PENTECOST 7
July 31/August 1, 2011
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: Romans 7:15-25

“HELP!”
1. We are in a fix.
2. That we can’t fix.
3. But Jesus is the fix.

Romans 7:15-25a (NIV 1984) “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

If you have been following along in the readings from Romans each Sunday in July you noticed a distinct progression in how the Holy Spirit had Paul write that letter. Romans 4: We are justified by faith alone. Perfect obedience is credited to us. Romans 5: This is all because of God’s great love for sinners and accomplished by the God/man Jesus Christ. Romans 6: Last week. Our response to free forgiveness. Keeping sinning? No way! Look at what being connect to Jesus through Baptism has done. We get to live for Him. Now, Romans 7. This word of God speaks to the heart of Christians who get all of that, who want to live their lives for Jesus and still struggle with sin. It speaks to our angst and shame of believers who feel bad about sin, who are disappointed in themselves that they can’t do a better job living for Jesus, who perhaps are fighting sins that have addictive characteristics like sins involving drug or alcohol abuse or sexual sinning. It speaks to believers feel shame over weakness, who know and love Jesus and want to give Him the perfect obedience He deserves. Hopefully then this word of God speaks to all of us here and has some wonderful news. But just in case it doesn’t, I need to say, this word of God does not speak to those who are better at seeing the sins of other people than their own. It does not speak to those who are OK with sin in their lives or are coddling some sinful habit or deliberately living in a sinful situation. It that describes you I have a different message from God today. Wake up! You are in great danger. You are either spiritually asleep heading to the death of Hell that knows no end. Or, if you are better at seeing other people’s sins than you own and more bothered about what they do, you are well on your way to becoming the Pharisee that no longer needs a Savior and will find yourself without one. If you don’t care about sin in your life and are OK living that way you are slaying the Holy Spirit who lives in you and He may already be dead to you. Repent while you can!
Hopefully no one here needed to hear that. Hopefully we all belong to that first group that hates sin and loves Jesus so let’s turn our attention back to the word of God before us that could be summarized with the one word Help! “Help!” we cry out to God because we are in a fix. God had the Apostle Paul write these words. If our historians are correct Paul had been a Christian for about twenty years by this time. If you remember, early in his life as Saul he had been an eminent Pharisee who worked very hard at outwardly obeying the law. Now the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of a Savior, forgiveness granted freely through faith in Christ Jesus, had been working in Paul’s heart for a long time. He understood he was saved by grace through faith and he wanted to live his life to show love for Jesus. And yet listen again to his struggle. “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” “Help!” cries Paul. He was in a fix. Sin lived in him and corrupted him, warring against his desire to please Jesus. Weakness was a part of him and so he fell into sin even though he knew better.
Paul was in a fix, the same kind you and I are in. When I teach the Bible Information Class I tell the people that the longer I know Jesus, the better I know Him, the more I love Him, the more sinful I become. Now don’t worry. This is no made for Jerry Springer pastor confessional. Hopefully if you followed me around all day you would not hear me say any sinful words. Hopefully if you followed me around all day you would not see me do any sinful actions. That doesn’t mean there is no sin. It lives in me just like it lives in you and the more you know and love Jesus the more you know the holiness and perfection He deserves and desires and the more you realize how far short you fall from the glory of God. We are the people of God. We know God’s will better than probably 99% of Americans and we still keep sinning. Help! We are in a fix.
Naturally when you are in a fix you try to fix it. We do that with all sorts of things. If you are a piano player and you keep hitting a sour note you practice until you get it right. A basketball player who keeps missing free throws tries again and shoots more to get it right. If you get a bad performance review at work you need to work harder. Naturally that’s what we try with the problem of sin. Our first instinct is to try harder or expect others to worker harder. So if you are struggling with a certain sin you try harder to stop that sin. Let’s say you’ve got a potty mouth that says words that offend God so you try to control your language and you do. It works! But have you noticed that just when you seem to get one sin kicked another one pops up. It’s like playing the arcade whack a mole game. Just when you smack one down another mole pops only it’s not a game and it’s sin, not fake moles. Even trying to run away from sin doesn’t always work. In the late 300’s AD there was a monk known as Simon Stylites. He started a practice known as pole-sitting. This meant living on a small platform atop a pole, all by yourself. The idea was that if you isolated yourself from all the temptations present living with other people you could fix the problem of sin. Of course it didn’t work because no matter where Simon lived sin lived in him. So it is with you and me. Paul explains it further. “Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”
We are in a fix that we can’t fix. We feel like the Apostle Paul, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death”?
Jesus will! “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Just because we are in a fix that we can’t fix doesn’t mean there is no fix. Help we cry to the Lord and before we called He already answered! God sent Jesus to rescue us from sin. He is the fix for sin. For every heart that feels horrible over sin hear God’s Good News for you. He forgives you. Each and every one of your sins. Even the ones you aren’t aware of. God did not despise you in your weakness like we so often despise others who struggle with sins we don’t. Instead He loved you and had Jesus come. Jesus took every one of your sins on Himself. He was fully punished on the cross. He is the fix for your sin. Your struggles with sin will not last forever. At the time of your death or Jesus’ return on Judgment Day God will kill your old Adam, your sinful nature for good. It will no longer be a part of you. Jesus is your fix. He has taken care of your sin problem even though it is not always evident in your life. It’s what will motivate you to keep trying hard to cut sin out of your life.
You noticed what that moved Paul to do. Thanks be to God. Thanks. It’s thankfulness in our hearts that motivates us to continue to struggle against sin. Even though we know we cannot attain perfection this side of heaven. Even though we know we are in a whack a sin game where when one is beaten down another will come to tempt and vex us, even though we know we can’t fix ourselves, we strive to fight sin because it says Thank you to Jesus. It says, “Jesus I value so much what you have done for me that I will fight that sin you paid for with every bit of strength you provide.” And you know what else? Jesus is your fix there too. He lives in you. Turn to Him in repentance and see that you don’t’ have to go on sinning. Even those sins with addictive qualities or characteristics must bow before the King of kings and Lord of Lords. So sin is not your master. Jesus is. With His help you win. So what else is there to say but, “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Amen.