There are some blessings of a local church. The pastor of a local church is not writing a commentary to an anonymous group of people. The pastor of a local church is preaching the word of God to the local congregation, wherever they may be, and according to their needs and needs for encouragements and helps. And as we've been looking at Romans, chapters five, and we've, in a sense, covered the first five chapters. It just seems wise to see if we can't go through the rest of the Book of Romans, just looking at our church family and looking at the wonderful depth of teaching that occurs in the remainder of the Book of Romans. And while we're here, it seems like a good time to take that chance to do so. But in doing this quicker than we would if we were writing a commentary, it means we're not going to hit every single detail. And there may be questions. But the idea then is to hit the most important point. So at least you have a construct to be looking at the rest of the book of Romans just to see how it works. So as you study on in your life, you can fill in more details and more meat on the bones as well. But I'm led to believe that finishing Romans quickly, if that's possible, is something that would be a great benefit to us as Reformed Baptist Church of Kansas City. And so we're going to look at Romans chapter six and seven this morning, which deals with sanctification. And these are two chapters that maybe make us scratch our head with some of the details, but I think if we understand the flow of it, it's just a tremendous help to our walk with Christ. And the first five chapters of Romans wonderfully lay out justification by faith alone in Christ alone. And we've taken a few weeks to walk through that one chapter, chapter five, rejoicing in the blessings and the benefits and the encouragements of chapter five and the doctrine of justification. Last week, we spent the whole time looking at verses 12 through 21 in Romans five. And hopefully there, you saw the richness of God's grace and mercy in justifying sinners in Christ. in that though we are born in Adam with a bad record and a bad heart before a holy God, his guilt and sin is imputed to us before we have done anything, we can be born again in Christ with a good record and a good heart gifted by God, our sin imputed to Christ while his righteousness is imputed to us, and our death is suffered by Christ while his life is given to us, and we do nothing to deserve it. But when you contemplate that, some questions arise naturally, I think. Questions like, if my sin was due to Adam and my righteousness is due to Christ, is there anything for me to do? And maybe more specifically, because Paul mentions grace and the law in chapter five. So more specifically, the questions that might arise would be, if grace does abound more than my sin, as Paul says at the end of Romans chapter five, if grace abounds more than my sin, then why worry about abstaining from sin? Grace is better and bigger. And maybe that'll even glorify God more if there's sin in my life, because his grace will be even more seen. Another question that Paul will raise, and he does this well in Romans, where he beats you the punch. He asks the questions you might be wanting to ask. The question would be, well, if the law has been satisfied by Christ's obedience, then why worry about my obeying it? What difference does it make? And so with those types of questions that Paul foresees, he moves from justification in Romans chapter five how a sinful man can be made right before holy God, to sanctification in chapter six and seven, how that justified man can now live right before God. And it absolutely does matter how you live once you are justified. In fact, if justification does not lead to sanctification, then it is not justification at all. So before we go ahead and try to look at Romans, I want us to be reminded about the definitions of justification and sanctification. Kids, do you feel like singing? We've sung a lot this morning. It's been kind of an odd morning, but we've sung a lot and some songs that aren't in the hymnal. If I would ask the question, what is justification? How could you sing in response? Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. Notice justification is an act of God's free grace. He declares the sinner just and right. It's an act, not a work, but it's an act of God's free grace, a declaration. And that declaration pardons the sinner of his sins and in fact imputes his sins to Christ. And then that sinner is now accepted as righteous in God's sight. Why? Because Christ's righteousness has been imputed to the sinner. And that's what God sees. And it's all by faith alone. That's the conduit. That's justification. But what if I would ask the question, what is sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die and to sin. and live unto righteousness. Do you see the change? Sanctification is a work of God's free grace. That's a huge difference. It's a work of God's free grace where God, by his spirit, according to his word, now renews the sinner and his whole man. Why the whole man? Because your whole man is under the control of sin. Sin taints everything about you, so now there needs to be a renewal to the whole man as well. And you are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness, which sounds like Romans 6. And notice that this means very clearly, which will prepare us for Romans 7, that sanctification doesn't say, zap, you're sinless. There's no struggle. It's a work of God in the sinner that's a process. You're enabled more and more to die unto sin, which means you're not always winning that battle on the day-to-day basis, but you're enabled more and more to die and to live unto righteousness. And it can be a slow process that has to be prepared for. So that's justification and sanctification, according to the Catechism, which does rightly reflect what the Bible says. So in Romans, what Paul does, he basically uses in Romans 6 and 7, a couple of parenthetical statements. Again, do you remember in Romans 5, we said when Paul says, basically, your sin is imputed to you from Adam. Then he stops and says, wait a minute, you're gonna ask some questions about that. Like, that's not fair. So then he stops. in Romans 5, has a little parenthesis where he says, okay, let me address the issue where it's not going to be fair. And then he stops, has another parenthesis, says, let me explain to you that it's all by grace. Yes, it's not fair, but it's all by grace. And then at the end of Romans 5, he gets back to his main thought, which says, yes, sin has impeded you from Adam, but Christ's righteousness has impeded you and you're free, free indeed. I think he does that same sort of thing, but with bigger parenthesis. In Romans 6 and 7, he mentions the grace and law in relationship to one's sin in Romans chapter 5. And so in Romans chapter 6, he has a little parenthetical, although it's a big one because it's a whole chapter, he has a parenthetical statement about how sin and grace are related in chapter 6. And then in chapter seven, he has another thought. How is sin and the law related in chapter seven? Things have changed. You're in Christ now. So what is your relationship then with this idea of sin and grace and then the law and grace? And then we'll find out next week. We will, we'll get there. Then he returns in chapter eight to this main thought at the end of chapter five about justification and its guarantee for eventual glorification. Really, Romans 5 does mention that already. So he has these couple chapters where he talks about sanctification, relationship to grace and the law, and then he gets back to his thought from the end of chapter 5 when we get to chapter 8. Are you ready? What Paul is apt to do, he answers the potential questions before they're asked about sanctification. And we'll see the following main points made in question and answer form. There's four questions, especially he gives. We'll see this following four main points made in his question and answers about justification leading to sanctification. In Romans chapter six, we're going to see in the relationship of sin and grace that you are to be sanctified. You are to pursue righteousness and not sin because you have a new identity and you have a new master. Those are the first two points. You have a new identity in Christ, and you have a new master of Christ. And then in chapter seven, he starts dealing with sin and the law, and he gives you two more things to hang your hat on in your pursuit of sanctification. You have a new relationship to the law, and you're gonna have a new struggle as well. That should be in your bulletins, those four points in those two chapters. A new identity, a new master, a new relationship, and a new struggle. So let's look at Romans chapter six. Now we said at the end of Romans chapter five, Paul says, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. There you have the law and grace mentioned again. And so then when he starts with Romans six, he begins to deal with that idea of grace and sin. He says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? we said if grace abounds and let's just keep sinning because grace abounds anyway and basically answers that the justified sinner absolutely may not continue in sin because first of all he has a new identity verses 1 through 14 and he has a new master the rest of the chapter. Let's look at the new identity in verses 1 through 14. Now in order to cover two chapters. We may not read every single verse or at least not comment on every single verse. So I think it's helpful before we get into each section, let me at least give you a summary to prepare you so we do look at makes more sense. In the first part of Romans chapter six, the idea of a new identity. Hopefully you're familiar with this because every time we have a baptism, we usually look at Romans chapter six. I have to get another text for baptisms because you're going to get bored. But in Romans chapter six, the first few verses, the point is the Christian, the one who has been justified by faith in Christ now has been united with Christ and he has a new identity in Christ. The Christian has been baptized, which means he's immersed. He's identified with Christ. And as Christ died to sin, hopefully you remember this. The Christian has died to sin in him. and as Christ is raised a new life apart from sin the Christian who's justified is raised a new life apart from sin in Christ as well and if Christ died to sin and lives to God and we are in Christ then it is true of us so look at verse Verse two, certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. You see that? This is true legally, which is what justification is. It's been declared true. You've died in Christ and you've been raised in Christ. It's a declaration by God. So it's true legally, but it's also true spiritually, which is what regeneration means. Because now, because you've been changed, the power of sin has been broken in your new life. Now, be careful. Does that mean it's eradicated? Obviously not. I know you. Sin is not eradicated. You know me. But the power of sin, sin who used to be your master, it's broken and you no longer have to listen to him. The power of sin is broken. So it's true legally, it's been declared in justification, but it's true spiritually, as now you've been regenerated and given new hearts. And so you look at verse six, knowing this that our old man, and when you see the phrase old man, it means my flesh, the sin that is in me, that used to be the mastery over me, it was in control. The old man was crucified with him. Again, it doesn't mean eradicated. It still exists, but his power is broken. He's been put to death in relation to its power over me, that the body of sin might be done away with. Again, body of sin is another phrase that Paul uses in these chapters to talk about the cumulative effect of sin in my life, its influence on my life and my whole being, that body of sin that might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. For if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall live with him. And so we have a new identity, both positionally and practically, which is what the rest of it leads us to understand. Paul then says, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, he can't die again. It's done, it's finished. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God forever. You got that? So now look what the directions are. Likewise, you also reckon, and if you're from Iowa like him, you love reading that word reckon. I reckon, so reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Because it's true about Christ, count it as true. Assume it as true. This is your new identity in Christ. Reckon it. Grasp onto it. Hold onto it. You've died to sin in Christ. You live to God in Christ. It's true both positionally and practically. And so therefore, verse 12 gives you then the directions. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, as your members as instruments of righteousness to God. As you used to present your bodies, and the scripture oftentimes uses members as parts of your bodies to example how your sin comes out to the outside in your life. As you used to do that for sin in your old state, Now you serve Christ using your body, using your life in righteousness, because you're alive to him. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, It has no dominion over Christ. It no longer has dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. So the first thing is, your new identity is in Christ. It's been declared, and there's a spiritual truth in that as well. So live that way. Reckon it as true, and pursue Christ. That's point number one. Got it? Any questions? Good. Now we'll go to the rest of chapter six. We have to hurry. But chapter six, we saw that at the end of verse 14, he says, for you're not under law, but under grace. So that's going to bring about a question that Paul thinks is going to be asked. So in verse 15, he says, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Of course, the answer is certainly not. He mentioned us not being under the law. And understand that being under the law means the relationship to the law. Before Christ, your relationship to the law, your being under the law means you're under the condemnation and the curses and the demands of the law that you can never satisfy. He says, so if I'm no longer under the law, then why do I have to worry about obeying it? What's my motivation? And his answer is, Because Christ has freed the Christian from the enslavement to sin and the fruit that results from sin. And now the Christian is a slave to Christ with the benefits of fruits of holiness and life, not more sin and death, which is what sin gives you. Now you have an enslavement to Christ with the fruits of holiness and life. And that meaning life of physical life, yes, but spiritual life and eternal life. And so the point is going to be in this latter half of Romans six. So out of gratitude and loyalty to your new master, you must serve him and love him. The one who humbled himself and gave his life and took your penalty and gave you his righteousness. He is your master. So out of love and gratitude and loyalty to a new master, you must serve him. That's motivation, isn't it? You owe him everything. From a negative perspective, you could say, Christian, how dare you commit treason? How dare you be a traitor against your master Christ and pursue the sin of breaking his law rather than serving him according to his law? So on a positive side, if you love Christ and you have gratitude for what he's done to enslaving you to himself for eternity, then you go to his law to love him and to serve him accordingly. But if you don't, how dare you commit treason against him in that way? He's your new master. And so it's interesting, you're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to Christ. There's no freedom, is there? Somebody with a really bad voice once sang that you're gonna have to serve somebody. We all are worried about freedom and doing our own thing, but there is no freedom. You're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to Christ. But if you're a Christian, you've been justified in Christ. You're now united with Christ and you have a new identity in Christ. Now you have a new master in Christ and there's nothing better to be enslaved to than Christ. So if you look at the rest of chapter six, we read parts of that. He says in verse 16, do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked. You see the gratitude that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart. There's been a change and now you can obey Christ from the heart, from the doctrine to which you were delivered. and having been set free from sin, you're no longer a slave to sin. You became slaves of righteousness. He says in verse 19, for just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness in the past and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, that's what you used to do. So now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. When you're a slave to sin, you're free from righteousness. You don't care about it. What fruit did you have then in the things which you are now ashamed? For the end of these things is death. Again, it's physical death. It's spiritual death. It's eternal death. But now, but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. You have a new identity. You have a new master. act like that and serve him. We often quote verse 23, but I think we missed some of the, some of the wonder of this very short verse for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We don't think of the context. If you can compare those things with sin is your master. First of all, he demands wages, wages that you can never fulfill. You can never pay up. And in the end, it's death. But for the one who's justified in Christ, with Christ as your master, with God as your master, it's not wages that are required, it's a gift that is given. And that gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord, our Messiah, our Savior, our sovereign Lord, who reigns over us. You have a new identity, a new master. It should change the way you live. Let's see what we can do with chapter seven. Let's look on to chapters, are you with me? I feel like we're racing. But I want you to remember the four main points, a new identity, a new master. Now look at Romans chapter seven. Now we go to the relationship of sin and the law with the justified believer. With the mention of the law in verse 15 and other places, Paul now moves to a second parenthetical statement. And so in Romans chapter seven, verse one, he says, or do you not know brethren for I speak to those who know the law and brethren is not Jews. It's, it's Christians. It's, it's Christian brethren. I speak to those who know the law. We believe the law is God's eternal holy law. That's summarized by the 10 commandments. That's explained by all of scripture. It's further summarized by loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbors yourself. It's the permanent law of God that does not change, that we're accountable to, that Christ is fulfilled, that we can't fulfill. He says in verse one, don't you know, brethren, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. That might be a problem. We just said we weren't under the law anymore. The law no longer can condemn, no longer has dominion over you in that way. So what Paul does here in Romans chapter 7, He first explains the wonderful liberty we have in the new relationship with the law. Now we just said in Romans chapter six, you have no freedom. You're either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ. But here's the wonderful thing of Romans seven is that when you're a slave to Christ, you have the liberty, the freedom to love and obey the law. That's the freedom that we crave and we enjoy the most. And so Paul first explains the wonderful liberty of the new relationship we have with the law. But then in the last half of chapter seven, there'll be a humbling new struggle with the law for the Christian. New identity, new master, new relationship, but yes, a new struggle. These are all encouraging things. So let's look at the new relationship with all in verses one through 12. He said in verse 15 of chapter six, that you're no longer under the law, but you're under grace. That doesn't mean that the law was put to death. Some take it wrongly and horribly so that that means the law no matter matters. It's been put to death. When you read the rest of this chapter, it's not the law that's being put to death. It's me. I'm put to death in a relationship to the law and it had to happen. I had to die so I could be alive to the law properly. When it says we're no longer under the law, it means It means then the relationship we have with Allah before, with its condemning, with its cursing, with its demands that we can't fulfill, that's been changed. Now we have a new relationship with Allah. The law convicts us of sin. In fact, it stirs up our sin even more so we can see it, which is what Paul's going to say here, which makes us realize we are dead before God. We need life. So it makes us turn to Christ, who only fulfilled the law. So we can have the penalty of breaking law forgiven and we can have righteousness imputed. And then Christ lovingly sends us back to his law. He's the law giver. He sends it back to his law. So we now can obey out of love and gratitude with a new relationship with the law. Do you understand that? That's the background. What Paul does in his first four verses of Romans seven, he makes this wonderful analogy. of speaking, it didn't sound so wonderful when I say the next rest of it, I was talking about a wife whose husband dies, who's no longer under bondage to the previous husband, now she's free to marry another. But because of death, she's free to marry another. And it's an example then of because of our death, we now are free to have a new relationship with the law through Christ Jesus. Let me read, starting verse two of Romans seven. For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband. That's a good thing, as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. By the way, that's one reason some of us will think that, yes, if an unbeliever departs a believer in a marriage, that that's a legitimate marriage and there can be remarriage because the same language is used here about being bound and unbound that you see in 1 Corinthians 7. That's off to the side. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she's free from the law, that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. So you see the picture. Husband dies, you're free. That relationship is broken. You're free to have another relationship. Verse four, therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law. Notice it's you, it's not the law that's changed. You have changed. You've become dead to the law through the body of Christ, through the death of Christ. You've died in Christ. Christ died to save sinners, to free you from the condemnation of the law. You've died in Christ to the law in that way that you may be married to another. Now, who are you being married to? to him who was raised from the dead. It's a wonderful picture. Because you died, you can be divorced from the law's condemnation and be married to the lawgiver, who now sends you back to the law with joy, saying, this is how you love and serve me. What's the result? That we should bear fruit to God. So in verses five and six, but when we are in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. Kids, when your parents tell you not to do something, what's your first thought? I want to do it. And maybe you were told not to do something you weren't even thinking about doing, but because it was told you don't do this. Yeah, that would be kind of nice. Don't laugh that much. That's our sinful nature. That's what the law does. When the law is given, when it's written down, it's given, it's presented to you, now you see what sin is. And because you're a sinner, you want it all the more. That's what he's saying here. For when we were in the flesh, when we were controlled, enslaved by our sinful passions, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. The law aroused more sin. But now we've been delivered from the law, from its curses, from its condemnation, having died what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. When you're justified And it's a legal position, but it's also a spiritual thing. When you're justified and made new, now you're delivered from the condemnation of the law. And now you can serve Christ according to the law, but according to the newness of the spirit and not by the external requirements that we try to place on ourselves that we can never fulfill. And so verse seven, we get question number three. Well, wait a minute. If the law arouses more sin and causes me to die, does that mean the law is bad? Is the law sin, is what he says in verse 7, which is going to be a question to ask. And people now even ask that now and they get the wrong answer. The law is not bad. The law is holy and just and good, he's going to say. So he says in verse 7, on the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said you shall not covet. Now, this is defining what he's talking about when he says the law. The law is, do not covet. Where's that from? It's the 10 commandments, which is summary of God's holy law. So he's saying, this is the law summarized by the 10 commandments. It's not thrown out in a new covenant. It's a wonderful thing. Don't throw it out, but our relationship has changed to it. And he hits at the heart of the matter. You should love commandment number 10, because all the other ones, maybe you could get away with them being external. I ain't killed nobody. I haven't committed adultery, I haven't lied, I haven't done all these external things, but then you get to number 10, this is what happens with Paul, he gets to the last one, coveting. Ooh, ooh. Yeah, I know what my heart's like. I'm always desiring the things that are contrary to God. I'm always desiring the things that I want and not considering what God would. Which takes us back to the first commandment, which is basically to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. So he says, when I get to covenanting, it killed me. And by killing, he's meaning in chapter seven, he's meaning, I now realize, I hadn't realized it before, I thought I was okay. And you can look at Philippians chapter three and other places where he says, hey, I was as righteous as anybody ever could be. I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I was doing good. As you young people will say these days, I was groovy. Okay, now you probably don't say that. I was rocking it. Evelyn didn't like that joke. When he says he dies, it says, before he thought himself to be alive. I'm trying to save a little time so we don't go overboard today. But later on he's going to say, I was alive. I thought I was alive. I was okay. I didn't notice the depth of my sin. I thought I was doing pretty good. So I was alive, but actually the law shows up and especially the law that says you're a covetor. which means you love yourself rather than God, and it killed me because it showed me my sin and the depth of it, and it leads to death, and I saw my death and hopelessness because of my sin. So verse eight, sin, notice it's sin, it's not the law that's doing bad things, but it's sin, the sinfulness of the person, sin taking the opportunity by the commandment, sin is taking the law that was given as a tool for evil, produced in me all manner of evil desire." See, it's the sin. It's me. It's not some separate... I'm not like a dual personality, but it's my own sin took the law and produced more sin and more evil desire in me. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Without the law telling me what it's about, I wasn't worried about sin. But now it springs to life. In verse 9, I was alive once without the law. I thought I was okay. But when the commandment came, when the law was given, sin revived and I died. because now I see my sinfulness in the depth of it. And the commandment which was to bring life, remember the law, the Old Testament, do this and you live. That was the covenant of works. If you can do this, you live. If you can obey the law of God, you can live. That was the original thought. So the commandment which was to bring life, do this and you live, I found it to bring death. Why? Because you can't do this and so you die. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good. If it wasn't for the law, I wouldn't know this, and I'd be without hope, because I wouldn't even care. So the law is good. It brought my sin to light. It convicted me of my sin and death and hopelessness. The law is my friend. It brings me to conviction of sin and it brings me to Christ. And then Christ sends me back to the law to be able to love and to serve him with it in freedom. Got it? You have a new identity, a new master. You have a new relationship with the law. And before you get too cocky and giddy, you go, I'm going to be pure now. It's going to be great. You do have a new identity in Christ. You do have a new master in Christ. You have a new relationship of freedom with Christ's law. All this should motivate the Christian to pursue righteousness and sanctification. But until Christ returns, and all influence of sin is removed, including the sinfulness that still resides in the Christian, there will be a new struggle in that Christian. A new struggle in that Christian. Which is the rest of chapter 7. So if you look at verse 13. In verse 13, we just said that the commandment was holy and just and good, but in verse 13, Paul asks the fourth question. How then, has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not. No, the law is not death to the Christian because he is to continue to use it as a map to show you which way to go, as a muzzle to restrain sin, and as a mirror to show up yourself so you can see your own sin and get rid of it. You might pursue righteousness and go to war against sin, the sin that still remains in your life. And so verse 13 reiterates the previous thought that sin made itself known by using the law to stir up sin. He says, but sin, that it might appear sin, that it might actually be known, might be noticed, was producing death in me through what is good. That's the law. Sin, the evil sin, was using the goodness of the law to stir up more sin, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. And then he says in verse 14, Notice personal pronouns. I know there's discussion about, is this Paul before he was a Christian, or is this Paul when he's an immature Christian? I just have to humbly say, you just read the scripture for what it says. I, I, me, me, I, I, I, me, me. He's talking about himself even at the time he's writing it. He's explaining what we all know and it shouldn't shock us. He's explaining what we all know, our struggle with sin as a justified, redeemed Christian. Because sin is not eradicated, we still deal with it and we long for the day when Christ returns, that there'll be no sin. And the more we walk with Christ, the more we pursue righteousness, the more we war against sin, we hate it all the more. And so, in some sense, our sin decreases, but we hate it all the more, and we feel more wretched even, as Paul says here. So, verse 14 says, the law is spiritual. It means it's good, it's perfect, it's complete. It's to be delighted in, and the Christian does. But I am carnal. I, as a justified Christian, I, as the Apostle Paul, I am carnal. It means I'm still under the influence of sin. I'm not perfect and complete like the law is. When he says I'm sold under sin, don't fret about that. Didn't David in Psalm 51 say, as a believer, I was conceived and sinned and I sinned before you, O God. From the very beginning, I've been a sinner. It's the same thing. We know as Christians, we feel our sin. We've been a sinner all our life. We're redeemed now, but we still deal with sin. In Galatians 5, Paul says that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit lusts against the flesh. There's a battle going on for the Christian. Own it. Deal with it. Don't ignore it. You can't win a war that you don't acknowledge. And so here's the struggle. When we are redeemed, the power of sin is broken. You're no longer a slave to sin. But it's not eradicated. And so Paul says, I, me, I, in my new man, in my inner man. He's going to use these terms in the rest of chapter seven. In my new man, my inner man, in my mind, I delight in the law and I desire to obey. But he also says, I, me, I in my flesh, in my indwelling sin, in my members, in this body of death, this collective idea of I'm still a sinner. I gravitate to sin. This is not Sybil. There's not two different personalities. He's not bipolar. It's one person who's been redeemed and given a new identity, a new master, new relationship. He is new. He's been set free from sin. He's now enslaved to Christ, but yet still sin still has its influence in his life because he's not perfectly redeemed. That will not happen until Christ returns. So there's that battle that goes on in the Christian. It's one person responsible for obeying and one person responsible for sending the same person The remnant of my sinfulness that God has not eradicated is a powerful influence to try to bring me back to slavery, to sin and its fruits. While my new identity, which is now in charge, that's the hope, desires to serve Christ by his perfect law. You read stories of slaves who are set free, but yet that's all they knew. And they didn't want to go. They're so used to hearing the call of their previous master that they just wanted to stay. That's all they knew. But yet they've been set free and they wouldn't go. That's a good example of us when we're Christians, we become Christians. We still hear the call of sin. We have habits built up in our lives. We're still used to hearing that call to sin. But stop listening. Christ is our master. We don't have to obey that anymore. We can now follow Christ, our new master. Let's look at verse 15. For what am I doing? I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If that I do what I will not to do, I agree that the law is good. My sin proves the law is good. I'm trying to do the right thing. It means it's good. but my sin still proves that the law is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Again, it's not something separate, but it's me, for I know that in me that is in my flesh. I am my flesh. This is not something separate. Nothing good dwells in my sinfulness, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. But if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me, but it's still me. I find that Allah, that evil is present with me, that the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." The point is, in my spiritual state, my redeemed state, I desire to do right and to obey and to follow the law of God and delight in it, but still, there's still sin in me. I'm still influenced by my sin. It's not been eradicated, so that's warring against me to try to take me in their direction. We know that, we feel that, don't we? So Paul says, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And who's going to finally get rid of this sinfulness in my life completely? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, my Savior, my Messiah, my Sovereign. I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. He will indeed. He has promised, and even Steve read from Romans chapter eight, that that promise of being glorified is in past tense in Romans chapter eight. It will be. That's what he gets to in chapter eight as well. In Romans, we'll see that next week. Christ has promised that there will be the day where there's no sin in presence, in a believer's life, and eventually in the world at all. And this war will be over in one's soul. and we can worship and glorify him perfectly and love one another perfectly in his presence. That's what we long for. And perhaps that's why God still allows us to be dealing with sin now, because we still have to come before him daily on our knees and say, help me. And I long to see you as you are, and for me to be made like he is. And so he says, so then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. This new struggle is a new struggle, but because before Christ we were enslaved to sin, sin was in charge. And if sin is in charge, it's no struggle. It's what we want to do. But now with a new identity, a new master and a new relationship, we delight in God's law and the inward man, the new man, we hate sin and we hate its fruit. And the more we exercise our new identity, the more we serve our new master and have this new relationship, the more we hate sin and hate our disobedience and our dishonoring ways to the Lord. and the more wretched we feel oftentimes, and the more we desire to be delivered completely from sin entirely. One interesting thing is the law of God cannot save you when you're not a Christian. The law of God cannot save you when you are a Christian. The idea of infused righteousness is hooey. The law does not say before or after, it's still Christ. but we use the law in a new relationship with a new struggle once we come to Christ. So in closing, that wasn't too bad, was it? In closing, take heart. Those who feel the heavy, heavy lateness of a cold heart and a conviction of your own sin and you wallow in it and you can't seem to get free of it, this likely means that the new struggle is going on. that you've been justified, and you've been enslaved to Christ. Otherwise, you wouldn't care. Take heart that you're struggling. And so do not let sin reign in your mortal body, as Paul says, or obey its lusts. You have died to sin in Christ, as sure as he has, and you live in him in righteousness. Reckon it to be true, and then do it according to your new identity and your new ability in Christ Jesus. And so stop listening to the call of sin trying to pull you back to his old habits. You've been freed from sin and you're now permanently enslaved to a new master and that is Christ. Sin has no dominion over you, but Christ does follow his voice and his righteousness. And so stop listening to sin's use of the law to condemn you. Christ has fulfilled the law. He has obeyed it perfectly, actively in his holiness of life and passively in paying its penalty through his suffering, his death. So you now have the freedom to follow the law in love and gratitude to Christ and not to try to gain favor with God. You can never have more favor with God than you have the moment you've been become a Christian and been justified in him. but follow in love and gratitude to Christ in this new relationship to the law. Love Christ by taking that thing that once condemned you, the law, and living for Him in it, just as God now loves you, the one who used to hate Him and were enemies to Him. I know that Christ has completely removed the penalty of sin now, He has removed the power of sin's enslavement over you now. That is done. And he has promised to return and one day remove the presence of sin forever. And next week, Lord willing, we will see this in more detail in chapter eight of Romans, where Paul returns to justification and its guarantee for eventual glorification. And where he begins by reminding those in Christ in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Let us pray. Dearly father, I pray that in the midst of covering such a lot of ground in the word of God, that the least, at least we could see these four major points, these beautiful truths of the word, Yes, we're justified, not by any works that we could do, not by anything of ourselves, but then we're sanctified, we're being made more like Christ, and you've given us a new identity in Him, a new master in Christ, a new relationship to the law that now helps us to grow in godliness rather than to be condemned, and a new struggle that, Lord, rather than shrinking from or fretting about, we should go charging in with all the resources you've given us, this new struggle to live for Christ, even though knowing that we are still sinners, but we're no longer enslaved to it. I pray, Lord, that those who are struggling, and this always happens, there are many who are struggling with their sin to the point of having no assurance of their salvation, that they'd see that it's Christ, Christ, Christ, and only Christ. And if one is looking to themselves, They're saying that Christ is not enough, but Christ is enough, and there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And I pray that all of us then would pursue Christ with a new identity, rejoicing in a new identity, serving our new master, and using this new relationship to do battle with this new struggle that you've given us. And may you be honored and glorified in our midst because of it. And Lord, we pray for those who are outside of Christ this day, that Lord, they would see that sin kills them. Sin puts them to death. Sin makes more sin be aroused and it brings about death. That's the only fruits of it. But Christ, who was put to death to redeem sinners, Christ brings the fruits of holiness and righteousness and eternal life. Oh, may those who are outside of Christ today, may them see their sin. May you use the law to rouse up their sin all the more that they would see it and they would hate it and they'd shirk away from it and they'd turn to Christ. They'd no longer be condemned by the law of God, but now they'd have the righteousness of Christ to be sent back to love and to serve Christ according to his law. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.