Lie #18: Romans 7 // Lie #19: Grace Will Cause You to Sin More | Andrew Farley

all right well we're continuing our series and twisted Scripture and today we're going to look at two more lives and they are very interrelated we're going to be looking at the classic struggle in Romans chapter 7 I'm doing the very thing that I don't want to do and is that the normal Christian life you know growing up I heard it was I heard it was the normal Christian life and hey if Paul struggled to that degree with sinning of every kind sold in bondage to sin then guess what there's not any real hope for you this side of heaven it'll get better when Jesus comes back but right now man you're just gonna have to be a slave to sin and deal with it so we're gonna be looking at that lie and then the question is well if we're not under law and we're under grace is it possible that too much grace leads to even more sinning are we gonna end up setting World Records for sin if we invite too much grace into our lives is grace dangerous these are questions we'll be asking and so we start today with line number 18 and that is Paul's Romans 7 struggle is the normal Christian life now if you don't know what I'm talking about yet Romans chapter 7 paul is detailing a fight that he is having you might title this section I fought the law and the law won right you remember the classic song well that would be a perfect title for this passage of Scripture because that is exactly what this Jewish man was going through and I want you to think about his goal in Romans chapter 7 his goal is keeping the law now is that the Christians goal of course not we know we're dead to the law not under the law Christ as the end of the law but in Romans 7 this gentleman's goal is to keep the law and in particular he is very worried about his coveting problem so he's under a law thou shalt not covet he's trying his best not to covet not to want other people's stuff and what he finds in his life is coveting of every kind and this is Romans 7 in our face in brilliant Technicolor of Jewish man with all his effort more effort probably than you and me have ever exerted in our lives and yet he came up short living in failure and so then the question is was this the Apostle Paul as a Christian struggling under the law trying to keep the law and yet failing day in and day out or was this the Apostle Paul before salvation as a devout Jew as a Pharisee trying to please God before salvation before his conversion and so this morning I'm going to present some possible reasons that Paul was talking about before salvation before he came to know Jesus so what we see in Romans 7 is not the normal Christian life there is something better and greater for us today so here's the first argument the first idea in Romans chapter 7 Paul opens this way he says don't you know that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives so think about what Paul is saying here he's talking about when the law has jurisdiction over your life now does that seem true today as a Christian does the law have jurisdiction over your life no it does not you live under grace and so we have died with Christ but Paul struggled while the law had jurisdiction over him law keeping seemed to be his goal whereas law keeping is not the goal of the Christian life so this is our first reason in the very first verse in Romans chapter 7 the first reason that we can come to conclude that Paul is talking about his former life in Judaism as a devout Lawkeeper he was trying his best his friends found him blameless but he had a severe addiction to coveting that was hidden it was covert covert coveting hidden underneath and he wasn't playing all his cards and everybody thought he was righteous but he was a whitewashed tomb so reason number one then Paul is talking about when the law had jurisdiction over him but as Christians the law doesn't have jurisdiction over us secondly another reason that Paul is talking about before salvation is this Paul says that he is unspiritual and sold in bondage to sin now I would ask you this this morning is that true of you are you unspiritual are you sold in bondage to sin today not if you have been bought with a price you are not sold in bondage to sin if you were bought with the blood of Jesus Christ you do not belong to sin if you are a person of god's own possession and so we see in Romans six one chapter prior in Romans 6 Paul says whoever has died is freed from sin and guess what we've died we died with Christ our old self died crucified buried raised that's the born-again experience you can't be born again unless you die first believers have died and we are freed from sin so therefore it makes no sense for us to wake up Monday morning and say I am sold in bondage to sin this description in Romans chapter 7 be true only of an unbeliever sure I could say lots of things Monday morning I could say I'm being overwhelmed by temptation it's hitting me big time I could say I've messed up 400 times in this area I could say I struggle I could say with James I stumble in many ways I could say all those things but if you hear me say I am sold in bondage to sin and unspiritual then I'm talking about my former life as an unbeliever or I don't know what I'm saying and so another reason now here's another argument for why Paul is talking about his struggle before salvation Paul speaks of the struggle when the commandment came into his life now I would ask you when did the commandment come into Paul's life think about the history of Saul of Tarsus he starts out as a little kid oh he's born in the right tribe he's born on the right day he circumsized according to the law he's given tutors he's told that he will be an expert in the law and he should train train train so when did the commandment come into his life was it Paul at age 35 no it was Paul at age 3.5 I mean from very young within Judaism he was introduced to the Jewish law when did the commandment come into Paul's life as a young Pharisee a scholar of the law Paul was introduced to the law at a very young age before his conversion to Christianity so I don't know if you've ever heard jokes like this but many of them start with lines like so a guy walks into a bar or maybe you're telling a story so I'm on my way to school so I'm driving to work now are you talking about a present event or a past event you're talking about a past event aren't you so let me tell you a story I am on my away to school and I get hit I get blindsided but has that already happened yes that's already happened why am I talking about it in present tense because I want you in it I want you in the story I want you in the experience I want you to enjoy this the recounting of what already happened but I'm gonna tell it and present so a guy walks into a bar so I'm on my way to school and Paul is doing the very same thing the commandant comes into his life and it kills him I'm sold and bondage to sin let me tell you all about it guys it's the story of when he was sold in bondage to sin but he's talking about it in present tense so that they will be invited in to the experience Paul speaks of the struggle when the commandment came and the commandment came long ago for him at age three or four as he began looking into the law and was taught as a baby practically Paul says also for while we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law now this is a curious phrase because he's saying that the struggle was while we were in the flesh now I ask you this morning are you in the flesh or are you in Jesus Christ and this is a very important decision for you to make because Romans chapter 8 says every believer is no longer in the flesh but in the spirit now let's make sure everything's real clear this morning I mean obviously guys can we wake up tomorrow and set our minds on the flesh yes can we wake up tomorrow and walk according to the flesh yes but are we always in the spirit yes our geography doesn't change our location doesn't change our closeness to God doesn't change and so we are in the spirit with two ways to walk we are in the spirit with two ways to set the mind so it is clear as day that we can set our minds according to the flesh and engage in stinkin thinkin sometimes and have you noticed five seconds or five minutes later you've already done a turn you pulled a 180 and you're thinking and now you're fixing your eyes on Jesus and everything feel but wait a minute you were interrupted by an alternate message and so you flipped from father's mentoring channel the FM dial over to that alternate message the a.m. dial and you entertained a temptation a thought and accusation some condemnation but you caught yourself and now you're back over to father's mentoring channel again father I don't want to think that anymore I reject that I I renounced that I want nothing to do with that I'm dead to that I'm alive to you does this sound like your normal everyday human experience bouncing back and forth from one thought to another thought but at no time during that adventure at no time are you taken out of the spirit you are always in the spirit and so we see that there are two ways to walk two ways to set your mind but there is one location for the Christian you are permanently in the spirit I and you and you and me that's what Jesus prayed for that prayer came true and it is permanent he will never leave you and so when Paul says while we were past tense while we were in the flesh sinful passions were aroused by what what were the sinful passions aroused by the law are we under the law no when were they aroused when we were in the flesh are we in the flesh no we're in the spirit what's Paul talking about he's talking about how he fought the law and the law won and he said at the end of this passage who who will rescue me from this death and who rescues him from death Jesus Christ how on that Damascus Road he comes to Jesus he exchanges death for life he exchanges bondage for freedom he exchanges in the flesh for in the spirit and he becomes alive for the very first time so what we see then is Paul's talking about his life before salvation Paul says also and this commandment which was to result in life proved to result in death for me now I would ask you what Christian in their right mind would think that the commandments of the Old Testament the law are going to bring them life I mean hello isn't step one two becoming a Christian saying that I need Jesus to save me not Moses that I'm dead in my sins and I need life in Christ and so I turn away from self-effort and I turned toward the grace of God and that's the revelation that we have when we get saved and so what he's saying here is there was a time in my life when I thought the commandment was gonna give me something make me right and it didn't so when would Paul have imagined that the law would bring him life these are the thoughts of a devout Jewish man who was under the law trying to get life from the law all right well next we see Paul says when the commandment came sin became alive and I died so are you saying that sin was never alive for Paul sin was never alive for Paul until age 35 when he was a legalistic Christian do you see what we're doing we're reading Romans 7 through legalistic Christian glasses that's what we're doing well I really struggled under legalism so that must be Romans 7 well it's true that legalism will cause to struggle but Paul had a deeper issue since he was age 3 sin became alive the moment that he met the law sin was alive before that but he didn't even know about it the commandment made him aware when did sin first become alive in Paul's life when was Paul killed by the commandment when saul saul of tarsus met the law it killed him that would have been true as a devout Pharisee so do you see why we're going through this exercise of looking at a number of passages in Romans 7 and highlighting some verbage the reason is this we don't want to give up and live in misery buying into the idea that my current sins struggle is all there is even the author of a lot of the New Testament he was sold in bondage he was a slave miserable man that he was so for me well I guess I can just expect the same no no yes we have struggles but no we're not doomed to that experience we're gonna talk in just a minute about the path forward and the real hope that we have right now so what's the takeaway here well the takeaway is this anybody who's ever thought that Paul was talking about before salvation or after salvation guess what there's a takeaway for everybody here it is anyone today a human whether lost or saved any human choosing to live under the law will experience sinning of every kind and apart from the law sin is dead now I have a friend Pete Briscoe and he's been doing some jeeping lately he's been jeeping in the mountains of Colorado and I saw this on his Twitter feed but he took a picture of a road sign on the side of the road it looked like a mining road thousands of feet up in the air in Colorado there he is with his Jeep Wrangler Libby Briscoe at his side and they're trekking up this mining Road in Colorado and then they see a roadside sign and it says no shooting now there were 40 bullet holes in that sign now isn't that a classic example of what we're talking about anybody who chooses to live under the law they are going to experience sinning of every kind you are going to end up doing things you never even dreamed of doing I remember when I was a teenager I saw this cartoon and it was a hotel it was like an eight story hotel and then right next to it was a little pond and there was a little sign there it said no fishing and all of the windows in that hotel had been busted out and fishing poles were sticking out people were fishing into the pond from their hotel room I mean again and again and again we see that we are drawn to the forbidden we are drawn to what we're not allowed to do someone tells us they'll not and we give it five minutes and we're doing it when we never would have dreamt of doing it in the first place that is life under the law and so we think that God gave the law to sort of curb sin and stop sin and prevents in Romans five tells us the opposite it says the law came in so that sin would increase increase think about that God wanted to expose all the slavery we already had by putting in place something rock solid cemented as morality and ethics that we could never get to to show us I've got an addiction to sin and I need a major miracle and it's not Moses so what's the takeaway here for Romans seven a believer is not supposed to live under the law Paul's Romans seven struggle is not the normal Christian life yes it's the normal law based life but not normal faith-based life does that make sense it is the normal law based life you put me under law and that is normal you put me under grace and sin won't master me do you believe that that's real have you experienced the goodness of God the kindness of God the grace of God as your tutor that's real I wonder if you're willing this morning to agree to do that free fall into the grace of God and say you know what father I have been sinning just fine under law and legalism and rules and self-effort I have been sinning just fine and I've been keeping my rules and asking for your help and keeping my rules and then asking for your help you know what I'm doing the rules I'm gonna live from here I'm gonna trust that something radical has happened I'm gonna trust a relationship a connection with you that I can't fully explain but you say when I let go of the rules do not handle do not taste do not touch when I let go of those that there's something that catches me and it's your life in me and then I discover I don't even want to do those things in the first place I don't need rules I don't need thou shalt I don't need chains I'm free and my heart is good the takeaway we believers yea we stumble in many ways do not hear me this morning saying that Christians never mess up we mess up every day we stumble in many ways James 3 says that but being sold in bondage to sin and experience experiencing sinning of every kind is not the normal Christian life we don't have to put ourselves under the law and watch sin thrive amen we died to sin we can count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God everyday get this when the lustful thought when the pornography thought when the critical thought when the hateful thought when the bitter thought comes down your mind the whole way of your brain when temptation hits we don't have to wonder if we are dead enough to a particular sin freedom is now my son Gavin and I we were watching Monty Python and the search for the Holy Grail you know the Holy Grail movie Monty Python we were watching it yesterday one of the opening scenes is they're trying to put a body onto a wheelbarrow you know like from war or plague or something they're all dead almost they're putting this body on the wheelbarrow and the gentleman who is the body is saying I'm not quite dead yet I've got a lot of life in me really and he says I think I'll go for a walk any and he's trying to convince the guy to maybe put him down give him a few more hours until finally the guy just bunks them on the head and says well you're dead now when temptation hits we don't have to wonder if we're fully dead if we're mostly dead if we're almost dead yes we got stuff interference up here you know in our in our brain and our mind we got interference in our thoughts but we're talking about your heart we're talking about your spirit we're talking about your core you're not going to get any more deader to sin than you are right now and so I was talking with a theologian a gentleman who's known all over the world he was the chairman of the NIV Bible Committee has done a lot of great things published a lot of scholarly articles and we were talking about being in the flesh verses in the spirit and he said Andrew I like to describe it this way he says we're in the spirit now we're no longer in Adam we're in Christ were no longer in the flesh we're in the spirit we've crossed over but we can still hear the noise from that other realm and I kind of liked that have you noticed you can still hear the noise you're not in it you're in Christ but you can still hear the noise even in the midst of that awful persistent annoying noise you can say I'm a hun percent dead to that no thank you and that is true in every moment with every temptation we don't have to wait we're not just mostly dead alright the last lie we'll look at today just briefly and it's completely related and connected it says this too much grace will cause you to sin even more have you heard this hyper grace cheap grace greasy grace ok greasy grace now that's just gross I mean greasy grace are you climbing a fire pole to God greasy grace cheap grace it costs Jesus his life and it's free to us so I don't see the rationale for cheap it's either very expensive costing Jesus his life or it's totally free to us as a gift but there is no such thing as cheap grace hyper grace as I've often said yeah I'm pretty hyper about it I'm in love with God and His grace so what did we see already well here's just a quick review of some connected ideas as to much grace gonna lead to too much sin well actually too much law will the sinful passions aroused by the law so what is it that arouses sinful passions is too much grace going to be dangerous no too much law is dangerous that's what he's saying in the same chapter look at what it says sin takes opportunity through grace is that what it says sin takes opportunity through grace watch out for all that grace sins gonna get you know he's saying watch out for all that law sins gonna get you do you see what we're invited to it is incredible were invited to something that is counterintuitive to the human brain it doesn't make any sense we do a free fall into Jesus and were caught by His grace and carried by His grace that's a miracle God created the world that's a miracle Jesus rose from the dead that's a miracle I can live under grace and I won't sin as much that's a miracle that is a miracle it makes no sense take all the rules and restrictions all the morality and ethics all the principles of the world take them all and throw them in the garbage and I will live uprightly that is a miracle how did that happen the resurrection of Jesus living in me do you see that's the trust game that's where he wants us let go of the crutches and walk by grace the law came in so that the transgression would do what decrease no increase I brought the law in so that people would sin even more under the law so they would see their death and see their need for life sin shall not be master over you if you're really careful with the rules sin will not be master over you if you try your hardest to keep Christian principles is that what it says sin will not be master over you if you're under grace and you say God how does that even work it makes no sense and he says Jesus in and Jesus through and that's it Jesus plus nothing is what we call it around here are you willing to go that far are you sick and tired of being addicted and acting like you're someone else and being miserable are you sick and tired yet of your best effort first Corinthians 15 this is one that's pretty far out there we don't read it very often but Wow is it clear the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law how much clearer could that get you want to give sin power put yourself under the law and sin will have a heyday put yourself under grace and sin falls limp second Peter one there's all these qualities we're so afraid of grace if you have too much grace you'll have too much sin that's what we think and Peter says the opposite he says hey you want godliness you want kindness you want love if these qualities are yours then you'll never be useless you'll never be unfruitful you're always going to have a fulfilling life with kindness and love being exude the how do you do it well he says here's how you don't do it if you're lacking these qualities you have forgotten your purification from your former sins you have forgotten what God did to you you have forgotten God's grace so what's the answer remember God's grace do you need more grace or less grace you need to remember more and more the grace that you've been given don't go with less grace less grace brings less victory less grace brings less qualities God wants you soft he wants you soft and your attitudes and actions that's what grace does it softens us legalism hardens us grace softens us you look at these qualities kindness that's soft goodness and kindness and love godliness gentleness you look at the fruit of the Spirit joy and peace and patience at soft that's softened by the grace of God our attitudes being mentored by His grace being instructed and guided and lifted up by His grace and supported by His grace you can't have too much grace because you can't have too much godliness they're the same they're not in competition they're the same Titus 2 will end just a few moments here the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation but what else does the grace of God do look at this the grace of God instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly righteously and godly in the present age the only thing that helps us say no to sin is the grace of God that is the driving force so just when you think you need to beat yourself up just when you think you need to pull the Martin Luther and lay out all night in the snow beating yourself with leather straps saying woe is me god I'm a pitiful poor excuse for a human being I'm gonna humble myself before you and take my licks take my punishment just when you think you need to go Martin Luther beating yourself up over something you've done the Spirit of God says and you think that's gonna work you're gonna feel sorry for yourself you're gonna talk down to yourself you're gonna look at yourself as dirty and distant and then you're gonna act even more like it what's the answer you're clean you're close I don't count that against you I've removed that I've taken that away as far as the East is from I'm not dealing with you on the basis of that you're my righteousness I look at you as if you've never sinned the day in your life you are perfect to me that's the answer mom didn't do it dad didn't do it Church didn't do it only God does this perfectly and he does it every time affirming you and establishing you and building you up and showing you who you really are that's the only thing that works and he's got the market cornered on it he's the only one doing it right so are you gonna listen to men or are you gonna listen to your God and your father who is bringing you up in grace there is no other method you want to be godly young men 18 years old 25 years old looking at older men in the faith saying I want to be like them someday the answer to that is to know that you are one with Jesus Christ right now there is no secret outside of the grace of God you will never graduate from the grace of God there is no greater message no deeper message Paul calls it the gospel of grace it is the gospel so what did we see today the truth Romans 7 yeah it's the normal law based life but not the faith based life it is not normal Jesus it is normal Moses and you don't have to be under Moses you were never invited to the law as a Gentile today you're invited to His grace and nothing else likewise here's the truth for you too much grace will lead to even more victory over sin that's the truth let's pray together father we thank you for today we thank you for Tyler and Whitney and their ministry we thank you for the opportunity to share in that today with them we thank you most of all father for Jesus Christ and for this grace you've given us we're not afraid of you father we're not afraid of your gospel we're not afraid of your son's life in us we're not afraid of the freedom you've given us we're not afraid of the total forgiveness we're not afraid of the life we believe you we trust you you have known us since we were first born you know what we need you are our designer and we are designed to live under your grace you know us perfectly we've seen your word today we're putting our confidence in it we're believing you at face value we're not scared we're not going to believe those accusations we believe that your grace teaches us to say no to sin we're not going to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps try harder tomorrow tell ourselves we can really do it this time we're not going to adopt three more rules and five more steps we're going with Jesus Jesus plus nothing father we thank you for the gospel of grace in your name we pray amen

Channel: The Grace Message with Dr. Andrew Farley

Views: 7,792

Rating: 4.7463412 out of 5

Keywords: forgiveness, freedom, identity in Christ, Christ, Jesus, Grace, Bible teacher, Bible ministry, Andrew Farley, Andrew Farley Ministries, new life in Christ, Romans 7, grace, license to sin

Id: tPnKLMNOdLs

Length: 35min 29sec (2129 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 24 2019