Morning, morning. I think you're doing well. Good morning, everyone else. Good morning.
Good. Good to be with you this morning. And just ask for your prayers as we continue this morning, looking into the Word of God. I realized last night as I kind of finished up that I got way too much.
So I'm going to be cutting as I go through, which is kind of an awkward sort of thing to do, but I got to do it. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us together this morning. Thank you for your wonderful love to us.
Thank you that you sent your son, the Lord Jesus, to die for us on the cross. We've been singing of him this morning. And I pray, Lord, as we look into your Word this morning, you would speak to our hearts, you would meet us at our point of need, at our greatest need, and that you would help us to walk with you, that we may come out of here stronger in our walk with the Lord Jesus. We ask it in his name.
Amen. You guys got my PowerPoint, right? Okay. Good.
All right. So what is your greatest struggle in your life? What's your greatest battle? And I did this little wordle thing here.
It didn't like the way it came out, but it did come out. For some people, it's your job, your spouse, your kids, loneliness, money, drugs, peer pressure, exams, going back to school, COVID-19. What's your greatest struggle in your life? I find that I can be doing well in some areas of my life, in many areas of my life, and I can just go along.
But then there's these areas of struggle that I have that keep coming back to haunt me. And I find myself at the point while I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's my Savior, but these sins keep coming back and I struggle with them. And maybe you don't know about them, but I do. And they're there.
And this is a time I think we need to be honest with ourselves and with each other, that we do have these struggles. Part of what I'm going to speak on today kind of was inspired back when Nicholas spoke a bit a month ago on our struggle with sin. Our struggle with sin. It's the biggest problem in our society.
It's your personal worst enemy. And it's the greatest threat to all of humanity, more than COVID-19, more than whatever is coming next. Your sin is a struggle. Sometimes I struggle with consistency.
For instance, maybe you do too. You make all these New Year's resolutions, so I'm going to lose 15 pounds and then you find you gain 15 pounds by the end of the year. I'm going to go to the gym more. I'm going to save my money better.
I'm going to be a better dad. I'm going to be a better mom. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.
And then you find at the end of it in all of the struggle that I didn't meet those expectations. But the struggle within is a great struggle. It's a difficult struggle. And Paul in Romans 7 speaks of this.
And I'd like you to turn with me, please. The Romans 7. And I'm going to just read a few verses. I was actually going to do Romans 6.
And then I thought for two reasons. I won't do Romans 6. One, I probably am stealing from Nick's next message. And I didn't want to do that because he said that there's a part B to his message.
Don't tell me I lost my sheet. So in Romans 7, I think now again. The scriptures inspired by God. So I'm not going to argue with how the chapters are laid out.
But in Romans 6, it's all about how we're freed from sin, how we're dead with Christ. And we have been given this newness of life and so on. And then you get to chapter 7 and you read it as such a downer compared to chapter 6. And you're thinking, couldn't that have been reversed?
You start at chapter 7 and then you get to chapter 6. And then you go to chapter 8 and you think, wow, this is awesome because it's just going to appeal. But it's like this, this, and then this. So that got me into Romans 7.
So I'm going to read from the new living translation just because, and I'll tell you when I first read these verses as a brand new Christian, I said, oh man, is this a riddle or something? I don't understand all these these things. And I read it in the King James and it was very, very difficult to try to understand it. So for that reason, I'm going to read it today, the NLT.
Romans 7 verse 14 says, so the trouble is not with the law for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me for I am all too human. Now your version probably says for I am carnal, which is a good word. And we're going to talk about that.
A slave to sin. I don't really understand myself for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know what I'm doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.
So I am not the one doing wrong. It is the sin living in me that does it. Verse 18. And I know that nothing good lives in me.
That is in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing wrong. It is the sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle in life that when I want to do good, what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart.
But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
Verse 25. Thank God. The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, some of us might think that turning away from sin means never sinning again.
Well, we think that if we give our lives to Jesus Christ suddenly, all of a sudden we become good in all of our actions. That the justification process, which is the result of our immediate salvation is going to just change us into this good person all the time. But see, there's a process that we go through through life called sanctification. It's a daily process and we are all in that process.
We don't have it all together. So we accept, if we accept that and understand that, that we don't have it all together, but we are in the process of change and Christ changes us from the inside out, then that helps us. We don't have to understand. But we have to appropriate these truths to our lives and experience them.
We all know if we're honest and if you're honest, and I will admit it right here now in front of you, I struggle with sin. Do you struggle with sin? If there's anybody here who doesn't struggle with sin, I almost want to do the bold thing and say stick your hand up, but I won't do that because then I'd have to call it a liar. Because we all struggle with sin.
We all do at some point in time. At some point in the day, I will struggle with sin today. I know that. Every one of us does.
Some of them may be more hideous in our minds than others. It doesn't matter. It's sin. It's still unoffense against God.
The struggle that we're talking about here in Romans 7 is like a man trying to live out the teachings of Romans 6, which is you're dead to sin. You no longer serve that dead man, but you serve and live in the spirit is what Romans 6 is basically telling you. And Romans 7 is like speaking of a person who tries to live that life without the actual teachings of Romans 6. I'm trying to purify my life.
I'm trying to live a pure and clean life without understanding the work of God in my life, the work of the spirit. It's interesting that in chapter 7, the word I is used 30 times. The word I is used and not a single mention of the Holy Spirit. Not a single mention.
Chapter 8, the Holy Spirit is referenced more than 20 times. So this is from the point of view of a man and his struggle. This is the very real struggle that the man is going through. So I have three points to look at this morning.
In our struggle, first of all, the situation that we face, number one, we are carnal. The struggle that we fight, the battle is within. And the solution that we find is in Jesus Christ. So first let's look at the situation that we face.
The situation that we face. The truth that we must recognize as we face this struggle is number one is that we are carnal. In verse 14, if I read it in the New American Standard, it says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh sold into bondage to sin. So mine says of flesh, the new king James says I am carnal.
The word carnal means belonging to the world or temporal or pertaining to the flesh. Paul describes the situation even further in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 to 4. It says, and I brethren, could not speak to you as the spiritual people, but as the carnal to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it.
Even now you are still not able, for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife and divisions among you are you not carnal and behaving like near men. For when one says I am of Paul and another I am of a palace, are you not carnal? So what is this whole thing about being carnal?
Well, first of all, it's being in a state of what they call a rest of development. That's kind of a term that people throw around these days a bit. But a rest of development means that you are kind of stuck in this early stage, an earlier stage than you should be. Acting like babies.
She is just going down stairs. My granddaughter, Lani, if you see her, she gets tired and the first thing that happens, the thumb goes in the mouth and she tugs on her ear. She is getting tired. Now, for Mother Eric, if I look down there and I thought Eric is getting bored with this sermon, and she has her thumb stuck in her mouth and pulling on her ear.
That's weird. That's really strange. But you see, as you grow up you change and you learn to feed yourself. You learn to look after yourself, the things that we did as babies start disappearing.
They are okay at the time. We are being nourished by someone else, we are being fed and led along by somebody else. But then as we go along in time, those things should come into a maturity where we feed ourselves. We look after ourselves.
We learn to walk. We learn to talk. We go to school. We get jobs.
We do all of this stuff. But if I am 50 years old, I wish, and if I was 50 years old and I am still like having my mom feed me and I am only eating pabble and things like that or whatever they eat now, that's a problem. That is really a problem. I am stuck in this early stage of development.
Some believers get stuck in this carnality and they just don't grow up. You see, I have had people come to me and say, yeah, but they are thinking is totally wrong. But they say, yeah, but don't you understand, I have been a Christian for 40 years. Well, they start acting like you have been a Christian for 40 years.
Stop acting like you are a brand new believer because sometimes that happens. They haven't grown. They haven't gone past that state of being a baby Christian after 30 years, 40 years, whatever it might be. You see the problem with that, if you stay in that state, you are vulnerable.
A carnal believer is experience oriented. They need excitement all the time. They can't stand it when you don't have excitement. And see, the other thing is like many people, they get saved and because of the feeling, I remember the feeling was just wow, when I got saved.
It was like, whoa, wow, fellowship with other people. The stars look brighter in the sky. My language changed. My life changed.
Everything. I have a Bible every time I read it. It's really exciting. But you know what?
It doesn't always stay that way. The feelings don't always stay with you like that. And as you go along, you're thinking, okay, and for the carnal believer, I need to do buzz. I need something to just keep me excited to keep me pumped up.
That's a dangerous way to be. Because eventually, when the feelings do dwindle, you think, okay, I have to leave my church and I have to leave my fellowship and go somewhere else where it's more exciting. And the process begins and they go somewhere else. And at first it's exciting and then that maxes out.
Okay, there's a new church plant that's come to town. I got to go to that one because I hear it's a really a buzz. I got to go and get really pumped up there. And you do.
And then eventually you get to the point where, okay, I'm chasing after feelings. I'm chasing after feelings. I haven't even looked at the facts. And I haven't been into my Bible.
My only relationship with Christ is based on excitement. And then eventually you're going to have nothing left. And that's a very, very dangerous place to be. The problem for the carnal Christian is that the second you open the Bible, the second you start to talk about the Bible, they shy away because they haven't developed a hunger for the Bible.
They're still desiring this, this milk of excitement, this milk of a buzz that they'll keep them excited. You need to grow up. You need to be in the scripture. Carnal Christians have time for pleasure, but they never have time for prayer.
They're miserable actually because they can never get enough. And then at some point in time, it maxes out. And you think, what's next? What else do I do?
Tom Brady, formerly of the Patriots, and I can say that I'm a Patriots fan, even with Tom Brady now gone. He said in an interview one time, they asked him, the interview was asking him a question about all the Super Bowl rings. And he has more than most people that I know. Probably has, but he has the most, Sam.
Five. Five's more than I've got, okay? So that's a lot. So Tom Brady said this.
He says, why do I have these Super Bowl rings and still think that there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think it's got to be more than this.
I mean, this isn't, this can't be all it's cracked up to be. What's the answer? I wish I knew. I wish I knew.
That's the most successful football player of all time. In my opinion, the greatest football player of all time. And he comes and he looks at his little cabinet with five Super Bowl rings lined up and he says, that's it? There's gotta be something more to this.
I mean, he was pumped up and he was on the field. But, but this is the problem for the Colonel Christian. If you're always looking for that excitement buzz of winning all the time and everything is just getting to be pumped up, you will get to a point where that'll max out. And he'll say, there's gotta be something more than this.
The Colonel believer is looking for things to make them happy. And when they have that thing that could really make them happy and bring the joy to them, it's right in front of them. And it's not a new church and it's not a new buzz. It's not a new movie.
I'm not saying any of those things are bad. I'm not saying that those things are bad. I'm just saying that what's in front of you, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the answer to these things, your own salvation, the joy of the Scriptures, the joy of knowing God, of walking with him. The second thing is carnable levers can be easily deceived because they're not growing themselves.
They'll listen to just about anything that the people will say. Other people say, if they say, well, you know what, I was in the Bible that says this, well, if you're not in the Bible, you don't know what it says. That's why a guy, Jesse Diplantis, can say, you know what, I need my flock to buy a new jet for me, fifty four million dollars. That might seem like I'm making that up.
I'm not. I actually watched the YouTube video. My lunch came back up to about there when I watched him and Kenneth Colton sit together and say why they needed a jet. Like, we can't sit with these demons that are on the plane.
That's what the passengers are called, demons. And like, it's so uncomfortable. And if Jesus was here, he wouldn't ride around on a donkey. He would have his own jet.
That's exactly what he said. I'm making it up. I saw it come right out of his own mouth. And people will listen to this and people will believe this and they'll buy into this.
The whole prosperity is built on that. Prosperity gospel. An eternal believer will fall into the trap of all these things. If you're not into the Word of God, you don't know what the Bible teaches about these things.
The problem is you will get sucked into these things. That's the danger for a carnal believer. Ephesians, chapter four verse 14 says, we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried by every wind of doctrine. We need to be solid in the Word of God.
We need to be fed and taught sound doctrine that comes from the Word of God. It's why there's so many false churches around. They appeal to carnal Christians. The next thing is carnal believers are also given to division and envy.
I read a verse back in 1 Corinthians chapter three verse four. It says, one says, I'm a Paul. I'm in another. I'm of a Paulus and Paul says, are you not carnal?
Christians try to take a side. I'm a follower of this guy. I'm a follower of that guy. And I find fault with him, but I like this guy, but there's always a fault with him.
I find it really hard when Christians snipe at each other. When they when they take shots at each other, when we should we are together, we are on the same team. We are going to the same heaven. But a sign of carnality is that we're fighting with each other.
We're always in this strife. And then we just can't help it. We just keep going back to it. We're addicted to the highs of the sin of sitting around and talking about each other and being being being bitter and sniping.
You know, speaking of addiction to sin, there's there's this frog in Australia, right about this the other day, it's amazing. There's this frog is really brightly colored. But it's deadly poisonous. But dogs love to go and lick this frog.
And when the dog licks the frog, the dog gets sick, the dog goes to the vet and the dog hopefully lives, but maybe he dies. But the dogs so enjoy the buzz they get from these frogs that they can't stop liking them. Isn't that like sin? Isn't that like we keep going back to the very things for comfort that are killing us?
We keep going back for a buzz to the very things that kill us. Tim Keller said you begin an addiction when you have some distress in your life and you look to a substance or a thing or whatever it might be to give you relief. But you really know you're in the escapable stranglehold of addiction when you look to the very thing causing the problems in your life to give you relief from the problems in your life. You try to battle carnality and sin by yourself.
It doesn't work. Willpower won't do it. Sheer determination won't do it. You can't get through this thing alone.
There's only one way to defeat carnality in your life. It's not to focus on your sin, but to focus on God. Start focusing on what you've been redeemed to. Start focusing on the things that God has saved you from or saved you to, not the things that you have been saved from.
Start focusing on getting back up after you've fallen, not the fact that you have fallen. The next thing I won't look at is the struggle that we fight. We've looked at the situation that we're in, but here's the struggle. This will get more positive as we go along, believe it.
Carnality is a place of constant struggle and turmoil. And Paul presented here the situation that we face. We're all eternal. We are all eternal.
We're all sold, understand. And Paul references this in Romans 17 verses 15 and 16, and I'm reading from the NIV. He says, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate.
I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. Now, when I read that, it first sounds like a bit of a riddle. I read it slowly again.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But I hate, but what I hate rather, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
The law is good. Yes, because it points this out to him. So he knows what's wrong. He knows the difference between right and wrong.
You can't just get free from whatever it is. It seems like temper, gossip, loose tongue, lust, pride, greed, whatever it might be. Paul said that he believed the scriptures. He believed the law.
He wants to do good, but he couldn't do good. He's determined not to do bad, but he still does bad. And yet continually he found himself in his circumstances and struggling, and it won't go away. I don't often quote Oscar Wilde because he's a testable man, but he said, I can resist anything except temptation.
You know, that's kind of a profound statement. I can resist anything except temptation. Well, temptation is the very thing that gets you in trouble. But remember, if you're struggling, first of all, remember that you're not alone.
This scripture says that we are carnal. I'm carnal. Nick is carnal. Phoebe's not here.
I'll pick on her. Phoebe's carnal. Warren, everybody. And if you say you're not, then you're deceiving yourself.
If you're saying that you have no carnality in you, then you're going to be, you need to really take a close examination of yourself. And how do you do that? You come face to face with the law of God as I open up the scriptures, as I read the scriptures, as I read the law of God, I realize more and more what I am. I see what I am.
It's like a mirror to me. Now I'll tell you a story about a mirror. I went down to Sobey's head office one time and I had a meeting. And this guy's name that I'm meeting with is his last name is Sobey.
So he's pretty much, his name is on the front of the other stores. He's junior, but he still doesn't matter. He's one of these days he's going to own it or own an awful lot of it. So I, you know, slick the hair back.
Everything makes sure I look good, put the, you know, make sure on the way down that I put the, the bird's bees on my, on my lips so that I'm not there with chapped lips or anything like that. Went to the washroom before my meeting and I brushed my teeth and got in and I met with him and had a fairly good meeting, but he kept smirking while he's talking. I think, what in the world is wrong with this guy? Man, attitude.
Oh, I can't stand it. I'm thinking, what? He keeps smirking at me. Can't believe it.
All right. Anyway, go in. I signed up to book and thought I better hit the washroom one more time before I go to the hit the road, washing my hands and I look in the mirror, the bird's bees and the toothpaste reacted. And as I spoke more and more, the toothpaste came out and made a white ring around my mouth.
I mean, bright, bright white. I'm sitting there with a white circle all around my mouth for this whole hour. I'm sitting in front of this guy and he can't even look at me. He could see it.
But when I got in front of the mirror, I thought, Oh, this is hideous. This is horrible. I can't believe, can we do this meeting again? Can we hit the stop button and go back and rewind and start the day like an hour and a half ago?
Like, can we just change this up? But you see, that's what happens when we look into the Word of God. When I open up and look at the Word of God, I might think, Hey, I'm doing okay. I'm just I'm getting A's and everything.
And I look up and I start reading through the scriptures and I start reading through the Word of God and I think, Oh, my goodness. I got an F on that, a D on that. I'm not what I think I am. I'm not as pretty as I think I am in the view of God.
And see, that's why we need to be in the scriptures. And Paul said he gave to the point of where he found gives us a solution so that we can leave the state of being carnal in verse 17. And he says, it is no longer I myself would do it, but it is sin living in me. Now you might think that's a couple that's like the kid that gets in trouble and goes and says, yeah, you know what, I know I did it, but my brother dared me to do it.
That's why I did. I'm blaming him. He did. He dared me to do it.
So I'm going to do it. Oh, he's not really saying that. What he's saying is you can't fight a battle that if you don't know what you're fighting against, it's the sin that's in me that causes me to be carnal. It's the sin that's in me that causes me to oppose the things of God.
A good general would never go into battle without observing what his enemy is. He follows and knows his enemy. If he didn't, he wouldn't go. A coach of hockey, football, baseball, basketball, whatever you coach, they spent countless hours watching videos of what the other team they want to know what they're all about because when you know what you're up against, that's when you can win the war.
We need to know what we're up against if we're going to win this war with the flesh. We're fighting against our sin nature and it has to be dealt with appropriately. Galatians, chapter five, verse 17 says, for the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit, what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want to do.
There's a fight within you and you need to know who those enemies are. A vital step to being delivered from a carnal life is a realistic look at who you are. And Paul may have given us a description of a carnal believer, but actually it applies to each of us, every one of us, even the most dedicated believer struggles with these things. Augustine prayed, Lord, deliver me from my worst enemy, that wicked man, myself.
He understood. He's his own worst enemy, we sometimes say. First John chapter one, verse eight says, if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Apart from God, we can do nothing.
All the New Year's resolutions, we can do all the promises, all the programs, all the willpower that you can muster will never get rid of sin. You can be a good sinner, but you're still a sinner. Paul says in verse 18, in me, nothing good dwells. Our struggle is a struggle with the law.
Look with me, just if your eyes fall down to verses 22 and 23, it says, for in my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in my members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin and at work in my members. You see, the law magnifies to us, our sinful nature. It points us to where we're doing wrong. It magnifies it to us.
However, it points us to where the real power is, the real power is in Jesus Christ. You see, if we try to fight the power of the law, we're going to lose. You can go to all the psychics and psychiatrists and healers and do all the self care courses you want to do. None of that will heal you from the struggle with sin.
None of that will heal you with sin. The victory is not found in the law until we shed the law and accept the Savior and find that our real power is in him. When we understand, when we understand grace, the grace of God, when we understand and tap into this true power of Jesus Christ, we will go through a process of becoming more like Christ. Remember the last time I think I shared this about this man who was fascinated.
He went from the village, he went into town and he saw electric lights for the first time and he was so impressed with him that he bought the whole box of them that he could find. He bought all the wires he could find. And he brought all the cords and all the outlets and all the sockets and a switch. And he brought it back to the village and said, you people are going to be just amazed when you see this.
And he strung the lights up on all the wires and all the cords and he installed the switch and he put everything all together and they're all around. He called him in the evening. It's okay, now it's dark. I'm going to do this and he flipped the switch and guess what?
Nothing happened because it wasn't connected to the source of power. We can try all of this stuff. It's just like we've just we've dressed the place up with lights, but we have no power if we don't know Jesus Christ. If we don't know him, we have no power to change ourselves.
Only he can change us. He is the power behind all of this in our struggle. We may fight, but we can't fight this in our own power because we have none. We need his power.
So finally, here's the solution that we find. Verse 24, Paul says, what a wretched man I am who will rescue me from this body of death. Paul sounds like a man who's just sick and tired of being sick and tired. He sounds like he's just tired of this struggle and this fight that's going on.
It's just a cry of a man who's just got this sin in his life and I just want help. I want to out of this. The word wretched is defined as miserable, afflicted through weight and the burden of slavery. Paul is saying in this, I'm a slave to sin.
It's like I'm a slave bound to sin. And I need to be rescued from this. Now, one of the interesting things, and she's not here. So I can't ask her anybody else here a lifeguard, Nick, your lifeguard, aren't you?
Or qualified was. So when you go out to save a drowning man and he's flailing around, do you go near him? Do you grab him? Not at all.
When do you grab him? He give him a floater. Okay. That kills my illustration.
Well, you really, is he going to grab the floater? If he's doing all this, usually not, he's too preoccupied with trying to save himself, isn't he? But you've come to rescue him. And when he stops fighting for himself, he can be saved.
When he stops trying to save himself, when he stops trying to rescue himself, he can be saved. All kinds of people are walking around and they're trying to save themselves to religion, to try to save themselves through good works, trying to save themselves through indifference, trying to save themselves through atheism, trying to save themselves through just ignoring God. All kinds of things, trying to save themselves through pleasure. If I have enough pleasure in this world, so on and so on and so on, none of that will ever save them.
You cannot save yourself. You need to be rescued. Paul says, who will rescue me from this body of death? Does he say I'm going to, you know what?
Here's the solution. I'm going to work harder at this. He doesn't. He says, who will rescue me?
I'm a drowning man. I'm drowning in this struggle. I need to be rescued. We have to come to a place of desperation like Paul.
If you find yourself caught in this dilemma, you realize you're being tied to a slave, as a slave to your own desires and passions and nothing of this or that world will save us. When you look to this world to heal our souls, to save us, it does actually, actually does the opposite. It makes it worse. Drugs, alcohol, sex, money, friendships, none of those will save me.
In fact, these things of this world will destroy me. It's the body of death. The story about the body of death is an interesting one. Paul is from a place called Tarsus.
And near Tarsus, what they would do, I apologize to the young ones here. This is too gory, but you guys have seen worse than this. So what they would do to a murderer in a place near Tarsus is they would take the corpse of the person you killed. That was part of the sentence.
And they would strap it to you and you had to go around with this body of a dead person strapped to you. That is gross. That is absolutely horribly gross. It reminds you, first of all, of your offense all the time.
But eventually, a dead body gets filled with disease and all that stuff. I won't go into the gory details. But what happens is whatever they have is not going to spread to you. I guess what's going to happen to you?
You're going to die a slow, miserable, rotten death. And that's what Paul, I think, is referencing here when he's talking about who will deliver me of this body of death that has chained to me. I'm just like those criminals that have been sentenced. This is where this comes from.
Who will come to our aid? Who will rescue us? Look at the first 25. First 25, we have our answer.
I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Who will rescue me? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I like the way the NLT translates it.
It says, thank God, the answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. You want to be rescued? We have a rescuer. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who will rescue you.
If you're a believer and you're struggling with sin, you still need to be rescued from that. That's chained to you. Man, it's just dragging you down. And the only way to be rescued from that is through the Lord Jesus Christ, through knowing him, through walking with him, through life in him.
If you're not a believer and you're here this morning and say, I don't quite understand what you're talking about here. You need to know him. You can try to save yourself. You won't.
Ultimately, you will fail and you will be separated from God forever. Unbelief will lead to hell. But trusting Jesus Christ, the only one, the only rescuer is the way that we can be saved. So every day we make choices.
What to eat? What to wear? Where to go? What to say?
We all make choices and they all have for the believer, spiritual rewards or consequences for our lives. And when we're walking in the spirit and focus on what God is doing and what he's called us to do when we get into a spirit filled life that God wants for us to have the mediocrity of carnality fades away and we become more like Jesus Christ. It's a daily walk with him. I want to tell you this morning that if you're here and you're dealing with pain and guilt, there's a couple of things you need to know.
One, you need to understand that everyone around you, everyone in this room has had the same struggle and is in the same struggle with the same things. It might not be the same particular things. I might struggle with lust. Nick might struggle with gossip.
Sam might struggle with the foul tongue. Christine might struggle with bad thoughts. Eric might struggle with greed. We don't know.
But we all struggle and those are all sins in our lives. So we're not alone in that. The second thing is you have to start accepting your forgiveness and understand that we are not condemned in Christ. And as we embrace that as chapter eight starts off with Romans chapter eight verse one, I put it at the bottom, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
You know what I might struggle? But the realization I'm not condemned is an amazing, amazing thought for me. I am not condemned. I am not a slave to sin.
I'm in Christ Jesus. You see, Paul didn't say in Romans chapter eight that there are no failures to those who are in Christ Jesus. There are no inconsistencies to those who are in Christ Jesus. He says there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
When God looks at me, when I'm in union with him, I now have been given the power, the power of the Holy Spirit to live my life and overcome that sinful flesh. I can't do it on my own. I can only do it with the help of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Father, thank you this morning. That while we struggle, while we all have difficulties and sometimes like Paul, we cry out who's going to deliver me from the sin, from this wretched struggle that I have in my life. Like him. We cry out, thanks me to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for sending him. Thank you for sending us want to rescue us, to save us, to heal us. Father, if there's anyone here this morning who doesn't know you, anyone who is still in a lost condition without Christ, Lord, I pray that you would move their heart through the Holy Spirit and work in them that they may come to know him, that they may start and move from the state of hopelessness of life, of this life, to the hope of eternity, to the hope of life with you, the hope of a walk in the spirit. Help us, Lord, for our own sakes.
And for your sake as well, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Let's sing a song.