Good morning, boy, good to see you again. It feels like it’s been a while. Haven’t seen you guys in, like, 10 pounds. Well, we’re back in Romans, and I’m glad you’re there. Who sprayed Saint be gone in the front row here? I don’t know, is it me or is it Brad? Let me remind you where we are in Romans. Okay? If you break Romans into five major peaks, there are, there are, like high places where you can mark where you are. It’s like a huge mountain range. There are five peaks, we would say, the first is the peak of condemnation, and the second peak is the peak of justification. That’s so this is how you need Jesus, and this is how you have Him. Okay? The third peak is the peak of sanctification. That’s the one we’re in right now. That’s talking about the walk of a believer through the remainder of their life, until they go to be with the Lord, or he comes to return and rescues them from what will be tribulation. And so basically, this is our life, where we are the description in chapter six, seven and eight. We’re in chapter seven. It’s very important that we keep that in mind. Otherwise we’ll conflate it with other parts of the book and we’ll get our doctrines mixed up. Very important that we don’t do that. We need to keep it sorted. And so, what we’re going to do is I’m going to take a lot of text all at once, but we’re going to do an overview. I’m going to go from chapter 7 14, all the way through 23 I’m just going to read them, and then we’re going to answer two key questions. There are two points, and this is actually the title of the message. It is this, “Who Is Paul Talking About & Why Does It Matter?” (Romans 7:14-23). Those are the two points. Who is he talking about? And why does it matter? You’ll see why this is so important. Because if we get these two things wrong, we’ll miss the authorial intent, we’ll miss the application, and it will lower our doxology about the person and the work of Jesus. So, this is tremendously important. My prayer is that you see why.
So, let’s pick it up chapter seven, I’m going to read 14 through 23 and then we’ll answer these two questions. Romans 7:14-23, Start verse 14, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of 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 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.” Now, if this is your first, second, third or fourth time to hear those passages read, you might be here going, huh, or maybe it’s your 100 and you’re still going, huh. There was a psychologist, I think it was about the 40s or the 50s, that psychoanalyzed the Apostle Paul based upon these passages, and found that he might have been struggling with a personality disorder, maybe split personality, or some kind of, you know, schizoid. He is not a split personality. He’s not schizoid, nor is he nonsensical. These things make sense, but they have to be held in context. And so, before we get to the breakdown of all of the details in these passages, which are incredibly important in your growth as a disciple, we need to ask these two questions. They’re very important. They are what we would call the big idea of these precious verses.
Here is point number one,
1. Who Is Paul Talking About?
Who is he talking about? Now, believe it or not, you might say, Well, that’s very simple. He’s talking about himself because he uses the word “I”. Okay, not so fast, because there has been much controversy throughout the history of the book of Romans, of people that read this and they say, “Well, that can’t be talking about a Christian. It has to be talking about an unbeliever.” And there are others who read the text and they understand it to be speaking about a Christian and not about an unbeliever. Then there are those who say, “Well, if it is speaking about him, is speaking about himself, is this speaking about Paul? Before his conversion? Or after his conversion?” It’s still the same question, is he referring to an unbeliever before he comes to Christ, or to a believer who’s actually a disciple? There’s been much discussion and much debate, and the historical disagreement really comes down to two things. These verses paint a picture of someone who still has some kind of struggle with sin, and it’s his sin, and it’s inside of him, but it also paints the picture of someone who loves God and wants to do the right thing, who agrees that the law is good and wants to please the one who wrote it. And so, you get into this kind of tangled argument. And what I want to do is I want to show you both sides of the argument, not only so that you can be a noble Berean, but so that you can rightly divide this and have a clear understanding, because it’s possible that there’ll be somebody here, either this weekend, or watching online or watching on television, whatever, and is going to see this and be like, “Well, I don’t agree with what he said. I take this opposite stance.” Okay, okay, that’s fair. But I want to present to you the biblical case, and then you can weigh it out. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes. Is this someone before conversion or after? Now, when people argue that these are statements about someone before they’re converted. They wrestle with certain parts of it.
I want to show you a few examples. Chapter Seven, right. Look at verse 14. He starts off with this. In this part of the text, he says, Romans 7:14, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin.” And they point to that, and they take it out of context, but they take it by itself, and they say, “Well, look, anyone who’s of the flesh and sold under sin is an unbeliever.” Now the problem with that is, I would argue, they ignore every verse before that in the book of Romans, and all those verses after it. I don’t know if you know this, but when you just cherry pick a verse and you stretch it out, that’s like taking a picture and making a movie, you’re going to get wrong. And it’s very easy to do, because you read that and it seems like, “Well, that doesn’t seem like a Christian.” And so, they take exception with that. They say, this has to be talking about an unbeliever. Look at a couple more verses. Look at Romans 7:18, Verse 18 of the same chapter, and we saw this. He says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me.” Think about that, “nothing good”? Now that again, it’s separated from the context. But they say this, “A Christian can’t say that, because a Christian has the Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit’s in you, something good dwells in you. You have a rich deposit of the Word of God in you, and Christ is your King. And how could that be? This has to be talking about an unbeliever.” Then he goes on in that same verse to say, “For I have the desire to do what is right, (but look, oh) not the ability.” And they would argue based upon chapter six, they think, “Well, if this were a Christian, they would have the ability, because God gives the ability.” That’s part of the argument. One more verse here in chapter seven, verse 24 which I didn’t read, but Paul cries out near the end of this this chapter, he says, Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” They point to that. They say, this cannot be a believer, because no believer would ever cry out, “Wretched man”. They would have to be someone who’s completely misinformed. Paul, don’t you know that you’re a saint? Don’t you know that you’re a son? Don’t you know that you’ve been adopted? Don’t you know that you’ve been redeemed? Don’t you know your debt’s been canceled? Don’t you know that you’ve been given eternal life. Oh, Paul, poor Paul, doesn’t he know? No, he must be talking about himself before his conversion on the road to Damascus. And this is the case they build not only that, but they also say that these statements in chapter seven are incongruent with the statements that are made in chapter six, and thus the argument goes this way, chapter six shows you what a Christian lives like, while chapter seven, in these verses, shows you the struggle and kind of kind of the failing struggle that an unbeliever has to try to please God.
And in order to establish that argument, they quote various verses in chapter six. Let me give you an example, a couple of examples Romans chapter six. Look at six and seven, and we covered this weeks ago, right? Romans 6:6-7, “We know that our old self (that’s the old man) who was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Well, if that’s true, how can verse 14 say, “I’m fleshly, I’m sold into sin.” And they see that is incongruent. They say that can’t be that way. Thus, they point out, “Okay, well, six is talking about Christian. Seven is talking about an unbeliever.” Then they go on verse seven, “For one who has died (that’s crucified with Christ) has been (what?) set free from sin.” So thus, it would be possible to be set free from sin and never sin again. And many of those who ascribe to this, to this view, they actually believe that, they believe that you can reach such a high level of spirituality that sin is no longer practically possible in your life, you’ll never sin again. They believe that, and they teach that, and most of them claim that. And I retort to that, as Augustine would, ha, ha, ha. If that’s you, I’d like to meet you. Please bring your spouse. I’d like to interview her or him. Look at verse 11 as well. They point to this, Romans 6:11 “So you also must consider yourselves (what?) dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.” Well, how can someone who’s dead to sin have the struggles that are described in chapter 7 14, through 23 and they say, well, that’s not possible. It’s incongruent. It can’t work that way. Thus, they determine that those struggles over there in chapter seven don’t refer to a believer. And then usually they add in verse 17 and 18. And this is chapter six again, Romans 6:17-18, “But thanks be to God that you who were (past tense) slaves of sin.” And they say, “See, can’t be sold into sin like 714 says, if this is who you are.” “You who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Now that’s the argument. The problem with that is, when you look at the language that Paul has used, you realize two things, number one, that he is, in fact, speaking about himself, and number two, that he’s speaking about himself in the present tense, not the past tense when you read chapter seven. When you read 14 through 23 you’re reading him talking about himself and in the present tense. In fact, if you look at chapter seven, seven through 25 he refers to himself 46 times. Listen in the first person singular, that’s the tense in the Greek, first person singular, 46 times. In other words, what he’s saying is we would call autobiographical. He’s writing about himself. In fact, when you get to verse 14 and you read all the way through verse 25 it’s always him referring to himself, first person singular in the present tense. 100% of the time he’s not saying this is who I used to be. Because, if he was, he would say it, because he said that. He says this in other epistles, you’re aware of my former life in Judaism, he tells the Galatians. In Galatians chapter one, right? He says that. So Paul would have said that if he was referring to someone before, who he were, who he was right then. And he certainly wouldn’t be talking about himself in the present tense. It’s on repeat. He’s not saying this is who I was then. What is he saying? This is who I am. This is what I’m dealing with. This is actually what I’m experiencing. And here in lies the rub, because we see this conflict happening, but we also see something else. We look at his life as he describes it, and we don’t just see, “I don’t have the ability and I have this evil that’s with me.” We don’t just see that. We also see that there’s been a change. They tend to overlook that we can’t afford to or will wrongly divide the Word.
Again Romans 7:15. He says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want.” Here’s the thing, what is he saying he wants? He’s saying he wants something good. Well, I have a question for you, does the unconverted, does the unregenerate person want anything good? Do they do anything good? What is the biblical answer? No, absolutely not. But he’s saying he’s had change of desires. If you’re here and you’re a real believer, and you were to be honest about your life, there are some things that you would change, there are some things that you do that you regret and you wish they were no longer existed in your life. You would, you’d be, quote, unquote done with those things from the moment right now, if you could be. But you find that there’s a struggle if you were honest. But if you’re not honest, maybe you say, “Well, I don’t struggle with anything. I have no struggles. I don’t sin anymore because I’m now holy.” Okay? Well, you are, if you’re the righteousness of Christ, you’ve been given a foreign righteousness, and you are holy, but you’re claiming that you no longer have a struggle. Paul says he does. Just keep that in mind. Also look at verses 18 and 19. Again, this statement, someone would argue this is talking about an unbeliever, but I would tell you, it’s talking about a believer, because this is what he actually says. “For I know that nothing good (nothing good) dwells in me. That is in (what?) in my flesh.” Now, what’s he referring to there? He’s talking about the old man crucified, buried with Christ, but yet the vestiges of that old man still live where they live in your mortal body. You are still in a Earth suit, if you will, that’s been tainted by sin, is under a curse and will one day die. Did you know that? Now you might be here, and you say, “Well, wait a minute. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.” He did, and He will, one day recur. He will one day redeem us from the curse of sin. Now, what’s the difference? What’s the difference? The curse of sin comes where? It comes in Genesis, chapter three, right? Because you’ve eaten of the tree and God lays out those curses. Those curses are still in effect, aren’t they? Do serpents still lick up the dust upon their belly? Yes, they do. Do men go to work and often feel like it’s toilsome? Yes, they do. Is that true? It is. Let me ask you this, do women who, when they have babies, experience pain in childbirth? Duh. “That’s part of the curse?” Yeah. Go read it. Go read it. Let me ask you this, you were taken from dust, will you one day return to dust? Yes, you will, because this physical body is in a sin cursed Earth and still exists under that curse. This body, this physical body that you have, is not fit for heaven, and it won’t be going there. You’re going to need a new one. Praise God, you get one if you’re in Christ. This one go will go to go into the ground, never to come up again. Thank the Lord. If you’re old enough, you’re like, “Oh, good.” Now, if you’re still young, you’re like, “I like this one.” Okay. Well, hide and watch, sweetheart. Your attitude will change when you get older, you start thinking, “Yeah, a new one sounds great, a glorified one.” So, you see, that’s what he’s talking about. There’s nothing good that is in his flesh. That’s what he’s referring to. But then he says this, “For I have the desire (I have a desire) to do what is right.” No unbeliever would ever say that? They might try and say that, but the Bible shows us it’s not true. I want to do what’s right. I just don’t have the ability to carry it out. “For I do not do the good I want.” No one believer can say that. How do we know that? Because we went through chapter three to get to chapter seven, see how that works? The Bible assumes you’re going to read the whole thing. It also seems you’re going to read and understand the whole thing. That is our life goal as disciples, not just to be the master as close to the master of one book, but to be mastered by that book. And Romans taken out of context is very, very dangerous. I’m very thankful my pastor, who discipled me early on in my life, early on my walk, told me, Go Read Romans, read Romans, read Romans. Read it 100 times. I would prescribe that to you. I really want to understand Romans. Okay, do this. Start in chapter one. Read all the way through chapter 16. When you get to the end, make a little mark, go start over, do it 100 times, and when you’ve done it 100 times, you will have a pedestrian, elementary understanding of the overarching narrative of the book. You have now scratched the diamond with a feather, and that’s how deep you’ve gotten. It is an ocean because to see that you need Christ in order for it to have a change of nature, that’s what the peak of condemnation was all about.
Romans 3:10-12 Look at chapter three, verses 10 through 12. We covered this years ago, “As it is written, (look) none is righteous. Nope, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.” Including you and me, until what? Until you’re regenerated, until you’re given new affections, a new heart, a new spirit, new desires. Surely, Paul cannot be talking about someone who’s not regenerate. In fact, he describes in chapter seven, these desires for good, for right, for holiness, for truth. But the Bible is very clear that the unregenerate don’t want truth. In fact, if you go all the way back to the beginning chapter, where we studied a long time ago, chapter one, verse 18, says this Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (here’s their resume) who by their unrighteousness, they do (what?) they suppress the truth.” They don’t want the truth. They don’t long for the truth. They don’t love the truth, and so it’d be saved. No, they suppress it. That means they push it down. They keep it out of their conscience. They don’t want to know what God’s really like. They don’t want to know what he’s really done, because it will show them what they’re really like in their need. So, I hope this is coming into clarity for you.
So, what’s the solution when we read seven and compare it to chapter six? Let me make it really easy. Okay, when you read chapter six by and large, for the most part, in chapter six, I’ll make it easy for you right here. Chapter six is talking about the believers’ condition. Chapter Seven, by and large is talking about the believers’ conflict. In other words, chapter six, by and large, shows us the permanent condition of a saint, but chapter seven shows that doesn’t mean it’s going to be seamless and easy. It’s going to be a struggle through sanctification. Why? Because there’s still vestiges of sin. There’s still sin that dwell in a person’s members. That’s what Paul’s describing. But even in chapter six, in fact, you start to see the hint of that. You start to see that there’s going to be something that’s going to be required in effort.
Chapter six. Look at verses 12 and 13. What does he say? Romans 6:12-12, “Let not sin (do what?) let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.” What does that imply? That implies sin is there. It’s trying to reign, and you’ve got to say no to it. It goes on in verse 13. “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but instead present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” This is the presentation. This is actually who you are. This is where you really are, redeemed, blood, bought, seated in heavenly places with Christ. But your body and your being is still here on the earth, and you’re still in a war against your flesh, the world system and the forces, the kingdom of Satan. It’s not over yet. You’re in the fight. You’ve come into a battle. This is what’s actually being described. This is what Paul is saying when he writes. Chapter seven verse 23 Look at this Romans 7:23, “But I see (look) in my members.” Now, what does that mean? That means in his flesh, another law. What would that be? The law of sin. Yeah, and what is it doing? It’s “Waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells (where?) in my members.” See people tend to think that, “Oh, as I mature in Christ, I’ll get all my behaviors straight.” Okay, I’ll give you that. Your behavior will change. It will over time. It does. God’s working you, He’s disciplining you, He’s cleaning you up. You’re being sanctified. You’re being made more and more and more to be like the person of Jesus in His character. But how many of you know you never, ever, ever escape the predisposition in your sinful flesh to sin. You just don’t. And now there are people that want to pretend that they’ve achieved a higher spirituality. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard these kind of people, but they teach and they talk as though every sin they’ve ever committed, it’s like at least 30 years ago, right? “Well, I used to do that.” When was that? “Oh, that was 1990 I had a dark month that year and then, but since then, and I can show you how to do it in my new book, how I did it.” That’s got horns on it. That’s dangerous, by the way, that’s falsehood. And what that is that’s a hypocritical liar. They’re presenting themselves as though the only thing they do now, “Oh, now I stumble every now and then I make some mistakes,” but they don’t want to be unveiled for who they really would be if they were to be true to Scripture. This is how the Scripture paints it, that a believer who’s a real, maturing believer, is not someone who enters into this false sense of tranquility. Now there is a peace that passes all understanding. It guards our hearts and minds in Christ, Jesus, as we make our requests known to Him and are in thankfulness. I get that, but it doesn’t mean that there’s the cessation of conflict. In fact, when you come to Jesus Christ, when you are regenerated by the Spirit, you’re all your problems don’t go away. You get a whole new set of problems. I got saved, and I got a whole new set of problems. I lost a bunch of friends, bunch of family members thought I was crazy, and all of a sudden, me telling people the truth made them hate me. I was like, “Wait a minute. I think it’s incredibly good news if I tell you that you’re on your way to hell, but you don’t have to go. Someone has borne your penalty.” It’s like, “That’s hate speech.” No, it’s not. That’s love speech. How do I know? Because the one who was loved manifested said the same thing.
Is there another place in Scripture that defines the battle? There are many, many, many and narrative and didactically. Let me show you one of those. This would be the key one. This is Galatians, chapter five, speaking to the churches in the region of Galatia. Look at verse 17. Galatians 5:17 He says, “For the desires of the flesh (okay, this would be the sin nature, there are desires in the flesh, they are what?) they are against (what?) the Spirit (and converse to that) and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.” Do you see the fight? That’s not schizoid, that’s sanctification. That means you are a new creation, created in Christ, Jesus unto good works. That is who you really are. And what you still have to bear is the fact that you still live in an earthly body with vestiges of sin. This is the conflict that Paul’s talking about in chapter seven, and he’s talking about it once again in the present tense “For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want.” Who’s Paul talking about? He’s talking about himself past or present tense? Present tense. In other words, listen to this. This is very important. Paul is describing the conflict in a mature believer, not in an immature believer. I don’t know who you think you are but I don’t think you’re more spiritual than Paul. Maybe you think you are, and maybe you read Romans chapter seven, you’re like, “Well, that’s not me.” Okay. I would argue that it’s not that you’ve transcended these struggles, you have yet to attain to them. You haven’t grown up enough to get close enough to God to see Him clearer for who He really is in His Word, by the illumination of the Spirit, nor are you able to accurately diagnose your own self and your own need. Thus, you stand independent from the true vine. And you say often, “I got this,” and you brag about it, and we put up with you as people put up with us. And I would argue that there’s vestiges of that kind of pride in every one of us. If left to ourselves? Yeah, we’d go right back. That is what the apostle is actually saying. He is the picture of a mature Christian.
Let me ask you a few questions, who led Paul to Jesus? Jesus. Jesus was a good evangelist, right? Knocks him off his horse. He didn’t say, “Would you like to pray a prayer? Behold, I stand at the horse and knock.” No. Tactical entry team blows the door open. Come alive. “Lazarus, come out,” right? Let me ask you this, who discipled Paul? Jesus did. First person. None of us can say that. Now you might say, “Well, He discipled me personally.” No, no, it’s always through secondary means of grace. Now it’s not first person, immediate revelation. You were made to need the body and you need the Word of God, the illumination of Spirits, it’s both. Paul had been to heaven. Did you know that? It doesn’t just mean outer space. He’s way above Elon, not just the spiritual realm, which is the second heaven, but the third heaven, where the glorious throne of God actually is. He had gone there. I don’t know who you are. He had worked miracles, powers, signs and wonders. He’d seen healings. I don’t know who you are, who you think you are, but you’re not more spiritual than Paul. And when he says, “Wretched man that I am,” and when he’s lamenting those things, what is he saying? He’s saying, “I still need Him.” He’s saying, “I’ve gotten so close to God now that I see my sin for deeper and worse than I ever thought it was. And now I cry out even louder.” And that is the fuel for the doxology that comes out in Romans chapter eight. There’s “Therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh God did by sending His Son in law likeness of sinful flesh, He condemned sin in the flesh.” That’s great news but only if you realize how bad you still need it. That’s what’s actually happening.
I’m all the way into point number two.
But here’s 2. Why Does It Matter?
Well, because everything I just said, why does it matter? Because Paul’s describing here the most spiritually mature of Christians. He’s talking about someone who acknowledges his true condition, because he can see it as contrasted against the holy character and person of God. That’s what he’s actually saying. 1 John 1:8-2:1, “If we say we have no sin we deceive (who? Oops) ourselves, we deceive ourselves. Did you know that no one lies to you like you do? It’s not somebody else you’re fooling, you’re fooling yourself. We deceive ourselves. We tell us, or we tell ourselves we’re something that we’re not. “Oh, I don’t have any sin. Oh, I don’t have any struggle. I’m very content with where I am. I’m very mature. All these other people in this church, if they could only see how holy I am, they’d all then think I was a really big deal.” You’re not mature. You’re an infant. You may be regenerate, maybe, but you’re not mature. And I’m not mad at you, I just want to tell you this, if I look around I feel like I’m better than somebody because of something I’ve ever done. That’s pride, that’s immaturity. And I’m not seeing myself versus God, I’m seeing myself versus some other human. That’s comparing ourselves one to another. We’re told not to do that, and that’s why, because you can always find somebody worse, can’t you? You ever looked at somebody you heard a Christian say this, “On my worst day I never did that.” It’s like, I’m not sure you’re aware. You’ve never had your worst day then son, because given it enough time and opportunity, every single one of us would become our own personal Hitler. How’s that feel? This is feel good Sunday, by the way, I don’t know if you’re aware of the last message we did before the break into First Fruits, we did. It’s just this powerful, peaceful joy of abandoning all hope in yourself. It’s truly liberating when you finally say, “I couldn’t save myself. Jesus did. And you know what, I can’t clean myself up. I can only cooperate with Him. I can only abide in the vine.” He goes on to say, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” And then he says this, “My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you (what?) so that you may not sin. (Don’t want you to, that’s not God’s will for you) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.” That’s not a license to go out and do what you want. A heart that’s been changed doesn’t want to go out and do whatever the old nature wants, if there’s a fight to it. You see?
Paul lays this out in Philippians chapter three, and you remember chapter three first, verses one through six, he gives his resume of when he was a Jew, all the things he did, where he was from, who educated him. He’s kind of a big deal. But verse seven, we pick it up. Philippians 3:7-15, he says, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I’ve suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, that depends on faith that I may know him.” What? Paul, what? Hey, there’s a news flash, Paul, you already know Jesus. You met Him on the road to Damascus. Remember the guy that blinded you? What is he saying? He’s saying, “I want to know Him more. He’s saying I want to walk closer to Him. I want to become more like Him. I want to see Him clearer for who He really is.” That’s what he’s talking about. He’s talking about the progression of it, same as he’s referring to in Romans seven, “That I may know him in the power of his resurrection.” Let’s go back to verse 10, “And may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” And then he makes these statements, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect.” What is that? Well, that’s him, rephrasing what he says in Romans chapter 7 14 through 23 he’s not perfect. Why? Because he still has sin that he wrestles with in his members. “But I press on to make it my own.” Or this make it my own. Word for that “would be lay hold of”, the literal, “Press on to lay hold of it.” Why? “Because Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Jesus got a hold of me, and now I make it my goal to lay hold of Him.” Paul, don’t you already have Him? Yeah, but it’s always more. It’s always greater and greater. You don’t arrive in this life. Finally, he says, verse 13, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own (or laid hold of it fully) But one thing, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Then he says this, “Let those of us who are mature think this way (and to those who aren’t mature, he says, and if anyone, or) if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also.” In other words, give it time God will work in you. How does a mature believer think? He thinks of himself as he really is, not compared to other people around him, but compared to God. That’s the standard, you see? And that’s not to condemn us. That is to encourage us that we still don’t measure up, but He’s not going to leave us or forsake us. He’s not abandoning us. What he began is a good work. He will complete. He will perfect all the way to the day of Jesus Christ. Do we have a role of cooperation? Is sanctification synergistic to laborers that? Yes, He’s doing the work. We are cooperating with it absolutely but He’s the one who gets the glory. Because apart from Him, we can’t do it. In fact, we can do nothing. Someone famous, seems like once said that.
I want to read you a quote from MacArthur. I love the way he sums up the overarching intent of 7 14 through 23 he wrote this, “It seems rather that Paul is here describing the most spiritual and mature of Christians, who the more they honestly measure themselves against God’s standards of righteousness, the more they realize how much they fall short. The closer we get to God, the more we see our own sin. Thus it is the immature, the fleshly and the legalistic persons who tend to live under the illusion that they are spiritual and that they measure up well by God’s standards, the level of spiritual insight, brokenness, contrition and humility that characterizes the person depicted in Romans seven are marks of a spiritual, mature believer who, before God, has no trust in his own goodness and achievements. Not only is he the subject of this passage, but it is the mature and spiritually seasoned apostle that is portrayed. Only a Christian at the height of spiritual maturity would either experience or be concerned about such deep struggles of the heart, mind and conscience. The more clearly and completely he saw God’s holiness and goodness, the more Paul recognized and grieved over his own sinfulness.” Why does it matter? It matters so that you don’t get duped into thinking that there are people who walk around and float, that somehow you’re less than because you’re in the battle. If you let me say it to you this way, if you’re in the battle, it’s normal. And the more you recognize the battle, that’s how much you’re growing. Do you understand? It’s the internal pieces, because what you’ll do is you’ll reach a point in your life where you go, you know, “I don’t smoke, drink or chew or go with those who do.” Good for you. Proud of you. You don’t rob banks anymore. Great. You stop sleeping around. Awesome, good. I’m glad you’re off crack. Sincerely. Congratulations if you were ever on crack. I never did crack. My sister did it. She had a hard time getting off. She got saved. That helps, you know, but does that when those things that we do, and we already yield our bodies to Jesus, absolutely. But when those things that we do, they start to fade away. What is left are the internal motivations, the thoughts, the intentions, those things that are quiet inside of us that others can’t see. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t just want to stop with the outward moralistic behavior. He wants to work again and again and continue on what? On the heart. It’s what He’s always concerned with. That’s the highest doxology to be able to say, “I don’t do that stuff.” But sometimes thoughts and motives and memories and things, they come up, right? It’s like a- How many of y’all remember VHS tape? Right? If you don’t, your movies aren’t any good. Just like the tape plays, and you’re like, ‘No!’” You say, “A mature Christian struggles with that?” Yeah, they do, they stray in their intentions, they constrain their thoughts. But the more mature you get, the quicker it’ll feel painful, and the faster you’re disciplined and you return to your Shepherd. That’s the difference. But sinless perfection that would post you up over somebody to play the ultimate judge. And I’m not talking about calling out real disciples when they when they walk in sin. We’re to do that. We’re to say that to each other in love and with that motive. But seeing yourself as better means you think you accomplished something, thus you’re getting glory, and that is the antithesis of the walk of a true disciple.
Now, odds are between three services, internet, TV, whatever. People are going to see this, and some people are going to say, “Well, I don’t, I don’t have that struggle.” Okay. Well, there are two possibilities. Number one, you’re unregenerate, and so you don’t have that battle. I didn’t have that battle either. Before I got saved, I wanted to do sin, and while I was doing sin, I wanted to go do more sin, and while I was doing more sin, I was planning the next sin. Some of y’all remember, and don’t try and fool me like, “Oh, I’m in church. No, I never did that.” Please. I came to Christ, and all of a sudden there was a war. If you’re unregenerate, you don’t have that battle. What should you do? You should repent of your sin and believe on a Savior, abandon all hope of your own righteousness, and put your hope fully in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin. That’s what you’re to do. That’s one option. That’s option A. Option B is this, you are an actual Christian. You are regenerate but you are immature, and you’ve yet to attain that. See, some young believers, they never grow up. They’re eternally spiritually immature, and they tend to think that they’ve somehow transcended these kind of struggles. You have not transcended them. You’ve yet to attain them. You don’t face the hot battle because you haven’t grown old enough yet. So, what are you to do? You are to continue in the Word, constantly nourished in the Word of God as milk. You’ll get to steak, you’ll start to comprehend. And the gospel will be your encouragement all the way through, and you will grow. And at times you’ll start feeling like, “I think I’m getting worse.” You’re not. You’re just seeing it for what it is. This is the common experience to the saints of God.
Let me fast forward in the slides here to John chapter 15, four and five, we saw this about whatever, weeks ago in the last message on Romans. I want to land here, because this is really the solution. Jesus says this verses four and five John 15:4-5, “Abide in Me and I in you, as the branches cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me, I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.” You can’t walk it out. Can’t fulfill those desires. Your spirit will stay perpetually weak. You need the vine. You have to be vitally attached. This is why we call people to read their Bibles for themselves. This is why we encourage you to send in prayer requests, but not only for yourself, but to pray for other people, to pray for your needs that you have. You don’t abdicate prayer. You can delegate it. You can ask someone to help you, but you should be praying as well every day. That’s why we plead with you to get in a d-group so you can be surrounded by the fellowship and the supply of the body, so you can interact with those people that you really click with and be really sanctified by those people that you don’t click with. That’s why we tell you your next is to join a local church. That’s why we invite you to come learn about covenant membership at Sherman Bible Church, because this is what we say we can’t disciple non-members. We just don’t know how to do it. Without accountability, there’s really no household. That doesn’t mean you can’t grow. It doesn’t mean you can’t learn. You can but to grow in maturity is to come around and let the full weight of the house feed you. And, by the way, just to say this about membership, it’s not in the notes at all. But if you can’t find covenant membership here, we would encourage you to find a place where you can where people know you and you’re known, where you know others, and you can rest in being fed the Word of God and being grown up. This is what He wants from us, that we do what? That we bear much fruit. But without Him, we can’t do anything. We need Him. We need His body. We need His Word. This is the fundamental overarching understanding of Romans 7 14 through 23. We’ll get into the minutia and the details but Paul’s talking about himself as a mature believer. Why is it important? So that you can understand that this is what you’re headed into as you mature. It doesn’t mean you’re not growing. It means you are.
KEYWORDS
Christian, Romans, Condemnation, Justification, Sanctification, Believer, Unbeliever, Sin, Law, Flesh, Spiritual Maturity, Spirit, Good, Evil, Struggle, Condition, Conflict, Doxology, Sinless Perfection, Mature, Holy Spirit, Grayson County, Gospel, Bible Church, Online Sermon, Scripture
Speaker
Steve LeBlanc