Civil War

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)

Loss of Balance

Difficulty moving the eyes

Sensitivity to light

Difficulty swallowing

His body won’t do the things he wants his body to do.

Joni Earecson Tada

Prolific Christian author and speaker

Holds 6 Doctorate degrees

Survived breast cancer

Has been paralysed from the neck down since she was 15 years old after she dove head first into shallow water.

I have heard her describe her being taken to the hospital after her accident. The anguish of not being able to cover herself.

In Romans 7 Paul describes an even greater anguish. An anguish that ever Christian feels.

Romans 7:14–15 NASB95

14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

Why do we sin after salvation?

What happens at salvation?

Justified - Sins are forgiven and covered in His righteousness.

But not only are we imputed with His righteousness, we are made righteousness. That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus you must be “born again”

In 2 Corinthians Paul said that anyone that is in Christ he is a new creation.

We are made righteous and set apart. The word is sanctification, and it starts when we accept Christ.

At salvation, you are a different creature. You were a goat and you were made into a sheep. You were chaff, and you were made wheat. You were dead, and you are made alive.

Your inner man, as Paul would call it, is made by God, is in perfect harmony with God, through Christ, and is in fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit of God living in you.

Salvation is a miracle. No less impressive than Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, you were made alive.

Why do we continue to sin?

Because we are still contained within this fleshy body.

Romans 7:14 NASB95

14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

Law is spiritual - From God, who is spirit.

Of flesh-Not in the flesh.

Romans 8:8 tells us that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. They have not been born again, so the flesh is all that they are.

I am not in the flesh, but the flesh is in me.

Martin Luther King Jr said, “I may not be the man I want to be; I may not be the man I ought to be; I may not be the man I could be; I may not be the man I truly can be; but praise God, I’m not the man I once was.”

So Paul laments this three times in Romans 7.

Romans 7:15 NASB95

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

Romans 7:18–19 NASB95

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

Romans 7:21 NASB95

21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

He is describing this Civil War within ourselves that every Christian knows and experiences daily.

What Paul is describing is what Neuroscientist describe as the Intention - Behavior Gap.

Paul illustrates this beautifully and importantly in verses 16 and 17. and again in verse 21.

Romans 7:16–17 NASB95

16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

So the inner man recognizes the intention is good, but the behavior is not.

It’s not me (incorruptible inner man) but sin that my flesh is infected with.

We know that battle! Sometimes is leave us bloody and scared and hurting.

But remember Paul’s encouragement in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 4:16 NASB95

16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

We know how the war on sin ends. We know that there will be victory.

Romans 7:22–23 NASB95

22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

It is a true statement that for the believer, the sin that bothers him/her the most is their own!

At the Art of Marriage retreat we were asked to draw an imaginary circle on the ground, step into the circle and commit to dealing only with the person inside that circle.

As a believer matures they won’t be sinless, but will sin less. But here’s the kicker.....Although you will sin less, it will bother you more!

which leads Paul to ask in vs. 24

Romans 7:24 NASB95

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

In my mind I serve the law of God by in my flesh, the law of Sin.

Jesus already did it.

Romans 8:1 NASB95

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Luke 12:51 NASB95

51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division;

Jesus divides us into those who walk in the spirit and those that walk in the flesh.

Romans 8:5–6 NASB95

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

How do we walk in the Spirit?

Last week I was at a training put on by Rep. Rick Crawford and the FBI about cyber crimes and it’s threat on national security.

Keynote speaker - Perry Carpenter was introduced as the Chief Evangelist for a particular cyber security company. I wanted to be offended. Chief Evangelist? As if we as Christians had a patent on the word.

He was trying to convert people from apathy about cyber security toward doing something about it.

Just because you know, doesn’t mean you care.

Any cyber security program that goes against human nature will fail.

It doesn’t matter how much you know, but what you do.

Pt. 1 Even Satan knows the Word. The demons believe in God and they tremble.

Pt. 3. James : Tell me you have faith, but I will show you my faith by my works. Faith without works is dead.

Pt. 2. If you try and fight agains Human Nature, you will fail.

You have to change Human Nature.

Daniel Kahneman- Princeton Professor and Nobel Prize winner talks about the fast brain and slow brain.

Fast brain - reacts, slow brain considers.

You can move things from the slow brain to the fast brain.

Riding a motorcycle.

Philippians 4:8–9 NASB95

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.