Okay, I would like you please to turn with me to the Brit HaChadasha, to the New Covenant, New Testament, to Romans 7. And we're going to deal today with the second half of this chapter, Romans 7. And I would like to suggest that in Romans chapter 7, we find, I guess most of us find ourselves, in fact, I don't believe that there is any believer that ever entirely lived beyond Romans chapter 7. Many times we may live beyond Romans chapter 7, but again and again and again we fall back into Romans chapter 7, and we find out very quickly the reality of the life of the believer. We find out in this seventh chapter the fact that here we are, I am a child of God, I am a saved person, I belong to Yeshua the Messiah, but here in my life I am struggling with issues and problems in my life that only the Holy Spirit of God can deliver me out of the state that many times I find myself, and you as well, as the Apostle Paul is saying.

Now, I'm going to read this passage from Romans chapter 7, beginning from verse 14 to verse 25. I'm not going to read it with the King James. I made myself a copy of the NIV because there is a little bit help here to kind of simplify the verses because some of the verses are a little bit more difficult to understand or not quite clear. and that's why I made myself a little copy of chapter 7 and I'm reading it from the NIV just for this text today. Not that I have a problem with the King James. I'm very thankful for the King James, but just some words in Romans 7 will be much easier to understand if we have a little bit more simple words.

So let's follow me. Romans 7 beginning at verse 14. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual. I am sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, this I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin that lives in me, or sin nature. I know that nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

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. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I that do it, but it is sin that lives in me that do it. So I find this law at work. When I want to do good, evil is right there within me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

Then he cries, Oh, what wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? And then he gives the answer, Thanks be to God, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord. So then I myself, in my mind, am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature, I am a slave to the law of sin. And that's the conclusion in verse 25 of Romans chapter 7. In Romans chapter 7, brothers and sisters, the apostle Shaul, Paul, teach us a very important lesson. You see, he's answering the second question that a person may ask.

so you got saved so you accepted yeshua the messiah as your lord and as your savior you have been delivered from the wrath of god from the judgment of god you have been delivered because you have accepted the lord jesus the messiah and so you have received the grace of god and so in roman chapter 6 he's answering the first question that somebody may ask somebody might say well if god showed me so much grace therefore i can do as i please because god is gracious and he has shown me grace and he forgave my sin so i can continue in sin so grace of god may abound and paul says in roman chapter 6

he is answering that first question and he says god forbid he says no don't you know that you have been delivered by the work of the messiah for you and you should not continue with habitual sin you may sin confess it repented be restored you may sin confess it but don't live in a habitual continual sinful life because that is not what pleasing to the lord but then the other question comes and another group as i've mentioned in our last ministry meeting i said you remember there's another group who says look you've been saved by grace but you got to live now as a believer but on the basis of the law and the lord

in the power of the spirit of god through the words of the apostle shaul paul gives us an answer here to show us not at all you cannot not only that the law did not save you the law could not keep you because the law will condemn you every time.

And so the second half of this chapter, Romans chapter 7, Paul is dealing now with this second problem, second question. And you remember in the first verses that we have studied, we saw the authority of the law of a man. And Paul gave us an example of a husband and wife.

He says when a man and a woman get married, the wife is under the authority of the law or the rules of her husband and as long that the husband is alive she's responsible to her husband if she's going to go to another man she committing fornication and so he takes this as a symbol he doesn't teach her about marriage and divorce and all these things he's just saying listen just the same like a woman is under the leadership and authority of the rules of her husband you and i when we became believers in yeshua the messiah we have been transformed from the headship of adam to the headship of the messiah and so our

relationship now is no longer to adam and his sin nature but to the messiah in his resurrection to christ to the messiah so the law has authority of a man by nature in this world why rules have been given so man will be revealed the reality that he failed every time and it will drive him to god we talked about it last time the second thing we mentioned last time is what is the purpose of the law and the purpose of the law it reveals sin if you remember the law a rising sin in us and the law kills us every time look at those verses before we're going to read the next verses notice

in verse 7 romans 7 it says here what shall we say then is the law sin god forbid nay i did not know sin but by the law for i had not known last except the law said you shall not covet you see god had given to israel our people the law in order to drive them to another person to the messiah yeshua the law was not giving for them in order to show how holy they can live but the law shows them how unholy they are and they need to be driven to the messiah secondly we said that the law arousing sin if you remember we talked about it in romans 7 verses 8

and 9 where it said sin taking occasion by the commandment and wrote in me all manner of desires you see what happened when there is a law that tells us don't do that then human nature desire to do exactly what we were told not to do and we see it in every area of our life and remember that pastor do not only speaking about the law that god had given israel the 10 commandments and the law that we have in the bible but he's talking about law as a principle and so we dealt with it in our last session as well and notice another thing before i'm going to move on the law actually kills

me find me guilty accuse me and kills me this is verses 10 and 11 if you remember we said the commandments which were ordained to give life i found to be unto death for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceive me and by it slew me see paul could see you know and remember that the shaul his hebrew name is shaul he was a pharisee of the pharisees he sought to live a righteous life but how did he know that there was sin in him and that he did not keep the law when the last commandment said thou shalt not covet and the coveting is not something that we do with deeds it's something that

we have inside our hearts and paul shaul recognized that he said sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and slew me he says in verses 10 and 11 and finally the law shows how sinful sin really is and what's happening when the law shows how sinful sin really is it is only when the lord gave us the law only where we have law, we find out we just don't measure.

We just not rise up. And now remember that we don't say here that neither Paul said that there is some problem with the law. The law has no problem. The law is holy. The law is good. The law is just, as verse 12 tells us. The problem is not with the law. The problem is that you and I have a nature that is an Adamic nature, a sinful nature that demanded the death of the Messiah on a tree in order to give us forgiveness of sins so now we are moving on to verses 14 to 25 where we just read in those verses the apostle does something that is going beyond explaining in theory now he bring it to the bottom in practice what actually happened in the life of the believer and you and i have to admit that that this is exactly what happened in our life every time where we struggle in our life in our walk with the lord here in this world.

Remember, I'm going to put here a clause here. The moment you have accepted Yeshua as your Lord and Savior, you are once and for all delivered eternally. You are linked with a risen Messiah, you and I, and we belong to him and nothing that we will do will enable us to lose the salvation that we receive from the Lord Jesus. But the link of union is one thing, that positional. The link of communion is something that we need to do every day of our life until the Lord is taking us out of this world. And here Paul is teaching us what the law could not do and cannot do for a believer.

Look at this. Three things we learn here in verses 14 to 25, what the law cannot do for a believer. Number one is in verse 14. The law cannot change us. It says here in verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal and I am sold under sin. You see, Paul, by the way, is turning to himself right now and he's speaking really about himself. Notice how many times the word I is mentioned here in this chapter. In fact, from verses 14 on, about 30 times the word I is mentioned. About 20 times the word me is mentioned. About 4 times the word my is mentioned. About 1 time the word myself is mentioned.

The whole story here, it is I, me, my, myself. And Paul is showing to us here in these verses the reality that the law cannot change my old nature at all. Look, he says, we know that the law is spiritual. In other words, the word for spiritual had to do, it deals with the inner man. The law is spiritual, but I, Paul is speaking about himself, I am carnal and I am sold under sin. You know, sometimes even Christians, even believers in Yeshua, the Messiah, think that now that they became believers, that they can improve their old nature. As if, you see, I'm a child of God now, and I can improve, I can make my old nature better.

And Paul is saying to us here, he says, The law is spiritual, but I, he's speaking about the old nature, it's carnal. The word for carnal is fleshly. And what does that mean? It doesn't mean the meat on the bone. It means that the human nature, the flesh, the Adamic nature is sinful. You cannot improve this. You cannot change it. You cannot shape it and make it better. Many times people, by setting rules and laws for themselves, they think that they're going to improve the old nature.

But if I now, it doesn't matter what I try to do with my old nature, I still have to admit that there is a problem here, underlying problem that existing with my old nature it is a nature that is not profitable for god that's why god did not improve our nature he gave us a new nature a divine nature a nature that come from him the holy spirit of god in dwelling a believer the old nature is not sufficient it's not good it's not profitable let me show you a couple of verses that need to be read if you turn with me to the gospel of john chapter 6 look at john 6 what the

lord himself says look yeshua said in john 6 in verse 63 it is the spirit that bring life quickeneth but it is the flesh that profit is now notice it doesn't say it profit is little it says it profit is nothing completely nothing brothers and sisters the flesh does not profit nothing that's what Yeshua is saying here in John chapter 6 and verse 63 the flesh profiteth nothing let me read you another verse in Philippians chapter 3 if you just turn there for a moment look what he's saying in Philippians chapter 3 and he's saying this interesting statement Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3 he says that for we are the circumcision which worship God

in the spirit and rejoice in the Mashiach Yeshua and the Messiah Yeshua and at the end of verse 3 he says and have no confidence in the flesh do you know that every time that we do something in our flesh we don't please God even in a religious flesh God does not find pleasure in it because it is this nature this flesh that causes or caused the messiah to come from heaven the son of god to dive on the tree for our sins and so the flesh not profiting anything nothing and the flesh as it says we are not to have confidence in the flesh according to philippian chapter 3 and so what when we

back to romans in our chapter 7 paul is really saying you know the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, and I'm sold under sin.

Carnality, fleshly, speaks that I have the old nature, and I'm sold under sin. Wherever I go, whatever I do, the old nature is sold under sin. Every sin that you and I committed, brothers and sisters, came from the old nature. The sins of the past, the sins of the present, and the sins of tomorrow, of the future. These are all coming from an inner, old, Adamic nature, which cannot be improved. You can shape it, you can give it color, you can tell it what to do, and it every time will fail you, will fail God. And that's why the Lord says in John 6, the flesh profiteth not little, not something, but nothing.

And so you and I, you have to admit, many times trying to improve that flesh. We're trying to kind of paint it a little bit give it a nice color a little religious color we even use that flesh in many things that we do and like others to see but at the end it doesn't please god it doesn't profit what god want us to learn and unfortunately we will only graduate when we're going to go to heaven but here he wants us to learn that listen your old nature need to be placed where it belongs you know when we do baptism, tevila, we put somebody under the water, why?

What do we say when we are being baptized? That I died with the Messiah, that my own nature is right there at the funeral service, under, in a different sphere, that's it, it's gone. And when I live, when I come out of the water, I will seek to live in newness of life, with the strength of the Spirit of God. And this is what baptism actually symbolized, what actually happened when we have accepted the Messiah. actually the old man the old nature died with the messiah and he was raised in newness of life to live in accordance to the spirit of god in the power of the spirit of god so in romans chapter 7 and verse 14 the law cannot change the old nature it can't it has no power to do it because the law is holy and the old nature is sinful the problem is not with the law the problem is with the old nature.

And that's why the Lord Jesus had to die. That's why Yeshua had to die on the cross, on the tree. Because when he died, he dealt with the old nature once and for all, removed it from before God, that you and I, the believers in the Messiah and Yeshua, can now have a complete new nature, a divine nature. Secondly now, in the next verses, in verses 15 all the way to verse 21, not only that the law cannot change us but the law also cannot enable us to do good now you and i might say well the law was given so we will do good things right and it's naturally that's the way we are looking at it but look what it says here in these verses the law cannot enable us to do good and that's why verse 15 and 16 paul shows us here that he has two natures and they are constantly struggling one against the other.

Look, let me read verse 15 and 16 first of all, and I read it again with this other translation. Here in verse 15 he says, I do not understand what I do. He says, for what I want to do, I do not do. And what I hate, this I do. Verse 16 he says, and if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. See what he's saying In verses 15 and 16, he's saying really that he has two natures. In one time he says, I cannot do the good that I want to do. And then I do the evil that I do not want to do.

You know, we make a commitment that we're not going to do certain things. Let's say we say, I'm not going to raise my voice from now on. If I'm getting upset with somebody, I'm not going to raise my voice. And you make this commitment and somebody comes along and somehow he or she get you so mad That you somehow bring out of your, where? Out of your old nature. Anger that you raise your voice and you start to speak loud and you maybe say things you shouldn't say. Yeah, but wait a minute. I made a promise last week that I will not raise my voice.

Doesn't matter what. I hold myself hard. I'll do my best. It doesn't work. Doesn't matter how. Because the law says to us, or any rule says to us, you shall not do this. You shall not be, let's say, you shall honor your father and your mother. Don't covet. Don't steal.

don't lie all what the law is telling us we find ourselves that we break them all and so he Paul is saying look I cannot do the good I want to do good but I don't do it for some reason and the things that I do not want to do for some reason I end up doing them what we learn here because you notice it seems to be that Paul is teaching us about the two natures here the struggle that existing between the two natures that which i do not want to do that i do and what i want to do i do not know it's like a struggle between the two natures and inside

us we always have this struggle don't you find yourself sometime even almost like speaking to yourself and you say oh boy lord i didn't want to say that why did i say that and oh lord i didn't want to covet or lust and i didn't want to do but lord it's rising up there is a principle there is a nature that rises up and you can't control it and you seem to say the things and do the things that you don't want to do you see that's what happened with a believer that's what happened so the mistake that we do is that we say okay because i have an inclination to do something i will

set a rule i will set the principle i will set a law that tell me you shall not do this so i set the rule i set the law And then I find out that I break the law, because every time when the nature has been arousing, immediately we fall into the thing that we say that we will not do.

And so, Paul can show us here from those verses, verses 15 and 16, he shows us that the problem is not with the law. The problem is with my old Adamic nature. Because he said at the end in verse 16, that the law is good.

the law itself is not a problem the problem is the human nature so he's moving on now he's showing us here that the law cannot enable us to do good he shows us now in verse 17 paul is telling us that he understood the fact that sin dwells in him sin nature by the way this expression that sin dwell in me notice in verse 17 now when it is no more i that do it but sin that dwells in me that expression sin that dwells in me he mentioned it three times in these verses if you go a little bit further down you will see that he mentioned this expression sin dwells in me verse

20 sin that dwells in me verse 21 evil that is present with me he mentioned this again and again what does he mean when he say sin that dwells in me he means sin nature don't let anybody tell you that you as a believer can arrive to a level that you're no longer going to sin or in other words you're not going to have the sin nature anymore that's the reality of life as believers they struggle with the two natures that we have the one is inclining to go wrong the other one want to please God the one is inclining to disobey God the new nature says I want to please my blessed lord yeshua

the messiah and that new nature is being activated by the holy spirit of god not by laws but by the holy spirit of god and so the struggle that paul is showing to us in these verses again i'm repeating verse 15 and 16 i do not understand what i do for what i want to do i do not do what i hate i do it verse 16 and if i do what i do not want to do i agree with the law that the law is good.

I agree that the law is good. The problem is in me. You know, every problem that exists today in believer's life comes from the old nature. It comes from the struggle that we have in the old nature. The old nature wants to have its own way. The old nature wants to rule in our life. The old nature wants to take control of our life. And we as believers need to learn from Romans chapter 7 and also chapter 8 that old nature needs to constantly be placed where it belongs, not to feed on it. How do we feed the old nature? And how do we feed the new nature?

The old nature we feed is when we are occupied with people and problems, when we are constantly looking at each other, finding fault with each other, we are constantly trying to see what's wrong in others, priding ourselves, looking at ourselves, exalting ourselves. That's how we feed the old nature how do we feed the new nature is looking at the beauty of yeshua look at his love and his grace and the way he lived his life here how he sought to please god that's how we feed the new nature reading his word praying for one another praying for the needs singing with grace in our hearts unto the lord that's how we feed the new nature that pleasing to god and then the holy spirit of God can take us and lead us forward and help us to live victorious beyond the struggles of the believer's life.

I'm moving on with what the law is not able to do. Look at this. And now in verse 18, in verse 18, Paul shows us two things. Number one, there is no good in the old nature. Number two, there is no power in the new nature. Now, this is very interesting. In verse 18, he says, and I'm reading again, I know that nothing good lives in me. I'll just pause here for a moment. You and I read enough the epistles of the apostle Shaul, of apostle Paul, and we could see what a godly man he was. I don't think the Bible ever described to us any more godly men than the apostle Paul, than Shaul.

And Shaul, Paul, still saying about himself as a believer. He doesn't talk about his life before he became a believer he's speaking as a believer he says i know that in me verse 18 i know that is me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing i don't know if we have ever learned this i don't know if we have ever think like this about ourselves paul says i know experientially and i know on a basis of the word of god that in me that is in my flesh dwell no good thing. So why do we try all the time to improve that flesh? Why do we try all the time to make this flesh more religion or more religious?

Had we known, like Paul, that inner flesh is no good, we would have behaved a lot different. Would you say amen to that? Because the reason that we don't behave different is because we don't think, we don't believe, or we don't like to acknowledge that there is no good in us, in the flesh. But Paul said in verse 18, I know it. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. There is no good in the old nature. He is repeating this, but notice he continues now, and he shows us that not only that the old nature, there is no good in it, but even the new nature on its own has no power.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit of God to activate, to motivate the new nature. And that's why he says in verse 18b, he says this, he says, For I have a desire to do what is good. That's a new nature. But I cannot carry this out. You see, even the new nature that we have still need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to do the things that we need to carry out what we are called to carry out. Even that is amazing. Truth to learn in verse 18 here. How to perform that which is good I found not. In verse 18. I have a desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry this out.

Later on in chapter 8, you will see how we can carry out that which we are called to carry out, but it's always in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. In Romans 7, I, me, my, myself. In Romans 8, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit, the Spirit. That's why he's leading us to chapter 8, but he must bypass or go through Romans chapter 7 because that is where we find ourselves most of the time. Well, look, and I'm moving on. In the next verse now, in verse 19, Paul rehearses what he said before again. He's repeating what he just said before. In verse 19, he says like this, For what I do is not the good that I want to do.

No, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. The struggle that we are going through every day of our life. we go through it by the way you'll get up in the morning and you'll have to deal with it you'll continue on doing the day you'll have to deal with it you'll carry on to the evening you'll have to do you go to sleep and you will have to carry it the whole day every day is the struggle that we are going through and the things that we do not want to do that we do and the things that we want to do that's what we do not do so he's moving on in verse 20 now he says now if i do what i do not want to do it is no longer I who do it but it is sin or sin nature that liveth in me notice there's a difference between the I and the me here Paul is really teaching us here again the two natures that the believer has the two natures you know the unbeliever by the way he has only one nature or she has only one nature they don't have two natures because before a person become a believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, we only have the Adamic nature, what we were born with.

We are descendants of Adam and Eve, and everyone that was born through Adam and Eve, we have inherited a nature, the Adamic nature. Only the believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, have a two nature. But we didn't, the old nature have not died, haven't been removed. You know, sometimes we wish, don't you wish, sometimes, Lord, I wish this old nature would have been not there altogether, so I can completely live for you without sin any longer. In heaven, it will happen. No flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. When we're going to get to glory, we are going to leave behind this Adamic nature.

There is no sin ever will enter into the presence of God. God is holy. His law is holy. But man is sold under sin, and the old nature will be remaining behind when we're going to get to the presence of the Lord. Can you imagine what will it be like? The struggles that we go here in this world will no longer be in existence. And so this verse, and now the verse 21 that is also important here, I find this law at work when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. So the me and I are two separate nature.

The I here that want to do the right thing is the new man, and the evil that is within me that's the old nature the old man so here is these verses we've talked about the fact that the law cannot change us verse 14 the law is not able to help us to do good this is verse 15 to 21 this is talking about the old man the old nature now the last verses and we're going to close romans 7 right here verses 22 23 24 and 25 the law also cannot set us free somebody else can set us free to live the life of the believer so he tells us now in verse 22

for in my inner being I delight in God's law that inner being of verse 22 this inner being I delight to do the inward man this is the the new nature that the divine nature we desire to do the things of god we want to please god in the inner being the inward man look what the psalmist said in psalm 119 let me read that one verse verse 35 verse 35 says this make me to go in thy path of thy commandments for therein i do delight that's a man that is a believer who want to live for god and he says listen i delight inside me to do the will of god but the

old nature do not delight in the will of god that is a saved man by the way the psalmist david he was a child of god even though he was under the time of israel before the messiah have come he was a believer in god he received salvation he was forgiven so the inward man he delighted in the path of god's law god's commandments so that's why he needed the work of the spirit of god to help him to do that like you and i need the help of the spirit of god and so the verse that i just read it shows us that there is a delight in the law of god to please

god after the inward man the inward man that's the new nature that we have and so the next verse now verse 23 Paul sees that he has another nature that war against God 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 very difficult verse to understand let me read it again with another translation again but I see another law at work in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members you see what's happened with the

human being is a very complex person you know we all have spirit soul and body the spirit of man the soul of man is placed in the body and the members are moving how we have been directing ourselves the members will move the members of the body the feet the hands the eyes the ears we will shift or we will move to act because the what we are told how we are being communicated with so if we the old nature desire something that is wrong our members will move on with it but when we have the new nature the new nature will shift our members to go in another direction in direction to please the

lord and you see that's what he's really saying here that he noticed that i see another law at work now that law is not the law that god gave israel on mount sinai that law is a principle it's a rule is a principle that existing here and that what he's saying i see another principle of law that is working in my members in a member of my body i see another there's two principles here it says waging war against the law of my mind the law of the mind that speaks about the new nature the desire the mind of christ the mind of the messiah and the old nature working waging war against the law

of my mind and what it does making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members you know sometimes we become prisoners when we think that we are free we become prisoners because when sin always lead us beyond what we would like it to happen.

Sin and wrong that are coming from the old nature lead us to go beyond what we would like it to carry us to do. And it becomes, as it says, put us under as a prisoner, locking us out. No liberty, no joy, no happiness, no satisfaction, no love, no grace.

that's what happened when we allowed that sin nature to lead us on that principle at work that law the law at work that is in the members of my body is waging a war against us and making me a prisoner for a moment please turn to galatians 5 if you will just for a moment verse 17 in fact i'll read verse 16 first of all Galatians 5 16 Paul is saying I say then walk in the spirit that mean in the power and control of the Holy Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the last of the flesh for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one

to another so that ye cannot do the thing that you would like to do but if ye be led of the spirit this is the Holy Spirit of God ye are not under the law now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication, uncleanness lasciviousness, idolatry witchcraft, hatred, variance emulation, wrath, strife sedition, heresies enruing, murders, drunkenness revilings and such alike of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in the time passed the day which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god that is a characteristics of people who are when they do it on ongoing basis this is a characteristics of unbelievers but then

verse 22 he says but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness tempers against such there is no law again he brings that word law a principle a principle that is existing here as the apostle is speaking here there is another law in my members worrying against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members and so what can you do when you read such verses and you say what can we do what is really the reality paul come to a climax here in those verses at the end of chapter 7 he is telling us in chapter

7 and verse 24 he says all wretched men that i am all wretched men you see that's what i believe romans 7 should lead us to understand about ourselves about our old nature i should say it should lead us ultimately to come to a point that we are no longer having confidence in ourselves and we're saying as the pastor say all wretched man that i am paul you saying it about yourself i thought you are the apostles of apostles you're this great apostle that you have gone you have reached so much you have shared truths to a world you suffered for yeshua for the messiah paul how can you say this about yourself paul is

really telling us the truth what he wants you and i to say the very same thing about our own nature all wretched men that i am he does not say all wretched men that i was you know you and i might say oh you see i was wretched before i'm pretty good right now Paul is saying, oh, wretched man, that I am right now as a believer, as a child of God.

I am wretched because of the old nature. I am saved and forgiven and blessed because of the new nature. I am wretched with my affiliation with Adam and his descendants, but I am blessed with my relationship with the Mashiach, with the Messiah, and what he has done for me. I am wretched because I have inherited a sinful nature when I was born, to my parents who had a sin nature, but I am blessed because of my affiliation with the glorified Messiah who paid a price for my sins. Oh, wretched man that I am. And now look what he does. In the same verse, he says, well, if I am so wretched, how can I be delivered from this?

Maybe I'm going to set myself another rule, another law, that will help me to get rid of the life of wretchedness that I have in my own nature. Maybe I'm going to set myself some kind of a custom and a way and a religious activity, what I should do and what I shouldn't do, and how I'm going to do it, and commitments and all kinds of things like this, and that will deliver me for my wretchedness. Paul doesn't do it. He doesn't say, what shall deliver me? He says, who shall deliver me? He looks away from himself. He looks away from rules and regulations to another person and he's directing his heart to Yeshua the Messiah.

Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Another way of saying it, in verse 24, who will rescue me from this body of death? Who will rescue me? He doesn't say what. He says who. And you know what we learn here? That every time God is challenging us to look away from ourselves and to look to another. To look to Yeshua. To look to the Messiah. To look to the Lord who paid a price for our sins. He is the one who can deliver us. Deliver us. You have a problem, I have a problem with one thing. Look to the Lord. He will help you.

you have a problem with lust look to the Lord he will have you have a problem with covetous look to the Lord and see what he have done for you and what you have overcome and how much he paid you have a hatred look to the Lord and see how much he loved us in spite of us you have a problem with conflict look to the Lord but you know unfortunately brothers and sisters that's where we fail so many times we don't look to the Lord we look to ourselves and we make some sort of I'm not going to do this we're making some sort of laws and rules and we end up messing it

up we end up back again and again realizing again that there is a wretchedness the old nature cannot be improved by no laws by no rules but only as we set this aside and let the new man being fed as it is occupied through the spirit of god with the person of the lord jesus the messiah of yeshua the messiah who shall deliver me you see paul says me me yeah paul the struggles that he had in his life he probably must have been struggling so much in his life he had so many conflicts when people persecuted him and beat him and caused him aggravation and put him in jail Paul needed to look to

the Lord to be delivered from reacting in a way that is not pleasing to the Lord he needed grace from God from the Lord Yeshua the Messiah that's why he turned to the Lord and he looked to him he said who who is going to deliver me and he gives himself the answer here in the next verse that's the last verse of roman chapter 7 he turned away from himself and he's looking at yeshua the messiah that's why he says in verse 25 i thank god god i thank you but i thank god not through anything else but it's only through yeshua the messiah i thank god through yeshua the messiah our lord that's how

he thanked god because god now have forgiven him had given him a new life but he done it through yeshua the messiah the one that paid a penalty for him you see he have learned that the power that he discovered the power how he's going to be able to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord the power was the inner man look to the Lord Yeshua in the power of the Spirit of God is enabled him to be setting aside that deliver him from the body of this death to deliver him from this active sin that was in his life it was the person of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and so we

learned brothers and sisters you know what we really learned from Romans chapter 7 that the old nature do not know law we broke every law with the old nature even the second thing we learned from Romans chapter 7 that the new nature does not need law it needs to look to the Lord and in the power of the Spirit of God the law is good and we have to seek to obey the law but we cannot obey the law in the power of the old nature we need the holy spirit of god to help us so we will be able in some measure to obey the laws that we have been received from the lord

and even the law of the land and so what we learn from here from these chapters that we have the law cannot take us away from sin but christ the mashiach the messiah can help us so roman chapter 7 help us to understand that the legalist having danger to become a Pharisee when he's seeking to do things on a basis of merely rules and laws.

That makes a person legalist. But to be freed from that, we need to look to the Lord Jesus and to activate the new nature in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And he concludes that and he says in verse 25 so verse 25 at the end verse 25b he says so then i myself in my mind i'm a slave to god's law that's the new nature but in the sinful nature i'm a slave to the law of sin the conclusion with my mind i serve the law of god but with the flesh i serve the law of sin. That's the conclusion. That's the lesson that the Apostle Paul have told us to do.

Let me just close this meeting with one verse, please, that is found in Philippians chapter 2. Please, just turn to Philippians chapter 2 and I'm going to close the message with this verse. Philippians chapter 2 and the verse is verse 13. I'll read verse 12 also. The end of verse 12 says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling it doesn't say work up for your salvation but work out the salvation that you already have how do we work out the salvation that we already have verse 13 tells us this for it is god that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure it is God through the Messiah in the power of the Spirit of God works in us it's an inner man both to do his will and his good pleasure it is God who works in the believer through the Spirit of God so we can please him and do the right thing so roman chapter 7 teaches us what the law in relationship to us to the believer and how we need to be delivered from that into the person of the lord jesus and the holy spirit of god will guide us and roman chapter 8 is where we're going to talk a lot about the work of the spirit of god in the life of the believer