All right, as Robert said, my
text this morning is there in Romans chapter 7. But this is
still in a series of messages that I'm doing through the book
of John chapter 3. And after I finish this little
sub-series, I guess you could call it, on the new birth, evidences
of the new birth. That's what I've been talking
about. And I've been taking my time through this because this
is so important for us. You know, the scripture commands
us to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. And there's
nothing more important in that self-examination than going through
God's word and being assured that I have been born again.
You remember Christ told Nicodemus in John three, you must be born
again. or you cannot see the kingdom
or enter the kingdom of God. And then he told Nicodemus that
basically that the new birth can only be known by its evidences. Have I been born again? Have
you been born again? And so I went through several
already. The first, these evidences of
the new birth that the scripture gives forth, not that men and
women give forth, you know. I'll never forget one time I
heard a preacher say about a fella. He said, well, I know that fella
say because I can see it in his eyes. And I thought, my goodness,
where is that in the scripture? That's not in the scripture.
Now, whatever you see in my eyes or I see in your eyes, you're
not going to find the word of God to back you up on a judgment
like that. Go home and look in the mirror
and nothing you see there is given to convince you that you've
been born again. In fact, if I use that as an
evidence of the new birth, I'd have to say I haven't been born
again, because I'm getting old. You know, my hair used to be
black, didn't it, Debbie? It's not now. I didn't have these
wrinkles, didn't wear these glasses, all of that. So that's not any
evidence of being born again. And then moral reformation. Look, and I tell people this
all the time, I would love to see people who are virtually,
let's say, lawless in the world, prisons full of them, I would
love to see those people have a change of life and become responsible,
law-abiding citizens. But that's not the new birth.
Now that may come with the new birth, if that's what you were.
I mean, if you were a criminal, you know, that kind of thing.
But that's not the evidence of the new birth. Well, what is?
And I brought about this one, that it's a new birth. That means
what comes with it is new. Is that right? Well, he gives
us a new knowledge that we didn't have before. And that's illustrated
right here in Romans chapter seven. Look at verse 7. The new knowledge. What knowledge?
Romans 7 and verse 7. Paul said, what shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Now what Paul is
talking about is how the law condemns sinners based upon their
best efforts to keep the law. In Galatians chapter 3, for example,
he says, those who are under the law are under the what? The
curse. Because a sinner cannot be justified
before God by works of the law. So in other words, if I'm seeking
salvation by my works, what does the law do to me? It condemns
me. Because I cannot do anything that equals the perfection of
righteousness. that the law requires. That can
only be found in Christ. Romans 10, four, Christ is the
end of the law. What I do is not the end of the
law. What you do is not the end of the law. We're sinners, we
fall short, but Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. And before we're born again,
we think Sinners think, even though they would say we're not
perfect, we think we can do enough. I've heard people say, who call
themselves Christians, say, well, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm
not as bad as some people. Well, what does that mean? Where
will that get you at the judgment? Because God, in the judgment,
he's gonna judge according to the righteousness of his son.
And if we don't measure up, we're condemned. So what Paul's saying,
what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Now is the problem
with the law? No. God forbid, he says. Nay, I have not known sin but
by the law. The problem's not with the law,
the problem is with me. I'm the problem. You're the problem. We're sinners. And we wouldn't
even know that except the law. God uses the law to show us.
And listen to what Paul says here in verse, I had not known
lust. Now what he's talking about is
unlawful desires. Except the law had said thou
shalt not covet. And what he's saying there is
the law not only condemns the outward act of sin, it condemns
sinful thoughts, sinful desires. Sinful motives. The law reaches
the heart, you see. It not only judges me based upon
what I do or don't do, but what I think. What motivates me. And Paul said, thou shalt not
covet. You say, well that's just New Testament, not Old Testament.
Oh no, that's Old Testament too. Thou shalt not covet. Have an
unlawful, and I know in the Ten Commandments, thy neighbor's
wife. Any unlawful desire, and he says that down here in that
word concupiscence. We don't use that word much today,
do we? But it means an unlawful desire.
But he says in verse eight, but sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought or worked in me all manner of unlawful desire, all manner
of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. And here's what Paul's saying, he said, before God revealed
the reality of the law to me, the reality of it, the spirituality
of it, the extent of it, he says, before that, without the law,
sin was dead. I didn't think I was a sinner.
That's what Paul's saying. Remember over in Philippians
3 that we read how he talked about how according to the righteousness
which is of the law, blameless, that kind of thing. He didn't
know any better. He thought he was doing enough.
And you know what? I found more and more that so
many people who call themselves Christians really believe that
that's their salvation. It's not what Christ did and
what he finished on the cross. but it's what they do, whether
it's just believing, repenting, trying to be a good person. Shouldn't
we try to be good people? Well, of course we should. There's
no argument there, but that's not gonna save us. That's not
gonna make us righteous, is it? And that's what Paul's saying.
I didn't know that until the law came. And so he says in verse
nine, for I was alive without the law once. I thought I was
in good standing with God. I thought I was all right without
knowing the reality of the law. I thought my law keeping contributed
in some way to my salvation. But when the commandment came,
the knowledge of the law of God came, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, In the new birth, that's really when this happens, isn't
it? Don't you all agree with that? When the commandment, when
I saw something I didn't see before, learned something that
I didn't know before. Sin revived. The sin that I thought
I didn't have any problem with, God showed me it was alive and
well in me, and I died. It killed me. That's what it
means to be slain by the law. And he says in verse 10, and
the commandment which was ordained to life, that's why the commandment
was ordained, I found to be unto death. Why? Because of sin. Verse 11, for sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. The law didn't
deceive me, sin deceived me. I thought I wasn't as bad as
what I really was. You see, I got that knowledge.
Verse 12, for the law is holy and the commandment holy and
just and good. You see that? 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.
What he's saying is here that God gave me some knowledge I
didn't have. Now how did God give Paul that
knowledge? You remember in Philippians 3?
What he said? He said, listen, I count all
things but loss. That's what he's doing here.
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. When
I saw the glory of God in Christ, when I saw what it actually took
to attain the perfection of the law, I died, sin revived, and
I looked upon the glory of God in Christ. I count it all but
done that I may win Christ and be found in Him. So the issue
here is have you seen, have I seen the glory of God in Christ? That's
the issue. And when you do, it changes your
standard of judgment on these matters. That's really what it
does. Look over at 2 Corinthians with
me, chapter five. Let me show you something. And
look at verse 14. And you know in 2 Corinthians
5, he makes the statement in verse 17, he said, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. A new creation. And this whole
chapter's talking about reconciliation to God. How God is reconciled
to his people and how his people are reconciled to God. And there's
one ground. One ground, one foundation upon
which God is reconciled to his people, and his people are reconciled
to God. And that ground and foundation
is stated in the last verse of this chapter. For God made Christ
to be sin, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. That exchange of the surety, the substitute
and the redeemer who stood in the place of his people, having
our sins imputed to him and his righteousness imputed to us.
But look back at verse 14. He says, for the love of Christ
constraineth us. Now that's Christ's love for
us that he's talking about. When we're born again, we do
love Christ. But we don't love him perfectly
yet, we'll see that in a minute. But this is his love for us,
and how do I know that? We'll look at the next line.
Because we thus judge. We're making a judgment here,
an assessment, that if one died for all, then we're all dead,
or literally, all have died. We're making this judgment, that
if Christ died for his people, then they all died with him.
That's spoken of in Romans 6. When he died, I died. And what
did he die to in Romans 6? He died to sin. He satisfied
the justice of God. He brought forth everlasting
righteousness. He did it for me. If you believe
in him, you can say he did it for you. That's the evidence. And so when he was buried, I
was buried. When he arose again, I arose again. And then look
at verse 15, 2 Corinthians 5. And that he died for all that
they which live, how do we live? Spiritually, born again, should
not henceforth from this time forward live unto themselves. My salvation's not of myself. and I'm not to live for myself,
I'm to live for the glory of God. But unto him which died
for them and rose again, wherefore, verse 16, henceforth, from this
time forward, know we no man after the flesh. Now what does
he mean, know we no man after the flesh? Well, we don't know
the salvation or the lostness of any person after the flesh. We only know it by the word of
God. Are you looking to Christ, resting in Christ, His finished
work, His glorious person, for all salvation? Or are you looking
somewhere else? And he says, we know no man after
the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh,
there's a time that Paul The apostle made a judgment about
who Jesus of Nazareth was. And you remember what his judgment
was? A blasphemer. He knew Christ after the flesh.
But yet now henceforth, from this time forward, no we him
no more. We don't know him that way. We
know him by the word of God. How do I know that I'm trusting
the true Christ? The word of God. It's not a painting,
not a vision, not a form, the Word of God. What does God's
Word say about him? So, verse 17, therefore, or verse
17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
Old things have passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. He's talking about salvation. That's what Paul's talking about
over here in Romans 7. Here was my judgment of myself
under the law at one time, but that's changed. And who changed
it? God did. How did he do it? Look
back at Romans 6. Go back to our text and just
across the page. Verse 17. He said, but God bethanked
that you were the servants of sin. Now that's an unbeliever
in an unregenerate state. Paul said, when I was trying
to keep the law in order to be saved, I was a servant of sin. Didn't even know it. I thought
I was a servant of righteousness. But you have obeyed from the
heart. Now what do we know about what the scripture says about
the heart? The natural heart of man is what? Deceitful. Desperately
wicked. Above all things. The natural
man receiveth not the things... So what does God have to do?
For us to obey from the heart his word, he has to give us a
new heart, a new mind, new knowledge, new affections, new will, new
motives. So you have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine, he's talking about the gospel here, the teachings
of Christ, how God justifies the ungodly, who God is in his
absolute holiness, who we are in our sinfulness, and the only
way that the two can be reconciled. That form of doctrine which was
delivered you And if you got a little concordance in your
Bible, you'll probably see these words instead of which was delivered
you. Now, the gospel has to be delivered
to us in some way. But what he's saying here is
this, you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
you were delivered to. God brought you to where you
are. When I first heard the gospel,
Even as an unbeliever, I didn't realize at that time that it
was God who put me there. When you first heard the gospel,
the true gospel, it was God who put you there. And then he says
you obeyed, he gave you a new heart, new eyes to see. And so verse 18 says, being then
made free from sin, Now that word free there is liberated.
How was I liberated from sin? Well, I stopped being a sinner
right then, no, I'm still a sinner. But I'm no longer deceived in
the darkness of unbelief. I'm liberated in the sense that
I see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and look
at verse 18, being then made free, liberated from sin, you
became the servants of righteousness. What is a servant of righteousness?
It's a servant of Christ, a servant of God, a believer. That's it. So my standard of judgment changed.
Something else changed. There's other evidences. At that
point in time, there began a new warfare within my soul. A new battle. A new fight. And the Bible calls
it the warfare of the spirit, which I believe he's talking
about God the Holy Spirit, who indwells every one of his people. A warfare of the spirit against
the flesh. And that's a warfare I had not
engaged in before. Now let me make a distinction
here. Even unbelievers are engaged in a warfare with their own conscience. They'll have natural conscience
battles within themselves. When I was a boy watching cartoons,
there was a cartoon I remember where this man was trying to
decide whether or not to steal some money or not. And a little
devil popped up in this shoulder and a little angel on this shoulder
and they were trying to argue, trying to talk him into doing
what they wanted to do. And that natural conscience can
bring that. but it's not like the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit. It's a different warfare. What is the flesh? I'll tell
you exactly what the flesh is. The flesh is not the little devil
on my shoulder. The flesh is the remaining influences,
the remaining desires, motives, goals of sin within me. Sin and selfishness and self-righteousness. I still have the flesh. A sinner
saved by grace, justified in Christ. Sin cannot be charged
to me. I cannot be condemned. Christ
is my righteousness. But I still have within my heart,
within my mind, let's say, within my soul, evil thoughts, evil
desires, evil goals, evil motives. That's the flesh. But thank God,
because I have been born again by the Spirit, I have a new spirit,
spiritual life, the Holy Spirit who indwells me. And he's given
me new motives, new knowledge, new thoughts. But there's a warfare
within. When did that warfare begin?
Look at verse four of chapter seven of Romans. Wherefore, my
brethren, you also are become dead to the law. That means the
law cannot condemn you. You've already died. The law's
already been satisfied. What does the law demand? Where
sin is, death. Wherefore, my brethren, you're
become dead to the law. Now how did I become dead to
the law? Well, because I turned over a new leaf and stopped smoking
and stopped drinking and stopped doing this and stopped, no. When
did I become dead to the law? Well, when I made a decision
for Christ, no. Look at it. Wherefore, my brethren,
you are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. That's how. By the death of Christ
on that cross. He died unto sin. My sins imputed to him. And so
I'm dead to the law, the law cannot condemn me. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Now,
what is the result of my being dead to the law legally? Here
it is. In order that you should be married
to another, wedded to Christ, even him who's raised from the
dead, And when we're born again and brought to faith in Christ,
that new knowledge that brings us to faith, that brings us to
God-given repentance, what do we do? We're married, we're wedded,
we're united to Christ by faith in Him. when we were married to Christ,
married to another, even him who was raised from the dead,
now look at the last part, in order that we should do what?
Bring forth fruit unto God. That we should be fruit bearers.
We don't produce fruit, and I'll tell you this much, we don't
even count them. We just fruit, we just bear the
fruit. Christ is the vine, we're the branches, and we bear fruit
from Him. He's the source, He's the life.
We're just fruit bearers. We can talk about what that fruit
is. It's the fruit of knowledge, it's the fruit of faith, it's
the fruit of repentance. Looking unto Christ, following
Him. Now look at verse 5. For when
we were in the flesh, when we were unbelievers, unregenerate,
that's what Paul means there. He's not talking about a believer
who one time does something bad, and then another time does something
good. And when he does something bad, we can say he's in the flesh.
And when he does something good, we can say he's in the spirit.
That's not what he's talking about here. When we do something bad,
we're acting according to the flesh. When we do something that's
pleasing to God, we're acting according to the spirit. That's
true. But when we were in the flesh, he's talking about when
we were unregenerate, not born again, the motions or the passions
of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring
forth fruit unto death. Now this passions, these motions
of sin comes in different forms. Some people it comes in the form
of abject immorality and perversion and criminality. But in most people, It comes
forth in works aimed at salvation. What were the passions of sins
that Saul of Tarsus had? What were the passions of sins
that I had? Trying to get myself in right
with God. And all it was, without Christ,
without being born again, it was all fruit unto death. Because that's the only thing
it could result in, is death. You see, if we don't have Christ,
if we don't have his righteousness, his blood, if we don't have faith
in him, what does it all amount to? Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied
in your name? Lord, Lord, haven't we cast out
demons? Lord, Lord, haven't we done many wonderful works? All
dead works depart from me that work iniquity. I never knew you.
But here's verse six. But now we're delivered from
the law. that being dead wherein we were held, now look at it,
that we should serve, serve God, in newness of spirit and not
in the oldness of the letter. And that's another evidence of
the new birth, a new motive. What is that motive? Well, we've talked about it a
little bit. It's the motive of grace. serving the Lord, not in order
to be saved, but because God has already saved
us and given us all spiritual blessings in Christ, freely,
unconditionally in Christ. The writer of Hebrews said, it's
a good thing for the heart to be established with grace. That's
what we know. Serving the Lord. Not because
of what you can get out of Him. Serving the Lord because of what
He's already given you that you didn't deserve and didn't earn.
That's the motive of grace. That comes in the new birth.
And then love. The motive of godly love. Serving
the Lord because we love Him. All the time being ashamed that
we don't love Him like we ought to love Him. But we do love him. We love him because he first
loved us. Hearing his love, not that we
loved him, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. And then here's another part
of that motive. Gratitude. Thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. You know, that's
what the service and obedience of a believer, a child of God
is. It's not just looking up in the air and saying, thank
you, Lord, we do that. But it's in serving the Lord,
worshiping the Lord. That's what we're doing today.
We're thanking God, aren't you? This is an act of gratitude.
You didn't come to church out of fear of hell. I know you don't
wanna go to hell, I don't either. You come to church because you
gotta feed on the word of God and you gotta express your love
and your gratitude to God. But you know what? As the old preacher from West
Virginia said, it still ain't easy. Why not look at Galatians? Over in the book of Galatians
chapter five. Galatians five, verse 16. Paul writes, this I say then,
walk in the spirit. And you shall not fulfill the
lust, the unlawful desires of the flesh. Wait a minute now.
Paul, I'm born again. You mean I still have unlawful
desires of the flesh? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. You mean I still have unlawful
desires and unlawful thoughts and sinful motives? Sinful goals? Yes. We still have those because
of the remaining corruptions of the flesh. So how do we fight
that? Well, we walk in the spirit.
How do we do that? We go by the word of God. We
hear and listen. And we fight, the scripture says.
We war. Look at verse 17. For the flesh
lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
The Holy Spirit wars against the flesh and our spirits with
our spirits. And these are contrary the one
to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. One old preacher said that the
spirit keeps us from going the full swing of the flesh, and
the flesh keeps us from going the full swing of the spirit.
We're in a battle. And even when it comes to our
motives, We're in a battle. I read an article a couple of
years ago that just bowed me over. A sovereign grace preacher
wrote that the reason that our works are accepted with God,
our good works are accepted with God, is because of our perfect
and pure motives. I said, really? Now let me tell
you something. The reason the good works of
believers are accepted with God is because they're washed in
the blood of the Lord. That fountain that we sang. Not
because of our pure and perfect motive. We have good holy motives implanted
in our hearts by the Spirit. But they're not pure and perfect
yet because of the contamination of the flesh. So that you cannot
do what you want. And then back over in Romans
7, Paul dealt with that. Look at verse 14, I'm not gonna
go through this whole thing. It says verse 14, for we know
that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin. For
that which I do, I allow not. I don't approve of what I do. For what I would, that do I not.
What I would do, I wanna be like Christ. I wanna have pure thoughts. But
I don't. But what I hate that I do. Sin
still contaminates every thought. And if then I do that which I
would not, I can sin into the law, that is good. It's not the
law's fault even now as a believer. It's mine. He said, there's no more I that
do it, but sin that dwells in me. Paul's not passing the buck
there. He's just saying, that's not the real me. You see, if
you want to know the real me, don't look in the mirror, don't
look at my face, don't look at my age. The real me is a sinner
saved by grace, washed in the blood of Christ, and clothed
in His righteousness. That's the real I. But I've got a problem. While
I'm on this earth, I'm plagued constantly. Even while I'm preaching,
I'm plagued with the flesh. Last Wednesday, I'll close with
this. I'm going a little too long this morning, but last Wednesday
we have a Zoom meeting and several people, we discussed the scripture.
And we were talking about a subject similar to this. And a man asked
me, he said, well, you know, God commands his people to do
right, to live right, doesn't he? There's no argument there.
to be examples, zealous of good works. Fight the flesh every
day. It never lets up. We will never
attain the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
So the whole time that we're fighting to do right and fighting
against the flesh as we're inspired by the spirit, we realize we're
not gonna make the perfection of righteousness here in this
life. Is that right? Y'all agree with that? It's what
the Bible says, isn't it? And a fellow asked me, he said,
well, why would God command us to do something like that when
we cannot be successful? And I said, good question. Even though we will not attain
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ
within ourselves, we won't retain that. We're still successful. How? Look down at the last two
verses of Romans 7. Here's our success. Oh, wretched
man that I am, verse 24. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Here's our success. I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Our
success is not in ourselves, it's in Christ. Whenever a sinner
saved by grace engages in the warfare of the Spirit against
the flesh, trying to serve the Lord, you know who's glorified
there? God is. Because we're trophies
of His grace and His power, His faithfulness. That's success. Whenever a sinner saved by grace
is engaged in the warfare of the Spirit against the flesh,
trying to do right, Christ is exalted. Oh, wretched man that
I am. Who's gonna deliver me? Christ. Victory's already won. And whenever
a sinner saved by grace is engaged in the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit, trying to do right, you know what that does for us?
It humbles us. Doesn't it? And we need to be humbled. all the time. May the Lord bless
His Word to our hearts. Let's go to the hymn book, hymn
number 51.