Response. It is not enough that the Word is just written. It is important that we, as believers, respond to the Word of God. And these two precious young believers in the Lord Jesus have responded to the Word of God, so we look forward to that.
We are continuing in our study of Romans. I think you know this: we have basically had most of the summer off. We had a few things—the conference and other things—but now we are back to studying. Today we will be looking at the second part, or the second two-thirds, of Romans 7, from verses 7 to 25.
Now, I think this is a very important section of Romans. Much of the evangelical church does not understand what these verses are about. They somehow think this is the unredeemed apostle Paul looking back at what he was when he was unredeemed and seeing what was wrong with himself. But it is quite the contrary.
Here is the saved man. Here is the redeemed man. Here is the man who has come to righteousness in Christ—the justified man. And here he discovers that there are some very real problems about serving the Lord that we cannot overcome in ourselves.
Now, I think every Christian has to come to grips with Romans 7. It is for you; it is not for the unbeliever. Paul has gone through Romans 1 through Romans 5, dealing with justification. He comes now to Romans 6, 7, and 8, dealing with sanctification.
Sanctification means being made holy. We have said that again and again. Justification—these are pretty big words—means being accounted righteous. It is not your righteousness; it is righteousness that is ours in Christ Jesus.
But when you come to Romans 6, 7, and 8, we have a change in the book, a very remarkable change in the book. You need to understand that this is dealing with believers and how they live the Christian life.
So I hope you understand this. Do not make the mistake that much of the evangelical church does and think that this was the unsaved Paul. No, this was the saved Paul. This was the Paul who struggled, was in agony, and found that in his own strength and by his own life he could not serve the Lord.
And this was one who was actually under bondage. Now, I know you do not think that about Christians, but Christians can be under bondage. Here we see one who was still under bondage to the law and had not made that full break from it. Here we see one who was under bondage to self. Here we see one who was under bondage to sin—singular—and how he overcame.
It is a wonderful chapter. Until you get to this point in your Christian life, you can never be sanctified. I just like to say that. I hope I do not offend too many believers this morning. I hope they begin to understand the depth of this chapter and the help that it brings to us in full deliverance.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Far be the thought.
But I had not known sin except by law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not lust.
But sin, finding occasion by the commandment, wrought in me every manner of lust; for apart from law sin is dead.
And I was alive apart from law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death:
for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me.
So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Did then that which is good become death unto me? Far be the thought.
But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do.
But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good.
So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.
For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice.
But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Let us pray.
Lord, now we know these words are of vital importance to our sanctification. We have at least an impression of that, but we are asking You, by Your Holy Spirit, to make Your words alive. Breathe upon them, for You alone have the words of eternal life.
We look to the Holy Spirit to quicken us today: to have understanding, to have revelation, to have a real sense of what the Word of God is telling us, and to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. How we ask You to make it known to us, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, the title today—I always forget to give the title to those guys in the recording booth—is “Deliverance from Self and Sin.”
Today we are going to look at just three things. I like simple outlines. I do not like to be so complicated. We can understand the basic things if you put things in a simple outline.
When you read and study the Word of God, it will help you. I will never forget Brother Kong telling us, as young brothers, “Read the Word of God.” Now, I know that is not new news. I have said it before: read the Word of God. Read the Word of God over and over.
Do not let your first impulse be to go to some grand man of God and his own books to learn. Learn by reading, and then outline. What are the important words? Where do they break down? How can you see the flow of the Holy Spirit’s thought in the Word of God?
When you do that, the Word will become rhema to you. Now, rhema in Greek means “living word.” Otherwise, it will just be logos, which is objective word. Very important. Read it over and over. Make it your discipline. But one day light comes through that Word. The Holy Spirit breathes upon that Word, and when the Holy Spirit breathes upon that Word, it becomes the living Word: rhema.
I know I am getting off my subject, but you will forgive me at least for that. So we are going to look at three things. That was the outline, right? That is what I think I was talking about.
If you have never understood the purpose of the law, you will begin to understand it in Paul’s agony as he shares it. Then you will understand that there is a problem—a problem with the flesh. Many believers do not even know what the flesh means. I hope maybe you will have a better understanding.
Then there is this wonderful ending: the proclamation of deliverance. Paul at last gets delivered. And when you go into Romans 8, it is even more grand, and that is the finish of sanctification.
Well, without understanding this, you will never be sanctified. So let us begin with those first verses: the purpose of the law.
Romans 7:7–25 is—let me repeat this, because it is so important—the agonizing experience of Paul, a redeemed man who tried to live according to the law and according to his own strength. That is Romans 7 in a nutshell.
We see that he is so transparent, so candid—this great man of God—about his struggle to live the Christian life, and then his revelation began to open to us God’s way for us.
I have already mentioned to you the different way evangelical Christianity looks at it, but this is a justified man. This is a saved man. This is a redeemed man. He is having these struggles that every Christian should have, and when they discover God’s way through, they will discover full deliverance in Christ: deliverance from self and deliverance from sin.
In Romans 7:7–11, we see how Paul’s conscience was awakened to the reality of sin through the commandment, through the law. Then in verses 12 and 13, we see the second purpose of the law: the law was light that cast true light on the nature of sin. That nature can only be described in Paul’s two words: “exceedingly sinful.”
Those are two things you have to see. This is what Paul experienced. If anybody could live the Christian life, it was the apostle Paul. Here was this Pharisee of Pharisees. Here was this student of Gamaliel. Here was this gifted man.
He said, even in his own testimony in the book of Acts, that he was “far advanced beyond my contemporaries.” Now, I never said that about my profession. I would not dare say that. But this man could say that. Surely he could live the Christian life.
But here we see the undoing of Paul. We need to see the undoing of ourselves, and the control of sin, to such a degree that we, like the apostle Paul, would cry out for deliverance and find it only in Christ Jesus.
The first purpose of the law is the consciousness of sin. In Romans 7:7, Paul says, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?” Then he says, “Far be the thought.”
Those of you who are familiar with the book of Romans know that this question is common with the apostle Paul. He often says, at very important transitions in this book, “What shall we say then?” Mark those as you read the book of Romans. It will give you insight into what it means.
Then he asks, “Is the law sin?” His common divine reaction to wrong thinking is, “Far be the thought.” It is impossible that something God gave, written with His own finger on stone tablets, could be sin. It is wrong thinking.
If you read the book of Romans, you will notice that ten times it says, “Far be the thought.” Paul gives the wrong thinking, and then he gives the divine reaction to that wrong thinking.
In verse 7, the continuation says, “But”—and “but” is always an important word. I appreciate the way Brother Sparks used to say that. He often told us to notice the “buts” in the Word of God. I do not know what that is in other languages, but “but” is very important if you look in Ephesians.
It continues in verse 7:
But I had not known sin except by law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not lust.
This great man of God—the law found him out. The more he tried to live the Christian life as a redeemed man, the more he found he had a problem. That problem was that he lusted.
Now, do not think you are any different than Paul. You may just not have discovered it. But in the light of God’s glory, he discovered that the purpose of the law was to reveal the absolute consciousness of sin. Understand that. That is the first point.
You cannot go on into the rest of this chapter unless you understand that the purpose of the law was to awaken our consciousness to sin. The purpose of the law was never that we keep the law. I want you to be clear about that too.
You cannot keep the law. It is impossible for you to keep the law. You do not have the capacity to keep the law. The law was given to show what holiness is really like—not telling us to keep it, but to awaken our conscience to sin.
In Romans 7:8–11, Paul shows the agonizing effect of being awakened to the consciousness of sin.
But sin, finding occasion by the commandment, wrought in me every manner of lust; for apart from law sin is dead.
But I was alive apart from law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment, which was unto life, was found as to me itself to be unto death.
For sin, finding occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and through it slew me.
Now, those are strong words. Those are strong words. We need to recognize how strong these words are. He finally saw, in the light of God, the purpose of the law.
Sometimes, when we use big words and biblical words, we lose people. Let me give you a simple illustration. I hope it helps. The law is like a mirror.
Every one of you has a mirror. Some people probably do not have mirrors in their home, but most of us have mirrors. Some of us have too many mirrors. They are everywhere. We cannot get away from mirrors.
But if you have an awful blemish on your nose—like a big wart—and I do not think I have a big wart, but if you have a big wart on your nose and you are walking around, you do not know it. You are not aware of the blemish. You are not aware of the fault.
But the moment you walk up to one of those mirrors, you say, “Oh my, look at that blemish.” That is what the law does. It awakens our conscience. We see sin as sin is. It is through the commandment that sin was made manifest.
That is what it means in 1 Corinthians 15:56 when Paul says, “The strength of sin is the law.” The law shows us the very nature of sin.
So I hope that illustration helps. The law is the thing through which we see the reality and the purpose of the law. We see what we are really like, and that is what Paul is saying.
Twice he uses this phrase: “But sin, finding occasion in me by the commandment.” I think for a Pharisee of Pharisees to be awakened to that—his life was the commandments, his life was the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament—but to come to the point where he realized the commandment had taken advantage of him, killed him, and slew him, was great revelation.
That was the purpose. The commandment was not meant to be kept; the commandment was meant to convict. The commandment was not meant to be rules to live by. The commandment was the thing that made us draw to Christ, to have a solution that was not in us.
Do you understand the difference? You read it in Galatians: the commandment was our tutor to lead us to Christ.
The Jews had this problem. The commandment was given—the tablets of stone from the finger of God were brought down—and they said this profound thing. They said it twice, as a matter of fact. Once was bad enough; they did not learn. They said it twice: “All that God has said, we will do.”
Well, there you go. You talk about taking on the curse of the law—they did, in full. That was never the purpose. Its purpose was to shine the light on a holy God. Its purpose was to reveal a holiness, a requirement of sanctification. Its purpose was to unveil what God was like and to expose what we are like.
Do you get the difference? It is a huge difference. The commandment, taking advantage of me, came in and killed me and slew me. Paul says, “It wrought in me every lust; for without law sin was dead.” He says, “Sin revived when the law came, and I died.” He says, “For sin deceived me, and through it slew me.”
These are words that are very important for us to understand. This is the purpose of the law: not to be kept, but to convict. You get that? Can everybody remember that? I think that is important. It was meant to expose sin.
Well, the second thing is in verse 13. I think it is quite powerful. Paul says, “In order that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.” That was the second purpose of the law.
Sometimes we are so casual with sin. We talk about “white lies.” What is a white lie? A white lie is supposed to be this innocent little lie that you tell to protect people. You do not want them to know the hard reality of the truth, so we have developed this phrase, “white lies.”
Well, according to the commandment, there are no white lies. It says, “Thou shalt not lie.” Period. The next time you confess, “Oh, there was just a little white lie because I love my sister so much, I did not want to tell her the truth”—well, I think you need to have your conscience awakened.
Oh, this is family history coming out in the middle of ministry. Do you not love it?
But, dear brothers and sisters, how we need to see this purpose of the law: that it was to show sin as exceedingly sinful. Do we see it that way? Do we abhor sin? Do we hate sin? Do we detest sin?
I cannot tell you how many meetings I have been in with the brothers, counseling people. The first thing you realize, for someone to get really helped and delivered from the power of sin and self, is that they need to see the ugliness of sin.
The purpose of the law was to expose the ugliness of sin—sin that was exceedingly sinful. I cannot think of a better adjective there than “exceedingly.” I think that is quite strong, and I think that makes the point very well.
We need to see the other thing Paul says: the law is holy, and just, and good. Do not make the mistake of thinking something is wrong with the law. The law will never disappear.
The Lord said, “I have come to fulfil the law.” In that most famous message ever spoken, the Sermon on the Mount, He said not one jot or tittle shall disappear from the law. No, it cannot, because the law is holy. The law is good. The law is righteous. The problem is us.
Do you understand? That is Romans 7. If you have an understanding of that, it will help. We could never be justified by the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.
—Romans 3:20
You get that? The consciousness of sin—that is the point. I mentioned before, but did not give you the verse: 1 Corinthians 15:56, “The strength of sin is the law.”
Brothers and sisters, the law was to show something so ugly in the sight of God, so repulsive in the sight of God, so exceedingly sinful in the sight of God, that we, His followers, would abhor it—even when we discover it in ourselves.
I think maybe you are getting the importance. I will quote Griffith Thomas. I think he says something extraordinarily clear and profound about this:
This passage describes a man who is in real earnest to be holy in his own efforts. Remember that: in his own efforts. By law, apart from grace, the passage teaches the powerlessness of the law for salvation—in other words, justification—and sanctification.
How true that is.
There is another thing we need to see when we look at Romans 7:7–25. We need to see the problem of the flesh. There is a real problem with the flesh.
Does not Jude 1:23 say, “Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh”? Those are strong words Jude brings out.
What is the flesh? The flesh is when self and sin merge in an explosion—that becomes the flesh. That is the simple way to explain it. It is the conjoined twins.
You know what a conjoined twin is. I know you do not need an engineer to explain medical things to you. It is when two are born and they cannot be separated. Maybe in modern medicine they can be. You remember the two famous conjoined twins from the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus? Look it up. That is why you have the web.
But they could not be separated. There are worse cases of conjoined twins: the self-life and sin. We need deliverance from the self-life. We need deliverance from sin.
Now, sin there does not mean that white lie, as I mentioned. It certainly does not mean sins of the past, because they are already dealt with by the cross. Those are sins—plural. It means indwelling sin.
Paul discovered two problems with the flesh. One was the self-life, and one was indwelling sin. These are major problems. If you do not understand these two problems and find God’s resolution, you will never enter into the full experience of sanctification. That is as simple as it is.
In verse 14, Paul says, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly.” That is another truth.
Now, if I called you fleshly, you would get mad at me. You might storm the lectern. My sister sure would throw me down in a chokehold if I said that. But, you know, you are fleshly. I am fleshly.
Paul’s agony was that he discovered he was fleshly. If you read the Corinthian letter, you begin to understand it. Fleshly means carnal. We do not have time to read it, but it is very clear what flesh is.
I am telling you, flesh has two elements that make it what it is: the self-life and indwelling sin. Put those two together and you have a spiritual explosion.
We talked about the bathrooms in the announcement. I was amused by the announcement that apparently sisters and brothers cleaning the bathrooms were mixing chemicals. No, no, do not do that. You are going to make hydrochloric acid, and before you know it, you will be passed out on the floor.
Well, there is a worse explosion than that. It is what makes us carnal. It is when we live by the self-life. It is when indwelling sin—the words Paul uses—takes us over. We cannot fight it. We cannot get liberty from it. We struggle with it. We agonize over it.
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly, sold under sin.” Is that not a strong word? Paul was not exaggerating. We are sold under sin when we are fleshly.
As a matter of fact, one writer I deeply respect said that is slave-market language. We are sold on the block. We are not our own. We are controlled by sin—indwelling sin.
So these are the two problems: self and sin. It is toxic and crippling, and it makes sanctification impossible.
You can read 1 Corinthians 3:1–3 afterwards. Paul had the delight of telling those Corinthian believers he loved, “You are carnal. You are fleshly.” So do not think this is talking about the unredeemed Paul. To the church, that was his word.
He said, “I cannot tell you what I want to tell you.” He was with them eighteen months, and he could only speak about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because you are carnal.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to be delivered from self. We need to be delivered from self. It is so important.
How do you know he is talking about self? This is why I say, read the Word. Read the Word over and over until you get what it is saying. The word I occurs thirty times in these verses. Did you know that?
If you did not discover the word I in these verses, it occurs thirty times. I am going to use terrible English: I is the problem. You can correct me later. I is the problem.
Believers do not understand this. We get people saved, and we think then they are holy, and they can serve and they can work. Hey, just understand what I am trying to say. Paul went into the desert for three years. I am not telling you to go into the desert for three years; I do not even know where you find a desert around here.
But the point is, he saw himself in the reflection of the Word of God, and he was never the same. We take people, they are saved, and we send them out right away: “Oh, you are a missionary for the world.” I think there needs to be some dealing first.
This is what Romans 7 is talking about. I thirty times. Can you imagine? Look at verse 15, just for an example:
For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do.
It is pretty profound. Dear old Lance, with his perfect Queen’s English, used to talk about Jacob: “I, I, I.” Here, six times. He had an eye problem.
You know, I had an eye problem, and I had to get surgery. So the tint was taken back, and now I can see all of you. It is wonderful. But Paul had a real eye problem. He had a spiritual eye problem.
He had a physical eye problem too. You read about it. Some people believe 2 Corinthians 12:7, the thorn in the flesh, is talking about that eye problem. You see it very clearly when you come into Galatians.
Paul normally dictated his letters. If you read 1 Corinthians, he says basically that he and Sosthenes were writing. At the end of the letter, he says, “My salutation … by my own hand.” He wrote because he could not see.
But when you go to Galatians, this point of being not under the law but under grace was so important that he says, “See with what large letters I have written unto you with my own hand.” No longer was he dictating the word; he was writing.
I can imagine it took a lot of parchment to put that on, so Paul could see it. He had an eye problem, a physical eye problem. But he had a bigger eye problem. It was the self-life. It was huge.
What an enormous eye problem he had. “I, I”—thirty times—and he could not get enough. He said, “My, my, my”—sixteen times—and he could not be enough. He said in verse 25, “I myself.”
Now, if you ever come up to me and say, “my myself,” I am going to look at you over my glasses. You get the point. Oh, what a problem.
There is no mention of the Holy Spirit. It was all me trying to live the Christian life. It was all my trying to live the Christian life. It was all about what I could not do, what I willed to do, what I could not do, how I wanted to practice it—but I never found the deliverance and grace to do it.
Oh, brothers and sisters, I think we have an eye problem. I think every Christian has an eye problem, and they do not know it.
You can never serve the Lord according to rules, according to law. You can never serve the Lord in the power of your own life. This was the purpose of Romans 7 to the believers.
I like Darby’s version, and I like his notes. His footnotes are very helpful. He says something I have never heard anybody else say when he talks about this personal pronoun, I.
He says, “I have put I in italics when the personal pronoun ego is emphatically introduced in Greek, and the emphasis is not otherwise apparent.”
That is a pretty important statement. Here, there are some words for I—if you look at them, there are seven words in Darby’s version that are italicized. They are the I that has ego attached right to it.
In a sense, what Paul is saying in his confession before he came into real deliverance was that he was an egomaniac. Now, you may think I am a little too wordy and strong to say Paul was an egomaniac. What would you think if I called you an egomaniac?
That is what we are in the self-life. If you look at the very definition, it is someone who is extremely preoccupied with their ego, their identity, or self. That sounds like the modern world.
Egomaniac is a combination of the Latin word meaning self—or I—and the Greek word mania, which means madness or frenzy.
So maybe you will not be so offended if I call you an egomaniac. Everyone who has not been delivered from the problem of the self-life is an egomaniac. It is madness; it is frenzy. If you read Romans 7, Paul was beside himself in madness. He did not know what to do. He was in agony and anxiety.
Dear brothers and sisters, after that great revelation in Caesarea Philippi, in Matthew 16, the Lord said to His disciples what we need to do.
Then Jesus said unto His disciples, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
—Matthew 16:24
Do not ever forget that word: deny himself. The implication is very clear. You cannot follow Him as a disciple unless you deny yourself. It is not optional.
Somehow, we have gotten this impression that there are believers and disciples. One time I spoke on this—this is confession—and Brother Kong thought I got it all wrong. He came to me in his vein-popping expression, and when he saw me, he said, “That is not right.”
I will never forget it. I did not think I said that, but that is okay. I will take it from my dear brother. I love our dear brother.
He said, “You cannot just have believers and disciples.” I think truly that is the way it is in the world: believe in the Lord Jesus and you are saved. You love that part. But are you willing to deny yourself and become a disciple?
This is what is key. The one thing a disciple has to do is deny himself, take up the cross, and daily follow Him. When you begin to do that, the problem with self is lessened, and that inward man he spoke about—that man in Christ—is strengthened. That is God’s way.
We understand the importance of the cross in justification. It is God for us. He died for us. We can get that. We always know the importance of the cross in that work of redemption, but do we understand the importance of the cross in our daily experience in sanctification?
If you do not, you will never understand Romans 7. The secret of sanctification is not I, but Christ. That is the cross. It is refusing ourselves.
Not I, but Christ. No one of us is selfless. But the Lord Jesus was truly selfless. Remarkably, He was God, and He says, “I do not say what I want to say, only what the Father says. I do not do what I want to do, but only what I see the Father doing.”
He was truly the only selfless man who ever lived. Brothers and sisters, that Man is in us. This is what we need to understand.
The secret of sanctification is Galatians 2:20: “I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.” This is what Paul began to be awakened to in his revelation. This alone will solve the eye problem.
The second thing is indwelling sin. It combines with the eye problem. This is a chemical combination that will explode on you, and it has for all creation. The second problem with the flesh is indwelling sin.
The problem was devastating to the Christian life, making sanctification impossible. Look at verse 17:
So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
That phrase, “It is no longer I,” was not talking about Christ at that point, but that was the seed of his deliverance. That was the seed of his deliverance.
Verse 20 says:
But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
Have you ever experienced indwelling sin that you could not overcome? Have you wept over it and prayed that the Lord would deliver you from it? There is something left over from Adam in us that is a problem, and that is indwelling sin.
This problem was not just erased at the cross. When you look at sanctification in Romans 6, you are looking at positional sanctification. You are put, as our brother was saying this morning, in Christ.
You were baptized into Christ, and His death became your death, and it became your burial, and it became your resurrection. You were raised in newness of life. That is the position we stand in.
Now this is the practice. Remember, that word is used again and again in this section. This is living the Christian life. So this goes beyond positional Christianity, which is very important. I am not belittling that.
You have to see that you are dead in Christ. You have to see globally, from the federal headship, that all of Adam is dead in Christ. There is a second Man: Christ. You have to see that.
But here you have to see that there is residue from the Adamic nature that God has another way to deliver us from. The way He delivers us from indwelling sin is Romans 8: it is by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
How wonderful. God’s ways are perfect. Can you imagine? God the Holy Spirit, putting in you the indwelling Spirit of God, to overcome the power of that residue of indwelling sin that was left in you? Through the power of His life, we are able.
The Spirit of God—the Spirit of God—we are able to overcome. When you see those thirty “I’s,” those sixteen “my’s,” and that one profound “I myself” in Romans 7, the Holy Spirit is never mentioned. Never mentioned in Romans 7.
Then you go over to Romans 8, and I think twenty times you see the Spirit. That is God’s deliverance. He puts in us His Holy Spirit.
So indwelling sin is overcome by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Is that not good news? I think that is so tremendous. It is so genius. It could only be divine.
Who would have thought the third Person of the Godhead would come in and take up permanent residence in us? Who would have thought? Only God. It is such an amazing work.
That is how we deal with indwelling sin. Brothers and sisters, we need to see it. Paul went to the point of saying in verse 18:
For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.
For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
I remember a story. I have not told this for years, so do not get on me about this one.
In the War of 1812—the Brits did not learn from 1776, so there was another war—in Lake Erie, Admiral Perry is probably most famous for saying, after winning that war over Britain, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”
Then in 1970—I graduated from high school in 1970, so that shows you how old I am—there was a Pogo cartoon by Walt Kelly. He took off that famous historical quote and made a parody of it. He said, “We have met the enemy, and it is us.”
Do you understand? That is Romans 7. We have met the enemy, and it is us.
So many people are rebuking the devil everywhere, thinking, “Oh, the devil, the devil is this, the devil is that.” They say there is a devil behind every bush. But there might be a bigger problem.
The devil was defeated. He was exposed. He was disarmed. But self—you have to do some work with self by the Holy Spirit in the Lord’s life. That is the key.
Well, I do not think all is hopeless. Paul uses that phrase, “It is no longer I,” twice in these verses, and it shaped his whole teaching of the Christian life.
That is where Galatians 2:20 came from. That is where Philippians 1:23 came from. That is where Colossians came from: “This mystery hidden from the ages is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Dear brothers and sisters, he said it twice: “It is no longer I.” It is sin. But he discovered, in his full deliverance, “It is no longer I; it is Christ.” That was his whole philosophy.
I think I am going to finish with just a few words: the proclamation of deliverance. This is Romans 7:24–25. This is quite a proclamation.
At the highest point of his agony, when he was finally done with self—and by the way, in case you have not gotten the inference, I think you need to walk with the Lord awhile and find out how you need to be done with self.
I think you will find out how terrible self is, how terrible indwelling sin is. Then hopefully, at that desperate stage in your life, you will do what the apostle Paul did and cry out with abounding agony:
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
Have you ever said that? Oh, it is a good cry. It was the beginning of full deliverance. John has been on me for months to get to verse 24, telling me, “O wretched man that I am.”
Paul knew what he was saying. The Roman church knew what he was saying. You see, the Roman government and judicial system were specialists in cruelty. You may not know that. Think of the cross. Is there anything more cruel than the cross?
We heard about it from Roger last week—the sufferings of our Lord. What a cruel, drawn-out suffering that was. But they had another way of terrible cruelty.
Anybody who murdered someone, they would take the murdered body of the victim and chain the murdered body of the victim to the living man—the murderer. Do you understand? Face to face, hand to hand, toes to toes. For the remainder, or short period, that he lived, that corruption seeped into him, and he died a vicious death.
Paul knew what he was saying: “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” The Roman church, if they knew what he was saying, knew exactly what he was saying.
Brothers and sisters, when our cry gets to that point, we experience deliverance in Christ: deliverance from self, deliverance from sin.
It says in verse 25:
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
If you do not mind me reading the first two verses of Romans 8:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
—Romans 8:1–3
Here, brothers and sisters—to me, this is Romans 7. To me, this is sanctification.
Before we experience full deliverance from self and sin, we need to be awakened in conscience to the horrific nature of sin. Is “horrificness” a word? She does not know. I stump the English major. Put that one down in my card, would you? Thank you. It is a made-up word.
How horrific sin is—indwelling sin. The power of self makes you an egomaniac and drives you crazy. We need to be delivered and see this.
The law exposes that. The law shows that sin is exceedingly sinful. Then we discover that the only way we can find liberty is through the life of Another. That is the secret.
That is why he could say those words, and they began to mean something to him: “It is no longer I.” God, in His Spirit, reminded him that sure deliverance comes through One, even Christ.
Then we have to cry out a desperate cry that will never be unanswered. If we cry out, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” God is faithful.
You will begin to discover life in the Spirit and be free—fully free for the first time in your life.
Shall we pray?
Lord, I do not know how You can make these words more clear, but I ask You to make them clear where I could not make them clear.
Breathe upon Your Word. Sow Your Word into our hearts, that, as You told that famous parable of the sower, it will bear good fruit.
Lord, we yield to You. We know we are not to live according to the law, but we see something and touch something of what it exposes. We know that we are the problem.
Deliver us from self. Deliver us from sin. Let us too have that victorious proclamation: “I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord,” the One who is deliverance.
Then we will know the way of sanctification. Amen.