WEBVTT 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.080 Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:12.400 I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:16.480 Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.760 Welcome to the Born for War podcast. 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:26.879 So we're back in Romans. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:29.280 Then that's good. 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:33.359 But there's good and bad because we're in Romans 7. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.799 And any of you that are Bible students know what Romans 7 is about. 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:42.320 Romans 7 is like the built-in law of failure in your life. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:44.000 You can't do it. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:46.000 You cannot live the Christian life. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:51.439 You cannot fully be devoted as a disciple of Jesus in your own power. 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:52.640 That's Romans 7. 00:00:52.799 --> 00:01:00.960 Now remember that Romans was a letter written to the believers to be read all at once in one sitting. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:05.200 So we're kind of chopping it up all the time with these chapters. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:09.120 So it's super hard to be in Romans 7 without going into Romans 8. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:12.319 And it's really hard to be in Romans 7 without being in Romans 6. 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:14.480 So we've already done Romans 6. 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:17.280 So let me just rehearse where we're going. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:20.159 And then be patient because you're gonna read. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.480 You need to read it like every day to get ready. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:31.840 But Romans 7 is sort of a, this is sort of a downer because here's what Romans 6 is about. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:57.840 Romans 6 was about your identity in Christ, that you have died, your old self, your old ways, your old power, your old religions and ways of reaching God have died and been buried with Christ, but through the cross, it's been nailed to the cross, and everything that you tried to do, Christ did for us. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:03.040 So that through his resurrection, by conquering, what is the power of sin? 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:04.480 The power of sin is death. 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:05.519 What's the power of death? 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:06.560 Power of sin. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:09.199 They reproduce each other, sin and death. 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:11.599 So then we're raised now with Christ. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:12.719 That's all Romans 6. 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:13.599 We already covered that. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:24.800 That's why we have baptisms today, which are metaphorical of the death going under the water into ourselves and the death of Christ, and then raised up with the resurrection of Christ. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:26.159 Now we're in Romans 7. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:31.599 So turn in Romans 7, because Romans 7 is a civil war. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.240 It's about the war of the will. 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:44.960 It's us trying to be a good Christian, try to be a good people and try to be a good, um, I don't know, good person, I guess. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:51.840 Here's what I think it's like: it's like this kid coming up to me and said, I can swim. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:53.439 You ever take swimming lessons? 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:54.000 No. 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:55.520 I know I can swim. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:56.800 I can do it. 00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:57.919 Okay, great. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:00.400 Well, what do you do with a kid like that? 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:02.240 Just push him in, man. 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:07.599 And so you just push him in there, and then in the deep the deep end, and you say, Swim. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:25.919 And you know, it's kind of like I remember Bill Cosby had this uh comedy routine in one of his albums years ago, and it said, I just threw my kid in, you know, and uh, and and then the bubbles would come up, and then it and when the bubble would pop, it would say, Help, pop, help, help. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:27.360 That's Romans 7. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.680 So Romans 7 is you trying to do it and you can't do it. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:32.639 You can't do it. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:36.639 But so it's Romans 7 today, it's Romans 8 next week. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:37.439 So remember that. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:39.280 So let's look at verse 1. 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:41.360 Or do you not know, brethren? 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:46.319 So, in other words, he's coming from the new identity we have in chapter 6. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:48.400 Do you not know, brethren? 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:51.520 For I speak to those who know the law. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:04:00.319 He's speaking to the Jewish believers who had started the church in Rome, that the law is dominion over a man as long as he lives. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:04.240 So, what had happened is that the Spirit of God had come at Pentecost. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:08.240 The Jews were there for the feast of Pentecost, they got saved. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:14.000 3,000 people, and part of that list of the nations is from Rome. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:17.439 And they came back, we didn't have a they don't have a Bible yet. 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:20.079 They don't have an understanding of grace and faith yet. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:23.360 So now they're trying to live the Christian life. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:34.879 They're trying to live for Jesus with the law, using the law, the Mosaic law, and he's saying, look, if you think that you can do it that way, then you better not mess up. 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:38.160 You better get it perfectly right. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:49.279 Then he says, for the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:53.120 But if the husband dies, she's released from the law of her husband. 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:59.439 So then, if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she'll be called an adulteress. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:07.439 But if her husband dies, she's free from that law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she has married another man. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:24.079 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we now can bear fruit to God. 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:44.079 What he's saying is this is that just as if you were married to someone and then they died, and that freedom that came after the death of you now on your own, you don't have any obligations with that other person, same with the Jewish believers at that time, they are dead to the law. 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:47.040 They don't have, that's not gonna save them. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:49.199 All that effort's not gonna save them. 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:53.600 And the rest of this whole chapter is about us figuring that out, okay? 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:56.399 But you're now married to another. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:58.639 You're married to Christ. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:07.759 When you receive Christ, you're in a sense married to Christ, you become a bride of the bridegroom. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:08.480 Okay? 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:20.560 And so through that relationship now that we have with him, and I just decided to write it out because I do these things for a lot of young people. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:25.040 I've got a some I've got a marriage next month that I'm doing. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:32.319 Jesus might have said this to us I, Jesus, take you, sinner, to be my bride. 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:36.160 Or I could say, I Jesus, take you the church, to be my bride. 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:52.160 And I do promise and covenant before my Father to be your loving and faithful Savior and bridegroom, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish for all eternity. 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:53.920 That's pretty good news. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:58.399 Christ takes you, He loves you, you're His. 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:00.319 You can't get out of it now. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:11.439 I tell all our single young people from time to time, it's better to be single and wish you're married than to be married and wish you were single. 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:14.879 So we're married into Christ. 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:24.720 He's saying, look, that religious life, which all of us in this room came out of, is not going to get you saved. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:33.759 Christ came and he took it all on the cross, and now we're in a new personal, divine, growing, intimate relationship with him. 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:35.519 Verse 5. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.720 For we were in the flesh. 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:40.399 In my Bible, I circled that. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:41.040 That's important. 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:42.560 We were in the flesh. 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:52.319 The sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:08:07.680 But now we've been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:17.360 So, in other words, men and women, if you if we're trying to live the Christian life in the flesh, you're not able to do it. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:27.759 So I wrote on my side, I would just encourage you, if you have a little margin in your Bible, you might write over to the side of verse five, working in our own power. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:30.240 Working in our own power. 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:34.399 In your own power, you're trying to do the right thing, which is fine. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:40.000 I mean, there's nothing trying to do the right thing is better than not trying to do the right thing. 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:47.679 But he's just saying that you, in your own power, trying to do the right thing is gonna constantly fail. 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:49.519 You can't do it. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:53.440 How many of you come out of some kind of a religious background? 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:55.120 Any, you know, or southern. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:55.440 Okay. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:08.000 So most religions, even the Christian religions, are built on rules and regulations that are focused on outward behavior. 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:13.279 It's you trying and trying and trying to be a good person. 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:16.879 And the result of that is constant failure. 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:23.360 Religion has a built-in fabric to it of failure. 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:26.080 And in this case, he's leading us to Romans 8. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:27.279 There's a point to this. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:28.960 Here's your identity. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:36.240 Buried in Christ, resurrected in Christ, but you're still trying to do it through religion. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:39.120 You're still trying to do it through commandments and stuff. 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:40.480 You're failing, you're failing. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:41.519 That's where he's going with it. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:42.639 And now, Romans 8. 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:43.679 Now, this is interesting. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:44.799 Jot this down. 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:45.919 This is great. 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.679 Now, this is the New King James Version, so some of you have different versions. 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:54.080 But listen, law is mentioned 15 times in Romans 7. 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:57.519 Law is mentioned 15 times in Romans 7. 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:59.919 Another way to say it is law slash religion. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:00.799 Any kind of religion. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:01.440 Religion. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:02.799 Law, 15 times. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:04.960 Romans 8, check this out. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.000 15 times spirit is used. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:11.360 Spirit's only used once in Romans 7. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:17.279 So it's kind of like he's pushing us into the deep end and you're drowning. 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:22.879 And now he's preparing us for swimming lessons that are coming out. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:26.399 Let's see what he says next. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:28.960 What shall we say then? 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:30.320 Is the law sin? 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:34.080 I mean, guys, that would be the natural way to think. 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:56.480 That if the law, the commandments, the Mosaic commandments, or your religious background, creates in you a built-in system of failure in which you try to do what it says to do and you can't do it, then your natural thinking might be, then the system's bad. 00:10:57.679 --> 00:10:59.039 If the system's not good. 00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:00.639 Okay, well, here's what he says. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:02.240 What shall we say then? 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:04.000 Is the law sin? 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:07.919 Certainly not, exclamation point. 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:10.960 What it's not? 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:18.720 On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:25.120 For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:34.960 But sin, I'm gonna give you, I want you to write on the side, right on your left margin there or right margin, whatever is in your Bible, make sin a capital. 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:37.600 And I'll explain in a second why I want you to do that. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:43.759 I want you to put sin, and another way you could do it is put sin capital slash demon. 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:47.200 Or sin slash Satan. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:48.559 And I'll explain. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:54.799 Taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:57.279 For apart from the law, sin was dead. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:09.200 So it could be natural, it would be very, it would be the next, I know, reason in our reasoning to think that the law itself must be bad if it arouses sin in me. 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:11.440 Let me give you three purposes I think of the law. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:12.559 Three purposes. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:19.039 And the reason this is important is because in progressive Christianity, who knows the term progressive Christianity? 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:20.080 Anybody know the term? 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:20.960 Okay, some of you do. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:28.320 Okay, progressive Christianity is a new wave of liberalism that's flowing now into the evangelical church. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:38.320 And one of the aspects or character qualities of that is that the Old Testament is not as annoying and it's not as inspired as the New Testament. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:47.440 So, Genesis to Malachi was for a different generation, for a different time, and a different dispensation. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:50.720 But now we have the New Testament, we don't need the Old Testament. 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:51.919 I disagree with that. 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:55.120 I believe all 66 books are inspired by God. 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:55.919 Just say that. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:58.559 All 66 books are inspired by God. 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:00.320 Okay, that's what we believe at the road. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:04.000 Okay, so do we understand everything in the Old Testament? 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:06.240 No, but do you understand everything in the New Testament? 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:06.960 Of course you don't. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:08.559 You're a liar if you think you do. 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.679 Because we walk by faith, not by perfection. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:12.879 We don't, we're, it's a mystery. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:14.320 There's some mysteries in it. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:15.519 But here's the point. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:17.519 Number one, here's the purpose of the law. 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:23.039 Number one, it's to show us or reveal to us the character of God. 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:29.039 The law is there to show us what God loves, what God hates, what God cares about. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:38.799 If you have any idea about or any questions or want to understand better what God blesses and what God curses, read Deuteronomy 28 through 32. 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:45.279 Right there, you see, this is what God loves, this is what God blesses, this is what God hates, this is what God curses. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:47.840 It's kind of a wake-up call to America, too. 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:56.720 And by the way, by the way, the Matrix Media through YouTube has canceled our service today. 00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:01.120 We're not on YouTube because I spoke on the Great Reset a few months ago. 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:02.480 You guys remember that? 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:07.679 So, if you've swallowed the red pill, you're in the right church. 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:11.440 If you like the blue pill, you'll probably be comfortable somewhere else. 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:13.519 But anyway, I just found that out this morning. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:14.960 So I just thought that's pretty cool. 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:16.799 That's a red badge of courage. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:17.279 Okay. 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:21.679 So, first thing, God reveals his character through the law. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:26.720 Second thing is that God reveals your sin through the law. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:36.720 You wouldn't know covetousness, you wouldn't know jealousy if you didn't have a law that said, you know, do not covet, do not murder. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:43.200 And then Jesus redefines it as being a heart issue in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:46.879 So, number one, it reveals the character of God. 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:49.440 Number two, the law reveals sin. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:54.320 And then number three, and this is important, it produces a longing for freedom. 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:59.360 The law produces a longing for freedom because we can't do it. 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:01.039 We don't have what it takes. 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:02.480 We have to have Christ. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:03.919 We have to have the cross. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:06.000 We have to have the resurrection. 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:10.320 Because the power of sin is death. 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:13.039 The power of death is sin. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:20.000 So the power of faith, listen, the power of faith is freedom. 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:22.480 And that's what Romans 8 is going to be all about. 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:34.960 So Augustine wrote and said it this way: the law binds us as we try to fulfill its requirements, and we become wearied in our weakness under it to know how to ask for the help of grace. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:40.639 So God is producing life in us by also producing death in us. 00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:41.679 Look at verse 9. 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:50.399 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:16:02.320 So when I was coming up as a college student, and then into probably the first 10 years of my Christian life, I read so many missionary biographies. 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:07.679 And I still remember one by Don Richardson called Peace Child. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:16.320 And in that biography, he talks about going into Papua New Guinea and reaching a tribe that had never been reached with the gospel. 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:28.159 And the amount of murder and the amount of infanticide and the amount of child sacrifices that was happening at that time that was just for centuries had been a part of that particular tribe. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:30.000 And then they got saved. 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:31.679 And then they came to know the Lord. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:32.080 Guess what? 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.399 First thing you do, translate the scriptures. 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:39.200 You start translating the scriptures, they start realizing, well, maybe we shouldn't do that. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:43.200 You know, maybe we should not eat as many people, you know? 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:46.879 And probably it was like that. 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:51.600 It's like, let's let's eat, let's eat one less person this week, you know. 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:55.519 But anyway, they started repenting because the law was given him. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:58.960 They didn't have the law, they didn't know, so they were cannibals. 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:02.159 And they, and being cannibal is not good. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:04.799 And so they they had the law, though. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:06.319 So that's what it did for us. 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:11.599 And so, even in your religious background, my religious background, there's really good things in it. 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:14.319 I mean, I did the catechism with my dad. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:23.519 So I had to I had to learn the Lord's Prayer, I had to learn the Ten Commandments, I had to have it memorized to graduate, you know, for the little ceremony, catechism ceremony. 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:27.839 They call it confirmation, the confirmation thing that I did. 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:34.799 And I remember saying to my dad, this shows how just, I don't know, kind of an idiot we are, but anyway, I am. 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:38.400 You know, it's like I said, Dad, why didn't you ever teach the Bible? 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:44.559 And he goes, Um, do you have your notes from your catechism class? 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:53.519 And so I went back and I literally found them, and uh, and he, man, he had taught me the Bible, like inside and out for confirmation class. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:55.119 But my heart wasn't changed. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:55.839 Do you get it? 00:17:56.079 --> 00:18:01.680 I mean, I understood it intellectually, but my heart wasn't changed and I couldn't live it. 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:07.839 And so what Paul is saying here is he's setting us up with this built-in system of failure. 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:12.559 You in your own willpower can't do it. 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:14.799 You can't live a holy life. 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.119 You can't fast and pray. 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:19.759 You can't tell the truth. 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:22.480 You're constantly failing in that. 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:27.920 Verse 10, and the commandment, which was to bring life, I found it brought death. 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.839 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me. 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:33.920 And by it killed me. 00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:38.960 Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:41.680 Has then what is good become death to me? 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:42.960 Certainly not. 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:52.160 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. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:58.640 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal, I'm soul under sin. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:01.599 I want you to see I, I, me, I, me. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:10.319 Thirty times in this chapter, over thirty times, Paul's saying, I, me, I, me, because he's trying to do it. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:13.279 That's what Luther was trying to do. 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:30.319 Martin Luther is an Augustinian monk, crawling on the steps of that cathedral in Rome, bloodying his knees, trying to find righteousness in his own effort, and failing and failing. 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:34.960 And some of you have been, you're you're godly people. 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:37.119 You're beautiful people. 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:39.680 You're trying to do it. 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:42.559 And you and you're and you're constantly failing. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:43.440 Guess what? 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:44.960 You're supposed to fail. 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:46.640 That's the point. 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:48.960 And even on Sunday. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:50.319 Remember? 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:54.000 God spoke about panic and anxiety. 00:19:54.480 --> 00:20:10.640 Some of you are in panic attacks and anxiety attacks and in depression because you're trying to do the right thing, but you keep failing, and you're just driving yourself crazy, trying to do it in your own effort and in your own power. 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:14.240 It can't be done. 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:17.920 Only Christ can do it through you. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:22.720 It's through the power of his Holy Spirit that it can be done. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:24.240 For what am I doing? 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:25.759 I do not understand. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:30.319 For what I will to do that I do, I do not practice what I want to do. 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:32.720 But what I hate, that's what I do. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:38.559 I can't tell you how many times I've been with people who are on some kind of an addiction. 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:45.039 Whether it's drugs or alcohol or porn or whatever it might be, that's that's what I hear. 00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:48.319 I know the right thing to do, Pastor Steve. 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:50.720 But I can't do it. 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:55.920 Or I come forward and I get prayer, and then five days later I'm back in it again. 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:57.519 Anyone relate? 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:00.079 I mean, that's that's the human dilemma, man. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:01.279 That's the human battle. 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:07.519 And there has to be a point, honestly, church, there has to be a point where you surrender all. 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:11.440 And you and you have to realize you can't do it. 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:12.960 You don't have the capacity. 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:16.799 God did not put the capacity for you to do that in you. 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:20.799 And you're gonna have to surrender to the Holy Spirit. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:24.160 You've got to allow the life of the Spirit. 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:26.400 Here's the divine exchange. 00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:32.799 There's the law of regulations, and then there's the law of the Spirit. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:34.079 That's next week. 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:38.720 Everybody say we're in Romans 7 now. 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:43.359 It is a system of failure. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:51.519 Next week we're in Romans 8, and that's freedom that we have in the Spirit. 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:53.279 But I can't go there yet. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:56.960 I just want to go there. 00:21:58.319 --> 00:21:59.839 But that's the that's the spoiler. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:05.680 The spoiler alert is that the Spirit is the only one who can do it in our lives. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:07.119 For what am I doing? 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:08.000 I do not understand. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:12.240 For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate I do. 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:18.400 If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:26.960 In other words, you know the right thing to do, and by the fact that you know the right thing to do and you know that that's good, you're actually affirming that the law is good. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:32.400 But now, verse 17, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:38.319 For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:46.400 For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:55.039 This Luther wrote a book, it was actually a booklet back then, you can find it in book form now, called Bondage of the Will. 00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:58.880 Now, this is where Catholicism and Protestantism are different. 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:00.079 I'll just say that. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:07.599 Catholicism in its theology leaves room for the goodness of man. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:19.119 Luther felt, and I tend to agree with Luther, that there is nothing good within us, and that's based on Romans, and he was an expert on Romans, okay? 00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:25.039 The idea being that there's nothing good in you that can do the right thing. 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:28.000 Now, we're all created in the image of God. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:40.079 So there is good in the sense of the image of God buried down in there somewhere, but the point of salvation is it'll never work out through your works. 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:42.799 It can only work out through the grace of God. 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:43.680 Does that make sense? 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:45.279 So that's what he's saying here. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:55.599 So I find then, no, verse 19, for the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:02.079 Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.480 Now, this is a massive civil war. 00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:08.400 This is a really big civil war in our heart. 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:17.200 And this is why I think it's, I say this from time to time to people if you're coming out of alcohol abuse, probably going to bars isn't a good idea. 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:30.240 You know, if you're coming out of addiction to sexual stuff, probably it's better to have people around you when you're with the opposite of the same sex, whichever the struggle is, that you're accountable. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:32.880 Because that that's still there. 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:41.359 It doesn't mean you're forgiven, but if you put yourself in temptation's way, you're gonna be more prone to fall. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:55.839 So use, you know, using some kind of intelligent consensus within your spirit and your heart and your mind, the importance of guarding yourself on the boundaries of what you live by, because this is who we are. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:28.640 I then, I find then a law that evil is present within me, the one who wills to do good, for I delight in the law, but in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring, this battle going on, the civil war 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 the body of death. 00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:29.680 That's the point. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:34.079 That's the whole point here is that you are caught. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:37.759 You're caught and you can't set yourself free. 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:38.880 It can't be done. 00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:39.519 It's impossible. 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:41.039 Religion's not gonna save you. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:43.359 Doing all the right things isn't gonna save you. 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:45.599 It's only gonna be through Christ. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:50.480 And that's the only way we're gonna find that affection, and that's through a love relationship with Christ. 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:59.039 So there's a new law, law of regulations, and now this new law, which we're gonna talk about next week, law of the Spirit, which is the law of love. 00:25:59.839 --> 00:26:05.599 That's why Jesus said, all of the commandments, all of the law is fulfilled in this. 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:10.240 Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:11.359 And what? 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:13.680 Your neighbors yourself. 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:20.000 So here's the great setup for chapter 8, verse 25. 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:31.440 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. 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:34.799 So only Christ can set us free. 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:44.240 Only Christ can give us new life, only Christ can enable us and impact us and empower us to live the Christian life from the heart outward. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:47.759 You don't have the capacity to do it, but he does. 00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:57.839 Because he completed the total death of the law by taking on all of our sin upon himself so that you don't have to take it. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:02.559 And now it's receiving it, it's accepting it, and it's believing it. 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:10.079 Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:13.680 We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:19.680 To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit steveholtonline.org. 00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:20.799 God bless.