Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Turn with me tonight to Romans 7.
Romans 7 and verse one.
Know you not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law.
How that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth.
But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulterous, though she be married to another man.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law.
Did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held.
That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid, Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, but sin taking occasion by the commandment.
Wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.
For without the law, sin was dead, For I was alive without the law once.
But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died, and the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good.
Was then that which is good made death unto me?
God forbid but sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good.
That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
For that which I do, I allow not. For what I hate that do I I missed. Let me read that again. For that which I do I allow not. For what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
For I know that in me, that is in my flesh.
Dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good?
I find not for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do.
Now if I do that, I would not, It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.
Which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. This is a very interesting chapter. It's the only one that we have in the whole Bible.
That really lays out delineates the struggle that takes place in the soul of one who is under law but has a new nature has been born of God.
But he doesn't really have a deliverance yet until the very end of the chapter.
First part of the chapter gives you the doctrinal part telling us that we're not under law, we're under.
Grace. And there are many passages of scripture that tell us that. For instance, the 14th verse of the 6th chapter says this For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now that's an absolute statement of truth.
00:05:18
The Christian is not under law but under grace. But as we know there are many Christians that put themselves under law. We tend to gravitate to the law principle because it's natural to us. This do and thou shalt live. That's the principle of law. We have to do something in order to gain acceptance with God.
Or to maintain our standing with God. That's the principle of law.
And a man likes that because it gives him something to do and something to feel good about as to his religious standing before God.
The truth of Scripture is that each of us is by nature fallen, lost, incorrigibly bad and condemned.
And by doing or trying to keep the law, we only.
You might say dig the hole deeper and we become deeper into sin. We get this developed in this chapter.
But the first part of it gives the doctrinal part. Know you not brethren, for I speak to them that know the law. He was really speaking to Jews or Israelites that knew the law. They were under it for 1500 years in the Old Testament. The Gentiles were never put under it, though many have foolishly put themselves under it, but God never did. But he speaks to those that know the law.
And he says how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth.
Once a man has died, he's died out of the the sphere that the law applies to. And so every one of us understands that for the woman, which half and husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth.
But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
Now in this example, he is using that first husband of the woman as a picture of the law and as long as that husband is alive, she's bound to that husband. But she goes on to say if the husband be dead, then she is loosed from the law of her husband. So what breaks that?
Being bound is death that comes in. In the example given, it's the husband that dies. We'll see in a moment as we read on in the application, it's that we die to it through the law. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man or just.
Truly it is she be to another man, have relations with another man, she shall be called an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law so that she is no adulterous, though she be married to another man. So what he's establishing in these first verses is the only thing that can break her ******* or her being bound to her first husband is the death of the husband. Now notice in the application of what he's saying.
Verse four he says, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law.
By the body of Christ, it's not the law that is died. The first husband is a picture of the law, but we become dead to it. Death delivers us from that first husband. That's what he's bringing out. So then, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, the body of Christ nailed to the cross, crucified for us, put on that cross for our sins, and when he died.
We died with him when we become dead to the law by the body of Christ. It's a an unusual expression here that the apostle uses, that he should be married to another. Once death is come in, we're no longer under the first husband, but now we can be united and married to the second husband, another husband to be married to another man.
Even to him.
Who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. He develops in this chapter how that when we were under the first husband, the law, we didn't produce fruit for God. Things we wanted to do, we didn't do the things we didn't want to do, we did do. And so there was a ******* there that kept us from doing.
00:10:24
What we wanted to do and now he says.
We are now raised, we are now united to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. It's our union with Christ in resurrection and in His resurrection life, communicated to us in the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us to bring forth fruit unto God. Now, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this chapter at all. He's mentioned in the next chapter over and over again many times.
And he, he becomes the power.
Of the new life that we have in the risen Christ. But what he's establishing here is that we cannot be to another man. That is, you cannot be married to Christ, united to Christ and to the law, the first husband at the same time. That would be spiritual adultery.
That's the principle that he's establishing. As long as that first husband is alive, the woman is bound to him, and she's not free to marry another. But as soon as death comes in it, it severs that bond and gives her liberty to be married to another. So the death of Christ in when he died in his body on the cross.
He.
Died with him, and when he died, he died to sin, Chapter 6. And here in Chapter 7, he died to the law. He was under the law when he was here in the flesh. The blessed Lord made of a woman, made under the law that he might redeem them, that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's what you have in Galatians.
And here we're not free to be married to the second husband.
Until the first one, Death has taken him away.
She's no adulterous, though she be married to another man, if the first husband has died. Now in applying that again, verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, he also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. There will be no fruit for God as long as we are under law. We're under ******* to sin.
And there's no fruit for God in that. And many are trying.
And trying to produce fruit for God and they can't do it as long as they are under law in their souls.
They have to be set free from that and see that in the death of Christ that we have died, not only that He died for our sins. That's the first part of Romans up to chapter 511. But now the second part is that is the question of sin and law, the principle of law that applies to us in the flesh, but we're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in us. That's brought out in the next chapter.
What he's bringing out in the 7th chapter is the effect on us of having a new nature, desiring the things of God, but not having the Spirit of God as the power of that new life. He unites us to the risen Christ.
Once we are to him who is raised from the dead, we are set free from that first husband, the law.
And now we're united to the second husband, Christ.
Verse 5 for when we were in the flesh.
The motions of sins which were by the law, which were aroused by the law. The law told us, Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet or lust. These are the last five commandments and the first ones. Thou shalt have no other gods but me. Thou shalt not make an image of anything in heaven or earth, or bow down to it.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And the 5th commandment, honor thy Father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee. Thou mayest live long on the earth well.
Any honest man or woman or child will admit, confess. They haven't kept that perfectly. None of us has. There's only one man that did, and that's the blessed Lord himself.
00:15:10
How can we bring forth fruit for God?
To be united to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.
This is developed in this chapter.
When we were in the flesh.
That was our standing before God before we received the Holy Spirit, and that's spoken of in the 8th chapter as being in the Spirit.
When you're in the flashes before the Spirit of God took up his abode in us, we can have a new life. The children of Israel that had a new life who were born of God, but they were in the flesh as far as they're standing before God. They were not sealed by the Spirit. 1 who's under law today is like the the the.
People of God in the Old Testament who loved the Lord but were under the ******* of law.
They were not set free from that principle.
When we're in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, which were aroused by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
You tell a child not to.
Do a particular thing. You're going out for a while and you point out, say there's a bowl on the table and you point out to the children that are playing around the table. I'm going next door. I'll be back in 15 minutes. While I'm gone, don't lift the lid on that bowl.
Now you've called their attention to it, you've told them not to do it, and until you did that, they didn't even pay any attention to it perhaps. But now that you have told them, don't lift the lid on that bowl. You arouse A desire in their hearts comes from the sin nature that they have to do the very thing that they've been forbidden to do.
And that's what's the effect of law on men. He doesn't like to be told what to do and what not to do. And so as soon as the mother comes home, she finds that the lid has been lifted and what was in the bowl has escaped. Well, they were found out. That's the effect of law on a Sinner, a man who is a Sinner.
That's the effect of law. It tells us what we should do and what we shouldn't do, but it doesn't convey the power to fulfill its commands. So it's it's a, a law that was ordained unto life. It holds out the promise of life. This do and thou shalt live. That's life had man kept the law.
He would not have died.
Now, if Israel was 1500 years under law and they all died, Every single one of them.
So none of them kept the law. Had anyone of them kept the law, he wouldn't have died, because it holds out the promise of life to the obedient. But we're not obedient. So what was ordained to life became to me unto death. That's what he says as he develops this argument in this chapter.
When we're in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, produced by the law.
Because it forbade it.
Did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. I've probably told this story here before, but I'll repeat it some may not have heard it. I remember leaving California once. I was going South and then W to Phoenix from the the opposite direction I'm traveling now. I'm traveling north now and.
When I was in California.
The signs said Please don't litter.
And I noticed there was very little littering. They got into Arizona. The sign said littering strictly prohibited, strict penalty. And there was all kinds of littering on the side of the road. That is the law forbidding. It did not produce obedience. In fact, it produced an expression of man's rebellion. You can't tell me what to do or what not to do. That's the attitude of man's heart.
When the law is applied to him.
But now, verse 6 now, now that Christ has come, that he has gone into death.
Paid the penalty for our sins, borne the curse of a broken law, and he's now raised from the dead.
00:20:01
And we have his life now. We are delivered from the law.
Being that being dead, or we being dead to that wherein we were held.
That we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness.
Of the letter. Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 3 that the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life, and so we find it so. The effect of law. We see that in our children. We see that in many instances.
As we observe mankind and how he behaves under law.
What shall we say then?
Is the law sin?
Anything wrong with the law?
No, he says. God forbid far be the thought, Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust.
Except the law had said, Thou shalt not look coveted or lust.
That's the 10th commandment, the last one. That's the other one that he mentions here. It's interesting, the very one that slays every one of us, because it prohibits us from doing the very thing that our nature instinctively does.
It's like saying to a pig, Thou shalt not wallow in the mire.
You can't tell a pig that has that kind of a nature. That's not to do that. So you tell a man who has a nature that lusts not to lust. You're giving him a commandment which he cannot in his own strength obey.
He has to have a power outside of himself. First of all. He needs a new life and then a new power, and this is what we have in Christianity.
I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said Thou shalt not covet man. Reasons. As long as I haven't committed the sin, just thought about doing it, it's not sinful.
Well, the Lord said, he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart, doesn't have to do the ACT. He doesn't have to fulfill the desire of his heart. Just think about it, just desire it. He has in his heart committed adultery. Some of us have committed murder in our hearts we have thought of.
Killing someone, we're so angry with them.
And other sins that might not get beyond the lust of our heart. But thou shalt not covet. Or the neighbor boy gets a new bicycle, Or the neighbor gets a new car. And we we envy them and lust after that, and desire it coveted, want it for ourselves.
We don't have to go and steal his car or bicycle, just want to do it.
And we are condemned by the law thou shalt not covet.
The first sin in Christianity was the sin of Ananias and Sapphira they coveted. They wanted to keep some of the price of the land, and they lied to the Holy Spirit about how much they sold it for so they could keep back part of it for themselves. The sin of covetousness, the betrayal of the Lord Jesus by Judas Iscariot was the sin of covetousness he wanted.
That money and he thought the Lord would deliver himself as he had so many times before.
And and he would get away with the money in Israel after they had conquered the city.
Tried to conquer the city of Jericho, not Jericho, but AI Jericho. They were not to take any of the any of the things of Jericho and someone had taken it. He saw what was there and he lusted after it. He coveted it and it caused Israel to be defeated when they went up against AI. The sin of covetousness.
We don't often speak of it, but it is something.
That is that we're all guilty of doing more than once, and it is caused great sorrow.
I had not known sin, but by the law.
For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, or thou shalt not lust. Verse 8 now, but sin.
Sin, the sin nature. He's talking now about the nature that produces the sins that we do this, the tree that produces the fruit. He's talking about the tree here.
00:25:05
Taking occasion by the commandment.
Wrought in me all manner of lust or concupiscence.
For without the law, sin was dead before the commandment of the mother to the children not to lift the lid and the bowl. They had no desire for it. Sin was relatively an active, relatively dead. But as soon as she said don't, then that drew their attention to it and they wanted to do it.
They had been forbidden to, but they have a nature that was sin, a sin nature.
Without the law, sin was dead.
For I was alive without the law once before that commandment came. They had not disobeyed their mother. They were alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Commandment came, said don't do that.
Then there was the revival of a desire to do the very thing that was forbidden.
And that's the effect that law has on a sinful person. If we were good, if we were righteous in ourselves, we would obey the law and there would be no problem. But we're not. We're sinners born in sin and shapen in iniquity. And I say we I'm talking about man in his natural state.
Verse 9 I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. It was it promised life if I was obedient, but its promises death and judgment if I'm disobedient. So he says in the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. It slew me.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me.
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and justice and good. When Israel heard that 10 the 10 commandments, they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey. That's a good law, and it is a good law. Nothing wrong with the law of Moses, nothing wrong with the 10 commandments. They're beautiful, and they tell a man how he ought to obey his Creator, how he ought to live, and what he ought to do and not to do.
What's where's the problem then? Problem is in our hearts. The problem is in our sin nature that we have from our fallen parents.
The law is holy, and the commandment holy and justice and good.
Was then that which is good, may death unto me.
God forbid far be the thought, No, indeed, but sin. There's that sin nature again, that inbred sin that we're born with, that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Let me illustrate that. Children are walking to school and they see a lawn that's just been newly seated. There's a sign on the front of the lawn says newly seated.
And they walk all over it. The person in the house looks out and sees what they're doing. So before they return from school in the afternoon, the owner has put a fence around it with an addition to the sign. Newly seated. Keep off the grass.
Keep off. Now, if they do that, if they walk on the lawn, they are infringing on a command. They are violating the law. It was wrong to do it in the first place. It was sin in the 1St place. It was inconsiderateness on their part. But now there's a fence there that says stay away, and there's a law that says keep off. And now if they do it, sin becomes exceedingly sinful.
I remember when the cars began in in our country, there were accidents at corners because men didn't give the right away to another vehicle. And then they put stop signs up and they put stop lights up. And after that when that stoplight showed red, it means you had to stop.
And after that, when that stoplight showed red, it means you had to stop. You can't go through that light. And if you did, you're violating now a command, A command to stop.
And that's the effect of law. So sin becomes it was wrong when another car was going through the intersection. It was wrong for you to continue and hit him. You should have waited until he cleared the intersection and gone on. But when there's a stoplight there, you must stop. And if you don't, you have broken the law and you'll get a ticket for it.
00:30:11
That's the effect of law, but it doesn't stop man from committing sin. All it does is it increases his guilt, because he's now not just a Sinner, but he is a transgressor of a law. Verse 13 again was then that which is good may death unto me, God forbid far be the thought, but sin that it might appear, sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become.
Exceeding sinful, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. The law is spiritual, applying not only to the outward things that we do, but to our very thoughts. Thou shalt not covet.
That's something if you're coveting, if I'm coveting, if I'm lusting, you can't tell by looking at me. That's something that's going on in my heart, something that's going on in your heart.
It's spiritual. It applies not just to the outward things we do, but to things that others cannot see.
The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Sold under sin. This is the state of man, even if he has a new nature.
That wants to do the right thing and he develops that. Now for that which I do I allow not I don't want to do it. I have a nature that wants to obey God, but then I I do what I shouldn't for what I would that do I not I want to do good and I don't but what I hate.
That do I You hate it in the new nature, but you do it in the power of the old nature. And many have gone through this experience before. They have really gotten deliverance. They want to do right, but they do wrong. They hate what is wrong, and yet they do.
The wrong.
If then I do that, which I would not.
I don't want to.
Because I have a new life now. He's talking about one who's been born of God. I consent unto the law that it is good.
Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, going through this exercise, being under law, finding that it doesn't give me the power to obey it.
Though I want to obey it.
But I find there's another power coming from a nature within me that is hateful to God, that keeps me in ******* to the wrong.
So what does he say? It is no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me.
Notice in the back up for a minute in verse 15 that which I do, I allow not for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I he doesn't make in that verse any distinction from the one that wants to do right and the one that does wrong. It's the eye all the way through. But now he's making progress. Verse 16. If then I do that which I would not.
I consent unto the law that it is good.
He's made progress, he says. The law is right. The problem is in me.
Now then.
It is no more I that do it, but the sin.
That dwelleth in me. He's learned to distinguish between the true eye, the new man, and the evil nature, the sin that dwells in him, that is giving him all this problem.
For I know that in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
For to Will is present with me, and that comes from the new nature.
But how to perform that which is good? I find not. That's the power of the old nature.
For the good that I would in the new nature I do not, because the old nature is power more powerful.
But the evil which I would not.
From the new nature that I do because of the power of the old. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me. This is quite a bit of progress he's made. He's learned to distinguish between.
00:35:01
His true self, which is the Newman and that sin nature which is giving him all these problems, and he said there's no more I that do it, but the sin.
That dwelleth in me.
I find then a law.
That when I would do good.
I read the law, I submit to it. I want to obey it. I find then that evil is present with me.
And that comes from the old nature, of course, the flesh.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. The Newman delights in God's law. By law, the psalmist says, do I love?
Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. He delighted in the law, But after the inward man, there's a new man there, there's a new nature there that's not said by an unconverted soul. He doesn't have a new nature that delights in the law of God, but to the one who's converted.
Then he has to say, But I see another law in my members.
Warring against the law of my mind, the law of my mind is the Newman, the new nature.
But there's another law in my members that's the law of sin.
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.
Now he hasn't found deliverance, he's been looking for strength within.
To obey the law.
But he's found that he has a law of sin and his members coming from the old nature, which is stronger.
And he fails. He fails.
He says, O wretched man that I am, he was truly wretched. Now this is not a description of true Christianity.
This is more a description of the Saints under law in the Old Testament who didn't have the Spirit of God as delivering power, who were not united to a Christ dead and risen and exalted to the right hand of God. They had a new life, but they did not have the power to to live according to the law.
Of God, though they acknowledged that it was good.
It was holy, just and good. Nothing wrong with the law.
And so he looks over his situation. This man who is under law, as long as you're under law, you haven't come to the end of yourself.
You still think that there's something good in you that will enable you to fulfill the commandments of the law, and God allows us to fail.
Even one who has the Spirit of God, if he gets under law, he will find the Spirit of God will not operate in him as power to deliver him from that principle, because he is still having some confidence in himself.
In whatever measure we have confidence in ourselves, we're under the law principle and there's no strength in that.
God will not give us strength as long as we think there's something good.
In us, he has to let us fail until we realize as Paul, as I was going to say, Paul, he wrote this chapter and what he's really doing is he's he's the one who wrote this chapter is not in the state described in the chapter. He's delivered and looking back and describing one who's under law and under *******.
But it has to be a delivered man that can describe it properly, because the one that's in it can't describe it properly.
He doesn't realize exactly what the problem is until he gets delivered from the law principle.
Why do we fail so often? Because we're not strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The strength of holiness is grace, not law. First Corinthians 15 tells us the strength of sin is the law, and that's what Romans 7 did. He experience outlined in Romans 7 brings that out, the strength of sin.
Is the law.
It does not give power to carry out its demands.
Verse 22 he says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind.
The Newman and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am now he he realizes he cannot deliver himself from that sin principle which resides within. So he says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? He is now looking, looking to another, looking to 1 outside in himself, who shall deliver me?
00:40:28
From.
The body of this death or this body of death?
And then he can thank God for deliverance. In the last verse, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Deliverance comes through him. He is the great Deliverer we are according to the teaching of the fourth verse, where for my brethren, he also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
As long as the Christian is married to the first husband, he's under law and the teaching of all Scripture is we're not under law. And if you're in that state before God, you won't find power for holiness. You won't find it because it only comes when you realize that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, and we can only find it in Christ, the life of Christ in US and the power.
Holy Spirit, so he says, who shall deliver me, O wretched man that I am? Here's a man that's always wanting to do what is right, always doing what is wrong. Now that's an absolute condition of things. And none of us has ever absolutely in that state of soul, we don't always fail. And but he's giving the he's giving the tendency of what it is to be under law and what it is to be under grace.
The next chapter develops that so beautifully.
A man who is under law is a wretched man.
Now that's not a Christian, or one may be a Christian and get into this state, but that's not Christian standing at Christian state.
It's one who's under law, and if you're under law, you're not.
You're not. You do not understand, you're not taught. You haven't been delivered from the ******* of trusting in yourself.
To keep the law of God.
I thank God, he says.
He's asked who shall deliver me? He said. I thank God the deliverer is deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's deliverance reached.
Seeing that one is in Christ before God and he has deliverance, that's the very first verse of the next chapter. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Were taken out of self and put into Christ and out of the flesh and now we have a new standing before God and the Spirit of God resides within us and he forms our state as those who are to Christ now united to him a second husband to bring forth fruit unto God. I thank God he says verse 25 through Jesus Christ our Lord deliverance comes through looking to him.
Up to this point, he hasn't been referred to in this struggle that the man is going through.
Many of us go through an experience similar to this, not exactly like it. We don't always fail as the man in Romans 7 because he's he's giving the the absolute principle of the effect of law on a renewed soul. It doesn't give power because it doesn't give him the right object. He's still trusting himself in some way.
Whenever we do that, we are bound to fail and become miserable.
And the way of deliverance is to look to him through Jesus Christ our Lord, deliverance comes.
But once the soul is delivered, that doesn't change the flesh, doesn't change the old nature, nor the new.
So he says so then, with the mind, the renewed mind.
I myself serve the law of God, I myself. He has now learned to identify himself with the Newman, with the new nature.
I serve the law of God in my mind.
And in my flesh.
But with the flesh, the law of sin.
For a delivered soul, the flesh has not changed.
And that's something we have to realize that the flesh never changes. It is incorrigibly evil, incorrigibly bad. We have to realize that God has taken us out of Adam and placed us in Christ, out of the flesh and in the Spirit, and where we have a new life and.
00:45:17
A new power to enable us to live.
For him. So this next chapter, Romans 8, is filled with the Spirit of God. You don't hear of the Spirit mentioned in the Romans 7.
He's given a he's giving a description of an experience by a renewed soul who was under law. And it leads him to the, to the statement, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? And he finds deliverance in Christ wonderful to, to know the one who alone can set us free. You shall know the truth, he said, and the truth shall set you free.
The law is *******.
And grace is liberty, freedom, deliverance, wonderful to be standing in the very grace of God. And that's what we're, that's where we do stand.
That's where we do stand before God, the realization that there's nothing good in me.
And there's nothing that I can do in my flesh to please him. I need another to do it. And.
I think of I think of this beautiful at the end of Hebrews where he's he's writing the whole epistle. Let's just turn to it before closing in Hebrews 13, I think it gives the the answer to this so beautifully in Hebrews 13, verse 20, this this epistle is written to Jews that were under law.
When they were before they were they came to Christ and it's to teach them that they're to abandon that altogether, that principle for Christ and for grace. Now verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead. Our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work.
Who's going to do that?
It's the God of peace.
He says make you perfect in every good work to do his will.
Working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight.
Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. God working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight. Through Jesus Christ. And that's where the deliverance comes from.
Let's sing.
In closing.
200.
And 32.
232.
Verse 2 Says not the labor of our hands could fulfill the laws demands could our zeal no rest, but no could our tears forever flow, not for sin could air atone with thy blood and thine alone.