In his sermon, Pastor Steve Hopkins discusses Romans 7, focusing on the internal conflict believers face between their spiritual desires and the remnants of their sinful nature. He explains how Paul transitions from past to present tense to highlight the ongoing struggle Christians experience after conversion. Despite being set free from the dominion of sin, believers must contend with the flesh and indwelling sin. Pastor Hopkins emphasizes that this struggle is a sign of spiritual life and that true Christians will experience a battle against the world, flesh, and the devil. He reassures believers with the promise that God will complete the work He has begun in them, citing Philippians 1:6 as a guarantee of their eventual glorification.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. Good morning again. Stand with me and turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans once again Some call it the gospel of Romans chapter 7 and let's read together Actually, let's begin reading with verse 16 and we'll read through verse 20 together Read along with me if you will. 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.

Let's pray. Father, we are grateful for your word. We're grateful for the truth of your word, for the light, oh God, that it gives to us for our path. Lord, we're grateful for the instruction of your word, and we're asking, Lord, that you would once again take your word and use it in a special way in the lives of your people, oh God, by your Spirit, oh Lord, for your glory and the advancement of the kingdom of your Son and the building up and edification of your church. For we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Let's be seated. When we arrived at verse 14 in our last session in review, I said that we need to take notice of something here in verse 14 before we go forward. How many remember what that was? We need to remember something before we go forward. I see a few hands here.

In verse 14, Paul goes, if you'll open your Bibles and look at verse 14, Paul goes from past-tense language to present-tense language. He goes from talking about his experience, his personal experience before Christ, before he was born again of the Spirit, to his experience as a believer, as a person who has now been redeemed, as one who has been regenerated, as one who has been justified, as one who has been saved. And he started off by saying, here's what we know. Okay, here's what we know. Here's what we as Christians know or understand.

We know that the law is spiritual. How many remember this from our last session? We know that the law is spiritual. We who are believers, who are born of the Spirit, understand that the law is spiritual in the sense that it reveals the standard to which we, who are born of the Spirit, are to conform. But then he goes on to speak of the conflict, and we really delved into this last week.

He goes on to say, but look, I am involved, he says, in an agonizing, ongoing, internal battle because I'm carnal. I understand that the law is spiritual. It reveals to me the standard to which I as a believer born of the Spirit am to conform, but I'm carnal. Not in the sense of being completely carnal as he was in the unregenerate state, but in the sense that he still had the remnants of his fallen nature within him to deal with as every Christian, as everyone here today, and everyone who has ever lived, who has been in Christ. And Paul said, I'm sold under sin.

Not in the sense that he was sold out to sin, as we read of Ahab in the Old Testament, who was unregenerate, but in the sense that he was disabled by indwelling sin from doing what he sincerely wanted to do, which was to keep God's law perfectly with his whole heart. How many have been involved in that conflict, internal conflict? You want to do God's law perfectly, I want to do what he wants me to do perfectly, but somehow I'm disabled By something that is within me and that's something within every one of us who is a believer that Disables us from doing what we would do which is to keep God's law perfectly, is called indwelling sin, the flesh. And brothers and sisters, as I said in our last session, this is Paul's testimonial. This is autobiographical.

This is a man speaking from experience and his experience is the experience of every true child of God the remnants of the corrupt nature the remnants of who we were and what we were in Adam remains in us as believers. We've been changed. We've been changed throughout. We've been renewed throughout. We have a renewed nature.

We're no longer enslaved by sin. We're no longer under the dominion of sin, we've been set free by Christ, but sin is still in us. How many understand that? Sin is still in you as a believer, and we must fight against that sin, and we will if we're truly believers. Christ is in us now, but sin is also in us.

The Apostle Paul recognizes this in himself, and he agonizes over it just as every mature Christian does. The late Dr. Sproul comments on this passage that Paul recognized, quote, that the carnal disposition of his original nature was not destroyed. The carnal disposition of his original nature was not destroyed." Paul understood that carnal leanings and pleadings within him continued to war against the nature he was given by God the day he was born again. And Paul understood that though he desired to live a life of perfect obedience to Christ, internal conflict with His flesh was an ongoing and disturbing reality, as it is for every one of us who is in Christ and is involved in this conflict.

The Apostle's testimony, again, is the testimony of every believer. It is His testimony, and if you are a believer, it is your testimony. It is what He experienced, and if you're a believer, it is what you are experiencing. And if you're not experiencing it, then you're probably not in Christ. There is a conflict.

Though believers are not still in the flesh, as MacArthur puts it, the flesh is still in us. And I said in our last session, the Christian fights on a three-front war every day of his life. How many remember? We're fighting A three-front war every day of our life on earth. A war against the world, a war against the flesh, and a war against the devil.

And the apostle Paul is talking here in chapter 7 about the front called the flesh. That's what he's dealing with. As I said last week, no Christian is exempted from combat duty on this front. The apostle will tell us in no uncertain terms in the next chapter when we get into verse 9 of chapter 8, that we are not in the flesh, quote, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God indwells us.

That is, if we're truly Christians. And you will tell us that if any man does not have the Spirit of God, doesn't have the Spirit of God indwelling him, if he's never been regenerated and raised from death to life by the Spirit of God and has the indwelling Spirit of God, if any man is not born of the Spirit, if he's not regenerated, born of God, he is none of his, capital H. That is, he does not belong to God. So Paul told us in verse 14, the law is spiritual, which is to say that the law is the standard to which we who are born of the Spirit should conform, but that we still have the flesh to deal with. We've still got this body of death.

We've still got this, the carnal pleadings and urgings of Indwelling sin within us continually Warring against the spirit and continually attempting to draw us back into sin And I said last week of course the Apostle Paul when he says I am carnal isn't saying he's completely carnal The doctrine of the so-called carnal Christian is a fiction. How many have picked up that book? It is a fiction. There is no such thing as a completely carnal Christian. The so-called carnal Christian is no Christian at all, and only those who want to excuse a life of continual carnality defend that unbiblical misinterpretation of this passage.

We know that Paul is not saying that he's completely carnal because he says later In chapter 8 and verse 7, the carnal mind is what? Inmity against God. It's in an enemy state against God, and the apostle Paul is not there. So far from being in enmity with God, the apostle wants nothing more than to serve God with all his being. We also know that the apostle is no longer a slave of sin as he was in the unregenerate state.

And we know that because back in chapter 6, in verse 14, and verse 17, and verse 18, he told us that we as Christians have been set free. We've been set free from our former bondage, our former condition of absolute bondage and dominion under sin, and that we become the servants of God and of righteousness by a work of God. But such is the conflict. Such is the conflict. We know that the law is the standard to which we should live who are born of the Spirit, those who are born of the Spirit.

This is the standard to which we should conform, and we want to conform, we want to keep the law, but we still have the flesh to deal with, with all its carnal pleadings and urgings." We found the apostle explaining what he was talking about in verse 14 more fully in verse 15 when he said, connecting it to verse 14, for that which I do, I allow not. That is, being now in Christ, being now born of the Spirit, and having been given a new heart and new desires, the carnal and sinful things I sometimes do, I don't approve of anymore. I don't allow, the KJV says. I don't approve of these things. I don't allow for that.

I'm on the side of the law, Paul is saying. I'm now on the side of the law. I love God's law. I know that it's good and it's just and it's holy. I want to keep it." And he's expressing this agonizing internal conflict that every true believer experiences.

He's saying, this is my experience. And if you're a believer, it's your experience also. And it is my hope and my prayer, as it was in our last session. That you will be encouraged and not discouraged by what Paul is talking about here in chapter seven as he gives his testimonial of his life both before Christ and now after Christ, and that you'll be encouraged that when you experience this same conflict in your life, that you don't faint or lose heart or become discouraged, but that you understand that you're walking in the footsteps of an apostle. You're walking in the footsteps of the apostle Paul.

And that's not something that should discourage you. And it's not something those outside of Christ experience. There's no battle. We sang it earlier in our hymn. This day the noise of battle, the next the victor's song.

We know where the apostle is going with this. Just look at the last, the second to the last verse in chapter 7 in the first verse of chapter 8. We know where he's going. We know where he's going. Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

Thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. But here he's talking about conflict and every one of us has experienced who is a true believer. Paul is saying there's now a conflict going on with sin in my life. There is now a spiritual battle going on inside of me and a conflict and a battle that didn't exist when he was in the flesh apart from Christ.

I quoted Calvin last week This conflict of which the apostle speaks does not exist in man before he is renewed by the Spirit of God. Doesn't exist. Doesn't exist. No conflict. No battle in your life.

No Christ in your life. No renewal. No new life in Christ by the Spirit of God. The conflict begins the day God's work began. The conflict begins the day God's work begins in the Christian.

That is, from the moment we are born again, born from above, in the Greek, when we look at the words in John chapter 3, born again in the Greek, and note then, it means to be born from above. When we are born from above, when we are regenerated, the moment that we are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life and given a new heart with new desires and spiritual understanding, the day God saves us and makes us new creatures in his Son Christ Jesus, that's the moment, that's the day the conflict begins. The conflict did not exist before that. But before we were renewed by an operation of the Spirit of God upon our hearts, Every attempt at obedience had its root in self. I talked to a man once, this has happened at least a couple of times, where they'll say, well I'm just trying to keep the Ten Commandments, That's my religion.

Oh boy, are you in trouble. Every attempt by the unsaved to obey God's law in any form is rooted in what? Self love. Right? Self love, self satisfaction, self ambition, self righteousness.

Never out of love for God. Never out of love for God. Never out of love for God. There's no love for God in the unregenerate heart. Never for the honor of His name.

There's no desire to honor His name before a person is saved. Never in humble gratitude towards God. No. 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 Spirit and saving grace. The Apostle Paul is expressing it here in chapter 7.

He says, speaking as one who is now in Christ, the good things I would do, if only I could, I don't do as I would. The carnal things I now hate with all my heart that I do. That which I don't approve of, I find myself doing many times. Things I do approve of, I don't do like I want to. The things I hate, things that God's law condemns, that I find myself doing so many times.

And it's an agonizing conflict. And it is an agonizing conflict that every mature Christian can relate to. And I said last week, we need to grasp the contrast here. How many remember the contrast? Here's the contrast that he's making 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, get this, to keep himself from doing the things he really loves to do. I hope that's not true. I'm just trying to keep myself from doing the things I really would do If I could just do it and not suffer eternal damnation or problems in this life as a result of it. If I could just do the things I really love to do, but I'm restraining myself. That's the unbeliever.

I'm restraining myself from doing the things I really, really, really love to do and want to do. No, it's not the Apostle Paul's experience. The Apostle Paul says he hates the sin he finds himself doing. Paul isn't describing an unsaved person who goes through his life trying to keep himself from doing the evil things he really wants to do with all his heart. He hates the things he finds himself doing so many times.

And I said there's a difference, you know, between being drawn to do the things one hates and restraining oneself from doing the things one loves. The apostle is talking about a conflict only a true believer can relate to. I don't want to do this. I don't want to think that. I don't want to say that.

Drawn, drawn into it, drawn into it. Paul's saying, I'm not trying to keep myself from doing things and saying things that I love to say and do and think. I'm being drawn away by the remnants of corruption that remain within me to do things and think things and say things that I hate to think and say and do." There's a Christian. I don't do the things I want. I do the things I hate so many times, the apostle's saying.

And it troubles him to the depths of his soul, and it troubles you to the depths of your soul if you're walking in the footsteps of the Apostle as a born-again believer. Troubles you to the depths of your soul. What he experienced, you experience. What he feels, you feel. What he agonizes over, you agonize over.

The Apostle is recounting not only his personal experience, but the experience of every person who has ever known or will ever know Christ. He's talking about the ongoing struggle between the Spirit and the flesh that is the struggle of every true believer. And that conflict is initiated the moment any person is united to Christ by faith. Saved people are engaged in a real ongoing war with the flesh, with the remnants of corruption and carnality that remain within them. If you're a believer here today, you identify.

If you're in Christ, if you're born again, if you're a believer, if you're saved, you identify with everything that Paul is saying here. You felt it, you've experienced it, you've experienced 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 on earth what the apostle's talking about. The unregenerable are either comfortable in their sin or they're continually making excuses for their sin or they have no sight of their sin at all. People who are not saved love their sin and would never dream of parting with it, and they never do, ultimately. There's no real conflict with sin and unbelievers because the unbeliever doesn't 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. There's no ongoing war.

There's no internal conflict. There's no battle with depraved lusts. We looked at Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 for a moment last week where Paul tells us that the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that you can't do the things that you would. There's the true believer, ongoing conflict. The two are contrary one to the other, the Spirit against the flesh.

They oppose one another and there's no greater agreement between the two than there is between fire and water, " says Calvin. Paul is addressing, again, the internal conflict that exists within him and within all those who have been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life. He says the law is good. The law is holy. The law is just.

The law is good. It reflects the holy character of God, which every true believer, every truly regenerated person pursues and begins to be incrementally conformed to as they're conformed to the image of Christ the moment that they're converted. The apostle acknowledges the internal conflict with indwelling sin that every true Christian experiences. He says, I still have carnal longings, I still have sinful passions tugging at me and continually attempting to drag me into the sin I was originally sold under, but which now I hate. He knows he's been set free from the bondage of sin as every believer.

As I said, he addressed that in chapter 6, and He thanked God for it. Thank God for freeing me. But here he addresses the ongoing conflict, how the old man, the old master by whom he was formerly enslaved, continually attempts to re-ascend the throne of his heart and rule his life as it did before he came into union with Christ. It's the Apostles' admission of the ongoing struggle with the flesh with the dwelling sin of believers, the struggle that every person here who is a believer and every believer who has ever lived is engaged in or was engaged in and will be engaged in from the moment of our conversion until the day we enter the gates of heaven. It doesn't stop.

Who was it that said, sin's no longer in the driver's seat, but it's still in the car. Still trying to get a hold of the steering wheel. It will never be completely eradicated from us because it's in us until the day we are in glory, the day that we are changed completely and we have the final redemption of the body when Christ returns. Until then, it's with us and there's going to be a war. It doesn't mean we don't have victories.

Yes, we do. We have victories and we have advances and we will. We will be incrementally conformed to the image of Christ over time more and more as the Spirit of God does his work in us as we're in the Scripture seeing our sin and becoming more it's more sensitive to the sin in our lives and God is Changing us more and more to the image of his son Through his work. He began the good work in us. He continues it and he's gonna complete it But sin is still there Sin is still there.

It's something it's a reality It's no longer Riding the horse, but it's it's still trying to get a hold of the reins Martin Lloyd-Jones once spoke of how un-dwelling sin complicates everything for the Christian. Indwelling sin complicates everything. It just does. He spoke about how life becomes complicated once we're born again from above. And the late R.C.

Sproul agrees, I quoted him in our last session, we're a people of mixed desires, which is why life doesn't really become complicated until we're born again. Before we were born again we had only one principle, the flesh. We walked willingly and happily submitting to the temptations of Satan. Not anymore. Once the Holy Spirit has raised us from spiritual death to life, our lives become a battle, you remember this, Between two jockeys, to use Augustine's analogy.

The analogy of one jockey or horse rider continually trying to get back on the horse it was formerly riding and directing the reins of and those have been thrown off the horse's back. It keeps trying to get back in the saddle and take control of the reins again. But Sproul says Satan doesn't give up easily. 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 it lasts until glorification in heaven. This is the universal experience among Christians and it's what the Apostle Paul is talking about here, close quote. And I asked everyone in the meeting last Sunday, is that your experience? If you're truly of God, if you're truly a child of God, you would say yes. You'd have to say yes.

The old man has 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. The old man's no longer in control of the horse. He's never going to be in complete control again, but the battle between two jockeys has begun. I've been given a new nature and a new heart with 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, trying to bring me back into bondage again. That's you, praise God, because you're going through the same thing the apostle Paul went through.

And it's what the apostle Paul continues to describe in verse 16. In verse 16 he reasons, if then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good." He's saying, if I find myself doing things that I with all my heart don't want to do, it proves that I'm on the side of the law. My consent is with the law, that it's holy and just and good. And I don't consent to or approve of those things I find myself doing that oppose the law. He's just following through what he's been saying.

If that's the case, and it is, Paul is saying, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. What's he saying here? I read volumes and volumes of commentary and, you know, people tearing this sentence apart, great theologians down through history, and Very few of them agree with each other Maybe you find two out of ten that would agree with each other as to what this is talking about Theologians have wrestled with this statement by the Apostle Paul that he makes in verses 17 and 20 for centuries first What Paul is not saying? Paul isn't making an excuse for his sin. Paul is not trying to absolve himself of personal responsibility for his sin.

Paul isn't saying, I'm not the man sinning, I'm not the person sinning. That's not what he's saying. He's not trying to get out from underneath personal responsibility for a sin. There are those, you know, down through history who taught the false doctrine of the Gnostics that the physical world and thus the human body being a part of the physical world is evil while the spirit world is good. I don't know if anyone is familiar with that teaching.

And claiming that they would justify the evil that they did, justify their sins saying that sin is a product of the body, not the spirit, and thus we're not accountable for our sin or culpable for it because it's in the body, the body will one day be destroyed. Sorry. No, the body is not evil, though it can be used for evil or good. Paul isn't attempting to absolve himself of personal responsibility for his sin in that kind of a way By saying something like that There's two persons within me or what have you know, I think Paul is contrasting his old I, look at the text, with his new I. And talking about how his old identity responded to sin before his conversion, and now his new identity responds to sin since his conversion.

Paul's new I, being now regenerate, consents to the law and is set against the sin he finds himself doing, as opposed to his old I, the man he was in the unregenerate state, who approved of sin and was fully engaged in it." I think Paul's saying, So then it is no more I that is it is no longer I That do it as it was when I was in the unregenerate state when I approved of sin and was fully engaged in it Now I'm a changed man and a new creature with a new Identity that no longer approves of sin though it indwells in me That's what I think I Think that's pretty much in line with MacArthur and in Sproul Sproul doesn't talk much about this at all He just about skips it, but he's got a couple of quotes on it MacArthur says Paul's new eye His inner self no longer approves of the sin that still clings to him through the flesh. Whereas before his conversion his inner self approved of the sin he committed, now His inner self, a completely new inner self, strongly disapproves. I think that's what Lordy's saying.

But what is Paul's point? Sproul says his point is that he does what he does, not want to do, because of sin, and he recognizes where that sin dwells within him. Pretty simple. In his flesh. And so we'll leave that.

By the way, there is an entire book written on the eye of this by a Theologian, which I haven't read. Paul goes on in verse 18, okay? For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. As I said earlier, Paul's not in the flesh, but in the Spirit as all Christians, but He recognizes that the flesh is still in Him. That's what He's talking about here, that in Him, that is in His flesh, nothing good resides.

Not in His body, but in His old, The remaining part of his old sinful nature that continues to cling to him and cling to all of us who are believers. The flesh, the remaining part of our old sinful nature that we carry about with us remains both present and active within us. And it will until it is completely and finally eradicated at Christ's return when we enter glory. Believers have been set free from the bondage of sin, but not the presence of sin. I mentioned the three-front war earlier, how the Apostles have been talking here about the front called the flesh.

But we need to understand that the Christian's battle with the flesh is not a battle, as I said before, between our souls and our bodies, as if our souls are good and our bodies are evil. No. Ancient heretical view held by the Gnostics. But the battle every Christian is engaged in until glory, until the day we enter the gates of heaven, is a war that takes place within us and it is a war of desires." The moment we were born again from above, that war of desires initiated. And that's what the Apostle Paul is talking about here.

Because he goes on and he says, "'For to will is present with me.'" I wish I could. I wish I could. But how to perform it? Look at the agony in this. But how to perform that which is good I find not.

Because we have the indwelling spirit and have been regenerated and given a new heart, we who are Christian have the desire to do what is right. We really want to, but how to perform it escapes us. We want to do right all the time. We want to be completely obedient to God. Oh Lord, that's my heart's desire.

I just want to be like Christ. I just wanted to obey You in every way, God. That's the desire in the heart of the true believer, the true Christian. No reservation whatsoever. I just want to obey you, God.

I just want to live a holy life. I just want to do your will. That's my heart's desire, O God." And he cries out to God in prayer about it. He seeks God for it. He wants it so bad.

He searches the scriptures to see how he could be more like Christ He prays he reads Christian books. He listens to Christian sermons. He does whatever he can he's continually Involved in this effort to conform to the image of Christ. He wants to do what's right because he has the desire to do what's right, but how to perform it completely escapes him. We just don't have the ability to pull it off.

And it frustrates us. And it frustrated the Apostle Paul. He's revealing this frustration Himself as well. He's saying I have the desire within me in my inner man to please God in every way But I'm straddled with the competing desires of my flesh And I'll do the good that I want to do, but the evil I don't want to do I find myself continuing to do so often. The apostle is revealing his frustration with the competing desires within him that every child of God can identify with.

As we close, brothers and sisters, as I said earlier, this is the Apostles' admission of the ongoing struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, a struggle that every person born of the Spirit will be engaged in from the moment of his conversion until the day he enters the gates of heaven. And if that is your experience, you need to be encouraged. If that's your experience, you need to be encouraged. If the Apostles' experience is your experience, it's because God has begun a work in you. He's begun a work in you as He began a work in the Apostle Paul.

And Paul says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 that God will continue that work that He's begun, and He will complete that work that He's begun. You have God's Word on it, and you should be encouraged. And the blood of Christ guarantees it. And you can rest assured that God will one day present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Amen?

Surely goodness, we sang it earlier, surely, surely, surely, you're walking in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, You're experiencing what this great apostle experienced. You're going through the same things because God has begun a work in you and He's going to continue it and He's going to complete it. Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you God. We thank you God for the work that you've begun in the lives of your people and we thank you God for the assurance that the work you've begun you will continue and you will complete it and you will bring us to glory. No matter how difficult the struggle, no matter how agonizing and painful the struggle along the way, you will bring us to glory. We have Christ's blood guaranteeing it.

We have your word on it. We thank you for that, God. We thank you, God. We who trust in Christ, that though we groan within ourselves today, we have the sure and steadfast hope of final redemption tomorrow. We love you God, we thank you God for your word and for the work of your spirit, and we just praise you and glorify you and worship you