Romans #15 – Good Gifts: New Desires (7:14-25)
- Kids – tug of war pull the rope
- Adults – tug of war we are the rope (flesh vs Spirit)
- Tug of war is UP vs Down
Down in the Flesh vs Up in the Spirit
Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Law
God’s universal standard of right & wrong that
- 7:12 the law…is holy and righteous and good.
- 7:14 the law is spiritual (comes from Holy Spirit)
=From God. Perfect. Unchanging. Over us. We need to choose to obey or disobey
Flesh – Pull Down
- Not just your physical body
- Does affect your whole being – including physical longings
= The deepest/strongest part of you before meeting Jesus & receiving Holy Spirit
= Rebellious remnant of Adam in believer
Spirit = Pull Up
- 7:6 we serve in the new way of the Spirit
- 7:22 I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
- 8 – life in the Spirit not the flesh
= Deepest/strongest part of you as XN
= Change desire 7:15 “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”
God spoke to me in college, changed my desires = I am miserable if disobedient
Discipling my appetite. My last Big Mac story
An Honest Christian
Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
1. Carnal Christian
- you are forgiven but not changed, Jesus is Savior not Lord (Crusade, liberals)
- Paul is speaking about a season as a carnal Christian
Most bad theology is a cover up for bad behavior
2. Perfect Christian
- you are forgiven, changed, empowered, & can be perfect (holiness, Wesleyan, higher life, victorious)
- Paul is speaking about before he was saved, he has total victory now
Street preacher in college – not sinned since 1972 saw a girl in hot pants
3. Honest Christian
- You are new, but you are not perfect.
- God has changed you, but He’s not done with you (Up vs Down)
- A hypocrite is not a XN that struggles w/sin but a XN that does not struggle
Weaker Old Desires vs Stronger New Desires
We were unrighteous, now we are righteous (1-4)
We were enemies of God, now we are friends of God (5:1-11)
We were fallen in Adam, now we are raised in Christ (5:12-21).
We were spiritually dead, now we are spiritually alive (6:1-14).
We were slaves to sin, now we are free from sin (6:15-23).
We were under law, now we are under grace (7:1-13).
We were in the flesh, now we are in the Spirit (7:14-25).
Tension – already/not yet
The end is certain, but we’re still in the process/journey
Next steps for the walk – Bible reading, prayer, worship, friends, wise counsel, gathering
Php 1:6 “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
The Best is Yet to Come
Romans 7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
- Do you have new desires that want to do what God says?
- Do you trust and want to learn the Bible as the law of God?
- Is your inner being sometimes at war against your outer desires?
- Do you know what is right in your mind and get frustrated when you don’t do it in your body?
- Do you hate who you are in the flesh and want to live in the Spirit?
- Do you sometimes feel beat up and worn out by your battle with your flesh?
- Are you thankful that Jesus Christ is your Lord?
Look in at your life THEN
Look up to Jesus Christ the Lord over your life:
Romans
-1:4 his Son…was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
-1:7 To all those…who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
-4:7-8 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
-5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
-5:10-11 if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
-5:20-21 where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-6:23 the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind
-8:38-39 I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– 9:28-29 the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.” for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”
-10:9 if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
-10:12-13 Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
-10:15-17 how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
-11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
-12:11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
-12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
-13:14 put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
-14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
-14:8-9 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Parents don’t just preach against the old nature appeal to the new nature
Some kids escalate in naughty as they are heading into conversion flesh is a fight
