SERMON TITLE: The Fight Within (pt1)
TEXT: Romans 7:13-20 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 11-9/10-19
It’s great to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and I love you too.
So after a short break — we’re back in our series in the book of Romans. For the past few months we’ve gone through chapters 5 and 6 and we’re now in Romans chapter 7 — looking at the fight that we’re all in.
Back in chapter 5, we looked at justification — our being declared righteous before God. Where God declares us to be not guilty for our sins because of our faith in Jesus Christ and in what he accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection.
Then — in chapter 6 — we saw the implications of our justification. One implication being that we’re now free — not just from the penalty of our sin — but we’re free from the power of sin — from the reign and rule of sin. That wicked slavemaster has been beaten by the One who came to set captives free.
And we’ve seen how our freedom comes with responsibility. That God — in setting his people free — expects his people to live in this freedom and — in being free — we’re to live in obedience to God.
But as we’ve seen, to live in freedom means we have to get in the fight. There’s a war going on all around us. We have an enemy who isn’t happy that we’re free — and that other slaves are on the verge of being freed. Like Pharaoh chasing down the Israelites after he let them go — sin wants to reign us back in — sin wants us back under its power and control — and if we don’t fight — if we get too comfortable or complacent — we’ll end up a casualty of the war we’re in. We’ll still be on the side of victory — but will have experienced unnecessary pains and self-inflicted sufferings of war because we weren’t fighting in the power of the new resurrected life that is ours in Christ.
Now — in this series — we’ve also been looking at some ways people in our culture justify how they live. From the different philosophies of life that people have — like living solely for the here and now — to the belief that God accepts people just the way they are. And today, we find ourselves face to face with another way to go about life. It’s an idea that many people hold to — where a person should be able to live and do whatever they want as long as they’re not hurting anyone. This way of thinking is summed up by the phrase, “Live and let live.” Which means — let people live however they want — and especially let me live however I want. Another way of saying this is, “I can do whatever I want and you can do whatever you want.” Just don’t hurt anyone.
Now — it’s a great thing to want to avoid hurting others. But something often overlooked — with this way of thinking — is who gets to decide where that line is — the line of causing harm to others?
You see that’s a potential danger in this kind of thinking. Especially when the idea of sin — and our fallen nature — is taken out of the equation — because — when we take those things out of the equation — what does it mean to harm someone else? It’s all becomes pretty arbitrary — who gets to decide where the line in the sand is when it comes to harming others — and — at the very least — with this kind of thinking — there’s a strong assumption that we all know where the line is — and we’re all determined not to cross it.
But let’s see if that’s true. If you’d say — and this is a time for audience participation at all of our campuses — if you’d say that — at some point in your life — you’ve been harmed or hurt by someone else because of something they did or said — would you raise your hand? We don’t need to know what happened — just that you’ve been hurt because of something someone else did. Now here’s my point. If only one hand goes up all weekend long, then we have proof that apparently not all of us are in agreement as to where the line of harming others begins or — and this is pretty scary — maybe we do have agreement on where the line is and yet we purposefully cross it.
Now, the Christian faith teaches us something about ourselves that’s incredibly honest. In fact, a compelling argument about the truthfulness of the Christian faith is its honesty about humanity — it tells us things about ourselves that we know are true — true things that we don’t want to hear. For example, the Christian faith teaches that we humans are in a constant fight against doing things we know are wrong. And though we don’t want to do these things — we — regardless of your faith, your gender, your political affiliation — we often do the very things we don’t want to do, don’t we? Sometimes we’re desperate to not do something — and yet — we do it anyway. It’s like we have no control — no choice in the matter — we know what we want to do — we even know what we don’t want to do — and yet we often do the very things that we hate.
And the question — is this — “Is there any hope for us?” Well let’s turn to our passage to find out.
If you have your Bible please turn with me to Romans chapter 7. We’ll be looking at verses 13-20.
And, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do at Gateway is let you ask questions that we answer on our weekly podcast. So if you have a question, you can text it in to the number printed on the bottom of the sermon notes sheet or you can submit it on the Gateway app.
Here are the words found in Romans 7. Beginning in verse 13.
“Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:13-20 ESV)
Now I left us with an unanswered question. “Is there any hope for us” — us people who struggle with doing things we don’t want to do and — often fail to do the things we want to do. Is there any hope for us?
Yes. The gospel — the message of what Jesus has done to set us free — the gospel shows us that part of what it means to be human — is to be in a constant struggle between wanting to do the right thing and yet finding ourselves often doing the opposite — what the Bible calls sin. And part of the honesty of the Christian faith is how it teaches us that we actually can’t avoid hurting others — because — on our own — our hearts are bent towards evil not good. And it’s only when the Spirit of God comes into our lives — rescuing us from this conflict — that we’re able to live in the way that God intends for us — a way that causes no harm to others.
So let’s learn how — in our freedom — let’s learn how to fight.
Alright — fight tip #1 — don’t fight in your flesh. Don’t fight in your flesh. Back to verse 13.
“Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:13-20 ESV)
Fight tip #1 — don’t fight in your flesh. By that — I mean — as Christians we’re not supposed fight this battle in our sinful nature — that old person you used to be — who died — but who’s still sticking around stinking up your life — you know what I’m talking about if you’re a Christian. Don’t fight in your flesh.
Now something you should know about this chapter is that there’s some debate about who Paul’s talking about. What do I mean? We mentioned this a few weeks ago on the podcast, but scholars aren’t sure if Paul is talking about himself — prior to his faith in Jesus — or if he’s referring to himself as a Christian. And the reason for the confusion is that he talked so much about being free from sin’s reign and rule — in chapter 6 — and now it’s like he’s back to being under the reign and rule of sin. So it’s confusing. Paul, are we free like you said in chapter 6 — or are we in a fight — like you’re saying here in chapter 7?
So here’s what I know. I know that Paul isn’t going back on his whole “we’re free from the reign and rule of sin.” He just spent a ton of words arguing in favor of Christians being free — so it doesn’t make sense for him to go back on his word. Also — in the next chapter — he’s going to get back to the freedom that’s ours through faith in Christ. So — chapter 7 — is a bit of a disruption in his talk about freedom — which is why some believe that Paul’s talking about his “pre-coming to faith in Jesus” life.
But my problem — with this chapter being about his life prior to his faith in Jesus — is that what Paul says here is radically different than how he describes himself in his other letters. In Philippians he runs off a resume of religious things he did prior to his faith in Jesus. Sure, he calls it all garbage — but he doesn’t describe any of it as a fight or a struggle against sin. None of this fight — wrestling — war-like — language is in any of his other descriptions of who he was before his faith in Jesus. In fact, it’s after he believes in Jesus that he says things like, “I’m the worst of sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15)
And I think that most Christians can relate to the struggle — the fight against sin — that Paul describes in this chapter. We can feel that we’re in a war — a war for righteousness — where we’re both free from the power of sin and tempted by it at the same time.
So here’s some safe ground — I think — for us to land on with what’s going on in this chapter. For the Christian — Paul’s saying don’t fight in your flesh. You can’t win this fight if you allow sin to influence you — you’ve got to fight with the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit using the Holy Word is a powerful one two punch in this fight we’re in. We’ve got to be people of God’s Word empowered by God’s Spirit.
Yet — something else to consider from these verses — is that someone who isn’t free from the reign and rule of sin — someone — who Paul would say — someone who can only live in the flesh because they don’t have the Holy Spirit in them — well I think Paul’s showing us how hopeless they are in this fight. They have no access to the Spirit’s power to live in a way that honors God. As John Owen said, “A man may easier see without eyes, [or] speak without a tongue, than truly mortify — kill or fight against — one's sin without the Spirit.” (John Owen, The Mortification of Sin (Banner of Truth, 2004), 55.)
So some bad news then some good news.
The bad news is this: Unbelievers have no access to the Spirit’s power that’s needed to survive this fight. And this is why you may know someone who has no concept of sin and the effect it has on them — and though you see the choices they make — the hurt they’ve done to others — the self-inflicted pain they’ve done to themselves — and yet you can’t persuade them that sin exists or is the root of their problem. They’re quick to blame others for the decisions they’ve made or — on some days — they may even own up to their choices but have no solution on how to go forward without repeating the same things over and over again.
So what do we do? Well if you ever find yourself in a conversation with someone like this — where they begin to see that something needs to change — it may be of help to talk about how we’ve all done stuff that’s resulted in things we didn’t mean to happen. We’ve hurt people when we didn’t mean to — that happens. And reflecting on such moments is an opportunity for you to show them that — in your life — you’ve found a reason why you do such things — even when you don’t want to do them — the reason being sin.
So the bad news is that unbelievers have no access to the Spirit’s power. But if you’re watchful — you may find opportunities to share with them the good news: How someone finds freedom from sin.
We find freedom from sin by turning to Christ in faith. Acknowledging that we need to be set free and that we’re unable to free ourselves, and that there is Someone with the power to set us captives free from the power of sin — and that Someone is Jesus. And then — and this is important but something many are reluctant to do — we’ve got to show them that — even for the Christian — life is a fight — it’s a war. And there are things you do — even now — that confound you, frustrate you, even embarrass you. But they don’t define you — Jesus defines you. And that’s what freedom is all about. Being free — not from making mistakes and sinful choices — but being free to admit our mistakes and repent of our sinful choices — being free to not be defined by them — being free to know that we’re loved by God and that nothing can separate us from his love. (See Romans 8:38-39)
But this won’t happen if we fight in our flesh. Fighting in our flesh only leads to failure. And God’s people areto fight by the Spirit. To quote John Owens again, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” When we’re fighting sin — to use Owens words — when we’re killing sin — we’re going after all that is evil, all that desires evil, and all that lures us towards evil. And we go after it like an intolerant, unaccommodating, spiritual assassin. And that kind of fighting only happens by the power of the Spirit of God.
Alright, let’s move on to fight tip #2 — you’ve got to admit your weakness. Back to verse 13 again.
“Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate...18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:13-15, 18 ESV)
Fight tip #2 — you’ve got to admit your weakness. Now — let’s be real — admitting our weakness can be painful. It’s like going through the long — often — painful process of chemotherapy for cancer treatment. It can feel like you’re dying in the process — but ultimately it’s for your good. And — for the Christian — admitting your weakness can be a painful process — especially as God exposes in us the ways in which we have — or are — collaborating with sin. But ultimately it’s all for our good — though painful.
Now obviously not everyone agrees. Some argue that — instead of admitting your weakness — it’s best to give into your weakness. Oscar Wilde said, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it...I can resist everything but temptation.” So — I guess that’s one way to deal with weakness — just give into it — which is why many people think you can and should do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. But we all know what happens when you give into weakness and eat the entire tub of ice cream in one sitting — you end up with a stomach ache. And giving into sin isn’t much different — though — a stomach ache would be on the lighter side of consequences. And though we may not set out or intend to hurt others — in the process — many times others are hurt by actions that we thought were only about us. Someone else was dreaming about enjoying that ice cream all day long and now there’s no ice cream left for them — and you can’t even go pick some up — and make things right — because your stomach is aching so badly.
But back to more serious matters — what’s an example of something that people have given into these days — cause it’s probably worse than eating too much ice cream? Yeah — it’s worse. A few years ago, one Christian website surveyed 8,000 of its readers. (Phillip Holmes, “A Safe Place for Sexual Sinners,” desiringgod.com, January 7, 2016, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/a-safe-place-for-sexual-sinners) The study found that sexual sin — especially ongoing porn use — is one of the greatest threats to thriving vibrant Christian living. The study found that many Christians, especially young singles, are discouraged and defeated in their fight to overcome sexual sin. The article states that, “Many are so overwhelmed they simply give up...they give into their sin, stop reading their Bibles, stop sharing the gospel, and eventually stop attending corporate worship. Some come back, but many don’t because they can’t imagine a God who is faithful and just and willing to cleanse them of all unrighteousness.” (Phillip Holmes, “A Safe Place for Sexual Sinners,” desiringgod.com, January 7, 2016, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/a-safe-place-for-sexual-sinners)
Others caught up in sexual sin simply stop believing in God altogether or create a god that approves of their sinful lifestyle — a god who loves them just the way they are — something we looked at a few weeks ago.
Now here’s where there’s a disconnect between the Christian faith and what many people expect to experience — and unfortunately — have experienced in the church. Many who struggle with sexual sin think that Christianity has nothing to offer them but bad news — guilt and shame and condemnation. No matter what their struggle is, many feel helpless in their fight against sexual sin. And many feel unsafe to admit their struggles to other Christians as they expect to be judged instead of to be loved. They expect to hear more bad news from us instead of Good News.
And it’s not just those who struggle with sexual sin — people are lonely and wanting to belong somewhere. They feel isolated and alone — and when they think of the church they may not feel that it’s safe to bring all of who they are through the doors of our buildings. Maybe you can relate to this. Whether out of guilt or shame or fear — you’ve felt that you’ve needed to hide who you are because “who knows what will happen if someone actually knows what I’m struggling with?”
Or maybe you think that other Christians don’t struggle with sin — because no one talks about it — so you’re hesitant to share what’s going on in your life. If this is you, please don’t give us that much credit — we’re all a mess — we’re all in a fight — dealing with inner conflict — struggling against temptation — and part of what it means to be a community of faith is that we admit our weaknesses and help each other follow Jesus.
As Rosaria Butterfield has said, “The ideal church is a church where everybody is repenting publicly of something. The ideal church is where people are saying, ‘I struggle with this, and I don’t want it to define me, but I need you to cover my back in prayer. I struggle. I fail...and I want to struggle in the Lord.’ That is the ideal church.” (Phillip Holmes, “A Safe Place for Sexual Sinners,” desiringgod.com, January 7, 2016, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/a-safe-place-for-sexual-sinners) A church full of people who admit their weaknesses.
And though it can be common for a church to be a place where people are expected to leave at home the things they’re struggling with — resulting in a community of fake people pretending to live fake lives where everything’s fine — how about we exit off of that highway of shallowness and be a church where it’s safe to admit our weakness? A church that’s safe for the addicts, the screw ups, the hypocrites, the self-centered know it alls, a safe place for God’s weak people to help one another in this journey of following Jesus.
Finally — fight tip #3 — you’ve got to know how to use the law. One last time — verse 13.
“Did that which is good (the law), then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.” (Romans 7:13 ESV)
Fight tip #3 — you’ve got to know how to use the law. Paul refuses to blame the law for his sin. The law is a good gift from God to us — he says. And — in being a good gift from God — the law exposes in us — our sinful nature — things that are bad.
I’ve shared before that I was born with a heart abnormality. Every other year — or so — I go in for a scan of my heart — sometimes an echo — sometimes a CT scan. And do you know what the scans reveals every single time? That my heart isn’t good — it has an abnormality.
Now does that make the machines that scan my heart evil or bad? No! The machines are good things. They reveal to my heart doc if there are any changes to my abnormality that need to be addressed. Sure, it’s a stressful time when I go in for the tests as I wonder if this is going to be the scan that reveals things have taken a turn for the worse — but that doesn’t make the machines bad. The machines that scan my heart don’t make my heart have an abnormality. They just reveal something about my heart that’s already there and isn’t good.
And similarly — the law — something good — reveals sin in our lives just like the CT scan reveals that my heart is abnormal. And God’s law is a resource to us — but you have to take advantage of it for it to be helpful in your life — you have to take advantage of the law — and use it — if you want it to be a resource to help you fight. A CT scan machine does me no good if I don’t go in and have it scan my heart. And the same is true with God’s law.
The law is meant to show us God’s holy nature, our sinful hearts, and our need of a Savior. But if we don’t take advantage of how the law does this in our lives — revealing to us how holy, and righteous, and awesome, and loving, and powerful our God is — and how sinful and rebellious and independently minded to an eternally damnable fault we are — thus — we all need Jesus — if we don’t allow God’s law to reveal these things to us then we’ll never tap into the resources that are ours in this fight. What resources?
The life changing reality that we’re loved by the God who is holy, righteous, awesome, and powerful in spite of our sinful, rebellious, and independently minded “God I don’t need you — I got this” deserving of eternal punishment — caught up in a “live and let live” philosophy of life. And God’s love for us is most visibly displayed to us in Jesus Christ — the One who came to save those independently minded “live and let live” people who think they know how to not harm each other — while we ignore the fact that we found a way to murder the only good person who ever lived.
And we won’t ever tap into these kind of deeply rich resources — that are available to us — if we don’t allow the law to be an active part of our life — using it to show us who God is, who we are, and that we all need Jesus to be our Savior.
We’re all in a fight. But are we all fighting? And if you are fighting, are you fighting in your flesh or fighting by God’s Spirit? Are we admitting our weakness or creating a culture where weaknesses have to be kept hidden? And are we using the law to fight or are we ignoring the law and approving any and everything — as long as we think we’re not hurting others? “Be killing sin,” John Owens said, “Or sin will be killing you.” This is how we fight. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us all that we need to fight against sin and to live in the freedom that you’ve given us. Spirit, lead, guide, and direct us so we fight not in our flesh — but by your power and your presence that is with and in us. Help us to be humble, admitting our weaknesses, not pretending that things are fine when things are not fine — but where we’re becoming more like the ideal church — where we’re saying to one another, “I’m struggling with this, and I don’t want it to define me — I want Jesus to define me — so I need you to cover my back in prayer.”
And Father, Son, and Spirit help us to use your law in this fight. Help us to use all of your Word — the Bible — to show us who you are, who we are, and why we need Jesus to be our Savior. I pray this — not only for those of us who believe — but I pray that your Word would not return void today — and that someone hearing my voice — hearing your Word — would be given spiritual eyes to see who you are, who they are, and their need for Jesus to set them free. And that they would receive your gift of salvation and that today they would begin to live for you.
It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray all of these things. Amen.
BENEDICTION (PRAY FOR: weak and in need of strength)
May you go fighting — not in your flesh — but in the power of the Spirit of God. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
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