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
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for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow in your
Bibles, follow along with the message. I'm going to be preaching
mainly from Romans chapter 7. And my text will begin at verse
14. But I'm going to go back and
introduce this message concerning the Believer's Inner Warfare. That's the title of the message.
The Believer's Inner Warfare. And it'll probably take me several
messages to go through this passage, beginning at Romans 7, because
this is where the apostle Paul is led by the Holy Spirit to
describe his own personal warfare against sin. This is a believer,
a child of God, a sinner saved by grace, one who has been justified
before God by the righteousness of Christ, by the grace of God,
the blood of Christ, one who is legally righteous. Even we can say it this way,
legally perfect in God's sight, not within himself, but in the
person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as his
surety, substitute and redeemer. And this is the way we got to
learn to think biblically here. And there is a legal declaration
of righteousness, and that's the justification of a sinner
before God in God's court of justice. And I'll talk about
that in a minute. So here's the Apostle Paul, a believer, a regenerate
person, one who has been born again by the Spirit, who has
the Spirit of life within himself, spiritual life, who's been brought
from spiritual death to spiritual life, struggling with sin. He's in a warfare with sin. And in fact, he states it this
way in verse 14. Now let me read this verse, and then I'm gonna
go back and give you some background, and then we'll launch out through
the other verses. And like I said, I don't know
how long it'll take me to do that, maybe a few messages, but
Paul says this in Romans 7 and verse 14. He says, for we know. Now the we there is believers.
Understand that now. He's not talking that the world
in general, unbelieving world, does not know this, but we do.
We who are saved, we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
rest in Him for all righteousness, for we know that the law is spiritual. Now what does that mean? That
means the law reaches the heart. The law not only forbids us to
do acts of sin, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, but it also reaches
to the thoughts of sin. It forbids the thoughts of sin.
Now, Paul just explained that up in the verses prior to this.
He talked about the law of of God that forbids concupiscence. He says that in verse eight,
the word concupiscence, you can look at that. We don't use that
word much, if at all these days, but it's lust. And you remember
Christ said this in Matthew chapter five, in the Sermon on the Mount. He'd spoken about how he was
sent into the world to keep the law. not to break the law, not
to destroy the law, but to keep it, to fulfill it. Every John
and Tito he said. And then he told his hearers,
he said in Matthew 5 and verse 20, he said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise or in no case or in no situation enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And he's saying, you've got to
have a righteousness that far exceeds the righteousness that
any man or woman can attain by their works. And how righteous
do we have to be? Well, look at the issue of sin.
And that's when he, in Matthew 5, 21, he starts talking about
the spirit of the law. He says, you've heard it said
by them of old, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit murder.
But he said, I say unto you that to be angry, to have the thought
of murder, to be so angry with a person that you wish them dead.
That's basically what he's saying. That's murder too. In other words,
that shows me even the thought, even though I have never committed
the act of murder, the fact that if I've ever been angry with
anyone to the point of wishing them dead, then I'm a murderer. You say, well, that's not sin.
Yes, it is. What that tells me is that I'm a sinner, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I can look
at people who have committed the act of murder and I can say
without fail, they're sinners and they deserve death. But here's
the point Christ is making to me and to all of us, I'm a sinner
and I deserve death too. He goes on to talk about adultery.
He said, you've heard it said by them of old, thou shalt not
commit adultery. But he said, but I say unto you
that it's sin to lust after a woman or a woman after a man, or either
way. Even the thought of adultery
makes us guilty of adultery. And that's what Paul's saying
here in verse 14 of Romans 7, for we know that the law is spiritual. Law is spiritual. And he says,
but I am carnal. Now the word carnal, you've heard
of carnal, carnal knowledge, carnal living, carnality. Over in verse chapter eight,
it talks about the carnal mind. The word carnal means fleshly. That's what the word means. And
the flesh here, and this is very important. The flesh here does
not just simply refer to these human bodies. This is flesh.
Christ, for example, had a fleshly human body, but it was not sinful. He had no sin. He was born of
the seed of David according to the flesh, Paul wrote in Romans
1, but he had no sin. But now our fleshly body, we
are sinners, is a sinful body because we use these fleshly
parts for sin, our eyes, our ears, our hands, our feet. We're
motivated by nature in spiritual death, before we're born again,
to sin. Use these hands to sin. Use these
eyes and all of that. And so Paul says, for we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. I'm still in the
flesh. I still have to deal with sin,
Paul says. I'm sold under sin. sold under
sin. That's like saying I'm a slave
to sin. I cannot rise above it, Paul
says. Well, now is Paul saying that
he cannot do acts of charity and morality and try to be a
good person in the sight of God, or in the sight of men, rather?
Well, no, he's not saying that. Believers are sinners saved by
grace, We can do acts of charity, acts of morality, acts of sincerity,
acts of love in the sight of men. But what Paul was saying
when he says, I'm carnal soul under sin, he's saying, I cannot,
and now listen to this very carefully. He says, I cannot attain to the
perfection of righteousness and holiness that can only be found
by the grace of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I cannot be as righteous and as good as Christ is in this
body of flesh. He's going to talk about that.
Even at my best efforts, I still fall short of the perfection
of the law. that can only be found in one
person and one person alone, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, what does that tell us? Well, that tells us that I cannot
be saved, I cannot be righteous, I cannot be holy in God's sight
based upon my best efforts to do good. My best efforts to keep
the law. My best efforts to be sincere
and dedicated and charitable and generous and all of these
things. Should we try to be the best in all of those areas? Yes,
but our best falls short. Even as believers, even as sinners
saved by grace, our best still falls short. And that tells us
this, as Paul wrote it in Philippians chapter three so eloquently as
he was motivated by the Spirit, oh, that I may know Christ and
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith or the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness of God, which is by faith. We
look to Christ, we rest in Christ for all righteousness. Now, to
give you some background on this, Paul says, I'm sold under sin,
I'm a slave to sin. Yet Paul had already stated that
he was a free man. Free man. Now, in what sense
was he free? if he's sold under sin, and look
at verse 15. Let's just go right on through
here just to show you what I'm talking about. In Romans 7 and
verse 15, Paul says, for that which I do, I allow not. In other words, what I do, I
don't approve of. He says, for what I would that
do I not. What I want to do, I don't do,
but what I hate, that do I. Paul says, I can't do what I
want to do, and what I don't want to do, I do. Well, is this
confusing? Well, it shouldn't be, because
you got to understand what Paul's talking about here. He's talking
about attaining the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in Christ. I want to be like Christ. That's
what Paul's saying. I want to love like Christ loved,
perfect love. I wanna obey like Christ obeyed. Perfect obedience. I wanna be
as sincere and dedicated to the glory of my Heavenly Father as
Christ was to His Heavenly Father. I wanna be like Him. I want my
love to equal His love, my obedience to equal His obedience. But I
can't do it, Paul says. I can't. I'm unable because I'm
trapped. in a fleshly body which is sinful,
a human nature that is sinful. Well, now, if that's the case,
how can he say he's free? Well, he is free, as every true
believer is. You know, Christ in John chapter
eight, he looked at a group of people who claimed to believe
in him. And he said this, he said, now, He says, if you believe in me,
if you continue in my truth, you're my disciples indeed, and
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,
liberate you. Well, how can Paul be sold under
sin and still free at the same time? Well, let me explain it
to you. Now, this is what Romans 6 and Romans 7 teach us. This
is biblical thinking now. When it comes to freedom, the
freedom that one is blessed with in salvation, there are two aspects
to this freedom. The first aspect of it is the
ground of salvation. It's the legal freedom, which
is called justification before God. To be justified means that
I'm forgiven of all my sins. To be justified does not mean
that I stop being a sinner. I'm still a sinner. We sing that
hymn, only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story, to God
be the glory. As the most, you might say the
most mature, the most dedicated saint of God, While on this earth
he's no more, she's no more than a sinner saved by grace. In continual need of the forgiveness
of sins by the blood of Christ, Christ is our mediator who preserves
us under glory. And none of salvation is conditioned
on us. You understand that, it's all
conditioned on Christ. It's all based upon His righteousness
that has been imputed, legally charged. And that's what justification
is. Justification is to be forgiven
of all my sins on a just ground, and the only just ground is the
blood of Christ. Justification also means to be
counted righteous in God's sight, not based upon my works, and
not based upon what I am within myself, but based upon what Christ
accomplished on the cross in dying for my sins as my surety,
substitute, and redeemer. He paid my debt. He brought forth
an everlasting righteousness of infinite value that God has
imputed to me, charged to me. My sins were charged to Christ,
imputed to Him. He was made sin, the scripture
says. His righteousness is imputed,
charged to me. And that's a legal issue of justification
before God. That has to do with a believer's
standing before God. Now Paul said that over in Romans
chapter six, look at verse seven, Romans six. He said, for he that
is dead, now he'd already explained it, to be dead there means to
be dead with Christ. It means that Christ died for
me. You see, if Christ died for me, this is the situation. People
today go around saying, well, Christ died for everybody without
exception. That is not what the Bible teaches. He that is dead is freed from
sin, and that word free in the original Greek is the word for
justified. That's a legal freedom. That
means that God does not charge them with their sins. And who
are these people that God doesn't charge with sin? Well, Romans
chapter 8 tells us over in Romans 8 and verse 33, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect. That's who it is. It is
God that justifies. You see that? That's the legal
freedom that he's talking about in Romans 6 because he's talking
about those who have been planted together in the likeness of Christ's
death. What that means is that Christ
died for them as their substitute, as their surety, as their redeemer.
And so they died with him as a representative. He was their
representative. He was their substitute. Christ
said he died for his sheep. That's another term that describes
the ones for whom Christ died. They're his elect. God chose
them before the foundation of the world and gave them to Christ.
Read your Bible. Look for passages like Ephesians
chapter one, for example, Romans chapter nine, they're there.
They're the election of grace. God chose them and gave them
to his son, made Christ their surety. and sent Christ into
the world to be their substitute to die for their sins. That's
why he had to be God manifest in the flesh. God in human flesh
without sin. And he substituted himself unto
death and redeemed them from their sins and set them free
legally by dying for their sins. He paid the sin debt in full. That's what he did. The debt
was death. and his death is their death.
So they died with him, they were buried with him, they arose again
with him as their representative. That's what baptism pictures
say. Believers' baptism in water is
a confession that when Christ died, I died. When he was buried,
I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again.
So it says in verse 7 of Romans 6, for he that is dead, dead
with Christ, buried with Christ, risen with Christ, is justified
from sin. He has no charges against him.
Over there in Romans 8 in verse 33 that we read when it says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifies. How did God do it? Look at verse
34. He says, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. So it's Christ, you see. Christ is the ground of our justification. His righteousness imputed is
the ground of my justification before God. That's his blood
shed. Romans 5 says we're justified
by his blood, his death. So that's the first aspect of
this freedom that Paul speaks of. If Christ died for you, you're
legally dead, justified from all sin. Now, that's the standing
of God's elect before God from the foundation of the world.
But here's another thing we need to see. Even though God's elect
have been justified in Christ from the very beginning, They
fell, we fell in Adam into sin and death and were born into
a state of spiritual death and depravity in this world. And
in that state of death and spiritual depravity, we are totally enslaved
by the darkness and the ignorance and the sinful desires of human
nature, fallen human nature. And even though if we're one
of God's elect, our standing before God is justified, our
state in this world naturally is lost, spiritually dead in
trespasses and sins. And the Bible teaches that those
whom God justified by His grace in Christ must be liberated personally
and spiritually in themselves in the new birth. They must be
born again. Now, if you'll look at Romans
6, verse 17, here's the second aspect of that liberty, that
freedom that Christ spoke of when He said, you shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free. And it says in
Romans 6, 17, but God be thanked that you were the servants of
sin. Now to be a servant of sin here
is to be an unbeliever. Now Paul over in Romans 7, he
said, I'm carnal soul under sin, but he'd said that as a believer.
He's talking about something different there. But here he
says that you were the servants of sin. You were unbelievers.
You were unregenerate. You were lost in your sins. But look at verse 17, but you
have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, teaching, which
was delivered you. Now, what is that form of teaching?
That's the gospel. The Bible says in Romans 1 16,
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believe it. And the Bible also teaches that
by nature we won't believe. The natural man, 1 Corinthians
2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. Neither can he know them. But you have obeyed from the
heart. Now, what is the heart? It's the mind, it's the affection,
it's the will. This is the new heart, spiritual
life that's given by God, by the Spirit through Christ in
the new birth. And he says, you were servants
of sin, you were unbelievers, spiritually dead, but you have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
you. Now look at verse 18. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. the servant, and to be a servant
of righteousness is not just to put on a new leaf or reform
outwardly. To be a servant of righteousness
is to be a servant of Christ. It means to believe in and trust
and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, who is my righteousness. And
so the word free here in verse 18 is a different word from the
word free in verse seven. In verse seven, it's justified.
It's that legal freedom. whereby I'm not charged with
my sins anymore. I'm free, I'm not condemned.
I'm legally pronounced by God to be free from sin and condemnation. But the word free in verse 18
is not justified, it's liberated. Now you've been made free, liberated
from sin. How have I been liberated from
sin? I've been liberated by God through
the Holy Spirit in the new birth, from the darkness, the ignorance,
and the depravity of that sin that kept me in a state of lostness,
a state of unbelief. I'm still a sinner, but now by
the grace of God, through the gift of God-given faith, I believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now even my belief is not yet
perfect, because of the presence of the flesh, and that's what
we're gonna talk about in Romans 7 here. But I'm now, I was once
blind, the old blind man said, but now I see. I see things that
I didn't see before. Do I see them perfectly? No,
Paul said, we see through a glass darkly. John said, we'll see
when we're liberated from this life and go to be with the Lord.
We'll see perfectly, we'll see him as he is. But we do see. I was blind, now I see. Before
I was liberated, before I was born again by the Spirit under
the preaching of the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed,
I thought I was saved, but I wasn't. I thought I was doing well enough
to recommend me unto God, but I wasn't. But now I've been liberated
and I'm a servant of righteousness. I'm a servant of Christ. But
still, even as a servant of Christ, I'm like the Apostle Paul, verse
14 of chapter seven, the law is spiritual, I'm carnal, sold
under sin. I'm still nothing more than a
sinner saved by grace. Now I know there's a lot there
to chew on. A lot there to think about. But
we've got to follow the scriptures. And we've got to learn to think
biblically. And that's what Paul's talking
about. Look at Romans 7 and verse 4. Now this is all foundational
background to what Paul says in Romans 7, 14 through the end
of the chapter. And a lot of people, they claim
that those verses that Paul wrote in Romans 7, 14 through verse
25, they'll say, well, Paul's talking about there when he was
lost. No, he was not. Because the struggle that Paul
is going to describe beginning at verse 14 of Romans 7 is a
struggle that no unbeliever can have. It's a struggle of the
flesh and the spirit, and I'll show you that as we go along. But if you look at verse four
of Romans 7, and Paul writes, wherefore, my brethren, you also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Now, what
is it to be dead to the law? It means the law cannot condemn
me. The law cannot require anything of me in order to attain righteousness
because Christ has already done that. How am I dead to the law?
By the body of Christ. Now we'll continue this as we
go through. I want you to follow along because it's gonna show
us what Paul's talking about in Romans 7, 14 through 25. But
this is what he's talking about now. I'm sold under sin. I who
am a free man, Legally, spiritually, I'm still a slave to sin in another
sense. And that's what we need to understand.
He said, I become dead to the law by the body of Christ that
you should be married to another, married to Christ by faith in
him. We'll pick up there next week. I hope you'll join us 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
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today and may the Lord be with you.