Romans Chapter 7:15-19

The fact that we want to do good things, that's the Lord. That is the Lord. When we want to do bad things, that's our old nature.

It's really not too hard to define and figure out what the new nature is drawing us to and what the old nature is drawing us to. And I think in people there is this desire to do what's right, to honor God. I'm not saying everybody listens to that, but I think God is trying to influence decisions. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. You know, anyone who is seeking the Lord knows that battle within between the old nature and the new.

But do you know the difference between conviction and condemnation? Find out today as David Magee continues his teaching in Romans 7 with Let God Do the Work in Us. Here's Pastor David. So we're looking at Romans here, Romans chapter 7, and it's awesome.

It's an awesome book. Paul is getting very personal in chapter 7. You can tell by the pronouns. He's talking about I a lot. And he's not focusing on me. He's sharing personally the struggles that are going in.

So let's jump in here. Romans chapter 7, 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, that I do. Now I'm reading from the New King James Version. Let me read it to you in the New Living Translation.

We'll bring it up on the screen. It says, I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what's right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. Now, I have no idea what Paul's talking about. I can't relate in any way to what he's saying here. I just don't get it. I used to struggle, and then I became a pastor, and I just don't.

No, no, no, no, no. Of course I relate with this. And each person listening, if they're honest, relates to this. The struggle that's going on. Paul, again, he's being very personal. And let's remember, this is Paul, incredible theologian, incredible man of God. Changed the face, not just of a little section of the world, but changed the world, really, for Jesus Christ. And he says, you know, I'm in this struggle. We're filled with the struggle. One of the things that happens here is we want to not only discourage people from doing wrong, that's obviously something a church should be engaged in. But I think sometimes churches spend all their time on that rather than encouraging people to do what's right.

Encouraging the people that are serving, maybe encouraging some people that have not yet begun to serve, encourage them to step out of themselves and to begin to do what's right. We need that. I need that. You need that.

We need that. And that's one of the things that happens as we come together. God speaks to us through the Bible and we're together, we kind of spur each other on, if you will. Worship reminds us, the Bible challenges, God speaks to us.

That's what happens here. And we're encouraged to do what's right and discouraged in doing what's wrong. And these passages are really what set Martin Luther free in the sense because he came to this and he realized that Jesus would do for him what he had been vainly struggling to do for himself. And as he read these passages, he realized this.

Now, we all have this thing and I think that we realize when we do wrong, we begin to feel that pressure, if you will. Let's look at verse 16. It says, if then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. In other words, the law just says you shouldn't do this, so when I do it, I realize I've done wrong because the Bible, the Word of God told me not to do it. And then what happens? Well, really what happens at that moment depends a lot on our reaction. When you do something wrong, and all of us are going to do something wrong, the book of Proverbs talks about how a righteous man will fall seven times but get back up. It's the getting back up that's the important part.

We're all really, we're all going to fall, but it's important to get back up when that happens. When you do something wrong, that conviction comes. You're convinced you did something wrong. Now, conviction draws you to God. Condemnation seems to push you away from God. But in that moment of conviction, if you resist that conviction and you resist it, one of two things is going to happen, but you know, that guilt and shame is just going to get heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier. Now, as a Christian, I used to think, well, you got to, you know, once you do something wrong, you just can't ask forgiveness right after it happens. You got to feel bad enough for long enough and be sorry enough before you can really ask for forgiveness.

But you know what I found out? As time goes on, I'm less and less likely to ask for forgiveness. I'm more and more likely to let that guilt and that shame build up to no longer do I want to worship God or read the Bible or go to church.

As I've grown in the Lord, I realize I have to repent and ask forgiveness often. Young man was getting married, ask older man said, what's something I can do to help my marriage? He said, well, at the end of every day, just apologize to your wife. And he said, well, what if I've what if I don't know what I've done?

He said, it doesn't matter. Your wife will know what you've done. Just apologize at the end of every night. You know, a walk with the Lord is similar to that. And we all have those moments when we do something wrong and there's just that. And you just realize it's like, oh, no. You know, sometimes you'll say something that you really shouldn't have said. And and even as the words are coming out of your mouth, it's like everything just slows down for a minute. You know, and you say something and you're like, no, you know, but the words have already gone and the person is looking at you with that face.

And are you are you click send on the email and then you reread it and you go, ah, that's not good. That that's not love. And you realize. And so I think often because of the spirit of God, we realize when we've done something wrong, but we need somebody to come alongside us, encourage us to come to the Lord, come back to the Lord to encourage us in what we're doing that's good and right.

And if you think about it, a lot of people think, no, no, no. Christianity is about telling people what they do wrong. That's part of it.

I understand that. I'm a pastor, I'm a Bible teacher. I don't skip verses. We're going to hit stuff where you go, oh, wow, gee, that's wrong. And the Bible says it's wrong. Pastor David says it's wrong.

Yeah. But I also want to encourage you in what's right. Do you understand? I believe, and really the Bible teaches that Christianity is more about doing what's right than not doing what's wrong.

Now, I didn't say that's great. Let's all go out and send, do whatever we want to do. No, no, no. But how do you become a Christian? How do you become a follower of Jesus? Do you do that by quit doing something that's wrong?

No, no, no. The first step is towards Jesus and accepting what he did on the cross and doing something right. Your first step in being a believer or becoming a Christian is doing what's right. Stepping towards Jesus.

Something that we can all do. Verse 17 says, but now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Well, let's understand. Paul's not saying he's not responsible. He's not accountable. He's not saying those things.

I don't know. Some of you are probably too young, but there used to be this guy, Flip Wilson. And Flip Wilson had this saying, the devil made me do it. It was kind of his little thing.

And he's like, no, no, no, Flip. The devil didn't make you do it. He may have dangled the fruit in front of you, but you made the choice. And Paul is saying here, you know what? It's not necessarily me. It's the sin in me.

But at the same time, he made the decision. Simply go back up to verse 14 for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. So to understand, I am carnal. Paul's saying the problem is with me.

That's what Paul's saying. See your problem. Your problem is not with your neighbor. Problem is not with your spouse.

Problem is not with the person you go to church with. Problem is not with your parents, with your children. Problem is actually, I love you enough to say this. Problem is with you. The trouble is with you.

Say that with me. The trouble is with me. The trouble is with me. Y'all didn't mean that, say it again. The trouble is with me. Now it feels a whole lot better to go with the troubles out there.

We've been doing that a long time. I mean, if you remember in the garden, three people, God, Adam, and Eve. Adam got busted for doing something wrong and you know what he did? There's only three. He blamed the other two. God, it's that woman you gave me. So the two of you just totally messed me up.

Now how often we do that? It's not my fault. It's not really my fault I did that or said that.

And sometimes we tie that into apologies, right? I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have spoke to me that way. That's not really an apology. If that's the way you apologize, you need to retrain yourself the way you apologize.

I'm sorry for blank. Stop talking. Because if you keep talking, you're going to get into justification. And well, you know, the reason I yelled is because you did this and you did that. So really I was just responding to your sin.

No, no, no, no. Your sin was the problem. See, and that's, we have to understand it. There is a sinful disposition in you. There is a part of you that wants to do wrong things.

That shouldn't shock you. If you're being honest, and this is a place you can be honest. You can say, you know what?

Yeah, I recognize there's a part of me that wants to do. I've been in churches where you couldn't say that. You couldn't say, well, I still struggle with sin.

I was in a church like that. I said, I still struggle with sin. You shouldn't be struggling with sin. What do you mean you shouldn't be struggling with sin?

Well, all things become new. You shouldn't be struggling with the sin. I was like, oh, well I am and I shouldn't be. There's something wrong with me.

Now I was getting close to the truth. Problem is I hadn't yet read this passage of Romans. Now, when I read this passage of Romans, I thought, man, not only is there something wrong with me, there's something wrong with Paul. There's something wrong with the guy who told me there was nothing wrong with him. There's something wrong with him.

How do I know? Because he told me there wasn't something wrong with him. See, the moment somebody says that, the moment you say that, the moment you act like that, you're just solidifying and verifying that there's something deeply wrong with you. Because you're in denial, as they say, and denial isn't just a river in Egypt.

Now, the trouble is with me. That part of you, your old nature, your sinful nature, has to weaken and die. And your new nature, that part of you, once you come to Jesus, he deposits his spirit in you.

You ask him to fill you to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. And now you have, if you will, two natures. You have your old nature, your sinful nature, your flesh that wants to do wrong. Then you've got your new nature, the spirit-led life. You want to do what's right. And those two things are in conflict.

Now, how do you manage these two things? Well, your old nature, again, has to weaken and die. How does it weaken and die? Well, through the Holy Spirit, but also, friend, through starvation. See, if you're feeding the old nature, it will continue to be strong in your life. If you're feeding the new nature, it will continue to be strong in your life. So what you need to do is starve the old nature and feed the new nature.

There's several easy ways. Prayer, and you guys are doing one of the things that feeds your new nature more than anything, worshiping God and digging into his word. Those things are feeding your new nature. You are strengthened. When you walk out of here, you're like, ah, I feel good, I feel strong for the Lord. Some of you may have been dragging in here.

But your new nature is now strengthened. When you hear the word Passover, what do you think about? Do you think about the miracles God performed in order to lead his people out of Egypt? Maybe you think of a celebration feast with family and friends. But have you ever thought about the link between Passover and Jesus? With the Passover Seder DVD from Cross the Bridge Ministries, you will never look at the Passover the same way.

Join David McGee as he leads you through the sights, sounds, and smells of Passover, ultimately pointing to the Passover Lamb himself, Jesus Christ. This DVD is available for a gift of any amount to Cross the Bridge Ministries. Simply visit crossthebridge.com or call 877-458-5508. Also call now and with a gift of $100 or more, we'll send you a historic leaf from the King James Bible.

Printed between 1614 and 1649, each leaf comes with a certificate of authenticity and will be cherished by your family for years to come. To take part in either of these exciting offers, visit crossthebridge.com today or call 877-458-5508. Please call now. Our Cross the Bridge representatives are standing by waiting to speak with you. Friend, do you have a heart for the lost? I invite you to send us the first names of your lost loved ones and we will have hundreds of people praying for them. Just go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button and you'll enter their name and if you put your name and email address in there, I'll send you free resources to equip you to pray and teach you how to reach your lost loved ones. Please, don't wait.

This is so important. So please, again, go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button and send us the first names of lost loved ones. We'll send you some free information and together we can partner to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world, the whole book for the whole world. Now let's return to our study. Look at verse 18. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, my old nature, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, I do not find. In your flesh, in your old nature, there's nothing good.

Nothing good. Some of you go, well, now do y'all believe in the, it's called the total depravity of man or do you believe that there's a fallen nature to God? You know what, whether I believe it or not isn't important. The Bible teaches that I believe the Bible. So yes, I do believe in that fallen nature.

I see it. Who would doubt that there's a fallen nature? You know, anytime somebody says, well, I don't believe in the total depravity of men. I go, do you got kids? Cause if you got kids, this is an academic discussion. Cause the kids just, I mean, they do fall in nature things. Don't they have, you're sitting in here and your angel is an infant.

You'll, you'll discover what I'm saying soon enough. It's that fallen human nature. Paul's teaching it right here. Now the Bible also says that we don't have to live like that, that the Holy Spirit can cause us to rise above all that, to live above that, to live better lives is what Paul is getting to here. With God's spirit and God's help, we can do what's right. Cause you get in the part of this, you go, wow, I can't do what I'm supposed to do. And I do what I'm not supposed to do. This is just a lovely Christian existence.

No, no, no. Here's the thing. God will equip you by his Holy Spirit to be overcoming and be victorious, which means when you do something good, do you think that's you?

It's not really. It's you making the right decision, but it's God leading you and God asking you to yield to him. Now, when you do something bad, that's you, that ain't God. So, you know, but when you do something good, that's the Lord working in you.

Now, at first glance, you go, well, I'm kind of bummed now. Cause you know, I mean, I came to church. I was feeling pretty good about me and about getting here and stuff.

Well, let me ask you a question. Would you rather feel good about you did a little something or would you rather know that God is indeed at work in your life? I'd rather know God is at work in my life and God friend.

God is at work in your life. You know how I know that you're here. I don't know why you're here. Praise God. I don't know what brought you specifically here.

I don't know. You know, maybe, maybe you're sitting here going, well, actually God didn't bring me. My parents made me come.

No, no, no, no, no, no. You're not here by coincidence. Or maybe you're, you know, some of the parents would come up and say, Oh, my kids made me come. But you're here because God drew you. And maybe you're sitting there going, no, no, no, no. Mr. Pastor man, actually, I'm not a Christian.

I'm sitting here. I want to hear about this, Jesus. I want to hear what, what you say about the Bible. And somebody told me this was a safe thing.

They wouldn't throw things at you or hit you or smacking or anything. But, but I'm here to kind of check this thing out, but I'm not a Christian. How can God be at work in my life?

You're here. God is all around you drawing you to the place to hear about him. Now, once you're a believer, he works on you from the inside out. Before you become a believer, he's working from the outside in, but it's a glorious thing to stop and think. Cause I've been in these situations where they were really hard.

They were really hard. And yet somehow at this, at that moment, I heard myself saying things that was made sense. It happens every Sunday morning here. I, you know, I say things, I go, wow, that's pretty good.

I'll write that down here. That's God. When I get in a situation, then I want to respond with anger or bitterness. And I don't, that's God. And what a joy it is to see God coming forth in my life. This is what the Bible says. And this is such an encouraging verse. If you're not taking notes, you still want to probably jot a couple of these verses down. Look at this verse, Philippines 2.13 say this, for God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him. This is such a liberating freedom verse.

The life lesson here. The fact that we want to do good is God. The fact that we want to do good is God. It's absolutely the Lord. The fact that we want to do good things, that's the Lord. That is the Lord. When we want to do bad things, that's our old nature.

It's really not too hard to define and figure out what the new nature is drawing us to and what the old nature is drawing us to. And I think in people, there is this desire to do what's right, to do good, to do good to other people, to honor God. I'm not saying everybody listens to that, but I think God is trying to influence decisions. Notice that phrase influence decisions.

He's not making our decisions. He places before you decisions, life, death, blessings, cursings, and he says, you decide, you choose. The fact that we can do good, that we want to do good. That is the Lord. Verse 19, for the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do that I practice.

This is Paul. Part of it is frustration of trying to follow the Lord. Part of it's also frustration of trying to be saved by the law. Here's what I mean by it. When you come to the Lord to ask him to forgive you of your sins, most of us understand that it's by grace. In other words, unearned, unmerited favor. When you come to Jesus and say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. It's not because Jesus said, well, you know, you're pretty much a good person.

I kind of like what you've been doing this week. I'll forgive you. That's not what happens. God says, you know what? Yeah, and earned it. You don't deserve it, but I'm willing to forgive you. But here's what happens in so many Christian lives is they say, okay, now you've forgiven me of these things and okay, I can take it from here. And now I'll set aside, I'll set about to try to do what's right in order to earn your approval. Wait a minute.

You already got approval. Now we should be doing what's right, but we should be doing what's right out of love for the Lord. That's not saying occasionally if you're not doing anything, somebody won't poke you and prod you and spur you on or stir you up or agitate you into doing what's right. But the motivation is a love for the Lord and to try to be saved through works.

It's not going to happen. It saddens me that some people, they describe salvation in a way that sounds like being saved by works. If you ask somebody, well, how do you get saved? Some people start out by you got to quit doing this. You got to quit doing that. And when we say that, some people go, I've been trying to quit that for years. So that's part of the package.

It ain't going to happen. See what happens when we come to the Lord, God begins to change us from the inside out, but it's when we come to the Lord, God doesn't say, Hey, get cleaned up and come to me. God doesn't say, Hey, come unto me. All you've got it figured out and scoped and got to hold on life. God says, come to me.

You who are weary and beat up and burdened and heavy laden. I can empower you to live the Christian life, but you're right. It's not something you can do. You couldn't live a Christian life before you got saved.

Guess what? After you get saved, you still can't do it. God's Spirit can do it through you, but that's not you. As Paul's pointing out here. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you've prayed this prayer with Pastor David, receiving Jesus Christ for the first time, or rededicating your life to the Lord, please call and let us know. We want to send you our exclusive First Steps package for free. This package will help you grow in your new life. Receive your First Steps package by calling 877-458-5508.

That's 877-458-5508. Or visit us online at crossthebridge.com. When you call, let our call team representative know where you heard about our broadcast. One of the most important parts of growing in Christ is being in fellowship at a local church.

But what happens on those times you're sick or traveling? Simply log on to crossthebridge.com and click the live stream button, and you'll instantly be streaming from David McGee's home church, The Bridge. Catch every life lesson and scripture reference as you take part in hearing the Word of God from anywhere in the world. Pastor David McGee teaches live online, Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

Watch this week at crossthebridge.com. Hi, my name is Pastor David McGee, and I am a bridge builder. You know, at Cross the Bridge, we're continually amazed by what God is doing through the teaching of His Word. Every day we hear from people who are getting saved and who are becoming real disciples of Jesus. Now these men and women, boys and girls, are crossing the bridge from sin and defeat to abundant eternal life in Jesus Christ.

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So call the number 877-458-5508 or go to crossthebridge.com and click on bridge builder. Thank you so much for helping us to reach more people. You know each day comes with its share of stresses, so what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord? Log on to crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David Magee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of David Magee. It's easy and it's free. Simply go online and click on email devotional to begin receiving biblical insight in your inbox. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks for listening to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. Join us again next time and invite your family and friends to listen as together we cross the bridge.