Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to
follow along in your Bibles, I'm preaching from the last part
of the book of Romans, chapter 7. It begins, actually, the messages. This is a series of messages
entitled, The Believers' Inner Warfare. And this one follows
along with the rest of those. And we're gonna talk about today,
beginning basically at verse 16, but just to give you some
background, this is talking about, the Apostle Paul is talking about
the struggle within himself concerning the issues of righteousness and
goodness, as opposed to sin and evil. And it's an inner struggle,
an inner warfare that every true believer is going through while
on this earth. That's the state of things in
this life for a child of God. And I wanna emphasize this, that
sinners are saved by the grace of God. They're not saved by
works and the success of a believer, of success of a sinner saved
by grace, is not in what we would call victories in our inner warfare,
per se, even though we do want victory, but the success is the
fact that Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is, has accomplished
by his obedience unto death, the full salvation of every child
of God from sin. He has accomplished the putting
away of sin. Over in the book of Daniel chapter
nine, Daniel has a prophecy of the Messiah. It's in verse 24. And he talks about how the Messiah
is going to come. and he's going to make an end
of sin and finish the transgression and bring in everlasting righteousness. And that work of the Messiah
as the surety, the substitute and the redeemer of his people
by his obedience unto death on the cross is the victory. And Paul, he emphasizes that
at the end of this chapter when he talks about himself as the
old wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? And he says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. So the victory is in Christ.
You know, the Bible teaches that the believer basically has three
great enemies in this world. Number one, not in any particular
order, but number one is the world. The world is our enemy,
the unbelieving world, the ungodly, the sin-cursed world. When God
saves a sinner by his grace and brings that sinner to Christ,
he calls him out of the world and into the family of God. That
doesn't mean we're walking on air or going to outer space or
something like that. It means we have a new family.
We have a new union, new people, spiritual family. And the world
is against us. Christ told his disciples, he
said, marvel not if the world hates you. It hated me before
it hated you. The disciples not above the master.
But Christ said this when he told his disciples over in John
16, he said, in the world you'll have tribulation, trouble, opposition,
but be of good cheer for I, Christ, have overcome the world. So our
victory over the world, the believer's victory over the world, is Christ. And the merits of his obedience
unto death, it's his righteousness and his blood. And then the second
enemy that every believer has is the devil, Satan, the accuser
of the brethren. And our victory over the devil
is the same, it's Christ. Over in Revelation chapter 12,
it speaks of how the devil accuses day and night the church, the
people of God. And it says, they overcome him
by the blood of the lamb. As long as we're washed in the
blood of Christ and clothed in His righteousness imputed, the
devil's charges against us will not stick. Now the devil can
threaten, he can bother, he can attack, but our victory is won. Christ put the devil down when
Christ died on the cross. He said, now's the prince of
this world, cast out. And that's what happened. So
our victory over the devil, is Christ. Now we're talking about
the flesh. What Paul says here, back up
in verse 14, let's just re-read it. He says, For we know that
the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. The law
of God requires perfection in every way, in thought, in word,
in deed. And the law is spiritual, it
reaches the heart. It not only forbids the act of
sin, it forbids thoughts of sin, imaginations of sin. You remember
Christ taught that in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter
five, beginning in verse 21, when he said, you've heard it
said by them of old, thou shalt not kill. But I tell you, it's
sinful to think, to desire to kill someone, even though you
don't commit the act. And so what he's saying, he said,
the law reaches the heart. And Paul, he dealt with that. Listen to what he says. This
is back up earlier in Romans chapter seven. And he said, he
was talking about how in Christ, believers are delivered from
the law. That means the law cannot condemn us because Christ was
condemned in our place. But he says this in verse seven.
This is Romans seven, verse seven. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? And what he means by that is
the fact that I cannot keep the law and the law always exposes
me as a sinner. Is the law sin? Is the law itself
sinful? And he says in verse seven, God
forbid, no, I had not known sin but by the law. In other words,
the only reason I know the reality of my sin is because of the law. And he says, for I had not known
lust. Now that's, or the word concupiscence,
which we'll find in the next verse. He says, I had not known
lust, that's unlawful desire. except the law had said thou
shalt not covet. Now covetousness is a sin of
the mind and the heart. It's different from thou shalt
not kill. Thou shalt not kill. Killing
is a sin of action, even though Christ said that even the thought
of murder is sin. But covetousness cannot be mistaken
here. Covetousness is wanting what
someone else has to their detriment, and that's a sin of desire, sin
of the heart. And that's what lust is, unlawful
desire, and he says in verse eight, but sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, wrought or worked in me all manner of concupiscence,
all manner of lust, for without the law, sin was dead. Now, when
Paul makes a statement, without the law, sin was dead, He's simply
saying this, when I didn't understand the reality, the spirituality,
the extent, the requirement of perfection of the law, I looked
at sin as being dead in me. I didn't think of myself as a
sinner. And you know, there are people like that today. He says,
for without the law, sin was dead. Verse nine explains it. For I was alive without the law
once, But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. When I did not understand the
reality of the law of God. You know, anybody who seeks to
be saved by their keeping of the law, they don't understand
what the law requires. Paul said that in the book of
Galatians. He said, you who desire to be under the law, do you not
hear the law? The law requires perfection in
every way. Again, thought, word, and deed.
And that's called righteousness in the Bible. The righteousness
of the law. Now the righteousness of the
law, the perfection of the law, can only be found in the glorious
person and finished work of Christ. And that's what it tells us.
So Paul says, I was alive without the law, but when the commandment
came, when God the Holy Spirit revealed the reality, the extent,
the perfection of the law to Paul, sin revived. What I thought was dead came
alive. I found out that I was fooling myself. I'm a sinner
and I died. The law condemned me. The law
pronounced death upon me. And my friend, that's the way
the law does to every sinner who's seeking salvation or any
part of it based upon their works. It pronounces death. And so verse
10, Paul says, in the commandment which was ordained to life, I
found to be unto death. The law was not ordained to pronounce
people dead, but we're sinners. And so that which was ordained
to life we find to be unto death. Verse 11, for sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. I was deceived
by sin before the Holy Spirit showed me the reality of the
law. And so he says in verse 12, he said, wherefore for this
reason the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and
good. So when Paul says here in verse 14, we know that the
law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, so to under sin, he's simply
saying that I'm a sinner saved by grace. The perfection of the
law, the goodness that the law requires, I cannot attain. I have a perfection, I have a
righteousness that equals the demands of the law, But that
perfection, that righteousness is not in me, it's in my Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10, four says, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. In
2 Corinthians 5, 21, it says, God made Christ to be sin for
us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. So even as a sinner saved by
grace, I have no righteousness within myself. Now, I do have
the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, who is righteous, but
He's not me. He resides within us, and we'll
talk about that in just a minute. But there's no perfection of
righteousness in anything I think, say, or do, even though I'm a
sinner saved by grace. My sins cannot be charged to
my account. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice, and that's the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. but I'm carnal in myself. I have sin that contaminates
me and influences me. And so look at verse 16 now,
Romans 7. He says, if then I do that which
I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now what's
Paul talking about? I do that which I don't want
to do. Well, he's talking about sinning. In other words, he already talked
about it. He said, what I want to do, I
hate. Or what I want to do, I don't
do. And it's kind of confusing, but
if you'll listen and follow along, you can see it. Here's what Paul's
saying in a nutshell. He said, I want to be like Christ.
I want to love like Christ. I want to obey like Christ. I
want to be dedicated and sincere like Christ. Nothing less, the
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
I want to be that way, but I'm not that way. And I hate it. I still fall short in everything
that I do. Well, what's the problem, Paul?
Well, it's not the law. Now, the law is not the problem.
He said, I consent unto the law that it is good. Verse 17, he
says, now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. That's the problem. I'm the problem. Now, a lot of people will go
to verses like this and they'll say, look here, Paul says, it's
no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Is Paul
shifting the blame here and saying, I'm not responsible for what
I do and don't do? Is he saying don't blame me when
he says it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me? Is he saying that a lot of people,
they talk about believers having two natures, a perfect nature
and a sinful nature. And I don't believe that's what
Paul's saying here. If you wanna talk about the flesh and the
spirit and call that two natures, that's okay, But so many people
take it too far, and they wanna talk about some kind of perfection
within themselves. And that's just not the case.
When Paul says, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwells
in me, what he's saying here is this. Even though I'm a sinner,
sin does not define me, the reality of me. It's not that there's
a person inside me named sin doing stuff that I don't wanna
do. No, I'm the problem. When I sin, it's me, but my sin
doesn't define me. It doesn't identify me. You see,
Paul and all believers are sinners saved by grace who are washed
in the blood of Christ, who are righteous in Christ, but you
can't see that. All you see is a pitiful, poor
human being, doing things wrong, messing up. Sometimes we do things
right, sometimes we do things wrong. Growing older, this body
of death, the body is dead because of sin, Paul says in Romans 8,
10. But the spirit is life because of righteousness. Who am I? Am
I nothing but sin? And the answer's no. I'm a sinner
saved by grace. And that's who I am. So when
I sin, it's no more I that do it in the sense that that doesn't
identify me. Now how do I know that's what
he's saying? Well, look at verse 18. He says, for I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. for to will is
present with me, to desire to do good, the Holy Spirit resides
within us, and he inspires us to do good, and he gives us that
desire, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that
which is good I find not. I have a desire to be perfect
like Christ. I have a desire to do good according
to God's standard of goodness. But how to do it? I don't even
know how. Because I'm in this vile body
of death, and sin still dwells in me. I have a desire to be
like Christ, but I also have selfish desires. You see what
he's saying? There's a conflict here. There's
a warfare. Over in Galatians, look at Galatians. I dealt with this earlier in
another message. When he talks about in verse
16 of Galatians five, He says, this I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Follow
the Spirit's leading. Walk after the Spirit. Go by
the Spirit's motivation, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God,
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And verse
17 says this, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh. The Holy Spirit, within every
true believer, lusts against the flesh, fights against the
flesh, and enables us to do so in our spirits. And the flesh,
that powerful principle of selfishness and sin, depravity, lusts against
the spirit. And he says, and these are contrary
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. You can't do what you want to
do. Now, in the case of a believer, when it says you cannot do what
you want to do, that works both ways. The flesh, sinful desires,
sinful passions, sinful motives, sinful purposes, those powers
of the flesh within me, drive me to go the full measure
of sinfulness and depravity. But I can't go the full measure
of that. Why? Because the Spirit's there
to fight against it. And the Spirit inspires me to
go the full measure of perfection, but I can't do that because the
flesh is there to hinder my spirit. Now, go back to Romans 7. Now
he says in verse 19, he says, for the good that I would, I
do not. The good that I wanna do, I do
not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. The good that I wanna do, I don't
do. The evil that I don't wanna do,
I do. I never measure up to the perfection
of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. Now what
does that do for me? What it does for me, by the power
of the Spirit, it causes me to look to Christ, to rest in Christ,
to keep my mind and my eyes and my heart focused on Him. Resting
in Him. Not in myself. When I look within,
I see this inner warfare. And he says in verse 20 again,
he says, now if I do that, I would not. If I do what I don't wanna
do, It's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Now again, Paul's not shifting the blame here onto some other
person inside of him. That's not him. But he's saying
simply this. When I do these things I don't
wanna do, that doesn't identify me. Who is the I here? Who is
Paul? You look at any true believer.
any true child of God. Who are they really? Well, they're
sinful people, just like anybody else in the sense of not measuring
up. The Bible says in Romans 3.23,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's
all of us, without exception. All have sinned and come, all
human beings who fell in Adam, ruined by the fall, All human
beings who are born dead spiritually, and then those who are born again
by the Spirit, ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood,
regenerated by the Spirit, we still come short of the glory
of God in ourselves, not in Christ. In Christ, based upon His blood
and His righteousness imputed to me, I have attained the perfection
of the law in Christ, by Christ. But in myself, I've not done
that. So sin doesn't define me. It dwells in me, and I struggle
with it. And let me say this. In verse
21, Paul writes here, he says, I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil's present with me, In other words, when
I wanna do good, I'm always plagued by this inner warfare, the principles
of evil that keep me from going the full swing of perfection.
But he says in verse 22, now he says, for I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. The inward man. Now first of
all, that one verse alone Now, all these verses really prove
the point here. But that one verse alone proves
that Paul is not speaking of himself prior to being a believer. In other words, there's a lot
of people who say, well, Paul's describing himself here when
he was lost, because a believer couldn't go through all this
stuff. No. He says, for I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. Now, what is the inward man?
Well, that's the spirit, the heart of a true child of God. One who's been born again by
the spirit. One who's been given a new heart,
a new mind, a new life. but raised from the dead spiritually. That's the inward man. That's
who I really am in myself that you can't see. You can't see
what's in my heart. That's what he's saying. And
what he's saying is I delight in the law of God, even though
I'm struggling and I have sinful desires, fleshly desires, carnal
desires. I have a new spirit, a new life,
what some people call a new nature, and that's okay, but don't take
it too far. I know people who say that new
nature is like an entity in and of itself that cannot sin and
cannot be contaminated. That's not true. That's a wrong
way to describe it. That's not biblical. Be honest
with you, it's hard to describe, period. That's why Paul's going
through this. But the inward man, who I really am, as I stand
before God in Christ, that's how I delight in the law of God.
I don't delight in a law that keeps beating me down and condemning
me. Nobody could do that and be honest. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. That's the spirit that enables
me and inspires me to find my hope in Christ, my righteousness
in Christ. The law cannot condemn me, you
see. The law pronounces me righteous
as I stand before God in Christ based upon His righteousness
imputed to me. And in that way, I can delight
in the law. The law that shows me that I
still fall short in myself. That same law in the hands of
the Spirit shows me that I'm perfectly righteous in God's
sight in Christ. He is my righteousness. And that's
why Paul said in Philippians chapter three that I may be found
in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
of God in him, the righteousness of faith. And so he says, I delight
in the law after the inward man. But there's still a struggle.
It's a warfare of the flesh and the spirit. Now, natural man,
unregenerate people have struggles, and I'm gonna talk about that
next time. But this is the struggle that only believers have. It's
an inner warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And this struggle
itself brings us to look to and rest in Christ. I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.