ROM.7:1-25 OUR INNER STRUGGLES 07-19-08
Today I want to talk for a little while about the fact that we, children of God, we that have been saved by the grace of God find our selves many times having problems with this old flesh, and it seems that very often we find our selves yielding to the old nature knowing that it is not what we ought to be doing.
Paul in this chapter is writing to people at that time that knew about the law of God. He begins by using the law to do with marriage as a means for them to understand what he was talking about.
I want you to listen as I read what the apostle Paul has to say about it in our text today found in Romans 7:1-25
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
He used the illustration of a husband and wife to show that the believer has a new relationship to the Law because of his union with Jesus Christ.
Marriage is a physical union Gen.2:24 and they shall be one flesh ” and can only be broken by a physical cause. And one cause is death.
In the New Testament we’re under grace if we’re saved and we find in Matt.19:1-12 Jesus saying unfaithfulness also breaks the marriage bond, but Paul doesn’t’ bring this up here.
4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, {Jesus} that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins,* { emotion or influence} which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. {before we were saved} 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. {That is we were made free from the law}
4- 6 explain the believer’s relationship to the Law: 1st of all, as believers we died to the law.
When we were unsaved (“in the flesh . . .” we were under the authority of God’s Law. That Law condemned us. But when we trusted Jesus Christ and were united to Him, we died to the Law, Just as we died to the flesh (Rom. 6:1-10) notice, the Law did not die; we died.
The law is still there and it is full force today to the lost sinner; Rom.6:23 is still there, 23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus said in Matt 5: 17 17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. {for what is forbidden}
The Law reveals sin (7:7)—“By the law is the knowledge of sin” Rom. 3:20 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
If it were not for the law, we’d never understand when we sin.
The Law is a mirror that reveals to us the inner man and shows us how dirty we are James 1: 25
25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed
Lets notice that Paul didn’t use murder, stealing, or adultery in his discussion; he uses coveting. ** And it is the last of the Ten Commandments, and its different from the other nine in that it is an inward attitude, not an outward action such as murder, stealing, and adultery
Covetousness leads to the breaking of the other commandments! God’s Law reveals it.
1st tim.1:10 says 10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Believers who try to live by rules and regulations soon discover that their legalistic system only arouses more sin and creates more problems.
We read in Gal.3: 10-12 10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12And the law is not of faith:--
8_b For without the law sin was dead. 9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Before Paul was saved he was a devout Pharisee, trying to obey the Law. We read in
1 Cor. 15:56-57 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since we have a sinful nature, the Law is bound to arouse that nature the way a magnet draws steel.
Something in human nature wants to rebel whenever a law is given.
Have you ever seen a sign that read “wet paint”? And then notice how many people will touch the object any way to find out for themselves? Rebellion against what the sign plainly says.
~~ remember when I was in the Marine Core. I was acting police Sgt. At the 1st Marine Division Headquarters, each company would send a certain number of people every morning and it was my job to see that the Headquarters were kept clean, and somebody that worked in the building would pour their coffee grounds in the sink and kelp it stopped up, and some one on the detail would have to be appointed to unstop it and clean it back up, it so happened that I walk in and caught one of the people who worked in one of the offices defeating my signs purpose and did it any way.
So confronted with what he was doing, “the sign right in front of him” and he told me that no L/CORPAL WAS GOING TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO. So I followed him to the office where he worked, and talked with his Captain, the Captain told me that it wouldn’t happen again, and it never happened again, I made an enemy but it was the right thing to do and I knew it.~~
I said all that to say this, people will go against what they know is forbidden, in one way of looking at it that flunky SGT Knew what the sign said and still went ahead and continued to stop up the sinks regardless, but guess what? He was caught red handed and he paid the price.
In many cases Gods law says not to do certain things and yet people still do it, no one ever in the passed or ever will in the future be able to keep Gods law. God’s law was a schoolmaster to revile to us when we sin and if we break only one of His laws then we are guilty of breaking all His law.
James 2:10 10For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all
If you and I were under the law, I’m afraid most of us would be dead.
Eph.2: 8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
Paul says here that the law is a good thing because it shows us when we sin.
The Law shows the sinfulness of sin, unsaved people know that there is such a thing as sin but they don’ realize the sinfulness of sin. Many Christians do not realize the true nature of sin.
We excuse our sins with words like “mistakes or weaknesses” but God condemns our sins and wants us to realize how sinful we really are.
~~then Paul starts telling about how he finds himself doing things that he really knows that he shouldn’t do, he say that he don’t plan on doing these sinful things, yet he finds that he does them any way. It causes him to be a miserable man.~~
14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
The problem is not with the Law; the problem is with our sinful nature. The Law cannot change us.
But Gods law is a good and wonderful thing, because it reveals Gods holiness to us and helps us to see our need for a Saviour.
We read in verse 14For we know that the law is spiritual: that is, the law deals with the inner man.
Why do we do the things we do? What causes us to do things we really don’t want to do? Why do we often struggle with not doing the things I really want to do? We will often do things we just can’t seem to explain or understand. Why when I do something, I feel good about it and yet when I do something else I feel bad about it?
I believe that all of us have inner struggles, God has placed with in us a conscience, it is our moral awareness that judges an action either right or wrong. It’s our inborn sense of right and wrong.
But many times we allow our conscious to become much like a wheel barrel, we just turn it the way we want it to go.
God wants us to have a pure conscience - 1Tim 3:9 9Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
2Tim 1:3 says whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience--
Then we read about a wounded, weak conscience - 1Co. 8:7 -- and their conscience being weak is defiled.
I believe the message is clear; we can not within our old flesh keep Gods Holy and good Law, the only way any one will ever get to heaven is by being in Christ Jesus, and if we’re in Christ Jesus then we keep Gods Law through Him. Apart from being in Christ Jesus all people are helplessly and hopelessly lost. A good illustration is the Ark that Noah and his family were in, they were safe from the flood that covered the world; Christ is a type of the Ark. Noah may have fallen down many times in side the Ark, but none of his family ever fell out, they were safe in side. We’re safe in side, since we’re in Christ Jesus.
ROM. 8: 1-4 1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
--8-16 8So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
