Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Are You a Wretch in Need of Deliverance" by Neal Pollard

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"Are You a Wretch in Need of Deliverance" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Occasionally on YouTube or TikTok or some other platform,
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someone will proclaim, I have
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not sinned in 20 years. Or they'll say,
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since I became a Christian, I no longer sin.
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Back in the 18th century, there was a man by the name of John Wesley.
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Maybe we know him more for his singing or for the religious heritage that comes
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out of his name, but he also taught something known as Christian perfectionism.
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He taught that if one was so filled with the love of God and
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Christ, they could get to the point to where they no longer
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committed willful sin. And while perhaps he
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would not have gone this far, those who were influenced by him took that a
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lot further, and they began to teach something known as radical perfectionism or absolute
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perfectionism. And this was a doctrine, the idea that
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if one was truly a Christian, was really a child of God, that not
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only did they not sin, but they could not sin. And they even would point
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to passages like 1 John chapter 3, verse 6 through verse 9.
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It's somewhat of an ancient belief, and there was a theologian in
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the early church named Pelagius who would teach that if one
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was a child of God, was a Christian, they would get to the point to
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where they would not commit sin anymore. There's even
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an entire religious group who would tell us that sin is not even
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real, it's imaginary. We know that this is false.
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We know that this is false because of passages like 1 John
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chapter 1, verse 6 through verse 8, where we
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have a writer who says, in verse 8 and 10 rather, I want us to
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notice he says, if we say that we have no sin,
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we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
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And we pause and we ask ourselves, who is it that actually is saying
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this? This is the only one of the 12
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apostles who would go with Jesus all the way to the foot of
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the cross. The rest have forsaken him and have fled, and only he
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is there. He is the one who could rightly refer to himself
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as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
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He is the one who, as he is standing at the foot of Calvary,
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that Jesus would look down on as he is standing with Jesus'
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mother and say, Son, behold your mother.
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The Apostle John is the one who says, if we say
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we have no sin. Or I want you to consider a man
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who became a Christian, and that man, when he became a
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Christian, so lived his life that he would examine the activity
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of his life, and if he felt like it was going to cause a brother
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to stumble, then he wasn't going to do it anymore. 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and
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verse 13. He is the one who could look at
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himself as he interacted with other people and he would say, I have
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become all things to all men that I might by all means save some.
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1 Corinthians 9:22.
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He is the one who endured such sacrifice and suffering that
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we can't even imagine, that we read about it and our mouths drop
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as we see 2 Corinthians 11:23-33,
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stem to the stern of all that it cost him to be
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a Christian, who could get to the end of his life though and could still
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say, I have fought, I have finished faithfully, and so there's a crown
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of life that's waiting for me, 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6
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through verse 8. But he's also the man who
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wrote those words that we just read together.
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These are no doubt words that have a different impression on
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you. These are words that we so often cite
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to speak of the spiritual struggle that we find ourselves in.
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We even sing about it. Amazing grace,
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how sweet the sound that saved a wretch
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like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind,
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but now I see. Do you ever find yourself
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feeling like the Apostle Paul? Do you ever feel
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yourself, even as we sit here in the assemblies and we're worshiping God and we're
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going through these acts of worship to glorify and honor
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him, that there's a part of you, maybe that wheel's still turning, saying, why am
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I still struggling? Why am I still fighting the same
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battles? Why am I still falling into the same holes?
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Why do I find myself— if I would have thought about
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where I would be 5 years ago, I wouldn't think that I was where
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I am right now? Why?
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And some people, when they're fighting this battle, their answer
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is, well, I'm just going to give up. I'm going to stop coming
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to church. Why bother?
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Why even try? And I think it's because God
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knew that in every generation, we were going to be dealing with feelings
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and thoughts like this. That he allows us to hear words from a
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man like the Apostle Paul to help us to understand that
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it's not his battle. It's not yours and mine individually,
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but everybody who is striving to serve God is going through
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the same thing. And let me make that more specific to you.
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The preacher, the preachers,
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the elders,
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the mature Christians, the godly women,
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and if we've missed anybody, are all going through what Paul
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expresses in Romans chapter 7. And it benefits
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us as we try to make it to the end of this life
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and we share a desired goal to be with God in eternity
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forever, to examine passages like this to see the truth that
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they contain so that we want come to that conclusion that
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there is no use, that we might as well give up because we're not going
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to be able to do it. We're just going to fall short and we're not
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going to make it. I'd like for you to look with me for just a
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few moments in Romans chapter 7 at 4 things that I think will help us
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to understand this plight that we're in.
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First of all, as we look at this text, we see the source of our
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problem. Now, as we consider what the source of this
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problem is, I want us to see from the context what the problem is not.
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And the problem is not the law of God.
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Paul mentions it repeatedly here in the context, and Paul's going
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to tell us some reasons why it's not the law of God. He says it's
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not the law of God because the law of God is what tells us what's
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wrong. It raises the alarm of what sin is.
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In verse 7, I wouldn't know what sin was except for the law.
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If sin is the transgression of the law of God, 1 John 3:4,
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then we need to know what God disapproves of and what God desires.
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And the law does that. It tells us what's right
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and what's wrong. But then the law also contains commandments
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that bring spiritual life. Chapter 7 and verse 9,
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if it's something that we need in order to live, then we're going to find
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it in God's Word. It's there for us to examine and to know.
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When we think about the law of God, in verse 12, Paul would say it
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can be rightly described as holy and righteous and good.
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What's the characteristics of it? There it is. Nothing bad in that whatsoever.
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And then he goes further and he says that the law is spiritual, verse 14.
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So as we look at God's standard, he is telling
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us and he has told us what happens when we strive
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to live according to his word and what happens when we don't. For the wages
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of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. He's just said
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that in Romans chapter 6 and verse 23. And so if this
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is not the problem, What is the source of my problem?
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Well, there are 2 answers we can give. First of all, that it's not
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the law of God. We can see the source of the problem is the inescapable
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reality of sin. Now, in Romans chapters
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3 through 5, Paul has laid down that principle so that we don't miss it.
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There's none righteous, no, not one. Whether you're a Gentile,
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Romans 1:18 through 32, or if you're a Jew, Romans chapter 2,
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1 to the end of the chapter, you're lumped in so that we can say,
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for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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And there is this reality even as we're here and
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as we go throughout every day that sin is present.
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It's there. And the first thing he says about the problem
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of the inescapable reality of sin is that it produces
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death. Verse 13, that sin
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is going to be the reason why every
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lost person is eternally separated from
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God. But then he says that we are sold under sin, and he gives
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us in verse 14 this picture. He says, I have been and I
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continue to be in bondage to sin. He's painting a
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picture with an illustration that sinning is like being a
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slave to a slave master. And the
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slave master of sin is horrible, and we'll see more about that as we go.
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And then he says over and over again in the paragraph that sin dwells
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in me. It's so much on his mind that it's— he says that this
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sin is inside of me. It's verse 17, verse 20, and verse 23.
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And all we got to do is look at our world and see how it's
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wreaking havoc on our world. Every abducted child,
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every addicted junkie, every rape, every robbery,
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every murder, every sin is a reminder of the inescapable
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reality that sin is all around us. And it's not just an epidemic outside of
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us. Every spiritual struggle that I have is
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a reminder of the inescapable reality
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of sin. That's the source of the problem. Sin is here.
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We're experiencing it, and sin is here in
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my life. And attached to that is the problem of
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our sinful desires. That's the source of the problem. Paul talks about
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these desires that are in me that cause me to do those things that I
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hate and to not do the things that God wants me to do.
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Sin is present in my body.
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And Paul's going to point that out with 3 words he uses. He uses the
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word flesh and members and body. And he is
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saying, I'm wrestling in my flesh with the reality of sin.
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It's the source of the problem that I face. You know,
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the devil's not even mentioned until Romans 16:20.
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You go all the way through the book of Romans, he's not mentioned.
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We can't blame the devil any more than we can blame God for our
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sin problem. James 1:13,
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James says, for every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own
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lust and enticed. And lust, when it has conceived, brings forth
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sin, and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. James 1:13-14.
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Paul says that the flesh is opposed to the Spirit,
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and the Spirit is opposed to the flesh, so that we cannot do the things
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that we desire. Galatians 5:17.
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He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
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He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap
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everlasting life. When I
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think about the fact that I need to watch the influences in my life,
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1 Corinthians 15:33, those influences
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around me are not the source of my problem. When I think about
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a culture that's redefining sin at all times and calling good evil and
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evil good, Isaiah 5:20, ultimately, That's not the source
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of my problem. Paul says that source of
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the problem for me is not just the sin out there, but my
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fleshly desires to want to do those things.
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Kathy and I have fruit trees in the back of our yard. I guess you
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could say that they are technically fruit trees. If you take the Picture Me app,
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you go out there and it says that we have peach and pear and we
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have plum and apple trees. But I'm going to have to tell you, we don't
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have a bumper crop. We have problems with our trees. We've had a few plums
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and an apple or two here and there in the 7, 8 years we've been
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there. But I'll tell you something, when we diagnose what's wrong
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with the trees, we don't go and tape fresh fruit out on the branches.
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We don't paint the fruit that's so mealy and terrible looking out there,
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and we don't say it's the weather every year. We— in
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fact, I went up to Jackson's Orchard one year, and I sat down and took
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notes as I was told about how to raise healthy trees.
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And what they say is you can't have healthy fruit if you have a diseased
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tree. That's what Jesus says in Matthew 7:18,
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that every good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit and bad trees
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don't bring forth good fruit. And so I've got to get down to the source
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of the problem. And the source of the problem is not God's
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Word. It is the fact that sin is in this world and
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my sinful desires are ever present in me. That's the source
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of the problem. But then I want to get to where we live, and that
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is the struggle that we face. As we're sitting here
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in the assemblies this morning, every person who is here is somebody
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who is saying, yes, I see this reality of sin, and yet
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I don't want it to be this way. We can identify with Paul who's saying,
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man, here I find myself failing to do what God wants me to do
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and doing the things He doesn't want me to do. And here's the source of
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the struggle. There are at least 3 in the text. The first is the struggle
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of disbelief, not unbelief, but disbelief.
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Here's what Paul is saying. I see this sin that's
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happening in me and I just can't believe it.
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That's not me. That's not who I am.
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It's almost as if we are outside of ourselves watching
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ourselves as we do those things that are wrong or we fail to do those
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things that are right. And we would say, who is that? I can't
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believe, as much as I want to serve God,
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that this is still happening in my life. And this is Paul,
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this bastion of strength, this dedicated
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person who is giving his life to serve Christ.
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And he's saying, I just can't believe it.
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Struggle is centered in on this disbelief
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that we're even doing it. But the struggle is also due to the nearness of
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evil. What Paul is going to say in verse 21 is that that
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evil is near at hand. It's as close as
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your phone. It's as close as your flirtatious coworker.
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It's as close as your friend and your neighbor that provokes you to
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anger. It's as close as the world who's telling you that you need
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to put yourself above everyone and anything else.
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It's a world that's telling us that there's nothing you can do about
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it. And yet when we look at Scripture, we see it being said
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to us differently. 1 John 2:15-16 says,
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love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves
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the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that's in
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the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride
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of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the things
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of this world pass away and the lust thereof, but he who does the will
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of the Father abides forever. And so this struggle that we face is
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because of the fact that sin is always nearby.
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And then there is the struggle of inner conflict.
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Paul says, the law of my flesh is warring against
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the law of my mind. It goes on within
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all of us, this conflict that we face that
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causes us to fall short. And we beat ourselves up
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because of the fact that this war is still going on.
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And here's something that may surprise you as you sit here and think about yourself.
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And maybe if you expand that to the people in this auditorium with you,
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that there are— that every one of us enter into that battle every
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day. And when I say every one of us, there are
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people in this auditorium who have been members of the church all of their
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lives, who are in their 70s, 80s, and 90s today,
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who would tell you, I'm still fighting that battle. I'm still struggling
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today as I'm trying to make it through this life.
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If the Apostle Paul, with all that he's doing for the Lord, is in this
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struggle. We need to appreciate that that war is going to be a part of
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our reality as long as we're in these bodies until we die.
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You know, I'm a history nerd and I love to read about
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some of the things that happen that form who we are. And one
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of the ways you can look at that are some of the long wars that
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have taken place in history. I don't know if you know this or not,
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but from 711 to 1492, the Spanish and the Portuguese
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were involved in a war that lasted that entire length of time.
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It was called the Reconquista. And then there was a war between the
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Romans and the Germans that went 708 years. There was a war between
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the English and the French that went for 706 years. And many of
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the wars that have been taking place in civilization have gone hundreds
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of years. And here's what that means, that there are millions of people who have
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lived and died who all they ever knew their entire lives was war.
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And if they thought about their ancestors for generations and they looked back, that's all
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that they could remember. And as daunting as that is,
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think about the fact that there has been a war that has been going on
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from the Garden of Eden, and it won't end until the end of time.
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It is a war that everyone is facing, but it is the war that's going
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on inside of each one of us. The source of the problem is sin
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and my sinful desires, and the struggle is real because I'm
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doing it and I can't believe it, and it creates this inner conflict
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inside of me because I want to serve God, I want to please God,
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But man, I just keep doing these things. Obviously,
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the point and the idea is not that we just give up and we give
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in and that it's okay because Paul's going to say in Romans 6:1-2,
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shall we continue in sin that grace may increase? May it never be.
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How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
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So Paul is not saying, hey, it's just inevitable. It's a struggle and
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so you just give in. No, he is saying, be aware.
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That you are struggling. And all that means,
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the devil would like for you to say that means that there's no use.
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But what that means is, if we're aware of it, it will help
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us to be prepared for what really is the climax and the apex of this
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discussion. When we look at what this text reveals to
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us, we also see that it reveals the strength that we want.
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Paul says, wretched man that I am,
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Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
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Do you hear his desire for strength and for help in what he
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says here? First of all, this requires a proper view of
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our weakness. He says, wretched man that
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I am. We talked about that word in the beginning of this lesson. That word
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wretched means to be in a state of emotional and spiritual misery.
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It means to be devastated. If I am going to
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desire the strength that I need to win this victory,
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then I need to understand that I'm weak. I can't do it by
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myself. But then it also requires an appreciation
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for the consequences of losing this battle. What if I
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don't resist? What if I don't stand up to the temptation in my life?
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Paul says, this body of death,
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What's he referring to there? He's talking about the weight and
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the burden and the struggle of sin that set the focus of this lesson
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today. There was a poet by the name of Virgil who wrote about a king
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named Mezentius, and Mezentius would take the
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captives that he had carried from the spoils of war, and he would attach them
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to the decomposing bodies of corpses until
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they themselves died. It's commonly thought that the Apostle Paul,
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who wrote after Virgil wrote those words, would use this
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as an illustration, as he often does from the secular world, to say,
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what's it feel like to be dragging around the
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weight of your sin? It feels like that.
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In fact, it has such consequences that go beyond that. He refers
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to it as death. What happens if we don't resist, if we don't fight,
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this battle that we're in. Revelation 21:8 says,
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but as for the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable and
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murderers and idolaters and sorcerers and all liars, their part shall be
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in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
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And so that second death comes to those who
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don't seek the strength that comes. But also in this, we see
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that it requires a desire for deliverance. Paul says, who will
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deliver me? When we
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realize that we can't do it alone, that's when victory is coming.
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There is none of us that can do this without God's help and without
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God's people's help. We're not going to make it by ourselves.
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And so often I think that we are in these individual battles,
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not using the collective resources that God has given
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to us. And so we think that we're on an island and Nobody
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else understands. Maybe we find ourselves saying, if anybody knew the real me,
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they wouldn't want anything to do with me. If they knew that I was struggling,
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what would they think about me? These are all lies
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that are being told. They're different forms of the same lie. And who wants
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us to believe that lie? It's not God.
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You know, Brandon Lilly was a skinny kid who
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decided he wanted to make some changes in his life physically. And so,
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He went to a gym and he started powerlifting and he found
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some coaches that really took him beyond the normal level.
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Brandon Lilly, as he became a powerlifter, became so renowned
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in the sport that he broke many records, eye-popping records. And not
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only that, he even created his own method called the Cube Method of powerlifting.
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And he was going around competitions everywhere and
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his physical strength was growing more and more. And in his 30s,
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And not even trying to set a record, he was deadlifting.
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And as he was deadlifting, trying to deadlift 750 pounds, not even close to his
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record, as he went to execute one rep,
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he blew out his knee. And in blowing out his knee, he had to have
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19 surgeries. They didn't even know if he was going to be able to walk
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again. But he, in interviews many times, has said, even when I was at
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the peak of my physical strength, I dealt with depression. I had
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empty relationships and I found myself unhappy.
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You know, those who are physically strong can't avoid a
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weakness that everyone has. When you look at the Apostle Paul, the bastion
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of spiritual strength, and he's saying, I'm weak,
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I need strength, I want strength, it helps you and I
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to know when we find ourselves there, that we are in
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elite spiritual company when we say we want strength.
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But the key to this, of course, is verse 25.
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There's the Savior we need. He says, thanks be unto God
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through our Lord Jesus Christ. The strength
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that we need is reminded— we are reminded of that in passages like 1
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Corinthians 15:55, where the strength of
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sin is the law, And the sting of law— of death is the
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law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory
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through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is about to say after this discussion in
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Romans chapter 8, as he gets to the high-water mark of the assurance, the blessed
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assurance that we have as Christians, he says, there is therefore now
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no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the
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law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the
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law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it
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was weak through the flesh, God, in sending his Son in the likeness of sinful
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flesh and forsaken condemns sin in the flesh, Romans 8:1-3.
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The answer to the struggle that we face is
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not to isolate ourselves from the church family. The struggle
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that we face is not to just give up and to give in.
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The struggle that we face is not for us to buy the world's redefining of
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behavior and activity in this life. The response
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that we need is not to say, I've got this, I'm okay, I'm just fine.
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In fact, we think about what Laodicea said.
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Jesus says of them that they say, I'm rich and increased with goods and have
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need of nothing, do not know that they are wretched and miserable and poor
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and blind and naked. And Jesus would say in Matthew 5:3, the first beatitude,
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blessed is the poor in spirit, for they shall see God.
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And when I recognize the first 3 things that we noticed in the text,
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then I'm ready for this, for the Savior that I
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need. The answer lies in some truths about God that we find
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throughout the New Testament. The biblical answers about the Savior
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we need is that God's love is unconditional.
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For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
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ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will some die,
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yet even for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended
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His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,
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Look, that doesn't mean he'll save us unconditionally, but the first thing we've got to
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embrace if we're going to overcome this struggle is that God wants
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me to be saved because he loves me unconditionally,
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even when I'm ugly spiritually.
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But a second fact is that God is love. It's his nature. 1 John
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4:8, he is operating from that position.
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It's his default. It's where he begins things.
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But also that God's love cannot be conquered. It cannot
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be dominated by any force or any power.
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Look through that list in Romans 8:38-39. No matter
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what it is, none of it can separate us from the love of
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God. God wants us to overcome.
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In 1 Timothy 2:3-4, God wants
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all men to be saved. And on the other side of
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that is the fact that we read in 2 Peter 3:9, and that is that
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God does not want any to perish. Now, we think about
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that in terms of the whole world and our desire to want to share the
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gospel, but I want you to take that to yourself. God doesn't want
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you to perish. He doesn't want you to
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be lost on the Judgment Day. He wants
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you to be saved. If you embrace that,
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that's the Savior that you need. But then
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God's forgiveness is faithful and
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it's fully applied based on his character and who he is.
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In 1 John 1:7-9 is the assurance. If we walk in
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the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and
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the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sins. We can't
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deny the reality of our sin, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful
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and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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And then God's love is universal and it's proven. For God so
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loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
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believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And these facts
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are not going to make the struggle go away. They won't
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make the struggle any less severe, but it will remind you of the resources
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that you have to overcome.
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2010, you may remember this if you're old enough, there were
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33 Chilean miners who
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were trapped 2,300 feet underground for 69
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days. It was really thought to be a hopeless situation.
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Everybody got involved all the way up to the president of Chile.
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They even set up a place near the site where they
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had been trapped that they called Camp Hope. And the family members stood
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there and they waited for their rescue. Can you imagine
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on day 69 when they broke through and they were able to reach these miners
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and it was a very tedious process even at that, that they would send messages
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up from there saying, never mind, it's okay, we got it, we're good, we'll take
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care of ourselves. They would not have done that.
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They understood, look, this was not a problem of their own
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making, but we face a problem of our own
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making. They had a desire
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to survive, but they knew a struggle, the struggle they were in,
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and so must we. They knew that they had
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to be delivered from someone outside of themselves,
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and so must we. You know, this passage takes us
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from wretched man that I am to thanks be to God through our Lord
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Jesus Christ. And the emphasis of the text is
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not to be so obsessed with the sin outside,
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but the sin inside. And to realize
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that as you struggle, you're right here with the rest
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of us. The source of the trouble is the fact that sin's
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in this world. That won't change. And we're struggling with the desires
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of our flesh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the
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pride of life. There's what I know and there's what I want. There's the Bible,
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there's the church, there's Jesus, And then there's those fleshly struggles.
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And as I struggle with those things, I need to realize that
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I need strength, and it comes in the Savior
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who wants to save me. An old song says,
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soul, a Savior thou art needing.
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We can't do it. We're in need of his help.
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Can't do it alone. He supplied the sacrifice
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that we need. To provide the answer to the sin problem.
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We must respond to that grace by faithful obedience
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that causes us to believe that Jesus is God's Son, to repent of our sins,
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and to be baptized to wash our sins away. That begins our new
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life in Christ, but it's going to be a life with struggle all the way
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to the end. But he gives us resources so that when we get to
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the end, we can hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant.
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So here's the question. Are you struggling?
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Maybe you feel like you're all alone. You're not. We are here
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to help you and to strengthen you every way that we can.
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And so is God. If you need to respond in a public way as
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a child of God, let us encourage you right now as together we stand and