God's Law

One of the greatest challenges of parenting is identifying the instigator. You have to make sure that when you're responding to an argument, to disruption, you've got to make sure you know who did what before you start applying discipline. This is oftentimes very, very difficult. It really gives you sympathy for the referee who he's having to respond to basketball player A who elbowed basketball player B. Well, he only saw B who, or he only saw A push him in response, in retaliation. He didn't see the actual instigator. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and work to figure out who did what, who is responsible. It's important because you have to make sure that the proper discipline is applied according to the action. This morning, Paul is actually kind of refereeing. Paul wants to make sure that he is clear on what is good and right, what is bad and wrong. So if you haven't been with us, there's been a few bold statements in Romans, and I wanna show you what he's trying to clarify. He's declared a couple bold things. First, Jesus has freed us from sin. Jesus has freed us from our sin, the penalty and the power of sin. At the same time, he just said, Jesus has freed us from the law. Now, we could get easily confused and think, okay, Jesus is good, law and sin are bad. What he wants to make sure we see is that no, Jesus and the law are good. Our sin is the problem. He wants to make sure we're protecting and seeing very clearly the righteousness of God. What he has said is right. What he has said is good. Our sin is the problem. As we look to our text, and it's a well-known text, we oftentimes look at this text and identify with it so well because it's so clear about our sin. You make sure we see God is faithful and just. Our sin is the problem. As we are continuing to look at our passage, we're in Romans 7. If you're using a pew Bible, please look to page 943. And again, I just wanna back up and do a little bit of context. In Romans 5, Paul made the great declaration, where sin abounds, grace abounds. We've sung about that already. Where sin abounds, grace abounds. He responds, he thinks about how the audience would respond to that, and he asks four questions. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin? By no means. That's verse one of chapter six. Chapter six, verse 15, what then are we to continue to sin because we are not under the law but under grace, by no means. And there you see he takes that grand declaration, we are not under the law if we were in Christ. Today we're gonna look at the last two questions that he asked in response. What then shall we say? The law is sin? By no means. Did that which is good then bring death to me? Verse 13, by no means. I hope you all have the handout. I gave you a bit of a textual outline to try to help you wrap your head around what's actually taking place here. And then this is the sermon outline below. That first outline is trying to help us see kind of the structure because the first question is, is the law sin? Well, of course not. The law does what God designed the law to do, and that is it exposes sin. The law didn't make me sinful. The law revealed my sin and agitated my sin. Then he goes to verses 13 to 25 and he shows how, he asks another question, did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means, it's sin that produces death. Sin is the problem. If you look at our text, you can, and as you hear, I want you to hear for these words, either law or command is mentioned 29 times. He is talking about the law of God, the Mosaic law, God's law. Sin is mentioned 15 times, that's not counting the numerous references to evil. And I wanna help you to see a couple things. Verses seven through 12, notice the end emphasis. So the law is holy, the commandment is holy and righteous and good. In all this talk about the law and what the law does, and all the talk about sin, it has its final conclusion in verse 24. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Paul is making it very clear. If you're in Christ, you're no longer under the law, you're under something better. So the law was bad, but you're simply under something better. If you're in Christ, you're no longer bound to the power and the penalty of sin. Sin is bad and Christ has delivered us. The sermon outline, the law is good, my sin causes my death. My sin causes more sin, Christ alone delivers me. This is the way we need to think about this because the first point, that follows verses seven through 12. The law is good, my sin causes my death. This is actually Paul reflecting on his pre-conversion life. This is Paul reflecting upon when he was not in Christ and how he came to realize his sin. The second point, my sin causes more sin, is his reflection on how sin produces more sin. Law reveals more and more sin. And then finally, the only conclusion one can have, Christ alone delivers me. Here are passage. Two questions, the end result is that we are completely dependent upon Christ for our deliverance. What then shall we say, that the law is sin? By no means, yet it had not been for the law I would not have known sin, for I would not have known what it is to covet, if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness, for apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive. and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means, it was sin producing death in me through what is good. In order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law, that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being. But I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members, wretched man that I am. He will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. First, the law of God, the law is good, my sin causes my death. I wanna be very clear from this passage, and I wanna say that he makes it very clear that the law does two things. First, the law illuminates sin, so we see it as sin. One of the key problems we have is that we typically don't see sin as it really is. Sin is somewhat deceptive. Sin always looks better than it is. We like to justify it, rationalize it, and so the law is good because when we actually look at ourselves according to the law, we see sin. The second thing the law does, it aggravates sin. It aggravates it. You see, sin, it seizes the opportunity. For apart from the law, sin lies dead, but the law, the sin, it sees the opportunity. The law aggravates sin, and here's the problem. Our sin, by definition, is rebellion. When God actually says, I am your God, you have to listen? We rage against that. Because he's coming and he's threatening what we think is our right, and that is to rule ourselves. So the law does two things. It illuminates sin as sin. It also aggravates our predisposition to rebellion. The one clear declaration he makes at verse 12, we cannot miss. The law is holy, it is good. The law is holy, it is good. Now, let me just highlight what is clearly being affirmed. Verse seven, the commandment revealed sin in me. Verse seven, if I had not known for the law, I would not have known sin. The commandment reveals sin. Verse eight, sin produces coveting. The law reveals it. Paul was a coveter. He just had not seen it yet until the law had shown it to him. Verses 10 and 11, though sin brings death, The law promises life. Verse 11, the commandment is truth, my sin deceives. Verse 12, the law is good, the commandments are holy, right, and good. The only conclusion is that our God who speaks only speaks that which is right and good and true. Paul is defending the law so that we don't get confused about the real problem. Because we're always looking for someone else to blame for the real problem. The real problem, he's making it very clear, it's my sin. God's law helps me see my sin, and the proper fruit of seeing my sin leads me to repentance and crying out for a savior. And also I wanna make sure we see in chapter six, verse 17, he mentions that, but thanks be to God that you who are once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. Being free from the law doesn't mean we're completely free from any expectation. No, Christ is a law to us now. We are bound to what he says. Being free from the law is simply removing us from that old covenant The new covenant. Chapter seven, verses seven through 12, is Paul reflecting in his pre-Christ, right, his pre-conversion, really we're learning about Saul. Remember, Paul used to be Saul. We're learning about Saul in verses seven through 12. We're learning about how he was thinking as a Pharisee, as a good Jew. And how he came to realize sin. One of the most interesting things about this passage is what I think Paul's doing. I think this will help clarify some of the language. I think what Paul is doing is he's making allusions to Adam in his own testimony of seeing sin. He's making it sound like Genesis 3 is actually about him. Now, it's not Adam because he references the Mosaic law, thou shalt not covet it. It's not Adam because Adam didn't have sin before he was tempted and disobeyed God. But I believe he's using Adam-like language. I died, sin came alive. That's Adam-like language. And I believe he's making a reference to that because he's saying, even though I was a good Jew, even though I had the law, even though I thought I was obedient, I was still in Adam. In an Adam, we die. In Adam, we're condemned. We need to be in Christ to have life. Now, let's just look at this passage. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. It's interesting that of all the commandments Paul draws our attention to, it's coveting. If you're a good Pharisee, you could actually look at all the other commandments and you could say, I have actually kept these. I've never murdered anybody, look how good I am. I've never actually taken something from someone else, look how good I am. I've never lied, look how good I am. I've never physically bowed down to a physical structure that we call an idol, look how good I am. But when it gets to coveting, A little more heart work going on there, isn't it? Coveting is something much more internal that you have to wrestle with. Have I broken this commandment? Because the other one's according to the Mosaic law, not Christ, and how he interprets them. If we look at what the Mosaic law is saying, coveting is the one internal. Coveting is idolatry of the internal nature. So here, Paul, he can't get away from it. He can't say, check that box. Because he knows he's looked at what somebody else has and he says, I deserve that. He looks at what he has and says, I deserve better. That's what coveting is. Coveting is actually saying, God, you should know I deserve better than what you've given to me. Coveting is looking to God and saying, you should be treating me better than you are. Why don't I have what that person has? Now this is where the heart of the argument needs to be clear. Paul is saying his sin was already present. He was already a coveter. The law came and helped him to see that as the truth. God's good law came so that Paul would actually see that he was a covetor. And the point of the law coming to help you to see that you're a covetor isn't that you can say, oh, well, now I'll stop coveting. No, it's to cry out, Lord, I need you. Wretched man that I am, I need deliverance. See, that sin was lying dormant. We've all had spiritual conversations, maybe before you were a Christian. Arguments get heated up when God gets brought in. When God is brought in with an authoritative voice, that's when things start usually getting heated up because once you start, once your sin starts to hear God and that absolute authority, it starts to rage. This is what Paul's talking about. Sin was aggravated by the law of God. Now this is the beauty of the law. It reveals our sin so we seek a savior. That is the end goal. So the first place I wanna apply this is if you're not a Christian this morning, this is for you. If you're not a Christian, you're most likely just like everybody else in this room that before Christ, we thought we were good people. To be honest, we as Christians usually still think we're good people because we easily forget. It's too easy to try to figure out, you know what, I'm a good person because I'm not as bad as that person. I'm a good person because I do these things and I don't do those things. The reality is, God is the only one who declares anybody good. The problem is, if we look to ourselves in light of God's law, no one is good. No one is right. Everyone has sinned. Everyone has broken His commandments. And the problem is when you break His commandments, when we've sinned against Him, there's nothing we can do to try to make enough rights to fix the wrongs. No. When we actually look at ourselves in light of God's law, we can only say, wretched man that I am. I need deliverance. If you're not a Christian this morning, first thing you do have to see is sin is real. It's a real problem and it brings death and it'll bring condemnation, it brings judgment because God is just. Here's the second thing you need to see. Jesus Christ is God's son who came to live that perfectly good life, so that when he died on the cross, he died a perfectly righteous man, but yet he was condemned as a sinner, as if a sinner, because he paid the penalty for the sin of everyone who believes in him. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you're declared good, even though you're not. That's the beauty of the gospel. You're declared good even though you're a sinner because that good man died and was punished for your sin. Please hear the gospel. We're not good. None of us. The only thing we can boast of is that Christ died for our sins. so that in him we would be forgiven and declared good even though we are not. Christian, we need to not forget that we're not good. It's almost like, okay, well, I realized I was a sinner at one point, I prayed a prayer, and now I'll move on to being a good person. It's not the case. Paul says he's eager to preach the gospel to the church of Rome because the church always has to hear we are the sinners who have been declared saints. We can't forget we're dependent upon his grace. We just sing the song every hour I need you. We're constantly dependent upon his grace because we're not good. There's a couple things. One, let the law stand over you. Let God's Word actually stand over you in a way that it is allowed to call sin what is sin, and you allow it to call you what you are. The beauty of that is it's constantly reminding you you're a child of God, you're forgiven, but it's also constantly letting you see your sin needs repented of. There's still change that needs to be taking place. See, that's where the law stands over you. You let it have an authority over you. Then you let it lead you to Jesus. The more we see our sin, the more we see we need Jesus, the more we want to worship him and to love him and to depend upon him. See, our sin is deceitful. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me. The law of God keeps you from being deceived. Through it, it killed me. Jesus Christ has come to give you life. If you wanna reflect on something today in light of this, I encourage you, reflect upon Psalm 19. Beginning at verse seven. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testament of the Lord is sure, making wise and simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired they are than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warmed. In keeping them, there is great reward. Friends, if you wanna know what it means to delight in the law of the Lord, according to verse 22 of Romans 7, that's it. But look at verse 12. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from my hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Who can discern his errors? The Holy Spirit, who gave us this mirror to help us see our errors, in the new covenant, he dwells inside, and he lets us see our errors. And don't be afraid of actually saying, God, show me how sinful I am, as if you're gonna be overwhelmed by it. No, when you see how much your sin is, you get to say how much grace is. Where sin abounds, grace abounds. It leads us to repentance and the reward of sanctification. Let's go to our second large section. This is the larger section. My sin causes more sin. And here we're dealing with most of that second question, verses 13 through 23. My sin causes more sin. And before we get into the passage, well, this is one of those texts that is difficult. It's encouraging that Peter actually writes to the church and says, some things Paul says, they're difficult. I wonder if this is what Peter was referring to. Because this is one of the most debated passages among Christians, and I wanna be very clear, there are good Christian theologians who make good, clear points from the text on both sides of the debate. And here's the main question. When Paul transitions from seven through 12 to 13 through 23, is he transitioning to talk about himself from a non-Christian to a Christian, or is he continuing to talk about himself as a non-Christian? The key question is, 13 through 23, is he describing himself as a Christian here, or is he still talking about himself before he was a Christian? And that question is important because we have to know is this the kind of things that a Christian says? Are these the kind of things that a Christian can think and feel? So let me just walk through, and I typically don't do this, but I typically just make a decision and preach from that decision, sorry. But I want to make sure we kind of wrap our head around the issue because it is important. So here are the arguments for why some theologians think that Paul has changed from 13 to 23 to thinking about a Christian. First, he changes the tense of the verbs. Seven through 12, it's past tense. 13 through 23, it's in the present tense. Verse 22, he says, I delight in the law of God. Non-Christians rarely talk about delighting in the law of God. Third, this kind of internal battle actually is just like what he said is true of the Christian from Galatians 5.17 that Brian read earlier. And then fourth, and this is us from the text, many Christians simply testify this is the way they feel. This helps many think, okay, I actually can sympathize with this. Here are the reasons that many people think it couldn't be about a Christian. Verse 14 says, sold under sin, a Christian has been purchased by the blood of Christ. Verse 18, and this is really the kicker for me in terms of the most difficult one. He says, I do not have the ability to carry out what I know is good. The reason that is so difficult is Romans six has just made a very bold declaration that the Holy Spirit has come to free you from the power of sin so that you can now do what is good. So how can he say, I do not have the ability to carry out what is good? So the key question, is this a Christian or a non-Christian? I actually think we need to ask, are we asking the right question? The focus of what Paul is saying here is this. The law is good. My sinful nature cannot keep it. There's nothing in my flesh that can keep that high and holy standard. All the desires, all the thoughts that come from within me are, they covet, they want what they don't have, or they pervert. They take what is good and they mess it up. Everything within me is wrong. And that law is good. And so I have this battle. I think the real point here, what Paul is saying, as Christian or non-Christian, we just simply see that the flesh, which is a way of referring to our sin nature, does not have the ability to do what God says. Now, let me make the other point clear. I do think he is referring to himself in the present as a Christian, beginning in verse 13. I believe here we see Paul meditating upon his sin and the frustration and the confusion it brings for a Christian. And he's doing so because he's already reflected upon how he realized he was a sinner. Now he's reflecting upon if he is in his flesh, if he looks through the power of his flesh, he is weak, confused, and frustrated. See, this is what sin does. to a Christian, it confuses us, it frustrates us, and it leaves us with the only real option to cry out to God. Paul's point is that the flesh, our sin, is opposed to the law. He's referring to himself as a Christian to make the point even more clear. Even though I have the Holy Spirit, I still see working in my members something else, that sin. It's so confusing. I know what I should do, but I can't do it. I don't even understand what I'm doing. My flesh is the problem. It's not the law of God. My flesh, my sin. The key focus is that the law does not bring death because the law is good. That is the question, right? That which is good then, the law, bring death. No. Sin is what kills you. Sin is what kills you. It even brings so much sin out that we become sinful beyond measure. I want us to think about something here. The law did not come to make us good people. God is not interested in our morality. God is in no way interested in having a bunch of people who are merely moral. God wants worshipers. God's not looking for good people. He's looking for worshipers who are grace-fueled obedient. God doesn't need good people. There are no good people. That the goal of the law, the goal of Christianity is not to produce mere moralism, it's to show us that Christ has redeemed us from the darkness and brought us into the light so we can worship. It's not about morality, it's about worship. Paul makes this very clear declaration. The law, it even helps us see how sinful we are, and it even aggravates sin to the point we become more sinful. It's because God is not interested in morality, it's worship. And I want you to see the structure. Verse 14, for we know. Verse 18, for I know. Verse 21, so I find it. We can actually kind of organize what he's gonna say next according to those three sections. And I believe they're escalating in intensity. We first see that our sin causes sinful action. Then we see our sin causes internal confusion. Then we see sin is actually warring against God. Our passage shows us the very important principle that there's a battle over every thought and every choice. This passage is somewhat encouraging for us because, well, if we're battling against sin, we can relate to this confusion. I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Verse 19, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. I see my members in another law, waging war. There's a battle. I can acknowledge what's right and good, but I can't keep it. When we know something is wrong, that sin is raging within us, and it compels us. Right? Our sin, it says, you want this. You need this. You deserve this. Just once. That's the sinful temptation that compels us. You want this. You need this. You deserve this. Just once. All of which is a lie. All of it's a lie. You see, sin doesn't stop. There's no just once with sin. We become sinful beyond measure when we entertain it. If we just think about some of the sinful actions and sinful decisions, words, when they leave our mouths, you know how you can, they sound right when you're thinking about them? And then they go out, and you realize when you hear them audibly, you kind of want to snatch them back? Sin, those words that, when they're around your head, they sound right, but they sound horrible when they come out. Anger. Our anger, when we think someone has done us wrong, and you let it linger, you let it fester, you let it build up, and then those words come out. You can't believe that was ever lying with inside of you. The problem with our sin, when we think about what Paul's talking about, is it really makes us feel quite juvenile. That kind of jealousy, envy, lust, These things are so foolish and they're still here? How? Why am I still wrestling with this juvenile sin? See, sin's constantly entangling us. I think we also need to not worry so much about what we do, but what we don't do. A lot of our sin is just pure being lazy. Too much of our sin is simply not being able to stay focused in prayer. Not being saying consistent in knowing God's word and pursuing God's word. How quickly does your mind drift when trying to pursue God in disciplines? How much of your time is spent in front of a screen unnecessarily? A lot of our sin is just not doing what we're supposed to be doing. Satan loves that. Oh, Satan loves it because as long as you're not pursuing sin, you may not actually see it, but if you're just sitting here being lazy and doing nothing, well, you're slow boiling yourself to death. He loves it. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, these things are appetite disorders. that they feel like they're controlling us. The pornography, the food, Facebook gossip, whatever it is that compels you, I have to do this, I will not be satisfied. Sin never satisfies. Only the pursuit of Christ satisfies. Christian, you must hear, you are free in Christ. You can say no if you depend on His grace. If you're trying to pull up your bootstraps over and over again, you're gonna be frustrated. If you're constantly trying to find the strength within from your own being, you will continue to be frustrated because sin's more powerful than you. So here's the key two things I want you to hear. Confusion comes from sin when we let it control us. Confusion comes from sin when we let it again enslave us. Only confidence in Christ leads to sanctification. We're either confused in sin or we're confident in Christ. We have to know we are in Christ. We have to continue to remake ourselves in his image. We have to continue to think about who we are in his death and resurrection. Here's a problem. We probably hate the sin we're doing. I know many of you from talking to me, you hate the sin that you do, but we keep feeding it. See, sin has an appetite. The more we feed that appetite of sin, the more it grows. The more you feed your appetite for sin, the more it grows. You see, choices lead to habit, which lead to character. The more you choose to feed sin, it says taste and see, indulge, have your fill, the more you seek to fill that appetite, the bigger it gets, and the more you're not ever, the more you feel unsatisfied. See, sin never leaves you feeling full and satisfied, it leaves you feeling bloated and shameful. Like Edmund and his Turkish Delight and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The Queen entices him, serve me, and you can have all the candy you want, but I have a whole palace full of Turkish Delight. And because he's tasted it, and because that Turkish Delight cannot satisfy his desire, he's gonna do whatever she wants. Because that has now controlled his appetite. As Augustine said, we are restless until we find our rest in Christ. When we're feeding sin, we're feeding an appetite that cannot be satisfied. However, because Christ has come, he's given us a new way, he's given us his Holy Spirit, he's given us a new set of affections, he's given us new fruit. If we choose not to quench the Spirit, but to follow the Spirit, If we choose to not quench the Spirit, if we choose to put off the old man and put on the new, the Spirit, will those appetites grow? And those appetites are satisfied because we pursue the things of Christ, they are satisfied. So I ask you, who are you submitting to? Are you choosing to satisfy your appetite for sin? Are you pursuing the things of the Spirit that truly satisfy? Now let's step back and reflect on this on a bigger level. At some level, this is encouraging to read about Paul. This is his internal struggle. This is my internal struggle. If you're a Christian, I actually believe this is your internal struggle. I hate the way I think, I hate the way I desire. It feels so hard to change it. Now, I wanna be very clear, this doesn't mean we accept our thoughts and our desires as normal. We cannot be defeated and simply say, look, Paul wrestled with sin, I'm gonna keep wrestling with sin, I'll be a carnal Christian. That's not what Paul's promoting. Paul's saying in the midst of your despair, cry out to Christ. You cannot let this sin, this passage, be an excuse for sin. No, Paul shows us the proper response when we're confused and frustrated in sin. You cry out to Christ and he delivers you. Romans 8, you start setting your mind on the things of the spirit, not of the flesh. I think the other thing about this passage that could confuse her with this passage she's talking about, Too often we don't want to do something that will never perfect. I love a checklist. Oh man, that self-righteousness, boom, boom. I completed it. You never complete sanctification. If you think I'm not going to do it unless I can perfect it, and I'm not going to pursue it unless I can say I'm done, you're not gonna pursue sanctification. We're so sinful, we're never done. God will always be changing us. As someone said, perfection is the enemy of good. We pursue the good of pursuing Christ, knowing we'll never be perfect until he comes and finalizes sanctification. Next thing I want us to see from this passage, look at the danger, verse 21, evil. lies close at hand when I want to do right. Verse 22, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see my members under the law waging war against the law of my mind. Last week I said this world's not a playground, it's a battlefield. There's also a battle going on inside. There's a war. We read about it in Galatians 5, we're reading about it now. There's a war. going on inside. Sanctification requires us to be constantly in battle against our flesh and its desires. Now, I believe what Paul is saying is that this battle I'm fighting inside, it's frustrating. But because of Christ, there will be a victory. This battle inside, the more I see my sin, the more I'm frustrated about who I am, because I once thought I was this mature as a Christian, but now that I realize where I was, I don't know where I am as a Christian, I'm just gonna cling to Christ. See, sanctification requires endurance. If you're not fighting against temptation, you're yielding to temptation. If you're not fighting against sin, you're yielding once again to it. Another way of saying it a little more friendly is if you're coasting in your walk with Christ, you're going downhill. The process of sanctification is hard. It takes effort. It takes intentionality to say this old man I'm gonna put in the work to say no, no, no. That new man that Christ has called me to be, I'm gonna say yes. Here's the hard part. Here's just counting the cost. Sin is never gonna stop fighting against you. It's relentless. It never runs out of energy. Sin will not stop fighting against you. So as soon as you let your guard down, you're defeated. This is why we must rely upon the grace of God because only Christ can give us the endurance. When we get tired, we get complacent, we stop fighting, we're taken over. It's a battle. It's ongoing. This is a call to be watchful, Christians. Be watchful for what's going on in your heart, Be watchful of what you let come in through your eyes and your ears. Be watchful of what you think about, what you talk about. Be watchful for the sin that you're letting overpower you. It's also a call to let others be watchful. One of the great commands, one of the great truths in Scripture, He doesn't call us to battle by ourselves. We battle with brothers? We battle with those who are battling with us in their own sin? We're supposed to be a band of brothers who are fighting together this overwhelming temptation, this sin, all trying to put each other to Christ. Now, how do you know if you're supposed to be able to trust someone in battle? Because that is one of the key questions, right? If I'm going to talk about the kind of stuff going on in here, who am I gonna trust with that? Let me try to give you Some pointers. Go to battle with those who are not afraid to talk about their own sin. Go to battle with other believers that you hear talking about the wrestling that they have with their sin. If someone is afraid to talk about their own sin, they're gonna end up talking about your sin. If somebody wants to come along and stand over you to tell you what's wrong and tell you how to do it, they're not pointing you to Christ. They're trying to make you dependent upon them. A true Christian brother, here's how you do it. When you come along somebody who's talking about their sin, you try, even if it's a different sin, you try to figure out, okay, I have a similar sin, this is how I wrestle with it, this is how I pursued Christ, let's pursue Christ together. Someone who wants to come and say, this is how I'm gonna fix you. It's not Christian counsel. Be careful of someone who wants to always come and fix you. Cling to someone who's coming alongside of you and walking, confessing sin and talking about sin to point you to Christ. Christian, the other thing is this. Hiding sin is protecting sin. If you're hiding sin, you're protecting something that's destroying you and your relationships and everyone around you. Do not hide sin. Now to the last point. Christ alone delivers me. Now that sounds like we're gonna start with the good news finally. Look at verse 24. Wretched man that I am. I've never seen a Christian t-shirt that actually has that. There's not a Facebook category, oh, wretched man that I am. We don't want to think about ourselves this way. But this is Paul, if we're going to think about Paul and the victory, we've got to think about how Paul is leading us to think about ourselves. I looked up wretched, let me just walk through some of the definitions. Despicable, contemptible, scoundrel, villain, reprobate, rascal, good for nothing. Paul, after thinking about God's law and his sin, can only cry out, good for nothing. There is no good. God's law is good. but there is no good in me. I cannot carry out the law because of my flesh, verse 18. Notice there, that's how you get to the point where you realize why I can't carry it out, it's his flesh. There's nothing good in me. That's when we depend upon Christ. That's what we depend upon, grace. Wretched man that I am, who would deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because my flesh is weak, I cannot do it. Christ, He's come to do what I cannot do. He's come to take away the penalty of sin. He's come to take away the power of sin. He's come and given us His Holy Spirit so that we can now walk in the newness of life, and that's what the next chapter's about. Walking in the Spirit. However, this is also something I want you to see. Notice who will deliver me. Sin is going to remain frustrating for the rest of your life. Fight it. Don't let the fact that it's going to be frustrating for the rest of your life keep you from fighting it. Fighting it because the reward is sanctification, but the only deliverance that we look forward to, that's final, is when we die, Christ returns. Sin will continue to taint our affections. That's why we must constantly long for Christ's return, because when he returns, sin will no longer be present. We'll be able to worship with a pure heart. So friends, we fight against the temptation in Christ. when we help each other fight against temptation in Christ, and we remind one another regularly, Christ is returning. Fight the good fight. Fight the good fight. He's purchased you. He's in the spirit within you. He's coming back for you. Endure the battle. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and thank you that you have won the battle. We praise you and thank you that you've given us your spirit here and now to dwell within us so that we can fight. Lord, help us to get beyond the confusion of sin and help us, Lord, to have confidence in Christ. Father, I pray that you would help us to long for the world that will truly be a delight when you return. When we're made whole, when our sin is removed, we worship you with pure eyes to behold you in all of your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.