“Sin and the Believer” Romans 7:13-25

FBC Canton – Sunday am - August 9, 2020

Mickey Matlock, Minister of Students

Romans 7:13-25 NKJV

13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing

death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I

do.

16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to

perform what is good I do not find.

19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

23 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.

24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 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.

If we are saved, why do we still sin?

Why don’t we just stop sinning when Christ comes into our lives? Our lives as Christians are much like that

of a seed. Take the seed of a peach. In order for that seed/pit to produce fruit, several things must take place.

First, it has to be removed from the tree. Incidentally, the moment that happens the peach and pit are both

removed from their life source. They are both dead.

But, as long as the peach stays on the “natural” tree, it will never produce fruit. If it stays too long it will rot and

die anyhow.

In order to produce fruit, we must die to ourselves.

Second, the pit must be planted, just as we are grafted into Christ.

Next, the peach seed needs nurturing and nutrition to grow. This is similar to when believers practice Spiritual

disciplines.

Finally, it takes time for the seedling to become mature enough to produce fruit.

These steps are true in our spiritual lives as well.

So, if I am not producing fruit, I need God to assess what I am missing out on.

1. Law

a. God’s Law is good! v.13

b. God’s Law allows our sin nature to be clearly visible. v.13

i. Sin, through God’s Law, might become exceedingly sinful.

c. God’s Law is spiritual. v.14

d. God’s Law dwells in His Spirit which is found in us. v.18

i. For instance: 1st commandment-You shall have no other gods before me. -- Ex 20:3

2. Sin

a. The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines sin this way…’ Sin is any want (shortcoming) of

conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.’

i. 1 John 3:4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the

transgression of the law.

James 4:17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Romans 3:23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

b. Sin is deceitful. v.13

c. Sin is magnified by God’s Law. v.13

i. Without God’s Law, we would not, could not call sin, sin.

d. Sin dwells in our flesh. v.17, 20

Psalm 51 – David’s Sin

• We justify, rationalize, embrace, and fuel our sin and desires

• Instead we should run away like Jacob did

• In our sin we choose to remove obstacles to pleasure (i.e. Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband)

• The Spirit of God along with the word of God can cut to the quick and move us to healing, restoring,

and repentance (Nathan)

• Our sin has consequence (for us, the direct person, & indirect people)

3. Believer

a. We have a natural tendency to not practice what God wills. v.15

i. This brings to mind the annoyingly accurate observation that so many make, “The church

is full of hypocrites.” – Scripture tells us the world will not understand us.

ii. By the way, this is true even for people that want to do evil.

b. We also have a natural tendency to practice what we do not want. v.15

i. Also true of those that desire evil.

c. We agree with the Law. v.16

d. Our flesh often cannot determine how to do God’s will. v.18; 2 Cor. 5:17 (new creations)

e. We delight in God’s Law. v.22

f. God’s Law is at battle with our sin nature. v.23

i. We are called by God take an active role in this battle!

ii. Christ overcomes our sin nature as we practice spiritual disciplines. (Alone time with

God, Worship, Reading Scripture, Prayer, Scripture Memory, Fellowship, Offering, etc.)

g. We are wretched, and dead in our sin. v.24

h. If the Gospel ended there, what hope would we have?

4. But Jesus…

a. Who will deliver me from this body of death? v.24

b. Jesus is the answer!!!

i. That’s right, the law was never intended to save us from our sin nature. Jesus is the only

one that can do that.

ii. In a 2018 article, Josh Daffern wrote, “The Bible is great, but it is not a part of the

Trinity. The Bible is the word of God, but the Bible did not die on the cross for our sins

nor rise from the dead three days later. The goal of preaching is to introduce people to

Jesus through the Bible, not just teach the Bible. The Bible is the means, but not the end.”

c. Paul answers his own question…Who will deliver me? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our

Lord! v.25

i. The life of the believer is changed, because of Christ.

ii. Christianity is distinct from all other religions in this: All religions but Christianity

require change by us to find whatever form of salvation/heaven they offer; Christ is our

change agent, thus we are changed because of what He has done for, to, and in us.

Just like the peach pit…

Perhaps you have traversed all the steps and are producing fruit nicely. You share your faith and don’t stumble

in sin much anymore. Tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Maybe you know you haven’t arrived at perfection just yet but you know what it is that Christ needs to do in

you. Determine which spiritual discipline practiced will help to work on that area of maturity needed.

Or maybe, you have never heard that you need to die to yourself and sin in order that Christ may complete in

you the great work of salvation.

Then and only then can you find yourself securely grafted in Christ and part of the life source that will never

die.

If that is you today, if you know that God loves you, but you’ve been trying to do life your own way, and the

Holy Spirit is calling you today to surrender and die to yourself and allow Christ to complete His salvation in

you, in just a moment, meet me down front and I would love to pray with you and talk to you about that

decision.

Why is following Christ so difficult?

Question: "Why is following Christ so difficult?"

Answer: No sane parent has ever said, “I wish my children would misbehave,” and there’s never been a self-

help book entitled How to Live an Unhappy Life. We all want blessings, happiness, and fulfillment, and we

associate a happy condition with a certain amount of ease. Jesus promises blessing and fulfillment to those who

follow Him (John 4:14), but many people have been surprised that the way of Christ is not as easy as they had

hoped. Sometimes, following Christ can be downright difficult.

The fact is, blessing and hardship are not mutually exclusive. The disciples “left everything” to follow Christ,

and the Lord promised them “a hundred times as much” blessing in return (Mark 10:28-30). Jesus warned that

all who follow Him must deny themselves and bear a daily cross (Luke 9:23). Hardship, to be sure, but hardship

with a purpose and leading to the joy of the Lord.

Followers of Christ also face resistance from the world. “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in

Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Jesus did not promise His disciples that everything would be

coming up roses for them; just the opposite—He promised that they would have trials in this world (John

16:33). “But take heart!” He told them, “I have overcome the world.”

God’s moral laws have been written on the heart of every human – giving all people a conscience to aid them in

determining wrong from right (Romans 2:14-15). When a person becomes a follower of Christ, he not only has

God’s laws in his heart, but he also has the indwelling Holy Spirit to compel him toward living righteously

(Romans 8:11). This in no way means the Christian will stop sinning, but it does mean the Christian will

become more aware of his own personal sin and have a genuine desire to do what is pleasing to Christ (Romans

8:14-16).

In many ways, it is after a person is saved that the struggle against sin really heats up in his life. All people are

born with a nature that is bent toward sin, which is why children do not need to be taught how to misbehave –

that comes naturally. When a person is converted, the sin nature does not disappear – and so the internal conflict

begins in the life of every believer.

The apostle Paul, who called himself a “bondservant to Christ,” writes of the struggle with his sin nature

in Romans 7:14-25. In verse 15 he says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but

what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). Christians engaged in this battle have a true desire to avoid sin, but they also

have a natural desire to indulge the flesh. They become frustrated when they find themselves “doing what they

don’t want to do.” And to further complicate matters, Christians not only do not want to sin, they hate sin. Yet,

they still sin.

Paul goes on to write, “It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Romans 7:17). Paul is

referring to the dichotomy caused by the new birth – Paul is a “new man” through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

But he still sins because sin is still alive in the human flesh – the sin nature survives the new birth (Romans

7:18). Paul calls the internal strife a “war,” as the new man battles the old man. Paul found the battle quite

distressing because he wanted to do well (Romans 7:23). “What a wretched man I am,” Paul cries out in his

distress (Romans 7:24).

Every Christian who is attempting to live righteously is called to this battlefield for his entire life. We are in a

spiritual battle. But in grace and mercy, God gives the faithful believer an entire suit of armor for the fight

(Ephesians 6:13).

The Christian life is never easy, but the difficulties do not negate the joy. We consider Jesus, who “for the joy

set before him . . . endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”

(Hebrews 12:2). God has set us free from the slavery to sin. The victory is ours (2 Corinthians 2:14). Through

the Holy Spirit, believers receive encouragement, strength to persevere, and reminders of their adoption into the

family of God. We know that our “present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be

revealed” (Romans 8:18).

https://www.gotquestions.org/following-Christ.html

10 Toxic Traditions That Are Killing the Church

M A R C H 7 , 2 0 1 8 B Y J O S H D A F F E R N

Preaching merely to teach the Bible.

Yep, let’s go there too. Preach the Bible, preach the Bible, preach the Bible! That’s all well and good. The Bible

should be central in our preaching, and I hold to as conservative a stance on biblical inerrancy as the next

evangelical, but the Bible is the means, not the end. If you preach only to teach the Bible, you’re selling your

congregation short. How many times did Jesus sit his disciples down and walk verse-by-verse through the book

of Deuteronomy? His goal was to introduce people to his Heavenly Father. That’s the end: God, Jesus, the Holy

Spirit. The Bible is great, but it is not a part of the Trinity. The Bible is the word of God, but the Bible did not

die on the cross for our sins nor rise from the dead three days later. The goal of preaching is to introduce people

to Jesus through the Bible, not just teach the Bible. The Bible is the means, but not the end.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/newwineskins/10-toxic-traditions-killing-church/7/

Facebook tribute to ‘the man in 2D’ goes viral

By Dr. Jim Denison | Denison Forum on Truth and Culture | Monday, December 10, 2018

Last Thursday, Kelsey Zwick boarded a flight from Orlando to Philadelphia with Lucy, one of her eleven-

month-old twin daughters. Lucy suffers from severe chronic lung disease and still needs oxygen at night and

when flying.

Carrying Lucy’s oxygen machine, the two were settled into their seat when a flight attendant told them a

passenger in first class wanted to switch places. Kelsey later expressed her gratitude to “the man in 2D” in a

Facebook post that quickly went viral:

“Thank you. Not just for the seat itself but for noticing. For seeing us and realizing that maybe things are not

always easy. For deciding you wanted to show a random act of kindness to US. It reminded me how much good

there is in this world. I can’t wait to tell Lucy someday.”

We change the world one person at a time.

“That’s a lot about me, Jon.”

At the state funeral for President George H. W. Bush, biographer Jon Meacham read one of the most

meaningful eulogies I have ever heard. I wished that the president could have heard his moving words of

tribute.

It turns out, he did.

Meacham wrote a bestselling biography of the forty-first president titled Destiny and Power: The American

Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. Through the project, he and the Bush family developed a close and

personal relationship.

He was asked to deliver the eulogy at President Bush’s state funeral. Not long before the president died,

Meacham read to him the words he planned to share at his service. With his characteristic humor, Bush replied,

“That’s a lot about me, Jon.”

While Meacham and others who delivered tributes to the president have been applauded for their eloquence, the

truth is that George H. W. Bush wrote his own eulogy with his life. He authored no formal autobiography (All

the Best, a book of his letters, diary entries, and memos, comes the closest), but he lived with such courage,

patriotism, and integrity that his life became his legacy.

Charles Spurgeon advised us: “Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”

“You will become a mere social wastrel”

I am reading Andrew Roberts’s magisterial biography, Churchill: Walking with Destiny. I am familiar with

Winston Churchill’s story, having visited his place of birth at Blenheim Palace, his war rooms in London, and

the House of Commons where he began his political career. His life and leadership have fascinated me for many

years.

However, I did not realize the degree to which Churchill’s father did not believe in him. At one point, the young

Churchill wrote to him for encouragement. His father responded by expressing his fear that “you will become a

mere social wastrel” and that “you will degenerate into a shabby, unhappy and futile existence.”

Roberts notes that “his son was able to quote from that letter from memory thirty-seven years later, showing

how much its message of distrust and contempt seared him.”

This was an early example of the setbacks Churchill would face. He suffered from depression, numerous

physical ailments, and widespread opposition from his many political enemies. But he went on to lead Great

Britain to victory in World War II, publish more words than Shakespeare and Dickens combined, and become

the only British Prime Minister to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It’s hard to think of a biblical figure whose eulogy would not include challenges and heartbreak. Joseph’s

brothers sold him into slavery; Moses was a murderer and fugitive from the law; David’s sin with Bathsheba is

one of the first things we remember about him. Daniel was exiled; Peter failed his Lord; John was imprisoned

and left to die.

But the world’s opinion of us is seldom God’s.

A decree that changed history

Octavian, the great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, was granted the honorific “Augustus” by the

Roman Senate in 27 BC to recognize his status as emperor. He is known for creating an empire that would last

for fifteen centuries. (The month of August is named for him.)

Few who knew him would have believed that his eulogy today would center on a single verse of Scripture: “In

those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered” (Luke 2:1).

The emperor could not know that his edict issued for taxation purposes would force a Galilean carpenter and his

pregnant wife to hike more than ninety miles south to his ancestral home in Bethlehem. Or that their obedience

would fulfill a prophecy made seven centuries earlier that the Messiah would be born there (Micah 5:2). Or that

Bethlehem’s proximity to Egypt would make it easier for the Holy Family to escape when King Herod sought to

kill the baby Jesus.

God is working whether we know it or not. He is using us whether we wish to be used or not. But our lives

achieve their greatest fulfillment and joy when we trust and obey him today.

We write our eulogies one day at a time.

How to change the world

And we seldom know at the time how our obedience will change the world.

The sailors aboard the USS Finback did not know when they pulled a twenty-year-old Navy pilot out of the

Pacific Ocean that they were saving a future president of the United States. That’s because the future is not

visible to the present.

If you want to change the world, write your name on someone’s heart today.

https://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/denison-forum/facebook-tribute-to-the-man-in-2d-goes-

viral.html

Westminster Shorter Catechism Project

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q: What is sin?

A: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.1

1. 1 John 3:4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of

the law.

James 4:17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Romans 3:23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

FEB 13, 2019

George H.W. Bush’s Role in WWII Was Among the Most Dangerous

World War II pilots were shot down at an alarming rate—including Bush.

JESSE GREENSPAN

MPI/Getty Images

With the wings of his plane on fire and smoke pouring into the cockpit, future President George H.W.

Bush parachuted into the Pacific Ocean, where he floated for hours on a life raft, vomiting uncontrollably and

bleeding profusely from his forehead.

Still, Bush could count himself among the lucky ones.

Rescued from the water by a U.S. submarine, he managed to avoid the grisly fate suffered by so many airmen

during World War II, including his two crewmates, who both died in the attack. Soldiers who fought in World

War II, the deadliest conflict in history, performed any number of risky jobs. Of these, few, if any, were as

perilous as flying in an airplane.

“It’s a very dangerous environment even without the combat,” says Jeremy Kinney, World War II curator at the

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He points out that, without the pressurized cabins of today’s

aircraft, airmen had to wear oxygen masks and worry about staying warm.

U.S. Warplanes Were Dangerous to Fly

Richard Overy, author of numerous World War II books, including The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air

War Over Europe, 1940-1945, adds that technical problems were “common on aircraft mass-produced and not

always properly checked,” and that inclement weather and pilot error likewise caused plenty of accidents.

George Bush served in the Navy from June 1942 to September 1945, rising to the rank of lieutenant.

Corbis/Getty Images

Thousands of U.S. warplanes never even made it to the front, crashing instead during training or in route to

combat. Bush himself crash-landed during a practice bombing run in Virginia, emerging unscathed despite

totaling his plane. Later on, Bush witnessed a fellow pilot panic and smash right into an aircraft carrier’s

landing crew, showcasing how pilot stress and fear could turn deadly, even in a non-combat situation.

The fighting, of course, also took a harsh toll on airmen, who confronted anti-aircraft fire from below and fire

from enemy planes in the sky, with only a razor-thin hull to protect them.

“You had to be constantly on guard,” Kinney says. “It’s very taxing on their mental stability.” Being shot at in

an airplane could be so nerve-racking, in fact, that one British paratrooper spoke of how on D-Day he couldn’t

wait to jump out, behind enemy lines, where “we knew we would be safer.”

U.S. Airmen Made Up Nearly One-Quarter of U.S. Deaths

Overall, about 100,000 U.S. airmen died in World War II, representing nearly one-quarter of total U.S.

fatalities. The material costs of maintaining an air force were likewise astronomical, with the United States

losing almost 100,000 of its 300,000 planes produced during the conflict.

The U.S. Eighth Air Force, which bombed German-occupied Europe from 1942 onward, bore a particularly

heavy burden. More than 26,000 of its men, fully one-third of its total aircrew, died in combat. “There was no

big battle but just a slow attrition as they flew out night after night,” Overy says. “A few bomber pilots managed

to survive perhaps 50 missions but that was extremely rare. Usually a pilot who survived was pretty burned out

after 30.”

A portrait of the officers of the USS Finback and some U.S. Navy pilots and crew rescued by the Finback.

Kneeling second from the left is George Bush.

© CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

Yet as bad as it was for the United States, it was even worse for other countries. Britain’s Royal Air Force

Bomber Command, for example, lost almost half its aircrew in World War II, whereas, on the Axis side,

hundreds of thousands of German and Japanese airmen were killed. Overy explains that Axis air casualty rates

were especially high toward the end of the conflict, when the Allies dominated the skies.

For all countries in the conflict, Overy says, about 25 percent of pilots would be killed or seriously injured each

month in peak combat, and in some battles the loss rate reached as high as 40 percent.

George Bush was nearly one of these casualties. Enlisting in the Navy’s flight training program fresh out of

high school, he then flew 58 combat missions in the Pacific, first seeing action in May 1944 at the head of a

three-man Avenger torpedo bomber. “He was the leader,” Kinney says, “responsible for making the team

operate efficiently.”

Bush and his crew first ran into trouble that June, when anti-aircraft fire forced them to make an emergency

water landing. (A U.S. destroyer rescued them minutes after the crash.)

George Bush Bailed After Being Hit by Anti-Aircraft Fire

Then, on September 2, 1944, he was again hit by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing run on the Japanese island

of Chichi Jima. “Suddenly there was a jolt,” Bush wrote later, “as if a massive fist had crunched into the belly

of the plane. Smoke poured into the cockpit, and I could see flames rippling across the crease of the wing,

edging toward the fuel tanks.”

Bush dropped his four 500-pound bombs on the target, a radio facility, and subsequently bailed out over the

ocean, though not before bonking his head on the plane’s tail and ripping part of his parachute. His travails

continued once in the waves, as jellyfish stings and swallowing too much seawater rendered him nauseous.

Nonetheless, he managed to swim to a life raft and remain afloat until a U.S. submarine eventually rescued him.

George Bush being rescued by the submarine, the U.S.S. Finback, after being shot down while on a bombing

run of the Island of Chi Chi Jima on September 2, 1944.

National Archives

During this time, U.S. fighter planes drove off some Japanese boats that pursued him, thus saving him from

the gruesome torture suffered by other American captives on Chichi Jima. His two crewmates, however,

weren’t so lucky. (One’s parachute apparently failed to open and the other never made it out of the plane.)

Historians agree that airmen like Bush—not to mention actors Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, future U.S.

senator and presidential candidate George McGovern, and New York Yankees infielder Jerry Coleman, plus

hundreds of thousands of non-famous participants—played a vital role in winning the war.

“Despite the high loss rates, air power was critical,” Overy says, “particularly aircraft engaged in … operations

[to destroy] the enemy's airpower or in tactical support of operations on the ground or the sea.”

To this day, airplanes remain a key part of how wars are waged, though as Kinney points out, the scale and

scope (and danger) of World War II’s air battles has not since been matched.

https://www.history.com/news/george-hw-bush-wwii-airman