THE BATTLE WITHIN!!!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Old Testament Lesson; Zechariah
9:9-12
Gospel Lesson; Matthew
11:25-30
Sermon Text; Romans
7:15-25
Today, we are going to make a comparison between two imaginary individuals, teenager one and teenager two. Let us assume that teenager one is an unbeliever and teenager two is a believer.
In our first comparison, teenager one is driving his car, when all of a sudden someone pulls out, right in front of him, causing him to slam on his brakes. He yells out a string of profanities and swears, making jesters at that person who pulled out in front of him, because after all, being a non-Christian, he is free to say and do whatever he wants.
Teenager two is Christian. The same exact thing happens to him. A car pulls out, right in front of him. He slams on his brakes. And, even though on the inside, he has the tendency to want to say profane things and swear, he holds back, because he feels as if he is restricted from saying and doing things that would go against his Savior.
In our next comparison, teenager one is invited to a party. He is told that at this party he will be able to drink and even get wasted. Teenager one, being a non-Christian is free. He is free to go to the party, drink, get drunk and wasted. He can even be involved in things that happen, when you lose control of your senses. He is free.
Teenager two is invited to the same party. He hears what is going to go on. Being a Christian, he feels as though he is not free to go. He feels restricted, out of love for his Savior. And, so he stays home with his family instead.
In our third comparison, teenager one goes on a date. The girl that he is with invites him to partake in privileges that only belong to those who are married. Teenager one is free. He is free to do whatever he wants. And so, he takes advantage of that young woman.
Teenager two goes out on date with that same person, at another time. She invites him to partake of privileges that only belong to those who are married. But, he feels restricted, out of love for his Savior. And so, he does not take advantage of that young woman.
In our last comparison, teenager one is invited to go out fishing, on a Sunday morning. He is free. He is free to do whatever he wants. And so, he goes fishing on that Sunday morning.
Whereas, teenager two is invited to do the same thing, on that Sunday morning. But out of love for his Savior, he feels restricted and feels as if he should go to church. And so instead of going fishing he goes to church.
Now if the world would look at that scenario, they would look at us, as Christians, and say, "Why would I want to be a Christian? I am free. I am free to do whatever I want. Why would I want to be a Christian and be restricted from doing all of the things that I want to do?"
And, maybe in our hearts, we have even thought that very question to ourselves. Why do I want to be Christian, because then I am not free to do all of the things that I want to do?
Can I let you in on a little "secret"? That picture I just gave to you is all wrong.
It is not the unbeliever who is free.
It is the unbeliever
who is a captive.
It is the unbeliever
who doesn’t have any freedom at all!
The Bible tells us that unbelievers are in the trap of the Devil and they are captive to sin. They have no choice, but to follow their sinful nature. And, so when the unbeliever goes to that party and gets wasted, when the unbeliever takes advantage of someone else, when the unbeliever skips church and neglects God’s Word on a Sunday morning, or when the unbeliever uses profanity, it is not because they are free. It is because they are captive to sin.
And, on the other hand, when a believer chooses not to do those wrong things, it is because a believer has been set free. A believer is someone who knows that Jesus has died for their sins, knows that their savior has saved them, knows that The New Man has come forth in them, and out of love for their Savior are free not to sin!
I don’t have to get wasted. I am free to live for my Savior!
I don’t have to neglect church on Sunday morning. I am free not to sin. I am free to go and worship my Savior!
I don’t have to use profanity. I am free not to sin. I have been set free!
Our scripture readings today, all talk about the freedom from captivity that Christ has given to us. The Bible says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." I am free not to sin. Now, given that freedom, we as Christians, have the freedom not to sin. I want you to look at our scripture reading, from Romans, Chapter 7, verses 15-25. In these verses, Paul is thinking about the freedom he has, not to sin. Listen to how Paul starts out with this verse "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do." Then he goes on and says, "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do, is not the good that I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing."
Paul is talking about the struggle that is taking place in his life. He knows that he has been set free, not to sin. Paul is puzzled and he is perplexed. He says, "If I have been set free, I don’t understand myself. Why is it that I still find myself committing sins?"
And, who of us here hasn’t time, after time, after time, after time, found ourselves saying, "Why did I just do what I did? How could have I been so stupid? How could have I gone against my Savior in that way? How could have I done that again, and again, and again?" And, we wonder, because we know that we are free, not to sin. We are free to do what is right. Christ has set me free. "Why do I do, what I don’t want to do?" That is what Paul is talking about here. "Why do I abuse the freedom Christ has given to me?"
He goes on and answers why. He says, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature."
That is a powerful statement from scripture. Paul is reminding us there that as Christians, we actually have two natures. Number one, we have a sinful nature and that is what we were born with. The Bible tells us, "Behold I was sinful at birth. Sinful from the time that my mother conceived me." The Bible tells us, "Every inclination of man’s heart is evil, even from his youth." The Bible says, "The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know it?"
And, we have that sinful nature. Our sinful nature will not be converted. You need to know that. Your sinful nature will not be converted, until the day that you die. It is going to be with you, for the rest of your life.
Your sinful nature hates what God loves, and it loves what God hates. It does not want to listen to God and it does not want to do God’s Will. It wants to be proud. It wants to be selfish. It wants to be arrogant. It wants to lust. It wants to be greedy. It wants to be envious. It wants to be jealous. It wants to set itself up on a pedestal. It does not want to follow God’s way for salvation. It may follow some other way, but it does not want to follow God. That is our sinful nature. Our sinful nature is captive. It is captive to sin. It can do nothing but sin.
On the other hand, a Christian is someone who knows that Jesus died for all of my sins, has forgiven me of all of my sins, and knows He will never hold my sins against me. And, a Christian is someone who believes that. A Christian is someone who knows that we have been set free from our sin and guilt. The Bible describes a Christian as someone who has a New Man of faith, who lives in me, by faith. And, that New Man is the opposite of the Old Man, The Old Adam. The New Man is perfectly in line with God’s Will. It loves what God loves. It hates what God hates. It wants to be kind. It wants to be generous. It wants to be giving. It wants to be faithful. It wants to be loving. Our New Man is free. It is free not to sin! However, we do have those two natures at war in our hearts.
So many times in our lives, as Christians, we find ourselves, puzzled over ourselves. We look at ourselves, and we think, "How could I just do, what I just did? I am free not to sin.
How could I listen to gossip about someone? I didn’t want to do that. I know my Savior died for my sins. He paid the price, and I want to live for my savior. Why didn’t I use my freedom not to sin?
I don’t want to be proud and arrogant. Why was I just proud and arrogant? I am free to be humble. I have been set free from sin. Why didn’t I do what my Savior wants me to do?
Why did I just lose my temper? That is captivity to sin. I know that my Savior has forgiven me of all sins. He paid the price and I want to be loving and gentle. Why did I do what I just did?
There is a battle in the life of a Christian, to use our freedom not to sin, or not use our freedom not to sin. And as long as that battle is going on in your life, that is a good sign. That is a good sign that you are still a believer in your Savior.
If you, in your heart, don’t feel a battle going on between good and evil, then you better go home today, look in the mirror and take a good hard look, because one of two things is happening. Either you have died and you are in Heaven, that battle is over, you are totally perfect in God’s eyes and you are totally, freely, following the Will of God. Or, you have lost your Christian faith, the New Man in you is dead and all that is left in you is the Old Man, who feels totally free to follow sin.
That battle in the life of a Christian is going to go on. And, we will find ourselves time, after time, asking ourselves, "Why didn’t I use my Christian freedom not to sin?" In fact, if you look at the back of today’s bulletin, Paul says, "What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?" His conscience troubled him. And our conscience troubles us. His conscience troubled him because even though he was free not to sin, he still committed sins. And, our conscience bothers us. I am free not to sin. Christ has set me free! But, I still find myself sinning.
And, our conscience weighs us down and it burdens us. It causes us to see that even though I am a believer in my Savior I don’t deserve to be saved. I don’t deserve to have Him love me or take me to our home in Heaven.
To anyone who feels that burden, Christ has set you free! And, you need to know that! He set you free in three different ways. The first way is this.
I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the Norwegian artist by the name of Thorvoldson. One day (about 100 years ago) he was in his art studio. He had just finished sculpting out of clay a stature of Christ, with His hands upraised in blessing, over the people. Thorvoldson went home that evening to allow his clay statue of Christ to dry. Because the arms were so heavy and they were still wet, they moved down, during that evening.
The next day, when Thorvoldson came back to his studio, he opened the door and there he saw the arms of Christ down, instead of upraised in blessing. And, of course they had dried like that.
At first his heart sunk.
But then, when he looked at that statue he thought, "What a beautiful, beautiful statue! It looks as though Christ is saying,
"Come unto me,
all you who are weary and burdened, and
I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and
learn of me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and
my burden is light."
Anyone whose conscience bothers them, who has fallen into sin, over and over again, can find comfort is what Jesus says. He says, "Come onto me, all you who are weary, and burdened. Come."
And we come. We come, don’t we? We come to Him with willing feet. We run to Him to be set free from the captivity of our guilt. There we see Jesus’ inviting arms. We hear Him say, ‘Come onto me, for I am humble. I am humble. I am not proud. I am not arrogant. I am humble and I put your needs before my own. I will sacrifice whatever it takes, to meet your needs."
And, he did just that, when he died for our sins. He says, "Come onto me, for I am gentle. I am gentle. It is not my nature to want to hurt you or cause you harm. It is my nature to be gracious, kind, loving and forgiving. Come onto me."
And, we come to Jesus.
He says to us, "If you need to be perfect to get to Heaven, and you can’t be perfect on your own, then here, take my holy life. It is yours. And, we cling to that, with our arms of faith. There we see that because of Jesus’ perfect life, God sees me as if I chose freely not to sin all of my life! That is how God sees me, by grace! That is awesome!
And, it is awesome to know that, as we look at Jesus’ cross, and we throw our arms around His cross, by faith, Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
And, when we take Jesus’ cross on our shoulders, it doesn’t weigh us down. It doesn’t burden us, like our guilt does. It lifts us up. It sets us free from our guilt. My sins have all been paid for, on the cross. God is never, ever going to hold my guilt against me. God is never, ever going to be angry with me, because of what Jesus did on the cross. Brothers and Sisters, we are free! Christ has set us free from the captivity of our guilt!
Number two. Paul says, "Oh wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Even though I am free from my guilt, I still find myself falling into sin, not using my freedom not to sin. Paul says, "Who is going to rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
A few chapters later, in Romans, he looks forward to that day we are in Heaven, and are fully, totally set free. Our sinful nature will be annihilated. It will be gone. We will be totally free not to sin, for Christ’s sake. We will be totally free to love what God loves, and hate what God hates. And, we will be kind, gentle and helpful, for all eternity! And, with that come all the blessings and joys that go along with not sinning. We are looking forward to that day, Brothers and Sisters when we have freedom! But, until that day comes, God sees me for Christ’s sake as holy and forgiven. And, one day He is going to set me totally free in Heaven.
Until that day comes, there is another freedom I have in Christ. I am free because Christ lives in me. I am free to suppress the sinful nature that lives in me. At the very end of our service Pastor Tweit says, "May I be perfected in holiness." I know that I am not going to be holy in this life. But our prayer is that we learn to suppress that sinful nature more and more, so that we use our freedom not to sin, more and more.
How does that happen in the life of a Christian? It happens by repentance. I am sorry that I have sinned, but I believe in You, my Savior. I know that I am forgiven and now I want to live for you.
And, it happens by using God’s Word and Sacrament.
What is it that makes my New Man stronger? It is the Word. That is the food that he lives on and thrives on. And, when I use the Word, the New Man grows stronger and is more able to suppress my sinful nature. When we come to the Sacrament of the Alter, it is not just for the forgiveness of your sins, but also for the strengthening of your New Man, so that you can go out and suppress that sinful nature and chose to live in freedom not to sin.
And, it happens through prayer. Praying to God will enable you to fight those temptations that you know are in your life. Pray to God that He will give you strength through His Word.
Brothers and sisters,
we are free!
Christ has freed us from our guilt!
Teenager Two is free. He is free from his guilt, because he believes in Jesus, as his Savior. He has freedom coming, when he gets to Heaven. He will have total freedom not to sin. And, in this life, he may fall into sin (and we do that often), but he is free to repent and trust in his Savior. He is free to go forward and grow everyday in holiness, suppressing that sinful nature and choosing the freedom not to sin.
May God grant that strength to all of us, for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.
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