not by Adam's obedience. We who are saved by the grace
of God, we've got it a whole lot better than Adam had even
before the fall. We've got everything in Christ.
And it can't be changed. We have an everlasting righteousness
of infinite value in Christ. And it cannot change. It cannot
diminish. But Paul says, that law that
was ordained to life, for me, I found it to be unto death,
the wages of sin. That's the sentence. I found
it to be unto death. In other words, for me to seek
salvation, to seek righteousness, to seek holiness by my works
under the law was death. I don't care how new and improved
I become. And here, let me put it in graphic
language, I guess. You take a drunk. Now to be a
drunk is evil and wicked and bad and deserves death. And that's
right. It's destructive, it's destructive
to self, it's destructive to family, it's destructive to society. To be a drunk is evil and wicked
and deserves death. And every drunk ought to reform,
ought to stop, ought to repent and become a teetotaler, abstinent. That's right. Drunkenness is
condemned. But now every drunk who puts
down the bottle and never picks it up again, who thinks that
that makes him righteous, he's gonna find one day, if not too
late, that that's unto death, eternally in spirit, because
that won't save you. Do you understand the perspective
here that Paul is getting to? Yes, if that's your problem,
you ought to quit that. Stop it! Stop it! But it won't
save you. It won't make you righteous.
It won't make you holy in God's sight. There's only one thing
that'll do that, and that's Jesus Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. Look at verse 11. Here's the
deception of sin. He said, For sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Now again,
he's personifying sin, and that's okay. It's just something that
we, he's showing us how we can understand that. It's the sin
in me, it's that deceive me, the flesh. Now how was Paul deceived? We'll go back to that passage
that Brother Terry read in Philippians chapter three. How was he deceived? Sin deceived
me. The law didn't deceive him. God
didn't deceive. The sin did. What was it? His unlawful desires deceived
Him. His unlawful motives. His sinful thoughts and desires
and motives and feelings. They deceived Him, you see. It's
like that kind of person who says, well, if it feels good,
it must be right. It's just like the homosexuals
today. Here's what they'll tell you. They're deceived by that.
They'll say, well, if it's love, it can't be wrong. Oh yes, it
can. Man by nature loves sin. Man
by nature loves self. That's sinful. Isn't that right? Yes, it can. It can be deadly
wrong. So it's kind of like that. But
how was Saul of Tarsus deceived? Well, look at verse 3 of Philippians
3. He says, for we are the circumcision.
What he means there, we're the regenerate. We're the born again.
We're the spiritual Israel, spiritual Jews. circumcised of the heart,
which worship God in the spirit, that is, worship God according
to God's revelation of himself in Christ, and worship God from
the heart, and not just in the head, not ceremony, not outward,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, that word rejoice is the same
word as glory, or have confidence in, boast in, we boast in Christ
Jesus. Christ is my boast. Not the fact
that I've preached for 30 years. That's not my boast. Christ is
my boast. His blood. I'm a sinner. I need
forgiveness. His blood is my boast. I'm a
sinner. I need righteousness before God.
I need to be justified. Christ is my boast. You see that? And he says, So we rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now look, he says,
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. Now this is what deceives Saul of Tarsus. Circumcised the
eighth day, of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, see
he thought those things recommended him unto God. That was his unlawful
desire. That was his unlawful sinful
motives and feelings and thoughts. And Hebrew of Hebrews, he was
a full-blooded Hebrew, he said he was anyway, as touching the
law of Pharisee, he went above and beyond the call of duty and
religion. He was serious concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
In other words, he was so zealous for God, as he saw him back then,
that he would persecute anything that he saw as heresy, touching
the righteousness which is in the law blameless, in other words,
outwardly nobody could accuse him, he was deceived. He says
in verse 7, but what things were gained to me? Now there's the
deception. What things were gained to me? I thought those were gained.
What did he think they would gain? He thought they'd gain
salvation. He thought they'd gain him acceptance
before God. He thought they'd gain him blessings.
He thought they'd gain him righteousness. But what things were gained?
Those I counted lost for Christ. Now he's going to be undeceived.
How did that happen? Well, he's explaining it over
here in Romans 7. The Holy Spirit showed me what I am under the
law, a sinner. I count it loss for Christ. Yea,
doubtless I count all things but loss for excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may
win Christ. See, those things that were gain
now become dung. And dung is just exactly what
you think it is. Those things that were gain,
the deception, now are dung. Undeceived. What did the Holy
Spirit show him that brought him to such a turnaround? That's
repentance. That's what that is. He showed
him Christ. He showed him his sin. And now,
he says that I may win Christ. That I'm, literally, that I may
gain Christ. I don't want those things. I
want Christ. You see. He says, and be found
in him. That's my hope. I want to be
found in him. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law. That's deception. But that which
is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. Now go back to Romans 7. You see, there's the
deception. My friend, our hope is nothing
if it's not Christ. And him crucified and risen again.
His blood and righteousness. And then lastly, here's the deception
of sin removed. That's what he was talking about
in Philippians 3 there. Verse 12, he says, Wherefore
the law is holy, the commandment holy and just and good, nothing
wrong with the law. The problem's me. And he says,
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but
sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which
is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. In other words, all of this,
what he's saying here is this revelation of God by the Spirit
to show me my sinfulness and to drive me to Christ, that was
all good for me. See, I was in the deception of
darkness in death, now I'm alive in Christ. I see that I have
no hope of salvation because I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews or circumcised
the eighth day or of the tribe of Benjamin. or trying to work
under the law. I have a hope of salvation because
of what Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross by the shedding
of His blood and the establishment of righteousness. And so he says
in verse 14, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am
carnal, sold under sin. I'm going to start there next
week because we're going to get into some things here that I
believe will be very helpful to you. Here's what he's saying. before my salvation, before the
Holy Spirit brought me to a saving knowledge of Christ, the law
could not save me, could not make me righteous or make me
holy. What he's going to begin to show
in verse 14 on is now that I'm saved by the grace of God, now
that I'm washed in the blood of Christ, now that I'm clothed
in his righteousness, now that I'm made alive by the Holy Spirit
and walking by faith in Christ, the law still cannot make me
righteous. I'm still just as dependent on
Christ as a sinner saved by grace as I was before and always will
be.