ROM.7:17-24 OUR DAILEY STRUGGLES WITHIN 8-13-11
Today I want to talk for a few minutes on the fact that all of us, all of us Christians have to keep a tight rein on this old unsaved flesh, now I’m sure some will say that they have no problem with the old man and so I say to you, you must not have been saved for too long a time, so just sit tight because it’ll come.
I find it hard to believe that any one could be any closer to God than the Apostle Paul and if Paul admits that he still does things that he really don’t want to do and he knows that he shouldn’t be doing, then I doubt very seriously if any of us can say that we never have any problems with this flesh.
Here in this chapter Paul continues telling about the Mosaic law, we saw in chapter 6: that when we as believers receive Christ the law has no dominion over us, now I know that the gentiles were never under the law other than the MORAL LAW, the 10 commandments that are found in Exo.20:, all of these commandments are found in the NT except the one to do with the Sabbath day, and it’s all together for the Jews.--- the law was never given too the gentiles.
Psalm 147:19-20 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.
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Many times a believer tries to hold on too certain parts of the Mosaic Law when actually the law condemns folks to death as no one can keep the law, James 2:10 says; 10For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine---
The lawless are criminals. The disobedient are the rebellious. The ungodly are the godless, that is, showing no reverence for God.
Sinners are those failing to measure up to divine standards. The unholy are impure. Profane means defiling sacred things. Whoremongers are fornicators. Them that defile themselves with mankind are homosexuals. Men stealers are kidnapers. Sound doctrine (proper teaching”): liars for perjured persons to swear under oath.
The Bible properly taught is a sorce of spiritual medicine that heals man’s diseased moral nature, making him spiritually and ethically sound and healthy.
• No one could be saved by the law, what the law was for was too reveal man’s sins.
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Galatians 3:11-12 But 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:--
Paul is going to show that the Mosaic Law has no claim on the believer, so with all that said and done – Listen as I read today’s text found in
Romans 7:17-24
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.
21 I 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. [Eyes-hands-feet-ears-mind]
24 O wretched man that I am! [Present tense, the Apostle Paul]-- who shall deliver me from the body of this death? -- And then Paul answers his own question--
25 I 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.
Here we have the conflict of two natures, the old nature and the new nature. There are two “I’s” in this conflict. --- The first “I” is the new nature speaking out, “the good that I would I do not” this is what the new nature wants to do; his desire is to do right.
Then the 2nd “I”-- the old nature rebels and don’t won’t to do right, Paul say’s “but the evil which I would not, that I do.” The new nature hates it—“that do I”; the old nature goes right ahead and does it.
Again in verse 24 O wretched man that I am! [Present tense, **the Apostle Paul]-- who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
1. Our tongue is part of that body of sin.
James 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
James 3:4-12 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
5Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
7For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
1 Peter 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
What we allow to come from our mouth can do more damage than can ever be straightened out.
• Sowing discord and telling lies is something that God hates.
Proverbs 6:12-19 A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. 13He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; 14Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.
15Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. 16These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
---This 7th one –and he that soweth discord among the brethren is an ABOMINATION to God.
I know that all of us have witnessed these politicians on TV moving there hands around as they talk, some time winking their eye and shuttling their feet, their trying too get their crooked message across to the unsuspecting people, but most of us by now know who the crooks are. We now realize that some of these people can not be believed no matter what they say, if their lips move their lying.
They want too put the blame on every body else but them selves, that’s the way ADAM and also EVE did when confronted by the all knowing God.—“she made me do it, the serpent made me do it.”
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2. Our hands are also among the members of our body that we must be mindful of, our hands that are swift to do and to exercise those evil thoughts that come in our minds are part of that body of sin
2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;---
A good rule to remember about the hands is to keep them off any thing that would draw us into some kind of ungodliness, the beer can, the liquor bottle, the porno magazine and such things.
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3. Our eyes I suppose are the main part of the members of our body to bring us down.
All temptation has always been the same, all the way from Eve there in the Garden of Eden and right on to where we’re at today.
There are 3 ways that a person can be tempted to sin; and all sin comes from one of these 3 ways.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
• Listen to how Eve was tempted.
Genesis 3: 6 And when the woman saw** that the tree was good for food,** and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,** she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
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Our feet that are swift to run to do evil are part of that body of sin. These are all part of that body of sin.
The definition of sin is “to fail to act in accordance with the will of God”.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
If we’re saved, we’re still sinners saved by grace. Jesus gave His disciples an example of how to pray in Luke 11:1-4
1And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins;--so we’re to ask the Father to forgive us our sins—sins-plural. Not to save us again.
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The great truth we have here in our text in Romans 7: is common to all believers as we are growing in grace. On the one hand we struggle with the strong pull of sin, and yet on the other we have the present hope of God’s deliverance in Christ Jesus.
Paul, like all believers, has been delivered from the penalty of sin, as Jesus Christ our Savior paid the SIN debt once and for all on the cruel cross of Calvary.
Hebrews 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Even the creation is under the curse of sin because of the fall of Adam but will be released from that curse at the return of Jesus with His Church.-, that is why we see all the sunomees, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and the like.
Romans 8:21-23 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
[FIRST FRUITS mean,--He is now indwelling us and at the rapture He will remove us from this world as He gives us a glorified body]
Our soul has been redeemed but not our bodies as yet.
• I believe that we as Christians have this struggle in our every day Christian life.
How many of us have done something after we were saved and knew that it was not right but did it any way, and then felt terrible because we did it?
When Saul the Pharisee, became the Apostle Paul after he was saved he might have thought that now finally at last he’d have no more problems with sin, but we read here that he has found out that he is saved from the penalty of sin but not the power of sin as he see his failure in his flesh, only at the rapture will we be delivered from the presents of sin and then we’ll not have any more of our fleshly temptations to bother us, there is no sin in being tempted, it’s yielding to the temptation where the sin is.
1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Paul learned that it was a matter of yielding, and presenting himself and letting the Spirit of God live the Christian life through him.
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Jesus said in Matt.5:30
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, [that is, dealing a death blow to that body of sin] and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
The same is true with the lustful eye. It has to be plucked out. The foot that is so swift to run to iniquity has to be cut off.
That doesn't mean that we physically cut off our arm, leg, or pluck out our eye.
It's the body of sin that has to be plucked out. Those members of that body of sin which draw us into those temptations have to be dealt with, and Satan will flee from us. Draw nigh unto God, and he'll draw nigh unto thee. James says.
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We wrestle with the body of sin as well as with Satan. We have to understand that we have a body of sin, and really we don't need Satan to instigate every evil thought.
Satan likes to seed evil thoughts in our minds, but he can't cause us to act upon it. This takes our own deceitful heart.
Satan loves to instigate and tempt, but we are the ones that are guilty of acting upon it.
Again in Rom.7:18-20 For 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.
As we grow in grace, the spiritual warfare only increases. As we go forward and become mature Christians, the warfare doesn't become less; it gets greater.
In GAL 5:17 we read, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
It’s easy for us to see some body else fall as their caught up in some kind of sin, and we might think well if that was too happen to me there’s no way that I would do as that person did.
There are some temptations that some people are not bothered with as maybe some one else might be, but every one has temptations that their weak in and the devil knows all about it, he knows yours weakness, and it may be that at one of your weak moments he’ll have that certain temptation to come your way.
1 Corinthians 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
