The Deliverer
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Good evening, were in Romans chapter 7 and were beginning in verse 14 to the end of the chapter.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
For the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
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.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
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.
(Let’s Pray)
If you’ll remember last week we left off with the apostle Paul talking to us about our relationship with the law, we have kind of a love hate relationship with the law. We love it bc it raises the standard of life to something that is really beyond us, we agree with it we say things like thou shalt not commit adultery, we think to ourselves absolutely thats a good thing.
Thou shalt not steal, thats a good thing. We look at ti and we think thats a good thing. But we also hate as well, because it contantly condemns us, the law always shows us how far short we have fallen fo God’s standard.
So we admire it.
But we look at and we think man I am not doing very good at keeping it.
It’s kind of like being convicted of a crime and sitting in jail and trying to find a way out. Problem is your guilty, if you were innocent you could turn to the law and say I need some help with this situation, but the fact is we are all guilty before god and so we cant turn to the law all its gonna do is further convict us.
All it does is back up the fact that we are guilty and so thats the situation, that is why the law does not work for followers of Jesus the law cannot work for you and for me because all it can do is make us feel the guilt of our sins.
That is why legalism doesn’t work.
Remember what Paul talked about last week, he talked about this weird aspect of the law where we see the law or the rule and it provokes in us a desire to sin.
He says it actually provokes us there is something wrong with our hearts that looks at the line drawn in the sand and makes us think if it is the last thing I do I gotta cross that line.
Its called rebellion, we see it in our kids.
But we ought to see it in ourself. we dont like to admit it but its there, we dont have to teach our kids how to rebel. It is in our DNA to be rebels, someone tells us what to do and we think we know better or we want something different.
The law comes along and it tells us what we shouldn’t do and it stirs up all these things in our hearts that our wicked.
We have this crazy relationship with the law of God and Paul is gonna talk about the law here in verse 14 but what I want you to see, is that Paul is gonna lay out for us today the secret to living the Christian life.
For those of us who struggle to live the Christian life and maybe even frustrated I hope this clears some things up for you tonight.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Paul is drawing a contrast, it makes us see things for what they really are. You know when you go to the jewlery store or you see a jewlery commercial they dont lay the diamond on a white backround they put it on a black backround the darkest they can find to really make the sparkles shine through.
They want you to see it clearly
Paul is using contrast to help us understand these things so that they will really stand out.
He is saying the law has a nature that is spiritual, you and I have a nature that is carnal, or fleshly. That is the contrast, so he is gonna talk about this contrast bc whenever there is a contrast it means those things are fighting with each other.
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
If you could see my Christian life on a graph it would look like the design for the wildest roller coaster ride you’ve ever seen in your life. Isn’t that what yours is like sometimes?
Don’t you have those times in your life where you feel like your on fire and your doing great and you feel like things are going really good and then you just bottom out. Its like the worst of the worst comes out of you and its just like where did that come from?
It’s like were just up on the mountain top and then we come crashing back down into the pits and were like what is this?
What happened. I’m laying on the ground because I have been knocked off my feet. Why is it that I cant have this life of consistency with the Lord. I wanna do whats right but I seem to always mess it up!
I find myself lacking, and if you are thinking well this is just not me, then congratulations you are more spiritually sound than the apostle Paul. Where am I going to get the power from to live my life for God is it gonna come from the law?
Na it doesnt come from that weve already talked about that the law doesnt give me any power at all. THERE IS NO POWER IN THE LAW EXCEPT FRO TO CONDEMN AND CONVICT.
The law doesn’t include the power to live a Christian life, thats why legalism doesn’t work. I can sit here throwing out rules all day long, but it will not transform your heart.
So Paul goes on to make this statement in verse 20 that is key for us to understand
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Now when you read this verse this sounds like the apostle Paul is trying to place the blame on the law. It sounds like he is saying… “well when I mess up its not really me..” Kinda like saying the devil made me do it.
Humans like to shift blame on someone or something else, and thats kind of what it sounds like Paul is doing here but its not. Paul knows exactly whats going on he is not shifting blame He understands he is a sinner. What he is saying is that something inside of him, that is constantly fighting against who he is ins Christ is not the real him.
This is important, the apsotle Paul firmly believed that when we come to Jesus, that we are a new creation in Christ. He believed it with all of his heart, he didn’t just say it with his mouth.
he said it because its true, he didnt say it bc he thought it would make us feel better, he said it bc its true.
You come to Jesus your a new creation end of story. What does that mean now as it relates to sin?
Well, he is explaining it here, when i sin its not the real me, its the old me, the old me that has died. what did Paul say when he wrote to the Galatians?
He said I have been crucified with Christ and I (speaking of the old man), no longer live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in this body I live by faith in the son of God.
Do you understand what he is saying here?
He is saying that the old sin nature is not the real you, its the old you that has been crucified it hasnt, given up and breathed its last yet, but it is the old you.
Paul is literally saying when as a Christian you sin, you are violating your new nature. it is consistent with your new nature to live a life of righteousness and holiness now we dont do that all the time, but when we do mess up it is actually a violation of who we really are.
the old man is the one who is asserting itself and causing us to sin, but its not the real you. This is why we feel so out of place at some of the same places we used to go, you know we used to sit around gossiping but once we are saved those things don’t feel right anymore.
I used to go to bars and drinking but now those things and places just dont feel right for me to be there anymore.
THATS NOT WHO I AM ANYMORE BECAUSE I AM A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS
heres the question: do we believe what Paul believes?
What do I believe about myself?
Do I believe that when I sin I say oh that feels good??
Or do I look at what I do when I sin and say thats not me and I am ashamed of that.
That is the old dead man coming back the old slave master has called out to me and I have believed the lie that I must obey and I have fallen, but we dont have to listen to Him any longer and we need to understand that if we do in a moment of fear succumb to the temptations of the flesh that it is just that we have embraced the old man or woman again.
Paul is trying to help us understand that there is a new nature within us now that is the real you the redeemed you the real mccoy.
Thats the life you need to begin to let shine forth, now before you met Jesus before I met Jesus we were being true to our nature then, that was the only nature we had. we had an old sinful nature.
i dont know about you but before I met Jesus I didnt even question what I did.
I just did it, bc thats who I was.
I never struggled with sin before I met Jesus, I struggled with righteousness because I couldnt do it and I didn’t really want to.
But then we come to Christ we recieve Jesus as our savior He comes to live within us He comes to indwell us with His Holy Spirit and He places within us the nature of JEsus Christ.
Welcome to the new you, do you live completely consistent to the new yopu? NO but its still the new you, and now the old man is the one who still sins, and thats why theres a battle going on inside of you.
You are not schizophrenic you just have 2 natures at war within you and they are battling for control inside of your life!
the old sinful nature which was crucified with Christ on the cross and the new Christ nature in you, when Paul wrote the Galatians he actually talked about this.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
This is the battle this is the conflict this is the psycosis, that we are all dealing with, Were like man I wanna do whats right but I dont have the ability in and of myself to carry it out!
Thats the thing, thats the battle thats the war fare thats being waged inside of all of us.
Paul actually says the very same thing here in Romans
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
The new created man, loves the word of God and loves doing right and he is saying I wanan do right but I find this law in me that even when I try to do right that evil is always right there waiting to punce on me and dominate me.
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.
I mean you see this going on in your life and what is your reaction to it? How you gonna deal with this conflict in your life?
Do you know what most people do? They just doubt their salvation, thats probably one of the most knew jerk reactions when people come to faith in Christ and they realize they are just as messed up as they have ever been.
But the realization is this, people feel this way because they have never been trained how to wage this war fare, this is why Paul feels this way, but later what were going to see when Paul writes to the Ephesians he has learned how to wage spiritual war fare!
he begins to teach us how to fight back and how to have a firm footing in this battle between the new me and the old me and the enemy who seeks to take advantage.
However in frustration his heart bleeds out on to the page here in 24
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Romans
I’m the worst!
We have to come to the place where we understand that our hearts are wretched apart from him.
bc if we don’t come to this place then we are going to keep on believing the mistaken idea that there is something good in me and I just need to find it and unlock and then I’ll be ok, listen thats a lie
WRETCHED=exhausted from battle
I know alot of Christians that are fighting that battle there is a battle going on inside of them and they are trying their best to win and they are doing it in their own strength. they are living an exhausted Christian life bc they are trying to do it in their own strength.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
It is deliverance for the believer to be called home by the Lord because while we live on in this flesh there will always be a hindrance to how faithful, how holy, we can be.
He is trying to get us to see that in our own strength in our own power there is no hope and we finally come to the place of saying WHO IS GOING TO SAVE ME!!!
I have finally come to terms with the fact that I cannot be righteous enough I cant be holy enough, WHO IS GOING TO SAVE ME!!!
BODY OF DEATH!
He understands that there is this corpse that is latched to his body and he is carrying it around and he cant do anything about it. He is like who is going to cut me free from this body of death?
Its weighing me down
Who will help me?!
We have to do like Paul and come to the end of ourselves and realize its not about me I cant fix this problem it can only come through the power of God.
One of my favorite teachings in all of the Nt is the sermon on the mount, but whats interesting about the sermon on the mount isa that the very first thing out of Jesus’ mouth has to do with understanding our wretched condition, and if oyu only read the first section of the sermon on the mount your not going to be very happy.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew
What does this mean?
POOR=I have nothing
destitutes
Spirit=essence of a man
So what is JEsus saying?
There is a blessed condition for those who are destitute of themselves for thiers is the kingdom of heaven, they have now opened the door to the riches of blessings bc they have come to terms with the fact they have nothing to offer God
Nothing to deliver themselves by they are destitute
If someone does not give me something outside of myself I have no hope!
NOTHING IN YOURSELF!
This is exactly what Paul is saying WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM I HAVE NOTHING!
He is desperate!
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.
How am I delivered from carrying around that dying corpse??
JESUS CHRIST!!