The Wretched Man Syndrome — Lewis Gregory

We've been singing out of the hymns, and I was thinking specifically about Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, That Saved a Wretch Like Me. You girls recognize that phrase? Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, That Saved a Wretch Like Me.

John Newton penned those words, and he became acutely aware of what a wretch was after he realized the horrible, hideous way he had conducted his life in such a cruel and vicious way of just marketing of humanity and selling as a ship captain and all the things that he did, just the brutality and the human injustice, and he was just devastated by it.

And as he encountered the Lord and came to grips with the truth of God's word, he realized what it meant to be a wretch. There is a saying, you've got to get a person lost before you can get them saved.

Paul's Cry of “O Wretched Man”

The idea being that if we don't see our need, we're definitely not going to seek a supply or a source or a solution. The same thing holds true for us in our Christian life, and I believe that's what Paul is referring to in Romans chapter 7 as he uses this very same word.

So in Romans 7, verse 24, we hear the cry of a desperate man. This is the Apostle Paul describing a time in his life, and this is what he said. O wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from the body of this death?

O wretched man. And when we read that passage and we think of the word wretched, the problem that most of us as Christians have with it is we perceive that to be John Newton, some horrible monster, a person maybe like the one that shot up all these people recently that's been on the news that killed several, including the little girl, and wounded the state representative.

And we think, now that's a wretched person. I mean, man, look at that guy. Or, you know, the Oklahoma bomber. Or the 9 -11 terrorist. Now, these are wretched people. I saw a flash on the news screen last night.

Somebody had abducted some young girl. Those are wretched people. They rape and mutilate. They murder. They torture. I mean, these are wretched people. But then again, Paul says, O wretched man that I am.

O wretched man that I am. That's what Paul says. But I don't see any description in his life whatsoever about anything like what we perceive to be a wretched person. And that was the shocker for the Apostle Paul when he had to come to grips with the fact that he too was a wretched man.

And you know, at one point in his life he told Timothy, I am the chief among sinners. And what he was saying even at that point in his life, and that was at the point of his conversion, he was saying, you know, here I thought I was the best of the best.

Pharisee of the Pharisees, you know, is touching the law blameless. He's saying, man, I had my act together. I did what the law said do. I did not do what it said don't do. I was on track. Or so he thought.

And that's where many of us are in our Christian life and walk. And this is where I found the struggle to be in so many Christians. They come for counseling or I talk to them after I preach somewhere and they've got something going on and they think, well, it's not all that bad, I just didn't need a little tweaking or tune up.

But what they don't see is that they are the wretched man. And I would venture to say that 99 of Christians are in that wretched man mode. So there's this wretched man syndrome that takes place in the body of Christ that keeps us stifled.

So what happens is we take one step forward and two backwards, but we don't even realize it. We don't even realize it. And what I mean by that is this. When I was, when I, in my early years as a Christian, I went through the hoops.

I learned the ropes and I understood what God's word said. And I, man, I studied the word of God. I was taught the word of God. I went to church and I heard teachings. I memorized scripture. I knew God's word.

I prayed. And so when I went off in the Navy, I looked great. In fact, I was the best of the best in the Navy because there just wasn't anybody that was even close. Then when I got back and went to college, all my Christian friends in college, I was way beyond them.

In my church where we would sit down, I knew the Bible better than most. And so I thought, this is as good as it gets. And this is really the best that's expected. The mindset is that God has this wonderful goal that we're to shoot for, you know, whatever we want to call it, you know, becoming more like Jesus or however you want to describe it.

But we have this goal, this standard, this perception, the standard, let's say the word of God. And so that's the goal. But of course, God knows none of us are going to get there. None of us can achieve it.

So he really doesn't expect that of us. It's just about try as hard as you can, do the best you can. So growing up, there was a young boy in the church, the song that stood out to me was called Our Best.

And it means give your best to the Lord, do the best you can for the Lord, and that's good enough. But you see, the problem with that is even our righteousness, the best that we can do is still filthy rags to the Lord, even as much after we're saved as before we were saved.

Because human righteousness, our self-effort to serve and please God falls short. And so the apostle Paul, in saying about himself that he's a wretched man, what's he telling us? And how did he come to that conclusion?

The Law Exposes Inner Desire

Well, if we go back in Romans 7, he says here, going back to, well, let me do it in reverse. All right. Let's, verse 7. He says, what shall we say then, is the law sin, God forbid? No, I have not known sin, but by the law.

Now this is the phrase I want to get to. After that he says, I have not known lust, except the law had said, you shall not covet. Now that last, this last phrase of verse 7. So here, look at it again.

I have not known lust, except the law had said, you shall not covet. Okay. Now let's get some terminology clear. The word lust doesn't mean just the sexual immoral perversion that has been defined primarily in our culture.

The word lust there means desire and can be either good or evil in nature, depending on the context. But as Paul's referring to it here, he's talking about it in the context of that which is evil or ungodly.

Now, he's not talking about just in the immoral sense. He's talking about lust in the general sense, for the word lust means desire. And Paul is saying, now look, I had to realize that even as a new believer in Christ, I was still experiencing a pull and I was still responding to the appeals and things of this world.

Not just the gross immoral things we might classify, but that my desires and my appetites were still unbridled and misguided. See my desires and appetites were unbridled and misguided. So that like we find ourselves overeating, we find ourselves overcompensating, you know, we get all consumed up with sports or our hobbies and we just overindulge.

We're overindulging. This is a society of overindulgers and most anything and everything, it doesn't matter what it is, we go to seed on it. We get too much into it. And Paul is saying, the word covet is that same idea.

It means that you're coveting and so, but look and he says, except the law has said you shall not covet. Now there he's referring to the Ten Commandments. So if we look there at Exodus, or yeah, Exodus chapter 20 verse 17, then he's going to show us there what the law says.

And the Ten Commandments were just the most basic minimum daily requirement, but they included all the essentials of practical daily living that God intended for his people, not just so he could make sure they were on the right path, but because that was the right way to live.

And God knows the right way to live and so he was simply telling the people, which is grace in itself, he's saying, look, if you want to live right, this is how you do it. These are Ten Commandments, Ten Rules, Ten Guidelines really for living.

And you follow these and you'll be good with me and you'll be good with your fellow men. So and he goes through these ten and every one of them has to do with external conduct, your actions, what we do or don't do.

And most of us, even as Christians today, we gauge our life and how well we're doing by how it looks on the outside. You know, as long as we're saying the right thing and doing the right thing externally, as long as we learn how to keep appearances up or we wear the right mask and say the right Jesus words like hallelujah and praise the Lord at the appropriate moment, and we know how to pray the right kind of prayers, then we think everything's okay and all is well with the world.

I mean, we've memorized our scriptures, we read our Bible daily, and we're on track. But all of that is but externals, what Paul would call to Timothy a form of godliness. It's only a form. It's only the external.

So when he gets to this Tenth Commandment, Exodus chapter 20 verse 17, he says, you shall not covet. Now covet has to do with an attitude, which is why when Jesus came on the scene, what did he focus on?

Attitude. He said, you've got it all together on the outside, you're whitewashed sepulchers. That is, you've cleaned up your life on the outside, you look good on the outside. But what you don't realize is, as Paul would say there, O wretched man that I am, you're a walking dead man, you're a whitewashed sepulcher, you're a tomb, you're a death trap, your body is a death trap, and you're still walking around as a dead man walking, see?

That's what you, but you don't realize that. See, that's why Jesus had to be so clear and to the point, and had to sometimes seemingly hit people between the eyes. He was saying, it's all about understanding the real essence of holiness, the real essence of purity and righteousness and godliness.

And so he says there, you shall not covet, and then he goes down the list, your neighbor's house, wife, his possessions, his animals, you know, his servants, whatever he's got. But then, and so we look at that, we go on, we make the list, we say, well, okay, first of all, I don't even like my neighbor, and I hate his house, it's the ugliest color I've ever seen, so who would ever want a house like that?

And so you eliminate that, and you say, and his wife, well, she's kind of a hag, and she's definitely not my type, and you know, and so you rule her out, and so you go down the list, and he doesn't have any servants, so there's not even an issue there.

And the next thing you're saying is, well, wait a minute, he doesn't have animals, except that one dog, and he's a barking dog, and quite an annoyance, to say the least, and so I definitely don't want him, you know.

And so you rule it all out, and then, and then, he says here, or anything else of your neighbors. And let's expand that, because, see, in the story when Jesus was telling them to love your neighbor, the thing they were trying to get out of in that story was, well, wait a minute, we're good to our neighbors, and Jesus wanted them to see, your neighbor is anybody, so he gave them the story, he gave them the story of the Good Samaritan.

And he said, look, your neighbor is anybody that happens to cross paths with you anywhere on planet Earth, that's a neighbor, it's someone else that you're, that you share this planet with is a neighbor, and it's just a matter of how you interact with them.

But he's saying that we're not to covet, now covet is that evil desire to want what is not yours, and to want to take it from them. It's entirely different than seeing that somebody is driving a car that you like, or somebody has a house that you like, and you admire that for what it is, and you recognize, well, that's, I didn't even realize that kind of car was available, but now that I see it, I realize that's a good car, I'd like a car like that car, but I don't want their car, I'm not begrudging them of having it, and yet, what does the Lord say?

He says, rejoice with those who rejoice, but weep with those who weep. So, we can kind of have compassion and weep with those who weep, but what about when somebody has occasion for rejoicing, you know, what about when they get the new car, or what about when you find out that they got healed, but you didn't get healed, or when they got blessed, but you didn't get blessed, it's a little more difficult, see, because you want what they've got, and if you're not careful, you'll cross that fine line into coveting, and you'll become jealous of them, and you'll become covetous of them, and you won't be able to be content in who you are in Christ, and in what you've got in Him.

He says, and having food and rain, food and clothing that is, let's therewith be content. Be content with such things as you have, He says to us. Now that's not to say we can't want other things, but there's a vast difference in just wanting it in that broader sense of desire, and that evil kind of desire that causes us to crave it, to be consumed by it, to be driven by it, and to be overcome by it.

I mean, we can get blown all out of proportion about stuff, and what He's saying is here, don't let stuff rule your life, because that stuff becomes your God, that's what you live for. How many a person has slaved to buy certain products in life, certain material possessions, or been devastated when it was lost or stolen?

And so He's saying, guard against being caught up in that realm of things, don't covet. But Paul says, but wait a minute, I was doing pretty good, until one day, the Holy Spirit, I believe, caused him to reassess what the Word of God really says, because he knew it, he knew it up here.

And his desire was to do what was right. So here's a man who by his knowledge of the law, and his firm conviction to live according to the law, and his deep desire and devotion to honor the Lord Jesus in his life as a new creation, but still we find him struggling.

And that's why when he's saying he's a wretched man that I am, because for instance, he talks a lot about what he knows in regard to the law, he says in verse 12, for instance, he says the law is holy, the commandment is holy, it is just and it's good.

He says this is what I know. He says these are the things I know about God and His Word. And then he talks all about what he knows here, and then he says, for instance, he says there in verse 25, he says, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God.

He says, hey, I'm in agreement. According to my knowledge of the law and my mind, that's what I know to be right and that's what I agree is right. And then he says, but with my flesh, the law of sin. So what we have here is a man who has tried the two basic resources that God has given to all humanity.

Knowledge and Willpower Cannot Deliver

Let's go back to verse 18. He says, I know that in me dwells no good thing, and then he says, for to will is present with me. See, he's saying to will is present with me. And then he asks the question, how to perform that which is good?

I find not. So he's saying now, my problem is not that I don't know what's right, I know. He's saying my problem is not that I don't know the truth of God's Word or that I don't concur that it's right or valid, and furthermore, he says, I want what God wants.

He says, I have a will to do what is right and true according to God's Word. So what he's told us here is the two main elements that we as humans have that we operate according to is mind control and willpower.

So how many times have you heard your parent perhaps or someone else say, just put your mind to it. You can do it. Just put your mind to it. If you want it bad enough, just, you know, it's got to be a matter of will control.

You got to have some discipline here. Just make the right choices. And what are we teaching them? We're teaching them how to live on the human plane using knowledge, the intellect, the mind, and the will.

And what Paul has really done for us in Romans 7 that brings him to the place of the wretched man is, as this new man in Christ, he's trying to do the same way he did when he was the Pharisee of the Pharisees.

As a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he put his mind to work. And as a brilliant mind, gifted of God, he learned everything there was to learn about God and his word. Then he further disciplined himself by willpower and by making the right choices so that he was doing all the right things externally.

That's why when Jesus comes to address the different religious leaders and specifically targets the Pharisees, he's not putting them down. They were the best of the good guys. They did the best they could with what they knew.

They were meticulous to a fault. And it was at that point of to a fault that Jesus was trying to say, but you've made that the sum total of what God is all about and you've missed God. You've been straining at the net and you've swallowed the camel and you've missed the essence of God and who he is and what he's about.

He said, you've been busy about keeping the letter of the law, but the letter of the law kills only the spirit of God. Only the spirit of the law can give life. So now Paul has really just shown us here that he's a wretched man because he has tried the things that he thought would make him good and right.

Laodicea and the Illusion of Spiritual Prosperity

Now let me just give this to you in a little different way. Let's jump over to Revelation chapter 3 and let's look at it here in verse 17. We're going to find this same word showing up again, the word wretched.

Revelation 3 .17 is addressing the church at Laodicea, which was one of the cities there in the region and it was a Gentile city and there were these believers gathered there. This is where they lived, both Jew and Gentile, now born again believers in Christ.

They're living in this very prosperous city and so he addresses them by saying this, you say I am rich. You say I am increased with goods. You say I have need of nothing, but what you don't know, he says, what you don't know, you think you know, but you don't know, and this is what you don't know, he said.

You don't know that you are wretched. See there's our word, you are wretched. That is, you are hopeless, you are helpless, you are really in this deplorable state, but because you appear to be rich and you have increased with goods and you think you don't have need of anything, you think you're okay, because you look above average, which is what you don't realize is you're wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, blind and naked.

Now there's no doubt that at that time the Laodiceans were people that were fortunate enough to live in a region that was prosperous at that time, but that's somewhat beside the point because what he's really addressing here is the fact that they were thinking about this in spiritual terms.

Now we can look at it in one or two ways. First of all, it would be like if you begin to be blessed materially and you begin to see some of your prayers answered. And so your assumption then is, well, I'm rich and I'm prosperous and I don't need anything because look, God is blessing me and I've got all these material possessions.

And so you begin to assume, well, that must mean I'm okay, that must mean I'm really doing good here, because God is sanctioning my life because look, he's blessing me. And see that was the misnomer that Jesus came to try to counteract that was going on under the old covenant.

The misnomer that prosperity equated God's sanction on your life. And that was erroneous. For instance, let's think of the Israelite nation there under slavery and bondage in Egypt. And God came along in his mercy and grace at the appropriate time, sent Moses.

Moses shows up on the scene as a man of faith, believes God, steps out by faith, goes up against the Pharaoh. This amazing, humongous miracle, none like it ever has occurred since. The whole nation bows down to this man named Moses.

The whole nation subjects themselves. So all of a sudden these people who are over here murmuring and complaining and wanting to stone Moses and kill him or at least get rid of him, now are amazed that all of a sudden they've rolled out the red carpet and here these people are lavished with wealth because as they were allowed freedom from their slavery and allowed to leave, they didn't just have to kind of slink out the back door.

They sent them out in regal style because they blessed them with all the wealth. They gave them all this jewelry and gold and they had all this good stuff they blessed them with. So these people now are going out, prosperous and wealthy, assuming, wow, we must be something special.

We are really God's chosen people. And look at the result. I mean, and after all, our fathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that makes us really quality people here and let's don't look too far away because the attitude was constantly murmuring and complaining.

Every time some little obstacle came up, they got down on Moses, they got down, well, you know, we don't have any water, you've sent us out here to die in the wilderness, you know, we don't have any food to eat, we're tired of this manor, it didn't matter what it was, they murmured and complained about everything.

And yet they were blessed and even their shoes did not wear out as they journeyed through this wilderness wandering for 40 years. And they were protected every step of the way, blessed, none of the diseases of Egypt, I mean, and here today in the church as believers, if we get those kind of things going on in our life, we immediately think, well, man, we must be doing pretty good.

But that's the misnomer that he says here in Revelation. You Laodiceans have got it together and you've experienced God's blessing and prosperity and you therefore assume that must mean you're on track.

And you can talk about all your stuff you have as a new creation and here, let me, we're changing over to the new creation now, so we've moved from old covenant to new. And so now as Christians, what do we do?

Well, we're blessed in a day where there's a lot of good teaching about the new covenant. Okay, so we get all these teachings. So we have, for instance, many different forms of so-called new creation confessions.

And these are a list of various things that the Bible says that are now true about you as a new creation. What would be some of them? Let's do some examples. Anybody think of one? Oh, come in and go on, okay, but as a new creation, what are some things?

Are you forgiven? So you're forgiven. You're accepted. You're loved. This is a new creation. You're a saint. Wow. No more sinner. Now you're a saint. You're righteous. All these things are true about you.

So this is your new creation status. And so what we do is we go around making these positive confessions. I am this and I am that and I am this and I am that, 100 correct, except, except, where's the fruit?

Except, show me the money. Put up or shut up. He says, you don't realize you're really poor, you're really still impoverished, because while you're saying all these things, and they are true, you are not living up to that.

It's not working in your life. It's not manifesting. There's no real fruit of it. Oh yes, sporadically, occasionally, here and there. Now you can show all the prosperous blessings and say all these things you have and how that God has done for you, and he's, yes, all that's true, but that doesn't make you who you are, nor is it a sign or a signal that God somehow sanctions your life.

Because as Jesus said, let's look at the attitude here. Let's check out what's really going on. Not to negate anything that God has made available to us as a new creation. It's all true. But the real issue is always about the walk and the life.

And so he's simply saying here, as new creations, yes, you are, in fact, rich, you are increased with goods. It is true, you don't need anything as a new creation. You have everything you need. But be that as it may, are you living from your new creation self, or are you still living from the outer man, trying to imitate and emulate, rather than allowing that life which is in you to be manifest through you?

Corinthian Knowledge Without Spiritual Fruit

The Apostle Paul made an interesting comment to the Corinthian church. The Corinthian church, in a lot of ways, parallels the Laodicean church. For instance, in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, he tells us something about these people.

Quite an eye-opener, in fact. He says that the church at Corinth, verse 2, they are the church of God at Corinth. They are sanctified. Then he goes on down, and he says, now grace be unto you, but then he goes to verse 4, the grace of God given you by Christ, that in everything, now verse 5, now this is exactly what we're talking about in the Laodiceans.

In everything you are enriched. In all utterance, in all knowledge, even in, you know, the very testimony of Christ has confirmed that that's the truth. That's what God did for you in Christ. As a new creation, you have been enriched.

And such that he says in verse 7, you come behind in no gift. Now he says that's all the case. That you're sons of God, you're daughters of God, you're the children of God. You're redeemed, born again.

Okay, all that. Now over here, though, he gets a little further into this, just in chapter 4. So, he says in verse 8, now you are full, okay, now you're full, now you're rich. You have reigned as kings without us.

So that's another thing we are. As a new creation, under the new covenant, we're kings and priests. So he says, you have reigned with kings without us. You're full and you're rich. But then he says, but I would to God that you did reign.

He said, now look, all that's true about you. And you go around talking a good game. I mean, everybody can talk a good game. Monday morning quarterbacks, there's plenty of them. There's a lot of things we could say about what the Falcons could or should have done.

Okay, we could all do that. But he's saying, you tasted of something and you walked in a measure of it. But he says, we're walking on here. We're going on with God. And we are walking as kings and priests in the earth.

He says, we are living out of our new creation self, but you have somehow missed it. You've got just enough, you know, what we say, you know enough to be dangerous. You've got a glimpse of this and a taste of it, but you didn't really see the essence of it.

So all you can do is talk about it. And knowledge only puffs up. So what we have is a very educated Christian community. And thank God for that. But it's got to go beyond education. Because all education can do, all knowledge can do is give you information.

And the Apostle Paul was saying about his own life, look, he says, I was well informed. Let's go back to Romans 7. He says, I was well informed. And I knew all the right stuff. So in verse 24, O wretched man that I am, 724, who should deliver me from the body of this death?

And he moves quickly to Romans 25, verse 25, and he tells us the who. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, we all would say, well, he should have known that. Well, he did know that. He knew it, but he didn't really know it.

That's why when he goes back here and says, I didn't know what it meant to lust until I saw the commandment, said thou shalt not covet. And then I knew. So he said, I knew about it. I knew about it in understanding intellectually.

But then there was a knowing where I came to experientially come to the realization of what that means, and not just what it means out there somewhere, but what it means in my life. And suddenly the dawn, O wretched man that I am.

Falling Down and the Discovery of Personal Guilt

There was a movie a number of years ago. The title of the movie was called Falling Down. The story was about a man who was just a good, hardworking middle class or average citizen or whatever you want to put him, businessman.

But little by little, he began to be perturbed and put out and frustrated with the system at every level. Whether it was at home or at work with the boss or the government, it was just one big mess, as far as he could see it, of injustice and indifference.

And the heightened frustration finally caused him to start acting out in ways that caused him to react to all this. And little by little, he kept pushing the envelope until all of a sudden one day the authorities came, the police, and they showed up and they surrounded him and he found himself being arrested.

And in shocked amazement, he said, what? You mean I'm the bad guy? I'm the bad guy? How can this be? All these other people have ripped me off. I mean, I've had people steal from me. I've had people, you know, do treacherous things.

And these are the criminals. And yet, why am I the one who's getting arrested here? Of course, he had crossed the line too. But it was so subtle and gradual in his mind justified that it made it seem right.

In reality, he was the bad guy in that sense in terms of his conduct. And that's what Paul is saying about the wretched man. He's not saying that he himself is wretched. When he describes wretched man, he's talking about the state he's in of misery, of disgust, at the fact that knowing what I know, he says, having a heart for God as I do, how could I still continue to say and do things or at least have an attitude, a thought, a disposition, inward feelings to the contrary?

How could I still be in this other realm, which I hate so intently? And yet, here it is consuming me on the inside. Not looking good on the outside, but on the inside. And I can remember in my own life being in that same situation and talking to a friend about it who seemed to have the secret best I could tell.

He lived in this amazing simplicity in Christ, joy of the Lord, talking about love of Jesus. It was just obvious he did. Now, I love the Lord too. That was the mix for me. How could I, loving God as I do, still be thinking, saying, and even doing things that I know are not of God and, in fact, are displeasing to God?

And I was crushed and grieved by that. And yet, I would see this other guy and I would say, well, he seems to be so joyful and he's obviously victorious. And I had to come to grips with the fact I was defeated.

And I was miserable. I was not the good guy I thought I was as a Christian. I was the chiefest of sinners in the sense of I was the chiefest of the wretched man or woman or boy or girl, okay? But I was the chiefest in my eyes suddenly.

Holiness, Humility, and Deliverance in Christ

And that's where it has to come to. You know, we're in a day and age where Christianity is sort of a smorgasbord take it or leave it in the way most of it's presented and the way most of us approach it.

And so I'm saying that's a dangerous place to get to because we lose sight of God's holiness and his greatness and his majesty and the awesomeness of his glory such that we just sort of take him as one of the guys.

Now no doubt there's a truth to that, no doubt. Jesus was a friend of sinners. He hung out with the disciples. He prepared a meal for them in the Sea of Galilee. He washed their feet. But let us never ever forget he is the Lord of glory, high and lifted up, the great and mighty God.

As a young man in seminary we went through an exercise in one of the classes and they wanted us to try to see what different ways we might illustrate to the teenagers. It was a youth class. How could you portray God?