Let's open our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 7. There are some things that are
universally true about every person who's been born again. If you wonder if you've been
born again, I can give you four things that are universally true
about everyone who's been born again. Number one is this. Everyone who's been born again
knows This was an act of God. This birth was an act of God,
just like my natural birth was an act of God. I didn't participate
and I have nothing to do with it. It was an act of somebody
else for me. The new birth is an act of someone
else for me. It's an act of God for me. I'm
not born again because I decided to accept Jesus or I decided
to be born. My will has nothing to do with
salvation or regeneration. Salvation is the will of God.
James 1 verse 18, of his own will begat he us with the word
of truth. Second is this, everyone who's
been born again has faith in Christ. Everyone who's been born
again believes Christ is all. John 3 verse 36, he that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. Verse John 5, one, whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The only reason
you believe that Jesus is the Christ is you've been born again.
Thirdly, everyone who's been born again loves the brethren.
It's not they should love the brethren, they ought to love
the brethren. They do love the brethren because they're born
with a nature that loves. First John 3 verse 14. We know
that we've passed from death unto life. Here's how you know
that. Because we love the brethren. And then fourthly, Everyone who's
been born again endures a constant civil war going on inside of
themselves. And that's our subject this morning,
the great civil war. Here in Romans 7, some people
think that when Paul wrote these verses, he was a lost man, or
at least he was talking about his experience as a lost man.
But safe people know better than that. The only people who think
Paul was lost when he wrote these verses Our people just got one
nature. They don't understand what it's
like for these two natures to be warring inside them all the
time. If you think that Paul was lost when he wrote these
verses, then you've got to believe in progressive sanctification,
where a sinner is able to act better and be more holy, you
know, the longer that they've been saved. Now, if we think
that, we're not being honest. We're not being honest with ourselves
or with God. We can't think This flash can
ever get any better. It's just, it can't be true.
It's not possible. So Paul here is writing about
the experience of every born again Christian who constantly
struggles with sin within us. My sin. That's where the warfare
is. And we've got five lessons to
be learned from this great civil war that's going on inside every
believer. Here we sit on a Sunday morning. And I'm looking out over, y'all
look so good. But in the heart of the believer,
you know what's going on right now? Even as the gospel's being
preached, we've just sung the hymns, we've read the Word, we've
gone to God in prayer, you know what's going on inside the heart?
Raging inside the heart right now is awful, bloody Antietam. That's what's going on in the
heart of every believer. Are you tired of it? Well, in
about 35 minutes, I hope to give you something to encourage you.
But we've got to see the truth of this. This civil war goes
on inside every believer because there are two natures that are
alive and well inside of every believer. And both of them are
me. Look first here at verse 18,
Romans chapter 7. 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's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now
Paul's not schizophrenic here. He's not talking about, you know,
that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the
two opposite natures. that are in every believer. There
are two distinct eyes here. There is the eye that has Adam's
nature. In that nature dwelleth no good
thing. And that's really me. In me dwelleth
no good thing. This is the same eye that cannot
do anything but evil. It's the same eye that doesn't
desire anything but evil. That's really me. That's the
nature of Adam that I received from my earthly father because
he didn't have another nature to pass on to me. This nature
hates God Almighty, hates him. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. This nature lacks the ability
to come to Christ. What our Lord said, no man can
come unto me. We lack the ability. No man can
come unto me except the father which has sent me drawing. And
on top of that, this nature lacks the desire to come to Christ.
Our Lord said, you will not come unto me that you might not Christ.
You will not, you don't want to. There is no such thing as
a sinner who wants to come to Christ and God's keeping him
out because God didn't choose him. There's no such thing. By
nature, I hate God and I won't come to him. I don't want to
come to him and I will not submit to him. This is me. I, left to
my own devices, would choose sin over holiness every time.
Would choose hell over heaven every time. I would choose my
obedience over Christ's perfect obedience every time. That's
the nature that we're born with, the nature of Adam. And that's
exactly why our Lord told Nicodemus, you must be born again. You must
be because there's no hope for that old nature. It can't be
reformed. It can't be fixed up. You can't cover with a coat of
paint, make it look better. There's no hope for it. The only
thing that can be done with it is it got to be thrown away.
Thank God there is another eye. There's an eye that desires good. Now I can't do it because I'm
in this flesh, this sinful flesh. But that desire to do good comes
from the new man, that new nature. That man desires Christ. He desires Christ more than anything. He willingly submits to Christ.
He willingly falls at the feet of Christ and begs for mercy.
That man loves to worship. Mike, that's what you and I talked
about in the parking lot of the golf course that day. I know
there's two natures in me. There's a nature that wants to
worship. There's a nature that wants to pray. That's not flesh.
It's a new nature God gave. This eye loves God's law. The other eye hates God's law.
The carnal mind, hate is enmity against God. It can't be subject
to the law of God. It can't be. The new man loves
God's law. It's what Paul called here in
verse 22, the inward man. If I've been born again, that
inward man, me, I, I delight in God's law. I do. I delight in God's law. It reveals
the holy, perfect nature of God. I love God's law. When I look
at the law, the law reveals to me Christ the Savior, who kept
it perfect, who honored and magnified the law. That's what I see when
I see the law. I love God's law. And you know, I don't fear it
a bit. I don't fear God's law one bit, because I kept the law
in Christ, in Him. I've got an awful good relationship
with the law. The law doesn't want anything
to do with me, and I don't want anything to do with the law, because I've
already kept it in Christ. Christ, my substitute, satisfied
His justice. So I don't fear the law. But
now this new man, he hadn't always been there. If you've been saved
forever, you've been saved too long. You must be born again. That's why I told you last week,
God's got to get us lost before he'll save us. You must be born
again. Because when you were born into
this world, you were born dead in his hand. Dead! So you weren't
able to do anything but sin. But in the new birth, there's
a new man born. Now he's born in a very similar
way that first man was born. He's born from the seed of a
father. And that new birth, there's a new man born who never existed
before. And that man, just like the old
man, he's got the nature of his father, of his heavenly father.
That old man, he can't do anything but sin. He can't desire anything
but sin. He can't think about anything
but sin. Because all he's got is Adam's nature, a nature that
came from Adam's sinful seed. But that new man, He can never
sin. He can never desire sin. He can
never want sin. All he desires, all he has is
perfect righteousness because he's got the nature of his father. He was born from God's seed,
the sinless seed, the word of God. Look at 1 John 3. Let me
show you this. 1 John 3. This new man born of God cannot
sin. He's perfect. 1 John 3 verse
9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Here's the key. For his seed,
what seed was he born from? For his seed remaineth in him
and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Now being born again
does not change the nature of the flesh in any way. The new
birth is the birth of a new spiritual man. And it does not change the
flesh in any way. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. And it can only ever be flesh. Sinful, rotten, corrupt flesh.
That's all it ever can be. It can't be changed. When we're
born again, there's a birth of a new man. And that man is a
spiritual man. And he'll never be flesh. He'll
never become corrupt. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. He'll always be spirit, holy,
perfect. And both of those men is me.
I am both of those men. I really am the man who's evil,
who can't do anything but evil, who's corrupt, who's vile. That's
really me. There's no denying it. But thank
God, I am that new man too. By God's grace, I am that man
that loves Christ. that believes Christ, that submits
to Him, that looks to Him, that rests in Him. I really am that
man too. Now that's good news, to be born
again. But now here's the reality of
the situation. As soon as I'm born again, the
warfare starts. As soon as I'm born again. There
never was a war before. Because the old man didn't have
anybody to fight with. He always got his way. But as soon as I'm
born again, that old man and that new man are going to fight.
They cannot help it. Just like Jacob and Esau fought
in Rebekah's womb. That's a picture of the civil
war going on inside of us. This new man, he cannot sin. He never will desire sin. He
always desires holiness and righteousness. But he can never perform it.
because when He's born, He's trapped in this body, this flesh,
sin and corruption and decay. That's what Paul's saying. I
desire to be holy, but I can't perform it because this nature
of sin is always with me. This nature of sin mixes sin
with everything I do. I desire to be holy, but I just
can't perform it. I desire to love you. like I
love myself. I really do. And I'm so selfish,
I can't do it. Because sin is mixed with everything
I do. It's just, it's embarrassing.
And when that war, those two opposite natures are forced to
live in one body, there's going to be problems. Now there's trouble
coming. You know, false preachers tell
people, you make a decision for Jesus and everything's going
to be wonderful. No, it won't either. It won't. Now I tell
you, you come to Christ. You come right now where you
sit. You come to Christ. But you count the cost. The moment
you come, your troubles are going to begin. And I'm not talking
about troubles with the world. I'm talking about in here. That's
when the trouble begins. The thing that will bother you
more than anything else, and not the sin out there, it's in
here. It's this guy. the one who's
really me. There are two opposite natures,
alive and well in every believer. All right, here's the second
thing. The flesh and the spirit, those two men, the old man and
the new man, don't expect this war to ever get any better. Neither
one of them will ever surrender. They'll never learn to get along.
Verse 14 of Romans 7. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal. sold under sin. I'm carnal, sold
under sin. What that means is I'm a slave
to sin. If you don't think you're a slave
to sin, just try to not sin for two seconds, one second, a nanosecond. Try not to sin. You know why? We're a slave to sin. Verse 15. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not.
But what I hate, that's just what I do. This word allow, it
means to approve. The new man hates what the old
man does and he never approved of it. The old man hates what
the new man does and he'll never approve of it. Those two opposite
natures are never going to change and they're never going to learn
to get along. Verse 16, if then I do that which I would not,
I consent under the law that it's good. Now the new man, he
knows the law is good. He loves God's law. But I can't
keep it. Even after I'm born again, I
can't keep God's law because I'm still in this body of sinful
flesh. So I have to take sides with
God against myself and say, I'm guilty. I'm the one that's guilty. The law would be just to condemn
me. I have to say that's true about
the law. But look at verse 17. It's no more I that do it, but
sin that dwells in me. Now, Paul's not making an excuse
for sin here. He's not saying, well, what really
me that did it? No, it is really me that did
it. It's me. It was the old me, that one that's
really me. I did it. Let me see if I can
illustrate this to help us understand it. You remember in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, Paul said, I labored more abundantly than they all,
yet not I. but the grace of God which is
in me. Now he wasn't saying he didn't do that labor. He didn't
go all over the world preaching. He didn't put his life at risk
every day to preach the gospel. No, he really did that. He really
did write the lion's share of the New Testament. He really
did that. What he's saying is, I did it by the grace of God.
It was that new man born in me did it. In Romans, he's saying,
it's really me that sinned. It's the old man that commits
the sin because the new man cannot sin. And that's the only way
we can understand what it is, what the experience is to be
born again. Only the new man can see what
that old man's doing and hate it. Only the new man can see
sin in the old man and hate it. Only the new man can see the
sinful desires and thoughts and motives of the old man and hate
it. You never saw that before you're
born again. Only the new man can see it. Because now listen,
we're not talking about outward immorality. We're not. I very
seriously doubt, I think I know pretty much everybody here, that
outward immorality is the real problem. We're all church-going
Bible belters. The corruption's there. We just
know better to act on it out in public. I was at a retirement
dinner for the Ohio school board president, Bill Lewis. We're
all there at this big, fancy restaurant, and the waiter comes
up and says, would you like a wine list? Without missing a beat,
Bill said, no, we're all Baptists. We don't drink in front of one
another. We just, we, this is not our, you know, we try to
hide that from everybody, don't we? It's there. Outward immorality
is not really as much the problem. Oh, but there's a problem. I
mean, it's a much greater problem than outward immorality. It's
the corruption of this heart. That's what Paul's talking about.
Outward immorality was never Saul's problem, was it? Oh, he
was righteous. And it wasn't his problem afterwards
either, after conversion. The problem is this evil nature. I mean, I can't even say how
evil it is. Paul is a brilliant man, writing
under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, couldn't find another
word to describe how awful sin is. He just had to say it's exceeding
sinful. It's just, oh, how evil it is.
That's me. And that's what the new man hates.
The evil that is me. The real problem, this is what
I hate about me. The real problem is that old
man still thinks he can keep the law. That old man still thinks
he can do something to appear better than you. Hate that. Hate that. Fight that
every day. The new man, he knows the law
of spiritual. He knows the issue is not what
we do. It's what we want to do. It's why we do what we do. The
old man doesn't know that. The old man still does not want
to submit. Why does he not want to? He won't
submit to the righteousness of Christ. I got to carry that guy
around with me all the time. I hate that. I don't want to
be found anywhere but at the feet of Christ. And that old
man I carry around with me will not bow the knee to King Jesus. He won't do it. And that's what
the new man hates most of all. And he'll fight against it for
all he's worth. That's what we read there in
Galatians 5 to open the service. The spirit lusteth against the
flesh. He fights against it for all
he's worth. But buddy, don't count the flesh
out just yet. The flesh is going to lust against the spirit for
all he's worth too. And the two of them are never
going to learn to get along. They're never going to find a
truce. As long as we live in this flesh, the believer is going
to suffer this civil war. We will never conquer. sin in
this flesh. Don't think it's going to get
easier. Don't think it's going to get easier. It's going to
get harder. It really will. The best we can
ever be in this life is a sinner. Say it like that. That's the
best. That's a good place to be in this world, but it's the
best we can ever hope for in this life. All right, here's
the third lesson. As long as we're in this flesh,
we're gonna be brought back constantly to captivity to sin. Verse 21,
Romans 7. I find then a law, that when
I would do good, evil's present with me. Pride and 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. Now believers free. We're free
from sin. We're free from the dominion
of sin, the ruling power of sin, the ruling power of sin to damn
us, the power of sin to bring us back into captivity to the
law. We're free from the ruling power
of sin. We're free from the condemnation
of sin. There's therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. He already suffered condemnation
for us. Brother, we're not free from the presence of sin, are
we? We just can't escape it. We're still held captive to sin. And that's never going to get
any better. Because the flesh can't change. I mean, it doesn't
want to change. It's impossible for the flesh to change. As a
matter of fact, this is what I started telling you a minute
ago, it's going to get worse. For the believer, it's just going
to get harder. It's going to seem like our sin gets worse
and worse and worse the older we get. It won't actually get
worse. Corrupt is corrupt. Dead is dead.
Not really going to get worse. But we're going to think it does.
Because the more the new man grows in grace, the more the
new man learns of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more he's going to
see how corrupt and vile that sinful nature he was born with
is. The more that new man sees of Christ, the more he's going
to despise that old man that will not bow to him. See, there's
a new man, a holy, a righteous man in me. And this is an unchangeable
law. He will always do good. He will
never sin. It's just like the law of gravity. You hold something and let go
of it, it's going to drop. It can't help it. It's the law
of gravity. That new man can't sin. It's
the law of his nature. But that old man, he can never
do anything right. All he can ever do is sin, evil.
It's the law. It's like the law of gravity.
It's the law of his nature. He can't help it. So you know
what that old man is going to do? Constantly bring me back
to captivity to see. He can't get away from it. Now
that being said, the old man does not reign. No, sir. New
man reigns. Wherever Christ is, he reigns. That old man, he will not be
able, he's going to try, but he will not be able to stop you
from believing Christ. He won't be able to do it. He's
going to try every day. He won't be able to do it. But this is what he's going to
accomplish. We won't believe Christ as fully as we want. That
old man, he's not going to be able to stop you from loving
Christ. He's not going to do it. But he'll stop you from loving
him as fully as you wish you would. That old man won't be
able to stop you from loving your brethren. but he'll make
it so you don't love him like you wish you would. He's going
to do that. Here's why he's going to be able
to do that. Because everything we do, everything
we think is going to be mixed with the sin that's in us. That
old man will not be able to stop us from hearing the gospel and
believing. He can't do it. He won't reign.
He will not be able to stop you from hearing the gospel and believing. He's going to have an effect,
isn't he? This afternoon somebody asked you, what was the pastor's
text this morning? You say, give me a minute. And it didn't mean you didn't
enjoy the message. It didn't mean, oh, you love the world. You love
Christ. It's that old man. He stops us from hearing it and
hanging on to it like we wish we could. He won't be able to
stop us from reading God's word and enjoying it. But he'll stop
us from doing it like we wish we would. That old man won't be able to
stop us from praying. The longer I live, the more I
understand the disciples asking, Lord, teach me to pray. To be able to just one time pray. Look at Matthew chapter 26. He
won't stop us from praying, but he'll stop us from praying like
we wish we could. Matthew 26 verse 41. Let's go back up. Let's look
at verse 36. Then come with Jesus with them
into a place called Gethsemane. And saith unto the disciples,
sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee began to be sorrowful and very
happy. And say at the end of them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. Tear ye here and watch with me. The Savior just said, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Now be here, pray with me. And he went a little further
and fell on his face. And he prayed, saying, O my Father,
if it be possible, let this cut pass from me. This is getting
ready to be the hour of hours. This is the start of the hour
of hours. There they sit. Oh, my father,
if it be possible, let this cut past for me. Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as thou will. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth him asleep, and saith
unto Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one
hour? But the Savior understood. He said, Watch and pray that
ye enter not into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. That's what he's the two natures
that's going to believe that all the spirit's willing, but
the flesh is weak. That old man is not going to
rule. He's going to have an effect
on us, but he's not going to rule. Because he's been crucified.
The old man's been crucified. But now that doesn't mean he's
dead. No, he can't use his hands and his feet and his body to
stop you from believing Christ, to stop you from hearing his
word. But his mouth works just fine, and you can't shut him
up. and you can't get out of earshot from him. He's constantly
going to be yelling at you to bring you back into captivity
to sin. He'll influence you, but he'll
not be able to rule. Now, all that kind of seems pretty
discouraging, doesn't it? But war is ugly. War is ugly. This is an accurate view of the
believer's life, isn't it? Accurate view. Let me give you
two words of encouragement. Here's the fourth lesson we learned
from this civil war. There's something good that comes
from it. This civil war going on inside me will never let me
rest in myself and forces me to look to Christ, to depend
upon Him. Verse 24, Romans 7. Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Now you remember as we began
the study, I told you this, that the whole point of Paul's letter
to the Romans is this. We're justified by faith in Christ
without any of our works. The law cannot justify a sinful
man. The law can't make a sinner holy
because we can't keep it. And the law can't sanctify a
saved man. The law can't keep a saved man
holy because we can't keep the law before or after conversion.
We're forced to look to Christ alone for both our justification
and our sanctification to make us not guilty and to make us
holy, keep us holy. In Paul's term, the body of this
death is very descriptive. The people to whom he was writing
understood exactly what he was talking about. What he was referring
to was a Roman form of punishment for a murderer. They take that
dead body. Someone murdered someone. They
take the body of that dead man. And they tie him to the murderer.
They tie him face to face, hand to hand, body to body, arm, leg
to leg, foot to foot. They tie him, that dead body
to him. And they leave him that way.
That dead body would decay and the flesh would rot. Oh, oh,
just the corruption. And he's tied to that dead body. That murderer, he can still see. Everything he sees is around
the corruption of that dead face tied to his face. He can still
breathe, can't he? But every breath he takes, he
takes in the corrupt air from that stinking, decaying body. You think that body of Lazarus
laying in the tomb, Lord said, roll the stone away. Mark said,
Lord, you don't do that. It's been four days. We're way
over here. He's way over there. If you roll
that stone away, he's stinking. We're going to be offended. Think that he was tied to your
face. Every breath you took, that corruption went into that
murder. That dead face, that corrupt,
decaying body tied to the face of that murderer would haunt
his conscience all the time. Look what I did. Look what I
did. That murderer, he could still
move around. Boy, he couldn't do it very easily,
could he? He had the dead weight of that body tied to him. He
couldn't move, go where he wanted to do very easily, not like he
wanted to do, because that dead body was tied to him. That is
the experience of effort to leave. We're constantly dragging a dead
body around with us. It's just dead weight. The things
we want to do, it's just so hard to do them. Because not only
do you have to lift your arm, you've got to lift the dead weight
of that corrupt body on you. You can take steps, but every
step you take you've got to move your leg plus the dead weight
of that corrupt body with you. We've got to carry them around
with us everywhere we go. Every breath we take is the stench
of our own sin. See, the problem is not the sin
out there, is it? It's the stench of the sin that's
in me. breathing it. And eventually, what often would
happen from what I read is that that dead decaying body would
kill the murderer. The disease, the corruption of
that dead body would go into that murderer and kill him. That's
the one thing the believer is safe from. That old man cannot
harm the new man. Can't do it. One day, we're going
to put him down. But until we do, until we have
a funeral service, we're going to carry that dead body around
with us. And you know what that forces the believer to do? I
don't have the strength to do it. I've got to look to Him to
get my strength. This corruption is with me. I can't get rid of
it. I can't cleanse it. I've got
to look to Christ to cleanse it by His blood. I cannot get
rid of this guilt. This happened to me. I deserve
it. It's my sin. I've got to look to Christ to
be my obedience, to make me not guilty. He's got to be my righteousness. Christ has got to be my sanctification.
He's got to be my wisdom. He's got to be my life. He's
got to be my hope. And in this war, he's got to
be my peace. It's Christ alone. Every step is Christ alone. Now,
whatever it is you need, you look to Christ. You look to Him. That's what this civil war teaches
us. Look to Christ and depend upon Him. And then here's the
fifth lesson. This warfare is horrible. Horrible. But it'll soon be over. Soon
we will be free from this body of death. Verse 25. 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. Now
very soon, I watched a young bride, young groom yesterday,
off into the sunset. And I thought, wow. I remember
when you and me did that 30 years ago. They don't know that. Young people,
you listen to me. It's going to go like that. Soon, this life is going to be
over. And when it's over, all of its
troubles, all of its heartaches, all of its cares, all of its
worries, and this great civil war is going to be over too.
The Lord soon is going to return, either in the death of this body
or in His second coming. But one way or another, He's
coming. And it's going to be over soon. And when He comes,
you know what He's going to say? He's going to take that, his
child, in his hands, and he's going to say, well done. I couldn't
thank the serpent. I've not been pleased with one
thing I've ever done. How could he say that to me?
Only in Christ. Because everything he did, I
did in him. What he is, as he is, so are we in this world.
and we're liking body and soul, this civil war's gonna be over.
The war's over! It is finished. I'm just waiting
for Him to take me off the battlefield. I'll dwell with Him forever. So then, Paul says, until then,
I myself, I'm gonna serve God. That new man, I'm gonna serve
God in love and faith. And until then, I myself, that
old man, that old man of Adam, he's going to continue to sin
and to be awful because he can't change. I'll be glad to lay him
down one day. War will be over. This thing's
going to end. Peace has been made. Yesterday
evening, Brother Todd Nybert and I were talking, doing what
preachers do. What are you preaching on tomorrow?
What are you preaching on tomorrow? And I told him what I was preaching
on. He told me about a conversation Cecil, he and Cecil had. Who
does the Bible speak to? Does it speak to the old man
or the new man? Who does it speak to? This is the conclusion all
of us have come to. The Bible speaks to me. That's
who it speaks to. The Bible speaks to you. What
does God's Word say to you? God's Word says to you, surrender,
submit, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What does the Bible
say to you? What does it say to me? says
this, look to Christ always for all things. That's the only,
he is the only weapon you have in this great civil war. Look
to him, look to him. It won't bring an end to the
war, but it'll give you some peace of heart. It will. All
right, let's bow in prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank
you that in your word, You've given us an accurate picture
of the life of a believer so that we don't get discouraged.
We hate our sin. We despise our sin. We wish we
wouldn't sin anymore. That's our desire to be holy,
but we know that's not so. And you've given us this glorious
truth in your words so that we won't be discouraged, but that
we will be forced to look away from ourselves and look to the
Lord Jesus How we thank you for Him who has won the victory.
How we thank you for a Savior who completely saves from sin,
who atones for the sin of His people with His precious blood.
Father, we pray this morning that you glorify Your Son in
our hearts through the preaching of Your Word. Cause Your Word
to take root in our hearts, to cause us, everyone, to leave
here this morning looking to and resting in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we pray this for His
glory, for the glory of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.