Welcome, everyone. Let me add my welcome. My name's Stephen. I've met you before. I'm the lead pastor here at St. Paul's.
And if you just joined us, you have joined us at the time just as we're finishing up our Easter series for this year and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the hope that it produces and the life that it produces for us and as being the central message of Christianity.
And so what I really want to land on today is what the death and resurrection does for us is it produces hope for the sinning saint.
So Romans 7. We're grateful for that passage in front of you as you go through today.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a gothic horror novel written in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson.
You may be familiar with it, hopefully.
Dr. Jekyll is a well-to-do, moral, respectable citizen who sometimes, and in fact often, feels that he's battling between this good persona, this good person, moral, upright, rising person that he is, who does good in society, and this inner evil within himself.
And this internal battles, which is a real struggle for him, is between Dr. Jekyll, who he is, and this other persona, Mr. Edward Hyde.
And Jekyll has spent the great part of his life trying to suppress the evil urges that are there, that are not fitting for someone who's such a respectable member of community.
And so he makes this potion, and whenever he drinks the potion, Jekyll transforms into the smaller, younger, cruel, remorseful, and evil Edward Hyde.
And the idea that what he's trying to do is Jekyll's trying to rid himself of this hide, so I can separate this personality, which is me, of both good and evil.
But what he finds, as the story unfolds, what happens is, that as he drinks the potion, over time, the evil Hyde grows more and more and more in power, to a point where Jekyll can no longer control Hyde and this inner evil.
And so what forms for him is this identity crisis.
Who am I?
Am I really Dr. Jekyll, or am I Edward Hyde?
Who am I?
It's one of the most famous pieces of English literature ever written.
It's had a substantial impact on popular culture with the phrase, the Jekyll and Hyde, being used in the vernacular to refer to people with this outward, good performance in life, if you like, presenting well,
and yet, at times, performing shockingly, terribly, and you see it on the news, where, you know, something happens, someone's been caught out doing something wrong, and they say,
I'm so embarrassed, I can't believe that this happened, this is not who I am.
And, well, actually, yes, it is.
It is who you are.
And so it's used in this Jekyll and Hyde trying to work out, which one am I?
And it is often used as an allegory in the Christian life, that there is a war in our hearts, a constant conflict between the old and the new, between vice and virtue, between sin and obedience.
And in actual fact, Robbie Lewis Stevenson grew up in a devout Christian home, and it is said that Romans 7 was the inspiration for him writing, or at least one of the inspirations for him writing this novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
And it's a description of, in fact, Stevenson's own life, where he found that he could not live out the Christian faith and its parameters,
and instead preferred a life of evil and wickedness and sin.
So Romans 7 reveals to us that life is a battle between two selves.
And when we become a Christian, we don't move from a state of battle to a state of peace.
We move from one battle to an entirely new battle, a new struggle.
And so that's the three points we're going to go through as we look at Romans 7 this morning and hope for the sinning saint.
So first of all, the struggle before Jesus.
Verses 7 to 13 is a description of the struggle that goes on in every human being that they've got going on inside of them.
And this is before Jesus.
And the question is, which is, you know, the big question that's been kind of, Paul's been dealing with,
if God gave people his law and his law is not able to be obeyed and doesn't lead to a life of righteousness,
well, is therefore the law sinful?
And Paul's short answer to that is absolutely not, certainly not.
And then his long answer is what we have here in verses 7 to 13.
And he's referring here to the Old Testament law.
You see, the whole thrust of Romans 1 to 5 is that people are justified,
they're made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ,
not by obedience to the Old Testament law,
not by obedience to, you know, Ten Commandments,
you know, live by the Ten Commandments and God will be,
you'll be right with God, he'll find you approved.
And so the question here is, if the law is not a means for salvation,
then doesn't that mean the law's bad?
And so here's the long answer.
The main thrust of the law, the summary of it, is in verse 7.
Therefore, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.
Thanks, Nick.
That's the summary.
And here's the four explanations, if you like, of that summary.
Firstly, what the law does for us is it defines sin.
Verse 7 again.
For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said,
you shall not covet.
That means, what that means is the very concept of coveting is outlined by the law.
And without that standard, Paul would not actually have understood what coveting actually was.
And he would not have known that it was a sin.
Secondly, what the law does is it reveals sin in us.
Verse 8.
But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,
produced in me every kind of coveting.
For apart from the law, sin was dead.
When a commandment of God comes to us, is what he's saying here.
Verse 7.
It aggravates.
It stirs up in sin in our hearts.
It doesn't show us what sin is in a general category kind of way.
It shows that sin resides in us.
It's not out there, but it's in here.
However, the law made sin in Paul's life, as it does for everyone, much worse.
And it makes it, therefore, totally inexcusable.
Because what the law does is it exposes our need to be saved from it.
And without the law, we will deny the depths of the nature of our sin.
We will consistently deny the depths of it.
The third thing is, the sin is stirred by its exposure to the law.
What it means is it's provoked.
Romans reveals the bleak condition of every human heart.
And what it says in the early chapter of Romans is that the human heart,
there's a perversity about every human heart.
And the description of perversity of the human heart is that it actually enjoys sin for its own sake.
That's the perversity.
The great Saint Augustine writes about this in his Confessions, the Confessions of Saint Augustine.
And he describes in there a time when, as a boy, he stole some pears.
He writes this,
And this was not to feed ourselves.
We may have tasted a few, but then we threw the rest of them to the pigs.
Our real pleasure was simply in doing something that we were not allowed.
I had plenty of better pairs of my own.
I only took these ones in order that I might be a thief.
Once I had taken them, I threw them away,
and all I tasted in them was my own iniquity,
which I enjoyed very much.
That is Saint Augustine's, his own illustration
of a description of the perversity of every human heart.
He's saying there,
there is a deeper motive in every act of sin.
That underlying motive, that underlying motive is to play God.
We have a deep desire to be in charge of our world and of our lives.
Every law God lays down,
every single commandment,
is an infringement on our perceived absolute sovereignty of our lives.
It's the very essence of the first sin in the Garden of Eden,
and it was to be like God.
And from there, it's the essence of all sin.
The more we are exposed to the law of God,
the more that sinful force will be aggravated into reaction.
That's what sin does.
Whenever I see a law,
I had no intention of breaking it until I see it.
Put a sign up, don't touch, wet paint.
I have to find out if it's still wet.
Don't sit on the grass.
Why not?
I wasn't going to, but why not?
There's a sin that stirs up in there.
Even if I might not sit on the grass,
I'm still asking the question, why not?
Don't park in the car park.
It's private property.
There's a vacant spot.
Why not?
And this leads to the fourth thing that sin does,
an overwhelming conviction of guilt.
Verse nine,
Once I was alive,
apart from the law,
but when the commandment came,
sin sprang to life,
and I died.
Before he was a Christian,
Paul,
what he's saying here is,
Paul did not know what the law actually really required of him.
That's what he's saying.
And this is a Jewish lad.
This is a Jewish lad who was fluent in the law.
And what he says here is,
you know,
summary version is,
I saw a bunch of rules,
but I didn't see the thrust of what the rules were getting to.
He didn't know what it meant to love God supremely.
He actually thought that he was morally good,
that he was in fact pleasing God by obeying the law,
and that God must therefore be satisfied with him.
And then he says,
the commandment came,
and I died.
What he says there is,
the commandment came home to me.
It's like the chickens came home to roost.
The commandment came home to me,
and I realised when the commandment came,
I was spiritually dead in that moment.
He came under the conviction of sin in that moment.
That is,
the Lord did for him what it was meant to do in that moment.
But which commandment came home to him?
You shall not covet.
Why that one?
Those familiar with the New Testament will see that this is the commandment
that Jesus used with the rich young ruler,
another upright moral citizen,
the Jewish citizen.
You see,
as a morally upright,
law-abiding Jewish Pharisee,
Paul thought of sin only in terms of external actions,
obedience to rules.
He would have thought of it,
that if I didn't commit that act,
if I don't commit murder,
I'm not a murderer.
Tick the box,
that commandment completed,
fulfilled,
obeyed.
Don't break the law,
and therefore I'm morally good.
That's the default position.
And then along comes Jesus,
in the Sermon on the Mount,
and he teaches all of the Ten Commandments,
and the entire law refer not only to external behaviour,
but to an inward attitude and motives of the heart.
And Paul had never understood sin as a matter of inward longings and idolatrous drives and desires.
And of all the commandments,
coveting
is entirely about inner motive of the heart.
It's about heart issues.
Coveting is to be discontent with what God has given you.
Coveting,
it includes things like envy,
selfish pity,
grumbling,
murmuring.
Coveting is not just wanting,
it is an idolatrous longing
for more beauty,
for more wealth,
for more approval,
and for more popularity
and everything else than you currently have.
That's what coveting is.
And Paul had never seen sin
as essentially coveting against God,
as failing to love God enough to be content with God.
And when the command came home to him,
he saw the depths of his sin.
And he saw that the flaw
was not in the law of God.
The flaw was in Paul,
the sinner.
It was in the sin.
Externally,
he was compliant.
He looked good.
He was a,
you know,
more upright than Dr. Jekyll.
But internally,
he saw Edward Hyde
bigger and bigger and bigger
than he'd ever seen him before.
He realised the law is good,
but he is not.
And that is the human condition
according to Christianity.
All of us dead
in our transgressions and sins,
more sinful than we'd ever hoped to imagine.
And so that's the first half of this chapter.
He's looking back at how God's commands
caused him to look to Jesus
for rescue,
look to Jesus' righteousness for his rescue,
rather than him
rescuing himself
through his own righteous acts.
And so from verse 14,
Paul's now writing
about his current experience
struggling with sin
as a Christian.
Now let me just say,
this section has been debated
by theologians
and Bible scholars
for many, many, many years.
And this section,
and the real debate is,
is Paul still talking now
about his pre-Christian experience
or is he talking about
him as a Christian?
That's really the primary issue
of the debate.
And let me say,
there have been plenty of thoughtful,
wise, godly people
on both sides of the debate.
For instance,
some find it very hard
to reconcile
that any Christian
could write,
as Paul does
in verse 14,
I am unspiritual,
I am sold
as a slave to sin.
Especially when in chapter 6,
he refers himself
as a slave
to Christ
and righteousness
in Christ.
He also confesses
that he sins regularly
in verses 15
and 18.
So here's four reasons,
and I want to do this
as quickly as I can,
why I think
he's writing about
his current Christian experience
of battling with sin,
and this is the very,
this is the experience
that every Christian has
in battling with sin.
And I would say
that the reason,
you know,
the summary reason,
which I've not,
this is not one
of the four reasons,
but the summary reason is
the primary issue here
is not the law.
It's not the word of God.
The primary problem
for the Christian
is indwelling sin.
That's the primary problem.
That's what this passage
is addressing.
But here's the four reasons.
Firstly,
there's a change of verbs
in the text.
In verses 7 to 13,
every single verb
is in the past tense.
From verses 14 onwards,
every single verb
is in the present tense.
That's the first one.
Secondly,
there is a change
in situation.
Verses 7 to 13
is Paul referring to sin
as killing him,
putting him to death.
From verses 14 onwards,
it's he's referring to
his wrestling with sin,
his struggle with sin.
It's a battle
that he refuses
to surrender to,
but he's not dead,
he's not dying,
and it's not a battle
that he is losing.
Thirdly,
he delights in God's law
in verse 12,
sorry,
verse 22.
For in my inner being,
I delight in God's law,
even though sin
is at work in him.
And in the very next chapter
in Romans,
in Romans 8,
verse 7,
Paul writes
that the non-Christian mind
cannot delight
in God's law.
It is impossible
to do so
because they see
God's word
as bad,
as evil,
as wrong.
Fourthly,
Paul admits
that he is a sinner
in verse 18.
Now,
I know plenty of people
who acknowledge
that they are not perfect.
They acknowledge
that they are imperfect,
that they're flawed.
You know,
you find someone,
you know,
someone gets discovered
by doing a wrong thing.
Well,
none of us are perfect.
That's a standard line.
Plenty of people,
most people can do that.
But,
in every instance,
they would mostly
put to the point,
they would mostly conclude
that they are basically good.
Basically good.
This is not really
who I am,
you know,
even though I did
this bad thing.
I don't know
but here,
Paul admits
that he is a sinner.
Before Jesus,
none of us
are aware
that we are so sinful
that we
not only cannot
save ourselves
through obedience
to us
any form of moral code,
but that even
our attempts
to do so
only add
to our condemnation.
and the depths
of our sin.
And that is why
I think Paul
is laying out here
his inner struggle
in these verses.
He admits
that he is
a sinner.
Not that he's imperfect,
you know,
like everyone,
but that he is
a sinner.
Only a Christian
could do that.
And that's why
I think he's referring
here
to the struggle
that is the struggle
and the experience
of every single Christian.
The experience
is that on the one hand
we now see
God's law
as spiritual,
verse 14,
as good,
verse 16,
and we have
a deep desire
to keep it
and to obey it
and to please God
in verses 15
and 18.
You see,
what Paul
is saying here is
before he met
Jesus,
he thought
he was a saint.
He was obedient.
He thought
he was right
with God.
And then
in Jesus,
he actually
becomes a saint
and now
he wrestles
for the first time
in his life
with being
a genuine sinner.
his sense
of sinfulness
is so much
stronger,
so much more
profound for him,
so much more
disturbing for him.
You see,
the person
who trusts
in Jesus
rejoices
in God's word.
In our deepest
self,
we love
the word
of God.
God.
But on the other
hand,
so many of our
actions are against
the God we love
and his word.
And it's only
when we come
to Jesus
for our rescue
does this struggle
become so
real for us,
so real
in such a way
that we start
to doubt
the,
we can doubt
the effectiveness
of our salvation
and question it
all together.
Who is me?
Am I,
am I really
Dr. Jekyll
or am I
Mr. Hyde?
Which self
do I want
the most?
Am I a sinner
or am I a saint?
Well,
for the Christian,
the question
is settled
even though
the struggle
continues to rage.
In verse 23,
the God,
Paul says
that God
and his law
is his
utmost delight
and it is
our
utmost delight.
And yet,
despite that
for the Christian,
there is still
a powerful force
of sin
and rebellion
within us.
For those
desires,
but those
desires,
whatever they
are,
are not
the deepest
sense
of your
identity.
They are
no longer
who you
are.
Verse 20,
if I do
what I do
not want
to do,
it is no
longer I
who do
it,
but it's
sin
living
in me
that does
it.
As a
Christian,
we have
an identity
transformation.
Even while
sin remains
in us
with a whole
lot of
strength,
it no longer
controls
our personality
and our
life.
You see,
Christianity,
the Christian
faith,
is about
being someone
before it
is doing
something.
It is
becoming a
whole new
self,
as I said
recently in
our Ephesians
series.
It is a
comprehensive,
when you come
to Jesus,
what happens
to you is a
comprehensive
revolution
to change
who you
are
before
it is
a revolution
in how you
live.
a revolution
in changing
your identity
and your
status.
You are
perfect in
Christ.
And I
think this is
possibly the
biggest and
most common
mistake people
make about
Christianity.
I remember
sitting at a
table with
some extended
family one
day and I
made a
comment that
revealed very
much the
old man,
Steve,
and very
quickly was
shut down
by a
non-Christian
on the
table.
Wow,
Steve,
that's
surprising.
I didn't
think Christians
said things
like that.
No,
Jesus doesn't,
but I do.
But that's
the mistake
we make,
is it?
So many
of you,
well,
Christians are
just good
people.
Morality
is not
Christianity.
Christianity
is not
about
becoming
more
moral.
A
Christian
is
becoming
a new
person,
an entirely
new
person,
before it
is living
with a new
set of
behaviours
and attitudes.
And the
change is
gradual,
and it
will never
be completed
this side
of the
presence of
God.
The
strength of
the remaining
corruption
in our
lives
will still
lead us
to disobey
God,
even in
the same
ways we
did prior
to becoming
a Christian.
And this
behaviour
goes against
our new
and our
deepest
identity,
and that
struggle
will grow.
growth in
the Christian
life is a
growth going
deeper,
deeper in
knowing who
you are in
Jesus,
and deeper
in awareness
of your
need for
Jesus,
because you
see your
sin deeper
and deeper
and deeper.
And that
is the
struggle.
And we
will often
feel discouraged,
we will often
feel defeated,
but it
doesn't
change who
you are
in Jesus.
and Paul
seems to
write as if
he is defeated
in verse 14,
I am
unspiritual,
sold as a
slave to
sin.
But he's
not,
he's not
defeated
in those
words.
He's saying
that even
though there
is this new
identity in
Jesus,
a new love
and delight
in God's
law,
he's saying
a Christian
will still
completely
be incapable
of obedience
and of
that law.
A Christian
is still
totally
incapable
of sinlessness.
You,
the Christian,
do not have
the power
to defeat
sin.
Jesus
does.
And so
the battle
will rage.
Friday
was a very
busy day
for me.
and I
tried to
finish off
this message
at the
end of
Friday,
but I
didn't get
it done.
I was
entirely
frustrated
by that.
My plan
was to
go home,
have some
dinner and
then,
you know,
finish off
the message.
On Friday
night,
our household
was all in
different
directions
for all
sorts of
different
reasons.
And so
there was
an opportunity
for me
and a
couple of
my girls
to head
out for
a quick
dinner.
It
didn't go
well,
that dinner.
What would
normally be
a delight
for me,
personally,
turned
into a
total
disaster.
Dinner
did not
happen
and by
the time
we got
home,
we went
in three
different
directions,
in silence,
in tears
and in
anger.
And it
was entirely
my fault,
my sin.
the thing
that I
wanted to
do,
that I
would
normally
delight in
doing,
that I
knew that
I should
do,
I didn't
do,
even though
I knew
in the
moment that
I should
be doing
it.
And it
went badly.
And frankly,
if you had
seen me
in that
moment,
or seen
me driving
home during
the course
of that
moment,
a drive
home,
which was
scary by
all accounts,
partly
enjoyable for
me,
but not
enjoyable for
anyone else
sitting in
the car,
you would
have been
appalled by
that lunatic
on the
road.
You would
have been
absolutely
disgusted
that that
was in
fact our
lead
pastor.
As I
was disgusted
two days
earlier by
someone driving
in a similar
manner,
I think I
referred to
them as
an idiot.
When I
got home,
I was
still
seething,
but at the
same time
disgusted
in my
behaviour.
Unable to
take it
back,
all I
could do
was to
go to
one of
my
girls
and say,
it's not
your
problem,
it's my
problem,
I'm sorry,
but I want
you to know
I'm working
on it and
it'll be
okay.
And from
that,
to
apologise
to both
of my
kids and
acknowledge
my
failure.
There's
two reasons
I'm telling
you this
now.
First of
all,
you need
to know
that I,
that like
Paul,
like
Saint Paul,
as he's
known in
history,
that I,
your lead
pastor,
am
imperfect.
Now,
I don't
need to
convince you
of that
if you've
been under
my
leadership
for 17
years,
but I
am more
imperfect
than you
realise,
or that
you've
ever seen
in 17
years.
I am
fallible,
and Sunday
by Sunday,
as I
come up
here,
I'm an
emotionally
embattled
sinner who
needs a
saviour,
and I
need it,
not just
Sunday by
Sunday,
but every
single day
of my
life.
So
therefore,
beware of
thinking too
highly of
any person,
including me.
That's the
first thing.
Secondly,
the second
reason I
say this,
is the
death and
resurrection
of Jesus
Christ,
which we
have
celebrated
just recently
at Easter,
are precious
to me,
not because
they turn
my life
into a
string of
sinless
successes,
but because
the death
and resurrection
of Jesus
keeps me
from collapsing
under the
string of
my constant
failures.
things like
that.
That's
why the
gospel is
so precious
to me.
And that's
why point
three is
so important.
these verses
are both
a warning
and a
comfort.
The first
warning
is that no
one ever
gets so
advanced in
the Christian
life that
they no
longer have
sin.
If we
ever think
that we've
conquered sin
and are
pretty good
Christians,
then you're
deceived
and you're
actually
losing the
war.
The more
we grow
as a
Christian,
the more
we see
our sin.
The more
we become
aware of
our own
unrighteousness
than other
people's
unrighteousness.
The more
holy we
become,
the less
holy we
will feel.
The more
at peace
we are
with Christ,
the more
struggle we
will have
within.
Even as
we make
progress
against many
bad habits
and attitudes,
we will
grow more
and more
aware of
the rebellious,
selfish roots
that are deep
inside of our
hearts.
And the
second warning
is linked to
that,
is that no
one grows
to a point
where they
no longer
battle with
sin.
It is
absolutely
important that
we expect
the Christian
life to
be this
constant
internal
battle between
our two
selves.
In fact,
if I may
draw upon
my past
experiences
and my
past
profession
as a
feral animal
control
officer,
a wounded
feral pig
is much
more dangerous
than a
healthy one.
Much more
dangerous.
And so it
is with
sin.
The great
comfort
of this
passage
is that
the struggle
itself
is testimony
to our
new identity
in Jesus.
And so
if you
are not
currently
struggling
with your
sin,
beware.
That's the
warning.
Beware
of where
you stand
with Christ.
God
will
beware
to
sin.
This chapter
here encourages
us that
temptation
and conflict
with sin
even relapses
into sin
are not
inconsistent
with the
growing
Christian.
The
Christian
heart
cries two
things at
the same
time.
There is
the desperate
cry
of
discouragement
and despair.
Verse
24,
Paul's
cry,
what a
wretched
man I
am.
Who
will
rescue
me
from
this
body
that
is
subject
to
death?
You see,
when we
judge
ourselves
by God's
standard
rather than
our own,
that is
our only
conclusion.
When we
compare our
imperfection
against Christ's
perfection,
that is our
only conclusion.
And it's
only when our
hearts cry
out about
our
wretchedness
can we
actually know
and experience
the hope
and the
liberation
of
looking
away
from
ourselves
to what
God
has
done
for
us
in
Jesus.
That's
Paul's
desperate
cry
in
verse
24,
who
will
rescue
him
and
here
is
his
salvation
and
his
hope.
Verse
25,
thanks be
the
God
who
delivers
me
through
Jesus
Christ
our
Lord.
There
is no
hope
in
ourselves
for
our
salvation.
Our
hope
only
is
to
look
to
Jesus
dying
on the
cross
for
us.
Our
only
hope
is
to
rest
in
his
righteousness
because
it
is
Jesus
who
became
wretched
for
the
wretched
man
so
that
we
might
receive
his
righteousness.
And
so
I
assume
some
of you
in
this
room
are
frustrated
and
discouraged
and
disappointed
and
confused
with
that
daily
struggle.
embarrassed
even
when
someone
points
out
a
failing
we
automatically
go
no
I'm
not
and
we
justify
rather
than
doing
I
think
what
the
great
Charles
Spurgeon
encouraged
people to
do
was
and
he
himself
did
was
when
someone
pointed
out
his
many
failings
he
would
go
I'm
just
so
glad
I
haven't
seen
the
rest.
Christ
has
you
need
to
know
that
this
struggle
is
normal
it
will
continue
this
struggle
will
continue
to
your
final
healing
and
that
final
healing
is
as
far
away
as
your
own
resurrection
of
the
dead
in
Jesus
when
you
were
made
whole
and
complete
and
perfect
and
alive
as
he
is
now
that's
when
the
struggle
will
be
over
that's
when
every
tear
will
be
wiped
away
that
is
when
joy
will
be
complete
but
you
also
need
to
know
that
there
is
an
invincible
joy
of
hope
for
you
right
now
and
that
hope
is
as
close
to
you
as
the
risen
Christ
Jesus
is
to
you
through
his
word
by
his
spirit
pointing
you
to
the
gospel
of
hope
so
for
the
struggling
sinner
sorry
the
sorry
for
the
sinning
saint
amongst
us
don't
pull
back
from
the
struggle
as
your
sin
becomes
more
aware
know
that
while
others
may
be
ashamed
of
you
and
you
may
be
frustrated
and
ashamed
of
yourself
he
is
not
he
is
not
he
you
are
his
sinning
saint
and
my
vision
for
us
as a
church
is
that
we
would
be
a
church
that
would
grow
in
such
humility
that
we
would
be
we
would
acknowledge
our
flaws
and
our
mistakes
and
our
failures
and
our
sin
rather
than
covering
them
up
and
that
we
would
grow
more
and
more
in
his
grace
embracing
his
grace
and
therefore
display
to
our
world
the
beauty
of
the
Christian
faith
and
its
goodness
who