In this sermon, Pastor Steve Hopkins focuses on Romans 7:12-16, discussing the role of the law in revealing human depravity and the internal conflict experienced by Christians. He explains how the Holy Spirit uses the law to convict us of our sin, and how the Apostle Paul's personal experience demonstrates this process. The sermon emphasizes the difference between believers and unbelievers in terms of their motivations for obedience and their relationship to the law. Believers, though no longer under the dominion of sin, still have remnants of corruption within them that cause a constant battle against the flesh. This internal conflict is indicative of a true Christian experience and serves as evidence of one's salvation.

Welcome back to Barnett Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Good morning. Let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Romans once again, the seventh chapter, where, Lord willing, we will be picking up with verse 12 and working through verse 16. And if you would stand with me for the reading of the word of the Lord. Let's read together verses 12 through 16. 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. With 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 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. Let's pray. Father, Lord, we just continue to worship you, Lord, this morning. Lord, we continue to seek your face. And Lord, we continue to ask that you would, by your spirit, do a work in the hearts and the lives of your people, God, as we seek in the study of your word to bring glory to your name and the advancement of the kingdom of your son. It's in his name we pray these things. Amen. Let's be seated. So in our last session, we found the apostle Paul, you may remember, addressing a possible objection to his teaching concerning the law. You remember his treatment of the law has been rather negative in tone. And the apostle did not want anyone to come away thinking that he was in any way devaluing the law because he had shown the effect of the law on fallen man, because he had talked about how the motions of sin or the passions, the sinful passions in those who are outside of Christ are aroused and stirred up by the prohibitions of the law and that they actually therefore end up sinning more. So he said, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Should we conclude that the law itself is evil? He dealt with that to which the apostle Paul responded as he so often responds to misconceptions concerning his doctrine. God forbid. God forbid that anyone would conclude that. God forbid anyone would conclude such a thing. And then he explained, he said, look, basically said, look, I wouldn't have known sin, but by the law. And he was saying the law not only defined sin for me, but it also revealed the depth of the depravity of sin in me. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Paul says there's nothing wrong with the law. There's something wrong with us, deep within us. And the law simply reveals it. As I said in our last session, the apostle Paul is speaking from experience here. This is his personal experience. This is his testimonial. And Paul says, is saying, look, I'm a case in point here. I'm a case in point here. I myself wouldn't have understood, for instance, what lust is, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. And he's saying it was, he was saying it was this, the commandment, the 10th commandment specifically whereby I first became aware of the depth of my depravity. When I first understood that sin lies deeper than externals, than the external act, that sin is actually entrenched deep within the heart of man and sin is deeply entrenched in my heart. And I can't obey from the heart the law of God as the law of God requires perfectly. And of course, Paul was no stranger to the law. Out of his own mouth, he says that he was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He knew the law, but he never understood it like this until the Holy Spirit brought it with force and power upon his conscience. And that's the same with every one of us. His experience is the experience of every Christian. The Spirit of God must take the Word of God and wield it, the sword of the Spirit, upon the heart of man before he is changed. Paul comes to understand things concerning the law that he did not understand before when the Holy Spirit brings the law with force and with power upon his conscience. And I said last week, probably this was on the road to Damascus, either just before, during, or after his encounter with Christ. But every Pharisee should have understood this because the law doesn't just say, as I said last week, don't steal your neighbor's stuff, don't commit adultery with your neighbor's wife. The law says don't covet your neighbor's stuff and don't desire your neighbor's wife or anything your neighbor has. Don't even desire it. And that is talking about something beyond the externals that the Pharisees were concerned with. It was talking about heart sin, evil desires and passions within the hearts of men that are already sin even before they're acted upon. By God's grace, the Apostle Paul being brought to a right understanding of the law, and here specifically the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet, Paul came face to face with the deep, dark reality of his miserable condition. And brothers and sisters, if a person doesn't come face to face with the deep, dark reality of their miserable condition, they will not have any reason to flee to Christ for refuge from the wrath to come. Paul, as I said, was in his former life apart from Christ, the Pharisee, and the Pharisees, like many Christians, or professing Christians in our world today, wash the outside of the cup, but they leave the inside of the cup full of wickedness. The Pharisees washed the outside of the cup, but they cared nothing about the filthiness on the inside. But the tenth commandment, specifically the tenth commandment of the law being used by the Holy Spirit was what revealed that to the Apostle Paul. The Holy Spirit was obviously working on Paul's heart through the law to bring him to the knowledge of the depravity of his sinful condition and lost state before God. That sin lies deeper than the outward act. That it is an internal thing. And every one of us who are believers understands that. And those who are not truly believers have no idea what the Apostle Paul is talking about, or what I'm talking about right now. It is an internal thing. It is a thing, sin is a thing deeply entrenched within the hearts and the minds of men. And he realized that it was deeply entrenched within his own heart. And apparently it was then, when the law was brought with force and power upon his conscience, that he realized that this was a law he was unable to keep. Outward things, that's easy. In front of people, let's do your stuff. Don't worry about that, I'm not going to touch your stuff. Yeah, that guy's really good. I'm not going after your wife. But that's not what God revealed to him through the law. Outward sin, very desire, the very desire itself is sin. And I think the Apostle Paul was awakened to the reality that he couldn't keep that. Couldn't do it. No there's no evil in the law. The evil is in us. Our fallen condition is the issue. There's nothing wrong with the law. There's something wrong with us. And it is the law by which God reveals that to us. What Paul was blind to before, his eyes were now open to see. And again, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. The law, when it is used right, that's a good thing. Because the result was that Paul came to realize how dreadful his condition was. The law of God reveals the holy character and righteousness of God and shows us just how far we fall short of that righteousness. And how absolutely helpless we are to attain unto a righteousness acceptable to God by human effort. Paul teaches this throughout Romans. But when the Spirit of God uses the law of God to reveal our sin and convict us of our sin and awaken our consciences to the realization that we are doomed apart from Christ, that's a good thing. That's a very good thing. And then Paul went on in verse 8, that though the law is good, yeah the law is good, sin perverted that good use of the law. And again, he's speaking from personal experience. All of this is his testimonial. And he says, look, sin, this is my experience, sin took opportunity by the commandment, Paul says, to work in me all kinds of bad stuff. All kinds of concupiscence. Some word translated covetousness, lust. Sin took the law, the law which is holy and just and good, and it used it to provoke evil desires within me. And sin sprang to life in me. This is his experience. Sin came alive in me. I was alive before that. At least I thought I was. In my own estimation, I was alive, he said. I wasn't under any conviction of sin. I wasn't plagued with guilt. I was alive as far as I could tell apart from the law. As I said last week, Paul had an acceptable code of behavior like all unbelievers do. Paul's saying I was comfortable living according to my own standard of righteousness apart from the true knowledge of the law. I was a happy camper before the law came in, came along with force and power, bringing guilt to my conscience that before I was resting peacefully, I was alive apart from the law, or at least I thought I was. And then the law came in and reigned on my parade. What Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit began to use the law as it should be used, not in the way sin uses the law, arousing sinful passions in the unregenerate, but in the way God uses the law upon all those and with all those whom he has chosen. And the law was used to bring conviction, he's saying, upon my heart and guilt upon my conscience. And that's a good thing. But of course, sin revived in me. Sin revived in me. That's a good thing. The guilt of sin came alive within me. That's a good thing, folks. Those who are guilty should feel guilty. And he says the response, my response, or what happened as a result of that is I died. And then I died. That is, I realized I was a dead man. He's not saying he fell down dead, his heart stopped beating. I realized I was a dead man, dead in trespasses and sins. And it devastated me. No way out for the Pharisee. It left me in ruins, helpless and hopeless, with as much strength to help myself as a dead man. I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life. I found to bring death. I was trusting in the commandment. I kept all these things outwardly. And then the law comes along, rains on my parade, exposes, because the Spirit of God is using it, exposes what's going on inside of me. Guilt comes upon me. The commandment that I thought was going to bring life, I found brought death to me. The commandment I thought would be the way to life eternal turned out to be the way of death eternal. Not because there was some defect in the law, but because there was a defect in me. I couldn't keep it. Sin taking opportunity by the commandment deceived me, he says, if you follow along in chapter 7. It slew me. It deceived me and by it, slew me. I was awakened to the reality that I was a walking dead man. Dead in trespasses and sins and in need of a righteousness that was unattainable to me by all my human effort. Again, Paul's saying, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. No, the law's not evil. Verse 12 says the law is holy, the commandment holy, just and good. The law didn't bring death to me. It was sin that was the cause of my spiritual death. It was sin producing death in me through God's good law. And I came to see sin for what it is. The apostle says exceeding sinful. And as we pick up with verse 14, we all need to take notice of something here. In verse 14, and this is difficult because of his wording here to understand and comprehend everything he's saying going forward because in verse 14, Paul goes from past tense language to present tense language. That's what I was. This is unregenerate stuff in the past. Now I'm talking in the present state as a redeemed, regenerate, born again believer in Jesus Christ. And look what he says. He begins now to speak of his experience as one who has been redeemed. One who has been regenerated. One who has been justified on the side of God. A saved man. One who has been saved. And he says, here's what we know. Who? Believers. Christians. Here's what we know. Well, here's what we know. I love it. Here's what we know. We know that the law is spiritual. We know that the law is not just dead letters written on tables of stone. Christians know that. Like all the scriptures, the law is a part of the Word of God and the Word of God is quick and powerful. It's alive. It's living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it divides things. And it is a discerner of even the inmost thoughts and intentions of our hearts. We know this. We know the law is spiritual. And as the law reflects the holy character of God, who's perfectly holy, it reveals to the Christian just how far, short, we continually fall of the righteousness of God. I think what Paul is saying in verse 14 is this, and I'll tell you what, there's a lot of controversy over this down through the ages. I don't have time to go through all the different positions, but I'll give you my position. I think what Paul is saying in verse 14 is this, we who are believers know, that is we understand that the law is spiritual, that is it reveals God's standard to which every Christian is to conform. We know that. But I recognize, Paul says, that an internal conflict began in me the day of my conversion. And so he admits of a dilemma that though the law is spiritual and that it reveals the standard to which I as a Christian am to conform, I recognize the conflict because though I desire with all my heart to conform to the law in every way, I also realize that I am carnal in the sense that the remnants of my fallen nature are still residing within me. And I am sold under sin, not in the sense that I'm once again enslaved by sin as I was before I was born again, but in the sense of being I'm now disabled by indwelling sin from doing what I sincerely want to do. And that's proven, I believe, my interpretation here in the following verse, which we'll get to in a moment. I'm sold under sin, not in the sense that I am once again enslaved by sin as I was before I was born again. Apostle Paul has already said that ain't going to happen. It's not going to have dominion over you. But in the sense of being disabled by indwelling sin from doing what I sincerely internally now want to do in the renewed nature that God has given me, which is to keep God's law perfectly from the heart. There are those that interpret this and they say, well, Paul's just saying the believers just like the unbelievers. They're carnal. They're sold under sin. They're enslaved to sin. No. Read on. Read before and read after. No, he's already dealt with those issues. The remnants of corruption, he's saying, within me are continually attempting to re-enslave me. And that sense sold under sin, not sold out to sin like Ahab, sold under sin. Dr. Sproul comments here that Paul is recognizing that, quote, the carnal disposition of his original nature is not destroyed. Close quote. There's still something here that has to be dealt with in the life of the Christian. We're not perfected and we're not going to be perfected until the day we die or Christ returns. The remnants of corruption remain in believers and every believer experiences that and understands that. Though we are no longer under the dominion of sin, sin is still in us. How many know that? We're not under the dominion of sin, but sin is still residing in us and there is a conflict. There is an ongoing battle. And the Apostle Paul recognizes this in himself and he agonizes over it and so do you and so do I, if you're a believer. We agonize over it, don't we? Every mature Christian agonizes over the conflict that is going on within. Is that your experience? Paul understands that carnal leanings and pleadings from within continue to war against the new nature and tug at us, at the new man within us and the new nature that we were given by God the day we were born again. Paul understands that though he desires to live a life of perfect obedience to Christ, an internal conflict with his flesh is an ongoing reality. And every one of us knows that to be true, who is truly saved. And the ones who are not saved got no idea what I'm talking about. The Christian fights a three-front war. You've heard me talk about this before, right? We're fighting on a three-front war, right? Anybody know what the fronts are? We're fighting a three-front war. Thank you. The world, the flesh, and the devil. And the apostle is talking here in this chapter about the front called the flesh. That's what he's talking about. This is the flesh front that every one of us who are true believers are fighting on. And no Christian is exempted from combat duty on this front. MacArthur comments here, though believers are not still in the flesh, the flesh is still in them. The apostle will tell us in no uncertain terms in the next chapter in verse 9 that we are not in the flesh. That's the word he's going to use. Not carnal. Same words maybe in your Bible where he uses the word carnal for flesh. We're not in the flesh, he's going to tell us, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God indwells you. Remember he says, chapter 8, verse 9, that is if we're truly Christians and if any man, if we're truly Christians, if the Spirit of God indwells us, we're not in the flesh. We're not completely carnal and living in carnality and living in the flesh in the state that we were born in. But he says, if any man doesn't have the Spirit of God indwelling him, if any man is not born of the Spirit, if any man is not regenerated, born of God, he doesn't belong to God. He does not belong to God. But those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God begin more and more to reflect the holy character of God as seen in Christ and as revealed in the law of God. Paul says the law is spiritual, that is, it's the standard to which we who are born of the Spirit should conform, but we still have the flesh to deal with. That's what he's saying there, that's all he's saying there. We still have the flesh to deal with. We still have the flesh with all its carnal pleadings and urgings to deal with. And of course, again, the apostle is saying that he is completely carnal here. How many have heard of the doctrine of the so-called carnal Christian? There's no such thing as a carnal Christian. That's a contradiction of terms. It's a fiction. The so-called carnal Christian is no Christian at all. And only those who want to excuse their carnality defend that unbiblical misinterpretation of this passage. We know that the apostle is not saying that he's completely carnal. I'm completely carnal and I'm enslaved to sin. He's not saying that, right? How do we know that? Because later in chapter 8, verse 7, he says the carnal mind is enmity against God. And that's not the state in which the apostle Paul is. So far from being enmity with God, the apostle Paul wants nothing more than to serve God with all his being. We've seen it throughout this book. And the apostle is no longer a slave of sin. We know that because back in chapter 6, verses 14 and 17 and 18, he told us that we as Christians have been set free from our former condition of absolute bondage and dominion to sin, slavery. That's not what he's talking about there, is it? See, scripture must be interpreted by scripture. Difficult passages are to be interpreted in proper biblical hermeneutics and exegesis is to, an interpretation, is to interpret a difficult passage in light of all the other scripture to be found concerning that passage or that topic or that issue. No. We've been set free from our former condition of absolute bondage and dominion of sin and are become the servants of God and of righteousness. Paul explains this. He explains what he's talking about in verse 14 of our text today more fully as he goes on in verse 15. So let's look at that. Goes on in verse 15. We know it's an explanation because he says four. Four. Okay, so this is what I said. Now here's what I'm talking about. Okay, for that which I do, I allow not. That is, being now in Christ and born of the Spirit, the carnal and sinful things I sometimes do I allow not. That is, I don't approve of them. I don't approve of them. Why? He approves of the law. He agrees with the law that the law is good and in that he condemns himself. But the things that I sometimes do that trouble me when I do them, I don't approve of those things. I don't approve. I allow not. And he's talking about the internal conflict every true believer experiences and that's his experience as well. You're walking down the same, we're walking down the same path as the Apostle Paul. That's a good path to be on. When you look at the Apostle Paul, you say, his experience is my experience. That's a good thing. There's some evidence there. Maybe I need to be more assured of my salvation. Yeah. Yeah. Paul is saying there's now a conflict going on with sin in my life. There's now a spiritual battle going on inside of me. And that is something that did not exist when I was in the flesh apart from Christ. Calvin comments here, quote, this conflict. This is the conflict, folks. Might as well change the name of the sermon. So the conflict, let's just call this the conflict. He says this conflict, Calvin says, of which the apostle speaks does not exist in man before he is renewed by the spirit of God. Close quote. There's no battle. There's no battle in the life of those who are not true believers. The conflict begins the day God's work begins in the Christian. The moment that he is born again, born from above with life from above, regenerated, raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, given a new heart with new desires and spiritual understanding in short, the day God saves a person and makes him or her a new creature in Christ Jesus, his son, period. That's when the conflict begins. There's no conflict before that. You've heard me say it before. Every attempt at obedience apart from Christ before a person is born of God has its root in self. It's a self thing. Self. Every attempt by an unsaved person to obey God's law in any form is rooted in self love, self satisfaction, self ambition, and self righteousness. And never out of never, never out of love for God, never for the honor of his holy name and never in humble gratitude to God. There's a world of difference between the self centered motivations of those outside of Christ and the God centered motivations of those whom God has changed from the inside out by a work of his saving grace. And the apostle expresses it here in our text. He says, speaking as one who is now in Christ, the good things I would do, I really want to do. I don't do as as I would do. And then the carnal things and fleshly things, things that I know are wrong, things that I now hate with all my heart that I do. It's a lamentation, brothers and sisters, and he agonizes over it. And so does every one of you who is truly in Christ. He says that which I don't approve of that I find myself doing many times. And the things I do approve of, I don't do like I want to. And look at this, but the things I hate, the things God's law condemns, things that I find myself doing so many times I hate. It's an agonizing conflict that every mature Christian can relate to. I don't do what I want to do. I do so many times things that I hate and he agonizes over it. And we need to grasp the contrast here. The unbeliever who has never been given a new heart with new desires either does all he or she does for self-centered reasons, as I just mentioned, or he goes through life trying to keep himself from doing the things he really loves to do. Please grasp this. Understand what I'm saying. Unbelievers, they're either obey for self-centered reasons or they go through life trying to to keep themselves from doing the things they really want to do. The apostle Paul saying, I'm doing things I hate to do. See the difference? I'm being drawn to do things I absolutely hate. I don't want to say that. I hate to say that. I hate to think that. I hate to do that. And I'm drawn to do it. And sometimes I do. And he agonizes over it. The unbeliever, I'm going to keep myself away from the things that I really love to do. See the difference? He loves it. Calvin says they love their sin. Apostle Paul says, teaches it. The apostle Paul says he hates the sin he finds himself doing. There is a difference between being drawn to do things one hates to do and restraining oneself from doing the things he loves to do. You just trying to keep yourself back from doing the things you really want to do? Oh boy, I'd do that if I could. That's not a good sign. Oh, I just love that. I'm not going to do that sin because it could impair my estate, ruin my relationships, mess up my finances. No. Love of sin? I'm just restraining myself from the things that I love, the sinful things I really want to do, love to do. Not a good sign. Not a good sign. No, he's being drawn to do things he hates to do. I'm not trying to keep myself from doing things and saying things that I love to say and do. I'm being drawn away by the remnants of corruption within me, Paul is saying, to do things and think things and say things that I hate to think and say and do. I don't do the things I want. Not what I want in the inner man, the new creation, the new nature that God's given me. I do the things I hate so many times, the apostle is saying, and it troubles him to the depths of his soul. The apostle is recounting not only his personal experience, as I said before, but the experience of every person who has ever known and will ever know Christ. Is that your experience? Is his experience your experience? He's talking about the ongoing struggle between the flesh and the spirit that is a struggle of every true believer. And that conflict is initiated the moment every person is united to Christ by faith. Save people are engaged in a very real, ongoing war with the flesh, with the remnants of corruption and carnality that remain within them. And if you're a believer here today, you identify with everything Paul is saying. You felt it, you've experienced it, and you experience it every day of your life as sin seeks to rule you as it did before you were saved. And if you're not saved, on the other hand, you've got no idea whatsoever what the apostle is talking about. Like what's he talking about? I don't even know what he's talking about. You have to be spiritualized to see. You have to have been raised from death to life. The unregenerate are either comfortable in their sin or they're continually making excuses for their sin or they have no real sight of their sin at all. And they all love their sin and would never dream of parting with it. There's no conflict with sin in unbelievers because the unbeliever does not have the spirit. He's never been born of the spirit from above. He's not regenerate. There's no holy affections implanted in the heart. So there's no battle lines drawn, no ongoing war, no ongoing war, no conflict, no internal conflict, no battle with depraved lusts. In Galatians 5.17, Paul tells us that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. The two are set against each other. There's an ongoing conflict because the two are contrary one to the other. They oppose one another and there's no greater agreement between the two than there is, quote, between fire and water, in the words of Calvin. Paul is addressing the internal conflict that exists within him and within all those who have been raised from spiritual death to life. And he says, look, the law is holy. It's just, it's good. It reflects the holy character of God, which every true believer, every truly regenerated person pursues and begins to be incrementally conformed to the moment they're converted. But yet at the same time, he acknowledges the internal conflict within dwelling sin and the remnants of corruption within. And he says, I still have carnal longings and sinful passions tugging at me and continually attempting to drag me into the sin I was originally sold under and which I now hate. And which I now hate. He knows he's been set free from the bondage of sin as every believer. And he thanked God for it back in chapter six. But here he addresses the ongoing conflict. How the old man, the old master by whom he was formerly enslaved, continually attempts to reascend the throne of his heart and rule his life as he did before he came in to union with Christ. It is the apostle's admission of the ongoing struggle with the flesh, with indwelling sin in believers that every true believer is engaged in from the moment of his conversion until the day he enters the gates of heaven. That's what he's describing. Sproul, if we come to our close here, writes, we are a people of mixed desires, which is why life does not really become complicated until we're born again. Before we were born again, we only had one principle, the flesh. We walked willingly and happily, submitting to the temptations of Satan. But once the Holy Spirit has raised us from spiritual death, our lives become a battle between two jockeys. To use Augustine's analogy, and I'll just parenthesis this here, that what he's describing there, what he's talking about here is the analogy, St. Augustine's analogy of one jockey or horse rider continually trying to get back on the horse that it was formerly riding on and it was formerly directing the reins of. And though it's been thrown off the horse's back, it keeps trying to get back in the saddle and take control of the reins again. That's Augustine's analogy concerning what we're talking about right here. People trying to get back on the horse, trying to not get away from it. This rider's running along nice to you. He wants to get back on the horse. He was on it before. He was directing the reins and everything. Not anymore, not letting him back on. No, and he'll never get back on and throw you off for sure, but you're going to fight with him. Anyways, this scroll goes on, but Satan does not give up easily. How many know that? The flesh does not die instantly. Life becomes complicated because we are involved in a war. A war that penetrates the very deepest recesses of our souls and lasts until our glorification in heaven. This is, as I've been saying, the universal experience among Christians and it is what the apostle is talking about. It's the universal experience. If you say, it's not my experience, you're not saved. Is that your experience? I would ask everyone today, if you're truly a child of God, you'd have to say yes. The old man was thrown off the horse, was thrown off the horse the day I was born again, the day I was born from above and given a new heart with new desires and the old man is no longer in control of the horse. Sin's no longer on the throne of my heart and will never again gain complete control again but the battle of two jockeys has begun. I've been given a new nature. The believer will say, I've been given a new nature, I've been given a new heart with new desires, I want to serve God, I want to serve with all my heart, I have a passionate desire to serve God with my whole heart but at the same time I experience the agonizing conflict of internal desires that are contrary to my new nature and contrary to the Spirit and contrary to God's law trying to bring me back into bondage again. If that's you, praise God. If that's you, praise God. You're walking in the footsteps of an apostle, the apostle of apostles, the apostle Paul. If that's your experience, you're experiencing the same thing the apostle Paul experienced. You're going through the same thing that Paul went through. That's alright, isn't it? It's the experience of every true believer and it's a sign that God is at work within you. Philippians chapter one and verse six says, he that has begun a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus and this is evidence that he began a good work in you and that he's continuing it. So be encouraged and praise God for your salvation and your ongoing sanctification. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you for your word. Oh God, we identify with the apostle Paul here. We see, Lord, this same conflict going on within us and we thank you, God, that it's there. We would rather be free, completely free of any temptation or any desires to sin, Lord, but we know by your word, through your word, Lord, that this conflict is going to continue until the day we enter the gates of heaven. And Lord, we thank you for your spirit whom you have given us, Lord, to help us to mortify sin in our lives and to resist temptation and to conform us more and more to the image of your son. We thank you, God. Lord, we just thank you for the salvation we have in Christ Jesus and the work that you've begun in our lives, which we know, according to your word, you will continue until the day that you bring us home to be with Jesus. And it's in his name we pray these things. Amen.