Well, as we will look together
into God's Word, I want to begin by saying just how thankful I
am that your pastor, Austin Duncan, Dr. Austin Duncan, has invited
me to be able to speak tonight. And it's always a privilege and
a very special opportunity for me to be at Crossroads And this
speaks volumes of your love for the Lord and your commitment
to Christ that on a Friday night after a long day of work and
battling the Friday afternoon traffic that you would come back
up here knowing you're going to be here on Sunday as well,
to be here to look together with me into the Word of God. And
so my desire, my prayer for you is that God will greatly edify
you and build you up as we look into a passage of Scripture tonight,
that as you leave at the end of the evening, that you'll not
be the same as when you walked in, that you will be more like
Jesus Christ as a result of this time we'll spend together in
this passage. This summer series, the super
study, is entitled Sin and Temptation. And last week, you heard of the
origin and effect of sin. And so, what has been assigned
to me is the depth and deceit of indwelling sin. Now, for our
time together as we look together in the Word, I want you to take
your Bible and turn with me to the book of Romans. I want you
to turn with me to Romans chapter 7. And tonight, I want us to
look at verses 14 through 25. And I've put a title on this
message that is slightly different than what was advertised, though
it will be the very same truth. I'm calling this, The Battle
Within, because within every Christian, within every believer,
there is a battle within. between the new person you have
become in Jesus Christ and your old sinful flesh. And it is a clash. It is a great
conflict that goes on inside of us. And this is one way that
we know that we're a true believer. Because before we were converted
and before we came to faith in Christ, there was not this conflict
that went on. We were just going according
to the course of this world. Our conscience was tapping the
brakes a little bit, but there was full speed ahead as we were
pursuing sin. But when we became converted
to Christ, when we were born again, God put a new nature inside
of us and He has put His Holy Spirit inside of us, yet there
is sinful flesh that remains. And there is this battle that
takes place inside of us and it is necessary that we fight
for holiness. that we engage in this battle
for godliness. The Bible does not teach let
go and let God. The Bible teaches that we must
buffet our body and make it our slave. The Bible teaches that
we must flee immorality. The Bible teaches that we must
resist the devil. And it is incumbent upon us to
fight this good fight for personal purity. and godliness. So in Romans chapter 7 beginning
in verse 14, I want to read the passage that we will be looking
at all the way to the end of the chapter and in my New American
Standard Bible sitting right on top of verse 14, the editors
have added these words, the conflict of two natures. And that's really
what this passage is about. And it is the conflict inside
of each and every one of us between our new man and the old man. So I want to begin reading in
verse 14, and as we were singing, I just happened to remember that
Dr. MacArthur told me that fifty
years ago when he came here to first preach in view of a call
to preach. this was his very text. He preached
Romans chapter 7 and he said he preached for almost an hour
and a half. And when he got in the car and
was driving back, Patricia said to him, have you lost your mind? They'll never call you to be
the pastor of this church. But it speaks volumes of Dr. MacArthur's commitment to the
Word of God to preach even the hard sayings of the Apostle Paul,
even when it was in view of a call. So let's look at this, Romans
chapter 7, I want to begin reading in verse 14, this is God's inspired,
inerrant and infallible Word. The Apostle Paul is the writer,
and Paul says, for we know that the Law is spiritual. But I am
of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do
not understand. For I am not practicing what
I would like to do, but I'm doing the very thing I hate. For if
I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the
law, confessing that the law is good. So now, no longer am
I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that
nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present in
me, but the doing of good is not. For the good that I want,
I do not do. But I practice the very evil
that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing
I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it but sin which
dwells in me. I find then the principle that
evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully
concur with the law of God in the inner man." But I see a different
law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of
my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in
my members. Wretched man that I am, who will
set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then on the one hand, I myself
with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other with
my flesh, the law of sin." Admittedly, these are difficult verses to
even understand, and tonight I want us to give careful thought
to these verses. The theme or the main idea of
these verses is Paul's ongoing struggle with sin as a believer
in Jesus Christ. This is very significant. Paul
in these verses is not describing his life before he became a Christian. That was in verses 7 through
13. Now as a believer, beginning
in verse 14, Paul talks about his struggle with sin. And no
place else is Paul so transparent with us. No place else in his
thirteen epistles does Paul pull back the veil and be so brutally
honest with us about the turmoil and the turbulence that is within
his own soul as he is pursuing holiness and as he is fighting
for godliness in his life. And what makes this so significant
is that arguably Paul is the greatest Christian who has ever
lived. It could well be said that the strongest believer in
Jesus Christ who ever walked this earth was the Apostle Paul. And yet we read in these verses
that Paul, as the strongest believer, nevertheless had this struggle
with sin. How much more so for you and
me as we live our Christian lives? In an argument from the greater
to the lesser, if the Apostle Paul had such an ongoing battle
within his soul to resist sin and to pursue godliness, if Paul
experienced this, then how much more so will you and I find ourselves
in the midst of this conflict? Now, as Paul writes this, he
is not only a believer, he is a mature believer in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was converted
some twenty years earlier than the time he wrote the book of
Romans. Paul has been walking with the Lord for some twenty
years, for two decades. And the fight is still there.
The conflict, in fact, is only growing stronger, not weaker,
as a mature believer in Jesus Christ. In fact, the closer we
draw to the Lord, the more aware we are of sin in our lives. God is light and in Him there
is no darkness at all. And the closer we draw to the
light, the more we see our own imperfections, do we not? And
when we are more distant from the Lord, that is when we really
are more in tune to the world and more in tune to just our
own agenda and we become less sensitive to sin in our lives. Let me give you three verses,
and this is just by way of introduction. But Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
15 verse 9, I am the least of the apostles. He wrote that in
55 AD. In Ephesians 3 and verse 8, Paul
says, I am the least of all the saints. So, as he is further
down the road, six years later, after he says, I'm the least
of all the apostles, Paul writes, no, it's worse than that. I'm the least of all the saints.
But then two to four years later, in 1 Timothy 1 verse 12, Paul
says, I am the chief of sinners. The longer he's walking with
the Lord and the closer he is drawing to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the more aware he is of sin in his own life and the battle that
he must fight for personal holiness and godliness. And so, as Paul
grew spiritually, he also grew increasingly aware of sin in
his own life. The same will be true in your
life and in my life as well. Those among us here tonight who
are truly pursuing the Lord will have the highest degree of sensitivity
to sin in our own lives. So, having said that, let's now
begin to look at this passage, and I have six headings that
I want to set before you, and if you're a note-taker tonight,
it'll be very easy to follow this outline. As we begin looking
at verse 14, the first thing that I want you to note is the
conflict. And that becomes immediately
apparent that there is a conflict, there is a storm that is raging
inside of the Apostle Paul as a true believer, and it is the
conflict that he faces Between he's being pulled in one direction,
I love God, I want to obey the Word of God, but he's also being
pulled in another direction by his sinful flesh and there is
this clash that is going on inside of the Apostle Paul. So he begins
in verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual. Why does he say that? Well the
reason he says this is the problem is not with the Law. The problem
is with Paul and what's going on inside of Paul. The Law is
very good. The Law is very spiritual. In fact, he will say two verses
earlier in verse 12, if you'll note, he says, the Law is holy. and the commandment is holy and
righteous and good." So, one thing that Paul wants us to know
is that the law of God is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. That
is not the problem in his spiritual life. And let me just give you
a footnote at this point. Do you note how the law still
plays a part in the life of a believer and in the life of a Christian?
Do you know that the moral law of God is succinctly summarized
in the Ten Commandments? is still binding upon our Christian
lives. I mean, we, too, are to have
no other gods before us. We, too, are not to craft a graven
image. We, too, are not to take the
name of the Lord our God in vain. And while the Sabbath restrictions,
I believe, have been fulfilled at the cross, nevertheless, the
Lord's Day on Sunday is the most important day of the week for
us as believers because that is when the people of God gather
together and worship the Lord. But we too are to honor our father
and mother, and we too are not to bear false witness, and we
are not to steal, and we are not to commit adultery, and we
are not to covet our neighbor's possessions or our neighbor's
wife. Throughout this entire chapter
of Romans 7, Paul as a believer in the New Testament times is
affirming the place of the law of God in the life of the believer. And the law has a place in your
life as well, brothers and sisters, that we would live under the
authority and the direction of what God requires of us in the
law. But in verse 14, but we know
that the law is spiritual, he says, but I am of flesh sold
into bondage. And Paul now writing autobiographically. talking about his personal life,
his secret life with the Lord, his own, what's going on inside
of his soul. He says, I am of flesh. Would you please note the verb
tense, I am. He doesn't say, I once was. Right
now, present tense, in Paul's life, twenty years down the road
as a believer, he is of flesh. Now, that does not mean he's
in the flesh. If he was in the flesh, he would
be an unbeliever. But He is simply of the flesh,
which means there are still fleshly desires in Paul as a believer. They haven't gone away. Before
he was a believer, those fleshly desires dominated his life. and ruled his life and were the
master of his life. But once he became a Christian,
he received a new master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus
Christ now is Lord of his life. These sinful fleshly desires
are no longer the master over him. but they nevertheless remain
in him." We could put it this way, they once were president
of his life, now they're merely present in his life. And so Paul
says that he also in verse 14 that he is sold into bondage. to sin. Now let me tell you what
that does not mean. It does not mean that he's living
in sin, and it does not mean that he's living to sin, and
he's not living for sin, but he is living under sin. And the preposition there, to,
can be translated under. In fact, if you have an ESV translation
in your Bible, it is actually translated under sin. And the idea, and it's also in
the King James Version in that translation, the idea as a believer,
Paul is saying, I still am under the influence of sin. in my life. And what was true
of Paul is true of you and me still as believers. Now, he continues
in verse 15, for what I am doing I do not understand. There is a confusion about Paul
as he looks at his own life and he is saying, I'm confused about
why I still sin as a believer. Why do I love God and love Christ
so much, and yet why do I still trip and fall into sin? Why do I still give in to temptation? And so Paul continues to layer
this out with us. And in verse 15 in the middle,
he says, for I'm not practicing what I would like to do. In other
words, I want to live one way. Yet so often I find myself living
another way. He says, but I am doing the very
thing that I hate. That's what makes it so difficult
for Paul. It's not that he's indifferent
to sin. He hates sin because it was sin that nailed Jesus
to the cross. It is sin that is an affront
to the holiness of God. Paul hates sin even in his own
life. And yet he finds himself still
sinning, still doing the very thing that I hate. And by the
way, that is one evidence that you're truly a Christian and
truly a believer is that you do hate sin in your life. It's a mark of an unbeliever
who loves sin. No, Paul says, I'm doing the
very thing that I hate. And so, Paul's being very transparent.
Paul's being very brutally honest with us about his struggle with
sin. Look at verse 16, but if I do
the very thing I do not want to do, that's a reference to
sin. the sin that he hates. But if
I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the
law." You see, the law still has a front line ministry in
the life of the Apostle Paul. I agree with the law, confessing
that the law is good because it is the law that is telling
Paul...the law is revealing sin in Paul's life. That's one of
the primary functions of the law is to reveal sin in our life. Verse 17, so now no longer am
I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Now that's not
double talk and Paul is not negating his responsibility to obey the
Lord. Paul hasn't fallen into some
kind of dualism when he sins and says, well that's really
just not me. What he means by this is when I sin, that's not
coming from my new nature. That's not coming from the new
Paul. That's not coming from my new
disposition and love for God. It's coming from my sinful flesh
that is still in me. And throughout this section,
Paul will identify this principle of sin that remains in him in
six more different ways. And if you just want to let your
eye go down the page with me, in verse 18, it's just referred
to as my flesh. And in verse 21, it's the principle
of evil. In verse 23, it's a different
law. In verse 23, it's the law of
sin which is in my members. In verse 24, it's the body of
this death. And in verse 25, it's the law
of sin. Those are all saying the same
thing, just in different ways of this sinful flesh that Paul
still wrestles with. So, in verse 18, Paul continues
to unfold this, and he says, for I know that nothing good
dwells in me, and he needs to qualify that. That is in my flesh,
this remaining sinful flesh. There is nothing good in my sinful
flesh. And the only thing that's good
about me is the new person, the new nature that God has created
and put inside of me. That is what is good. But in my flesh, it's still rotten. It's still defiled. It's still
depraved. And that's why when we go to
heaven, God will eradicate this sinful flesh and all that will
remain is the new person that we have become in Jesus Christ. And that is why we will never
sin again in heaven because our sinful flesh will be finally
removed from us. So in verse 18, look at it again,
"'For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.'"
And I want to say the same to you tonight. There is nothing
good in your sinful flesh. Your sinful flesh is your enemy. You have an enemy that's living
inside of you. It's not just the devil and it's
not just the evil world system that's our problem. It's much
closer. We have three great enemies,
the world, the flesh, and the devil. But it is the flesh that
actually is inside of us and is contrary to the purposes of
God for our lives. So look at verse 18 again, "'For
I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.'"
Listen, that's not just Paul's testimony, that's your testimony.
That's my testimony here tonight, if you're a believer in Jesus
Christ. And even if you're not a believer, your flesh is filthy
rotten, and it's the cause of all your trouble. He says, for
the willing is present in me, meaning this willing is desires
for purity, desires for practical righteousness. The willing is
present in me, but the doing of the good is not. What Paul is saying is the truth
that you and I need to understand tonight, that I have a desire
to follow Christ in such a way that it will honor Him and glorify
Him, but I do not have the ability in and of myself to fulfill that
desire. And we'll talk about at the end
of this message just how it is that as a believer we will be
able to fulfill what is the desire within our heart. But we desire
that which we do not have the ability to fulfill. So this is the conflict that's
raging inside of Paul. And it is the conflict that is
raging inside each and every one of us here tonight. who is
a true believer in Christ. And if this battle is raging,
you might be assuming, well, I guess I'm not a Christian. No, the fact that the battle
is raging is actually an indication that you are a Christian because
you now have this new nature and this new desire that did
not previously exist in your life. And so, it is the conflict. that actually confirms that we
belong to the Lord. None of us can live the Christian
life in our own strength. And that is what Paul is saying
in verse 18. Well, we need to press on, not
only the conflict But I want you to note in verse 19 to 21,
the contradiction. But Paul recognizes that he's
just a walking contradiction, that he says he's a believer
and yet he still sins. What a contradiction that is.
And so, please note, beginning in verse 9, for the good that
I want, and that good is obedience to the law of God from the heart.
That good is personal holiness and practical righteousness.
This good is an internal godliness. For the good that I want, I do
not do, at least not always. He says, but I practice the very
evil that I do not want. Can a Christian commit evil? Well, the answer is yes, and
Paul acknowledges that in his own life he does the evil that
he does not want to do. So he says in verse 20, but if
I am doing the very thing I do not want. I am no longer the
one doing it, but sin which dwells in me." You see, sin still lived
in Paul's life. And sin had not moved out. Sin
remained in Paul's life. It just was no longer ruling
and dominating his life. There's a new master now, Christ,
who is dominating his life, but sin is still in the house. Sin
is still in his fleshly body. Sin is still a present threat
on the inside of Paul, and Paul acknowledges this to us in order
to help us. And someone may say, well, no,
no, no, Paul's not a believer as he is saying this. Well, I
want to remind us all tonight where Romans chapter 7 fits into
the whole book of Romans. This is not in chapters 1, 2
and 3 when Paul is talking about the condemnation of the human
race and the total depravity of the human race. This is placed
right smack dab in the middle of Paul's treatise of sanctification
and what it is to grow in personal godliness. And we say in Bible
study, context is so important. Where is a passage of Scripture
found in that particular book in the Bible? And as Paul is
talking about the Christian life, Romans 6 is obviously about the
Christian life, Romans 8 is obviously about the Christian life, and
here is Romans 7 right in the middle of Paul's discussion. In fact, it's his major treatise
in the entire New Testament on what it is to live the Christian
life. It's important for us that we understand this because sometimes
we give a new believer the idea that, well, now that you're a
Christian, all your problems are gone. Now that you're a Christian,
you're never going to struggle with sin again. And now that
you're a Christian, you're in the fast lane. You're home free. All of struggling or being caught
up in sin, that's all behind you. Nothing could be further
from the truth. Paul is telling it like it is. Paul is a straight shooter. Paul
is a straight-talking Bible teacher and preacher. And Paul is making
himself vulnerable even as he shares this, that, no, I'm still
not living the way that I want to live and I still have this
ongoing battle with sin in my life. You know, doctors will
tell us a right diagnosis is half the cure. If you can't even
diagnose the problem, you're surely never going to get the
right medicine. And Paul is giving us the accurate diagnosis of
what troubles our Christian lives, and it's not our environment,
it's what's on the inside of us, it is sin. So look at verse
21, he says, I find then the principle, and when he says principle,
he's referring to a governing principle in his life. He's talking
about an operating rule that's very active in his life. He's
talking about an inflexible law. I find then the principle, verse
21, that evil is present in me. Wow. This word evil means wickedness.
This word evil means that which is defiling and destructive. And please note the verb tense,
he says, is present in me. He's talking about his present
experience as a believer after being a Christian for twenty
years. He's already written four other
New Testament books. The book of Romans is his fifth
New Testament epistle to write, and he's still in this struggle
with sin in his life. And he says, it's in me. It's
not there on the surface of my life. It's down in the very depth
of my being. He says, the one who wants to
do good. I mean, what a...what a powerful
clash. What a powerful confrontation
is going on inside of him. He wants to do good, and yet
evil. still lurks and lives within. This is the contradiction. This same contradiction exists
in each and every one of us here tonight who is a believer in
Jesus Christ. There's not a one of us here
tonight who's any better than the Apostle Paul. If it's true
of Paul, It's going to be true of all the foot soldiers in God's
army. If it's true of one of the leading
generals, it's going to be true in our life as well. Now, I want
you to note third, the clarification. In verse 22 and 23, Paul will
now explain more carefully what he has been saying. So, we've
gone from the conflict. to the contradiction, now the
clarification. Notice the first word in verse
22, for. And the word for always introduces
an explanation. He wants to explain what he just
said. Paul is a master teacher and
he is following up now these statements to further clarify
what it is he is saying. And so in verse 22 he says, There's no reluctance on Paul's
part here. He says, I joyfully concur with
the law of God in the inner man. Paul says, there's no disagreement
on my part with what the teaching of the Bible is. There's no disagreement
on my part with what the law of God is saying and revealing
in my life," and he says in the inner man at the end of verse
22, meaning this is down in the epicenter of his soul. He is in agreement with what
the law of God is saying to him that he must do this, but he
can't measure up and always do this. And so he says in verse
23, but, and now he's going to identify the problem, but I see
a different law in the members of my body. It's radically different. It
is in total contradistinction. It could not be any more polarized. It's as far as the East is from
the West. They're not even close together. There is this part of Paul that
wants to live in a way that obeys the Word of God from the heart,
brings glory and honor to God. It is pure. It is pristine. But then on the other side, it
couldn't be any more on the other end of the spectrum. This different
law, this different principle, this different governing rule
in his life that is so unholy and so despicable. So he says, but I see a different
law in the members of my body. The members of his body, he's
speaking with an analogy. He's speaking metaphorically.
He is referring to His mind, His heart, His eyes, His ears,
His hands, His feet, that every part of His being is affected
by this different law. And would you note in the middle
of verse 23, it says, What a fierce campaign is being
fought on the battlefield of Paul's soul. It's waging war,
and it's in the present tense, meaning it's an ongoing assault
that is being waged within him against the law of my mind. And the law of his mind refers
to his new mind with his new perspective, with his new eyes
with which he sees truth, with his new heart that he desires
to walk the narrow path, with the new feet that run to please
God, with the new ears that love to hear the Word preached. with the new mouth that he loves
to tell others about Jesus Christ. This different law is waging
war against my mind. And here's the after effect in
the middle of verse 23, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin. Wow! Paul's doing anything but
coasting into glory. Paul's doing anything but just
going with the flow in his Christian life. Paul is being met with
resistance from within himself. as he seeks to advance and to
progress and move forward. And it is this different law
in the members of my body that are making me a prisoner. And the idea there is that is
luring me and leading me away from the will of God and pulling
me away from the Word of God. And he says, it's as though I'm
under this influence in my life, which he identifies in verse
23 as the law of sin, what he mentioned earlier in this very
verse. And when he says law, the word
law here in this case is referring to a a powerful principle inside
of Paul, a regulating rule inside of Paul. He says, which is in my members. You'll note, is is in the present
tense. This fight has not gone away.
It continues to be a present reality in Paul. And when he
says, in my members, please note that members is in the plural.
I hope it's in the plural in your translation. And the idea
here is that every body part of Paul is under an influence
from sin. His eyes still want to look at
that which is sinful. His ears still feel something
when he hears something that's sinful. His feet are pulled where
they ought not to be going. All of the different members
of his body are still affected by sin. The same is true in your
life. I mean, you can't have a Pollyanna
view of your Christian life. that it's just all living for
God without any spiritual warfare. There is spiritual warfare. And
the warfare is not always just from the outside, from the devil
and the world. The spiritual warfare also is
being waged within our very soul on the inside. And so, Paul He has written this so that we
can understand ourselves. Paul has put himself out in this
very transparent way. so that as we look at this, this
is like a mirror and we see ourselves. This is like looking at an x-ray
of our own soul to see what's on the inside of us because the
same thing was on the inside of the greatest Christian who
ever lived, the Apostle Paul. And so, this is the clarification
that Paul wants to make. Now, all this builds to the last
two verses, and just hang with me a couple more minutes because
this leads now to the crisis. And verse 24 is the crisis. Paul says, "'Wretched man that
I am.'" Now, today we would say, Paul, you need to go to a Christian
counselor. You just have such a poor self-image. You're just
too hard on yourself, Paul. Paul, you're just kind of beating
yourself up. Paul, you need to listen to Joel
Osteen. You need to be a little more positive about your life. I mean, what kind of talk is
this, Paul? I mean, you're supposed to be
walking on the sunny side of Hallelujah Avenue. No, Paul, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit can only tell us the truth. And Paul tells
us, I'm a wretched man. Now, twenty years down the road
as a believer, Paul is not sinless, but he does sin less. It's a part of growing as a believer.
He's not sinning as much as he once did. He has a heightened sensitivity
and a heightened awareness of lesser sin in his life because
Paul's not comparing himself with his friends. Paul's not
comparing himself with John Mark or Silas or John Mark or Barnabas
or Luke Paul is comparing himself to the absolute holiness of Almighty
God. And Paul is like Isaiah. When
Isaiah saw the holiness of God, and Isaiah may have been the
strongest Christian in all of Israel. When Isaiah saw the holiness
of God, Isaiah said, woe is me for I'm ruined. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. And
I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of glory." This is how Peter responded when
Peter saw Christ for who He is. Peter said, "'Depart from me,
Lord, I'm a sinful man. I've never been so aware of sin
in my life as when I'm standing in the immediate presence of
infinitely perfectly holy God.'" That's what Paul is experiencing
here. He has never been more aware
of sin in his own life than this very moment as he is now 20 years
down the narrow path with Paul and growing closer and closer
and closer to him who is the light of the world. And there
is now being revealed in his life things that he has never
seen before. There is a knowledge of self
that Paul is now receiving of which he was naive and unaware
years earlier. Paul is now realizing how self-absorbed
and self-centered. He really is. And so, Paul says, wretched man
that I am because he realizes my Christian life does not measure
up to what God desires for me. Paul was not a hyper-grace Christian
that it just really doesn't matter how I live my Christian life.
Every sin is forgiven. I can just live however I want
to live. That's fool's talk. Now, Paul is saying the very
opposite. And this is the man who just in chapter 5 or in the
first verse of chapter 8 will say, there is now therefore no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In chapter 5
verse 1, he says, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Yeah, Paul understands his sins
have all been forgiven, but that doesn't give him a free pass
to live however he wants to live. And he is crushed on the inside
when he doesn't live as God would have him to live. And so, he
says, wretched man that I am. The word wretched means one who
is afflicted and one who is miserable. How can Paul be filled with joy
when he is seeing that which is unholy in his own life? He asks this question, who will
set me free from the body of this death? Paul realizes he
cannot set himself free. Someone outside of him must set
him free. Someone who is greater than he
is must deliver him from this influence of sin in his life,
and this is the crisis within Paul's life. This is the crisis
in your life and in my life as well as a believer. And you say, wow, this seems
like a sad way to live the Christian life. No, it's the total opposite. There cannot be true joy in our
life as long as we are cavalier about sin in our life. So Paul's crisis is our crisis and it was not unique and it's
not unique to Paul because it is our experience. We'll look
at verse 25 and we'll wrap this up. What a powerful passage of
Scripture this is. I want you to note number five,
the celebration. At the beginning of verse 25,
in the midst of this conflict and in the midst of this crisis,
Paul bursts forth with praise for God. He says, thanks be to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And he gives thanks to
God because God is the one who has and will set him free from
the law of sin. It is through sending of His
Son, Jesus Christ, to be the one who will deliver us from
the power and the pollution of sin in our life. And Paul is
so emphatic in stressing the Lord Jesus Christ. Please note
in verse 25, he gives all three names, Jesus Christ our Lord. When my father wanted to get
my attention, he would say, Stephen James Lawson. That caught my
ear. And Paul is wanting to catch
our ear. Jesus is His saving name. Christ is His strong name. Lord is His sovereign name. Paul
is directing us to the Lord Jesus Christ who alone has delivered
us already from the penalty of sin, that's justification, who
is now in the process of delivering us from the power of sin, that's
sanctification, and one day will deliver us from the very presence
of sin, that is glorification. And it is all being accomplished
through the Lord Jesus Christ who has gone to the cross and
has taken our sin upon Himself and has shed His blood and has
won the great victory on our behalf that we would be victorious
over sin. It's just that It hasn't all
yet the reality of that come into play in our lives. But the
day is coming, my friend, when there will be no longer the law
of sin within you and the glory of being in heaven before the
Father, never to be tempted again, never to have a selfish thought
again, never to have any sinful urge within us. And it is all
through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul will
spend the rest of Romans chapter 8 unfolding for us the application
of the death of Christ on our behalf, and the focus will be
upon the Holy Spirit of God. whom God has given and placed
within us to enable us to do what we cannot do in and of ourselves,
even as a Christian. You remember Jesus said in John
15 verse 5 to His disciples, apart from Me, you can do nothing.
You can't even take one step forward in your discipleship
and following of Christ in and of yourself. Even as one who
is born again, we are totally, completely dependent upon the
grace of God to enable us to live in a manner that the Lord
would have us to live. And that comes through loud and
clear in this chapter. Now, the last heading I want
to give you, and this is very important, is the second half
of verse 25. This is number 6. And it is the
continuation. And as I look at the end of verse
25, he says, so then on the one hand I myself with my mind am
serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh the law
of sin. Here's what should leap into
our mind right now. Paul, why didn't you just stop
the chapter after thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ?
That was the crescendo of the orchestra. You should have just
ended there on a high note with victory and triumph through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why would you keep writing? Why
would you add this at the end of verse 25 and go back into
this tug-of-war on the inside of me? And between the law of
God and the law of sin. And the reason is obviously this,
the struggle is not yet over. As long as we are walking this
earth and in this life and in this mortal body, the struggle
goes on, the battle goes on, and it will go on to the very
end of our life. And so Paul ends Verse 25, and
ends this whole chapter of Romans 7 with a note of sobering reality, that this will be our ongoing
battle within us. So look what he says, so then,
and that just draws this to conclusion, on the one hand, I myself with
my mind am serving the law of God. Christ is my master and I am
the slave and I am serving as a slave the law of God joyfully
from the heart. Romans 6, 17 says that we obey
from the heart now because we have a new heart. Paul says,
but, at the end of verse 25, but on the other hand with my
flesh the law of So, beloved, this is where we live. This is the reality
of our Christian life, that we have to fight the good fight
for holiness. So, as I bring this to conclusion,
I want to give you three words. Three words to put this into
practice. Number one is the word recognize.
You and I must recognize the truthfulness of these verses. We must recognize that this conflict
is real. It's not imaginary. We must recognize that it is
ongoing, it never ceases, no matter how long you've been a
Christian. We must recognize that it is internal, it's being
fought within us. We must recognize that it is
fierce. This is a major conflict that
we must recognize that it is escalating. It's only building
and we must recognize how destructive it is because it causes us to
still sin. You and I must recognize this
tonight. We must have an accurate understanding and an accurate
assessment of what this contributes to how we view our own Christian
life. And without recognizing what
is in these verses, we will never understand what our real problem
is. That's number one. Number two is repentance. As God the Holy Spirit makes
us aware of sin in our life, as our conscience makes us aware
of sin, we must be immediate repenters in our life. We must
confess our sin, 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, He
is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Oh, the mercy and the grace of
God in Jesus Christ to wash away. Every sin. Isaiah 1 verse 18,
"'Come, let us reason together,' says the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be white as wool. There is a
fountain that is filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's
veins, and sinners plunge within that flood, lose all their guilty
stains. And as we are aware of sin in
our life, Jesus said in Matthew 6 that we must be confessing
our sins to God and receiving the forgiveness that we need,
and we must be repenters every moment of every day in our Christian
life. It's not just that we repented
when we entered through the narrow gate, we are to be repenters
as we go down the narrow path. and to be grieved over our sins
and not just make an excuse, well, that's just the way that
I am. No, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we sin, and what
grieves the Holy Spirit must grieve our own heart. And the
final word that I would give you is reliance. a reliance upon
God the Holy Spirit to enable and empower you and me to live
the Christian life in a way that glorifies God and is in conformity
to the standard of the Word of God. Even as a born-again believer,
I cannot live the Christian life in my own strength. I must have
the Holy Spirit of God to live the Christian life and to move
forward in Godliness and purity and God has put His Spirit within
each and every believer and that's what Romans 8 is all about. Just look at Romans 8 for a second.
Verse 2, the Spirit of life. Verse 4, but according to the
Spirit. Verse 5, according to the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. Verse 6, the Spirit is life and peace.
Verse 9, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God indwells
you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does
not belong to Him. Verse 11, but if the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you." And at the end of verse
11, he talks about the Spirit who dwells in you will also raise
you. Verse 13, if by the Spirit you
are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live.
Verse 14, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these
are the sons of God. Verse 16, the Spirit Himself
testifies with our spirit. Virtually every verse in the
first half of Romans chapter 8 makes mention of God the Holy
Spirit who is the active agent, capital A, inside of us who empowers
us and enables us to resist sin and to resist temptation and
to live in a manner worthy of our calling. And so, as we are
involved on these Friday nights in this series on sin and temptation,
we see very clearly here in Romans 7 Paul's own testimony to us
regarding his fight with sin in his own Christian life. Brothers
and sisters, tonight I call upon you. to wage the same war that
Paul did, to be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I call you to put to death the
deed to the flesh. I call you to be filled with
the Holy Spirit of God who will always lead us into personal
holiness. I call you to humble yourself
beneath the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the
proper time. I call you to resist the devil
and to resist sin in your life that we would be a pure and a
chaste bride for the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you find yourself
here tonight, if you are aware that you've never been born again,
if you've come under the conviction of your own sin that you do not
have a Savior and that you do not have the forgiveness of your
sin, I want you to know the Lord Jesus Christ When He went to
the cross, He didn't die for good people. He died for sinners
and bore their sin. And if you will repent of your
sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, He will forgive you of
all your sins. He will receive you to Himself.
He'll wipe the slate clean, not only in your past and not only
in your present, but throughout the rest of your life, He will
forgive all of your sins. And He will clothe you with His
perfect righteousness. And one day when you die, He
will present you faultless before the throne of God in heaven. But without Christ, you'll stand
before God with all of your sin exposed, and you'll be condemned, and
you'll be cast into hell forever. But if you'll turn to Christ
tonight, if you'll believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, He loves
to gather in sinners. He loves to give the forgiveness
of sin that He purchased at Calvary's cross, and He will wash you clean,
and He will make you as pure as a virgin snow, and you will
be right with God. You will be justified by faith
alone. If you're outside of Christ tonight,
you have a major problem, and that problem is sin. But there
is a cure. There is a remedy. There is a
means by which your problem can be resolved, and it is when you
put your faith completely and only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you will do that tonight,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, He will make you a
new person in Christ, and you will begin to live the Christian
life that one day will take you all the way into the immediate
presence of God the Father. Let us all pursue godliness and
holiness. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we're so grateful for what Paul has written here in this passage. And this has certainly been straight
talk from Paul about a very difficult subject, which is sin, even in
the life of a Christian and a believer. And Lord, in no way do we excuse
any sin in our life, but we now see what our problem is. even
after we've been converted to Christ. We, too, can say with
Paul, wretched man, that I am. But we also say, thanks be to
God through our Lord Jesus Christ who has won the victory for us
through His sin-bearing death upon the cross. We say, hallelujah,
what a Savior. we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In His name we pray. Amen.