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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Lessons from the Life of Paul

David Shin

Conversion and Conviction

Three Years in Arabia

Gospel to the Gentiles

Hermeneutics

Colossians 2:16

The Lordship of Christ

Romans 7

I Keep Under my Body

I Have Finished the Course

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to come apart from the cares of this life to come together as a community of faith to worship you this morning.

Lord, we've been blessed in song, music, the giving of our tithes and offerings to you.

And we pray that as we pause for a few moments to reflect on your word, that you would speak to us.

For we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus.

I wanna continue in our theme from last Sabbath, and we touched on Romans 7 and Romans 8.

Romans 7, Paul says, I am carnal, sold under sin, and then he goes on in verse 15 and says, for what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, that I do.

And all of us, if we're honest with ourselves, have something within us, 2 entities that are at war against each other, your conscience and then your carnal desires, the things that you want to do, you don't do, and the things that you hate, that I do.

All of us can relate to addictions and habits, perhaps, in our lives that we hate, yet we do those.

We want to do that, but we find ourselves not doing that.

And here Paul ends Romans 7 by saying, who will deliver me from this body of death?

And Galatians 5.17 says, the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want.

And so Paul calls this 1 entity the flesh, the other entity he calls the spirit.

And Ellen White describes the flesh and the spirit in 2 other terms here from Adventist home page 127 and 128.

The lower passions have their seat in the body and work through it.

The flesh or fleshly or carnal embrace the lower corrupt nature.

The flesh of itself act contrary to the will of God, all animal propensities are subject to the higher powers of the soul.

So we have these 2 things and I put them on the screen so that you can see what she's talking about here, the higher powers, that's the spirit, conscience, and reason.

The lower passions are appetite, passion, sexuality, and she calls these the animal propensities.

And what differentiates human beings from animals is the prefrontal cortex, reason, conscience.

So when you have a desire, your reason and conscience should kick in if we follow the conversion path and sanctification.

But as a result of sin, this has been turned upside down and every person born into this world has propensities and this has become flipped upside down where the lower passions rule over the higher powers of conscience and reason.

This is from the book God's Amazing Grace, page 256.

The passions are to be controlled by the will which is itself under the control of God.

And all of us can relate to this on a very simple level of a meal.

You've eaten a great Thanksgiving meal and you've overeaten.

None of us have ever experienced that right, you've overeaten and you forgot to make room for dessert and then dessert comes around and it's your favorite and you have an internal battle that takes place.

A part of you says I want to eat it, I want to eat it right now, serve me 3 pieces please and then another part of you indicates David you really shouldn't have that, you've overeaten, you should stop.

So this is very simple, an internal battle takes place on the level of appetite.

She mentions another aspect to this, you have the higher powers and the lower passions but you also have what you call the will.

And this is the governing power in the nature of man.

It is yours to exercise and God has given you this, Praise the Lord.

And what many people try to do in a situation such as appetite is that they try to use their willpower to subjugate the lower passions and decide through self-discipline and willpower to live in accordance with the higher powers.

She says that the key is not to try to do this by yourself by subjugating the lower passions and living in the higher powers but she says to give your will to God.

Everything depends on the right action of the will.

The power of choice God has given to men.

You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections, but you can choose to serve Him.

And here's the key, I have it underlined here on the screen, you can give Him your will.

He will then work in you to will and to do according to your good pleasure.

Dessert comes around, you have the internal struggle, you say, Lord, I give you my will.

That's the surrender that needs to take place.

Then God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.

So in the struggle between the flesh and the conscience, between the higher powers and the lower passions, we give our will to God.

And there's something miraculous that happens.

You give your will to God and then God empowers you through the Holy Spirit to live a victorious life.

Romans chapter 7 is followed by Romans 8.

There are no chapter divisions in the Bible.

And in the continuation of this conflict between the flesh and the spirit, Romans chapter 8 begins with the word, therefore.

Now as 1 preacher said, if you see the word therefore, ask what it's there for.

In other words, you have premise, premise, premise, therefore.

In light of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, he says, therefore, this is the solution for this internal battle that we face.

There is now therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

You give your will to God, God sets you free from the lower powers.

The Holy Spirit, resurrection power comes down into your life and gives you freedom from those lower passions.

He sets us free from the lower passions and we all need that freedom in Christ Jesus.

And then in Romans chapter 8 verse 3 and 4 Paul goes on by saying, for what the law could not do "'in that it was weak through the flesh, "'God did, sending his own Son "'in the likeness of sinful flesh, "'on the account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, "'that the righteousness requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So not only does God free you from the lower passions, but now he empowers you through the Holy Spirit to walk according to the higher powers and not according to the lower powers.

And this is where there is victorious Christian living in Christ Jesus.

For every addiction, for every habit, for every tendency, whether inherited or cultivated, God is more powerful than your habits.

The same God that spoke things into existence can give you the victory in your individual lives.

And this is how it happens through the Holy Spirit.

So you give your will to God, He empowers you through the Holy Spirit, frees you from your lower passions, and gives you power to live a victorious life.

This is what the Christian walk is about.

Now in the Christian walk you have the tension of 2 verses.

First John 1.9, if we confess, he's faithful and just to forgive us, Jude 24, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling.

And those 2 realities stay with us in our Christian experience.

If and when we fall, there's forgiveness.

But there's also power to keep us from falling.

And that beautiful pardon and power stay with us through our Christian experience.

Where are you heading in your Christian experience?

Now a common misconception in relationship to the higher powers and the lower passions is that after conversion or after baptism some people assume that once you go down into the water or once you're converted that your lower passions and your carnal nature suddenly evaporate.

That you receive some sort of heavenly lobotomy.

That side of the brain is taken out and you don't have to deal with that internal conflict anymore.

I was quite surprised after I got baptized, came out the other side, woke up the next morning and said, oh, I still have this internal battle inside.

And some people have assumed that if you struggle internally, that is evidence of being not converted.

The sinful nature stays with us until the second coming.

At the second coming you will be given a new nature.

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Series

Lessons from the Life of Paul

I Keep Under my Body

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Parent Series

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