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 today. I'm glad you could join us. And
it's my prayer that the Lord will help you in understanding
the scriptures as we go along through passages of scripture
in the Bible. Today, I'm going to be preaching
from the book of Romans, chapter seven, and I'm going to begin
with verse 14, Romans seven. In verse 14, the title of the
message is, The Christian Struggle with Sin. The Christian Struggle
with Sin. And this struggle with sin is
a warfare. Now this passage that I'm going
to be dealing with in a few messages, in Romans 7 verse 14, and really
which carries on through verse 25, has been a subject of debate,
controversy, and differences between professing Christians,
because there are many who do not understand what Paul was
doing in this passage, and who cannot understand that Paul is
speaking of a Christian warfare here, within the Christian struggle
the struggle with sin, with the remaining flesh, the remaining
warfare, the remaining influence, presence, influence, corruptions
of sin. And so they'll often say that
Paul in Romans 7 verses 14 through 25 is speaking of himself before
he was saved. because they cannot understand
that a Christian would have such struggles as Paul describes in
Romans 7, 14 through 25. But there are several things
that show that that is not the case. First of all, in the whole
chapter of Romans 7, the apostle Paul is describing his relationship
to the law, the law of God, before he was saved, before he was born
again, before he was stopped on the Damascus road and converted
to Christ by Christ. And then he begins to describe
the Christian's relationship to the law after he's converted. And if you wanna talk about Paul
before he was converted, before he was saved, you have to go
to Romans 7, verses 7 through 13. And that's where Paul describes
himself when he was lost in unbelief and he didn't understand the
reality of the law. And that was shown or evidenced
by the fact that he was trying to keep the law in order to be
saved. And he says he didn't know it,
but the law condemned him at that time. Remember back in Romans
seven and verse nine, he says, For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. You see, when Paul was lost in
his sins and in unbelief, when he was spiritually blind to the
reality of who he really was as a sinner, he thought that
he could keep the law and do enough to recommend him unto
God to make himself righteous And he thought he had spiritual
life based upon his deeds. But when the commandment came,
that is when the Holy Spirit showed him the reality of the
law, what the law requires, the law of God requires perfect satisfaction
to all of its precepts. That's what the law of God requires,
righteousness. And if you break that law, if
you transgress that law, if you come short of that law in any
facet of it, all that the law can do is condemn you to death,
eternal damnation. And so that's what Paul was saying
there in verse nine, when the law came, when the commandment
came, when the Holy Spirit showed me what the law required, perfect
satisfaction to its precepts, perfect satisfaction to its justice,
sin revived. What I thought was dead, sin,
now I see is alive and well in me, I'm a sinner. I come short
of the glory of God. I cannot be saved by my law keeping. And then he said, I died. he
saw that the law condemned him to death. Now, the Holy Spirit never leaves
a sinner to whom he reveals the reality of the law in that condemned
attitude. If the Holy Spirit shows you
yourself under the law as a sinner who deserves nothing but death
and hell, His purpose is always to bring that person to Christ
for salvation. And that's what Paul is describing
here in Romans chapter seven. You see, the only way that I
can stand under the law and not be condemned to death and hell
is to be found in Christ, washed in His blood. clothed in his
righteousness, imputed, charged, accounted to me. I have no other
righteousness but Christ. You understand what I'm saying?
Romans 10 and verse four. Christ is the end of the law,
the fulfillment, the finishing, the completion, the perfection
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Without
Christ, I'm condemned. But as Paul writes later in Romans
8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
spirit. And so, Paul does describe himself before his conversion
in Romans chapter seven, beginning at verse seven, going through
verse 13, but in Romans 7.14, to the end of the chapter, He talks about how a believer
within himself still stands in the law. And what he shows that
even though a believer, a child of God, a born again person,
is perfect in the eyes of God in Christ. through His blood
and righteousness, in myself, in my own person, within my own
heart, there is a struggle with sin. And sin is still present
in my life. I've told you many times on this
program that there really are only two types of people on this
earth. There are sinners who are yet
lost in their sins, and sinners saved by grace, but still sinners. Now I know that there are times
in the context of particular scriptures that when the Bible
refers to sinners, it's referring to unbelievers only. But that
does not deny the fact that in passages like what we're about
to read, that true believers are not still sinners in the
sense Not in the sense that we are unbelievers, because if we're
saved, we're believers. But even as believers, we still
fall short in our character, in our conduct, in our thoughts,
to the standard of perfect righteousness that can only be found in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as a believer, I
still have no righteousness in myself. I have the Holy Spirit
who indwells me. But I'm not the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit is not me. He indwells me, keeps me, drives
me to Christ, convicts me of sin. But in myself, I'm still
a sinner. We sing a hymn at our church,
I quote it all the time here, only a sinner saved by grace.
This is my story, to God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. Now what Paul is describing from
Romans 7, 14 through 25, is a Christian struggling in
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And what he's showing
here, somebody says, well, this is Paul before he was saved.
He's writing, you know, in Romans 7, 7 and verse, from Romans 7,
7 to verse 13, the verbs are all in the past tense, but from
Romans 7, 14 through 25, they're all in the present tense. So
Paul is saying, My past experience with this issue was in unbelief,
and I thought I was saved, but I wasn't. But in my present experience,
here I am struggling with sin within, but not condemned because
of Christ. That's what he's saying. And
the struggle that he describes, we're gonna see this as we go
through these verses in the next message, in this message and
the next message. The struggle that Paul describes
is a struggle that only a true believer could have. An unbeliever
couldn't have this kind of struggle. Now, don't get me wrong. Now,
unbelievers struggle with sin in themselves. But it's only
natural conscience. It's legal. Only a believer can
struggle in the warfare of the flesh and the spirit, the spirit
against the flesh. So let's read verse 14 of Romans
7. Romans 7 verse 14. And notice
something here in this verse. He says, for we know that the
law is spiritual. Now what does that mean? Well
that means the law reaches to the heart, friend. The law is
not just a system or a list of do's and don'ts that we can condemn
or excuse ourselves if we do this and don't do that or don't
do this and do that. Most people measure, for example,
righteousness by what they don't do. Paul described that in Colossians. when he talked about those who
are involved in the religion of taste not, touch not, handle
not. And he said that's worldliness.
Righteousness cannot be measured by what you don't do. But here's
the thing about it. Righteousness cannot be measured
by what we do do. You know how you measure righteousness?
Only by God. And God reveals righteousness,
where? In the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So if you wanna measure righteousness,
look at Christ. If you wanna see how you measure
up in righteousness, look to Christ. Compare yourself to Christ. I heard a fella say one time,
he said, well, he said, I know I'm not perfect, but I've never
done anything that deserves going to hell. Well, my friend, you're
not measuring righteousness right. The Bible says in Acts 17, 30
and 31 that God commands people to repent of that kind of thinking
because he has appointed a day Acts 17 31, he has appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained in that he has given assurance
unto all men in that he raised him from the dead. Now the law
is spiritual. The law reaches to the heart,
it reaches to the thoughts. In other words, it measures against
the righteousness of God, which is Christ. Not only what you
do or don't do, but what you think and what you don't think. It measures attitude. It measures
motives. It measures goals. You see that? The thoughts and the intents
of the heart. That's why it says the word of God is sharper than
any two-edged sword. Cuts to the quick. It judges
based upon not just what we see, But what we don't see, it's spiritual. It reaches to the heart. And
that's why Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount, in the book
of Matthew chapter five, that it's not only a sin to commit
the act of murder, it's just as sinful and damning to think
it, to be angry. It's not only a sin to commit
the act of adultery, but it's just as sinful and damning to
lust, for a woman to lust after a man or a man to lust after
a woman, or this ungodly homosexuality. You see, that's how the law works. It reaches to the heart, it's
spiritual. And that's why we have to understand
that righteousness is not something we do, and righteousness is not
something within us. Righteousness is in Christ. Christ
is my righteousness. So Paul says in verse 14, for
we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now did you hear that? Now he's
speaking present tense, just as he's sitting here and pinning
these words by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Paul says, I'm
carnal. Now that word carnal means flesh. And the word flesh
is used in various ways in the Bible. For example, the word
flesh can just mean the physical body. Now Christ himself, In
his humanity had a physical body. He's both God and man in one
person. But now his flesh was not sinful. He had no sin, knew no sin. He
was separate from sinners. The Bible says he was made of
the seed of David according to the flesh, according to the physical
nature of things. There's nothing inherently sinful
about the human body. Adam had a physical human body
before he fell. So flesh can refer to the physical
human body. But sometimes flesh is used as
a metaphor for sin. The warfare of the flesh against
the spirit. And it's a metaphor And the reason
the Bible uses that metaphor is because the human body, our
human bodies, are the vehicles through which our sinful desires
and thoughts and motives and goals are enacted. If somebody has the thought of
murder, they'll take their physical hands and they'll grab a gun
or a knife or a club or use their bare hands to kill somebody.
And so flesh is often for sin. And that's what Paul's talking
about carnal here. I'm carnal, I'm sold under sin,
a slave to sin. In other words, I cannot get
away from the inward influence, presence, influence and contamination
of sin within myself, okay? Now hold on to that thought.
Over in the book of Romans chapter eight, Paul speaks of carnality. And here, listen to what he says
here. Now, you remember in Romans 8, one, he said, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the spirit. And he says in verse five, this
is Romans chapter eight. He says, for they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. Now there, he's
using flesh as a metaphor for sin. And he's talking about unbelievers
there. They that are flesh do mind the
things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, that's
the Holy Spirit, the things of the Spirit, that's a born-again
person, that's a believer. He says in verse six, for to
be carnally minded is death. Now Paul said, I'm carnal, so
to understand. But over here he says in verse
six of chapter eight, for to be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now Paul was
talking about something completely different here in Romans eight
than he was in Romans seven. To be carnally minded is death.
What is it to be carnally minded? It means to be an unbeliever.
It's a person who does not know and believe in and trust Christ
for all salvation, for all righteousness. And generally what he's referring
to here, people who are trying to be saved by their works. When
you see this, it says to be carnally minded as death. Don't just think
of the drunk laying on the corner or the prostitute out selling
her wares or the drug pusher selling his drugs or the bank
robbers or the murderers. They are carnally minded now. But the carnal mind is also evidenced
by the false religionist. who's doing their dead level
best to keep the law in order to make themselves righteous
before God, rather than trusting Christ and believing in Him and
resting in Him for all righteousness. So to be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now, what
is it to be spiritually minded? It's to be a believer in Christ. To be spiritually minded doesn't
mean that you wear long beards and funny hats and drive buggies
or that you taste not, touch not, handle not. To be spiritually
minded is living by faith in Christ, resting in Christ. following Christ. He is my righteousness. He is my life. He is my peace. And then he says in verse seven,
because the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind
is an enemy of God. Anybody who does not believe
in Christ is an enemy of God. Did you know that? It's what
the Bible says. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. It's not subjected to the
law. You see, when Paul, when he was
an unbeliever, trying to keep the law for righteousness, he
thought he was subjected to the law, but he wasn't, he was breaking
the law. Because the law can only be fulfilled
in Christ, anything less is transgression. So he says he's not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are
in the flesh, verse eight, cannot please God, but look at verse
nine, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Now if you're
a believer, you're not in, the flesh is still in you, but you're
not in the flesh, you're not in that state, in that, you don't
have that kind of standing before God, you're in Christ, you're
in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Now the law,
right back in Romans 7, 14, the law is spiritual, Paul says,
but I'm carnal, sold under sin. Well now, let me give you this
thought. Now listen to what Paul said again. The law is spiritual,
we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, sold under sin.
How can the same man say, I am carnal, sold under sin, say as
he wrote over here in Romans 6 and verse 7, that he's dead
and freed from sin? How can he say as he did in Romans
6, 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you? You're not
under the law, but under grace. What does it mean by that? In
fact, back up there, he says in verse 11 of Romans 6, likewise
reckon, account you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Now
how can the same man say at one point, I'm dead to sin, freed
from sin, not under the dominion of sin. And then over here in
Romans 7, 14 say, I'm carnal, sold under sin, a slave to sin.
He's talking about two different things. In Romans 6, he's talking
about his legal, Forensic, objective, standing before God in Christ. Christ took away my sins. Christ paid the penalty for my
sins. My sins are not charged to me,
they were charged to Christ, imputed to Him. I'm righteous
in Christ, I'm dead to sin, sin cannot condemn me. I'm freed, I'm at liberty from
sin. It cannot condemn me. That's what I am in Christ. But in myself, as I stand here
on this earth and walk on this earth, and this will be the case
until I die and go to be with the Lord or until he comes back
again, I'm still a sinner. I'm carnal. I'm a slave to my
flesh. I can't get away from sin. My
thoughts, my attitudes, my doings, they're all tainted, contaminated
with sin because I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm not condemned. I'm justified before God. Based
on what? Based upon the imputed righteousness
of Christ. But in myself, as I walk on this
earth, A sinner saved by grace, I can't get away from sin. It
really, it mars everything I do. Even the best prayers I pray.
I'm telling you, that's why we need Christ to be our intercessor. That when we sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
Completing the merits of His blood, His righteousness. How can God accept my worship? As pitiful as it is. How can
God accept my prayers? How can God accept my efforts
to be good? Not because they're perfect.
because they're not. They're contaminated with sin.
There's only one way that God can accept me and anything that
comes from me, and that's through the blood of the Lamb of God. Do you understand that? Washed
in the blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood. There's nothing else can do it.
And so, I'm to be diligent to make efforts to do right, to
please God, Not in order to be accepted, but because I already
am in Christ. Not in order to be righteous
in God's sight for my salvation. I want to be righteous, but not
for my salvation because Christ is my salvation. So as a sinner
saved by grace, as a believer, as a born again child of God,
Listen, I'm still carnal. Listen, I'm in this human body,
and I still have sinful thoughts, sinful motives, sinful goals. I have to fight it. It's a warfare.
Paul describes that in Galatians chapter five. He says, here's
a believer. It's one who has within himself,
herself, the flesh and the spirit. And the flesh lusts against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh so that you cannot
do the things that you would. And I'll talk about that more
next time. But understand now, in Romans
7, 14 through 25, Paul's talking about his present state on earth
as a sinner saved by grace. In Romans 6, when he talks about
being free from sin, dead to sin, he's talking about his legal
standing before God in Christ. washed in His blood, clothed
in His righteousness. 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. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.