INTRO.- I don’t understand what I do at times! What about you? I think this is true for most people.
ILL.- Wayne Smith preached at the Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY, for 40 years and had a great ministry. He was a well-loved preacher and full of laughter, but sometimes, he blew it just like everybody else does. Wayne told this story on himself one time at the OCC Preaching convention in Joplin, MO. He said a family came forward during the invitation time to place their membership with the church. A little girl accompanied her parents and she had a Cabbage Patch doll in her arms. Without thinking, Wayne something about the doll being ugly looking. Well, naturally, that hurt the little girls’ feelings. Later, Wayne reflected on his remark. He said, “Why did I say that? I don’t know, but it was dumb.”
Well, seriously, haven’t most of us done some dumb things in our lives or said some dumb words?! It would be nice if we never did anything wrong or never did anything to offend anyone, but we do. Did you ever do any dumb or sinful thing in your life?
ILL.- I remember one time when my dad who hauled cattle for a living was on the road that I decided I would try smoking one of his pipes. Dad smoked cigarettes most of the time but occasionally, he would smoke a pipe. He had one or two laying in a large ash tray and I was probably 17 years old at that time. I bought some of that sweet smelling cherry blend tobacco, stuffed it in that pipe and lit it. I puffed and puffed on that pipe and kept it lit for probably an hour. It wasn’t too long after I stopped puffing on that pipe that I started to get sick and boy, did I ever get sick! I was so sick that I had to go lie down. My head was swimming. I was nauseated and I thought I was going to vomit or else die and after that sickness wore off I never smoked a pipe again!
Dumb, dumb, dumb! Of course, smoking that pipe was not the worst nor the dumbest thing I ever did, but we all do dumb or sinful things in life and wonder, “Why did I do that?”
It’s taken me a while but I finally figured out why I did and do dumb and sinful things in life and this is what the apostle Paul is talking about in this text. Paul explains it well.
PROP.- Paul struggled with his sin nature, just like us. Here is what he said about the sin nature and God’s deliverance.
1- Sin lives in me
2- God’s law delights me
3- Rescue awaits me
I. SIN LIVES IN ME
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
ILL.- Will Rogers was quite a humorist. He said a lot of funny things and particularly about the US government.
- About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.
- Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.
- Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
- Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
- I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him "father."
- I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
When people say that something is “rotten in Denmark,” they mean there is something rotten in our government and perhaps on both sides of the fence. We once thought Watergate under Nixon’s Presidency was bad stuff, but most people think there is far worse stuff going on today in the government.
It doesn’t take much sense to figure out that not only is there something rotten in our government but also in our country. We were once characterized as something of a Christian country but not any more or not as much.
Romans 1:28-32 “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
If Paul’s world was that bad, what about ours? I still say there is something rotten in Denmark and in our government and in our country and IN US! IN US? Yes, there is something rotten in us whether want to admit it or not, or whether we see it or not. We all like to think that we’re pretty good people as people go or that we’re better than the average American but it may not be true at all!
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
What is rotten in us is called sin. The old sinful desires of the flesh. Even though we believe in the Lord Jesus and have trusted Him to save us, we still have something rotten living with us. The old man of sin still struggles to gain control of our lives and often in ways that we don’t even think are wrong.
ILL.- I once had a car that had a knock in the engine. It wasn’t bad but a mechanic friend said it was quite obvious to him. Over a period of time that knock developed into a strange shake in the engine. It wasn’t extremely obvious, but I knew it was there. It didn’t shake all the time, but only at certain times when it was driven or at certain speeds.
And it wasn’t going to fix itself. I took it back to my mechanic friend who said, “I don’t know what it is or what’s causing it.” It was one of those things that would never get better without being repaired. In time, it would only get worse. And that is just like us human beings. There’s a knock on the inside and it’s called sin and it needs a repair job. Sometimes it’s not so obvious and at other times, it quite noticeable.
II. GOD’S LAW DELIGHTS ME
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
ILL.- In my office I have two largemouth bass mounted and hanging on the wall. The largest of the two weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. It was a fat female getting ready for spring spawning time. I caught when I was fishing all by myself one April, 1986, in a small lake in southern Illinois called Cedar Lake, a 1750 acre lake just south of Carbondale. I knew when that bass hit the lure that it was a big fish and fortunately for me I had a net in my boat which helped me land the fish. I put the fish in a cooler filled with water because I wanted to keep it alive as long as I could.
My son Shane was six years old at the time and could barely lift that fish. I have a picture somewhere of him holding it up with both hands. I took it to the local newspaper and they took a picture of it. I also won a contest that week sponsored by the newspaper since it was the biggest fish caught that week. I won $50 worth of fishing merchandise at the local Wal-mart store. Needless to say, it was fun to catch that bass, take it home, show it off, get my picture taken with it, win a contest, and then finally get it mounted. We humans do delight in the things of this world, do we not?
22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
Psalm 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Do we delight in God’s law? And how can we learn to delight even more in His law or His Word? What I have discovered is that the more I get into something good, the more I want to do it! This may hold for many things but it really holds true for God’s Word. The more I study scripture, the more I want to study scripture and the more delighted I become with it!
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Not only does scripture convict us when we read, but it also brings joy to our hearts! Why? Because it’s God’s Word!
I John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
ILL. - A long time ago, a poor, nervous wreck of a person called on a famous London doctor. The doctor said to the man: “You need to laugh. Go down and hear Grimaldi, the famous clown. All London is holding its sides laughing at him.” But the visitor straightened himself and said, “Doctor, I am Grimaldi.”
That’s the way of the world. The joy of this world doesn’t last or perhaps it isn’t so great after all.
John 4:13-14 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
When we get to the end of life we’ll realize that the only true joy in life is found in an abiding relationship to Christ because we know that we will be leaving this life behind and entering into the joy of the Lord for eternity.
III. RESCUE AWAITS ME
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
WE ALL NEED TO BE RESCUED.
ILL.- When I was a student at Ozark Bible College I preached about 70 miles away at the Christian Church in a little podunk junction called Dederick, MO. One time the elders of the church decided to have the church service at a lake called Pomme De Terre. So on that particular Sunday everyone gathered at the church a little early and we drove to the lake. After our church service, communion and all, we had lunch. Then one of the elders had a speedboat in which he pulled a large tractor inner tube in order to give people rides.
I decided to give it a try and he pulled me quite a distance from the land. When he stopped the boat, instead getting in the boat I said I could swim to shore. I started swimming for the shore and soon discovered it was a lot farther than I thought. In fact, my legs started to cramp and I found I couldn’t swim any farther. I was getting scared because all I could do was barely dog paddle enough to keep me from going under. I NEEDED SOMEONE TO RESCUE ME. I was just about to yell for someone to come in and get me when my leg cramps started to ease up and I was able to swim a little and make it back to shore. BUT I WAS SCARED FOR A WHILE. I thought, “somebody needs to rescue me!”
I needed to be rescued back then and I still need it today. We all do. There are times when we need to be rescued from sin and even temptation that leads us to sin.
Have you ever found yourself in a bad situation that could be very dangerous to you either physically or spiritually?
ILL.- A preacher friend from many years ago told about something that happened to him in the ministry. One of his so-called good, Christian preacher friends set him up to go call on a certain lady. He knocked on the door and was invited in. After a short period as they talked the lady got up and moved closer to him. The closer she got, the more he wondered. Finally, when she started talking about how lonely she was and needed companionship, he got the message and got out of there!
It was sort of like Joseph running from Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39. That could have been a very bad situation. Fortunately, for him he realized what was going on and got out of there. IT WAS A JOKE THAT COULD HAVE BACKFIRED!
ILL.- I once had a deacon who told when he was a young man and drinking beer in a bar. I don’t know how old he was but he may have not been old enough to be drinking. He said his dad found him in that bar and literally dragged him out of that place. At the time, he probably didn’t like that, but in reality, his dad may have well rescued him from a life of drinking and no telling what else.
The Lord has a way of using parents and people to rescue others. Thank God for rescuing us from what could have been a horrible life of sin. And thank God for the rescuers! And now that we know better and we know Him, we all need to be rescuers! We need to throw out the lifeline to those who are tempted to sin or are sinking in the depths of sin.
CONCLUSION-------------------------
I do not understand what I do. I do now! I understand fully what I do when I sin! And there is only one thing to do when you know what is right!!! When we recognize sin for what it is, don’t give in. Fight it. Fight it with the Lord’s help in prayer. He’s the only one who can give us the victory. There is victory in Jesus.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO
shepherd111@hotmail.com
