Being a Miserable Person

Let's grab our bibles. Grab our bibles and turn to Romans chapter seven.

You'll turn there. Oh hey, I wanted to say. I meant to

include that. We're going to take a moment as we're passing out bibles and

bulletins. Right if you don't have a bulletin, raise your hand. Sermon

notes on the back of that, and there's a little spot here forgiving and

right now, if you scan that giving QR code and give a special offering

to Church Planting, it's going to go straight to Hill City. So matten

them up in magnolia. They are very excited to have our support in terms

of prayer and volunteers. We'll talk more about that as the month comes,

but also in terms of just helping them get started financially. If you give

anything to Church Planting through Crossway this week, this week going straight to Hill

City. Okay, So if you want to help them out, please do

that, and you can take it home and talk with your spouse if you

need to, or some of you are like, I'm gonna do that right

now. Okay, it's okay, it's okay, you can do that.

I know you're listening anyway, That's fine. It's fine, all right,

open with me to Romans chapter seven. I'm gonna frame this up a little

bit, and then after that I'm gonna have our brother come and read the

text for us. Romans seven is where we're at, and come on,

let's do this. Yeah, there's one eager man right there. No,

no, no, do do it. Sorry, we're in. We're all

in, all right. Our sermon text for this morning is Roman seven Versus

seven through twenty five. What then shall we say that the law is sin

by no means? Yet if it had not been for the law, I

would not have known sin for or would have known what it is to covet,

if the law had not said you shall not covet, but sin seizing

an opportunity through the commandment producing me all kinds of coveteousness. For apart from

the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law.

But when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died.

The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin

seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me, and through it killed me.

So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means.

It was sin producing death in me through what is good, in order that

sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment, might become

sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual. But I

am of flesh sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions,

for I do not do what I want, but I do the very

thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I

agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer

I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know

that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For I have

the desire to do it is right, but not the ability to carry it

out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil

I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I

do it I do not want, It is no longer I who do it,

but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a

law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I

see in my members, another law waging war against the law of my mind

and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I

myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I

serve the law of sin. This is God's word. Then, thank you,

brother. I want to talk to you this morning about being a miserable

person. Yeah, specifically being a certain kind of miserable, the kind of

miserable that comes with wanting to serve God with some part of you, and

nevertheless finding that there is another part of you, another thing going on in

there, that is fighting against that and often winning. You know, I

mean this, this inner conflict, this kind of misery is of such note

that it's it's actually become a stereotype in literature, right. You probably recognize

that from say like the Reverend Dimmesdale and the Scarlet Letter, This guy who

so conflicted internally about his desire to do what's right, and yet the pressures

and or hunchback of Notre Dame Dostoevsky writes about this kind of thing a lot.

You see this, and the biblical basis for this, this whole idea,

which is not foreign to you, is write out of Roman seven,

chapter chapter seven, verse twenty four, where Paul says wretched man, that

I am wretched man, wretched meaning miserable, miserable to the point of disgusting

yourself and others wretched. And Paul describes this way of wanting to serve God

with some part but in another part not And as Christians have read this chapter,

some have said, well, Paul must just be describing what it was

like to be a pharisee. I mean this, you know, he's talking

about being a slave of sin, is sould under sin and that sort of

thing. Well, that can't describe a Christian, so he must just be

talking about what it's like to be a non Christian but still want to serve

God. And others have looked at this chapter and said, that looks like

the normal Christian life as I'm living it, fighting and losing and fighting and

losing and fighting and losing. So Paul must be talking about what it's normally

like to be a Christian. And other commentators with whom I agree, and

I think have really the strongest basis for this view. Say, really,

this isn't about pre faith or post faith, Paul. This isn't really about

a description of what it's like to be a non Christian or a description of

what it's like to be a Christian. It is the description of anyone who

uses law as the fundamental way to serve God and fight sin. Anyone who

uses law as the fundamental way to serve God and fight sin is signing up

for this kind of misery. And you can see it in verse six,

the verse just before our passage, Paul says, now we deserve in the

new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written

code. So he had just been talking about the new way of the spirit,

right obedience from the heart. You remember that, somebody tell me.

You remember that, you gotta encourage me all morning long. And now we

tell you about serving in the old way. This is what that's like.

And then he's gonna get, thankfully, he's gonna get to chapter eight where

he's gonna really get into more about the details of what it means to serve

the Lord by the spirit. And as we read it, far from describing

some extreme literary character. I think everybody in this room would say, I

know how that feels. I know this fight, I know losing this fight,

and we all, we all do lose this fight at times because sin

is strong and deceptive and not only wrong. And listen, sin, it

is not stronger than the spirit of God engaged by faith, but is strong

and is deceptive. And the problem most often is that we try to fight

sin by the law. And Paul's point here in Roman seven is that the

law is not the way, and if we're going to go that way,

it's gonna make you a miserable person. So really this chapter is a discussion

of why not live by the law? Why not live by law? And

the answer is we'll look at it in three pieces, the seizure, the

war, and the deliverance. The seizure, the war, and the deliverance.

That's the answers on the quiz right there. So let's get right into

it. The seizure. Why not live by the law? How does that

make you a miserable Well, you have to consider the seizure. Now,

I don't mean epileptic seizure. That's not what I'm talking about. That is

not, that's not it. I'm talking about like the seizure of property,

right, like if the FBI was to seize your yacht or the bank was

to seize your truck. Right. It's the term that the Bible uses in

verse eight and eleven when it says Sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment repeats

himself that way. In other words, what we're dealing with is a hijacking.

Hijacking. A hijacking is when something good and useful is seized and made

into an opportunity for evil or destruction. And first example that comes to mind

as a commercial airliner. Right, that's how we understand hijacking. Most of

the time, I spent the September eleven attacks, right, so September of

an attacks, at least in New York. What we're dealing with is two

seven sixty sevens loaded with passengers on this good and useful thing called modern aircraft.

Hallelujah. I mean, there are people who are going to their places

of business, there are people going to going home, going to visit family.

This is a good and useful thing. And this these two planes loaded

with about ten thousand pounds of jet fuel each to ten thousand gallons of jet

fuel each. We're seized, ingeniously made an opportunity for evil and destruction aerial

bombs. And this is what the Apostle says happens in our lives when we

try to live by law. It doesn't work. It gets hijacked. Specifically,

these five things are the natural result of living by law. Here's why

it won't work, these five things. And what we're gonna do. We're

just gonna move through these really quickly, and then we're gonna have we're gonna

talk about some questions on some things. So because of the law, by

the law, sin is known, sin is multiplied, sin is enlivened.

Sin produces death and becomes sinful beyond measure right, no one multiplied, enlivened

produces death becomes utterly sinful. Let's look at it, verse by verse,

verse seven. What shall we say, then, that the law is sin

by no means the law is good, right, The law is good,

good and useful, but hijacked by sin. Yet, if it had not

been for the law, I would not have known sin, for I would

have not known when it is to covet. If the law had not said,

yes, you shall not covet Right. So one thing that the law

does is it highlights sin. It brings it, it brings it to knowledge,

it shines light on it. Okay, well that doesn't sound too bad.

It's a good thing, no know about it. Yeah, you can

already start to see the direction this is going though. I mean, light,

being beautiful can nevertheless make your house uglier. If when you turn on

the basement you see the mold. Right now, suddenly this beautiful thing has

made your house a little bit uglier. And the more mold and the more

light, the uglier it gets. Right, So that's the direction this thing

is headed. Look at verse eight. But sin seizing an opportunity through the

commandment, right, there's that hijacking language produced in me all kinds, all

flavors, all species of covetousness. So it's not just that God's law shine

a light on sin. Right, turns the light on in the basement,

and you're like, oh, it's not just that. It is also that

the presence of God's good, beautiful light in his commandments create the conditions in

which sin reproduces. In other words, to use John Owen's language, there

is indwelling sin. Right, we saw that in a passage there's indwelling sin,

that which it's natural response to good statutes is to breed expressed sins every

kind of flavor. John Owens language is that the root, the root of

sins is sin. So I am sin full and I commit sins. And

one of the key ingredients to the committing of sins is the instructions that say

no. You can already see how this is setting us up for misery.

If law is going to be the way in which we intend to live,

it's a losing battle. Now. Not only that, but the law enlivens

sin. Right by the law, sin is known, multiplied and enlivened.

Look at the rest of eight and nine. For apart from the law,

sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law. But when

the commandment came a sin came alive and I died. So I I don't

think Paul is saying that in every sense sin is dead before the law,

and in every sense that Sin's arrival enlivened sins and kills me. In every

sense, I don't think that's what he's saying. But rather than in some

sense, I am more innocent, and I am more active, and sin

is less powerful. And sin is less active. And when the commandment comes,

that gets reversed. Sin is strengthened. I am weakened. I don't

gain ability through those instructions. By the law, sin is known, multiplied,

enlivened, and produces death. Let's keep reading with eleven. We'll go

through middle of thirteen for sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment. Again,

hijacking deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy,

and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The Commandment is holy and

righteous and good. Don't become antagonistic to God's instructions. But did that which

is good then bring death to me? By no means? It was sin

producing death in me through what is good. A lot of commentators see reflections

of Eve's temptation by the serpent here right. So there is there's Eve in

God's good creation. God created all things good. He created this tree with

this fruit. He created Eve and her eyes to be able to perceive.

And not only did he create all things good, he gave his good instructions

meant to God card life. And then along comes the serpent and ingeniously hijacks

God's good instruction and especially God's good creation and especially God's good instruction. That's

what he used first and foremost, was to take God's instructions and with his

forked tongue say did God really say? And he took that which was meant

to elicit trust in her God's life guarding instruction, and he used it to

evoke distrust. He used that which was meant to guard life, God's good

instruction, and he used it to produce death. And in a similar way,

sin takes not just God's good creation, but God's good instructions and hijacks

them, those that were meant to guard and give life, hijacks them for

death. Lastly, by the law, sin becomes sinful beyond measure. The

text says. It's how Verse thirteen finishes. In order that sin might be

shown to be sin right, shine the light on it, and through the

commandment hijacking again might become sinful beyond measure, that is, by highlighting sin.

Now we're confronted with will I continue in what I now know to be

sin? But I can no longer just call these things like sort of moral

mistakes or ethical oopsies. Now I know it's sin, and so that sin

becomes so much more sinful. In fact, not only do I see it

for sin for what it is, I also see who I'm sinning against.

Now I'm no longer just making mistakes. I recognize that I'm going to be

sinning if I do this, I'm going to be sinning against a living God.

And so sin becomes utterly sinful by hijacking the law. So then understand

that God, the author of the law, the source of all good moral

instruction, is saying here, Law cannot be the basis of your relationship with

me. It won't work. You use law as the way to serve me.

You will find that your good intentions and my good instructions are hijacked by

something stronger than you. Sin. Now a couple of very theological questions someone

might ask, many have what is law? What is law? When we

talk about its operation like this? What is law? Is that just the

Mosaic law or it's something broader than that, Yes, it is. Most

Christian theological traditions understand law to be more than just the Mosaic law right,

even more than just the Old Testament law. Law is any of God's commands

or instructions. Law says do, Gospel says done. And what Paul describes

here is the natural operation of sin whenever God says do. And this makes

sense. Remember earlier in Romans, Paul uses Abraham's relationship with God to highlight

the relationship he had by faith, by faith before God said circumcision. Right,

he had that relationship because why because he trusted God, because he leaned

on God's promises, because he seesed on what God said God would do,

not what Abraham must do. That is not to say that obedience and faith

are disconnected. Right, Romans is talking about the obedience of faith. We

were just in chapter six where we were talking about obedience from the heart.

Hey, all right, came back to class. But the basis of our

relationship with God and the basis of our fight against sin, must be faith

that trusts in Him, his promises, his rescue, his gospel, his

doing. Not trust in ourselves, our work, our obedience doing. And

I'll just agree with you right up here along with like we're all in this

together, recognizing simultaneously, I think that our doing so easily becomes the basis

of our relationship with God. In our hearts, where's our trust? Another

theological question, which is, man, if this is the way sin and

law react, if this is the way sin responds to everything that God says

do, then why aren't things a lot worse than they are? Why aren't

we as bad as we possibly could be? And the Christian theological response to

that is the term common grace. It's because of common grace that we aren't

as bad as we could be. You may have noticed that throughout this I've

kept saying the natural operation or the natural result of law and sin, and

that's because that's true, and that's what Paul describes. You can just you

can see the evidence through the rebellion of Israel over centuries and centuries. But

listen, God has also scattered blessings of wisdom and restraint, even nobility by

his common grace throughout mankind and throughout history. God is good and merciful.

It has been God's kindness to restrain evil and teach justice even against what sin

does in natural response to the law. Right, that doesn't lessen Paul's principle

here. Rather, it points us back to thanking God for his common grace

right and not our own efforts, because the natural result is hijacking right,

which means which means that our fight against sin on our own is a lost

cause. I tell you, we were talking about misery today. That gets

us to the war. The war. That's the term that's used in verse

twenty three, waging war. And here in this passage, Scripture tells us

that our fight against sin, or the fight within us between God's ways and

sinful ways, is a war, and that despite having and agreeing with and

wanting God's law in dwelling, sin is waging war. And he says,

and taking him captive, in other words, on your own, it's a

lost cause. With the best intentions and the best the perfect instructions, the

perfect instructions, it's a lost cause. And sometimes we decide, okay,

well, if it's a lost cause with God's perfect instructions, I'm going to

make some improved instructions. Let's walk through it verse fourteen. For we know

that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin.

In other words, God's law is godly, go figure, but in

myself I'm not godly. In myself, I'm a slave to sin. And

he said, well, what about as a Christian? I thought, as

a Christian you're not a slave desin anymore. Yeah, that's a spiritual reality.

You've died to sin, you're no longer enslaved. But the practical reality

is that a Christian can go and present himself or herself to sin, to

be enslaved again. That's exactly what chapter six, verse sixteen is saying.

Don't do that. And it is exactly what in myself of the flesh,

where I find myself and unable to attain Godliness in the flesh. He says

further fifteen and sixteen. For I do not understand my own actions, for

I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I

hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree

with the law that it is good. That's hard even to read. One

of the people on our sermon prep team this week says, I think this

passage is like an automatopoia. It just sounds like misery. Well, saying

that this whole losing battle shows that God's law is good and necessary, but

it also shows that it doesn't give me the spiritual ability to win this fight.

His instructions don't get it done, him sayan do doesn't get it done.

My specialized then improved. Haha, instructions don't get it done again.

Why does the law not give me the power to win this war? Because

indwelling sin is gonna take whatever law you throw at it and is gonna hijacket

You can send in a battalion of tanks, and it's just gonna take your

tank crews out of that machinery and put in its own and turn the turrets

on you. Paul Zero's in on that right here, verse seventeen. So

now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within

me, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in

my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but

not the ability to carry it out. I do not do the do not

do the good I want, But the evil I do not want is what

I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want,

it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within

me. Did you catch that I don't have the ability to carry it out.

I want godliness to some degree. I understand godliness, but in myself

I don't have the ability to carry out godliness. It's my understanding, and

even my desire to do what is right in the flesh on my own is

locked in this losing battle. Let's read twenty one and get through the get

through twenty four here. So I find it to be a law that when

I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight

in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my

members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me

a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members, wretched man,

that I am miserable to the point of disgusting myself and others. When

I am losing, constantly losing this battle against sin, as I'm operating by

the law no ability. Let me tell you a little bit more about this

war, because I just can't leave you like this. One of the disadvantages,

one of the few disadvantages of a sequential exposition, is that you kind

of come to an end of a passage like this and it's like, sorry,

we'll see you next time, which I'm not gonna do to you entirely.

I want to tell you some more about this war by borrowing from chapter

eight, and the first thing that I want you to know about this war

is you can be winning this war, not in yourself, not of the

flesh, not if you're operating on the basis of law. But as verse

thirteen of chapter eight says, if you live according to the flesh, you

will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of

the body, you will live. You can be winning this war. John

Owens probably his most famous work of the eight Million Words, he published John

Owen's book The Mortification of Sin, which is in this trilogy. This book

is actually three books, and there is a display copy right there by the

coffee bar. So there's a QR code on that display copy. You can

scan it and it goes to a Christian book website where you can buy a

copy of this I encourage anyone who wants to try to read it to give

it a crack. That's not to discourage you, that is to encourage you.

It is not as hard as it seems, even though it is a

seventeenth century theologian writing about complicated stuff. Still, you want to know how

to win this war. You want to interact with one of the sharpest theological

minds that has ever written anything in English about how to win this war.

That has been an exposition of this verse right here eight thirteen. Radiating out

from there John Owen, And the the point that John is making is you

can be winning this war. Sin is sneaky. You can't do it in

the flesh. In fact, I think there are five different chapters of like,

here's how you can't win. You can't win in the flesh. You

can't win through self strength toward a self righteousness. You can't do it by

amassing law artillery. But you can be winning this war by the spirit.

You can be winning this war as the spirit comes and brings conviction. And

let me just tell you, let me just let me. I just tell

you. When you say I am going to walk by the spirit, I'm

going to obey the Spirit of God by faith, trusting him. This sin

has got me so tied up and notts. I hate it. I hate

it. I hate it. It makes me miserable. And the next thing

that happens is the Spirit of God is going to move in your heart not

to attack that sin, but attack this sin over here that isn't bothering you

at all. You're like, let's leave that alone, shall we? The

Spirit's like, you want me or not? I don't play this hypocritical game

of it. You keep the sins you want, the spirit of God will

move say repent. Now, let's go trust in me. You're like,

yes, I want to beat sin someday, but not now. Let's just

let's just tap the brakes on this holy Spirit. Do you want me or

not? Oh? Check it out. I encourage all of you. Check

it out. You can be winning this war. Let me also say this,

in this life, you won't finish winning this war. In this life,

you won't finish this war, right, So, like, I don't

I want to hold out all the hope you should have, but I don't

want to hold out any false twisted sort of like false positivity which is actually

not as positive as the real positivity. Okay, Like, you can be

winning this war, but it will be lifelong. And since it is lifelong,

don't you want to be winning? I mean, you're gonna be stuck

in the ring with this guy all your life. Don't you want to be

on top holding him down? But we you know we're gonna lose some because

sin is sneaky. Even when by the spirit you think you are beating sin,

you just you know, there's gonna be a flash bulb in the stands

and you're gonna look, and he's gonna get you right in the eye.

Sin is sneaky, and and probably more to the point, our faith is

shaky, and it so easily just moves from I'm trusting the Lord to I'm

trusting myself, and then I'm trusting that sin is actually gonna give me satisfactory

to I'm back to trusting the Lord. And our sin is shaky. The

winning of this war, truly and consistently is absolutely possible. You don't have

to stay a miserable person. And that's the substance of our third point,

very very quickly, very quickly, the deliverance. That's the term that Paul

uses here. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be

to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Right, that's what we and

the Apostle are looking for to break out of this hopeless, otherwise unwinnable fight.

Is the grace of God through Jesus Christ. He provides the rescue.

He provides the rescue. And you say, yeah, okay, I knew

that was going to be the answer, But how how does Jesus rescue me

from this sin fight that I am losing. Here's what I'm gonna try to

do, because yeah, I'm gonna try to give you the whole answer,

but I'm not gonna break it down. I'm gonna give you the whole answer,

but it's not gonna be very digestible. For that, you have to

come back for Romans chapter eight because that's where it's at. All he gives

you in seven is thanks me to God through Jesus Christ. Okay, so

it's not gonna be very digestible. We're not gonna talk about walking by the

spirit or killing sin or the biblical means or but it does come down to

this. Where is your trust? It does come down to this, where

is your trust in your relationship with God? Are you trusting in yourself and

your work to conform to God's law to make the spiritual difference in your life?

Is that what you're trusting? Are you believing that Christ's work on the

cross might save you but that you have to have the ability to change you?

Is that what you trust that you can look at Godliness in his word

and then by the flesh trust yourself to conform to it. Who do you

trust? Who do you trust for growing in holiness? Who do you trust

yourself and your work to understand and that desire to do what's right? Or

do you trust Christ's work to justify and to sanctify those who are submitted to

Him in faith? And you say, I don't know how that operates,

living by faith in Christ as I look to live for God, or living

by faith in myself as I look to live for God. I don't know

how to distinguish those operations. Well, come back for chapter eight, but

for now, let me have you listen to just something that Owen includes at

the end of his book, and I think it, I think it would

actually be good preparation for our time with the Lord's Supper. So once you

close your eyes, just where you're at, and I'm gonna I'm gonna read

to you kind of a pair of phrase from Owen, and and let's use

that as preparation for the Lord's Supper as we can move from that into personal

prayer. Something the ushers are going to come forward with the elements and the

band's gonna come up here. But you just close your eyes and concentrate here.

Can you set faith at work on Christ for the killing of your sin.

Can you set faith at work on Christ for the killing of your sin?

That His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin sick souls? Can

you trust that? Can you live in that? Because you will see sin

dying at your feet by faith? Fill your soul with considering all of the

provision laid up in Christ for the purpose of your sin being defeated. There

is much that has been laid up in Him for the provision of your sin

defeated by faith. Do you see that he has the power to do it?

Do you trust him? Do you see that he will do it?

You say, well, how can I be so confident? To whom else?

Will you go? And consider his mercy, consider his tenderness, consider

his kindness, Consider that he died to serve you as this high priest.

You can come to him expecting power? Who do you trust? Can you

be done trusting you? Can you be done expecting power from you? And

come to him? Like Owen says, like a beggar lies at the door

of the home where he expects to help. And that's how we come.

We come to the Lord, not with our ready ability, We come lying

at the door of the one from whom we expect help forgiveness and change.