Bill Acton :: Romans 7:7-13 - The Assurance of Eternal Salvation Even Through the Personal Struggle with Sin

Sermon Outline for Romans 7:7-13

General Subject: The Assurance of Salvation
Specific Subject: The Assurance of Eternal Salvation Even Through the Personal Struggle with Sin

1. Preliminary Observations
   1. Romans chapter 7 is not a necessary experience
      1. Paul’s experience is highlighted by his background
      2. Not every believer must go through Paul’s anguish
   2. This cannot be a continual experience
      1. No Christian can live in constant defeat
      2. Every Christian will experience some growth
   3. This is the experience of a believer
      1. Paul was hating sin
      2. Paul was desiring holiness
2. The Purpose of the Passage
   1. To demonstrate the inability of anyone to fulfill the demands of the Law – personal holiness
   2. To demonstrate the necessity of the indwelling Spirit of Christ for the new position of justified to walk in holiness
   3. To demonstrate that the same sovereign grace of God that justifies, gives a new position, and continues to operate in the life
   4. To demonstrate that when the new nature “moved in,” the old nature just “moved over” not “out”
   5. To demonstrate that the Law is “good” but sin is “bad”
3. The Analysis of Rom 7:7-13
   1. The Law and sin
      1. Law reveals the fact of sin – Rom 7:7
         1. To commit sin is to sin
         2. The law makes it apparent
         3. The Law did not create sin
         4. The Law exposes sin
         5. The exposure of Paul
         6. The “evil desires” revealed – 10th commandment
      2. The Law reveals the awareness of sin
         1. It affects the conscience
         2. It increases the sense of sin
         3. It provokes sin
      3. The Law condemns sin – Rom 7:8b
         1. The judgment of the Law
         2. The fact of spiritual death
      4. The Law reveals the power of sin – Rom 7:9
         1. The Law has legal power to convict
         2. The Law has no life – power to deliver
         3. Sin over-powers us and holds us helpless
         4. We must die to self-reliance
      5. The Law reveals the effect of sin – Rom 7:10
         1. Sin brings death
         2. Law legalizes
         3. Paul’s discovery of indwelling sin came after conversion
      6. The Law reveals the deception of sin – Rom 7:11
         1. It deceives us into thinking wrongly about God – that He will condone sin
         2. It deceives us into thinking wrongly about ourselves
            that we are not really responsible
            1. By making us think that we can stand in our own strength
            2. By producing the illusion that we can meet any situation
      7. The Law reveals the sinfulness of sin – Rom 7:12-13
         1. The Law exposes sin
         2. The Law imposes penalty upon the law-breaker
         3. The Law protects the law-abiding person
         4. The Law proves the sinfulness of human nature
            1. Sin as leprosy
            2. Sin as leaven
            3. Sin as evil desire
            4. Knowledge of right and the command to obey are incentives to evil
            5. There is no defect in the Law
            6. The defect is in us
            7. “Search me, O God, and know my heart”
      8. “Under grace” means we are not “under Law”
         1. We have been discharged from the Law
         2. We have been cleared and will never face trial by the Law
         3. The Law must be out of the way for the Lord Jesus Christ to live by faith in our hearts