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. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us and I hope and pray that the Lord
will bless you as we go through the word of God as I preach verse
by verse through several passages of scripture. And today I'm going
to continue a series of messages. This is the third and the final
message entitled the Christian struggle with sin. the Christian
struggle with sin. And I'll be preaching from the
book of Romans, chapter seven, beginning around verse 18, 19.
I'm in the middle of that chapter, that section from Romans 7, 14,
down to the last verse in that chapter, verse 25, where the
apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to describe his own personal
struggle with sin. Over in the book of Galatians
chapter five, Paul called it the warfare of the spirit against
the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. And in line with
this, what we have to understand is that there is a distinction
between the true Christians standing before God in Christ and a true
Christian's state, present state, in this world. And that's something
that confuses a lot of people, or they may be totally ignorant
of it, but it is a basic, very basic, rudimentary concept in
the Scripture, that what I am in Christ is very different than
what I am within myself. And to prove that, Paul had been
talking about this thing from Romans chapter, well, actually
the first part of the book of Romans, but specifically in Romans
chapter six, let me just show you a couple of verses there.
Romans six and verse seven. Look at Romans six and verse
seven. Paul writes, for he that is dead, is freed and the word
freed there is literally justified from sin. Freely justified from
sin. Now justified from sin speaks
of a legal freedom from sin where a sinner has been forgiven of
all his sins and he has been declared legally by God who is
the judge of all to be not guilty and actually goes further than
that. He's actually been declared by
God to be righteous in God's sight. This is a legal, forensic
matter. This is how the true believer,
one who truly knows the gospel and believes Christ, rest in
Him, stands before God, freed from sin. When he says there
in verse seven, he that is dead, he's talking about dead with
Christ. And that means this, that means that when Christ died,
if I'm a believer now, now this can't be said by everybody. And
I want you to understand that. The only ones who can claim this
rightfully, biblically, truthfully, are believers. Believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now we preach the gospel on television
and from our pulpits and in other avenues on the internet, hoping
that people will come to Christ and believe on him. The only
ones who can make this claim of being dead, if you be dead,
we're free, justified from sin, are believers, because that's
God's elect. That's who God's elect are. I
know people say, well, we don't believe in God's elect. Well,
the Bible identifies God's family, God's people, Christ's sheep,
the church, as God's elect. Now, if you don't like that,
then just go on about your business, see, but that's not gonna change
things because you don't like it. God chose a people before
the foundation of the world and gave them to Christ. And it's
not my job to go in here and figure out who they are. My job
is to preach the gospel and those whom God gives life through Christ
by the Holy Spirit will come to Him and believe in Him. And
that's who God's elect are. Now that's what the Bible teaches
and I challenge any of you to prove otherwise from the Bible. Because the Bible is the Word
of God. It's the final word. Whether
I like it, whether I understand it, whether I can wrap my mind
around it, that's what this book says. Over in the book of Romans,
chapter eight and verse 31 or verse 33, it makes this statement. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justify. Now,
who does God justify? The elect. and He will not charge
them with their sin. Now that's a legal matter. And
so when He says over in Romans 6-7, for he that is dead, that
means I died with Christ. That means Christ was my representative
in all that He did as God in human flesh. That means Christ
was my surety. My sins were laid upon Him. Isaiah 53 says that God hath laid on Christ the iniquity
of us all." Now that all there doesn't mean all without exception
because there are many who perish in their sins in unbelief. It
means all of his sheep, all we like sheep have gone astray.
Christ said in John 10, he laid his life down for the sheep.
He told the Pharisees, you're not of my sheep, therefore you
don't believe. So understand that. That's not
offensive. That's the only way salvation
could come about. And so those who died with him,
he's their surety. Our sins were imputed, charged,
accounted to him in his righteousness to us. It means that Christ is
my substitute. He took my place. He suffered
the just for the unjust. He was cursed in my place for
my sins charged to him. And that means that he died to
satisfy justice as my redeemer. He redeemed me. And so I stand
before God justified. Now you cannot see that as you
look at me. That's something we believe by
faith, that is based on God's word, God says it. But when you
look at me, you still see a sinner. Now I'm a sinner saved by grace,
but you still see the effects of sin. I'm growing old, I have
illnesses, sicknesses, and I'm going to die. Physically, in
other words, people say, well, you might stay alive until Christ
comes again. Well, this body's still gonna
die because we'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye. I
don't wanna spend eternity in glory with this physical sick
body that's growing older with sicknesses. So when he says he's
freed from sin, he's talking about his legal standing before
God in Christ. That's what salvation by grace
is all about. Now, all who are justified from
sin will in time, at God's appointed time, be liberated from sin in
the sense that they will be brought from the darkness and the deception
and ignorance of unbelief to be born again, to have spiritual
life, and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in Him. But as we exist on this earth
in our present state, we still have the remaining presence,
influence, corruption, and contamination of the flesh that we have to
fight every day. I'm righteous in Christ. but
I'm not yet righteous in myself. Now I have the Holy Spirit who
indwells me and he is God, he's the third person of the Trinity.
He's righteous, but he's not me and I'm not him. He indwells
me, he keeps me looking to Christ. He keeps me fighting my sin,
my corruptions, my sinful thoughts and sinful attitudes. He keeps
me in repentance. But you see, I still have the
sins of the flesh within me. Now that's what Paul's talking
about in Romans 7, 14 through 25. And he says in verse 14 of
Romans 7, now the same man who said he's dead with Christ and
justified, freed from sin, he says in verse 14, for we know
that the law is spiritual, which means the law reaches to the
heart, the motives, the attitudes, but I am carnal, fleshly, I'm
still in this sinful flesh. Not just this human body, but
the sins that work in this human body and sold under sin. And so that's what he's describing
in Romans 7, 14 through 25. He's describing that a believer,
a Christian, who is righteous before God in Christ, based upon
Christ's righteousness imputed, but in his present state on this
earth and will remain so until he dies, is still in a struggle
with sin within. Somebody said that the three
great enemies of the believer is the world, the flesh, and
the devil. The flesh, that's me. And so
Paul says in verse 18, now look at Romans 7 verse 18. He says,
for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. There's nothing good about my
flesh. And again, I'm not just talking about the human body.
I said this last time, the word flesh can be used in many different
contexts. Sometimes it just refers to the
bare human body. Christ had a human body, but
he was not sinful. So he was not subject to the
flesh as far as sin like you and me. So flesh is like a metaphor
for sin that is in me. Dwelleth no good thing. And he
says, for to will is present with me. What does he mean? Well,
to will to be like Christ. The will to obey God, to be good,
to be good as God is, to be holy, to have no thoughts of sin, to
have no motives, no attitude that's sinful. That to will is
in me, that's a God-given will. But he says, but how to perform
that which is good, I find not. In my present state, I have a
desire to be like Christ, but I'll tell you what, it is a struggle,
and I don't even really know how to do that. I know this,
that God will keep me and preserve me, and one day I will be like
him when I die and go to be with him. Verse 19, he says, for the
good that I would, I do not. The good that I would, he's not
talking about just human morality there. You can perform acts of
human morality. An unbeliever can perform acts
of human morality and charity. But the good that I would do,
that Paul's talking about, is the goodness that can only be
found in Christ. That kind of goodness. Perfection. Without sin. to have an attitude and a thought
that is perfectly sinless. He said, the good that I would,
I do not. I haven't made it there yet.
But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now what evil is Paul
talking about? Now Paul was not an immoral man,
even as an unbeliever he was not immoral, as the world would
judge morality. Remember, he says, touching the
righteousness of the law, a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, all of that.
He was a religious man, he was sincere, he was zealous. And
then as a believer, he certainly wasn't immoral, as far as men
judge morality. So what evil is he talking about,
the evil? that I would, but the evil which
I would not, that I do. He's talking about the fact that
he cannot be perfect in himself. He's perfect in Christ, legally,
but in himself, he falls short. The best prayers I've prayed,
the best acts of charity that I've done, still tainted, contaminated
with sin. And the only way they can be
accepted with God, you know, somebody said, well then how
does God accept any of our prayers? Or our acts of praise and worship? Or acts of kindness? How does
God accept them? There's only one way God accepts
me or anything that comes from me or done through me. And that's
washed in the blood of the Lamb. washed in the blood of Christ,
accepted in the beloved. Peter said it, acceptable, our
sacrifices, our works, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You see,
Christ is my mediator, my intercessor. And my works have no merit, but
his work is my only merit. And he pleads the blood on my
behalf continually. And then look at 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. I mentioned this last week.
Paul's not passing the buck here. He's simply saying that the problem
that I have, the source of it is my sin. And it doesn't really
define the real me. Look at verse 21. He says, I
find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. When I determine in my mind to be good, According to God's
standard of goodness, I find evil is still there plaguing
me, warring against me. He says in verse 22, for I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. Now the inward man there
is Paul's real self as pertaining to the new heart, the spirit
of life, the spiritual man. And what he's saying here is
this, that's the real me. It's just like I told you. I am right now justified before
God. I'm forgiven of all my sins.
I'm declared not guilty by God. I'm righteous in His sight in
Christ. And the reality of who I am is
the inward man, my heart of hearts, which looks to Christ and rests
in Him. And I delight in the law of God.
Now, I cannot delight in the law of God based on my works.
My works fall short. But how do I delight in the law
of God? After the inward man. And what does the inward man
do? That's the heart that looks to Christ. For with the heart,
man believeth unto righteousness. Romans 10, 10. And how do you
believe unto righteousness? Verse four of Romans 10. For
Christ is the end, the finishing, fulfillment, perfection of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. If you with the
heart believe under righteousness, you know what that means? It
means you believe in Christ as your righteousness. You're not
looking to self. You're not looking within. You're
looking to Christ. And that's how Paul says, I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. But look at verse 23. He
says, but I see another law in my members, warring against the
law of my mind. Now there's the struggle. you
say that's why this proves that Paul's talking about a save center
here because this is not a struggle that the natural man has and
the lost person has an unbeliever has unbelievers have struggles
with conscience but it's natural conscience it's not a spiritual
warfare it's a natural conscience warfare it's a societal thing
and so it's like a fear of getting caught that kind of thing or
being embarrassed or hurting ourselves or extensions of ourselves.
But he says, I see another law in my members, warned against
the law of my mind. That other law is the powerful
principle of the flesh, of sin, and it's powerful. If you're
a believer, you know that you can't get away from it. You can't
do it, you see. And somebody asks, well, why
in the world does God leave us in such a state? To show us over
and over again, to seal in our puny brains, that salvation is
all of grace. That it's all conditioned on
Christ. And that we must look to Christ
and Him alone for all salvation, all forgiveness, all righteousness,
and all glory. And that's what glorifies God.
When sinners depend on themselves or look to themselves, that dishonors
God. But when we look to Christ by
faith in Him, that honors Him. So he says, I see another law
in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Again, I can't get away from it. That's what he meant when
he says, I'm carnal, sold under sin. Now, legally, I'm free from
sin. Legally, I'm justified. Legally,
God will not charge me with my sin. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's law? He charged my sins to Christ.
Christ took my sins away, legally. He died for my sins. He justified
me, you see. He made me righteous in God's
sight, in the court of God's law and justice. But in my present
state as a sinner saved by grace, and that's what I am, I can't
get away from sin. Now I try, and I should try,
because God commands it, because Christ died for it, because I
have the spirit of God within, spiritual life, a new heart,
a new mind, new life, all of that. But I have to realize that
I'm only a sinner saved by grace. And this is my story. To God
be the glory. So here's the conclusion of the
Christian struggle with sin in these last two verses. And it
really carries on over into chapter 8, which I'll get to next week.
But he says in verse 24 of Romans 7, Oh wretched man that I am. I'm a pitiful specimen. Oh, I tell you, he says, oh,
wretched man that I am. That's what I am, the wretched
man of Romans 7, 24. And then he asked this question.
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The body
of death. Who's going to deliver me from
this flesh? Who's going to, is there any
hope then? I can't get away from it in this life. I'm in a constant
warfare. The spirit against the flesh,
the flesh lusteth against the spirit, so I cannot do the things
that I want. Is there any hope? Well, verse
25 is the hope. Look at it. I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. There you go. What is my hope? Where's any light at the end
of this dark tunnel, this life? This life, it's full of sorrow,
it's full of tears, full of pain. And if the Lord lets you live
long enough, you realize that even more and even more. I know
in our youth, we have a tendency to act like we're gonna live
forever. As my old pastor used to say, think we have the world
by the tail on the downhill slide. Things are going well, we feel
good, we enjoy life and all of that. And then we start to get
old. And it comes sooner than you
think, doesn't it? And then there's the pains and the sorrows and
the struggles. You watch your friends and your
family die. And then you begin to die yourself. This body, over in Romans 8,
10, look what it says. It says, if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin. What body is he talking about?
He's talking about this human physical body that houses our
spirits. So what is the hope that we have? And we still struggle with sin. As you get older, the struggle
with sin, I believe, you become even more aware of it. Somebody
said, well, I can't do the things I used to do, but you can think
the things you used to think. The thoughts and the desires,
you realize even more that I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
And so what's the hope? Well, Romans 8.10 says, the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit is life because of righteousness. Well, where
am I gonna find righteousness? Well, if the Holy Spirit indwells
me, if the Holy Spirit has given me life, he's going to show me
that I can only find righteousness in Christ. And that's what Paul's
saying in Romans 7.25, I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Christ is my only hope. Christ
is my life. Christ is my redeemer. He's my
righteousness. I have life because of him. He
died, was buried, and arose again. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again.
How do I know that he did that for me? Romans 8, 10, if Christ
be in you, Now how does Christ indwell His people? By His Spirit
and by His Word. Now let me tell you something
about this. People, a lot of people who claim to be Christian
today, they are sadly ignorant of the Word of God. My friend,
this Word is our life. We ought to make it our life
to study this word and to know this word. I'm not talking about
you have to know Hebrew and Greek and all of that. I'm talking
about to read and study and learn the word of God and to bow to
its testimonies. Just like I was talking about
election before. I didn't make up that word. This
is what God's word teaches. I heard a fellow on TV, on radio
the other day, talking about John 3.16. And he quoted it this
way, he said, for God so loved the elect. And then he stopped
and he said, well, now that's not what it says. It says the
world. And he was saying, well, that
means everybody without exception. Well, let me tell you something.
First of all, it does say God's elect, even not in those words.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth might not perish, but have everlasting
life. And who are those who believe?
Well, read your Bible. You know what Paul told the Thessalonians
in 1 Thessalonians 1, 4, and 5? He said, brethren, I know
your election of God because the gospel came to you not in
just word only, but in power. In other words, you were brought
to faith. So who is the world that he's talking about? He's
talking about the world of God's elect, all who come to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, that's who he's talking
about. That's what the Bible teaches. I didn't make that up. People get upset with me. I'm
only the messenger. I know for years, I claimed to
be a Christian and I hated that doctrine. But then when I started
to read and study the word of God, God the Holy Spirit changed
my mind, changed my heart. And now I love it because I know
that if God hadn't chosen me, I would have never chosen Him.
And He chose me in Christ. Well, I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. And Paul says in Romans 7, 25,
so then with the mind, with my spirit, with my heart, with my
affections, I myself serve the law of God. What does that mean,
serve the law of God? I look to Christ and rest in
Him and follow Him, but with the flesh, the law of sin. You're
not gonna improve the flesh. You're not gonna improve sin.
It's gonna remain what it always was, sin within. My sinful thoughts, sinful attitudes,
I gotta fight them. They're never gonna be improved,
but God has given me a new heart to look to Christ and rest in
Him. That's the victory over in the
Christian struggle with sin. 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
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.