A Christian Bound By Rules Part 3
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
Good Morning
House Keeping
House Keeping
A couple of thing to remember. We have a prayer page on Facebook and why do we have a directory.
Men’s Night Out Next Saturday Afternoon.
For two years Jackie Case has served this church as the Youth Pastor. Through that time we have seen growth in our teenagers and purchased a building to provide space for them. Two weeks ago Jackie met with Pastor Rustan and I. She expressed that felt God was speaking to her that she needed to step down as Youth Pastor. Today would you join me in thanking her for her valuable service. Jackie we have a gift for you. Thank you!
We do have a plan going forward which I will be sharing soon.
Today I am going to wrap up a three part series out of the Book of Romans entitled A Christian Bound By Rules.
A Christian Bound By Rules Part 3
A Christian Bound By Rules Part 3
If you have your Bible turn with me to Romans chapter 7.
Last week Pastor Rustan covered the middle section of this chapter. Expressing how the Law or Rules are there to bring to light in us the Sin in our lives. He spoke on how the law comes in and exposed our sin to us so that sin can be shown for what it is Sin.
This week we are going to take a deeper look at what sin does in us, to us, and what it takes to break free from Sin.
Let’s take a look back at what we covered last week
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
The thing most of us don’t get about the world is that the world doesn’t know what the world doesn’t know.
We sit back from our enlightened point of view judging the lost like they should know better.
Paul says right here that the law and rules only come alive in us once we are aware of the law.
Then Sin comes alive and begins to take opportunity.
Romans 7:8
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Sin comes in with false promises and deceptions:
Romans The Struggle Within / 7:7-25
• Sin promises to satisfy our desires even more than the last time.
• Sin promises that our actions can be kept hidden, so no one will know.
• Sin promises that we won’t have to worry about consequences.
• Sin promises special benefits: wisdom, knowledge, and sophistication.
• Sin promises power and prestige in exchange for cooperation.
Then Paul goes somewhere that really throws the legalist backwards.
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.
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.
Scholars are in disagreement about the interpretation of this section of scripture. I find it kind of funny because I come at it from a different perspective.
17 years of volunteer ministry followed by straight into Lead Pastoring. Todd you weren’t as healthy as you thought you were when you got here.
I know I am not completely healthy....I am a lot better than I used to be.....But That is Sanctification.
Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil, and of dedication unto God.
Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil, and of dedication unto God.
Santification can not happen through my ability to follow the law. Flesh will win every time.
Sin Has Limits.
Sin Has Limits.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
In order to walk in the Spirit you have to come to the realization that he isn’t just the other guy in the trinity.
We have to change our way thinking in regards to beating back our sin.
In you own might you are set up for failure.
1. We cannot depend on our will to do what we know is right.
1. We cannot depend on our will to do what we know is right.
Why?
1. You are enslaved to sin
Romans 7:14
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
2. You don’t understand spiritual truth
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.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
3. You need a spiritual power greater than the power of sin
Romans 7:17
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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.
So I come to the realization that my will can’t get me there...........So I turn to the rules...............But Paul thing takes that ability away from us with point 2.
2. We cannot depend on the Law to do what we know is right.
2. We cannot depend on the Law to do what we know is right.
Why Not?
1. There is another law at work
Romans 7:21 (ESV)
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
You ever met somebody that loves the law? Loves rules, and always points back to the rules.
I have news for those of you caught up there.
2. Even if you love God’s Law the law of sin defeats you
Romans 7:22–23 (ESV)
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?
Romans 7:25 (ESV)
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.
If you are like me you get caught up in this stuff. My Will lets me down. My own abilities let me down....So Then I transition back to the rules and if I could just do enough good stuff then I will have control. However it is only when I come to the end of all that I begin to realize that God sent another.......I have to begin to depend on Christ.
3. We can only depend on Christ to do what we know is right!
3. We can only depend on Christ to do what we know is right!
Why is that you ask?
Romans 8:1–4 (ESV)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
It is only when we come to the understanding.
1. Christians are not under law we are under grace
2. The Law is good but it cannot save or sanctify us
3. Sin seizes an opportunity to attack us through the Law
4. The power of sin is great & only the power of the Spirit working in us is greater