Romans 7_14-20： The Conflict Within All Christians with Dale Partridge
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Summary
When a person is saved by grace, they have died to the condemning power of the law. They are no longer motivated by fear of punishment. They obey the law by resting in the perfect obedience of Christ, and from this place of rest, their works can be pleasing to God.
Transcript
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So over the past few weeks, we have watched Paul's defense
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that a free grace gospel would not lead to people freely sinning.
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That's what he's been doing in chapter 6 and in the beginning of chapter 7.
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Instead, when a person is saved by grace, they've died to the condemning power of the law.
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That is that they've been separated from the condemning power of the law.
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And they're no longer motivated by fear of punishment.
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That's no longer their motive for obedience, but rather they obey the law by resting in
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And from this place of rest, our works of obedience, which again, outside of Christ,
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our works were viewed as filthy rags before God.
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But now in Christ, they can be pleasing to him.
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we don't obey because it makes us saved, we obey because it pleases God. This is a vastly different
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relationship with obedience. If we have a fear of punishment, then it says that in, I believe it's
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1 John, then the love of God is not in you. If you fear, the love of God is not in you because
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there is no fear in perfect love. And we know that God has extended that perfect love to us in Christ.
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we should not fear. There is no punishment that's coming for us. There is no condemnation
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in Christ. And so last week, Paul addressed a potential misinterpretation of his argument in
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chapter seven, verses one through six. If you guys remember what we were talking about,
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it was regarding the transition of authority from being under the law to being actually as a wife
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is dying to their old spouse and being reconnected to a new spouse, which is Christ.
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there's a transition of authority. And Paul was concerned that that might lead to a misunderstanding
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or a misinterpretation that he was an antinomian. And that word means anti-law. He was concerned
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that people might think, wait, is Paul saying that he's anti-law? Is he against the value and
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And he clarified to his readers that that was not the case,
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that the law was not the thing that sentenced him to death.
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The law was not the thing that caused the pain in his life,
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but sin, sin was the thing that sentenced him to death.
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And we learned that the law was akin to a mirror.
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You guys might remember my metaphor and analogy here.
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It's not the law's fault, it's not the mirror's fault
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It is not responsible for putting the dirt there.
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when I think about the law, and this is important,
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is a very helpful reality, is a tool that allows you to understand the revelation of your sin.
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You can start to see your sinfulness because you understand the law. And when the law shows you
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how short you have fallen to the glory of God, you are now able to come to Christ. You are now
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seeing how the law leads you towards Christ. And this is why Paul concluded in 7, 12 to 13,
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he says, so the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. These are good
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things. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death
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in me through what is good. Speaking of the law, in order that sin might be shown to be sin
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and through the commandment might become sinful beyond all measure. And that was last week's
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text. So the law, while it's the instrument of moral justice, it is not the cause of the moral
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crimes. Do you understand that? There's a very important distinction. It is not the cause
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of the immorality. It is the revealer of the immorality. Man's sinful nature, our rebellion
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against God, our autonomy, our desire to not be accountable to God's law, that is the cause
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of the moral filth. That is the cause of our condemnation. Let's not confuse that with the
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moral law. Now today, Paul introduces another dimension of the law. He's already spoken to
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the holy and the good nature of the law, but now he speaks to a different dimension. You know,
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We know that the law, it reveals the sinfulness
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of outward actions, it also reveals the state of the heart.
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But Paul in verses 14 through 20, which is our text today,
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I promise you that you will relate with the sermon
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There is a war, there is a conflict and we all feel it.
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Martin Luther described the conflict by saying, quote,
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I believe you have one master, and that's Jesus Christ.
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In Galatians 5.24, which we just read a few moments ago,
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Paul says, and those who belong to Christ Jesus
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have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.
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Galatians 2.20 says, I have been crucified with Christ.
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it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live now in the flesh,
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I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, again, this does
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not mean that Christians no longer battle with the temptations of the flesh. Just because we've
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crucified the flesh doesn't mean that we don't have a battle with the temptations of the flesh.
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It simply means that the captain of the flesh has been pinned down.
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He has been brought low and he no longer dominates your affections and your behavior.
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In Christ, the flesh is now subordinate to the spirit.
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That is the biblical teaching of the relationship between the spirit and the flesh.
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It's why Paul commanded the Christians in Colossians 3.5.
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He says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.
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sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, covetousness, which is idolatry.
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It's also why you can tell Christians in Romans 6, quote, not to let sin reign in your mortal body
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and to make it obey its passions. And he says, not present your members to sin as instruments
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for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death
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to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. There's obviously a
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real conflict, a real call that Paul's saying, no, I know you're in the spirit, but you need to
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actually make those fleshly passions bow to the lordship of Jesus. Your job as a Christian is to
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walk in the power of the spirit so that you can make those passions of the flesh bow down to King
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Jesus. And until we're glorified with Christ, Christians are going to have an ongoing spiritual
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work. We're going to have an ongoing spiritual work, making those passions submit and be
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subordinate to the spirit. Thomas Watson once said, and I always say this quote,
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sin will remain in the born again Christian, but sin will not reign. Sin no longer has a reigning
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and ruling power over you, but the spirit, you are now a slave to Christ, has a reigning and
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ruling power over you. So in today's text, we get to confront the familiar battle that wages within
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us. We get to look at the conflict between the spirit and the flesh. Let's read Romans 6, 14 and
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20. I want to see the tops of your heads because I want to have you guys reading your Bible.
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For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
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For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing.
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Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
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John MacArthur said of this passage, it can feel schizophrenic.
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It can feel a little bit like two worlds that are going on inside of one man.
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And I believe that's an accurate description of how it can feel.
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It can feel like a schizophrenic relationship between the flesh and the spirit.
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It can feel that we're engaged in this battle between temptation
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because we have the conviction of sin through the law
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because we understand the righteous requirements of the law.
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and we also have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
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We understand the law, but we still have this bag of bones,
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this body of flesh, this body of death connected to us.
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and walk down ways that are heretical or dangerous.
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he's dealing with the power of the law to excite sin and cause conflict in a Holy Spirit indwelt
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believer. Did you get that? That's important to grasp. He's dealing with the power of the law to
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excite sin in a believer who has the Holy Spirit, and it causes this war and this conflict.
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And I say that because many Christians equate conflict with condemnation.
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we think that if there's some sort of conflict in us that we're condemned
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we think that I'm feeling conflicted this last week therefore I must be condemned
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I must not be right with God but conflict is actually the evidence that you are not condemned
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if there was no war if there was no conviction if there was no discipline if there was no shame
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if there was no trial in your soul, then I would be worried.
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But the fact that you're actually having condemnation
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this is evidence that you're actually the one that is saved
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because you're having the war between the flesh and the spirit.
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the one who is grieved over sin has that war the one who is not trusting in themselves to be
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righteous before God has that war Romans 8 1 says there is therefore now no condemnation for those
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who are in Christ Jesus why do you think Paul wrote that directly after the passage of scripture
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that we're going to be going through over the next two weeks because conflict can cause a sense of
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condemnation. He's reassuring the believers, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who
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are in Christ Jesus. Second, this text further communicates Paul's thesis of the entire book of
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Romans, that it is impossible to attain moral perfection. It is impossible to attain moral
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perfection. Even Paul, the great Pharisee and the apostle of the New Testament, cannot keep it
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together. He keeps on doing the things that he doesn't want to do. He cannot maintain the perfect
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obedience that the law demands. And if the man who is called a saint and whom God has called to be
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holy and is set apart to be chosen, calls himself a wretched sinner, a wretched sinner, then all of
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us, regardless of our status or our gifting, we have to acknowledge our station and our reality
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spiritually that we are absolutely sinful and need of a savior. This is the place that Paul
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is trying to lead us. He's saying, look at me in my own life. I have this, my own conflict. I can't
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keep the law. He's constantly driving you to the cross, to the perfect law keeper, Christ Jesus.
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so we're going to read verse 14 line by line for we know that the law is spiritual
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but I am of the flesh sold under sin okay first we need to look because we want to understand
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we're smart bible interpreters we want to understand what it says by we what is the
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antecedent to we who is the pronoun referring to for we know that the law is spiritual
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Well, it's talking about Christians. Non-Christians don't talk, don't know that the law is spiritual.
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It says, for we know that the law is spiritual. Paul uses this statement to really say that there's
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no need for evidence here. We know by experience as believers that the law is spiritual. Jeremiah
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Jeremiah 31, 33 says, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.
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So the law is both written outwardly and it deals with the external realities.
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It also is written inwardly, as the KJV would say, on the fleshy tables of the heart.
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In addition, the law is not only concerned with the carnal and the external, the law
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is also dealing with the spiritual and the internal.
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Okay, it's not only concerned with adultery and murder, it's also concerned with lust and hate.
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It's dealing with the internal realities, not just the external realities.
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In the second half of verse 14, he compares the perfect spiritual nature of the law to his fallen nature
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that remains until he's glorified with Christ Jesus.
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He says, the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh.
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the word but is a contrast right it's it's the law is spiritual but I am of the flesh
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he's trying to demonstrate the gasping chasm between the law and him a fallen sinner
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the law is perfect and because I'm regenerate I see that I'm not
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that's what the law does to a regenerate person it's a mirror to show you how ugly you are morally
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which I believe is a very relatable position it should be a very relatable position because the
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law is not written on my heart to allow me to feel as if I can meet all of its demands
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No, the law is there to help me run to Christ, constantly run to Christ.
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Verse 15, it says, because I do not understand my own actions, because I do not do what I want,
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but I do the very thing I hate. The evidence that his flesh is still influential in his walk with
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God has shown that he struggles to understand his own actions. I don't know about you, but I
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have certainly been there. Why do I keep doing the things that I don't want to do?
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He's struggling in conflict between his own understanding of why is he behaving the way
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that he is. He laments that he does not do what he wants to do, but instead does the very thing
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that he hates. Have you not had that exact feeling? Why do I keep doing the thing that I
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don't want to do. And yet I do the very thing that I hate.
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He does not follow what he knows to be right according to the spirit. And at times
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he follows what is according to the flesh. Spurgeon comments on this passage. He says,
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this is a strange contradiction. A man who has grace enough to be, or a man who has grace enough
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to do the will of good and yet does not do it. There are two men in the one man. The new nature
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struggling against the old nature, end quote. This is why a regenerate David can commit murder.
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This is why a regenerate Jonah goes to Tarshish. This is why a regenerate Peter denies Christ.
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This is why a regenerate Paul and Barnabas have such a sharp conflict that they cannot continue
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And I know that I ought not to think evil thoughts,
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for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit
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and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh
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to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.
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He keeps you from doing what you want to do in the flesh.
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it says now if I do what I do not want I agree with the law that it is good
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so now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me
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okay he says if I do what I do not want in my flesh is what he's saying there I agree with
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the law. That is when the flesh loses to the battle with the spirit. And essentially the spirit
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mortifies the desires of the flesh. We conform to the law and that is good. When you obey, that's
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good. That's a blessing. But in verse 17, when Paul says, so now it is no longer I who do it,
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but sin in me. He's not attempting to escape from the responsibility of his actions right there.
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He's not saying, I'm not the one sinning. It's the sin in me. That's not what he's saying.
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He's simply placing the guilt of sin upon the flesh and not upon the spirit, or he's placing
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the guilt of sin as a recognition of the law, not as a reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
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He's making a distinguishing reality. He wants to essentially that the credit for his obedience
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is given to the spirit and his credit for his disobedience is given to the flesh.
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and this is an important distinction. He actually makes the distinction for us in verse 18. Look
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down. It says, for I know that nothing good dwells in me. That is in my flesh
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because I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
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He knows that nothing good dwells in his flesh. Some of you need to hear that today.
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he knows that nothing good dwells in his flesh do you believe that do you believe that nothing
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good dwells in your flesh do you believe that without Christ nothing about you is good
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and that you are fully saturated in evil in a self-love culture that is a very difficult pill
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to swallow. Do you believe what God said in Genesis 6-5? It says, the Lord saw that the
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wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart
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was only evil continually. That is your biography. That is who we are spiritually.
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there is nothing good in us, nothing. Paul knows that anything good that dwells in him, any faith,
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any righteousness, any holiness, any justice, any love, any fruit of the spirit is not from him,
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but from Christ in him. That is a vital distinction for the Christian.
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John Calvin wrote in the very beginning of his Institutes of the Christian Religion,
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quote, with the knowledge of God comes the knowledge of self.
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When you look to God and you understand the scriptures, you start to see who you really are.
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Theology reveals anthropology. You start to understand that God did it all. You start to
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understand that God is the one of all good. He is the source of any good in you. For from him
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and through him and to him are all things forever and ever. Amen. So when by the grace of God,
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we are able to see ourselves as wretched, when we're able to see ourselves finally as being
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wretched, we begin to do what? Understand grace. We begin to cherish grace. We begin to understand
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and love the gospel. We begin to say, amazing grace that saved a wretch like me.
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When our self-love is finally removed and we see that outside of Christ's intervention,
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we were God haters. We were sin factories. We were flesh lovers.
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We start to see the greatness of the gospel. It's beautiful. Spurgeon once says,
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when you feel yourself to be utterly unworthy, you have hit the truth.
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You have hit the truth. Have you hit the truth?
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if the gospel is not cherished if you don't weep when you read through john
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it's because you have forgotten the truth you have forgotten your station in this grand narrative
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do you understand your biography do you understand who christ is in the great chasm that was crossed
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verse 19 and 20 it says for I do for I do not do the good that I want but the evil I do not want
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is what I keep doing now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that
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dwells within me Paul closes again with this confirmation of conflict that's going on in him
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He loves the law and its ability to reveal sin in his life.
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He loves the spirit that dwells within him and wars against the old man,
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But he also acknowledges the remnant of the flesh.
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He acknowledges the hostility and the struggle between the conviction of the law
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and so this passage of scripture as I start to wrap up here this passage of scripture
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is a call to eliminate spiritual complacency it's recognizing the reality and it's a call
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to remove the complacency that can often come in the Christian life we are not saved and left
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without a fight that is not Christianity I think we can all attest to that no we are saved and
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called to war. We are called to war against the culture. We are called to war within the flesh
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or within by the spirit against the flesh. And you see prior to Christ, prior to Christ,
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we were ignorant of our sin. We were ignorant of God's standard of righteousness. We thought
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that we were able to meet its demands. We were drifting like a lifeless corpse down the river
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towards death. That is our description in Ephesians 2. But when Christ resurrects the soul,
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when Christ gives us that spiritual resurrection, when we are born again, when we are made alive,
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as it says in Ephesians, we are awakened to the truth. And all of a sudden, the war begins,
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and we start resisting, and we start swimming against the current, and we stand up, and we
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fight. And that is very true about every single person that I know who has walked faithfully the
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Christian life. I think John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, where Pilgrim has to choose between
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difficulty hill and the path of ease. In the book he writes, the hill, though high, I covet to ascend.
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The difficulty will not me offend, for I perceive the way to life lies here.
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come pluck of heart, let's neither faint nor fear. Better though difficult, the right way to go,
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then wrong though easy, where the end is woe. Christ does not promise Christians an easy life.
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Christ does not promise us comfort as we have a war of conflict between the convictions of
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righteousness through the law by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit against the flesh that we
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carry on. In fact, coming to Christ often means difficulty. It often means war. It often means
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conflict. But it's that hill of difficulty that leads us to peace and eternal life. And we will,
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by God's grace, be willing to walk it. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord,
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for the continued work that you do in us, Lord, that you would strengthen us and fill us with
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your Holy Spirit. Lord, that you would sanctify us. You would clean our hearts. Lord, that week
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after week we would grow in spiritual maturity, that our lives would be more conformed to the
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image of your Son. Lord, that we would be men and women and children of righteousness, not because
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of our own goodness, but because of the goodness of Christ dwelling in us. Father, we pray you,
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pray to you. And Lord, we ask that you would help us, that you would bless us.
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You would fill us with your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.