Lesson 26b
Romans 7:12-18 · Courtney Hemenway · Jan 27, 2019
Romans (2018-21), No. 51
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261913474842

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

Alright, I think where we are, we are Romans, we are on lesson 26, and we are on your question 5, my question 4. Since I missed that, I will go back and cover the one that we missed. But back up here. So question five, which is what does Paul mean? That is Carl or Fleshly. We just began that question up here. I can get you from here. So, what does Paul mean that he's carnal and fleshly? This gives a whole section from 14 through 24 dealing with Paul's sinful flesh. So, I'll read it again because I think it's important that we get the whole section that we're dealing with when we look at one verse. So, I'll read 14 through 18.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. What I am doing I do not understand, for I am not 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. 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 my flesh.

For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not." So, I think we started on this last time. Does this mean Paul is unregenerate at this point? No. But what does he mean when he says carnal or fleshly? In nature. In nature? Basically, I think this is one of those ones where it does help to have the Greek translation when it talks about flesh and what that means. And in the English, if we say the flesh, we think of maybe just the physical body or something like that. In the Greek, there are three different terms that are used for it. And I think it's really important, the word that he used here in this section.

So the first one that you can use is natural. And it's Psykikos, Psykikos I think or something. My pronunciation is not good. And that means the unsaved man whose highest form of life is dominated by his reason and emotional nature. The Solical Man. So that's the unregenerative man. The one who does not have a new nature.

So we see that expressed in 1 Corinthians 2.14. But a natural man does not accept the things in the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. So that's the unregenerative natural man. So, Paul is not using that word in this section of Romans 7.

The next one is carnal, or sarcanos, the same man who has not found deliverance from the power of sin and the fullness of the Spirit, but is more or less still under the control of the evil nature. So, it's basically a believer who is acting, or not reckoning himself dead unto sin, but falling under the influence of the sinful nature. And this is the work that he uses in this section.

The third one is spiritual, noumenathikos, the believer who is living his life in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. So you get three different things here. You get the unregenerative man, the natural man. You get the believer who is acting not in accordance with the Spirit. And then you have the spiritual man, the one who is acting in accordance with the Holy Spirit. So there are three different words that are used for flesh, or the man.

And so he's using the one that's in the middle here, which is a believer who is struggling with his sin nature. So, again, it's kind of an important distinguishing fact here that he's not unregenerative. He's not saying, I'm not a believer, and oh gee, what am I doing? He's a believer who is struggling with the sin nature. And some of the other ones were spiritual, where he used the word spiritual.

It's in 1 Corinthians 2.15, but he who is spiritual appraises all things. And then in 1 Corinthians 3, 1, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men. So that's the third there, who are following or yielding to the Holy Spirit. So those are the three different ones. So, in, I think it's Wiest and this one, or no, this is in Newell's, he goes through it in a couple of different ways. If Paul had been speaking himself before being quickened, he would have used the word natural.

The natural man receiveth not the things the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 2.14. Carnal is not used to describe an unregenerate person, but a Christian not delivered from the power of the flesh. I, brethren, could not speak to you unto you as spiritual men, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.

And that's in that first Corinthians 3.1. And then in connection, note that while Paul's condition at the time of this struggle was that of being carnal, there are those that are He that is spiritual judges all things.

That's in 1 Corinthians 2.15. And you who are spiritual, restore.

And that's in Galatians 6.1. So, therefore, by the word carnal, Paul was describing a state out of which there was deliverance.

Which I think is important. You don't have to stick there. There is a way. You're a believer who is just yielding to the sinful nature. So that's what he's saying here. So it's important that he, some people have said, you know, he was unregenerative or he's now saying, gee, I need to find the Lord and do it and, you know, come to know the Lord. Remember what he just said in all of Romans 5 and 6 and that. So he's regenerate.

He's a new, he's a believer, but he's just saying this is a struggle with the sin nature. So, Wiest also says, here he describes himself as carnal, as a Christian living, however unwillingly more or less under the control of the evil nature from which he had been liberated and under his control, because he was living under law instead of grace. So again, going back up to the question, Which is, what does he mean by carnal or fleshly? He's a believer yielding to his sinful flesh.

So, got that? Questions? Yeah? If he didn't yield, would he be spiritual? That's one or the other. Can you have the middle line? Well, it's interesting because I know the priest says that his soul understands It's in the perfect tense. He's constantly a slave to sin. So is it a matter of yielding? What is it that gets him free? Or maybe that's too far down the road. But what is it that causes him to describe himself as carnal?

We'll see that as we get to the further questions. He's struggling on the law. He's struggling on that. we'll see what we've looked at was the law bad or not. So it's actually coming back and it says the law was good. And what did it do? It showed that he was carnal. We used to expand the translation. It says, but as for myself, I am fleshly, in brackets it says, being dominated by the sinful nature, permanently sold under the sinful nature. Are we really? Dominated? The flesh is. The flesh is.

But not a new believer. Remember what have we said all through in chapter 6? We're no longer under the law. What have we said in the whole first part of chapter 7? We've been freed. We're all dead. The flesh is not though. The flesh is still sinful and bound to that. Who is not bound to that? My soul. The new creature in Christ. The new spiritual man inside. The flesh is still mine. We'll get to that. There are some interesting things I was studying in yesterday. Some of the things at the last question. Just some thoughts. And we'll get to that a little bit later. I think the importance of that.

I think it's important to maybe talk about the premise here. has gone, you know, to put it in context, he's written Romans 3 and 4 and 5 and 6. Exactly. So he understands identification, he understands his freedom, he understands grace. But now he finds himself in a conditional predicament where he is in bondage. And it has to do with the fact that he is It's like now he has all the information in his mind, and he's got a grasp on it. Now he's going to, in his own strength, implement it. And once he starts down that road, he ends up being in bondage to the flesh.

Because he's using the flesh in an attempt to live the life that he already knows about. And that's what I was saying, there's no middle ground. You're either under the bondage back to your flesh, you're yielding to your flesh, or you're yielding to the spirit. It's either or. And I think that's where now he knows all this, but now he's going back to everything he learned as a legal scholar and all this.

I personally think this, and when you look at this, this is the most personal confession of Paul in all of his epistles. That's why I think this was, I think that's why he takes everybody through different things, is to come to some of this awareness. And I think he had Paul go through this for us, because who hasn't struggled with this? I think every one of us has struggled with this. And that's why I always go back, at least for me, I see Paul as one who spent time alone with the Lord for years, and got all this, and yet look what he's done.

He fell right back into the law, and back to relying upon the flesh. I'm not sure he ever got free from it yet, at any point. But what has he written already? And he knows it. It's now he's expressing that even to know this, what is the final outcome?

Well, the final outcome is interesting because one of the things he's going through is he's looking for method. He's looking for, we would say, little tricks of the trade so that he could walk in the spirit. And eventually he discovers that there is no method of deliverance. And so he's going through all of the things that he can think of to try to to be a spiritual man in his conduct, and he's discovering that there is no freedom in that.

Right, and I think, again, I think it's put in scripture for us for that very reason. So all of us go through that. And I'll get to it in the last question. That's where I hit on some of this where I was talking about it yesterday and the importance of that and what that means today when we see all those tricks of the trade and that kind of stuff. Somebody else? Yeah, so, well, the flesh is condemned also because flesh is going to die. Right. So, you know, if the sin nature is bound to the flesh, well, we're going to be separated from all that.

See, that's the whole point of all of this is why did we have to have Romans 6 and the co-crucifixion? It was to separate us from that flesh. That was the whole purpose of that co-crucifixion, is to separate us from that. Now, and the other was to place us into Christ. Die unto the sin and alive unto God.

That's the key. We're no longer under its authority, so we're a fan. And that's, you know, this is real important in that, you know, seeing that the flesh is still, and this is the whole thing about wanting the one nature of people, I get to this in another question too, the one nature of people, this clearly shows that there's two natures in you. I mean, you can't get by this without saying, you know, he's relying upon, and especially with the Greek word, karnal, it's a believer who is falling back under the influence of the sinful nature. It's showing that right here. No question about it.

So, but we'll get into some of these, as we get into some of the questions coming down, because it's important, I think. good passages for all of us. And again, as I was studying, I keep thinking, it's like, he had Paul go through this. It's like Paul having a thorn in his side. Why did that happen? I think it's for all of us. So he could realize the weakness of that. The weakness. Well, guess what? What about all of us? What is our thorn in the side? What is that?

And I think all of these things go through. You look at all of the apostles, were they perfect? Were they above reproach and everything? Were they just lockstep, never doubted? I think it's all in the scripture for us. That as we struggle, they struggle. But as we move on with Paul, what was it? Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. No condemnation. What we're going to walk into in the next, the end of this and the end of the next one is beautiful. Okay. Anything else? Otherwise we'll move back to the question which is your... What is this one? What is the divide? Question three that I did not have last time.

What is the divine intention of working death for man through that which is good? What is the intention? Maybe to humble him and lead him to Christ? Yeah, I mean, well, how does he do that? Well, the intention is what we're getting at, and that is to show him where he's at, and ultimately what we get to is the end of the chapter. Thanks be to God, there's no condemnation, we're in the spirit of life.

So the intention is, it was not the good law but sin that became death to the apostle. And in this there was a divine intention, namely that sin might appear sin, might come out in its true colors. By working death for man through that which is good, sin turns God's intended blessing into a curse. Nothing could more clearly show what it is, or excite a stronger desire for deliverance from it. So the excesses of sin reveal its real nature.

Only then do some people get their eyes opened. So when the law or working death, I kind of equate this back to Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar got down to where? And then what finally? He looked up. He brought him to a point of being eating with the cows. From king to eating with cows. Until he looked up. I think that what the intention of this is bringing brought death.

We see the sin. We see that. And that brings us to a knowledge of We're sinful. The sinful flesh, it exposes it. It shows us that. And that reveals what I need for... Deliverance. Deliverance. We need deliverance. So again, it's used for a very divine intention is to show us that we need deliverance. We can't do it ourselves. So again, what is wrought out of death or showing the sinful nature is our need for a savior, a need for something to get us out of that. And for a believer, that's the Holy Spirit and his word. And what is the one thing we do? Believe. Believe. Okay? Anything else on that one? I think I made up for missing out. Yeah, Mike.

So it's all learned through our experiences. I think he uses those experiences to grow us. Because, you know, I think a lot of the things of the trials that he takes us through in trials, and again, I go through what I pray a lot here, and what's beating in my head, I think, is sovereignty of God. He's in control of all things. And the second part of that is when you read, and we'll get into Romans 8, is that we can't be separated from His love. So, if you're experiencing a trial, does God know about that? Absolutely. Even though He whips us. Child training. Child training. So in that trial, do you think it's out of malice? He's just wanting to beat you up? He just wants to... That's his love. It's because he loves you. He's doing it for a purpose.

And so when you're going through a trial, I think the greatest peace that he told us that surpasses all understanding is the knowledge that he knows about it, he's in control of it, and he loves you. He's not taking you through that trial just to laugh and see how you do. it's because he loves you and he has a divine intention, just like what we say here, he's got a divine intention and all those trials, he's got his purposes. And it's not out of malice, it's to show you dependence upon him, it's to show you his character, it's to show you reliance upon self is a futile effort. So, again, that's why I always go back to sovereignty, of God, and He loves me. When you go through a trial, if you have that focus, at least for me, I speak for myself, that gives me that peace.

Because whatever I'm going through, He knows about it. And He's allowed it. But He loves me. So again, that's where I get the peace that surpasses all understanding, is if you believe that, you can go through these trials, knowing that He isn't out there saying one of my isms. God never says, oops. He's never said, oops. He knows exactly what's going on. We do. We do. We may not understand His process through this, but we know His method. We know what He's trying to accomplish in us. Conforming us to the image of Christ, to glorify God. Alright, question six.

How can a believer knowingly practice what he hates? And this comes from verse 15 and 16, chapter 7. For what I am doing I do not understand, for I am not 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. So what is the main issue in this case? Desire. He's exposing the desire. Yet desire to do what? To do the sin. To try and overcome sin by his own efforts. But every time he tries the desire gets stronger.

Did he ever beat it? No, he didn't. standing up himself. He did not do it. We'll see what he did. Right. It's held inoperative. Yeah. Well, he's yielded to the flesh. That's what he's doing right now. And he's saying, I want to do it, but I can't. So we have no power. We have no power. That's what the demonstration of all this is.

And that's why, you know, he's taking it through all this stuff. And I always go back to this and go, we'll say one of the later questions too is that Paul was the best in the law, you know, taught under the best teacher. He was, you know, the persecutor of the church. He was a guy who thought he had held the law perfectly.

And he's trying, now he's realizing It doesn't work. It doesn't work. You can't, this self-effort is useless. So, it's again, it's showing reliance upon self doesn't accomplish anything. You cannot overcome the sin nature in and of yourself. You can't.

Thank goodness. And that's what, what does he say at the end? Thanks be to God. Wonderful statement by Paul. So is it important for us to understand that I can, as a believer, knowingly practice what I hate? Yes. I can do that. The reason I bring that up is this. Most contemporary Christianity would say, no, no, no, that's not, you can't go there. Yeah. Can you? Yeah, I'll get to that.

So, when I respond to self or responding to sinful nature, which Paul in chapter 6 states, we are to reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God. He's showing us that we have to reckon ourselves dead under this sin, the sinful flesh. Nothing good comes from it. And we're supposed to be alive under God, but through the Holy Spirit, realize who the new man is in each and every one of us. So in 5 and 6, he says, chapter 7, for while we're in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were orchomy and members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound. So that we serve in newness of the spirit and not oldness of the letter.

So the question was, do we do this? Or do we fall back on self or listen to our old sinful nature? Do you do that? Is there anybody who hasn't done that? I think maybe that's a better question. I think this is again one of those wonderful points of Paul's epistle here is that everybody has done that. And what the result is, and I go back to the Sovereignty, did God allow you to do that? Did He allow you to rely upon your sinful flesh? And fall flat on your face? Did He allow it?

Yeah. For what purpose? For our growth. To show who we are relying upon, self or Christ the Holy Spirit? What makes me hate sin then? I think the new man. Because before I'm saved, I mean, I'm in. Right. So you didn't have that choice before. Now you have the new nature in you and the Holy Spirit in you. And remember when we, between the Holy Spirit and the flesh, are we involved in that war? Our society would say we're the victim. Yeah. So again, I think The purpose of this, again, is to rely upon the sinful flesh.

Where does that get you? Nowhere. But you're a new believer. Or you're a believer. What is driving that hate? I think it's the new man in you. And the Holy Spirit is telling you, that's not who you are. What are you doing? But that doesn't solve my problem. It doesn't solve the problem, but I'm just saying, you asked where the hate comes from. The hate is because the new man knows that. I would have thought that, gee, if I hated it, I'd avoid it. Well, you want to try, but the source of your solution is wrong. The source of your solution is self. That's what he's showing here. Dead end. Not technology.

I mean, when you think about it, to be in a position where he hates what he's doing from a spiritual standpoint is a new experience for them. Because most human beings only do what they want to do and what they like. But as a believer I find myself in a position where what I'm doing I really hate it. But that's because of the new nature. That's what I'm pointing out. The new nature is the one that hates it.

Before, you could go on and do whatever you want. You know, and under the law and under the Jewish, you know, you could do it and you'd be, you know, do three spiritual push-ups and you'd get a consequence for your positive action or whatever. Now, you know you can't beat it. You can't. There's nothing actionable by your flesh. Yeah.

Yeah, when you look at it from a logical viewpoint, if the flesh is dominated by the sin nature, why would you trust in the flesh to combat the sin nature? Because you don't know anything different. Well, I mean, if you're an unbeliever, you know nothing different. As a new believer, you come to that knowledge. You have to learn it.

You know, I think Mike says this several times. A lot of times, if you do a sin, did you hate the sin when you did it? I didn't say, oh, I hate this, but I'm going to do it anyway. No, I loved what I did. It's just afterwards when I realized that that's not who I am in Christ is when I realized I hated what I did. First John 9, I confess I'm not acting who I am in Christ. That's not who I am and I'm not yielding to the Spirit. I'm acting like an idiot.

But right there is an interesting point because if the Spirit brings me to this point Boy, I really am doing what I don't want to do. I really am doing what I hate. And it's a new experience for me, because I used to really like this stuff. But now I'm doing things that I hate, and I can't stop. And I can go through all of the biblical rhetoric I want, but I'm still doing it. This is what I come back to, also, too, is our whole class on faith.

Do you believe what he says about you? And that's what the First John 1 line. Do you believe who you are in Christ, and what that means? It's lack of faith of what he's told you who you are. And you fall back into, I'm looking over here. I'm not looking at Christ, not looking at the Holy Spirit or relying upon the Holy Spirit. I'm going back to what I know is wrong, but I'm doing it anyway. You know what else is interesting about all of this that focuses on me? Well, that's the whole point, is that it's self-reliance. Who's the king of that one? Self. So, again, and what is the outcome?

Frustration, failure, Is it the man on the cross that hates sin? Because in Romans 7, he's revealing to us that we've already been on the cross, or that we are on the cross. We're off the cross. And I think the thing is that when he said the man on the cross, well, it's Christ. It's basically, this whole chapter is saying, you know, the flesh is still locked into the sin, sin nature, the flesh is. Well, isn't that man on the cross with Christ? Well, in the co-crucifixion... This is post-cross. Yeah, this is post-cross, yeah. But then we are crucified, we are separated, and then we are placed into Christ, our baptism into Christ, placed into Him. So is He struggling? He was on the cross with Christ? I think he's struggling with the fact that the sin nature still is very powerful in his body. That's what he's struggling with right now. He knows all this because he just told us. He just told us that. But he's struggling with it, which is I think the purpose of this whole chapter is because we go through the same thing.

Did you have something? No. Okay. I was going to say, it's interesting because we're getting to a place now where it's application of But now he says, okay, that's the truth. And here's what happens the moment you get up and start walking, is you're faced with whether or not you're believing those truths or not, because the sin nature is incredibly active and barking and constantly, you know, having us try to combat what we were by ourselves. And so it's interesting, he goes through all these glorious truths, and then the very next moment he talks about the struggle, which is our life. Our life. That's why I say it. That's why I think it's in Scripture. It's because that's our life. That's who we are. And we go through the same struggles.

If you'll notice as we go into many more of Paul's epistles, and I started looking at that in our faith classes, how many times, you know, grace is like a hundred and some odd things. Faith is twice that in Paul's epistles. So, look at what Paul says later.

You're to fight the good fight of faith. Faith. It's all about faith. What we believe. Do you believe it? That's the key. And I think that's what we're following here. Do you believe what I just wrote to you about? I'm struggling with that. But I realize all my self-efforts are for naught. Thanks be to God. I'm not under condemnation.

I would say that Romans 7 is not the Christian Bible. This is not how the Christian life goes. It's part of the education process to guarantee growth to what the Christian life is. But this is not the normal behavior and struggle that a Christian has permanently. So when we believe, is it trial headed our way? Absolutely.

He says that. I think I forgot where I was looking just the weekend. There was that about the trials. I got a couple coming. And that's right. It's not the norm, but it's what we experience. And that's part of our growth. And he allows us to do that for our growth. Well, and sometimes we look at, you know, just the normal trials of life as though this particular That's what this is about. I may have troubles with the IRS and all the rest of it, but that's not what this is about. But this is a spiritual warfare. That's right. Yeah, and this is all what he's dealing with. Like I said, what we walk into is, you know, thanks be to God, and then there is no condemnation, spirit of life, all those things that are now, as you said, the applications are now coming. Now, I just want to add to the point that I made.

I think that that war is constant, so long as we are that this war is present. The nature of that war changes as we grow in our faith, right? So the battle is still just as intense between the flesh and the sin nature and the new man. That battle is always just as intense. But our faith has grown during that Christian life, and so while there's still a hatred much stronger in who we now know that we are. And so the battle is real, but it isn't fought in the same way as you mature and grow, because there's more confidence in the Word of God than there is in your own faith.

It comes down to, let's say, it's faith. As you grow in your faith, personal faith, I mean, that's the spiritual growth. So is that the armor? put on the whole armor of God, we're learning our armor? Well, I think in that one, what I learned from the armor and all that is it's stationary. We're not supposed to go out and fight, say. Right. It's defensive. It's defensive. We stand our ground on what? On the truth of the Word of God, what it's told us.

Let me see if there, finish out this one from Wiest, talking about hating the thing he doing the thing he doesn't want to do. The very thing he desires to do, namely good, this he does not do. And that which he hates, that is the thing he does do. It is clear that Paul is recounting his experience as a saved man. He desires to do good and hates sin. No unsaved man does that. The failure to achieve his purpose is found in the fact that he is attempting, in his own strength, that which can only be accomplished in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. So again, no unsaved man can come to this position. That's where again, the word about being carnal, he's a believer that is relying upon the sinful nature.

Let's go to question 7. So what is the conclusion Paul draws from not being able to do that which he wants to do? So again, verse 15, for what I am doing I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I'd like to do, but I'm doing the very thing I hate. So what is his conclusion? Where does he come from that? The end of himself. 16 and 17.

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 now, no longer am I the one doing it, but the sin which dwells in me." Which we'll get to the next question. So, his answer, or his conclusion, the very thing I do not want to do, so he agrees with the law, confessing that the law is good, pointing out all these things. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but the sin which dwells in me. So, from Newell it says, he writes down for us, a conclusion that is daring. Since I am doing what I am not wishing, there must be another evil principle working within me. For it is not my real self that is working out this evil, but sin which dwelleth in me, an unwelcome hateful presence.

I kind of don't like that real self description. Yeah, it's the old man. So, because of that, let's go to question 8. In verse 17, is Paul shirking his responsibility for his own sinning? So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but the sin which dwells in me. It's the source.

So is this, you know, this is probably bad, but the only thing I thought about was, again, Flip Wilson, The Devil Made Me Do It, in the old days, or for the more younger generation, SNL, Church Lady, or was it Satan? I can't do it as well as them, but, you know, is it Satan that did this?

Is that what he's saying? No. No. I guess I kept thinking about that every time I did this question. I kept thinking about that. So, is Paul saying that he is being convicted of his sins here? He's saying that the devil is his source. Sinful flesh is the source. Yeah. It's not Satan. Satan is an independent agent. Isn't that the source of that man? I guess sin nature is all the way to the fall of Adam.

I don't know that. I have to think about that one. It's still the sinful flesh. It's our sinful flesh. The natural man. So is he saying he's being convicted of sins here? Of sins? He has to go back to Romans 3 then. Yeah, he's not saying he's being convicted of sins here. And that's important. He knows that every sin has been paid for by Christ's death. So what is he stating here? What does this show when he says it's not me but the sinful flesh?

It's the indwelling sin. It's the indwelling sin. Sin nature. It's our sin nature. All the sins have been paid for. He's not saying There are a few of those sins that weren't paid for and I'm paying for it now. So it's not that. He's saying it's back to the sinful nature.

It's the flesh. And that's why, again, it shows that there are two natures in the body. There is a new spiritual life that is Christ's life and yet there is still sinful nature attached to the flesh. This unequivocally shows two natures are within a believer, not one if some have believed.

Let me get to a couple things here. Galatians 2, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I live, but what Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. And then again, the other ones I usually use these two. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.

The old things passed away, new things have come. So, as Newell puts it, he is being convicted of the indwelling sin of the hateful power that's seen in one's very self. That was really our old man. I find it interesting here that Paul's knowledge in Romans 6, we would think, well he knew he had an old man. My old man was crucified with him. He understood the principle of identification.

Understanding the principle and owning the principle is not the same thing. You have to learn this first hand in order for it to be real to you. Otherwise it's just an intellectual concept or a principle. I dare say that there are quite a few believers that understand the principle but don't know this.

That it's my sin. It's my sin nature and I can't control it. And I can do all the reckoning I want. is a dirty dog and it controls me and I need to learn that it is that way. I thought it was the first Adam. What do you mean by that? Because of the first Adam. The first Adam is infected with a sin nature. The second man, the carnal man, want me, the believer, also still has the sin nature. I have to learn that one, it's my sin nature, and two, it's uncontrollable. I can reckon myself dead to sin but alive to God. I can do that. But what I've done is made a law, a reckoning, and used that as a principle not to have to go through Romans 7, and not to have to learn Today's Bite Above was another one, the last part of it.

Our Father takes all things from under our feet until we have nothing left but Him. That's where all is. God has always the highest goal in view, namely to lead us into the denial of self. Everything is directed toward teaching us to entrust ourselves to Him. Therefore we must often suffer defeat. You fight with all your might against sin and to find yourself surrounded by failure.

You pray fervently and sincerely, Oh God, help me and stay by me, but it seems that he's not here. You cry yet more earnestly for help, but he seems to have no concern for you. Is he really, is he then really merciless? No, just because he is merciful. He cannot help you.

If he did, you would not be free from your self-confidence, you would not learn to fight the good fight of faith, and thus obtain the victory which the Master has won. You would not learn to say the Lord Jesus only, but you would still continue to say Jesus and I. I thought that was really good for what we're studying. So again, a lot of the things we try, we try, we try, we try it all on ourself until we come to the end where thanks be to God. You're the only one who can do this and get me out of this sin or this behavior. It's only you. So again, I thought that was good for what we were going over.

So, is there a danger in us saying, it is not I, but the sin that indwells my flesh? Can we say that same thing? Or is there a danger in that? No. I think he touched, Mike touched a little bit on that. It seems like there would be a danger, you know, to be able to say, well, everything's cool because it's not really me, the student's sinning, which isn't the answer.

Yeah, I guess that's the danger, you know, that I can justify all the time. Well, seriously, it's not me, it's my sin nature. I'm going for it, because it's not me. So, I think the Lord would bring that to an end very quickly, but the trials would increase. But there's a danger in saying that, you know, A believer relies upon that all the time to justify a sinful behavior. That's the danger in it. But this is very demonstrative of the struggle of somebody trying to rely upon self to overcome the sin nature. So, let's see if we can get to... Question would be ten, I think. I'm off one.

Why isn't there anything good dwelling in our flesh? This comes from 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 it is not. Doing of good is not. So why isn't there anything dwelling, why isn't there anything dwelling, good dwelling in our flesh?

Because it's controlled by the sin nature. Okay. Sin nature. That's where the nature dwells, the sin nature dwells in the flesh. I think we are explaining this very clearly in Romans 1 through 3. And I add something, Romans 128 through 31. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, these are the unregenerate. See, fit to acknowledge God ain't no longer. God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, their gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.

That's your flesh. Is that good? Yeah. I'm just pointing out that what is in your flesh? He said, is there anything good in your flesh? He's already explained this. The other one, which is Romans 3, 10-18, this is one of my favorites about how good we are in ourself, in our natural man, or the unregenerative man. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.

Their throat is an open grave. With their tongue they keep deceiving. The poison of Asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths. In the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This was explaining what's tied to the flesh. And that's why it's necessary of Romans 6 and our co-crucifixion, our positional separation from it. Because there is nothing good in the flesh. He went through 1 through 3.20 and explained it.

And 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

You know, that's why I think the value in Romans 7 is the fact that all of the things talked about in Romans 1 and the other verse that you quoted, I kind of always think that's somebody else he's talking to. I mean, I got a few of those. You know, you hear them real bad. And so as the Spirit of God takes me through this, what I begin to understand is that And especially if you grow up in a Christian environment, and you've gone to Sunday school, or you've gone to whatever, you know, and you kind of arrive at a point that, well, I'm a pretty good guy. I mean, yeah, I sin now and then, but I'm a pretty good guy. And what Romans 7 is designed to do is to change your mind about that. Yeah. You know, this is a very powerful chapter, and again, All these things, even though you may not identify with all those things I read, that's part of you. That you're capable of all those things in your sin nature.

So, there's nothing good about our old man. So, the question is, didn't we get rid of our sin nature as described in Romans 6, our co-crucifixion? What happened at Romans 6, our co-crucifixion? What happened? I'm feeling pretty good today. So what happened?

The flesh didn't die. Sin nature didn't die. Sin nature didn't die. We died to the authority of the sin nature. Yeah, and we were separated from that simple belief in what Christ did on the cross and placed into Christ, baptized into Christ, placed into Him. He is our new life.

I've been crucified, Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified as no longer that I live, that Christ lives in me. Again, the point is that the sin nature is still alive and kicking. What happened in Romans 6 was positionally we were separated from our old nature. We do not have to succumb to it now. We have a new nature in us. But the flesh is ugly.

And the day we step out of this world is a great day, because we don't have the same nature physically attached to us anymore. That's an awesome day. That was the second bell, right? All right, let's close. We thank you for this time, and we thank you for this chapter in particular.

It is not our norm as Christians to act this way, but it is when we see the struggle and try to fight our sinful nature in and of ourselves, it is a path to failure. And we just see, as Paul struggled with this, explaining to us about our co-crucifixion, our positional placement into your Son, the Lord Jesus. And again, just the struggles that he's showing here in this chapter. Again, the end result is, it's you, Father.

And it's the Holy Spirit indwelling me that offers the freedom from this powerful call from the sin nature. and we just thank you for that as we see that we as we go under chapter 8 there's therefore now no condemnation and now we're in the spirit bondage to the spirit of life and what a joy that is so we just uh we thank you again for all of your word and the indwelling holy spirit who convinces us of your word and is the only thing you ask of us is to believe and we thank you that that's the only thing you require is belief And again, we just thank you for this time. We pray for Mike as he delivers the word in the next meeting. And just prepare our hearts to receive it. And may all that we say and do honor and glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.