1. Do you ever feel like you’re alone in the battle?
• Like, wow, I’m the only one going through this. I’m the only that has this kind of fight. I’m the only one struggling with this…
• IT’S NOT TRUE! -- If we were to survey the room around us… put out a question on the radio, a poll on our web site.
• We would find that the battle for purity, holiness, and righteous living is alive and well in the church today!
• All over this room there are struggles & wrestlings, battles & fights, ups & downs… they happen all the time.
The Christian has enemies: The world, the flesh, & the devil!
• We have our own FLESH wanting our old life back.
• We have the WORLD trying to drag us back.
• And we have the DEVIL making sure it all goes according to plan!
YES: Every believer faces constant spiritual battles.
• The only difference is degree & intensity!
NOW… let’s change the question a little here…
• Yes, we agree, everyone OUT THERE has struggles & battles.
• But REALLY, Pastor Ed, do you struggle? Do spiritual leaders & pastors & Sunday School Teachers & Billy Graham? Struggle?
• YES WE DO!!! -- No one is immune to the fight…
• EVEN THE APOSTLE Paul WRESTLED WITH HIS FLESH.
• One thing that constantly dogged him was… THE LAW!
REMEMBER back in v1, Paul turned his attention to those who knew Jewish Law, those trained and reared under the LAW.
• The good news of Jesus, the message of grace could have easily confused them as they may think the LAW is worthless!
• It’s not… Paul concluded in v12, the Law is Holy, Just & Good!
• The Law is not sin, it’s the epitome of perfection!
• What the Law has done is shown me my weaknesses & sin.
• It was coveting in the heart of Paul that the Law revealed!
• Let’s pick up on v13..
1. (7:13-14) What is good death to me?
a. What a place to be in our lives, seeing that sin is exceedingly sinful.
b. With that kind of attitude, we’d avoid it all costs!
c. Achan in Joshua would have never hidden the garments under his tent… destroying his family.
d. With that attitude, Ananias & Saphira would have never lied against the Holy Spirit… destroying their own lives.
It’s interesting because a person that walks that path, a person that tends to cling to the Law, a person that begins to mock the grace of God…
• IS A person who hasn’t been spending time with the Lord!
• It’s that distance from the Lord that deceives us into not thinking about the exceedingly sinfulness of sin!
• In Isaiah CH 1,2,3,4,5… Isaiah is saying:
• Alas Sinful nation… The Day of the Lord shall come upon the high and lofty… Woe to those… Woe to You…
• Flip over now to Isaiah 6:1-5… it all changed. WOE IS ME!
• I’m a man of unclean lips.
• In the presence of the Lord, Isaiah realized what came out of his lips, what was in his heart was filthy!
• The Lord was so good that He sent an angel to touch those lips!
• Paul was in the same place, oh what coveting is in my heart!
He concludes in v14, I am carnal… sold under sin!
The Bible speaks of 3 types of man…
#1 – NATURAL MAN – This is the man, the woman who is unconverted. We would say they are an unbeliever!
• They live according to their nature.
Ephesians 2:1-3 (NKJV) 1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
#2 – SPIRITUAL MAN. – This is the believer, indwelt by, empowered by, walking in the Holy Spirit!
Romans 8:14 (NKJV) 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
#3 – CARNAL MAN. This is the person that is born again, but he’s living in the energy of his flesh.
• We usually think of the CARNAL PERSON as one who is living FOR HIS flesh, that can be for sure.
• But really, it’s the PERSON that is living IN HIS flesh.
• It’s not just the person that lives in the world and for the world…
BY THE WAY, if that’s you, I really pray for you… that’ll you’ll spend that energy & effort living for Jesus Christ.
• It’s not good that you have one foot in the world, and one in the church. It’s hurtful. It’s harmful. It’s confusing you.
• You have too much of the Lord to be comfortable in the world, and too much of the world to be fruitful in the Lord!
• It’s a sad, miserable place to be for sure!
• You’re stuck… and Jesus is calling you to repent & return.
Now in v14, Paul describes himself as carnal… but don’t get the picture that he’s partying, and living it up in sin.
• He’s struggling, and one of his struggles was living life by faith or living life clinging to the Law!
• We know that today as living by legalism or by grace!
NOW… one more thing before we read the rest of the chapter…
• I know there are those that would say, ED, there is no such thing as a CARNAL Christian. FLIP OVER to 1 Corinthians 3:1ff
• Paul says He’s carnal… that doesn’t mean he’s living in sin, or even for sin, but rather he’s taken back the reigns of his life!
• He’s living in the energy & efforts of His flesh!
2. (7:15) Arrggggh!
a. I want to do what is right but I end up doing what I hate.
b. Ever feel that way… DIETERS?!
c. It takes you 20 years to lose 10 pounds but just 10 minutes to gain it all back plus some!
d. I really want the victory. I really desire to obey.
3. (7:16-23) The struggle.
a. This is it isn’t it? It’s in words what we feel!
b. The problem isn’t with God. It’s not with God’s Word.
c. The problem isn’t the LAW. It’s ME!
d. And in Me, it’s SIN…
e. I’m just sick and tired of it and struggling with it!
LET’S PAUSE for a second and remember…
• This isn’t a new believer talking. It’s not the person in the chair next to you. It’s not just anybody.
• These are the words of an APOSTLE… None other than Paul!
• And He struggles in the same way that you I do.
• The problem? His flesh.
Look with me carefully at v14-18…
• Nothing good dwells in our flesh. Did you hear that?
• Nothing good dwells in our flesh. It’s true.
• Jesus said the same thing.
John 6:63 (NKJV) 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
APP: The problem we all face is that we don’t believe it.
• There is that in us that thinks well just a little bit of my effort is good. Just little bit of my thinking is good. Just a little…
• You know when you’ve been leaning on, trusting upon, and living in your flesh… when you’re disappointed in yourself!
• Whenever I get down on myself, I didn’t really believe 7:18.
• And thus the battle begins right there!
• I was leaning on my flesh and Jesus showed me!
VV19-20 – It’s not what I want to do.
• I’m not looking to be sinful, but it’s the sinful tendencies of my bad habitual carnal self…
• That my friends, is the difference between a believer who is caught up in sin and a person that hasn’t been born again.
• The person who loves Jesus doesn’t stay in the Prodigal’s pigpen forever! They COME TO THEIR SENSES!
• They long for heaven, for Father, for spiritual home even though their decisions are hurtful & destructive & painful today.
4. (7:24-25) O Wretched man that I am!
a. Paul is crying out from the depths of his heart.
b. When I was a natural man, the Law buried me.
c. When I became a believer, I found myself under legalism.
d. I want to live rightly, but a war is raging through my body!
e. Who’s going to deliver me from this BODY OF DEATH.
f. There is a powerful picture here from Paul’s day.
In Paul’s day, the sentence of a man convicted of first-degree murder could be to be tied to the body of his victim. He would live attached to this ‘body of death’ with no realize. Often, the stench and decay and disease would kill the murderer. It is possibly this Roman practice to which Paul is referring when he cries, “Who will free me from the failures, shortcomings, and sinful tendencies I’m forced to drag behind me wherever I go?”
• Who’s going to free me from this baggage I’m carrying around?
• Who’s going to free me from sinful tendencies attached to me?
• I know it theologically. I believe it personally. But it’s hard!
NOTICE THE QUESTION IS WHO? Who’s going to deliver me?
• Too often we ask the question HOW will I be delivered?
• I need some procedures… give me a program, some steps!
• But God has given us not procedures & programs, but a PERSON!
• God tells us, don’t rely on the oldness of the letter… but walk and serve and live in the newness of life!
5. (7:25) I thank God… who has given me Jesus!
a. Oh, our way out. Faith in Jesus Christ!
b. It wasn’t his religion or his studies or his knowledge.
c. Victory came through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let’s leave here knowing that Jesus is alive and well!
2 Peter 1:3 (NKJV) 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
Victory in Jesus is a gift… received by faith in Jesus Christ.
• It’s not by trying to work it up, or read it up, or study it up.
• Victory is ours by faith.
• Jesus Christ Himself IS our power over sin & the flesh!
• In your life today believer, victory through Jesus is yours.
Romans 8:37 (NKJV) 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
1 Corinthians 15:57 (NKJV) 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) 14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
Guys… listen. It’s not programs or policies.
• Not plans & principles that guide us through & to victory.
• We don’t experience victory by fighting for it, instead we enjoy the victories of Jesus by faith!
We started out today understanding that none of us are alone in the battles we experience spiritually.
• From the new believer to Billy Graham, we’re in this together!
Galatians 5:16 (NKJV) 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
