Point 1The lost feel no weight of sin
A young man asked his pastor, "You say that unsaved people carry a weight of sin?" The pastor said, or the young man said, "I feel nothing. So how heavy is sin, exactly? Is it 10 pounds? Is it 50 pounds? Is it 80 pounds? Maybe a hundred pounds?"
The young man was kind of being a smart aleck, that's what we say in the South, smart aleck. Is it Alec or Eric?
A jerk. The young man was being a jerk. "Is it a hundred pounds?" The preacher thought for a moment and gently replied, "If you laid a 400-pound weight on a corpse, would it feel the load?" The young man was quick to say, "Of course not, it's dead." To which the pastor replied, driving home the point, "The spirit that knows not Christ is equally dead, and though the load is great, he feels none of it at all." That's what the Apostle Paul has been saying in these chapters, that the lost do not understand the gravity of sin or the weight of sin or the damage it causes or the trouble it inflicts in the hearts and the lives of men.
Dead men don't feel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:32
I guess the question, then, for us is, what do you feel regarding sin? Is sin a big deal to you, or is it something that is so much a part of your life that you've become numb to it? Paul has been repeatedly telling us over and over that we cannot save ourselves, because how can a man reach for salvation if he does not know he needs it? And so it is only by the goodness of God that men and women and boys and girls are saved. It is because he's good that he reaches out and changes our lives. Then he goes on, through chapter 1 all the way through chapter 6, and he begins to talk about how faith that is given by God changes lives, and this changes our relationship to the law and changes our relationship to sin. How many of you, as believers in Christ, can know that sin is different to you now? Amen.
It is offensive when I read articles online about Target and the things they're doing and the things they're selling there. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, make yourself privy, like, you need to educate yourself about what's happening at Target and the tension that exists there. It's offensive to me. Now, it's not offensive to me because I'm a pastor, it's offensive to me because sin is offensive to me, because I'm made new. And what I used to not struggle with, I struggle with now. Why? Because I'm new, because in me there is something new, and that new part does not long for sin. The Bible says holy and righteous and pure, completely like Christ, that is in me. So the things I used to long for, I don't long for anymore. Doesn't mean I don't do them occasionally. Drive at Christmas around what I call the circle of hell in Lee's Summit, that whole section, and finally they just decided this last Christmas to let people go both ways. And how many of you are really grateful? Because why have we been doing one way around that thing? And you feel your flesh rise up when you drive there at Christmas time, or somebody cuts in line in front of you don't really feel the Christmas spirit. Why? Because there's something waging war against the new part of us.
Right? I don't like that I feel that. I don't like that I respond that way, because there's something new in me. I used to be completely selfish and didn't care that I was selfish. Now it bothers me that I'm selfish. Are you with me today? I'm going to suggest to you that the believer is not so indifferent to the weight of
Point 2Believers become sensitive to sin
Sin then as the unbeliever is. We should take inventory, because if you go on and sin and it doesn't bother you should question your salvation, because it should bother you greatly. And if you're not bothered, then it speaks to the fact that you don't have a new nature in you. The sin is not bothersome, it should be bothersome to you. But rather, on the other hand, the believer now is hypersensitive to sin. They notice it. This is how the church can become pretty judgmental, because when you come into a new relationship with him, listen, you begin to see sin everywhere, not only in yourself but in those around you. So new believers are at great, the greatest risk of becoming judgmental, because they see sin everywhere. I like, I see it, like, now I'm a believer. Now I used not to see sin, but now I see it everywhere. Not only in me, but I see it in my wife, I see it in my kids. Whoa, boy, oh boy, can you see it in your kids, right? As a parent you try to discipline your kids. Why? Because there is something, some behavior that's inappropriate. And when you're a believer, you have a new nature, you see it everywhere. But I want to say this, it's most important that you see it in you. So we move to chapter 7. Paul does not speak to the sin he sees in everyone else. In chapter 7 of Romans, he is speaking to the sin he sees in himself. I mean, just count how many times the Apostle Paul says "I" and "me." He says "I" over and over again, because he is taking inventory of the sin that is present in him. When was the last time you sat down and reflected about the sin that is present in you? Not the sin that's present in your neighbor, not the sin that's present with somebody else in your house, but really just really did some soul searching, look deep down in your life and in your heart and said, "Man, I got some problems." How many of you could testify that maybe you have some problems?
Don't point to the person next to you. Don't do that. We have some problems. Coming to Jesus brings this awareness of sin to our heart, into our mind, and I believe that a true Christian feels the weight of the sin in a way that an unbeliever does not.
And in case you wonder whether in fact they are dead to that weight, remind yourself of Ephesians 2:1. It says this: "And you he has made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." But a true Christian feels sensitive to sin. I want to, I have a bunch of verses they're going to put up, and I'll try to read through them. You can, I'll put them up there, because I'm going to read a bunch of verses and then everybody has a panic attack when I go too fast, so you can look at the screen.
You can write these verses down, and I would encourage you to go reflect on them. Here's some examples of how a relationship of a believer with sin changes in the heart of a believer. Ephesians 4:30: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." When you were not a believer, you grieved the Holy Spirit all the time, and the Spirit of God, you grieved God's heart all the time, and it wasn't a big deal to you. But here we see that there comes a place in our life where we begin to understand that we grieve the Spirit.
First Corinthians 9:27: "But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." There is an awareness here, then, that the body wants to do something different than the mind wants to do. A tension exists. Paul speaks of it quite clearly in other books of the Bible. Psalm 33:1: "Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright."
Praise befits who? The upright. There is an improper praise that we offer. How many of you want your praise to be beneficial? Amen.
Your praise is affected by your uprightness or your lack of uprightness. In other words, there is a praise that can be offered with you walking in sin that is not praise that pleases the Lord. It is the upright that please him. So in other words, many people can offer praise to many things, but for God you must be upright. There is greater benefits. Jeremiah 5:25: "Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you." You don't have to live very long to know that sin is destructive.
Right? It buffets at every turn. It is preventative. It is a guardian of good. It prevents good from getting to you. I mean, just watch somebody. I actually saw an Instagram post this last week of a gentleman, and it said, "Me on drugs, me saved."
It was radical. I should show it, that would have been great if I would have actually got it and showed it, but of course I didn't know I was going to say this. So it was extreme. He looked so much gooder, yeah, in the saved one.
He looked dead in the drug-induced one.
What offers you pleasure in the moment robs you from joy in your future.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:15
And some of us, listen, some of us have become so habitual in our function, and we have, for years, from the time we were born all the way through our life, we have really made decisions based on what gives me instant gratification. We choose things out of the cupboards to eat based on how it's going to make us feel. We decide to go eat out, I mean, I should get some amens on this, we should, we decide, I decide to go eat out because I'm lazy and I don't want to cook something that would be better for me. I'd rather go spend money on something that is just quicker to get. But what I don't realize is by the time I get in the car, go drive to the, are you with me, get the food, get it back home, get a plate, get it all out, I could have cooked something in the same amount of time. But I make decisions based on convenience, right?
Let's get out the food, shall we? Instead of, when I get aggravated, instead of holding my tongue, when my wife, when Brook makes me mad, instead of holding my tongue, I'm just say whatever I want and yell, act aggravated, because it makes me feel better to just let it off my chest. How many of you have ever heard of somebody who's real explosive, and they just blow up all over everybody, and they say, "There's no sense in bottling it all up, that will kill you"? So blowing someone's face off with your bad attitude, that'll kill them.
We make excuses for poor behavior. Instead of holding our tongue, we would rather release it and say whatever we please. Listen, because it's easier that way.
We make tons of decisions, and let me tell you, from the time we're born we make decisions based on how it's going to gratify us in the morning, in the moment. But when we're saved and redeemed, we realize and long to not just be gratified in the moment, but that our life would be good, that our response would be good, that our choices, we begin to desire to do things that we really don't want to do in the flesh. There is this other desire, amen, waging war against what you want immediately. So at the same time that my body says, "what?", there's a new part of me that's going, "No," and my body's going, "Yes," and my mind is going, "No, no, that's not good." That's what Paul's talking about. There's a new part of you, and now what used not to be a big deal, I just make decisions based on how I feel and what I want. Now I have this thing that doesn't allow me to do that anymore.
When confronted with his own sin, he asked God to restore him to what? Psalm 51:12: "Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit." In Hebrews 12, we find that when a believer sins, he's chastened by God. God corrects them when he sins. In First Corinthians 3, the relationship with sin has changed, then, for a believer.
Amen. First Corinthians 3, we find that when a believer sins, he's hindered in his spiritual growth. So that the apostle says this: "I can't feed you what I'd like to feed you because you're so fleshly. I would love to give you meat, but I can only give you milk."
Second Timothy 2:21, Paul says we must have pure lives in order to be vessels fit for the Master's use: "Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work."
First Corinthians 10 and 11, we find that sin in the life of a believer pollutes the fellowship. And that's why the apostle says this before you come to the Lord's table: make sure you cleanse your heart before God. Don't be taking communion any old flippant way you please.
Do some soul searching. Evaluate your heart. Consider the decisions you make in your week.
Think about who you might be at odds with. Consider if you are making choices in your life that quench the Spirit.
Think about if you have taken a flippant approach to the grace of God, using then grace as an excuse to do what you please.
Don't take communion elements, using the blood and the body of Christ, to live flippantly however you want. Before you take the communion, you should evaluate your life, and you should take this seriously. This is not a joke, some game you play. It is not something you put on so you can behave out as you please. If you're a true believer, you don't treat the grace of God that way.
We find in First Corinthians 11:30 and in First John 5:16 and also in James chapter 1, the indication is made that a believer in sin is in danger of losing his life. First Corinthians 6 says, "Don't you know that your body's a temple of God?" In other words, if you bring your body into contact with sin, you then are dishonoring God himself. We begin to see the gravity of sin once we are made new.
Which one of us chooses to grieve the Holy Spirit as believers? Which of us, deep down in our hearts, as believers really wants to grieve the Spirit? Just, I'm just, you know, I just really want to upset the Holy Spirit today, I think that would be great. We wake up as believers in the morning, we're like, "Yeah, you know, I would really like to offend God today." Believers don't do that. Or who wants to have an unanswered prayer, or desire to have a powerless life, or wants to be offering inappropriate praise? Which of us, when really looking deep within ourselves as redeemed people, choose to have the blessing of God withheld, joy removed, chastening in this place, growth hindered, service limited, fellowship polluted, and life in danger? Like, that's what it talks about in all those verses. Who wakes up in the morning and says, "Yeah, I want all that. I want my life to be as offensive to God as possible"? Who drives down the street thinking that as a believer? Believers don't think like that.
Believers are God pleasers.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:12
That's what a believer is. Believers are pleasers of the Lord. When you reflect on your life, just for a moment, just when you reflect on your life, does it please the Lord?
Now here's what Paul's talking about.
You don't please the Lord by what you do.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:56
You guys thought about what you do, didn't you?
You please the Lord by being in Christ, because we know in the Bible it says everything you do is as a filthy rag. It is that we are in him, that we are made new in Christ, we are united to Christ, and it is in that we please the Lord.
I love this, because we're united in his death that we might be united in his resurrection, meaning this: we talk a lot about being united in Jesus' death and we celebrate that his death paid our price and penalty for sin, but the church is failing to talk about our union to his resurrection.
Point 3Real transformation cannot stay private
And, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know you were dead in sin, but you have been made alive in Christ, and this new life should be evident. I was talking to, we were talking to the teens on Sunday, I have the privilege on Wednesday, not Sunday, Wednesday, to type questions as the lesson is going, and I asked this question, and I'll ask you the same question because I think it's interesting. I thought we would stump the teens on this. Out of all the questions I asked, which I didn't think were that difficult, they were kind of wrestling with, but then this question they got in an instant. Every single one of them got in an instant. But I asked the question, is there such a thing as being transformed in private? Immediately they're like, "No, it's not possible." It's not possible to only be transformed in private, or the evidence of transformation is only seen in private. One person said it would be like going to a tattoo shop and getting a face tat and it only showing up when you're in your room, but when you're in public, no face tat is there.
I thought that was pretty good example. What was the other example, do you remember? Amen. Huh? Oh yeah, somebody said if you if you got a facelift, right, I was gonna make a crack but I'm not going to, but if you got a facelift and that facelift would only be evident in private but no one else could see it once you're in public, how ridiculous would that be? Yet that's how we believe a Christian lives. "God is my Lord, and he's transformed me in my heart and I'm made new, but no one sees it in public. When I walk out into the world and when I live and go out on Friday nights and when people hang out with me, whether it be in school or at work, no one can tell that I'm united in Christ's resurrection, i'm transformed." I remember the day that I came to the altar and I repeated a prayer after the pastor. I remember the moment, I remember the day, I remember the hour, I can give you the date, I can tell you who was there, but when people see me, when I hang out with my friends who've always known me, no one can tell anything has happened. Ladies and gentlemen, you're not transformed. You are not transformed, because
You cannot be transformed and no one know it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:18
We preached the gospel, particularly in America, that says, "Repeat these words." People come to the altar in droves, they repeat words, but no transformation has taken place, and that is not what the gospel teaches. Are you with me today?
There is a transformation. Paul then, though, although he's gone in chapter 6 and says there is a transformation and it is not private, he moves then to chapter 7 and then he helps our hearts, because how many of you know that although you're saved and although you're transformed, you still got problems? So he began, somebody said, "I know that's right." That was great. I'm sorry, I just love that. I know, I do too. And so he begins to encourage our hearts in chapter 8, and he begins to tell us, listen, there is a tension, but, and listen, it doesn't mean that you're not made new. You have been made new, but then you have this thing in the flesh that rages war
Point 4The inner war proves you are new
Against the new part of you. Can I say something? Let's pause here for a second. Ladies and gentlemen, if there is a conflict, if there is a war waging from your members to the newness in you,
This, ladies and gentlemen, is evidence of transformation, because there was no war waging when you were dead in sin.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:43
There was no conflict, there was nothing there. Now it is this tension we have with sin.
It is this feeling we get when sin rises up in us. It is this, it is this just absolute discomfort we feel with the conflict. Be encouraged. Listen, can I just stop here? I'm going to stop here for a second, just say this, listen to this. We've been having conversations in small groups, and so much of the conversation is permissory. It's creating permission around sin to remain in our lives.
We begin to say, "See, that's my problem, sin's there." And so then the conversation is permissory, it is, I'm trying to create permission. I'm going to look at this and say, "See, this is why I am the way I am. I'm this way because even Paul was that way."
There are two types of people who read chapter 7 in Romans, two types of people. There are the people who are looking for reason to continue in sin, and there are people who are excited to overcome sin. Let's read it, Romans 7:14–25, which, as we read it, which one are you? I can tell, I think I can tell which one you are when we're in small group or we're having conversation by what you talk about most, either the new man or the old man. I can tell where your heart is, because if you spend all your time talking about the sin that burdens you or the sin that's in your life or the sin that you can't shake, it might be that you're looking for an excuse to stay in it. But if you're a person, because there's another way you can read the Scripture, if you're a person that is excited for the conflict, because the conflict is evidence that we're made new and the new wins in the end, that if you're focusing on the fact that I was a slave to sin but I'm not now, or if you're focusing on the fact that there's a conflict, but only because there's a new part of me, you might have a different mindset. Romans 7:14–25: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh." How many of you know when you're saved you still have flesh? And man, your hair didn't stop growing out of your ears and nose in an inappropriate fashion. I'm going to talk to God about that, by the way. I have a problem with that. I have a problem with the fact that it's falling out of my head and it is growing out my nose. It literally is like it went and then shut up my nose.
I have a serious problem with that, it's irritating. And why, in fact, do I have gray ear hair, like, growing like this long? The other day I had a hair that kept getting in my eyeball, it felt like a spider web. And so as I was in the car, it's like, ashton, that's my oldest son, I was like, "Ashton, what's going on?" Laying in too, I did the same thing with him too, ask him what's going on. And I said, "Do I have a, do I have a hair here?" And he goes, "Yeah, right there," and he went and it pulled my ear like this. He goes, what is wrong with you?
It says the flesh. It's the flesh. How many of you know that it's still broken? It's faulty, it's falling apart, it does weird stuff. Man, the flesh just does weird stuff, and we still are in this vessel. That's why we are saved, we are being saved, or another word they use is sanctified, which we're going to learn about in chapter 8, and then we will one day be glorified. What is being glorified? So we're saved, being saved, we'll be saved. What does that mean, saved, sanctified, glorified? It means that one day this body won't even, there will only be the law of the Spirit. In other words, there will only be the new man. That's it. That's why when you die and this body is dead, that's why when you die and the body's dead, nothing else has to happen for you to go into his presence, because the body's dealt with. The body is dealt with. "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." He's speaking as a believer, saying there's a conflict in me that used to never be in me. This is good news, guys. "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 doing." He's talking about this new thing happening in him. Ladies and gentlemen, it's good news because there's a war being waged. Notice that you don't jump in there and start fighting the war. Notice there is a war waging in you that doesn't require you. Right? That's good stuff. In other words, God is waging war, or the Spirit is waging war against the flesh.
Who do you think is going to win that? Now, if you get in there and start throwing punches, we have a lot to be concerned about, because we don't know whether you're going to win or not. But if it's God in the ring, are you with me today? And so there is a war waging without your involvement, and it is waging in the spiritual. So when you try to come into the war that's raging in the spiritual dimension with the flesh, you can do nothing.
This is why he's speaking to people who hope to get spiritual access to something through fleshly activity.
You can only, if you enter a dimension to the flesh, you're only a benefactor through the flesh. So God is waging war, the Spirit is waging war against the enemy. "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 doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." Verse 21: "So I find it to be a law," everybody say 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," there's two laws here, the law of God and the law of sin, "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! Who 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." That's why, when you come to church, there is this pagan ideology that infiltrates so many parts of our church service, like worship, that says, "Turn off your mind and just feel me."
That's a bad way to approach the throne, because if you just feel him, what do we know about our flesh?
It longs to rebel against the God you're trying to worship. So if you want to engage God through feelings and not through your mind, you are at great risk of rebelling against the very thing you hope to worship.
This, that's good stuff. Some people come to church just to hear if the pastor can twist the Scripture in a new and cool and creative way. I heard a video the other day that said some of y'all have been giving money to strippers in the club, dropping dollars for strippers in the club, but the only stripper that you should be worshiping is Jesus Christ. And he talked about Jesus taking off and then putting on flesh. What in the world kind of trash am I listening to on Instagram? So now Jesus is a stripper?
You should have heard it was pandemonium. People jumping, shouting, clapping, shouting the pastor down for this trash. You know why? Just tell me something that makes me feel good. That's right. You can't worship the Lord with your flesh. You worship him with your mind.
You worship him with your mind. So we see here in the Scripture there's a man in conflict in the text. I want to do this real quick.
I have seven minutes, I'm gonna do this real quick. There's going to be some slides for this. I'm gonna do this real quick because we've been going through this quite a bit. I'm going to give you three laments of Paul in this chapter, specifically 14 through 25. Everybody say, "Laments."
Not the ones, not the mints you get from Pastor Bruce, like a French element, you know what I mean? Not like that. But laments. Sometimes I watch back my sermon and I regret it, like most of it, you know what I mean? But it is what it is. And all right, some laments. Let's look at the laments. Lament number one.
All right, first, let's do this first. They're under each lament, there are three parts to each lament that I want you to do some homework this week.
Those three parts are this. Well, here's a lament from Paul. Then we'll see the condition in which he finds himself, we'll see the proof of that condition, and then we'll see the source of that condition. He repeats himself from 14 to the end of the chapter over and over again. He gives three specific laments, and he gives the condition, the proof, and the source for each lament. Now notice as you go through here, as we go through here really quickly, that each lament is saying the same thing, yet he's using a different subject to talk about the same type of lament. All right, and the lament is important. Number one, and Romans 7:14, we extrapolate the first lament. "We know the law is spiritual," he says, "but I am fleshly, sold under sin."
We know the law is spiritual, but I'm fleshly. So the first lament is the law is spiritual and I'm unspiritual. There's a part of me that's unspiritual.
This is a very mature perspective. We talked about this last week. It's a very immature thing to say you've arrived spiritually and you don't need any counsel and you don't need God because you're perfect just the way you are. Wrong. I know young people today, you're, "You're good just the way you are." No, you're not. You got problems
Just the way you are. Just the way you are is dead in sin and trespasses. That's who you are.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:07
You need help. How many of you know a brother needs help? We need help in here. And so we have a generation that's telling young people, "You're good just like you are. You need to learn to value yourself just like you are." Please don't. I would hope that young people would see that they're not valuable just like they are, and it is in their lack and their problem and their insufficiency that they will reach outside themselves to find salvation. If we keep telling young people, "You're good just like you are," we are deterring them from the salvation we've been praying for as parents. It is crazy that parents will go to a closet and pray for the salvation of their kids, and then at breakfast tell them, "You're good just the way you are."
If we would just stay in the closet longer and stop talking in the flesh, our kids might actually get saved.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:01
But we become the buffer to the salvation we've been praying for with dumbest things we say in the flesh.
Some of us need to read the Scripture. Some parents need to quote more Scripture and stop coming up with creative things to say that's destroying people's lives.
Some parents just need to quote Scripture. Don't even add it, don't summarize it, please don't paraphrase it. I've heard some of us paraphrase stuff in small group. You take something that's truth and you turn it into a half truth so that you can live in the half truth, not have to actually obey the truth. Just say the Scripture.
That's a good one, Shawn. Okay. And so the law is spiritual, but there's an unspiritual side of me. Here's the condition. The condition that we see here: "We know the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin." Paul's condition is one of a struggle. The law is spiritual, but I'm fleshly.
Struggle. If salvation does nothing, it does do this: it creates tension in the heart of a believer.
The proof: Paul does not do what he wants to do. After giving us the condition in verse 14, he gives us the proof in verse 15. Here's what Romans 7:15 says: "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate." The proof that I'm still fleshly is that i'm frustrated, because I see the infinite glory of God's law, I see the magnificent holiness of his standard, and I can't live up to that standard, and I'm not satisfied with how far along I am currently.
I'm only satisfied with how far along I'm not.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 45:06
The proof: Paul wants to do good, but he doesn't. That's the proof of his condition. The source: the sin that is in Paul. That's the reason, specifically the sin that is in his flesh. Then he talks about the source, because if you say, "Well, Paul, you're saved, you're redeemed, I mean, where is this coming from?" Well, verses 16 and 17 tell us where it's coming from. Romans 7:16 and 17 says, now what's the source? "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." That's the source of the tension. That's the source of the conflict. We have a law at work in us that's spiritual and a law that works within us that is sinful. So then we go on to verse 18, and we see another lament of Paul, the same lament, he uses different words. The second lament is, nothing good dwells in my flesh. Notice he does not say that nothing good dwells in his spirit.
Verse 18, the pattern here is identical with a few little adjustments. Romans 7:18: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is," he specifies, "that is, in my flesh." So in other words, there's a new part of me, that's the spirit man, that's made new and brought to life, but in the flesh of me there is something waging war against the new part that God's made in me. "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." That's why we've got to stop making Sunday worship services about our flesh, because "those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,"
Right? Those who worship him in spirit and in truth. Yet we create most of our worship services to worship him and satisfy the flesh, and we preach half-truths, because the flesh don't want the truth, only the Spirit does. Are you with me today? That's why we have entire denominations splitting in half, because they have settled for a half truth, because they've worshiped at the throne of their flesh rather than the Spirit of God. And we have pastors starting sermons making apologies for offending people who would rather live in the flesh than glorify God with their spirit. We apologize?
We will make no apologies here. Sin is sin, and we will worship him in spirit and in truth, not in flesh and half truth.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:16
These are the two types of churches that are out there. Most people are looking for the first in America: "Give me a church that will speak to my flesh and make me feel good enough to make it through my week." But they always get burned out by Tuesday morning, because
If it is not Spirit, it does not last.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 49:02
Are you with me today? Okay, that's good stuff. All right.
Nothing good dwells in my flesh. That's the second lament. He doesn't want us to lose the distinction that he just made in verse 17, that it's not really him, it's the sin that dwells in him. So the condition of nothing good dwelling in the flesh is this: sin dwells in my flesh. That's the condition. That's the problem. I got this flesh thing and sin dwells there. The proof: I have the desire to do right but not the ability to carry it out. Romans 7:18 says this, that's where I draw that from, the proof: "For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." Now listen, I'm going to stop here. Please don't misunderstand him here. He's not saying, "I can't figure out how to do anything right anytime." That's not what he's saying, because that's not true. He can very clearly say what is right, but what he's saying is, I can't do it to the extent that my heart longs to do it.
Let me make another clarification. It is not that he can't do good, that's how some interpret it. It is that he can't do good to the extent that the new part of him longs to do it. It longs to be holy, completely righteous and true in every way, so if you fall short in the slightest, the Spirit rebukes. So there's this tension. It is not that he doesn't do good, he does good, but not to the extent that the new part of him wants to do it.
That's really important, don't miss that. Then the source, Romans 7:20 says this: "Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." So once again he says the sin that dwells in me is the reason, it's the source, it's the cause of the problem. Now at this point you might figure that paul's going to give up, and he's made his point, right? He's sort of like me, though, and he repeats things over and over again because people don't listen the first two times, so he says it a third. So let's look at the third lament, and it's just like the rest, but this is one way to get the point across, isn't it? And here comes the laments. Romans 7:21, no, Romans 7:21, yes: "So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand." Third lament: there's another law creating conflict in me. The condition, here's the condition: there's another law in me. There's another law in me. The proof that there's another law in me, how do I know there's another law in me waging war? Romans 7:22: "For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being." That is crazy. That's never been there. I was a sinner, I didn't care about God, I didn't care about sin. Now there's a law in me, a law of God specifically, that longs to do something different. I want you to notice that phrase, "after the inward man." It really says "from the bottom of my heart." That's what it really says. If you were to translate this, after the, where it says "after the inward man" or "in my inward, inner being," literal translation is "from the bottom of my heart." That's the meaning, or in other words, from the deepest part of me, and the deepest part of Paul, the bottom of his heart, the inward man, the inner man, the real inside guy, hungers and longs and delights and loves the law of God.
Notice this: the shell can be cast off, but it's the inner thing that matters most. Whenever I make an egg, I crack an egg, I put the yolk and everything that's inside the egg in a bowl, and I throw the contents of the bowl down the garbage disposal and turn the garbage disposal on, and I keep the shells and I eat that? No, because it's the inner thing that has value.
The outer thing is just the vessel which carries the good thing. Whenever I get a watermelon, I dig out all the, you know, all the good stuff, and I keep the rind and, you know, the outer shell, and I eat that? No. That merely protects the inner thing. It is merely a vessel for the stuff I want. So he begins to speak and he says, there's something in here that although I have this flesh that does weird stuff, the thing in here is greater than the thing out there. He is beginning to see the value of what's inside rather than the value of what's outside. Actually, he begins to long for what is inside and disregard what is outside. He begins to pull and hope for and feast on that which is inside. He does not eat the shell, he doesn't long for the shell, he doesn't hunger for the shell, he doesn't desire the shell. He no longer is steered by a longing and a desire for the flesh, but rather what is inside he longs for and hungers for. Are you with me? This is good news. It's great news that God can so transform your life that what you used to long for you disregard now, what you used to hunger for is not valuable to you, what you used to crave you no longer crave. You have new cravings. Oh man, it's good stuff. It is reported, I'm going to say this, the source: the law of sin dwelling in my members.
And I'm closing, I'm closing. Romans 7:20: "Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." And then he asks the question in verse 24: "Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
Who, listen, who will deliver me from this body of death? Where's the problem? It is in his, what, it's in his body.
And it is his, it's a body of what? It's a body of death. The body of death is very interesting. I did some study on this. It literally refers to the body which is subject to sin and death. It is the unredeemed mortality of man. It has been reported, it has been reported that near Tarsus, where Paul was born, there was a tribe of people who inflicted this terrible penalty upon a murderer.
When someone murdered someone, it was their custom to fasten, and maybe you've heard this, the dead corpse to a murderer, face to face, nose to nose, chest to chest, thigh to thigh, foot to foot. That's how they punished a murderer. That was the punishment until the decay of the dead body also killed the murderer. So tight were the bonds that this murderer could not free himself.
And Paul looks at himself and he sees that in his own case, and senses that he is face to face, chest to chest, thigh to thigh with something that is dead and corrupt and kills, and he cries from the depths of his heart in verse 24, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" That I'm face to face, chest to chest, knee to knee, toe to toe, he asked the question, is there any hope?
Point 5Our only hope is Jesus Christ
I came to tell you there is hope.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 58:42
That as a believer in Christ, we, like Paul, are still tied to a dead, rotting corpse, but there's hope, because in verse 25, Paul says, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Listen, that sounds triumphant to me.
I don't know about you, but it sounds prime for me. That is assurance. What are you saying, Paul? Is this some mystical kind of thing? How do you get delivered from the conflict? Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He is your only hope.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 59:16
This sermon is the general call, but in the hearts of men, as the general call goes out to come to Christ, God pricks hearts and transforms them and redeems them, and transforms lives and makes you new, and it happens, listen, not through a prayer, not through an altar call.
It can, but it can happen right in your seat, because when God does it, he does it even when the pastor don't call you forward. It is an effectual call through Jesus Christ our Lord. What would he have in his mind? What does this look like? I believe what he has, what Paul has in his mind regarding that we're saved through Jesus Christ our Lord, he expresses in the eighth chapter of Romans. To be continued.
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