For our scripture reading, this
morning turn with me to Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. Paul's dealing with believers
here that God has saved out of religion. Out of religion. He saved most of us out of religion. And he's talking to them about
that. He's talking to them about the
law and our relationship to the law. And showing to them that
there's no hope in the law because we're sinners. And the law judges
sinners. Convinces them of sin. Convicts them of sin. And he
says in verse 7, 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, taking occasion by the
commandment. seeing an opportunity in the
law to do its work and twist it. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. I didn't know I was a sinner.
My thinking, I didn't think that way. I didn't think that I did
this or said that or decided this or that based on a sinful
nature. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, when a full understanding
of the law 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 exceeding sinful. I'm going to see sin in a whole
new light in its religious context. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I'm carnal, sold unto sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, 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's good. Now then it's no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Not the law that makes
this thing deadly, it's my sin. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to 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. I find in a law a fixed principle,
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
dead? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
I learn. So then, with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh I invite you to turn back with
me now to Romans chapter 7. And before we get into our study,
I want to say a few things. It's on my mind and on my heart. I never know when I'm sitting
in my study at home. I think about this all the time
because it's happened so often. I never know who's going to walk
through those doors. I never know. I never know who's
going to come through those doors, sit and hear what I hope my Lord
has given me to say. And that kind of narrows down
where my messages come from. It makes me more dependent on
Him than it does my knowledge of you who gather here every
week. I sit and I think about this. What will I say? What will
I say? And the messages, beside all
that, the messages from this pulpit go out over the internet. They're available to anybody,
anywhere in the world who has a computer. Anybody. We have people who listen, I
don't know that it's on a regular basis, but we have people who
listen on islands that I've never heard of. Almost a hundred downloads from
a small country, and this happened one month, not one download since. You just, you don't know what
God's going to do with that message that you're sitting to prepare. So far this month, 13 countries
and 31 states have listened to messages from this church. And there are spaces that I see
and recognize and many in other places that listen and correspond,
but the majority out there are nothing but numbers. They're
just numbers without names. And I don't know who they are
or what kind of situation they're in, but I encourage them if they
would, to write or call me or message me through sermon audio
and let me know who they are and if these messages are of
any benefit to you. Now having said that, I want to talk for a little bit
from the last two verses in Romans chapter 7 on this subject, the
wretched man's I'm a pastor teacher. Those in
God's providence who gather here, I do my best to pastor. The scripture said, I'm to watch
for your souls as he who must give an account. I watch for
your souls. When I see things that I think
are going to be a danger to you, I'm going to deal with them.
If they make you mad, I'm sorry. I'm not up here trying to make
you mad. I'm trying to help you. It's my job. It's what God has
singled me out to do. And in order to pastor a people,
I have to see them. I have to know them. I have to
hear them. And when I see those things creeping in that I know
is going to be damage to you, I'm going to deal with you. I'm
going to deal with you. I'm going to watch for your soul. And those who listen to me, be
it the internet, I do my best to teach. I can't pastor them,
but I can teach them the Lord will. I can teach them. And my hope is that, little or
large, the Lord will use me and honor His Word and His Gospel
in the salvation of His people. That's my hope. My vision of
the ministry is one based on the Word of God, the Gospel of
Christ, and my own experience. Somebody said one time you can't
tell what you don't know anymore and you can come back from someplace
you haven't been. That's true. You can only tell
what you know. There's a few things that are
on my mind as I sit and prepare a message. One of them is this. I know my shortcomings. I do. My inabilities. My lack of education. But so does the God who chose
me. So does the God who orders my
life. And so I stand here in the pulpit
today hoping and praying that God will take my few fishes and
few loaves and feed his people. That's my hope. I'm nobody. I'm nobody different from you.
But in the grace of God, he singled me out to do this work. Romans 7 is talking about the
inward struggle and experience of every true believer. Are you
and I believers? There's where it begins. People
speculate. I read books and they speculate
about Romans 7. Who is it talking about? Was
Paul saved when he wrote it? Or was it just ridiculous things? But here's where it begins. Am
I a believer? Because that's what he's talking
about. If I'm not a believer, I'll never understand Romans
7. Has God called me out of darkness?
Has He given me eyes to see? Has He given me a heart to understand
these things? Have I entered in to the mysteries
hidden from this world? Have I heard the gospel of my
salvation? God, who is due all the glory
of saved men and women, having trusted all things to his Son,
says this, in whom you also trusted after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise." What promise? What in the world
is he talking about, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise? He's
talking about the promise of an all-sufficient Savior. Is
your Savior all-sufficient? This One that you worship, this
One that you come here to hear about, this One that you read
in the Bible and call Jesus of Nazareth, is He all-sufficient? The Bible said, In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now listen, and ye are
complete in Him. What's that mean, Pastor? That
means you're completely redeemed. That's what that means. You're
completely justified. You're completely righteous.
You're completely holy. You're completely sanctified.
Sanctified us once for all. You're complete in Him who is
the head of all principality and power. There's nothing that
can threaten you because He's the head of all principality
and power. Are we believers? Well, if we
are, Romans 7 is our story. It's our story. So here's my
message, and I'm confident that this is God's message to you
for this hour, the wretched man's hope. Now let me begin with some
questions. First of all, what in the world
is a wretched man? Let's don't read these words
and just run off into oblivion thinking we know something Look
it up, see what it means. By definition, a wretched man
is a villain. He's the bad guy. Watching a
movie and all of a sudden you go, ah, he's the bad guy. That's what he's talking about,
the wretched man. He's a rogue. He's a rascal. He's a reprobate. He's a good
for nothing. He's a louse, a rat, a low-louse. And my favorite, he's a scumbag. A preacher, that's not me, really. So you're saying that God really
don't know what he's looking at when he's looking at you. Huh? That's not me. I wouldn't do that. You're saying
God's blind? He can't see your heart? He reads
you like a book. Or maybe you're saying this.
He's overlooking my good qualities. I don't think so because there's
none good. If you're not good, you don't have a good quality. The Holy Ghost begins here. We
have before proved. Now this is over in Romans chapter
3. Paul's going to talk about sin.
And he said we have before proved both Jews And Gentiles, that's
the whole world isn't it, are all under sin. You're not floating on top. You're
beneath the water. You're all under sin. The passage doesn't say that
they occasionally trip and sin. It says they're all under sin. They're under its curse. They're
under its condemnation. They're under its reigning power,
under its evil influence, and under its damning effects. They're
all under sin. None righteous. None that understand
it. None that seeketh after God.
All gone out of the way. Together become unprofitable.
None that doeth good, no, not one. With their tongues they've
used deceit. The poison of the ash is under
their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness, destruction and misery in their way. No fear
of God, no reverent respect for God. No fear of God before their
eyes. Oh, that's over. The sinner is
a wretched man. He's the son of a sinner. He's
a chip off the old block. That's exactly what he is. By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. And oh, the curse of sin! By
the offense of one judgment came upon all men two condemnation. If you say you have no sin, you
make God a liar. He said, you're all under condemnation. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. And sin, he said, hath reigned
unto death. You can't conquer it. You can't
resist it. You can't do anything about it. You think you're holding it down
here and it'll pop up over here. You can't do anything with it?
It just comes up in a different form. The Bible said, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. And this is what every
son of Adam is by nature. We were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. Oh, he's a wretched man. a murderer, a convict, a God-hating
rebel, his carnal mind's enmity against God. It's not subject
to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. He doesn't
love God, honor God, seek God, or bow to God's authority. He thinks no more when the Lord
said, don't do this. He don't think any more about
that than he does when he sees a stop sign out here. He'll roll
right through it. Huh? They don't respect for God. He's not subject to the law of
God. And there's simply not enough
words to describe how sinful a man is. I'm describing the sinner as
God defines him in his word. I'm describing that man, that
place, that old nature that still dwells in your body, saved or
lost, he's still there. He hadn't changed one bit. I was watching a John Wayne Western
the other night, and he'd been separated from his wife for years. She called him back for this
emergency. She needed his help and he come
back and he was doing something and going up against her and
she said, you haven't changed one bit. He said, not one bit. That's what I'm saying. That
old man hasn't changed one bit. Not one bit. Paul, before God
saved him, was a religious man. He was a Pharisee, zealous, self-righteous,
dedicated man. a man like most of us who didn't
know he was a sinner. Oh, he made some mistakes, but
he wasn't no sinner. He wasn't a wretched man. He
said here in Romans 7, verse 5, For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. Sin defiled my religious thoughts
and imaginations and actions. I thought I was worshiping God.
God called it an abomination. That's what he calls it. Because
of the ignorance of our father nature and the influence of antichrist
religion. Saul of Tarsus believed himself
to be a son of God, a servant of God, held the coats of those
men who stoned Stephen, a preacher sent of God. He said, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, came in power, came in
the Holy Ghost, came with understanding, sin revived and I died. Who died? That good man, that
righteous man, that zealous man, that beloved man. He died. What is a wretched man? He's
a vile, God-hating rebel, a helpless, hopeless sinner, a dead sinner
dependent upon the mercy and grace of God. All right, here's
the second question. That's what a wretched man is. The second thing I want us to
see this morning is who this wretched man is. Who is this wretched man Paul
speaks of in verse 24? He said himself, O wretched man
that I Sin revived, he said, and I died. I, not some potential sinner,
not some foreign entity in me, I died. Did God ever put you in the judgment
seat, convinced you of sin? Set you in the jury box? Revealed to you all the evidence?
Made you convict yourself? Has he ever done that to you? Convinced you to vote guilty
concerning your own crimes. The wretched man is the man that
God moves in with power and truth and makes him to confess his
sins. Repent of his sins. Acknowledge
his sins. Listen to this, verse 18. For
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, in my present condition,
here, in this box, in my flesh, dwelleth no Good thing. Wow. Huh? Let that sink in. No good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. How come? Because there ain't no good thing
in it. You want a potato to roast? You
don't go to the auto parts store. Go to the grocery store. You
want to serve God? You ain't going to find it in
here. You'll find it up there. You see what I'm saying? They're none good but God. That's
what our Lord told the rich young ruler. Sinful self is not the
source of anything of any value toward God. He must and will
look outside of himself or he'll die in his seat. Who is this wretched man? Now
watch this. He's a saved man. You won't find a wretched man
out there. Only place you'll find him is
in here. Now come on, I don't hear Saul
of Tarsus talking about how wretched he was, talking about how righteous
he was, but not how wretched. But now he's saved. And now he
talks about how wretched he is. This is talking about a saved
man. A man being saved by grace. He tells us in verse 18, to will
is present with me. It's not present in an unregenerate
man. God's people are made willing
in the day of His power. God's people are willing. Natural
man has no thought of bowing to God, obeying God, or being
subject to God. He has no interest in the purpose
of God and no need of His mercy or grace. Natural man is a carnal
man, sold, Paul said, under sin. He had no struggle as a sinner.
He had no warfare in his religion. His trouble began when God sent
him a preacher. Everything's just fine here at
UConn. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to turn the place
upside down. I just tried to tell you the
truth. Twenty years of religion, I never one time ever heard the
word grace preached or any reason given for it. Twenty years, there
every day. Twenty years of religious meetings
and I never heard the word predestination ever used or election or even
the sovereignty of God. Not one time. When Paul said Christ came into
the world to save sinners, he didn't say, like I used to be. He said, of whom I am chief. And no hope for self-righteous
men and women. Our Lord said the whole need
not a physician. There's no hope for good, honest
men and women because there's none good. But there is for wretched sinners.
There's hope. Men and women who now hear the law, they hear
it. They understand that it's holy
and just and good, but offers no hope for sinners. Know and
understand that by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be
justified before God. If that's your hope, going out
of this world to meet God, here's what I've done. If that's your
hope, you will not be justified before God. Now I see sin in a light never
before seen. I see it in its religious context. I see evil in the vain imaginations
of men and women. I see the practice of vain religion
just like God sees it. It's an abomination. It's a poison to the souls of
men and women and it's an open pit for their children. He that hath eyes to see, let
him rejoice. He hath blessed eyes. There is, are you listening?
There is an old man. You've heard that term before,
haven't you? The old man. There is an old man. Paul said we're to put off the
old man, Ephesians 4.22, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts,
and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness." That's Christ in you. Knowing this, Paul said again
to the church at Rome, that our old man, this old man was crucified
with Christ. And then he tells us over in
Colossians 3, lie not one to another, seeing you have put
off the old man with his deeds. There is an old man. Who is this old man? He's the
wretched man. He's in you and I in this flesh. That's the old man. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me? Now listen, from the body of
this death. Believers walk through this world
chained to a corpse. If nothing in me, from me, or
about me can work for the salvation of my soul, where else can I
look? If every son of Adam is as wretched
as me, where can I go for this salvation? Am I doomed altogether
by sin? I am if God doesn't intervene. But God has intervened in the
person of his son. He's the new man. He came as
a representative man, as a substitute for chosen sinners. He lived
for them the life that they couldn't live. What was he doing here? Why must he be born a baby, grow
up, live 30 years, and then be crucified on a cross? What was
this whole lifespan all about? What was Christ doing? He was
living for his people a life that they couldn't live. He died for them the death that
they couldn't die. Sinners die for eternity. They
just keep on dying. It's a bottomless pit. They keep
on falling. He died for them a death that
you'll never be able to die. You're not going to satisfy God
in hell. Not ever. Jesus Christ, when he died, he
died the death that we couldn't die. He satisfied for them the justice
that they couldn't satisfy. He satisfied God. God looked
on the travail of his soul and the scripture said he was satisfied. All the rebels burning in hell
couldn't satisfy him, but he looked on his son and he was
satisfied. He loved for them a love that
they couldn't love. God chose us, it says in Ephesians
1, read it for yourself, He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy without blame before Him
being loved. He loved for us a love that we
couldn't produce. He loved for me. It said that God loved us from
the beginning. How could he do that except in
Christ? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then, he said, with the mind
The mind of Christ, the understanding of Christ, looking to Christ.
With the understanding of faith, I myself serve the law of God. Huh? Absolutely. Absolutely. In Christ, that law
is exalted and honored. And it's fulfilled. But with
the flesh, the law of sin. What is the law of God that he's
referring to here? With the mind, I serve the law
of God. What's he talking about? He's
talking about everything God demands of men, everything God
requires of men. Christ is my righteousness. He's
the end of the law, the highest goal, the highest attainment,
the loftiest end. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. But he's more than
just my righteousness. He's more than just my scapegoat.
He's more than just my redeemer. He's my elder brother by whom
I have become an heir of God. We're heirs of God in Christ.
Children of God. Children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. He's my counselor, representing
me before God, my advocate. He's my hope. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. In fact, Paul said, Christ is
all. What is he to the believer? He's
everything. He's all. He's all. The mind of Christ is the mind of
the new man, which is Christ. Coming to doubt concerning the
salvation of some of those in Galatia. Paul said this, he said,
my little children, now listen to this, of whom I prevail in
birth again until Christ be formed in you. Not that you see some
evidence of your honesty or some evidence of your willingness
to sacrifice, no, until Christ be formed in you. It's not what most believe it
is. It's Christ being formed in you. He's everything. He's your hope.
Believers are renewed in the spirit of their minds. They see
a perfect man and desire to be like him. They see one whose
very existence here is to save sinners. They see this perfect
man living to glorify his Father, to carry out his Father's will.
In seeing him, they want to be like him. If God would but give
you a glimpse of His Son, that would be your desire. You're
going to want to be like Him. Oh, don't you wish you could
love like He loves? Walk like He walked. Teach like
He taught. When you see Him, you want to
be like Him. That lip will come up to you.
He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He said, I
will. He went away clean. John said this, Beloved, now
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we'll be like him, for we'll see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Is that talking
about progressive sanctification? No. That's talking about cutting
off everything that's not just like Christ. That's what that
is. When I was just little, I had
a friend. We'd become very close. Very close. Had no secrets. My
friend was wise. He was. He was wise. He seemed always to know what
to do and what to say. He helped me get out of some
scrapes. Helped me skirt some issues from time to time. And
after many years, he became my trusted friend. Boy, we were
just like that. One day a man came to my house. had a uniform on, representative of the highest
authority in the land. And he said, I need to come in
and talk to you for a little bit. I let him come in, wondered what
in the world he was doing. He sat there on my couch, opened
up a book, and began to tell me about my friend. He was a wanted man. All them
years, a wanted man. He was guilty of the worst of
crimes. He was a slick character. And
for 30 years managed to live among the world virtually unknown. I sat in awe. I sat there in
awe and unbelief as this man furnished documented crimes that
he had done, pictures of him doing these evil deeds, crime
after crime, lie after lie. And to top it all off, to disguise
himself, he joined the church, pretended to be a Christian. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.
I said, who is this guy? He said, his name is Darwin Pruitt. And I sat there in silence, had
nothing to say. He proved to me beyond a shadow
of a doubt that I was a rigid man. And since that day, I don't
trust myself. I trust Christ. I trust Christ. That's what Roman saving is talking
about. Seeing yourself for what you really are and seeing Christ
for what He is. He's everything. He's everything. And if you think there's something
good in there, you need to read this book again or have it read
to you. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this dead? I thank God through Jesus Christ. That's my hope, and that's the
only hope I can find in this book. May God make it the hope
of everyone here today. Thank you.