********************************************************************

PASTOR WOOD’S Sermon notes

Today’s Message Notes: July 5th 2020
Title: “A Revolutionary War Within”
Text: Romans 7:15-25

Part 1: The Battle Within The Flesh.
Intro: Because of smallpox the greatest battle during the American Revolutionary War for the Continental army led by George Washington was a battle within the flesh of every soldier.

I. Smallpox nearly lost the war for independence.
A. George Washington had it at 19 while on his one only trip out of the state to Barbados in 1751—Lasted a month.
B. Smallpox raged among the immigrants.
C. Until the war most citizens remained isolated—naturally sheltered in place.
D. 1775 campaign into Canada was a disaster because of the smallpox and decimated the northern army.

II. Sin rages in humanity and deeply skews every believer.
A. It is the oldest battle within the flesh.
B. Romans 7:15-25 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do it, but what I hate to do instead….It is not longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me…I delight in God’s Law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”
C. We know that battle.
1. “Do I bite my tongue and say something nice when I’m being mistreated or do I throw it right back in their face with a seasoning of disrespect?”
2. “Do I love my neighbor as myself or retreat and avoid the risk of messing it up or saying the wrong thing.”
3. Sin affects the DNA of every decision and action.
4. Sin and faith are always at war within our flesh.
5. We get better at whichever one we practice more.
D. The thing is sin comes easy to us.
1. It’s Eve listening to Satan as he tempts her to take the fruit.
2. Consider Peter at the Fire barrel.
3. Symptoms of our reality are all around—ignore the symptoms and things get worse.

Part 2: A Christian Struggle With Sin Is Hard But a Sign of Something Healthy Too.
Intro: Washington tried a policy of strict quarantine to keep his troops healthy and ready to fight but it didn’t last.

I. Quarantine efforts were a double edged-sword.
A. Washington couldn’t afford for his troops to be down for a month recovering from inoculations.
B. Quarantine lasted long enough for the British to surrender Boston in 1776.
C. Army life in the 18th-century was cramped and unsanitary—and everyone remained in close proximity with other people—and vulnerable.

II. Recent days have shown the double-edged sword of isolation is that one reduces the risk of infection but it also cuts off from loved ones.
A. Families are cut off from loved ones in hospitals, nursing homes, and limited in public contact.
B. Before Covid, last year and even this year numerous articles have been written that say loneliness is our greatest pandemic.
C. Today it’s as if we are living out loud the battle Paul describes in Romans 7. I know what I want to do but should I do it? Is what I do good or not? By doing one thing am I bringing trouble in another way?
D. Truth is, in making these decisions something is going to be sacrificed and lost. This is illustrative what is going on inside of Christians.

III. The struggle for a faithful Christian is real and it is hard but is also a signal that something healthy is going on.
A. If one doesn’t care what God thinks it’s not a battle.
B. But if the first commandment, to put the Lord first is truly first, then I care about what He cares about.
C. This means confessing my sins truthfully.
D. It means I am following Jesus.
E. A war within the heart and mind and body is fundamentally a symptom of the Holy Spirit working within a broken vessel.
F. It’s only a war if we are willing to fight for the relationship we have with Jesus—Stay in the fight.

Part 3: While Romans 7 points us to the problem Romans 8 brings us to the answer.
Intro: After agonizing over the decision, George Washington becomes the first to inoculate large numbers of people. It would become the single most important strategic move of his military career.

I. Variolation was used to inoculate the army. variolation.
A. Effectively a doctor would deliberately infect the other soldiers.
B. For months it was all done in secrecy to prevent the British from realizing that half the army was sick from inoculations.
C. It got worse before it got better. The famous winter at Valley Forge in 1778 was miserable and was made worse by inoculations from smallpox.
D. By spring 1778 ranks of the Continental army swelled with immune troops.
E. It would not be until 1796 that Edward Jenner would develop the cowpox vaccine that eventually led to the annihilation of the disease with the last known case recorded in 1977.

II. The Vaccine for sin is revealed in Romans 8.
A. Romans 8:1ff “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…For what the law could not do God did by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful men to be a sin offering.”
B. The “sin offering” of Leviticus 16 is important.
C. Jesus takes our sins upon Himself.
D. Jesus replaces our sin by infusing his grace into our wounds in the Spirit of God through the Word, through faith.
E. His blood washes us clean and brings about the cure for our sin.
F. “Who will rescue me from the body of sin and death?”—Answer: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Final Thought:
Smallpox had its run—Beat Disease won the war.
Sin is having its final run—In the Cross we won the war.
Jesus’ Victory has become our Salvation

PRINTABLE PDF: SermonNJuly4.PDF

********************************************************************