Well, good morning, and let me say, as always, what a pleasure it is to be here and to have
fellowship with you this morning.
If you have your Bible, it would be great to have it open at Romans chapter 7, which
was read so well for us there.
Thank you for that.
I wonder if you ever take a detour, if you're making a journey.
We were driving a few weeks ago down to Northumbria, and we drove the A1, and we saw a sign for
St. Ab's.
Now, I've never been to St. Ab's.
I'd never actually heard of St. Ab's until I saw something on the BBC website a few weeks
ago that it's been twinned with New Asgard from the Avengers movie.
There were some scenes from Avengers Endgame, apparently.
I haven't seen it, but filmed in St. Ab's, and the locals have made much of this, and
they've got a sign saying, twinned with New Asgard, and what have you.
So we thought, well, let's go and have a look at this.
And we were delighted, not only to find that there were no evil aliens, but that it was
a beautiful fishing town.
And so we took a detour, and we were greatly blessed by the detour.
And really, what we have in Romans chapter 7, verses 7 to 25, is something of a detour.
It's something of an excursus the apostle Paul makes in the flow of the book.
He speaks about the old life under the law, and then into chapter 8, he'll talk about the
new life into the spirit.
But we have these verses, chapter 7, 7 down to 25, and they seem to interrupt the flow of
thought from between 7, 6 and 8, 1.
In fact, if you read chapter 7, verse 6, you can go straight on and read chapter 8, verse
1.
But Paul interrupts his argument and introduces this subject here.
So we want to ask the question, why he does that, and then what does he actually say in
these verses?
This is, I have to be honest, one of the most challenging passages in the New Testament.
One of the commentaries I read said this is one of the most disputed passages in the New
Testament.
Martin Lloyd-Jones, if you read his commentary, has an entire chapter just about who the person
in Romans chapter 7 actually is.
And I have to confess I was a little bit anxious about approaching this.
So a couple of weeks ago I sat down to lunch with a friend who's got a PhD in Pauline theology,
who's taught New Testament all around the world, and I said, I'm speaking in Romans chapter
7 at Brunsfield in a couple of weeks.
And he went, tricky.
And that was it.
So what we're going to do is we're going to take a sort of long run up, and we're going
to do what you do in school, in maths, when you're not sure of the answer, you show you're
working, and you hope the teacher will give you some credit for the working, even if your
conclusion isn't right.
Firstly, we're in the book of Romans.
Thank you, Ewan, for pointing that out.
You're studying Romans, and particularly Romans chapter 5, I believe through to verse 8 in
your series, The Christian Life.
Romans chapter 5 to verse 8 is bookended by the subject of suffering and glory.
Chapter 5, verses 2 and 3.
We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and we rejoice in our sufferings.
Romans chapter 8, verse 18.
I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory
that is to be revealed in us.
So the Christian life is a life that will be characterized by suffering in the here and
now and glory in the age to come.
We live in this age, but we are people of the age to come, and therefore it's not unusual
if in your Christian life you are facing trials and temptations of many kinds.
We're often taught that as Christians we are to be victorious, we are more than conquerors,
and all that is true, but we will suffer before we enter the glory that is to come.
And in Romans chapter 5 through to verse 8, there are a series of contrasts we'll consider.
In chapter 6, we have the contrast of life outside of Christ and life in Christ.
In Adam, all die.
In Christ, all shall be made alive.
In Adam, we are under sin.
In Christ, we are under grace.
In Adam, we receive the wages of death.
In Christ, the wages of eternal life.
There are two men, two heads of humanity.
And we do well to ask ourselves, well, which one am I under?
Am I in Adam or am I in Christ?
Christ comes to us offering the forgiveness of sins, offering new life in his Holy Spirit,
offering eternal life.
And he says, make your choice.
Whose footsteps will you follow?
When I drove here today, it was a bit of a round trip for various reasons.
And I passed a lot of churches.
A lot of churches open up.
People going into churches, which is wonderful.
You're in church this morning, but are you in Christ?
Have you committed yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ,
turning from sin, turning to him,
and then accepting him as your Lord, your master and friend?
So there is suffering before glory.
There are two humanities.
There is the humanity in Adam, the humanity in Christ.
But now, chapter 6 tells us that we are free from sin.
In Christ, we are forgiven and we are free.
Chapter 6, verse 10, you have died to sin.
Chapter 6, verse 18, you have been set free from sin.
There is a change of employer, a change of master.
No longer are we slaves to sin.
Now we are slaves to God and to righteousness.
And when we get to chapter 7,
and I listened to the very helpful sermon last week by our brother Ian,
Paul moves to speak about the law, the law of Moses.
And this is a major topic in Paul's writings.
It was a major issue in the first century,
because the church consisted of Jews and of Gentiles.
And the debate of that generation was,
what is the relationship of the law of Moses to the gospel of Jesus Christ?
And that provides the backdrop to so much of the New Testament,
so much of the Acts of the Apostles,
so much of Paul's writing, among others.
I think it was Martin Luther who said,
if anybody wants to be a theologian,
they must seek to understand the relationship of the law to the gospel.
And Paul seeks to explain something of that relationship here.
He's already explained, beginning at chapter 2,
that we are not justified by the law.
We are not declared righteous in God's sight by our own observation of the law.
Romans chapter 3, verse 20.
For by the works of the law,
no human being will be justified in God's sight,
since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
And in chapter 7, beginning at verse 1,
he says that as Christians, we are no longer under the law.
We have died to the law.
We have been set free from the law.
The same language he was using of sin in chapter 6.
And instead of being under the law,
he will go on to argue in chapter 8 that we are now in the Spirit.
Today is Pentecost,
when the Lord first sent the Holy Spirit from heaven.
And as Christians, we live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And Paul will next week,
you'll probably see this more clearly,
draw out that contrast between being under the law
and being in the Spirit.
And as we go into chapter 7, therefore,
I want you to have that contrast in your minds.
And it's particularly spelt out at the end of the passage we studied last week.
Chapter 7, verse 5.
When we were controlled by the sinful nature,
literally the flesh,
the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies
so that we bore fruit to death.
But now, by dying to what once bound us,
we've been released from the law
so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit
and not in the old way of the written code.
So I just want you to hold those verses in your mind.
This week and into next,
chapter 7, verse 5 is really a summary of our passage today.
Chapter 7, verse 6 is something of a summary
of what you'll study next week in Romans chapter 8.
It's like two sides of a coin
where Paul describes the experience,
firstly, of life under the law
and then secondly, of life in the Spirit.
Why then do we have this detour?
Why then, from verse 7,
does Paul introduce this parenthesis?
And I think the reason is to reassure people
that actually the law of God,
the law given to Moses,
the moral law,
the Ten Commandments,
are God's good gift to humanity.
He's told them that they've died to sin,
they're set free from sin.
And we think, well, that's wonderful
because sin's a ghastly thing, isn't it?
It's a terrible, toxic, radioactive thing in our life
that wants to destroy us and our relationships
and harm us.
And so we're glad to be dead to sin.
We're glad to be freed from sin.
But people might say, well, Paul,
you're telling us that we've died to the law,
that we've been set free from the law.
Are you saying that the law itself is a ghastly thing?
And Paul says, no.
The law was given to Israel by God.
In chapter 9, verse 4,
where he says of the great privileges
of the Jewish people,
theirs is the adoption to sonship,
theirs the divine glory,
the covenants,
the receiving of the law,
the temple worship,
and the promises.
So the law is good.
It's not able to save us
or sanctify us,
but the law is God's good gift
to his people.
Okay, so that's by means of introduction.
So what I want to do now
is just to look at this passage in two halves.
Firstly, verse 7 down to verse 13,
we'll consider the law and sin and death.
And then verse 14 to the end,
we'll think of the law,
our sinful nature,
and our disobedience.
So verse 7, chapter 7.
And what Paul seems to say here
is a principle we see worked out
in different spheres of life.
So I live next to a bowling club.
I have joined the bowling club.
I've not been asked to play
for the firsts in the bowling club,
but who knows, one day.
But recently, the bowling club had a problem
because there's a fox in our street,
and every morning the fox was digging up the green.
And if you bowl,
you'll know how obsessional bowlers are
about the green,
and how difficult it is to bowl
if there's a giant hole in the centre of it,
and your bowls keep dropping into the hole.
And so the bowling club set up an electric fence.
And they did it over a weekend,
and it's just a thin wire,
and it has a sign saying,
electric fence, do not touch,
and a picture of somebody being electrocuted
in a ghastly way.
And on the first day of the bowling season,
we all turned up,
and do you know what everybody was doing?
They were touching the electric fence.
The sign said, do not touch,
and they all wanted to touch it.
And that's what Paul is saying here.
It's sin seizing the opportunity,
produced in me every kind of covetous desire.
Sin seems to come to life
in the face of the law.
He says a number of things.
He says, firstly,
that the law reveals our sin.
It shows us God's character
and his standards.
In a sense,
it shows us his holiness
and our sinfulness.
One of the great reformed confessions of faith
says this,
although believers are not under the law,
it is of great use to them
as well as to others,
in that as a rule of life
informing them of the will of God
and their duty,
it directs and binds them
to walk accordingly,
discovering also the sinful pollutions
of their nature,
hearts,
and lives.
The law tells us
what is wrong.
I parked in Broughton Street
a couple of weeks ago
to buy a steak pie.
I went to the machine.
The machine didn't accept my money.
I thought,
happy days.
I'm outside the parking restrictions.
I bought the pie.
I was delighted.
I sat down in the car.
There was a parking ticket
on the windscreen.
And I got out the car
and there was a chef
from a local restaurant.
He said,
if you'd read the sign,
you wouldn't have got
the parking ticket.
The law reveals our sin.
We might not realize
anything is wrong
until we look at the law of God.
Paul did not realize
coveting,
being jealous of others
was wrong
until God's word
told him so.
And that's often the case,
isn't it?
We can live
outside of Christ
and we just go with the flow.
We just live like everybody else.
We don't think
there's a problem
with drinking to excess.
We don't think
there's a problem
with gossiping
or slandering people
in your workplace
or telling crude jokes.
We don't think
there's a problem
living together with someone
without being married.
And yet when we come
to God's word,
we begin to recognize
that these things fall short
of the glory of God
and the Lord has something
better in mind for us.
The law reveals
where we fall short.
And that was the habit
of John Wesley,
you know,
the 18th century preacher
who traveled around
and preached all through
the United Kingdom.
And he would go
to a town
and begin to preach
in the open air.
And he explained
to somebody
with a marvelous name,
he wrote a letter
to somebody called
Ebenezer Blackwell,
and I had to double take.
I thought it was
Ebenezer Blackadder,
but it's an old letter
and Ebenezer Blackwell.
And he explained
how he uses the law
and the proclamation
of the gospel.
John Wesley said this,
I think the right method
of preaching is this,
after a general declaration
of the love of God
to sinners
and his willingness
that they should be saved,
to preach the law
in the strongest,
the closest,
the most searching
manner possible,
after more and more
persons have convinced
of sin,
we may mix more
and more of the gospel
in order to beget faith,
to raise unto spiritual life
those whom the law
hath reign.
So John Wesley realized
that if people are
to come to Christ,
the friend of sinners,
they need to be shown
their sin.
And he said,
well, the law of God
shows us their sin.
The law that tells us
that stealing is wrong,
deception, lying is wrong,
coveting is wrong.
The law reveals sin.
But secondly,
the law provokes sin,
verses 8 to 12.
The world laughs about sin
and considers it
just a bit of fun.
But Paul says
it's deadly serious.
Sin is aroused by the law,
it springs to life,
and it kills him.
Verse 11,
sin seized the opportunity,
deceived me,
and through the commandment
put me to death.
There is something in us,
in our sinful nature,
that wants to break God's law.
Because sin is a rebellion
against God
when we come up against God's law
and his claims in our life,
we want to push against it,
we want to rebel against it.
If you've ever been to hospital
for an MRI scan,
you'll know that they're
very particular
that you don't have
any metal work on your body.
You take out your earrings
or whatever it is,
your watch.
And the reason is
the magnetic scan,
the MRI scan,
is a gigantic magnet
and it creates
an enormous magnetic field.
And if there's anything
internally made of metal,
it'll pull it out
and cause all sorts of damage.
Apologies there,
I should have given you a warning.
But Paul is saying
it's a bit like that
with sin and the law.
We have this sinful nature
and when it comes
into the presence
of God's law,
it's sort of aroused
and activated
and it begins to act
and move within us
and to cause terrible harm
in our lives.
The law provokes sin
but is itself holy
and the commandment good.
I suppose an analogy of that
would be adolescence,
teenager,
difficult time.
I recall being a teenager
a long time ago now,
but it was a difficult time
and there was always
that pressure, wasn't there,
to break the law.
You're told that you're not
allowed to drink
till you're 18
or smoke till you're 16
or drive a car
till you're 17
and even then
under the speed limit.
And yet people always wanted
to do these things,
to break the law,
to do things
they weren't to do.
So it is with sin
and God's law.
The law comes,
the magnet is switched on
and our sin is awoken
and seeks to be provoked
into life.
So the law reveals our sin.
The law provokes our sin
and finally,
verse 13,
the law condemns our sin
in order that sin
might be recognized
as sin it produced death in me
through hope was good
so that through the commandment
sin might become utterly sinful.
God declares his verdict
on sin through his law.
And so it's not a pretty picture.
Chapter 7, verse 11
really summarizes
this relationship of the law
to sin and death.
Sin, seizing the opportunity
afforded by the law,
deceived me
and through the commandment
put me to death.
We think of the Garden of Eden,
Adam and Eve
in their innocence,
sin entering the world,
deception,
the serpent deceiving them
into sin
and through his deception
death came to all.
Sin seizes the opportunity
to deceive us
and to put us to death.
We need to remember that,
don't we,
if we're tempted,
particularly if we're tempted
into falling to
very serious or public sin.
Sin promises
very great things
and yet it doesn't deliver.
Sin promises joy
and brings us sorrow.
It plays us for a fool.
The evil one wants to deceive us
and then to see us die.
The law reveals sin.
The law provokes sin
and the law condemns sin,
showing it to be utterly sinful.
And so that seems to be
what Paul is getting at
in verses 7
down to verse 13.
And as we enter
verse 14,
we come to the second part,
this much disputed part
of the letter.
And what happens here
is Paul seems to move
to speaking about himself
in the first person
instead of talking
about past tense,
he starts to speak
of himself
in the present tense.
And the great dispute
therefore is,
is Paul talking about
his life
before he was a Christian,
as a Jewish believer
seeking to keep the law,
or is Paul speaking
of his present experience
as a Christian,
somebody seeking
to glorify God
and yet battling
with sin?
There is a story told
of Alexander White
who was the minister
in what is now
Charlotte Chapel,
it was St Andrew's West
in Shandwick Place there.
And he was a very famous
preacher in Edinburgh
back in the day
and he was friendly
with a Christian publisher.
And whenever a commentary
on Romans was published,
they would inform
Alexander White,
he would come
and have a look
and he would turn
to Romans chapter 7
verse 14
and he said
if the person
describes Paul
before he is converted,
I close the book
and I put it back
on the shelf.
And he was very decided
in his own mind
what the right answer was.
I would say
we have to be
a little bit more humble
than that.
There are lots of people
who would argue
this is Paul's experience
when he was unregenerate,
before he was a Christian,
as he sought to live
by the law.
There are others
who would say
this is Paul
the regenerate man,
Paul the Christian
struggling as we all
struggle in the Christian life.
There are great
and godly people
on both sides
of that debate.
And there's a very helpful
summary of both sides
of it.
In fact,
the Gospel Coalition
website,
they invited John Piper
and Tom Schreiner
to godly New Testament
scholar and preacher
to give their side
of the debate.
And if you're interested,
perhaps you could read
that after lunch.
But suffice to say,
what I'm going to do
today is to try
and explore that
a little bit
and then present
my own conclusion,
which thankfully
is the same as John Stott's.
And I'm going to hide
a little bit,
therefore,
behind John Stott.
But what we want to see
is as Paul describes
his experience
in these verses,
there's a lot of repetition.
He really says
the same thing twice,
14 to 18,
and then 19 to 24.
The nub of it
is that Paul wants
to do what is right,
but he has not the ability
to carry it out.
He delights in the law of God
and yet is captive
to the law of sin
that dwells among
his members.
Verse 15,
I do not do
what I want to do,
but the very thing I hate.
Verse 20,
now if I do
what I do not want,
it is no longer
I who do it,
but sin that dwells
in me.
There is this tension,
this conflict
in his writing.
Those who say
this is a regenerate person,
that this is Paul
as a Christian,
have to reckon
with the language
he uses of himself.
Could someone
who's a Christian
say,
well,
I'm of the flesh,
I'm sold under sin,
I'm captive to the law of sin,
I'm a wretched man,
and they say,
well,
that's not true
of the believer,
and so this must be
Paul's experience
before he was a Christian.
But others would say,
well,
could the unregenerate person,
could the person
still living in sin
say,
I delight in my mind
and the law of God?
Do we not rebel instead
against the law of God?
So there are long
and interesting debates
on either side.
But what I want to do
is just read to you
what John Stott says,
and I want to try
and persuade you
that I think
that's where he's coming from.
I'm not going to be
dogmatic about this.
You know,
if you want to talk over lunch,
we can talk over lunch,
but I think
what we'll find
is whatever our interpretation,
the application
is in the main
the same,
and that's important
to us.
But John Stott
says this,
the three salient features
of the person
portrayed in these verses
are that he or she
loves the law
and therefore
is regenerate,
is still a slave
of sin
and therefore
is not a liberated
Christian
and knows nothing
of the Holy Spirit
and therefore
is not a New Testament
believer.
who then
is this
extraordinary person?
It seems accurate
to describe
pre-Pentecost believers
in terms of
love for the law
but lack of the Spirit
and he goes on
to explain
what that might mean.
So,
let me explain
a little bit.
When Paul
went to Ephesus,
he found believers,
didn't he,
who knew the baptism
of John
and he said,
have you received
the Holy Spirit?
And they said,
we didn't even know
there was a Holy Spirit.
They'd been taught
by Apollos
who knew
only the name
of Jesus.
And there seems
to be in the
first century church
therefore
these earnest,
these God-fearing
Jewish people
who knew the law
and desired
to serve the Lord
and yet were unable
to do so
because of their sin.
They had not yet
been born again,
liberated,
cleansed
by the Holy Spirit.
And it's perhaps
that kind of person
that Paul
has in mind,
somebody who delights
like the psalmist,
who delights
in the law of God
but is impotent
to keep that law
because of their sin.
And I think
the argument
for that
is that
in Romans chapter 7
there is no mention
of the work
of the Holy Spirit
in this person's life
whether it's Paul
or whether he's dramatizing
somebody else's speech.
There is no mention
of the Spirit.
That has to wait
until chapter 8.
So does this therefore
represent an earlier period
in somebody's life
where while they're
struggling with sin,
they're convicted of sin
but they haven't yet
come to newness of life
in Christ.
And chapter 8
as you'll go on to see
talks about the contrast
between these two ways
of living.
Through Christ Jesus
the law of the Spirit
of life
has set you free
from the law
of sin
and death.
Those who live
according to the sinful nature
have their minds set
on what the flesh
or the sinful nature
desires
but those who live
in accordance
with their spirit
have their minds set
on what the Spirit
desires.
So Romans chapter 7
talks as we've considered
of the law
of sin
and death.
Romans chapter 8
talks about the law
of the Spirit
of life.
And there is the contrast
therefore
between living
in the flesh
and living
according to the Holy Spirit.
And I think
the reason
these passages
in chapter 7
resonate so much
with us
and people say
well Paul's obviously
talking as a Christian
is because that is
so often our experience
isn't it?
As Christians
we want to know
the Lord
we want to love
the Lord
and grow in our faith
we want to obey Him
because of our love
for Him
and yet so often
we find ourselves
falling back
into sinful ways
and patterns
of behaviour.
The Christian life
is
as Romans 8
will go on
to tell you
next week
a struggle
between the flesh
and the spirit.
The Christian life
is a battle.
Paul speaks
of the Christian life
the good fight
of faith.
We battle
against the world
with its competing
ideologies
that deny
the Lord.
We battle
against the devil
with his supernatural
opposition
to the kingdom
of God
and we battle
against the flesh
seeking to draw us
back into the ways
of sin.
Elsewhere
Paul says
in Galatians
the flesh desires
what is contrary
to the spirit
and the spirit
what is contrary
to the flesh.
So we see that
don't we?
In different ways
in our lives
we see it
perhaps most clearly
in those believers
who are battling
addiction
trying to give up
smoking
trying to give up
drinking
trying to give up
drugs
eagerly desiring
to be free
to be dry
to be clean
and yet repeatedly
falling back
into the old ways.
We see it
in our speech
I would love
to say
kind
encouraging
wise things
to everyone
I meet
that so often
we fall back
don't we
into cynicism
sarcasm
slander
gossip
it would be great
to be able
to exercise
self-control
eating
or drinking
but
you know
we go to
somebody's house
and the cakes
just look so delicious
and we keep going
back for more
and more
or when we drive
past the fast food
outlet
and the tummy
begins to rumble
we just
oh
I just don't want to
do it
and yet I do it
maybe you want to
cut down
how long you spend
on the internet
what you look at
on the internet
the hours perhaps
playing addictive
video games
and yet when you're
a bit tired
or feeling a bit low
after a hard hit
college or the office
you find yourself
being drawn back
to the screen
I want to stop
being so angry
and yet time and again
I just find myself
losing my rag
I want to stop
being so ungrateful
and coveting
what other people
have
their homes
their lifestyle
their relationships
their possessions
I just want to be
content as a Christian
and yet again
and again
I find myself
being bitter
and jealous
and disappointed
every day
in the Christian life
is a conflict
between the flesh
and the spirit
and I think
that's why people
see that conflict
in Romans chapter 7
and they say
well that's Paul's
experience
and I don't doubt
that it was Paul's
experience
but I think what
we understand
as the spiritual
struggle
is the struggle
of Romans chapter 8
and not necessarily
the struggle
of Romans 7
a sort of
God-fearing Jew
eagerly desiring
to keep the law
and yet finding
that he cannot
and therefore instead
needing to call out
for Christ
who will deliver him
from his body
of death
but it's good
to be aware
of that struggle
as Paul was aware
of that struggle
maybe you're here
as a new Christian
maybe a student
or a young adult
maybe you've come up
through the dime club
and you've been told
that it's a wonderful
thing to be a Christian
and it is
and you've come to faith
and you've come to
appreciate the love
of God in your life
to know a newfound peace
to know a joy
in your circumstances
and yet very quickly
you run into trouble
and difficulty
and there's trial
and there's temptation
and there's testing
and you think
well I didn't recognize
this was going to happen
and yet the New Testament
is very honest
that as we seek
to live by the Spirit
of God
we also have to put
to death
the deeds
of the flesh
and we will battle
temptations
and sins
and harmful
patterns of behavior
until Christ comes
to take us home
maybe you're a mature Christian
I'm sure many of you
have been walking
with the Lord
for many many decades
perhaps longer than
I've even been alive
and you know
as a mature Christian
you've been fighting sin
and there's been victories
in your life
and there are some things
you've laid to rest
and yet there are other things
other patterns of behavior
thought or speech
or deeds
that just seem to linger
that seem to be
besetting sins
thorns driven
into your flesh
and maybe you feel
like the Apostle Paul
who will rescue me
from this body of death
and the good news
of the Gospel
is that Christ
will come
to rescue us
we live between
his first
and his second
appearing
one day the old order
will be done away
with sin
and the law
and death
and we will enter
into life
which is truly life
we sang that hymn
at the start
come o fount
of every blessing
one of my favorite hymns
and one of the versions
has those words
on that day
when freed from sinning
we will see
his glorious face
and we often think
of heaven don't we
as an end to suffering
you know
and be able to
do away with
all the sort of
medical things we need
and the pain
and the disease
and the discomfort
and yet it's also
a day when
we will do away
with sinning
and we will be able
to stand before
the Lord
and gaze on his face
and worship him
without hindrance
with complete obedience
giving to him
all of our worship
and our praise
what a wonderful thing
that will be
wonderful worship
this morning
wasn't it
but we get distracted
and you know
I think
have I put money
in the parking meter
or our minds wander
and yet on that day
when freed from sinning
we will see
his glorious face
what a wonderful
thing to look forward to
and in the meantime
of course
we have his promise
that he will continue
to renovate us
to make us
holy
to cleanse us
and to bear patiently
with us
as we battle sin
as we seek
to sow to the spirit
not to sow
to the flesh
the Lord wants
to transform us
doesn't he
he wants to conform us
to his image
we don't just sit here
waiting for heaven
he is doing a work
in us
to make us
a people of pure speech
to make us
his holy
and treasured possession
in all
the earth
but it's not easy
and it can be painful
and there can be
growing pains
in the Christian life
as we face that battle
and endure that struggle
but if you've been
in the fight
for a long time
keep going
and be encouraged
by Paul's words
there is no condemnation
because the spirit
of life
has set us free
from the law
of sin
and death
well Paul wants us
to understand that
and I think that's
the reason for
this detour
these verses
deep
rich
wonderful
verses
Paul wants to
remind us
that God
graciously gave
the law to Israel
to show them
their sin
and to show them
their need
of salvation
and yet because
of their sin
they chose to
disobey
against his law
as we disobey
his law
and his commands
and he wanted to
show us
our own impotence
in keeping
the law
even if we
delight in the law
and desire in our
own strength
to serve God
we cannot do it
because of this sin
in our hearts
and therefore
we are taken
to Christ
to call out
for Christ
to look to him
on his cross
at Calvary
and having been
slain by the law
to be lifted up
and exalted
by the gospel
to be forgiven
of our sin
to be filled
as the believers
were filled
that first Pentecost
with his Holy Spirit
and to begin
that new life
to run that race
to fight that fight
Paul teaches us
about the law
and sin
and death
so that we might
come to Christ
and understand
his love
and receive his spirit
and look forward
to that great deliverance
that will one day
be ours
deliverance from
this body of death
this body of sin
deliverance from
the old order
and the way
things were
he wants us
to see the seriousness
of sin
but the salvation
of our God
well we thank the Lord
for his word
and for the Apostle Paul
who just communicated
these things
to us
let's just
pray together
Father we thank you
that you have
such great ambition
for us
you want to purify
our hearts
that we might be holy
oh that your son
has gone to prepare
a place for us
that we might dwell
with you forever
to gaze upon your face
on that day
when free from sinning
we shall see your
glorious face
and to serve you
wholeheartedly
throughout all eternity
Lord we thank you
for your great honesty
in your word
that the Christian life
is a battle
but that you have
given to us
your very great
and precious promises
you strengthen us
by your Holy Spirit
and you encourage us
Lord
through your word
and through our times
of fellowship
so Lord
would you continue
that good work
in us
that good work
begun in us
that you will
carry on to completion
until the day
of Christ Jesus
help us to be holy
Lord
to put to death
the deeds of the flesh
and to keep in step
with your spirit
not bearing fruit
for death
but bearing the fruit
of your Holy Spirit
love and joy
and peace
and all the other fruit
in our daily conduct
and in our daily conversation
so we thank you
for our time
this morning
we thank you
for the opportunity
to worship you
and to encourage
one another
in Christ's name
Amen