Romans 193: Romans 7 - Do You Recognize the Ramblings of the Flesh?

Welcome To

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.

 

An interesting contrast between two passages with a powerful message… beginning in John, Chapter 15, Verse 1…

 

JOH 15:1

“I (the Lord Jesus Christ) am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser (the owner of the vineyard).”

 

JOH 15:2

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit (a branch attached to the vine but not growing), God the Father (the Vinedresser) takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, God the Father (the Vinedresser) prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”

 

Sometimes counterfeit branches attach to the vine…but we will know them by their fruit…and when they don’t produce fruit we know they are dead.  Judas Iscariot was such a branch.  He followed the Lord Jesus Christ but he never believed in Him…and his lack of fruit surfaced his deceptiveness…his was the fruit of BETRAYAL and SIN and DEATH.  The Vinedresser removed him.  John, Chapter 15, Verse 3…

 

JOH 15:3

“You other apostles are already clean (you are believers in Christ) because of the word (the gospel message) which I have spoken to you.”

 

JOH 15:4

“Abide in Me (in the sphere of my unconditional love), and I (will abide) in you (through my Word). As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.”

God the Holy Spirit provides the sap that enables growth for us branches, and that sap is the Word of God.  John, Chapter 15, Verse 5…

 

JOH 15:5

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

 

We can’t do anything without God…especially in our spiritual lives.  Our work profits nothing.  God’s work on our behalf is everything.  Conversely, Philippians, Chapter 4, Verse 13…

 

PHI 4:13

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

 

We can do nothing without God, but we can do EVERYTHING with Him.  Therefore we must stop trying to perfect the flesh…in fact we must recognize the flesh for what it is…DEAD…simultaneously we must acknowledge our weakness by not expecting that we have the power to live the supernatural spiritual life given to us by God at the moment of salvation.  Only when surrender this futile quest, we really start to live.  This lesson is not learned early in life.  As we continue our study of the Word of God in Romans Chapter 7, we’ll see the apostle Paul go through the struggle of trying to make the flesh obey…of his thinking that there is something worthwhile in the flesh…and we’ll see the direction God’s Word offers him to gain deliverance from the struggle…only Christ can deliver us.

 

Welcome to your weekly dose of the empowering Word of God.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

Give Me Your Eyes

Brandon Heath

 

The opening song is GIVE ME YOUR EYES.

 

OPENING PRAYER

 

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful to you, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Help us to recognize the direction offered by our enemy through the flesh…help us remember to use the only power you have given us to overwhelmingly conquer the flesh…the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit…help us to recognize that the flesh is dead and profits us not at all…

 

We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s

name...Amen.

 

TODAY’S STUDY

Do You Recognize the Ramblings of the Flesh?

 

We continue our study of Romans, Chapter 7…we’re finishing up our study of the first six verses which connect back to a few verses in Romans, Chapter 6…

 

Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 6…a death has freed us…

 

ROM 6:6

…knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Christ, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to the sovereignty of sin (from our former condition “in union with Adam”)…

 

Our relationship with SIN is described in Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 11…

 

ROM 6:11

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

Our relationship with the LAW is described in Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 14…

 

ROM 6:14

For sin shall not be master over you believers now “in union with Christ,” for you are believers are not under the principle of law but you are under the sphere of grace.

 

Death…death…death…do you understand death?  Now Romans, Chapter 7, Verses 1 to 6…

 

ROM 7:1

Or do you not know (are you ignorant?), (Jewish) brethren (for I, Paul, am speaking to those who know the principles of law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

 

ROM 7:2

For (example) … the married woman is bound in the past, and keeps on being bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies (and it’s possible), she is released from the law concerning the husband.

 

ROM 7:3

So then, if while her husband is living she is married to another man, she shall be known publicly as an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is married to another man.

 

ROM 7:4

Therefore, my (Jewish) brethren, you also were made to die to your marriage to the Mosaic Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Lord Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God the Father.

 

ROM 7:5

For while we (Jewish believers) were “in the flesh” (“in Adam” … unbelievers), the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Mosaic Law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for (sin and) death.

 

ROM 7:6

But now we Jewish believers in Christ have been released from the Mosaic Law, having died to that marriage by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the direction of God the Holy Spirit and not in oldness of the letter (of the law).

 

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, a mathematical formula applies to your life…

 

MATH FORMULA FOR BELIEVERS IN CHRIST

 

Dead to Sin  +  Dead to the Law = Freedom in Union with Christ.

 

As a believer in Christ you experienced a death with the Lord Jesus Christ at the Cross…the death of the old man in you…which freed you from your marriage to Adam…which freed you from sin…which freed you from the law…and you have experienced a birth…you are born again…the spiritual birth...which places you in a new relationship…“in Christ” … and opens you to the possibilities of freedom and the possibilities of the resurrection life.  Yet you may wonder why there is still a spiritual battle to fight, an internal battle that seems to negate all the truth we know about our position in union with Christ.  We ARE free from SIN and the LAW, but we don’t FEEL free from them.  It’s one thing to KNOW you are free from the LAW and from SIN…it’s quite another thing to LIVE the freedom.  It’s a failure to understand death.  It’s a continuation to think there is something good in the dead thing…the flesh.  How many times have you broken up with someone…rid yourself of a toxic relationship…only to go back to it, either mentally or actually, over and over again, in the hopes of resuscitating or resurrecting the dead relationship?  Amen?  Often there will be a new relationship, with someone who really wants to be with you, right under your nose, while you are “pining and sighing” for the dead thing. 

 

So it is with every Christian.  It’s the failure to understand death.  It’s a spiritual battle in the soul of every Christian.  We are dead to the old man, we are made a new man, but we still long for the flesh and are entangled in a battle with the flesh as if there is something good in it.  We have been released from the flesh by death, but we long for it.  The flesh is that part of you that hates God, that want to ruin you, and that wants to ruin everything that is important to you.  We are determined that the flesh is going to give us what we want.  It never will.  We are determined to polish it.   Yet it never works, and it ruins us.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I asked you, “Can you make the flesh obey?”  You rightly said, “No.”  But you didn’t believe me.  I hope you enjoyed your odyssey this week of trying to “get better” and of trying to make the flesh obey.  It’s a losing battle.  Last week I told you why you can’t make the flesh obey.  It’s because God gives us things that we can’t handle.  The flesh is one of those things we can’t handle.  Galatians, Chapter 3, Verse 1…

 

GAL 3:1

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you (shifting your eyes from the Cross to the Law and to Sin and to the Flesh)…

 

Galatians, Chapter 3, Verse 3…

 

GAL 3:3

Are you so foolish? Having begun your spiritual life with salvation by the agency of God the Holy Spirit, are you now being perfected (in the sanctification portion of your spiritual life) by the flesh?

 

If you are saved by the baptism of God the Holy Spirit, then do you think you will become spiritually mature by your own works through the guidance of the flesh?  Yes.  Of course you do!  How did that work for you this week?  Did you get better?  Did you get control of your life?  Did you clean up your act?  Of course you didn’t!  But it doesn’t stop us from trying does it?  We KNOW we are free, yet we don’t live in the freedom.  We don’t understand death, so we continue to listen to the ramblings of the flesh.  John, Chapter 6, Verse 63…

 

JOH 6:63

It is God the Holy Spirit who gives (the power to the resurrection) life; the flesh profits nothing…

 

It is the work of God the Holy Spirit that gives us a spiritual life…it is the work of God the Holy Spirit that provides the power for our spiritual life.  The flesh has nothing to offer but misery when we listen to it.    We must have God’s view of the flesh.  It is dead.  But we don’t.  WE are not willing to admit how weak we are.  The Christian has an internal battle, a struggle between the flesh and the Spirit.

 

<THE BLACK DOG AND THE WHITE DOG ANALOGY>

Imagine two dogs are fighting, wrestling for a bone.  “The Flesh” is the black dog…God the Holy Spirit is the white dog.  Who wins the fight?  God the Holy Spirit always wins the fight.  Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 17…

 

GAL 5:17

For the flesh (the black dog) sets its desire against the Spirit (the white dog), and the Spirit (the white dog) sets His desire against the flesh (the black dog); for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

 

YOU are the bone the dogs fight for…notice…they set themselves in opposition to each other.  God the Holy Spirit always defeats the flesh.  The flesh doesn’t want to fight God the Holy Spirit because the flesh doesn’t bother to fight someone who is going to beat it.  The flesh would rather pick a fight with you…the bone.  So the flesh is always biting on you.  Take a five-minute break.

 

BREAK

He is Exalted

 

TODAY’S STUDY

Do You Recognize the Ramblings of the Flesh?

 

Welcome back!  There is no struggle with the flesh, for Christians, if we have the faith that we already have deliverance from its power.   Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 1…

 

HEB 11:1

Now faith is the assurance that you already have the things you hope for…faith is the conviction that you already have the things you have not yet seen.

 

YOU ALREADY HAVE DELIVERANCE from sin and from the law and from the flesh.  So why does Paul have the struggle in Romans, Chapter 7?  Why do we have the struggle?

 

I’m reminded of a video that I used to hear at the beginning of a comedy show at the Tempe Improv, a comedy club.  The comedienne on the video would say, “Welcome.  We’re about to start the show.  Your job here tonight is really simple.  Laugh. Shut up.  Laugh.  Shut up.  Laugh. Shut up.  Oh you don’t like that?  That’s cause you wanted to talk!”  That’s the flesh.  The flesh always wants to talk, and its ramblings will lead you to destruction.  You willingly listen to it.

 

What is the flesh saying to you as it rambles on an on?  The flesh invites you to vanity. Turn to Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1…perhaps no one who has ever lived understands the ramblings of the flesh more than King David’s son Solomon…

 

ECC 1:1

The words of the Preacher (Solomon), the son of King David, himself the king in Jerusalem…

 

ECC 1:2

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

 

Solomon declares that everything is meaningless.  He is talking about human power.  Human power has no permanent value.

 

ECC 1:3

What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?

 

ECC 1:4

A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

 

ECC 1:5

Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; and hastening to its place it rises there again.

 

ECC 1:6

Blowing toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns.

 

ECC 1:7

All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full.  To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.

 

ECC 1:8

All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it.  The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing.

 

ECC 1:9

That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.  So there is nothing new under the sun.

 

ECC 1:10

Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new?”

Already it has existed for ages which were before us.

 

ECC 1:11

There is no remembrance of earlier things; and also of the later things which will occur, there will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still.

 

ECC 1:12

I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

 

ECC 1:13

And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

 

ECC 1:14

I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

 

ECC 1:15

What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.

 

ECC 1:16

I said to myself, “Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”

 

ECC 1:17

And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.

ECC 1:18

Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.

 

Solomon describes a life in the flesh.  Using your own power to deal with the flesh versus using the real power for dealing with the flesh is the reason for the struggle.  We listen to and react to the ramblings of the flesh…we forget it is dead and of no value.

 

Paul wanted to deliver himself by making the flesh obedient to law.  Good luck with that.  He found that he had no power to affect this change.  You can’t clean up your act.  The flesh is your act.

 

You can try the “do it yourself” deliverance program…we all do…or you can try the God the Holy Spirit deliverance program…the one that works…the way of faith.  Said another way, you can benefit from the education of another’s struggle (like Paul) or you can learn things the hard way.  We prefer experience to instruction…but we have to acknowledge a truth…

 

IT’S TRUE!

Indwelling Sin (the flesh) is a power that is stronger than my will.

 

The Law prescribes an action, the holy lifestyle, but provides no power to execute it.  There’s religion in a nutshell…it takes us right into our weakness, the flesh, and leaves us there.

 

The Christian’s only hope against sin and the law and the flesh, those things which we are already dead to, is God the Holy Spirit.  He is the One that can deliver us.  He already has delivered us in the past as an established and irrevocable fact.  In faith we know we already have the deliverance.  He keeps on pouring His enabling power into us to continue the deliverance. 

 

The interesting thing about Romans, Chapter 7, Verses 1 to 6, when you reflect on it, is that Paul is talking to the Jews who were under the Mosaic Law.  As Gentiles, we have NEVER BEEN UNDER THE LAW.   Isn’t it funny how willing we Gentiles are, who have always been free, and who have never been under the Mosaic Law, to take on a yoke of slavery?  Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 1…

 

GAL 5:1

It was for freedom that Christ set us free (from our federal relationship “in Adam”); therefore keep on standing firm in the freedom (“in Christ”) and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

 

Christians have at their disposal…The Person of Christ…The Work of Christ at the Cross…for salvation…and The Power of the Spirit for sanctification.  Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 11 bears repeating…

 

ROM 6:11

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

God makes us alive.  First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 56 and 57 say this…

 

1CO 15:56

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law…

 

1CO 15:57

…but thanks be to God the Father, who gives us believers in Christ the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The life of SIN and LAW and FLESH is vanity…but the power of God delivers us from the ramblings of the flesh to the resurrection life.  May we not lose, not even for a moment, the true picture of our flesh.  May we see it as God sees it…DEAD.  And may we lay in wait in willingness and obedience for the deliverance of God the Holy Spirit’s direction.

 

The Promises of the Lord Jesus Christ

are Guarantees!

 

1TH 5:18

…in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you (who are in union with) Christ Jesus.

 

PSA 119:71

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.

 

2PE 1:4a

…through Christ’s glory and goodness He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become sharers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of death that is in the world by lust.

 

CLOSING SONG

Forgiveness

Matthew West

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

          THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION

 

And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your glorious Person, Your lucid thinking, Your impeccable work, and Your magnificent essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

 

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