Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: The key when you're struggling—and we all struggle, and although sometimes we bring it upon ourselves, sometimes struggling or battling an issue or an old sinful habit pattern, battling the flesh in our lives, is a sign of life. Remember, the key in the struggle is not, "How do I get out of this?" It's, "Who will deliver me?" "How" is the law. "Who" is grace. And there's a big difference.

This is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We sure enjoy opening and studying the word with you and pray that you're getting a lot out of these studies called "Free from our Past." As we turn back to Romans chapter seven, we encounter a glorious truth. There is incredible freedom to be found in Jesus and the gospel of grace. We're released from the burden of trying to live up to a standard that we could never reach on our own. Instead, God has done all the heavy lifting for us. And when we realize it's all done by Jesus, we can simply embrace it by faith and be thankful. Let's spend some time talking about that.

Take your Bibles, open them to Romans chapter seven in a Bible study that I've entitled "Jesus Has Made Me Free." Can I get an "Amen" on that? Jesus has made me free. In chapter seven, we have what I call the confessions of an exhausted believer, and his name is Paul. Paul the Apostle, looking back on his own life, talking about his own past situation, the wrestlings, the struggles, how the law, even legalism, for so many Christians today, bound him tightly and frustrated him—all the rules, the regulations, the religious expression.

He found, as we learn and study in chapter seven, that he was married to the law, and it was perfect, and it seemed to have no escape. But there was an escape, he mentioned, and that was death. Not physically, but spiritually. No longer married to the law, now we are married to Jesus Christ by faith, the one that fulfilled the law. That's the way to be released from the expectations, demands, and perfections of the law—to place your faith in Jesus Christ, to die to yourself and to live to Christ.

The way to be free from the demands of the law is to live the life of being a new creation in Christ. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Live that in a daily expectation of God's work in your life and enjoy it. And yet, in the freedom from the law and the newness of life in Jesus, there's still a problem. All of us that live by faith in Jesus, we all face the same problem, and that's our flesh—the carnality of our minds, the reality of our humanity, that battle between the flesh and the Spirit.

Everything is tainted by sin. Even on our best days, we're imperfect. The best of the best of the best that we have to offer God is imperfect and tainted by sin. Oh, you know, we're not always living for the flesh, and that's good. We're not always living in the flesh. When you live for the flesh, carnal living, you're also living according to your own thinking. When you think of the word "flesh" when it's used spiritually in the Bible, it's not a reference to the skin on your bones, as we might refer to that as flesh.

It's not a physical statement. The spiritual definition from the Bible for the word "flesh" is to live according to your own resources. It's literally the opposite of Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6: "Trusting in the Lord with all your heart, leaning not on your own understanding." When you and I lean on our own understanding, we are in the flesh. We are leaning and relying upon our own resources. As smart as we may be and as smart as we might become, we will never be as smart as God.

Our resources and our abilities pale in comparison to the power of God. What man is unable to do in years of trying, God is able to do in a millisecond of time by His presence of the Holy Spirit. So when you think of the flesh, here's another phrase to remember when you're battling the flesh, when you hear that phrase: think of it like this, your old sinful habit patterns, your old sinful habits.

I've used this illustration before: if you're in the garage and you're using a hammer to pound down a nail and you hit your thumb really hard, your first response will give you a good idea of your flesh. Now, if you hit your thumb and go, "Oh, that was beautiful, I think I'll hit it again," we want to talk to you; something's really wrong with you. But even if it doesn't come out of your mouth—so perhaps you're very refined and you only say bad things in your head—you say bad things in your head.

You may not be so refined, and you blurt out something out of your mouth that you haven't heard come out of your mouth in twenty years. Why? Because you're in the flesh, and it was a bad habit of your past. And guess what? Those patterns still exist in your life. When the Bible says that you're a new creation in Christ, it speaks to your spiritual life that's being renewed day by day. But your brain in your head is still the same old brain in your head.

God is refreshing and renewing, right? We're renewing our minds, we're growing in grace, but we have a battle with our flesh. For those of us that got saved later in life, we have deeper-set sinful habits. Now, we may not be living in those sinful habits anymore. Praise God for that. That may not be the manner of our life, and nor should it be. But because it was a part of our past, it becomes a point of battle in what the Bible calls your flesh.

So that when the Spirit lusts against the flesh—you know, we understand the word "lust"; that word is used in the book of Galatians. We understand the word "lust" as a strong craving, and we almost always use the word "lust" when it comes into the realm of sexual sin, where you have a strong craving for sexual sin. But the word actually can be used to lust after a lot of things. So when the Bible uses the word, "the Spirit lusts against the flesh," it's really saying that there's a battle as to who you will yield to in your life.

Will it be the indwelling power of God in you, the Spirit of God, who longs to please God, who longs to lead you in the paths of righteousness and purity, or will it be your own sinful habits? Recognizing that is very important. For Paul here in Romans seven, there was a season in his life where he did what I so often do, and that is go back underneath the law, underneath rules and regulations. Now, not necessarily for the sake of my salvation, but rules and regulations have a place of safety.

When you set up rules and regulations, you usually do it this way: you set up spiritual rules and regulations. Let me define it for you. If you say, "I've had a bad week, so next week," or "I've had a bad week up to today, so starting tomorrow, I am going to get up at 7 o'clock, and I am going to open my Bible, and I am going to take out my diary, and I am going to begin my devotions for exactly fifteen minutes. On Friday, twenty minutes. On Saturday, twenty-five minutes. On Sunday, I'm going to get up extra early. Not only am I going to do my devotions, but I'm going to come to church on top of that, and I might even stay after."

And you start setting it up, but they're very meaningful, attainable goals, so that when you do them, you feel good. Who doesn't feel good when you say, "Tomorrow I'm going to wake up in the morning, 7 o'clock, do my devotions"? What do you do? Wake up in the morning, 7 o'clock, do your devotions. "Oh, that felt good. I'm so right with God." Do you know if you wake up at 7:05 and forget your devotions, God still loves you? He still cares for you. There's not lightning down from heaven that goes, "You devotion-skipper! What kind of..."

But when you set up the law, when you set up a law for yourself and you don't make it, the law condemns you and accuses you, and it uses your voice to do it. "You didn't get up at 7 o'clock. I know, I'm a horrible Christian." And then you make a mistake in the afternoon; you get mad at your kids. "I'm a horrible mom." And then at work, you're like, "I'm a horrible employee." Why? Because you didn't keep your own rule, and you've set up a system that takes you away from the grace of God, enjoying Him through the good and the bad.

Paul's talking about that when he says, "Well, pick up with me in Romans seven." Let's listen to him in verse 14 as he's wrestling and giving us an insight of what it feels like. It might be your life, where he says: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 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. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells."

Have you guys underlined that yet in your Bible? Have you agreed with the word of God where you just know that in me nothing good dwells? The good in my life comes from my relationship with Jesus Christ, and He's making you and me better and better every day, developing us and pouring more of Himself into us as we yield our lives to Him, as we yield our lives to obedience through Him. Nothing good in my flesh.

"For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."

What the law was unable to do, God did. How? By sending Jesus Christ. What was the law unable to do? The law was unable to change you. Just like the mirror. The mirror is unable to change you. It does not have any power in and of itself to change what it reveals. And the law had no power to change a person; it simply reveals. Just like law does today. Laws really don't speak to people that don't break the law. It's when you break the law that the law yells at you and says you're a lawbreaker.

And you go, "Wait a minute, what law did I break?" "That white, that black and white sign that said twenty-five miles an hour." "Oh, I didn't see it." "Well, I'm telling you about it now because I've got a little gun, and I was pointing it at you, and you were going sixty-five." "Well, what's wrong with sixty-five?" "The law says twenty-five." And the law now speaks. If you were going twenty-five, the law wouldn't speak to you because you're not a lawbreaker. When you compare the sign to your speedometer, your speedometer matches the sign, there's comfort; there's no battle.

But when the speedometer exceeds what the sign says, there's a great battle there. And thinking of it for those that may have broken the law quite a bit before they were saved, you're always looking over your shoulder when you're driving around. You're just always peeking around the corner, you're always checking things out. We didn't have Waze, where on Waze, it has a little police officer icon on there. And even it says there's a hidden police officer, which I don't know how you put there is a hidden because how are you going to see him if it's hidden? But they have it on there.

We didn't have that kind of stuff growing up. We just had to take our chances and look around. But I'll tell you what, if we didn't break the law, we didn't care. If I didn't have a warrant out for my arrest, I can drive wherever I want. But if they're looking for me, that's a problem. I'm always looking over my shoulder. Now, those of you that didn't live a life of breaking the law, you feel the same way when it comes to the things of God. You see, when you're walking in the Spirit, enjoying God, the Bible is alive to you. Your life, the speedometer, matches the law, and you enjoy it. "Oh, I just passed a sign: twenty-five. I'm going twenty-five."

But then you get up and you've got, "Hey, I'm speeding through life, I'm mad here, I'm upset there, and I'm reminded the Bible says, 'Be kind.'" And what is many people's response? It's not repentance; it's getting mad at the Bible or making an excuse of why I don't need to be kind, because they deserved it. And then we take the place of God and write our own Bible. That happens many times as you seek to—well, you understand what Paul was going through. He was struggling. He was wrestling. He describes very much what we feel at times.

The things I want to do, I don't do. And the things I don't want to do, I do. What is going on? The flesh. That's what's going on. Just reading through chapter seven can make us exhausted. It reminds us of our own exhaustion. What am I doing? What has happened to me? What kind of Christian life is this? What is it to follow Jesus? "I'm trying. I'm trying." Somebody just mentioned that to me recently, just flippantly, "I'm trying." And my automatic response came out. I said, "No, there's no such thing as trying. Do it." "I'm trying." It's like, no. No, trying is not doing. Trying is on this treadmill of life, not yielding and abiding.

And then it gets frustrating, and then you don't like it, and then it's a battle, and the flesh—like, "Who's going to deliver me from this?" And remember, in the midst of a struggle, in the midst of a struggle, remember this. Don't forget what Paul shares here. The key when you're struggling—and we all struggle, and although sometimes we bring it upon ourselves, sometimes struggling or battling an issue or an old sinful habit pattern, battling the flesh in our lives, is a sign of life. And there's a very good—if you share that you're struggling, that's a good sign. There's life, there's desire.

But it gets exhausting because you can't win the battle in your own strength. You can't win the battle in your own strength. You can't will yourself to win. You can't commit yourself. You can't read enough books and you can't listen to enough Bible studies, you can't read enough self-help—you can't do it. It's impossible. The Bible tells us it's impossible because the requirement from God is perfection. It's impossible. No matter anyone listening to me right now that says, "Well, I don't agree with you, Pastor, I'm perfect," we all collectively really don't know who you are, but we know this: you're not perfect. And neither am I.

And remember, the key in the struggle is not, "How do I get out of this?" It's, "Who will deliver me?" "How" is the law. "Who" is grace. And there's a big difference. We cry out. Too many Christians spend their lives asking, "How? Pastor, please tell me. Brother, please show me. Church, please tell me. How do I get over this? How do I get through this? How, how, how?" But the real issue in your life isn't how, it's who. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Who will come to my rescue? As long as you live your Christian life and follow Jesus clinging to the "how" question, you're going to be spiritually exhausted.

You'll be, and I'll be, that wretched man. I understand there's a place of instruction. The Bible speaks of discipleship, and Jesus taught. That's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to that sense of what's the quick fix? What steps do I need to follow? Give me the steps. And it would feel—I know that many people would walk out of this room, I know it for a fact, that many people would come in on a service wrestling and battling and fighting and wretched and tired and exhausted.

And if I had a list in the pulpit here, I just had a stack of, "You know, for this kind of problem, do these three things. This problem, do these four things. This problem, do these six things," I promise you, if I gave that sheet of paper to somebody, they would walk out that door relieved, but for the wrong reasons, and only temporarily. Because in their hands, they would think that they have the solution to their problem: "Follow these four steps."

And they would be relieved not because of their trust and faith in Jesus Christ, but they would be relieved because someone like me that teaches the Bible and has been around for a while, that they believe I know more than they do, gave them a list, and that gave them peace and comfort. But it's only temporary because, as I mentioned earlier, as you work the list, you will fail. And that's the issue that law and lists and rules and regulations cannot touch. It's only something that God can do in us by invigorating us.

"Give me the steps. Write out the manual. Show me the law." But it's the newness of the Spirit, not the oldness of the letter, that brings life. The newness of the Spirit of Christ is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's the new covenant. Who will deliver me? Well, Christ is in me, the hope of glory, day by day. "I thank God through Christ Jesus," that's what he says in verse 25. "I thank God through Christ Jesus our Lord."

He's our deliverer. He lives in us and helps us from the inside. Something I can never do as a man of God and as a fellow brother and as a pastor and a servant to you. I can never help you from the inside. Never. That's not the realm that God has given to me. I can't help you from the inside. I can only point you to the one that does. I can only remind you of His presence. I can only help you see His strength. Do you know this is all throughout the Bible, this picture of God's strength and power? Let me show you a picture of it. Go back to Genesis chapter 6...