Here are my notes and an audio recording from my sermon on Romans 7:18-25 that I preached on May 24, 2009 at Briarwood Baptist Church. All Bible passages are from the English Standard Version

Audio

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Notes

Romans 7:18-25

¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law (principle) that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 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. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

We can’t do good

• Romans 7:18, 7:24a
  • 7:18  ”nothing good dwells in me” & ”not the ability to carry it out”
  • 7:24 “Wretched man that I am!”
• Romans 3:10-11
  • None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
  • cited from Psalm 14:1-3 (and Psalm 53:1-3)
    • The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. ²The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. ³ They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
• Reformed Theology refers to the concept of Total Depravity (it’s the T in TULIP). The concept behind Total Depravity is not that we are as bad as we can be, but that we have an inability to do true good.
• True good is that which is done to the glory of God, not the notoriety of self, and is done with joy. Mowing my neighbor’s lawn while he’s on vacation is truly good if, and only if, I don’t expect him to mow mine while I’m out of town AND if I am able to doing it with joy. If I expect reciprocation, or if I mow his lawn grudgingly, then its not truly good act because I am being selfish about it.
• People who do not see God as the ultimate object of all that they do cannot do true good. They can do good (like idea of common grace, Matthew 5:45 “he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous^“)

Even when we want to do good, we don’t

• 7:19 & 7:20
  • 7:19 For I do not do the good I want,
  • 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want,
• When we want to do good, what is the motivation? Can good be done by those without pure motivations and a pure heart?
• Why don’t we? Momentary lapses, don’t know how, old habits
• It takes practice to do good
• One of the most difficult things is when you fail. This can be disheartening, especially for new Christians, who have this new life. They can feel like they haven’t “really” been regenerated because they quickly fall back into their old ways. While that may be the case for some, for others the reason they stumble is that the one who was working to keep them separated from God has redoubled his efforts now that the people have committed to follow Christ. We fail because Satan fights us

We don’t do good because Satan battles us

• 7:19-24
  • 7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
  • 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
  • 7:21 So I find it to be a law (principle) that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
  • 7:23 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.
  • 7:24 Who will deliver me from this body of death?
• This is a very important point to remember. Often, people think that the reason that they can’t do good is that they aren’t actually a Christian or they’re weak or they’ve spent so much of their life doing wrong that they can’t do right.
• The fact is that Satan is actively battling against you to keep you away from Christ. Satan knows that if he can distract you or shame you or beat you down, that you are less likely to seek refuge and strength in our true comforter, Jesus Christ.
• Talk about current unwillingness to see Satan as active in world

How do we overcome Satan? Our deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord

• How does this deliverance come?
  • We see evidence of a changed heart
  • 7:22 “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,”
  • Reference to Psalm 1:1-2
    • ¹ Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; ² but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
  • I am longer “doing”, which is an external action, but it is central to me “in my inner being”.
  • Note in v22 that my “members” have another law. That which is part of your inner being is more “you” than something on the fringe. Wouldn’t you say that your soul is more uniquely you than your fingers? A change, a newness of life has come
• 7:24 asks “Who will deliver me?” I am unable to deliver myself. Someone with greater power must deliver me, must take the action that saves me from “this body of death”
• 7:25 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
• Our first response to the deliverance is thankfulness, being grateful to God, recognizing that only He has the power to deliver us
• We see how God worked through Jesus Christ our Lord. The mediatorial role of Christ is needed. This is the gospel, that God, through Christ, allows us to satisfy the requirements of His righteous law
• Notice use of “serve” in 7:25. Contrast that with “do” in all the other verses
  • The passage starts with “doing”, which is very me-oriented. It ends with us “serving”, which implies there is something or someone in authority over us. That authority must be God. We all serve and make idols out of things. The challenge is to ensure that we are serving God, and not our job, our family, our hobbies, our ministry.
• Look to Romans 8: 1-11
  • ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
• 7:23 vs. 8:2
  • “another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” vs “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death”
• What now dwells within me?
  • 7:18 “nothing good dwells in me”
  • 7:20 “but sin that dwells within me”
  • 7:23 “law of sin that dwells in my members”
  • 8:9 “if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you”
  • 8:10 “But if Christ is in you”
  • 8:11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you”
• Glimpse of Trinity in our newness
  • God “who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you”
  • We also can have Christ in us (8:10)
• This gets to the heart of the Gospel, God “sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (8:3) “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (8:4) and He “will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (8:11)

From the 2008 Acts 29 Chicago Boot Camp. “Mark Dever serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC and the president of 9Marks Ministries.”

Listen to the talk here

Notes (very rough)

“Our differences are enough to separate some of my friends—your brothers and sisters in Christ—from you. And perhaps to separate them from me, now that I’m publicly speaking to you. And I don’t want to minimize either the sincerity or the seriousness of some of their concerns (things like: humor, worldliness, pragmatism, authority).

But I perceive some things in common which outweigh our differences—which the Lord Jesus shall soon enough compose between us, either by our maturing, or by His bringing us home. I long to work with those, and count it a privilege to work with those whom My Savior has purchased with His blood, and with whom I share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I perceive that we have in common the knowledge that God is glorified in sinners being reconciled to Him through Christ. This is not taught by other religions, nor clearly by the ancient Christian churches of the East, or by Rome, by liberal Protestant churches, by Mormons, the churches of Christ, or by groups of self-righteous, legalistic, moralistic Christians. And not only do we together affirm the exclusivity of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone—we agree on the sovereignty of God in life and salvation, the regenerate nature of church members, the importance of church membership and discipline, the baptism of believers alone, the priorities of expositional preaching, and evangelism, the importance of authority and a growing appreciation for the significance of complementarianism. These are not slight matters. And they only fire my desire to encourage you and cheer you on, until you cross that finish line that the Lord lays down for us.”

1. Individual Evangelism (Evangelize yourself and teach others to evangelize)

• Churches begin by people sharing the Gospel (Romans 10)
• 1 Peter 3
• Evangelism is the job of ALL CHRISTIANS
• It is assumed in the NT that Christians evangelize
• Why is the persecution in the NT?
  • Because people are being verbal about their life being changed
• Love others as yourself
  • Implicit demand to share the Gospel of Jesus
• Encourage individual evangelism by teaching the Gospel
• During CHBC Membership process, ask “In 60 seconds or less, share the good news of Jesus Christ”
  • Hear them articulate their hope
  • Then help them to clarify how they can articulate and understanding the gospel
• Hardware the Gospel in your church
• Clarify and not confuse the Gospel
  • The Gospel vs. the implications of the Gospel
• Model evangelism for your congregation
• Teach them the Gospel from every part of scripture
• Evangelism is less something you have to strategize and more something that easily flows from you
  

2. Individual Demonstration (Backup your words with your life)

• My life should backup my words (1 Peter 12)
• Our lives have to be different than others
• We must be willing to build and break relationships for the Gospel
• Don’t let your life obscure the Gospel by your actions
• Have your life help explain the Gospel
• This takes time
• As a church grows, it is more difficult to have relationships with non-Christians
• Ask God to lead you to strategic non-Christian relationships
• Check your church calendar to enable congregation to have non-Christian relationships

3. Definition of a Church (Understand what a church is what it is designed to be about)

• Right preaching of the Word of God
• Right administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper
• The Word of God creates, the church holds it up for display through sacraments
• That collection of people who are hearing the word of God, responding to it in their lives, and responding to it through obedience in baptism and the Lord’s Supper
• The faith that we preach is demonstrated through the life of the Church
• The church is Jesus’ evangelism plan
  

4. Centrality of Proclamation (Preach evangelistically)

• What we need in our churches is Gospel-centered preaching
• Include evangelism in how you think about exposition
• Don’t give an exposition without giving people an opportunity to respond to the Gospel
• Imperative verbs of the Bible != moralism
  • They are part of God’s word to us
  • 1 Corinthians 2
• Preach together the Moral Imperatives and the Gospel
• Every sermon equips your congregation for evangelism

5. Our Corporate Witness (Realize that your congregation’s life together makes the audible words visible)

• Not just church planting, but church reform
• Bad churches are not neutral
• They will know we are Christians by our mutual love for one another
• The depth of the church will affect the reach of the church
• There is power in the Gospel
• That which distinguishes us from non-Christians makes us provocative
• Any contextualism which obscures the ascent of the Gospel fails
• We must be clear about the Gospel
• The Gospel enflames the non-Christian to live truly “humanly”
• Paul’s concern that “The Church manifest and display the glory of God”
• God is praised and honored by our actions as we display His character in our lives
• If Jesus is the image of the invisible God, how do we see Him today?
• The point of the incarnation is not solely the physical
• God is made most visible in the lives lived out in the local church

• Keep things off the staff
  • Lay organization
  • Don’t let the church become a cluttered attic with unused programs
• See the Gospel in every text
  • That will enable you to preach the Gospel in every sermon

From The Resurgence 2008 Text and Context Conference

From The Resurgence 2008 Text and Context Conference

(Notes are my own, so forgive any sloppiness)

As presented by C. J. Mahaney at The Resurgence 2008 Text and Context Conference

(the notes are my own, so please forgive any sloppiness or incompleteness)

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 

¹Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

 ²To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

 ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 ⁴I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— ⁶even as⁾ the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— ⁷so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hidden in Plain Site

A compelling example of Cross-centered Pastoral Ministry
Corinthians Church was a piece of work

• Seduced by human wisdom
• Drifted from centrality of cross
• Didn’t want to be distinctive from culture
• Desired approval of wealthy and powerful
• Division within church – 4 factions
• Sexual immorality (Ch 5)
• Lawsuit happy church (Ch 6)
• Desecrating Lord’s Supper (Ch 11)
• 1 Cor 11 “I have no praise for you for your meetings do more harm than good”
• Opposition to Paul

Yet still, Paul says “I give thanks to my God always for you” (1 Cor 1:4)

• Paul’s extraordinary gratefulness and thankfulness for the church
• Attitude and Affection are sustained by a divine perspective of the Corinthian church

You must have a divine perspective for your church

Is our perspective the same as Paul’s divine perspective?

The Divine perspective of the Corinthiand Church is evident in

1.    Paul’s Understanding of the Call of God

1.  
   1. Paul is called to be apostle (v1)
      
   2. Church is called to be set apart (v2)
      
   3. They are called into the fellowship of His Son (v9)
   • Accent Divine Intiative

Over the past year and a half, I’ve been seeking God intently as to what I feel is His call on my life to plant a church in Ann Arbor. One of the steps in that process was finding a new church, which resulted in our home at Grace. Another step in the process is applying to the Acts 29 Network, a church planting network started at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. Part of the application process is submitting a preaching sample. Since I don’t have any recordings from when I preached in Virginia at either Image or to the youth at CRBC, I have been praying for an opportunity to preach.

God answered that prayer last Monday. Pastor Larry Mattis, from Briarwood Baptist Church, called me and asked if I would be available to preach on Sunday, May 24. I visited Briarwood in October 2008 during our search and talked to Pastor Mattis about being called to plant in Ann Arbor. I greatly appreciate this opportunity and am looking forward to presenting God’s word. I’m unsure yet as to the passage I will preach on, but that should be determined in the next day or so.

If anyone out there in blog-land wants to worship God with Julie, Malachi and I through singing, reading the bible, and my very rusty preaching, join us at this Sunday at 11 a.m.  The address is 7950 Warren Road Ann Arbor, MI.

From the Desiring God Blog

Some of you may have little or no experience with what I mean by preaching. I think it will help you listen to my messages if I say a word about it.

What I mean by preaching is expository exultation.

Preaching Is Expository

Expository means that preaching aims to exposit, or explain and apply, the meaning of the Bible. The reason for this is that the Bible is God’s word, inspired, infallible, profitable—all 66 books of it.

The preacher’s job is to minimize his own opinions and deliver the truth of God. Every sermon should explain the Bible and then apply it to people’s lives.

The preacher should do that in a way that enables you to see that the points he is making actually come from the Bible. If you can’t see that they come from the Bible, your faith will end up resting on a man and not on God’s word.

The aim of this exposition is to help you eat and digest biblical truth that will

• make your spiritual bones more like steel,
• double the capacity of your spiritual lungs,
• make the eyes of your heart dazzled with the brightness of the glory of God,
• and awaken the capacity of your soul for kinds of spiritual enjoyment you didn’t even know existed.

Preaching Is Exultation

Preaching is also exultation. This means that the preacher does not just explain what’s in the Bible, and the people do not simply try understand what he explains. Rather, the preacher and the people exult over what is in the Bible as it is being explained and applied.

Preaching does not come after worship in the order of the service. Preaching is worship. The preacher worships—exults—over the word, trying his best to draw you into a worshipful response by the power of the Holy Spirit.

My job is not simply to see truth and show it to you. (The devil could do that for his own devious reasons.) My job is to see the glory of the truth and to savor it and exult over it as I explain it to you and apply it for you. That’s one of the differences between a sermon and a lecture.

Preaching Isn’t Church, but It Serves the Church

Preaching is not the totality of the church. And if all you have is preaching, you don’t have the church. A church is a body of people who minister to each other.

One of the purposes of preaching is to equip us for that and inspire us to love each other better.

But God has created the church so that she flourishes through preaching. That’s why Paul gave young pastor Timothy one of the most serious, exalted charges in all the Bible in 2 Timothy 4:1-2:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.

What to Expect from My Preaching and Why

If you’re used to a twenty-minute, immediately practical, relaxed talk, you won’t find that from what I’ve just described.

• I preach twice that long;
• I do not aim to be immediately practical but eternally helpful;
• and I am not relaxed.

I standing vigilantly on the precipice of eternity speaking to people who this week could go over the edge whether they are ready to or not. I will be called to account for what I said there.

That’s what I mean by preaching.

From Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church, where he ministers weekly at the congregation’s Fegenbush location.

The best way to outwit the Evil One is to anticipate how his powers will seek to counter-act your preaching. It’s helpful for me to think as I’m preparing to preach of all the ways my own heart seeks to evade the truth of the text. Once, as I was studying to preach on a Beatitude, I realized that I was treating the text exactly the way a liberal would treat a passage forbidding women in the pastorate: “Well, it can’t mean that, what it appears to say, so…”

The more you know your people, their struggles and triumphs, and the more you know human nature, the better you’ll know how to preach sermons that can pierce through strongholds, and gain attention. That doesn’t guarantee that people will like what you say; but it helps ensure they’ll hear it being said.

Also, remember you are speaking for Christ. There’s a passion and a gravity that ought to come with one standing in the place of the One who has been granted all authority.

Beyond that, but a sermonic information dump—with PowerPoint outline point by sub-point by sub-sub-point can “safely” distance your people from Christ. A sermon that simply collates and regurgitates what you’ve read in commentaries can make the Word of God a matter of cognition not submission. A strung-together list of life tips can make it easy for your people to disregard this word just like they disregard the weight loss plans commercials on television or the flossing ad campaigns they see from the dentist’s chair.

The devil doesn’t mind boring sermons, so long as you allow him to preach too. He’s doesn’t mind the Word being heard so long as it’s the appetites that really enliven his people. And he doesn’t mind the gospel going forward as long as God’s people hear his accusations of them (and they’re all expository and biblically-based!).

But if you grip people with the drama of the gospel of Christ, if you jolt them into seeing the ancient newness of the Word of God, then you’ll have a demonic insurrection on your hand.

You preach verse-by-verse through the text? You do well. The demons, they preach also—and they’re boring.

Scott Thomas’ message from the Acts 29 2009 Raleigh Boot Camp

Acts 11:19-25

19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists  also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Acts 13

1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,  Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 

10 Qualifications of What a Church Planter is

Missionary, Apostolic Leader

Leading Men Into Mission

1. Spiritual Vitality
2. Theological Clarity
   • Guard the doctrinal door with winsome authority
3. Clarity and Strength of Calling
   • Church needs to commend you for ministry (planting) and send you
4. Strong marriage and family life
5. Relationship Building
6. Leadership Abilities
   1. As a church planter, do you prefer mules or stallions in your church? We need stallions
   2. Mules are sterile, won’t reproduce
   3. Must be willing to let the stallions run past you
7. Emotional health and stability
   1. A man who is not teachable and not coachable is not usable
   2. Know you weaknesses and strengths
8. A Missional Lifestyle
9. Disciple-making Skills
10. Entrepeneurial aptitude

Church stoppers

• Arrogance
• Betrays trust
• Unethical lifestyle

Part 1

Preparation

1. What does the Bible say?
2. What does the Bible mean?
3. What is the takeaway point? What’s the hook?
4. Why or how is there resistance to what is true in Scripture?
5. Why does this matter? How does this relate to my church, my marriage, my family, my city?
6. How is Jesus the hero?

Seeing Jesus in the OT

1. Prophetic Promises
2. Christophany
3. Types
   1. Last Adam
   2. Prophet
   3. King
   4. Sacrifices
   5. Shepherd
   6. Judge
4. Like ministries
5. In events
6. Titles for God