Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program this morning. Glad you could join us. I started last week preaching
on this subject, the Christian struggle with sin. And this is
part two, the Christian struggle with sin. And I'm preaching from
Romans chapter seven, beginning at verse 14, where the apostle
Paul writes, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am
carnal, sold, under sin. I'm not going to go back through
everything that I dealt with last week. I urge you, if you
didn't hear last week's message, get a copy of it and study this
passage. But I want you to understand
that from Romans 7, 14 through 25, Paul was talking about Christian
warfare with sin. Again, the Christian struggle
with sin. He's not talking about when he was an unconverted person,
an unregenerate, an unbeliever. This is all present tense and
he's describing the struggle that only a true believer can
have here. And I mentioned last week how
even unbelievers have struggles with sin, struggles with conscience,
but it's natural conscience and it's a legal conscience, it's
a condemned conscience, but only a believer can have what we call
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. Paul described that
over in Galatians chapter five. In fact, what Paul describes
in Romans 7, 14 through 25 is virtually the same. that he describes here in these
verses. This is Galatians 5, beginning with verse 13. And
let me just read through these and make some comments. He says,
for brethren, Galatians 5, 13, for brethren, you have been called
unto liberty. Now the liberty that he's talking
about there is the freedom that a believer has in Christ, Christian
liberty. And it's not liberty to sin,
it's liberty to obey in a way that's honoring to God. And he
says in verse 13, only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh. The flesh there being the sin
to fulfill the sinful desires. But by love serve one another
for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this thou
shalt love thy neighbors thyself. Now, understand that when Christ
summarized the law, he summarized it as love God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength, love your neighbors, yourself.
He's talking about the perfection of love there, not just some
degree of love that you try to attain. The law requires perfection
to its precepts summarized in love God and love our neighbor
as ourselves perfectly. And so we're destroyed, that's
how it's all summarized. He says in verse 15, but if you
bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed
one of another. And he says in verse 16, this
I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. Now to walk in the spirit, that's
the Holy Spirit, that means to walk by faith in Christ, resting
in his righteousness as the only ground of salvation, and striving
to be obedient to Him in a way that's honoring to God, motivated
by grace, love, and gratitude. And so you shall not fulfill,
go the full swing of the desires, sinful desires of the flesh.
Verse 17, now here's the struggle. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. One old preacher that I heard
years ago, he said this, he said, you cannot do the things you
would in the way of sin. In other words, you cannot go
the full measure of where the flesh, the sinful flesh would
lead you, which would be to condemnation. and death and but at the same
time while on this earth you cannot go the full measure of
perfection that you desire to be like Christ and that's the
struggle that's the warfare the flesh and the spirit now go back
to Romans 7 14 that's what Paul's describing here look at it again
verse 14 of Romans 7 For we know that the law is spiritual, the
law reaches to the heart, to the goals, to the mind, the affections,
the will, the attitudes, but I'm carnal, so to understand.
Now the carnality that Paul speaks of here is not the carnality
that he describes in Romans 8, which I dealt with last week,
get that message, which is an unbeliever, an enemy of God. Paul has been converted now.
He's a child of God, he's a friend of God. He's in Christ, he's
been washed in the blood, clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
you see. And now he's been regenerated by the Spirit, but in himself,
and in Christ, he's perfect. That's why a believer can say
this. In Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
legally, forensically, objectively, I'm perfect. in Him, but in myself,
while on this earth, in this state, walking on this earth,
and which will be so until I die and go to be with the Lord, or
until He comes back again, I'm still a sinner in myself. My best efforts are not perfect. My best prayers, my best messages
are not perfect yet. I cannot claim righteousness
in myself, I'm carnal. I'm sold under sin, I'm a slave
to my sinful passions. Now, they don't dominate me in
the sense that they can keep me away from looking to keep
me blind to what sin is and what righteousness is and who Christ
is. I've been liberated in that sense by the Holy Spirit that
now I'm not deceived. I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that He is
able, I'm not able, He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I'm looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of my faith. And I'm looking unto Him for
righteousness. I'm not looking in myself for
righteousness. Do you understand that? That's
so important. I'm not looking within to find
righteousness, because I know there's none there. I know I
have the Holy Spirit within me. but I'm not the Holy Spirit and
He's not me. He dwells in me to keep me, to
keep me looking to Christ. He continually convicts me of
sin to show me that I have no righteousness within, that my
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
You see? So, but as far as achieving,
And this is what Paul's talking about here. As far as achieving
righteousness in my thoughts, in my attitudes, in my doings,
I'm carnal. I'm sold under sin. And I'll
never rise above that in this life. Now, a lot of people would
say, well, if that's the case, then why strive for perfection
Why strive to be like Christ if you're not gonna make it in
this life? Well, there's several reasons, and here, Paul gives
them here in Romans 7. But let me just give you, number
one, God commands us to do so. Number two, Christ, if we're
saved, he died for my sins, that I might not live unto myself,
but live unto God. Number three, I have the presence
of the Holy Spirit within, who will not allow me to just take
a cavalier attitude towards sin. but inspires me to fight sin
and to strive to be like Christ. And number four, he's given me
a new heart, which is a desire to be like Christ, that I'm convicted
of my sin, I'm sorry for my sin, and I continue to repent, all
of that. But look at what Paul says. Now
let's go through some of these verses, Romans 7. He says, I'm
carnal, so to understand. What's he talking about? Well,
look at verse 15. He says, for that which I do, I allow not. I don't approve of it. What's
he talking about? Here, Paul's sitting down, and
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he's writing Romans 7, and Romans
8, and Romans 9, all this book, was used of God to write over
half the New Testament. Does he approve of that? Well,
sure he does. But what's he talking about when he says, for that
which I do, I allow not. Well, look at it. For what I
would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I. Now, what's he talking about?
He's talking about the fact that he would be perfectly conformed
to Christ. You see, If I'm a believer, if
I've been born again by the Spirit, I can say that I love Christ,
I love His word, I can say I love His people, I can even say I
love my neighbor, even my enemies. But here's what I can't do. I
cannot say in any of those areas that I love perfectly without
any contamination, without any influence of sin. I cannot say
that I love as much as Christ loved his people. I'm not there
yet. Should I strive to get there?
Yes, but not in order to be saved, not in order to be accepted with
God. I'm accepted in the beloved who
is Christ. My thoughts, even my godly thoughts,
are contaminated with self. Even my best efforts are contaminated. And that's the struggle. And
that's what Paul's saying, that which I do I allow not. I'm not
pleading, listen, I'm a praying person, I pray. But I'm not pleading
my prayers as the ground of my justification before God. My
prayers to God are not that which saves me. My prayers to God are
not that which makes me righteous. I preach, but my preaching will
not save me, will not make me righteous, will not wash away
my sins. If I perform an act of charity,
an act of kindness, I should do that. I should do more than
I do. But that will not save me or wash away my sins or make
me righteous. Why? Because what I do is not
good enough. It's still contaminated with
the remaining influence of sin. So that which I do, I allow not.
For what I would, what I would? I would be like Christ. See, this is not an unbeliever
talking. I would be like Christ, but I can't make it. But what
I hate, that do I. The sin that I hate still plagues
me. Somebody asked me one time, they
said, well, why does God leave us in such a state? I'll tell
you exactly why. So that every day that we spend
on this earth as children of God, We can be walking, living
testimonies to the fact that our salvation is totally 100%
by His grace. That's it. All conditioned on
Christ who fulfilled those conditions. That we might be reminded every
day that our only hope of salvation is God's grace in Christ. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. My friend, I'm saved by grace,
and listen to me, you out there who claim to be Christians, but
you claim you can be saved and then lost, listen to me. I'm
saved by grace, I'm kept by grace. And if I make it to heaven, it'll
be by grace. It's all of grace. It's not started
out with grace and then you keep on keeping on conditioned on
you. Do you realize what Paul's saying in these verses is this,
if salvation were conditioned on me at any stage, to any degree,
at any time, I would be lost and damned forever. And I'll tell you what, The majority
of professing Christianity today is false Christianity because
they preach salvation in some way conditioned on you and me
and not on Christ and Him alone. And that's why God leaves us
in this state so that we might testify to others that our salvation
is by grace. And I'll give you a prime example
of that. If somebody would come to me
And they say, well, Bill, I saw you do an act of charity. You gave a $20 bill to a homeless
man on the street. And if they'd say, I saw you
do that and I know you're a Christian because of that. You know, the
first thing I want to tell them is my friend, do not judge my
salvation by that. Because an unbeliever can do
that. That's true. Any religion can do that. My
salvation is not based upon my being charitable to homeless
people. Now, should I be charitable?
Yes, but that's not my salvation. My salvation is totally wrapped
up in this, that I have no other righteousness but Christ. Christ
is everything. Christ, as Paul wrote in Colossians
311, Christ is all and in all. And I cannot overemphasize that. You see, that's why our worship
services at Eager Heavenly, they're not bragging sessions on me and
the people of the church. We get up and brag on Christ.
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's what Paul wrote in Galatians
6, 14. We don't have anything to be
proud of except Christ. And so you understand what I'm
saying. Now look at verse 16, this is Romans 7. He says, if
then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that
it is good. Now, if I do not measure up in
anything that I do or don't do to perfect righteousness, I'm
not gonna blame the law. I'm not gonna say, well, the
law's bad. You know, a lot of people will tell, I've heard
people say this, when I preach about how God requires perfection,
and they'll come back and they'll say, well, that's not fair. That's
not just. Well, first of all, let me tell
you something. The God of the Bible, the only true and living
God, he can command and require no less than perfection because
of who he is. If God could say that I can accept
the best you can do, whether it's perfect or not, He wouldn't
be God. God is holy, my friend. God is
perfection. There is no taint of sin in Him. If He is God, He can require
nothing less than perfection. And secondly, the problem is
not with God's requirement. The problem's with us. We're
sinners. And so Paul says, if I do that
which I would not, if I do things that I don't want to do, in the
spirit that is, I can send them to the law, it's good. The problem's
not with God and His law. It's good. That's it. The law requires nothing less
than what is good. But then he says in verse 17,
he says, now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. The problem is my sin. Now, let
me caution you on this because a lot of people go astray here.
Paul says, now then it is no more I that do it. Well, Paul,
are you passing the buck? Are you saying I'm not responsible
for this problem? I'm not responsible for what
I do and don't do? Some kind of entity or person,
another person inside of me. You know, there are people who
go that way. They say, you've heard of the two natures theory. That a believer has two natures,
one person with two natures. One's a holy nature and the other
nature is a sinful nature. And that Paul would be saying
that, that it's no more I that do it. but it's the sinful nature
in me. Well, here's the thing about
it. I know a lot of people who say,
well, we believe a believer has two natures and I don't mind
that. I don't particularly like that term because that nature
term is a slippery slope. It's hard to define and it's
not scriptural, the term that is. A believer is a person who
has two desires. One desire is natural, and it's
sinful. The other desire is holy. Now, I'm not saying perfect,
I'm saying holy by the way of meaning separate. And it's supernatural. It's given him by the Spirit.
A believer, for example, has a desire to honor God. But then he has a desire to honor
self. And those two desires are struggling.
Now, if you want to call that two natures, that's all right
with me, but be careful there. But this is not like Paul saying,
well, I've got another person, a sinful person inside of me
running around doing nothing but sin. And then I've got a
righteous person inside of me who does nothing but righteous.
That's not the case. What I believe Paul was saying
here when he says, now then it is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwells in me, is what he's saying in this realm is
this. I am a child of God, that's what
Paul's saying. I'm a sinner saved by grace,
and the fact that I cannot measure up, in my doings, in my character,
in my conduct, the fact that I'm still a sinner and that I
do that which I would not, does not define the real me, the real
I, who I really am. And I would say that to you.
Somebody said, well, I'm a believer, but I'm nothing but sin. Now,
hold on. A believer is a child of God
who has a desire to follow Christ. It's not a perfect desire, but
that's a desire put there by the Holy Spirit. And it's not
that the Holy Spirit puts anything in us that's not perfect, it's
that when it comes through us, it is contaminated with the flesh. If you wanna know the real me,
here's the real me, not just a sinner, I am a sinner. But
I'm a sinner saved by grace. And my sin doesn't define me.
You know what defines me? The grace of God in Christ. My
salvation in Christ. I'm washed in His blood. I'm
clothed in His righteousness. You can't see that. What you
see is less than perfect. Much less. Way less. But you see, the real me. And
he goes on to define it. Look at verse 18. He says, for
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. A person asked me one time, said,
well, do you believe when the Holy Spirit gives you the new
birth that he improves the flesh? Well, you can't improve the flesh.
The flesh is sin here. Sin is always sin. He says, for
to will is present with me. He says, to will, to will to
be like Christ. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. Here's our state as believers. I want to be like Christ, perfect,
but I don't even know how to do that. I strive for it, not
to be saved, but because I already am. And you know, John, the Apostle
John stated basically the same thing in 1 John 3 when he said,
he said, beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be.
We don't even realize, you know, I've heard people ask, well,
what's it gonna be like? What are we gonna be like when
we go to be with Christ? Don't know. I know we'll be perfect,
there'll be no tears, there'll be no sin, there'll be no sorrow.
But it doesn't yet appear what we shall be, but we know that
when he's come, we'll be like him. We'll see him as he is,
we'll be like Christ. So he says, how to perform that
which is good, I find not. Verse 19, he says, for the good
that I would, I do not. Now see, this is one of the passages,
one of the verse that says that he's talking about a believer
here. A good, the good himself as a believer. The good that
I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. What is the good that he would
do? To be perfectly conformed to Christ. What is the evil? To be less than that. Verse 20. Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now
again, Paul's not passing the bug. He's not relinquishing his
own responsibility. He's simply saying, here's the
source of the problem. It's sin that dwells in me. And what is sin that dwells in
him? It's not a germ. It's not an amoeba. It's not
an organ. Sin that dwells in us is sinful
desires, sinful goals, sinful motives, sinful attitudes. That's what believers have to
fight every day of our lives. The warfare of the flesh and
the spirit. And we wouldn't fight that fight if it weren't for
the inward presence of the spirit within. That's what Galatians
5 taught. The spirit lusteth against the flesh. If we didn't
have the Holy Spirit who gave us life within, we wouldn't struggle
like this. Now we'd struggle with conscience,
but not like this. This is the Christian struggle
with sin. The Christian warfare. So he
says it's sin. And verse 21, now here's another
verse that proves he's talking about himself as a born again
person. I find in a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. Verse 22, for I delight in
the law of God after the inward man. Now there's a law, a principle,
a powerful principle, that when I would do good, evil's present
with me. What is that powerful principle?
It's the principle of sin. It's the contamination, the corruption,
the influence, the presence of sin. And I can't get away from
it. It's a powerful principle. It's
a law. So that when I would do good, when I determine in my
mind to do that which is good and perfect and righteous, evil's
always there. Evil's present with me. And I
can't get away from it. So he says, but now verse 22,
now here's his heart of hearts. Here's the new heart. This is
the expression of the regenerate heart. Now, he says, I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. The inward man is his heart. It's what you don't see. As I
said the other day, or a while ago, when you look at me, you
see something that is way, someone who's way less than perfect.
But you don't see the real me. the inward heart, the new heart,
which rests in Christ, which clings to the grace and the mercy
of God for salvation, and who delights in the law of God. Now,
how can I delight in the law of God when it convicts me of
sin? As I look to Christ for all salvation,
for all righteousness, and rest in Him. Hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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at 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.