Why Do We Do the Things That We Do? Sept. 3, 2006 AM
Romans 7:7—8:14 (NIV)
Key verse 7:15
Why do we do the things that we do? That is a good question. There are guidelines, rules, policies, practices put into place all around us. And yet when the desire comes to break one of them, we succumb to those desires.
It can be anything. It can be food, fame, prestige, alcohol, drugs, even battling between getting higher up on the food chain. There is a constant battle between knowing the difference between right and wrong and actually making the choice after analyzing the pros and cons.
There is something that is at work within us that God can take care of. It is this sinful nature that everyone is born with that is the devil’s playground where he invites us to come out and play with all sorts of things.
ILLUS.
There is the story of a man in a church who used to lead prayer meetings and would often finish them with this phrase in his prayers “O Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of my life!” His next door neighbor could take it no longer because he knew how the man really lived. Well one “Wednesday night” the man “ended in his usual manner.” His neighbor who couldn’t control himself any longer and jumped up and shouted, “Don’t do it Lord! Don’t do it! Make him kill the spider!”
I like that. “Make him kill the spider!” That spider is the sinful nature that in us that makes us battle between choosing what is God’s best for us and what the old devil entices us with.
ILLUS.
Billy Joel wrote a song entitled, “The Stranger”. In it he describes the truth so many of us try to hide about ourselves from others. He describes “The Stranger” as something we “show ourselves when everyone has gone.” The Bible speaks about the “Old Man”—the carnal man. It describes the sinful nature that still remains that Satan taps into as a tempting force.
When the “old me” attacks it comes against my physical being, my biological needs and natural drives. Then it seeks to twist them against the direction, provision and blessing of God.
ILLUS.
In his book, Men at Work, George F. Will takes a close look at four baseball players. One of those examined is Orel Herschiser (of Dodgers fame), who talks about his philosophy of pitching. “There are two theories of pitching,” Herschiser says. “One is that you try to convince the batter that a particular pitch is coming and you throw something different. The other theory that you don’t hear as much, but that I use is that if the batter expects a particular pitch, you throw it, but you throw it in a place where he can’t hit it.” That is: Know what a batter wants or expects and throw the ball almost there. If he is a highball hitter, throw it a bit too high. His eagerness will prevent him from laying off it, but it will be hard to hit well.
Isn’t that the way the enemy works in our life? He knows just what kind of pitch that we are a sucker for and then throws it our way. But, it is just a little higher or just a little bit more outside than where we like it, and most likely we will bite on it every time. After all, it looks so good. It feels so right. -- Doug Cecil, Dallas Connection, Spring, 1995, p. 1
The Apostle Paul struggled with this in Romans chapter 7. Look with me at verses 7-13;
7What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet.” 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
Look at verses 8 & 9. Paul says that sin, through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire and when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
What happens when someone tells you no? You automatically want to do what you were just told not to do. If you have children or grandchildren, you know exactly what I am talking about. The command (or the law) was there to protect us. But the old devil knows what we like and twists the law & the scriptures around to make it look pleasing to us. He makes it out to be like there will be no consequences for our actions.
Remember the Garden of Eden? In Genesis 2:16 we read “And the Lord God commanded the man,, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Let’s see how the devil twists things do go along with his evil schemes. In Genesis chapter 3 verses 1—5 we read;
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Notice the discrepancies between what God said and what the devil said. The devil is in the business of twisting the Truth. He’s been doing it since the beginning of time. And we do it too! Look at the difference between what God said and Eve’s interpretation.
We are locked in a constant battle between satisfying our carnal desires and God’s best for us. That is what Paul struggled with and he explains it in verses 14-25;
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I 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. 19For 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. 20Now 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.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but 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. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks 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.
Do you see the vicious cycle that is taking place in Paul’s life? It is a constant battle and just when he thinks that he is making progress he trips up again. Look at verse 15 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Here is a man with good intentions but is struggling with the war that is raging inside of him as we read in verses 22 & 23.
This is a classic illustration of the battle between the two wills; the will of man and the will of God.
But we can rise above that. Let’s look at chapter 8:1-14;
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
It is through the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit that we can rise above the evil and deceitful schemes that the devil tries to trick us with in tempting us to follow his way.
We have the ability to live a life without that war raging in us as Paul talked about in chapter 7.
If you’re living in your sinful nature, then you’re mind is set on what your nature desires. If you’re living in the Spirit, then you’re mind is set on what the Spirit desires.
Many get caught up in the cat and mouse game of trying to please God and live a Godly lifestyle but can’t because they don’t have their mind in the Spirit. Their mind is still on the pleasing the desires of the carnal heart.
There has to be a cleansing of that heart by the Holy Spirit so that the desires that come are not based on the pleasures of the flesh but on the desire to please God. That can only come through total consecration to God and His making your heart clean and pure.
One of the greatest promises of God is found in verses 10 & 11. Through God’s Spirit, Jesus was resurrected from the dead. And if that same Spirit is living within us, we are justified and our mortal bodies (even though dead) will be brought to life through the Spirit that is in us and be united with Him in Heaven. Hallelujah!
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Pastor, I hear you but I am not sure what it is you are saying. Let me sum it up for you.
I am talking about the struggle that we face after the point of conversion. When we are saved, that is, accept Jesus as our Savior and ask Him to forgive us of our sins, there is a battle going on between what we want and what God wants for us.
Why do we do the things we do when we know that they’re not the best thing for us to do? That is the sinful nature that is still in us. Without the help of the God’s Holy Spirit, we will tend to yield to the desires of our heart all the time.
But through the cleansing power of God’s Holy Spirit, we can have victory over that battle that is raging in our hearts and minds. We can say “No!” to the evil & tempting desires that the devil likes to throw our way. He knows where we’re weak and through our weakness, God can make us strong; strong to the point of rising above those challenges and choosing to please God rather than our self.
If you’re here today and there is a war raging inside of you, then this message is for you. This is a message of surrender. You can’t win this war. But through God’s sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit, we can have victory. Come now and pray with me as we sing “I Surrender All”.
