Breaking Free from Sin's Grip: The Power of God's Grace Unleashed

Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com, that's citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Welcome everybody. Welcome to those who are joining us online, which is the camera that I'm looking into, specifically that one.

Welcome to St. Andrew's Church, our original Queen's location, affectionately known as the Little House on the Prairie Church.

This is the church where, on December 1st, 2012, my wife and I got married with a bunch of city lighters. It was really open to the whole church right here.

We so often forget that when I say we, I mean my wife and I, and then it kind of like hit me when I was ministering here on just Friday for our revival nights.

Oh yeah, we got married here. I mean we were corny back then. My little doggy was my ring bearer. I had a tuxedo, ran right down the aisle, I trained them. It's a toy poodle.

People don't know that like the fourth, not like, they're the fourth smartest dog on the planet. They come with their own library card.

I trained them as a, bring my ring now, boy, and he went, and he had a box strapped to his back.

And that's why really I shared this for the halls. So thank you. It worked.

How many of you appreciated Bonnie Andrews last week?

He always brings a solid word. And so you may have heard already he got that phone call from me at 130 in the morning as I was flooding again.

And I asked him if he'd be, if he'd be willing. I didn't want to bother him. I'd already called up several other pastors who only have evening services, but none of them could do it.

You just don't tell Bonnie that he wasn't my first choice.

But if you're watching Bonnie, you weren't my first choice, but you were God's choice.

And so what a friend, you know, I called up pastor Ernst, you know, he's got an evening service.

And he was in the poke nose with a bunch of bros. He was like, I'm on a retreat, man, having a time of my life.

I can't make it back in time. I'm like, okay, no fault on him.

But what's been happening is since September, we have two levels in our condo, and the lower level is where we sleep, the bedrooms for us and the kids.

And there's also a boiler room. And in September, after a night of rain, my wife said, I hear something coming out of the boiler room, and I opened the door.

And it was like I was teleported to a supernatural fantasy land. It was like Narnia. And there was this geyser coming out of a drain hole.

And I'm not a certified plumber, but I know that in a drain hole, the water should be going down, not up.

And in this case, it was shooting up. So I immediately called up our building manager, and they replaced one sum pump.

That was going to fix it. Then it happened again a few months later, whenever there's heavy rain, I'll pop the geyser.

So, you know, there's a secondary sum pump, that's old. So they replaced that. Well, that didn't fix the problem. Again, after heavy rainfall.

And then they kind of put it on the back burner, we'll figure this out. Well, in the meantime, then we flooded.

And when I say we flooded, I mean, we flooded. It came now out of the boiler room. The sum pump stop working completely, and our bedrooms were inches underwater.

And then, and this is where it gets really interesting, insurance denied us, because they sent their leak detection expert who couldn't recreate the flood.

And I'm just thinking, how are you going to recreate the flood? But because the sum pump kicked back on, all the water was out of the boiler room.

And so all you saw was the wet marks, and they just, you know, the leak detection expert came with a hose into the back door, and he sprayed the back door.

And I'm going, what are you doing? I'm testing to see if rain water will come in here. Well, of course, the little water. I mean, if you take a hose, and a full blast squirted at any door, a little bit is going to get through the crevice.

And then he said, you know, this is because of the rain got in through, I said, I've been living your 15 years, rains never got through, and just noticed it's a cover door.

This would have to be some magical rain that went in all these different, but the insurance company was looking for any reason to deny us our claim.

And then, of course, it sprung up again, and the sum pump wasn't working, and I grabbed my phone, and I videoed, I said, there's your recreated flood.

There it is. Don't tell me that magic rain did this when there's a geyser.

And so we flooded again. This time only a little bit came out, didn't come out and flood flood. There's floods, and this, the one that messed us up was Noah's Ark level flood. This was just a baby flood.

But still, rain shooting up water vertically.

And they came in, and they started with a jackhammer drilling into the ground, and they excavated this house trap, and they did all this work only to finally tell me, this is a city problem.

The sewers here, because they went outside, they had the key, they opened up the manholes, and they looked, and it was full of water.

The water is not draining these sewers, the pipes, and they went into details. They're only five inches wide, they should be 12 inches now.

The city sewers systems fall on the part, and you never want to hear when there's a problem, this is a city problem.

So I said, now that it's a city problem, how long when you submit the request will it take to get fixed? I said, anywhere from five to eight months.

And now we're looking at May, it rains heavily, if you look at the precipitation amounts for the year, and then July also experiences a lot of rain.

And you don't want to just be sleeping with a geyser going off, wondering if it's going to eventually go so high that it's going to enter into our bedroom.

So why am I sharing all this? If any of you have a connection with the city.

No, really, because it's a five to eight months, and then he said, unless, unless you know someone in the city.

So NYC still operates old school. There's like the regular people, and there's the one who knows someone.

So if you, or someone you love, know someone that works for any of the alphabet agencies connected with New York City,

Department of Buildings, you rattled off a few other acronyms that I forgot right now. Please let me know or email info at citylightNYC.com,

because I really don't feel like waiting five to eight months as black mold forms underneath the tiles of my children's bedroom.

Amen. I can laugh about it because I have a confidence in my spirit that this is going to result in something good.

And eventually we'll look back on this, and I'll be able to stand here and say, the Lord, he always makes all things work together for the good.

Amen.

Because I have a faith goal. I very rarely share my personal faith goals.

Not for any reason other than, yeah, I just...

Sometimes I do, but I have a big faith goal. I want to purchase the condo above me, because we're growing out of our current place.

I want to purchase the condo above me and just connect them with a spiral staircase.

And I'm believing God because that condo above me is not what it was when I bought my condo.

The prices have tripled in that neighborhood.

But who wants to purchase the condo now if you're a top of lake?

So I'm trusting that this is all because the Lord is working it out, is going to clean it up, get a solid foundation there,

and then I'm going to experience His blessing, and we're going to get that thing.

Because I want to forever home in New York City.

I don't want to move out to Long Island.

I don't know, really. Our families growing, our kids...

Our kids basically are in a glorified walking closet, sharing the room in bunk beds.

And you don't want that into their teenage years.

And the way it's set up, they have to walk out and cross our room.

So that's cute now when they're eight and four.

It's going to get very un-cute, very quickly.

Right now, you know, they'll walk out to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and be like,

you know, that bed looks more comfortable. But boom, jump in the middle of it.

Then we got to wake up and none of them go back.

So I don't want to move to New Jersey.

I want to forever home here.

I'm trusting that it's all going to work out for the good.

So we're in Romans 7.

Other than that brief flood interruption, and Bonnie Andrews brought the word of the Lord,

we're going through Romans 6, 7, and 8, and then we'll be going through Galatians

because we're on a journey of grace.

Why is grace so important?

Because grace is what our new covenant is founded on.

And we're under the new covenant.

We're no longer under the old covenant of his law.

We're under the new covenant of his grace.

Purchased and ratified with the very blood of Jesus.

Yet, even though we're under the covenant of grace, so few believers,

percentage wise, truly understand what grace is.

And if you don't know what grace is, or they have a cursory understanding of grace,

they're going to miss out on so much.

They're going to get to heaven and realize, wow, I could have lived with so much more of heaven on earth.

Instead, I missed out because I couldn't tell the difference between the old and new covenants.

And there is a difference.

And what happens in the church so often is that there is a mixing of the covenants.

You can take a little bit of the old covenant, a little bit of the new covenant,

put it in the bag, shake together, and then come up with your own covenant.

And you cannot mix the two.

You're either living under the old, or you're living under the new.

We still read the old, we still treasure the old.

The old is God's word to us, but we need to read the old with the understanding

that the rules are different today.

So things that you read in the old covenant, you always read through the lens and in light of the finished work of the cross.

Like for example, in the Old Testament, it says that the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.

And then you have New Testament Christians quoting that for themselves today.

You can't trust the heart, it's desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.

But under the new covenant, you've been given a new heart, a born again heart, a heart, a spirit that's filled with His Holy Spirit.

So when you're living out of your inward man, you're no longer desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.

Hallelujah.

You read some of David's prayers like in Psalm 54,

take not your Holy Spirit from me, that's an old covenant prayer.

You never have to under the new covenant, beg God, don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

Under the new covenant, He's not going anywhere.

He's in you, you've been sealed with Him and you can have that confidence and that assurance.

And one good indicator, speaking of confidence, one good indicator for what covenant you're living under is your confidence level before God.

If you're under shame, if you're under guilt, if you're under condemnation, if you don't know how to boldly come before His throne of grace,

your confidence is hit because you're trying to serve God in your own strength under the law.

But under the covenant of grace, you know who you are.

Amen.

You know that you don't have to rely on yourself, but you can lean on what He's already done for you.

So we're going to just quickly, because we had a week break, I want to just quickly recap, I say quickly in quotes.

A recap, Romans 6, it's just some key verses, so we're all on the same page because Romans 6, 7 and 8 are all connected.

So Romans 6, beginning in verses 1 through 2, just to recap, so we're all on the same page.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for revelation.

Thank you, Lord, for that 18-inch descent from our head down to our heart.

The things concerning grace, they are not naturally discerned.

They are spiritually learned and discerned and understood.

When I pray for revelation, I don't just do that because it's cute in a church setting.

We need revelation, a word, apocalyptic, the peeling back of the curtain, the removing of the veil, so that we can see.

Because the way we're all wired, no matter what religion we've come out of, what faith tradition, what country, what culture, what remote island, we're all wired as fallen man for legalism and religion and to live under the law.

Another synonym for living under the law is trying to please God in your own strength, trying to serve Him with your own effort.

And so Paul begins to preach and declare this new covenant of grace and it's mind-blowing for people.

And he says, we're sin abounds, grace super abounds. It abounds much more.

And he's really being true to grace and he realizes his audience is freaking out as people tend to do.

When they first hear that nothing you could ever do will cause God to take one drop of His love away from you.

And when you first hear that there is nothing you can add to the finished work of the cross.

And that you don't enter into heaven based on your performance, but through faith in Jesus's perfect performance on the cross.

And there is initially it could just cause your brain to go on tilt, does not compute and a typical response when first hearing grace is you mean that if God not only will forgive me but you're telling me He has already forgiven me.

Everything past, present and future you have right now.

And many preachers are afraid to say this, you have non-imputation of sin.

That was first prophetically called forth by David, blessed as the man whom the Lord does not impute sin to and then under the new covenant Paul several times says ye, should you fall, should you sin, it doesn't even go to your account.

So to a new testament believer who is struggling and saying things like, I don't know if the Lord has forgiven me, I've done some things after I got saved.

Could he forgive, you don't understand, he already has.

Well did I apologize enough, before you even said I'm sorry, he forgave you.

In fact, this is why people confuse repentance with asking for forgiveness.

The word repentance is often phrased and used like as a synonym for ask for forgiveness.

Did you repent of that sin? The church always saved you and then say, repented out.

Like it was something in me and I needed to repent it out, expunge it.

But repentance, the Greek word metanoia, means to change, to change your mind.

So when Jesus came with a message of repentance, his message was repent and believe the gospel.

He was speaking to a religious people who trusted in themselves saying repent, do 180, change your mind, you can't help yourself.

Repent and do what? Believe the gospel that I have done it all for you. So change your mind.

So when you repent you're not asking for forgiveness because as it is all your sins have already been forgiven you.

Past, present and future.

Hallelujah.

It's amazing this glorious message is one that bound Christians will fight you the most on.

Like some people have an addiction to their prison cell of religiosity or they just feel like it's too radical.

I can't make any apologies for the Lord, He is radical and He's extreme and His blood has purchased more than many of us could ever realize.

So Romans 6 verses 1 through 2, obviously when you hear something so radical and so extreme there's this error that people can go through in thinking so as God is saying we could sin and do whatever we want.

Romans 6:1–2

And the reality is when you've been made new from the inside what you want changes.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid we're certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

So Paul, in the first time that we're coming up on in the new covenant he introduces this concept also very mind blowing.

That we died to sin a great question to ask is when did that happen when did we die to sin 2000 years ago on the cross your sin nature my sin nature was nailed there with Jesus.

And he says that as a fact you died there with him you were crucified and there's that word that's repeated many times together you were crucified together with him you say I wasn't even born yet God exists outside of time in the mind of God you were there in Christ.

So when he looks at the old you he sees Jesus on a cross.

When he looks at you today now born again he sees you as Jesus resurrected and sitting at the right hand of the father.

Hallelujah.

Verse 6 just going through some key verses in Roman 6 verse 6 is a key verse knowing this that are old man what is the old man it's our sin nature.

The part of us that is against God the part of us that is contrary to God that part of us that first entered man with the fall of Adam and Eve and was passed down to us knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

So just say this with me right now and this is something that you might want to say daily this is what all the old songs not so much the new stuff but all the old hymns this was always essential theme why because it is the very foundation of the new covenant.

This is why we take communion to remind us of what happened on the cross it wasn't it was several things but it wasn't just our sin being punished in Jesus it was our sin nature being killed there with him.

By the way this stuff it doesn't land until you meditate on it repeated to yourself read it for yourself pray these verses ask for God to make it real to you.

And when you understand that your old nature was crucified there with him then you'll no longer be a slave to sin verse 11.

Likewise you also reckon yourselves he didn't just become southern and say reckon our reckon that's an accounting term it means put it down that it's so it's a fact it's so it's marked to your account.

Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God and Christ Jesus our Lord so in that verse is a key on how to live free from the enslaving bondage of sin anyone who's a Christian though they may be caught up in a sin cycle though they may have some type of sin addiction.

They're inward man the real them doesn't want to have anything to do with sin though they may be caught up in it.

And I asked this question just a couple of weeks ago and through Roman six I said how many of you if you could hit a button you'd never ever sin again and hands went up all over the room because you don't want to sin but often we don't know how to stop.

I'll tell you how you don't stop you don't stop by really really trying hard you don't stop by willpower oftentimes in churches the way the gospel is presented it's presented like we're in the setting of a giant.

Forgive me the words the words are failing me but like like we're in a setting where we're all together to just work on ourselves and that's so exhausting that's the very definition of religion trying to change with your own self effort in your own strength with your own power is it any wonder why people leave the church.

Because there's so many times you can fall down and get back up and fall down after having kissed the pavement and you constantly feel ashamed and condemned and like you can never change you never measure up.

And then it just gets exhausting and the whole time Satan is whispering your ear you might as well just give up it's too hard it's too hard.

God's displeased with you you might as well give up and then you eventually eventually leave that's why for every one of us the statistic is there's 50 prodigals that no longer come to church that's too many.

They never say that's the reason they say other things like you offended me pastor when you said that the usher didn't smile at me when I came in.

I can't believe you only have one bathroom in this little house on the prairie church they'll say those things but they'll never say you know what I really got sick and tired of myself because I felt like I couldn't please an unpleasable God.

So what is the answer that typically we're taught the justification you being pronounced not guilty that's what justification is is by faith and everybody will go yeah but then sanctification the process of being made holy it isn't by faith it's by your own strength your own effort and your own willpower isn't that how it's presented.

And it's not justification is by faith and sanctification is by faith. Faith in what that's a good question to then ask all right I can be set free from this vicious cycle of sin I love the Lord but it seems like sin's got to hold on me how do I change I tried how do I get set free faith in what faith in what we just read that your sin may not be a sin.

Nature was killed was crucified there together co crucified with him and that's why he says wrecking yourselves I reckon put it down that it's so when you see yourself by faith no matter what you're going through no matter what you're struggling with by faith believe.

Some sins will drop off for you like flies hitting one of those little. Other sins it may take some time and no matter what you're going through up or down all around you keep on reckoning yourself dead.

And the whole time you said what should I do in the meantime enjoy your salvation enjoy enjoy him but I feel like God is displeased no that's just your head warring with you and you might be tired of you but he's not tired of you and he's not displeased with you you keep on enjoying him.

Now can you see how this is completely different than what religion will tell you and it's completely different than the way we're wired as human beings there is a proud part of us as humans that likes to work and perform for God because then we get some of the credit we get to help us save your out we get to add to the finished work of the cross and then we can pat ourselves on the back and tell people you know the reason why my life changes I fasted so many times.

And those all night prayer meetings first one there last one to leave in my spare time I was on the subway handing out tracks and nothing you do will cause that transformation in you it's always through the finished work of the cross.

Even the laying out of hands or being in a service with the Holy Spirit is moving the Holy Spirit didn't set you free from sin Jesus set you free from sin 2000 years ago it may be you entered into the anointing and it was made real to you and something clicked.

But it always goes back to the cross I'm not negating the work of the Holy Spirit I'm just elevating the finished work of the cross amen and they go hand in hand but the origin the source of it all is what Jesus did on the cross that's why he said the Holy Spirit won't even come until first time glorified he was and this he spake of his crucifixion.

So reckon verse 14 is this ending up even a longer recap than the first service recap is just this good foundational stuff that you should hear not just that an Easter service or one special speakers in town.

And you need to hear this is what Martin Luther said he said concerning himself I need to hear the gospel every day because I forget it every day.

Do you know if I don't remind myself of the gospel consciously every single day I've had this happen and you know two days turn into three and for two weeks I'll go off on some other topic.

Then when it's time to recall the gospel I start to stutter just in my prayer and I have to remind myself of these gospel truths because Satan is working overtime to cause you to forget them.

And this verse will end our recap of Roman six Paul says for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace keep that verse up there please.

So when you're talking about grace people get very nervous what kind of people will preachers pastors because when you have people under the law that much easier to manipulate and control because they're afraid and anyone who's afraid is easy to control.

No I'm not talking about the COVID epidemic but it worked then too. Let me repeat that people who are afraid are easy to control.

People who are afraid are easy to manipulate and control and if you're quivering and quaking and not understanding that you've been thoroughly forgiven thoroughly accepted totally justified not trying to get sanctified but he's already working it out in you you're going to be confident you're going to be bold you're going to be a true new covenant member of a church.

So they come up with all these false terms weird terms like hyper grace do you teach the grace message what do you mean the great like there is a different mess there's not the grace message there is the gospel and the gospel is the grace message and then there's these terms like hyper grace don't go too far in grace.

What is hyper grace I don't even know I know I'm really hyped up about it really excited and all of it is a fear that if you tell people just how love they are and how past tense forgiven they are that they're going to lose their minds and start swinging from the light bulbs and having an old testament golden calf party strip off their clothes and dance around naked yeah.

When the Bible says the exact opposite that verse has been behind me this whole time what does the Bible say sin won't have dominion over you why because you're in a good legalistic church with a pastor beat you every week no because you're under grace because you're under grace conversely sin will have dominion over you if you're under law now here's where big problem arises.

That word law has multiple definitions and the moment you'll I've quoted this verse to pastors a verse from the scripture and they'll miss that it's in the scripture and they'll go you're just saying throw out the law you're just saying go great you're an antinomious you're you're saying have a disregard for God's law no the law could mean several things listen now it has multiple definitions the law is not going to be

the law could mean the word of God in general that's not what we're talking about right now like when God commanded Joshua and Joshua one eight to meditate don't let the part out of his mouth all the words of the law it wasn't talking about Joshua read the 10 commandments over and over again the law just meant the whole word of God the whole council of God the law could also mean the 10 commandments it could also refer to the 413 commandments that came after the 10 commandments.

But when we speak of the law we're speaking together of the 10 commandments and also the system the old covenant system what is that whole system they were under the old covenant law system is trying to be approved unto God based on your self effort and your performance that's an antiquated system because we're now under grace where we're proved and accepted that based on our performance but based on Jesus's performance which is one of the most important things.

And why perfect complete it is finished done and when you're under grace and you know you're under grace you're looking at Jesus Jesus is always before you sin loses its power when you're under law sin gains its power and that's why church that's exceedingly legalistic will have a lot of secrets in everybody will come all

pretty up and they'll have that's why they're also the more legalistic churches the phonier the churches because you can't show any weakness to anybody so you just come in praise the Lord hallelujah how do we go all as well with my soul and you speak in these Christian euphemisms and it's all so phony and so fake and there's people who are huge law adherence and you know it's really funny because

Jesus when he was talking about the law and that system for example he was talking about adultery he said all right you who really want to fulfill the law it says don't commit adultery but really if a man less in his heart after another woman he has committed adultery already

he's saying this is what my father and I had in our hearts this is actually the spirit of the law it goes deeper than the letter of the law thereby putting everybody under condemnation in need of a savior thank God we have one his name is Jesus

hallelujah so nobody can pat themselves and say I was perfectly kept the law and with that let's begin Roman seven amen and I'm not because I realized I did such a it was necessary I did such a such a long recap of Roman six

I'm going to give you the greatest hits of Roman seven okay everybody good so far Roman seven

or do you not know brethren for I speak to those who know the law that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives verse two

for the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives but if the husband dies she is released from the law of her husband

so then if while her husband lives she marries another man she will be called an adulteress but if her husband dies she is free from the law so that she is no adulteress though she has married another man what what is all this about

and people have used these verses to argue that if you're ever divorced you can't re-marry if the person you divorced from is still alive and all these debates Paul is just using this as an example that a covenantal obligation ends when a party is dead

that's it three verses explaining to you that if there's a contract or a covenant and they're not they're not synonymous a contract is between two humans because of mutual distrust a covenant is between two parties because of mutual trust

the covenant you have with God is not a contract it's mutual trust so here's where for the first time we hear not only is your sin nature eradicated and killed at the cross but also your relationship to the law

your relationship to that system whereby you try to be approved unto God based on your own strength and your own self effort

man I just keep repeating this I know I'm going to keep repeating it because when you get this that's when your relationship with the Lord comes alive

that's when you start receiving answers to prayers that's when the power of the Holy Spirit starts moving through you

listen the Bible says faith works it works how does faith work it works by love everything you'll ever receive from the Lord you're going to receive by faith

your salvation you receive by faith blessing you receive by faith healing you receive by faith a breakthrough you'll receive by faith but faith works by love

what does that mean if you don't get grace if you don't get the foundation of the new covenant of his grace you're never gonna fully and truly understand God's love

and as you receive God's love the portal to his love is grace as you receive his love now your faith all of a sudden will start to work until then

it's like two wires close together but they're not connected when you get his love you get his grace

faith sores and your Christianity begins to pop in verse four therefore my brethren you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ

so you're dead to that antiquated system you're dead to covenant 1.0 you've been made alive through covenant 2.0

what in the book of Hebrews is called a better covenant and we'll get into why it's better Paul talks about it

you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another to him who was raised from the dead

that we should bear fruit to God for when we were in the flesh so note that you're not in the flesh anymore

it is impossible for new covenant believer to be in the flesh because that's another thing new covenant people will say I got in the flesh there

no you're not in the flesh you can do fleshly things but in the mind of God you're not in the flesh anymore

for when we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death

so if you are trying to serve God in your own strength in your own effort there is going to be a fruit it's going to be a fruit to death

this is about the time where I hope you start to think you know sounds like Christianity is a lot about yielding

and letting go to the greater one who lives in me and you know people say die to self you already dead acknowledge yourself

appropriate that by faith reckon it's so put it down to your count and believe you have died to sin

verse six which is basically a summation of the first five verses but now we have been delivered from the law

all this is really alive to you right now I've sat down with pastors and said you've been delivered from the law

and I go where does it say that they're so in love with the law where does it say that

there was a couple who really got angry with me because I called the new covenant a better covenant

how could you we still did it and I just calmly took out Hebrews and began to read and you should have seen their faces

and these are verses they've read probably a hundred times before where in those exact words it says a better covenant

and they were just and they were I don't know angry with me or themselves or the whole situation

and then started to stutter and stutter hey take it up with the author

where are we verse six but now we have been delivered past tense from the law having died to what we were held by

so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter verse seven

what shall we say then is the law sin so now he's just addressing this you keep saying we're delivered from the law

and we're no longer under the law the law must have been bad right no

woo the law is holy and I'm not going to go through all the verses now I'm just going to explain them to you

the law is holy the law is good the problem with the law is that it doesn't empower us to be justified before God

the law exposes us it shows us up you can go and get an MRI and it'll reveal a disease

is the MRI bad no he just exposed the bad thing that was there and what the law did was expose our propensity to sin

what the law did was show us that that's all we do is the law bad no the law is good and the law is holy but it showed us up

but in so doing it served the purpose it was our tutor that took us by the hand and led us to Christ

the idea being when you fall down enough times trying to do it in your own strength you'll eventually quit looking at yourself and look to Jesus the Savior

Hallelujah so we're going to fast forward now to verse 14

because all of us can relate to this these next few verses describe every Christian and this is what's happening here

every Christian who tries to serve God in their own strength in their own effort aka under the law

for you know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin for what I am doing I do not understand for what I will to do that is what I want to do

that I do not practice but what I hate that I do does this sound like a good time to you this sounds like torture

to live this ways to be a walking civil war to have no peace and to live this way is the very definition of religion

and many of us unfortunately can relate to this and Paul is saying this was me this is the Christian life when you're first just getting it

and you're still trying to serve a new covenant God under an old covenant

is everybody getting this could you let your faces know it

man this is the blood of Jesus this is why if you're struggling here if you find your mind wandering

come and be a part of our summer life groups there is an enemy of your soul and he does not want you to get this message

and so he will send you delusion he will distract you he'll put a spirit of stupor on you

and all you see is my arms flailing around in my mouth moving but nothing's hitting because you're just

and this is the stuff that'll set you free

for what I'm doing I do not understand for what I want to do that I do not practice but what I hate I do

verse 16 if then I do what I will not to do I agree with the law that it is good but now it is no longer I who do it

but sin that dwells in me for I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells just pay attention to how many times

Paul says aye aye aye 40 times since verse 13 he says aye that is how you know you're under the law

that is how you know you're trusting in I that is how you know you're struggling with I because you're essentially

an old covenant narcissist you're obsessed with yourself and you're putting all the pressure on you

as a matter that he already did the work as a matter that he said it is finished you're trying to do it all by yourself

who wouldn't get frustrated with that who wouldn't get exhausted and tired living like that who wouldn't eventually then leave the church

except the few that under the system remain and they got something wrong to go out and for punishment

or there's enough truth in life that they cling to and drink from that while at the same time going to sleep

hating themselves every night

for I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells for to want to do right it's present with me

this is a Christian I want to do what's right

I want to do what's right but how to perform what is good I don't find

verse 19 for the good that I want to do I do not do but the evil I will not to do that I practice

just look at verse 19 there is a disproportion of mount that their their faith walk can be summed up with this one verse

do you think that this is what the Lord intended for Christianity be like what church should be like

and this is why there's some people they come every Sunday vibrant happy laughing

and while some come in once a month sit down and try to hide and don't look anyone in the eye

and and if you think I'm talking about you I'm not

because people always think I'm talking about them I'm talking about you yes and a hundred of you

this is a this is the real pandemic this right here I'm not talking about you but this is the that would be awful

but yet this is what people think Christianity should be like and this is actually it's cruel and unusual punishment

this should be nobody's normal what a hell the good stuff that I want to do I just don't do

and the bad stuff that I don't want to do whoops I just find myself doing what is the answer

let's keep reading verse 20 right now if I do what I will not to do it is no longer I

is that what we were up to but but sin that dwells in me I fight then a law that evil is present with me

the one who wills to do good for I delight in the law 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

and then verse 24 finally he collapses exhausted and he says oh wretched man that I am

at this point he had used the word I 40 times and that word wretched it doesn't mean wretched like amazing grace

how sweet the sound that saved the wretched like me wretched there in the Greek is to have been exhausted

from intense labor like a combiner coming up after a 16 hour shift wretched people who

leave the church often it's really one of two reasons they want to compromise their walk

with the Lord and they've been living under the law they don't even realize and they want to go

and sin and be held in accountable or they get exhausted and they're wretched and sometimes

it's a combination of both because if you eventually get exhausted through the labor of trying to

please a God who to you is unpleasable then you're going to go back off into the world

and you like the man that an unclean spirit was cast out of and then seven wicked spirits

worse than the previous ones enter the man and the latter state is worse than the first

wretched man that I am who will deliver me remember who's this talking a Christian Paul

but not living under the new covenant trying to serve God with an old covenant mentality

who will deliver me from this body of death Paul was talking about and calling to a way that ancient

kings had of torturing their prisoners where they would take a corpse and tie it back-to-back

to the back of a prisoner so the corpse would be facing outward and everywhere the prisoner

when they would have a corpse and I think would stand them for months at a time decomposing, decaying,

putrefying, stinking, it's torture and he's saying when you're trying to do Christianity

under an old covenant mentality you got a body of death attached to you and he cries out

who's going to deliver me from this terrible condition and then he gives the answer

do you see how beautifully Paul leads us from the frustration that we all experience when we don't get it

who's going to deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord

hallelujah if your Christianity is I I I I I'm going to better myself I'm going to try real hard

I'm going to get disciplined you're going to eventually realize you got a body of death attached

and all you're doing is failing but what happened here he's leading us through the process

eventually you fall on your face enough times and you realize the answer isn't with me

it's not through me doing anything who's going to deliver me he finally looks not to himself

not I I I but he looks up and out looks out to someone not something someone

Jesus I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord he's done it all

what's my job if he didn't all what's my job believe and yield believe and surrender believe and reckon

yourself dead to sin hallelujah will this happen overnight no but there'll be an out working of your grace

James said work out your salvation with fear and trembling and legal say see grace messages wrong

you got to work no this doesn't mean that you got to work it means when you're under grace

now let there be an out working of that grace and again some of this in your life may take time

what should I do enjoy the journey hallelujah enjoy the journey enjoy him

hallelujah

this is the city light church podcast if you've missed any part of today's message

or if you would like to find out more about pastor boy on Jansik in city light church

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we pray that you have been encouraged today that you have been reminded how much God loves you

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