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I’m going to invite you to turn to Romans chapter seven. This is where we’re going to be today. Romans Chapter seven. And we’re going to be studying we’re going through the book of Romans together as a as a church. And I want you to know how excited I am that we get to kick off the year in looking at Romans chapter seven and eight. You know, the book of Romans. I’ve told you as a church, this is Paul’s great treatise of the Christian faith that he writes after a couple of decades of ministry. He’s writing to a church he’s never been to, but he does such a articulate job at explaining the Christian faith that it is it is powerful throughout the generations. It’s been incredible how this book has impact the church throughout the centuries. This is a great book. And in fact, it’s been said if you lose all the other books of the Bible and you have the book of Romans as a believer, you have what you need to follow after the Lord. This is that that great of a book, that powerful of a book. He explains to us what it means to to know Christ and the first half of the book and then what it means to walk in Christ. And for me, if I if I had to tell you, what chapters would you love to be able to to share, especially at the beginning of the year? And from the book of Romans, for me, it’s the end of Chapter seven as you get to Chapter eight.
Chapter eight is probably it might be I don’t know. I haven’t really had this competition and vote yet in my mind, but I think Romans Chapter eight might be my favorite chapter of all of the Bible. I have a favorite section of scripture, but definitely this this chapter that we’re going to lead into. We’re going to we’re going to tease into Chapter eight today. But this chapter, if you’re going to memorize a section of scripture, is a powerful section that we’re going to lead into as we look in Romans chapter seven. So seven, what makes seven so great is we’re going to focus on the need today. This is the chapter where Paul becomes completely undone in his walk with with the Lord in order to build up to Chapter eight. And all that Jesus does for us. Chapter seven is really looking at the wound that we have in our life so that the ointment of Christ can be applied to it. And we see the beauty of who Jesus is. So today we’re going to look at a wound, and then next week we’re going to start dealing with the healing of what Jesus does. And we’re going to we titled today Walking in the Newness of Life, only because the alternative would really be, here’s how you can drive yourself crazy.
You’re going to see in this this section we’re going to look at today, you’re going to think, I think Paul’s about to lose his mind. But but you’re you’re going to see from the apostle Paul as he lays this out for us that this is the battle that all of us face as believers in order to find the healing of what Christ brings to our life and learning to walk in that new life that Jesus brings to us from a theological perspective, I think it’s important for you to know. Romans Chapter seven is kind of a controversial passage. It’s probably one of the more controversial passages of all of the Book of Romans and one of those challenging passages in scripture, because some people approach Romans Chapter seven. They ask the question, as Paul writes here, we’re going to pick up in verse 13. But as Paul writes here, they ask the question, is Paul writing from the from the perspective of an unbeliever or a believer because he’s dealing with this battle of sin that we have as Christians or maybe non-Christians, I should say. And they’re trying to ask the question, okay, what is what is Paul talking about from the angle of being a believer or an unbeliever? And I want to tell you, my my thought on this is that Paul is writing from the angle of of a believer. And if you disagree with that, that’s okay. There’s freedom in Christ to disagree with that.
You can be wrong. But but there’s freedom in Christ to disagree with that. Okay. I think Paul is writing from an angle of a believer because he’s writing in the first person present and he’s already told us in Romans chapter seven, verse six, that this is in reference to someone who has the spirit of God in their life. And so I think Romans seven is the life of a believer played out. But you see this battle taking place in the life of the apostle Paul. And part of the battle is what do we do with the law as Christians? You look at the if you have a Bible, you’ve got the old Covenant and the New Covenant or Old Testament, New Testament, the word for testament. Another word for testament is covenant. So you have this old covenant and now we’re in this new covenant. But the question is, what do you do with the old Covenant? The old covenant is this the law that God gave to to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai? Right. They entered into this covenant agreement with God and and God gave them the law. And you see the holiness of God through that law. What do you do with the old Covenant now that you have the new Covenant when you step into Christ? How does a Christian live in light of knowing there is this this law that God had given us through the Old Covenant, yet now here we are in Jesus? And how do we live that? Do you remember the way that the Romans plays out? You see in Romans chapter one verses 16 and 17, the the great theme of Romans that the righteous shall live by faith, that God has given us this this gospel, the power of Christ made known through the gospel that righteousness, the righteous, live by faith.
And then he goes on from there and he and he reveals to us that none of us are righteous. None of us are righteous. And for the chapter one, halfway through chapter one, chapter to chapter three, and then we get to chapter four, he then starts to use the illustration of Abraham how Abraham’s life was transformed. And it wasn’t because of what Abraham did. It’s what God did on behalf of Abraham or for Abraham. Abraham finds God’s grace. We studied that together. And seeing Abraham was not perfect person. He was he was far from it. He grew up in a pagan belief system. Yet God’s grace shine upon him. And he and he walked with the Lord. And then we find in chapter five and six, it goes on and says, Where? Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Now you have God’s grace delivered to you. And. And when you embrace what Christ has done for you, now you get to walk in this newness of life.
But what does that look like? And there is this struggle then to to step into, okay, we have this law of the Old Testament, but now this new covenant, what does that look like? And I reminded us last week, we started Romans chapter seven, that the law’s intentions. The law was never intended to free you. The law was only ever given to condemn you. And this is where Israel made their mistake. They by the time Jesus shows up, they have written laws not not they don’t just have God’s laws. They have written laws. On top of those laws, they wrote extra laws in order to put them further away from breaking God’s law. And so they sort of wrote laws before the laws to keep them distanced from from stepping over what God’s laws were, as if living those laws freed them. But the reality that Paul points out to us is that the law doesn’t free you. It only condemns you. The law was never intended to set you free in terms of how we would relate to that today, I would say it like this religion can’t free you. Religion at best can only tell you where you’ve done wrong. It works like this, and I think I used this illustration last week. You’re driving down the road. No one ever gets pulled over by the police. And the police says, good job on obeying the law today. You did wonderful, right? That’s not what the law is there for.
The law is there for when you break it. Then they show up and they write you a ticket and you’re reminded of how you have violated the law. You were wrong. That’s what the law does. It doesn’t cure you. It’s a tool to diagnose where your problem is. And so the law reminds us of of our need. However, what we learn is that the law isn’t bad. Some of us may feel like sometimes when we may break the law, we may be guilty of the law on a police officer points it out to you. All of a sudden you could get angry at the law. But the truth is, the problem isn’t with the law. It’s with the violator of the law. And that’s where Paul starts in Romans chapter seven, verse 13, He starts to and this is point number one in your notes lamenting over the problem. He’s going to lament over this problem, which he finds not in the law, but in himself. And he’s trying to figure out how do we how does a believer then step into this grace that God has given us in light of understanding God’s holiness in the law? And he says in Romans chapter seven, verse 13, and by the way, all the way to the end of this chapter, he’s lamenting about every 3 or 4 verses, Paul re-establishes the lament. He, for 3 or 4 verses says, I’m lamenting.
And he and he and he breaks down over this. He becomes undone before God because of this. And then after 3 or 4 verses he like resets and he laments again over the same thing. He’s like, This is why I say Paul goes completely undone. And this is the passage to learn how to drive yourself crazy if you don’t step into it in light of who Christ is. And so here it is in Romans 713 did that which is good talking about the law. Then bring death to me by no means. It’s not the fault of the law. It was sin. Producing death in me through what is good. In order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. Paul saying in this passage, the problem isn’t isn’t with the law. The law is actually holy. The law is good. The law reveals the character of who God is. It helps us understand who he is in his nature and in his being the standard that he holds. But the reality is that I can’t live up to that standard. That’s what Paul is saying here. The law is spiritual, but he is struggling to walk in his own spiritual life. And can I tell you, one of the things I love about coming to this passage.
Romans Chapter seven. Romans Chapter eight over these next couple of weeks with us is my hope for us as a church isn’t that we get more of religion, isn’t that you stop doing bad and start doing good? Is that, you know Jesus. If anything, this morning or whatever you’ve come from this past week. And if we could just set it all aside today and just say, Lord, one thing I want to walk out today with today is just to be closer to you. To know you, too. To walk with you. To enjoy what scripture says about that relationship that I can have with you. And Paul, in this passage, he’s come to that place of the battle. He’s looking at the law, looking at himself, and he realizes there’s some disagreement here between what he what the law says and what he does. And he goes on in verse 15, he says, for I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. I mean, how many of us we see the character and the nature of God and we’re like, Yes, I want Jesus and you embrace Christ. And you’re like, okay, I want to live my life for Christ. And you take one step and you’re like, What did I do? I just I just set myself to to to pursue Christ with everything that I am.
And it just one step into it. And I’ve already I’ve already messed up, right? Like there is this this battle that happens within our heart when we come to know Christ and and we want to honor him. And all of a sudden we find that, wait a minute, my flesh lives contrary to what Jesus says. Why? Why isn’t this easier? And what’s happening within me? And how can I how can I not live what what Christ calls me to live? In fact, I would say for the life of the believer, this this type of verse becomes heightened for us. I mean, you know what this is like. If you trust in Christ as your savior, like one day you woke up and you were one person and you trust in Christ, and the next day you wake up and all of a sudden the goals of your life have become completely reoriented. New heart, new pursuit, new life. But. But you discover as you walk in this that your flesh is still there. There’s this want to know Jesus, but yet there’s this thing in your heart that is contrary to Christ sometimes. And it seems like there’s this internal war in which you’re struggling to to glorify God and not walk in the flesh. Yet you you stumble and you fall. That you become. Torn. And I think as Christians, we’re even more sensitive to this, because when you come to know Jesus, I think your life is awakened to the depth of what sin really is and what it costs Christ.
And so your heart is grieved. And then. But but at the same time, you know what you have in Jesus. And with that comes this incredible hope. And so I think for us, the chasm becomes even greater and the struggle between sin and walking with God and wanting to glorify him, but seeing the brokenness of the world and the way that it tears at our soul and sin and death. And Paul builds this tension. In fact, he goes on in verse 16 and 17, he says this. He goes. Now, if I do what I do not want. I’m agreeing with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. I’m Paul Pauls, recognizing that he has this moral compass in the Lord. It’s been heightened and and he he is violating this law. There was this this writing by C.S Lewis where he talks about some of the things that led him to to come to to Christ. And one of the remarks he made was about fish. He said this in one of his books. He said, Do fish complain of the sea for for being wet? Or if they did, would they? Would the fact not strongly suggest that they had not always been or would not always be purely aquatic creatures? If you are really a product of a material universe, how is it that you don’t feel at home there? Now, let me let me tell you what C.S Lewis is saying in this one sentence.
He is saying. He is saying quite a bit. But it’s interesting as you just let this thought wrestle in your mind for a moment. C.s Lewis is saying, you know a fish, if you ask a fish to describe itself, a fish is never going to describe itself as wet. The reason a fish is not going to describe itself as wet is because a fish was made for water. If a fish was to describe itself as un wet, right as dry, the fish will be saying, I have a problem, right? I need to be put back in the wetness. That’s that’s where I live. It’s like you as a creature. If someone says describe yourself, you don’t start off with, well, I’m dry, right? Like I’m not. I’m un wet. Right? Because that’s the natural state for which you were created. Now, if someone would push you into a fountain or a pond or a creek or something, you would say, I am wet. Right? Because that is not the natural state of which you choose to or desire to stand before people. That’s not what you were designed to be. And C.S Lewis is saying, look, a fish is never going to describe itself as wet because it was made for that.
And you know what’s interesting in our hearts, sometimes in our lives, we find these certain tensions. And the reason we likely find these tensions is because we understand deep within our soul, we weren’t made for that. We were made for something else. There is this, this, this craving in our heart. When we when we go through loss or the pain of loss that our soul grieves. And it’s because your life was not made for lost. Your life was made for life. When we conduct sin in this world and we feel the brokenness and the weightiness of that, it’s because you were made for something different. And so the idea of when when I break God’s moral law or when I live life contrary to God, and there’s something within me that recognizes that tension, at the very least, is what it’s helping me identify is that my life was made for more. And Paul is wrestling with that in this chapter and recognition that if there is a moral law, there must be a moral law giver in my life, therefore should live for that. Because it was that was the purpose for which it was created. Paul walks in that tension. He goes on in verse 18 to 20. And he continues to sound even crazier. Right? He says for I know. That nothing good dwells in me. That is in my flesh.
And when we talk in terms of flesh and scripture, it’s often in reference to the part of me that is contrary to God. The bending of my heart that doesn’t submit to him, but rather to the things of this world. For I have the desire to do what is right. But not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want. But the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. Paul’s acknowledging in this passage that. Sin has has conquered his heart. And how does how does he then live victorious in this tension? That’s the the struggle. The Paul’s walking in his passage and he’s leading us to think that in his own life, things are things are just a mess. And how does he he live in that spiritual victory? I heard someone describe it like this once. They they referred to Christians as as spiritual streakers. And when I mean streakers, I mean the kind where you you turn on a football game and all of a sudden somebody’s not wearing what they shouldn’t, shouldn’t or should be wearing something is not wearing something. And they go across the screen and they just cut to commercial or whatever. I’m talking about that. He says. Sometimes Christians, they don’t understand what it means to walk in Jesus, so they live their lives as spiritual streakers.
Meaning what they said is if you’re familiar in Ephesians six with the Armor of God, you know, the armor of God as it plays out in chapter six, verse ten, it’s got the the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit and the gospel of peace and the belt of truth. That’s that’s what Christians are intended to wear as they walk through this world with the Lord. But he says some Christians, all they’re good at. They’re just good at putting on the helmet of salvation. And then they just go. They don’t understand what the what it means, and they just become these spiritual streakers. And can I tell you this morning, if there’s one goal I have for you, it’s not to live as a spiritual streaker. You know, you want to know what it means to put on the full armor of God and and to walk in this world confident of who you are in Jesus. And read up to Romans chapter six. At this point, Paul is articulating for us what it means to to have salvation in Christ. But we want to put on that full armor of God. And Paul is playing out this this battle for us that we we can begin to see. Yes. Just like the apostle Paul, we we wrestle and we war with the things of this world.
And and the law does point to us the holiness of God. But it’s not the cure. It’s not the cure. So in Romans chapter seven, verse 21, then Paul starts to lean into the answer. He starts to build it up for us so that in Romans eight, we just walk in it. And that’s the the next point of your notes Seeking the answer. Romans Chapter seven, verse 21. This is where Paul now he summarizes the tension that he just described for us in the life of a believer between between the temptation of this world. And walking after Christ. And so he says in Romans 721 As if to summarize it, he says. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right. Evil lies close at hand. So saying God has given me this new heart to want to honor him. And we see the evidence of who God is in the law. But at the same time, my flesh was against that. And he goes on from here and he and he lays that out a little bit further in verse 22 and verse 23 saying, Let me let me just push that out a little bit more and talking about those two points, it says verse 22, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being. So there’s this, this goodness of seeing who God is.
But in verse 23. But I see in my members. Another law waging war against the law of my mind. And making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. But Paul saying, Look, I see what God says. And then I see who I am apart from him. And I don’t like it. There is this battle within me. I don’t want to be victorious. And in verse 24, he shares that passage that. I think it’s kind of the crown of Romans seven. Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death. I love how Paul says this. Because at this point coming completely undone. He’s no longer looking to himself as the solution. Who? Who will deliver me because it’s not me. Who will deliver me. Christians. Can I tell you? The same way you start your journey with Jesus. Is the same way you continue your journey with Jesus. In order to become a believer in Christ, to be born again in Jesus, to find salvation in him alone. You have got to let go of all of you. In fact, it’s not about you. Your salvation is not up to you. It’s not what you’ve done to impress God. It’s allowing your life to be impressed by him. It’s what he has done for you. And Paul’s finally come to this place to realize the way the way that I continue to win the battle.
Is the same way I won the war. Who’s going to rescue me? It’s not you. That’s Jesus. Paul in this passage becomes completely undone. And I love the way he phrases this here for us wretched man that I am. Who will rescue me? Who will deliver me? Because this verse, it does a few things for us. One, it keeps us looking down on others. You come to a passage like this and say, O wretched man that I am, and. And you could look at that and be like, Oh, that’s good that this verse is for those people. You know, we got a verse in the Bible for those people, but I’m not those people. That’s for the bad ones. I’m the I’m the better one. So I’ll wait for my verse. But but Paul is saying in this passage, he’s not referring to other people this way. He’s referring to himself this way. And if you go through Christian history, I don’t know what your top five list is of the greatest Christians to ever live apart from Jesus who started the whole thing. But the apostle Paul has to be pretty close to the top if he’s not right after Jesus, right? I mean, the Apostle Paul, the impact he made on history is incredible. And yet it’s the apostle Paul who describes himself in such great need. This is not for those people. This is for for all people. And in addition to that, if the apostle Paul describes himself in this struggle, this verse also gives really hope to everyone that you’re not alone.
That when you come to Jesus, your life can be radically changed, your heart can be transformed, but the flesh is still there. And so learning to to walk in that newness of life and and and to live in the armor of God becomes a process of growing the Lord that we call that in the Bible sanctification. This progression of your growth in Jesus, that Jesus is completely sufficient in everything. But learning to walk in him is something different. And so how do we do that? But it’s good to know in our hearts that we’re not alone. In addition to that, it helps us to prepare for an ongoing experience. Meaning just because you know Christ doesn’t mean life is perfect from then on and you’ll never sin again. But Paul is helping us realize, oh, wait a minute, there is a journey to this, and I’ve got to learn how my my heart can be strengthened to walk in faith in Christ, rather rather than to be defeated in sin. So So how how do I prepare for this ongoing experience? And it compels us. To give up on us. To find something outside of us. To answer the question, How can I live a victorious life? How can I truly walk with Jesus? And then in verse 25, Paul starts to give us the answer.
He then fulfills the answer, really, in all of Romans eight and last week, if you were here, I tried to make everyone give me a promise. I can’t force you to do anything that you don’t want to do. But if I really could encourage you, I want to tell you for the rest of your life, if you ever read Romans chapter seven, make sure you always read Romans Chapter eight. Never end at Romans Chapter seven, because Romans Chapter eight is full of the hope that you get when you when you become undone and let go of yourself in Jesus. Romans Chapter seven, verse 25, though, Paul starts to give us the answer and he says this. Thanks be to God. Through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind. But my flesh, I serve the law of sin. Well, Paul is saying in this verse. You want to know the answer? The answer is in this Christ Jesus, our Lord. It’s not about me. It’s about him. See in this passage? There is there is this battle of law that seems like, you know, I trusted in Jesus for salvation. But now, now that I’ve done that, the rest is up to me. I got to try to be good and follow these laws. And I try to encourage us last week, too, to say this. Cause when I wake up in the morning.
I don’t ask myself. How can I be better at doing good? I don’t ask myself, what kind of laws do I need to follow today? What I want to know is how I can better know Jesus. It’s not about doing good and not doing good. It’s not this religious war. It’s about walking with Christ. Because if God gets my heart. God changes my life. If I if I take the Old Testament law and I assume that the Christian life is then just living religion. What you find is. Romans Chapter seven. And what I’ll end up doing in that is driving myself crazy because every day I’ll try to start over and do the best I can and live live as good as I can. But at the end of the day, every day I’m going to be reminded and I failed again. And I failed again. And I’ll try harder and harder and harder. And eventually I’ll just get to this place of such desperation that if I don’t stop, stop looking at me and start looking outside of me. I will never find joy and peace and hope and connection to God. I would just be centered on me. I think there is probably no one in church history that plays this out better than Martin Luther. And if you know the story of Martin Luther, he was raised as a monk. He understood the Old Testament, New Testament probably better than most.
He studied it. And Martin Luther originally had this belief that his life was all about trying to fulfill the law. I got to perform. I got to be good. In fact, they said about Martin Luther that when he was a monk and he would go back to his room, that you could hear him for hours going through these fits, arguing with the devil because he couldn’t be good enough. And it drove him nuts. And finally he read the verses in Romans. The just shall live by faith. He says, and he was all together separate. He understood it wasn’t about what he did. But what was done for him. And if you read Martin Luther’s writings, Martin Luther Peppers, the idea of Romans Chapter seven and eight throughout all of his works. In fact, if I. If I just gave one to you this morning, it says this. Once I debate about what I have done and left undone, I am finished. He’s saying once I make the debate about am I being good or not good? Did I do enough good or did I forget to do some good? Or am I being bad or not bad? Did I do something bad? Or once I make it about that, he says I am left undone. I’m finished. But if I reply on the basis of the gospel. The forgiveness of sin covers it all. I have one. On the other hand, if the devil gets me involved in what I have done and left undone, he has won.
Unless God helps and says, Indeed, even if you had not done anything, you would have still been be saved by forgiveness. If the discussion of law turns. Turns into you are bad and you need to be good or be better at being good, we will never. Never discover. What God has made us for, which is altogether different. Like if you come into church this morning and you’re thinking, I’ve just not been exactly the kind of person I should be lately and I want to walk out and they’re going to tell me where I was bad. And and I just want to be better at being good. You’ve completely missed it. It will not set you free. The only thing that sets you free. Continues to set you free all of your life. And the only way you walk in that is every day to let your heart be undone before him. Thanks be to God. Do you know how Romans eight starts? Verse one? There is no condemnation. To those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. To those who are in Christ Jesus. You know what that is? Free. You are free. Free to know him and to live in him and to walk in him and to enjoy him. You know what that kind of person is? That’s the person that understands the gospel and puts on the full armor of God, not my righteousness.
His. Not my faith. His. Not my sword. His. Not the gospel of peace in me, but the gospel of peace through him. In fact, let me just give you one more writing from Martin Luther. He says this. He goes and let not him that suffers this temptation be dismayed and that the devil can so aggravate sin that during the conflict, a person thinks himself to be utterly overthrown and feels nothing else but the wrath of God and desperation. Let this person not follow his own feelings. Comfort yourself through the faith in Christ and remind yourself that you be not under the law. Hold up the mirror of grace to your tender conscience. So shall he have a strong buckler? By the way, a buckler is a shield, a strong buckler wherewith he may beat back all the fiery darts with which the fiery fiend assails him. Therefore, when the emotions of the flesh rage, the only remedy is to take the sword of the spirit. That is the word of salvation and to fight against them. If we do this, we shall obtain the victory. But if we do not use the word, there is no counsel or help remaining. Look what he’s saying here. He’s describing the armor of God. The shield of faith, the sword of the Lord, The Word of God. He’s saying it’s not about you. But it’s about him.
When I look at my life. And I see the flesh. It’s a place to remind myself that my heart isn’t really surrendered to the Lord. If you walk out of here today and there’s something you do and you realize that didn’t honor Christ. And the good thing about that is it’s a reminder and there’s a there’s a place in your heart that isn’t fully submitted to Christ. But. But thank God for his grace. Because more than anything, what he wants to do is invite that in that it could surrender to him and produce the fruit of the spirit through you. Sometimes, though, people get worried. About sin and they think and the mistakes they’ve made in their life. Does God really love me? Or how can God really care about me? Does He not know who I am? Does he not know what I’ve done? Does he not know how many times I blow it? I can give him excuse after excuse that of all the people in the world. Why, I’m the one that’s not worthy to be loved. And if you struggle with that or you fight against that, can I just encourage you this morning? Sometimes in our culture we’re taught to look at that and be like, You know what? I just need more self confidence. And can I tell you, the problem isn’t that you need more self confidence. The problem is that you’re already thinking too much about yourself.
And not enough of him. Do you really think? There’s something that you’ve done that the grace of God cannot cover. Do you not consider how far Jesus was willing to go? That you could have freedom in him. There’s a part of me as a pastor that enjoys talking to people that feel that sense of defeat, not because I want you to feel defeated. Because it’s helping me recognize, hey, this person is sensitive to the sin in their life. And that’s a good spot. But it’s not good to end there because you’re the center of that. In that moment. The beauty comes when you realize. That God is greater. That in that moment, I need to stop thinking so much about me. And look at the greatness of a God who pursued me. He gave his life for me. And now gives me the privilege on a day like today and every day forward to walk with him. Not not because I’m here to impress him. But I’m here to be impressed by him. To walk in the goodness of the position that I received through him because of what he has done for me. My hope for you this morning. Church. Is that you see the the woundedness of Romans seven so that you can walk in the joy of Romans Chapter eight. Thanks be to Christ because of what He has done for you and me.