Romans 7:13-25 (The Enemy Within, Pastor Jeff Kliewer)

The Enemy Within and the Need for Self-Government

Worship team, you've given me a new favorite song and a new favorite style of music. I'm not used to that kind of R &B thing, and I'm loving it. Yeah. Great job. Thank you. Let's go to the Lord. Gracious Father, we come to you now and ask that your Holy Spirit would teach us through your word.

We need to hear what you say, God. Help us to change the way we think as we hear words that come from the living God. Humble us before your word, that we wouldn't just bring our own preconceptions and our own ideas to the text, but that we would truly receive what you have to say to us.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Wherever God gives government, Satan tries to usurp that and create a counterfeit and attack the government that God gives. Do you know what government exists in the Bible?

There are actually four spheres of government. And the thing that made this country so great is that this country has respected the difference between each of the spheres of government. So civil government, the nation, police, military, that is only meant to be a very small aspect of society.

But there are other governments that God has instituted in the world. And those include the family, the church, and the individual. Each one of these governments have a structure that God has given to them.

But here's the thing. Whatever God creates, Satan attacks. And there will be enemies that come against these governments, these authorities that God has given us for our good. And they will come from without as well as from within.

So in the case of a country, a civil government, of course there will be wars. Ecclesiastes 3 talks about there is a time for war. One of those cases was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. America was brought into a world war when the base was attacked at Pearl Harbor.

I was just watching a documentary recently. I like those old World War II documentaries. Anybody else like those? One of the soldiers who was talking about what it was like to go through that, he said that the young men were so eager to defend their country that if they were left behind because of a heart murmur or some condition, it would devastate them.

In fact, three young men from the same town each committed suicide when they learned that they were not allowed to go to war because of a heart murmur or something like that. Now, that answer to the problem was self-murder, and it was not the right response.

But it shows how eager people were to defend this nation from enemies from without. But the civil authorities, the government that God has given us in America, can also come under attack from within. It's not just Japanese bombers at Pearl Harbor.

Sometimes the enemy can be a Benedict Arnold, right? And we know about many enemies within the United States. Roe versus Wade when the Supreme Court began to legalize the killing of innocent children right here on the home front.

So many more, 60 million babies killed in this country because of enemies from within, not enemies from without. If you get a chance to check out our podcast this week, we had a guest on who was actually there to witness the baptism of the woman who was called Jane Roe.

After Roe versus Wade, she saw the light. She repented of her sin. She believed in Jesus, and she was baptized. This young guy, his name is Benham, David Benham. He was there as a little child to see her get baptized, repenting of what had happened.

That woman had also been a lesbian and married to a lesbian woman, so-called, had a partnership with her. And by the grace of God, she also was converted, brought out of that lifestyle, and delivered in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

And this guy talks about how, as a child, he witnessed his dad baptize these two women. Such a powerful story. But what an enemy against the state was the abortion industry, and it's still going to this day.

The Church, the Family, and the Self Under Attack

The church. Are there enemies against the church? Right now, there is legislation that's sitting on the table to institute what's called the Equality Act. Anybody here familiar with the Equality Act? It would basically silence preachers from telling the whole counsel of God, or counseling a person who is struggling with the LGBTQ thing to be delivered in the name of Jesus, like Jane Roe and her partner had been.

Pastors or counselors would go to jail for this, and the Equality Act is an enemy of the church from the outside. But how much more dangerous is the enemy within the church? There is even a documentary called Enemies Within the Church.

I would very much highly recommend that you watch that on YouTube, Enemies Within the Church. Because very often, pastors and teachers who have platforms and are respected in evangelicalism begin to lead the church astray after deceitful ideologies.

And we have to be on guard against not just the enemies from without, but also these enemies from within. How about the family? Is the family under attack in the United States of America? We just went and stood up against the library, who the library was putting pornographic materials on display to be discovered by children.

A certain book that was right in the children's section that had graphic pictures and disgusting imagery. And we opposed that because it is an attack on the family. But did you know that Jesus said that sometimes your enemies will be from within your own family?

Father against son. Son against father. Mothers-in-law and members of your own household would turn you over to the council, said Jesus. So there are civil authorities, enemies without and enemies within.

Church authority that God has given that have enemies from without and from within. The family with enemies against us. But there is a fourth level of government that few people think about. In fact, in these days, this level of government is disregarded almost altogether.

And that is the self. Your own self-government. Sometimes your self will come under attack from enemies without. When's the last time you had to fight some enemy? I mean, physically. Have you ever had to fight because you were under attack?

The last time that I had to almost fight was about 15 years ago. And we were living in Kensington. And we saw, a little over 15 years ago, we saw a man in broad daylight pulling a woman by her hair. And then he pinned her against the wall of a house.

He had her by the back of her neck and held her to that wall and was demanding something of her. Well, me and some of the teenagers, and these were bigger guys, grown teens, looking about like Angelo over there.

We saw this go down and we had a choice to make. Do we look the other way or do we interpose? And so we ran over. The guy wouldn't let go until we pushed him away. And then the young men actually fought this man.

He had stopped chasing her, so I kind of backed off, but they beat him down to the ground because of what he was doing to that woman. And so the rumor circulated around Kensington that Pastor Jeff beat up the pimp.

This was literally known all through teen club. Wasn't quite true, but I was there kind of interposing. But it's very rare that any of us would have to fight physically. Because there's an enemy against the self.

However, the greatest enemy that any one of us in this room face is the enemy within ourselves. You see, if you were to go to a college campus today, the teachers would indoctrinate the students to believe that all of life revolves around civil government.

That the government, this candidate or that candidate, dictates everything having to do with your life. And that the big mission of life is to get out there and be a community organizer and do everything you can to influence civil government.

As if civil government is the overarching aspect of life. What made America great in the first place was understanding that civil government has a very limited scope of influence. It's a very limited scope of what God has dictated for it to do.

Meanwhile, the same college student who might be an activist and thinking that this is the meaning of life has not yet learned how to make their own bed, how to exercise regularly, how to eat well, how to work for more than an hour at a time, how to regulate their own life.

You see, this is the issue of self-government. And this is the lion's share of the battle in which we are involved. The enemies against the church and the family and the state, these are aspects of our war.

But the great enemy, the one most ferocious and the one that can leave us like wretches if we don't learn to fight it, is the enemy within. This is Paul's point in Romans chapter seven. Turn with me to verses 13 to 25.

Justification, Sanctification, and the Law's Limits

Paul in the book of Romans will address these spheres of government. He introduces the church in chapter 12, verses three to five, as one body of Christ. He introduces civil government in Romans 13, where we're told to be subject to human authorities.

He introduces family in the 16th chapter, verses 10 to 16. But if you notice what the book of Romans is actually about, it has far more to do with individual sinners and how a sinner can be justified before a holy God.

Chapters three to five are about this subject of justification, which is to be declared righteous. It's a legal issue. The guilt of our sin brings wrath against us, but God has interposed with the blood of Christ, making propitiation for our sin so that those who have faith in Christ are declared righteous.

That's chapters three to five. Romans six to eight is all about sanctification. Sanctification is both positional and progressive. Positional meaning you are sanctified. You should consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus.

You're set apart for him, sanctified, belonging to him. Chapter six, verse 14 says, sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace. That's where you are. You're positionally sanctified.

But from that point on, 615 to the end of chapter eight, the issue is progressive sanctification, becoming more and more like Christ in reality, not as a legal declaration, but as the true aspect of your life.

You grow into sanctification. At the end of 616, it says that obedience leads to righteousness. And at the end of 619, it says that we are now to present our members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

The idea is that we would actually become more and more holy. So the seventh chapter is all about showing us that the old way of the written code will never get you there. The law cannot conform you to the image of Christ because there's another law at work in the members of your body.

Having inherited a sin nature from God, not from God, from Adam, you're made in the image of God, but in the fall with Adam, we inherit a sin nature. And this is the enemy within. Let's read it first in verses 13 to 25, and then comment.

Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. What was it? It was sin. Producing death in me through what is good 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.

So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. There's the enemy within, indwelling sin. Verse 18, 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.

For 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 a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, 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? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, so that I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. This is at one time, at the same time, kind of depressing and extremely hopeful.

When you hear Paul talk of this, you think, wow, if even Paul is struggling with the flesh to this degree, what hope is there for me? If even Steve Lawson has fallen into sin and these other great leaders that you hear about, like Ravi Zacharias and all of these teachers, what hope is there for little old me?

But on the other hand, to know that if even the great apostle Paul still battled with the flesh to this degree, maybe there's hope for me too. You identify with Paul in this passage and realize that this battle against the flesh, that's where the battle is.

Paul put the finger on it right there. It's not everybody out there, because what we tend to do is when we have problems, we blame. What did Adam do when God held him accountable? He pointed to the woman, she made me do it.

Then the spotlight comes on Eve and what does she do? The serpent, he made me do it. We tend to look at the enemies without, justify ourselves and blame others. That's how the human mind rationalizes sin, because we have a sin nature, we're able to do that, to lie to ourselves and convince ourselves of things that aren't true, but the enemy is actually within.

Indwelling Sin, the Flesh, and the Debate Over Romans 7

Now, you'll be surprised to know that this chapter is probably the most debated amongst the scholars. Writers of the commentaries are very divided. Does this chapter refer to Paul before he got saved or as a saved Christian?

Many hold the one and others hold the other. In some ways, it can only sound like the description of an unsaved man to be sold under sin after he told us in chapter six, verse 11, that we're to consider ourselves dead to sin.

How can he then call himself sold? On the other hand, if the mind desires and wants the law of God, that sounds like a regenerate person, not someone who is at enmity against God, somebody who's battling the flesh, so which is it?

I actually found the commentator Barnes the most helpful on this point. He says, I regard this chapter as not referring exclusively to Paul in a state of nature or of grace. Translate here. A state of nature would be when a person is just in their natural sinful state and a state of grace would be the redeemed.

Barnes is saying it's not exclusively about one or the other. The discussion is conducted without particular reference to that point. It is rather designed to group together the actions of a man's life, whether in a state of conviction for sin or in a state of grace, to show that the effect of the law is everywhere substantially the same.

So what Barnes has told us is that it's not really a matter of either or, it's both and and it's not even dealing with the subject of whether or not this is saved or unsaved Paul. It's talking about the ineptitude of the law.

I want you to glance with your eyes at verses one to 14. Chapter seven, one to 14. I won't exercise you by reading all 14 to notice, but just quickly do notice that the law is mentioned in every one of those verses.

The law is the issue. I'll give you a couple of examples. In verse one, he says, I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. Verses two to 12, each mentioned the law or the commandment, which refers here to the 10th commandment, part of the law.

Every verse deals with this and we come to verses 13 and 14 where we are today, notice he again mentions the commandment and the law. Barnes is right to say, this is the issue that Paul is taking up. Did that which is good, what was good?

The law, God's holy righteous decrees were good. Did they bring death to me? Paul says, no, it was sin. Producing death in me through what is good, namely the law, in order that sin might be shown to be sin.

Paul is demonstrating for us that the law can only show us our sin. It cannot give us the power, the ability to overcome that sin. Every Christian wants to look like Christ, but the law will not be the power that enables us to do that.

It can show us how far short we fall. In fact, it's very good at that. Look at the end of verse 13. It says through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. What that means is that the law is exacting.

You might've thought you were doing well because you didn't commit adultery, you didn't murder, you didn't steal or take the Lord's name in vain, but you get to the 10th commandment and it says, do not covet your neighbor's wife or his possessions or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

And coveting is only a matter of the heart. The law actually shows us how sinful we are. It points out the smallest things. And then it shows us that what we consider to be the small things are actually major affronts against a holy God.

Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual. And here's what Paul is actually saying. I am of the flesh sold under sin. In other words, I have a problem and my problem isn't the guy in Kensington.

My problem isn't some politician or some library. My problem is me. And your problem is you. Self-government is the issue. To bring the sinful man into the grave. This is the difficult part. This is the enemy within.

And now in verses 15 to 20, we hear a repetition of the same idea again and again. And that repetition is strategic. Paul is wanting to show how desperate the situation is by repeating it. I do not understand my own actions.

Anybody ever think like that? Why do I do what I do? I don't even understand myself. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. Now notice the pronoun I. Paul is indicating a separation between this sin nature that characterizes the man who sold, sold to sin.

And the true identity of the Christian. And I think this, this is why I think this is referring to saved people. Paul as a redeemed man, because he's making a distinction between the essence of who he is, the true Paul over against the part of him that desires sin.

Verse 16, I do not do what I, now, if I do what I do not want, it's a bit of a tongue twister. I agree with the law that it is good. But look what he says in verse 17. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

The enemy within us is our own sin nature. It dwells within me, but it's not the essence of me. Because Paul's saying, I want, I desire. The real I is separate from this beast that dwells in him. It's an enemy, but it's not outside of him.

It's in him, but it's not him. The I, and this is so important because when you're saved, the true you is set apart for God. Your heart is changed, you're regenerated, you're made new. All things have become new.

The old is gone. And yet you begin to walk the Christian life. From time to time, you are shocked to find that you do the very thing that you hate. And you say, wait a minute, I thought I took that old sinful man and crucified him and buried him.

I thought he was dead and gone. But all of a sudden you've got this corpse hanging on your back again, and you have to fight it off and put it back in the grave. That's the picture here. It's you, but it's the you that's supposed to be dead and buried.

Yet somehow it still rears its ugly head. Anybody ever had that struggle before? You thought you were done with this sin in your life. Maybe it's anger, maybe it's bitterness or jealousy. And when you were born again, you thought, okay, I'm done with that.

And you walked for a while with the love of the Lord, and then things get rocky. And before you know it, you're acting like your old unsaved self. Remember that? This is the idea here. It's like this old man has come alive in you again.

It's this beast that's trying to take over, but it's supposed to be dead. Verse 18, for I know that nothing good dwells in me. That is in my flesh. Paul here will describe it as the flesh. Earlier, he described the issue here as the members, which refers to physical body parts, but also to your mind, your brain, your willful thinking, what comes from you.

Verse 18, the second half, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability. See, this is the lack. The lack is for power to accomplish what God would desire of us. He's teaching us to be sanctified.

The problem is we are of the flesh. And this battle never seems to get any easier. I open talking about college students who are being taught that the enemy is out there. It's society, and they need to be warriors, social justice warriors, whatever kind of warrior.

They've got to make the world right. They've got to be world changers, right? But nobody is telling them what they most desperately need to hear. And I find it to be just a horrifying thing. They're never told that the enemy is within.

They're never told that the enemy is within themselves. They're only ever told that they need to follow their true self, whatever their heart desires, whatever they discover to be their authentic self, that's good and needs to embrace, to be embraced, but they're never told that there's an enemy within, a sin nature that's wanting to kill them and alienate them from the God who made them.

Think about how horrifying that is. Imagine a young kid who grows up into the early teen years and hits puberty, and with the surge of hormones, all kinds of images come into her mind or his mind. Thoughts, aberrant thoughts, sometimes perverted thoughts, and the world will tell that young person, that's who you are.

Embrace that, that's you. But the Christian worldview says, no, God made you in the image of God. And there's a problem in this world that is sin came in the world through Adam and Eve, and you're like Adam.

You have a sin nature that's like Adam. So you have these things because of that nature. It's not the real you. It needs to be killed, it needs to be crucified, and you need to be reborn. There is a power for overcoming the flesh, but if you think the flesh is all good, you go on in slavery.

And again, the law is not the answer. Look at verses 21 to 23. So I find it to be a law. Now, this is a play on words. By law here, he just means a universally true principle. He's not referring to the law of Moses, although he's about to.

He's saying there's another law that you have to account for. I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. How many times have you had a great spiritual victory? And then you face one of the worst temptations you can imagine.

I can tell you, having baptized dozens and dozens of people over the last eight years, that those early moments after baptism are particularly prone to temptation. Some have fallen away from the faith right after getting baptized.

And it's always true that when we want to serve God and we begin to strive, what happens? That's when the flesh tries to fight back. Paul says it right here. It's a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God. That's the law we were discussing in my inner being. But here's the problem that the law can't solve. There's another law. I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind.

That's Paul agreeing with God's good righteous decrees. The holiness code of Leviticus 18 regarding sexual ethics. Leviticus 19 and all the law of God, it's good. The 10 commandments are good. His mind agrees with that.

The problem is there's another law at work in him which makes him a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. And this is why we have a miserable generation. In verse 24, Paul describes himself that way, if left to the flesh.

He says, wretched man that I am. That's a desperate cry after the repetition of, I want to do right, but I can't. I want to do this good thing, but I don't do it. Fighting back the flesh, the pride, the sexual temptation, the jealousy, the anger, the coveting.

All of these things are just so strong. It's a law of the flesh and it leaves a man wretched. And I want you to notice the second half of verse 24 because the answer is not the written code. He gave us a preview in verse six that there's gonna be a new way of the spirit, not the old way of the written code.

The answer is not more rules and regulations, it's a who. Who will deliver me from this body of death? And the triumphant conclusion to the matter in verse 25 is thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Romans 8, Progressive Sanctification, and Victory Over Sin

There will be introduced to us in the verses that follow, victory over the flesh, progressive sanctification. The law couldn't do it. That is the law of Moses. It can only show us how wicked we are. There was another law in us that held us captive and made us slaves to sin.

But now there will be yet another law and that is the law of the spirit of life. So Romans salvation in the book of Romans is not only about justification, being declared righteous, you got your ticket to heaven, you're good.

What Paul is doing here is showing us sanctification. Chapter seven is essentially nothing more than a setup for Romans chapter eight. All of this hopelessness of being caught between two competing desires, the godly part of you that wants God and the sinful part that delights to do sin.

All of that struggle is setting you up for Romans chapter eight. The legal answer is given in verse one, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that good news? That in the end, we are justified.

There's no sin held to our account because Christ paid it all. But verses two to 39 will be a five part exposition of how to have a spiritual life. And it is not just mere obedience to law. Jumping through hoops and doing religion, trying really hard to obey the 10 commandments, that's not gonna get you there.

There's something else and it turns out to be the spirit of the living God in you. We are going to spend five weeks, this is my application, studying through Romans chapter eight. Romans eight is kind of like John three or Psalm 23.

Just one of these pinnacle chapters in the Bible. Consider it like a five part mini series on the spiritual life. Because the answer to the problem is given in Romans chapter eight. John Newton famously said, I am not what I ought to be.

I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not what I once used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. Progressive sanctification is about being changed from one degree to the next into the image of Christ.

You are not who you used to be. You are not a slave to sin. You are set free in Christ and by the spirit of the living God, you will be changed into the image of God. John Owen said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

So the study of Romans eight is the victory we're looking for over the enemy within. Romans seven creates the problem or shows us the problem. Romans eight is the solution. How is it that we can starve sin and crush sin, beat sin, even mortify, which means to kill sin.

I want you to remember from this sermon that the enemy, Satan, is attacking on many fronts against this nation, enemies without and enemies within, against the church, against the family. But the greatest enemy that we face is within each one of us.

When you recognize that, you don't live with a victim mentality. You don't look at all of the enemies outside of you and blame them for what's making you wretched. You say wretched man that I am on account of your sin, but turning to Christ, you can find victory over the darkness.

Unless you realize that little foxes in your own garden must be tail-tied and set on fire, you will be ravaged by them. You'll blame the outside enemies. But even if you were given utopia, hear this, even if you were given utopia, you would still be miserable unless you deal with the enemy within.

So I'm gonna pray now that our study of Romans eight beginning next week and for five weeks will teach us how to live according to the law of the spirit of life, how to have victory over the enemy within.

Father God, we thank you for Romans chapter seven, how we can identify with Paul. We all struggle against the flesh and Lord, I pray for those here today who have been discouraged in that battle, maybe even felt like giving up, that they would be reminded today that this is where the war is the fiercest.

This is where they must fight. And I pray that you would help each one of us to establish self-government, governing our own affairs, making decisions that make us more like Christ, building habits that are honoring to you.

Give us victory over laziness that we could take control of our own minds and our own thoughts, that we could establish patterns of exercise and good eating, of Bible reading and of prayer. We pray against the enemy who's like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

We know that when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And so our true enemy is not the devil, but our own sinful flesh. The devil can only provoke those desires and tempt us. So Lord, we pray that you would give us the fullness of your Holy Spirit.

In these coming weeks, Lord, as we study Romans chapter eight in five parts, we pray that your Holy Spirit would give us victory and help us to conquer the enemy within. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.