[0:00] Open your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 7. Romans 7. It's really a blessing to be able to speak to you guys this evening.
[0:14] I get to speak a lot of places and a lot of times, but I probably feel more nervous speaking here than I do anywhere because I love this group of people so much, and you guys are so precious to us that you really want to speak from the heart and want to be a blessing.
[0:36] I'm going to share with you something tonight that the Lord's been showing me. I was just telling the pastor that I hope it's right. We'll see. Anyway, so before I get into the message, though, I want to say something.
[0:51] Right now, there is a young lady from Wisconsin whose name is Tiffany who is on a short trip to New York City. Tiffany has a burden for the Jewish people and has always...
[1:04] She's had this for some time, didn't really know what to do with it, came to one of our conferences in June, and afterwards she said, I feel like I ought to do something, but I don't know what. And I had no idea what she should do.
[1:18] And I said, well, when I don't know what to do, I usually pray and ask God to give me wisdom. And so we prayed and asked for wisdom. And as I was praying, an idea popped into my head.
[1:30] And we got done praying, and I said, I tell you what, Tiffany, why don't you drop out of the school you're in, quit your job, move away from home, and go to New York City and work with some church planners we have there for about six or nine or twelve months to see if God's leading you toward Jewish missions.
[1:47] And she looked at me like I had taken leave of my senses. The reason I'm bringing this up... Okay, first of all, Tiffany is right now in New York City.
[2:00] Out on the streets of the city, working with our people there, sharing the gospel all day, every day in New York City. She's there on a short trip to decide if she's going to go back there and stay for several months. And I'm waiting to see if God's going to call her into Jewish missions.
[2:13] But I realized that one of the reasons that I was audacious enough to say something that ludicrous is because of Vision Baptist Church.
[2:29] I was in the ministry for a lot of years before I ever came to Vision. And they let me teach around here from time to time, which I am really thrilled to be able to do. But I have to tell you that I sometimes teach, but I'm usually a learner here.
[2:43] I have learned so much about ministry and about life in the Lord since I came here. And Vision Baptist Church and OGTC and VBM have just been a huge blessing to my life and increased my faith and taught me so much about the ministry.
[3:00] And just as long as they're going to let me have the microphone tonight, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate this ministry, how much it's made a difference in my life.
[3:11] And I want to thank you because you folks are dear and precious to us. And we thank God for you. It is a joy and a joy to spend this time with you whenever we gather.
[3:22] Okay, so Romans 7. You know, I never liked Romans 7. I mean, it's really kind of a miserable chapter. You know, it's all this, I want to do right, but I don't ever do right.
[3:36] I just mess up all the time. There's a famous Russian oligarch, Viktor Tsernomyrden, who once was prime minister and then he became an oligarch. And one time he said, I think it's like the most perfect Russian phrase.
[3:48] He was doing a, there was some kind of disaster in the business he was running and they were doing a press conference and he said, I'll have to say it in English, but what he said was, we had hoped that things would get better, but they turned out like they always do.
[4:01] And I thought that was such a, just a, that was so Russian. And that's sort of what Romans 7 looks like to me. It's like, I have all these hopes that things are going to be good, but it always falls flat.
[4:14] And I mean, that's what I get when I read Romans 7. And so I honestly, when I read through Romans, I will go, going through, you know, Romans 1, 2, 3, get those sinners, 4, 5, we're getting into some redemption, we get 7.
[4:28] Okay, let's get through this one quick so we can get over to 8 where all the fun is. And, I mean, I don't know, maybe other people don't do the scriptures that way. Maybe I, maybe this is confession, but, but a while back I thought, you know, I really, it's got to be there for a reason.
[4:43] And I parked there and spent a lot of time studying, and by the way, we talk about 7, it's like, and 8 is, yes! And they're all one, those two chapters are a whole. And you need to understand them.
[4:56] And anyway, so I spent some time studying there. And what I want to talk to you about, actually, I started putting together this message, and I got about 60% of the way done with it, and I realized that it was three or four messages, and so I just took one little piece of it, and that's what we're doing tonight.
[5:09] But what we're going to talk about tonight is me and sin. Okay? So, so my relationship to sin, and you know, sin is a big topic.
[5:21] I don't know how big a topic it is in your life. So, I can only speak to you from my experience and from the Word of God, and maybe some of you are going to sit there and go, yeah, I don't relate to anything you're saying.
[5:32] And some of you, I think, will go, oh, I understand exactly what you're saying. But in my life, for many, many years of my life, I have lived a life where I'm, I'm a Christian, God saved me, I thank God for that, and I'm striving to live for Jesus.
[5:49] I'm striving to do right. And never, ever, ever living up to what I think I ought to be. Okay? I, I have this standard of, here's where God wants me to live, and I don't ever get there.
[6:02] And so, a lot of times the way I, I have lived my life, I'm not suggesting this is a pattern that you ought to follow, is that I would try to do right today, I get to the end of the day, I didn't, I didn't live the way I wanted to live.
[6:18] I didn't live with the love for God, and the passion for God, and I didn't serve him as much as I, and I'd get to the day, and I would feel disappointed in myself, I would feel like a failure, I'd get up in the morning, and you know, prayer should start with confession, and so I would confess, and confess, and confess, a lot of confessing, a lot of my prayer life was confession.
[6:35] I spent a lot of my time in confession, feeling a lot of guilt and failure, and sometimes condemnation, a lot of unpleasant stuff. And so, I lived there quite a lot.
[6:46] And, and in Romans 7, it kind of talks about, a lot of that stuff. And so, I want to talk about that. Not only do we struggle with sin, in that we sin, and we know we're not supposed to, and we shouldn't sin, but we also struggle with sin, because sin will just pound us into the ground.
[7:09] It will discourage us, it will beat us down, it will smash our faith, until we are a little helpless, hopeless, no faith, no energy, just existing.
[7:23] And so, there's the problem of actually sinning, and then there's the problem with, the effects that sin will do in our lives. And, God doesn't want us to sin, and he doesn't want us to end up in that place. And so, I want to look at this very often.
[7:36] Look at, we're going to start here with, chapter 7, verse 18. I've got this highlighted in my Bible, because, this verse, is so vivid to me.
[7:46] It's like, yeah, this is where I live. Okay? For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. Now, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but I'm going to guess that I'm not the only one in here, that often feels this way.
[8:06] This isn't my life verse, but sometimes I've felt like this ought to be my life verse. Okay? I know that in me dwelleth no good thing. I feel that, sharply, a lot.
[8:17] I feel the falling short, and the not getting there, and the grief that comes from that. And, you know, yeah, to will is, yeah, to will is present with me, but how to do it, I don't find that, how to do that.
[8:32] And so, I've struggled with that. The thing that I want to say to you is, I really want to blow up that verse tonight. And I want to change, if you are like me, and that you think that ought to be your life verse, I want to change that tonight.
[8:48] And I want you to see it differently than you do now. The first thing I want to say is, go back to verse 1 of this chapter. Verse 1, he talks about this, know ye not, brethren, Romans 7, 1, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth.
[9:06] For the woman that hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth, but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth, she shall be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress, but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
[9:24] Now, I'm not here to talk to you guys about marriage and divorce and remarriage and all that. I really don't want to get into that. If you want to talk to me about that some other time. Okay. Paul is using that topic to describe a legal principle.
[9:39] He's saying, if you're alive, then the law applies to you. Okay. And that makes you subject to sin and the penalties of sin. But if you're dead, that's canceled.
[9:52] You're no longer under the jurisdiction of the law. And he says in conclusion, verse four, wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. So he says, you died.
[10:04] They're like, I don't feel like I'm dead. How would you know? What would it feel like? No, I'm teasing you. He says, you're dead. You say, I don't feel dead. But he says, but in Christ, we, we have gone through death in Christ.
[10:19] So you've become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
[10:32] But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, not oldness of letter. He says, you are freed from that whole realm of law and sin and death, to walk in newness of life.
[10:48] Now, I'm going to say something I'm not really sure I'm allowed to say in public, but without trying to put too fine a point on it, he's talking about marriage, and he says that we're dead to the law so that we could be married to another.
[11:00] So it's like we were married to sin. Okay? And it says, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. It sort of says that you were married to sin, and you were having little sin babies.
[11:16] Okay? That you were producing fruit, and that fruit was sin. Now, I'm probably not supposed to say that in public. But he says, but now we are delivered from the law, okay, that we should serve in, excuse me, back, back, back, back.
[11:31] Okay, verse 4, he says, that you should be married to another, even to Christ, who's raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. And so, we were married to sin, and we were bringing forth fruit unto sin.
[11:45] But now, we can be married to Christ, and bring forth fruit of righteousness. Okay? So, I want to say, the first point here that I want to make, is that, because of what Christ has done for us, because we are in Christ, we are dead to that whole sin, that whole loss in death thing, and we are now alive to grace, and to Jesus Christ, into righteousness.
[12:10] We are freed from all of that, to live over here. Now, I remember as a teenager, my pastor was preaching, I don't know, somewhere in Romans or Galatians, I don't really recall, and he said, this is a positional truth.
[12:24] And I was like, what does positional mean? And I listened to him very intently, and I figured out the positional means, theoretical having no basis in reality. Okay?
[12:36] That it's one of these things that, it's a theological construct, but it doesn't really make a difference. And honestly, for years, thinking kind of, oh yeah, positional truth, that's really, that's something spiritual, that doesn't really make a difference in my life.
[12:51] Okay? But it makes an incredible difference in my life. You say, why do I think that? Okay, so, when Adam and Eve sinned, we positionally were moved in under the dominion of Satan and of sin.
[13:12] Okay? That was a positional thing. Did the fall have any real life consequences in your life? In the world? Catastrophic. Okay, that was a positional thing.
[13:22] And so, what he's saying here is positionally, now we've been moved back out of that end of the realm of Christ. Does that make any difference? As much difference as the other one made. Okay? This is talking about real stuff that makes a real difference.
[13:36] Let's go on. I want to go down to verse 18 through 23. Romans 7, 18 through 23. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
[13:50] For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil that I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not. It's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[14:03] We're coming back to that verse. By the way, that verse happens twice. Look at 17. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Ha! Well, I'm not to blame for my sin. I'm liking that. I find, verse 21, I find in the law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
[14:18] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity of the law of sin, which is my members. Good night.
[14:30] Okay. So, the first thing I want you to see is that in this passage there are two different me's. I'm not saying that Paul is schizophrenic. He doesn't have a, what do they call it, a multiple personality disorder.
[14:43] Okay. But look, look first of all with me at verse 18. He says, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. He says, in me, nothing good.
[14:56] Okay. But then, look down at verse 20. Now then, now if I do that which I would not, it is no more, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[15:09] Okay. In 18 he says, in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. In verse 20 he says, it's not me that's doing it. He's using the word me or I in two different ways.
[15:26] I was looking for a burlap bag today, but I couldn't find one. I really wanted to bring a burlap bag. Oh my. Full of manure to church.
[15:38] But all I could find was this leaf bag. So, we're going to have to make do. So, so I've got this bag of something distasteful and unknown.
[15:52] That's with me. You guys are having fun. Okay. And so I've got this bag. And so, what I want to talk to you about is who am I? Okay. Who am I?
[16:04] Because a lot of this has to do with who am I? Now, Paul is describing two different guys here. So, first of all, he says, in me dwelleth no good thing.
[16:19] But then in verse 20 he says, it's no more than I that do it, but sin that dwelleth with me. Okay. He's making a distinction here. Let's, let's look on.
[16:30] There is a truth that's taught throughout the New Testament. You can even find it in the Old Testament. But it says that God has created a new me.
[16:42] Ephesians 2.1. In Ephesians 2.1 it says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Okay. Quicken means he made you, it doesn't mean that he made you faster.
[16:56] It means, quickened means he made you alive. Okay. So, so what, what he's saying to the Corinthians, he's saying, you guys used to be dead in trespasses and sins, but God has made you, made you alive.
[17:12] Okay. So you used to be dead, but now you're alive. How did that happen? So, when I was lost, I wasn't, I didn't think I was dead.
[17:22] I was pretty sure I wasn't dead. Okay. So basically we often talk about having three parts of us, our, our, our body, soul, and spirit. I kind of go with that. If you have a disagreement with it, that's fine.
[17:33] Disagree all you like. But I go in to go with body, soul, and spirit. Now my body wasn't dead when I was lost. It was mortal. It was on the dying track, but it was still alive. Okay. My soul was still there.
[17:44] Now it was badly darkened by sin. You know, I had a mind and emotions and a will that were pretty jacked up, but they still function. They still were alive. They were darkened by sin.
[17:54] My spirit, according to Ephesians 2, one was dead. It says right there that you have to be quickened. It was dead. And so, so I had a spirit that was dead and I had a soul and a body and soul darkened by sin.
[18:09] Spirit is dead. And then I got saved. And at the moment that I got saved, God quickened my spirit. So God reached down. And again, this is something you don't see happen.
[18:23] It's not something we can see with our eyes. But folks, it's as real as anything in the world. God reached down into me and he found that dead soul, spirit, and he raised it to life.
[18:39] Okay? Okay? So there's the me before salvation was mortal, you know, mortal sin-cursed body, sin-messed-up soul, dead spirit.
[18:53] The me after salvation is same body, still mortal, same soul, still messed up, but now a living, alive to God, beautiful spirit that dwells in me.
[19:08] And that's the new guy that I am. So in Ephesians 2.10, it says this, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
[19:19] Did you hear that? Created in Christ Jesus. When you got saved, this verse isn't talking about when you were created, either talking about in Genesis 1 or talking about when you were born.
[19:30] This is talking about your salvation. You were created in Christ Jesus unto good works. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, For we are his workmanship. Excuse me, that was 2.10. 5.17 says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
[19:47] Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. It doesn't say he will be someday a new creature. It doesn't say that someday all that old stuff is going to pass away.
[19:58] Someday he's going to become new. That's not what it says. This verse says, If any man be in Christ, I'm in Christ, I'm saved. Okay? He is a new creature. I'm a new creature. Okay?
[20:09] And the old stuff's gone, and the new stuff's there. And you're saying, But Sam, it doesn't feel like it's there. Okay? Because, I have, in me, today, right now, from the day I was saved, there is a spirit that is good, and pure, and loves God.
[20:30] And there is a flesh. There's the old broken soul and body that are still tied together, and that I'm still dragging around. Okay?
[20:41] And so, let's look at this. All of these verses that I've been giving you show about how that when we got saved, God quickened me, He created me, He made me into a new creature.
[20:53] So I'm a new man. Okay? That's really important. My spirit loves God.
[21:04] What does it say about the spirit? Okay? So the old me, yeah, we covered that already. Verses 18, 19, and 21 tells me that the new man desires to do good.
[21:15] Verse 22 says it delights in, that my new man delights in the law of God. And so, so we've got this new man with this new spirit who really wants to do right.
[21:28] Now let's go back to chapter 7, verse 17. He says, Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. And then Paul compounds the problem in verse 20 by saying, Now if I do that, which I would not, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[21:44] Now, I'm not sure what you think about that verse. That verse has always bothered me. I know we're not supposed to say the verses bother me, but that verse has always driven me nuts. Because I mean, it's just like every, like every third grader who's got his finger in the cookie jar and mom says, What are you doing with your hand in the cookie jar?
[22:01] And he says, I didn't do it. Okay? There used to be a comedian whose tagline that he always went with, he'd always say, The devil made me do it. That's what he would, he was all the time, that was kind of his big line, The devil made me do it.
[22:15] And I think, you know, and I'm like, Paul, like, Come on, buddy. What do you mean? Okay, so I just did this sin, but it wasn't me that did it, it was sin that dwelt on me. I'm cool, it was sin that did it, it wasn't me.
[22:28] Does this verse look to you like Paul is blame shifting? Like he's putting it off, like he's trying to escape responsibility for his actions? Is that what it sounds like? Because that's what it sounds like to me. Okay, and that's how I, and I've always been like, don't even get that.
[22:41] What is that even about? So, I don't think that's what he's doing at all. Okay? I think that what Paul is saying is something that's really important here.
[22:52] And it goes back to who am I? And who are you? Okay? Very often, as I would, day after day, confess my sins to God and really agonize before God, I'd say, God, I want to be a man of God.
[23:10] God, I want to be clean. God, I want to be righteous. I want to be holy. God, I'm so sorry that I'm not the man that I ought to be. I don't know how to be that guy. I think that was all wrong.
[23:25] Okay? Because what Paul is saying here is not, hey, guess what? I'm just trying to shift the blame for my sin. Paul is saying, okay, listen, here is my flesh.
[23:41] But that isn't me. You know who I am? I am the man who is created by God. I'm righteous.
[23:53] I love God. I want to do right. I want to serve Jesus. That's who I am. But I'm still dragging this mess around with me. I think that that's what he's saying here.
[24:08] So, excuse me. So, when he says, now, now, if I do that, would I, would, that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[24:19] Remember I said the two me's? One time he says, excuse me, in me dwelleth no good thing. See? Because he never said, in me dwelleth no good thing.
[24:32] You know what he said? Because we leave out a phrase. What he actually said was, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
[24:43] The dwelleth no good thing isn't me. It's this. And that's what Paul's saying. In me, in the real me, in the me that God created that is good and righteous and loves God, that one's fine.
[24:58] In me, that is my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. That's what he's saying. And so when he goes to 17 or to 20 and he says, he says, so it's no more I that do it.
[25:10] You know what he's saying? He's saying, that old man, that sinful man, that I'm still dragging all over the place, that's not me.
[25:26] Me, I belong to God and I love God. That thing isn't me. I am the thing that God has created that is pure and good.
[25:38] That's who I am. That's what Paul's saying here. When I sin, it's not that. It's this mess that I'm dragging around with me. And so there are two me's and the me that Paul says he is, is a clean person and he's right.
[25:57] I want to say something to you. When you are tempted to sin, because we all are tempted to sin, this makes a huge difference. So when I'm tempted to sin, there's one voice that says, you know, Sam, there's no good thing in you.
[26:14] You're a worthless sinner. You always sin. Sin, pretty easy to fall into sin when you're thinking like that. Okay? But if when sin comes around and tempts me and I say, hey, that's not who I am.
[26:32] I am the one who is created by God in righteousness. I'm the one that's headed to glory. I'm the one who loves God. Sin hit the road. I am not interested in you.
[26:43] It makes a big difference. Now, he hastens to add, sadly, we are still tied to this.
[26:55] Okay, Romans 7.23. He says, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind. So, there is this law in my members that's warring against the law of doing the right thing.
[27:11] I see, yeah, so I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. He says, so in spite of the fact that I'm a new man, I still have this mess following me around and it's still creating me grief.
[27:27] That's what he's saying in chapter 7. He keeps talking about that. Let me, let me do a parallel thing. Don't lose Romans 7. Go over to Galatians. In Galatians 5, these passages of scripture go so well together that they, you know, they should be on speed dial with each other.
[27:45] In Galatians chapter 5, we read this. In 5.17, he says, the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.
[28:00] That's the same thing as what he's saying in Romans 7. He's saying there's a spirit and the spirit is good. There's a flesh and the flesh is bad. And there's a war going on. So it makes it hard for you to live out everything that you want to live out.
[28:17] That's exactly what he was saying back here in chapter 7 verse, in Romans 7.23, I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity of the law of sin which is in my members. And so there's this battle that's going on here.
[28:30] Okay? And so we see that. So there is still a... So who am I? I'm the one that God created. That's who I am.
[28:43] We think about physical bodies. And we have a tendency to associate ourselves and others with the bodies they carry around.
[29:00] Okay? We see a picture and we say, oh, that's Sam or that's Ty or whoever. Okay? But really, that's the body we carry around. Let me tell you a little secret. When you're a kid, it's really easy to associate your body with your person.
[29:13] When you get older, you look in the mirror and you go, yeah, that... No, that's not me. Okay? And I don't really mean that as a joke, but it becomes very real to you that this body is decaying but who I am is not...
[29:26] That's not me. That is... That is my address where I live right now, but it's not who I am. Okay? And so, when we look at the body, we can say, I have a body, but I am not a body.
[29:40] I am a soul. Okay? In that same sort of distinction, he's saying, I have a flesh, but that isn't who I am. I am the one that God has created.
[29:52] Hmm. Okay. So, if this is true, I think this is a very important thing. It has been really meaningful to me as I've studied it and I've really been learning a lot in this.
[30:06] This is one of those messages where you can, like, preach it and you're really worried everybody's going to go, yeah, so I've always known this. And so, if it is, I'm, you know, so it will be done in a couple of minutes and you can go home.
[30:17] But, but this has been really meaningful in my life as I've begun to realize I'm not this. This is just a pain in the neck that I drag around with me.
[30:28] I'm a person that God has created and if that's true, it changes everything. So, go over to Romans 8. Romans 8, 1. Therefore, there is no, now, there, there is therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
[30:45] You know what he's saying? He's saying, for me, no condemnation. Okay? By the way, in case you're wondering, verse 3, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son into likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.
[31:05] For me, no condemnation. Verse 3 says, for this, condemnation. That's condemned. I'm not. Okay? Verses 12 and 13.
[31:17] Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit do mortify, do put to death the deeds of the flesh, you shall live.
[31:30] For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. What he's saying, he's saying, listen, get a hold of this. That's not you. This new creation of God is you.
[31:42] And therefore, you don't know that thing or nothing. You're not in debt to live the way it wants.
[31:53] You're free to live the way your spirit wants. Okay? Verses 14 and 15. He encourages you then to do so. For as many as are led of the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
[32:06] For you have not received the spirit of bondage and to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The difference to me is stark between living a, God, I failed again, I don't know why, I can't ever do right, and saying, in my inward man, I am a man who loves God.
[32:29] And yes, I drag this mess around and sometimes it pulls me down, but that's not who I am. And I'm not staying there. I'm not going to live there. I'm not playing that game.
[32:40] I'm going to live based on who I am in Jesus Christ. And I'm going to, instead of going around feeling ashamed and guilty and defeated, I'm going to, like here, he says, you haven't received a spirit of bondage or a fear.
[32:55] You received a spirit of adoption. You can look at God and say, Abba, Father, Papa, okay, it's a completely different way of life.
[33:05] A joyful way of life. If I may, I will go back over to Galatians again and I'm going to conclude there in this, what seems to me to be a parallel passage where we already read verse 17 where he talked about the conflict, the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
[33:23] So what can I do? How can I, how can I do the right thing? How can I do what I want to? The previous verse tells you. I'm not saying this is like easy to pull off but I'm saying the answer is right here in verse 16.
[33:35] I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you decide to walk saying, I know who I am in Jesus Christ and I'm going to walk in that spirit that God created, I'm going to walk in the Holy Spirit, I'm going to have the Holy Spirit, I'm going to walk in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and he is going to work in the spirit that he's given, created in me and he's going to produce his fruit there, then what does my life look like?
[34:07] Does it look like guilt and shame and failure and discouragement? No, I'll tell you what it looks like. It looks like verses 23 through 25. It looks like love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
[34:22] They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with all the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.
[34:33] Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. There's some pretty good stuff in Romans 7. And if you often feel beat up and a failure and full of guilt and shame, that's not what God wants for you.
[35:01] And there's a way out of that. Now, if you say, well, can I then be perfect? Yeah, after you go to heaven. No, we're in a fight. We're going to continue to be in a fight. Okay, that's not going away.
[35:14] Not until we get to glory. But while we're here, you don't have to live there you can say, I choose to live realizing that I've been created in Christ Jesus, a new creature, a new man, and I'm going to let that man live out his life instead of letting that mess pull me down all the time.
[35:34] And God can fill your life with victory and with joy and with peace. I want to have a word of prayer and ask somebody to come and do the amazing things that they do over here.
[35:46] prayer. And let's all stand and if God has spoken to your heart, you're welcome to come and pray or you're welcome to pray where you're at.
[35:57] But let's seek the Lord. Father, we come to you now. I thank you for this evening. I thank you for the day that you've given us, for your amazing word, for the amazing things in it.
[36:11] Lord, I thank you that you created in me a new man that I don't have to live in the mire of sin, but I can walk in the light before you.
[36:26] Lord, I pray your blessing upon each one. Speak to our hearts. Bless us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small.
[36:54] Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all.
[37:09] All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
[37:26] Lord, now indeed I find Thy power and thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart of stone Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow In the dead聖 of broken Glorious of broken grieving Jesusirens Americalying He harsh it hadi indian People In the dead
[38:27] In the dead Women In the dead They