Text: Romans 7:14-25

I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" (Rom. 7:14b, 15). ...For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do" (18,19). ...When I would do good, evil is present with me" (21). ...0 wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (24)

How can the confessions found in Romans chapter 7 identify the apostle as a Christian man? Many of God’s chosen people have seen themselves in the light of God’s Word, and have been stricken by the ghastly, loathsome evidence of their lingering depravity. Throughout history, many true Christians have been haunted by the sight of their unworthiness, and have doubted their salvation. This is not a problem peculiar to those people who have a more jaded past; nor does it belong exclusively to them who are given to melancholia. Herein lies the pitiful state of many of God’s elect.

The hymnwriter passionately prayed, "With pitying eye behold our need!" So, the Psalmist cried, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Ps: 130:31)

Eliphaz marveled, "What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? ...Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water" (Job 15:14-16)? Bildad concurred saying, "Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm, and the son of man, which is a worm" (Job 25:5-6)?

"O Blessed State of the Renate!"(M. Wrigglesworth)

In spite of all this, how blessed is the state of those who have been re-born! God’s elect are precious in His sight. These are they of whom it is said, "The redemption of their soul is precious" (Ps.48:8a); and again, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." (Ps. 116:15).

David wrote, "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, o God! how great is the sum of them! IF I should count them, they are more in number than the sand..." (Ps. 139:17-18a). And, the Lord has smiled upon His own, saying, that the trial of their faith is much more precious than of gold that perishes, "though it be tried with fire" (I Peter 1:7a).

How can the confessions of the apostle in Romans chapter 7 identify him as a Christian man, and as a soul "set free?" Bildad asked, "How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman" (Job 25:4)?

Reader, note first the presence of sin. All men sin, the penitent and the impenitent, the godly and the ungodly; for "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not." "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). However, many of God’s chosen people have stumbled under the weight of such knowledge, and unlike the man who beholds his natural face in a mirror, and goes his way, many true believers have been captivated by the ghastly sight of themselves, and can look away only with the greatest of difficulty. For every look at themselves, they ought to take a thousand looks at Christ.

But such a spectre haunts many true Christians, and they find it difficult to believe God could love such a one as themselves! They question their salvation, and ask,

*And can it be that I should gain

*An interest in the Saviour’s blood?

*Died He for me, who caused His pain?

*For me, who Him to death pursued?

*Amazing love! How can it be

*That Thou, my Lord, shouldest died for

me?

Note second, while all men sin, not all men grieve over their sin, or confess it. Some men plan, even scheme to sin. They boast about it. They love it. But among the sons of Adam, there are some who loathe their sin. They agonize over it, and they prostrate themselves before the Lord and beg His pardon and forgiveness. Reader, do the ungodly grieve over their sin? Do they have any godly sorrow that leads them to repent of their sin?

Note third, that while some cannot raise their heads, but are smitten by the scattered verses found in Romans chapter 7, there are other verses in the same chapter that reveal the true spirituality of the apostle. For it is not the smug and haughty who are spiritual, or those people who are settled in their pride, it is they who know themselves to be unworthy. The closer a man approaches the Lord, the more unworthy he sees himself to be.

In Romans chapter 7, in verses 16 and 17, the apostle declares, "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now them it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

Again, beginning in verse 20, we read, "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (20-23).

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (24) The Romans were skilled in the art execution. A man convicted of murder would be strapped to the body of his victim. As the dead body began to decay, it would generate great heat and would often drive the murderer mad. But as the worms devoured the dead, they would soon be unable to distinguish between the living flesh and the dead, and the murderer would be slowly eaten alive. Paul alludes to this, in verse 24, as the body of sin he carried about with him.

"O wretched man that I am!" Ask the drunkard if he considers himself to be wretched. Ask the liar or the blasphemer if either of them considers himself to be wretched. Reader, the reason the apostle loathes himself is because he delights in the law of God with all its perfections. Do the ungodly delight themselves in the law of God?

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (24,25a). The hymnwriter wrote,

*On Him almighty vengeance fell

*Which must have sunk a world to Hell!

*He bore it for a sinful race,

*And thus became their Hiding Place.

"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (25b). Note, however, that in Romans chapter 7, Paul neither aids and abets the carnal Christian theory that pronounces men to be Christians who continue living in sin "as they always have; nor does he give any comfort to antinomians who desire to continue living in sin.

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (24,25a).

_________________________________________________________________

I am often asked what is my fee to come and speak in a church. I answer that I charge nothing. While an offering is appreciated, whatever the people want to do is acceptable. This ministry is not for sale.

I have been convicted of the fact that if what I preach and what I write is truth, then it is not mine to sell--I am not the Author of truth. And, if what I send forth is beneficial to the souls of men, how can I affix a price to it?

If it be argued that even Bibles are sold, I answer that Bibles used to be freely given. So, this ministry will operate completely by free-will offerings. We will rather fall before the Lord as David. "(Let) the Lord do that which seemeth Him good" (II Sam. 10:12).

_____________________________________________________________________

The changing of the role of woman by society from a supportive role, as a "help," to that of leadership is degenerating to society. The word "Woman" means "from man" (Gen. 2:23) for she was taken out of man.

God said, "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve" (I Tim. 2:11-13). To elevate women to positions of authority over men such as corporate executives, governors, judges and military officers is to pervert the created order.

God made woman the weaker vessel (I Pet. 3:7). Women act more by their emotions than do men. Therefore, in proportion as we turn over control of our military to women, we will weaken our military. Every attempt to make women equal to men is to contradict the order of creation, and to further degrade womanhood.

Adam was not deceived in the Garden of Eden, "but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (I Tim. 2:14). For this reason, God punished woman and said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; ...and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Gen. 3:16).

The judgement God brought upon Israel in the days of Isaiah is worthy of our consideration, for God said, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them" (Is. 3:12). At that time, God warned that the day would come when "seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, ’We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach’" (Is. 4:1).

The will of God expressed in the Word of God is not open to dialogue or to compromise. Everyone who compromises truth forsakes truth. As a society we will either repent of our opposing opinions or we will continue to degenerate until open hostility breaks out against the Lord, and against HIS people.

___________________________________

A Notable Quotable "...The supreme example of their work is the translation that did not blush to make bold in its earliest advertising claims to be the beginning of a "New Tradition" in the history of the English bible. This was a deliberate disowning of the martyr’s Bible tradition to make way for the corporate boardroom Bible. Though it was given life by the Zondervan Corporation, the New International Version then fell into the hands of the Harper and Row Publishers as a result of a corporate take-over. This company, in turn, was also taken over by Rupert Murdock, the publisher of among other things the British daily paper the Sun, notorious for its nude pin-ups. Such is the modern world of the designer Bible...." -Theodore P. Letis, in The Editor’s Preface. Tyndale’s Triumph: The Matthew’s Bible of 1537, September 1989.

Language: Precision and Accuracy -The great problem that plagues modern Bible translations is modern scholarship with its reduction of language to the most simplistic level. In order for a language to be accurate, it must be precise; and if language is to be precise, it must be difficult.

Society and The Word of God -The single most important issue facing mankind is not aborticide, or socialism, or euthanasia, or the economy, or the environment, or world intervention into Bosnia, ad infinitum. The single most crucial issue is whether or not men will obey the Word of God, or will continue to elevate their opinions above what is written.

_________________________________