All right. Good evening, everybody.
I'm not Jim. So you got me tonight. And we're
going to start off with some scripture. I got a scripture
right here on my iPad. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. That's Psalm 32, 2. And we're
going to start off with Amazing Grace, number 236. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. ? Was blind but now I see ? ? Was
grace that taught my heart to fear ? And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. The outright words we read Through
many dangers, toils, and snares I have already died. His grace that brought me safe
thus far and grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand
years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's
praise than when we first begun. For our scripture today, we're
going to read Romans 7, starting with verse 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress. though
she may be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
you should be married to another, even to him who was raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when
we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were brought by
the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from
the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taken occasion
by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and
the commandment holy and just and good, was then that which
is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it
might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good,
that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For
we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, subbed under
sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that I do not,
that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. If
then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that
it is good. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law. that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but 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. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, So then with the mind,
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of
sin. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, thank you so
much for gathering us today. Thank you for bringing us into
this building as brothers and sisters in the gospel of Christ. Thank you, Lord, that You don't
impute sin to your children, that you took all of our sin
and you put it on our Savior, where he cast it away into the
depths of the sea. And as far from us as the east
is from the west, we can stand before you perfectly righteous,
without blame, without spot. We're accepted in your sight.
And that gives us the confidence to praise your name, to sing
your praises, to honor you in the preaching of the Word, the
preaching of the Gospel. And Father, we worship and admire
you tonight. Father, we thank you for being
sovereign over all things, for causing all things to happen.
Nothing happens that you don't have complete control over. Even
the evil things that we do, Father, you've ordained that we walk
in these things. for your good and for your glory. Father, I'd ask that you bless
tonight's services, that they'll be honoring to you, that the
word would go out and be received. If there are any ears that are
stopped up tonight, Father, if it be your will, we'd ask that
you unstop them. If there are any hearts that
need to be opened, Father, please open them. And Father, we pray for those
in our congregation that are going through hard times and
trials, afflictions, tough days ahead. There are tough days ahead
for all of us. And Father, it's only by your
grace that we'll make it through them. Father, we pray in the
Lord's name, Jesus Christ. It's for his sake we pray, amen. Alright, so I want to read Romans
721 to you again. It's a verse that's grabbed my
attention over the years and I think it's something that every
believer here can relate to in their own personal lives. So
take a look at Romans 721. I find then a law, or a law that
is at work in me, that when I would do good evil is present with
me." These words by Paul here in chapter 7 of Romans, they
aren't simply doctrinal statements that we might find in a church
creed. This is a confession by the Apostle about his very own
personal struggles as a believer. It's a confession of the war
that wages within the heart of God's chosen messenger to the
Gentiles and his chosen people. And this is a man that was instrumental
to bring in the gospel to all over the world. And here we have
him admitting, quite honestly, the personal struggles that he
dealt with and what an awful sinner he was. We see him here
admitting the struggles to the recipients of his letter. And
you have to ask yourself, why would he do such a thing? Why
would Paul here write about his struggles with sin? I mean, isn't
Paul supposed to be an example of how a Christian should walk?
Isn't he supposed to be a shining example of what it means to be
a Christian? And yet here he is dealing with us honestly.
In his first letter to Timothy, Paul even goes on to say that
he viewed himself as not just a sinner, but as the chief of
sinners. And I find that amazing. But there's been some debate
by theologians over the years as to whether Paul was speaking
of his experience rather as an unbeliever or a believer. But
my own personal opinion is that Paul was speaking as a believer. I think it's made of him, especially
by verses 24 and 25. It's a brutally honest section
written by Paul here. He says, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh I serve the
law of sin. That's not something an unbeliever
writes. That's something a believer writes. And I think it's important
we keep that as the context. And then ask yourself this, how
many preachers do you hear today speaking like this? I haven't
heard very many, to be honest with you. In my experience, there
are very few honest preachers. There are very few that are honest
with the Word of God. And in my opinion, there are
very few preachers that are honest with their congregations. They're
not honest with God himself, and they're not honest with themselves
either. But what I take from this passage is that Paul is
being honest here, brutally honest with himself and us as readers.
Romans 7 is an honest confession of an honest man. And when we
read the scriptures, and it's not enough just to read them
and comprehend them, but we need to apply the words of Scripture
to the lives of the writers, and then we need to think about
those words, and then apply them to our own lives as well. We
need to see how the words of Scripture have a practical application
in our lives, or at least give us insight into our own lives
and our relationships with one another and our relationships
with God. And this verse, Romans 721, I
don't just view it as a doctrinal statement by Paul. Everybody
says the book of Romans is a great doctrinal book, and I agree. But to me, I also see it as a
mirror, at least for me. And I want to be honest with
all of you as I preach to you. What Paul is portraying here
in scripture is a mirror pointing back at me. It's a mirror that
is reflecting to me my own inherent human condition as a believer
who is resting in the imputed righteousness of Christ. And
it exposes to me the enigma that is in all of us who believe.
And those of you listening tonight who believe, whether it's here
in this building or somewhere over the internet, maybe on the
other side of the world, I don't know. And it's also a mirror
that's reflecting back to you the wrestling and the warfare
that occurs within your own hearts and minds. And this wrestling is the wrestling
of our flesh with the spirit. Some people like to say it's
the wrestling of our two natures. I may or may not agree with that.
I tend to agree with them, I guess. Some, you know, they say it's
what they call our carnal nature or our spiritual or divine nature.
And theologians, that's another debate that goes on. They've
argued over the word nature, and whether or not believers
have one or two natures, and I'm not gonna get into that tonight.
I see that as a nonsensical debate. To me, it doesn't matter if we
have one nature, two natures, or 53 natures. What matters here,
in the words of Paul, is that there is a struggle between a
regenerated soul, the spirit, and the manifestation of Christ
that resides in all of us, and a rotten flesh that we carry
around that still greatly desires to sin and rebel against God
and his laws and his principles. And this statement by Paul, it's
him exposing to us the war, and it's a raging war, this war between
his earthly desires and his heavenly aspirations. It's this internal
conflict. This internal conflict is the
battleground where natures meet. Or in other words, where flesh
and our spirit meet. And the spirit. And it doesn't
matter to me how you want to phrase it. So the point is, it's
a war. And it's a war that all of us
as believers, we find ourselves engaged in this war. One moment,
we're deep in thought and prayer or worship. Our hearts are lit
on fire, thinking about the love of God. We come to meet. for worship, to hear the gospel,
to sing God's praises. We hear about the marvelous mercies
of the Lord, the mercies of God to sinners. We hear about our
God who's in the heavens, who does whatever he pleases. And
we read about the suffering saint in the words of the prophet Isaiah. And then we see these prophecies
fulfilled in the writings of the New Testament. We're brought
to such great highs, such glorious highs. And our joy is so great
that when we walk out of this building, sometimes we feel like
we're walking on air. Do you ever feel that way? I do all the time. We experience
joy when we contemplate on the things of the Lord. We rejoice
in His sovereignty, rejoice in His plan of salvation and redemption.
And we think such wonderful thoughts about God and His providence
for such lowly creatures as ourselves. And then, moments later, even within a
blink of an eye, our hearts can be cold. Ice cold. And consumed with worldly desires
and pleasures of the flesh. Is this true of you? I know it's true of me. There are
times when we're humbled. brought down low by the awareness
of our sinfulness. And we see the righteousness
of God, we see the righteousness of Christ, and we see our failures
even as redeemed saints of God. We read about his law and see
ourselves condemned under if it weren't for Christ's mercies
given to us on Calvary. And we're thankful for his grace
and mercy and his redemption that we receive to the knowledge
of our souls through the preaching of the word giving of the Holy
Spirit. And yet, even within the span
of a few hours or minutes, and in my case, even seconds, we
may find ourselves puffed up with self-righteousness. We completely
forget about the mercy that God has extended to us in Christ. That's true of me. And if you
believe the gospel, I know it's true of you too. Let me give
you a few examples about me. I like to bring some practical
examples into my preaching, and I'm going to give you an honest
example about myself. I'm going to expose myself here.
I'm not going to tell you everything about me, because some of my
sins are way too great and too much for me to utter to another
soul even, let alone right here behind this pulpit. I don't let
anybody completely into my mind, because it would be far too embarrassing.
And my sins, they're embarrassing to me, such as the state of my
awful condition. But let me give you an example,
maybe one that's not too embarrassing, but embarrassing nonetheless.
And if you need references, you can check with Angie and Cole,
because they witnessed this. But there have been times when
I've been simply driving along the road, happy, thinking happy
thoughts about the mercies of the Lord given to me in Christ,
thinking wonderful thoughts, and then wham, one second later,
somebody runs to a red light, somebody gets in my path on the
highway and does something really stupid, and I get angry, I get upset. Does that sound familiar? Instead
of being thankful that the Lord has kept me safe, while driving
down a highway in a vehicle going 60, 70 miles an hour, I'm upset. My first thoughts are how I'd
like an app so that I could disable the other person's vehicle, rather
than the mercies and wonderful things that the Lord has done
for me. And I've said a few choice words as well, ones that I've
saved only for my wife and son to hear. But I'm not going to
get into that. But if you need references, like
I said, you can talk to Cole or Angie. And don't even get
me started about the drive-thru at McDonald's. That's another
one of my issues. Cole's over there probably laughing
and smiling because he knows. Do you know I actually get upset
if I get my order wrong? Or if there's a long line? I
grow impatient and cold in these moments. I sometimes struggle,
even today, when I pull up to the drive-thru. It's ridiculous,
I know. But I know there's a good likelihood
they're going to mess my order up. And ever come home from the
drive-thru and looking forward to eating a quarter pounder and
cheese and you've got to make chicken instead? It's not good. And I
don't like waiting longer than a few minutes for my food. Especially
when I'm asked to pull into the parking spot while they serve
the people behind me. I can't stand that. I become impatient. And it's these moments These
moments in my life, and it's just an example, just a example
out of thousands of times in my life. I am sinning, I'm sinning
terribly in these moments. And I laugh about it now because
it's so ridiculous, but it's terrible. My flesh is taking
over. I'm willfully sinning against
the Lord. And in these moments, I've stopped believing in God's
sovereignty. I stopped thinking about the
wonderful mercies and grace that I've received in Christ. I've
stopped believing that God works all things for his pleasure.
There's a reason why I got a McChicken instead of a quarter pounder,
yet I'm upset. It's because I stopped believing
that God worked that for his pleasure. And I stopped being
thankful for his providence in my life. Instead, I'm more concerned
about my taste buds and my own carnal pleasure. I'm more concerned
that they're not going to put pickles on my burger. Or I'm
more concerned about my hamburger than I am my creator. That's
bad. And I've grown fickle and worldly minded. You find this
is true of you in certain situations? Maybe not about bad drivers or
fast food drive-thrus. You may have great patience in
those situations. Those are my trigger points.
But what about other areas of your life? Have you ever been
angry at your boss because he asked you to work the weekend
or some overtime? Have you ever yelled at your
spouse or been extremely critical of your spouse, your parents,
or your children and your siblings over insignificant details? Angie
and I, we don't argue often, but when we do, it's usually
about something stupid, something totally insignificant like how
we load the dishwasher. I like to load with the forks
up. She likes them down. And every time, we just learn
to live with each other. And maybe your sins are not as
ridiculous as the examples I just gave you. But we all have some
serious issues, don't we? But they're all ridiculous, too,
because we're foolish people. Sometimes we have a glimpse at
wisdom. But for much of our lives, we can be pretty foolish. And
we all have some very serious sins. All sins are serious. But there are some sins we dare
not utter to others. We all carry around our skeletons.
We all carry around our private thoughts that only the Lord can
see. Private thoughts that we would not want to be seen or
heard by anybody else. And that's because we're ashamed.
We're ashamed of like, we're ashamed of who we are, like Adam
and Eve were in the garden. And rightfully so. As Jim and
I've heard other preachers say this, we're like maggots. We're
like maggots squirming, wiggling around on the dunk hill trying
to prove who the better maggot is. So when I read this passage,
this chapter by Paul, I see myself in his words. I find then a law
that when I would do good, evil was present with me. We got a
bad problem, don't we? These words, are a perfect mirror
to me of my life and the struggles that I daily face. And I mean
daily. When I want to do good, I find
that evil is right there with me, no matter what it is that
I do, no matter what. And yet while I'm doing this
evil thing, there's a little voice inside my head telling
me that this attitude of mine is wrong. That's the war. And it's these things that we
do, they're sinful. How terrible was it to be more
concerned with pickles, mustard, cheese, and making sure I got
the right amount of sesame seeds on my sesame seed bun from McDonald's
than it is the things of God? How terrible was it to be more
concerned with momentary pleasures than the things that God has
done for us and for all eternity? How terrible. And then he brought
us into his presence. We find ourselves in this warfare.
We face this warfare daily as we travel on this journey. And
those of us who believe we're all on a spiritual journey, John
Bunyan writes about this journey in his allegory, The Pilgrim's
Progress. It's one of my favorite books. I know it's Cole's, one
of his favorite books. And John Bunyan, or Christian,
the character in the book, talks about the things he encountered
on his way to the Celestial City. And as each of us journey on
to the celestial city that is heaven, we all experience these
oscillations in our hearts and minds. One day we detest the
world, yearning for the sweet manifestation of God's love.
And the very next day we find ourselves enmeshed in worldly
affairs, grasping at earthly pleasures. And we find ourselves
more concerned with what condiments someone put on our hot dog at
a restaurant than the gospel of Christ. Then we find ourselves disgusted
with ourselves for the attitude that we just had. And then we
ask ourselves, am I even one of God's children? How can I,
who claims to know the truth, be so sinful? How can I do this? Why do I do this? Why do I do
the things that I do? And then I've often asked myself
this, Like Paul does here in this chapter, O wretched man
that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? We live in a state of paradox.
We've been touched by Christ's love, but we're stung by worldly
hatred. We carry a little wisdom around
with us in our hearts and minds, but we also possess a whole lot
of folly. We aspire for heavenly mightiness
while tethered by earthly desires. And this tension, this dynamic
tension between the spiritual and the carnal within us is what
Paul's talking about here. This mystery, this conflict within
us, it's part of the kingdom's mystery. And here in Romans 7,
Paul was talking about the struggle of his fallen human flesh And
the new heart has bestowed upon us through Christ's redemption
and the indwelling of the spirit. This tension is not an anomaly,
rather it's part of our journey as Christians. We are this way by design. And
I take comfort in the fact that this tension is evidence that
we are indeed one of Christ's people. The rest of the world,
the ones that don't believe, they don't have this tension.
They don't have this warfare raging inside their souls. There's
more warfare that goes inside the soul of a Christian than
anywhere else on earth, in my opinion. The rest of the world, they're
proud of their sin. They wear it on their sleeves
like a badge of honor. Did you ever notice that? Look
at the homosexual movement that's going on in this country right
now. The world flat out celebrates it by calling it pride. Pride. Look at all the companies with
rainbows on their logos celebrating the embracement of sin. They
aren't ashamed. The world's not ashamed. They
openly mock God. They mock the scriptures. They
call what is evil good. And they call what is good evil.
They don't have this tension that we do. Our flesh may crave
sin, but our regenerated heart hates it. And so the battle ensues. We walk in light. while wrestling
with the shadows within us. That's why I've entitled this
message, In Shadows of Duality. I even wrote a poem about it,
which I'll write to you at the end of the sermon. And these
shadows of duality, these tensions within us, they're vital to our
understanding that the kingdom of heaven isn't about eradicating
our human nature, or replacing it entirely with a divine nature.
The kingdom of heaven is not about transforming our carnal
mind into a spiritual one. It's not about becoming more
sanctified or more holy in our lives over time. It's not about
becoming a better and better person. It's not about doing
more and more good works. And while some dishonest preacher
may preach that this is so, all their preaching can do for you
is bring you even more misery and suffering if you're one of
God's people. And I sat under a preacher like that. I sat under
a couple of preachers like that. And the church I was involved
in was obsessed with eradicating the sin that was in their lives.
And they talked about their so-called piety quite a bit. They even
talked about how they were succeeding in their walk. Do you believe
that? My pastor at this church, he was over at my house for dinner
once and he sat in my living room and he said to me, Brandon,
how's your piety been lately? Well, I was foolish. I said,
well, it's pretty good. I now refer to that pastor, my
former pastor of mine, in John Bunyan style, as Mr. Pious. But if we are truly honest
with ourselves, we can't say they were clear, pious people,
can we? But I wasn't being honest with myself. I wasn't being honest
with God. I wasn't being honest with him.
You don't hear a lot of honest talk like that coming out of
churches today. They talk about how they are
achieving victory over sin, not by Christ's accomplished work,
but by their spiritual walk. So if I had been honest that
day, what I should have told my pastor was, my piety is not
very good. How's yours? And this man was
a Reformed Baptist, by the way. And all his preaching did for
me was make me miserable. And I doubt there was any peace
for him either, nor to whom he was preaching. There was no peace
for me. And another man I encountered
on my way to the Celestial City, in John Bunyan fashion, I'll
call him Mr. Cleaner. He even preached to
me in person that if I'm to be holy with the Lord, I need to
stop watching TV. That's what he told me. This
man now, he's a pretty famous Christian personality known all
over the world now. And Angie can tell you about
the time that I came home after listening to one of his sermons
about not watching TV. I came home and there she was
watching TV. You know what I did? I unplugged
that TV. Not a good thing to do. It was
not a nice time in the Kraft household that night. She was angry with me, and rightfully
so. But you see, I was trying to win the war that raged inside
my soul by striving, by striving to do more and more and more.
I was trying to win that war by trying to accomplish the impossible,
by trying to stop sinning, rather than resting in the accomplished
work of Christ. And this view that my former
church had, that essentially our heavenly walk is about becoming
better and better within ourselves, well, that may seem attractive.
It's attractive to theologians and Christians everywhere, even
desirable. But it's not the path laid out
for us in the scriptures for us. But rather, if we are to
walk rightly, if we are to sojourn successfully to the celestial
city, We need to acknowledge the unchanging nature of our
flesh and the ongoing war it wages against Christ and his
grace. We have a terminal disease. Sin,
it's like stage four, stage five cancer. It's terminal. And we'll
never, ever achieve a state of sinlessness in this world. We
only come close to it. Not until we put off this body
of flesh and join our savior in heaven. Our walk is not, Our
walk is about looking to Christ, resting in his finished work,
and recognize that we are completely incapable to rescue ourselves
from the grip that sin has on our hearts and minds. We are
incapable of saving ourselves from ourselves. Only Christ can
save us, and indeed, here's the good news, he already has. And he did this through his atoning
blood on Calvary. He nailed all of our sins to
the cross, all of them, every single one that you'll ever think
of, past, present, or future, he nailed every single one, and
he did away with them forever. They'll never be brought up again.
Your sins are as far from you as the east is from the west. And in God's sight, in his estimation
of us, in his constitution of us, we are sinless. But in our
own experience, we're rotten. We struggle. We fight against
ourselves. We fight against God. And yet
paradoxically, we also rest in his grace. And we rest only enough
for the, enough for our flesh to fight against that grace once
more. And this struggle, this warfare that goes on inside us,
it's gonna continue until the day we die and are released from
this body of death. And Paul, as he writes here in
this letter, he writes as an honest man. Here we have the
greatest of apostles confessing to us who he is. And the Holy
Spirit led him to this conclusion. And he writes about this agony
within him, the agony that I share. Why don't I see this type of
preaching today? I mean, we see it here. But I don't
see it anywhere else. Maybe a few places, a few bright
places in this world. But if we're gonna be like Paul,
each of us has to be brought to the same conclusion about
who we are. That's the conclusion the Lord's gonna bring us to.
The Spirit leads us into this mystery, showing us the continuous
struggle of these two principles within us. And this constant
wrestling reveals to us the depth of our own vileness and the height
of Christ's love. As we sink deeper into self-abasement
and realize how deep our depravity really goes, we rise higher in
the knowledge of Christ. And the more I come to know who
I am, the more I come to understand what Christ actually did for
me. This suffering had to be great because my sin is great.
My sins are so great, my debt was so great, there was simply
no way to repay what the Lord has done for me. And I'm not
saying we should sin so that we should know Christ even more.
That's not what I'm saying, God forbid, as Paul would say. And
Paul asks in the previous chapter, chapter six, shall we sin so
that grace will abound? No, of course not. But if and
when we do sin, if and when we do sin, and we will sin, Grace
will abound, won't it? Won't it not? When we sing, grace
abounds so much more. And the more we recognize our
darkness, the more radiant and lovely Jesus appears to us. And
the more I see my sin, the more I see the importance of the cross.
The more I'm brought to the awareness of my depravity, the more I'm
brought to the awareness of the riches of his grace. And the
Lord teaches us through this continuous struggle that grace
and mercy can be only found in the gospel of Christ. It can
only be found in his finished work. And while this gospel gives
me such great joy, I can still be quite disheartened at times
too. When I'm made aware of my sin, I disappoint myself. I think of the wonderful things
the Lord has done for me, but then I act like a foolish and
ungrateful spoiled child. I act like a rebel, and that's
because I am a rebel. And this realization of who we
are, that can be especially disheartening if we don't understand the scriptures.
We might feel like failures or we aren't good enough. Good enough. If we acknowledge this internal
battle, we're not emitting defeat. I'm not emitting defeat up here.
What I'm doing is I'm affirming my need for God's grace. I'm
claiming God's victory over our sin because victory over sin
can never be claimed by what we do. Christ will be, he must
be the victor over every battle that wages within you. The kingdom
of heaven is not about the cessation of this conflict, but we're still
in this body of death. And if anything, when we live
as believers for a while, we begin to notice this conflict
more and more. This battle, I'm more aware of
it now than when I first came to believe. The warfare just
increases. It's at nuclear levels now. But as we grow older, we grow
wiser, and we learn how to navigate this battle even better. We start
to lean more and more into his grace. We daily confess our sins
to our Lord in prayer, and in our hearts we kneel before his
greatness and confess who we are as sinners. Our need of righteousness,
our need of protection from the temptation of sin, and our need
for our Savior deliver us from that which tempts and sometimes
seemingly devours us. And we confess our struggles
to God and to one another. The wisdom of this journey we're
on, it lies not in the eradication of our human nature or the sin
that's still in our flesh, but the wisdom of this journey lies
in the recognition of the battle and the submission to the transformative
power of grace. And in doing so, we'll have a
growing desire to know and become like Christ. The battle's not
getting any better. This conflict's going to be with
us throughout the rest of our earthly lives. And if you want
proof for that, just go talk to some of our members of our
congregation who are getting up there in years, 80s, 90s,
100s. Ask them if they face struggles with sin all of their lives. I think they'll be the first
to tell you. The struggle's still there. So I say to all of you
listening tonight, let us take courage, be patient with ourselves,
understanding that in every struggle and conflict within us, God's
grace is at work. He's molding us into the image
of his son, Jesus Christ. Let us surrender our battles
to the Lord. Let us recognize the Spirit's work within us and
be thankful that this warfare is taking place within us and
use that along with Christ's victory on Calvary as a basis
for our assurance. I guess this top lady, one of
my favorite authors, wrote the following. Let me read it to
you. Did the Spirit of God ever convince
you of sin Do you see yourself liable to the curse of the law
and the just vengeance of God for the innate depravity of your
nature and the transgressions of your life? Do you come to
Christ humbled and self-condemned, sensible that unless you're clothed
with the merits of him, our elder brother, you are ruined and undone,
and you can never stand with joy or safety before the holy
Lord God? If so, lift up thy head. Redemption
is thine. Thou art in a state of grace.
Thou art translated from death to life. Thou art an heir of
God and a joint heir with Christ. But if you never felt nor desire
to feel this work of the Holy Ghost upon thy heart, this conviction
of sin, this penitential faith, all the supposed righteousness
of thine own, whereon now trusted is but a broken reed, a pated
sepulcher, and the trappings of a Pharisee, wise words by
our long departed brother Toplady. So before I close, I just want
to reiterate to you that I'm not saying we should take comfort
in sin. Somebody might say that. I'm saying we should take comfort
that there is a struggle. Take comfort that there is a
battle raging inside our hearts. For if there was no struggle,
we're nothing more than Pharisees. All right, here's the poem I
want to read to you, and the poem is Title of the poem is
the same as the sermon, In Shadows of Duality. In shadows of duality, we wander
and we strive. A mystery to ourselves, the war
within alive. We seek the good, the love, the
grace, but evil finds us too. A paradox, a twisted dance, forever
to pursue. Warmth and cold, the changing
tide within our very core. exalting self, then brought down
low upon the humbled floor. A heart that longs for heaven's
touch, yet clings to worldly treasure, our souls entwined
in conflict, seeking balance in this measure. Oh, mystery,
the puzzle of our mortal fickle state, a blend of wisdom, folly,
and desire as we navigate. We press ahead with hopeful hearts,
yet lag in hesitation, a paradox, a battle waged within our own
creation. Two natures locked in strife
within one bosom dwell, a duality so deep no words could ever tell. As carnal thoughts and grace
collide, the war within us waged. We sink in self-abasement, by
our vileness we're engaged. Yet through the darkness, light
emerges, and Jesus' love appears. The more we see our tainted selves,
the brighter he endears. The mystery of heaven's realm,
a paradox unveiled. In this eternal struggle, my
love's grace always prevail, and it will always prevail. My mom really liked that poem,
and I just wanted to share with you tonight. Let the struggle
that we're on, that we all deal with, let us not be led into
despair, but into the comforting embrace of Jesus. Remember, he
conquered the grave for us. He satisfied God's wrath for
us as our substitute. And all of our sins were taken
care of when he shed his blood. And those of us who are God's
elect, when we're born into this world, Remember, he loved us. He loved us with an everlasting
love. And there's nothing we can do to lose that love, nothing.
There's nothing that we can do that's gonna make him stop loving
us. And as far as God is concerned, our sins are dead and buried
in Christ. He's not imputed our sins to us. The scriptures are
clear, aren't they? As I read earlier tonight, Psalm
32 too. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and unto whose spirit there is
no guile. And knowing that is our victory
over sin. We only have to endure this struggle
for a little while longer. And while we continue to endure,
we need to let it deepen our dependence on his grace and reinforce
our longing for his divine love. And we need not beat ourselves
up too much for our failings. We dust ourselves off, we sorrow
over our sins, and then recognize and be thankful that our Lord
took the beatings for us. We work to change our behavior
in the best we're enabled, not counting our walk as our victory,
but counting Christ as our victory. And then live another day. So
as we step out into the world this week, let's remember the
mystery that we are, carrying within us this tension of mortal
and the divine. Let's remember our weakness and
our strength, our folly and our wisdom, our struggle and our
victory, which is found in Christ Jesus. For it's in acknowledging
our own incapacity and clinging to his capacity that we truly
understand the sovereign grace of God. and may His grace guide
and sustain us as we navigate this journey. May the love and
peace of Christ abide with us now and forever. Amen. We are going to read. 452. Sing,
sing 452. Yeah, thank you. Let's stand and just be seated.
? Amazed in the presence of Jesus
the Magiree ? ? And wonder how He can love me ? ? The sinner
condemned the Queen ? ? How marvelous, how wonderful ? ? And my soul
shall ever be ? Thou marvelous, Thou wonderful, is my Savior's
love for me. For me it was in the darkness,
He reigned like my help but by. He hath no tears for his own
Brings flesh and drops of blood for mine How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me! In pretty angels we hailed Him,
and came from the world of wine. to comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. Hammerless, powerless, How wonderful
and my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me! He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary,
and suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. And with the ransomed in glory
His face I have blest that I see, Till be my joy through the ages,
This sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful
that my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's blood for me! you Yeah.