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.
2. (8:2) Law of the Spirit of Life.
a. Oh the great freedom of the law of the Spirit of life!
b. We are no longer under the bondage of the law of sin & death.
SO WHAT IS THIS LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST?
• It starts with a G… the GOSPEL!
• That’s a great way to describe the GOSPEL.
• We know that the LAW wasn’t done away with, it’s still doing it’s job… it’s holy, just, and good.
• But in Christ, we’re no longer under it, no longer bound.
• We’re under the law of the spirit of life in Jesus, it has set me free from the law of sin & death.
OK, SO WHAT IS THE LAW OF SIN & DEATH?
THE LAW, THE TORAH, 10 Commandments. Paul would say…
Colossians 2:13-14 (NKJV) And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
REMEMBER all the law does is say you are a sinner and you must surely die. The Law continually says, DO THIS & LIVE.
• Yet when we don’t do, we die…
• The law, that continual schoolmaster… that tutor.
• Over and over again, it shows us our need of a Savior.
• It paints us into a corner so we will cry out to accept Jesus!
• Flip over to Galatians 3:22-25
THE LAW OF SIN & DEATH is like the law of gravity.
• If we headed over to DIA and walked through the terminal we’d seen plane after plane sitting there, parked… held down by gravity.
• In just a few minutes though, they will be in flight as a NEW LAW takes effect… the laws of aerodynamics, thrust, lift.
• There is a higher law that will release that plane and its passengers from the law of gravity!
So it is in Jesus Christ… lifted up and above the gravity of the law of sin and death! We are free to live for Jesus by faith!
THEY CAME TO JESUS AND ASKED…
John 6:28 (NKJV) Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
• Give us something to do Jesus. We are tethered by the Law, motivated to do, striving to do, working hard for God…
John 6:29 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
We are free! How? By working hard? NO. By following rules & regulations? NO By dressing right? By the right language? NO.
• Ok then, it’s by devotions & prayer & church & good deeds. NO
• It’s by faith! The Spirit of life that lives in me draws me above and away from the law of sin and death!
3. (8:3-4) What the Law couldn’t do, GOD DID!
a. Yes, the Law, the 10 commandments, the Torah, the rules, the regulations that correspond to it… was weak, is weak.
b. It was weak because it couldn’t change my flesh!
c. My inability to keep the law showed its weakness.
d. It couldn’t change from the inside out, only the outside in.
You can write out your goals on little 3x5 cards and post them all over your house… that’s great, that’s good.
• But what you’ll find is the weakness do doing that.
• It’s not in the rule, but in your flesh.
• The cards are great & encouraging when you’re doing them, but when you fail, you want to pull them down and get rid of them!
LISTEN… What the LAW COULDN’T do, GOD DID by sending His own Son… to pay the price for our sins! HE condemned sin in the flesh!
• And by faith in Him, you fulfill all the requirements of the Law!
• The LAW says DO, but the Gospel says DONE!
Romans 4:23-24 (NKJV) Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
What you & I couldn’t do, God did… out of love & compassion & grace.
"Many years ago, a father and his daughter were walking through the grass on the Canadian prairie. In the distance, they saw a prairie fire, and they realized that it would soon engulf them. The father knew there was only one way of escape: They would quickly begin a fire right where they were and burn a large patch of grass. When the huge fire drew near, they then would stand on the section that had already burned. When the flames did approach them, the girl was terrified but her father assured her, ’The flames can’t get to us. We are standing where the fire has already been.’"
Let’s flip over to 2 Corinthians 3:6-11
Here’s the contrast… the Old Covenant or the New.
Old – law of sin and death.
New – Law of spirit and life.
Old – ministry of death
New – ministry of life
Old – written on stones, external, demanding external outward change and conformity.
New – written on hearts, change of nature, internal change where now I want to do the will of God.
Old – temporary glory faded away
New – eternal glory.
Old – condemnation
New – justification, forgiveness of sins.
We’ve been released from the LAW, set free from that to which we were bound to serve in the newness of life.
• Up until CH 8 in Romans Paul mentions the Holy Spirit only once.
• But as we continue on in CH8, He’s mentioned 20 times!
• Why? Because the Christian life isn’t lived in the power of the flesh, but in the wonderful power of the Spirit!
