Prone to Rebellion
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Opening Illustration:
In a quiet rehearsal room, a young pianist is working through a difficult piece. On the piano sits a metronome—tick, tick, tick—unyielding and perfectly true. Every time the pianist rushes a run or drags a phrase, the click exposes it. Frustration builds. The metronome never bends; it just keeps telling the truth. Finally, the teacher—a seasoned concert pianist—pulls up a bench beside the student. He places his hands over the student’s hands, counts them in, and begins to guide the weight, the timing, the touch. Suddenly the music starts to flow—not because the metronome was wrong, but because a living master entered the moment and supplied what mere timing could never impart.
Over the last several messages we have seen how Paul is talking against the Law being the means that we are saved. Instead, we are saved by faith through Jesus Christ alone. Last, last week that those who have trusted in Christ alone for salvation are free from the law. We are no longer captive to it instead we have a new way of life through the Holy Spirit’s power in us through the saving work of Jesus Christ in our lives. It is with this context that Paul continues in Romans 7:7-25,
If you have found your place in Romans 7:7 would you say Word and stand in the honor of the reading of God’s word.
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
1. Recognize your sinfulness.
1. Recognize your sinfulness.
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Illustration: Ever open the blinds in a dark room and suddenly see dust dancing everywhere? The light didn’t create the dust; it exposed what was already there.
2. Recognize your ongoing conflict with sin.
2. Recognize your ongoing conflict with sin.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Here’s a thought:
Illustration: PUBLIX on FRIDAY: You grab a cart at the store and discover—too late—it’s got that one rogue wheel. You aim straight, but it keeps pulling left. You fight it the entire trip.
3. Recognize your Deliverer in Jesus.
3. Recognize your Deliverer in Jesus.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Illustration: A swimmer is caught in a riptide—exhausted, panicking, pulled farther out with every stroke. A lifeguard slices through the water, throws a rescue buoy, and tows them in. The swimmer didn’t out-muscle the current; they were rescued.
Closing illustration:
