Latest / HBCWestminster / 4.7.23 Good Friday Romans 7:13-24 Pastor Danny Gardner

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4.7.23 Good Friday Romans 7:13-24 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  If you have your Bibles open, if you would, to Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. We spent a few minutes in God's Word tonight. We continue our study of the book of Romans. And when I read our text this evening, you'll understand why we lined it up so that this text would land on Good Friday. Romans chapter 7. I'm wondering if you've ever been caught in a storm. We who live in Colorado understand very well about storms.
• 0:26
  how severe they can be, how quickly they can appear, but most of us don't often get caught in storms because when we hear that a storm is coming, we just stay home. But have you ever not been home when one of those major storms kicks up? Hallie, my wife, and I were leaving her hometown in Northern California many years ago when my oldest son, Pearson, was just a toddler. Zach, who is now a senior in high school, was just a newborn, just a tiny baby. I know we say we get snow in Denver.
• 0:54
  When people hear that you're from Denver, they say, oh, you guys get a lot of snow. I know that when people think of California, they really only think of the beach, not the mountains. But Hallie's California hometown got snow. This is her hometown seven days ago. One week ago today, this is a guy on his roof shoveling the snow off of his roof. This is where Hallie grew up, a tiny lumber town, a logging town of about 2,000 people.
• 1:22
  I saw this picture, and I thought, you know what? He probably should have gotten up there earlier, is my guess. I don't know how many times he has shuffled the snow off of his roof, but that is her hometown. That's where she grew up, and on one trip to visit her family, we were leaving town just as it began snowing. The roads were clear, but the snow began coming down. I put on chains. We had a front-wheel drive minivan at the time. I put on chains, fearing the worst. I had seen pictures like this. I had seen snow in her hometown.
• 1:51
  As we pulled out of her family's driveway and began to drive, the chains really seemed pointless. I mean, we were just kind of clunking along, right? Destroying the undercarriage of our car because there was no snow yet. It had just begun snowing. And so I made that fateful decision to pull off the road to take the chains off, right? Because I thought this is pointless. So I took the chains back off.
• 2:12
  we drove out of town we hung a left on california highway 32 which is about a 60 mile long two-lane mountain highway very curvy it's one of those that's got a cliff on one side going up and a cliff on the other side going down and we were making that 60 mile drive from chester california down to chico california and you know the decision to pull over and put chains back on is a hard one to make right and it's often made too late
• 2:42
  I just began driving and you guys, the snow was so heavy. At one point, I was using the downhills just to get enough momentum to get up the uphills. The snow was so heavy, I couldn't get off the road at the pullouts to put our chains back on. When we finally did crash over one of the berms to get off the road and I dug our van out and put the chains back on, the snowflakes were so large and heavy, I could close my eyes and hear them hitting the ground.
• 3:09
  Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. I mean, they were huge. As we began pulling back out, I said, Hallie, take a video. She got her old school like Blackberry phone out and took a video. And I actually have a video that is my last will and testament video. I thought somebody better video document this because we are going to end up at the bottom of that creek. I mean, this is what's coming. We made it down the hill, of course, and everything was okay. But being caught in a storm can be terrifying.
• 3:40
  Do you feel the storm raging in your soul? Do you feel the tension between desperately and genuinely desiring to do the will of God and to walk in obedience and to live a holy life? And then that tension, the struggle against returning to your sin. I can think of no better way to describe that sensation than by calling it a storm.
• 4:04
  a hurricane brewing in my soul between willing and doing between what i want to do and then what i actually do and with that in mind will you stand with me as i read our text for this evening romans chapter 7 beginning in verse 13 he says did that which is good then bring death to me by no means it was sin producing death in me through what is good
• 4:33
  In order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.
• 4:55
  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is right, evil lies close at hand, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being.
• 5:24
  But I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Would you pray with me? Almighty God, we pray that you would look upon this church family for whom the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed with grace. We praise you that your son was given into the hands of sinners, suffered death upon the cross, and now lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God.
• 5:56
  forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. I'm actually going to pick up in verse 15 and you notice the very first words and see if they don't relate to your own feeling in verse 15 when he says, for I do not understand. I do not understand. And boy, if there is a better way to describe that inner storm, I'd love to hear it. When it comes to your own sin, anyone else confused?
• 6:29
  anyone else not understand in our fight against sin we quickly acknowledge that we are in way over our heads that we are out of our depth that we very quickly need a life preserver or we will drown we will measure ourselves against god's righteous standard and like romans 3 23 says we come up so short that our effort is actually laughable
• 6:52
  One pastor worded it this way, the closer we draw to God, the more we see our own sin. The spiritually mature person is concerned with deep struggles of the heart, mind, and conscience. The more clearly and completely he saw God's holiness and goodness, the more Paul recognized and grieved over his own sinfulness. And the more the apostle would even declare to his own shame, I do not understand.
• 7:19
  The remainder of the text can be broken into a series of laments. A lament is a passionate statement of sorrow, which any man or woman I think caught in the storm can probably relate to. Lament number one is this, I keep doing what I don't want to do. You continue in verse 15, he says, for I do not understand my own actions.
• 7:47
  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. As they say, the proof is in the pudding. And here, the proof that the Apostle Paul still struggled against his sin was that he continued to practice sin even though he no longer approved of it. I keep doing the thing I don't want to do. You pick up in verse 16, he says, Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. That is, the law is good, not that.
• 8:17
  The sin is good. And the fact that he calls the law good in verse 16 means that he acknowledges that God's decrees are right. Do you guys remember last Sunday's sermon? Just five days ago? You're like, nope, I don't remember a thing you say. That's all right. My wife doesn't either. You guys remember last Sunday's sermon? I answered this question, is the law good? And we said what? Yes.
• 8:44
  The law is good. We should not throw out our Old Testaments. Just because we're under grace and no longer under law does not mean that the law is sin. It still serves a purpose. This last Tuesday morning in our concise theology class that we meet here, anybody is welcome to come on Tuesday mornings at 6.30 in the morning for one hour reading theology, discussing it together. I asked that question.
• 9:08
  Why does God give us the law? Even apart from salvation and sin and the crucifixion and the wrath and all of those things, the redemption, why does God give us the law? And one woman in the class just very quickly said to make our lives easier. It's not to make our lives harder. Living with no laws is harder than living with law. Your life is not harder with rules. It's actually way easier.
• 9:38
  with rules god's saving grace is available to those whom the lord has called but his common grace is abundantly and indiscriminately poured out on all people the lord we know causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust he provides food for both his worshipers and to those who revile his name he
• 10:05
  He restrains evil by establishing governments which all benefit from. He creates beauty and does what is good for the benefit of all. And this is common grace. The Presbyterian theologian John Murray defined common grace this way. He said it is every favor of whatever kind or decree. Every good thing falling short of salvation itself. That is saving grace. But common grace is every good thing in your life which this undeserving and sin-cursed world enjoys.
• 10:34
  at the hand of God. Even unbelievers would benefit from living according to the Ten Commandments. Why? Because they're good. The Lord's precepts are good. His command is good. And the Apostle Paul here agrees in verse 16 that the law is good by desiring to do what is right rather than to do what is evil. And yet, despite his positive feelings about the law, he continues to break it. And this gets us to lament number two.
• 11:06
  I can't do what I want to do. I keep doing what I don't want to do and I can't do what I want to do. Notice verse 17. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want.
• 11:28
  But the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. Paul knows God's words are right. He knows God's words are good, and yet he cannot accomplish them. Can you relate to his frustration here? I really do want to do the right thing, don't you?
• 11:49
  And yet over and over and over, I find myself not doing the right thing, even when you know God is right. Even when you know you will regret turning your back on Him. Don't you find that you can't do what you want to do? Here is the problem. The law was given to those who were already enslaved to sin. It was not given to spiritually neutral people, is what I mean. The recipients of the law could not accomplish it because they were already captive to sin's power.
• 12:20
  It would take one who was not bound to sin, who had not been born into sin, who was willing to offer himself as a substitutionary sacrifice in order for the storm raging in the Apostle Paul and all of us to cease. I don't want to give away the ending. That is going to be the subject of Sunday's sermon. There was such a one, we know. As a pastor, you end up in some pretty awkward situations.
• 12:47
  About a dozen years ago, I was asked to preach at an EV-free church on the other side of my hometown. They were searching for a new senior pastor. Their board had found the guy they believed was right for the church. He had gone through all of the interviews. He had preached there three Sundays previous, three Sundays in a row he had preached. That Sunday, the Sunday that I was there, was the Sunday they were going to take the vote. But they wanted to give him that Sunday off so that he wasn't sitting there during the vote.
• 13:15
  And so they asked me to come in and guest speak. The six or so elders thought that he was a shoo-in. I finished my sermon. They closed with a song. The chairman of their elders stood to take the vote. The congregation voted the new pastor down. They said no. There was silence. The chairman of the elders stood up, disappointed, a little bit angry, and said, we, the elder board,
• 13:42
  Take this to be a vote of no confidence in our leadership and therefore the six of us resign our positions effective immediately. They said, I'm sitting in the front row. I'm like, wait, what? They said, the six of us and our families are leaving the church and anyone who wants to come can join us. And they walked out. I sat there on the front row, stunned as people began to stand and leave. And I thought, am I supposed to lock up? Like who, I don't, you guys.
• 14:15
  I didn't know what to do. I was sitting there on the front row. The church disbanded that day. I was the last person ever to preach at that church. It was a one and done. They closed the doors. Here's why I tell that story. Being given the law after they'd already broken the law would be like me standing up and giving church announcements to a church which had disbanded.
• 14:43
  Can you imagine me at that point? They're all standing up to leaving. They've taken the vote. The elders are out. They're planting some church across town. Anyone who wants to join us can follow. People are walking out. They're angry. And I jump up in that moment and say, hey, wait, we forgot to do announcements. Right? Next week, don't forget the church picnic. And in two months, we're offering VBS. Right? Can you imagine? I mean, there's no point in doing the announcements. It's over. It's done.
• 15:13
  The Apostle Paul was like shrugging his shoulders and saying, I've already broken the law. The law at this point does me no good. I've already broken it. I'm already a lawbreaker. I was a lawbreaker before the law was ever given, and therefore I cannot abide by it. And this leads us to lament number three. Evil continues to exist within me and even to exert its power over me. Notice verse 21, I find it to be a law.
• 15:42
  When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. He says, it's like right here against my elbow, whispering in my ear all the time, I want to do what is right, but man, evil is right there. I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members, my body, another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. And what a disappointing truth this is, that when God declared peace over us,
• 16:12
  which he has done in Jesus Christ, amen? When God declared peace over us, in that very moment, sin declared war. Because even of our transfer of citizenship, where we were once citizens of the world and now we are citizens of heaven, we have traded that passport in for a better, heavenly, eternal passport. And because of our current location, we are citizens of there, but we still live here.
• 16:40
  We are therefore aliens. We don't belong here. Sojourners. It may even seem as though the war really only began after coming to Christ. It was easier before. And now it's so much harder. Romans 5 and verse 1 says this.
• 16:59
  therefore since we've been justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ but then just the next chapter says that we have died to sin and live no longer in it romans 6 and verse 7 for one who has died has been set free from sin we are free we are at peace and yet this says war has been declared my grandfather my dad's dad
• 17:25
  Fought in the US Navy Pacific Fleet during World War two his name was Paul Gardner We named our first son Pearson Paul Gardner after him when he came home At the end of the war he was decorated with medals and honors which were based on his actions while under fire five decades later
• 17:43
  50 years later, now into the mid to late 90s, I introduced my wife to him for the very first time. We were not yet married. I think we'd just gotten engaged and they were going to meet for the first time. I was so excited to drive her to Southern Oregon where my grandparents lived. Could not wait to introduce the young lady I knew I was going to marry to my grandfather whom I admired. We pulled up in my Honda.
• 18:10
  excitedly exited the vehicle in their driveway. My grandpa slowly walked with his cane, which, by the way, doubled as a sword. One of those things, you twist the head, you pull the thing out. It's like a saber. It's a cane, whatever. That was my grandpa. He walked slowly down the driveway with his cane over to my car. Rather than looking at me or looking at her, he looked at my car. He said, Honda, huh? I said, yeah.
• 18:45
  He said, I used to shoot stuff like this down over the Pacific. I said, Grandpa, this is Hallie. I didn't know what to say. You know, I always appreciated the courage and sacrifice of that great generation. They were a great generation. War was declared against them, and guess what they did? They declared war back. Beloved church, peace has been declared over you in the name of Christ, but as soon as that happened, war was declared against you by your own flesh.
• 19:23
  And I implore you, declare war back. You don't have to roll over. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12 says it this way, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. If you are in Christ, you are at war. There is a spiritual war that you are fighting right now, whether you realize it or not. The New Testament says, go to war. Declare war. 1 Peter 2.11.
• 19:57
  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, right? Our citizenship is there, but for now we live here to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. Evil continues, we know, and it is declared war.
• 20:26
  But you do not have to let its power be exerted over you. Declare war back. Lament number four. And finally, the apostle says, I am unable to rescue myself from my own death. I'm unable to save myself. He says in verse 24, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? The apostle Paul kept doing what he didn't want to do.
• 20:52
  What he wanted to do, he couldn't do. The evil he thought he had conquered eternally declared war against him. He finally concludes that he is unable to win the war without help. And so he just asks this question, will anybody come to my rescue? That is the great and eternal question, is it not? Paul's wretchedness stemmed from his understanding of God's holiness. Only one who truly understands who the Lord is can understand their own wretchedness.
• 21:22
  If you ask the average unbeliever about their goodness, they will likely think themselves good people. Ask someone who has truly been confronted by the Lord. Ask someone who has been ushered into his presence in prayer and worship. Ask them if they're good. They will likely echo something along the lines of Isaiah's statement when he just said, woe is me. I'm lost. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I am undone.
• 21:55
  Who will rescue me? I'm a wretched man. Who will rescue me from this body of death? It's actually interesting that he uses the phrase body of death. It's good news for us who believe because it is only the believer's body which will remain subject to death. Everything else in you will live forever. One pastor, I think, worded it well when he said Paul longed for the day and so do we, church. He longed for the day when he would be rescued from the last vestige of this old, sinful, unredeemed world.
• 22:25
  Who will rescue us from this body of death? Verse 25 answers the apostle's question clearly. You can take a moment and glance there if you'd like, but we're not going to study that until Sunday morning. Allow me to pray. We're going to invite the worship team to come back up, and we're going to celebrate communion together. God, thank you. We thank you for the power of the cross. We thank you, Lord, that your mercy is more.
• 22:56
  We thank you, Lord, for grace, grace greater than our sin. We thank you for the Father's deep love for us, that you would send your only Son, that whoever believes will never be condemned but have eternal life. God, thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus. And as we prepare now to take communion, Lord, I pray that we would remember his body and blood. In Jesus' name, amen.