Jesus Has Made Me Free Series

1. The confessions of an EXHAUSTED BELIEVER… Romans CH7

Paul the apostle, looking back upon his own life, talking about his own past situation… The wrestlings & the struggles.

• It was the Law for him, even as it is legalism for so many Christians today. Bound by rules, regulations, religion!

• He found, remember that he was married to the Law.

• IT was perfect and there seemed to be no escape…

• But there was an escape… death. Not physically but spiritually.

• No longer married to the law, now we are married to Jesus.

• That’s the way to be released from the expectations and demands and perfections of the Law. I’m died & set free!

YET EVEN in the freedom from the Law, and the newness of life in Jesus, there is this carnality!

• Oh not always living FOR the flesh, carnal living can also mean LIVING IN THE FLESH. 7:18ff

There was this season in his own life where he did what I so often do, go back underneath the law… under rules & regulations.

• It’s the place where I think safety is found. It’s the place where regularity is often sought. BUT It’s a place of bondage!

• The Law incites my flesh, which engages me in a battle.

• Look again at CH 7:14-25

Just reading through it can make us exhausted.

• Why am I doing this? I’m trying, but how to make it happen I just don’t know. I don’t like it. I don’t want it.

• And then he cries out WHO WILL DELIVER ME?

REMEMBER The key in the struggle is NOT HOW, BUT WHO.

• Too many Christians spend most of their lives asking HOW.

• Pastor please tell me. Brother please tell me. Church please tell me, HOW do I get over this, HOW will I get through this?

• But the real issue isn’t HOW, it’ WHO. Who will deliver me?!

As long as you live your Christian life seeking after the HOW, you’ll live in spiritual exhaustion! You’ll be, I’ll be that wretched man.

• Give me the steps. Write out the manual. Show me the Law.

Romans 7:6 (NKJV) But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

The newness of the Spirit is Christ in you, the hope of Glory.

• WHO will deliver me… I thank God, thru Christ Jesus our Lord!

• Jesus lives in us. He helps us from within!

• It’s not by some external method, but by His indwelling power!

• The key, the freedom is found by walking in the Spirit!

NOAH is a great example to us today. Look back at Genesis 6:8.

• He found GRACE in the eyes of God.

• The GRACE OF GOD saved Noah & his family from destruction.

• Remember, Noah was instructed to build an ark… 6:13ff

• It was to be gopher-wood, covered inside & outside with pitch.

NOTE: Pitch, the Hebrew word “kaphar”

It’s interesting because this word is the same one used for ATONEMENT in the Old Testament.

• The ark becomes a picture, a type of the ATONEMENT of Jesus Christ, a covering of sin.

• Noah and his family were told to GO IN and the Lord shut them in… they are locked in.

• For 40 days, 40 nights the waters fall, the floods rise!

• But they are IN THE ARK, covered, protected, safe.

AREN’T You glad God didn’t say, “Noah, storms are coming and I’m going to put 8 pegs on the outside of the ark.”

• All you need to do is hang on, hold on for dear life!?!

• NO, NO, He said, get inside, I’ll shut you in!

BUT SO many are trying to just hold on and hold out and not sin.

• How are you doing today? Just HANGING IN THERE!

• But the truth is you are sealed in Christ, positionally, practically, permanently! He covers you. He covers me.

• No matter how rough the seas might be, you are shut in, sealed, safe, secure in Jesus.

FLIP OVER TO COLOSSIANS 3:1-5 “hidden in Christ!”

So that when CH 8 opens us, what do we find IN CHRIST?

• NO CONDEMNATION!

• When the Father looks at you He doesn’t see you with all of your failures and faults. He sees you IN Christ!

• Not only does Christ come to live in you, but you are also put in Christ.

John 15:4 (NKJV) Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.