Please be seated. Musicians and congregation, that sounded great. Breaking the power of reigning sin. That is in large part what we're going to talk about today from the book of Romans.
It's almost as if Ted played it that way. The last few times I've pinched it for Ted. I've spoken on Romans 5 and Romans 6. And first of all, because Romans is awesome, but also because I've been teaching it for three years and I've got some material somewhat prepared anyway.
So today we'll be looking at a portion of Romans 7 and 8. We'll start with Romans 7 verse 7. And unlike what your bulletin says, I won't be stopping at verse 4. I got carried away and we're going to go to verse 11.
And I hope you'll see as we get into this how this all fits together. So what I want to do before we get into chapter 7 while you're finding it in your Bible, let's just do a brief recap of what the apostle Paul has taught us thus far in the book of Romans. First of all, he started out really wonderful. A wonderful greeting made us feel really good.
And then a verse 18 of chapter one, he hammered us. And he condemned, he went until almost the end of chapter 3. And he condemned all of humanity, all different kinds of people. Condemned them and he said, none is righteous, no not one.
No one understands, no one seeks God for all have fallen short of the glory of God. But then he didn't leave us there. Chapter 3, he introduced us again more detailed fashion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He talked about being justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
This was to show God's righteousness. Paul talks an awful lot about righteousness. And we'll be talking about that today. Paul goes on and says, because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins.
Then in chapter 4, Paul went on and he explained what faith is. And lo and behold, he used two Old Testament examples, David and Abraham, to show us what faith in Christ is. And he went on to call Abraham the father of all who believe, both Jews and Gentiles. In chapter 5, he told us about having peace with God, peace with God because of the propitiation and the grace of God and our faith in Christ, where peace with God no longer at war.
He said, while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. He went on and gave us a really in-depth explanation at the end of chapter 5 about why we're sinful, because we started out in Adam. We talked about Adam being a federal head, the representative of all of humanity. And as a result, we all are under God's wrath and punishment.
But he turns the quarter for us, because Paul never leaves us there. He says, but now you, if you have faith in Christ, you have a new representative. You're now in union with Jesus by grace through faith. He has saved you.
And he goes on to chapter 6. And he says, but just because you're saved, don't go on sinning. Don't think that you can just do whatever you want so that grace can increase. He says, no, our Savior is holy.
And so we're supposed to mimic Him. We're supposed to live holy lives too, not so we can be saved, but because we are saved by a holy Savior. So Paul tells us, so walk in newness of life because you are in union with Jesus. You are inseparably united to Jesus.
And He's going to carry you all the way to heaven. But in the meantime, live a holy life that imitates Jesus. So we come then to chapter 7. And Paul is talking about being free from the law.
And so we might have to scratch our heads a little bit about that. What do you mean? Well, we'll unpack it a little bit. But he doesn't want us to get the wrong impression.
He doesn't want us to think that God's law is a bad thing. So we'll pick it up there. So chapter 7, which we're about to read, is really a subject that has been debated a lot by theologians. Is Paul really a Christian that's writing this?
We'll talk about that. But then when we look into chapter 8, that chapter is called one of the greatest chapters, if not the greatest chapter, in the whole Bible. So let's pray. And then we'll turn our attention to the reading of God's holy and inspired word.
Our Lord and our God, you are awesome. You're mighty. You set the captives free. You break the power of reigning sin.
We pray now through the reading and exposition of your word that you would continue to break the power of reigning sin and set our eyes on Christ and pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, then starting at verse 7, chapter 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. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the command produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, I died.
Bament, the promised life, proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 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. 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, 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. 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.
Moving to chapter eight now, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh.
In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their mind to the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Amen. So admittedly that's a long passage of scripture and that's a lot there.
And I should be able to cover it in the three hours left that we have. Yeah, no, so we're going to go at a high level. And then word willing in subsequent times, maybe I'll have an opportunity to come back and go a little bit more through chapter eight. But if you're a note taker and you're looking for an outline, there are actually this passage of broken it down into four major portions.
The first is the purpose and the value of God's law. That's point number one. Point number two is the believers struggle with sin during this lifetime. That's where we'll spend a lot of time.
Point number three is remembering our position in Christ in the midst of our struggles. And point number four is how Christ sanctifies us through the Holy Spirit. So let's dive into point number one, the purpose and value of God's law. And that is primarily in basically seven roughly through 14.
And so what Paul tells us there is that the law is not sin. He says, is the law sin? By no means, no, no, no. Rather, it shows him what sin is.
It sin living in him is stirred into rebellion by the holy requirements of God's law. Remember, in chapter five, Paul said, you're not enemies of God anymore. You're at peace with God. Well, the opposite is, but you were enemies before.
And when you were enemies, you did not want to deal with God's law. You wanted to shake your fist at it. And you didn't want to be told, that's what he told us in the chapters one through three. We don't want to be told what to do by God.
We want to do, we want to chapter one, said we suppress the truth of God. We want to do whatever we want to do, and we don't want to be constrained by what God says, because we're his enemies, born in Adam, naturally at war with God. And so he goes on, Paul does, in verses 10, 12, 14, he says that the law is life promising. The law is holy.
The law, God's law is righteous. It's good, it's spiritual. So don't ever believe anybody who says, I wouldn't obey God's law anymore, we're saved by grace through faith. Paul doesn't say that at all here.
The law of God expresses God's character. It expresses how he defines Godly, holy living. It's good. The only problem with the law is not the law itself.
It's the sinners who can't keep it, and who are convicted by it. So the first purpose of the law, then in this passage, is the conviction of sin. You can see in verse 13, Paul says, that which is good, then bring death to me. He says, of course not, by no means.
Well, what did bring death to me then? It was sin, indwelling sin, producing death in me through what is good. In other words, through God's law. Why?
In order that sin might be shown to be sin. And through the commandment, through the spiritual holy righteous law of God, sin can be shown to be sinful beyond measure. The initial purpose of the law is to show us how far away from God we are, and how desperately we need a savior. One of the things, I know this is true with me, might be true with you, but we fully appreciate how far from God we are in our sin in Adam.
And we'll talk a little bit more about that. So the first purpose of the law, that it makes unregenerate people realize they can't meet God's requirements, and it drives them to repentance and faith in Christ. So the second purpose of the law, once saved, it's what holy living is. So it's guidepost, it's a beat for us.
And that's a, the law shows us what God requires of us. That's why Paul says he wants to follow it, because he knows it's right. Jesus said obey his commandments if we love him, and that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. Jesus had a high regard for God's law.
And so Paul's already said that no one can become righteous by obeying the law, because of our sinful nature. Jesus of course explains in the Sermon on the Mount, how to apply God's law to holy living. Combinating statements like, love the Lord your God with all your heart. Soul and strength, love your neighbor as yourself, and even love your enemies.
And so the law for the believer points us in the right direction. Once we're saved, Paul, excuse me, when Paul talked about newness of life, walking a newness in life, in chapter six, what he's saying is God's law isn't your righteousness, but it's your guide into what walking in newness of life looks like. So the thing he's describing in verses 25 is this prayer, walking in new life, in the battle of dying self and living for Christ. It's called sanctification.
From the time that we are justified in Christ, chapter five, and Paul starts talking about as a result of our justification in chapter six, this is how we live, and then it sounds, we get the picture, we're like, yes, I wanna walk in newness of life, and then we get to chapter seven, and Paul introduces us to the nasty here and now, and makes himself vulnerable to us. So in his mind, he wants to obey God's law, because he saved, not because he wants to be made righteous by it, because he loves Jesus, and he wants to obey him. So now this man who's frustrated by his own sin in this chapter, he also wrote in chapter six that sin will not have dominion over you. And so that means, that doesn't mean that he's not going to ever not sin, but what he's saying is that he's going to grow in grace as a Christian during his life on earth.
He knows that sanctification is a process, that he has to go through, but he's still frustrated by the amount of sin still dwelling in him, and it's still strong influence over him. So that's the second purpose of the law, the beacon for the believer, and that beacon, of course, as we sin, leads us to confession and repentance, because it lets us know what is right, what Jesus wants us to do, and he says, obey my commandments. The third purpose of the law, and that would be in verse 25, when Paul says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, so what does that mean? So he's going through life.
He's sinning, he's frustrated, he's a believer, he's saved, but the more he looks at himself, the more frustrated he is, and the more disappointed he is in himself. So he says by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm looking at this all wrong. I need to look at Jesus, because he kept the law for me, and he made me righteous. And so we're gonna talk more about that as we get into a little bit more into chapter.
So that's the third purpose of the law. So let's move on then to point number two, the believers struggle with sin during this lifetime. And so we're gonna go back a little bit through that chapter seven there, that passage, seven through 25, but from a different angle, the first angle we were looking at, what's the purpose of the law? And now we're looking at it through more intensely, Paul's own frustrations.
So first of all, I mentioned that there's some debate about chapter seven, a little bit of controversy sometimes, was Paul describing himself as a believer or a non-believer. Surely a believer, they say, those who think Paul was not a believer, surely a believer wouldn't have this bad of a struggle with sin. Surely a believer wouldn't call him wretched man. Surely a believer wouldn't be saying, I do the very things that I don't wanna do.
But that's not the case. What happens here is when you really look closely at the tenses, Paul in like a verse nine, there's a past tense and then there's a present tense. So Paul describes himself in the past tense, starting up verse nine, I was once, was once, alive from the law, the commandment came, past tense, sin came alive and I died, past tense. Very commandment, the promise of life proved death to me.
Verse 11, sin, seizing an opportunity to see me and through it killed me. And so at that point, most people agree, most commentators agree that at that point, Paul is talking about his former life. He was not a believer, he was a persecutor of the church. And at that time, that's when he got convicted by the law of God and his inability to keep it.
But then over it, in verse 15, for example, he's speaking in the present tense about himself now as the Apostle Paul who wrote the first six chapters of the book and the remaining up to chapter 16. He's describing himself as a sinful believer. And it shouldn't be a news flash for us because elsewhere in believe it's first Timothy, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. And we'll read in a little bit from Philippians three, he'll say, I'm not yet perfect.
So this is a sinner, say my grace through faith, struggling. And there are a few things in here which can be a little bit confusing. And so I want to make a few distinctions for you. Confusing distinctions between chapters five, six and seven.
And really they have to do with justification. So the one time declaration that you're saved by grace, you're declared righteous by God. And God's court of law, your sins are as far as the east is the west from you, forgiven them. So there's that which he's talking about in five and part of six.
And then he transitions to sanctification in six and seven. And so for example, it can be confusing. When Paul says in chapter six, you're free from sin. But yet in chapter seven, he says, I'm sold in sin.
In chapter six, he says, the old man is crucified. In chapter seven, he says, this body of death. And in chapters five and six, he's talking about glorious union with Christ. And in chapter seven, he's saying, oh, wretched man, that I am.
And so Paul's doing a couple things here. He's recognizing the fact that he's got standing in righteousness, he's saved by grace. And that's chapter five and six. In chapter seven, I'm still struggling with sin.
And the whole spirit needs to drive it out of me. And so the interesting thing about that is Paul is not content with sin. He doesn't just say, I guess this is the way it's gonna be. I'm a sinner, I gotta learn to live with it.
Oh well, no, he doesn't do that at all. And we'll read more about how he deals with sin in the next couple of points. But he doesn't accept the sin in his life. He mourns it because he wants to be like Jesus.
But all the while he's mourning his sin, he does not question whether or not he's truly saved by Christ, even though he's frustrated in his life right now. And so what are some of his frustrations? Looking at verses 15 through 23, well, he doesn't do what he wants. He does what he hates.
He agrees that the law is good. He wants to carry it out. But he says, I don't have the ability, not in and of myself. I don't have the ability.
I never did have the ability to carry out God's law. He says he repeatedly does the evil that he doesn't wanna do. Even though this is a guy that's justified by Christ and at peace with God, he's standing in grace. He wrote that after five.
He's walking in newness of life. But yet he says, nothing good dwells in my flesh, only sin. And it's the remaining sin in him causing him to do what he doesn't wanna do. He says evil is close at hand.
The evil within him, the evil that he was conceived with when he was born in Adam. It's not completely driven out. And that's why brothers and sisters were so conflicted all the time in our sin. And we were no different than the Apostle Paul.
We get frustrated with ourselves all the time. We never justify it, but it's part of the process. And I'm gonna have more to say about that in a second. But remember, the Apostle was in union with Jesus and he describes himself this way.
And so we come to verse 24, chapter seven, where Paul expresses his disappointment and despair. wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Now he's not scratching his head and saying, I'm looking for somebody. I can't find anybody who's gonna give it to us.
It's a rhetorical question. He gives it to us in the next verse. But he does accept the fact that he is sinful in the flesh and I'm wretched. What he realizes is that he needs a who, not a howl.
He has to come from outside himself, look beyond himself and remind him, general from Jesus. How is it possible that living on so be from Jesus? It's not like we get saved by grace through faith. And then Jesus says, all right now, hope it goes well with you.
Can't do it, we can't. And so Ted has said on a number of occasions, every look that you take it yourself, take whatever number of looks, 10, 20, 100, 1000, at Jesus, because he is the one who sustains you. You can see the power of sin in us when we can be so naive that we actually can think, I got this, I'm saved, I'm good. Now I can live a holy and righteous life on my own.
Well, why does Jesus say pick up your cross daily? Because he wants you to look at him daily. And so it's concept that Paul is talking about, the now and not yet. The saved meaning justified, the being saved meaning sanctified and the will save meaning glorified.
So later in chapter eight of Romans, Paul is gonna tell us, look, he foreknew you, he predestined you, he called you, he justified you and he glorified you. In other words, end to end, none of it is from you. It's all about Jesus. And here, so in that chain that I just mentioned, he doesn't specifically say sanctification, but he's about to tell us about it right now, in chapter eight.
So in terms of our spiritual warfare, Satan wants us to get to the point where we're so focused on our own circumstances, on our own weaknesses, our own sin, that we throw up our hands and say, I give up, what's the point? And this is, it's not healthy, it's not holy, because it puts our focus on ourselves instead of everything Paul has written about previously in Romans. But interestingly, who is the guy that's doing the self-loathing? It's the guy who wrote all those magnificent truths in the previous six chapters.
So you can see how even for somebody that knows the truth so well, met Jesus himself and was taught by Jesus, wrote the truths, even for somebody like that, how it's possible, probable, to be thrown off course and to be attacked and to start looking inward. And so he's given us an example of how Satan can derail Christians when we place our trust in ourselves for our growth into Christian maturity. So we have never growing yearning to please Jesus and show our love for him, and that yearning, while the yearning grows, sin still remains in us, causing an internal war within us. And so what does he do next?
He goes to point number three, remembering our position in Christ in the midst of our struggles, in that we find in 725, which I've already read, and then in the first four verses of chapter eight, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He's talking about, when he talked about in five and six, union with Jesus, permanent union with Jesus. Why is there no condemnation? Two, verse two, because the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death.
We're operating under a different law now. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh. He just talked about that in chapter seven, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he can damn sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, declared righteous.
He's reminding himself, oh, I am in God's order of life ever and ever. Nothing, nobody can separate us from the love of Christ. Jesus says, nobody, snatch my sheep out of my hand. Nobody, nothing.
So he reminds himself, he is righteous. And so instead of thinking that it's futile and giving up from chapter seven, oh wretched man that I, Paul looks to Jesus again and what Jesus has done. And then interestingly, we've referenced Isaiah chapter six several times in this service. And remember what happened in the temple when he saw God?
Isaiah chapter six, he fell down in shame and awe and he said that he was undone and that he was a sinner, he wouldn't, the presence of God would have got to them, picked him up. He told him to get up, he purified him and he sent him to work on his mission. And that's a picture for us right here. To pick up your cross daily, the spigot sin, the spigot positions, look to Jesus.
And Hebrews calls him the author, so he started your faith and the perfecter of your faith. He's going to perfect your faith. He is perfecting your faith as we go through the frustrations that we all feel all the time when we sin. So point number four is how Christ sent through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus must descend the helper to a fritter. In chapter eight here, five through 11, Paul's making a distinction between a fritter and an unbeliever based on the presence of the Holy Spirit and set on. So, mind is set on. This is in verse 25, I myself serve the law of God, my mind.
Verse 23, another law waging war against the law of my mind. And so we know what Paul's mind is set on. It's set on obedience to Christ. And so what's your mind set on?
Obedience to Christ, or is it set on the things of the world? Sometimes I'll have a coffee or a lunch or something with somebody and they'll say, I don't really know if I'm a Christian. Really, why is that? Well, because it's still sin.
Okay. What do you think about? What's your mind set on? You want to obey God?
Oh, yes, I do. I definitely do. Okay. Well, chances are good that you're a believer struggling with sin and we need to help you through that.
So how do we deal with sin? So, the assistant with what Paul says in Romans, six, what he tells us to walk in newness of life. And he says you died to sin any longer. Well, verses four and five here of chapter eight, talk about living and having the mind set on the spirit, walking according to the spirit.
Being also, when you see the term in the spirit, you can also read in union with the spirit. And so I thought of a few things that Paul has written about. One is in Ephesians six, if you remember that, he told us to put on the full armor. So now what I'm discussing is how do we walk in the spirit?
What are some ways, some more detailed, more developed ways that Paul has discussed? So he says, put on the full armor of God, chapter six, finally be strong in the Lord and in the spirit of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. And I'd invite you to read that part of chapter six again, if it's been a while, if you're not familiar with it. It gives us a lot of detail on how to fight the war, the spiritual war.
And of course, what's the soldier do at war? And we are all at war. Every one of us are enemy of the devil. We're looking for someone to devour.
So the soldier at war looks to and obeys the commander. Studies looks out for the enemy. So the full armor of God from Ephesians six, that's one tangible way of walking in the spirit here. Paul is just kind of giving us an umbrella in chapter eight, a concept, but he develops it more fully in other places.
So another place in which he develops it is Galatians five, where he talks about the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, and is good on this self-control, very tangible way. Lord, show me where I lack faith. Show me where I lack faithfulness.
Where do I need more self-control? Where do I need more love? Who do I need to show more love to? Walking in the spirit.
Then the third thing I thought of was Philippians three, where Paul says, not that I've already obtained this, or I'm already perfect, just like he's saying in chapter seven. Now, he's not as animated here. Maybe he's having a worse day when he wrote chapter seven. But he's not as animated in Philippians three.
He says, not that I'm already perfect. But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
This isn't a guy who gives up. He presses on toward the goal of the upward call. So he goes on in chapter three, Philippians, brothers, join in imitating me. And keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Wait a minute. This is the guy who wrote chapter seven who said, wretched man that I am. In first Timothy, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. In Philippians three here, he's saying, I'm not perfect.
But yet he's saying, imitate me. And it's interesting that even though he admitted his imperfections, he encourages us to imitate him and those who are like him. Why would he do that? If he didn't see himself progressing as a follower of Christ, even while recognizing the sin remaining in him.
So let's turn our attention now to the last couple verses. Let me just recap that. How do we deal with sin? One, Ephesians 6, full armor of God.
Number two, Galatians 5, fruit of the spirit. Number three, Philippians 3, pressing on toward the goal and finding people to get together with and imitate. If that's a word. And now let's move on to verses 9 and 11.
And Paul is, you can start to see why this is called one of the greatest chapters, if not the greatest chapter, in the Bible. Because he tells us here about our victory. Remember, he started out in frustration and despair. And he goes on and he focuses more and more on Jesus and the Holy Spirit and less on himself and he remembers the victory.
And he starts looking ahead. And so the Holy Spirit ensures that we finish out our journey in Christ and receive the promise victory. Paul says in verse 9, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ isn't you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit, who dwells in you. If you're in Christ, you have true abundant life. And the Father will ensure that you have eternal life with Christ.
Paul goes on in Philippians 3 and he says, our citizenship is in heaven. From it we wait a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body. Remember he had called it a body of death in chapter 7, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all the things. So what do we learn today?
We learned about the purpose of God's law. We learned about the believer's struggle with sin during this lifetime. We learned position in Christ, looking to Christ in the midst of our struggles. And Paul taught us to look toward the Holy Spirit for the work of sanctification in us.
Remember this, Paul says, I'm sure of it, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we look at our sin and we're dismayed. But yet we look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
And we give him all the praise and glory. Give us strength, fortitude, to always pick up our cross daily and look to Jesus. In Christ's name we pray, amen.