The Book of Romans X, Why Do Christians Struggle

If you didn't get a yellow outline, you're going to need one. Wave your hand up and our ushers will come. There's probably quite a few of you who missed the door handout. So, ushers, if you can quickly cover those, please. And also, I want to urge you to be sure to pick up your Romans chapter 7 devotional guide. Matt did a good job this time, as always. It's very consistent with what I'm going to be teaching about tonight. Don't miss this. This is way too deep for us to cover in one brief study time tonight or next week. This will help you to dig in a little bit. We have more to go. One or two more up here, please. Romans chapter 6 and 7. I'll count on the fact that you already read this before you got here. Otherwise, we'll never get through it. It will take too long. Title tonight, Why Christians Struggle. Does this apply to anybody? The good news is we have much company in our struggle. The bad news is, even after you know why, you're still going to struggle some. However, I have to say that part of the reason why we struggle is just ignorance. Tonight, I pray that perhaps some of us will be freed from some of our ignorance and grow in the grace of God. What I've tried to do is to synthesize chapter 6 and the first part of chapter 7. It's not an easy task to do in a short period of time. This is not meant to be a theology course, but it is meant to try to give you some handles on the Scripture that you can further develop on your own. What I did here was to develop sort of a three-part progression. We're going to look at each one of these parts. You're going to need a pen to write with and fill in the blanks. Someone asked me, why do you have to fill in the blanks? Because I want you to be surprised. Could you imagine how boring it would be if you knew what I was going to say each time? We already struggle with some of that. Let's keep this going here. Now, Paul begins this portion of Scripture talking about what it means to be enslaved to sin. Not long ago, I was talking with a young man who impressed me with his worldliness. I mean, he had been around and had no reservations in telling me the depths to which he had slid in terms of his decadence, his drug involvement, spending money on pleasures that he felt were worthy, and so on, and so on, and so on. And I felt my own spirit. Well, this guy is ripe for the gospel. I don't know when you find a ripe sinner. This guy was great. I mean, he needed the Lord, and I had an opportunity to sort of lead into that. And I said, would you like to know more about how you can have new life in Christ? He said, no thanks. I said, I just kind of enjoy my freedom. And I thought, well, isn't that strange? Here's a guy that's addicted to drugs. He's broke. He has very little future to look forward to, you know, in a minimum wage, part-time type job. And he said, I just want to keep enjoying my freedom. Well, we're going to look at freedom tonight, and we're going to look at what it means to be slaves, not to sin, but to Christ. Let's look, first of all, at what it means to be under sin. Paul says very clearly that those who are under sin are bound by their evil desires, in verse 6. That's the first point. This is going to be wild, and I'm going to say, hang on, okay? We're going to go right down that list. He says in verse 19 that we are locked in impurity and ever-increasing wickedness. Now, dear ones, understand something, that morality and wickedness are not necessarily contradictory. In other words, people can be moral and still very wicked. You know what I'm saying? Pride is a very wicked thing. You can be very moral and very prideful. Paul says to you that those who are under sin, their lives are under sin. They are not regenerated. They are not born again. They are living their lives in ever-increasing wickedness and impurity. That's a pretty sad state for anyone to be in. Now, one thing I've discovered about impurity and ever-increasing wickedness, it is very well disguised. How many of you have found that rarely does sin appear to you in flashing neon lights? Sin here. If the truth be known, for example, most men who travel a lot and have long evenings and lonely evenings away from home, very rarely will go to the places that have big lights and say nude dancers and so on and so on and so on. It's too obvious. But they will go to a nice restaurant with a bar and find some other lonely person who needs to talk, and things lead to things. And that's the way sin is. It's deceitful. It's subtle. But the temptation to it is always there, and the propensity in every human being is to be ever-increasingly involved in their wickedness. Now, this is not something that just falls upon you, but letter B, individually we make decisions and use parts of our body to sin. Think for just a moment. Which part of your body is most vulnerable to sin? Well, don't tell me out loud. I mean, I believe you, brother. How about a big corporate confession on three? Whatever you think. No, I'm just kidding. For some, it may be our eyes. That's right. For some, you know, it might be your hands. Yeah, you just can't keep your hands from taking. For some, what's one of the big ones? It's got to be? Yeah. Right here. For some, it's just that member in us that is always, you know, lusting and creating scenarios and so on. For some, it's our feet, which we can't seem to keep from going places we shouldn't and what have you. And Paul says there that we give individually, you know, we yield our members. Verse 13, do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. A person that is under sin is continually offering parts of their body to be used as an instrument of sin. Now, I don't think of it that way, but that's what they're doing. And that's because, letter C, they're under control of their sinful nature. Now, see, the irony of that young man that I described earlier was that he didn't realize it, but he was already a slave. He was a slave to his passions, a slave to his sin nature that was directing his steps. And that enslavement, by the way, is rampant in our culture. You know, the addiction problems in our culture are unbelievable, folks. Letter D, the enslavement, the addiction, and, I mean, it's not just alcoholism and drugs and everything, but it's, you know how many people are addicted to pornography? I was talking to one man who said, maybe you've heard Dick Hatch on the radio talk about sexual addiction. Now, that was something I didn't, you know, I didn't know about 10 years ago. But there are literally people, like one man I was talking about, who said, you know, I just needed a little kind of spice in my sexual relationship with my wife. So I tried something different, meaning someone different. And then he discovered that over the next months and years, he couldn't help himself, but every time he went away from home, every time he got the opportunity, he said, if I couldn't find somebody, I'd pay somebody. And these kinds of enslavements are everywhere. You probably, some are enslaved to work. They are addicted to work. And we've talked about workaholism here just a few months ago. While some people are driven to the point of being enslaved, literally, to work. Now, the problem with living under sin is that you begin to find yourself in a futile circle. You can't find any way out. And many people literally give up on having any meaningful purpose in life or they find something that gives them passing fulfillment. For some people, it's their families come along, and that becomes a diversion for a while, but then the kids leave, and then what am I going to do with myself? For some, it's their job, and their career rises up, and then maybe something happens, and they go. But the futility of people under sin is evident. And by the way, folks, this is one reason why at Christmastime, you should be all the more attuned to sharing with people. Because you see, at the time of our most profound hope is when people feel the most futile, if it doesn't mean anything. You know what I'm saying? At this season of the year, people, way back in their consciousness, they're thinking, well, maybe there is an answer here. But if they've been locked in religion, then they already feel like, well, I've tried, that doesn't work. And futility is something that you can have a great answer to because if you know Christ, you have a tremendous sense of purpose and destiny in Him. But the saddest news is here, folks, look what it says. Several different times, verse 21 and verse 23 of chapter 6, this futility, this enslavement leads to death. For the wages of sin is death. What kind of death is it talking about? Ultimately, it's talking about spiritual death. It's talking about the fact that for eternity, you'll be separated from God. That is the only possible conclusion of the life of a person under sin. However, let me say this. I believe that people under sin are also dead to opportunities. They're dead to fulfillment. They're dead to the goodness of life that can be theirs in God. Now, may I just underscore once again, people, it's not unusual for someone who's under sin to be oblivious to what's really going on. Satan is a master deceiver. How many of you know that it's not until people often encounter a crisis that they realize their condition? Because we have an ability. God's given us an ability to cope very well. Has he not? Many people that you know and I know are very successful on the outside. Maybe their career is shot way up. Maybe they're making a lot of money. Maybe people have revered them for some of their accomplishments. But if they're under sin, the Bible is very clear. This is a description of them. They're slaves to it, and they're headed for death. Now, most of us here probably do not fall under this category. There may be some of you here tonight who are visiting with us that you've never really heard this before, and maybe for the first time you're beginning to realize that there's some things in your life that aren't in order and that maybe you are a person. And by the way, have you ever told someone they're a sinner? Boy, they like that. Most people that I encounter think they are good people. How about you? Very few people think that when you describe sinner, to them it means a real slime ball, a person that would mutilate or whatever, somebody that just really worked. Adolf Hitler was a sinner. I'm not a sinner. I'm a pretty good person. I've got church. How many of you know that Paul talked about what sin was early on in this whole book? And it's very difficult sometimes for people to realize their true condition. And it's very hard to get someone saved who doesn't know they need to be. Is that not true? All right. So number two, we go from the condition of being under sin to under the law. Now, the law comes in, as Charles Finney said, to be a schoolmaster in the Christ. The law comes in to show us how much we need the grace of God. And I hope tonight that there are a number of you here will hear something that will set you free. Excuse me. I've got a little something in my throat. When we approach being under the law, it's a very complex subject because how many of you know the Bible says that the law was good? And yet what the law does in many people is to raise in them an awareness of their sin. In fact, until you know that there is a law, you don't know that you're doing anything wrong. This is what Paul is saying in Chapter 7. Look at Chapter 7, Verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. In other words, folks, God gave the law to show us what the true standard of righteousness was to be. And many people don't even know there is a standard. One of the fruits of the New Age Movement is to make everyone their own standard. And what's just cool for me is cool for me. It doesn't matter what's good for you. And so when we talk about being under the law, rather than evil desires, the law quickens in us a desire to obey through human efforts to generate purity, to be a good person, to try to be righteous. When we hear about the law, we say, Well, you know, that sounds right. I'd like to be a person who doesn't lie, steal, cheat, commit adultery, and so on and so on. And then we make an effort to yield individual members, let her be, to the law. I'm going to use my hands for what's good. I'm not going to steal. I'm going to use my tongue for what's right. I'm not going to slander, tear down, whatever. But first, listen very carefully, please. The saddest truth of all is that religion, really, religion, is the outgrowth of trying to follow the law on your own efforts. In my almost nine years of pastoring here, I've been very careful to try to not put down other religions, because I know there are believing people in almost every church. But as I go on farther and farther in this walk, I'm more and more convinced that many, many good people are very deceived in religious practice. They are trying their best to please God by doing things. And the sad truth is that they're under law. And law can never save you. Religious rituals, religious acts, religious practices, you fill in the blanks. You know what they may have been for you, or maybe for someone that you love. But those things will never save. And I know there are people in our church, and I don't know if many of you are here tonight or not, but I know there are some of you for whom coming out from underneath religious bondage has been very difficult. You see, when you grow up thinking that, I do these things in order to be in the good standing of the church, and someone comes along and says, you don't need to do that anymore. You can be saved by grace through faith. It is very difficult for you to believe that. And there are a number of people in our church, newer to our church, who have one foot in the old way because you're afraid that if you let that go, then you're really not going to be accepted. And this is a very tragic thing because you lose what we're going to see next, and that's the freedom that comes from being under grace. You see, letter C, our sinful nature struggles with the law. We try to please, and we get torn up. But one reason we struggle is because inside we're trying to do the law, and our sinful nature doesn't like that. And that which is quickened to Christ in us becomes at war with that, and we get into another form of enslavement, letter D. The most miserable people I know are people who are trying to live a life that's pleasing to God by the law because they have no peace. They have no peace when they sin, and they have no peace when they try to do good things. And that enslavement leads them to failure and fear and frustration, letter E. You see, and all along, the law was meant to bring them into good. Now, I've learned a couple things about the law, which I'd like to share with you. You see, the law arouses in us a desire almost to do the things that we're not supposed to do. Have you ever experimented with your kids? Do not touch this TV. Do not open this package until Christmas. What do you want to do immediately when you see that sign, that little car? I mean, it's a proven fact that people, they get so aroused when they're told not to. We had a gentleman here this last weekend. He may even be here tonight, but he was kind of curious, and he came and he was asking me about what I thought, what was our church's stand on the Masons? I said, I like Bob and Nancy, nice people. And he said, no, no, no, no. No, I'm just kidding. Well, I proceeded to tell him what I'll tell you right now, which is we don't have a stand on the Masons. There is no place on our walls that you'll say, these things you need to do to be a faithful member of Northland. You can't see this movie, you can't go to this place, you can't belong in this group, or whatever. And he said, well, the church I was going to told me that I couldn't do it. And when they say that, I just want to do it all the more. And I said, hey, man, that's like all of us. When we're told not to, it's just something in us. It just says, don't? Come on, why can't I? Well, that's what the law does. And so interestingly, the law being there, and the more you become familiar with it and hear it, the more it arouses in you the desire to do it. That's why we'll see next week what Paul says in the balance of chapter 7 is, I have this war inside of me. The things I don't want to do, I do, and so on. We'll look at that very carefully next week. And so the enslavement that comes from following the law is one that leads you to failure, fear, and frustration. And ultimately, folks, people under the law also will die. You see, they will never come to the point of faith. They'll always be trying to be good enough. One of the saddest things I know are people who are trying to be good enough, trying to do the religious things, trying to obey the laws of their own religious perspective, and they don't even know until they die whether or not they made it. You know, in the Hindu religion that I visited in India, people have no idea how well they're doing. Can you imagine the fear of that? They walk down the street and they see this cow everywhere, or goat, and that could be their Uncle Joe, who didn't do too well the last time. Or they're afraid to smack a fly because that could have been, you know, that was Aunt Martha, and she had a bad time. I'm serious. The incarnation thing, reincarnation thing? That kind of perspective, and you and I know that there are many people who don't, they have no confidence that should they die, they'd be received by their Savior. And I'm sharing all this with you. I understand, believe me, that most of you are not there. Some of you are there, but most all of you know people who are there, and I'm trying to help you understand what good news you have for them. And that's the third thing. The good news is that for those who are under grace, under grace, let's look quickly at that. Those who are under grace, they're not desiring to do the evil desires, they're not desiring just to obey the dictates of the law. They're desiring to please their Heavenly Father. You know, someone asked me, again, related to what things shouldn't they do, things should they stay away from, things that were sin in my mind and all. You know what I like to tell people who are real concerned about making mistakes? Concentrate on pleasing the Father. One of the best antidotes for not making big mistakes is just concentrating on doing the right thing with the Lord. If you're too busy trying to please God, you won't have to worry about making a lot of bad mistakes in your life. I think it's a very healthy perspective. I commend to you. Worry more about what God wants you to be doing than what you shouldn't be doing. It's a very healthy way to live. And notice what it says in chapter 6, verse 17. I think it's the crux of that chapter. Thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you have, let's read it, become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed. Let's read it all together again. It's up on the overhead here. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed. Now listen. It does say clearly here that there is a standard. And the law still sets a standard, but the obedience isn't one of our efforts of trying to please. It's an obedience that comes from the heart. And chapter 7, verse 6 tells us that it's prompted by the Spirit. Look at chapter 7, verse 6. Now, by dying to what once bound us, that's the law, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. You see, what happens when we come under grace is our desires change. Have you found that you don't desire the same things you once did? How about it, Ken? There's one of our brothers who came to the Lord a few years ago and God took away his desire for cigarettes. Was it 40 years or 30 years or a long time? God took that away. Now, for some of us, those desires may still be lingering back there, and that takes a disciplined walk. It doesn't mean automatically everything's going to change, but it does mean that if you desire to be free from those things that once held you, you can be. Have you found God's taken some of those desires from you? Anyone else found that? Maybe you had a desire to be into partying a lot. Maybe you had a desire, a revenge desire. You know, when someone did something to you, you just went, last shot, I'll protect my turf kind of thing, you know? God will take those desires away. I think it's great to see how different God can really make a person, don't you? Changes on the inside. Now, those desires to please the Father, that obedience that comes from the heart, still requires your letter B to yield your individual members to righteousness. You still have to make a choice. You know, you don't become a robot to God, but you still say, well, am I going to do this now, Lord? And the Holy Spirit will be there and saying, go this way. Do this. Follow my leading. And that's what it means to be led of the Spirit. Please know that once you receive Christ, doesn't mean you're automatically going to live and make right choices. You've got to still yield daily, moment by moment, your life to the Holy Spirit in you. And this is something that people overlook. They think, well, I've become a Christian. Everything's going to be easy for me. Well, it's not that way. Whereas before you couldn't help yourself, now you're able to change by the power of the Holy Spirit within you. Last night, as we always do on Tuesday night, we had the More Than Conquerors group here. Some of the folks are here with us tonight. Many of those people would attest to the fact that that struggle against sin and the law still rages in them, but the difference between them now and maybe a year ago or three years ago is that they have the power. The battle's still there, but they now have the power, which they didn't have, to break free from it. But it's an individual choice that has to be done over and over and over again to set people free. You can make those choices. You can be involved in righteousness. One of the things that makes Team Challenge so successful is they involve their people in positive things, and that's a real wise thing to do, because otherwise, how many of you know, if you're idle or if you're just always dealing with temptations, none of us have the capacity to always win those battles. We've got to be involved in the positive things. One of the groups that I was most impressed with in India was a group called Haven of Hope. I meant to bring this article tonight. But what they do is they find young ladies that are in prostitution on the streets, who are desperate and using the last bargaining chip that they possess, which is their body. And they bring them in, and they introduce them to Christ, and they immediately get them involved in creating these beautiful embroideries and just lovely pieces of fabric that they design things and create. And I have some beautiful things that I was able to purchase there that they immediately get involved in doing. And that purposefulness helps them to break the bondage of their old way of life. Now, this spirit life is not that easy, folks, but how many of you have discovered that the Lord is very faithful to keep on directing you, to keep on leading your steps? And one other thing I found is when the Spirit prompts me, I begin to want to obey the law. Whereas before the law, this is one way you can know if you're really walking in the Spirit. The law that could have held you in bondage becomes a joy to you. Let me explain this. You might be here tonight, and when you first became a Christian, you read the verse in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 4, that talks about not being unequally yoked. Basically, that says if you're a Christian believer, don't marry a non-Christian. Now, I've had people in our church tell us they don't like that verse. That verse isn't fair. There's only three Christian men in Pittsburgh, something like that. I've heard all these things. And that very clear statement has caused many people, men and women, a lot of frustration. But how many of you know why God put that law in there? Why? Because He wanted to limit your fun, cut down your options, make it tougher for you to find a mate? Why did God put that in there? Because He wanted to protect you from the terrible hurt you might incur by linking your entire life, body, soul, and spirit, with a person who doesn't believe the same way, doesn't have the same convictions, or the same values. And unfortunately, many people disregard the counsel of God. And it could be a year, it could be five years later, they end up in one of our offices, or they end up many times away from the church because they get disillusioned. They say, well, God let me down. No, God didn't let you down. You disobeyed the law. But when you mature in the Lord, and when you're following the dictates of the Spirit, do you know those laws become a joy? You say, Lord, thank you for protecting me. Thank you when your Word says to not be involved in sexual promiscuity. It's not saying, you know, it's not trying to make you a weirdo in the culture, or to cut down on your fun. What's it trying to do? To preserve your integrity as a person, so that you can be a whole person when God leads you to the mate that He's chosen for you or calls you to serve Him for the rest of your life. So you see, and I could go on down with litigious illustrations, but the law becomes a joy because the Spirit in you helps you to see the wisdom of God in you. Every single law is that way. And these things in your new nature lead you to be what the Bible calls here, letters C and D, enslaved to Christ. Let me say this, and I hope I say it correctly. Jesus Christ is the only Master who gives you complete liberty. Jesus Christ is the only Master that gives you complete liberty. The Bible doesn't make a mistake when it says, He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Free from what? Free from the enslavement of the control of sin, and free from the enslavement of the law. We ought to be the most joyful, the most liberated, the most expressive and creative people in the face of the earth because we are the free people of the earth. Christ has set us free from sin and the law and given us new life in Him. And I don't know what happens to us. It's when we slip back in those old patterns of law and legalism. Spirit-filled Christians can be very legalistic. We can judge somebody's spirituality based on how diligently they keep the law like we think they should. I'm glad I'm free from that, aren't you? Jesus isn't talking here in the Scripture about some kind of take it, do anything you want to do. He's talking about bringing yourself into a disciplined lifestyle where by obeying Him, you are free to live a full life. And that's really, letter E was freedom. We were brought into a freedom in Christ. Verses 1 through 6 of chapter 7 here tell us when a woman was married to a man, the law said she couldn't have other relationships. But when he died, that law no longer applied and she was free. This is one of the few analogies Paul uses in all his writing. It's kind of funny because it's not even a very clear analogy. But he's saying in the same way, when you were married to the law, you couldn't do certain things. But when you died to the law, now you're free in Christ. How many of you know when Paul wrote this letter and they read it in the church in Rome, the people said, this guy is really wacko. Not only am I not going to be saved by the law, but now I don't even have to obey it. What Paul was saying is you'll have a new law in you. It's the law of the spirit of life. Read Galatians chapter 3 for a comparative kind of a look at what Paul was talking about. So folks, if we follow Christ under grace, what is the final outcome? Eternal life. The fruit of it is eternal life. Chapter 6, verse 23. Now, let me conclude with this. The struggle comes in when because we are not just compartmentalized, we fall back into living under law. Now, if you're born again, you're not under sin. You're not bound by sin. Now, you can fall into sin, and if you keep choosing to sin, you can get back under its slavery. But many of us are prone to fall under the law. When you read these verses carefully, study the outline that we have for you. Next week, I'm going to talk very specifically about the nature of that struggle. Why we do the things we don't want to do and why the things we do want to do, sometimes we don't do. I hope it will help you to get free to enjoy what it means to live under grace. Now, I really wanted to entertain some questions tonight, but our time is gone. If you have a burning question about this, write it out for me, and I'll try to answer it for you by next week. These are tough verses to sort out, but how many people here tonight want to just raise your hand and say, I don't want to be under the law. I want to be under grace. I want to live that way. All right, let's stand and sing it together. We want to thank you for the amazing grace under which we can live.