All right, we're gonna jump into the text in Romans chapter 7 verse 13 through 25 Elder Joe read that passage for us, but I'm gonna read it again And I'm let me set this up before we get in okay If you came in this morning just kind of casually, I don't want to be engaged Just tell me the truth the application today Is gonna be a hard time Okay Because the text that we're looking at as I was wrestling with this tax and how to present it Because there's so much going on here and so much to discuss that if I just jump to the conclusion it may cause more confusion because again because of what this text contains This is again I one of the key questions that I asked if you again if you're not in the habit of going on Facebook to check Either on Friday or Saturday to see what the message is gonna be and I usually put up about two or three questions To prepare you for Sunday message It'll help you to be better listeners and you'll get more out of the sermons if you do do that But today in particular the main question that I asked is is this a Christian or non-christian?

is Paul speaking as a Christian and Frustration with with wrestling with sin as a Christian or is he talking about a non-christian experience? Connected to what he's been saying previously Okay. Now, let me just tell you right off the bat in Church history in the last 2,000 years, you know, there's been kind of shifts in opinions back and forth Early on right off the bat the early church universally the early church father universally believed that this was a pre-christian a non-christian experience it wasn't until the time of Augustine and then the full-blown acceptance of this as a Christian view came at the Reformation and we can we can understand why because their battle was against the Catholic Church where it was justification by faith and It is not by works.

And so in that context the Reformers not 100% but for the majority embraced a Christian view and And then it's been kind of going back and forth and depending on which era you're talking about today our environment The young restless and reformed theology has become popular in the last 15 years So the reformed theology has been embraced and so much of the readings that takes place much of the influence in today's Theologians come from during that period of Reformation, which was predominantly Christian view.

Okay now I set up all of this Because I know I'm in a hostile crowd That that my view is probably gonna be different than most of yours. So I'm telling you ahead of time Okay, so brace yourself Okay the first service had about a hundred people and I preached this and I had About ten people come up to me and I couldn't get to everybody So some of them are just gonna email me So if that's true, then I'm gonna have about 40 or 50 people here That's gonna demand my attention after the service, but you're just gonna have to email me afterwards.

Okay, so I'm just giving you a head Heads up on this. Okay, I'm gonna read the verse versus So if you haven't read it before before you came and wrestled with it, I want you to as we're reading it Okay, is this a Christian or is this a non-christian?

Okay, first 13 Did that which is good then bring death to me by no means it was sin producing death in me Through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the content Commandment might become sinful beyond measure for we know that the law is spiritual But I am of the flesh sold under sin for I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want To do but I do the very thing I hate now if I do what I do not want I agree with the law that it is good So now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me 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 for I do not do the good that I want But the evil that I do do not want to do what I keep on is what I keep on doing Now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right evil lies close at hand for I did light in the law of God in my inner being 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 Wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin All right before I jump into this. Okay. Let me explain what I'm doing. I Was wrestling should I have got just gone and talked about the application of this text?

Like what is what does Paul mean here and talk about that? which we will get at the end I'm going to go into the text and Go into and really wrestle with what's happening in this technique and probably more detail than you probably may normally experience and may have ever experienced to be honest because it's gonna sound a little bit more like Bible study than Our Sunday sermon we may do this during weekdays, but on Sunday, it's difficult to get this deep especially in October We have a lot of newcomers that visit during October and some of you guys have Maybe have never been at a church where Bible is taught in this way So you're gonna have a shock this morning that saying is this normal?

It's normal, but it's not normal. Okay, but the reason why I'm doing this is because I want you guys to be brilliant. I Don't want you guys to come to the conclusion of what this text means Because of what you were taught before or simply by your personal experience because you read this and say oh that sounds a lot like What I experienced so therefore that's what Paul must be doing.

We call that iso GD not exegeting, right? I so GD basically is from your experience from your culture for whatever paradigm you have You look at the scripture and make it fit to what you think, right? Now that happens a lot of times very subtly without you really recognizing that you're doing that that you end up Adhering to certain doctrines based upon what speakers you like to hear Like I like Piper so I kind of adhere to his doctrines I like MacArthur or I like whoever and then you have a doctrinal paradigm Boundaries that were created for you by the culture and by whoever you're listening to instead of really wrestling with the text And so this morning, even though I already know some of you are gonna are gonna have a difficult time Okay I already know this some of you gotta give me more engaged than normal and some of you guys are not gonna be right the reason why I'm doing this is this is one of those texts that if you really don't pay attention and you don't wrestle and Think through what's happening again.

Your end conclusion is like, okay, you know, I trust him or okay I don't trust him. You know what I mean? Whatever it may be and you may just reject this or whatever discussion we have We want to make sure that it's coming from scripture. What does it say?

Why does it say that what view do you have? How did you come to that conclusion so that's what I'm doing. So all of this is just a setup to pay attention, please, okay All right Did I already pray? Well, let's pray then. Okay, let's Heavenly Father We asked for your grace.

We asked Lord God for your guidance and we know that no matter how much we study and dig that ultimately that is your Holy Spirit that illumines our thoughts and And judge the thoughts and intentions of our own hearts. I pray father that your intent of Whatever response Lord God that you've desired of the readers original readers that you give us understanding even with our limitations our own prejudice that you would help us to sift through all of that and Really be committed to your word That we would not turn from it to the left or to your right that we know that your word is sufficient No matter how it is presented.

I pray father God that at the end our confidence in your word would not shift So we pray for your blessing and your grace this morning Jesus name we pray. Amen Let me say right off the bat whether you believe that this is a Christian or non-christian Let me let me say a wrong application of this if you say you're you believe that this is a Christian To think that you would read this passage and say well Paul is struggling with sin and he seems like he can't conquer his sin so therefore this is a normal Christian experience and so to even strive after holiness and discipleship and discipline How can you possibly think that when I'll pass upon himself?

This is an apostle a wrong application of that is to think that this is somehow normalizing Christian experience That will contradict everything else that we know in Scripture In fact, Paul has been arguing the very opposite of that in chapter 6 if you remember right by no means does it Shall we sin that grace may abound by no means?

So a wrong application if you do think it's a Christian is to think that that is normal In fact, that's not what he says at all That's even if you do believe it's a Christian he kind of sets that up for chapter 8 who will get to next week the other wrong application if you think that this is a non-christian that Paul is basically saying that Because you're a Christian you've been delivered from this conflict with your flesh So therefore if you're a Christian, you should be you should no longer have any kind of conflict with sin That living righteously should come easy for you, right?

That's not Paul is saying it's Paul not saying that either all over Scripture Paul tells us to wrestle Right Paul himself says I buff on my body and make it my slave in the previous chapter He talks about walking in the spirit. So, you know to live righteously, so either Application or however you turn out one does not It's not a license to listen just as another one is not a condemnation for anybody anybody who's wrestling with sin Let's just get that clear and we'll revisit that later But let's visit Why do people believe that this is a Christian view which my guess is I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand My guess is majority of you sitting in here will believe that this is the case and the number one reason why?

It seems to be talking about a Christian view is because he's using the present tense if He did not say this is what I am struggling with what I want to do I do not do and he's not using the present tense and if he said what I did and I struggled in the past Then we wouldn't even having be having this issue clearly.

He's talking about a non-christian, but because he's using the present tense That's why we have this discussion That's the number that's probably the number one reason the other Clear reason is that keeps coming up in this argument is how can a non-christian desire to do? What is good and to desire to obey the law where he says in Romans 7 18 for I have the desire to do what is?

Right 722 for I delight in the law of God in my inner being How can that be a non-christian in specifically Romans chapter 3 10 through 12 Paul describes? The fallen nation of man like this none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands God No one seeks for God all have turned aside together.

They have become worthless. No one does good Not even one so if this is a non-christian It seems to contradict what Paul says in chapters 3 that no one seeks after God, right? So this must be a Christian again. That's the second argument and then the third argument is in Romans chapter 7 25 At the end conclusion in verse 24.

Oh, what a wretched man that I who will deliver me from this from this Bondage of this flesh verse 25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord And it seems like Jesus is introduced as a solution But then he says so then I myself serve the law of God with my mind But with my flesh I serve the law of sin and it seems like he gives a conclusion but yet he he still gives the same conflict between the flesh and And the desire to do what is right, right?

Now there's about seven or eight different things that we can point out, but I'm not gonna go through all of that Those are the three main things that are brought up an argument by this. They believe that this must be Christian Now I've already hinted to you that I believe that this is a non-christian view Okay, and I'm gonna give you my reasons and then you can rebuke me storm me later But I'm gonna explain to you why and whether you agree or disagree.

I want you to know where this came from I want you to know how we got to this point so that whatever disagreement we have there is an intelligent discussion Not like that sounds dumb, you know, I mean like because that sounds dumb, right? If we want to come to the conclusion based upon how we came to this point, right?

And what specific things that we have a hard time agreeing with? Okay The first and I I think the greatest argument to me like I when I first read this passage as a young pastor I mean just immediately I didn't really know there was an issue I thought it was a Christian cup Paul says now I I am struggling with this, right?

And that's how I would counsel people but I There's no passage. There's no book that I studied more carefully than the book of Romans And there's no passage in the book of Romans that I spent them the most amount of time wrestling with than this passage Because of this controversy, right?

I probably have taught and Studied this passage or this text as a whole probably about four or five times I taught it as a pastor and then wrestled with this text and read probably everything I can get my hands on every person's view right on this at least that I I know of right and and my the thing that to me the Reason why I believe this is a this is a non-christian view and Douglas move John Stott And I got to throw some names out there so I can balance the equilibrium Right because some of you guys are gonna say well, I read my you know commentary and they say no So I got some commentaries too.

All right But again, I want you I want you to get to the text He describes himself in verse verse 14 of his struggle as a man who sold Under sin sold under sin and in verse 23 He describes again his his context of being captive to the law of sin Now that is a direct contradiction.

The vocabulary itself is a direct contradiction to Romans 6 6 & 7 He says we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing So that we would no longer be slaves to sin No longer be enslaved to sin and then he says for one who has died has been set free from sin So he's not describing somebody who's wrestling with sin He's Paul is describing somebody who is defeated and has no help He is enslaved to sin and he has he can do nothing but to sin even though he desires it so he uses that language of being enslaved to sin and And being captive to the law of sin yet in the very previous passage Says that we have been delivered from the bondage of sin and we have been set free from the law of sin Right.

So the language itself and we're not talking about way in chapter 3 We're talking about chapter 6 right before he gets to chapter 7. So if he's talking about a Christian He's described a Christian in a non-christian the exact same terms If we were to go back a little bit further If you remember what was the whole point of chapter 6 The whole point of chapter 6 begins with Paul arguing what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound By no means how can we who died to sin still live in it?

so whole argument that Paul's been making starting from chapter 6 is if Justification is by faith alone and law condemns and that does not bring life. What is the point of the law? Isn't isn't that going to lead to licentiousness? If you don't bring the fear of God If you don't obey the law, you're gonna be condemnation.

Isn't that going to lead to licentiousness? And so Paul has been arguing by no means It doesn't lead to licentiousness not at all. In fact, it leads to greater holiness because one When we died with Christ, we were united with him in his death and his resurrection in his new life new life in the spirit Secondly, we were once enslaved to sin, but now we are enslaved to righteousness number two third argument is before you were married to you know one person and by By that person dying you are now released to be married to Christ So all of those illustrations were given to make a point that justification by faith does not lead to licentiousness So if all of a sudden Paul is now coming into this passage and saying look at this life that he can't conquer He's still living in sin.

He's not just struggling with sin. He is bound to sin. He's enslaved to sin Then we have to say that Paul has changed direction In fact, not only is he changing his direction? He's contradicting himself in the argument that he was making in chapter 6 So at best we have to understand this as a parenthetical statement That he all of a sudden kind of shifts direction talks about something else Which is an odd place to put it since he was arguing against this and all of a sudden comes back to this in chapter 8 So when you look at the larger context and the argument that Paul is making it is a change of direction It is a change and I know it's technical I can already tell some of you guys are glazed has a glazed look in your face, okay But again, these are all reasons why I think it would be more difficult again neither Neither case is an airtight case but when you weigh the difficulties of Translating in one way or the other I believe that the evidence points to that.

This is talking about a non-christian He is speaking again. Let's look at the larger context Okay, he is speaking to Jews in Romans chapter 7 1 is a farm speaking to those who know the law And to answer the question, well, how can a non-christian delight in the law of the Lord?

Right, especially in light of Romans chapter 3 Well, you look at all throughout the Old Testament the scripture clearly says Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat Of mockers, but is the light is in the law of the Lord and on the law he meditates day and night So a Jew who was a follower of Yahweh Had delighted in the law the laws.

So Paul seems to be Representing himself as a Jew as a Pharisee Who in his inner being delighted in the law of God? But at the end of the day it didn't lead to salvation Right now here's a here's the thing that again may be a little more technical for you to understand.

There's another issue In chapter 7 verse 6 he describes a Christian and a non-christian And I want you to pay attention to what he says and see if you can catch the difference But now we are released from the law having died to that which held us captive so that we serve not under the old written Code but in the new life of the spirit Did you catch that?

right All right, if you didn't catch that let me explain Okay, the distinction that he makes between a Christian and a non-christian a Christian is one who lives according to the old code he's talking to Jews trying to obey the law and trying to get righteousness and and ultimately bringing condemnation for him a Christian is one who's a new code who lives according to what the life of the spirit?

So he introduces a Christian and non-christian is one who has a spirit and the other one does not have the spirit When he talks about this wrestling with sin and the law in this section between chapter chapter 7 verses 13 through 25 There's no mention of any help from the Holy Spirit He's wrestling with sin and it's not that there's no mention of the Holy Spirit coming in and helping until we get to chapter 8 verse 3 Where he says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus That what the law could not do we can buy the sinful flesh God did by sending his own Son through the spirit so in verse in chapter 8 verse 3 And I'm just going to read a couple of verses For God has done what the law we can buy the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin he condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements little law might be fulfilled in us Who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit?

So he introduces a Christian who is Christian in the spirit and a non-christian who's walking according to the old code and it seems like chapter 7 He's describing an individual who's living by the old code and then in chapters 8 he describes this deliverance We're no longer on the condemnation.

And so now we are walking according to the spirit What Is Paul's main point If he's talking about a non-christian wrestling with this, what is his main point? Okay, so let's take a step back and look at what the argument that Paul's making in chapter 7. Okay? chapter 7 He says that the law was given to do two things chapter 7 1 through 12 One is to reveal sin we talked about that that the law came without the law I didn't even know what coveting was until the law came because the law the law Identified it like a plumb line, right and he says that he at one point he thought he was alive But when the law came he realized he wasn't alive at all.

He was dead. So the law revealed sin Second thing that it did was the law stirred up sin Right it produced to me all kinds of licentiousness the coveting it stirred up and we talked about that last week It's kind of like dirty water that the dirt kind of sinks to the bottom and then you go in there and shake your hand around and just shakes it all Of all of a sudden you realize how dirty and polluted that water is and he said that's what the law did Okay, so that's what he was saying in chapter 7 verses 1 through 12.

So look at verse 13 with me Did that which is good then bring death to me by no means it was sin producing death in me through what is good The law is good, you know that sin might be shown to be sin right to reveal sin to stir up sin But he goes a step further than that, right?

So basically verse 13 He's summarizing what he said in verse 1 and 2 1 through 12 that the law came the law was not the problem It was sin But the law came to show sin as sin and then he goes a step further and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure So he goes even further not only did the law reveal sin not only did it stir up sin, but the law came to make sin utterly sinful and In King James, it talks about how it became exceedingly sinful It wasn't just sinful It was very sinful and it was exceedingly sinful It seems like to me what Paul is doing is he's introducing Summarizing 1 through 12 and then introducing how it became exceedingly sinful So Paul is not only telling us that the law made it exceedingly sinful.

He's showing us how it happened How the law of God? Came and made sin exceedingly sinful See Paul describes in Romans 7 15 I do not understand my own action for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate he is he is absolutely trapped by his flesh What does the Paul want to do obey the law?

What is the thing that he hates doing to disobey the law? But yet in Romans 7 18 to 19 Paul describes his state 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 Right.

He's describing an absolute inability just trapped in this flesh For I do not do the good that I want but the evil I do not want I is what I keep on doing His failure to obey the law reveal just how sinful his flesh is Some of us when we were younger, you know had dreams and you guys you guys are still young You know a lot of you so you guys all these dreams, but after a while you realize like your limitation You know every young boy who plays baseball thinks he's gonna be a baseball player you know if you played JV or Varsity basketball you probably had some dreams of going to college.

I probably got dashed right away You know, I mean, you're not tall enough fast enough. You don't shoot You know what? I mean? So you had all these dreams and the harder you try the more it became apparent You can't do it, right? And that's what Paul is describing He is describing a man who had every intention and desire to keep all the commandments, but the harder he tried He said right when I was doing the good evil was always right there with me To prevent him from doing this what I want to do.

I do not do what I should not do I keep on doing and then he says oh what a wretched man that I am So he is describing how sin became utterly sinful See someone who has never attempted to live a holy life Has no idea just how far you are from God Now you're a Christian you've heard the messages You've heard other people and you may have you may have struggled a bit, but you've always caved in But an individual who's been striving and made every effort to live righteously like a Pharisee Like an individual who wanted to be holy never never watch anything on pure Didn't want to go on a certain websites and didn't even want to go to the gym because they wanted to stay pure An individual who gave all of his efforts to try to be right with God by his own flesh Will recognize just how far we are from God See Paul is describing an individual a Pharisee among Pharisees.

So the law is perfect But at the end he realized how sinful utterly sinful sin was If you've never Given everything that you've got to love somebody that's difficult to love You have no idea how deep your corruption of vengeance is You have no idea because you just give in you you know, it's not good You know, it's not good, but you just kind of cave in every time temptation comes you just cave in So you say it's no good, but you have no idea just how utterly corrupt our heart is if you've never Really given all your energy to humble yourself to become nothing You just you have no clue Just how deep the corruption of arrogance and pride that is sitting inside of you See we know it's sin But it's never been utterly sinful See Paul is describing this Jew Who not only in his life not only his present life for?

1,500 years 1,500 years of their history They've been trying to keep the law And if you look at the 15 years of Israel's history, all they have is failure after failure after failure after failure Paul is describing his personal experience representing the community of Israel and Israel really ultimately representing mankind See what Paul is describing is a man When his attempt to do what is good Realize just how deep and just how corrupt our hearts are Martin Luther was a man Who all his life try to keep the law and in fact he wasn't it what we would consider an expert to the law because That's what he was studying.

He was getting a doctorate on this and He interpreted Romans chapter 117 that just shall live by faith Meaning that if you're gonna live you have to live according to your faith or you're not gonna become justified That's how he understood it. And that's how the Catholic Church was teaching it and in his attempt In his attempt to become righteous They asked him so Martin Do you love God and his honest answer to that question was not only do I not love God at times?

At times I hate him That's a shocking thing to hear from a monk where his whole life was dedicated to study the Word of God And he explains the reason why he hated God is no matter how good he did no matter how many times he went to confession No, many how many times he did penance.

He would get up from the seat just after he repented and to think about all the dirty thoughts that he had things that came out of his mouth and The moment that he got out of out of penance There was something else that he needed to repent of so he made sure he's like you wanted it He lived his young life trying to be pure and he was exhausted And his testimony was that there's no way to appease this vengeful God Do I love him?

No, I hate him It was in that context of frustration when he realized just how deep his sin was Where he had an epiphany understood that when he said that just shall live by faith What God was saying that your salvation is not gonna come because of what you do, but because of what Christ has done and Justification is gonna come by that faith See the whole point of the Reformation Was to bring us to the point to recognize what the whole law was given for Was to reveal sin to stir up sin and to recognize just how utterly sinful sin is If any of you sitting in here Have ever felt that and I think many of you did Because you try so hard to be righteous You tried so hard Wake up in the morning to quiet time to read to memorize scripture to share the gospel and You kind of gotten to a point of frustration You know ultimately with your own flesh You thought you'd be much further along by now you thought you would have memorized all the scripture by now You thought you would have had so many disciples under you by now But after years and years of frustration The law revealed just how utterly sinful our heart was Just how deep this pride goes The desire and this vengefulness hatred toward things People who don't respect you how you want them hurt gossip Just how deep this thing goes why does he do that?

He does all of this to bring us to verse 24, oh What a wretched man that I am Who will deliver me from the body of death you notice here the word wretched is also translated miserable See again, this is another reason why I believe he's talking about a non-christian because in nowhere else in the Bible Does the Bible describes a Christian as a wretched?

It's a miserable. Oh, what a miserable man that I am and to recognize the miserable state of mankind By his own righteousness and the more I try to obey the more I realize just how far I am from God and Sin becomes utterly sinful in me to bring me to the point where oh, what a wretched man that I am who will deliver me From this body of death who will deliver me That was the point of the law To reveal to stir and to to show us just how utterly sinful it is to get us to the point Who will help me with this Who will help deliver me not from the Romans not from poverty not for my circumstance But my own hatred in me My own bitterness my own self-righteousness my own pride That's killing me My own desire to justify myself my laziness Who will deliver me oh What a wretched man that I am that every time I try to do good evil is right there with me corrupting everything that I Do the thing that I want to do I do not do the things that I shouldn't do I keep on doing Oh, what a wretched man that I am Who will deliver me from this pride and arrogance It is to bring us to that point because it is at that point where we say who?

Obviously Paul's point is to bring us to chapter 8 is to bring us to chapter 8 because There is an answer See in Isaiah as you guys know when he confronts God so woe is me Woe is me is the same thing that Paul is saying here He sees he sees a glimpse of God's glory and he says woe is me.

He's basically older Richard, man How miserable am I am I in the presence of this Holy God Luke chapter 18 verse 13 the tax collector In approaching God he says but the tax collector standing far off He couldn't even raise his head would not even lift up his eyes to heaven He stood before God and he couldn't even draw near he couldn't lift up his eyes because he is so Ashamed of his utter sinfulness of his heart and he stood before God beating his chest God be merciful to me as sinner me and Jesus asked the question who was justified who's right before God the tax collector who stood in his pride say thank God I'm not like these people's extortioners unjust adulterers even like this tax collector I fast twice a week give to tie the everything that I have She said who's justified?

this tax collector Why was he justified Because sin was utterly sinful in him He was beating his chest Who will deliver this wretched soul From this bondage of sin he recognized his enslavement to his own sin Which caused him to reach out to God and God answered? That was the point of the law That's where God brings us every single sinner Every single sinner is led to the same spot as his tax collector To beat our chest not to beat our chest because of our generation because of our church because of the people around us our circumstance Or finance but beat our chest because you recognize just how deep your pride is Just how deep your corruption is So that we can recognize the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ You remember when Nicodemus came to Jesus in chapter 3 of John He was afraid of his reputation So he comes late at night so that his friends other Pharisees don't see him coming and they asked Jesus and he has this encounter Well, how do I receive eternal life and Jesus said you asked me born again?

Well, what does it mean to be born again? How can a man be born again? The question the answer is pretty clear you cannot Jesus was saying whatever you think is bringing righteousness is not the right path. So he was shutting that door in his face And then we look at the encounter with the Samaritan woman She's not afraid of her reputation.

She's afraid of Jesus's reputation Why are you a Jew a rabbi in the middle of the day talking to an adulterous Samaritan? She's ashamed of herself and she's she's concerned about his reputation. Why are you doing this and Jesus goes after her? If you knew who's standing before you and he kind of draws her in And if you remember he says well, I want this water and said well bring your husband Pointing to the very sore spot the thing the very reason why she was there in the middle of the day And then they have this encounter back and forth and then he clearly identifies himself The man who's standing before you is the Messiah that the Jews have been waiting for She drops everything and she runs back to Samaria She's the first evangelist that that we see in the book of Acts or in the Gospels Goes back and then and then she says to them come see a man who told me everything that I have done Did Jesus tell him everything I mean it was a very short encounter All she said was bring your husband, but she said everything But everything she didn't talk about where she was born her parents what her likes look, you know What kind of bread she likes what she does on her on her, you know On her downtime what time she goes that she didn't tell me anything.

All he did was point out her sin Because it was it was her sins That ruined everything So when she went back and gave her testimony, he come see a man who told me everything and she was absolutely right It was that thing. That was central thing. That was ruining her life And he told me everything And he becomes the first evangelist and he actually draws her in The message is pretty clear The application is pretty clear Until a man or a woman is broken over his own sin All the righteousness and righteous acts that we perform just makes us better Pharisees It equips us to point out other people's sins better it gives us false pride before a holy holy holy God We demand recognition for the good deeds that we have done We demand applause when we do good But when the law comes to reveal sin to stir up sin to make sin utterly sinful It makes us worshippers It makes us worshippers Not just doers Not just people who do right and who do wrong but worship We worship through giving we worship through singing we worship through serving We worship through pursuit of holiness.

We become worshippers You see this doesn't mean again in application in summary and we're gonna get to The conclusion of this in chapter 8 because he doesn't end with chapter 8 chapter 7 he concludes in chapter 8 Which we'll get to that next week The conclusion application of all of this is not oh, he's a it's it's not a Christian So to say like, oh, you know, we don't struggle with sin as Christians.

Do we struggle with it? Of course we struggle with sin But there is a distinction between a person who's living in sin who's struggling with sin Then I believe that he's talking about somebody who's bound in sin in here, right? But the deliverance comes first and foremost. So when we're humbled When we're humbled About what everything everything Salvation comes when we're humbled Worship comes when we're humbled Fellowship comes when we're humbled Service comes when we're humbled See a man or a woman who's just kind of given up to their sins Does not recognize what they've been saved from.

I Pray that as we continue to wrestle with this text that we come to a point where we're beating our chest Lord change these people right and that's that's the temptation that I have as a pastor because I've been I've been given a job to oversee the church and I spend a lot of time change these people Change these people and I come to this text and it convicts me it can mix me deeply The primary problem in my life is not other people It's a sin that dwells in me it's a pride it's the arrogance is the lust And until I come to the point surrendered to that and recognizing what he's given me All the other things that I do is for nothing This is why I want I wanted to wrestle with you and I hope that as we wrestle with this that This is not just okay.

I get this message but the point that Paul is trying to make Right. It's not just chapter 7. This is what he's been leading the whole six chapters seven chapters to To get us to the chapter 7 This is not new in chapter 7. He's been arguing this from chapter 1 the moment He started arguing this was the argument that he's been making.

Oh What a wretched man that I am To introduce us to Christ in chapter 8 Let's pray Again as we come before the Lord, let's take some time to pray and let the Word of God dwell in you and bear fruit To think deeply about where we stand not to simply just sweep Compromises and sins underneath the rug but to come before the Lord and if we haven't recognized Just how far we are from God in our own flesh That God will not let us down How far we are from God in our own flesh That God would cause us to open our eyes Lord See if there's any hurtful ways in me and to come before the Lord and recognize his forgiveness So let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us (explosions)