Sermon: The Believer and Sin (Pt 3)

The Believer and Sin (Pt. 3)
Romans 7:14-25
August 5, 2018

As I have told my wife (though she already knew), I am impatient. I want things done quickly.

• I want a 24-hour virus to go away in six hours.
• I want one-day dry cleaning done in four hours and one-hour dry-cleaning in 15 minutes.
• I want fast food to be faster food.
• I want to speed-read books (I have listened to some audio books at 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 speed to get through them more quickly).
• I want tomorrow’s tasks to be done yesterday (though too often yesterday’s tasks are done tomorrow).
• And I want the process of sanctification to be done. Today.

Most of us are impatient with sanctification. We want to be holy but we don’t want to go through the hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly process of becoming holy. We want to be holy now.   And that mindset has likely been part of what has generated some false teaching about sanctification, like a second act of grace and perfectionism.

But in his sovereign wisdom, God has mandated that the process of sanctification will take time. It will take the hourly and daily application of the word of God to hundreds of decisions and thoughts and actions we make each day and it will require those daily actions to be repeated for years and decades to cement and seal our sanctification. And no matter how mature we become, there will still always be remaining sin in us. And it is the reality of that remaining sin that Paul addresses in Romans 7:14-25.

In these verses, Paul says that like the battle a homeowner might have with an illegal squatter,

The believer’s life is a battle against remaining sin.

We are looking at this passage now for the third time. We have seen two laments by the apostle Paul about the spiritual life and our battle with sin; and today we will see the believer’s hope and the believer’s reality.

1. The Believer’s Lament: I Do What I Hate (vv. 14-17)
2. The Believer’s Lament: I Don’t Do What I Love (vv. 18-20)
3. The Believer’s Hope: Jesus Sets Us Free (vv. 21-25a)
4. The Believer’s Reality: Loving God and Battling Sin (v. 25b)

Download the rest of this sermon on Romans 7:14-25.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.