February 17, 2025 • 47 mins
In this powerful message, we dive into the tension of Romans 7 and the liberating truth of Romans 8. The struggle with sin is real—we fail, we fall short, and guilt reminds us of our imperfections. But in Christ, there is no condemnation. Jesus has taken our punishment, and through His grace, we are freed from the exhausting cycle of performance and shame.
This episode unpacks the incredible reality of stepping out of the “grave clothes” of guilt and legalism and into a life of true freedom. If you’ve ever felt weighed down by failure or unsure of God’s love, this message is for you. Join us as we embrace the joy of grace and the complete liberation found in Christ.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
That iscertainly the good news of the gospel,
that we have been rescuedfrom the grave clothes of sin
and the grave clothes of religiosity,
trying to prove our worth to God.
That is the gospel.
And so the book of Romans is all about.
(00:26):
But before we get to Romans,we're in chapter seven today.
And I just want to say thank you toMichael.
You did a great job going through chaptersix last week.
I appreciate him.
But before we get into Romans,I want to share with you a verse,
a couple verses that in my, devotionsand studying the Bible this week,
just kind of hit home in a, in a newand a in a fresh way.
(00:47):
Have you ever read the Bible?
And all of a sudden, something pops, youknow, like that's never been there before.
That's like, when did God add that part?
And so
I want to share with youthis one passage, from first Peter.
The Bible saysthis concerning this salvation,
the prophets, the Old Testament,the prophets who spoke of the grace
(01:08):
that was to come to you, searched intentlyand with the greatest care,
trying to find out the details ofat the time the circumstances
to which the Spirit of Christ that was inthem was pointing when he predicted
the suffering of the Messiahand the glories that would follow. Not.
(01:28):
In other words, he's saying this.
He said he realizes that all the prophetsof old
the Old Testament
searched the scriptures diligentlyfor the how and the where and the
what of Jesus when it was going to come,who he was going to be?
What was going to this gracethat was pulling them towards us?
And then Peter says, even angelslong to look into these things.
(01:52):
And what hit me
is that what we have before us
is the opportunity that the angels
wish they had.
We have the opportunityto seek diligently.
The Messiah.
The how of it. The who of it.
(02:13):
The what of it? The win of it.
That even the angels of heaven don'thave the opportunity we have right now
to search diligently these scriptures,these things through the Word of God.
Can you imagine?
I imagine in my mind, angels in heaven,
like like I'm going to seriously,
you know,
(02:34):
I wish I could be in your seat right now.
I wish I had the opportunity.
You have.
I imagine them thinking, Carl,you take this so lightly.
Sometimes.
We wish
we could dive into the Scripture.
(02:54):
Don't waste it.
Don't waste the opportunity.
Don't waste the privilege.
Even angels wish they could bewhere we are, doing what we're doing.
Do you understand? It just struck me.
I hope it strikes you to.
Chapter six,that Michael covered last week.
(03:15):
Just as a reminder, coveredbasically four things with Paul saying,
this is how you startliving this new life in Christ, right?
You gotta know that through faith.
By God's grace, we're sanctified.
We're right with God, and we're becomingChrist like, you gotta know that.
And then you gotta believethe reality of it like it has happened.
(03:37):
If we joined our lifeto Jesus through faith,
and then we got to present our lifeto God, like our whole life,
every it all of what we are,we gotta present to God.
And then we have to replace the old lifewith a new way of living.
That was chapter six.
Now Paul saying that's that's thethat's the goal.
(04:01):
That's how it ought to be.
But what I know is this what ought to be
and what is are oftentimesdifferent, right.
Like, like that's what ought to be.
I ought to be able to know that I'm rightwith God through faith, by God's grace.
And and I present my whole life to God,and I replace all the old stuff
(04:22):
with new stuff and and everything thatI know that that's what I ought to be.
But I know what is is oftentimes
very different than what ought.
That's what chapter seven is about,
though.
Chapter six is what ought to be.
Chapter seven is
what is.
(04:43):
And what Paul does in chapter seven,
Paul says, look,I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
And the secret is this
I still struggle with sin.
And the fact is that
when one can acknowledge and admit
that they still struggleand it is a struggle,
(05:06):
that is one of the signsthat the Holy Spirit
is speaking and working inand with that person.
Because if the Holy Spirit's
not speaking in or with that person,they don't care about sin.
You see him saying.
So it's actually kind of a good thingthat you recognize
that I recognizenow that there's still a struggle.
That means the Holy Spirit'sdoing something.
(05:28):
And I want you to know that that
that I I'm herebefore you today as a fellow struggler.
And I just want to acknowledge that now,that's not new news to most of you.
You're well aware.
Now, I get it.
Our bald guy, he's just struggles.
I just want to acknowledge that.
And I rely on God's grace to walk me
(05:49):
towards and in sanctificationlike it's by his grace
that he walks me into this sanctifiedbecoming more like Christ.
It's not by my effort, it's by his grace.
And I acknowledge that, and I accept that.
But I want us all to know this.
Everybody here, everybody here
is everybody on the platform.
Please understandwe don't all get it right all the time,
(06:14):
right?
We let each other down,
we offend, we are offensive.
We hurt people.
We disappoint people.
We frustrate people.
We degrade.
We sin.
(06:35):
Every one of us.
And so when thathappens, it's very important
not to get
disoriented because of someone's sin.
Don't let it throw you.
And it's important not to get critical
about someone. Sin.
In other words,don't resort to legal Christianity
(06:57):
because people who resort to legalreligion and legal Christianity
get disoriented by otherssin and critical over
and disoriented critical religious people
cannot embrace grace.
And this oriented and criticalreligious people are terrible people
to beat around.
(07:21):
And so chapter seven.
If chapter six
is about positional sanctification,in other words, my position
in Christ,
by faith,
because of the grace of God,my position in Christ,
positionallyI am right with God, sanctified and holy.
(07:44):
He sees me as that.
That's chapters.
But chapter seven is practical
sanctification, how it's fleshedout in my life practically,
positionally.
It's set. I'm in Christ.
God sees me as holy,
practically.
I don't live that way all the time.
(08:04):
So that's the difference in chapter six.
Chapter seven. So chapter seven,
the practical outworking of sanctification
is much differentthan the theological ideals of it.
And Paul says practically,this is what it looks like for me.
And what it looks like for Paulis the exact same way.
What it looks like for us.
(08:27):
And so if you just follow alongchapter seven, verse one,
he says here,do you not know brothers and sisters?
He's talking to peoplewho who are familiar with
with religion,who understand the law of God.
He's saying, don't you know, from speakingto those who know the law, who know
the stuff, that the law is bindingon a person only as long as he lives?
(08:50):
We understand this principle.
Laws are for the living, not the dead.
Okay.
So as long as we're alive,law has authority over us.
Okay? Think IRS
every April 15th, if you're alive,
the IRS exerts its law overyou and has authority over you.
(09:11):
Right?
The only way out of abiding
by the laws of the IRS iswhat about death?
Not move death?
Yeah, we'll move to Idaho.
No, there'sthey'll still get you there, too.
The only way out of the law of the IRSis by dying.
Because, after all, there's only twothings in life that are certain is what
(09:32):
death and taxes.
And so as long as we're alive,the law, IRS
law, every,every April 15th exerts its law over us.
That's just the way it goes.
The only way out from that law is to die.
I've never I've never
in my life heard of a court of lawbringing in a cadaver
(09:56):
and charging and sentencing a cadaverbecause of broken law.
The law has no authority over a dead body.
Right.
You understand this?
Okay, so let's go to the.
That's that's the that's the statement.
Now let's go to
how we kind of fleshes this out in versestwo and three for a married woman.
Now he uses the analogy of marriageto drive the point home.
(10:17):
A married woman is bound by lawto her husband while he lives,
but if her husband dies,she's released from the law of marriage.
Accordingly, she will be calledan adulterous if she lives with in others.
Marries
if she lives
with another manwhile her husband is alive.
(10:39):
But if her husband dies,she's free from the law of marriage.
And if she marries another man,she's not an adulteress.
And so he uses the analogy of marriagein that culture.
And in that culture, a womanhad no authority to divorce her husband.
He could divorce her, he can kick her out.
But she had no authority to divorce him.
(11:00):
The only way a woman had out of
marriage is if her husband died.
If he died, then she was free.
So I don't know what some of the, wivesprayers life were like
at times, but,that was the only way she could get out.
And so what he's saying is
he makes this analogybetween the law and the husband
(11:24):
and the bride and us.
They said we are married to the law.
And the only way we get freefrom this law.
Don't do this, don'tdo this, don't do this.
You better do this. You better.
And that law making us right with God.
The only way we get free fromthat is if the husband dies.
(11:44):
You follow it.
Okay? That's our only way out.
What's the problem with that?
The problem with that is this.
Is that the law?
The husband will never die.
God's law will never perish.
It'll never go away.
Isaiah 40 verse eight says, the the.
(12:05):
The grass withers and the flowers fade.
But the word of the Lord endures forever.
It's never going anywhere.
So the law of God will never die.
What is our way out?
Either live by the strict
law and be perfect.
(12:29):
Or die.
That's not very good news,
because none of us can live by the perfect
standard of God's perfect law, right?
And so our only way out
is that the law condemns us to death.
(12:54):
You're tracking so far, right?
Likewise, my brothers,
you also have died to the law
through the body of Christ,so that you may belong to another.
You can be married to someone else now,to him who has been raised from the dead,
in order that we might bear fruit for God.
For while we were living in the flesh,
(13:18):
our sinful passions aroused by the law,
were at work in thein our body, bearing fruit for death.
Here's what you're saying.
If the law's not going to die,
we have to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to live underthe condemnation of the law
because the law says you're dead.
(13:42):
So what he's saying is,
rather than us die,
we attach ourselves to the one who did die
and who not only dies,but raised from the grave to eternal life.
Since the law is not going to die
and I don't want to die, I'm goingto attach myself to the one who did die.
(14:03):
And this is exactly what he sayslater in the book of Galatians.
Galatians 220,I've been crucified with Christ.
It's no longerI who live, but Christ lives in me.
And the lifeI now live in the flesh, in my body.
I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me and died on my behalf.
The law of God isn't going anywhere.
(14:24):
I can live under that law and diebecause I can't keep it.
Or I can attach myself to the onewho did die in fulfillment of the law.
I was raised to life.
So now I'm freebecause in Christ I did die.
So that makes sense.
It's amazing.
It's absolutely amazing to me
(14:45):
because death
is the only thing that brings freedom.
I want to understand that
death is the only thingthat brings freedom.
And so I have two choices.
I'm going to live as a dead man
under the lawthat will condemn me to death,
or I'm going to join my lifeto the one who died
(15:06):
in fulfillment of the law and was raised.
So now I die to the law,and I am alive in Christ.
So the law
has no authority over me anymorebecause I'm in Christ.
I did die.
You follow?
Now when he says,
(15:27):
in our old self we bore fruit for death
in our new life and tested Jesus,we bear fruit for God.
I just want to talk about fruitfor a minute.
Fruit?
We all bear fruit,whether we realize it or not.
There's produce of our life,of our actions, of our being.
(15:49):
There's fruit behind us in our wake,and there's fruit
we're going to produce in the futurewithout being
joined to grow in new life.
We bear bad fruit,
you understand?
Once we join our life to Christ and gain
new life, now we can bear
good fruit apart from Christ.
(16:11):
It's bad fruit.
No, about fruit, does it?
Is anybody I knowwe're in the agricultural valley here.
Is anybody aware of invisible fruit?
No. Not you.
We haven't made that yet.
All fruit is visible fruit, right.
So the fruit of our lives is visible.
(16:34):
Some of us see the fruit of a dead lifefrom the bad,
visible fruit that we've borne.
What Jesus is talking about hereis good fruit for God.
That fruit is visible.
It's not just in its visible.
Fruit is producedfor the benefit of other people.
(16:57):
I've never known an orange treethat feeds off its own fruit.
Do you understand?
The orange tree produces fruitso that others can be nourished
and refreshed by it.
It's not for the benefit of the tree.
And so when Paul'stalking about fruit for God,
what he's talking about is peoplewho have been made new in new life
(17:19):
now bearing visible fruit that nourishesand replenish, refreshes other people.
You can see it.
It's evident.
It's tangible.
And so the natural questionwe have to ask ourselves,
how fruitful is my life currently?
(17:43):
What is in my wakeand what is my productive future
for the tangible thingsthat I am producing
that nourishes and refreshes other people?
That's a question
that each of us has to answerindividually.
If you're claimingthat we have a life in Christ.
(18:07):
Now Jesus will has said that
every branch of me bears good fruit.
You remain to me, he said.
Those who don't beargood fruit will be what
cut off,
thrown in the fire.
Those who do beargood fruit will be pruned
(18:28):
so that we can produce more good fruit.
And so for the Christ follower, if we say
we have been attached our lifeto Jesus and have new life,
if there's no tangible
good fruitthat nourishes and refreshes other people.
Be aware.
(18:53):
Now, just as a commercial,
we have those serve brochuresso you can produce good fruit.
So make sure you pick those up.
You track with me so far.
Goober six.
(19:14):
Oh, what a man I am.
Verse five. Number six.
But now we are released from the law.
Having died to that which held us captive.
So that we mayserve in the new way of the spirit,
and not in the old wayof the written code.
So when he talks about the written code,what he's talking about
is the finger of God that wrotethe written code on the tablets.
(19:37):
The 10th Amendment, he said.
And that's how we used to have to live,because that's all we had
the written code written on stone tablets,he says.
But now, because you've joined your lifeto the one who died and fulfilled
the law and raised, now you have new lifeno longer controlled by the written code.
Now we serve in the new way of the spirit.
(19:58):
What he's talking aboutis the new covenant.
When we do communion, it'sa reminder of the New covenant.
When Jesus shared that communion mealwith his disciples, he said,
this cup is the new covenant of my blood.
He's talking about whatJeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 said.
What they said is this
(20:19):
there's coming a time when God's law
will not be written on stone tablets,but will be written on your hearts.
That time
is whenJesus came and gave us the Holy Spirit.
So now we don't live under the writtencode of a list of do's and don'ts.
Now what Paul says, what Jesus said
(20:40):
is that we live under the Spirit'sprompting in our heart.
That's the law.
God's written on my heartis the prompting of His Spirit.
No longer do I have to abideby a list of do's and don'ts.
No longer do I let someone tell methis is how you must follow God.
No longer I tell usthis is how you must do it.
Now, because of this living relationship
(21:04):
with the Jesus who died to the lawand was raised
now through His Spirit,
I just follow his prompting.
You just follow his prompting.
It's the way of the spirit,not the old way of a code.
Be very careful, Barry.
(21:24):
Very leery of anyone who will tell you.
This is the procedureof how you follow God.
Every religion except Christianityis based on the foundation of procedures.
This is what you have to do.
Don't let anybody convince youthat you have to be sprinkled as a baby,
that you have to go through
catechism,that you have to have your first Holy
Communion, that you have to get marriedin a temple somewhere.
(21:46):
Those are all procedures,and they're all false.
Nor let anybody tell you that
the procedure of how to do this is justopen up your heart and follow your heart.
That's the terrible thing.
Jeremiah says that the heartis desperately wicked and deceitful,
and all it doesdon't know. Follow your heart
now whenthe when God puts His Holy Spirit in you,
because you've attached your lifeto the one who died and was raised,
(22:10):
then you follow this.
If you don't follow your heart, you followthe spirit who's taken up residence
and the wayyou know that you're following the spirit,
just not some willy nilly thing.
Is that everythingthat the spirit prompts you to do
will be in direct line with the word he'salready written in Scripture,
in direct line with that.
And so Paul says,I want you to be free from this,
(22:32):
from this code life, from this legal life,
and free to follow the spirit.
It's so liberating.
It's so refreshing.
And I want to go through, verses 7 to 13.
Let me just kind of encapsulate itfor you.
It Paul starts with this question.So what are we going to say?
(22:52):
The law is bad because we're not to followthe law on the balance of great.
The law is really, really good.
Basically what he says this is,
he said, but we have to understandthe purpose of the law.
The purpose of the law is forand is not for salvation.
The purpose of the law for revelation.
In other words,the law has no power to save me.
(23:12):
It doesn't have the capacityto make me clean.
The law just has the capacityto show me how dirty I am.
The lawis like, think of it like a mirror.
The law is the mirror
that when I stand in front of the mirror,I see how dirty my face is.
And when I look in the mirrorand see how dirty my face is.
I don't think it's a bad mirrorbecause it shows me dirty.
Like none of us think that, right?
(23:33):
We understand what a mirror is.
We look at the mirrorand we say, I got dirt on my face.
So we don't curse the mirror.
We don't say,I don't believe in the mirror.
We say, I guess I got a dirty face.
That's the purpose of the law
has no power to say.
It just has power to reveal.
And I don't have power to clean his house.
Power to illuminate.
(23:55):
And when I look at the perfect law,it shows me that I'm dirty.
And Paul
uses as his proof the law of coveting.
One of the ten and the reasonhe uses the law of coveting.
He says, look, I wouldn'teven know how dirty I am if the law didn't
say don't covet, because once the law saiddon't covet, I realize how much I covet.
(24:16):
And so it just reveals to me.
And the reason he uses the coveting law
is because coveting is internal.
All the other sins againstpeople are external,
and he uses the coveting lawbecause he says,
I want you to understand thatwhat makes us dirty
is not just our behavior, it'swhat's in here,
(24:37):
because what's out here
can look really goodif we just are really, really religious
and never address what's in here.
So that's why he uses covetingas the example.
And the truth is that this is
this is our problem amongst others,
(24:57):
but coveting. And here's the thing.
Coveting is the root causeis that I'm not content with what I have.
Paul says,I've learned the secret of being content.
We just don't develop it.
This is a sin thing.
And when you and I aren't contentwith what we have,
we want what someone else has
(25:18):
or we want more.
This is
this is
this isn't just about Americans,but it certainly is about Americans,
because this is the American dream.
Get some and then get more, right?
I mean, our national model life, libertyand the purchase
(25:40):
of happiness.
And Paul saying, listen,you might look like you're good
and religious out here,but until this is addressed,
that's why I use this company.
And that's something we all
struggle with as somewe all feel fall victim to.
I just want different.
I want more
(26:01):
and let me just I
let you in on the secret here.
Pastors are terrible at this.
Pastors are some of the most covetingpeople around.
Unless we're really, really mindful of it.
And purposeful pastors are some ofthe most coveting people on this planet.
And here's why.
I guarantee you right now,all across this land,
(26:23):
there are pastorswho have driven up to their church
and thought, man,I wish I had a different.
They look at other campuses and like,
if I only have that campus and we'd be
there, look at our other budgets, think,if I only had that budget in my church,
they look at people and think,
if I only had some other peoplein my church, I mean, I just look,
(26:45):
you understand,if I only had the smoke and mirrors,
if I only had the professional musicians,
if I only had a fountain,if I only had our own separate coffee shop
where we could generate some moneyand drink coffee
if I owned.
Pastors do this
every, every day, all week long.
(27:08):
I call it ecclesiastical pornography.
Ecclesiology is the study of the church.
Pornography is is lustingafter something that in yours.
In is terrible.
Rather than just saying, Lord,you've been so good and gracious,
if so good and gracious,
(27:29):
thank you.
Thank you for the house you've given me.
Thank you for the car you give me.
Thank you for the dart.
Thank you for my spouse.Thank you for my whatever.
And yet you're saying.
I'm saying.
That's what that whole passage.
So you can read it.
But then it gets to verses 14 through 18.
(27:53):
Says, forwe know that the law is spiritual.
It is spiritual. But I'm, I'm for fleshy.
I'm sold under sin, forI do not understand my own actions,
for I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate anybody.
Now if I do what I do not want,
(28:15):
I agree that the law, With the lawthat is good.
It shows me how dirty I am.
So now it's no longer I who do it,but sin that dwells within me.
For I know that nothing good dwells in methat is in my flesh.
Let me just pause right there.
I know that this goes so much againstpopular thought and psychology
that know you're a good personand your kids are good people.
(28:36):
No, we're not
in ourselves.
We're not good people.
In your in themselves.
Your kids are rotten.
So our mine, my grandkids are perfect.
I want to go on record, but everybody else
okay.
In ourselves we're not good.
It flies in the faceof popular psychology,
(28:59):
for I have the desire to dowhat is right, but not the appeal.
I can't do it, I want to,I really do, and I know what I should do.
I just can't do it.
Anybody
right? Oh,
Jesus.
I agree that God's standard is good. Duh.
(29:22):
And I want to live that way.
I just can't.
I don't know how to say itany differently.
Please, again, be very cautious of anybody
that gives you proceduresto make you right with God.
It's interesting.
The King James in the new KingJames in verse 18,
(29:45):
it says, for I know that in me
that is, in my fleshnothing good dwells. I.
For the will is in me.
But how to perform what is goodI can't find,
he says, I'm looking for how to do thisright.
Have any of you ever.
And it was ever asked I how?
Just tell me how anybody how do I do this?
(30:07):
How do I what are the how do I get right?
How do I stink?
How do I resist?
How do I
we've all asked that, right?
Just tell me how.
Give me a procedure.
Give me some steps.
Give me prescription.
Give me something like how
(30:27):
I need us to understand.
That.
That's the wrong question.
Paul will.
Paul will tell usthat the solution is not in the procedure.
Just.
Just look at this from it.
For I do not do the good I want, but
(30:48):
the evil I do notwant is what I keep on doing.
Like this strikeshome to all of us, right?
Right.
You know, for how many of.
Yeah.
Okay.
All the rest of you didn'traise your hand.
Yeah.
You know, you should have, but you did it.
You proved this right.
(31:12):
I try to do right, and I fail,
as any of us ever tried to do rightand then failed at it.
Yeah. And then.
And then what?
Then we're disappointed in ourselves,right?
Yeah. This is our story.
The problem is not lack of desire.
The problem is not lack of knowledge.
The problem is lack of power.
(31:35):
We don't have the power within us
to do what is right consistently.
And if you've ever been disappointedin your failure,
I'm going to tell you why.
The problemis, you've trusted in yourself.
That's our problem.
That'swhy we're disappointed in ourselves.
(31:55):
Because we trust in ourselves.
We thought we could do it
only to find out we can't.
Here's the great thing about God
he knows me, and he knows
not only the failure of my past,but he knows the failure of my future.
And because he knows the failureof my future, when I fail,
he's not surprised.
And when he's not surprised,he's not disappointed,
(32:18):
and he's not disappointed
because he never trusted in mein the first place.
To understand.
You and I are disappointed by you and I
because you and I have trusted in you,and I.
God says I've never trusted in youin the first place.
I know who you are.
So when you fail, I'm not surprised.
(32:41):
Because I'm not surprised.
I'm not disappointed in you.
And that's why I gave my son.
So I could lay your punishment on himand not on you.
So I'm disappointed in you.
Some of you have lived your religious life
under the shadow of God's disappointment,perceived
(33:02):
disappointment.
And Paul says,
I want you to be free from those
grave clothes.
If you've ever wanted a dress,
(33:22):
if you've ever beendisappointed in yourself,
it meansyou have only trusted in yourself.
To understand.
That is religion.
And that will exhaust you.
(33:49):
Now, if I do what I do not want, it's
no longerI who do it, but sin that dwells with it.
Have you ever thought. What?Where does that come from?
That's not me, right?
Like God.
So I find it to be a law
that when I want to do right, Evil'sright there.
(34:11):
I mean, this is our story.
For I delight in the law of Godin my interior.
Like in my heart. I love this in here.
But I see in my in like in my body,my life, my hands.
Another lawwaging war against the law of my mind
and making me captive to the law of sinthat dwells in my members.
He said,I love it in here, I do, I really do,
(34:32):
but I
there's this war going on between my lifeand what I do in my heart
and what I love,and I just can't reconcile the two
I really do want to do right
at this war.
It just is exhausting.
Have you have you ever been tiredof fighting the battle
(34:54):
with God?
I'm like, I just can't.
And then Paul comes in verses 24 and 25,
wretched man that I am,
who will deliver mefrom this body of death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I want to mention a couple three thingsabout this two verses one
I want to start with the body of death.
(35:15):
He said, who's going to free mefrom this body of death?
What he's referring tois an ancient practice,
not often practiced,but sometimes by the Romans.
And we'retold this by a poet named Virgil,
an ancient Roman poet named Virgil.
And he writes of this practice.
The Romans were mastersat creating horrific
sentences of death, crucifixionbeing primary.
(35:38):
But the Romans had other practicesof the death sentence
against people, and one of those practiceswas the body of death.
And this is what was
when someone would commita First-Degree murder and convicted of it,
they would take the dead body
and strap it on the living body,
wrist, the wrist,head to head, hip to hip.
(36:00):
And they would have to drag that dead body
around as that dead body decomposed
and was corrupted, and that corruption
and decompositionwould infect the living body
and eventuallykill the living body from the outside in
dragging this body of death around.
(36:20):
And Paul says, this is what sin is
strapped to this dead body.
And we've asked over and over and over,how do I get free from this?
How do I get free from this?How do I get free from someone?
Please show me where iswhat's the procedure?
Because it is eating me alive.
(36:41):
I want to do good, I can't, I'm
strapped to deathand eventually it just takes over.
Do you understand?
And at this point, Paul
no longer asks the how question.
And this is profound.
You have to understand this.
He doesn't say,how do I get free from this?
He asks, who?
(37:03):
Who will deliver mefrom that body of death?
It's not a how question.
It's not a procedure question.
It's a who question.
Who has the power, not the procedure.
Who has not. What is the procedure?
Who has the power to eliminate
this dead body, these grave clothesthat I'm walking around?
(37:24):
I feel like I'm always trapped and chainedto this dead body that is devouring me.
And I can't get free.
Someone tell me how the answer isnot a how the answers are who.
And Paul understands.
Freedom does not come from procedure,but from a person.
Praise be to God through Jesus Christour Lord,
(37:48):
to free us from the dead body
and from the grave clothes.
And he starts these two verseswith one with this.
What a wretched man I am!
I want this to hit home.
That wordwretched means literally exhausted.
(38:08):
He says, I am exhausted.
I have tried my whole life to be good.
I have lived by other people's
rules and sets of lists,
and I am exhausted.
I've tried to break free from it
(38:30):
by living according to rulesand regulations religiously,
and I can't get awayfrom this body of death.
I am exhausted.
Anybody?
I just can't do it anymore.
It doesn't work.
(38:50):
I know you felt that way.
Other kids have felt that way.
It doesn't work.
I'm exhausted.
And I'm reminded of Jesus's words
in Matthew, 28 or 11.
Matthew 11.
(39:11):
And he says, come to me,all of you who are weary
and heavy burdened,and I'll give you rest.
A burden is light.
My yoke is easy.
It's a.
The solution is not a how.
The solution isa problem. There is a person.
I'm tired.
(39:31):
And it's only by joining my life to Jesus,
who in fulfillment
of the law, diedand was raised, that I have new life,
that I don't have to livea life of exhausted performance
because of the grace of God.
And I have to end chapter sevenwith the beginning of chapter eight.
(39:52):
There is therefore now no condemnationfor those who are in Christ Jesus.
Am I guilty? Yup.
Am I condemned? No,
because all of that was leveled on Jesus.
And so when I do still struggle
and fail, God is not disappointedbecause he's not surprised.
And he's taken all of my condemnationfor that food and place it on Jesus.
(40:15):
So I am free to just followand how he leads.
It's complete freedom and liberation.
Do I feel condemned?
No. Am I guilty? Yes.
But that guilt drives me immediatelyto God's mercy and grace.
And I'm joyfuland profoundly grateful for it.
All of chapter seven is true for me.
(40:37):
I struggleand I don't do what I want to do.
It might all be true.
I cannot consistentlydo what's right and neither can you.
But I don't feel condemned anymore.
There's no condemnation
eternally, and there's no condemnationof the guilt of shame
in this world for me anymore.
(40:58):
I am completely free in Christ.
He has borne my condemnation.
So am I guilty? Yes.
But my guilt reminds me of his grace.
And that guilt leads me to gratitude
and joy, not to self-condemnation
to understand complete
freedom, complete liberation.
(41:20):
Because at the end of the day,
grace is greater.
Than you fill in the blank.
This is such good news.
(41:42):
This is such good.
And it's so freeingand it's so liberating.
And in so doing, producing.
I don't know if you got it.
I feel like
I'm more happy about this than you are.
So, like,I don't know if you're understanding.
Do I knowI need to do this all over again?
(42:02):
Well, like you
truly, some of you are like, now,
but I know I love Jesus,
I get it, I'm free.
All right.
Thank you.
This is incredible.
It's incredible.
(42:22):
And I want to invite you into this.
I want to get you into the full experience
of God's amazing grace,
where he's rescued you from deathand he's taken off your grave clothes,
the grave clothes of performance,the grave clothes of guilt,
the grave clothes of shame.
(42:45):
Wow. Thank you, thank you.
This is the gospel.
It's a good news.
So join me in.
I want you to pray with me.
There's.
There's
(43:06):
two groups of people.
I don't want to give an opportunity to.
Right now.
One is the one who's walking around,
still strapped to a dead body of sin.
And you know how much the decay of sin
is destroying your body and your life.
And I want to invite you in this moment
(43:28):
to join your life to the one
who has conquered sin and death,
who has taken your punishmentand condemnation upon himself
so that you can have a new free lifecompletely
right with the father.
And towards that,and I'm going to invite you
in the quietness of your own heartright now to say, father,
(43:51):
I accept
your gift of salvation.
I confess I am a sinner.
And I accept
what Jesus did on the cross to free me
from the body of sin and death.
I proclaim my freedom today
(44:13):
through Christ.
By your grace.
Jesus,
I accept you as the leader of my life.
Thank you. Others
I want to invite in this moment
to free yourself from the grave.
Clothes of performance.
(44:36):
To step into grace.
To liberate yourself from the grave.
Clothes.
Of trying to obey a list of rules.
And I invite you in this momentto also say.
Father, I accept your grace over my life.
(44:59):
Thank you for your mercy.
Remind me not to live
according to the letter of law,but by the spirit that you've given me.
Your spirit
make me sensitive to your Spirit'sleading.
That I may follow in a new way of life.
(45:21):
I accept your grace.
Help me live now by it.
Jesus, you are the answer.
You are the solution.
And collectively,we want to step into your grace.
Grace given us by the father
(45:41):
because of what you've done on the cross.
Thank youthat we can step out of our grave clothes
and into life.
Thank you.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Listen, this week, read chapterseven and read chapter eight.
We're going to get to the first partof chapter eight next week.
(46:01):
This is the fun part of Romans
is divided into four groupsthe wrath of God, not fun.
The grace of God.
We're rightin the middle of this good stuff.
And then the plan of Godin the will of God.
It's just going to get better.
Okay, so let's step into and read it.
The second thing.
Seriously, I'm really serious right now.
If you believe
this, this stuff, tell your faceyou believe it.
(46:25):
Like I'm serious.
Like so. Thank you. Like some.
I get it,
I get it.
It's. Yeah. No, it's good news.
I know.
How do you think that? Seriously.
Sometimes, Jeff,
I feel like I'm more excitedthan people who are listening to me talk.
And maybe I am.
I don't think I am.I think you're excited as I am.
(46:45):
Didn't you like it?
Just make sure your face knows
it's important. Do you understand?
You've been freedfrom the grave clothes of sin and failure.
That's good news.
That's good news.
That's the grace of God.That's the gospel.
It changes everything.
(47:06):
And so here we do.
We're going to sing that gratefulsong again.
I pulled honorable first service.
I said, we're doing that after I preachedall we're doing again, this one too.
So here's a stand up
and if you can keep up with the song,sing it like your face believes it.
And if you can't keep
up with the song, just make your face showthat you believe it.
Listen to the people you understand.
Just live in thismoment from listening. To.
That iscertainly the good news of the gospel,
that we have been rescuedfrom the grave clothes of sin
and the grave clothes of religiosity,
trying to prove our worth to God.
That is the gospel.
And so the book of Romans is all about.
(00:26):
But before we get to Romans,we're in chapter seven today.
And I just want to say thank you toMichael.
You did a great job going through chaptersix last week.
I appreciate him.
But before we get into Romans,I want to share with you a verse,
a couple verses that in my, devotionsand studying the Bible this week,
just kind of hit home in a, in a newand a in a fresh way.
(00:47):
Have you ever read the Bible?
And all of a sudden, something pops, youknow, like that's never been there before.
That's like, when did God add that part?
And so
I want to share with youthis one passage, from first Peter.
The Bible saysthis concerning this salvation,
the prophets, the Old Testament,the prophets who spoke of the grace
(01:08):
that was to come to you, searched intentlyand with the greatest care,
trying to find out the details ofat the time the circumstances
to which the Spirit of Christ that was inthem was pointing when he predicted
the suffering of the Messiahand the glories that would follow. Not.
(01:28):
In other words, he's saying this.
He said he realizes that all the prophetsof old
the Old Testament
searched the scriptures diligentlyfor the how and the where and the
what of Jesus when it was going to come,who he was going to be?
What was going to this gracethat was pulling them towards us?
And then Peter says, even angelslong to look into these things.
(01:52):
And what hit me
is that what we have before us
is the opportunity that the angels
wish they had.
We have the opportunityto seek diligently.
The Messiah.
The how of it. The who of it.
(02:13):
The what of it? The win of it.
That even the angels of heaven don'thave the opportunity we have right now
to search diligently these scriptures,these things through the Word of God.
Can you imagine?
I imagine in my mind, angels in heaven,
like like I'm going to seriously,
you know,
(02:34):
I wish I could be in your seat right now.
I wish I had the opportunity.
You have.
I imagine them thinking, Carl,you take this so lightly.
Sometimes.
We wish
we could dive into the Scripture.
(02:54):
Don't waste it.
Don't waste the opportunity.
Don't waste the privilege.
Even angels wish they could bewhere we are, doing what we're doing.
Do you understand? It just struck me.
I hope it strikes you to.
Chapter six,that Michael covered last week.
(03:15):
Just as a reminder, coveredbasically four things with Paul saying,
this is how you startliving this new life in Christ, right?
You gotta know that through faith.
By God's grace, we're sanctified.
We're right with God, and we're becomingChrist like, you gotta know that.
And then you gotta believethe reality of it like it has happened.
(03:37):
If we joined our lifeto Jesus through faith,
and then we got to present our lifeto God, like our whole life,
every it all of what we are,we gotta present to God.
And then we have to replace the old lifewith a new way of living.
That was chapter six.
Now Paul saying that's that's thethat's the goal.
(04:01):
That's how it ought to be.
But what I know is this what ought to be
and what is are oftentimesdifferent, right.
Like, like that's what ought to be.
I ought to be able to know that I'm rightwith God through faith, by God's grace.
And and I present my whole life to God,and I replace all the old stuff
(04:22):
with new stuff and and everything thatI know that that's what I ought to be.
But I know what is is oftentimes
very different than what ought.
That's what chapter seven is about,
though.
Chapter six is what ought to be.
Chapter seven is
what is.
(04:43):
And what Paul does in chapter seven,
Paul says, look,I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
And the secret is this
I still struggle with sin.
And the fact is that
when one can acknowledge and admit
that they still struggleand it is a struggle,
(05:06):
that is one of the signsthat the Holy Spirit
is speaking and working inand with that person.
Because if the Holy Spirit's
not speaking in or with that person,they don't care about sin.
You see him saying.
So it's actually kind of a good thingthat you recognize
that I recognizenow that there's still a struggle.
That means the Holy Spirit'sdoing something.
(05:28):
And I want you to know that that
that I I'm herebefore you today as a fellow struggler.
And I just want to acknowledge that now,that's not new news to most of you.
You're well aware.
Now, I get it.
Our bald guy, he's just struggles.
I just want to acknowledge that.
And I rely on God's grace to walk me
(05:49):
towards and in sanctificationlike it's by his grace
that he walks me into this sanctifiedbecoming more like Christ.
It's not by my effort, it's by his grace.
And I acknowledge that, and I accept that.
But I want us all to know this.
Everybody here, everybody here
is everybody on the platform.
Please understandwe don't all get it right all the time,
(06:14):
right?
We let each other down,
we offend, we are offensive.
We hurt people.
We disappoint people.
We frustrate people.
We degrade.
We sin.
(06:35):
Every one of us.
And so when thathappens, it's very important
not to get
disoriented because of someone's sin.
Don't let it throw you.
And it's important not to get critical
about someone. Sin.
In other words,don't resort to legal Christianity
(06:57):
because people who resort to legalreligion and legal Christianity
get disoriented by otherssin and critical over
and disoriented critical religious people
cannot embrace grace.
And this oriented and criticalreligious people are terrible people
to beat around.
(07:21):
And so chapter seven.
If chapter six
is about positional sanctification,in other words, my position
in Christ,
by faith,
because of the grace of God,my position in Christ,
positionallyI am right with God, sanctified and holy.
(07:44):
He sees me as that.
That's chapters.
But chapter seven is practical
sanctification, how it's fleshedout in my life practically,
positionally.
It's set. I'm in Christ.
God sees me as holy,
practically.
I don't live that way all the time.
(08:04):
So that's the difference in chapter six.
Chapter seven. So chapter seven,
the practical outworking of sanctification
is much differentthan the theological ideals of it.
And Paul says practically,this is what it looks like for me.
And what it looks like for Paulis the exact same way.
What it looks like for us.
(08:27):
And so if you just follow alongchapter seven, verse one,
he says here,do you not know brothers and sisters?
He's talking to peoplewho who are familiar with
with religion,who understand the law of God.
He's saying, don't you know, from speakingto those who know the law, who know
the stuff, that the law is bindingon a person only as long as he lives?
(08:50):
We understand this principle.
Laws are for the living, not the dead.
Okay.
So as long as we're alive,law has authority over us.
Okay? Think IRS
every April 15th, if you're alive,
the IRS exerts its law overyou and has authority over you.
(09:11):
Right?
The only way out of abiding
by the laws of the IRS iswhat about death?
Not move death?
Yeah, we'll move to Idaho.
No, there'sthey'll still get you there, too.
The only way out of the law of the IRSis by dying.
Because, after all, there's only twothings in life that are certain is what
(09:32):
death and taxes.
And so as long as we're alive,the law, IRS
law, every,every April 15th exerts its law over us.
That's just the way it goes.
The only way out from that law is to die.
I've never I've never
in my life heard of a court of lawbringing in a cadaver
(09:56):
and charging and sentencing a cadaverbecause of broken law.
The law has no authority over a dead body.
Right.
You understand this?
Okay, so let's go to the.
That's that's the that's the statement.
Now let's go to
how we kind of fleshes this out in versestwo and three for a married woman.
Now he uses the analogy of marriageto drive the point home.
(10:17):
A married woman is bound by lawto her husband while he lives,
but if her husband dies,she's released from the law of marriage.
Accordingly, she will be calledan adulterous if she lives with in others.
Marries
if she lives
with another manwhile her husband is alive.
(10:39):
But if her husband dies,she's free from the law of marriage.
And if she marries another man,she's not an adulteress.
And so he uses the analogy of marriagein that culture.
And in that culture, a womanhad no authority to divorce her husband.
He could divorce her, he can kick her out.
But she had no authority to divorce him.
(11:00):
The only way a woman had out of
marriage is if her husband died.
If he died, then she was free.
So I don't know what some of the, wivesprayers life were like
at times, but,that was the only way she could get out.
And so what he's saying is
he makes this analogybetween the law and the husband
(11:24):
and the bride and us.
They said we are married to the law.
And the only way we get freefrom this law.
Don't do this, don'tdo this, don't do this.
You better do this. You better.
And that law making us right with God.
The only way we get free fromthat is if the husband dies.
(11:44):
You follow it.
Okay? That's our only way out.
What's the problem with that?
The problem with that is this.
Is that the law?
The husband will never die.
God's law will never perish.
It'll never go away.
Isaiah 40 verse eight says, the the.
(12:05):
The grass withers and the flowers fade.
But the word of the Lord endures forever.
It's never going anywhere.
So the law of God will never die.
What is our way out?
Either live by the strict
law and be perfect.
(12:29):
Or die.
That's not very good news,
because none of us can live by the perfect
standard of God's perfect law, right?
And so our only way out
is that the law condemns us to death.
(12:54):
You're tracking so far, right?
Likewise, my brothers,
you also have died to the law
through the body of Christ,so that you may belong to another.
You can be married to someone else now,to him who has been raised from the dead,
in order that we might bear fruit for God.
For while we were living in the flesh,
(13:18):
our sinful passions aroused by the law,
were at work in thein our body, bearing fruit for death.
Here's what you're saying.
If the law's not going to die,
we have to die.
I don't want to die.
I don't want to live underthe condemnation of the law
because the law says you're dead.
(13:42):
So what he's saying is,
rather than us die,
we attach ourselves to the one who did die
and who not only dies,but raised from the grave to eternal life.
Since the law is not going to die
and I don't want to die, I'm goingto attach myself to the one who did die.
(14:03):
And this is exactly what he sayslater in the book of Galatians.
Galatians 220,I've been crucified with Christ.
It's no longerI who live, but Christ lives in me.
And the lifeI now live in the flesh, in my body.
I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me and died on my behalf.
The law of God isn't going anywhere.
(14:24):
I can live under that law and diebecause I can't keep it.
Or I can attach myself to the onewho did die in fulfillment of the law.
I was raised to life.
So now I'm freebecause in Christ I did die.
So that makes sense.
It's amazing.
It's absolutely amazing to me
(14:45):
because death
is the only thing that brings freedom.
I want to understand that
death is the only thingthat brings freedom.
And so I have two choices.
I'm going to live as a dead man
under the lawthat will condemn me to death,
or I'm going to join my lifeto the one who died
(15:06):
in fulfillment of the law and was raised.
So now I die to the law,and I am alive in Christ.
So the law
has no authority over me anymorebecause I'm in Christ.
I did die.
You follow?
Now when he says,
(15:27):
in our old self we bore fruit for death
in our new life and tested Jesus,we bear fruit for God.
I just want to talk about fruitfor a minute.
Fruit?
We all bear fruit,whether we realize it or not.
There's produce of our life,of our actions, of our being.
(15:49):
There's fruit behind us in our wake,and there's fruit
we're going to produce in the futurewithout being
joined to grow in new life.
We bear bad fruit,
you understand?
Once we join our life to Christ and gain
new life, now we can bear
good fruit apart from Christ.
(16:11):
It's bad fruit.
No, about fruit, does it?
Is anybody I knowwe're in the agricultural valley here.
Is anybody aware of invisible fruit?
No. Not you.
We haven't made that yet.
All fruit is visible fruit, right.
So the fruit of our lives is visible.
(16:34):
Some of us see the fruit of a dead lifefrom the bad,
visible fruit that we've borne.
What Jesus is talking about hereis good fruit for God.
That fruit is visible.
It's not just in its visible.
Fruit is producedfor the benefit of other people.
(16:57):
I've never known an orange treethat feeds off its own fruit.
Do you understand?
The orange tree produces fruitso that others can be nourished
and refreshed by it.
It's not for the benefit of the tree.
And so when Paul'stalking about fruit for God,
what he's talking about is peoplewho have been made new in new life
(17:19):
now bearing visible fruit that nourishesand replenish, refreshes other people.
You can see it.
It's evident.
It's tangible.
And so the natural questionwe have to ask ourselves,
how fruitful is my life currently?
(17:43):
What is in my wakeand what is my productive future
for the tangible thingsthat I am producing
that nourishes and refreshes other people?
That's a question
that each of us has to answerindividually.
If you're claimingthat we have a life in Christ.
(18:07):
Now Jesus will has said that
every branch of me bears good fruit.
You remain to me, he said.
Those who don't beargood fruit will be what
cut off,
thrown in the fire.
Those who do beargood fruit will be pruned
(18:28):
so that we can produce more good fruit.
And so for the Christ follower, if we say
we have been attached our lifeto Jesus and have new life,
if there's no tangible
good fruitthat nourishes and refreshes other people.
Be aware.
(18:53):
Now, just as a commercial,
we have those serve brochuresso you can produce good fruit.
So make sure you pick those up.
You track with me so far.
Goober six.
(19:14):
Oh, what a man I am.
Verse five. Number six.
But now we are released from the law.
Having died to that which held us captive.
So that we mayserve in the new way of the spirit,
and not in the old wayof the written code.
So when he talks about the written code,what he's talking about
is the finger of God that wrotethe written code on the tablets.
(19:37):
The 10th Amendment, he said.
And that's how we used to have to live,because that's all we had
the written code written on stone tablets,he says.
But now, because you've joined your lifeto the one who died and fulfilled
the law and raised, now you have new lifeno longer controlled by the written code.
Now we serve in the new way of the spirit.
(19:58):
What he's talking aboutis the new covenant.
When we do communion, it'sa reminder of the New covenant.
When Jesus shared that communion mealwith his disciples, he said,
this cup is the new covenant of my blood.
He's talking about whatJeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 said.
What they said is this
(20:19):
there's coming a time when God's law
will not be written on stone tablets,but will be written on your hearts.
That time
is whenJesus came and gave us the Holy Spirit.
So now we don't live under the writtencode of a list of do's and don'ts.
Now what Paul says, what Jesus said
(20:40):
is that we live under the Spirit'sprompting in our heart.
That's the law.
God's written on my heartis the prompting of His Spirit.
No longer do I have to abideby a list of do's and don'ts.
No longer do I let someone tell methis is how you must follow God.
No longer I tell usthis is how you must do it.
Now, because of this living relationship
(21:04):
with the Jesus who died to the lawand was raised
now through His Spirit,
I just follow his prompting.
You just follow his prompting.
It's the way of the spirit,not the old way of a code.
Be very careful, Barry.
(21:24):
Very leery of anyone who will tell you.
This is the procedureof how you follow God.
Every religion except Christianityis based on the foundation of procedures.
This is what you have to do.
Don't let anybody convince youthat you have to be sprinkled as a baby,
that you have to go through
catechism,that you have to have your first Holy
Communion, that you have to get marriedin a temple somewhere.
(21:46):
Those are all procedures,and they're all false.
Nor let anybody tell you that
the procedure of how to do this is justopen up your heart and follow your heart.
That's the terrible thing.
Jeremiah says that the heartis desperately wicked and deceitful,
and all it doesdon't know. Follow your heart
now whenthe when God puts His Holy Spirit in you,
because you've attached your lifeto the one who died and was raised,
(22:10):
then you follow this.
If you don't follow your heart, you followthe spirit who's taken up residence
and the wayyou know that you're following the spirit,
just not some willy nilly thing.
Is that everythingthat the spirit prompts you to do
will be in direct line with the word he'salready written in Scripture,
in direct line with that.
And so Paul says,I want you to be free from this,
(22:32):
from this code life, from this legal life,
and free to follow the spirit.
It's so liberating.
It's so refreshing.
And I want to go through, verses 7 to 13.
Let me just kind of encapsulate itfor you.
It Paul starts with this question.So what are we going to say?
(22:52):
The law is bad because we're not to followthe law on the balance of great.
The law is really, really good.
Basically what he says this is,
he said, but we have to understandthe purpose of the law.
The purpose of the law is forand is not for salvation.
The purpose of the law for revelation.
In other words,the law has no power to save me.
(23:12):
It doesn't have the capacityto make me clean.
The law just has the capacityto show me how dirty I am.
The lawis like, think of it like a mirror.
The law is the mirror
that when I stand in front of the mirror,I see how dirty my face is.
And when I look in the mirrorand see how dirty my face is.
I don't think it's a bad mirrorbecause it shows me dirty.
Like none of us think that, right?
(23:33):
We understand what a mirror is.
We look at the mirrorand we say, I got dirt on my face.
So we don't curse the mirror.
We don't say,I don't believe in the mirror.
We say, I guess I got a dirty face.
That's the purpose of the law
has no power to say.
It just has power to reveal.
And I don't have power to clean his house.
Power to illuminate.
(23:55):
And when I look at the perfect law,it shows me that I'm dirty.
And Paul
uses as his proof the law of coveting.
One of the ten and the reasonhe uses the law of coveting.
He says, look, I wouldn'teven know how dirty I am if the law didn't
say don't covet, because once the law saiddon't covet, I realize how much I covet.
(24:16):
And so it just reveals to me.
And the reason he uses the coveting law
is because coveting is internal.
All the other sins againstpeople are external,
and he uses the coveting lawbecause he says,
I want you to understand thatwhat makes us dirty
is not just our behavior, it'swhat's in here,
(24:37):
because what's out here
can look really goodif we just are really, really religious
and never address what's in here.
So that's why he uses covetingas the example.
And the truth is that this is
this is our problem amongst others,
(24:57):
but coveting. And here's the thing.
Coveting is the root causeis that I'm not content with what I have.
Paul says,I've learned the secret of being content.
We just don't develop it.
This is a sin thing.
And when you and I aren't contentwith what we have,
we want what someone else has
(25:18):
or we want more.
This is
this is
this isn't just about Americans,but it certainly is about Americans,
because this is the American dream.
Get some and then get more, right?
I mean, our national model life, libertyand the purchase
(25:40):
of happiness.
And Paul saying, listen,you might look like you're good
and religious out here,but until this is addressed,
that's why I use this company.
And that's something we all
struggle with as somewe all feel fall victim to.
I just want different.
I want more
(26:01):
and let me just I
let you in on the secret here.
Pastors are terrible at this.
Pastors are some of the most covetingpeople around.
Unless we're really, really mindful of it.
And purposeful pastors are some ofthe most coveting people on this planet.
And here's why.
I guarantee you right now,all across this land,
(26:23):
there are pastorswho have driven up to their church
and thought, man,I wish I had a different.
They look at other campuses and like,
if I only have that campus and we'd be
there, look at our other budgets, think,if I only had that budget in my church,
they look at people and think,
if I only had some other peoplein my church, I mean, I just look,
(26:45):
you understand,if I only had the smoke and mirrors,
if I only had the professional musicians,
if I only had a fountain,if I only had our own separate coffee shop
where we could generate some moneyand drink coffee
if I owned.
Pastors do this
every, every day, all week long.
(27:08):
I call it ecclesiastical pornography.
Ecclesiology is the study of the church.
Pornography is is lustingafter something that in yours.
In is terrible.
Rather than just saying, Lord,you've been so good and gracious,
if so good and gracious,
(27:29):
thank you.
Thank you for the house you've given me.
Thank you for the car you give me.
Thank you for the dart.
Thank you for my spouse.Thank you for my whatever.
And yet you're saying.
I'm saying.
That's what that whole passage.
So you can read it.
But then it gets to verses 14 through 18.
(27:53):
Says, forwe know that the law is spiritual.
It is spiritual. But I'm, I'm for fleshy.
I'm sold under sin, forI do not understand my own actions,
for I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate anybody.
Now if I do what I do not want,
(28:15):
I agree that the law, With the lawthat is good.
It shows me how dirty I am.
So now it's no longer I who do it,but sin that dwells within me.
For I know that nothing good dwells in methat is in my flesh.
Let me just pause right there.
I know that this goes so much againstpopular thought and psychology
that know you're a good personand your kids are good people.
(28:36):
No, we're not
in ourselves.
We're not good people.
In your in themselves.
Your kids are rotten.
So our mine, my grandkids are perfect.
I want to go on record, but everybody else
okay.
In ourselves we're not good.
It flies in the faceof popular psychology,
(28:59):
for I have the desire to dowhat is right, but not the appeal.
I can't do it, I want to,I really do, and I know what I should do.
I just can't do it.
Anybody
right? Oh,
Jesus.
I agree that God's standard is good. Duh.
(29:22):
And I want to live that way.
I just can't.
I don't know how to say itany differently.
Please, again, be very cautious of anybody
that gives you proceduresto make you right with God.
It's interesting.
The King James in the new KingJames in verse 18,
(29:45):
it says, for I know that in me
that is, in my fleshnothing good dwells. I.
For the will is in me.
But how to perform what is goodI can't find,
he says, I'm looking for how to do thisright.
Have any of you ever.
And it was ever asked I how?
Just tell me how anybody how do I do this?
(30:07):
How do I what are the how do I get right?
How do I stink?
How do I resist?
How do I
we've all asked that, right?
Just tell me how.
Give me a procedure.
Give me some steps.
Give me prescription.
Give me something like how
(30:27):
I need us to understand.
That.
That's the wrong question.
Paul will.
Paul will tell usthat the solution is not in the procedure.
Just.
Just look at this from it.
For I do not do the good I want, but
(30:48):
the evil I do notwant is what I keep on doing.
Like this strikeshome to all of us, right?
Right.
You know, for how many of.
Yeah.
Okay.
All the rest of you didn'traise your hand.
Yeah.
You know, you should have, but you did it.
You proved this right.
(31:12):
I try to do right, and I fail,
as any of us ever tried to do rightand then failed at it.
Yeah. And then.
And then what?
Then we're disappointed in ourselves,right?
Yeah. This is our story.
The problem is not lack of desire.
The problem is not lack of knowledge.
The problem is lack of power.
(31:35):
We don't have the power within us
to do what is right consistently.
And if you've ever been disappointedin your failure,
I'm going to tell you why.
The problemis, you've trusted in yourself.
That's our problem.
That'swhy we're disappointed in ourselves.
(31:55):
Because we trust in ourselves.
We thought we could do it
only to find out we can't.
Here's the great thing about God
he knows me, and he knows
not only the failure of my past,but he knows the failure of my future.
And because he knows the failureof my future, when I fail,
he's not surprised.
And when he's not surprised,he's not disappointed,
(32:18):
and he's not disappointed
because he never trusted in mein the first place.
To understand.
You and I are disappointed by you and I
because you and I have trusted in you,and I.
God says I've never trusted in youin the first place.
I know who you are.
So when you fail, I'm not surprised.
(32:41):
Because I'm not surprised.
I'm not disappointed in you.
And that's why I gave my son.
So I could lay your punishment on himand not on you.
So I'm disappointed in you.
Some of you have lived your religious life
under the shadow of God's disappointment,perceived
(33:02):
disappointment.
And Paul says,
I want you to be free from those
grave clothes.
If you've ever wanted a dress,
(33:22):
if you've ever beendisappointed in yourself,
it meansyou have only trusted in yourself.
To understand.
That is religion.
And that will exhaust you.
(33:49):
Now, if I do what I do not want, it's
no longerI who do it, but sin that dwells with it.
Have you ever thought. What?Where does that come from?
That's not me, right?
Like God.
So I find it to be a law
that when I want to do right, Evil'sright there.
(34:11):
I mean, this is our story.
For I delight in the law of Godin my interior.
Like in my heart. I love this in here.
But I see in my in like in my body,my life, my hands.
Another lawwaging war against the law of my mind
and making me captive to the law of sinthat dwells in my members.
He said,I love it in here, I do, I really do,
(34:32):
but I
there's this war going on between my lifeand what I do in my heart
and what I love,and I just can't reconcile the two
I really do want to do right
at this war.
It just is exhausting.
Have you have you ever been tiredof fighting the battle
(34:54):
with God?
I'm like, I just can't.
And then Paul comes in verses 24 and 25,
wretched man that I am,
who will deliver mefrom this body of death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I want to mention a couple three thingsabout this two verses one
I want to start with the body of death.
(35:15):
He said, who's going to free mefrom this body of death?
What he's referring tois an ancient practice,
not often practiced,but sometimes by the Romans.
And we'retold this by a poet named Virgil,
an ancient Roman poet named Virgil.
And he writes of this practice.
The Romans were mastersat creating horrific
sentences of death, crucifixionbeing primary.
(35:38):
But the Romans had other practicesof the death sentence
against people, and one of those practiceswas the body of death.
And this is what was
when someone would commita First-Degree murder and convicted of it,
they would take the dead body
and strap it on the living body,
wrist, the wrist,head to head, hip to hip.
(36:00):
And they would have to drag that dead body
around as that dead body decomposed
and was corrupted, and that corruption
and decompositionwould infect the living body
and eventuallykill the living body from the outside in
dragging this body of death around.
(36:20):
And Paul says, this is what sin is
strapped to this dead body.
And we've asked over and over and over,how do I get free from this?
How do I get free from this?How do I get free from someone?
Please show me where iswhat's the procedure?
Because it is eating me alive.
(36:41):
I want to do good, I can't, I'm
strapped to deathand eventually it just takes over.
Do you understand?
And at this point, Paul
no longer asks the how question.
And this is profound.
You have to understand this.
He doesn't say,how do I get free from this?
He asks, who?
(37:03):
Who will deliver mefrom that body of death?
It's not a how question.
It's not a procedure question.
It's a who question.
Who has the power, not the procedure.
Who has not. What is the procedure?
Who has the power to eliminate
this dead body, these grave clothesthat I'm walking around?
(37:24):
I feel like I'm always trapped and chainedto this dead body that is devouring me.
And I can't get free.
Someone tell me how the answer isnot a how the answers are who.
And Paul understands.
Freedom does not come from procedure,but from a person.
Praise be to God through Jesus Christour Lord,
(37:48):
to free us from the dead body
and from the grave clothes.
And he starts these two verseswith one with this.
What a wretched man I am!
I want this to hit home.
That wordwretched means literally exhausted.
(38:08):
He says, I am exhausted.
I have tried my whole life to be good.
I have lived by other people's
rules and sets of lists,
and I am exhausted.
I've tried to break free from it
(38:30):
by living according to rulesand regulations religiously,
and I can't get awayfrom this body of death.
I am exhausted.
Anybody?
I just can't do it anymore.
It doesn't work.
(38:50):
I know you felt that way.
Other kids have felt that way.
It doesn't work.
I'm exhausted.
And I'm reminded of Jesus's words
in Matthew, 28 or 11.
Matthew 11.
(39:11):
And he says, come to me,all of you who are weary
and heavy burdened,and I'll give you rest.
A burden is light.
My yoke is easy.
It's a.
The solution is not a how.
The solution isa problem. There is a person.
I'm tired.
(39:31):
And it's only by joining my life to Jesus,
who in fulfillment
of the law, diedand was raised, that I have new life,
that I don't have to livea life of exhausted performance
because of the grace of God.
And I have to end chapter sevenwith the beginning of chapter eight.
(39:52):
There is therefore now no condemnationfor those who are in Christ Jesus.
Am I guilty? Yup.
Am I condemned? No,
because all of that was leveled on Jesus.
And so when I do still struggle
and fail, God is not disappointedbecause he's not surprised.
And he's taken all of my condemnationfor that food and place it on Jesus.
(40:15):
So I am free to just followand how he leads.
It's complete freedom and liberation.
Do I feel condemned?
No. Am I guilty? Yes.
But that guilt drives me immediatelyto God's mercy and grace.
And I'm joyfuland profoundly grateful for it.
All of chapter seven is true for me.
(40:37):
I struggleand I don't do what I want to do.
It might all be true.
I cannot consistentlydo what's right and neither can you.
But I don't feel condemned anymore.
There's no condemnation
eternally, and there's no condemnationof the guilt of shame
in this world for me anymore.
(40:58):
I am completely free in Christ.
He has borne my condemnation.
So am I guilty? Yes.
But my guilt reminds me of his grace.
And that guilt leads me to gratitude
and joy, not to self-condemnation
to understand complete
freedom, complete liberation.
(41:20):
Because at the end of the day,
grace is greater.
Than you fill in the blank.
This is such good news.
(41:42):
This is such good.
And it's so freeingand it's so liberating.
And in so doing, producing.
I don't know if you got it.
I feel like
I'm more happy about this than you are.
So, like,I don't know if you're understanding.
Do I knowI need to do this all over again?
(42:02):
Well, like you
truly, some of you are like, now,
but I know I love Jesus,
I get it, I'm free.
All right.
Thank you.
This is incredible.
It's incredible.
(42:22):
And I want to invite you into this.
I want to get you into the full experience
of God's amazing grace,
where he's rescued you from deathand he's taken off your grave clothes,
the grave clothes of performance,the grave clothes of guilt,
the grave clothes of shame.
(42:45):
Wow. Thank you, thank you.
This is the gospel.
It's a good news.
So join me in.
I want you to pray with me.
There's.
There's
(43:06):
two groups of people.
I don't want to give an opportunity to.
Right now.
One is the one who's walking around,
still strapped to a dead body of sin.
And you know how much the decay of sin
is destroying your body and your life.
And I want to invite you in this moment
(43:28):
to join your life to the one
who has conquered sin and death,
who has taken your punishmentand condemnation upon himself
so that you can have a new free lifecompletely
right with the father.
And towards that,and I'm going to invite you
in the quietness of your own heartright now to say, father,
(43:51):
I accept
your gift of salvation.
I confess I am a sinner.
And I accept
what Jesus did on the cross to free me
from the body of sin and death.
I proclaim my freedom today
(44:13):
through Christ.
By your grace.
Jesus,
I accept you as the leader of my life.
Thank you. Others
I want to invite in this moment
to free yourself from the grave.
Clothes of performance.
(44:36):
To step into grace.
To liberate yourself from the grave.
Clothes.
Of trying to obey a list of rules.
And I invite you in this momentto also say.
Father, I accept your grace over my life.
(44:59):
Thank you for your mercy.
Remind me not to live
according to the letter of law,but by the spirit that you've given me.
Your spirit
make me sensitive to your Spirit'sleading.
That I may follow in a new way of life.
(45:21):
I accept your grace.
Help me live now by it.
Jesus, you are the answer.
You are the solution.
And collectively,we want to step into your grace.
Grace given us by the father
(45:41):
because of what you've done on the cross.
Thank youthat we can step out of our grave clothes
and into life.
Thank you.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Listen, this week, read chapterseven and read chapter eight.
We're going to get to the first partof chapter eight next week.
(46:01):
This is the fun part of Romans
is divided into four groupsthe wrath of God, not fun.
The grace of God.
We're rightin the middle of this good stuff.
And then the plan of Godin the will of God.
It's just going to get better.
Okay, so let's step into and read it.
The second thing.
Seriously, I'm really serious right now.
If you believe
this, this stuff, tell your faceyou believe it.
(46:25):
Like I'm serious.
Like so. Thank you. Like some.
I get it,
I get it.
It's. Yeah. No, it's good news.
I know.
How do you think that? Seriously.
Sometimes, Jeff,
I feel like I'm more excitedthan people who are listening to me talk.
And maybe I am.
I don't think I am.I think you're excited as I am.
(46:45):
Didn't you like it?
Just make sure your face knows
it's important. Do you understand?
You've been freedfrom the grave clothes of sin and failure.
That's good news.
That's good news.
That's the grace of God.That's the gospel.
It changes everything.
(47:06):
And so here we do.
We're going to sing that gratefulsong again.
I pulled honorable first service.
I said, we're doing that after I preachedall we're doing again, this one too.
So here's a stand up
and if you can keep up with the song,sing it like your face believes it.
And if you can't keep
up with the song, just make your face showthat you believe it.
Listen to the people you understand.
Just live in thismoment from listening. To.
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