Carnal Man
Romans 7:15-18 · Roger Henderson · Oct 29, 2006
Romans (2005-07), No. 55
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492606417526

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK, well, we're going to continue on today with the next four verses. But I thought it would be good to kind of review where we came from. And also, I kind of found that actually verse 14 kind of introduces, in a way, the following verses. So let's just kind of go through this again. This is kind of the summary that we have at the end of Romans chapter 7, 12 through 14. And there we start off with that the law is holy. The commandment is holy and righteous and good. And this good commandment was not the cause of my death or separation.

But the cause of my death or separation was, Paul says, my sin nature. Cause of my death or separation. And the sin nature, this bullet right here, the sin nature was working death through the good, through the good commandment, The good commandment was bring to light the sinfulness of the sin nature. And then next to the last bullet, the sin nature, and this is just one of the many places in scripture, the sin nature is utterly, beyond measure, sinful through the commandment. The commandment exposes how rotten the sin nature is. I guess that's valuable. I mean, it's not an uplifting message, but it's a necessary message, I guess, that our sin nature is utterly, beyond measure, sinful. And then he says the law is spiritual.

And then lastly, and this is really key, I've kind of highlighted it here. Paul kind of says, here's where I'm at. And I think this is just key. He's going to go through a lot of these I, I, I, I, me, me, me, I, I, I, me, me. He says, you know something? I'm carnal, having been sold into bondage to the sin nature. Actually, there's a little preposition there. He's sold under the sin nature. He's under the control. He's hanging out there. And if you look at the tense of the verb here, that have been sold is a perfect tense. He's saying, I was sold out to the sin nature of the past, and I'm continuing on right now.

That's not a really good statement to say where I'm at today. But it's interesting. I think it could be that we could be there someday too, and maybe for a short time, maybe for a long time period. So with that as a beginning point, we're going to step into the next verses.

But I also want to do a little thing here and just look at, since Paul says, I am carnal, he makes that statement, I thought it might be good just to go over the difference between a spiritual Christian and a carnal Christian. And basically, if you look in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, we look there, they talk about the three kinds of men, the natural man, the spiritual man and the carnal man. So the spiritual man, the person that's walking with the Lord, in this left-hand column here, there are like four words. Consider or reckon, walk, and that's actually twice I have that, and abide. And these are words and instructions the Lord's given us. He says he wants us to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin. He wants us to walk, walk in him. He wants us to walk by the Spirit. He wants us to abide in Him.

So the other side of that is kind of the flip side. It's when you're not abiding, not walking, and not reckoning. That's where you're at. And so I kind of picked verses that try to portray that. So let's just kind of go through this. So the first verse is, Even so, consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. So the spiritual man, that's where he's to be hanging out. He's reckoning himself dead to sin. The carnal man, As it says in the following verse, he's letting sin reign in his mortal body. That's where he's at. He's walking that way. So he's walking in his carnality.

The next one, Colossians 2.6. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. And these are faith operations. You've received him by faith, you're to walk by faith.

So, you know, kind of the flip side of that is you're walking in darkness, as it says in 1 John 1.6. You're walking in darkness. You're not walking in him, you're walking in darkness. The opposite of that. Now, another verse in terms of walking.

Walking by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Well, if you're not walking by the Spirit, you're walking by the flesh. And it says in the following verse that the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit. And also it says the Spirit against the flesh. If you're a carnal person, you're carrying out the fleshly desires.

And then lastly, abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. And the flip side of that is the declaration in Romans chapter 6, 1. It says, are we to continue? And actually, that word is the same word. The root word is abide. Are we to abide in our sin nature so that grace may increase? May it never be. is the answer to that.

So I just want to kind of lay out the spiritual man and the carnal man. And Paul's saying, this is where he's at. So with that in mind, we're going to look through the verses and we're going to see what he's saying, the struggle he's having. And he's trying to live the Christian life from this perspective in a carnal sense. And he says, I'm not making it. It's not working out. I hate it. He said that several times. I hate the life I'm living. It's interesting. Have you heard people, I've heard unbelievers say, no, I hate my life. I can't stand it.

And I think there's an aspect of where as we come to faith in the Lord and we walk in the Lord, sometimes we see what we're doing and we say, hey, this is not where I should be. And Paul realized it when he gets into chapter 8. You know, he rejoices in the Lord that by faith he can be a spiritual man, not a carnal man.

So, any thoughts or questions about this before we go on? Okay. Okay, so here's our verses, and I'll just... In fact, actually, I didn't do this at the beginning. Could I have someone read... Well, let's see, I'll just read it. So here's Paul. He's going to go through and he's going to say, here's where I'm at.

For what I am doing, I do not understand, for I am practicing what I would like to do. But I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good. Verse 17, so now no longer am I the one doing it, but the sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for the willing is present, but the doing of good is not.

OK, so we're just going to go through and dissect these different parts of these verses here. And one of the first observations is that On this kind of a second chart there are the same passage If you look if you go through and look at the time he talks about I and me and my It's all about here's what I'm not doing. Here's what I'm here's where I'm not. Here's what I'm doing It's all about himself and it continues on in verse 19 and so on.

He's totally focused upon I Gotta do something here. I gotta live this life So that's a that's kind of a key thing OK, so let's take the first verse. So I kind of broke it up into three statements, and then I looked at what Wiest had to say. And one thing to recognize here, this is all present tense, indicative, active. He's right now, at the time of this writing, he was saying, this is where I'm at. This is what I'm doing. OK, so he says, for what I am doing, I do not understand.

And Wiest puts it a little bit differently. For that which I do, I do not understand. And then the second one is, for I am not practicing what I would like to do. So I thought it actually was better the way Wiest had it. For that which I desire. And we're going to see some of the meanings of these words. For that which I desire, this I do not practice. And the last one, and from the weast it says, but that which I hate, this I am doing. So as you go through there, and if you read different writers about what they think about these verses, they focus on a certain aspect. And let's see if I can. OK. So what I did, same verses, same verse 15, but broken up into three segments.

And I kind of have the Greek words kind of highlighted in there. So, and I kind of have a little color code here. And the thought here is that he's saying all the blues are talking about something that he's doing. I'm doing this, and the Greek words here kind of describe that. The word for I'm doing is to do or to work. So he's working. I'm doing something.

But then he says, I don't understand that. I don't know what's going on here, basically. He doesn't understand what's happening. So there seems to be a contrast. He realizes what he's doing, and he says, I'm doing this, but hey, you know, I shouldn't be there. So I'm indicating that's something that the Lord is showing him. And the thing is, you think, well, he's over here in the sin nature. How does he do that?

And I'm not sure I can. I thought about that a little bit. Maybe others can. How does that work? And I'm not sure I have a real great answer, but it seems like the Lord, when we are a believer, Even though he never leaves us or forsakes us, even though we're hanging out in the sin nature, he can get through it. is cognitive, is it not?

I mean, in other words, he's kind of using his mind to try to reason what the heck's going on. There's not the mind that's going to reconcile the problem. That's right. He's not going to be able to figure it out. He's not going to logically say, this is what's going on.

I mean, I don't know about you and everybody else in this class, but we find ourselves in the flesh at times, and we intellectualize the fact that, gee, that's not where I want to be, right? But does intellectualism conquer the issue? In a sense, we're seeing a battle of the minds here. He knows what he wants to do, but that's not what he's doing. And I think where you're taking us, ultimately, and Jim is going to finish up, I'm the old wretched man that I am. The issue is this isn't an intellectual battle. Absolutely. I mean your mind may say that no that's not what I should do because the Spirit has let our mind understand what that other life is all about, but we don't conquer this intellectually.

I'm not sure that's helpful. I see this kind of he wants to but he's not, he wants to and he's not, this back and forth is all up here. Isn't it just kind of going through the mechanics of what's going on? But where's the victory there in saying this isn't what I want to do? Right. Well, yeah, because if he had the victory, he would just say, well, I don't want to do that. Exactly. Exactly. No, I'm not going to do that. Right.

And he doesn't do that. He's trying to do that. He's trying to. Actually, he's leaving, in a sense, he's leaving the Lord out of this. He's saying, he looks at the beauty of the law. We're going to see it in a bit. He said, that's wonderful. That's fabulous. That's God's holy standard. But I can't attain that. I can't get to it. I can't, by my intellect, figure out how to do that. So what I try to do here, so the ones that are in the yellow, they kind of indicate this is where he wants to be. This is his desire. I wish or I will, I desire that I do not practice this.

And all these ones in blue are something that he's carrying out in the flesh. Praso is a habit. The one down here, Pueo, is to do or to cause something to happen. And then he says, you know, he's doing the very thing he hates. So he's just really battling between these two, you know, what's happening to me. And his goal is to somehow figure it out. And I've been there. I've tried to figure out sin.

Well, figure out not walking with the Lord. You can't figure it out. It's unfigurable. A simple faith is what is required. And he's not doing that. He's not exercising faith at all. He's trying to figure it out. And it's a hopeless battle. And he's going to realize that, which is very instructive for us. What about thirst? There's an imperfect domain of thirst in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Right. And it's in nature. Right. And without the spirit of God, without his nature in us, you know. OK. So let's go on to the... What do I have here? OK. So what I did here, actually, if you notice here, there are three words for working or doing here. Katogezomai, proso, and poieo. Hopefully, approximately the pronunciations. Oops. OK.

So basically, Ketogetzamai is to work or produce. And we covered this verse before where Paul says, but sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me, coveting of every kind. So he's talking about this working. He's trying to work out his issues.

And then proso. There's a difference between the two, proso and poieo. And Vine points out here that poieo denotes an action that's accomplished, whereas proso is a habit. So this is a habit that he's involved in. This talks about the habits of the believers in this case, in Romans 1.32. For although they know the ordinance of God, and those who practice such things are worthy of death. There's a whole list before this of how they practice all these terrible sins. And then poieo is the one that talks about, it's actually the action to do or to make, do something, and produce or create.

And actually in John 16, 3, these things they will do because they have not known me or the Father. Okay, so those are the three Greek words. And we'll kind of see these words in the rest of these texts, and actually later on we'll see them. Okay, verse 16.

But if I do the very thing I do not, But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good. So he's going to get the law involved. He's going to say, OK. He's going to look at the law and look at what he's doing. And he's going to say, hey, there's a problem here. He's not relying upon the law. He's looking through the standards. He says, here's the standard. That's a wonderful standard. But I'm not making that. I'm not getting to that standard. And it's interesting. OK. So I have several variations of this version. You say, well, Roger, what are you trying to do here? This is what they call a conditional sentence. It has an if, but if. And in this case, it's in the Greek what they call a first class condition. So it's assumed to be true. So I just kind of locked off the but if.

In the brackets I have, I do the very thing I do not want to do. And then I kind of rearranged it a little bit, looking at the Greek a little bit. So to put the kind of desire first, he says, what I do not desire, this I do. He says, I desire not to do this, but I'm doing it. The struggle again. And actually, it's the same set of words again. Feleo, to will or to wish, and poeo, to produce. So he's willing not to do it, but he's doing it. Same picture. He's continuing on there. And then the last half of this verse is kind of interesting. Let me just look here real quickly.

Okay, so the last half is, I agree with the law, and then actually confessing is not in the original, in the text. It's written there for understanding. I agree with the law, that the law is good. So agree is this word to speak with or to consenting or agreeing. Actually, it's to say yes. He's basically saying that the law, yes, the law is, that's God's law. That's a perfect law. It's consenting to the fact that the law is perfect and good. But it's interesting that the word he uses for good here, and we're going to see this a couple more times, there are two words that are used in Romans 7 here for good. There's agathos, which we looked at last week. And let's just maybe review that a little bit. Let's look at Matthew 19. We did this last week. I just want to point out the difference between these two words for good. Matthew 19.

Can I get someone to read Matthew 19, 16 and 17? But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three ministers every word may be established. And if he shall not hear thee, tell him of the church. But if he will not hear the church, let him be unto thee, as I see thee now. Actually, I think that's OK. I want to Matthew 19.

Those are good verses, too. Yeah, that's it. he said he just said Thank you. Actually, back in verse 17, he says, and he said to him, why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good. And the word for good here is this word, agathos, which is not this word. It's a little bit confusing here. But two words, agathos, which actually relates to the character of God. God is good, intrinsically good. He's holy and good and righteous. Kalos is more an admirable good thing.

You might say, that's a good dinner. It's not a standard. It's a quality of it, if you will. So in this case, he's saying that the law is admirable. In fact, actually, one commentator had Paul is admiring the law. He's saying, I agree with the law, and the law is admirably good. It's wonderful. And he's really focused on that.

The law is good, and I'm trying to do it, basically. So he's ascending to the fact that he looks at the law, and it's perfect, it's God-standard, and it has wonderful things to say to us. But he's trying to keep it the wrong way, is kind of the bottom line.

So actually here, at the bottom, Weist has In view of the fact then, that's that first class condition, assuming the if is true, but in view of the fact then that what I do not desire, this I do, I am in agreement with the law, that the law is good. So Paul sees the law as being good and admirable, valuable.

So let's go on. Roger, do we have a tendency to use the word good incorrectly? I think so. I think we do. We use it very loosely. I mean, good is used on the whole spectrum. It's a good day. That's a good food. And actually, in scripture, since there are different words, it really is helpful because agathos is the one that kind of describes the character of God, whereas the other one describes how we might use it colloquially. And I think we do.

That brother I told you at my work, he would always kind of challenge me, kind of in a legalistic sense. He says, how are you doing today? I said, good. And he'd say, there's only one but good brother. Yeah, you're right. But if I'm in him, I can be good, quote, good too. I don't know. Is that kind of what you're thinking about? Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. We use it very loosely, like love. There's another word. Totally misused. I mean, you love everything from, you know, a piece of food to whatever.

Okay. Okay, so now, this is verse 17. So, 17 and 18 are kind of interesting. We're going to kind of turn the corner here, and he's going to focus back in. If I say one thing, Paul gets it right. The sin nature is the issue, and he comes back to that. He comes back to it again. These next two verses are going to focus back on the sin nature. The sin nature is my problem. And that's a wonderful piece of information. The sin nature is my problem. And he's not going to blame himself. He's going to blame the sin nature. Interesting. He's not shifting the blame. He's saying the sin nature is the issue. And I have a sin nature. So verse 17. So no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

And the introduction here, so now, is kind of a, And Uist has it, and since the case stands thus, it's sort of like, okay, here it is, here's my case, no longer, and so on. So here's my case, no longer am I the one doing it. And basically, here's one of the words we had from before, kind of gets the mind to do or to work. So he's saying, I'm not the one doing it.

Actually, I wanted to ask you a question here. What do you think, and you have to kind of look back on the rest of the, what do you think this it is referring to? no longer am I the one doing it. And maybe we should go back to look at the, I'll just zoom back here. I apologize. Okay, so he right here, he's saying, He said, so no longer am I the one doing it.

So you're trying to find what they call the antecedent, what is it referring to? The act which I do. Well. Back in 15. Okay. The very thing I hate. I personally thought it was the very thing I hate. So no longer am I doing the thing I hate. Yeah, but that's, I mean.

And you said the same thing. That's it. Right, you said the same thing. You're right. And he says, you know, I'm doing the very thing I hate. So I thought the thing I hate is is it right here. So he's doing the thing he hates. OK. And so I say it's the same nature that's doing the thing I hate. That's that's what he's trying to convey. OK, so we'll zoom confused here where we're at. OK. He says, but sin which dwells in me.

Well, we're going to find this word dwells is a really interesting word. I spent some time looking at that word. Dwells is okeo, I think, to dwell. It's from the word for house, to inhabit as one's abode. And it's derived from a Sanskrit word for a dwelling place.

So let's look at the next chart, and then we'll come back to Uisa's summary there. OK, the next chart, this word for dwelling is used I kind of found three ways, and I color-coded it to my blue and yellow before. This is getting a little overboard here.

Okay, the blue kind of indicates this is the sin nature, speaking of the dwelling of the sin nature. The yellow is the spirit of God, in a sense. Okay, so basically, Romans 7, 18, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for the willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not. And we're going to see in verse 20 next week, But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it. but sin which dwells in me." So we see that the dwells can refer to the indwelling of the sin nature within the person. And then we'll look at the next three verses.

And in Romans chapter 8, we're going to see, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. So the Spirit of God indwells us. So the same word is, I think, Many have said a Greek word can be used in a positive sense or a negative sense. It has both aspects. So here's the same word used for the spirit of God indwelling us.

Then in Romans 8.11, but the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

And then 1 Corinthians 3.16, or do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?

And at the bottom, I put down two that just talk about the word in a sense just means to live together, to abide, to be with one another. And that's just the sense like in a husband and wife in 1 Corinthians 7.12. But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, basically dwells with him, he must not divorce her. And then in the next verse, in a woman who has an unbelieving husband, if he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. So the word can be used in terms of the sin nature dwelling within us, the spirit of God dwelling within us, and just simply living with your husband and wife.

So, same word. So as I remember, context, context, context. What is the word used in the context? So we see in the context that we have, this word talks about the indwelling, but sin which dwells in me. And we summarize that, and since the case stands, no longer is it I who do it, but the sinful nature which indwells me.

So this is one of the conclusions that Paul comes to, which is a good conclusion. He's still struggling, but it's a wonderful conclusion. Okay, so now we're going to kind of elaborate on that a little bit. I'll go past that. In verse 18, For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not.

OK, so now we're going to have and here again, we're going to back to the word good. He's first going to say he's going to use one word for good, Agathos. And then later on, we're going to see he's going to use the other word for good. We're going to have Agathos and Kalo use. So first, he's going to say.

I know that nothing good dwells in me. And this is, again, this is, it's interesting, he has a fair amount of perfect tenses here. This is something, even though he's struggling, he knows this and he's convinced of this, and it's Oida, and it's in the perfect tense. He knew it in the past, he continues to know it now, that nothing good dwells in me.

And this is the good from God, God's character. So he realizes that God's character is not dwelling in him. And this is kind of a tough one. So, you know, you say, well, wait a minute. I mean, if he's a believer, he does have, but he, but he's saying that he's making it specific. He's talking about the flesh and that's going to be kind of key because otherwise you got, well, okay, you can come to a weird conclusion. So I know, I know that nothing good dwells in me. And then he says that is in my flesh.

And the word for flesh here is sarks. And if you look in Vines or other helps like that, you'll see that it's used in a variety of ways. It's used of the Lord Jesus' flesh. It's used of man's flesh. It's used of beasts and animals' flesh. There's over 10 different usages.

Well, in this case, he's tying it, I think, very closely to the sin nature. He's saying that in my flesh is really the... And I like what Vine had to say. In a couple of verses here, and let's look at... Let's see which one I want to look at here. Let's look at 2 Peter verse here. The seat of the sinning man is what he calls it. Let's see here.

2 Peter 2.18. And I'll also go back to verse 17.

And these are our springs without water and mist driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they enticed by fleshly desires. That's our word. Sarx. and sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. So it's speaking of this fleshly, our desires that come from our sin nature. So I think it's, you know, he's being very specific.

There's nothing good, nothing good from God in the sin nature. It's been condemned by God. It's man's fallen nature that was condemned in the garden. There's nothing good from God in that nature. And then Wiest has it. For I know positively there is not dwelling in me, that is, in my flesh, good. So there is no good from God in my fleshly nature, my sin nature.

The second part, so here he is back again. For the willing is present, the willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not. We're going to see again here, this is a different good. He doesn't have this admirable good that is not in him, but the doing of good is not in him. He doesn't see the resources there. because actually that would have to come from the new nature. It's not there, and he recognizes that. And then Wiest has it, for being desirous is constantly with me, but the doing of good is not.

So then again, I tried to summarize just the different statements in this verse. So I'll just go ahead and read through it. For what I am doing I do not understand, For that which I desire, this I do not practice. But that which I hate, this I am doing. What I do not desire, this I do. I agree with the law, that the law is good. No longer am I the one doing that which I hate. It is the sinful nature which indwells me that is doing that which I hate. So you see, with all this struggle, he's getting the sin nature right. And then, I know that nothing good from God dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, the seed of my sin nature. For the willing to do good is present in me, but the doing of good is not present.

Okay, and then, lastly, I didn't get a chance to scan this in, but I had a If you've turned the last page, go ahead, Bob. You have a question. Could we turn to that? Sure. Sure. Sure. Yeah, I didn't. I probably skipped over that. And I just want to make make a point. OK. And I think it's disappointing.

You know, verse 16 occurs after 15, where it says, love not the world, but of course, that's a copy, right? But I think one thing that may be in context relevant to Romans 7 is that although Romans 7 we should declare is history for all of us, and we're looking now all in the Spirit, And when I go back to Romans 7, I think it's instructive to look at the fact that John is writing to the children, verse 12, to the fathers, verse 13, to the young men, verse 14. So this context of love not the world, for all that's in the world that's lost to the flesh and all that is a reminder to all believers at all times. This is not just for the carnal, right? This is for every single one of us, no matter where we find ourselves, either as new believers, as children, and or more fully grown by grace in the faith.

So I think that that is still a possibility. No, I think it is too. I think it's for our instruction, it's for a warning, don't go there. You see Paul struggling through that. Also, I think that just the very declarations about the sin nature are very instructive. We need to know where we can be and what we can be like. And Paul says, I can be there trying to do all these things, seeing the beauty of God's very law, but not able to do it, not able to perform it. So that's that's great.

Well, the last chart is funny. I was I was working on this and then I was wondering about that. I was kind of struggling with me to tell how I found one of the household charts here. I was looking at this at this thing in my place to see my sin nature. I said, boy, I said, I started looking through stuff. I came across one of house pictures from 2000.

Wow, this is really good. So. Anyway, I don't have an overhead, but it basically just shows the two natures of a believer, the sin nature and the new nature. Look at your handout. And it shows the desires coming out of the new nature and the old nature.

And Paul was in this outer path here. He was hanging out in his sin nature. And if you notice, he has a sin nature and he has a flesh kind of penciled in around that, dotted around it. So boy, it just really kind of hangs together with what this verse just said. The seed of sin nature is the flesh. And then Paul's here walking by sight. He's in a state of carnality. And he's practicing the works of the flesh. He's trying to work out his salvation in the flesh. He's taking the bottom path. He never alludes to, in these verses, he never alludes to the upper path.

Not until later, right? We're going to see that he's going to, by the Spirit, by faith, walk and have the fruits of the Spirit. So Paul's down here, describing this path right here. You need to see the rest of the story. The rest of the story is, we don't have to be down here.

He uses all those words, abide, walk, are all words of faith. By faith, we can respond to the Lord, to His Holy Spirit, and walk by faith in His truths, and be a spiritual man, not a carnal man. But Paul spent all this time, and will continue on next week, telling all these things he struggled with, all these issues, and it's always about, I'm not making it, I'm trying, I'm doing it, I see the beauty of your law, Lord, but I'm not doing it, I can't perform it. I don't have the... and I hate it. And that reminds me of, you know, I've been there too, and I think, if we're honest, we've all been there at times. Okay, that was it. It was a little bit faster than I thought, but any questions or thoughts?

And so, actually, Jim's going to take on next week, and we have basically two more weeks to go in Chapter 7. Next week, we're going to continue on with Paul's struggle, and he's going to explain more aspects of his struggle. And then the last two verses, it's the one about, oh, wretched man that I am.

Who will deliver me? Who? It's a who, as Mike Doyle would say. It's a who that makes a difference. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that makes a difference. It's not what I can do. It's what He can do, what He has done. And so that's a wonderful thing that we can depend upon Him, not upon ourselves. We're never going to work out our issues, our sins, ourselves.

It has to be Him. When you look at a man like Paul, where he was with Christ in the wilderness, and all his teachings, this has got to be encouraging because he struggled with the same thing we're struggling with. I thought the same thing, Wade, and I said, if Paul struggled with it, well thank you. So our struggles ought to be thought of, hey, Paul had the answer, and we can draw comfort from that. Absolutely, absolutely. And we can see, when we get into that, we say, look where I'm at. I mean, many times I say to myself, Roger, look what you're doing. It's sort of like what Paul said, look what I'm doing. Should I be doing this? You can be in these things for many different reasons. Many different difficulties and trials, you can be in this situation. But we also need to remember that that shouldn't be depressing to us.

It's just the way it is. And until we're free from that presence of sin, we'll still struggle. Right. Right. Sin nature will live with us until we go to our heavenly reward. So that's true. That's true. Other thoughts? We have a few minutes left. all lifted up constantly by the fact that we have been delivered before God.

There's no condemnation for any of us. And it's comforting to know, and this isn't a license to sin, God forbid. It's all over the book, right? God forbid we would go back into old ways, living by the power of the carnality of his way. it's just that breaking fellowship that none of us desire. We intellectualize. We don't want to break that fellowship, but our sin nature permits it only too often. But we therefore return to our position. Let me just go back to the very first. What's interesting is if you go through and you look at You remember from earlier teaching when we were looking at Romans 6-11 here? Remember this was the consider? You know, you went through all the chapters.

This is the first time the Lord says, here's something that He said. This is the first imperative move, the first command. That He said, okay, consider, based upon all that I've done for you, consider yourself dead to sin. What's interesting, if you look at these other, and I was kind of amazed at this, if you look at the other verses, walk, these are also the imperative move too.

They're also, there for us to exercise faith in what He has told us. Abide in me, walk by the Spirit, so walk in Him, abide and reckon. So these are all things that the Lord has told us He wants us to do. And He doesn't want us to do it mechanically, He wants us to do it by faith.

That's coming up. But I think it's important to be reminded, this is an imperative, proactive position. This is not a passive experience. It's something we enter into by faith and we're commanded to do it. Right, I know. But at the same time, we can't do it in our strength. The Lord has to be indwelling us, the Holy Spirit, in order to enable us to do this. Exactly. What's interesting, all these words, they're all things that the Lord has asked us to do, to reckon, to abide, to walk. They're different words for basically the same thing. By faith in the facts of what I've done, this is what you're to do. You're counting upon that. You're counting upon Him, not yourself.

And that's the difference between Paul never gets over that. He never talks about that. And he will. It's coming down the road. He's going to start talking about that. But he's over here. He's letting sin reign in his moral body. He's walking in darkness. It's the fleshly spirit he sees in force. And he's continuing in sin. Just what he said. God forbid. He's continuing there. And then he's going to realize it. What's going on?

Well, in the absence of that proactive response that we're required to engage in by faith, the flesh always shows up and therefore do not let sin reign in your life. It's kind of like it's there to reign, unless we consider ourselves to be dead. Well, one of two things is going to be reigning. Either your sin is going to be reigning or the Lord is going to be reigning. It's either one or the other. You can't be in between. All right, let's just close then. Dear Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that we can gather here. In Christ's name, amen.