RESCUED
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. In the spring of 1940 the army of
Hitler’s Nazi Germany plowed its way through the
cities, villages, and countryside of Western Europe. The countries of
France,
Belgium, and Holland all fell before the German forces. The troops of
the British
Expeditionary Force found themselves driven back to the coast of the
North Sea
where it appeared they faced certain destruction near a town called
Dunkirk. The
waters offshore were too shallow for the large British ships to come to
the aid of the
troops. The German forces pressed in hard with overwhelming force. Between
May
26th and June 3rd an event occurred that has been
called the Miracle of Dunkirk.
Hundreds of British citizens came to the rescue of the British forces by
using their
own small boats, fishing boats, and yachts to ferry the soldiers from
the shore to their
waiting ships. Ultimately, over 338,000 British soldiers were rescued.
Had they not
been saved it is likely that Britain itself would have fallen to the
Germans.
1. Have you ever experienced an occasion where you felt your back was
against the
wall?
2. All of us have encountered frustration with situations where we felt
overwhelmed.
3. Perhaps it was a family situation. Perhaps it was a marital situation
or a problem
with your parents or children. Maybe it was a financial situation.
Perhaps it was a
relationship with a friend.
B. Some of the most frustrating
situations are those concerning our spiritual lives.
1. Have you ever found yourself wanting to do what is right and yet not
doing it?
2. Have you ever known something to be wrong and yet you found yourself
succumbing to it?
3. In times like these, it can be extremely frustrating to live for
Christ. Our intentions
are good but our actions fall short. It’s almost as if our backs are
against the wall
pinned there by an overwhelming force.
C. The apostle Paul
experienced these frustrations in his own life. In Romans 7:14-25
Paul describes the frustration we all
experience.
1.
Romans 7 is one of the most unique chapters in the Bible.
2. It is a parallel to Romans 6 where Paul says that we have died
with Christ to be
in newness of life.
a. In Romans 6 Paul said we are dead to
sin. In Romans 7 he said we are dead
to the law.
b. In Romans 6 he said we have been freed from sin. In Romans
7 he said we
have been made free from the law.
3. In Romans 7 Paul wrote about his own struggles and
frustrations with sin. It is a
highly personal account of Paul’s life.
a. Forty-six times in this chapter he uses a personal
pronoun.
b. This chapter along with Acts 22 and Philippians 3 provide
us with Paul’s spiritual
autobiography.
D. Listen to these
verses from Romans 7.
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am flesh, sold into
bondage to sin. For
what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing
what I would like to do,
but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing
I do not want to do, I
agree with the Law, confession that the Law is good. So now, no
longer am I the one
doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing
good dwells in me, that is,
in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of
the good is not. For the
good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that
I do not want. But if I am
doing the very thing I do not want, I am no
longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle
that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur
with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members
of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of
the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me
free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God,
but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
In these verses Paul gives us the cause, the
curse, and the cure of spiritual
frustration.
I. THE CAUSE
A. As we read these
verses did you sense the tension between good and evil,
between the spiritual and the carnal – the
desire to do what is right and the continual presence of sin.
1. He acknowledges that the Law is
spiritual (good) but he is flesh and sold in
bondage to sin. (verse14)
2. He says, “I do not practice what I would like to do.”
3. He says, “I do the things I hate.”
4. He concludes that no longer is he the one doing it but sin
who dwells in him.
This depicts the struggle all of us
experience in life.
B. When I was a teenager I ran around with a guy who was not a
good influence on me. My parents did not like him. They were concerned with
what I might do when he was around. When I became a Christian I decided I
didn’t want to have anything to do with this person. No matter how hard I tried
it seem as if I kept running into him. I would go to school, and he would be
there. I would go to the football games, and he would be there. I would even go
to church, and he would be there. He would call me and ask me to come hang out
with him. Sometimes I would and the result was never good. I always looked
forward to the time when I could get away from him. I thought when I went to
college, I would leave him behind. But when I checked into my dorm room, I
discovered he had come to the same college and was living in the same dorm.
After I married, graduated, and moved away, I thought that surely he would go a
different route. But he kept tracking me down, always asking me to come and
spend time with him. With each passing year, I thought I would rid myself of
this man, but where ever I went it seemed as if he would always know where to
find me. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I sought to accomplish,
he was always there lurking in the shadows. Do you know who this man is? It’s
my sinful nature, always seeking to pull me back into its influence. Though I
have died to sin and am not under the old law, the sinful nature of the flesh
is someone I will battle with as long as I live in this body. This is the
message Paul shared in these verses.
II. THE CURSE
A. As you read through
the book of Romans, there are several reoccurring themes in the first eight
chapters.
1. One of these themes is the universal nature of sin.
a. In chapter
1:18-32 Paul described how the Gentiles were under God’s wrath
because of their sinful
rejection of Him.
b. In chapter 2 Paul said that the Jews who were God’s
covenant people were
still under God’s wrath because
they had violated the law God had given
them.
c. In chapter 3 Paul concludes “there is none
righteous, no not one” (3:10) and
“all have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God” (3:23).
2. The second theme
that reoccurs in these chapters is that sin produces death.
a. In Romans 5:12
Paul wrote, “For by one man sin entered the world and
death through sin; therefore,
death has come upon all, for all have sinned.”
b. In 6:23 he
said, “For the wages of sin is death.”
B. It is this spiritual death sentence that produces the
spiritual tension Paul expresses in Romans 7. You can almost feel the crescendo
of his words beginning in verse 23, “for I joyfully concur with the law of God
in the inner man but I see a different law in the members of my body waging war
against the law of my mind and making
me a prisoner of the law of sin which
is in my members.” Finally he cries out, “Wretched man that I am. Who will set
me free from the body of this death?”
C. I have heard that in some ancient cultures a brutal form of
torture was practiced among warring armies. Those who were taken prisoner were
chained limb to limb with the dead bodies of their fallen comrades. Can you
imagine the psychological effects of such torture? Can you imagine carrying
around the weight of a dead body? Can you imagine falling asleep and waking up
to a dead body chained next to you? Can you imagine the physical impact as the
dead body began to decay and the corruption of the dead began to spread to the
living? This is the curse under which we live as long as we are chained to this
body of spiritual death. It’s no wonder Paul described himself as a “wretched
man.”
III. THE CURE
A. The night is darkest before the dawn. The
storm is strongest before the calm. Paul’s emotional and spiritual turmoil
seemed to have reached an unbearable point when he cried out, “Who shall set me
free from the body of this death?”
1. If there was ever a time of spiritual frustration, this
was it.
2. If there was ever a time when it seemed that the forces of
evil would overwhelm,
this was it.
3. Paul’s despair set the stage for the greatest spiritual
revelation ever known to
man.
B. In verse 25 he shouts, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord!”
1. Jesus, whose name means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
Jesus, the one who
has come to save us from our sins.
2. Christ, meaning “the Messiah;” the chosen one of God; the
fulfillment of Old
Testament prophecy and the culmination of God’s redemptive
promises.
3. Lord, the one for whom every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess to the
glory of God the Father
(Philippians 2: 11).
4. Jesus, the one in whom there is no condemnation (Romans
8:1).
5. Jesus, the one through whom we can be more that conquerors
(Romans 8:31).
CONCLUSION:
A. I am so grateful for
the hundreds of British citizens who traversed the dangerous
waters of the North Sea risking their lives to save their
countrymen. Had it not been
for them Great Britain might have fallen to the Germans, and the
world today might
be a very different place. I am more thankful for a man who gave
his life so that I
might be free from this body of sin and death.
B. There is no one else
who can rescue you spiritually. You cannot rescue yourself by
your own righteousness. You cannot deliver yourself through your
own deeds. You
must call upon the one in whom there is eternal life. This is why
Paul would go on to
tell the Romans, “Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:13)
C. Have you called upon
the Lord? Have you turned to Him in faith, repented of your
sins,
and been buried with Him in baptism? He stands ready to rescue you today.
