In Jason Dohm's sermon, 'The Law and the Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin,' he explores the second half of Romans chapter 7, focusing on the role of the law in defining and identifying sin. Dohm emphasizes that the law is not sinful but reveals the sinfulness of man by setting a standard that highlights human transgressions. He explains the internal conflict within believers, as described by Paul, where the desire to do good is constantly at war with the sinful nature that remains due to the flesh. This tension creates a puzzling condition for believers, who, despite being saved, still struggle with sin. Dohm discusses the law as spiritual, originating from God, and measuring internal intentions as well as external actions. He addresses the theological challenges of interpreting Paul’s words about being 'carnal' and 'sold under sin,' suggesting that believers are free from the dominion of sin yet still subject to its influence due to the flesh. The sermon stresses that the law is not a means to salvation but a tool that drives individuals to Christ by making them aware of their need for grace. Dohm concludes that believers must engage in a continual, irreconcilable war against sin, strengthened by the knowledge of their salvation and the promise of ultimate deliverance through Jesus Christ.

Our passage for the service this morning is the second half of Romans chapter 7. For context, I wanted to go to Genesis 1, but was told that we should just back up to verse 7. Please follow along. What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead.

I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was to bring life I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me?

Certainly not, But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin, through the commandment, might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do.

If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do I do not do, but the evil I will not to do that I practice.

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to 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. Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of 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. Oh Father, open our hearts and our minds to explore this conundrum, this journey of sanctification, this conflict within each one of us between spirit and flesh. Lord, we ask that you would speak clearly, firmly, unapologetically through Jason that we may be impacted by the truth that the Apostle Paul is conveying here in these marvelous, beautiful words.

We commit this time to you in the name of Jesus, who is Christ. Amen. So far we've had James in the book of Job, Taylor in Psalm 119, and Gary wanting to start in Genesis 1. It is a miracle that we have even arrived at sermon time. And yet, here we are.

The title of the sermon this morning is The Law and the Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin. In the early chapters of Romans, Paul has been so systematically and forcefully teaching that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. In chapter 6, he vindicates grace against false charges. There are wrong conclusions that you could draw from the things that he taught in the early chapters, you could conclude wrong things about grace, so he clears grace of the false charges. This means that it doesn't matter if we sin anymore, so that sin can just pile up and God won't care, that's a false conclusion.

And Paul vindicates grace against such charges. He never meant that, he never taught that, he doesn't believe that. He says God forbid. Last week in chapter 7 verses 7 through 12, Paul began to vindicate the law against false charges. There are some wrong conclusions that you could draw from the things that he's been teaching about salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

You could draw some wrong conclusions about the law. So he's going about now clearing the law of these charges. And so Today we'll continue down that track, vindicating the law, clearing the law of false charges. We'll actually finish the chapter and then next week we'll take a second bite of the apple and come back and cover some of the same ground. But it will give me more time to do it.

Why are we doing that? Because really verses 13 through 25, where we left off last week through the end of the chapter, is a unit of thought. And we just thought it would be actually unhelpful, maybe dangerous to do a subdivision, because you're breaking apart things that in the flow of thought really could be unhelpful and make you understand things wrongly by breaking it up. So we wanted to take week one, that's what today is, to look at the whole rest of the chapter verses 13 through 25 and next week I'll come back and focus on 22 through 25. So we will cover some of the same ground.

That gives me the ability to just touch on that second part of it lightly and come back to it next week. So that we don't have a two hour sermon. And all of God's people said, Amen. Yes. Now, this is actually a very controversial passage.

This is a hot topic about the proper interpretation of it. And I think Matthew Henry actually puts his finger on why it's such a difficult passage and why commentators have some pretty radically different views about what it actually means. So listen to Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry says, so far does the evil prevail here in this text when he speaks of one sold under sin doing it not performing that which is good that it seems difficult to apply it to the regenerate. It says you see such evil in this text that surely You can't apply these things to a person who is born again.

And he goes on to say, and yet so far does the good prevail in this text, in hating sin, consenting to the law, delighting in it, serving the law of God with the mind, that it is more difficult to apply it to the unregenerate that are dead in trespasses and sins. In other words, there's all this good in the text. Who can it be who delights in the law of God, who hates sin, who agrees that the law is good, who serves the law of God in the mind, who other than a born again person could it be describing? So you have these two things. You have a lot of evil in the text.

Some commentators say, surely that can't be a born again person. But then you have all this good in the text and other commentators say, surely this can't be an unsaved person, an unbelieving person. So that's where the controversy comes from. I will say this before we get started. The reformers and their successors, the Puritans, had a mostly unified view of what this means.

And that is the view that you're going to hear today. I stand very firmly within the tradition of the reformers and their successors, the Puritans. Surprisingly, the man I've been quoting the most all along, who is that? David Martin Lloyd Jones, the good doctor, has a radically different view. I find him to be very bad on this text.

Can you even believe I'm saying that as often as I quote him? What do we get from that? If we're to be good Bereans, and Paul would welcome even his apostolic teaching to be checked day by day, sermon by sermon, against what the scriptures say to find out if these things be so, if Paul is fair game for that, then J.C. Ryle is fair game for that, then Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones is fair game for that, then I above all people am fair game for that.

Every preacher should embrace that. So I thank God for the enormous contributions of Dr. David Martin Lloyd-Jones. He's bad on this text. And I think good Bereans can say that with, can say both things with a clear conscience.

Thank God for this man of God who was raised up and used so wonderfully. And I don't think he handled this text well. Let's pray for help. God, if anything's been taught clearly in Romans, it's that your law could never save us. And yet, I thank you for your law.

Thank you for the good purposes that it serves. I thank you that it is holy and just and good as Paul has declared it to be in the very last verse that we studied last week. God help us to say with the psalmist, oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day. Pray that the preaching today would do what Paul is doing in our text, vindicating, clearing the law of God against false charges. We would see it in its goodness.

I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Well the first subdivision I'd like to just look at, verse 13 by itself. So hopefully your Bibles are open to Romans chapter 7 and you're prepared to read along as I reread verse 13. Paul writes, Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not.

But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good. So that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Here in this verse, Paul teaches that the law doesn't produce death, sin does. Taking notes on the handout, filling in the blanks, sin fills in the blank. The law doesn't produce death, sin does.

So we're becoming accustomed to Paul's question and answer method. He asks the question, has then what is good become death to me? And then we get the answer that we've come to expect. Certainly not or maybe most literally, may it never be. Paul again recoils that you would draw the conclusion from what he's been teaching that the law produces death in us.

Verse 12, Paul just declared the law or the commandment to be good. So in verse 13 when He says, has then what is good become death to me? He's speaking of the law. Has then the law become death to me? Or has the commandment become death to me?

And Paul recoils from that notion. If you think that Paul taught that, he shrinks back in horror from you concluding that from his teaching. Again, the law isn't sin. That was last week's text. The law arouses sinful passions that bear fruit to death that was verse 5 from last week So he has conceded that the law does arouse stimulate sinful passions in you that bear fruit to death.

So there is a connection between the law and death. It arouses these sinful passions in us. These sinful passions bear fruit and death is the fruit. But that isn't the fault of the law. That is the fault of our warped, twisted, corrupted nature which was ruined in Genesis 3.

The fault of that is Adam and what happened to our nature by sin coming into the world. A nature that was never in the garden before the fall, inclined towards the things that dishonor God and inclined away from... You know what I mean. I've said this in multiple sermons before. Our nature originally was inclined towards things that honor God, never inclined towards things that dishonor Him.

That changed in Genesis chapter 3 when sin entered the world. So the law isn't the problem, sin is the problem. The wages of sin is death, not the wages of the law is death. Sin produces death. Paul says that sin was producing death through the law.

The law is simply identifying sin. The law is simply keeping score. So, Don't blame the law, it's just keeping score. The poor law is keeping a record of when people do things that dishonor God and now it's being blamed as producing death. No, the law isn't the problem, it is simply identifying the problem.

Did you know that human beings are so good at self-deception that without a fixed written standard of truth and falsehood, good and evil, we would find a way for sin not to appear sin. We have honed our skills at convincing ourselves that it's not really as bad as all that, that we're not really guilty of all that. We have become, over time, so good at self-deception that if we didn't have an in-stone, fixed, written standard of truth and falsehood, good and evil, we would convince ourselves that sin isn't really all that sinful. Sin won't appear as sin. Sin won't appear as sin.

Yes, we were born with an internal law given to us by God. We came pre-encoded with a sense of good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood. It's called our conscience. Paul has already spoken about that. I think it was chapter 3.

But the more I sin, the less sensitive it is. I've introduced bugs into the code. So I can sin and desensitize my conscience that God gave me this internal sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood. I can dull it by sinning. The more I sin, the duller it is.

I can desensitize it by sinning. The more I sin, the duller it is. I can desensitize it by sinning. The more I sin, the more desensitized it becomes. I can sear it.

Those places that have been places that have been burned, lose feeling. This is what scripture teaches. But there the law stands, declaring sin to be sin, Declaring sin to be exceedingly sinful. I tried to minimize it. I tried to explain it away.

I tried to redefine it. But there stands the law, declaring that God hates my coveting. That's the example that Paul used last week. You remember in the text? I wouldn't have known what coveting was unless the law had come and said, you shall not covet.

So I would find a way to minimize it. It's not a big deal. To explain it away, it's not really sin. To redefine it, It's just me wanting other things. But there stands the law declaring that God hates my coveting and on and on and on.

We could do it with every sin. He used coveting as an example but there's nothing special about coveting that would make it inappropriate to apply across the whole range of law and sin. My coveting is as black as night. So I, through sinning over the long haul would make black dark gray would make dark gray light gray, would make light gray beige until It's really not that big of a deal, but there stands the law. Written, fixed, in stone, immovable, to tell me, no, your sin is black as night.

Don't make black dark gray, Then to light gray, then to beige, then it's not sin at all. This is what the law does for us. How exceedingly sinful is sin? Look at the cross. Look at the cross.

See God's hatred of sin at the cross. Does God hate sin? See His fury against my sin poured out on the substitute at the cross. I consider that nothing less than the living and suffering and bleeding and dying of the Son of God could pardon my sins. And now tell me, is your sin dark gray, light gray, beige, not sin at all.

You cannot look at the cross and see the blackness of sin eroded. The law has been given to us to maintain the blackness of sin. That God hates it. That God pours out his fury against it. So the law is not a system for being right with God.

Are you with me? The law is not a system for being right with God. The law is not a system for being right with God. Just do more of the law and then you'll be fine with God. We were in Galatians 3 last week.

The law is a tutor to bring me to Christ. It teaches me to understand my desperate condition, my desperate need, so that I'll come to Him for mercy. I'll come to him to be saved. Until I understand my desperate condition, I never will. Why?

Because I'm proud. I don't want to think that what the Bible says about me is true. So you have to be brought to agree with this book about yourself to become convinced that, oh no, my condition is not just about a little tweak here and a little tweak there, there's something fundamentally wrong with me and only Jesus can heal it. Only Jesus can heal it. What is Paul saying in verse 13?

The law didn't kill me, it simply showed me that I was already dead in sins and transgressions. That's what he's saying. It's not the law killing you. It's your sins and transgressions that killed you through the law. The law was just keeping score.

And the score is not pretty. The law is there to convince you that the score isn't pretty. Verses 14-23, so this is a long section, but I'm going to try to take it all at once. I do want to re-read it. That's going to take a moment.

So I hope you're still in Romans chapter 7. Please have Bible open and follow along. It will help you to stay with me If your eyes are on the words, Romans 7, 14-23. Paul continues, For we know that the law is spiritual, But I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand.

For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells.

For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

For I delight in the law of God according to 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. In this long section, Paul speaks of the puzzling condition of the believer. If you're filling in blanks, puzzling fills in the blanks. The puzzling condition of the believer. Everything textually says that this is Paul describing himself and his own personal experience at the time that he wrote this letter.

Meaning, it's first person, present tense. I, I, I, me, me, me. It's Paul. And everything in the present tense. Today, as I'm writing this letter to you Romans, this is my experience.

Present tense all throughout. So, if you take it at face value, you say, it is Paul, even though he's born again, even though he's an apostle, even though he's been a disciple in the school of God for a long time, Paul is still to this day finds this to be his experience. But theologically, commentators question if this can even be so. So this is the problem. The problem isn't a textual problem.

It is first person. So Paul is saying, it's Paul, it's me, and it is present tense. So Paul is writing as if this is his experience the day he's penning the letter to the Romans. But The problems aren't textual problems, they're theological problems. Why are they theological problems?

Because Paul has been so forcefully teaching that the believer is no longer a slave to sin. That was chapter 6. How can he teach in chapter 6, you're not a slave to sin, and then say this in chapter 7. So you can't underestimate the theological problems that are here. There are real reasons why this is a hot topic.

The rule of interpretation is this. The rule that governs how we understand what a text of scripture means says this. The plain meaning is THE meaning unless there are necessary compelling reasons for another interpretation. Are there ever necessary compelling reasons why the plain meaning can't be the right meaning of a text? The answer to that is actually yes.

We believe this is the word of God, that God picked every word from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, so that Therefore, if an all-knowing God has given us all the words, then we're operating under the law of non-contradiction, meaning it can't contradict itself. It cannot. So if a text seems to contradict A broad swath of other places in scripture that clearly teach something, it cannot mean that. If you accept that this is the Word of God, that God picked all the words, and that He picked them knowing everything there is to know, That's what I believe scripture is. Then there are some times where you say, on its face this seems to mean this, but there are compelling, necessary reasons that make us pick an alternative interpretation for the text.

But in this case, I actually very strongly believe that there are compelling reasons to keep the plain meaning. Not only are there not necessary compelling reasons to move away from the plain meaning of the text, meaning if all you had was this text, you didn't have the other theological problems that you think it generates, then just, I mean, just clear what this means. That Not only are there not necessary compelling reasons to move away from it, there are necessary compelling reasons to say, it says what it seems to say. That's what I think about this text. Verse 14 is the most difficult verse in this section.

The most theologically challenging, interpretive challenges are here in verse 14. Okay, so let's look at verse 14 in detail. Paul says that the law is spiritual. So far so good. No controversy there.

We're on solid ground there. What does he mean by the law is spiritual? I think there are two things. One, it originates with God who is spirit, not from man. This is not man's book.

The law of God, the book of God is a spiritual book. It is a heavenly book, not an earthly book. The real author of the book is spirit. The law is spiritual. Two, it measures the unseen things as well as the seen things, the internal things as well as the external things.

The law is not just an external measurement. Like if you do this with your hand, don't do that with your hand. Oh no, no, no. It comes right to the heart. Think about Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 and what he says about murder and adultery.

He says, you've heard it was said, you shouldn't murder. I say to you, if you hate your brother, you're guilty of murder. Matthew Henry calls it heart murder. No one was harmed in the making of this heart murder. Not a hand laid on anyone.

No one even knew that you hated in your heart. You are guilty. Why? Because the law is spiritual. Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery, a physical act with someone else's spouse.

Jesus says, I say to you that if you lust you've committed adultery in your heart. No one was harmed. That's questionable, but follow with me. No one was harmed, no one was touched in the making of this thought. But it was an adulterous thought.

It was mind adultery. Murder, heart adultery. Hatred of your brother. Adultery, heart adultery. Just lust.

Not a hand laid on anyone. Guilt. Why? Because the law is spiritual. Now what does Paul mean when he says, but I am carnal.

The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." Wow, is this a theologically problematic phrase. How can this describe a believer who is free from slavery to sin, let alone Paul. How can you describe any believer who has been declared to be set free from slavery to sin, let alone the apostle Paul decades into his sanctification? Look back in chapter 6. Turn back a page.

Chapter 6 verse 6. We've been reciting it every week in our memory verse. Chapter 6 verse 6, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died has been freed from sin." The believer is freed from sin. The believer is no longer a slave of sin. I would offer this.

The Greek word translated carnal means of the flesh. That's how the ESV actually translates it. Both are perfectly good translations. Carnal of the flesh. The law is spiritual but by contrast Paul is still of the flesh.

Still sold under sin, meaning I firmly believe this is what he means. He is still subject to the remaining corruptions of still being in the flesh. Still subject, every day, every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month still subject to the remaining corruptions of still being in the flesh and he will never be completely free of them this side of heaven. His dying breath will be taken still subject to the remaining corruptions of still being in this tent. Peter calls it a tent.

Which is why Paul follows chapter 6 verses 6 and 7 which I just read with chapter 6 verses 12 through 14. Remember this. This was right on the heels of that. Chapter 6 verses 12 through 14. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace." Now that exhortation makes no sense at all, unless there are remaining corruptions that will be fighting against your desires to do things in honor of God.

If that's not true, that there are remaining corruptions that are acting on you, acting from within you, every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year until you die, why this exhortation? To not let sin reign in your mortal bodies. To not let yourselves be dominated by the lusts if they won't be attempting to dominate you. That makes no sense. So that is clearly what he's teaching there.

Remember when I was preaching on that I said One way to think of this is what we said all the way through Ephesians. Become what you are. What does that mean? Meaning, in salvation, God has brought you to a new state. But it isn't fully realized in the patterns of your life yet.

You are in Christ. You are free from sin. So that's your new identity. Become it. Grow into your identity.

Become what you are. So in this state, spiritually alive and making progress, Paul is still in the body. Verse 24 he calls it the body of death. Still in the body. Still in the body of death.

And so he finds himself in a war. All the commentators get that. That what is being represented in these verses is war within. Willing to do, intending to do, wanting to do this set of things, but finding yourself doing the exact opposite. Not intending, not wanting, not willing to do this set of things, but then finding yourself doing them.

War. Conflict. Listen to our confession, the second London Baptist Confession of 1689. So this is from the Baptist Confession of Faith 1689, chapter 13 of sanctification. What is sanctification?

Being set apart to God more and more and more. You fully set apart to God in every way in every pattern of your life the day you get saved. That was not my experience. I wish it was. I'm becoming what I am.

I'm growing. I have grown and I have such a long way to go. Can anyone else say that with me? I think you can. Or I think you're a liar.

You pick. So chapter 13 of the 1689 confession is of sanctification. This growing in Christ-likeness is being set apart more and more unto God. It's paragraph 2. This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life.

There abides still some remnants of corruption in every part, whence arises a continual and irreconcilable war." How long does that continual, irreconcilable war last? As long as you're breathing. That's what our confession teaches. Our confession teaches this is what's in the Bible. So whether you buy what the confession is selling or not, the confession says this is what the Bible teaches.

That Though we're making progress throughout the whole man, we're being sanctified, we are growing in Christ-likeness, progressively. That's going to always be imperfect in this life. Always, always, always to your last breath. And that there abides still some remnants of corruption in every part. Your mind's not spared, your body's not spared.

Whence arises a continual, keeps going and going and going, it continues, and irreconcilable, there's no bringing these parties together, war. Rob Ventura says this, although sin is no longer president, it is still resident. I like that. Why can't I think of things like that? I have to quote guys who think things like that.

Though no longer president, sin is not president anymore for the believer, But it's still resident. There's still the residue of it there. There's still remaining corruptions there. There you have it, my believing friends. Forewarned is forearmed.

Why has Paul even been doing this? Because if he just left you with the first part of chapter 6, you would think, well then, I'm done with sin. But in your experience, You would find that that's not true and you might conclude I'm not even born again. God hasn't done anything to me or for me, but that's not true You would you would Read the first part of Romans chapter 6 and then just put victory in Jesus on loop on your iPod thinking that that would be only that until you died. But that's not what you're going to experience.

Thinking that you could sprint to the finish line when God has put us to run a race with perseverance. He wants to forewarn us, to forearm us that this is what it's in for. It's not to say, oh well there's no winning this fight. No, it's to say, get in the fight. Get in the fight.

In this state, spiritually alive and making incremental progress, but still in the flesh, still battling the remaining corruptions, the remnants of Hurricane Adam. There are remnants of Hurricane Adam. The hurricane comes through and the worst of the blowing, the worst of the winds is over. And then it goes through state after state, dumping inches and inches of rain in flooding places. They say it's The remnants of Hurricane blank, whatever it is.

There's a remnants to Hurricane Adam too. In this condition Paul found himself not understanding his own conduct. I look at my life and I just don't understand. Puzzled by his own conduct. Again quoting Rob Ventura.

Lloyd-Jones was bad this week so we replace him with Rob Ventura. I'm going to tell him that. He will be so delighted. Rob Ventura says this, he is saying that when he sins, he is a contradiction in terms. He is a puzzle to himself since he has two opposite principles at work in his being.

He is bewildered by his behavior. Amen to that. He is a contradiction in terms. When the believer sins, it is a contradiction in terms. It ought not be, but it is.

Why? Because there are these two polar opposite principles both at work in the believer. Paul wills to do the things that align with God's good will, but instead of that he finds himself doing what he hates instead. Who would do that? Paul says, I would.

Apparently. Apparently I would. Paul wills not to do the things that dishonor God and yet he finds himself doing those very things. Who would do that? Paul says, apparently I would.

Paul says that when that happens, He is actually agreeing with the law that it is good. He is agreeing that the law is good. Verse 16. He wants to do God's will and he hates it when he does the things that dishonor God instead. That is a statement.

What is the statement? The law is right. When you want to do the things that line up with God's law, you're making a statement. The law is right. The law is good.

When you hate doing the things that dishonor God, doing the things that transgress the law, breaking the law, you're making a statement. I'm wrong and the law is right. I'm not good and the law is good. This internal conflict is actually saying, God's right and the law is good. Paul says that he delights in the law of God according to the inward man.

That's verse 22. Now it should be said that this can only describe a believer. Only a believer can delight in the law of God in the inward man. 1 Corinthians 2, 14, if you haven't memorized it yet, you'll have it memorized soon enough. I'm sure I quote this once a month, but it's so fundamental to so many other things in the New Testament that we keep coming back to it.

1 Corinthians 2, 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." The law is spiritual. The natural man, because the law is spiritual, is not delighting in the law of God in the inner man. That's not how it works. The natural man does have a conscience given by God that is pricked by transgressions of the law.

That is not the same thing as loving the things of God and hating disobedience to God. Having your conscience pricked is not the same as that. That's just the sorrow of the world. Now you could say, well, Paul you don't really want to do those things, and you don't really hate those other things. Because if you really wanted to do them, you would do them.

If you really hated them, then you wouldn't do them. Paul has an alternate explanation. It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. That Greek word under dwells, translated dwells, essentially means at home. Sin is still at home in me, in my flesh, in my members.

That's verse 17. Then he repeats it in verse 20, almost exactly the same words. It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Here's a question for you. Is Paul saying, it's not my fault, it's sin.

Sin's dwelling in me. I would always do what's right, never do what's wrong, but sin's dwelling in me. It's not my fault. I don't think so at all. He's acknowledging, this is part of me.

I think he's actually saying by faith my true identity is in Christ. He has promised that I'm in his Son. He's promised that I'm free from slavery to sin. So I take him in his word. By faith I'm in his son because he says if I believe I'm in his son.

By faith I'm free from slavery to sin because he has said I'm free from the slavery to sin. There are corruptions that remain, that's true, but I'm in Jesus. And because I'm in Jesus, the day is coming when the final remnants of Hurricane Adam will be swept away. By faith. It is true that in my flesh nothing good dwells.

So that to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. That's verse 18. It is true that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. That word present in the Greek means close at hand. Evil is close at hand when I want to do good.

It's always right there. Wanting to counteract the impulse to do good that comes with a new heart, new affections, really born again, the heart of stone really taken out, the heart of flesh really given, and yet evil is still right there at hand desiring to counteract every good impulse. So both are true of me. I do have the good impulse from the heart of flesh and I do have Evil at home, sin at home, in my members. So the war is on.

Paul actually calls that a law like gravity. Look at verse 21. I Find then a law that evil is present with me the one who wills to do good a law like do this Don't do that no no a law like gravity How many times will the phone go down? How many times? As many times as I drop it.

Why? Because there's a law at work. There's a law at work. Gravity. So Paul is speaking like that.

I find then this law like gravity, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. I know it's true that I have an impulse to do good, a desire to do good, I intend to do good. And what's right at hand all the time, evil is right at hand all the time. Our last two verses, verses 24 and 25. More to be said and another week to say it.

Verses 24 and 25. Paul says, Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of 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. Paul teaches in these verses like the hymn, what a friend we have in Jesus.

You're filling in blanks, friend, fills in the blank. What a friend we have in Jesus. Next week we'll take the whole sermon time to talk about verses 20 through 25. But for now, there is something wretched about being spiritually alive but still in this body of death. Anybody else feel that?

There is something wretched about being spiritually alive, having a heart of flesh, having intents and impulses and desires to do the things that honor God, but finding that every step of the way that evil is right at hand, that there's a totally polar opposite principle, a law like gravity at work pulling in the opposite direction, there is something wretched about that. About being in this continual, irreconcilable war, as the second line of Baptist Confession says. But know this, Jesus has saved every believer from their body of death. Jesus is saving every believer from their body of death. Jesus will save every believer from their body of death.

He has done it, he is doing it, he will do it. All of those things are true and they are all together. In an ultimate sense, it's already done. It was done at the cross. But there's still a present working out of it and there's still a future bringing it to a perfect conclusion.

All of those things are true and they're true together. Let me conclude with a few thoughts about the text and implications of the text. I think there are four. Number one, this is very consistent with the overall New Testament testimony. Very consistent.

I'll give you four places. Matthew 26, 41, Gethsemane, Jesus in the Garden, Matthew 26, verse 41, Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak They want to pray they intend to pray they need to pray They know all that and they sleep. Why is that? They have willing spirits, the flesh is very weak. So the things that they want to do, they're not doing.

The things that they hate, I can't even pray with Jesus for a single hour on the night before He'll die. You hate that? You would hate it. Would it keep you awake? It wouldn't!

Second, turn to Galatians 5. To me, Galatians 5 is really the interpretive lens because it says in summary form, short form, what our text is saying in long form. Sometimes it helps to clear out a lot of the prepositional phrases and get it down to short form and then use the short form as the lens through which to look at all the prepositional phrases so you don't get disoriented by all the different things that are being said. All those things aren't there in Galatians chapter 5, and So it gives you a good lens. Now we get this lens and we look through it to Romans chapter 7.

Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and 17. Galatians 5, 16 and 17. I say then, who is he writing to, who is he saying it to, Galatians. Just Galatians? No, Galatian Christians.

Believing Galatians. I say then, believing Galatians, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So, do these believing Galatians still have flesh that craves after things that dishonor God? Yes, so Paul tells them, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. Almost exactly the same words from our text, but in short form. So that's your lens. Paul writing to believing Galatians, you still have these cravings in your members that are demanding to be served, don't serve them, walk in the Spirit instead. Because these two laws, like gravity, are pulling against each other in the opposite direction so that you find yourself doing things that you don't want to do.

This is exactly what Paul is saying in our text. It's two believers, it's the same words. Listen to James chapter 4 verse 1. James 4 verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Who is he writing to? Believers. Believers? When you're fighting, where does that come from? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

You're fighting because you still have these desires in your members that are at war with your new spiritual life in Christ. 1 Peter 2 11, this is the last one, the fourth one. 1 Peter 2 11, who's Peter writing to? Believers. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul.

You see how well grounded this is in the rest of the New Testament testimony. Jesus is talking about it. Paul is talking about it in other places. James is talking about it. Peter is talking about it.

All acknowledging that in our members there's this other law like the law of gravity pulling in the wrong direction. So we should arm ourselves as if we're pilgrims, as if we're just passing through. Because if You get a mindset that this life is all there is, this world is all there is. You're giving an advantage to this principle that's pulling in the wrong direction in your members. Abstain from fleshly lust, these things in your members that are craving things that dishonor God.

They're there, you're feeling that gravitational pull, so pull against it. That's what Peter is saying. That's number one. This is very consistent with the overall New Testament testimony. Jesus, Paul of the places, James, Peter.

Number two. You knew I would quote J.C. Ryle. Here I go. A Christian is known as much by his war as by his peace.

Which is it? J.C. Ryle says, I'm not picking. Do Christians know peace? Of course, Jesus Christ has made peace by His blood with God.

You're no longer at war with God. Does Christian know war? Yes. This internal conflict that won't be over this side of heaven, your last breath will be taken still engaged in this conflict. Then in the next moment, the conflict will be over.

Conflict doesn't last forever, it just lasts as long as life. A Christian is known as much by his war as by his peace. Why does he say that? To keep you from saying, I have this internal war, I must not be a Christian. J.C.

Ryle says, no, you have this internal war, you must be a Christian. Unbelievers don't have this. Now, again, they do have a conscience that is given to them by God and it pricks them when they sin, but that's not the same thing as loving righteousness and hating unrighteousness. That's the war within the Christian and the unbeliever doesn't have it. So friends, what is your disposition towards your sin?

Not do you sin, I know the answer to that. What is your disposition towards your sin? Do you hate it more by the day? God wants us to hate it more by the day. He's teaching us to hate our sin more by the day.

Number three. How can Paul describe himself this way? In the intro sermon I had to go look it up, So I looked up the intro sermon. Here's what I said. Romans was most likely written in 57 or 58 AD.

If so, Paul has been a believer for more than two decades when he writes this letter. He's 20 years of hard discipleship. Is that controversial? Paul's been at hard discipleship since he was born again. He got a late start, but he got a fast start.

Once he started, man he was off to the races. So it's been more than two decades of hard discipleship, but then he writes this. How can Paul describe himself that way? Is his life filled with external scandalous sin? I seriously doubt it.

I don't think anyone would receive him as an apostle if his life was filled with serious, external, scandalous sin. I don't think that's what it is. Then what is it? Listen, listen carefully. The more sanctified you become, the less sanctified you feel.

That has been the uniform testimony of all the greatest saints in every century. Read them. The more sanctified you become, the more progress that you make, the more Christ-likeness that becomes established in your life, the less sanctified you feel. Early in your walk with the Lord. You're all proud of yourself with no reason for it.

And later when you made all this progress, you're humiliated at how far you have left to go to look like Christ. That is true. Why is that? On the day that you're saved, The scope of what you can see is small and it grows. Meaning, you have no idea what a mess you were.

You think you do. When you talk to somebody who's on day one, right, They get born again, they go to sleep, they wake up the next day, you say, tell me about yourself. Oh, I was a mess, God saved me. You don't know the zillionth of it. But you're about to.

You're about to. On the day that you're saved, The scope of what you can see is small, but it grows. You're convinced that you see how wicked you were, how much God has saved you from, but you don't know the half of it, the tenth of it, the hundredth of it, but you're gonna find out because that is gonna grow, the scope of what you can see because God's going to show it to you because that's what the Spirit does and Your sensitivity to the subtle sins is small, but it grows subtle sins like what subtle sins like pride subtle sins like hypocrisy subtle sins like self-sufficiency Subtle sins like coveting accusing God of not knowing what he's doing because he hasn't given you this. None of your friends know about any of that stuff, but you get a greater and greater and greater and greater and greater sensitivity to it over time. So you're making progress, but you feel like, I'm falling further behind.

That's true. That's the testimony of all the people who have made the most progress through every century of church history. Number four. We're at an hour and two minutes. I thought it would be a lot longer than that.

I've gone fast. You might not think so, but I think so. Number four. The wrong conclusion is, I can't win, so why try? Is that what Paul is doing here?

Is that what Paul is doing here? Paul is pushing back on your concluding from the early verses of Romans chapter 6 that all you should expect all the time is victory. Because he knows that when you find out that's not true, if that's what you thought, the fall will be hard and far. Paul's arming you against a hard and far fall when the reality of gravity sets in on you. Gravity is going to have its way.

When it does, how hard will you fall? How far will you fall? If you know this, you can keep going. This is what Paul wants. He doesn't want us to say, I can't win so why try?

He wants us to say, I have a few short moments to wage war against these contrary principles to honor God in my life and I'm going to do it while the doing is good. I'm going to do it while I'm breathing. That's the conclusion Paul wants you to draw. God, I pray that you would help us to draw this conclusion, to enter into the fray with all of our hearts, knowing that evil will always be at hand, but thanking you for an impulse to do the things that honor you, and that we would wage jihad, a holy war in our lives against sin. We would never treat it as a friend, this mortal enemy as a friend, but we would treat it as an enemy and wage a continual, irreconcilable war.

Not that it is being waged against us, but that we are waging it against sin. Oh arm us God to do it. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.