I think we are good to go. Last Sunday, we had all kinds of issues. I forgot to connect my phone to the Wi-Fi, and so the streaming was incredibly bad. And then the one recording that I would have used for the video, for the other video, for some reason, it did not save. So when I called into my phone to get the video file, it wasn't there. I'm like, OK, so what's happening? So this thing saved the day for the audio. So we have all kinds of backups. Recording here, recording there, recording there. But salvation is not like that. Okay? Because even with all those backups, I still lost two of my recordings. If God were to give you one, two things to do for salvation, you would lose it. Guaranteed, 100%. So thank God for His grace and mercy. But a good morning to one and all who is joining us. I pray that we'll have a very good stream, stable stream, and you like the format better. I like this format better, even on your phone. The regular one that I've always used for my phone, I do not like that. I like the YouTube, like, I love the YouTube better. So I'm very glad. So may the God of all creation bless us this morning. Let's pray and then we'll go to our text. Our dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you again for this hour that you've given us to gather around the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christ who came and redeemed, justified, perfected His people by His own obedience, by His own blood. The Christ who is now seated on the right hand of majesty on high. because He made an end to the purification of sin. Lord, may You bless us with the correct words, faithful words, and also with the hearing of them. We honour You, glorify You in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Alright, this morning we are in Romans 7.21-25. Romans 7.21-25. And the apostle Paul continued and said, I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind. and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of 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. Give me two seconds. We have four titles to our message. We have four titles to our message. Number one title, evil present with my will to do good. Evil present with my will to do good. Number two, another law in my members. Another law in my members. Or another principle in my members. Number three, all wretched men that I am. All wretched men that I am. Number four, who shall deliver me from this body of death. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? And by just those titles, we can all say Amen and be done for the day. Because my message is already done. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Because if there's anyone who claims themselves to be a Christian and has progressed beyond all these things that are contained in the titles, then they have never needed Christ Jesus for salvation. They have never needed Christ Jesus for salvation. If you cannot find yourself in one of the titles, You don't need Jesus for salvation. And if they sincerely know anything or sincerely know nothing about the above, if they sincerely know nothing of the titles, the essence of the titles, then they are yet to hear from God. God has not introduced himself to them yet. But we must work the understanding and hear by the Holy Spirit his testimony about the flesh and its issues. This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit about the flesh and the issues that the flesh has for which it needs redemption. because that is what this is a summary of. But to get here, we must backtrack again, as is our custom, that we may build context. Because if we get the context of the discussion wrong, we cannot get the story. It's almost like trying to watch a movie when it's almost to the end. You don't know how the movie developed. So we need the context that we may be profited by the text and its conclusions. Romans 7 was given in a context. And the context is what Paul has already discussed in the previous chapters about the justification of a sinner, the making of a sinner righteous before God, and the why, why the sinner needs to be justified, and the how, how is God determined to justify a sinner. And repetition is more than needful, especially in this business. as people miss out a lot of things in their hearing. And as Apostle Paul said to the Philippians, in Philippians 3 verse 1, he said to the Philippians, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me. It is no bother to me. It is not tedious for me. and is safe for you. It is safe for you that I write again even the things that I have already written before. So it is safe that I continue to rehash the understanding and that is God's style of teaching. That's how God teaches. He is the grandmaster of repetition. Because if God wanted, he could have just stopped preaching the gospel in Exodus. But he continued all the way, repeating the same thing over and over in different ways. But he repeats things in many ways, and I follow the same pattern. And this is what Paul has said about salvation. He has said that salvation, justification, is by God's righteousness. It is by His grace, it is by Christ's blood, and it is by the free imputation of that righteousness apart from the law. The righteousness of God is for those who do not work. Lazy boy righteousness. for those who do not work. And this has always been his way of dealing with sinners, even from or with the greatest among them, of the likes of Abraham and David. These are luminaries in the history of Israel. They were accounted as righteous, not by reason of their law-keeping or obedience to God. They were not as righteous in themselves as the Jews, as Israel had thought or heard about them. Rather, God is he who justified them by the faith of another, by the obedience of another, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. So having said that, this came as a shocker, as a puzzle to many of the Jews who had had much investment in their obedience to the law. They are thinking, how can a sinner, especially from the Gentiles, be served apart from them being brought under the law. They have to come under the law for them to be called God's people. And so Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, sought to establish for the church the proper understanding of the redeemed relationship to the law, the believer's relationship to the law. in view of God's grace in salvation that has to be ironed out. It has to be made clear your relationship to the law. And the feigned law keepers of the day and of our day did not and do not understand both sin and law. and many had surmised that there had to be salvation in the law, and also that the served still had obligations to the law. But Paul came and said, no, the redeemed have actually died to the law. They're not married to it, and they cannot be married to it. And if, and this was necessary, sorry, and this was necessary for them, if any should be served, they needed to die a peculiar death, not their own death, but through the death of another. Because as long as the marriage to the law stood, as long as the covenant to the law stood, they remained under its power of condemnation. And if that relationship continued without being canceled by a certificate of divorce or by death, those are the two ways to cancel a marriage. Certificate of divorce or by death. As long as that marriage stood, they could not be married to another. They could not be married to the real husband, the husband who really mattered in terms of salvation, in terms of blessing, in terms of approaching God. So it was God's determination that all the elect should be made to die to their relationship to the Lord through the body of Christ Jesus. And having died to be married to him, who lives forever. But in summary, in summary, what did Paul say were the issues that were created for the sinner by the law? Because the law as a husband brought a lot of issues. He said, the law kept one under bondage. It's like getting married to a husband who keeps you locked in some room in the basement somewhere. It kept one under bondage and bore fruit unto death. And that means condemnation. And this is the nature of the law. It is not of freedom. That's why I needed to die to that relationship that they may bear fruit unto God. The fruit of life and righteousness. Because that which is dead cannot bear fruit. You cannot get apples from a dead apple tree. You get apples from a tree that is live, that is living. And so we bear fruit to God through the one who is alive. Christ Jesus is our fruit to God. His righteousness, his life is the fruit bearing. It's not our obedience. It's not our obedience. Paul is not talking about obedience here. So the opposite of death is life. and death relates to condemnation. In the scheme of salvation, death and condemnation go together as life is connected or is synonymous with justification. So life and justification go together. Death and condemnation relate to law. They relate to the flesh. they relate to Adam, they go together as life and righteousness, justification, relate to God's grace, relate to Christ, relate to the cross. So the fruit that all the redeemed bear to God is what Christ wrought for them in his obedience by his blood. That's the life. So the redeemed worship God. They approach God. Not through the law. Not by the law. The law does not mediate our approach to God. Jesus said what in John 14, 6? I am the truth, the way and the life, and no one comes to the Father, but by me, he is saying he alone is the way to approach God, not by the law, not through Mount Sinai, not by the moral commandments. So we approach God, we worship God by or through the newness of the spirit, the newness of the new covenant, of the new testament, of the new creation in Christ, and not by the oldness of Moses, oldness of the letter. And that is a very clear distinction that is being made about law and gospel. And that distinction must be maintained. It must be maintained. It must be defended. Mixing law and grace always gives you law and never grace. If you mix salt and sugar, you can never make that mixture sweet. You try it. It will always be bitter to the taste. So grace is grace when it stands alone. It must stand alone, as Paul would let us say in Romans 11.6, about election, salvation. He says, and if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, by definition. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. That's simple. But Paul must put more meat to the bone as to the purpose or function of the law as God intended the law to be. And this is a matter many professing Christians and preachers do not understand. They do not understand law, and by extension, they do not understand the gospel. And that is why they keep swinging people on the swing set of law. Like, oh, it's fun. I'm going to put you on the swing set of law. Yay! And in this, Paul has to anticipate people's objections to the law. Whenever you talk law and gospel, you're always going to have objections. And Paul has to anticipate what people are going to say based on what he has presented to them. And objections, again, arise because people are ignorant of why God gave the law. The majority of professing church people think that the law was given to stop sin and to make sinners righteous. But is that true? Paul is going to argue otherwise and has already argued otherwise. But someone is going to say If the law bore fruit unto death, as Paul said in Romans 7 verse 5, then it follows that the law is sin. And Paul said, wrong. God forbid. I would have not known sin except through the law, coming and saying, thou shalt not covet. And Paul is just picking any of the commandments. He could have picked a different commandment, and the result would have been the same. But right there, Paul tells us the function of the law, that it was given to bring the knowledge of sin. And I've called the law God's secretary to account and file your sin in your nice folder with the name Sean Smith. That's what the law does. It's for filing all your sins and putting them in a nice folder with a name on it to give the knowledge of sin. And this is what Paul had already said earlier in respect of that in Romans 3 verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that they may become righteous, so that they may be made obedient. No. so that every mouth may be silenced, so that every mouth may be stubbed, and the whole world may be found guilty, may be held accountable to God. For no one is declared righteous before him, no one is justified by the works of the law, Now Paul tells you the purpose of the law. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So the law silences, it stops every mouth from boasting in self-righteousness before God. By giving them the knowledge of sin and their inability to keep the law and the condemnation that comes from it. So the law was given by God to lock up everyone in prison and to put them on death row. That is the most accurate understanding of how we are supposed to understand the law. And when you're on death row, you can only appeal to mercy. not to your free will, not to your obedience, not to your good works. You can only be set free by grace and mercy, as what happened to Barabbas. Barabbas had no other appeal to make for his salvation. And if we have understood that, God has opened us to his truth. So Paul continues that argument and says, I would not have known about sin unless God had given the commandment to not covet. And that means coveting was already happening in Paul and in all men and women before God gave the law. God came to discover sin to them. by the law. To him, it was already known. But to us, it was unknown. And this is where we say the law is like x-rays to broken bones or to pneumonia. X-rays don't cure anything. They just expose. But when sin saw or sees the law, It got excited. It took occasion. It took advantage. It seized the opportunity by that very commandment, or any other commandment for that matter, to be subdued, to bring back the person to obedience. Is that what sin does when it sees the Lord? Does it make a person more obedient to God? Is that what the text says? No, it says sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of evil desire. It made me even worse. Because apart from the law, sin is dead, it is powerless. The law is what gives sin power to be. So Adam was fine before God gave him the commandment to not eat. He was not having any issues. But when the commandment came, sin revived and he died. And so did we in him. So seeing leftist does not have the strength to rise, it remains dormant. And Paul said, I was alive without the law once. For some moment in my life, I thought I was alive. He thought he was alive to God. He did not know about his sin. He thought he was bearing fruit to God through his law keeping. He thought he was blameless before God because of his attempts to be righteous at law and through the law. But when the commandment came to him, I believe when it came to him because of regeneration, he began to understand what the Lord was actually saying. And he said, sin revived and he died. I just love that line. I just find it ticklish. Sin revived and I died. I'm like, so how did you write Romans then if you died? It means he saw himself condemned. That's what he means by that. He saw that he was condemned. And see that quick transition that happened from being alive to being dead as soon as the proper understanding of the law had come to him. Paul saw his desperation and poverty because before he was rich, towards God. Like the rich young ruler who thought himself rich by reason of his law keeping that he claimed to have kept all the way from his youth. The rich young ruler came to Jesus. And he asked Him the right question about eternal life. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus gave him the commandments and he said, oh that's easy. I have done those commandments before I got potty trained. I've been acing the law right from my mother's belly. From my youth, I've been doing this thing. What is it that I'm still lacking? Is there something else that you can give me to do? I'm done with this law thing. Give me something else." And Jesus said, well, I'm going to prove to you that you haven't done no commandment. One thing you still lack. You go empty yourself of your self-righteousness. of your law keeping, make yourself poor, go sell everything that you have and come follow me and that will fix everything for you. And the one thing that he was lacking was the only thing needful. What was the one thing that was lacking? He did not have the righteousness of Christ. So he needed to go home, even though he went home sorrowful, to sell all his righteousness that he had acquired under the law, and that is repent of his own law keeping. That is what that story is actually talking about. A lot of people use it to bash rich people. That's not the point. It's a gospel conversation. Because the law makes you feel like you are rich towards God. If you have obedience under the law, some kind of obedience, you're gonna feel like you're some Elon Musk of righteousness. Look at my stock price. So that has to be emptied. And the testimony is in Philippians 3, and I believe that Paul was a rich young ruler. I sincerely believe it was Paul. That's why he said, all those things that I considered to be assets to me, to be gain to me, I now consider them as liabilities. I suffered the loss of all things for the sake of Christ. So all these law keepers, they're defending lies. But Paul said, when the law came to me, it died. and that to say the law is God's killing machine, it is an instrument of death. That's what the law was given to do. It is for killing. Sinners. But when the commandment came to not covet, sin revived. Sin, God's strength, became alive. It arose from its nap and it killed him. because he could not stop the evil desire that the law had exposed. He could not stop the evil desire. So the law discovered sin and exposed it. The law did not discover sin in the Lord Jesus when he came. Because the law inspects everyone. who is born of a woman. And so the Lord Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law, that he may be inspected for any blemishes, for any sin in him. And by this, he was proven to be qualified to be our high priest and sacrifice. What sin the law found was not his. It was sin that had been accounted to him, not infused in him, because then the law would disqualify him. So what was found in him was a sin debt, the sin of others. that had been put into his account. So it was not sin in his flesh, but sin legally accounted to his account. If any sin could have been found, then he would have been disqualified by the teaching of Leviticus 21 and 22. Leviticus 21 talks about the qualification of a high priest, of priesthood, could not have one hand longer, shorter than the other, could not have any blemish, no pimple, he could not have, could not be a eunuch, all those kind of things. And Leviticus 22 talks about the qualifications of the sacrifice. Could not bring an animal that was, that had any spots, that was blind, all kinds of things like that. And they were speaking to the Lord Jesus. But for Paul, his experience with sin was different from that of Jesus. When the law came, sin revived in Paul and he died. For the Lord Jesus, sin did not revive. Rather, it was accounted. And when that happened, he too died. And that was it. The Lord does the same thing, has the same outcome, where sin is found or accounted. If sin is found, death. If sin is accounted, the outcome is the same, is death. It brings death. And that God is saying, left to yourself with the law, you are so dead. So perish the thought that anyone is keeping the law here and now by themselves. It doesn't matter how upright they look. It doesn't matter how sincere they are. No one is keeping the law. It is religious hogwash that needs to be flushed down the toilet. The law can and could only be kept by Him who was perfect and sinless, the man Christ Jesus. And by and through Him, you and I, the redeemed, are perfect law keepers. as far as God is concerned. As far as God is concerned, we keep the law perfectly every day. Every single second of our existence, we keep the law, as far as God is concerned. And that is scandalous to hear, because you know you. Like, how can I be a law keeper? But that's what God is saying through the gospel. That is the scandal of the imputation of righteousness. And righteousness imputed means the person so given that righteousness is perfect under the law in spite of what many may see about them. The law cannot kill them. It cannot condemn them. Because it has no basis. God has made them perfect in the righteous one. They are in Christ. Who owes the law nothing. Jesus Christ does not owe the law anything. He gave the law everything that it demanded of him. Even by his own blood. And being in Christ means that you also do not owe the law anything. Because whatever the law may have demanded of you, Christ made good for you on your behalf. So this is the truth that is not being communicated. But Paul discovered in his own naked and mediated interaction with the law, that the commandment that he thought should bring life, that is the law, the whole law, is the commandment that many who were raised under it thought they could have life, eternal life by it. He found to bring death. And many people have not discovered this about the law, or the law has yet to discover to them the reality of it. And Paul did not say, I know the law condemns me, but I'm doing this commandment to show my love for God. No, he said, this commandment is terrible to me. I discovered, by God's grace, that it brings death. It's not good for me, as I said. It brings my condemnation. But how did Paul first embrace the false thinking that he could do the law? The false thinking that he could, in his own power, give the law what the law requires. It was the sin in him that deceived him. Paul said, sin deceived me big time. And it slew me. Sin deceives people to think that they can and are doing the law. Sin deceives people that they are not as bad people as long as they can set their cruising speed to the highway limit. As long as they pay their bills on time and are doing wonderful things in their community, they're collecting food for dogs and stuff. And people think that's righteousness. And Paul says, this is a very accurate conclusion. The deceitfulness of sin. Sin deceived me into thinking that I could do it. And he says, now that we've understood how these things connect, let me make a conclusion on the matter of the law and say, contrary to what you may have thought about the law, The law actually is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. And so that exonerates the law. The law is not sin, but it works with sin. The law is not sin, but it works with sin. To produce what? To produce death. Whenever you work these things together, they always produce death. You have had, even on TV, these commercials for drugs, where they say, if you're taking this one drug, please do not take that. Talk to your doctor before you take this one. Why? Because if you mix them, you're going to get buried. That's essentially, even though separately the drugs are fine, but when you mix them, they're gonna get you killed. And that's what Paul is saying. Once you bring law to sin, you always produce death. But if the law is good, how then did that which was and is good bring death to me? What kind of arrangement is that where one is killed by something good? How can you be killed by something that is good? How can you be murdered by a husband who is very, very beautiful? Handsome buys you clothes, takes you shopping, feeds you, takes you to all places, vacationing, and he murders you. That's absolute. Look sadistic. Is not the law supposed to be good for the sinner, given that it is good? Yes, the law is good, but it did not come as medicine to the sick and dying. The law was not given as a prescription for the sick and dying. The law did not come with any power to heal, with any power to forgive, with any power to make debt payments. It only came with demands to be done and sentences. It came with nails and a big hammer. to put on the coffin of every sinner, if you could imagine it that way. The law came, the nail gun, to put on your coffin. That's what the law was given to do. It is a fair and reasonable conclusion to say. What we know is that death should come because of sickness, because of something bad. So if the law is bringing death through sin, that is a bad outcome. How could that be? How could we have a bad outcome when something good has been brought forth? The conclusion has to be, the law also is bad. The law is sin. That has to be our natural conclusion to the arguments. But Paul said, God forbid. Seeing that it may be diagnosed properly as sin, for sin to appear clearly as sin, it worked death through that which is good. Sin needs a proper way to measure it so that God may judge it. And that which you use to measure cannot be a crooked stick. It must be a straight and a just weight. Remember, in the Old Testament, God talks a lot about hating those who use deceitful ways. I hate those who use deceitful ways because they're lying. So men and women use deceitful ways, deceitful scales to measure their own righteousness. So sin, that's needed, that which is good to bring death. When death happens, when death happens, Sin has fully been diagnosed in the one who dies. And the law has proven its function. When a person dies, God is saying the law has proven its function. But how? By the law demanding perfection. The law could not kill anyone if it had a sliding scale of righteousness. If you could be 20% righteous, 20% to 50, maybe 75. If you fast and pray, you move it up a little bit to 85. The Lord demands perfection. That's how it kills. And he says the soul that sins must die. And sin by that commandment became more sinful. In other words, the commandment amplified even the hidden, the seemingly absent sinful passions. Those sinful passions that you are not even aware of. When the law comes, it amplifies them, makes them bigger. So the law is given as the amplifier of all sin and its passions so that God may be righteous in condemnation. So when sin has been exposed and amplified, It is clear what the judgment is. It is death. And by death, God has proven his case beyond any reasonable doubt. Curse is closed. Let's keep moving. How did Paul fail to have life from that which was good? How did he fail to have life from the law? He said in verse 14, Romans 7, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sowed to sin. The law is not for one who is of the dust. It is not for one who is of the flesh of Adam. It is only given what it demands and is satisfied and has been satisfied by the man from above, the Lord Jesus. Because he is the spiritual man. The man of dust is naturally sold to sin. Sin will always own this flesh. That is its domain of power. And that is why this flesh does not go to heaven. It must be buried back into the ground where it belongs. Sin is at home in your flesh and mind. It's kicking back and relaxing. It exercises its sovereignty in the flesh. But Paul, what has been your experience of this truth? Verse 15, Romans 7, for I do not understand what I'm doing, for I do not do what I want. Instead, I do what I hate." This was his true reality. Now that the knowledge of sin had been exposed to him, he began to see a disconnection, a huge gap between his practice and his desire to do good. and his will. He saw that his desire and his practice were always opposed to one another. And he concluded and said, if I do what I don't want to do, I agree, I concur that the law is good. I agree with the law in each judgment of me. I agree with God's commandment and condemnation of me. If he should, it is within his right to condemn me. I cannot blame the law, but my sin. Because the law is clearly saying, it is telling me what things to do, what right things to do. but it is I who is failing to give it what it requires, which is bringing me to the conclusion that the law is good. I do the things that I hate. I am a repeat offender. I am irresistibly drawn to the very things that I hate, things which are opposed to what the law says to be done. So it is not always that people are loving their sin. As some self-righteous Pharisees would come and accuse. And say, oh yeah, look at those people. They should stop their sin, they should just love their sin. Paul says, I'm seeing a different experience here. I actually desire to do good. But the things that I practice, they are opposed to what I desire. So many times, people find themselves doing the very things they hate to do, things that they are battling to want to stop, but somehow they keep doing them. And in that case, a further discovery must be made. A second layer must be peeled to get to the heart of the matter. We need to do some more diagnostic tests. Paul says, verse 17. It is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. So Paul has now gone to the root of the problem and he is not disowning responsibility of his sin. He is just making a deeper diagnosis of it. Sin is what is causing all this trouble for him. He says, the sin that lives in me sin that lives in you and me, because Paul is just using himself as an exhibit for everyone. If there's sin in Paul, then there's sin in everyone. And this sin in the driver, but with the opposing team agenda. It puts the car in reverse every time he wants to go forward. And it goes forward every time he wants to back up. It does not ever want to be in a neutral gear. It's always opposed, never neutral. Sin is never neutral. It's always opposed to righteousness. There's sin that lives in me. There's sin that lives in you and everyone. That's what Paul is arguing, the sin. And with that, the law has done its work. It has discovered, it has exposed, it has amplified, and it has killed. It has made a pronouncement of death and condemnation because of the sin that is in you. Sin that you have no power to do anything about. Verse 18. For I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh. For I want to do good, but I cannot do it. There's nothing good that lives in the flesh. And that is why people wash and perfume themselves every day. All these nice smelling things at the store, they're designed. to cover sin. Yes, people should wash every day. That's my recommendation. Except for the newborn babies who ever smell so fresh. I mean, God is so wise. He's so wise. They smell fresh. They don't even brush their teeth. They have no teeth to brush, but they always. They smell so good. But this is what I'm going to say. The idea of using deodorants and perfumes, I think it came from Adam and Eve. Deodorants and perfumes came from the same tree, from the same idea of the fig leaves to try and do the same thing to cover up the flesh. Adam and Eve sowed for themselves fig leaves to cover their nakedness, their shame, And perfumes and deodorants come in the same category. It's for covering up our own flesh. God has not empowered the flesh to do good. This is very important to understand. God has not, in his design, empowered the flesh to do good. It has no power to do good. He does not want it to do good. The good that God wants is through Christ. The good that God wants for his creation, his chosen creation is only going to come through his son. Not from this flesh. So the Holy Spirit does not indwell the flesh. He indwells the spirit person. The Holy Spirit was in Paul. Otherwise he would not have been able to write this. but he was not in his flesh to make poor better. The Holy Spirit cannot make your flesh better because the flesh is commanded by sin until it is dead and buried. And then you're going to be raised anew incorruptible. as the spirit glorified man conformed to Christ Jesus. That's 1 Corinthians 15. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the incorruption, cannot inherit eternal life. It must be buried. It must be raised anew. with different materials of construction. You and I need to be made anew. And we have been made anew in Christ. We are the new creation. That is the basis of our glorification. So question then, you are redeemed, you are justified. The book of Hebrews says you have been perfected. Why then are you still struggling with sin? You have the Holy Spirit. Because whatever you're experiencing now cannot be the righteousness. People talk about their progressive sanctification, increasing in righteousness. And many of us have been Christians, born again, for at least 10 years. and at the rate at which you're progressing in righteousness, you're gonna need 500 trillion years before you get to 50% of righteousness, if at all. I don't think you're gonna get any better. I think you're gonna just give up by God's grace. Why are we still struggling with sin? Because there's nothing good that dwells in your flesh. There's nothing good that dwells in your flesh. Imputation of righteousness does not make your flesh better. It does not stop your sinning. It stops the imputation of your sin to your account. Imputation of righteousness stops the imputation or the reckoning of your sin to your own account. imputation of righteousness, it erases whatever the law had put in Sean's file. It erases the file. The file cannot be found. Exactly as God said, in the sins I will remember no more. And what is that saying if it is not saying the file, everything that was in it was cleared out, It was burned in God's judgment of Christ. The death of Christ on the cross was the burning of your sin fires. Okay? That's where they were destroyed. They were not just shredded, they were burned. They cannot be found. And that's why Paul later is going to say, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Who shall condemn? Because there's nothing to use. There's nothing that I can use, the devil or anyone, to condemn God's elect. Because it's Christ who died. And it's Christ who ever lives to make intercession. But pay attention to this. Paul did not say. His problem is that he only thinks about sin. He said, He did the very sinful things that he did not want to do. He actually did them. And it grieved him, obviously, by the way that he described it. But some who have not understood the arguments will come and say, this was only true for Paul before he was saved. He could not be talking like this after he had been served and had been given the Holy Spirit to help him to stop sinning. After he was served, all these things ceased to be true of his experience. And by that, they want to lay you down under the heavy burdens of the law. So be aware of the tricks, the magic tricks, to bring you back under the bondage of the law. Paul says in Galatians 5, stand therefore in the liberty in which Christ has set you free. And do not be entangled again by the yoke of slavery, the yoke of bondage. That's the law. And some of these people will go on and say, you can't be served if you are still sinning to some degree or another as defined by them. They will say, one is not served who has a patent. of some kind of sin. They are okay with some oops moments type sin, but they don't like the pattern and the willful sin. Every sin is willful. No one is taking a missile and pointing it at you and saying, well, if you don't do this, I'm going to kill you. No, all sin is willful. Usually when they talk about these things they usually refer to a sin that they think they do not do themselves because God has not amplified it in them. Romans 7, this section of Romans 7 was written in the first person and present continuous tense. Paul is not talking about things that used to happen to him. He's talking about his day to day reality to prove the hopelessness of the flesh when it is mixed with the law. But this was not saying that Paul was going about doing crazy things either. He was not. Paul was not even trying to be a sinner. He discovered that he was a sinner. This is telling us of his true condition apart from Christ, apart from God's grace, and apart from the free imputation of righteousness, as he has described in his gospel. Paul is saying, this is my reality, and that's your reality. And left in this condition, you're hopeless. That is blind, as we shall see. And I'm thinking at this point, that the message also have a fifth title. I'm going to give it a fifth title. I cannot do it. I cannot do it. I just can't. I cannot do the law. I can't do good. I can't do righteousness. I just can't. I cannot do it because of the sin that lives in me. Sin is pulling my strings. It is alive in me, but it is dead in Christ. Alive in me, is dead in Christ. It is alive in me according to my day-to-day experience, but it is dead as I stand in Christ Jesus. It is dominion over me in my flesh, but it is not dominion over me because I am under grace. Under grace, The law has no dominion because it has no jurisdiction because I'm not married to it. It has no power to prosecute as to bring death and condemnation to me. Under grace, the law sees not you and your sin. He sees Christ. Under grace, the law sees not you, but Christ, because you are in Christ. And when it sees Christ, when the law sees Christ, like those who came to accuse the woman caught in adultery, what did they do? Did they continue with their mission to stone her? No, when Jesus spoke to them, defending the woman, the text says, one by one, they went out, beginning with the oldest, even to the very last. when the law came with them, because that's what they brought to condemn the woman to death. And they brought the woman to the wrong person. Because if you're seeking to kill someone, you don't bring them to Jesus, because he's going to defend them. So the woman was elected, and Jesus stood up for her. And the text says, and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the mist. They were left because the woman had been brought to her husband. Christ Jesus was a true husband. That's the point. People get too fixated in the moralism of it and miss the gospel. The woman was brought by the Lord to her husband. And so once the law had done its work, it must retreat. And what did Jesus say to those who have been caught by the law because of their sin, caught by the law in the very act, but belong to him? Jesus does not say, what were you thinking? What were you thinking, little girl? He says, woman, where are those thine accusers? Where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? Anybody? Pay attention. Jesus said to the woman, where are those accusers of yours? The law. Not me, I'm not one of your accusers. Where are they who accuse you? Because I am not among them. Because I do not condemn you. I did not come to condemn you. I am not among this crowd. Where are they? They have retreated. at the sight of Jesus. The law has retreated its charges, withdrawn its charges at the sight of Jesus. That's what it means to be in Christ. The woman was in Christ. And when the woman is with Christ, there's no allegation, there's no charge that sticks. Even though it's true that she was an adulteress. The woman said, no one Lord, no one. That's a gospel declaration. As you stand with Christ, there's no one who condemns. There's no one. And Jesus said, if that's your testimony, you were taught well. Someone taught you. My father taught you. Neither do I condemn you. Neither do I condemn thee. And we have worked this more extensively. Go and sin no more. People love the go and sin no more. But that was not the condition of her not being condemned. Because if that were the case, then the woman would be condemned again before the end of the day. because it's not just adultery that condemns a person. Any other kind of sin would have brought the same condemnation. So the law cannot condemn one who is in Christ and one who is with Christ for their sin. That's why you need him. That's why you need Jesus. You cannot condemn anyone whom Christ has not condemned. There's nothing that can condemn the one that Christ has not condemned. Go ask Balaam with his experience with Israel. When Balak asked him to curse Israel for him, Balak was afraid that Israel was going to come and destroy them. So he asked Balaam, who was known, notorious for cursing people, which I don't believe he had power to curse anything. It's God who was cursing people through Balaam. But this is what Balaam said to Balak in Numbers 23.8. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? You see? So in other words, it's God who's cursing through Balaam. The curse is only going to work if God has already cursed the person. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? So if this sister was caught in adultery, if God had not denounced her, had not cursed her, Jesus was not going to curse her. Why? Because of election. But Apostle Paul continued and said, verse 21, and that to say, oh, that was introduction. Paul continued and said, verse 21, I find then, in law, a principle that when I would do good, evil is present with me. I find then a law, a basic law, a foundation, like the law of gravity. I find that something is always pulling me down every time I'm trying to raise myself above the water to breathe. Something is coming and pulling my leg back into the water. When I will to do good, evil also is present with me. Not after the fact, not two days later. It's always present. And this to me, as a chemist, will be like a chemical compound with chemical constituents cannot be separated by physical means. For instance, you cannot physically separate hydrogen and oxygen, which are the elements in water. They make up water. Two hydrogens and one oxygen. You cannot separate them. What do you have to do to separate them? You need some electrical energy. You need electricity. You have to put in power to ply them away from each other, to separate hydrogen from oxygen. Yeah? And Paul says, he would do good, wishes to do good, but in that good, evil was always present, could not be separated. He could not separate the good that he willed from the practice that was evil. They always went together. It seemed like they are inseparable and he had no power to separate himself good that he willed from the evil that he practiced. But that's what is lacking. Paul is lacking power. He already knows what is good. He knows what is evil. The problem is, it's like two magnets. He has no power to separate them. If he could have power to separate them, then his problem is solved. Separate them so that he only is left with the good. And this was weighing on him heavily. Verse 22, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. So contrary to those who would have called Paul an antinomian, because also there's the charge behind in the conversation, that Paul, your gospel, is anti-law, you're an antinomian. But he says, no, I actually delight in the law of God according to the inward man, the spirit man. And by this, Paul was not saying, here is another law. Because I've seen many times by Reformed preachers, and some pseudo sovereign grace preachers use this to say the redeemed are under the law still. They're still under the law of Moses. Because Paul said, I delight in the law. And then they'll go and quote, what psalm is that? Psalm 100 something. where the psalmist says, I meditate on the law of God day and night. I'm like, there's no sin I was meditating on the law of God day and night. That's Christ Jesus. It was Christ. There's no person who's meditating on the law. But if Paul would have said what he said, and he meant to say, the redeemed are under the law, then he is undoing everything that he has said prior. Didn't Paul say we have died to the law? He would have been backtracking and building that which he had destroyed. Paul is destroying. any confidence in the law. That's his point. What is Paul saying? He is continuing his argument to exonerate the law from the possible false brethren accusations of antinomianism because of the gospel that he was preaching. Paul is saying the redeemed are not under the law and the law is not helpful. And then these people will say, in that case, if the law is bringing death too, then it must be sin. And he says, no, it is still good. I actually delight in the law of God according to the inner man. I have no issues with the law as far as its rightness is concerned. I delight in the law according to Christ, who is the inner man by which I have already fulfilled the law. I delight in the law because of Christ. I cannot just delight in the law for the law's sake, no way. I delight in the law because of Christ. And heaven said that. Paul continued and said, verse 23, Romans 7. 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. I see another law. I see another principle at work in the members of my flesh. in my eyes, my thoughts, my mind, things that I love, approve of, I see them going against the good that I will. And that is warring against the law of my mind. The law of my mind seeks to do good. But in my flesh, the members, I see something different. So there we have two opposing forces pulling in different directions. They're not in agreement. The law of the mind, according to righteousness, is in disagreement with the experience of the flesh, what the flesh wants. And so who's going to have victory? There's some sort of arm wrestling going on And there seems to be a stalemate. A warring is going on. But what happens with this warring? Who wins? He says, it's bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. I have been made a captive. So the law of sin seems to have an upper hand, despite Paul's resistance and attempts to pull the other way. Paul is trying to free himself. And the result is that he has been made captive to the law of sin. He has been overpowered by the law of sin. The flesh is captive to the law of sin, and there's no escape. Paul is very careful to use language like this because slavery was also very common in his time. So he is using such language to really prove his point, that I am a captive. In my flesh, I am captive to the law of sin. I cannot free myself. So what do we do now, Paul? Shall we call all the prayer warriors? Call them to a fast to help you escape. You know, the prayer warriors will be up all night. They love to pray at three in the morning. Prayer warriors up. Prayer warriors are putting up a fast. Yeah. Paul says, no, not just yet. Put up on the prayer warriors thing. I'm not done yet. Let me make some conclusions. Verse 24. All wretched men that I am, all wonderful men that I am, I will overcome this. I have planned and I have set another new year's resolution. I have my goals for 2024. This time, I will not do a 10-day fast like I did at the beginning of the year. I will not do Esther's fast. I will not do Daniel's fast. I have a more powerful one. I'm going to upgrade it to a 40-day fast. I'll sleep with my Bible on my pillow. The devil will run away when he sees the Bible. Do you see that Paul has not said anything about the devil causing his sin? This is his reality and caused by the devil. The devil will run away when he sees my KJV only on my pillow. Sin will be subdued come 2020, come 2024. When I start on my new regimen, I pray 3 a.m. and I'll add to that, I'll pray looking to the east. All this foolishness that you find in the church. God will hear you if you pray facing the east. There's no time for that. Poe has no time for formulas. He's done with formulas. That's his arguments. He's done with formulas. He says, oh wretched man that I am, I am a wretch. I am afflicted. That's a translation of wretched here. He's saying I'm afflicted. I'm enduring toils and troubles. I'm miserable and hopeless man that I am. Miserable and hopeless. I am beyond my ability to help myself. I am stuck. I have done all I can do to improve my situation. but to no avail. So this is my conclusion. Oh, wretched man, I'm just rich. You can't talk about improvement. To me, there's nothing to improve. I don't have the means to improve. And this is where Paul wanted to go, beginning from verse seven of Romans seven. He wanted to carefully transport every false law keeper to the train station called Old Wretched Man. That's what Paul is doing. He wants to transport everyone to their wretchedness. They have to understand. They must understand. that they are at the train station called, oh, wretched man or woman that I am. He was working to say, if anyone has understood the law, as it relates to sin, as it relates to the flesh, they must, without fail, come to this conclusion. This is a dead end. This is dead end. This is a cul-de-sac. In other words, Paul has thrown his hands into the air, like I'm done. God, if you may, if you want, you can kill me, you can send me to hell. There's nothing that can be done by me. That's the point of this. There's no exit for me. All wretched man that I am, all sinner that I am, all hopeless man that I am, I am closed in. I am in jail and there's no escape. I have nothing that I can use to make an appeal. It was in the matter of doing to try and escape. To set myself free from the law of sin, I have given it my all. But I have miserably failed. I have attended all the woman thou art loosed conferences. And I came back being a woman thou art bound. I bought all their books. They have all these trinkets of books with a lot of foolishness in them. I gave money and even had a one-to-one with the man of God. Oh, the one-to-one. I paid 500 bucks to have a one-on-one with the man of God. And he prayed over me. But I'm still bound. I'm still stuck. And this is or was the testimony of the woman with the issue of blood presented theologically. Paul has put a theological treatise to the experience of the woman with the issue of blood. The woman had an issue of blood for coffee as she, I'm sure, was having some clotting issues. some clotting factors were missing. And the text says, and she had suffered many things at the hands of the many physicians. She suffered many things. She was working to try and stop her hemorrhaging. So she consulted a lot of physicians, gave her all kinds of diets, supplements, false physicians, false gospel preachers. That's the point. Those physicians were false gospel preachers. And she had spent all that she had. She had been bankrupted by the false gospel of doing things. She had been made bankrupt. The false physicians had cleaned her out of her money, and yet she was not made better, she was not bettered, but rather grew worse. Her situation was not getting better. And what was that saying? That the struggle that she had in trying to heal herself, in trying to make herself righteous under the law. 12 years is saying she was a Jew under the law. And under the law, because of the bleeding, she would have been unclean. So everything that she touched became unclean. Anywhere that she sat became unclean. She's trying to cleanse herself out of that uncleanness. So she goes to these physicians. The false gospel preachers, they get all their money, but no avail, the bleeding does not stop. So that is the testimony of one who is under the law. The woman has come to the end of herself. She has nothing else to do, nothing else to give. She has nothing left. That's where Apostle Paul is. He has nothing else to give. So the woman says, oh, wretched woman that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of incessant bleeding? So the law keepers, are they who are seeking to stop their bleeding by the works of the law? And they cannot be made better, no matter what they give it. They get worse and worse. They even get more bankrupt of righteousness because the law is going to clean them up. It's going to clean them up because it requires perfection. And Paul cried out and said, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Paul said, my sin problem cannot be cured. This is the body of death. It cannot be improved. I need a whole person to deliver me. I am done with the instructions on how to get better, on how to subdue sin. I'm done with the exhortations to be righteous. I'm done with doing anything that requires me to do anything. I want someone who is not myself. I need a whole person. I need a serious upgrade. But do not talk about my own obedience to the law. Whatever you are proposing for my salvation, do not talk about me doing anything. I now regard it as lost and done. It's a liability. Find me a person to deliver me. that I may not get or go into the pit. Find me a ransom and ransom me out from this body of death. I need someone to redeem me from its power. I need someone to set me free. The issues of this body need a qualified person to deliver me. Paul is saying, find me one who is qualified to cleanse and justify me, to make an end of my sin and its condemnation. Find me one who shall deliver me. Does anybody know? Does anybody know of anyone who's qualified? to deliver me, to deliver you. The law, in spite of his goodness, has miserably failed to help my situation. Because it demands from me that which I cannot give it. So deliver this wretch from his misery. That's my only request. Deliver me. And you would think that Paul would keep expounding about the condition. No, he has come to the conclusion. He's done with his presentation of his own condition. This is true biblical anthropology. As God sees you and me, this is who we are, as Paul has described. We need to be delivered and we can't help in our deliverance. So he has to come to the end of his misery. He has to find a solution. And he said, I thank God. His solution begins with thanksgiving. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. What? Is it that simple? Is that the solution to everything that you've labored? He says, yes. That's the end of it. Paul has taken 18 verses, from verse seven to 25, to labor his way just to this one verse. Just to say, this is the solution to your sin problem. I thank God through the mediation of Christ Jesus our Lord. And that's right. Paul is saying what? I have found my who person to deliver me. I have found my who person. Who shall deliver me? I found him. I thank God's provision in Christ. I thank God for Christ Jesus. What about the woman with the issue of blood? Who did she find to thank? Who did she find to deliver her from her own body of death? What about the man born blind in John 9? What about the man who was lying helpless at the pool of Bethesda? Verse 27 and 28 of Mark 5. Verse 27 and 28 of Mark 5. When she had heard of Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she kept saying, if only I touch his clothes, I will be healed. If only I touch his garments of righteousness. If only. Don't miss the if only. If only. That is all that is needful. Only. If only I touch. That is what is needful for me to be delivered from this body of death. If only it's saying Christ alone is the deliverer from this body of sin and death. And the text says the woman heard about Jesus. What did she hear about Jesus? She did not hear that he was born in a manger. She had how Jesus healed. How Jesus made whole those that have nothing to give. She had that Jesus healed freely. That's what she had. That's why that was attractive to her was all the other guys needed money. She had to pay. She had nothing to give. Even if Jesus had asked for $5, she could not. She had been made bankrupt. She had been cleaned out. but for a gospel testimony that Christ Jesus serves those that have been made bankrupt and have despaired of their own ability to serve themselves. That's the point of the story. She had to come to the end of herself. She could not come to Jesus and say, okay, I'm still going to order my supplements from Amazon. No. And that by way of just application. Christ Jesus is for those who have come to the end of themselves. Those who have nothing to give. Because that's what is consistent with grace. Grace is for those who have nothing to give. That's the purpose of sin. That's the purpose of law, to bring us to complete despair. So that we can say with Paul, thank God through Christ Jesus. And Paul will end this way. Going back to Romans 7, second part of verse 25. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. With the mind, Paul said he served the law of God. How? In that he agreed with what the law says. He agreed that the law is holy, just and good. And he willed to do that. He agreed with it. But this was not saying that he was doing it. Simply agreeing with the law does not translate to doing what the law says. Clearly he was not doing the law. Why? Because of his agonizing desperation. He said that to bring the distinction between the law and sin as things opposed, for sin is sinful, but the law is good, but when you bring them together, they create an impossible and hopeless situation, making him and everyone captive, a wretched man, a wretched woman, who need deliverance. So be careful of preachers and people who just come and throw verses at you. These things need a lot of understanding to get what is being said. And so wretched men and women, what have you found for your wretched condition? Are you going to double down on the fasting? For Paul, it was simple. He said, my solution is very simple. I thank God through Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's my solution to everything that I've described to you. I thank God for his grace. And he gave a more expanded conclusion of the same. Philippians 3, 8-9. Let's read that and you know me, I always read from the NET when it comes to this part of the text or from the KJV. They are the most faithful in the translation and the keeping of the theology of salvation. This is what the NET says. Philippians 3, 8-9, Paul said more than that. Paul had given his resume as a Jew, that he had everything going on for him. He had a stellar resume. The tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day, and we came to the righteousness of the law, blameless. But he said, more than that, I now regard all things as liabilities, compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. You see, this is where I get the rich man connection, rich young ruler. Because Jesus said to the rich young ruler, go and sell everything that you have and then come to me. I suffered the loss of all things for the sake of Christ, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. Indeed, I regard them as done, that I may gain Christ." So, all your law keeping, all your goodness, Paul says, they go to the column called done. That you may gain Christ, verse 9, and be found in Him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes, how? By way of Christ's faithfulness. Not righteousness that comes by my faith in Christ. That's different. It's righteousness that comes by way of Christ's faithfulness. a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ's faithfulness. That's glorious. So I thank God for his grace through Christ Jesus by which I have the righteousness that answers to everything that I've described of myself in Romans 7. I have that righteousness now. I thank God for Christ that I have been set free from this body of death. Because in Jesus, this is what God says, there is therefore now no condemnation. For those who are in Christ, even those who experience sin, and its hopelessness, as Paul has described in Romans 7. There's no condemnation for your sin. This brilliant teaching by Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, was here to take you down to the very bottom, so that he may bring you up and say, guess what? I have a solution for you. There's no condemnation for all the things that they experience. Why? Because they are in Christ Jesus. Amen. We'll pick it up from there and connect some more pieces in Romans 8. Okay? God be praised. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for these many wonderful, wonderful things that we have learned and heard from the text of Scripture, and with the help of the Holy Spirit illuminating these things to us, that we naturally, because of sin, cannot be helped by the law. It can only cause us to bleed all the more and be bankrupt, and to dead end because of the law of sin and death. And yes, we agree with Paul, all wretched men, all wretched women that we are, and yet we have found our Who, Christ Jesus. And we thank God for Him, because He is there for now, no condemnation for those who are in Him. We honor you, glorify you. We thank you for everybody who listened. We pray that this was a blessing to them. Keep us going in and going out, and help us in every way. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright good people, we are done. We will see you.