This is indeed a pleasure to be here, having known some of you before now, to be able to share with you today. I realise that after lunch on a Friday, and the last Friday of semester, that is about the most graveyard of graveyardships I can imagine, so let me share with you anyway. I want to encourage you so that as you leave here today, you go out with your heart full of the reality of what Christ has done, with a passion to tell others. I'm not trying to stir you up or anything, I just want to tell you what the scriptures say. David read to us from Romans 7.14-8.2. Let me presume for the moment that you are familiar with the passage, and no doubt if you've done all sorts of studies you'll be aware that there's many alleged difficulties with the passage. I don't know where they've managed to find all these difficulties at times, but they do. But I want to draw your attention to what I think is a strong theme in Romans, one I've not seen dealt with very much, and that's the theme of hope. You realize that when Paul writes, he writes to people who are real people, he's not writing a theological treatise in the final analysis, they're just people. and he writes them and he says in chapter 5 for instance, being therefore justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we've obtained access to the grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of the glory of God. So from the very beginning there when he deals with the matter of what it is to stand there as a justified person you're launched into hope and our hope doesn't make us ashamed because the love of God has been flooded into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Again, the fact that you know where you're going, you've got a goal in mind, and then in 5.9, if I may read this, much more surely then, now that we've been justified by His blood, will we be saved through Him from the wrath? So again, something looking forward, which dominates the way he writes, And then, of course, there are hints elsewhere, but in chapter 8, verse 11. Yes, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his spirit that dwells within you. And then, of course, you go down to verse 17. If children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if in fact we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. And then this next paragraph, as you know, 8.18 through to 25, finishes by saying, for in hope we were saved. And the hope is not merely, I'm going to go to heaven when I die. It is specifically the hope of the redemption of the body. One day, the body will be resurrected. There's only been one resurrection in all of history, and that's Jesus. But one day, the life of the risen Christ which is in us now, will be evidence when my body is resurrected. Right now it's going the way of the rest of all flesh, or as I put it mildly, gravity kicks in. But I know that on that day, Christ will be there with his resurrected bride in our resurrected bodies. So there's the hope. And you can go on into chapters 9, 10 and 11 and there's more hope there as well and so on. I just want to draw your attention to that as a theme which helps us approach this passage in Romans chapter 7. And I suspect that many of the problems people have had over the years with Romans 7 somehow could be assisted if we would only see the way this works out. I'm not trying to give you just a Bible study or a lecture, but if it sounds like that initially, hang in there. In chapter 7 verse 24, I'm going to go back to here for a moment. In chapter 7 verse 24, you know this great cry of Paul, Wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? Paul's great burden in this chapter, and I take it in the traditional way, or almost in the traditional way, that it is Paul, the redeemed man, who is complaining that he wants to be godly, but can't. And he cries out, who will deliver me from this body of death? It's a plea for deliverance, but it is based on his hope. That's why I said in chapter 8, as you know, his great longing is for the redemption of his body. This body of death is a pain in the neck and just about everywhere else. But he says, I'm longing for the time when my body is redeemed. Because my body is my problem. I cannot get my body to cooperate with what I want to do. Every time I long to be godly, the good that I would, that I do not, and all of those phrases which tends to muddle up people who read. But that's a real problem he faces. I'll get on to why I believe that and why I'm not I'm not just trying to be a smarty-pants insane. But he's praying that he will be delivered from this body of death, and it's based on his hope. Romans 8.11, as I read a moment ago, If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his spirit who dwells within you. Now there's your hope. That you came to Christ, you received the spirit. And the Spirit is the guarantee, and you can read this in Ephesians as well, He's the guarantee that all that God began, He will bring to completion. He created in Genesis 1 and 2, you've got the whole thing spelled out, and He didn't just drop His bundle when sin came in, He's got to see creation through to its goal. That means the body of Adam, which was subject to death, has been dealt with in Christ, and there'll be the last Adam and his bride in the new creation. Goes from go to woe. So if the spirit dwells in you, he's the guarantee that your body will be raised from the dead. Now, I can see you're just on the edge of your seat of excitement. Let me explain. I want to mention a couple of Greek words, not to be smarty-pants, but I think because Paul knows what he's saying. He talks about a body of death, a body of thanatos, And he says that the body which is dead is the body which is thanatos. It's a dead body. It's subject to thanatos. The words keep coming through. Death is a reality for the body. But he's going to give life. So who will rescue me from this body of death? You wait and see. Now, there is a problem in Romans 7. Again, just assume the traditional attitude towards this chapter. It's this, that whenever you appeal to law of whatever sort, you'll have a problem. By law, I don't merely mean the law of Moses, that was an issue. Where you had Jewish believers in the church, and particularly in the first century, that was an issue. You've only got to read the great battles of Acts 15 and all of the other places to know that, and certainly the letter to the Galatians. And so people who would appeal to law and it divided the church and did all sorts of things. But quite apart from the law of Moses, wherever you appeal to law as some sort of evaluation of where you are in life, you're going to have a problem. The law will always do one of two things, I presume. It will make you a frightful Pharisee, if you think you've measured up, or it will drive you to despair, because you say, I can't measure up. Now, we don't have the problem of Jewish law in our churches the way they did. I presume not too many people come to your church and demand that your male children be circumcised, that you keep the Sabbath, and that you observe all the dietary restrictions that they have to go through, if you were a Jewish believer. But we do have other problems of law. You can work it out in any number of ways, I guess. When I was a boy, it used to be, how many people have you witnessed to this week? Which was always a bit of a killer for me. or the law of the old quiet time, those sort of things. But we can do it in many other ways. How do you prove to other people that you're in Christ? Well, sometimes you've got a great battle proving it to yourself, haven't you? I look into my own heart and when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, I say, God, I've been wrong mate. I'm wrong, but that's what you tend to say. I'm more conscious sometimes of my failure than I am of my salvation. And so the moment you start to measure yourself against law, then you'll have a battle. Now, within this letter, the law was the Jewish Torah. I think most of the New Testament, when it uses the word law, has to take into account the fact that there was a Jew-Gentile battle going on within the church as people tried to impose those, basically those three elements of the Torah all addition to the Torah really, circumcision, dietary laws and Sabbath observance. Right the way through the New Testament there are issues which are raised, are they not? So Paul wouldn't circumcise one person even though he should have been and warns against those who would tell you to keep this observance and that observance. It just goes on, a big split between Paul and Peter when Peter withdrew because he wouldn't eat with Gentiles. So here they are, they're big issues. and the Jewish law was there but the Jewish law as I understand it and you can correct me if I'm wrong but the Jewish law which was given through Moses was not the beginning of law and certainly it wasn't the end of law behind all of the Jewish law, all those regulations which we understand in the Old Testament there stands the great law of God himself, the law by which God himself subsists, one man put it, so that I understand God's righteousness to be his total consistency with his own nature, which he both expresses and expects and which he works for us in Christ. Put another way, God never acts inconsistently. At every point you could say, God, you are a righteous God, You will always act consistently, and you expect the whole creation to act consistently. Now, when God created Adam, Adam was in the image of God. So, if God is righteous, you would expect Adam to live righteously. Would that make sense? When you read Adam, therefore read you, me. And whilst the scriptures don't put it explicitly, I think in Romans 2, Paul has already suggested this to us. In Romans 2, some people have it in brackets, verses 14 and 15. When Gentiles who do not possess the law, I understand the law of Moses, do instinctively what the law requires, these though not having the law are a law to themselves, they show that what the law requires is written on their hearts. to which their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them." I take it that what Paul is saying there is that if you see a Gentile who doesn't understand the law of Moses, may never have heard of it, because he may not have been meeting with Jewish people. Nonetheless, instinctively they seem to do some of the things the law requires. They gravitate towards those things so that murder in a country that has never heard of Moses is still murder. Instinctively people know that, and Paul is saying here, I understand, that it's because the law is written on their hearts at creation. The very fact that you're in the image of God means the eternal law of God is there within you. Now I'm not suggesting that that means that unconverted people keep the law as it is intended. Because Paul's already made that clear in chapter 3 where he says, no, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But nonetheless they're fighting against the law of God within them. They're fighting against being the image of God. And because human beings have been created to be righteous, what will the new heavens and the earth be like? In which righteousness dwells, 1 Peter 3, 2 Peter 3. We're waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So that the ultimate goal will be everything being utterly consistent with the character of God, expressed by God and by all creation. But how can that be? If men and women created in the law of God are rebels, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1.18, with all that's spelled out there. How can that possibly be? God says, first of all, that I'm going to give, I'm going to place within history a people, I'm going to use it through Abraham and then through the people of Israel, But I'm going to set them so that they are a testimony to me. They will be my holy people, my royal priesthood. God's special possession, because all the earth is His. That's Exodus 19. God has chosen Israel, and you know that in Romans 9, Paul laments that Israel doesn't even know these things. But look what God has given them. You know that list in Romans 9-4? It says here, They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, and notice the next one, the giving of the law. So God has given Israel, I take it, it's the law of God expressed in particular covenantal form. So that when you see Israel, there's a lot of things in the law of Israel that you don't have to keep, aren't there? We would say, well there's the ceremonial law and there's the moral law, but ultimately When you read the Old Testament, they all get mixed up together, don't they? So, it's not because they are confused, but because this is specifically for Israel. This is the way you, Israel, are to be a testimony to the great truth of God. And did Israel do it? He's given them the law, and how, incidentally, read through the Old Testament, Psalm 1, Psalm 19, Psalm 119, what was their impression of the law? If you're a godly person. Sweeter than honey on the honeycomb. It wasn't just give me another commandment, I like it. But I love God, and the law is a great testament into your character. So your law is a revelation of who you are, and I want to be like you. Now, that law is given to them, but basically the people don't keep it. They are rebellious. God has given the law in the form of his covenant with them at Sinai. But under Jeremiah, for example, what does he promise? The days are coming when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Won't be like the covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But he's going to make a new covenant, and when he does, what's he going to do? They're going to write the law on their hearts. They've had it on tablets of stone, but it's meant absolutely nothing to them. They're a rebellious people. They're going to write it on their hearts. Now, if I'm right in thinking Romans 2 is talking in the same language, it means that what was there at the creation, which has been fouled and polluted by the rebellion of human beings, has got to be redone in such a way that you'll have everybody know that I teach their brother and each their neighbor saying know the Lord because they'll all know him from the least of them to the greatest. Because he's going to do something quite extraordinary. You know what it is? He says I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. So when he comes with this new covenant he's going to write the law on their hearts and wash them clean from all their guilt. You read the same thing in other prophets Ezekiel 36 and so on. But here are men and women created in the image of God, the law in their hearts, and it's going to do it again. I think that this is a very significant thing when you look at the Paul's issue here in Romans. As I said, if you appeal to law quite apart from the character of God, just the law as points A, B, C and D of what you should do, then You'll either become frightfully pharisaic, and you see all that in the New Testament, or you'll see it in Paul's despair here. But the issue to my mind is that what you're seeing in Paul in Romans 7 is that he's saying, my problem is I have received that forgiveness of sins, I've received the law rewritten on my heart. My problem is, I'm saved in hope. I'm walking by faith, not by sight. Because I look into myself, that's in my flesh, and what do I see? No good thing. But I know that I've been justified by the work of Christ. And that's why I rejoice in my hope of the glory of God. You could trace that, there's another one, trace that through. Because how was man created? According to Psalm 8, crowned with glory and honour. Romans 3.23, you've fallen short of the glory. What's the bride of Christ look like in Revelation 21? She's radiant, having the glory of God. So, Paul is aware that in his flesh dwells no good thing. He's longing to be released from that. And I want to suggest to you, that's exactly what has happened. That Paul says, I'm a man who has received the forgiveness of sins. You've got that all through the New Testament, haven't you? I've received the forgiveness of sins, and the law has been rewritten on my heart. Believe me, I was a Pharisee, I knew what it meant. I could tell you laws, and I could tell you how many laws everybody else had broken. One thing about evangelicals, and I include myself in this particular criticism particularly, is that we are very good at telling you how wrong other people are. We want to measure them against Our little standards all the time. Paul says, I was terrific at that. But the moment I look within myself, I see that I can't do it. I want to do it, but I can't do it. I groaned inwardly. Now the only reason he says that he wants to be godly is because a great miracle of regeneration has taken place. The prophet Ezekiel. Sorry if I'm going too fast. I'll give you a copy of this later if you want it. The prophet Ezekiel said, or God said through him to the people in captivity in chapter 36, even in their captivity they are ungodly. He says God will sprinkle clean water upon you and you will be clean from all your uncleannesses. And a new heart I will put within you, and a new spirit I will put within you, I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. and I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and to be careful to obey all my ordinances. I will cause you to be different so that your whole being is set to be obedient. Then, he goes on later in the chapter and says, then you'll repent. It won't be a case of, if you repent, God will. No, because God has, then you'll change the whole way you see things. and you'll loathe yourself because of your wicked works. What's Paul doing in Romans 7 but loathing himself because of what he sees? He says, the only reason I want to be godly, and I do, is because God has done a work in me. Do you ever feel that way? That's one of the reasons why the traditional view came up, because we were able to identify with this. But I do identify with it, thank you kindly. Have you ever lain in bed at night and thought, I have botched the day 100%? Now what will you be tempted to despair, and reminded of the guilt within? Now Paul says in verse 14 of Romans 7, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh. The old version had carnal. The problem with that is it's got a perfectly good translation, it's just got a different meaning in our day and age. Is that what you've got in yours then? Good old New King James. Sorry, I'm not having a go at you. But he says, the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold into slavery unto sin. I am of the flesh, I am fleshly. I'm going to pull a Swifty on you at this point and just play some more Greek words if I may. There are two Greek words which Paul is fully aware of and uses, and they both relate to the word flesh, which is sarx. You've heard of that word? There are two adjectives, however. The first is sarkinos, which, if you're writing it down, S-A-R-K-I-N-O-S, and sarkinos really means subject to the weaknesses of the flesh, so that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. There is another word, however, which is psychikos, instead of NOS it's KOS. And psychikos means someone who is given over to the flesh in his choices and his desires and things that he does, so that it's a person who says, I ultimately have to feed my flesh, so that it's desires are satisfied. Paul doesn't always use that word when he describes it. Let me show you what I mean, and I'm going to do this very quickly. In 1 Corinthians 3, and the first three verses, Paul uses these words, and if nothing else, it tells us that he knows the difference. And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh. People who are weak because of their flesh. That's the word Sarkinos. He says, you are infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now, you're still not ready, for you are still, you've still got the, in my Bible, of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations. Those two words in verse 3, of the flesh, are sakikos. In the first verse he says, you're weak, you can't do it because of the weakness of your flesh, and think of Romans 8.3, God has done what the law, weak and by the flesh, could not do. So without using the word he makes the same point, you are weak. But he says, the problem with you Corinthians is that your psychic costs, you are bent on satisfying your own fleshly lusts and desires. And that's what's killing it all. Yes, you're weak, but you're actually feeding that weakness and indulging that weakness. That's why I say I'm not really giving you a lecture, I want to encourage you. But how many Christians do you know who deep down have not been dealing with the sin in their own lives? It's common as anything, isn't it? And it is perfectly possible for you to be sitting here now, just in this final chapel of the year, and to be feeding your own flesh, and ruining the ministry that lies ahead of you. Don't do it. Don't be psychikos. You may be psychinos, you may be subject to all sorts of weaknesses, so that you'll cry out, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death, but that's because you hate the weakness and long for the revelation of the Saviour when your body is redeemed. But if you're psychikos, you'll be deep down putting that all to one side, and you'll just be feeding your own lusts and desires and passions and all those other words. That is deadly for the church and it's deadly for your ministry. I don't know if any of you are actually finishing your course today, but if you are you've got to get out and the Lord has given you the opportunity for training. How tragic, how tragic if you were to waste it all because deep down you're not living as a man or a woman of the Spirit. Although you are, you've been born again. But Paul says, look, when he writes this section in Romans, and particularly here from Romans 8 verse 5 onwards, he talks about those who walk according to the flesh. He's not using the word psychikos, but I think he's describing it. Those who've got a mindset that's on the flesh all the time. The flesh says, feed me, and we say, yes, yes. But he says you can't please God. And to set the mind on the flesh is in fact death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Now when you see that it's possible for you and for me, and for me, I'm not preaching at you, I'm preaching at me if anyone. I'm saying, Ian Pennycook, you are a man who's been born again by the Spirit of God, even if it was in your mother's womb. But you've been born again by the Spirit, you've been reset To glorify him and to keep his law, where there is weakness you might hate it, but for goodness sake don't indulge the weakness. Get on with being godly. Not because you're trying to prove anything, but because the work has been done. It's not in order to get God's blessing, but because you have it. So, don't choose to be psychicos. Choose to be godly. Choose to be a mature man and woman in Christ. The real reason is this in Romans 8, 9. You're not in the flesh. You've been reset so that you're not to be psychikos. You're in the Spirit. And it's the Spirit who gives you your hope of the redemption of your body. Am I going too quickly or are you with me? Because I think once we see this you'll be able to say, not that I'm going to say, oh I'm too weak to be godly, I'm sorry, I'm just carnal. Oh no, no, no. Recognize the weakness of your flesh, but indulge your passion for holiness. Indulge your passion to be like God and just have His word burning in your mouth and in your heart. And believe on that level. You see, It's possible to talk about sin in such a way that all you do is communicate your own sense of failure and other people's guilt. You can really make people feel guilty if you know how to do it. And of course, if you can make people feel guilty, you can get a response in some way, can't you? But supposing I told you that the only sin we have to proclaim is forgiven sin. How would that be? that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Is he the propitiation for our sins? Is he? 1 John 2.1? We'll finish that verse. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. So, in a way that we may not even comprehend, Christ has taken all the guilt of all humanity and has dealt with it by bearing the judgment of God on it, and he says, At the end of this great lament, that with my mind I'm a slave to the law of God, with my mind something has happened, but with my flesh I'm a slave to the law of sin, he says, but there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. That's my boast. I lament my sin, but I don't go around saying I'm guilty, because I know I'm not. I'm ashamed of my sin, Romans 6, But I'm not guilty of my sin, because that guilt has been removed. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, what's the next part of that? You've just sung it. Upward I look and see Him there who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless Saviour died, my guilty soul is counted free. That's it. So here we've got a picture, I take it in Romans 7 and 8, of a man who has known what the great promise of the New Covenant means. That God has come and washed him clean from his guilt and he will remember his sin no more, and he's written his law afresh on the human heart, and he's written it on yours and on mine, so that my desire and your desire and Paul's desire was to be godly, not to prove anything. because that's measuring yourself against the law but because you are one with his son and you're passionate to be like the Saviour and when you can't do it, you loathe it but you say, I will tell you though, there is no condemnation my guilty soul is counted free and therefore if I can correct Ms. Bancroft my not guilty soul the guilt is gone and you're going to go out of here and I will bet I only bet on short things. I will bet that the evil one will come and try and grab you today. The temptations will come and some of you will blow it. And you'll say, not a wasted day, won't you? Well, if you do, you're wrong. Because whilst he may come and tempt, he cannot come and re-impose the guilt. It is God who justifies Who is to condemn? Let me pray for you. Gracious Father, when strangers get together there is a beautiful bond when the bond is in Christ. And thank you Father that it's your word which speaks to our hearts and so demonstrates the extraordinary miracle that has taken place in each one of us. So I just want to thank you now for the opportunity of sharing this great truth again. Encourage me in my own heart and I hope that of my brothers and sisters. And then Father, as we've done that, we just praise you for the glorious truth that Christ has borne our sin in his own body on the tree and that's the end of it. And that great work of grace has come to us so that we might rise up and be men and women of faith, men and women of the Spirit. and that all the glory will go to the one who loved us and gave himself for us. In his name we pray. Amen.