Invite you this morning to turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Romans chapter number seven Romans chapter seven and we're going to find ourselves here With the Lord's help we're going to endeavor to preach from Romans chapter 7 today on the subject, thoughts about sanctification. And we introduced this idea in chapter 6, or the Apostle Paul did, when he asked that question in verse number 1 of chapter 6, what then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? As he has spent the first several chapters of the book of Romans, demonstrating the sinfulness of man, the exceeding great grace of God, and then he comes to that watershed in chapter 6 and says, does the grace of God then compel us who have experienced the grace of God to sin more or to sin less? And as we looked at chapter 6, we came away with the very strong thought that God's grace teaches us not to sin. And Titus chapter 3 says the same thing, that when we're bought by the grace of God, we are taught to live a holy, sanctified life. Now here in chapter 7, Paul is going to continue this discussion about sanctification He's going to share some thoughts about the sanctification process and, if you will, the reality where the believer lives and the things that we grapple with in our Christian life. And so we're going to go ahead and read the whole chapter from verse 1 down to verse number 25, and then we'll get into the message this morning. So we'll begin reading in Romans chapter 7 and verse number 1. Paul writes, For I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that 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 how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after 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. wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin now here in chapter 7 Paul is creating for us a tension-filled picture of the reality of the Christian life. We know from chapter 6 that Paul has already told us that we have a responsibility to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin because that is what God has declared about those who are in Christ. And then he said that we need to yield our members as instruments of righteousness for God to use for His honor and for His glory. And so, as we think about that, we look at chapter 7, then we say, okay, that sounds easy. Let's just go ahead and yield our members to righteousness, and then after that, we won't ever sin. Right, Brother Dean? I mean, it'll be easy, right? No. Chapter 7 is about this, the reality of the struggle of the Christian life. And Paul writes, and he says, listen, this thing, it is the truth that God has declared about you, but we have this problem that we have, and that is the old man that is still with us. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But notice how Paul starts out the chapter there in chapter 7. He begins talking about the law of marriage. And he's making a comparison here, and he says, that a woman who is married to her husband is bound to her husband, and in God's eyes, that binding is until death. Those are the vows that we take when we exchange vows at a wedding, till death do us part. And in God's eyes, that husband and that wife are to be husband and wife until one or both of them should die, and if death should separate their bonds, then that woman would be free to be married. And the people who Paul was writing to understood this. They understood this principle. And then he says, now, in like manner, you have been put in this situation where your flesh has been put to death and you have been married to Christ. Now you have a new allegiance. Your your flesh has been put to death, but you have a new allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ But now how is the reality of that or how does that work out in our life? And so now he's going to delve into this thing of submitting ourselves to Christ and being victorious over sin I have three thoughts for you. I want to share with you from chapter 7 this morning we won't even come close to touching all of the little phrases and and nuances of truth in this chapter. We just don't have enough time to do that this morning, but there's three primary thoughts that I want you to see here from chapter 7 of Romans. First of all, I want you to notice with me here in verse number 6 that Paul begins to speak about the spirit that motivates the believer to sanctification. Did you pick up on that when we were reading through the chapter? In verse number six, he says, But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held. In other words, the law is dead in the sense that it condemns us, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Now, I was focused there on the end of verse number six, and I got to thinking about how God does something in us when we get saved. Now, let me first of all, before we get too far into this, let me say that there is in our world today a very shallow understanding of what salvation is. There are a lot of people who have this idea that salvation is just repeating some magic words and then going on your merry way with your life just like it always was. But in the Bible, salvation is described as conversion. The word conversion means there's a change. That change primarily takes place on the inside. It's a change that takes place on the inside and works its way out as the Spirit of God is at work in our lives. But do you see the difference in verse number six, because Paul is writing to some people, and Paul himself, before he met Christ, was a law keeper. He was one who knew what it was to keep the law. And when I say that, I don't mean that he kept it perfectly, but I do mean to say that when Paul was a Pharisee, when he was Saul of Tarsus, before he met Christ, I'm going to tell you that there's not many people that could have pointed at problems in Paul's life, that could have said, well, this is an area where you're not keeping the law. or this is an area where you're not keeping the law. Now, he knew in his heart that he had violated the law, that he was a sinner before God, but he had a motivation which was the fear of man. The fear of man caused him to do what he did in order to look good on the outside, but it was a vain and dead religion. Now, Paul says, when we get saved and we can have that type of an experience where you could be very religious, you could be a pretty good person, By the estimation of others around you, you could do all the right things, but if you have the wrong motivation, do you know that even doing the right things with the wrong motivation in God's eyes is sin? And so he says in verse number 6 that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Some people seem to think that salvation and grace says that God no longer has any ideas about how we should live. God says you're saved you're forgiven go do whatever you want. You have liberty go live. However you want That's not what the Bible teaches the Bible actually teaches that God has a lot of thoughts about how we should live and how he can bless our life and that's what the Bible's full of the difference is a difference of motivation when a person has been born again the wanter changes isn't it an interesting thing some of you can look back on your conversion experience and Before you met Christ You did things, maybe religious things, for the wrong reason. You had the motivation of trying to please others, trying to fit in, trying to get the approval of man, trying to just go along with the program, fit in with the culture. Whatever it was, you had certain things that you did, certain morals, rights and wrongs, things that you thought were okay, and you did those things, but it never was to please God. It never was. But now when you got saved, something changed on the inside, which said, you're now going to yearn after pleasing God. Now this does not mean that you're perfect, and Paul's gonna deal with that in just a moment, but it does mean that something has changed on the inside. Now let me say, there is a fundamental difference between legalism and liberty. Legalism is this, I am trying to keep the law in order to earn favor with God and in order to look good to men. You know, we can fall into legalism in our lives in a hurry. Liberty says this, I am free to serve Christ with the motivation of wanting to bring glory and honor to Him. You'll find that much of the behavior is actually the same, but it's a different motivation on the inside. In other words, just because you got saved doesn't mean that the law no longer says thou shalt not covet. Just because you got saved doesn't mean that the law no longer says, thou shalt have as many gods as you want before God, Jehovah. Oh no, but now we have a different motivation on the inside. I want you to turn with me real quickly to a couple of Old Testament verses. Turn first of all to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5. Some people have a little bit of confusion about the function of the law. And they have this idea that there's a dichotomy in the Bible, that the Old Testament is, you know, that's the bad stuff where God told people what to do and they couldn't do it, and God was interested in the outside. But then in the New Testament, God really got interested in the hearts. That's not true. Deuteronomy chapter 5 is the second giving of the law to the children of Israel, to that second generation that was getting ready to go into the promised land after their fathers had disobeyed God. And look with me at Deuteronomy chapter 5. And in verse number 29, notice the words of God concerning the law. He says this, "'Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.'" You see, God always has been after the newness of the Spirit rather than the oldness of the letter. It's our hard, rebellious hearts that cause us to start to think that we can earn favor with God by how good we're going to be. But God has always reached out to us. He's always reached out to humankind and said, I want to make a change in the heart which will cause these people to be able to live according to my law. Then go with me, if you would, to the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is right before the book of Daniel. If I can get there, Ezekiel dealt with this same issue, the book of Ezekiel. And in chapter number 11, I want you to look there with me. Chapter 11 is primarily talking about when God is going to restore the nation of Israel and what He wants to do with them. He's talking about the judgment of scattering them and then when he's going to restore them. And that is yet future, all right? That's still in the future of prophecy. But notice what God's purpose is in verse number 19 of chapter 11, the book of Ezekiel. and I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God." And then he goes on to talk about those whose heart is not after God. But I do want you to notice there in verse 19 and 20 that God's purpose is to do a change. He wants to do a transformation in the hearts of the children of Israel. And as we look at the children of Israel, the Jewish nation today, we know that God wants to do that work in their heart. And one day, He's going to do that. And in Mass, they're going to turn to Jesus Christ and recognize that they have pierced their own Messiah. That day is yet future, but see, God is going to do a work on the inside. Now go back to our text in Romans, and I want you to understand with me this morning in verse number six, the problem that we have as mankind is not the law of God. See, man has this idea, the law is the problem. If I could eliminate the law, then I would feel better about myself. And if we could just get rid of these restrictions, then we can do whatever we want. We can feel good about our relationship with God. The law is not the problem. I want to demonstrate that to you. Go down to verse number 12, and notice what Paul says about the law. He says, wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. God's law is holy and God's law is good. You say, well then why does it seem like the law is so harsh and so hard? The problem is not with the law, the problem is with the heart of man. The problem is with man who will, when God says thou shalt, he is going to find a way to not do that. And if God says, thou shalt not the heart of man says, then I'm going to go ahead and find a way to do that in the face of God and show him that I can do whatever I want. It's the problem is right here in the heart. And when a person gets born again, what happens in them? Second Corinthians chapter five and verse number 17. is that God does a heart transplant. God puts inside of them a regenerated heart. He makes them new. He gives them the opportunity now to long after God. Now, it's not about the externals. Listen, if you could just catch this with me this morning, how important this is. We can get so focused in our Christian life on the external rules of the things that we're supposed to do and not do. And I'm not suggesting this morning that we just throw everything to the wind. I am suggesting that we start to focus on the heart. And when we get our heart right with God, the rules, or if you want to put it that way, the process of sanctification will not be burdensome. The law of God, the commands of God to His children are not burdensome. They're not grievous when our heart is right with God. When we find that God's Word is grievous to us, when we find that the commands of God are grievous to us, the problem is not with the Word of God, the problem is with our heart. This morning, you may be here, and listen, this is the fundamental point that we need to consider. If your heart's never been changed, you can try all you want to keep the law, and you're going to find that it's a terrible taskmaster. You're going to find that you'll never be able to achieve to what God has asked you to live up to. You're going to find that you must have your heart transformed by the grace of God. And Paul is making this point, he's saying, your heart must be changed. So we see there's a spirit that motivates us to sanctification. It's like a magnet that is inside of us that is drawing us toward the image of Christ. Now, we say amen, and some of you have experienced that in your life, many of you have experienced that in your life, but then the second thing I want you to consider this morning is the struggle. the struggle in this area of sanctification, because it's not as if when you got saved, God just snapped his fingers and said, no more sin, you'll never sin again, you'll be sinlessly perfect. By the way, if that's what you were looking for in salvation, you're going to be looking a long time, aren't you? Because the Bible doesn't teach that you will be without sin in this life. The Bible teaches that you should be coming more like the Lord Jesus Christ and this is a gradual process which is taking place in your life and Ultimately one day when you get to heaven, you'll be without sin. Aren't you looking forward to that? I am looking forward to that when I get in the presence of the Lord and I don't there's no more of any temptation to sin. There's no more any falling in sin. There's no more of this flesh that hangs on. Wow, that's going to be something. So Paul writes about this struggle that's involved in sanctification. In verse 15 down through verse 23, he uses this back-and-forth language about what's on the inside and the struggle that he's having. Can you identify with the words that he was expressing there in verses 15 through 23? Paul says this, and just look at verse 15 with me. He says, "...for that which I do I allow not." For what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that I do, or that do I. And so Paul describes this, and then he's going to go on, and he's going to talk more about this, but it's kind of like this. You got up this morning, and you knew that you needed to read your Bible, and you wanted to spend time with the Lord, and you wanted to fellowship with Him, and the Holy Spirit inside of you was saying you ought to spend time with the Lord, but then you ended up not doing it. And then afterward, you started thinking, I wish that I would have read my Bible. I wish that I would have spent time with the Lord. I'm going to have to get with Him a little bit later today, because there's a part of us that says, I want to do this, and then we don't follow through on it. Do you experience that in your Christian life? There's a part of us that says, I shouldn't do that. And then we do it anyway. And then the Holy Spirit inside of us convicts us and says, now that's not what a believer should be doing. And we have these seasons where we struggle with temptation, we struggle in this process of sanctification. He's describing in verse 15 and 16 two opposing natures. You say, why does this happen to the believer? What is Paul saying and why is he describing this? Because I want you to understand that when you got saved there was a new man that was created in you and that new man is spoken about in the book of Ephesians and in the book of Colossians his behavior is According to the fruit of the Spirit of God. That's the kind of behavior that we want in our lives. That's the kind of that God has birthed this desire in us to show love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and all of these things in our life to evidence the Spirit of God and His work in our life. We have that draw, but we also have this old flesh. We've got this body. In fact, he describes it. Look in verse number 24. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now, Paul certainly could be speaking about his physical body, and I believe that's what he's applying this to. There's also something that I read, and I didn't realize this, but in those days, there was a certain kind of a punishment that would sometimes be done to criminals, where they would take a criminal who is going to pay for some crime that he had done and they would tie him to a dead body and He would have to drag that dead body around and smell that dead body, you know now as You think about that we kind of are stuck that way aren't we? Because we have this old nature that's not yet been eradicated and it stinks a lot and we don't like that the temptations that come into our life through that old man. We don't like that flesh. We don't like that carnality. But it's still with us. We've not been completely delivered from it yet. We know we're going to be, and we look forward to that day. And Paul looks forward and he says, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? So we have this struggle. See, I think sometimes people get this confusing thought in their mind. They say, when I get saved, the struggle for sin will end. I will never have any more problem with sin. It'll be easy from then on out. I'll get victory and no problem. No, when you get saved, the struggle against sin begins because when you were saved or before you were saved, there was no struggle. You were a slave to sin. You had no longing towards God. Even the good things you did, it was all for the wrong reason and for your own self glory and for the fear of man and all of these other reasons. But when you got saved, the struggle started. Now there's two people inside of you. There's that old man and there's that new man. You say, who's going to win? Oh, the new man. There's no question about it. Because God's already declared that the new man is going to win. But in the day-to-day battle, who is going to win? Well, notice what Paul says a little further down about the law of sin. Let's see if I can find the verse. In verse 21 he says, I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Have you noticed something about your sinful, fleshly nature? That even when you want to do something good, sin is always in the back. Sin is always, it's almost like it's haunting you, and you say, what do you mean by that, preacher? I mean, you could be out sharing the gospel with someone, telling them about what God has done in your life and how he's bought you with his own blood and set you free from sin, and you could be engaged in that holy behavior of pointing someone to the cross of Christ, and fellas, just like that, you could have a lustful thought come into your mind. And you think, where did that come from? From your old nature. from your old nature, or you could be in a situation where you have been praying about some trial that you're facing in your life, some difficulty, and you have prayed and you've gotten to the place where you are experiencing the peace that passes all understanding, that's keeping your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus, and you're feeling like, praise the Lord, I got the victory in this area, and just like that, worry will slip in. Now where did that come from? I thought I dealt with that already. You see, I find in a law. I find then a law. There's a struggle that's going on. There's also a law about the good that God is doing in our life. He says in verse 22, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. There's this other law, which is the law of delighting after God, delighting after what God desires for us, longing after it. It's that longing that has been birthed in our heart. that is drawing us ever into the image of Christ, but we're not going to get to that place of the image of Christ without a struggle, because that old man kicks back hard. And he reminds us that he's still there. Now, what Paul is saying is, don't forget that your old man is dead. He's dead. He doesn't have any rule over you. But he sure talks like he does. He sure goes and carries on like he is a very powerful creature, but he's dead. He's gone. Now, this is an interesting thought, because as believers, I think if you read verses 15 through 23, and if you're honest, you say, that kind of describes my Christian life. That kind of describes the struggle that I have in my Christian life. Now, you might ask this question of me this morning, And if you want, I'll go ahead and ask it for you, just in case you were thinking it and didn't want to ask. Which one of these guys is going to win? Well, in the long term, we know the new man, because God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise. God has already declared our destination. We are eternally secure. In the short term, though, who's going to win? Well, in the short term, it's going to be determined by who you feed the most. So if you're in the habit, dear believer, of feeding your old man, your flesh, you say, how do you feed your old man? Well, sitting in front of the television probably helps him out. Surfing the internet, watching movies, going to the beach. flipping through pornographic magazines. I mean, we could go on and on. You're feeding the flesh. You're feeding that flesh. So if you keep feeding that flesh, don't be surprised if you start having real difficulty having victory in your life. But you know what? Here's one thing that's going to be true about you if you're a true believer. You're going to be miserable. because you are going to know that you are not behaving the way that God wants you to behave. You are going to be absolutely miserable. Now, if you don't care, you can just do all that stuff, and all you really care about is whether anybody knows about it or knows whether you're doing those things, and you're lost. You don't have a new man. The old man is ruling you. But what Paul is describing here is a struggle. But then you say, well, let's be a little more positive about this. How can we help the new man win? All right, this is not rocket science. Feed the new man. Now, how do we feed the new man? Well, you're not going to feed the new man down at the movie theater. You're probably not going to find much sustenance for your soul on Google. So you're going to have to start looking at what God says about feeding that new man, and it's going to be right here in the Word of God. You're going to have to start feeding that new man with the Word and with prayer and with fellowship with other believers. By fellowship, I mean authentic, honest relationships about where you're at. so that you can pray together and encourage one another. And also that outflow of preaching the gospel to others. And that is how you're going to feed that new man. And if you start to feed that new man, you're going to find that all of a sudden you're going to start seeing victory in your life. And just about when you start really, man, I have got this thing figured out. Just like that. There's that old man telling you that you're something again, and you got to deal with him. He's sneaky. And so Paul writes about this struggle, and he says there is a struggle in the Christian life. Sometimes people come to me, they say, Preacher, I'm really struggling in my Christian life. Well, that's the reality of the Christian life. But you know, there is no sanctification, get this, there is no sanctification without the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God is not inside, there is no sanctification that takes place. Now, Paul gets down to the end of this wrestling match, and talking about this law, and speaking about what he sees in his own life, and the wretchedness of his flesh, and the rebellion of his old man against the Spirit of God. And he knows that this struggle is going on, and he cries out, Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And we would think, well, it's hopeless. There's nothing that can be done. But not so. Verse 25, he goes on and he speaks about this, the Savior who makes it possible for us to have sanctification. He goes from that thought, the wretchedness of his flesh and his old men, and the struggle that he's facing, and he says, but I thank God. through Christ Jesus my Lord. Listen to me this morning. So often as believers we can get down in the dumps about our spiritual situation, our lack of sanctification. We can sit and boo-hoo with one another and cry about the temptation and how we're giving in and we can sit in little sharing circles and talk about how wretched we are. But you know at some point we need to say if we're bought by the blood of Christ then Christ has set us free from that sin and we need to get our eyes on the victory of what Christ has purchased. And Paul says, no, I don't have to live here. I don't have to live in this place where the flesh is dominating in my life. I want Christ to be the King. I thank God through Christ Jesus, my Lord. So then he says, so then I'm serving in two ways. He speaks about how he serves the law of God with his mind. But with his flesh, he serves the law of sin. Now listen, be careful about fleshly service. Sometimes we try to do things for God in the power of the flesh. Brethren, that's just as sinful as if we were doing the exact opposite or the wrong thing. And so he says, with my flesh, if my flesh is dominating, I'm going to be serving the law of sin, but with my mind, I'm serving the law of God. Now, when you start to put this together with some other verses, like in Romans chapter 12 and verse number 1, the Apostle Paul, and we'll get to it in a later message, he writes to those believers and he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. How are we going to be transformed? How are we going to get to a place where we start to see this struggle diminishing? Where we start to see victory over sin? Because listen, the book of Romans is not about being helplessly and hopelessly mired in sin. The book of Romans is about this. You're justified. God is sanctifying you. God is going to glorify you. In other words, God is doing something in your life and sin has no power over you except that which you allow. So listen, this morning there are no excuses for the believer who's in sin. We've got to start renewing our mind. We've got to start dealing with our mind. We've got to start with our mind serving the law of God. You say, how is that possible? I know it's possible through self-discipline, through working harder, through doing more. No, it's possible because of Jesus. It's possible because of God's grace. Now, is there discipline that's involved in the Christian life? Absolutely there is. The Bible does not let us get away without understanding that there is some discipline that's required, but that discipline is based on the grace of God. If God does not grant us grace, which He's already promised that He has, then we cannot be disciplined. Here's where we really fall prey in our Christian life, and I'm going to try to express this as clearly as I can because it's a burden on my heart. We fall into this idea of performing the Christian disciplines. And we say it's for God, but a lot of times it's really just for everybody who's watching. It's really just to satisfy those who are looking on. And when we fall into that, then we have this trap in our life, which is I'm doing everything that I'm doing for the fear of man. You say, well, what is the result of that? Well, when the audience changes, you'll change your behavior. But now if you're doing things from the right motivation, from the right spirit, because of the grace of God, to please God who is in heaven, your behavior will not change with the audience, because you always have the same audience. He's always watching. Now this does not say to us as believers, well then just throw away all the standards, just throw away any separation, just go hog wild to the world and behave however you want. Paul already addressed that in Romans chapter 6 and verse number 1. He said, we shall not continue in sin that grace may abound. God forbid. How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein? He says if somebody's behaving and reasoning like that, there is something wrong in their life and it is that they've not experienced the grace of God. If we come down to the bottom of this whole issue of sanctification, do you realize this morning that your sanctification is just as dependent upon Jesus as your salvation was? Do you realize this morning that you cannot sanctify yourself any more than you could save yourself? That this is all because of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, what does that do? Well, once again, it strips away human attainment. Because what Paul is really addressing in the book of Romans is this tendency that we have to start to really think of ourselves to be something. To really think, you know, I got saved by the grace of God, and now look how my life has changed. Look at all that I have learned, and look how I have grown, and look how much I am like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, just a newsflash, if you're thinking like that, you're probably the farthest thing from the image of Christ that you could ever imagine. There's something that is wrong in your soul. But when our attention is all on Jesus, Now our motivation is different. It's not a motivation of obligation to please others, it's a motivation of love, sincere love for Him. Now, let me just give you a quick illustration, then we'll be done. Imagine if, in my marriage, I showed love towards my wife because of obligation. Because, and this is how it would look. I would treat her one way when you all were watching, and then I would treat her a completely different way when no one was watching. Because what I would really be looking for is the approval of you all about how I relate to my wife. Now if I really love my wife, then that love is going to be the same whether you're here watching, or whether we're alone, or whether it's just us and the kids, or whether I'm by myself. Do you understand the difference? Because with a heart of motivation that is love, there's something different. Now, if I'm just looking for what I can get or I'm looking for the approval of men, then I'm going to change the way that I behave towards her depending on who's watching and where I'm at and what the circumstances are. And in some ways, we're limited like this in our love because we're human beings. But understand, when we have love in our heart for God, There is going to be an amazing thing that takes place, and the Bible calls it sanctification. Because when your heart is in love with Jesus, you want to be like Him. You see, when somebody tells me, I don't like to hear preaching about holiness, I don't like to hear what the Bible says about the thou shalts and the thou shalt nots, I don't like to hear all that negative stuff about what I'm not doing right and what I need to be doing, I say, there's something really wrong in your relationship with God. I mean, if I told my wife, I love you, honey, but don't you ever tell me what to do. Don't you ever suggest anything. Don't you ever say that you don't like something or that you want something. She'd think, boy, there's something really weird about this guy. His love seems kind of self-centered. Is that true? Can our love for God sometimes be self-centered? So Paul writes and he says this, in essence. There's a new spirit that you have if you've been born again. If you're here this morning and you're born again, you know it. You know that the Spirit of God is inside of you. You know that you are being drawn. If you're here this morning, you say, I'm just really, I'm not sure whether I'm God's. You need to get that straightened out with the Word of God. But there's a new spirit that's inside of you and you may be experiencing a struggle. I mean, Christians can sin. Do you understand that? Christians can sin. And some of the things that Christians can do is kind of unbelievable, that they could behave in that way and still be Christians. In the Old Testament, there was a fellow whose name was Lot. He was the nephew of Abram. And the Bible said about him, that he vexed his righteous soul every day that he lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. But when we read the account, now it says that in the New Testament about him, but when we read about him in the Old Testament, I would be hard pressed. If I didn't have that testimony in the New Testament, I'd say, that guy is lost. He's lost as could be. There's no way he could be saved. He was vexing his righteous soul. God was not letting him get it. In other words, on the inside, he was crying out against the decisions that he was making. He knew that he was doing the wrong thing. Now, he didn't have the benefit of the sealing of the Holy Spirit like we do. He didn't have the indwelling Spirit. We know that came after the resurrection. And so, we have an added benefit in this. And as believers, we look and we say, I have this struggle going on in my life, but let me ask you this question. Are you satisfied to stay in that place? Or is God drawing you on into the image of Christ? If there's no drawing into the image of Christ, there could be something terribly wrong in your Christian experience. But then in verse 25, the Savior, the focus on the Savior. And let me encourage you with this, brethren. Sometimes we can get so focused on me, my sin, my failure, my loss, my struggle, my problems, that we get our eyes off of Christ. And we can get so mired down in introspection and looking at ourselves that we forget to look at the One who has bought us with His own blood. This morning, it's called grace because you don't deserve it. It's called grace because you're not worthy. It's called grace because God doesn't have to save you. He does it because of His love for you. But don't let grace be an excuse to stay in the sorry place where you're living right now. You see, Paul said, I'm thankful that God is going to deliver me. Now, he's going to go into chapter 8, and we'll deal with it in a future message, and he's going to talk about how we can be set free from this struggle and be victorious in our Christian life. He's going to talk about it all through chapter 8, and I'll give you a hint, it has to do with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But this morning, let me ask you this question. As we've worked our way through chapter 7, are you experiencing the work of sanctification in your life? I mean, do you feel, do you sense that God is changing you? You say, how do I know if I'm experiencing the work of sanctification? Well, one way that you can tell if you're experiencing the work of sanctification is you can look back in your life since the time that you said that you were born again, and you can look for evidences where the Holy Spirit of God dealt with you, and you dealt with sin in your life, and you look back and you see, yes, God has given me victory in those areas. That's a good sign because that says you're a believer. That says that the Holy Spirit is operative in your life. If you don't have that, that's an area of concern. Then ask yourself this question. Have you been given a new heart? This new heart is a heart that longs after God and pleasing Him. Or are you still hung up on the fear of man? Are you still hung up on the rituals and trying to please everybody? And then let me ask you this question this morning. If you've been saved, which nature are you feeding? Which nature are you shoveling food to? Because if you're feeding your flesh, don't be surprised if that struggle seems to sometimes go towards the way of the flesh, and maybe more often than the way of the Spirit. You're making some choices in the way that you're feeding, and you need to repent of that and ask God for grace. Let's all stand together with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. practical message and maybe God has spoken to your heart. The musicians are going to come and play that song, Cleanse Me, Search Me, O God, Know My Heart Today. It could be that God has spoken to your heart this morning and you need to do business with God. Maybe this morning you've been smitten in your heart and your conscience with conviction that you might not even be a child of God. We want to help you from the Word of God, if that's the case. But maybe you're here this morning, you say, I know that I'm a saved preacher. I know that I've been born again. I know that the Spirit of God dwells inside of me. I know that He's given me a new heart, but I need to deal with this area of sanctification. I need to begin feeding that new man. I need to get to work in this struggle and stop just letting life happen to me. I need to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit of God as He draws me into the image of Christ. You can come this morning and talk to the Lord. Come to this altar. If you need some help from the Scriptures, we'd be glad to open the Bible and answer your questions, help you this morning. But we want to give you this opportunity to respond if God's spoken to your heart. Heavenly Father, have Your will and Your way in this time of invitation. May Christ be lifted up. May You help us, Lord. May You help us to live holy lives. Lord, I'm so frustrated with this modern Christianity that excuses sin and pretends like it's not a big deal when we know, Lord, that it was because of our sins that you died. I pray that you'd help us not to be content with a low level of Christian living, but I pray that you would draw us on to a place of victory sanctification, overcoming by the grace of God for your honor and glory. Would you work and move during this time of invitation? May Christ be lifted up, we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.