The Invisible War - Part 2
08-11-13 Sermon
“I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want
to do what is right, but I can’t.
I do what I don’t want to –
what I hate. I know perfectly well
that what I’m doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with
these laws that I’m breaking. But
I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me
do these evil things. I know I am rotten … as far as my old sinful
nature is concerned. No matter
which way I turn I can’t make myself do right. I want to but I can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t; when
I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.
Now if I’m doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is;
sin still has me in its grip. When I want to do what is right, I
inevitably do what is wrong. I
love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is
something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind
and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within
me. In my mind I want to be God’s
willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin [my old
ways.] So you see how it is:
my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still
inside of me loves to sin. Oh,
what a terrible predicament I’m in!
Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God it has been done by Jesus
Christ our Lord. He has set me
free.” ROMANS
7:15-25 (LB)
THE COST OF THE BATTLE
1. C________________________________________________________
“I don't understand myself at all, for
I really want to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I don't want to – what
I hate.” Vs. 15
2. G_______________________and
S_________________________________
“I
know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad
conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking.” Vs. 16
3. C_________________________and
A_______________________________
“But I can't help myself because I'm no
longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am,
that makes me do these evil things.”
Vs. 17
4. S________________________________________________________
“I know I am rotten inside as far as
my old sinful nature is concerned.” Vs.
18a
5. F________________________________________________________
“No
matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I
can't! When I want to do good, I
don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway! Now if I am doing what I
don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil
grasp.” Vs. 18b-20
6. D__________________________and
D______________________________
“It
seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I
inevitably do what is wrong…In my mind I want to be God's willing
servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.” Vs. 21 & 23
THE CAUSE: I HAVE______________________________!
“I
love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; but
there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at
war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin
that is still within me.” Vs. 21 & 23
“So
you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old
nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible
predicament I'm in!” Vs. 24a
GOD’S BATTLE PLAN FOR MY VICTORY
1. I MUST________________________________________________________
“Who will free me from this life that is
dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Rom. 7:24-25 (NLT)
“Do
not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful
desires…Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been
given new life.” Rom. 6:12-13 (NLT)
“For the new
spiritual principle of life in Jesus Christ lifts me out of the old vicious cycle
of sin.” Rom. 8:2 (Ph)
2. I
MUST ________________________________________________________
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1
John 1:8 (NIV)
·
Behind
every self-defeating act is
·
To
stop defeating myself, I must
“When
you know the truth, the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 (NIV)
3. I
MUST___________________________________________________________
“Confess your
sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you.
When a believing person prays, great things happen.” James
5:16 (NCV)
“Live
according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't do what
your sinful nature craves.” Gal. 5:16 (NLT)
WINNING THE BATTLE INSIDE ME
The Invisible War - Part 2
08-11-13 Sermon
By the time our troops pull
out of Afghanistan it will be the longest war in American history. But this weekend I want to talk to you
about a war that’s going to go on even longer than that. It is the war against you. It is an unseen war. It happens in your life from the moment
that you’re born until the moment that you die. This war is far more personal.
The Bible tells us that there
are three enemies that are warring against you, your family and your soul. The Bible calls them the world, the
flesh, and the devil. The world is the value system around you. The flesh is the old nature within you. And Satan is coming against you with
his demons, his minions.
I want us to begin today by
looking at the battle within. Because
you are your own worst problem. You
are your own biggest enemy.
A lot of people go around and
say, “I’ve got so much stress from this
boss and I’ve got so much stress from the kids and I’ve got so much going on
from all these things. I’ve got
all these problems in my life. I
need to go to Tahiti.” The
problem with that is when you go to Tahiti you take you. What’s the common
denominator? You. You’re the common denominator. So something’s got to change in you first.
I’m my biggest problem. Most of the time Satan doesn’t even have
to worry about tempting me because I’m messing up my own life. Most of the time Satan doesn’t even
have to think about you because you’re doing a good job of messing up yourself.
Paul himself talks about this
internal war in Romans 7. Paul says
that there are six things that happen in your life when you don’t know how to
deal with this battle that’s going on inside of you. Then Paul explains the cause of this battle. Then he explains the cure. We’re going to look at that both this
week and next week.
I want to just read you this
passage first. Romans 7:15-25. Here’s what Paul says. I really love this because it’s a gut
level, keeping it real, kind of approach.
Paul doesn’t mince any words. He’s transparent about his own struggles. He’s very honest about the frustration
he feels. Verse 15 he says this…
“I don’t understand myself at all, for I
really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to – what I hate. I know
perfectly well that what I’m doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that
I agree with these laws that I’m breaking. But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger
than I am that makes me do these evil things. [In other words, I don’t want to gossip, but I end up doing
it. I don’t want to be impatient,
but I end up being impatient. I
don’t want to say bad things to my kids, but I do. I know I ought to take better care of my health but I don’t. He just goes on and on about all the
things in life. He says, it’s sin
inside of me that’s stronger than I am that makes me do these things. He says…] I know I am rotten … as far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can’t make
myself do right. I want to but I
can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t; when I try not to do wrong, I do it
anyway. Now if I’m doing what I don’t
want to, it is plain where the trouble is; sin still has me in its grip. [He actually starts to seem a little
discouraged here, like it’s going to be unchangeable. He says it seems to be a fact of life.]… When I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God’s will so far as my
new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower
nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to
the sin that is still within me. In
my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still
enslaved to sin [my old ways.] So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but
the old nature that is still inside of me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to
this deadly lower nature? Thank
God it has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.”
Can you hear the frustration in
Paul’s voice? Paul is bearing his soul. And what’s going on here is he’s explaining
the battle that happens in your life when two things occur.
When you try to please God by
your own strength, you’re going to be frustrated and you’re going to fail. And number two, when you try to change
things in your life from bad to good by simple willpower it’s not going to work. And you’re going to eventually give up.
The encouragement that is
here is Paul is not a new believer.
He’s not a novice. He’s a
mature believer. He is a missionary
to all of the Roman Empire. Yet he
says, sometimes I just can’t figure it out. There are things in me I want to do that are right, but I don’t
do them. And there are things that
are wrong that I end up doing.
We’re going to look this
weekend in detail – this week and next week – at how to win the battle inside of
you that changes things that you want to change but just can’t seem to change. I want us to begin by looking at the cost of this emotional battle going
on inside of you. Paul lists six
emotional consequences. See if you
identify with any of them.
1.
Confusion
He says the first thing that
happens when I try to fight the internal spiritual battle going on in me in my
own power is, I get confused.
He says that in the first verse
– verse 15. He says, “I don’t understand myself... I don’t understand myself at all, for I
really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to – what I hate.”
Before we even get into this
I want you to circle all of the “I’s”in this verse. “I don’t
understand myself for I really want
to do what is right. But I can’t. I do what I don’t want to, what I hate.” He’s saying something’s wrong with me.
In this one verse he uses the
first person pronoun “I” six times.
This is the key to understanding this chapter. Romans 7 is about the defeated Christian life. Romans 8,
which we’re going to look at next week, is about the victorious Christian life.
In Romans 7 Paul uses the
word “I” over and over and over. In
fact, in just twelve verses he uses the word “I” twenty-seven times. He uses the word “my” six times. He uses the word “me” six times. He uses the word “myself” two times. All in all he uses the first person
pronouns forty- one times in twelve verses.
Paul has an “I” problem! And you have an “I” problem. And I have an “I” problem. The problem is I try to do it all my way and that’s going to cause me to fail. I am my biggest problem.
Notice he says I don’t
understand myself. I’m perplexed. That ought to encourage you. Even Paul, this great mature saint,
doesn’t have all the answers. He
says it’s confusing.
The second thing that happens
when I don’t know how to fight this battle is…
2.
Guilt and shame.
God doesn’t want you going
around with a bunch of guilt and shame.
But that’s what happens when you try to fight a spiritual battle with
human tools like willpower. He
says in verse 16, the next verse “I know
perfectly well what I’m doing is wrong.
And my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am
breaking.”
What’s he saying? He’s saying I know what I’m doing is wrong;
and you do too. You do it and you
know it’s wrong. Then you get a guilty
conscience. Circle the word “conscience.” You know where that word comes from? It’s a Latin word. It comes from the word “con” which
means “with” in Latin and “science” in Latin which means “knowledge.” Conscience means you do something with
full knowledge that what you’re doing is wrong. You’re not kidding yourself. I know I shouldn’t eat this, I know I shouldn’t watch this,
I know I shouldn’t say this, I know I shouldn’t do this but I want to do it
anyway! And I do it with full
knowledge. Which means my conscience
goes on tilt! Guilt and shame
happens.
There have been a lot of times
in your life when you were willing to do the right thing but you just didn’t
seem to have the power to do it. That
causes confusion and it causes guilt and shame.
The third thing it causes
when you don’t know how to fight the battle going on inside of you is it causes
compulsions and addictions.
3.
Compulsions and addictions.
What is that? It’s when you start to do something so
many times it becomes habitual in your life. It becomes a habit.
Then you cannot stop from doing it. You cannot not do
it. It becomes a compulsion. It becomes a habit. It becomes an addiction.
Paul says this in the next
verse. “If I do these bad things enough I get addicted to them. But I can’t help myself because I’m no
longer doing it. It’s sin inside of
me that’s stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things.”
He says I’ve got great intentions
but I just can’t seem to pull it off.
Nothing changes. How many times
have you started each day and in your mind you go, “Lord, today is going to be different. Today is going to be different!” And by the end of the day nothing has
changed.
Paul says I’m no longer doing
it. When Paul says, “It’s in me. I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it,”
he’s not making excuses. He’s
simply recognizing the fact that he has an old nature inside of him that likes
to sin. And by the way, so do I. And, so do you.
We like to sin. In fact, nobody would do it if it was a
bummer. In fact, even the Bible
says it. The Bible says in Hebrews,
“There is pleasure in sin for a short
time.” There’s pleasure in sin
for a while, for the short term. There’s
pleasure in sin for a season. But
then you’re going to have the consequences. Everything has a consequence. We get compulsions and addictions.
The fourth thing that happens
when I don’t know how to fight the battle, when I keep losing and along comes…
4.
Self-condemnation.
I know some of you have gotten
really good at this. You’re a pro
at putting yourself down. You’re a
pro at condemning yourself. Because
you keep stumbling in the same area over and over and over – I still lose my temper, I still say mean
things, I still have those thoughts.
And you start going, I’m no good. I’m worthless. I’m junk. Why should I call myself a Christian? God must hate me. God’s mad at me, blah, blah, blah,
and all those other things. You start
condemning yourself. That’s the
inevitable sign that you’re in this spiritual battle.
Verse 18 Paul says “I know I’m rotten inside as far as my old
sinful nature is concerned.” Who
told him that? He’s telling himself
that. He’s putting himself down. He’s condemning himself. That is a mark of when you have
habitual areas that you’ve been failing in over and over and over.
How many resolutions have you
made that you didn’t keep? Then
you start putting yourself down and do the self-condemnation. That leads to number five.
5.
Frustration.
This is the mark of a
Christian trying to live on their own power instead of God’s power. You get frustrated. Paul says this in the next verse, verse
18 “No matter which way I turn I can’t make
myself do right. I want to but I
can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t;
when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. If I’m doing what I don’t want to do, it’s plain where the
trouble is: sin has me in its evil
grasp.”
When I try to do the right
thing simply by willpower I’m just flapping my arms. I’m not going to get off the ground. You’re not going to beat the law of gravity
physically and you’re not going to beat the law of sin spiritually. It’s going to cause frustration in your
life. Paul says I am so frustrated!
How many times have you
thought, “I’m not going to do it anymore… I’m not going to do it anymore… I’m not
going to do it anymore…” And then you do it. This is the frustration. And it always leads to number six.
6.
Discouragement and despair.
Paul gets so discouraged from
this war going on inside of him. He
says, “It seems to be a fact of life. [In other words I’m giving up on this.]
It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I
inevitably do what is wrong. In my
mind [Notice this is a mental battle.
The battle’s going on in your mind.] In
my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved
to sin.” He said, I feel like
giving up. I’m in a battle and I’m
losing and I’m feeling hopeless.
Next, Paul discusses not the
cost of the battle but the cause. And
what is the cause of this battle that’s going on in you? The
reason is I have two natures.
You actually have two natures
inside of you. You have your old
nature which you were born with. And
you have the new nature that was given to you when you trusted in Christ, when
you were born again, when you became a believer. This new nature wants to do the right thing. But you still have the old nature
inside of you. These two natures
are in constant conflict with each other.
That’s the cause of the battle.
You have two natures, not one.
Verse 22 Paul says this “I love to do God’s will so far as my new
nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, [That’s my old
nature; the Bible often calls it my flesh or calls it my carnal self or calls
it the old man. These are synonyms
for the old nature. There’s something
else deep within me] that is at war with
my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within
me.”
The problem is willpower is
not enough to defeat your old nature.
If you think that you can change simply by wanting to change or by
learning about change, it isn’t going to happen. It’ll happen for a little while but then you’re going to get
tired and you’re going to stop.
Knowing what to do is not
enough to change you. If it was I
would never have to repeat a sermon topic. You’d get it. You’d
change in that area. And then we’d
just go on to something else. But
just because you know the right thing to do does not mean you do it.
The next verse says this: “So you see how it is: [Paul says] my new life tells me to do right, but the
old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in!”
Circle that phrase “terrible predicament.” In the original Greek it literally means
the exhaustion from hard work. It
means being worn out after an intense battle. It means you’re out of energy, you’re wiped out, you’re
fatigued, you’re frustrated, you feel like a failure. It’s Paul’s cry of agony. I need relief. I
need help.
This is not a pretty picture. Romans 7 is the picture of a defeated
struggling Christian. Finally, he
falls on his face out of exhaustion.
Paul goes, what’s the cure?
Then he tells us. He says God’s battle plan for victory;
he tells us what the plan is. This
plan is all in chapter 8. We’re going
to cover all of that next week. I
can’t share it all in one week because it’s too much material. But let me get you started on a couple
of advance steps on how you start to win the battle going on inside of you. You do three things initially.
The first thing I need to do,
God’s battle plan for winning the battle inside of me, is
1.
I must deepen my understanding of Christ.
You’ve got to deepen your
understanding of Christ and what he did for you on the cross. Having Christ in you is not enough. He doesn’t just want to be resident in
your life. He wants to be
president in your life. He doesn’t
want to just take up space. He
wants to be in charge. He wants to
be the Lord of your life.
What does that mean “the Lord.” It means he’s the CEO. He’s the boss. He’s calling the shots. He’s the chairman of the board. He wants you to put a sign over you
that says “Under new management.” That’s what it means to have Jesus as
the president of your life. Under
new management.
But the first step is I have
to deepen my understanding of Jesus Christ. He’s in my life but I’ve got to know more about him. Romans 7:24-25, “Who will free me from this life?
Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is through Jesus
Christ, our Lord.”
Circle the phrase “dominated
by sin.” This is an amazing phrase
here. In the original Greek it is
literally, who will free me from this body of death? This body of death.
Paul is giving a striking illustration here that you wouldn’t understand
unless you knew what was going on in the Roman Empire. Because in those days one of the
punishments for murdering somebody was sometimes they would chain the body of the
person you murdered to you. You’d
have to walk around with that person until they decayed and fell off. Instead of putting you in jail they
would chain the person you murdered and took their life and that body of death
would be chained to you. Which
means everywhere you go you’re carrying around the memory of your sin. You wake up each morning and the stench
is unbearable. Wherever you go you
have to drag that body with you. That’s
the phrase Paul is using here in the Greek when he says, who’s going to free me
from this body of death that’s stinking?
Notice in that phrase, circle
the word “who”. He says, “Who will free me…” He doesn’t say, what. Because the answer to the battle in you
is not a principle, it’s not a program, it’s not a pill, it’s a person. It’s Jesus Christ.
He says, Who will free me? The
answer is that only God can free you.
Jesus Christ. Who will free
me from this decaying life I’ve got?
The answer is through deepening your relationship with Jesus as Lord.
The second preliminary step to
ending the battle going on inside of you and winning the battle:
2.
I must detect and disarm the lie I’m believing.
I must detect and disarm the
lie that I’m believing. You need
to understand that the number one way Satan messes up your life is by
suggesting lies to you; or to get you to lie to yourself. That’s the number one way you mess up
your own life – lying to yourself.
Every time you expose and challenge a lie that you listen to in your
mind you’re going to be further set free.
The Bible says “If we claim to be
without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” He’s saying there that sin causes us to
deceive ourselves and deception causes us to sin.
We all tell ourselves lies
all the time, all the time. In fact,
one of the big lies that you tell yourself is this one: It’s not really a problem.
Really? My finances? They’re not really a problem. My work? My temper? My
foul mouth? My thought life? My little secret habit over here in the
corner? That’s not really the problem.
Who are you kidding? The Bible says “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us.” So let me just ask
this real blunt question as somebody who loves you. What are you pretending isn’t a problem in your life? What are you pretending not to know? The Bible tells us that if I’m going to
win this battle I have to stop lying to myself and I’ve got to stop listening
to Satan’s lies. I want you to write
down a couple of important things.
We’ll go into these in deeper detail in the following weeks.
· Behind every
self-defeating act is a lie I have believed.
Either I’ve lied to myself or
I’ve let Satan lie to me. We have an amazing ability to lie to ourselves. And to convince ourselves of things
that aren’t true.
Look at this verse, Jeremiah
17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all
things and beyond cure. Who can
understand it?” What does it
mean “the heart is deceitful”? We
have an amazing ability to lie to ourselves. The biggest liar you know is you and the person you lie to the most is yourself. The person I
lie to the most is myself. I tell
myself things are right when they’re not right. I tell myself things are ok when they’re not ok. I often tell myself things are not ok when
they are ok.
You do this all the time. We rationalize and we minimize and we make
excuses. And we tolerate things and
say, “It’s no big deal!” If you’re
going to get free and if you’re going to have victory in this…
· To stop
defeating myself I must stop deceiving myself.
To stop defeating myself –
all those self-defeating things in my life that I don’t like about me that I’d
like to change – to stop defeating myself I have to stop deceiving myself. I must become a person of the truth. I stop denying. I stop rationalizing. I stop minimizing. I stop excusing. I stop tolerating.
Again, let me ask you a very
blunt question. What self-destructive
behavior in your life are you putting up with? You know it’s bad for you. You know it’s going to cut years off your life. You know it’s going to hurt you in the
long run. And you know it may
destroy a relationship. But you justify
it. What is the truth you need to
admit? This is the second step to
winning the battle.
Jesus said this: “When you know the truth, the truth will set
you free.” But first it will
make you miserable! The truth
makes you miserable as long as you deny it. When you admit the truth then it sets you free. It doesn’t set you free until you admit
it. We’ll come back to this in
future weeks.
The third thing I need to do
to get started in overcoming this battle is…
3.
I must declare my struggle to another.
Declare my struggle, what I’m
struggling with, to another. I’m
struggling with my mouth. I’m
struggling with my mind. I’m
struggling with my behavior. I’m
struggling with my secret addiction.
The Bible says we share it.
Revealing your feeling is the
beginning of healing.
If all you want to do is be forgiven,
you just admit it to God. But if
you want to change and you want to be healed and you want to be different, God
says you have to admit it to one other person. You don’t have to admit it to everybody. All you have to do is have one person
who’s going to love you unconditionally, accept you, pray for you, an
accountability partner. Nobody
goes into a battle, fighting a war, by themselves. You go with a team.
You go with a platoon. You
need a battle buddy.
The Bible claims this, James
5:16. “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God
can heal you. When a believing
person prays, great things happen.” He says confess it not to God. He says confess to each other and pray for each other and
then you’ll be healed.
One last verse and we’ll
close. Galatians 5:16 says this, “Live according to your new life in the Holy
Spirit. [Circle that phrase
“in the Holy Spirit”] Then you won’t do what
your sinful nature craves.”
The difference between Romans
7, which is a picture of total defeat, and the picture of Romans 8, which is a
picture of a man or woman in total victory is this word – Spirit. In Romans 7, the phrase “Holy Spirit,”
is never mentioned. Not once. Instead – forty-one times we have “I,” “me,”
“my,” “myself,” “mine” – all these personal pronouns. It’s all about me.
It’s not about the Spirit. In
Romans chapter 8 the word “Spirit” is mentioned nineteen times. That’s the difference.
You have the equipment to
live a successful, victorious life.
But it’s not worth anything if you don’t have the Spirit empowering you
to do it. You cannot do it on your
own. You can go out and have all the
best intentions and make all the promises to yourself which you have broken
over and over and over because you cannot do it on your own. You cannot be like Christ. You have to let Christ live through you. Resolutions are good. They’re a good start. But they’ll only get you so far. Then you’ve got to have Spirit power in
your life. We’ll be talking about
that in the days ahead.
Prayer:
Pray
this prayer in your heart: Dear God, you know the confusion in my life. You know the frustration I feel. You know the guilt and the shame. You know the compulsions and habits and
addictions and you know how many times I’ve made promises to myself and to you
that I haven’t kept. Today I
realize that I have two natures inside of me. And they are at war.
I ask you to use this series to help me have victory. Deepen my understanding of what Jesus
Christ has done for me. Show me how
to let go and how to let your Spirit live through me. This week help me to challenge the lies that Satan puts in
my mind. And to challenge the lies
that I tell myself. To detect them
and to disarm them. To stop
deceiving myself. I want to know
the truth about me and I want it to set me free. Help me to have the courage to declare my struggle to one other
person, a battle buddy; a co-worker, a friend in arms, fighting their battle
too. May I offer unconditional love
and receive it. Help me to confess
my sins to others and to pray for others so that God may heal me. Help me to live according to your new
life in the Holy Spirit. Live in
me. I don’t understand it all but
I want to learn to trust you, love you, follow you and most important let you
live through me by your Spirit. I
pray this in your name. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment