Pericope: Romans 7: 7 - 25
Sermon
Text: Romans 7: 17, 25
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me
Sermon
Title: The Battle Within: Me vs. Me The Rematch
Point
1: My Desire vs. 18b For
I have the desire to do what
is good, but I cannot carry it out I love the fact Paul says he has a
desire to do what is right. He admits to the dualism of desire.
My wrong is defined by what I want to do
right. If I don't want to do right then my wrong is not
wrong to me.
Point
2:
My Dilemma vs. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to
do--this I keep on doing. Listen to how Paul described his dilemma with his
own flesh:
·
(v15 NLT) “ I don’t understand myself at all!”
·
(v16 NLT) “I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong.”
·
(v17 NLT) “ I can’t help myself”
·
(v18 NLT) “ I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful
nature is concerned”
·
(v18 NLT) “ No matter which way I turn – I can’t make myself do right”
· (v21
NLT) “When I do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.”
·
(v24 NLT) “ What a miserable person I am.”
Point
3:
My Defeat vs. 23b waging war against the law of my
mind and making me a prisoner of the
law of sin at work within my members
Point
4: My Deliverance vs.
24, 25 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25. Thanks be to God--through Jesus
Christ our Lord! In the following verses Paul lays out the only way of
deliverance. (24a) "Wretched man that I am."
There is
nothing sweeter to the Lord's ears than these words. "Wretched man that I am." With them Paul states the
seriousness of his personal condition and that he cannot do anything about it.
Conclusion:
God
knows when self-will runs out and He has provided the way of escape. And what is the way of escape? Submit to
God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7). "No
temptation has over taken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful."
Depend upon the faithfulness of God because God is the only One Who can
overcome His Laws. We see this in the reason for the Cross of Christ. Paul did
and so can you and I. We can win The Battle Within Its kind of like this…
