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We shall now turn to the passage
that we read in the book of Romans. Paul's epistle to the Romans,
chapter 7, and our text for tonight is verse 24. Romans 7, 24. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now these are strange words,
strange words for the great apostle to speak. Surely the apostle wasn't a wretched
man. Surely he was a blessed man. Blessed is the man whose iniquities
are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Psalm 32. Paul himself
quotes these words, doesn't he, in Romans chapter 4. Blessed
man. Paul's sins were forgiven. How
can he talk of himself as a wretched man? Does he not say to us in
the epistle to the Philippines, rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say rejoice. Philippines 4 verse 4. And yet
here he's saying, O wretched man that I am. At the end of his life, you remember
in 2 Timothy 4, how he speaks of himself there, The time of
my departure is at hand. I have finished my course. I
have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I
have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me in that day, not to me only, but also
to all them that love is appearing. He says there, I've fought a
good fight. literally in the Greek, a grand fight, a glorious
fight. So if he thinks of his life as
a glorious fight, as a race that has run and a crown that has
been obtained, how can he speak of himself as a wretched man? Indeed, there are so many occasions
when he seems to be such a happy man. Think of him, for example,
when he's in the prison in Philippi. He and Silas had just been beaten
up and they were put into the inner prison and their feet placed
in the stocks. And what's he doing? Grumbling? Complaining? No. He's praying and singing praises
to God, singing psalms of praise to God, and the other prisoners
heard them. They're so happy there, counting
it all joy to suffer for the sake of Christ. And yet, he says
here, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Now, some people think that Paul
is here describing his unconverted state. his unconverted state, they say
he was a wretched man. Well, he was a Pharisee, a good-living
Pharisee. He was very ambitious and very
successful, born in Tarshish, brought up in Jerusalem, educated
by Gamaliel, the famous Jewish rabbi. So, He had a good education,
and he tells us that amongst his contemporaries, he was first
in the class. He was doing really well. And then the Christian religion
comes along, and he's a persecutor and a blasphemer. He's full of
hatred towards Christians, trying to destroy the Christian church. trying to arrest the believers
and put them in prison and bearing testimony against them as they're
put to death. He was full of hate. He had no
real happiness. But did he feel himself a wretched
man? Was he troubled about his sin? Surely like other Pharisees,
he was comparing himself with others and thinking of himself
as a good person. I'm a Jew. I'm a good living
Jew. According to the righteousness
which is in the law, I'm blameless. Nobody can put a finger on my
life. I'm okay. Surely he's not describing himself
in that state as a wretched man. Actually, he was dead in his
sins. Ephesians 2 verse 1. He who hath
he quickened who were dead in sin. Every one of us to begin
with are dead in sin, and we have to be quickened or resurrected,
brought to spiritual life. So in his unconverted state,
he wasn't bothered about sin. He was dead in sin. And in this last section, In these verses, from verse 14
to the end of the chapter, Paul says here, for example, I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. Does any unconverted person delight
in the law of God? Well, the Pharisees, they laid
great emphasis upon the law, but it was The law is a master. The law is slavery and bondage. They felt duty bound to keep
the law, but they had no delight in it. You've got to have a new
nature. You've got to be born again in
order to see the law as sweeter than honey and more desirable
than fine gold. Other people think that Paul
here is speaking about his condition when he came under conviction
of sin at the point of his conversion. And he certainly speaks about
that earlier in this chapter. He speaks of how the law came
home to him at a certain point. He says how the law taking occasion,
sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. I was alive without the law once. That was in his previous
time. But then the commandment came. Sin revived and I died. The commandment
The commandment that he mentions here is in verse 7, the 10th
commandment, thou shalt not covet. And that commandment came with
great force to him. He tried very hard to keep it,
but the harder he tried to keep it, the more he found that he
was breaking it. He tried hard not to covet, but
instead he was coveting more and more. What do you think that
coveting referred to? Do you think it was referring
to coveting riches, material things? One very real possibility is
that it was coveting what Stephen had, his knowledge of the Scriptures
and his ability to argue from the Scriptures. Because you remember
in Acts chapter 6, we're told about Stephen, how he was a man
full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and how he was performing
miracles and healing the sick and preaching with great power
and effectiveness. And then we're told about the
synagogue of the Libertines and the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians,
the people of Cilicia too. There was that synagogue in Jerusalem
that people from these different places where they tended to gather
as their synagogue. Synagogue of the Cyrenians, Alexandrians,
and the people of Cilicia. Now, Paul came from Cilicia. Tartus was in Cilicia. So very likely that would be
the synagogue he attended. And these people got involved
in an argument with Stephen. Paul thought of himself as knowing
his Bible so well, and a top student, and he was so clever,
so much wiser than all the other young men. But suddenly he found here was
somebody who knew his Bible an awful lot better than he did.
Somebody who was led and guided by the Holy Spirit. And you can
just imagine how how Saul of Tarsus would be full of envy
at this man who seemed to be so knowledgeable. He tried arguing
with him and he couldn't. Stephen beat him all the time.
So all he could do, he and others, were to get false witnesses to
bear a false testimony against Stephen. And so Stephen was stoned
to death. But here is Paul then, The commandment
came, thou shalt not covet. And the more he thought about
it, the more he found himself coveting. And the commandment
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. The commandment,
do this and live, he found it convicting him and condemning
him. For sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. That was Paul. at the time of his conversion.
But you notice in this last section, he's not using the past tense.
He uses the past tense in that section there before verse 14,
where he's talking about his conversion. He says, sin taking
vocation by the commandment deceived me and slew me in the past. That happened. But now, in verse
14, he says, I am carnal, sold under sin. I am a wretched man. He's talking in the present tense. So he's not talking about some
past experience, either in his unconverted state or at the point
of conversion. But he's talking about himself
as a Christian. born-again Christian, his present
state when he's writing these words, he now delights in the
law of God as the born-again Christian does, and he's using
the present tense. So what we have here then in
verses 14 to the end is true Christian experience. And if you're a true Christian
tonight, you'll know what he's talking about. You'll know about
this warfare that's going on inside you, the fight between
the two laws. A law is a principle that demands
a certain course of action. And in Paul, there were these
two principles fighting with one another, the law of sin and
of death, the evil principle fighting against the law of the
spirit, the spirit of God, the law of the spirit and of his
mind. So there was the law of God, and he was on the side of
the law of God, the law of his mind, and he was fighting against
this other principle within him, the law of the flesh, the law
of sin and of death. A war begins when you're converted. And that's a great mark of the
Christian, an inner war. He says here, I am carnal. Some people think, well, surely
the apostle couldn't say, I'm carnal, I'm fleshly. But every true Christian has
to say that because they are aware of the flesh. The flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these two things are contrary
the one to the other. There's a carnality about us.
And on a day of humiliation and prayer like today, as we start
to search our own hearts, look into our own minds, are we not
conscious of this carnality, this deadness, this hardness
of heart that we've got to battle against? the flesh within us,
indwelling sin. Surely we have to fight against
it. I am carnal, he says. I have
this greed, I have lust, I have pride, I have bad temper. I have all these These things
in me, idols, it's so easy to have an idol, so easy to let
things come in between us and God. And then the pride of our
hearts and self. Even the great apostle Paul,
he had to be given a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble,
because otherwise he would have got carried away with his pride. He says, I am carnal, sold under
sin. Sold under sin. Now, he doesn't
say, I sold myself to sin. No. That's what Ahab did. He sold himself to sin. But he
says, I'm sold under sin. So the idea there is the idea
of, I feel sometimes like a slave. soul to sin, and I find myself
sinning when I don't want to sin. I have this power over,
as it were, working on me, this law of sin and of death commanding
me to sin. And I feel, I want to do God's
will. I want to do it perfectly. I
want to stop sinning and never sin again. But I do sin. The sin is still there. I find
myself carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. I don't wish it. I don't like
it, what I'm doing. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, I find myself
doing what I hate. Reacting in a hateful way sometimes. And hating myself for my bad
temper. Hating myself for my pride. Hating
myself for my greed. Hating myself for not praying
more. Not being more serious. Not being
more godly. Not being more spiritual. If then I do that I would not,
I consent unto the law that it is good. Yes, the law is good.
The law is good. I consent to the law that it's
good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but the sin that
dwelleth in me. Yes, there's that indwelling
sin in me. I've been converted. I'm born
again. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. All things have passed away.
All things are new. And yet, and yet, and yet, there's
the old, the old sin there, the indwelling sin. It's a bit like
a field that's plowed, and it's all black, and it looks good.
Then a few days later, you see these green shoots of weeds coming
up here and there. And so it is with us. The roots
of corruption are still there, and they'll be there till our
dying day. 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. So
I will and I wish and I desire to do what is good, but how to
perform it, that's difficult. For the good that I would, that
I wish to do, I don't do, 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, this commanding
principle, that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. Well, there's a mark of the Christian.
You love God's law. You love every part of it, every
single commandment God has given, every word of God from Genesis
to Revelation. You love it, don't you? You love
the law of God, and you don't resent any part of it, and you
wish you could keep it, and you would love to live a life according
to God's law. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, but I see another law in my members. Pharisee was
different. The Pharisee, Pharisee was concerned
about the outward appearance, about what people thought. The
Pharisee was never concerned about pride, or self-righteousness,
or covetousness, because the Pharisee is concerned to make
a good impression. wants people to see and to notice
that he's good living, the Pharisees comparing himself with others,
but the true, the true Christian is deeply concerned about his
heart, about the sin that dwells in him. We don't just want to
be outwardly clean, We want to be clean in the heart, blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Are you concerned
about your heart and the purity of your thoughts? I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. I feel like a captive. carnal, sold under sin. Because I long to stop sinning. I long to be perfectly holy. I long to be in heaven where
I'll never sin again. There you have a great mark of
the Christian, longing to be holy. Oh, wretched man that I
am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Well, do you know in your own
experience what the Apostle is talking about here? This war
going on inside, often failing, coming short, realizing you're
not what you should be, humbled because the sin that's dwelling
in you. How is the Christian a wretched
man? Because although we're born again,
we still live so often like unconverted people. And that leaves us wretched,
doesn't it? We should be so different. We should be like bright and
shining lights, like a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid.
We should be like the salt of the earth, the preservative in
society. We should be beautiful Christians, radiant,
holy, holy as our Father in heaven is holy. But we're not. True, the power of sin has been
broken. We're no longer slaves to the
devil, as we once were. We've been born again. The devil
has been cast out of us, as it were. The Spirit of God has come
to live in our hearts. but so often we listen to our
old master. We give place to the devil rather
than resisting him. So, we have to confess that we
are wretched men. When we think of how much God
loves us, and yet we sin. How amazing is God's love? Just think about it. before you
were born, before the world was created, God loved you. God loved
you from all eternity. Actually, there never was a time
when God didn't love you. Because God is eternal and God's
love is eternal. And with what size of love did
he love you? I love the length, the breadth,
the height, and the depth. Who can tell? It's infinite. It's so large. It's so great. It's immeasurable. So just think
about this. God loved you with an infinite
love always. A love that's infinite, eternal,
and unchangeable. How amazing. is God's love. How can you sin against a loving
God? And when you think of how you
sin against your heavenly Father, it grieves your heart and you
cry out, O wretched man that I am. When you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ, greater loveth no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends. He came into
this world and he took my sins upon himself. And he suffered
the punishment due to me for my sins. My sins nailed Christ
to the cross. How can I go on sinning? To sin again is like putting
another nail through the hands of Christ on the cross. Our sins nailed him to the tree. O wretched man that I am! The
love of Christ constraineth me to new obedience, to live a holy
life. But here I am sinning against
the love of Christ. How can I? Or think about the Holy Spirit
who's come as your friend, your comforter, your advocate, who's
come to dwell in your heart. The Holy Spirit has made you
his home. You're a temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, are you going to take this
holy temple and defile it? Write graffiti over it, as it
were? spread dung through the temple
of the Holy Spirit. That's what you're doing when
you sin. Oh, wretched man that I am! How can I sin? How can I sin against the Holy
Spirit? And then think too, when you
sin, of the way you make the devil happy. The devil who hates you and the
devil who hates God. And the devil goes away happy
when you sin. How horrible sin is and how horrible
I am when I please Satan. Just think of him in the Garden
of Eden as he's watching Eve eating the fruit and giving it
to Adam and Adam eats. The big grin on Satan's face. Every time you sin, you give
pleasure to the devil. Oh wretched man that I am, how
can I sin? And then think of the angels
watching you. the holy angels who cover their
faces in the presence of God, because he's so glorious and
so holy and so pure. And the angels look down at you,
who are so privileged to have been adopted into the family
of God, who are indwelt by the Spirit, you for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ died on the cross, the Son of God became a man and
died for you. And the angels are watching you,
sinning. How can you do that? How can you grieve the angels
in that way? And then you think of the world
around you watching you when you sin. What a poor witness
it is. What a disgrace and a shame when
Christians let the cause down, when they act as they shouldn't
act, when they speak gossiping or slandering or whatever. They show their bad temper or
their lust, whatever it is. And the world around sneers at
the Church, and at the Christ who died for the Church, and at the God that we say we
believe in. We fail. We fail so much. You know, there's a very interesting
thing that Paul says in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 8. The Apostle
Paul says of himself that he is less than the least of all
the saints. Did he really believe that, that
he was the poorest Christian around? Paul said, I'm less than the
least of all the saints. Every other Christian's better
than me. I'm the worst Christian around. Was he just pretending? But no, he can't be pretending.
The Bible is truth. There's no error in it. He was
inspired. And the inspired apostle, who
was such a holy man, Surely to us, he was the holiest indeed,
the greatest of all the apostles, the greatest Christian there
ever was. And yet he says, I'm less than
the least of all the saints. How could he say that? He could say it because he knew
his own heart, but he didn't know anybody else's heart. He
could see what was inside his own mind. He knew the thoughts
passing through his own heart. He knew his own reaction in different
situations. He saw the wretchedness within. And he looked at others and all
he could see was the outward appearance. And because he could
only see the outward appearance of others, he said, I'm less
than the least of all the saints. And that's a true Christian spirit. The Pharisee says, I'm just as
good as anybody else. I try my best. I'm not that bad. But the true Christian whose
eyes has been opened says, I am less than the least of all the
saints. I prefer others rather than myself. O wretched man that I am. Well,
what is the answer then? We have it here. I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 25. I thank God through
Jesus Christ. Justification. That's wonderful. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Justified
by faith the moment we believe our sins are forgiven and we
are accepted as righteous in the sight of God. Perfectly righteous. Justified. That's wonderful. A wretched man, yet justified. All my sins passed. present and
even future sins are forgiven when we're justified. The moment
we're justified. We're perfectly white. We'll
never be more justified than we are at the point of our conversion. And we're justified because our
sins are laid on Christ. and Christ's righteousness is
given to us. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. I'm a wretched man, but there's
no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. It is God
that justifieth who is he that condemneth. It is Christ that
died, yea, rather that is risen again. Justified. So that's wonderful. And then
think of God's plan. God's plan is that we should
be holy, chosen in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame in his sight. God plans that you and I will
be holy. Will God's plan be frustrated? At this moment I must confess
I am a wretched man, but, but, yes I'm justified and my sins
are pardoned, but also one day I will be holy, because that's
God's plan. I will be perfect one day. I will be without spot and blameless
in his sight. a wretched man, yet there's an
answer, because God has put his Holy Spirit into my heart. He's
the author and the finisher of my faith. He begins the good
work in me, coming to dwell in me in the effectual calling,
in regeneration and in sanctification. And the Holy Spirit is effectual
in his work, effective. He gets it done. So one day,
we will be perfect. Yes, we might have to suffer
chastisements, corrections, disciplines, painful, but we will be holy. And furthermore, we look at verse
13 in chapter 8. For if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Through the Spirit,
trusting in the Spirit, we mortify the deeds of the body. We die
daily unto sin, and we are sanctified. And we think of the great golden
chain at the end of chapter 8. in chapter 8 and verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren, whom he foreloved,
Whom he chose in love, he predestinated to be like Jesus, to have the
image of Christ upon them. We shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Past tense. It's so sure that
it will happen. You are effectually called, you've
been justified, you're converted, and you will be glorified. A wretched man, but God will
one day glorify you. It's sure, it's certain, you'll
be holy, and you'll be like Christ, and he'll be the firstborn among
many brethren. What then is our response to
all this? Well, we have here a mark of
grace. Are you one of the Lord's people?
Should you be at the Lord's table? The Lord's table is for the Lord's
people and only for the Lord's people. It's for Christians,
it's for born again Christians. And here we have a mark of grace,
a mark of the true Christian. There's a war going on inside
them. And they can cry out, as Paul
did, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Another response is that every
day of our lives we must be repenting. Some people think of repentance
and faith as something you do once in your life. Repent and
be converted. You do it at the beginning of
your life, but that's not true. The Christian faith, the Christian
religion, the Christian is somebody who's in a relationship with
God, and it's an active relationship. And every day of our lives, we
must be repenting and believing, turning from sin, turning to
Christ every day, afresh, repenting, confessing our sin, turning from
it, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Confess
your faults one to another, pray one for another. We must, if
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
What happens if we don't confess our sins? Well, the promise is
to those who confess their sins, that he will forgive them. If
we don't confess, they won't be forgiven. So we have to, every
day, be confessing our sins, repenting of them, claiming the
blood of Christ afresh, exercising faith, keeping the cross before
us, remembering the Lord's death till he come. not just at the
communion table, but as a daily exercise. And then, along with the cry
of, O wretched man that I am, we're also to be joyful. Because Paul says to us, rejoice
in the Lord always, not just sometimes, but always. Rabbi Duncan used to say that
we should have joyous grief and grievous joy. In a sense, the
Christian should be the happiest person in the world. And at the
same moment, the saddest person in the world. sadness and happiness
mingle together, sorrow for our sin, crying out, O wretched man
that I am, but at the same time rejoicing in the blood of Christ,
rejoicing in forgiveness, rejoicing in assurance of our salvation,
claiming the blood and looking forward to being with Christ
in heaven. We are more than conquerors. not just conquerors, but more
than conquerors through Him who loved us. Rejoice in the Lord
always. Again, I say rejoice. Satan hates
to see us happy in the Lord. Happy not with the pleasures
of the world, but happy in Christ and the pleasures of our salvation. in the delights of our God. And if this then describes you
as a Christian, your place is at the Lord's table. And you
should be encouraged then to come to the Lord's table joyfully,
remembering the Lord's death. Yes, you feel unworthy. I hope you do. There's none of
us worthy to come to the Lord's table, but worthy is the lamb
that was slain. Our worthiness is not in ourselves,
but in Christ. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. We look to him, we trust in him. And through all eternity, we'll
be saying, unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins
in his own blood. But maybe you're here tonight
and these things don't mean very much to you because you're dead
in sin. Maybe you've never been converted. Well, again, the scripture speaks
to you. God's speaking to you tonight
and he's saying, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call
ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
for he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. Be concerned Be concerned about your soul.
Be concerned to be saved. There's nothing more important
than to be a Christian. And there's nothing more blessed
than to be a Christian. And there's no joy like the joy
unspeakable and full of glory that the Christian has in his
religion. Let's pray. O Lord, our God, we lift up our
hearts to Thee to worship Thee, rejoicing in the salvation that
has been worked out for us. We praise Thee for this great
plan of salvation, and we praise Thee for the accomplishment of
Christ on the cross, and the application by the Holy Spirit
into our hearts and lives. Grant, O Lord, that each one
of us would know what it is today again to repent of our sins and
afresh to put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our own
personal Saviour. Do Thou bless us, Lord, and receive
us graciously, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
A Wretched Man
Series Communion Season Spring 2023
| Sermon ID | 413231736504400 |
| Duration | 44:35 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Romans 7:24 |
| Language | English |
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