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Sunday 14 February 2016

'MY DIVIDED AND CONTRADICTORY SELF'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, February 14th,  2016)
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Broadcast Notes:
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Before I begin, I would like to give a shout out of THANKS to Thomas A Pegg Plumbing and Heating, who's generous donation has sponsored today's program: (http://www.peggplumbing.com/index.asp,1554 Carling Avenue, Unit 35, Ottawa.)


The following is a shortened version of a Sermon I preached at Church of the Messiah. It was part of a sermon series on the Book of Romans called "Grace Shaped Life".
 
‘My Divided And Contradictory Self’


Romans 7: 7-25   (ESV)

The Law and Sin
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! 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. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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 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.

NOTES:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."" Romans 1: 16-17

1. When the living God speaks, He infringes on my desire for absolute sovereignty.

A. Until we see Him face-to-face, every follower of Jesus lives in the "already/not yet" with a divided and contradictory self.

2. I flatter myself too much to detect or hate my own sin.

A. Until we see Him face-to-face, every follower of Jesus lives in the "already/not yet" with a divided and contradictory self.

3. I am not divided between: divine/earthly, higher/lower, good/evil, spiritual/physical, mind/matter. I am redeemed/fallen in the already/not yet.

A. Until we see Him face-to-face, every follower of Jesus lives in the "already/not yet" with a divided and contradictory self.

4. My divided and contradictory nature does not let me off the hook for the wrong that I do and the good that I fail to do.

A. Until we see Him face-to-face, every follower of Jesus lives in the "already/not yet" with a divided and contradictory self.

5. "Wretched person that I am! Who can deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

6. A follower of Jesus' eternal standing with God cannot be shaken, but our walk with Jesus needs daily attention and daily grace.

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
Church of the Messiah
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