Observations I Wish I Made 25 Years Ago

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 7. For a time of study and the word this morning, Romans chapter 7. we are doing a study through Romans 567, and 8. It is a journey that we are on as a church community into the heart of the gospel.

In Romans chapter 1 verse 15, Paul says to the Roman Christians, he says, I'm eager to evangelize you, speaking to the Christians, to preach the gospel to you, the Christians at Rome, and Paul is not able to go to Rome. So he sits down and writes the book of Romans and essentially preaches the gospel to them. throughout this letter, and when we come to Romans 5 and 6 and 7 and 8, Paul is just in overdrive and revealing to us many of the precious gems that belong to us in Jesus Christ and how much richer we are for just what we've learned thus far and what we'll continue to learn as we work our way through the second half of Romans 7 and then through.

Romans 8.

But as we continue in our journey through, these chapters, we come this morning once again to the second half of Romans chapter. 7. And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be observations I wish I made 25 years ago. Young people, this is something, what we're going to look at in this message, some of the things are things I really wish that I had known when I was 19 years of age.

So, So really listen up. A lot of time, a lot of despondency and doubt and discouragement could have been avoided if, if someone had come alongside of me and just shared some of these observations that we'll be looking at this morning. when I was 19 years of age in Indianapolis, Indiana, I committed my life to the Lord. I don't know, maybe it was at that point that I got saved.

I'm not sure, but, committed myself to, my life to going into the ministry at that point, but I needed to stay out of school for a year in between high school and college in order to earn some money to pay for my education. And during that year, and in the years that followed, I was working at a screen printing shop in Indianapolis, and there was a particular guy who was about 2 years older than me that I had the privilege of working with. just side by side with him. This guy was a radically unsaved man.

And immersed in the drug culture, immersed in immorality, and whether I wanted to hear it or not, I would hear about his immoral escapades on Mondays as I worked with him. This guy was in bondage to alcohol and also to smoking cigarettes, smoked incessantly. And the Lord really laid a burden on my heart for this guy, and I found myself praying for him all the time. In my 12 minute break in the morning, I would use that time to pray for this guy.

During my lunch breaks. I would eat and then I would pray for the salvation of this man. During my 12 minute break in the afternoon, I would often just get alone by myself, just seized with a burden for the soul of this man, and I would pray for him. I'd go to bed at night and many nights I would kneel by my bedside and I'd pray for the salvation of this man.

And sometimes God would wake me up at 3 in the morning, and I assumed he woke me up to pray for this guy. So I would pray for him at 3 in the morning and I would say, Dear God, wake him up and work him over with conviction over his sin. And to my amazement, God answered a lot of those prayers, and I would go to work looking for opportunities to share the gospel with this guy and to plant seeds. And, and lo and behold, about 6 months into working there at this place, there was one night he and I were the only ones alone in the shop, and he was running a press, and And I look across the shop and he had stopped the press, and his face was buried in his hands.

And I went over to the guy and I said, What's, what's going on? And he said, I need to be saved. And it was a wonderful moment for me as a 19 year old to stand there by this guy, as he cried out to the Lord and called upon the name of Jesus for salvation. it was a thrilling moment for me, especially.

I'd never really led someone to the Lord in that way, before and just been able to witness over a period of months God working someone over like that. But as soon as he was saved, I was suddenly sobered and freaked out by the realization, I now have a spiritual baby on my hands and I got to disciple this guy, and I've never discipled anybody before. And so I did the best I could and I thought, well, we'll just go through scripture. I'll share with them things each day as we work together and try to encourage him.

And I had really high hopes for this guy, especially in his battle with the sins that he had been enslaved to, but I found myself in the weeks and months that followed his conversion woefully disappointed. the old sin patterns remained, and he often fell into them. I remember one day he was like really resolved, like, I'm not going to smoke another cigarette, and he, he took the pack of cigarettes and he harshly crumpled the pack, and he didn't want to throw them in the trash can because he could always go back to the trash can.

So he went outside and our shop was right along the freeway and there was a fence separating us from the freeway and so he goes out to that fence and he throws the crumpled up pack of cigarettes over the fence into the grassy area that ran parallel to the freeway.

He littered. But he thought, I won't climb this fence. If I throw it over here and I crumple it up, then I'm not going to go back to it. But to my dismay, later that afternoon I walk in the break room and he's, he's unfolding this crumpled up pack of cigarettes and trying to repair and piece together these thrash cigarettes and smoking the remnants of them.

And I said, What are you doing? He said, I climbed the fence. Shortly thereafter we had come back from a college career activity and I was sitting in the parking lot with him and we were talking about holiness. I was walking him through Romans 6 and I had just memorized Romans 6, the chapter, and told him how blessed I was just quoting that chapter to myself when I was tempted, and he got so excited about holiness and about the power of God's word that with such earnestness, he said, what, Mil, I'm going to memorize Romans 6 tonight.

The whole chapter and I was like, whoa, don't, don't go overboard. Just do a few verses and work on it day by day. He said, No, I'm going to go home. I'm going to memorize the whole chapter.

And the earnestness in his voice really touched me. He ended up getting out of my car and, and he goes down a few blocks down the street that our church was on and then made a right turn at the first light, which took him by a convenience store. And his old thin muscle memory kicked in. And he turned just a few minutes after our conversation into that convenience store and bought a six pack of beer and got plastered.

That night. A month or two later, he had bought another 6 pack of beer and dragged it into his car and drove home and was walking it into the car, the 6 pack, and he got so fed up with the bondage that he just took the 6 pack and he threw it against the concrete wall on the side of his house. And as he did so, the glass of the bottle shattered into many pieces, and one of the pieces bounced off the wall and came back and struck him on the bridge of his nose. Creating a huge gash.

He showed up at work the next day with this mean looking scar on his nose. And I said, what, what happened? He said, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. I was 19 years old at the time, and I remember being extremely frustrated in my discipleship of this guy because I was thinking, what do I say?

To him. My frustration was intensified by the fact that though I didn't struggle with the exact sins he was struggling with, I had my own set of sins that I was struggling with, and whatever I needed to figure out, to say to him, I needed to say to me. Because I was falling woefully short of my high expectations for myself after I had given my life to the Lord. Sinful patterns of behavior lingered, and the battles and the warfare was there, and frequently I was failing.

And those battles, and I didn't know what to do with the risings of evil that I was experiencing within me. And at times I thought I'm not even a saved man or, or maybe the gospel's not even true, and it created doubt and despondency because of the perpetuation of the struggle in this battle. And I found my thoughts going back to that season in my life as I was putting some thoughts together for the message, message today just in looking at these verses in Romans 7, and I hope they'll be a help to you and save you some of the heartache that I know I've experienced over the years.

The way we're going to frame things is we're going to look at 5 observations.

Everything OK? I lack power. All right, he's going to give me batteries here. That's fine.

Talk amongst yourselves. Have the pulpit still open. OK. Very This will do wonders for my sermon.

OK, thank you. Power up. Five observations from and about Romans 7:14 to 25 that can help us to be realistic optimists in our Christian walk and in our discipleship of other people. Let me, let me just read these verses beginning in verse 14 of Romans 7.

Paul says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am a flesh sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good. So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do. But I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man. But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So then on the one hand I myself with my mind I'm serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh. The law of sin. Very heart searching. Soul searching verses and confessions that we find there.

But we've already combed through these verses, but I want to sweep together five observations that we can make that I think will be of a help to us in our pursuit of holiness and the battle that we experience with, with sin. Observation number 1, and by the way, if you don't agree with this first point, that's OK. You don't have to agree with this point to get benefit from the rest of the message. But I do want to submit this point to you, and that is that what I'm thinking is that the man speaking in Romans 7:14 to 25 is a saved man.

Remember a few weeks ago we were asking the question, basically everyone agrees that the speaker in these verses. is the apostle Paul, but the question is, where is he situating himself on the timeline of a spiritual journey? Is this Paul pre-conversion? Is this Paul right before his conversion as he was beginning to experience an awakening to the righteousness of God and to his sin problem?

And need for salvation? Or is this Paul post conversion, maybe right after he was converted when he was still ignorant of many of the glories of the gospel? Or is this Paul speaking as an apostle of his experience during the very week that he's writing this letter to the Roman Christians? And, the needle of my opinion as I've spent time in these verses is, is more and more leaning in the direction of understanding Paul.

I think these verses are best understood if we understand Paul to be speaking as a saved man. There's a few indications of this. I think it's quite telling that he uses the present tense in verses 7 through 13. He uses the past tense, but then he switches to The present tense.

Also this man being described self-described in the second half of Romans 7 as someone who does not want to do evil. He wants to do good. He joyfully delights in and with the law of God. So he's rejoicing in what the law rejoices in, and he's rejoicing in the law of God itself.

This is a man, as we read these verses, who is very gut level honest in his self assessment. In fact, his self assessment and the way he critiques himself and puts the onus on him and doesn't cast any blame on anyone else displays in my mind an exceptional maturity that often exceeds my own maturity when I'm trying to find reasons for my sins. And also he says in verse 17 and 20, look at verse 17, so now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Could a nonbeliever really talk that way?

It's not I that do it, but it's sin. That dwells in me. What we've learned about this guy is this we've learned that he knows, agrees with, and affirms the law of God. He delights in the law and hates evil.

He longs to do good and does not want to do evil. Nonetheless, he finds himself failing to do good and actually doing evil instead. This man, wherever he is on the timeline of his spiritual journey, has come to a deep understanding of the reality of indwelling sin, and he sees himself, verse 24, as a wretched man because of the way he has found sin operating within him, creating conflict and warfare against his mind and his desires to please God and obey God's word. And also I think perhaps most telling about where this man is on the timeline of his spiritual journey is verse 25.

This man, wherever he is on that timeline, recognizes his need for someone outside of himself to deliver him from The body of death that he finds himself in, and this man, a fair reading of these verses, especially verse 25, we observe that this man, wherever he is on the timeline of a spiritual journey, is thankful that his deliverance will come from God through Jesus Christ, whom the speaker says is his Lord. Look at what it says in verse 25. He says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, meaning he's my Lord, and he's also your Lord.

Those of you to whom I am writing.

Now, there are people that would suggest that these verses in the second half of Romans 7 is Paul positioning himself as an unregenerate man and speaking from that vantage point. And they can actually make a quite compelling case for that. But one of the parts that they have the most trouble with is what to do with Paul's Praise at the beginning of verse 25. If we take all of this is Paul speaking as an unregenerate man, what do we do with the words thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our, my and your Lord?

Well, here's what they do with it. A guy named Robert Raymond, who's written a fantastic systematic theology and who himself makes a very compelling case that these verses as Paul as an unregenerate man, the one point of his analysis that That he seemed to struggle with the most was the beginning of verse 25, and look what he says Paul is doing in verse 25. Look at the bottom of the screen. Thanks be to God is the regenerate Paul simply interjecting into the flow of his argument a praise statement.

So based on that, we need to understand Paul speaking as an unregenerate man in verses 14 through 24 and then in verse 25 at the beginning of that verse, Paul positions himself as a regenerate man and utters a statement of praise. And then as soon as he's done with that, he goes back into unregenerate mode and speaks from the vantage point of an unregenerate man. And the final statement that he makes at the end of verse 25, when he says, on the one hand, I myself with my mind, I'm serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin.

That's possible, but it seems strained and torturous to me.

So I think, I think there's good reason, and I just would commend this to you for your consideration to work through these verses, perhaps with the understanding that Paul is speaking from the vantage point of being a believer. Now I know that creates some difficulties and questions. Let's try to address them as quickly as we can. You might say, well, how can, how can a believer say what Paul says in verse 14?

Paul says, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am a flesh sold into bondage to sin. How does that make sense? Paul has been saying in Romans 6, we are free from sin, free from sin, free from sin. We're no longer slaves of sin.

And now he's saying here that it seems like he's saying that he is sold into bondage to sin. How can a Christian talk that way? Well, One of the ways that I would suggest that this passage could be understood in some of your English translations even suggest this in the way that they translate this, is it could be read this way, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am a flesh. I am of a flesh.

I possess a flesh, which is sold into bondage to sin. In other words, it could simply be that he's acknowledging that he has a sinful flesh, which I think all of us in this room who know the Lord would acknowledge. Paul talks about that in Galatians 5. The flesh wages war against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, with the result being that we're never entirely 100% pleased with anything we do.

There's always a part of us that goes kicking and screaming. We do the right thing, follow the Spirit, our flesh goes kicking and screaming. Follow the flesh and the spiritual part of us goes kicking and screaming. We're in a state of conflict, and it could be that that's what Paul is saying here.

We know that the law is spiritual, but I am in possession of a sinful flesh, which is bent at every moment on doing nothing but the opposite of what God wants me to do. Understood in that way, I personally would have no trouble delivering that same testimony. You might say, well, what do we do with this passage seems so negative. The good I want to do, I don't do.

The evil I hate, I do. And is that the testimony of a believer? Understand that this, this section of Romans 7 is only a part of what Paul is saying. He's also saying Romans 5 stuff and Romans 6 stuff and Romans 8 stuff, and yet sandwiched in there is some honest gut level confessions about what he observes in his life at times as well.

And so this is not the full testimony of a believer, but we would suggest that it can and often is a part of the testimony of a true believer. You say, what about verse 23? look what Paul says in verse 23. He says, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members.

So how can it be that Paul has told us in Romans 6 that we're free from sin. Later in Romans 8, he's going to tell us we've been freed from the law of sin. And of death. And yet here in this verse, it seems like he's saying that the law of sin that is in the members of his body is waging war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner, binding him to the law of sin that is in his members.

How can a believer say this? Well, my response would be read these words real carefully. Let's read them again. I see a different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner, making me a prisoner.

What does that suggest? You can't make someone a prisoner who's already a prisoner, right? So it seems like the speaker in verse 23 is speaking from a vantage point of release and deliverance and freedom. And yet there's a law of sin that he finds operating in the members of his body and in his faculties that are seeking to make him a prisoner.

So that'd be the first thing I would point out. Secondly, let me say something about the tents here and the possible use of the tents. The verb making me a prisoner is the present tense in the Greek text, and I'm going to give you two big words here, OK? And if you don't care about this, disregard it, but hey, single guys, if you want to impress a gal.

Write these two words down, OK, cognitive. And tendential, OK. it will wow any gal, cognitive and tendential. There is a use of the present tense that we find in the New Testament that is called the cognitive use.

Of the present tense, which doesn't speak of something actually happening but of something that is intending to happen. For example, in John chapter 10, Jesus uses the present tense in exactly this way. He's teaching the Jews and it says in John chapter 10 that the Jews pick up stones in order to stone Him. And so now there's a crowd of Jews around Jesus and they all have stones in their hands.

No one is stoning Him. And everyone agrees with that. No one has thrown a single stone at Jesus. He's not being stoned.

But Jesus is looking at the stones in their hands. And he is legitimately surmising that they're intending to stone him. And so he says in John 10:32, I showed you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you stoning me? They're not stoning him yet.

But they're intending, and that's why some of the translations have Jesus saying, I showed you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you intending? To stone me, this is the cognitive, the tendential use of the present tense, and there's other passages in the New Testament where this sense of the present is used. And so we can easily, so easily understand verse 23 in this way that Paul is saying, but I see a different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and seeking to make me a prisoner.

Intending to make me a prisoner, trying to make me a prisoner to the law of sin, which is in my members.

One other quick thought, if Paul is saying in these, in this verse, that sin is actually succeeding in making him a prisoner to the law of sin, we would expect him in the very next verse to say, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the law of sin? But that's not what he says. Instead, he says, verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? In other words, what he's saying is, I'm tired of this hassle.

I am tired of this battle. I am tired of this warfare where no matter what I do, there is a law that operates in my members. It's not my physical body. But it is profoundly affiliated with my physicality, constantly waging war against the law of my mind, and seeking to make me a prisoner.

And the speaker here is saying, I can't wait for the day that I am delivered from this body of death, where in this warfare originates and takes place. This is a groaning, I think, of a genuine believer. This is the groaning that all of us have, but he's not a prisoner. We don't have to understand the verse in this way, but the law of sin is seeking to make him a prisoner.

So I just want to, and I belabor this, guys, because this ought to be an encouragement. I know when I was 19 and the risings of evil were coming up and sinful thoughts were suggesting themselves, I didn't know what to do with that. I thought maybe I'm not saved or maybe the gospel's not true. I, I dared not share that with anyone because I'm thinking, no one else in the church, none of my brothers or sisters experience this, no one talks about this.

So I'm the only one, something is defective uniquely with me. But if that happens to you, and it does, if you're a true believer, be encouraged, you're normal. If you feel the risings of evil within you, you're normal. This happened to the apostle Paul.

It happens to all of us, which leads to a second observation that we can make. From these verses, and that is apparently then if we understand these verses in this way, our deliverance in Christ with regard to sin is not yet complete. Now I'm not saying our deliverance hasn't happened, but we would have to say I think a fair reading of scripture would reveal that our deliverance with regard to sin is not yet utter. It's not yet entire.

It is not yet completely finished. And we would all agree on this regardless of what you may want to do with Romans 7. We would all agree that yeah, we're delivered from sin, but we're not delivered from the battle. There's still principalities and powers waging war against us to where we've got to wear armor every day and we've got to walk around with a sword and the shield of faith, right?

And so we're delivered from sin, from having to commit sin, but we're clearly not delivered from the presence of sin and the hassle of sin and the warfare that that creates. We also know that in the world around us, there's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, and that creates conflict. In warfare as we're assaulted from sin from without. So yes, we're free from sin.

We're delivered from sin, but we're clearly not delivered from the presence of sin, from the principalities and powers, and also from the world around us. All we're suggesting this morning is that we add to that the thought that while we are delivered from sin, and delivered from ever having to commit sin. Although truly sin's power has been broken over us, and we are no longer slaves to sin, sin is still alive, and it's still kicking. And it still finds itself situated in the members of our body.

And that is its base of operations from which it launches its assaults. We're delivered from those sins. We don't have to give into those sins, but we're not delivered from the presence of indwelling sin. Verse 17, sin dwells in me.

Verse 20, sin dwells in me. Verse 21, evil is present in me. Verse 23, a different law and the members of my body, waging war and seeking or intending to make me a prisoner. Verse 23, the law of sin in my members.

Paul is saying, I'm in a dying body. And affiliated with my physicality on this side of glory is some law or principle of sin and dwelling, a flesh that always wants to do the opposite of what God wants me to do. And so we groan as believers. Later in Romans 8, he's going to come back to this.

He says in Romans 8:21, the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption. The creation, the physical creation that we see is a slave to corruption. And what, we are a part of that slavery. Our physical bodies are slaves to corruption.

Have you noticed that? Have you noticed, be honest. I did a wedding yesterday and I, I sat at the reception after the ceremony. I'm looking around at all these beautiful young people, and I felt so old.

Seriously, I felt so positively middle-aged. And I'm like, where? Yes, I am. Thanks, Brian.

I appreciate your gift of encouragement. But there, there was a point as I was sitting there, I was, where there was this wave of sadness of just life flying by and The slavery to corruption. We're dying, we're decaying, we're already decomposing. on our way to the grave, our physicality at this point, this site of glory is a slave to corruption.

Look at this, the creation itself will be set free though, from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, for we know that the whole creation groans. and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies. And redemption means deliverance.

We're waiting for a deliverance that has not yet occurred. It's the deliverance of our physicality. From the presence of sin and dwelling and from the hassle and the warfare and the conflict that we have to deal with day by day on this side of heaven. So what we observe in these verses.

is that I think Paul is speaking as a saved man. And we also observe that there is still the presence of sin. So if you observe sin, and its ferocity, and its depravity still present inside of your members, your faculties, and you feel and see the risings of sin within, don't freak out over that. You're normal.

You are normal. You are a normal believer. We are not yet delivered, and that frustration feeds the groaning of a true believer as we long for the day that we're in heaven without the presence of indwelling sin or any warfare. I look forward to the day 1 trillion years into eternity.

Just stopping and going, what, it's been 1 trillion years, and I've not even been tempted with a single sinful thought. What an amazing thing it will be when that deliverance of our physical, we will be fully physical beings, and yet totally delivered from this incessant battle that we have this sight of glory. Now, here's a 3rd observation we're going to make, and this is really fascinating to me, but we observe it in these verses. And that is this, that ironically, ironically, it is our efforts to do good that bring us deeper into the knowledge of indwelling sin.

Ironically, let's say it this way, it is our efforts to do good that brings out the worst. In us. And these verses in Romans 7, we don't find a guy who's like, I really want to know all the evil within me. So I will give in to every evil impulse, and I will act upon them and I will do all the evil I can, because I want to know the depth and the depravity, and the ferocity the evil that's inside of me.

No, this is a guy who's like, I love the law. I love God. I, I want to obey. I rejoice in these things that have come from God, and I want to obey God.

And so he sets about passionately to obey God and to do good. And he comes face to face with evil. Evil from within. Ironically, it is our efforts to do good, our intentions to do good that bring us deeper into the knowledge of our indwelling depravity and the ferocity of evil within.

If your attitude is, what, I don't like conflict, and I just go from day to day and do whatever I want, what, you will not experience the reality. You will not see the reality of the depths and the ferocity of evil within. But the minute you say, I want to obey God, I want to live for Jesus. I want to be in God's word, I want to pray for holiness and myself, I want to pray for other people, I want to be used by God and ministry to others, and you begin on that path.

You will come face to face with evil. Evil will rise up and make war against you. And some of that evil will be from without. And to your surprise and dismay, some of that evil will rise up within you.

And oppose you. People who intend to please God are very well acquainted with the power and ferocity of evil. CS Lewis in his book Mayor Christianity. Has some counsel regarding this.

Listen to this. I, I absolutely love this. Here's his counsel to you. Make some serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues.

A week is not enough. Things often go swimmingly for the first week. Try 6 weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the 0.1 began from, one will have discovered some truths about oneself.

No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard. To be good. He goes on, a silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie.

Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man, listen to what he says, A man who gives in to temptation after 5 minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.

Now this is sheer genius. Listen. That is why bad people in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.

We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it. Or until we try to do good. And please God and follow Christ. You resolve.

Inspired by the Spirit of God to do so, to live your life for God, you will come face to face with evil from without, and from within. You will know the power and the ferocity, and the depravity of evil because it will rise up and it will assault you. CS Lewis goes on to say that's why Christians are really the only true realists. who understand Evil.

That leads us to a 4th observation that we can make. And that is this In God's economy, the man in Romans 7:14 to 25 is not necessarily having a bad day. Ultimately, the speaker is having a very good day. We need to rethink how we view these verses in the second half of Romans 7.

we tend to read these verses and think, oh, poor guy. And whatever day this was written on, it must have been an awful day spiritually. like some day of terrible defeat and caving in to sin and just, just miserable spiritual failure. And then, yeah, at the end of the day, this is what Paul would write about this absolutely terrible day.

And we even talk that way sometimes. if someone, a believer in Christ has an awful day and they've succumbed to sin, And they've they've given way to gossip or anger or bitterness and things have come out of their mouth that should not have come out of their mouth, or they've given into lust or some temptation and acted out in a way that is stunning and surprising and shocking to themselves. Yeah, at the end of such a day, they go, Yeah, Romans 7, the good I want to do, I didn't do the evil I hate, I did, oh wretched man that I am.

Certainly Romans 7 language here applies to such days.

But I think we would all be surprised that at the fact that Paul would say the same things after what would appear to us to have been a good day. If we hung out with Paul for a day and we see him abstaining from evil and just giving himself fully to righteousness and in prayer and serving God and making a difference and preaching the gospel and tearing down strongholds and living from all appearances a triumphant life. And at the end of the day, if we sat down with Paul and said, Hey, Paul, man, it's been a great day.

Can you look back on the day and just give me an honest assessment of how your day has been?

It's been a good day. I think we would probably be surprised at the fact that amongst all the things that Paul would say, we would hear this language also coming out of his mouth. Mature saints often talk this way, even after what would seem to us to be good days. John Bunyan, great saint of the Lord, the author of Pilgrim's Progress and other works, said something about prayer that It might be shocking to you.

It's not the stuff we go around saying and talking this way all the time, but listen, listen to what this mature saint said. About his prayer life. He said, the best prayer I ever prayed had enough sin in it to damn the whole world. Now that sounds harsh and It's jarring and we don't normally talk that way, but here's a mature believer who we have to be open to the fact that maybe he's on to something that we, in our lack of discernment, just are not open to.

And imagine that you were with John Bunyan on this day that he prayed the best prayer he ever prayed. And at the end of this prayer, he's praying, and you're like, wow, this guy's got an amazing prayer life. What a beautiful, incredible, passionate prayer devoted to the glory of Jesus Christ and furthering his cause. But if after the best prayer he ever prayed, if you said, John Bunyan, can you just go back and retrace that prayer, and just give me an honest assessment of all that was going on, amongst many things that he would say, One of the things he would say is, what, this prayer that I prayed, had enough sin in it to damn the whole world.

We would be surprised at that level and that confession about what seems to us to have been a phenomenal prayer. So we need to at least remove from our minds the notion that this is the, this is something that someone would only say after a day of miserable failure. It does include that. But be open to the fact that the speaker here may not have been having a bad day.

He may have many other things to say about his day, but a part of what he says about what we would think is a fantastic day spiritually, is this language. Also, I think when God looks at someone who's confessing the kinds of things that Paul is confessing here, and making the journey that Paul is on here, and ending up at the destination that Paul ends up at in verses 24 and 25, I don't think God's up in heaven saying, what do I got to do with this guy? This is a terrible day.

No, I think God looks upon such a man in such a journey saying such things, and ending up in the place he ends up.

And God says, what, it's been a good day. Because mark this down, guys. When you got saved, you didn't realize you needed this, you would say, yeah, God saved me, save me. And God said, OK, I'll save you.

But at the top of the list of the things that God wanted to save you from is self deception. Self deception. You're like, Well, I didn't think I needed that. I know, because you were self-deceived.

But God's agenda is I'm going to peel back the layers of self-deception. Day by day, and what we see in these verses is those layers of self-deception just falling by the wayside, and this man is confessing sin and he's not blaming his mom or his dad or his son or his daughter or his wife or husband. He's not blaming anyone else. He's not blaming his culture.

His eyes are on. Him and this is deep gut level honest confession, and assessment of the sin inside of himself. And he ends up saying, wretched man that I am, who's going to set me free? And he groans for that future deliverance.

And then he's giving thanks to God, and recognizing there's a conflict. And if there's a conflict, I really need God. And he's lying low before the throne of mercy, and God says, It's been a good day. It's been a good day.

See, normally when we're feeling this way and we cast ourselves before the throne of grace, we're normally praying for a miracle, are we not? Oh God, you've got to help me. You've got to help me. I've made a mess of this day, and we're praying for a miracle.

We don't realize that the mere fact that we're lying before the throne of grace, pleading the mercy of God in brokenness and contrition and repentance and honesty is already a miracle. God looks upon us and says, I've already done an amazing miracle. He gets his angel's attention and says, look at that person lying low before my throne of grace. I did that.

I did that. This is Paul. Having, I think, in God's opinion, a very good day. We all have so many layers of self-deception.

Dave Harvey in his book When Sinners Say I Do, a book I highly recommend to all of you, says this, and see if this does not resonate. He says, after I was saved and before I was married, I lived under the mad, undaunted delusion that I was spiritually mature. Mine was a rich and largely imaginary holiness. If ignorance is bliss, then I was in permanent ecstasy.

The infrequent examinations of my seemingly innocent heart revealed little need for improvement. I lived expecting that at any moment God might send chariots to carry me to heaven, Elijah-like. Talk about a guy in need of the doctrine of sin. Listen to what he says next.

He says, then it happened. I got married. And became a blame shifter after getting married. I can't tell you how many times I thought, I never had these problems before.

This must be my wife's fault. The truth is I had always been a blame shifter. It's just that after getting married, there were so many more good opportunities to express this fault that he came into the marriage with. On the day that we're converted, we don't realize it, but God looks upon us and He's like, there's so much self-deception.

there's undaunted delusions of grandeur and this person being more holy than perhaps they think they are. There is depths of sin inside of them that they don't understand, and I will save this person by day by day peeling back the layers of self-deception. And in a cyclical journey that they will repeat over and over again, they will end up at my throne confessing their need of me. And crying out to me in brokenness and contrition.

And God says, these will be good days. See, even your messy days that you would chalk up at the end of the day, as a total failure, God may not view it that way. Because where do you end up at the end of that day? Where is your heart?

Are you more dependent upon God? Are you more sobered by the reality of indwelling sin? Are you more broken? Are you crying out to God more?

If, if it all contributes to that effect? And making you more dependent upon Him. God, just know God uses all of that mess to do something that's amazing. And that is to bring you to the point that this speaker is at the end of Romans 7.

That leads to the final observation. We'll make this very quickly, and that is that apparently. The path to a deeper experience of gospel grace comes through a growing awareness of sin or indwelling sin and a growing honesty about it. I am amazed at the fact that Paul puts These kinds of confessions.

Inside of Romans 567, and 8. If Paul had just written Romans 5 and Romans 6, and Romans 8, I don't think any of us would have read those three chapters and said, man, it just seems like something's missing. We would have never thought to put this in here, but Paul, in the midst of glorious truths about our justification, glorious truths about our freedom in Christ, glorious truths about the fact that there's no condemnation for us in Christ and how to walk in freedom and to walk in the love of Jesus from which we will never be separated, in the midst of all of that and confessing all of those truths, Paul takes a moment to do some gut level deep, profound, and honest confessions of sin.

And he's not just confessing them to God, he's confessing them to all of us, to his brothers and sisters in Christ being honest.

And I think what Paul is trying to do is to say something to us, and that is that if you really want to get Romans 5 and Romans 6 and Romans 8, if you really want God's grace to flow deep and true in your life, then you need to dig the grooves that God's grace will flow through and into, and you dig those grooves through brokenness and contrition and honest confession. The deeper you go in your honesty, the deeper you go in your willingness to confess. and expose the reality of sin within you that deeply God's grace will flow into you.

That deeply you will experience the grace of the gospel.

God's not looking for perfect people. AW Pink says this, it is not the sins of a Christian. But his unconfessed sins, which choke the channel of blessing, and cause so many to miss God's best, a righteous man falls. A righteous man, Solomon says, falls 7 times, and he gets back up, wiser, chastened, more humbled, more honest.

And as we grow deeper in our willingness to look at and not run from that sin that is inside of us and to be honest about it before God and before others, to that degree, precisely, the grace of the gospel will flow and bring levels of healing and transformation that we long for. Want to ask you to bow your heads. This morning I cannot stand up here and promise you that you're delivered from the battle or from indwelling sin. But we are delivered from the power of it.

And when evil rises up within you and all of its ferocity and power, what you need to do is look at it and go, oh, so Lord, I've, I've been delivered from that. Yes, you have. You don't have to give in to that. And so we walk in freedom.

Even while this battle might rage from without and from within, But may we be a people that are excited about the gospel, but may we be a people that are honest about our sin. We're not blame shifters. We actually embrace this messy process of God peeling back layers of self deception. And learning to be honest, learning to be forthright, learning to be open.

So that God can bust up those areas of hardness and entrench sin and His grace can start flowing. That's what we're hungry for. If you're here today, you've never believed in Jesus. Listen, you got a, you got a wonderful savior in Jesus who's ready to save you if you'll call out to him.

Please do that today. If you want to talk to me afterwards, I would consider it an absolute honor to speak with you about Jesus and how you can come to know Him as your Lord and Savior. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for Your word, the help that it provides.

This is not pie in the sky ivory tower stuff. This is, this is real. It's gritty. It's earnest.

It's searching. It's honest And help us to be that. that we might experience Your grace to the degree that you want us to. We thank you for these verses in Romans 7 that maybe before we hurried over, but We've learned enough to realize there's, there's a lot here that is of great help to us.

Thank you for speaking to us through the second half of Romans 7. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you at this time and We ask that you would do much with what is given. Multiply the usefulness of the funds that are given for the spread of this message of the gospel of Jesus and the glory of your kingdom. At the same time, we give ourselves to you in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,