Sermon - What a wretched man I am
�What a wretched man I am� (Restoring the balance)
Niel Anderson taught us in our series �Breaking through to spiritual maturity� last year, that we are �No longer sinners, but saints that occasionally sin.� He�s right, we are no longer sinners but saints and that is what the bible teaches. I don�t know about you, but the reality is I more than occasionally sin! A balance in teaching is needed between those that teach that by nature we are so sin ridden that it produces no expectation of victorious living, and those that emphasis the teaching of our victory in Christ with its expectation of victory rather than failure in our lives. (Triumphalism) Not living up to that victorious life leads to constantly being in a state of feeling guilty and a failure! I may have so emphasised the truth of our victory in Jesus so as to leave you feeling so guilty because you do not live up to that standard of victorious Christian living therefore leaving you constantly feeling a failure. That�s not helpful!
Romans chapter 7 helps us to get the balance right and teaches us the reality of Christian living. The first half of
The second half of
Can we have victory over sin? Yes! Jesus has set us free! �We have everything we need to live the Holy life� the apostle Peter writes! Everything has been done for us at the cross! But the reality is that we now have two natures in us, Gods in the depth of our being by the presence of the Holy Spirit and wanting to retrain us to rule our lives in righteousness and purity after Gods standard, what we call the �new nature�, and the old nature still in our minds and flesh and still wanting to dominate. There is a struggle going on as we are being renewed each day after the image of Jesus! That�s the reality that makes Paul see his wretchedness as he gives way to sinful habits that he does not have to give way to anymore.
We need to realise for our comfort that God planned and understands our struggle! We need to see what we are in terms of the old nature so that we might be more thankful for the new! So that we are constantly giving thanks for what we have been saved from and therefore more determined to reckon ourselves dead to sins power and enjoy our freedom! It is in a sense a good thing to feel the failure in our lives acutely, but not in a way that makes guilt dominate in our lives and therefore hinders our usefulness in the kingdom!
One early 20thC Christian preacher called Arthur Pink says, �This moan, �O wretched man that I am,� expresses the normal experience of the Christian, and any Christian who does not so moan is in an abnormal and unhealthy state spiritually. The man who does not utter this cry daily is either so out of communion with Christ, or so ignorant of the teaching of Scripture, or so deceived about his actual condition, that he knows not the corruptions of his own heart and the abject failure of his own life.� He continues, �The one who bows to the solemn and searching teaching of God�s Word, the one who there learns the awful wreckage which sin has wrought in the human constitution, the one who sees the exalted standard of holiness which God has set before us, cannot fail to discover what a vile wretch he is. If he is given to behold how far short he falls of attaining to God�s standard; if, in the light of the divine sanctuary, he discovers how little he resembles the Christ of God; then will he find this language most suited to express his godly sorrow. If God reveals to him the coldness of his love, the pride of his heart, the wanderings of his mind, the evil that defiles his godliest acts, he will cry, �O wretched man that I am.� � If he is conscious of his ingratitude, of how little he appreciates God�s daily mercies; if he marks the absence of that deep and genuine fervour which ought ever to characterize his praise and worship of that One who is �glorious in holiness;� if he recognizes that sinful spirit of rebellion, which so often causes him to murmur or at least chafe against the dispensations of God in his daily life; if he attempts to tabulate not only the sins of commission but the sins of omission, of which he is daily guilty, he will indeed cry, �O wretched man that I am.�
Saints of old new this struggle with failure in their lives and I could quote from several if there were time. But a couple will do today. The great 18thC preacher and hymn writer John Newton, who gave us the words �Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see;� when referring to the expectations which he cherished at the outset of his Christian life, wrote: �But alas! these my golden expectations have been like
Then there is the great Victorian preacher CH Spurgeon who said in a sermon, �There are some professing Christians who can speak of themselves in terms of admiration; but, from my inmost heart, I loathe such speeches more and more every day that I live. Those who talk in such a boastful fashion must be constituted very differently from me. While they are congratulating themselves, I have to lie humbly at the foot of Christ�s Cross, and marvel that I am saved at all, for I know that I am saved. I have to wonder that I do not believe Christ more, and equally wonder that I am privileged to believe in Him at all�to wonder that I do not love Him more, and equally to wonder that I love Him at all�to wonder that I am not holier, and equally to wonder that I have any desire to be holy at all considering what a polluted debased, depraved nature I find still within my soul, notwithstanding all that divine grace has done in me. If God were ever to allow the fountains of the great deeps of depravity to break up in the best man that lives, he would make as bad a devil as the devil himself is. I care nothing for what these boasters say concerning their own perfections; I feel sure that they do not know themselves, or they could not talk as they often do. There is tinder enough in the saint who is nearest to heaven to kindle another hell if God should but permit a spark to fall upon it. In the very best of men there is an infernal and well-nigh infinite depth of depravity. Some Christians never seem to find this out. I almost wish that they might not do so, for it is a painful discovery for anyone to make; but it has the beneficial effect of making us cease from trusting in ourselves, and causing us to glory only in the Lord.�
So it is that the apostle Paul is comforting us with his teaching on the reality of things in the Christian life when he writes in verse 24 �What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God � through Jesus Christ our Lord!� Paul has taught in Romans chapter 6 & 7 what he teaches in
I believe Paul is looking back to the cross and forward to the Second Coming of Jesus (or our being taken from this world). On that day the struggle against the sinful nature will indeed come to an end and our sanctification complete! For now we struggle against the sinful nature, but remembering the victory has been won over sins power through the work of Christ on the cross! We are in Christ and now share the power of that victory! But there will be a struggle! It�s the normal Christian life! We are to be users of failure by turning failure it into praise and thankfulness to God! The closer we get to God, the more our sinful nature is revealed. God is wanted to eradicate every sin from our lives, purge it out to establish his likeness of holiness in our entire being!
Paul ends chapter 7 with a reminder of the struggle, �So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God�s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin! But this does not mean that there is any excuse for going around with our heads down and without a smile on our face saying all the time, �I�m worm, I�m a worm and I�m useless�, worms are valuable and productive! We are no longer worms but sons and daughters of the living God and inheritors of the treasures of heaven and the earth to come! Sorrow over our sin and failure to live to God�s standard as we would wish to, should go hand in hand with rejoicing in our position in Jesus as the Spirit witness in our hearts that we are God�s children!
There are no verses and chapters in the original text of the bible as you know, and I believe therefore that chapter 8 seems to flow so well from chapter 7 that its opening verses become a great comfort to us in our struggle against the sinful nature. As we battle to let the life in the Spirit bring us victory, and as well fall short and sense the guilt and wretchedness of our lives, we are comforted by the reminder that �1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.� We can never be cut off from God anymore if we have trusted in Jesus! No condemnation means we do not now face separation from God because of our sin! Only the person outside of faith in Jesus Christ faces that.
Our struggle against the sinful nature reveals that we truly are saved from God�s coming judgement on this world and that we are indeed children of God! It is one of the evidences we need to recognise in our lives that assures us we are truly Christians. Other signs of our having been born again are righteous living, living as Jesus lived, and also loving one another. (1 John)
Praise the Lord! Be encouraged! Your struggle is not in vain, you can know victory in this life, but Jesus knows it�s a struggle, he struggled before you! Don�t be so conscience of failure you forget the victory in Jesus that is your birth right in him. Don�t forget to rejoice in that victory! Deliverance is available now and there is an end date for your struggle to become like Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit in you! Make sure when you fail in the struggle and recognise your wretchedness, you humble yourself before your God and immediately ask forgiveness. Let it produce a thankful heart for all God has done for you, is doing for you, and will do for you. The battle will soon be over! Jesus is on his way back!
22/01/06
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