The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
What do you think that only had application there in Gethsemane when they couldn't stay awake? Of course not. Such a profound statement is profound because of its reach. It is a classic. That means it doesn't die. It retains its potency. And you serve Christ, you find out the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Pray that you don't enter into temptation because once the temptation comes you're half-cooked.
That's how serious a matter it is. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Romans chapter 7 as he begins his message, Unwanted Wants. Romans chapter 7 this morning, Unwanted Wants, verses 22 through 24. And so if you have your Bibles open to Romans chapter 7 verse 22, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Purposely stopped short of the answer.
Most of us know the answer. Unwanted Wants is the title. You might remember when we started this study entitled it Sin, Faith, and Salvation. And that is the story of the entire letter. Paul had already written to, or will later write, to Christians in a place called Philippi. He said about himself that he wanted to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. And that's New Testament grace. That's New Testament theology. It doesn't abandon the Old Testament, it develops it.
It's what Jesus meant, not that I have come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it as part of it. As such was Paul serving Christ, not having his own righteousness, sharing how he found his higher self, that part of him that is in the spirit, constantly warring against the lower self, the natural man, that inherent sin that we all have. And his striking use of personal pronouns in this chapter alone are informative. Thirty-two times in this chapter he uses the pronoun I, five times me, and six times my. It's autobiographical.
He's talking about himself. What he writes in this chapter can only come from the heart that has gone through these things. These are not the words of a spectator. These are the words of a participant. And I say that because there are those Bible teachers that want to deny that it is Paul. He couldn't possibly be talking about himself, but he is.
And maybe we'll come back to that. We look now at verse 13, building on everything that he has said about the word of God being vital to the Christian and to humanity. He says, has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not, but sin that it might appear sin was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. That last clause really is the answer to everything in the beginning of this verse, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. The Bible is here to tell us how messed up we are.
And also, of course, to give us a solution. It doesn't leave us hanging. Paul is talking about his own past, his present, and his future state. The Christian that is deficient in grace is blind to it and often closed to it. They still think that through sincerity and effort, they're going to be perfected as Christians, and that goes against the very opening words that I use from Philippians, not according to my own righteousness.
And it's a hard lesson for some to learn. I think many are scared to face themselves because they really don't understand what grace is about. Sin is not going anywhere for now.
The only way to get away from it is to go to heaven. This, the Christian whom we are, despite the spirit indwelling within us, we still struggle for that life of perfection because sin is present. And we look for God, and we can find him, but still a lot of work. So he says here in verse 13, when answering his own question, certainly not, declaring that scripture has permanent value, it is relevant in all ages, and it is sensible. And he says certainly not in his question and answer format throughout this letter ten times in Romans. See, those kind of things should catch our attention and cause us to investigate what's behind it, because the Holy Spirit has more behind the things written in scripture than the writers of the scripture. He's the author and the finisher. They're the scribes. And so when Paul says certainly not ten times, he's making his points, but the Holy Spirit can make greater points, greater applications.
And when we see these things become sensitive, it begins to benefit us even more. The Bible does not need to be defended. It puts the sinner on defense.
It says to the sinner, what are you going to do because you are being cornered. The single word for that is convicted. You are found guilty.
It's over. You're guilty. There is a conviction. But sin that it might appear sin. Well, sin is criminal, and these are the criminal colors that the Bible shows us about sin. It is a crime against the will of God. It is a crime against other people. It is a crime against ourselves. Sin is the ailment.
Death is its signature. And hell is its eternal outcome. And that, to be very serious to some people, and unfortunately a lot dismiss it. But through the law, sin is shown as evil to God because of the damage that it does. Scoff at your own risk. That's the message of the scripture.
Scoff at the scripture at your own doom, if that's what you want to do. And mankind, for instance, will fashion tools to build things and then use them as weapons against others. And you would think that man, as they discover, for instance, antibiotics, and then end up using them on battlefields to treat those wounded in war, in the act of trying to kill each other, you'd think man would say we do make progress.
We're not getting anywhere. We invent airplanes and the travel that come with it. And then we use the same, well not the identical airplane, but we use the airplanes to drop bombs on people. We invent computers and we benefit from its technology, but someone then programs viruses and hacks to destroy the whole thing. This is humanity, and yet there are humanists out there that don't want to look up. They just want to look on the horizon and see people as improving.
Well, for every step forward, man morally takes a step backwards in his denial of Christ, if that's what's going on. These are the kind of things we want to share. We pray, God, give us a chance to say these things to people who need to hear them. Round my faith, so I will be able to handle all the tools on my belt. Imagine if you had a tool belt and there were some of the tools on it, you didn't know what they were for.
You'd be lugging them around, and they would just be useless, a drag on you. Progress may make men better off, but it cannot make men better. They're the same sinners they were all the way back in the days of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel. Fallen man imagines there is a better alternative to scripture.
Certainly not. That is the outcome of examining the facts. They can't see heaven. They refuse to see the heaven of Christ because they deny it. Hebrews chapter 4, the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. A Christian can look with that verse and say, I believe. And there are times we say, Father, help my unbelief. There are things that drag me down, but I want you to overrule that.
I want you to see that I open my heart. I give full permission, full rights to you to overrule the evil that is in me. But the world, you want to tell them, sin does its dirty deeds whether people notice it or not, whether people acknowledge it or not. And God is God whether they notice or not, whether they acknowledge him or not, the Christ will be the Christ. Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Well, the scripture, of course, addresses the soul and the spirit, the life and the afterlife. Other religions do too.
They just can't back them up. That's my wholehearted take on it. In our carnal state, we are slaves to sin.
That's a fact. In our natural state, we're slaves to sin also. And the Christless have only a natural standing before God, and that natural standing is unacceptable. It is cursed. It is without someone to save them from that predicament that they were born into. The Christian has an old nature, and that old nature sometimes dominates us.
We get that. And it actually can be used against Satan in that it helps humble us. It helps us from becoming self-righteous. It helps us to understand what we're dealing with when we're dealing with sinners without ever giving sin a pass. Matthew, chapter 26, Jesus said, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation, because he knows they're going to enter into temptation not only there in the Garden of Gethsemane, but in life. And then he said, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
What do you think that only had application there in Gethsemane when they couldn't stay awake? Of course not. Such a profound statement is profound because of its reach. It is a classic. That means it doesn't die. It retains its potency. And you serve Christ, you find out the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Pray that you don't enter into temptation, because once the temptation comes, you're half-cooked.
That's how serious a matter it is. Now initially, appetites for sin are discovered, not sought. No one wakes up and says, today I'm going to be addicted to drugs. Today I'm going to be a mean person.
Today I'm going to—no, these things, they close in on us. And once they do, they have a tendency of locking in who they are to our carnality. And if the spiritual man is delivered by the scripture, by the law, that's salvation. He's saved. The natural man is doomed without the law, being lost. His soul will be lost.
When he dies, it will not go well. And then there is the carnal man, and the scripture applies that to the believer, who behaves at times as an unbeliever. The carnal man is defeated, even though they know the scripture. So you have the saved, the lost, and the battered. And we work not to get on that casualty list of carnality.
We have our carnal moments, but we fight against them. But some Christians, you know, they don't—they don't become apostates. They know who Christ is. They know who they are before Christ, but they can backslide and live the way that's far beneath the calling. And it helps—if you're going to restore such a one, Galatians 6, 1, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. And if you're going to do that, you can't be self-righteous, because you just shoot them.
You just condemn them. You shouldn't have fallen. What's wrong with you?
Look at me. Or some—and it doesn't have to be outward. It'd be inside your head. Your heart is thinking that way. Instead of saying, poor soul, what can we do to get you stronger? Well, anyway, every true believer has an unwanted side. The old nature, which can do nothing right.
And thus, verse 18, for I know that in me that is in my flesh. No good dwells. That's not a debate. It's not a debatable—it's not a question. It's a statement.
It's a fact. It doesn't need theological, you know, wiggle moves to try to get out of what it says. It's good just like it is, because it's true.
But the new nature can do nothing wrong. I've made this point through chapter 7 before, 1 John, chapter 3. We don't sin. That's that nature, that nature that loves the Lord. Galatians 5, verse 17, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit.
Why? Because the Spirit can't do anything wrong, but that flesh can. And that's why they're in opposition.
Otherwise, it would be no contest. And the Spirit against the flesh, Galatians 5, 17. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish. You think Paul was saying, well, that's you, that's not me. Well, maybe someone hit them with that, because Galatians was written quite a bit of time earlier, before Romans. And so now he gets to Romans, he goes, I'm going to make sure they understand me too.
I struggle also. Verse 15, for what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, I do. These are the unwanted wants. These are the things that develop, they surface, like a pimple of something. You know, it's just like, where did that come from?
You get in your 50s, you still get a pimple. Now, this is not right. So, the brain demands, sometimes, a sin, which covers a lot of addictions. The receptors are demanding satisfaction, but the mind, which is not the brain, the mind is the heart.
It hates the sin. Romans 12, verse 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, the brain makes its contribution, of course, but the brain is physical. The mind is spiritual.
You can x-ray the brain, you cannot x-ray the mind. Yet, we are to fight as though sin is beatable. We're commanded to fight.
And most of it is, incidentally. It's that those one or two struggles we may have are very pronounced, amplified. Matthew 5, Jesus said, you shall be perfect, for your Father in heaven is perfect. Who's he talking to? Sinners, that he knows can't be perfect, that need him to die on a cross, if they've got any shot of making it into heaven. First Corinthians 9, Paul said, thus I fight.
Not as one who beats the air. It's not a waste of time, this effort I put into resisting the things in me that I don't want. That which separates me from God is that which I cannot be rid of. Just a whole bunion with the, you know, Christian, the character, the lead character Christian with that burden on him. Until he reaches heaven, he's really not free. My sinful nature, my flesh is the portal that sin enters through. It's an open door.
C.S. Lewis said, an ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure, that's sin. And that is unwanted. Now I get to in a little bit the differences between a Christian and a non-Christian because there are differences in this area that need to be stated. So Christ has given grace, but I want utter deliverance. I want to be completely free of waking up and being susceptible to letting him down. Well, when I wake up dead, that will happen. But for now, it's pray that you enter not into temptation.
Why can I not be the Christ-like servant that I would love to be, that my mind wants, that my heart craves? Of course, inherent sin is the simple answer. You don't have to complicate that. You don't have to do five points. It's one word. You can't say the word without sounding like a hissing serpent. Sin.
That's the reason. Spurgeon said, do not despise the Christian because he is in conflict. And we should be in conflict with these things. And if we weren't, it doesn't make us hypocrites. Just because we get tripped up doesn't mean we're not fighting. And if we're fighting, we're not hypocrites.
We're in the fight. And you know, the world tries to throw that in your face and tell them straight out, grow up. None of us are perfect. If I act like I'm perfect, you get on my case about that. If I prove I'm not perfect, you get on my case about that.
So why don't we skip that step and understand what's going on here? That it's a real devil. He's licking his chops for you.
You're going to be with him if you're not careful, but you don't have to be. Choice is up to you, Bozo. So, now, no Christians call me Bozo before I was saved.
Not verbally, but the look on their face. It did. You poor, pathetic soul. And anyway, verse 16.
I had to keep my hair short, incidentally, else I will look like Bozo. It will grow where I don't want it to grow. Anyway, verse 16. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. These are words of a believer. Those opposed to Jesus do not agree with the author and finisher of our faith.
Oh, they might agree with some things that he says, but that's not enough. That's damning. Judas believed some of the things that Jesus said.
He didn't believe enough. And what abuses it if you swim almost to rescue? Then you're not rescued. You can't, if you make it almost to salvation, you're doomed. You have to go all the way, and it really isn't that far if Christ is the one that's taking you, which is kind of pictured when he walked on the water, and he finally gets in the boat, and they were at the shore. It was a miraculous moment. They didn't have to row anymore.
Christ was in the boat, and the destination was reached through the storm. Verse 17, but now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Now, I remember seeing a little child being told not to touch the television, and so they used their doll to touch it, and that's not what speaks. That's not the case. They're trying to find a loophole around.
Well, I'm not really a little kid, you know, who teaches them these things? Inherent sin. It's like, you said I can't touch it, fine, but you didn't say my doll couldn't touch it. Well, anyway, the challenge of preaching grace without preaching lawlessness is on all of us, because we're never condoning sin. It is the most hateful thing we know, but there are just facts that we have to line up, put in their proper place, and Satan is terrified of this. He's afraid of a Christian that has their theology together and is humble at the same time, that understands these things, that is not self-righteous, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press towards the mark for the prize, the high calling of God.
Inferior, still pressing for the superior. Verse 18, for I know that in me that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
Not just a flash I did at one time, it's recurring, thus recurrent grace, the power of grace to subdue these things, to defeat them. These are the unwanted wants, although we want to know, well Paul, tell us exactly what it is. But Paul does not, and we're glad. I've never had a problem with gossip, but the assistant pastor David does. He does not.
I'm sorry I can't tell you anything, we've already heard about you, but that would be gossip being on my part, that's what gossip looks like. I don't have the problem, but let's talk about somebody else. Well, unwanted wants, that's the title because it's within this material. The mind of Christ identifies what sin is and despises it. The Christian doesn't have a casual view of sin.
Yeah, that's wrong. We understand the depths that belong to it, but not to clobber people with it, to alert them. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio.
