In the sermon 'Who Shall Deliver Me', Pastor Steve Hopkins discusses the Apostle Paul's inner turmoil as described in Romans chapter 7. Paul talks about the ongoing conflict within him between the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new man. He describes the struggle every Christian faces with indwelling sin and the inner turmoil it causes. Paul explains that he delights in the law of God, but finds a principle at work within him that leads him to sin. He contrasts his old identity that approved of sin with his new identity in Christ that no longer approves of sin. Ultimately, Paul finds relief in the certainty of deliverance through Jesus Christ, who will free him from the body of death and the inner conflict that plagues him.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. If you would turn with me in your Bibles once again to the book of Romans where Lord willing we will be picking up with chapter 7 verses 19 through 25 and if you would stand with me for the reading of the word of the Lord beginning with verse 19 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 in 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. Let's pray. Our Father help us now God as we open these passages to understand oh God and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him who has saved us from our sins, even our Lord Jesus Christ.

For it's in His name we pray these things, amen. Let's be seated. In our last two sessions on Romans chapter 7, we've heard the Apostle Paul agonizing. How many have sensed the agony, the inner turmoil in these passages at the end of, through the middle to the end of chapter 7. But he's been agonizing over this ongoing conflict within him between the flesh and the spirit.

Between the old man and the new man. And he's been lamenting. It's just been a lamentation. I do that which I would not. I do the things that I don't allow, I don't approve of.

I do the things that I hate, the things I want to do, I don't do as I know that I ought to. It's just a lamentation. He's just crying out from the depths of his soul. He found himself doing things he didn't approve of. He found himself doing things that he hated.

He found himself not doing the good that he wanted to do. And it grieved him to the depths of his soul. And I said in our last session on Romans chapter 7 that this is autobiographical. This is the Apostle Paul opening up. He's opening up to the people of God at Rome.

He's opening up to them and also to us, and he's giving his personal testimony. He's saying this is how it is with me, this is what I'm going through. This is the Apostle Paul divulging his personal experience of the ongoing struggle with the remnants of corruption of nature that remained in him after his conversion a Struggle every Christian can identify with Every one of us who has been born of the Spirit, who has been changed by Christ, who has that work of God has begun in us by the Holy Spirit, who've been made new creatures in Christ Jesus, who've been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, every one of us can identify with what the Apostle Paul is going through. But it's a struggle that is unknown to those who are still dead in trespasses and sins. They don't have any idea what the Apostle Paul is talking about.

As I've said in previous sessions, they don't have any conflict going on within them. There is no new life within them. They're like a dead fish being carried down the stream by the current. Whereas the child of God, the one who is born again, is a living fish and is swimming against the current. He's alive.

It's a struggle what the Apostle Paul has been recounting. It's a struggle every Christian can identify with. But it's a struggle unknown to those who are still dead in trespasses and sins. Every one of us who has been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, who's been made alive in Christ by the Spirit, knows exactly what the apostle is experiencing when he says the things that he says in Romans chapter 7. And it's our experience as well.

Like the apostle, if you just skim over these last few passages, beginning with about verse 14 or 15 to the end, like the apostle, we who are regenerated, who have been born again, we consent to the law that it's good. We're on the side of the law. And like the apostle, the will is present with us to keep the law and to do what is right. Our consent is with the law. We say it's good.

I'm on the side of the law and the will is present to keep the law, we want to keep the law. Our hearts desire is to be pleasing to God in all things. We would gladly be free of all sin and obey God perfectly if we only could, like Paul, but how to perform it escapes us. How to pull it off is outside of our grasp. Like Paul we find that we just can't pull it off.

In fact we can't even get close and it troubles us. It troubles us deeply as it did the Apostle. Paul realized how desperately far short he continually fell from the perfect standard of righteousness required by God's law. He realized that. He understood that.

He felt that deep within his being. Here's the standard. Here's where I'm at. He was a mature Christian. And mature Christians see that gulf.

They see how far they are from the image of Christ who they want to be just like. We want to be just like Jesus. We want to walk like he walked on earth. We want to feel like he felt on earth. We want to respond to circumstances in our life and to others the way Jesus responded in circumstances and to others.

But we're so far from it, we see that we're so far from it. We know we're being conformed to His image more and more day by day, But we see we're so, so far from it. The more we see of God's holiness and the more we see of God and His perfect righteousness and holiness in the Scripture, the more we see how far away we are from the perfect standard of righteousness required by God's law. The will to live without an evil thought, The will to live without a wrong response The will to live without any deed that is not pleasing to God was present with Paul But how to perform it That is how to live in that manner he found not, which we read at the end of verse 18. And his experience, again, is the experience of every one of us who is in Christ as well.

There is conflict going on within us, the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new man, And we're not able to live as we really want to live and be as we really want to be, which is like Christ. And it troubles us. In our last session on this chapter, I said that Paul has a reason for going through all this Paul didn't have to recount all of this he didn't have to give his personal testimony he does it for a reason He has a reason for describing this intense ongoing struggle between the flesh and the spirit that's going on inside of him. And in such detail as he has here in chapter 7, Paul knows that his personal struggle with indwelling sin and the inner turmoil he has experienced is the experience of every true believer. And he's headed somewhere with all of this.

He's going somewhere with all this. By the time he gets to the end of this chapter, chapter 7, and you can just go ahead and look to the end of the chapter, especially verse 24, and then especially As we go into chapter 8 and verse 1, as he goes there, he's going to finally provide relief to his readers. He's going through all of this turmoil that we all experienced, this struggle, this internal struggle, the flesh against the Spirit. And he's just revealing all of this that he's going through and we're identifying with it ourselves as as children of God, people that have been born again. Yes Paul we're going through the same thing.

And it's just like there's this low place but he's heading to a high plane here he's going to finally provide relief to his readers Paul isn't going to leave the readers of his epistle thinking that he was complaining against God because of the ongoing struggle. God, why are you, you know, why am I in this situation? He's not going to have us thinking that, his readers thinking that. And he's not going to have his readers be without hope or think that his hope or our hope is in any way diminished on account of the struggle with sin that is common to every child of God. On the contrary, where he's going is he's going to give glory to God for His deliverance.

And he's going to assure believers that though our battle with sin continues so long as we are in these mortal bodies, that the victory Christ has obtained for us is sure. He's gonna assure us of that. He's going somewhere with this. That's where the apostle is headed with all of this. And it's where we're headed also.

But first, Paul will give, or continue to give, his personal testimonial of the struggle between the flesh and the spirit that was ongoing within him, and which is the experience of every Christian. It's helpful for us. It's, as I've said in a couple of sessions, it's comforting when we read these things and we say, wow that's me, to know that we're walking in the footsteps of an apostle, that he went through these things as well. That we're not going through something that no one's ever experienced before, but that an apostle, hand chosen of the Lord, who was at one time exalted to the third heaven to hear things he couldn't even speak on earth. He went through those things on earth, went through the things that we go through on earth, struggled with sin, wants to be more like Christ and sees how far He is from it, grieves over it, laments over it, even as we do.

It's helpful for us to see that. And as we ended our last session with verse 20, we found the apostle reasoning. He was saying in verse 20, if I'm doing things, if I'm doing things I don't want to do, then it's no more, or no longer I that do it but sin that dwells in me. We spent a few minutes on that because I noted that theologians have wrestled with that statement, the statement actually that's in verses 17 and 20. They've wrestled with this statement by the Apostle Paul for centuries.

There hasn't been a lot of agreement on it. And I said there's been many attempts to explain what Paul is saying here and a lot of really good pastors and theologians in the Reformed camp on different sides. But every Reformed theologian and commentator agrees on this concerning what Paul says here, and that is they agree on what he's not saying here in verses 17 and 20 if you look at your Bibles chapter 7 verses 17 and 20 every sound Bible teacher understands that Paul isn't making an excuse for his sin. Now there may be those preachers out there who go through this passage and they just leave everybody, you know, send everybody out of the congregation with an excuse for their sin. It's not me sinning, it's just sinning in me.

It's not me, different person. I'm not responsible. That's not what the Apostle is saying all Sound Bible teachers Understand that Paul isn't making an excuse for his sin Here or trying to absolve himself of personal responsibility for his sin. Paul isn't saying, I'm not the one that's sinning, I'm not responsible, somebody's saying. But what is he saying?

And I said, I think, in my study of this, I think Paul is making a contrast here. He's contrasting his old I with his new I, his old me with his new me, in verses 17 and 20, And he's contrasting the way in which his old identity responded to sin before his conversion, with how his new identity in Christ responds to sin since his conversion. Paul's new I, the new me, being now regenerate, consents to the law, as we just read, 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 sin. I think Paul is saying, so then there's 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. Now I'm a changed man.

Now I'm a new creature with a new identity that no longer approves of sin, Though sin is still in me. I Think Paul saying it's no more the eye that is no more that does it but sin dwelling in me So his point is simply that he does what he does not want to do because he still has the remnants of corruption within, resulting in the internal conflict between the flesh and the spirit that he and every other Christian will be engaged in until glory. That is until the day we enter the gates of heaven. And as we pick up with verse 21, Paul says, I find in a law. He uses the word law in many different ways in Romans.

He says, I find in a law. He's been talking about how he loves the law of God, he's on the side of the law of God. Now he says in verse 21, I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Again, simply put, what he's saying is I find that there is a principle at work within me. Not a law in the sense of a commandment.

He's not saying, I find a commandment. No, he's finding a law, a principle at work. You know, we have different ways that we use the word law, right? We have the laws of gravity. It's not a commandment.

But he says, I find there is a law that is a principle at work within me that even when I in the inward man I want to do good Even though I desire to do what is right, I find that evil is also present and operating in me. How many others have experienced this? Evil is also, I want to do good, but evil is also present. I see this principle at work operating within me Continually drawing me in the opposite direction. I Want to go this way Being drawn that way Anyone else experience what the apostle Paul experienced?

And again, the apostle laments his condition. He's frustrated by it. He's grieved by this force of corruption that he sees at work within him and it isn't that he doesn't want to do what is right in the inner man he wants to do what's right he says for I delight in the law of God after the inward man in the inward man that is who he is now in Christ in his heart of hearts in the inward man who I am in Christ in My heart of hearts I delight in God's law. I just wanted to do what he wants me to do. I Delight in the law of God David said that in Psalm chapter 1 in verse 2 I delight my delight is in the law of the Lord His delight is in the law of the Lord.

He just wants to, he delights in doing God's commands. But he's drawn in another direction. He keeps being drawn in a different direction. He keeps being drawn in the opposite direction. Paul is saying in his heart of hearts, at the center of his being, as a new creation in Christ, his new nature delights in obedience to God and his law.

But he's saying, in the inner man, though I delight to do what God commands, I see this other law, not a law in the sense of a commandment again, but a law in the sense of a principle and operation. I see this principle and operation within me, this force of corruption in my members. And I see it and experience it and feel it Continually warring he uses the word Warring against the law of my mind that is in conflict with the inclinations of my new nature and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. That is carrying him, bringing him, carrying him. Have you ever felt this?

You're going in this direction, you want to go in this direction, you're resolved to go to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to think this, I'm going to say this, and you don't think it, you don't do it, you don't say it, you do just the opposite, or something very clearly in the wrong opposite direction It's frustrating the Apostle Paul is lamenting this he's grieving over it And every one of us that's in Christ understands that we know exactly what he's going through. He's saying it carries him at times like a captive into the very sins he now hates. It carries him in the direction that is away from where he intends to go, what he intended to do, think and say. And he calls it captivity because he realizes that sin is an active and aggressive principle within him that he can never fully escape in this life As long as we're in this flesh that was a quote from my Reformation Heritage Bible commentary He realizes that sin is an active and aggressive principle within him that he can never fully escape. So the word captivity, it can't fully escape it in this life.

Sometimes we think we have, right? We're on that high plane, we're just really... And then we just get thrown down, stumble, we fall. We have failures. The Apostle Paul is saying, I have failures and he grieves me.

And every one of us who's in Christ again knows exactly what he's talking about. Again throughout all of Paul's testimonial we hear the sighs and the groanings of one who is experiencing inner turmoil because of his failures and because of his inability to do what he really wants to do which is to obey God and to please God in all things. John Gill picks up on these militaristic terminology that Paul uses here and he makes the contrast here. The unregenerate man is voluntarily taken captive to sin and Satan. That's the way the unregenerate man is before you come to Christ, before you've been changed by Christ.

And he gives himself up to slavery and bondage. That's the way we all were in the unregenerate state. Whereas, quote, the regenerate man is through the force of sin and power of temptation violently drawn, violently drawn and carried, there's that term again, into captivity, into which he is held against his will, into his great uneasiness." How many have experienced it? Gill likens the Christian's experience between the flesh and the spirit to that of a kind of civil war within. He says the state of the regenerate is a warfare with many enemies to combat with, not only Satan and the world, but also those of our own household that is within ourselves, within our own hearts, like a civil war within.

Flesh and spirit, sin and grace, combating together. And so it will be as long as this life lasts. You know, we're coming to a place of relief here in a moment. We're not there yet. We're coming to a place of relief.

But the relief he's talking about is not, now I know I'm saved, now I know I've been justified. He's already gone through all that. He knows He's a justified man and he's speaking to believers to those who have been declared just in God's sight They've been absolved of sin whose sins have been forgiven Their sins laid on Christ and and atoned for and made satisfaction for and full at the cross He's talking to to save people he's talking to them but he's talking about something that every Christian goes through in this life and that will be with us as long as this life lasts. And that is a battle within us, a conflict of desires where we want to do only that that's pleasing in the sight of God because the Holy Spirit of God now indwells us and is is moving us in that direction and we and we just long to be more like Christ but we have this conflict of desires where sin is continually pulling us in the opposite direction That's what he's talking about here. And he said the only relief from that is death.

It's the only time it's going to end. This was the apostles experience and it's the experience of every Christian. And The more we mature in Christ, the more we see and comprehend of the holiness of God, the more we become sensitive to the sin in our lives. You see, the apostle Paul is a mature, maybe the most mature believer that's ever lived on the face of the earth and you look at what he's going through and you see his sensitivity to sin how great his sensitivity to the sinning this life is I set my kids down and I say you know for your regenerate children you see you you you always you always she did that he did that look at that person this over there wrong they're bad this you know you can see everything every fault and every failure and everyone else you can't see any failure in yourself can't see any sin in yourself you've got a standard of righteousness and you're happy with it after we're we're born again the more we mature in Christ the more we comprehended the God's holiness the more we see of our sinfulness and so yes there's gonna be greater conflict That's why the Apostle Paul comes to the place where he says oh wretched man that I am An apostle is saying this he cries out He cries out Again, possibly the most mature Christian who's ever lived Oh wretched man that I am wretched Nobody uses that kind of language in the church's today You know How many sermons?

Have I have I heard in modern America? We just you need to learn to love yourself you just You just don't love yourself enough, you know psychology psychobabble in the pulpit Your problem is you don't have enough self-esteem. You just need more self-esteem. Think of it as R.C. Sproul that said something to the effect of Paul didn't say, oh man of so low self-esteem as I.

It's not the issue. Oh wretched man that I am. It is a lamentation. It is a mournful cry of inner anguish. Paul is crying out in misery.

It's not that he's not joyful in his salvation, yes he is, but when he looks on his sin, and it's healthy for us to do that from time to time, we really just, okay, look on our sin for a little bit. We don't stay there, we go back to the high plane, but it's healthy to look at our sin once in a while and see that gulf again, See that distance between us and our character and perfect image of our Lord Jesus. And it's good for us to cry out with the apostle Paul. Oh wretched man that I am. I want to be more like Christ.

So far. So far. So far. Paul hates the sin that he manifests in his life. He abhors his disobedience.

He's grieved by his failures. And he senses the wretchedness of it and the misery of the conflict of desires going on within him. He knows that he carries about him a body of death, a mass of corruption, in Calvin's words, like a dead corpse tied to him, and from which he cannot be freed until the day he dies. Matthew Henry, John Gill, many others, almost every modern reformed teacher talks about the day in which the Apostle Paul lived and Gill even mentions who the the ruler was who did this whose edict did this in his justice in their justice system and where they would take the body of a person who had been murdered. Have you all heard this?

And they tie it to the body of the person who killed them. And they would carry about that body upon them, that body of death, until the day that body killed them. They all talk of this. Paul knows that he carries about him a body of death, a mass of corruption, like a dead corpse tied to him and from which he cannot be freed until the day he dies but he's comforted by the certainty of the hope of the redemption of his mortal body and that's where he's been going here He knows that though the battle is ongoing, the victory is sure. So he cries out, not in despair, but with the certainty of deliverance.

Who shall deliver me from the body of this death." And he thanks God. He gives the glory to God. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through the person and the work of Jesus Christ I shall be delivered. Just as he was delivered from the penalty of sin.

He's already been delivered from the penalty of sin. Just as he had been delivered from the bondage of sin, that is a power of sin to control him. Remember we've gone through all this? Just as he was justified and delivered from the penalty of sin and delivered from the bondage of sin and the slavery of sin, he knows that at death he's going to be delivered from the body of sin, from the body of this death, and that that war is going to be over. That conflict that he has experienced in his flesh and that we've all experienced is is going to be over when he's delivered from the body of this death, that in this life remains subject to sin and death.

And he thanked God for it. He thanked God for it, through him by whom his deliverance was sure, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul writes a little further on, we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. Do you identify with Paul? Can you identify with Paul in this?

You groan within yourself on account of your struggle with sin, your failures, and eagerly await the redemption of your mortal body when you will no longer be able to sin against God and live in perfect obedience to the Lord forever. I do. Praise God we have a Redeemer who will one day who has delivered us from the penalty of sin who's delivered us from the bondage of sin slavery and who will one day deliver us from the misery of the ongoing conflict with sin between the flesh and the Spirit and the flesh the flesh and the Spirit in this life. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And then at the last verse at the end of verse 25 he says with my mind then I serve the law of God with the flesh the law of sin and that's all just to say this the battle goes on the battle goes on though the final victory is sure let's pray Father we are just grateful Lord again for this time together and to really look at your word and and Lord to see things in your word maybe we've not seen before and God I just praise you for the words of the Apostle Paul that he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Lord, the very Word of God, where we learn that an Apostle, Lord, that you're chosen Apostle of the Gospel, that you chose on the road to Damascus and who experienced so great of suffering and yet experienced so things that we can't even comprehend being taken up literally to heaven and then coming back down or that he that he experienced the same things that we experienced that we were Walking in the footsteps of an apostle or we thank you for the comfort of your words spoken through him and we thank you God that we who have been delivered from the penalty of sin by the death of Christ by the sacrifice of Christ by the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who have been delivered from the bondage of sin and sin slavery by the person and work of Christ, Lord, that we also will be delivered from the body of this death and that one day we will be in your presence, God, never again able to sin against you, never again having to fight this battle within.

God we thank you that we have your indwelling spirit to help us Lord on the way and that Lord as we engage in this this combat internally when we we see sin pulling us away from rectitude and from doing the thing that we really want to do which is obey you with all our heart perfectly Lord that we have the help of your spirit that we have the the work of grace operating within us That we have your word that we can open for encouragement and light and guidance and instruction Lord and more hope And God that we have Christ interceding for us at your right hand every moment of every day To help us in the heat of the battle And we thank you for it God and we praise you for it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen