Our Helpless Condition

The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. Next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. Well, I noticed it was a different format, and I thought it was very clearly laid out, and I was able to follow it fairly well, so I thought you did an excellent job. Thank you. I thought it was very powerful. Pardon? I thought it was extremely powerful. Thank you. I think it is difficult for people to accept the idea of Jesus' humanity, because we're so caught up in the idea of his divine nature that I think we forget that part of it. But that's a very important part of defining who Jesus was, was his human nature. I guess I didn't know this before when I was thinking about it. Jesus didn't know only the Father of the Son of Man. I thought Jesus knew. I don't know why, but when I reread it, I said, God is a human. And I think whenever you read the story of Jesus' life, you will see times in which he seems to know things that ordinary people wouldn't know. But I think that that can be well explained by what he says. The Father, just like the prophets of old, they knew things that were not readily available to all people. But they had that because God spoke to them and said, here's what I see, and here's what's going to happen, and I want you to go tell Ahab that he's going to die. And here's how he's going to die. So the prophet didn't think that up himself, and it wasn't because he was divine. He had that message for Ahab because he was close to God and in fellowship with God, and God told him what he wanted him to say, and he went and said it. So the prophets didn't know any more than what God told them. And if Jesus operated in human nature like you and I, all those things that he said, because they seemed to be beyond the ability of human to discern, had to be because the Father had given him that information. And what's important to us about that is, if you're doing the work of God, and you need to have insight and information, you can count on the fact that God will give it to you. He does not put you in a position to fulfill his calling to you and leave you without the information or the power to be able to do it. So if he gives you something to say to somebody, then he's given you something that's needed to be said. And whenever you say it, you've completed your job. You may not even know what the end result of it's going to be, but God does give us that information. So we all have access to the Spirit of God in the same way Jesus did. And this is the encouraging thing to us. If you say Jesus had all this insight because he was divine, then you say, well, that's him. I can't do that. But if you understand that he was a human like we are, and that because of his walk with God, his closeness to God, his openness to God, his complete dependence on him, God was able to say things to him and lead him in ways that he can't us unless we're open in the same way. So we don't have the excuse, well, I'm not divine. I can't do these things. So the humanity of Jesus takes that away from us, takes that excuse away. It's easy to read the stories and say, well, that's Jesus. He knew all these things because he knew what was happening. If you knew what was happening tomorrow, every day, it'd cause you a lot less stress, wouldn't it? Do you think it'd take more stress? Well, but if you knew what was going to happen and how it would work out, well, if you knew what was going to happen and how it would work out, you're good. If you could see all these things and the way it works out in the end, a lot of times what throws us is something comes up we didn't expect and we don't know how it's going to turn out. But if you could see all the future and how God is going to make this thing useful to you, even 20 years down the road, it would not be a problem to follow God. So if Jesus lived the way we lived, he had to live with only the awareness of the moment in which he was in, just like we do. Or if he didn't do that, then he didn't face the same kind of problems we face. So if he lived in the world with all the things we live, he had to live just like you live and just like I live. Trusting every moment as it developed that the Father was going to give him guidance and direction and help him be able to respond properly to it. That's why Jesus was so amazing. None of us can do what he did this life that he lived. So amazing. Any other responses or comments? I want to look at Romans chapter 7 this evening, if you're through with that. Let me go back to this other subject a minute. And we get from Jesus saying, I don't know what is going to happen. We get his own personal admission of his limited knowledge of the future. So we don't have to say, maybe he didn't know. He just said plain straight out, I don't know. And so we know that he had limited knowledge of the future. We don't know how limited, but we know for that point that he did. In chapter 7, someone turn on the deal, is it on? Okay. Chapter 7 is talking about the struggle that a believer has with sin. And Paul started this by talking about the reality of how our coming to faith and trust in Christ enables us to be dead to the power of sin in our lives. And he talks about it in terms of the law. A person dies, there is no longer anything that the human law can do to you. So you're free from the power of that law, that legal system. And so whenever you accept Christ and you give your life to him and he takes control of you, then you are dead to the power of sin to control your ultimate future and your eternity. So that he uses illustrations of a person that's married and dies. The spouse is free to marry someone else because they're now free from the responsibility of their marriage commitment to each other because the law is negated at the point of death. Now what Paul's talking about is that we are no longer going to be able to see that our future is controlled by the power of sin. But here now he begins to talk about the role that sin does play in the life of believers. See you and I know from human experience, while we may say that our future is not controlled by our sinful past, we all know that in some ways sin does still control us. It still has an influence and an impact on our lives. So Paul is talking about how that part, the life of the believer after you've been dead to the power of sin for your future, what it means to still have in your life the presence and grip of sin. Now when he talked about this, he talked about the law, being free that our death also removes us from law. And he talks about how the law, the Torah, the Old Testament law that Moses gave, how this law was awakened in us, the concept of sin. So I didn't know, he said, that coveting anything was a sin until I read, you're not to covet. And the moment I read this law, or I heard this instruction, then I knew that what I'd been coveting of people was really wrong and I became conscious of sin in my life. And so I knew that sin was there. And what God had given us when he gave us the instructions, do not covet. He was giving us a guideline that we could travel and know where we were safe. Stay within this framework, within that framework, and anything you do up and down here is just fine. So these rules or instructions or laws gave us the guidelines under which we could live. Now what sin does, and he doesn't say the devil, but he says sin, what sin does is it comes and takes hold of us and uses the law that God gave for good to bring bad to us. In other words, God gave me the instructions, don't covet, because covetousness leads to a person stealing or killing someone or doing something that would take away from that person what they have. So God's keeping me away from those things that are dangerous and destructive, but when he gives me this rule or this law, then all of a sudden I'm aware of the sin that I have in my life. And so what sin does is it takes this rule and begins to tempt me. God doesn't want you to do this. I wonder why he doesn't want you to do this. Maybe he's trying to keep you from the good things of life. So sin then, in Paul's writing, becomes a powerful force in our lives to deceive and trick us. So what God gave us for good, Satan turned and used for evil. Now after that explanation, he goes on to make sure that we understand that the law is not necessarily bad. Shall we say that the law is sin in verse 7 of this chapter 7? Certainly not indeed. He talks about then how sin has been meant for good, but it's been perverted by evil. Verse 14 is where I want to start. He says, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. He's going back and tying into what Paul is doing. He writes this letter continuously, so one piece falls on top of another. And what he's now amplifying is the idea that the law indeed was good and that it wasn't evil. Here he uses a different way, saying we know that the law is spiritual. He means by this as the opposite of flesh. It was not written by people just for human nature. It was written by God for some kind of spiritual purpose for us. So all the Old Testament law was written for a purpose that God had to bring spiritual things into our lives. But, Paul says, I am unspiritual. Now what he means by this is the contrast between something that is spiritual in terms of the nature of godly or divine and something that is fleshly. He's contrasting the law which comes from God as a spiritual source and his own human nature which is now fleshly. You'll notice now he is using the first person singular. I am unspiritual. Before when he talked about the law and how it operated, he talked about the story of Adam and Eve sort of as a reference to this. Now Paul seems to be turning away from talking about the general principles of the law and talking about the personal impact that the relationship of the law has to Paul as an individual human being. The law is a spiritual thing, but I am a fleshly human being. The law has to do with these principles, but I live in the fleshly world. I have to deal with the realities of people around me. And on top of that, he says, I am sold as a slave to sin. Now he talked about sin as a force before. That sin took the law and perverted it to a bad purpose even though God gave it for a good one. Now he talks about, and he uses this, we would normally think of him talking about Satan doing this, but he gives sin sort of a personification, a human characteristic as if it were a thinking, living, choosing being itself. So he says, sin, I have been sold as a slave to sin. Now when he talked about this before, he talked about receiving Christ set you free from being a slave of sin, but now he acknowledges that he himself was a slave of sin. All of us could say that the same thing is true. I have been sold as a slave to sin and I am a fleshly person. That in contrast to the spiritual nature of the law. Now he begins to talk about the I in terms of himself in two different dimensions. The law is spiritual, I am fleshly. Now he says in verse 15, I do not understand what I do. Now he talks about himself in terms of his mind and understanding and he talks about himself in terms of behavior and action. As if there were two people living inside of Paul. Two I's. I that looks at the law that what God has said and the I that makes choices day by day. Have you ever experienced that happening inside of yourself too? And you know what Paul is talking about. And it wasn't that Paul was talking about what happened to him before he was converted. I don't think that's what he's saying. I think he's talking about after the conversion. He's saying to us that the power of sin as it has come to control our lives and direct us is so powerful and so strong that even though it does not control our ultimate destiny between heaven and hell and it doesn't control ultimately what we will become, it still powerfully controls our present circumstances. It's a force to be dealt with. I have been a slave of sin so long that my personal fleshly nature has sin in it. And you know sin is addictive. It doesn't make any difference what it is. Whether it's alcohol or drugs or pornography or gossip or whatever it might be. If you practice that in your life and you allow it to build a place in your life, it has a powerful hold on our nature. And that's what Paul is talking about. So here's the two I's that he talks about. The spiritual nature and the unspiritual nature of fleshly. And it's amplified because he was a slave of sin. And the result is sometimes I do not understand what I actually am doing. Why I'm doing what I do. And you see that in your own life when you say, why did I do that? I know better than that. You said that earlier. You said, I've worked with parents and kids so long and it's not a sin to do that. But we just do things and we say to ourselves, why in the world did I do that? I know better than that. Well it's also true not only about the things that we do, but it's also true about the sinful things that we do. I know I've been asking God to help me with this and I know better, but I went ahead and did it. So there is in every believer these two dimensions, the spiritual dimension and this fleshly dimension that's controlled and has been controlled by sin. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. Here's the two I's again. The I that wants and the I that does. And the I that hates and the I that does. I remember growing up as a young man, I thought, if I could just say, make a deal with God and say, God, I am through with this free will stuff. I would like you to put me on a track of just holiness and righteousness so I can't get off of it. I want one of these train track deals where I can put myself on it and I know that I'm going to whiz right by all the temptations that are out here and go straight down the road just like I'm supposed to. I think he thought it was funny. At least he didn't do it. Part of our human nature is that we are inclined toward these things that are all around us. And Paul found himself with the same dilemma. I know what I want to do, but I don't end up always doing it. I know I want to be kind and patient with everybody, but you know, when Mark went with us and he quit in the middle of that first missionary journey, I was through with him. I said, he'll never go back with us again. He's not the kind of guy I want to be around. At the end of Paul's life, Mark was one of his very faithful helpers. I think Paul would look back on that and say, you know, I didn't quite handle that the way I would have liked to have done. I knew that I should be patient and kind because God was with me, but I was not patient and kind with Mark in the time that he failed to live up to what he wanted. So we know the struggle that he has. I know what I ought to do. I know what I want to do, but I don't do it. There's the I that wants and the I that does. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. What he's saying by this is, so whenever I do what in my spiritual life I know is not right and I feel this conviction about it, what I'm really saying is I know that the law is the right thing. Even my violation of the law tells me that I should have done the thing that was right. The conviction inside of me, the guilt that I feel, I know by that that it affirms the truthfulness of God's instruction and God's law. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is the sin living in me. What he's talking about here, not as an excuse for what he does, but to say sin still has powerful control over my mind, my will, and my emotions. And whenever that happens, it soon shows itself in behavior. I know that my sinful nature is still alive and it's still powerful. I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature. There is a part of me, he says, where sin still has a powerful grip and hold on my life. And I know that it's there and I know that it's a part of my behavior and I see it at times coming to the front and exercising itself. What Paul is describing is that the Christian life is an intense battle. It's a battle between what we know is the right thing and our human nature which has the power of sin holding on to us. The habits that we've developed, the people around us who've colored the way we live and the influence of our culture around us. And for us, the television and the news media and all the things that are around us. So that even though we know the right things, we get pulled into the things that are exactly the opposite of it because of the strong and powerful hold that it has on our life. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. How many different ways Paul is saying the same kind of thing to us that the battle inside of him was going on. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no, the evil I do, no, the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it. What Paul concludes is that there is resident in the life of a follower of Christ the grip of sin that we have to deal with. Now for us when we're helping people who come into the kingdom of God, we have to be very careful about how we help them. Because if you say to them, you know, you've received Jesus Christ, you've asked for forgiveness, He's forgiven you all of your sins, and now you can go on living. But you need to be careful to remember you're supposed to live exactly the way God wants you to. We need to make sure that they are aware of the power of sin that still resides within them. Because if you don't know the power of that sin there, what's going to happen to you is you will yield to the temptation that's there. And when you go back to doing some of the things that you have said you weren't going to do anymore, and promised God that you were going to turn over to Him, then what will happen is you will think, I'm never going to be able to do this, and simply give up. I was talking with a guy one time who had made a commitment to Christ and had someone with me, and I said to the fellow, now I want you to know that just because you've committed your life to Christ, you're going to have a great desire to live like God wants you to. But I also want you to be aware that you're going to have some slip-ups, and you're going to revert, and you're going to fall back on these things that you've been doing in the past. When we got in the car and left, the fellow said to me, I never heard anybody tell anybody you're going to stumble and fall in the future. And I said, well, I need to tell you why I did that. Because he's going to. And this is why we know it is, all of us do. I just want him to know what to do when you do fail. And I told him, whenever you fail, you stop and say, okay God, I'm sorry I did this. I apologize to you for it. I ask for your forgiveness, and I have a weakness in my life that I want you to change. You see, if we help people understand how to wrestle with the same problem Paul wrestled with, we give them a sense of confidence even though they stumble and fall and get off track. Because if Paul is saying to us, I have this part of me that's inside of me that I don't want to live, and the choices I don't want to make, but I find myself still making them. If he's struggling with that, then every believer that we lead into the kingdom of God is going to have the same struggles. And they're either going to lie to us and act like they don't have them, or they're going to deal with them and have some victory over it. And part of what we have to do when someone comes into the kingdom of God, we can tell them that they're saved. We can tell them that God's forgiven them, but we have to make sure that they understand how terribly difficult the struggle is from here on out to live this kind of faith in Christ. That's what we have to give them. And we have to be willing within the community of faith to accept people who do stumble and fall, even repeatedly. What we look for is their passion to get past it. See, when you read this, you see in Paul that he doesn't like it that he keeps stumbling and falling. He doesn't like it that this side of him we would call the eye that's controlled by flesh is still there. He wants to be free from it. And that's what we're looking for in ourselves, and we're looking for it in each other. We're looking for that passion to be like Christ. But we have to be conscious that the struggle of sin between sin in our lives and the presence of Christ in our lives is still an active battle. And it cannot be won unless we fight it. So Paul is bringing to the surface exactly what the battle is. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that lives in me that does it. So he identifies the fact that there is a powerful force in his life that still has not been eradicated. Verse 21, So I find this law at work. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Here is the basic principle at work in his life. Every time I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Now, all of us experience this. Something will come to your mind that tells you you should do something for God. It may be to call somebody on the phone. It may be to write them a note. It may be to invite them to church. It may be to witness to them. It could be anything that you're doing. And as soon as you think of that, automatically there will be something come to your mind that will say, Well, you could do it tomorrow or the next day. Or maybe they won't like it. You will find some response from the presence of this sin that resides in your life. You may win the victory over some of those. But there'll be those things that you really don't like to do anyway, that's uncomfortable for you to do, that's difficult for you to do, that will be really difficult battles to win. They'll be hard. And some of them you'll have to fight all of your life. I still have trouble going up to a house and knocking on the door. I don't care how long I've done it, I still have trouble with that. There are certain things about being in pastoral ministry that are very, very difficult for me, and I've never been able to overcome the feelings about them, fear that comes to me when I know I have to do these things. Some of them you never get relief from. Some of them you will find that you overcome. What Paul is saying is, I find this law or principle or reality is at work. Every time I want to do good, the good eye, every time that one's at work, I find that the bad eye is right there with me, battling me every step of the way. Generally, it has to do with our personalities and our nature, what we have grown up thinking and how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about doing things in the social settings. Now, verse 22, he says, For my inner being I delight in God's law. Whenever I sit down and read the Bible and I read all these things, I say, boy, that's what I want to do. I want to do exactly what God tells me. So the eye that's inside of me, in my heart, in my mind, I just love whatever God tells me to do, and I think that is the right thing to do, and I want to do the thing that's right. But I see another law at work in the members of my body. And oftentimes, you see, in our spiritual nature, we say, yeah, I want to go win people to Jesus. I want to see people come to know Christ. And then he says, okay, why don't you just go over there and invite that person to come to church with you Sunday. And you say, oh, I can't do that. I mean, maybe if I did something else and I went by when they weren't there and left a note or something and didn't sign my name, I'd find another way to maybe get that done other than what you've told me. I find in my own nature, he said, that I'm waging this war. Another law is at work in the members of my body, my human nature, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the laws of sin at work within my body. The constant struggle we have of knowing what God says is right and true and we should do and being able to do it. And if you work in church very long, you see how true that is. It's not always hard to get people to sign up for visitation. It's just hard to get them to go. It's not hard when you build a building campaign to get people to make pledges. It's just hard to get them to give the money. And all of us, it's not hard when somebody says, would you pray for my cousin? Oh, sure, I'll pray for your cousin. And then never do it. It's awfully easy, you see. And at the moment when you say you're going to pray for somebody, don't you really mean it? Don't you really intend to do that? And then when you realize that you have pushed that aside out of your life and haven't done it, don't you feel really guilty about it? I do. I know what God wants and inside I really want to do that. I want to give this money. I want to see people won to Christ. I want to pray for people. But there is a part of me that makes it hard for me to put into practice the things my spiritual mind and my spiritual will really wants to do. Let's be patient with each other. We're all in this mess together. And we all have this same thing going on inside of us. You've won the victory over some things I haven't won. And I've won over some of them that you haven't won. But this is a picture of all of us. If Paul writes this down, every one of us fit it too. We want to do the right things. When you look at the church, it's awfully easy for us. You know, if we've made success in a certain area or teach, teach the Sunday School class, why aren't everybody willing to teach? And if you're able to go out and witness to people, why don't everybody go out and witness to people? If you've won the victory to be able to give your money or tithe, why don't everybody tithe? So we have this little impatience with all those other people that are not at the place where we're at. The fact is that every one of us are fighting this battle because we have within us this desire to be able to do what God wants. But there's a war waging inside of our minds. And we're prisoner of the law of sin working within our bodies. Verse 24, Paul says, What a wretched man I am. Have you ever felt that way? How could I be a Christian and do and think what I do and think? He sees the seriousness of the issue in his own life. He understands that it's terrible. He wants to be free from it. But he doesn't have the capacity to do it. And so he says, Who will rescue me from this body of death? You see, it's not his mind that's the problem. It's not the eye of the spiritual nature that reads the Bible and prays and does good things. It's the fleshly body that pulls him down. His human nature, we might say, that seems to be such a drag for him. How in the world am I ever going to be rescued from this body of death? He's not talking about just spiritual death, but he's talking about the body that even dies. It's doomed. How can I ever be set free from it? And then verse 25 is sort of strange because it doesn't answer his question. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. If I was writing this, I would say, Who can set me free from this body of death? And then I would say, Jesus Christ can do it. But Paul doesn't actually come out and actually say that. But he gives us the implication that it is something that Christ has done that will set us free. So then, I myself, in my mind, am a slave to God's law. But in the sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin. Now remember, Paul was writing this as a letter. And you know what he's going to go to next? He's going to talk to us about the place of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That is the key to our victory. It's not my will, it's not my ability and my power, but what God has done to give us residence within ourselves of the very presence of the power of God. Paul talked about the spiritual nature that looked at things one way and the flesh that looked at another. And how these warred against each other in almost hopeless succession. Now he's going to open in chapter 8 to say, What the power that God has given us that will set us free. I think that's what he was talking about when he said, Thanks be to God who's giving us His Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the source of our victory. Let's pray. I think the most important thing we have when we make progress in the kingdom of God is acknowledging where we are. Maybe tonight God has brought to your mind a part of your life that He's trying to change. It can be anything, language, it can be what you watch on TV, it can be things you think, it can be relationships with people. I'm thankful God hasn't given me insight into what your problems are. It's none of my business. He's given me some insight into mine. What He wants us to do is to be free, as Paul here was doing, to acknowledge that. And to admit that we're helpless in the presence of the power of sin in our lives. And that the provision of Jesus Christ is our only hope. So confess to Him what your need is. Admit to Him that you need help. And ask Him to remove from your life the love of that sin. Ask Him to give you courage that you need. Power that you need. Whatever it is that will address that one thing that God has brought to your attention. If He brought it to your attention, He means to work on it. And so, God, You know our hearts and that our minds are tuned to You and we have spiritual thoughts, but You also know our human nature. And You know that sin has planted itself in our lives. And it controls us sometimes when we hate it and we don't want it to. But we seem sometimes powerless against its force. But we know that there is no power in this world greater than Yours. And so we present ourselves to You as Your children, asking that You save us from the wretched power that so captivates our minds and our hearts that we might be free to do what we know is right. In the name of Jesus we ask it. Amen. Alright, are you ready for your question? Well, before that, let's see. Steve Lamb, you know, we used him last year and this morning. I asked him if he wanted to help next week or next month. And after church, he said, I'm short on money. I need 20 bucks. I said, I don't have any money for you, you know. And then I was going to share with him, you know, family. And he said, okay. And I just walked out.