WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:31.439 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.280 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:18.799 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, once again, 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:27.039 we come to a part of your Word which is easy for us to misunderstand. But once we do, Father, I know, 00:01:27.759 --> 00:01:32.000 well, Father, we just we give you thanks and praise that you're so patient with us and love us, 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:36.719 that you reveal and make ourselves known to you in light of who Jesus is. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:43.599 And so we ask that you would bring this your Word deep into our heart, that we might see Jesus and 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:50.319 understand ourselves more and seek to live for his honour and glory. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:54.079 your Son and our Saviour. Amen. Please be seated. 00:01:54.079 --> 00:02:05.920 So there's a common human problem. And I mean, there's many common human problems, but this is a 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:12.719 common human problem. I'll just, you know, use somebody like me as an example. I might come to 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:17.039 the realisation of that over the last several nights, maybe I haven't spent as much time with 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:22.400 my wife as I should when I come home from work, getting caught up in, I don't know, 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:28.079 maybe doing some exercise, watching some podcasts or listening to them, reading a book. 00:02:28.799 --> 00:02:32.560 And so I say to myself, when I come home tonight, it's going to be different. I'm going to make sure 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:36.399 I don't do those things. I'm going to spend some time with my wife. That's the good thing to do. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:42.560 And then I go home and before you know it, the evening has passed by and I actually am just like 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:46.639 other nights. I didn't spend time with my wife. I spent time doing all those other things. 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:51.120 And didn't really spend good quality time with my wife. Well, why is it that I do that? 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:58.239 Or maybe I'm thinking of one man who confessed to me that he had a very sharp tongue and anybody who 00:02:58.239 --> 00:03:03.519 knew him knew that he had a very sharp tongue that liked to sort of insult people. And he said, 00:03:03.519 --> 00:03:10.560 you know, I'll begin my day and I'll pray that I, and I know that I shouldn't have a really sharp 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:16.079 tongue that really, you know, tears people down. But then, you know what, by the time I'm coming home 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:23.280 from, for supper, I realized that I did it just as much as I, as I've always done. I mean to not 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:28.800 have such a sharp tongue and really put people in there, like really drag people down. But before 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:34.880 I know it, I'm doing it just like I did before. Well, why is it that things like this happen? And 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:40.560 why is it that they're very common to our experience? The Bible text that we're going to look at today, 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:46.879 that Victor read very, very well, is directly talking about this. And it's talking about this 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:54.879 problem in a way that will not give us grandiose, a grandiose sense of how we're going to live in the 00:03:54.879 --> 00:04:00.719 future. It undercuts any grandiose. That's like really big, you know, I'm never going to do this 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:05.039 again for the rest of my life, etc., etc. By the way, just as an aside, one of the things that the 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:12.639 devil loves to do with repentance is the devil will make us over-repent or over-amend our lives, 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:17.519 that this will never happen again. Like he loves that because he knows it will happen again. And then 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:23.360 we get sort of a different type of despair. But the Bible is going to be, it both, it's very profound. 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:30.480 Only the Bible has this profound analysis of what human beings are actually like. And it reveals it 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:37.120 in a way that undercuts any grandiose claims. But at the same time, it's very realistic and very hopeful 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.080 in light of the gospel. So if you would turn with me to Romans chapter 7, 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:49.439 and we're going to be looking at verses 13 to 25 primarily. And that's what we're looking at today. 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:55.519 And here's how the text goes. And by the way, one of the problems, this is a very complicated text, 00:04:55.519 --> 00:05:01.439 but one of the problems that we have is a lot of us read quickly. I just discovered that I know 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:08.959 somebody who virtually never listens to a podcast at the normal speed. Their choice is between 25% 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:14.159 faster or 50% faster. And it's the same thing, I just discovered that same person virtually never 00:05:14.159 --> 00:05:17.920 watches a movie on YouTube at the normal speed. They always speed it up by 25%. 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:23.520 25%. So this is a text that requires slow reading, not fast reading. If you go by fast reading, 00:05:23.520 --> 00:05:28.640 you're going to be completely and utterly lost. So Victor's nice pacing was a really good way to read 00:05:28.640 --> 00:05:36.080 it. But let's see what it says. It begins with a question. Did that which is good then bring death to me? 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:41.439 Did that which is good then bring death to me? So you're wondering, well, where is it? Well, 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:49.759 it's obviously the context is that just before this, Paul was explaining how when you get a very clear 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:58.879 moral command and it comes to people, what happens? And one of the examples I gave last week, which is 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:05.759 just useful for us still to hear, is we might look at somebody, let's say a Kanata soccer mom. And we look at 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:10.639 a Kanata soccer mom and we think, how on earth could I ever share the gospel with that Kanata soccer mom? 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:18.959 Like, I mean, she's, she's, you know, she's young, she's, she's pretty, she's athletic, her, her husband, 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:25.120 you know, she's happily married, she has great kids, she volunteers, they have a nice house. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:31.920 Their life seems to just be completely, like, way better than my life. Like, everything about her, 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:37.680 she just seems to ace it and it's way better than me. And how on earth could she ever meet Jesus or need 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:42.960 Jesus? And if you think of somebody like that, just imagine as a thought experiment for a moment that 00:06:42.960 --> 00:06:49.120 all of a sudden God was to reveal himself very clearly and say to that Kanata soccer mom, 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:53.840 you shall go, you shall observe the Sabbath by going to church every Sunday morning. 00:06:55.120 --> 00:07:00.560 Now, if that actually happened, you would soon hear foul language coming from her mouth. 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:07.439 Who are you God to tell me that? How dare you tell me that? In fact, I'm going to definitely not do it 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:14.079 just because you tell me that. And could go on and on. And she'd tell everybody about what God had said 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:20.240 and how resentful she is about it and like, and maybe even say who made him God and all of that type of stuff. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:26.480 And so what Paul was saying is that what happens when, because of the fact that there's, 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:33.520 we have this great power within us to do things which you take, take, take, take God out of his 00:07:33.520 --> 00:07:39.520 place and put ourselves in God's place. And that's deeply ingrained in us. What happens is that sometimes 00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:45.280 the moral command will come to us and rather than us saying, okay, God, thank you so much. The 00:07:45.280 --> 00:07:50.160 Kanata soccer mom doesn't say, oh God, thank you so much. I didn't know that before. From now on, 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:54.960 I'm going to do it every week. Well, if I gave that as an example, all of us would know that that's not 00:07:54.960 --> 00:08:01.360 how that woman would react. She doesn't react with thankfulness. She reacts with resentment 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:08.800 and with refusal to obey and, and, and on and on and on, probably calling God names. And so Paul was 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:14.800 just saying that what the, one of the things that God's moral commands do is it reveals things to us 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:22.000 about what we're really like. And it reveals that in fact, we are in fact very in rebellion against 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:27.360 God in a way that's going to be towards death. So that's the context. And that's why then now read 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:32.960 verse 13 again, and now you'll understand why he asked the question, did that which is good then bring 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:38.799 death to me? And by the way, if you think about it, it's a very postmodern, very Canadian type of 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:45.039 question where people don't like right and wrong, although they do in certain areas, but they like 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:50.399 a lot of gray with their moments of black and white. And it's almost as if, no, no, no, you know, that 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:54.959 don't, don't get too good. That good is going to cause you harm and problems. It's a very modern 00:08:54.959 --> 00:09:01.199 question, but they, so that's the question then is, is what God's sending moral commands is that, and it 00:09:01.199 --> 00:09:07.039 causes death, like what's going on with that? Doesn't that mean maybe the good isn't actually good 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:14.159 if it brings about more sin? Like in a sense, why didn't God just leave that canada soccer mom alone? 00:09:15.199 --> 00:09:20.799 Because it comes and then it just provokes all this anger and rebellion in her soul. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:26.559 And so how does Paul answer the question, did that which is good then bring that to me? The second part 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:34.159 is by no means. He just says no. That's completely wrong. By no means. Absolutely not. Now, as we all know, 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:41.120 if a four-year-old says, you know, if you say to a four-year-old, can you stop playing with your 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:48.159 grandfather's, you know, models, you're going to break them. And the four-year-old says, why should 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:52.079 I stop? Well, you just say, because it's wrong. Well, why is it wrong? Because it's wrong. You don't 00:09:52.079 --> 00:09:55.439 tell a four-year-old, don't try to explain to a four-year-old why it's wrong. You just want them to 00:09:55.439 --> 00:10:01.039 know why it's wrong. But God can't say to us, you know, that's just a wrong way to think about goodness and 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:07.360 and sin. He has to give a reason. And he does. That's what happens now in the next little bit 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:12.319 that we're going to look at. So verse 13, did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. 00:10:13.599 --> 00:10:18.480 Now, here's where things start to get very interesting. Here's his sort of initial answer 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:25.519 to the question of why it's not what the Bible, it's not what goodness does cause death. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:35.840 He says, it was sin producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:44.319 be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. So what he's saying is that 00:10:44.319 --> 00:10:50.960 at all times, it's always sin that causes death. It's always a rebellion against God that causes death. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:56.800 Now, just a pause here. You see, one of the things which is very revolutionary about the Christian 00:10:56.800 --> 00:11:03.440 faith is that the average Canadian thinks that death is just a biological reality. And Christians 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:09.040 understand that death is not a mere biological reality, that God originally created human beings 00:11:09.040 --> 00:11:15.840 good and we wouldn't have died. And how did death come into the human order? Death came into the human 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:22.399 order when we rebelled against God and separated ourselves from God. And when we separated ourselves 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:29.759 from God to be God ourselves, we separated ourselves from the very source ultimately of life, the one who 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:37.120 would keep us alive at all times. And we separated from that and that's how death came into the world. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:42.639 And there's a whole other thing we could say about it, but that's sin. It's a rebellion against God, 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:52.879 our desire to be a God ourselves that causes death. And what God has done, in a sense, if the angels were 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:58.720 to say to God, God, why did you go ahead and send this command to that Kanata soccer mom and ends up 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:04.080 just getting her all mad and upset and resentful and calling you names and swearing and doing all of this 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:08.960 type of stuff and actually making a campaign with your neighbors to have nothing to do. Like, why did you 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:16.080 do that? He said, well, obviously, he said, what I did is I did this because I wanted to reveal to her, 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:26.960 to human beings, that sin exists in them. And I wanted them to see how much sin has a hold of them. 00:12:27.920 --> 00:12:36.080 And that's why I did it. I did it in a sense in the hope that if they start to realize, if they go beyond 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:41.200 that command to other commands, and if they, especially in the example Paul used the week before, 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:49.200 last week, in terms of that inner life of resentment and pride and anger, all that other 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:55.600 inner life that can go on inside of us, even while outwardly we're very good at following rules, 00:12:56.560 --> 00:13:01.680 I wanted them to realize the depth of sin in the hope that they would call out to me to deliver them. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:11.439 That's why I did it. Now, Paul doesn't just leave it here. He unpacks this a little bit more to help us 00:13:11.439 --> 00:13:18.079 to have a deeper self-knowledge about ourselves, a self-knowledge that is not going to be grandiose, 00:13:18.959 --> 00:13:26.879 but it's going to be very realistic and, in Christ, very, very, very hopeful, and will provide energy 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:35.360 for us to repent of the sin in our lives and try to become more like Jesus. So he does it, he continues 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:42.559 on. Look at verse 14, and it's a very, verse 14 is a verse that probably the 90% of Canadians and maybe 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:48.480 even 90% of Canadian Christians don't understand. And just look at it, verse 14, 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:56.320 verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. For we know that the law is 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:02.399 spiritual, we go, whoa, like George, like that's completely ridiculous. Don't you know that in Canada 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:09.440 there's a difference between being spiritual and being religious? And anything that has to do with laws 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:16.560 is clearly religious and patriarchal and oppressive. Like, spiritual is completely different. How can the 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:24.319 Bible say that the law is spiritual? By definition, the law can't be spiritual, George. Spiritual has to 00:14:24.319 --> 00:14:31.439 be something else, because for Canadians, when we think of spiritual, we think of a rich interior life. 00:14:31.439 --> 00:14:41.839 We think of the fact that maybe that we can appreciate daisies and beauty and really good music. It 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:48.720 means that we actually are a bit more thoughtful. It means this rich, inner, emotional, and aesthetic, 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:57.360 curious life. And that's what it means. And law seems to be the exact opposite. And so right off the bat, 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:04.879 we're a bit confused. So just to help you, when it says here again in verse 14, for we know that the law is 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:10.639 spiritual, what the Bible means here by spiritual, and maybe in a couple of years when they redo the thing, 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:16.080 they'll have to think of a new word for it, because it's going to confuse North Americans. What it means 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:24.480 here is he's saying that the law comes from the Holy Spirit and is empowered by the Holy Spirit. When 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:29.840 you see the word spiritual generally in the New Testament, it doesn't mean an aesthetic, rich, 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:38.960 emotional life where there's no rules. It means comes from the Holy Spirit and is Holy Spirit empowered. 00:15:39.920 --> 00:15:45.360 So what he's saying is, okay, this situation of the law, what you need to understand is that the law 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:53.840 is a word that comes directly from God by the Holy Spirit to us. And it comes from the, by the Holy 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:59.519 Spirit. It's a little bit like in Ephesians 6, where it talks about the Bible being the sword of the 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:06.240 Spirit, the Word of God being the sword of the Spirit, or Hebrews, whatever. It comes from the Holy Spirit, 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:13.360 and it is empowered by the Holy Spirit when it hits us. So look at it again, for we know that the law, 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:21.919 that is God's commandments, his moral rules, they come from him. But me, who am I? Well, I am of the flesh, 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:29.279 sold under sin. And what that means, it's not referring to us having bodies. It's saying that there's, 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:36.319 I have a sinful nature now. There's a part of me which is very, very strong and very, very powerful, 00:16:36.319 --> 00:16:43.039 that always wants to put myself first, that is rebellious against God, that wants, in a sense, 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:48.720 to have God go away so I can be God, or I can pursue my idols, the idols that will help me have 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:59.120 those positions. And that's me. And when it says, sold under sin, it's an analogy of slavery, 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:08.079 that I am, in a sense, become a slave to this desire to be 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:12.399 in rebellion against God. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:21.679 And then Paul takes, then Paul goes on and says, sorry, I've lost my place here. 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:27.519 Okay, you might say now, okay, George, well, that's like an interesting observation, 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:31.759 but it doesn't really deal with the thing that you began with. Like, why is it, George, that 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:35.679 I go home at night, and I want to spend time with my spouse, but I do the opposite? 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:41.840 Well, Paul is getting there, and he gets there, he starts to get here, but look at what happens 00:17:41.840 --> 00:17:51.680 next in verse 15. He says, for I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, 00:17:52.320 --> 00:18:00.640 but I do the very thing I hate. Like, isn't that just, I mean, I think there's lots of clues 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:07.040 as to why the Christian faith is correct, and that the triune God exists, and that Jesus did, 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:13.600 is the Savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead, so that when we put our faith and trust 00:18:13.600 --> 00:18:18.800 in him, we can be made right with God. And I think there's lots of reasons and clues for that, and 00:18:18.800 --> 00:18:23.680 there's good historical evidence. But one of the beautiful things about that, isn't it just 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:35.840 objectively true? Verse 15. Like, if you, for I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what 00:18:35.840 --> 00:18:41.120 I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Like, I think if somebody told you that they never, that that 00:18:41.120 --> 00:18:45.440 verse doesn't resonate with them, I'd say, really? Like, are you so completely unaware that you don't 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:51.519 think that happens? Unless you're just so completely and utterly selfish all the time that there's never 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:56.880 anything, you never want to actually do anything good? Like, it's just a true statement about human 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:04.720 beings. And the Bible is putting it in a context where we can understand this, but not cause us to 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:12.880 despair, but to have hope. Look at the surprising consequence he takes from it at verse 16. Now, if I do 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:19.840 not, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that is the moral law that comes from God, 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:27.120 that it, that is the moral law that comes from God, is good. Now, this is like a surprising insight to 00:19:27.120 --> 00:19:33.600 people. The average Canadian thinks that basically, in a sense, I'm the arbitrator of right and wrong. 00:19:33.600 --> 00:19:37.040 Like, you're the arbitrator, you know, you know what is right and wrong for you, and you know what's 00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:40.240 right and wrong for you, and you know what's right and wrong for you, and I know what's right and wrong for 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:44.880 me, and it has to be right for me, and it has to be right for you, and, and then there may be some 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:50.079 other bigger rules about just trying not to hurt each other. But, you know, in a sense, I'm the moral 00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:55.920 arbiter of my own life. But the surprising thing here that, that Paul wants to get human beings to 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:03.279 realize, especially Canadians, because we're very prone to this way of thinking, is if the moment you 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:12.559 have a moral dilemma, and you want to do something, but you do what you don't want to do, and you realize 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:18.559 that, and you want to deal with it, what you've actually just acknowledged is that functionally, 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:29.039 you know there is a moral law higher than you that you need to obey. And for anybody who's even 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:33.920 reflective, they know that it's not just a Canadian law, or just a law of their culture, but there's 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:42.720 something higher than them to which they're struggling to try to live in. So, in an odd way, 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:46.399 it shows that even the most skeptical and relativistic person 00:20:46.400 --> 00:21:00.080 Christian wants to acknowledge that there is a God that does exist. And so then, then he goes in a, 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:10.320 he continues to develop this in a, in a surprising way. Look at verse 17. Actually, I'm going to read 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:17.839 now that a few verses in a row. But you know, just before we go any further, some people might wonder 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:25.279 why it is that God allows us to have sin, this desire to rebel against God, why it is that it almost 00:21:25.279 --> 00:21:33.119 seems to enslave us, and, and why it is that evil seems to be so strong, and the moral commandments seem 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:40.000 to be so weak in our lives. And what you need to understand about God is that at the end of the day, 00:21:42.639 --> 00:21:47.759 the parts of me, and the parts of my world, and the parts of my system which is in rebellions against 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:56.079 God, that's motivated by envy and coveting. We want God's place. We don't like that God has that place. 00:21:56.079 --> 00:22:02.240 We want to have him demoted so we can have that place. And you know, in the Bible it says several 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:11.279 times that the reason that the, the, the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to kill Jesus was because they 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:20.879 envied him. Envy always, and coveting always involves hatred and leads to, to greater hatred. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:32.400 And it is of the nature of hatred to enslave. But God is love, and it is of the nature of love to woo you. 00:22:36.800 --> 00:22:44.080 Sin involves envying, envying God and coveting his place, and that leads to us hating him. And hatred 00:22:44.080 --> 00:22:50.720 always enslaves. And the tragedy is that human beings can't enslave God, they end up enslaving themselves. 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:58.960 to rebellion against him. But God doesn't come in with a new slavery movement. He comes in to woo you, 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:01.280 because he loves you. 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:07.360 And if he started to act like out of coveting and envying, 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:16.400 he's not, he loves you. He wants ordinary people like you and me to enter into his love. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:27.200 And to actually, in a sense, breathe it and eat it and dream it and speak it and rejoice in it and 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:34.320 delight in it for all eternity. That's what he wants. So he woos. He woos. But, but verse 17. 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:42.240 So now it is no longer I who do it. Whoa, that sounds weird. It is no longer I who do it, 00:23:43.039 --> 00:23:50.079 but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:54.480 For I have the desire to do what is right, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:01.519 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:10.000 Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:16.240 Now, this sounds really weird. And it almost sounds a little bit like, I don't know if they have posters 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:20.879 like this because I, my kids are at a certain age and all that I don't go into stores that have posters 00:24:20.879 --> 00:24:25.359 like this. But it used to be you could buy mugs or posters that would have something like this. 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:32.399 It would say, as a result of therapy, I now realize all my problems are my mother's fault. 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:38.959 Or variations on that. Like, you know, you now you had your therapy. It's all because I wasn't raised the 00:24:38.959 --> 00:24:43.679 right way and my mom didn't, you know, I don't breastfed me or she did breastfeed me or this or that 00:24:43.679 --> 00:24:49.839 or whatever. Can throw in dads, but it's always somebody else's fault. And we're, we live in the age of 00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:57.199 excuses as you well know. So people rarely apologize anymore. What most people think of as an apology is, 00:24:57.199 --> 00:24:59.119 well, I'm really sorry you feel that way. 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:07.359 I'm really sorry you feel that way, but you know, it's, it's because of this and because of this and 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:11.199 because of this and because of this that I do it. So they don't actually apologize. What they do 00:25:11.199 --> 00:25:16.799 is they sort of insult you because you can't control your emotions. Not they, we, that's what we do. 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:21.200 We insult the other person. They can't control their emotions. They react in an emotionally 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:26.079 insecure way. And by the way, I have just a whole list of excuses. So it's not actually my fault. 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:31.440 So the supposed apology just ends up making it look like it's all my fault and somebody else's. 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:35.039 People don't take responsibility for me. So is that what the Bible's doing? Is it Bible saying, 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:40.960 I have really good news to you Christians for the rest of your life. It's not your fault. 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:48.960 It's just sin. Woohoo! You don't have to, you know, it's just sin. That's not what the Bible's saying 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:53.519 at all. It's saying, and part of the reason, not just because I'm saying this, but if the part that 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:59.120 is like, but the ends chapter six, it begins seven, chapter seven says this, for the wages of sin is 00:25:59.120 --> 00:26:05.360 death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So as he's saying, 00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:14.399 we are going to face a judgment from God for the sin that we do. And what the Bible is assuming that 00:26:14.399 --> 00:26:26.079 we know and understand is that all that is in me is me. All that is in me is me. And therefore, 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:32.399 I'm responsible for it. But see, what the Bible wants to do is it wants to remove the simplistic ways 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:38.160 that we think and understand of ourselves. In some ways, it is the great precursor to all depth 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:44.960 psychology, all of Jung and Freud and Kierkegaard and all of the depth psychologists, which are 00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:51.200 superficial compared to this profound insight in Romans chapter seven, that there are multiple me's 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:57.200 and different powerful forces. When I do wrong, it's not that, okay, I'm a really perfect person, 00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:01.519 completely good. Oh yeah. Okay. I did that one wrong thing. I'm a perfect person. And okay, 00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:06.400 I did another wrong thing. But it's a perfect person doing wrong things is how we tend to think 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:13.279 of ourselves, unless we go the complete opposite way, which the devil likes. He likes it if you think 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:18.639 you're a good person, just as the odd wrong thing. And then he loves it because he can flip that on us 00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:29.680 and we get consumed with shame. Guilt is you feel guilty for something you do. Shame is you feel that 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:41.120 the you, the I is wrong. There's something deeply wrong about me. And so it gets flipped. And now 00:27:41.120 --> 00:27:45.120 there's something terribly, terribly wrong and broken about me. And so we're either, 00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:50.959 we don't either feel guilty enough for the wrong things we do, or we feel ashamed when those good 00:27:50.959 --> 00:27:56.719 things come home to us in some type of a painful, harmful way. And what the Bible is trying to show 00:27:56.719 --> 00:28:02.239 here is that human beings are actually very complicated. I mean, it's really funny that 00:28:02.239 --> 00:28:08.319 the Bible has to tell us that because on one level, all of us should be going, duh, like, of course we're 00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:15.039 complicated. But why is it that we forget that we are, right? And so it's not saying that there's, 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:20.159 you know, the Bible here is not saying there's this other thing that means we have an excuse. 00:28:20.159 --> 00:28:27.679 It's saying that all that is in me is me. Part of me is this rebellion against God based on envying God 00:28:27.679 --> 00:28:33.919 and coveting his position, which leads quickly to hating. And I am in complete bondage to this. 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:38.960 And I'm in bondage to ways to deal with it by idolatry. And I'm in bondage to it. 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:44.800 And then when it talks about sin doing things, sorry, just a moment here, a little pause. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:50.320 Just those of you who don't like stuff like this, just a pause, give me some mercy. 00:28:50.320 --> 00:28:56.080 Some people complain about this text that is guilty of an error in thinking called reification. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:29:02.960 When you reify something, it's when you treat an idea and act as if the idea does something. It's called reifying. 00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:10.399 Some of you may have never heard of it. It's a new idea. But this isn't reifying. This is a synecdoche, 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:19.599 another technical word. And it's where you use a concrete noun to describe a whole series, 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:26.879 a whole ecosystem of actions. So an example would be if I say the problem with Hollywood, 00:29:28.959 --> 00:29:34.959 and then I fill in the blank that it's too woke, you know, that it despises its fan bases. Hello, 00:29:34.959 --> 00:29:41.039 Star Wars despises its fan bases. You know, all of those types of things. We're just saying Hollywood 00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:47.119 for a whole ecosystem of actors. If people, we go out and there's a protest and they say the problem 00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:54.239 in Canada is that Mark Carney's listening to Wall Street too much, or he's too into Davos. We're using 00:29:54.239 --> 00:30:00.719 a single noun to describe a whole complex of ideas and actions. And that's what the Bible's here doing 00:30:00.719 --> 00:30:06.559 with the word sin. It's not an error of thought. It's trying to say there's this whole ecosystem of 00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:12.319 coveting and hating God. It involves our flesh. It involves the world that our systems and our 00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:17.439 plausibilities and our plausibilities and involves the devil and evil spirits. And there's this whole 00:30:17.439 --> 00:30:24.319 system which it's just using this one word sin to try to open our eyes to that has this powerful place 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:32.480 and role within me. And when talking about the I, it's not saying, it's not the same thing as when 00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:40.480 Jordan Peterson says that every human being has the divine spark within them. And lots of people like 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:46.400 that idea, but it's not a biblical idea. And it's in fact actually quite wrong because it implies that 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:54.720 there's a part of me that's God. And that is exactly the whole sin envy issue of coveting God's place, 00:30:54.720 --> 00:31:00.559 to think that there's actually a part of the divine of God actually in me. That's going to, 00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:06.319 while he's been very helpful, it's going to actually confuse things and make it hard for you. 00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:14.000 The Bible is saying that's not the case whatsoever. The I in this text is what Paul's been trying to 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:22.240 identify over the last few things, is chapters, which is, you know, when I put my faith and trust in Christ 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:31.679 at an actual real level, if you could see the world the way God sees the world, when I put my faith and 00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:40.880 trust in Christ, I actually enter into him and am in union with him. And he actually enters into me as 00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:48.240 in union with me. And that's why the death he dies, it's my death he dies for me. And the resurrection 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:58.319 that he has becomes my resurrection. And the penalty for my sin that I deserve actually does really fall on 00:31:58.319 --> 00:32:08.480 him. And his destiny, his right standing before God is given to me. And I now have that guaranteed. 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:13.839 And Paul has just used a variety of things to try to help us to understand that we have a brand new 00:32:13.839 --> 00:32:22.480 identity when we put our faith and trust in Christ. We have a brand new authentic I, an authentic me. 00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:33.199 And that authentic I is, I am now one who is redeemed out of slavery to sin, to belong to Jesus. 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:40.319 And it uses the imagery of slavery, and then it used the image of marriage, which is an intimate 00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:49.279 image that I now actually belong to Jesus. I don't belong to death. I don't belong to sin. I don't 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:57.359 belong to evil spirits. I don't belong to my addiction. I don't belong to porn. I don't belong to greed. 00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:04.399 I don't belong, I don't belong to Canada. I don't belong to Wall Street. I don't belong to Hollywood. 00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:12.880 I don't belong to my tribe. I don't belong to the shame that so consumes me. I do not belong to any of 00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:19.840 those in Christ. I belong to Jesus, who loved me so much that he died on the cross for me. 00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:29.360 That is my new authentic identity, which is given to me as a gift when I put my faith and trust in Christ. 00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:40.639 That is the unshakable, unstoppable, unfailing new I at the very center of who I am. 00:33:42.959 --> 00:33:48.959 There is a new principle and power at work in my life. One of the reasons I love the hymn, 00:33:48.959 --> 00:33:51.439 Great is Thy Faithfulness, is I love that final thing, 00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:58.880 I love that final thing. I love that final thing. I love that final thing. I love that final thing. 00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:06.080 And there's the whole idea of his presence in me and a new power in me. And that is what God is saying 00:34:06.080 --> 00:34:12.800 here in this text. Human beings are complex. And on one level, when you become a Christian, 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:21.760 God has now added to the complexity of who you are by giving you a complete new identity, authentic identity. 00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:31.600 The real you in all your uniqueness is found in Christ. And if you think about it, if you go up 00:34:31.600 --> 00:34:36.400 and see the fentanyl addicts that are wandering around outside, the fentanyl addicts, the greater the 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:42.960 evil comes into their life, the less their personalities exist, they get completely reduced to that sin. 00:34:43.599 --> 00:34:48.960 And it's the same if you go to see a group of people completely and utterly consumed by alcohol. 00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:53.519 Or if you were to go into a room and everybody's completely consumed by the porn that they're watching 00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:59.760 on the screen, or the greed that is working in their lives. Sin always flattens and destroys and 00:34:59.760 --> 00:35:10.800 reduces and reduces. But goodness, goodness is variety. Mozart is different than Bach. 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:19.520 It's different from the Beatles. I know there's a big gap between Bach and the Beatles, but you get my point. 00:35:21.040 --> 00:35:28.560 Goodness creates diversity and difference and uniqueness. God made every fingerprint and every 00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:35.199 snowflake different. And you being authentic in him, he does not do that to crush you and to enslave you. 00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:42.400 But the new, authentic, real you is now there at the very center. And it is unstoppable because he is 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:46.159 unstoppable in his grace. Isn't that beautiful? 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:57.440 So just finish the text and a couple of takeaways from this. Verse 20, 20, 21. 00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:05.199 So I find it to be a law that is a principle or a logic that when I want to do right, evil lies close 00:36:05.199 --> 00:36:11.519 at hand. For I delight in the law of God, the God's moral law, in my inner being, that's the very center 00:36:11.519 --> 00:36:17.840 of who I am. But I see in my members, that's the bits and pieces of me, another law. And here now he's 00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:25.279 referring to a type of power, waging war against the law, the principle and that which I hold in my mind, 00:36:25.280 --> 00:36:30.960 in making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! 00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:38.720 Who will deliver me from this body of death? And here, this is not a cry of despair. It is a cry of 00:36:38.719 --> 00:36:45.919 longing. It's like the psalmist, how long, O Lord? How long will it be, Jesus, before you return? How long? 00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:53.440 How long before I see you face to face? That's the cry. That's the spirit of it. He acknowledges 00:36:53.440 --> 00:37:01.840 his wretchedness. Gosh, there's far more bad about me than I ever dreamed of. Who is my hope and my 00:37:01.840 --> 00:37:08.320 savior? Thanks be to God. Who will deliver me? Verse 25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, 00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:13.840 our Lord, so that I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. 00:37:13.840 --> 00:37:18.880 And it ends triumphant. It's saying, well, how does it go? Just look what happens next. You know, 00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:22.280 it's not going to be on the screen. You just have to have your Bibles. Look how he continues on. 00:37:22.640 --> 00:37:31.059 It's just the chapter heading is needless. He goes on. There is therefore now no condemnation for those 00:37:31.059 --> 00:37:38.860 who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ from Jesus, 00:37:38.860 --> 00:37:45.440 from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:54.000 sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:59.880 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the flat, 00:37:59.880 --> 00:38:05.260 not to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And then he goes on in this spectacular chapter, 00:38:05.500 --> 00:38:12.180 and chapter 8 ends in verse 31 with these ringing words. What then shall we say to these things? 00:38:12.980 --> 00:38:20.140 If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, 00:38:20.480 --> 00:38:27.760 how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's 00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:34.500 elect, God's children? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. 00:38:34.600 --> 00:38:39.480 More than that, he was raised. Who is at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us? 00:38:39.920 --> 00:38:46.980 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine 00:38:46.980 --> 00:38:54.199 or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. 00:38:54.280 --> 00:39:00.219 We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No! In all these things, we are more than conquerors 00:39:00.219 --> 00:39:06.860 through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present 00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:13.679 nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to 00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:22.059 separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen! That's the gospel. 00:39:25.819 --> 00:39:37.299 So, brothers and sisters, in light of this, to coin a phrase, God calls us in Christ to a long 00:39:37.300 --> 00:39:47.800 repentance in the same direction with heaven at the end. God calls you and me to a long repentance in the 00:39:47.800 --> 00:39:58.740 same direction with heaven at the end. It teaches us that we are actually way, we have the sin in us is way 00:39:58.740 --> 00:40:06.720 more powerful than we ever imagined, but the hope we have in Christ is far greater than we ever imagined. 00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:09.879 And the hope in Christ is greater than our sin. 00:40:11.879 --> 00:40:19.639 So, in your daily life, as you struggle with sin, remember the gospel. Remember Romans 8 and Romans 7. 00:40:20.439 --> 00:40:26.599 Never surrender and make a treaty with sin. If you're struggling with greed, never say, 00:40:26.739 --> 00:40:31.039 that's an acceptable amount of greed that I can live my life with. If you're struggling with porn, 00:40:31.039 --> 00:40:39.639 don't say, that's an acceptable amount of porn. Always struggle against it. Always repent. Always ask God's 00:40:39.639 --> 00:40:49.759 help for you. Never make a treaty with sin. Repent and amend your life knowing that God is drawing you to 00:40:49.760 --> 00:40:57.920 this end. He is at work in you in a long repentance in the same direction with heaven at its end. 00:41:00.120 --> 00:41:05.380 And remember that you do not do your day alone. That's going to come up more in the next chapter. 00:41:05.580 --> 00:41:10.860 You do your day with the Holy Spirit and with Jesus and pursue the means of grace. 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:18.040 Read your Bible. If you have a hard time reading, then listen to your Bible when you're doing other types 00:41:18.039 --> 00:41:24.500 of things. Get the Bible into you every day. Take time to pray. Make sure you don't forsake the 00:41:24.500 --> 00:41:28.719 assembling of yourself together with other Christians. Join a small group. Find a mentor. 00:41:30.679 --> 00:41:38.880 These are all means of grace. Practice financial generosity to the gospel and to the relief of the 00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:45.659 poor. It's a means of grace to show financial generosity. Pursue the means of grace. 00:41:45.659 --> 00:41:53.460 God has called you in Christ to a long repentance in the same direction with heaven at the end. 00:41:54.639 --> 00:42:03.759 So take heart. Repent. Call out to him. And if it's a matter of repenting 15 times in the same day, 00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:14.339 repent 15 times in the same day. Never surrender to lies, to evil, to injustice. Never surrender. 00:42:14.340 --> 00:42:16.300 Father. I invite you to stand. 00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:26.640 Our heads in prayer. 00:42:30.200 --> 00:42:34.680 Father, I don't know how your word has affected people who've heard it today. 00:42:34.679 --> 00:42:41.319 I ask, Father, for myself and through myself for all of us that, Father, help us not to be too 00:42:41.319 --> 00:42:46.019 intimidated by the apparent goodness of those that we see who are outside of Jesus. 00:42:47.159 --> 00:42:51.480 We ask that you, Father, would put it on our heart to pray for their salvation. 00:42:52.440 --> 00:42:56.159 And we ask, Father, that you would give us opportunities to bear witness to Jesus. 00:42:56.159 --> 00:43:02.319 And, Father, we ask that you would help the gospel, who Jesus is and what he's done for us on the cross, 00:43:02.399 --> 00:43:04.460 to become ever more real to our hearts. 00:43:05.440 --> 00:43:11.779 And as who he is and what he's done and what he has won for us becomes more real, 00:43:12.460 --> 00:43:18.940 Father, may you help and strengthen our moral clarity to see the evil in our lives more clearly 00:43:18.940 --> 00:43:27.400 and fan in the flame within us a deep desire to repent, to amend our lives, and to pursue Christlikeness. 00:43:28.079 --> 00:43:34.579 And we ask that you would help us to spur each other on in this and pray for each other and encourage each other. 00:43:34.659 --> 00:43:42.700 Help us, Father, not to be a place of gossip or slander, but of encouragement, of urging each other on in hope. 00:43:42.699 --> 00:43:49.699 And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior and all God's people said, Amen.