Father, we come before you confessing that often our pride beats us up and hostile spirits,
demons beat us up, that we can feel really guilty about things, Father, that are not
sins at all, that we feel no guilt over things that are sins, and Father, that when we do
things sometimes which are just really, really wrong, it makes us almost want to give up,
Father, to despair. And so, Father, we ask that, and Father, you know as well how sometimes
the well-meaning advice of other Christians just serves to beat us up even more. Father,
you know how many of us here this morning are refugees from legalistic and moralistic churches
that claim to preach grace but end up just beating up its members. So, Father, we ask that
you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, gently and deeply pour out your
Holy Spirit upon us, so that we might hear these stark words of yours in Romans 7, that they might
enter into who we are, and that we might understand the great glory of the gospel and how great is your
grace and love towards us. And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
Humanly speaking, the man who was responsible for me becoming an Anglican, not a Christian,
I was already a Christian, but me falling in love with the Anglican way, and humanly speaking,
the man who was responsible for me recognizing that God had called me to be a pastor. And humanly
speaking, the man who was a really important mentor, not only for myself but also for my wife,
I started attending this fellow's church as a single man, and when I left, I was married, had some kids,
and was ordained. And so, humanly speaking, this man was very important to me. And less than a year
after I left the church, he was stripped of his power to minister in the Diocese of Ottawa because
of a long history of affairs, which he had kept secret. And I remember getting the letter in the mail,
and then discovering that not only was he no longer able to function as a pastor in the Diocese of Ottawa,
but that his marriage had broken up. And he had five kids. He had some grandkids at the time as well.
And it was a great shock to Louise and me. And just as I think it was a great shock to many to find out
that this had happened to him. And so, how is it that those types of things can go on? Like, why is it that
in many ways, God used this man in a very, very powerful way in my life, brought a lot of healing
to me in my life as I just watched his example and listened to him pray and heard him teach?
And how is it that something like that could happen in a man like that, and yet at the same time,
there was this other side to him that ended up ruining his relationship with his wife and kids
and ruining his ministry? Romans 7 gets right to the heart of this issue. And so, it would be a great
help to me if you were to open your Bibles to Romans 7. And we're going to look at this text.
It's a text like a lot of Romans, which isn't meant to be read quickly, but it's meant to be sort of read
slowly as we see how Paul shines the light of the gospel and the light of grace into our human
condition, both before we know Jesus and after we know Jesus, as the light of the gospel and the power
of the Holy Spirit shines into who we are as human beings. So, it's Romans chapter 7, and we're beginning
reading at verse 7. And it's interesting that the Bible is going to actually begin with asking a
question that, and I'm not going to talk about that this, the Bible begins in Romans 7, and then he sort
of asks the similar question, but in different words. It's interesting that Paul asks the question
that many in our culture ask. In fact, like so many people might say that the problem with this
fellow was that Christians are just too anal about moral rules, and that being anal about moral
rules ends up leading to people having moral failings, and that if we just cut people more slack,
they'd get on better. That some people in our culture think that moral rules, especially moral rules
around sexuality, are in fact bad. That they're bad by their very nature, and that if you have a whole
pile of moral rules, especially around sexuality, but also in some other areas, that we shouldn't be
surprised if things happen, if things go south on us. That in fact, there are many people in our culture
who say that moral laws, especially in our culture, moral laws around sexuality, that they actually
cause death. And it might be a real surprise for us to see that the Bible asks those very same
questions that our culture asks. It's not as if we have to go, oh gosh, how on earth do we answer that?
Well, Romans 7, Paul asks those very same questions. Look at Romans 7, 7.
What then shall we say that the law is sin? In other words, that it's evil? By no means. And then
look down at verse 13. Did that which is good, and here he means like moral laws, did that which is good
then bring death? In other words, are moral laws murderers? Do moral laws kill us? And that's,
you just think you were in a postmodern hipster coffee shop, or in a modernist Tim Hortons coffee
shop, listening to these questions being asked, both by people in business suits, and people with
long beards, and people who are working class. It's a very, they're very common questions, and Paul
raises them. Let's go back to verse 7. What then shall we say that the law is sin? By no means.
In other words, he's saying, no way, absolutely not. Yet if it had not been for the law, and here he
means moral commands that come from God, I would not have known sin, for I would not have known what
it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. Just pause there before we go any further.
It's very, very interesting. In our culture, often when we see the word sin, we think it's referring to sex.
Now, it does refer to certain sexual things which are wrong, but the word is far, far bigger, and it's
very interesting that Paul here chooses the last command of the Ten Commandments, and it is the, all of the
other commands in the Ten Commandments, you can understand them in an external way, as just referring
to behavior. And it's the Tenth Command that doesn't refer to external behavior. It's going to the heart,
like what's going on in our hearts. So, for instance, if I was to say to you how many people here murdered
somebody this morning, hopefully nobody put their hand up. It would actually cause us a bit of a
quandary if you did put your hand up. Probably somebody should go call the police if you put
your hand up and said that this morning before you came to church you murdered somebody, right?
So, it's very, very easy with a lot of the commandments to say, I didn't tell any lies, I haven't murdered
anybody, I didn't steal anything, you know, I didn't bow down to a, you know, a statue of a cow and call it
my God and go all the way through. But coveting envy, jealousy, coveting these, this very, very internal
competitive, proud comparing of your situation with others and wanting others to have, for you to have
more than other people have, this type of insatiable sense. It's the example he uses. He doesn't use where
we often go in our culture or where non-Christians expect Christians to go to give an example of sin,
but he gives an example of coveting, of greed, of gluttony, of envy, of jealousy, of those internal
types of desires which are out of whack. And that's where Paul goes with it. And just as well, before I go
any further on it as well, Paul isn't saying that, well actually, Andrew, could you put up the first
point? And when the living God speaks, he infringes on my desire for absolute sovereignty. When the living
God speaks, he infringes on my desire for absolute sovereignty. That's what Paul's going to get at here.
He's going to talk about something. I'm going to read the rest of it through, the next few verses
through, and I'll give you an example of what he means to show that he has a profound psychological
insight about what happens to human beings when God speaks to them. And so where was I with verse 8?
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.
For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment
came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So what's Paul trying to get
at here? Well, I'll use first a funny story and then I'll use a different illustration. A couple of
years ago, I was just right here and part of my sermon, trying to open up the Bible, is I shared with
you, the people who were there at the time, you folks, that I'm an introvert, that I'm actually quite a
strong introvert. I like people, but people tire me and I need to recharge my batteries.
My friend Charlie, he's an extrovert. If he said, if somebody said, if Charlie and I were together and
they said, can you want to go to this church and there's 300 people that you've never met before,
I would go, oh no, 300 people that I've never met before. And Charlie would go, oh wow, 300 people
that I've never met before. We can spend the whole day with them? I would just get him charged up. He'd
be so excited. It would be like Christmas for him. And for me, it would be like I've gotten the coal
in my stocking, not the presents. Anyway, so I was just sharing about my introversion and one of the
things about my introversion, at least for me, is that I'm not very huggy. I don't like hugging people.
I mean, I love hugging my wife and my kids and grandkids, but I'm not like huggy. Most of you who
come to the church have probably noticed that I don't go around hugging everybody when they leave
the church. So I was sharing this as part of the sermon. And then after the service, there was a
woman who was a guest and she came up to me and said, oh pastor, that was so brave of you to share
about your introversion. Can I pray for you? And I'm thinking, why? I can always use more pressure.
Can I pray that the Lord will deliver you from being an introvert?
And I didn't want to correct her because, you know, the fact of the matter is I need as much
prayer as I can get, right? I'm never going to tell somebody, don't pray for me. So then I said,
sure. So I'll have to put the Bible down. So I started to get my hands like this. And the next
thing I know, and she was a very sizable woman, she grabbed me with her right arm, put me in a
headlock, pressed me to her bosom like this, her arms shaking. And I'm stuck there trying to figure
out what on earth to do against her bosom. And then she proceeded with the other hand to raise
it and pray loudly over me. The self-confessed introvert who said he didn't like to hug.
Okay. So you can see I'm a very effective public speaker. I had obviously deeply gotten through to
her, something about a whole range of things. Anyway, so about a year after that, I was invited to be
one of the speakers at Atreus Dias weekend for men. And so if you've ever been to Atreus Dias weekend,
there's lots of great things about it, but they love to hug. Good grief. They love to hug. And so
when I, for one of the talks, and it fit into it, I shared this story thinking naively and foolishly
that I was providing comfort to the other introverts in the room. But all it meant was that every man
wanted to hug me for the rest of the weekend. Without fail, probably no man who was there did not take
the moment to come up and say, you don't want me to hug you, do you? And then they'd hug me.
I was really foolish. Okay. So on a very, very light note, what is it about human beings
that if you say something like that, it creates that desire? Like what is it about human beings?
And what is it if many of you might not even have noticed that there's this fake snow type stuff
right here? What if I was to all of a sudden say that you can't touch that snow, that if you touch
that snow, it's a great sin. It's very, very wrong. It's very offensive. Now, several things will happen.
First of all, most of you hadn't even noticed it was there. For the rest of the service, if you thought
I was serious, you'd keep looking at it, wouldn't you? And some of you, just to show me, would say,
hey, George, and then touch it, right? You know who you are. And if you don't know who you are,
your best friend knows who you are, they're probably thinking that exactly describes you.
You would go up and touch it. And others of you would be sneaky. And you might say, Daniel,
go over there and talk to George and get him looking this way. And then you'd go up and touch it,
right? And then there'd be everything in between. There'd be a couple of you, you know who you are,
who probably wouldn't touch it, right? But eventually, if it was there every week,
probably we would touch it. So what is it, okay, that about human beings, that we all know that
that is pretty true and that none of us are... The thing that maybe surprises many of you is why I was
dumb enough to tell the story about the woman hugging me to a room full of men thinking I would
get a different result. And that's why you need to keep praying for me. I can sometimes be remarkably
clueless. So what is it about human beings? So what Paul is saying here is that
moral laws, the one that come from God, not the ones that come from our culture,
our pride, our ego, but true moral laws that reflect the nature and character of God,
that when God speaks them and we recognize them clearly, there springs up within us
an over-preoccupation with thinking about them, and ultimately it reveals within us that we desire
to break them.
Like, the men at the Tres Dias weekend didn't realize that their response showed that they were
fallen and need a savior, because they were just joking. But that's what their response showed.
It showed that they were fallen and need a savior, and that even though many of them had been
Christians for a very, very long time, there was still something within them that desired to transgress.
That's what it shows. Andrew, could you put up this image? And our screen isn't big enough to really,
you know, capture this in a perfect way, but you can get a sort of an idea, and it's sort of,
probably in an ideal world, we'd have a different screen, so this could all just go straight rather
than an angle, but it's what we have to do to get it onto a screen. This image is an image of the story of the Bible.
This gives you a basic understanding of how the entire Bible is written, the overarching story,
the story which is actually present in it. And Genesis 1 and 2, that's the first thing,
is that the whole world is created by God, and he creates it good.
And then the second thing is Genesis chapter 3,
and it describes how,
in Adam,
we desire to be like God,
and rebel against God, because we want to be like God,
and we who are made in the image of God,
and have, in a sense, a role of caring for God's creation,
that we become bent, we become broken.
The image of God isn't taken away from us, but we become bent.
And as Genesis, as the rest of the Bible will show us,
that there's not a single aspect of ourselves
that isn't touched by the fall,
that isn't bent in some small way.
It's not telling us that human beings are evil,
it's telling us that every single aspect of what it means to be human,
and if through poetry and science we discover other things about what it means to be human,
that anything that we discover about what it means to be human
is touched by this fall,
that it's bent slightly.
And then Genesis chapter 4, up until the end of Malachi,
is the next section.
And it's a way to understand all of the Old Testament,
is that God sees us, having created us good,
and to have fellowship and communion with Him,
He sees that we're bent and we can't save ourselves.
And for the rest of the Old Testament,
Genesis chapter 4 to Malachi 4,
it's a combination of promise and preparation.
Promising that God,
God promising to human beings,
He does it gradually,
He does it through wisdom literature,
He does it through laws,
He does it through poetry,
He does it through mystical visions,
He does it in lots of different literary genres,
God speaks in lots of different literary genres,
over a wide period of time,
but it's all both preparing people for the Messiah
and promising the Messiah.
And then you see up there,
it's Jesus,
and that means God's kept His promise.
That's in some ways the whole heart of Advent,
because the heart of Advent is that God has kept His promises
in sending His Son to be born in Bethlehem
and to die upon the cross,
and that Jesus will come again a second time.
God keeps His promise in the person of Jesus.
And we all live in 2015,
we live in the already not yet.
We live in the time between God keeping His promise
to call to a people Himself again
and to redeem them through Jesus
and what He did on the cross,
the gift of the Holy Spirit,
the guarantee that we have a standing before God
which is right,
which is given to us as a gift by Jesus
that nothing can take away,
yet at the same time,
obviously the world is still full of evil and rebellion.
There's still evil and rebellion within us,
within you and me,
and we wait for the end when Jesus comes.
And that's basically most of the New Testament.
And the end is what's described a little bit today
in the Gospel reading,
in the book of Revelation at the end.
It's when Jesus comes again,
the living and the dead are judged,
and the new heaven and the new earth is created.
And that's also the end is also the beginning.
And this is not only the overarching story of the Bible.
The Bible claims that this is real,
that God really is there.
He really does speak.
Jesus really did come.
He really did die upon the cross.
There's historical evidence of His existence
and of His death,
and even historical evidence of His resurrection.
And that this is not only the story of the Bible,
it's the story of the human race.
That's the claim of the Bible.
It's the story of the human race.
It's within this story
that we can understand who we are as human beings.
We can understand our longings and our yearnings,
our dreams and our hopes,
and we can understand those things about us
that terrify us.
So, Andrew, could you put up A,
in good Canadian fashion?
I'm going to keep on saying A throughout the service.
This is what the book of Romans
is trying to communicate with us.
that until we see Him face to face,
every follower of Jesus lives in the already,
not yet,
with a divided and contradictory self.
Every follower,
until we see Jesus face to face,
that's 1 John 2,
every follower of Jesus lives in the already,
not yet,
with a divided and contradictory self.
We don't live at the end
or the beginning.
We aren't perfect.
Read 2 Corinthians 4 and 5,
the treasure of the gospel,
the fact that the Holy Spirit
indwells the believer,
that we have entered into Jesus
and that Jesus has entered into us,
that's in a sense the already,
something that we'll just get more of in heaven.
But at the same time,
we live in the not yet.
And as part of that not yet,
we aren't perfect.
We're not,
there's still parts within us
that just still are in rebellion against God.
And that's what Paul,
that's what the Bible is trying
to help us to understand.
And it's really,
really,
really important
because,
you know,
I've talked
and I've heard so many Christians
and maybe,
I don't know,
Lord have mercy,
when I,
maybe I've been guilty
of some of this stuff as well,
but often I would just have this sense
of not knowing what to speak about it
as I would hear somebody speak up
and say
that the problem that you have with your life
is a lack of willpower.
Well, I mean,
on one hand,
every human being has some problems
with willpower.
I don't,
you know,
if I could go back in time,
I wouldn't have eaten those potato chips
last night while I watched the movie,
you know?
We all have problems with willpower.
But, you know,
we might say to a Christian,
and it's a really terrible thing
for Christians who struggle with depression,
Christians who struggle with mental illness,
Christians who struggle
with some deep type of brokenness within them,
and just to be told,
all you need is more willpower.
You're just not trying hard enough.
If you were trying hard enough,
you wouldn't be doing this.
It's all about trying.
It's all about willpower.
And then there's others who say,
oh,
if you just thought better,
if you just thought better thoughts,
if you just memorized these attitudes
from John Maxwell
about how to have a positive life,
if you just read more Zig Ziglar
and had little positive sayings
on your fridge,
you would have a better life.
And then there's others who say
that there's nothing at all
to do with any of that stuff.
You need a special anointing.
And you need to have a special anointing
that goes along with an experience
of emotional breakdown and turmoil.
And if you just have this moment of brokenness
with a great emotion,
then you will live a life of victory.
If you have the willpower,
you will live a life of victory.
If you have these positive thoughts in your head,
you will live a life of victory.
If you just know the right rituals,
if you just know the right rules,
you will have a life of victory.
But that's the normal Christian life.
The normal Christian life
is a life of victory.
How many of us have heard speakers
and Christians who tell us
these types of things?
Or they say the problem is
that you have demons in you.
The reason you can't stop smoking
is not because tobacco
is more addictive than crack cocaine.
It's because you have a demon.
Let us cast that demon out.
And then lo and behold,
the poor beat up Christian
who says to himself,
I've tried my willpower.
It doesn't work.
And I, gosh, I've had
the demon of cigarettes
cast out of me 18 times.
I still smoke.
Maybe I'm not a Christian at all.
Maybe I'm just going to hell.
And it's for those of us
who labor under this
that Paul continues on
in verse 13.
And one of the things about this,
when I,
one of the academic commentaries
that I consulted prior to this,
there's 10 different ways
of understanding Romans 7.
I'm not going to bore,
I can't even remember them.
I'm not going to bore you with them.
I'm going to read it
in the most simple,
straightforward way
because the shocking thing is,
is that in these verses 7 through 12,
Paul uses the past tense,
the form of the past tense.
In verses 14 on,
he uses the present tense.
This is Paul.
He has been a Christian
for 25 years,
20 to 25 years.
God has used him.
The Holy Spirit has used him
in a way which is far more powerful,
not put any of you down,
than any of you who are here
because God actually uses him
to write scripture.
And God uses him
to plant churches
as an evangelist.
God uses him
that even when he gets
beaten up and thrown in jail,
still he shares the gospel.
And listen to how Paul speaks.
Verse 13 and then following.
Did that which is good,
which is moral laws,
then bring death to me
by no means.
It was sin producing death in me
through what is good,
in order that sin
might be shown to be sin,
and through the commandment
might become sinful
beyond measure.
For we know that the law
is spiritual,
but I am of the flesh
sold under sin.
Now just pause here
before we go any farther.
Those of you who maybe
have been reading ahead
or remember what Ken just read
a few moments ago,
the language seems way too stark.
Andrew, could you put up
this next point for me, please?
Here's the problem.
I'm not smart enough
to say this,
and if you disagree with this,
it's Psalm 36, verse 2.
Take it up with God.
I flatter myself too much
to detect or hate my own sin.
That is profoundly wise.
Even if you don't believe
that the Bible
is God's word written,
like I do,
you have to say,
this is profoundly wise.
I flatter myself too much
to detect or hate my own sin.
And if you say,
well, actually,
you know, I'm pretty good.
I don't sin.
Wow!
All you've done
is proved how much
you flatter yourself.
Because your friends,
your boss,
your neighbors,
will not agree
with your self-assessment,
your kids,
or your parents.
And so the problem is,
is that all of us
flatter ourselves
too much to detect
or hate our own sin.
And so that when we read
these next things
in Romans 7,
we recoil.
We want to say,
it's too extreme,
it's too hard.
We want to recoil from it.
And the reason
we want to recoil from it
is because you and I
flatter ourselves too much
to detect or hate
our own sin.
Including myself in this.
It's jarring.
Andrew, could you put up
A again?
Just remember,
until we see him
face to face,
every follower of Jesus
lives in the already-not-yet
with a divided
and contradictory self.
That's what Paul
is teaching us.
And when you have
a divided
and contradictory self,
Paul isn't saying
that you never use
willpower.
He's never saying
that we don't have
breakthroughs.
He's not saying
that we shouldn't ask
for more of the Holy Spirit.
In fact,
Romans 8 is the profound
after-Christmas break
of Romans.
We're going to talk
Romans 8,
three weeks in Romans 8.
It's the profound text
about the power
of the Holy Spirit
in the Christian's life.
And Paul's not going to say
that there's not things
you should know.
He's not going to say
any of those things,
but he's going to say
that if Christians
use these things
as sticks
to beat up other Christians,
trying to get us
to believe
that the normal Christian life
is a life of victory
where we do not sin,
you have not understood
the Scriptures,
you have not understood
Romans chapter 7,
because a divided
and contradictory self
is exactly what it means.
Until we see him
face to face,
there is always going
to be a struggle
with sin.
And sin will continue
to shock us
and surprise us.
And we will,
as we see in a moment,
we'll ask ourselves,
why on earth
did I do that?
How could I do that
given what I know
about Jesus?
Struggle with sin
is the normal
Christian life.
To not struggle
with sin
means that you've
surrendered to it.
not everyone.
I mean,
some of us
are just tempted
for some things
and not the others.
I've never been
tempted
to same-sex attraction,
and that's not something
I can be proud about.
Anybody who's proud about it,
that doesn't mean anything.
It just means
you don't have
that temptation.
Some in our midst
have that temptation.
It's a real temptation
that they live with.
And that person
who has maybe
the same-sex attraction,
they don't have
maybe your problem
with pride
or with debt
because you spend money
to fill voids
in your lives
and they don't,
or maybe they don't
have your problem
with telling the truth
or we could go on
and on and on and on.
Just because,
I mean,
it just really is the case
that there are just
some temptations
that no human,
that a particular human being
doesn't have.
They're just not there.
I've stayed in hotels
beside casinos.
I've never gone in.
I have no temptation
to gamble whatsoever.
Absolutely none.
But I'm not saying that
because it shows
there's something
excellent about me.
I'm not going to start
telling you all the things
I am tempted to,
by the way.
And it's one of the reasons
I,
but it's just not there.
And I shouldn't,
it's nothing to be proud about.
It's just not there
for some reason.
I have others.
I have a long,
long, long list.
I mean,
here's the thing.
The fact is,
if God showed up
in our midst,
an angel showed up
in our midst
and all of a sudden
froze all of us
to our seat
and all of a sudden
the finger of God
would touch a part
in our forehead
and there'd be
a pop-up screen
that comes from our soul,
who we are,
and it pops up
and it lists
the things
that we're most tempted to
and the things
that we succumb to
in terms of sin
the most
and it just gives
the top 100.
There'd be nobody here
who would only
goes up to five
or down to five.
Everybody would have
a list that goes up
to 100
and our list
would be different.
It would just be different.
When I used to speak
in settings before
when we were dealing
with a lot of issues
around same-sex issues,
I would say
that one of the
great problems
that Christians
have around that
is Christians talk
as if same-sex attraction
is number one.
Where's that in the Bible?
Not in the Bible.
That's our culture.
In fact,
it might even be
for a same-sex attracted person
that when they do
that thing in their forehead,
their same-sex attraction
isn't number one.
It might be number nine.
That the greater sin
that they struggle with
is maybe to do with pride
or who knows what it is.
I don't know what it is.
But that...
It's what the Bible
is trying to teach us here, friends.
Let's read verse 14 again.
For we know that the law
is spiritual
and what it means is
that means here
is that it comes from God.
But I am of the flesh
sold under sin
for I do not understand
my own actions.
For I do not do what I want
but I do the very thing I hate.
Just pause there.
Isn't that a profoundly wise statement?
Even if you don't believe
the Bible is God's word written,
this is profoundly true.
I was sharing on Parliament Hill
when I was speaking there
to the Parliament Hill
Christian Fellowship on Friday.
Here's a thing to understand.
And virtually no man
wakes up and says,
I think I'm going to be a jerk
to my wife today.
Yep.
I think I'm going to take
every opportunity imaginable
to be a jerk to my wife.
Like nobody wakes up...
Virtually no man
wakes up thinking that.
Like I said, virtually.
Okay?
Sometimes we wake up
really grumpy and ornery
and that is what we say.
Okay?
Or some people say.
And no wife wakes up and says,
I'm going to spend my whole day
frustrating my husband.
I think that's what I'll do.
I'm going to contradict him,
make his life miserable.
I'm going to nag him,
bug him.
That's what I think
I'll do today.
That's number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
on my to-do list.
No wife wakes up
thinking that.
Virtually none.
The experience of people
is verse 15.
I do not understand
my own actions
for I do not do
what I want
but I do the very thing
I hate.
Now if I do
what I do not want
I agree with the law
that it is good.
Andrew, could you put up
the next point for us please?
Here's a really, really
important thing
about what Paul's saying
and you'll notice it
in his language
but it's really, really, really,
really, really important.
One of the problems with
like in our laws
there's problems
that if you're drunk
you're not as responsible.
There's increasingly
this idea
that if you
have certain types
of other things
that are drives
or wounds in your past
you're not as responsible.
There are people
who've gone through therapy
and the result
of the therapy
is that they can have
a big smile on their face
because they now know
that everything that's wrong
in their life
is somebody else's fault.
But the Bible here
is very, very clear.
My divided
and contradictory nature
does not let me
off the hook
for the wrong that I do
and the good
that I fail to do.
My divided
and contradictory nature
does not let me
off the hook
for the wrong that I do
and the good
that I fail to do.
It doesn't let me
off the hook.
But just remember
throughout all of this
if you could put up
A again, Andrew
until we see him
face to face
every follower
of Jesus
lives in the already
not yet
with the divided
and contradictory self.
Let's just
continue reading
and let's do
verse 16 again.
Now if I do
what I want
sorry
now if
I need better glasses
for if I do
what I want
do not want
I agree
that the law
is good
so now
it is no longer
I who do it
but sin
that dwells
in me.
So now
it is no longer
I who do it
but sin
that dwells
within me.
Is this just
contradicting
what you just said
George
or is this
I'm a bit
confused.
Here's
I'm not going
to be able
to prove it
to you
I'm just going
to have to make
a bit of a statement
about this
but it's
one of the problems
that we have
when we bring
our cultural
assumptions
and we just
read one part
of the Bible
but let me tell you
if you study
the Bible
especially the Old Testament
but if you study
Genesis to Malachi
and then if you study
the New Testament
you'll see that
the Bible knows
that there's obviously
things that come
in pairs
and that the number
two exists
but the Bible
rejects all
dualism.
Andrew if you could
put up this next
point.
It's really important
for us to understand
and listen to this
language here.
The Bible is not
saying that I am
not divided
between the divine
and the earthly
the higher and the lower
the good and evil
spiritual and physical
mind and matter
I could add
yin and yang
I am not a soul
trapped in a body
I am not an angel
trapped on this
human plane
I am not a God
self trapped
in physicality.
The Bible
completely and utterly
rejects all of that
any type of dualism
that mind is good
and matter is bad
that the spirit
is good
and the body
is evil
that the higher
is good
and that the lower
it rejects all of that
all the way through it
in fact
he's here trying
to make this claim
that I am redeemed
fallen
in the already
not yet.
You see the fact
of the matter is
is that God
claims
every square
inch
of reality
every
molecule
is maintained
in existence
by him
everything
was created
by him
except evil
which is a type
of unmaking
or breaking
it's all
sustained
by him
it will all
be redeemed
by him
and I have
a spirit
and a soul
and I have
a body
but I am
an indivisible
unity
of spirit
or soul
and body
an indivisible
unity
to divide
that
is what
Christians
understand
death
to be
and so
the Bible
here is not
so it's easy
for us to slip in
what Paul is doing
is he's using
stark imagery
he's using a
multiplication
of different
types of images
to capture
so that you know
maybe if you're
coming from one
a certain type
of pagan
perspective
or a Jewish
perspective
that you can
get the point
because he's
using lots
of different
analogies
to try to
capture this
fact of a
divided and
contradictory
self
but I have
one self
not two
I have one
body
not two
and the fall
affects my
mind
it isn't as if
somehow or
another
it's just my
body
that's
you know
don't be
mad at me
for stealing
that thing
in the store
it was just
my hand
my mind
is thinking
pure thoughts
no it's
nothing ridiculous
like that
our body
is God's
our mind
is God's
our sexuality
is God's
our money
is God's
God claims
all our
memories
our past
our dreams
our longings
our yearnings
everything that
makes me
me
he claims
and it is
redeemed
in Jesus
but there
is a
power
and force
still within
me
because
I live
in the
already
not yet
and I
will not
be whole
and free
until I
see Jesus
face to
face
Andrew
could you
put up
A again
please
last time
I'll put
it up
until we
see him
face to
face
every
follower
of Jesus
lives
in the
already
not yet
with a
divided
and contradictory
self
let's
continue
reading
from
verse
17
we
see
where
Paul's
going
with
all
of
this
I
have
to
sort of
go
quicker
because
of
the
time
sin
that
dwells
within
me
I
am
divided
and
contradictory
in
my
mind
my
body
my
sexuality
my
attachment
to
money
my
ambition
every
single
part
of
me
is
divided
and
contradictory
so I
find it
to be
a law
that when
I want
to do
right
verse 21
evil
lies
close
at
hand
for I
delight
in
the law
of God
in my
inner
being
at the
very
center
of who
I
am
where
Jesus
sits
on the
throne
but I
see
in
my
members
another
law
waging
war
against
the
law
of
my
mind
and
making
me
captive
to
the
law
of
sin
that
dwells
in
my
members
where's
Paul
going
with
this
profound
verse
wretched
man
that I
am
who
will
deliver
me
from
this
body
of
death
thanks
be
to
God
through
Jesus
Christ
our
Lord
so
then I
myself
serve
the
law
of
God
with
my
mind
but
with
my
flesh
I
serve
the
law
of
sin
Andrew
could
you
put
up
the
almost
final
point
wretched
person
that I
am
who
can
deliver
me
from
this
body
of
death
thanks
be
to
God
through
Jesus
Christ
our
Lord
Hoboken
God
God's
grace
will
work
on
my
sexuality
and
it
will
work
on
my
will
power
and
it
will
work
on
my
memories
and
it
will
work
on
the
images
in
my
head
and
it
will
work
on
my thinking and it will work on the furniture of my brain and it will work on my habits and the
grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and God's Word written will work on how I
understand my relationship to the state and how I understand my relationship to male or female and
I can go on and on and on and on and on the Holy Spirit that's why we have hope in this it's the
already not yet for a Christian right but it's always going to keep bringing us back to saying
that's why I need a Savior in a sense as the Holy Spirit moves and works more deeply in our lives
not only do we do start to see some victory over sin and we really do and we really do see healing
but we often discover new areas of our lives that were broken by sin that we didn't even know existed
and one almost final point Andrew could you put up point number six a follower of Jesus's eternal
standing with God cannot be shaken but our walk with Jesus needs daily attention and daily grace
a follower of Jesus's eternal standing with God cannot be shaken but our walk with Jesus needs
daily attention and daily grace when we call out to Jesus to be our Savior and our Lord we he really
takes our hands he really redeems us he really makes us born again the final word about God we can
from God about us we can now know but in the already not yet until we see Jesus face to face I have a
divided and contradictory self and knowing the gospel the more I'm gripped by the gospel the more I'm able
to be have before me a model of how it is that I should live as I'm grounded and gripped by the gospel
gripped by the gospel and grounded in the gospel there begins to be a process to see yes the Bible knows this
about me and maybe by myself and maybe with the help of a brother or a sister or a congregation I can start to
look at how it is that I have such a problem with selfishness there's such a problem with anger in my
relationships or such a problem with twisted ambition and as the gospel grips us and as we're ground in
the get in the gospel as we understand how our standing before God that is dependent not upon our
accomplishments but upon his right standing with God given to the lowest and worst believer and the best
as a free gift of grace his right standing with God is now mine when I put my faith and trust in Jesus
and nothing will take that away and as this gift of righteousness grips us as it becomes the ground of
our being we have a model for how to live we get nudged into new ways of living we get drawn with the
problem of seeing the promise of seeing Jesus face to face to new ways of living and we can look at
those roots of our behavior and our contradictory and divided self as we give up the whole process of
self-righteousness and self-justification even as people criticize us we can say yes I am a man who
needs prayer and I don't think I need to be healed of introversion but introversion doesn't excuse all of us the
way I live and there are things in my introversion that needs healing just as extroverts need some
healing in their extroversion and you see it's within this context you're gonna understand everything
in the Anglican liturgy the heart of the Anglican liturgy is to get you to give your life to Jesus but
day by day there's going to be new things that come to our attention that we need to say Jesus I'm sorry
for that and give me grace that's what the confession is all about not that you say confession
53 100 times you go to heaven nothing to do with that it's your daily walk
and we'll skip the other images let's just go to Romans 1 could you all stand please
could you say this with me Romans 1 16 and 17 for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power
of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in the right
the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by
faith a power of God for salvation that ordinary people like you and me can receive and then we begin
to live in the already not yet until we've given our lives to Jesus God is just patiently hoping that
we respond to his call his call on our lives to give our lives to Jesus but when we put our hands in
Jesus's hands we receive a righteousness that comes from God and now we live by faith let's bow our heads in
prayer father if there are any here who have not yet given their lives to Jesus may this be the day
may this be the moment where they call out to you not with fancy words or that they have to repeat
after me but may they just say father Lord Jesus Christ what George was talking about today I need I am
that wretched man I need you as my Lord and Savior and father may those who have not yet made such a call
may they say that today and father for those of us who are here we still have contradictory and
divided selves you know father how things like anger resentment or unforgiveness or wounds from our
past and you know father the power they still have in our lives we call out to you father that you might
make us disciples of Jesus gripped by the gospel who are being freed by your holy spirit and by your word
there are only people who are being admired by the gospel our Father if there is any other means
should have been did we make us better as if we are subject to God and in our lives we ask kamera
we speak to you that we offer you who are seeing Jesus
in their lives in their lives look at all of usIT offices when they stop�� we just said
pour it out father we might be disciples of Jesus gripped by the gospel pour out your holy spirit
in this we ask in Jesus name and all the people said amen
Amen.