Now we're gonna start with Romans
chapter seven, verse 14, and what we're gonna talk about,
this is, these last verses of Romans seven, from Romans 7,
14 to Romans 7, 25, deal with the believer's state in this
world, our state in this world. who we are, what we are, and
how we are in this world. So I'm gonna divide this up because
this is some of the most difficult language you'll find in scripture.
And some people, they approach it wrongly and they go off on
wild tangents with it that really cannot be explained. But the
key that I believe, the key to understanding, for example, just
look at verse 14. He says, for we know that the
law is spiritual. And then Paul speaking of himself
in present tense, He says, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now this is the same man who
wrote up in chapter six and verse seven that he's dead to sin,
freed from sin. He says that he's, in verse 18
of Romans 6, he's free from sin, dead to the law, all of that.
How can the same man say at one point that I'm freed from sin,
I'm dead to sin, and then over here in verse 14 talk about how
I'm carnal, I'm sold under sin, which literally means that carnal
means fleshly, that's what carnality is, the flesh. which is sin,
sinful thoughts, sinful ideas, sinful goals, sinful motives,
sinful desires. And then he says, I'm sold under
sin, which means to be enslaved to sin. How can I be free from
sin at one point and be enslaved to sin at another point, which
means I can't rise above it. That's what that means. I can't
get above sin. And so, is this a contradiction?
Well, the answer's no. There are no contradictions in
the word of God. We know that. And if you don't
approach it that way, you're gonna miss it. You say, well,
is that a preconceived notion? No, that's the result of years
of study and even criticism. You know, I tried, before I was
a believer, I tried to prove there were contradictions in
the Bible, and believe there were, but there are not. You've
gotta take each one in its context, that's one of the main rules
of scriptural interpretation, context. And so what you have
to understand that verses, actually beginning up in verse seven,
of Romans chapter seven, and then going all the way down to
verse 25, what Paul's doing, In the over theme of this is
he's showing the role of the law in the believer's life. Now what is the role of the law
in my life? Well, before I was converted,
God the Holy Spirit used the law to convince me of sin and
depravity to show me the impossibility of salvation based upon my law
keeping. and then to drive me to Christ
for righteousness. He showed me that the perfection
of righteousness required by God in the law is only to be
found in Christ and not in me or by my works. That was the
role of the law in conviction. Now that's what Paul was talking
about in Romans 7, 7 through 13. And then in verse 14 through
25, he talks about the continual role of the law in a believer's
life, which is to continually convince me that I'm a sinner
and that I have no righteousness, no holiness, no goodness, but
that which I can find in Christ for salvation. And so it's a
continual thing. And Paul shows that in his life,
we know it in our life. Now let me give you some things
that these verses are not teaching. Because sometimes it's good to
see what they don't teach before we get into what they do teach.
First of all, Romans 7, 14 through 25 is not Paul referring back
to his days as a lost person. A lot of people say that. They
say, well Paul, listen to what he says. He says, verse 15, for
that which I do I allow not, what I do I don't approve of.
He says, for what I would, what I want to do, that do I not,
but what I hate, that do I. That's strong language. What
I hate, I do. And so a lot of people who don't
understand salvation, they don't understand the law, they don't
understand sin, they don't understand righteousness, they say, well,
Paul's got to be talking about when he was lost, because a saved
person wouldn't talk like that. No, that's wrong. Every saved person talks like
that. Plus the fact, too, just the
point of language. And I know we're not Greek scholars
or anything, but from Romans 7, 7 to 13, the verbs there are
in past tense. But from Romans 7, 14 through
25, the verbs there are in present tense. So Paul is talking about
this is what happened to him in the past, this is how I am
today. So he's not talking about what he was as a lost person.
Plus the fact too that the struggle, now there's a struggle described
here by Paul. This is a struggle that only
a saved sinner, a born again person can have. A lost person
couldn't have this kind of struggle. They'll have struggles. For example,
a lost person will have struggles of conscience. They'll have struggles
with society and all of that, inward struggles. But this describes
a spiritual warfare within a person that can only come to one who's
been born again by the Holy Spirit, one who is looking to Christ
for all salvation. Okay? So he's not talking about
himself as a lost person. Secondly, he's not speaking of
one who sometimes, a believer for example, who sometimes acts
carnally fleshly, sinfully, and sometimes acts spiritually in
a way that's consistent with the word of God. Notice I didn't
say righteously because we don't attain righteousness by anything
we do. But Paul is not describing here
one who at some time acts carnally and one who at some and then
at another time acts spiritually. Now you know that's true of believers?
We can't, if we're believers, if we've been born again by the
spirit, we can act spiritually. Hopefully that's what we're doing
this morning. We're acting spiritually. Now that doesn't mean we're attaining
the perfection of righteousness by what we're doing. Do you understand
what I'm saying? You're sitting there listening,
I hope your mind's on the word. But you still have not attained
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
But you are acting spiritually. And, but now if you skip worship
for no good reason and go off on your own for your own selfish
pleasure, what are you doing? You're acting carnally, even
though you're a sinner saved by grace. Now that's biblical.
You remember when the Corinthians were dividing over preachers?
And in 1 Corinthians, I think it's 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians
3, 3. Paul said, for you are yet carnal. In other words, you're not acting
appropriately to your spiritual state. But now that's not what
Paul's talking about here. That's dealt with in other passages
of scripture. He dealt with that in Galatia,
where they were biting and devouring one another, that kind of thing,
where they were being very judgmental in other places. So yeah, believers
can act carnally, and that's dealt with in the Bible, but
that's not what Paul's talking about here. And then another
thing he's not talking about is he's not talking about one
nature that can only sin and another nature that can only
do righteousness. Now, a lot of people look at
this and they say, well, this is talking about the two natures,
flesh and the spirit. Well, that's okay if you want
to use that language, but don't take it so far. Paul's not saying,
well, there's part of me that does nothing but sin, and then
there's part of me that does nothing but holiness and cannot
sin. That's some sort of a myth. that people buy into because
they want to find righteousness in themselves. And they think
they're giving God the glory. They're like those in Matthew
chapter 7. Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied
in your name, you see? That kind of thing. So he's not
talking about that, but he is talking about a struggle. You
can call it two natures if you want, that's fine, I don't care.
But what he's saying is sin is in me and contaminates everything
I think, say, and do, and this is the believer's state. Now
look at verse 14. He says, for we know that the
law is spiritual, the law reaches to the heart, the law not only
condemns sinful actions, but it condemns sinful thoughts,
Sinful goals, sinful motives, sinful desires, all of that you
see. It's not just taste not touch
not handle not. Paul had already been convinced
of that by the Holy Spirit when he talked about covetousness,
concupiscence, lust. When the law says thou shalt
not covet, that's a sin of the heart. You may never go out and
steal something that somebody else has, but if you covet it,
that's sinful too. And of course, Christ dealt with
that in Matthew chapter five in the Sermon on the Mount. He
said, you've heard it said by them of old, that thou shalt
not kill. But he said, I say unto you,
to be angry with a person, to hate a person, that's murder
in God's sight. He said, thou shalt not commit
adultery. I say unto you that it's sinful
to lust after another person. So you see, these are sins of
the heart. Well, what did that show Paul?
That showed him that he's carnal, sold under sin. He's in this
body of flesh, and that's not just talking about the physical
body now. That's part of it, because it's
through our physical bodies the sinful principles, the powerful
law of sin, makes itself known, manifest, when we use our hands,
our eyes, our ears, our mouths for something sinful. And that's
where we are, and that's what we know. I mean, I can't get
beyond this body of flesh. I know people say, well, I can
have an out-of-body experience. That's bull. This is what we are. I'm a sinner
saved by grace. I have a right standing before
God. I'm righteous in his sight, but
here I am in this state. And I'm a born again person.
I have a spiritual nature, if you want to call it that, that's
okay. But I have a fleshly nature. So I have a desire. God has given
me desires that I didn't have before I was converted. Now that
doesn't mean that the desire just to be good. Alright, now
look at this. He says I'm carnal and because
of that I'm sold under sin. I'm enslaved to my state, my
status here on this earth and I cannot while on this earth
in this state, in this physical body, I can't rise above that. A lot of people think they do,
don't they? You know, there are people who call themselves Christians
who say that they can rise above sin. And one old preacher said,
the only way you're gonna rise above sin is if you can live
on the second, third, fourth, fifth floor. And there's sinners
below you. But you're not gonna rise above
sin. You can't get away from your thoughts. I remember when
I first moved to Albany, there was a couple here, and they'd
just gotten back from a seminar from a false prophet named Bill
Gothard. Do you hear me? A false prophet
named Bill Gothard. And he was teaching them how
not to sin, and he said, go home and get rid of everything in
your house that causes you to sin. So they went home, they
had some tiki god that they got from Africa or something, they
got rid of that and they started getting rid of this and getting
rid of that. And I told the man, I said, well look, you've got
a problem. And he said, what is it? I said, you're still there. And you see the tiki god and
all that, that's not the problem, you are. I'm the problem. I said, the only thing you can
do is just stand in front of the mirror and cut your own throat maybe,
I don't know. But you're not gonna listen. What did Christ
teach his disciples? It's not what goes into your
mouth that defiles you, it's what comes out of the heart. You see that? Somebody say sin's
in the bottle. Well, you can use a bottle to
sin, but sin's not there, sin's in you, it's in me. Sins that we're gonna go back
and eat. Now we can use our mouths and our stomachs to sin highly,
but it's not because of the food. Don't blame the food. You see
what I'm saying? And that's what Paul's saying
here. I can't rise above that. And he's telling us here that
in our lives as believers, as sinners saved by grace on this
earth, in our present state, The Holy Spirit, and that's why
he starts with the law, he says the law is spiritual. All right,
what does that do? That tells me that I cannot attain
in this state, by my works, in my thoughts, in my desires, I
cannot attain the perfection of righteousness that I can only
find in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. And if you look for
it within yourself, There's only two things that are gonna happen.
If you find it, you're gonna be a Pharisee. If you don't find
it, you'll go into despair. That's what happens. Most people
become Pharisees. That's what usually happens.
But that's the way it is here on this earth. In other words,
I have one hope of salvation, one hope of righteousness, one
hope of forgiveness, one hope of eternal life and glory. Jesus
Christ crucified and raised from the dead. His righteousness alone,
which God has freely imputed to me and I receive it by God-given
faith. So, how am I freed from sin? How am I dead to sin? How am
I dead to the law? Legally. Or as the old writer
said, forensically. Objectively, as I stand before
God in His court of justice in Christ, I'm washed clean, free
from sin, dead to sin in the blood of Jesus Christ. How do
you know that? God cannot charge sin to me. Somebody says, God will not.
God will not, He won't, but He cannot. Why? Because He's a just
God. He cannot charge or impute sin
to me because he imputed my sin debt to Christ. He would be unjust
to impute it to me too. I'm righteous in Christ, but
now you don't see it. And in reality, I don't see it
with the physical eye. And what happens here is this. You know, if we're saved, we're
sinners saved by grace. That's who we are. That's who
we are. But all we see is the sin. You say, well, what have you
seen me do? Well, I'll tell you exactly what I've seen you do.
I've seen you get old. And you've seen me get old. Isn't
that right? And that's a consequence of what?
Sin. This body is dead because of
sin. Now that's what we've seen each
other do. Now we may have seen each other do other things we
shouldn't have done, all right. But we know this, according to
God's word tells us what? We're sinners saved by grace.
This is my story. To God be the glory. But it's
not the whole story. My sin's not the whole story.
If it were, I'd be doomed. The whole story is how I stand
in Christ, see? how I stand in God's sight, in
God's judgment, in Christ. The world won't know us, will
they? The world sees me as a weakling, as a sinful person. But God sees
me as righteous in His Son. Now if we take that as the basis
for what Paul's saying, look at what he's saying here, look
at verse 15. He says, for that which I do,
I allow not. Now, is Paul talking about some
particular sinful problem that he had that he couldn't get rid
of? You know a lot of preachers preach it this way. Oh, if you
have a particular sin in your life, particular sin, good night. Paul said, I'm carnal, sold under
sin. Now, I know that if there are
particular problems we have psychologically in ourselves, you know, we need
to work on that, we do, in a godly way. No doubt about that, but
that's not what Paul's talking, Paul's not, he's not saying here
that I have some particular sin that I do that I don't approve
of. He says that which I do. Well, what do you do, Paul? Well,
Paul preached the gospel. Paul covered the Gentile world,
traveled. Paul suffered. All of that. But he said, I approve
not. Well, Paul, don't you approve
of preaching the gospel? Yes. Don't you approve of the
suffering? He said, for Christ's sake, yes.
What is he talking about? He's talking about in the realm
of the spirituality of the law that in this way, What I do falls
short of the perfect righteousness that I desire. And therefore I can't approve
of it. And he says in verse 15, he says, for what I would, what
I want to do, that do I not. Well, what do you want to do?
Well, read Philippians three, for example. He said, I want
to attain perfection, but I don't. But what I hate that I do, I
hate, what he's saying here is I hate the fact that sin, Mars,
contaminates everything that I think sin do. That's what he
hates. Because his desire was to be
conformed to Christ. And that's a desire that we all
have. Now, I mean, we can talk about degrees of desire and all
that, and you know, I've heard preachers say, well, believers
won't justify their sin. That's another bull. Especially when somebody does
us wrong, we just feel like we've got a right. We don't have a
right. How do you know that? Because
God said vengeance belongs to him, not to you. The Bible says
we're to love our enemies. I desire to love my enemies.
But there are times I want to see my enemies get their comeuppance.
How about you? But you see, that's the struggle
we have. And sin, even my desire to love my enemies is marred
by my desire to see them get their comeuppance. That's the
way it is, you know. You say, well, you're a walking
contradiction. No, I'm not. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
Look at verse 16. He says, if then I do that which
I would not, I consent unto the law that it's good. Now, Paul
is adamant throughout these scriptures that whatever the law does in
convicting me of sin, and showing me my sinful self and the fact
that I cannot attain the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in Christ, the problem is not with the law. Now, how
do people express that, you know, when they say the problem's with
the law? Well, they might say something like that. Well, God
requires too much of me. Or God's unreasonable to require
perfection of me. Or God's not fair or just. No. First of all, if you know anything
about the God of the Bible, you know that he can require no less
than perfection. God is holy. God is just. If God required less as to attaining
or maintaining salvation, he would cease to be God. So he
can require no less. But Paul's saying the problem's
not with the law, the problem is with me. I'm the sinner. I'm the problem. So he says in
verse 17, now here's where the language gets a little difficult
here. He says, now then, it's no more I that do it, but sin
that dwelleth in me. Well, Paul, what are you saying?
You don't do it, but the sin does it? Well, what is sin here? Well, the word sin here is the
most common New Testament word used for sin translated from
the Greek language. It's the same word for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that's exactly
what it means. It's the word that means that I fall short
of the glory of God. When the Bible says that Christ
was made sin, that means he was made to fall short. And what
is the glory of God? Well, the glory of God is Christ.
His glorious person, his finished work, his righteousness. And
so what Paul's talking about is I fall short of that righteousness.
And so he says, it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwell
within me. What's Paul doing here? Is he passing the buck?
Is he saying, well, I'm not really responsible for this. It's just
that old sin nature in me. I've heard people talk like that.
They'll say stuff like, well, I've got a nature that does nothing
but sin. And then I've got another nature
that does nothing but righteousness. Now, if you want to read anything
like that, go get a copy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert
Louis Stevenson. That's a fictional work, and
so is their theology. It's fictional. That's not what
Paul's saying. If we had a new nature that could
not sin, why would we say, that which I do I allow not, and that
what I do I hate? And when Paul says, it's not
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, is he saying, well, I'm
not really this person. It's not like sin's another person
inside of me doing stuff and righteousness is another person
inside of me. That's not what he's saying at
all. What I believe he's doing here, he's using metaphorical
language to do two things. Number one, to trace it to its
source. The problem, trace it to its
source and its sin that dwelleth in us. I have sinful thoughts. I have sinful desires, sinful
motives that I have to fight And that's the problem. And it's
not that I'm blaming sin in me. I'm the one who does it. I'm
the problem, you see. But what Paul's also showing
here is that the sin that he does, that mars everything he
does, really doesn't identify him. It's not the real Paul. The real Paul. Who are you really? Let's say last week somebody
stepped on your toes and you lost your temper. You sinned
with a high hand. Does that identify you as to
your standing before God? Let's hope not. Does that identify
you as your state? As a sinner saved by grace? In
other words, Could somebody have seen you during that moment of
time and then said, well, now there's a real sinner saved by
grace? No. You know what they do. They say,
well, good night. If he's saved, I am too, you
know. Christian wouldn't act like that.
You hear them. Wouldn't do that, don't do this.
What is it a Christian won't do? In the Bible, I found that
there's one thing a Christian won't do. He will not totally,
ultimately forsake Christ. And the only reason that he or
she won't do that is because God will not let us go. That's
right. So think about it. So Paul, it's
sin that dwells in me, that doesn't really define the real Paul. The real Paul is a sinner saved
by grace, one to whom God does not impute sin, one to whom God
has imputed righteousness. That's the real Paul, struggling. And he says in, look here in
verse 18, he says, he says, for I know that in me, that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Well, what do you mean, Paul?
We know the Spirit of God indwells you. He's a good thing. We know
that spiritual life is there. That's a good thing. We know
there are spiritual desires. Those are good things. Well,
what Paul's talking about is goodness as it relates to Christ. Now, God does many good things
for us and in us, but when they come through us, It's like faith. Would anybody here say, I have
perfect faith at all times and never waver, never doubt? I hope
you wouldn't. Well, God's the one who gave
you that faith. Did he give you something sinful? No. But when
it comes through this flesh, it's marred by sin. And I'm like
the disciples. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. I still have a struggle. And
it's an everyday struggle. And that's what Paul's talking
about there. He says in verse 18, for to will is present with
me, I have a desire to do good, to be like Christ, to be perfect. But how to perform, now that's
key. That word how's in italics, but
to perform that which is good I find not. I can't do it. Now, well wait a minute Paul,
where's the new nature that cannot do anything but righteousness?
Well he says, He says, to perform righteousness, I don't even know
how to do it. I don't find that in me. And
so he says in verse 19, for the good that I would, I do not.
What good is he talking about? Paul preached the gospel. Paul
prayed. Paul was used of God to write
the scriptures. What good is he talking about?
He's talking about the perfection of goodness, of righteousness,
required by the law that can only be found in Christ. I can't
do that. I preach the gospel and I thank
God that I do and stay with the truth, but my preaching is not
my righteousness before God. You see what I'm saying? I'm
not gonna stand before God by his grace. I'm not gonna stand
before him and say, Lord, Lord, I preached in your name. I've
done many wonderful, I'm gonna stand before God pleading the
merits of the lamb. I'm gonna plead the blood of
Christ. That's what we're gonna memorialize here this morning. It's his blood, it's his righteousness.
It's not my preaching. Thank God we have preaching.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. But my preaching, your listening, our praying, our singing,
that's not our righteousness before God, it's Christ. And
while we're in this state, even as justified and even as spiritual
people, we cannot attain that, and that's what Paul's saying
here. Verse 20, or verse 19, for the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. What is he talking
about? Is Paul doing something evil? He's talking about the
fact that he always falls short of the perfection of righteousness.
found in the law. Then verse 20, he says, now if
I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwelleth in me. Now that's the same thing he
said back up in verse 17, and it means the same thing here.
He's tracing it to its source, sin within us, and he's showing
that that really doesn't identify us, does it? Aren't you glad
that sin is not that which identifies you? You say, well, I've got
to own that I'm a sinner. Yes, but we're sinners saved
by grace. We're mercy beggars. We found
mercy in Christ. All right.