Romans Ch 7

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Mike Zwick today. So excited to be back with you. If ever there was an If Not For God, there's Romans chapter 7. Oh my gosh, we kind of studied this, and we had a Bible study where we looked at it, Robbie, and a lot of people say this is actually a pretty tough chapter in the Bible. And I think part of it is because of the way that it's written. So what I want to do is I want to start in the first few verses, and then I want to go straight to verse 14. You guys can read along.

I'm using the CSB version, the Christian Standard Bible, because I think it's the easiest one to read. Here we go. Starting in verse one. Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don't you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, then she is freed from that law.

Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law since we have died to what held us so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

And I'm just going to read the whole thing. Sin sprang to life again and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. Therefore, did what is good become death to me?

Absolutely not. But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. And I'm going to stop right there and we can go through the next 14 verses later on chapter. But Robbie, this is a really tough chapter for a lot of people that you said you've studied this before. Is that right?

Oh, yeah. And actually, it's very encouraging to me. You stopped about the part where it's encouraging. But it is encouraging to see that if, you know, Paul struggled, as he's going to mention in a minute, that he doesn't understand his own actions at times. Then all of a sudden I think, well, gee, OK, other times a preacher will preach and then all of a sudden they'll give you an example. When they give an example out of their own life, then all of a sudden you go, oh, I can relate to that, you know, or I can understand that. And you begin to almost, you know, understand through testimonies, you know, what the story is.

What does that what does that sound like in real life? And so what you're describing right there, just take the sin of anger, for example, like one I struggle with. OK. And so I was a little kid and I can remember getting so mad at my brother that, you know, we would get in huge fistfights and my sisters would freak out because, I mean, they were they were all out battle. And so, you know, the law was clearly against it. And even as a little kid, you know, you're not supposed to hit your brother. And yet I struggled there. And was the law right? Yes, absolutely right. Could I manage to do it at that point in my life?

Absolutely not. And the beauty of what Paul is teaching as we get down to verse 14 is that the law is what kind of takes you to Christ because you realize, wait a minute, I don't have what it takes in order to be righteous through the law. And actually, this is what God may say. I realize that, hey, I can't control my anger on my own without some help from the Holy Spirit, without Jesus and all those other things that, you know, I can't control my lust. I can't control all these things that I know the law speaks against. And so I got a problem that can't be solved.

How can I get it solved? Well, he goes on. He goes on to say, you know, here you go. Here's what the law is going to do.

It's going to be it's going to take you to someplace that can actually get you the solution to your problem. As difficult as that may be to comprehend in the beginning verses of that, what he's saying is that the law is right and the law is right. But I can't handle that on my own, in my own flesh, if I'm really honest with myself.

Let's go ahead and finish it up. It's verse 14. And I'm using the CSB version, the Christian Standard Bible, by the way.

I think it's the easiest one to use for this. But it says, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

Amen. Now, if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is sin that lives in me. So I discover this law that when I want to do what is good, evil is present in me. For in my inner self I delight in God's law, but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.

What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord? So then with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh what I hear you saying, Robbie. And we've quoted this passage probably a hundred times in the Bible, but I'm going to go back to Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 9, but I think this is really what it's pointing to.

Talking about Jesus, and it says, He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not be so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but he beat on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. And so what I hear from that passage, and Jesus quoted this, he said this before he actually died on the cross, but I believe that it was pointing to the people who were living after he died on the cross as well, because if you're a Christian right now, and if somebody says, are you going to make it to heaven? And you say, yeah, I think so. And they say, well, why are you going to make it to heaven?

And you go, well, because I'm a pretty good person. And therein lies the word iniquity. And I'll be honest, up until this year, did I really understand the word iniquity?

But when I went to the NRB, I interviewed this guy who wrote a whole book on the subject of iniquity. And when he described it, all of a sudden, man, so much became very clear to me, because when we compare ourselves to anything, we're trying to get equity, trying to see whether or not we're equal or above or below. And so if I can compare myself to this man over here in any way, shape or form, whether I think I'm better or worse, it's iniquity. And so, you know, you workers of iniquity, what we're talking about is people that are comparing. And it's interesting, if you meet many people that are quote unquote narcissistic, including me, then we compare ourselves in whatever way, shape or form. You know, I've got more of this. I have less of that.

How many followers do I have? I mean, you can get obsessed with that stuff. And the challenge is that therein is actually this sin of iniquity. And Jesus pointed this out so clearly that here is this Pharisee. And they were all about measuring how they did versus whatever everybody else did when God's perspective is.

He made Mike, he made Robbie and Robbie has certain strengths and Robbie has certain weaknesses. And the idea is for me to allow God to help me through my weaknesses and to show me where he needs me to use my strength. Sure. And without that, I am.

You can measure me till the cows come home. But the challenge is, you know, you take a lot of people that are really, really gifted. If they start measuring themselves against others, they have the sense that they have some value. Sure.

When who gave them those gifts to begin with? And so it's really a beautiful thing that from my standpoint, you wouldn't find many people more gifted intellectually than Paul of Tarsus. And here he is. He's describing his struggles. And so Romans seven to me is like this phenomenally like we're talking Paul here. Yeah. This guy was struggling then.

OK. You know that that he needed Jesus every bit as much as I need Jesus. Yeah. And, you know, that's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing. And to me, it's it's it's a scary thing.

If if if you're a Christian and you say, I'm going to get to heaven because I'm a good person or I get to heaven because I'm not that bad, then I really think you may miss the whole point of of the gospel. I mean, you know, and I've told this story before I had a client of mine years ago. He was a retired preacher.

I think it was out in Yakkinville. And he told me, he said, Mike, he said, when I was growing up, he said, as far as I can remember, he said, I never said a curse word. He said, I didn't steal anything. He said, I don't even think I really remember telling a lie.

He said I was, you know, compared to most people, he said, I was probably considered a pretty good person. And he said, but then when I heard the gospel and I realized what the gospel was, he said, I realized I was just as lost as anybody else. And so we always see these stories, Robbie, of where somebody was, you know, on addicted to crack cocaine and they were on the streets and they were, you know, their life was just an absolute mess. And then they found Jesus and he turned their life around and stuff like that.

And we like to tell those stories because they're cool stories and they sound good and they're true, right? I mean, Jesus can turn everybody around, but I think if we don't understand that, even if you're a successful businessman who's honest, who, you know, let's say you're a housewife and you're faithful to your husband, you do what you're supposed to do. I mean, for the most part, the world would consider you a pretty good person. If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're just as lost as anybody else.

And Robbie, I don't think that's how the world sees things. It's a beautiful thing from my perspective. The more you look into it, the 119 Psalm is made up of, you know, all the different 22 sections of the 22 letters. And the letter Tet is the Hebrew word for good. And he, the psalmist, which most people would believe is King David, obviously you would think as you go into the letter Tet, like, OK, this is all going to be about good. But you're going to find that the second to last verse in the Tet section that says I was it was good that I was afflicted.

Wait a minute. Yeah, it was it was good that I was afflicted. Yeah. It was good that the coronavirus came to America.

Well, they get it right here in the middle of the good section. It was. And he uses the word Tet actually there.

You know, he uses the word top. Excuse me to describe it was good that I was afflicted. The same word that surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. That's in the twenty third Psalm. That's that's the word that's being described here. And so he's saying it was good that I was afflicted for in that I learned your statutes, which are the hardest of the of the commandments to understand from the psalmist's point of view, the statues.

If you could learn the statutes, those are the ones like I don't really get it completely. OK, right. So I'm just being obedient because I know that's what you said, God, not necessarily because I understand why I'm supposed to be obedient. And so he's saying it was good that he was afflicted, just like just like excuse me, Paul is saying that he was afflicted. Yeah. Right. And afflicted in Hebrew. What did he say? He said, I have been sent a messenger of Satan. Yeah.

Yeah. He was afflicted. But that word afflicted in Hebrew has to do with self-consciousness. In other words, I'm taking my eyes off the ball. I'm taking my eyes off Christ. I've taken my eyes off God. And now I've got my eyes right on my situation. OK, now we're in trouble. Yeah. Maybe I've told this story on your show.

I don't know. But it's it's a marvelous story. It was this man by the name of Craig McConnell. He was with the Wild at Heart team out in Colorado with John Eldridge's ministry. And he had a horrible cancer that would actually kill him. And he had a fever of like one hundred and five hundred six. And he was going through chemotherapy.

And yet it was just wretchedly sick, sick, hot and all this stuff. And he's praying. And he's a man who had a phenomenal relationship with Jesus of many times. And in his prayer, he's like, I need your help.

I need your help. And and he hears Jesus tell him, well, this would be a good time to start praying for others. Wow. And he's like, huh? Yeah. Like, are you paying attention, Jesus? This is me.

I'm living here. You know, I'm in all this pain. I got this fever, whatever you want me to pray for others. And by the way, if you're listening right now, you might want to write that down.

Yeah, that's exactly what he said. And you know what? I went into an hour long of the best prayer session I ever had. That I can in memory that that I was able to pray deeper and more sincerely for people while I was in this phenomenal amount of pain. And, you know, at the end of it, I can't say that all of a sudden I was just feeling great.

Yeah. But I will tell you, I was feeling a lot closer to Jesus because that the thing of it is, is when we are afflicted. You know, we get our our minds, you know, on something other than than than than what God has for us. And we it is good when we're afflicted. If you look at it from this perspective, which is just it's beyond cool. It really is. It is. And I'm actually going to read that part. It's the test. Is that how you pronounce that?

The Tet. OK. And it's someone 19 verse 65. If you want to follow along somewhat. Psalm 119, verse 65. It says you have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe your commandments.

Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I keep your word. You are good and do good.

Teach me your statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me. But I will keep your precepts with my whole heart.

Their heart is as fat as grease. But I delight in your law. It is good for me that I had been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.

The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. And when I read that, I'm actually reminded this morning my wife threw her back out. And now when you've got three kids, three little kids, you're running around.

And one of them is a what? Baby. Yes. Six weeks old. Yeah.

A few months old. And yeah. So we got our first girl.

So that's great. But when you when you've got three kids, she's constantly running around. And so this morning she absolutely threw her back out. And we have our friends, Joel and Nanette and Erica and Tiffany and Sharon.

And if I'm missing somebody, I apologize. But we had a hope of Faye. I mean, we had a whole bunch of our friends praying for her.

And her pain is feeling better. But what I noticed that when she hurt her back, I went downstairs. I fed the kids. I was doing all this stuff.

I went back upstairs. You know what she was doing in the bed? She was sitting and reading her Bible. Well, she doesn't usually have time. She doesn't take you know, she doesn't have the time to take care of all the other stuff and do that. And so you say, oh, man, she hurt her back.

It was a bad thing. But I've seen this happen with her a lot where, you know, every something's going to whatever. And then all of a sudden something happens and she sits down, she says, OK, I'm going to read my Bible. And so that is exactly what happened in the tent.

I mean, he says, you've afflicted me so that I could learn your statutes. I, you know, I heard a, you know, years ago I heard a story about a guy and he was on Facebook and I had shared. It might not have been that long ago, maybe it was a year ago, but I had shared with him my show.

I'll message my show to people on Facebook. And he had actually sent me a message back. He said, Mike, he said that he said Jesus is awesome. And I said, yeah, yeah. And he says, let me tell you about something that happened to me.

I said, OK. He said years ago I was shot. He said I was not a Christian. He said, but when I shot when I was shot, he said, I think I was in a coma for three or six months or something like that. And he said, when when I was in my coma, I wasn't dead, but when I was in my coma, I got to meet Jesus. He said, if I had not have been in my coma, he said, I never would have gotten to really give my life to Jesus. But being in that quiet time where I had nothing else to do, I was he said he he said he actually he didn't see his face, but he saw Jesus and he was able to realize that he needed to give his life to Christ. And he finished up and he said getting shot was the best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah.

Yeah. And in fact, Sunday, I replayed what I would consider to be the best Christian car guy show I ever did. And I you know, I had this great idea. God had his ideas.

I had mine. I was going to do this show, Jesus Take the Wheel. And so I thought, you know, it's a great song, Jesus Take the Wheel. And I would people would share stories of when Jesus took the wheel and saved them from some horrible accident. Well, the very first caller calls in and says, well, let me tell you where I was when Jesus took the wheel.

I was on the way to the chiropractor and my girlfriend ran a step a stoplight. And now I'm a paraplegic. And he goes on to say, but I'd gotten into Buddhism and all sorts of weird spirituality stuff. And and while I was in the hospital, I read, you know, reignited my passion for Jesus and and understood what was going on. And it was the same thing while he was. It was good that he was afflicted, because in that God teaches us stuff that he can only get to us through certain circumstances.

I mean, it's good if we can learn it without having to be a paraplegic, undoubtedly. But what this man said that day, clearly on the radio, that he wouldn't trade it for anything. And so, you know, that idea of it was the best of times.

It was the worst of times that you might have heard. I'm trying to think of the name of the book that comes from. But nonetheless, Dickens. Right. Right. Right.

If that's exactly how it works out. Yeah. I mean, the you know, that that's awesome. And one of the things that I think about, I just I don't know if you remember the movie Unbroken. I think Angelina Jolie did it. And it was actually a pretty good movie and was really good.

I think it was might have been nominated for some awards or something like that might have won something. But it was the story of Louis Zamperini. And it tells a story about how when he was in he was in the Second World War, he was actually captured by the Japanese. And during his time, he was absolutely tortured by the Japanese.

And there was a guy named the Birdman who was especially, especially harsh to this guy. And so finally the war ended. It was all done. And they got out. And so Louis Zamperini, we have what we call post-traumatic stress syndrome.

That's what we know it as today. And that happened to him. But he he met a lady. He got married. He had a daughter. He met a lady.

I think his wife's name was Cynthia. And they had a daughter. And all of a sudden it was just too much for him. And so he became a raging alcoholic in the store. The movie Unbroken was really good, but it doesn't tell the rest of the story. So I actually saw something on on pure flicks and it actually tells the rest of the story about what happened afterwards. And so it showed that how his life just slowly started to go down deeper and deeper into this hole. And finally, his wife was actually ready to divorce him.

And so Billy Graham was actually in town for a crusade in Los Angeles. And his wife went and his wife went and she said, you know what, Louis? She said, I love you.

I'm not going to divorce you. He said, would you she said, would you please go to this this thing with the crusade, the crusade with me to see Billy Graham? Finally, he said, OK. And so every night for the first two or three nights, he went and he saw it and he felt something. But he ran out. And finally, the last night that he was at the crusade, Billy Graham actually said this to me.

Actually said this to him. He said, you can leave while I'm preaching, but don't leave right now. And Louis stood in his tracks and he turned around and he gave his life to Christ. Not only did he give up his drinking, not only did it save his marriage, his marriage got better, but he gave his life to Christ.

And he started working with at risk youth and he started to help other people. And that's that's what it kind of reminds me of is that if he hadn't have been in that place. In other words, if he hadn't been drinking, if things were pretty good for him, he never would have been in that place where he was broken to the point where he needed to give his life to Christ, where he saw the need to give his life to Christ. All the affliction in his life.

Right. He wouldn't have been drinking if it hadn't been for what happened in World War Two. You know, if it hadn't been for all those things.

But it was interesting that God allowed certain things. You know, however, all that works. Fortunately, he knows. And there's another line that I really, really love in the hundred nineteen.

Because I really, really do. We're we're and I'm trying to remember the section. I just know the line. It says, I know that in faithfulness, thou afflicted me. It says, I know that judgments are right and in faithfulness, thou afflicted me. In other words, the psalmist is saying that you did this because you wanted to prosper.

You want to make me better. And it comes short because shortly after the title, it may be in the year. Yeah, it does. Because it says, let I pray thee. So it's in the U.N. section, maybe like the fifth verse.

Because right after that, he says, let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be unto thy servant, according to thy word. Meaning, OK, I know you were supposed to afflict me, but can I get a hug? And see, that's what is that's the deal. It's like, I know I got this in order to get to where you want me to get.

You know, I'm going to need to get some affliction, but can I get a hug? You know, and you know, that's the beautiful thing. Like when we spank our kids or whatever. If you find yourself not supposed to thank you. What I'm saying is if you discipline someone, whatever that may be.

You know, keep your hand on them to let them know you still love them, that you're doing this out of love. And there's no doubt that that's how God does it. Yeah, God rebukes those who he loves. If you're going through a tough time right now and if you don't know Jesus, maybe he's using this tough time to bring you to him. And our prayer for you today is that you accept Jesus as your personal savior. You give your life to him. If you haven't been baptized, go get baptized. Go into a church where they're willing to disciple you and help you take the next steps. If Not for God. If Not for God. If you want to feel welcomed, made to feel like you're at home, go visit Greater Love World Outreach Center over in Burlington.