Deep Change

Listen, I am a readaholic. I really am. I've always got two or three books going on. Anybody else here a readaholic? You love books. Well, over the holidays, even with everything going on here and my daughter getting married and so on, I plowed through a stack of books. And one of the books that I read was the original Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Anybody else ever read this book? Not seen the movies or something, but actually read the book. It's actually really good. Movies have made it into more of a horror story. Really, it's more of a Twilight Zone episode than a horror story.

Dr. Jekyll in the book is a very good man. He's a medical doctor and he wants to give his life toward helping the poor. But something really bothers him. He says, "I really want to do good, but at the same time inside of me there's this selfish nature that just wants to do wrong and wants to do evil." And Dr. Jekyll is getting very tired of being a battleground for these two selves. And so he decides to invent a drug that will split his two natures. The idea being that then he can be a good man and a good doctor and never have to struggle with temptation. And his evil side can go off and have some fun at night or something. And then it's just not going to bother him when he does good for people.

And so he invents this potion and it works. When he drinks it, he turns into Mr. Hyde for a few hours. This is the first human being ever in history who is 100% evil. The only unmixed human who has ever lived on Earth. So how does that feel? Well, I love his description of it right after he takes the potion for the first time. He says, "I knew myself at the first breath of this new life to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked than I had suspected, sold under slavery to my original evil. And it thrilled me. The thought braced and delighted me." And so he gets more into being evil than he thought he would.

But at least his nature is split. 100% good Dr. Jekyll. 100% evil Dr. Hyde. And at first it kind of works. At night Mr. Hyde comes out and indulges himself and he only takes the potion every couple of weeks, right? But then during the day, the rest of the time, Dr. Jekyll can be 100% good and not be bothered by temptation at all until Mr. Hyde starts to take over even when he doesn't drink the potion. And what happens next? Well, I'll tell you in a minute. But I think people have been fascinated for decades by this story because we relate, right? We can all feel the good side and the evil side deep inside of us battling.

In fact, maybe you look at the cover of the book and you go, "Man, I can totally relate to that because I can be Dr. Jekyll during the day and be a good person and be compassionate and kind. But what do I do about Mr. Hyde or Ms. Hyde who sometimes suddenly comes out in my darkest times?" Well, I want you to grab the message notes that were tucked inside the bulletins that you got when they came in. Radical Deep Organic Change is our three-week series that we're starting 2014 with. And today let's talk about deep change. Last weekend we talked about radical change. Next week it's organic change. This week, deep change.

What do you do about Mr. Hyde hiding deep inside of you? If you've ever broken a bad habit and thought, "Victory is mine!" only to find yourself a few weeks later doing the exact same thing and thought, "Man, I am hopeless." Then this is for you today. If you've ever been in church and stood up and been singing worship songs and thinking, "I feel so connected to God." And then suddenly in those moments the most evil, weird, sinful thought drops into your brain and you think, "Where did that come from?" Then this is for you.

In fact, audience poll, show of hands, whether you're watching here or in venue, how many of you have ever committed the same sin more than once? Anybody ever done that? Okay. Then this is for you. Because that's what our text from the Bible is about today, Romans chapter 7. In the book of Romans it's sort of the classic book written by the Apostle Paul that's in the New Testament of your Bible. And in the seventh chapter right in the middle of the book, the Apostle Paul, I mean the Apostle Paul, the greatest figure in the New Testament outside of Jesus Christ makes a startling confession.

And I want to read you just a few key verses out of this long chapter. He says, "We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do for what I want to do I do not do but what I hate I do." Can you relate to this? Paul's saying all the things on my daily checklist that I want to do, call that person on the phone, visit that person in the hospital, spend more time with my family, all those things I know I should be doing, I end up not doing at the end of the day. And all the things I don't want to do, say sarcastic things to people, give in to temptation, you know, overwork, all these things that I didn't want to do, I end up doing.

Those are the things that are checked off on my list at the end of the day, right? I have the desire to do what's good, but I can't carry it out. For I don't do the good I want to do, but the evil I don't want to do, this I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I don't want to do, it's no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work, although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am.

Now, isn't it amazing that this is in the Bible? Aren't you glad that the Apostle Paul wrote this down and put it in the New Testament and said, "Man, what is wrong with me? I really mess up a lot of times." I am glad it's in here because I relate to this, don't you? Don't you feel sometimes like sin just stalks you? And when you think you've conquered it, you look around and it's really right there with you, and it kind of snuck up on you, and suddenly you're saying something you shouldn't say, thinking something you shouldn't say, just right in the middle of a time when you thought you were being really godly, and there it is.

We have a new kitten at our house. She was born in August, and she already has grown to love to stalk things, and specifically she loves to stalk us. And it's actually kind of creepy, because she is one of these cats that will stalk you behind you, and you think something's watching, and you look behind and there's the cat. And whenever you look at the cat, she just freezes, thinking you can't see her if she doesn't move, like your eyes are motion detectors. And then when you turn away, you walk a little further again, and you look behind and she's a little bit closer, but she's frozen again.

Now, I'm not exaggerating. I want you to watch this. This is a little cell phone video that our 15-year-old son took, and this is our stairway in our house. And in fact, let me show you this. Can we have the lights down just a little bit here in the house? This right there is our cat. She's hiding down there at the bottom of the stairs, and she's stalking our son. Now, watch what happens when she thinks he's gone around the corner, and he does this a few times. Roll the video. She's a little bit further up, then he goes around the corner. She's a little bit further. He goes around the corner again. She's a little closer, but frozen. Goes around the corner again. How does she move? Goes around the corner again. A little closer. Can you see why I say it's creepy? Because you just turn your head for a little while, and there she is.

And she'll just keep coming closer and closer and closer until I'm cononed to you. She is just staring you right in the face. And so, how many of you are going to have nightmares now about a cat, because I just showed that to you? But I feel like sin's that way sometimes, right? I know I've handled sin. I've handled it. You look around. Hello, there it is right behind me. And that's what Paul is talking about in Romans 7. He's describing two different battles with sin, really.

See, a lot of people get confused here in Romans 7. Is Paul talking about the struggle that we have with sin before we become Christians, before God saves us from sin? Or is he talking about the struggle after we become Christians, after his faith in Christ? Well, I think he's talking about both. Because the first part of the chapter, he's talking about his struggle before his faith in Christ. And then in verse 14, there's a change in tenses. Before verse 14, it's all in the past. After verse 14, it's all in the present tense. I am. I do. I think.

Because there's a difference. In the war with sin before you're a Christian, and the war between your good and bad self after you become a Christian. And I think Paul sets this up early in Romans 7 in this verse. He says in Romans 7:6, "We serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." This is the key verse to understanding all of Romans 7. There's two ways to serve God. Two ways to try to be good, to please God. There's the new way of the Spirit, or the old way of the written code. One of those two works, and one doesn't.

But most Christians don't understand the difference between these two. And although they believe in Jesus, they're still serving God, still trying to fight Mr. Hyde in the old way of the written code. Now this was a revelation for me years ago, and I'm telling you if you understand this, it will revolutionize your own struggle with the Mr. Hyde inside of you. Your own sins and bad habits. So let me kind of give you an overview of Romans chapter 7 here. This is going to be a 10,000 foot overview. And sometimes an overview is better than a verse by verse grind because it gives you an understanding of the argument, of the thrust of the argument of a chapter.

In the first half of Romans chapter 7, Paul talks about the battle that I cannot win, and that is the old way of the written code. This is what won't solve my problem, which is moralism. When you think, I'm going to go to the moral law, I'm going to try to be real religious, I'm going to do everything just right, I'm going to obey all the religious rules, I'm going to live by my principles, I'm going to keep the Ten Commandments, and I'm going to drown out Mr. Hyde by just trying to be really good.

You know in the Jekyll and Hyde story, Dr. Jekyll decides that he's going to smother the Mr. Hyde of himself with moralism. By devoting his life to being very, very good. But it doesn't work. Listen to this. He tells his friend, "You know how eagerly, how earnestly these last few months I have devoted myself to helping others." Well, it was a fine clear January day, I felt I had gotten on top of Edward Hyde, and I sat on a park bench smiling, comparing myself with other men walking past, comparing my active good will with the lazy cruelty of their neglect. And the very moment of that vain, glorious thought, a nausea came over me, a deadly shuddering, and I looked down at my hands, and I was once again Mr. Hyde.

And that was the very first time that he'd become Mr. Hyde without taking the potion. Why? It's brilliant. Robert Louis Stevenson is saying that our own self-righteousness in our moral behavior is actually a channel to release our bad nature. It's actually just as bad as the selfishness of Mr. Hyde. And that's what Paul is saying here too about the downfall of moralism as a way to get better. Look at verse 8. "But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded me by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting, for apart from the law, sin was dead." Now let me explain this.

When Paul talks about the commandment and the law, he's talking about the Mosaic law in Judaism because that was his background, but really the same principle applies to any set of rules, any moralism. They're good ideas, but if you think that they're the cure for your struggle with sin, you are sadly mistaken because they bring out self-righteousness and judging and comparing yourself piously with other people. And what's worse, says Paul, it not only brings out your self-righteousness, but in some ways it makes your sin even worse. Verse 9. "When the commandment came, sin sprang to life, and I died." He's saying in some ways commandments cause the sin to spring to life.

Now what's he talking about here? Well you know what he means. When I was a kid, I grew up over the hill on this side of San Jose, off of Blossom Hill Road, right? And right on the other side of the street from our house was an orchard, a big long orchard. And the farmer hated the fact that the kids in the neighborhood would ride their bikes through the orchard and sometimes would steal his fruit. And so he put up no trespassing signs, but the kids just saw them as an intriguing challenge. Why is he telling us to not trespass? What good fruit did the rust put something cool there, right? And then he put up a fence. Well the kids just climbed over the fence. And then he got a shotgun and he filled it with rock salt. And he would kapow, take shots at the kids who were stealing his fruit with his rock salt.

Has anybody here ever been shot with rock salt before? Yeah, you probably grew up in our neighborhood. It stings, doesn't it? It hurts. So I've heard. But anyway, now this is the 60s and the early 70s. What do you think our parents thought of this guy? Now these days what would parents do to this guy? They'd sue him, right? Those days what did our parents tell us when we said the farmer's shooting us with rock salt when we go into his farm? What did they say? Serves you right, right? My own mom, you are stealing his fruit? He has a right to shoot, you know?

So now you got no trespassing signs. You got the fence. You got the farmer's rock salt shotgun. And you have our parents telling us not to do that. And you know what effect all four of those things had on us kids? It made every kid in the neighborhood want to go there and steal that guy's fruit. I'm telling you the truth. I didn't even think of stealing his fruit until I heard he had a shotgun. And then it was like a challenge. Then it's like a video game, right? And somehow the law can have this effect.

I'll never forget being in youth group when I was a kid. And one of these youth pastors that we had one time, as usual, his topic was sin. And why you shouldn't do it. It was sort of every talk every week was just a variation of that. And he actually was listing on a board all these sins. And he had kind of the standard ten commandment ones. And he says, "Now you kids think you're so good because you're not really blatantly breaking these sins. But you are sinning in other ways." He said, "Here's some other sins." And he starts writing up all these other sins on the board. And I remember my thought at the time was, "I've never thought of that one before. That sounds kind of fun." You know? And it actually made me intrigued with it.

And that's exactly what Paul is talking about here. Ironically, it's supposed to eliminate self-centeredness. And somehow it has the exact opposite effect. In so many ways. Commandments produce almost an obsession with sin. Defining what's a sin. Defining what's not a sin. It produces anxiety. I'm never sure if I'm doing it right. Keeping all the rules. It produces covetousness where you start to long for the very sins that you're studying about. It produces self-righteousness if you happen to keep them. I'm so good like Dr. Jekyll. And you end up turning into Mr. Hyde. So that's the battle I can't win.

Unfortunately, this is the way to righteousness that basically everybody tries. Moralism. Just be good. Here's the commands. Just obey them. Even most Christians try this. I'm thinking it's Christianity, but it's not. And you know who sees the truth more clearly than almost anybody I know? People in 12-step groups. In recovery groups. They get this. They get that I cannot overcome my self-destructive behavior just by trying harder. I have to surrender my will to a power much greater than myself. The Lord, certainly. And then I can overcome them because I have his power. In my own strength, it's powerless. It's hopeless.

In fact, in the book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde finally at the end in despair, Dr. Jekyll takes his own life. Because he thinks that's the only way to finally end the battle. But Paul talks about a much better solution. He talks in the second half of chapter 7 about the battle I can't lose in verses 14-25. Now, it's still a battle. It's still a battle. But it's extremely different because it's not hopeless. And now you're not powerless. Watch this. What will solve my problem is surrender. Actually, the opposite of trying hard, giving up to the Lord. Because he transforms me from the inside out.

See, like Tim Keller, one of my pastor heroes, says, "In the old battle, you have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde inside you, but they are both equally you." Which one's the real you? They both are. Each side, the dark side and the light side, both have an equal claim to be you. And that's why it's hopeless. Because it's like a tug of war. Only both sides are exactly the same strength. It's like an endless game of Pong. You remember that? The part of you that wants to be virtuous and loyal and brave like Aragorn and Lord of the Rings, you know, that's you, the hero part of you. That's a real part of you. But the part of you that says, "No one tells us what to do," like Gollum's worst side, that's you, too. Totally you. Just as much as the hero you. And that's one of the reasons the first battles of battle you can't win.

But when you surrender to God, if you look carefully here in this text, you see that while there's still a battle, there's only one of them now that's still me. And that side of me is getting stronger. Because watch this. Paul's describing the battle, but now in present tense his description changes a little bit. Verse 15, "I don't understand what I do for what I want to do. I don't do, but what I hate I do." You don't move instantly from battling sin to instant sinless victory in the Christian life. And a lot of people have been discouraged misunderstanding that.

He says, "As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. It is no longer I who do it, because I'm changed on the inside. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law, my inner being. Now my true self is my good self. Not because I tried harder to make myself good, but because God has given me a new birth, and he is changing me from the inside out. Now in my inner being, I delight in God's law." What does that mean?

It's like when I was in junior high and high school. They used to make us go on field trips to museums, and I hated it. Museums, just the very word, just made me, it was like ambient. It just made me go to sleep. They were boring, right? They were like, "I don't want to go to the reports, but only to get a good grade. It just graded on me. I don't want to go to a field trip." Now, I love museums. I love, love, love museums. I love art museums. I love history museums. Honestly, and I've talked about this with some of you fellow museum lovers, I could go on vacation, and for my whole vacation, just do nothing but go to museums, especially in cities with great museums, like Paris or London or New York or something. I mean, I love them. I love them for their beauty. I love them because I'm always learning something new.

What happened? How did I change? Well, when I was young, I had to do it. Had to. It was a ball and chain they made me. I walked to the museums in fear that I'd miss something, that we'd be tested on, and so I never really just enjoyed it. I was always looking at it and reading all the displays, thinking, "What's she going to test me on? What's the teacher going to say?" Now when I go, I go for the joy of it. I go just for the greatness of it. Again, I go just because it's so beautiful, and that's the difference in your relationship with God's law once you fall in love with Jesus Christ.

Now you can read the whole Bible, including commands like, "Don't covet. Don't lie." And they're not things that bring you fear because you think, "I'm going to be tested on them." Because you know in God's eyes you're forgiven already. You don't have to earn anything. Now you look at these commands in the moral law and you go, "You know, they're really beautiful. You know, they're such genius to them. Your motivation totally changes, and you want to do them because they're good. Because they're good in and of themselves, not to get a good grade from God." Now that doesn't mean that there's not still a battle.

You still feel like Paul sometimes when he says, "What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?" He's saying, "Man, I get so disgusted with myself sometimes." Absolutely that still happens. But he says, he's not in despair. He says, "Because thanks be to God, he delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord." And that's his segue into chapter 8, where he talks about strategies for battle. And I'll hit this real quick because really all of chapter 8 is a giant answer to the struggle in Romans 7. Please do yourselves a favor and read the whole chapter 8 this week.

But right now, let me quickly give you three takeaways because you're still in a battle. So here's some strategies for you. A, B, C. A, admit my struggle. I've got to admit it. That's the whole point of what Paul's doing in Romans 7. Why is that chapter even in the Bible? Paul's being a role model. He's saying, "It's okay to admit it. It's okay to be real. Stop trying to give the impression that you have victory over every sin that you used to struggle with in your life right now. You don't. And neither do I. And neither did Paul. Paul admitted it and even wrote it down for posterity.

I've got to tell you, I struggle every day with stuff that I know I shouldn't do. And sometimes I lose the struggle. That doesn't make me unusual. It makes me normal. Don't put me on some kind of a pedestal or try to put yourself on a pedestal. Be honest with yourself, with each other, and with God. Very important. Then B, believe I'm under grace. Really believe it. Because here's what usually happens. I mess up. Then I respond to my failures like somebody living in the old way of the written code. I vow to God that I'm never going to do this again. And then when I break my promises, like I will do, I come crawling back to God. Please forgive me. Oh, please forgive me. Oh, I'm so stupid. I'm so stupid. And I'm completely forgetting the promise in Romans 8:1 that we saw last weekend.

Read this again out loud with me. Romans 8:1. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Say those two words, no condemnation out loud again. No condemnation. Now just revel in that for a second. That mistake you made years ago that still makes you cringe sometimes, no condemnation for that. The thing you did yesterday that you regret saying or thinking or doing, no condemnation for that. Those sins that God knows about in your future that you don't even know about yet, no condemnation for those either. No condemnation.

If you're in Christ, you don't have to fear God. Verse 15 of Romans 8. You didn't receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba. That means Papa, Father, God doesn't love you like a fickle boss loves a star performer. He loves you like the perfect daddy loves a beloved child. And that love for you will never ever stop no matter what you do. Verse 39 of chapter 8. Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing.

Even if you break all your promises tomorrow and the next day and the next day, he won't stop loving you. Even if you don't get better this year in any of the areas where you know you should get better, he won't stop loving you. Even if you mess up that way, you royally messed up that one time that you still regret and you do that again this year, his love for you will not be diminished. One iota. Now some of you are going, you can't tell people that. You got to tell them that God's mad so they'll behave. Only one big problem with that, it doesn't work. Instead, revel in God's grace and then see, here's your part, I need to change my focus.

Adrian talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Verse 5 Paul says, "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires." The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. Look how many times he says mind or mindset in those two verses. What do you have your mind set on? See this is the problem with the old way of the written code. You end up having your mind set on sin, ironically. But is your mind set on the Lord and on his grace and what he has lavished on you?

I have to tell you, this one verse has meant more to me recently than any other verse in Romans 7 and 8. I've memorized it, I keep repeating it to myself over and over again because it's so true. The mind controlled by the sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. How do you do that? How do you have your mind set on the spirit and what the spirit desires? Well, we have a plan. We really want to be all about your spiritual growth, our spiritual growth here as a church. And the whole series, the month of February, we call it still. And it's about biblical meditation.

A lot of times Christians hear the word meditation and they go, "Oh, some kind of weird new agey thing or something. Meditate, but I don't get it." But you know, the Bible talks a lot about meditation. And there's biblical meditation, that's exactly what this verse is talking about. Getting your mind set on what is good and excellent and praiseworthy. We're going to do it all the month of February. We're going to practice it. We're going to teach you, not techniques, but teach you the rewards of it. And then for the seven weeks leading up to Easter, we're writing a book called Cross Words called The Seven Final Sayings of Christ from the Cross. And we're just going to meditate as a church for seven weeks on those things.

And I think it's going to be like the most revelatory, exciting Easter we've ever experienced. Because we will have our minds set on something beautiful and amazing. Get your mind set on what's good. Now, you know another important word here is spirit. It's interesting, in the first seven chapters of Romans, the word spirit is only used once. And in Romans 8, it's used 19 times. Why is this important? Because you are not alone. You are not alone. Verse 26, "The spirit helps us in our weakness." He doesn't clobber us in our weakness. The spirit helps us in our weakness.

Remember the verse we started with? "We serve in the new way of the spirit and not the old way of the written code." The old way of the written code means, say you've got a bad habit. Say you've got a temper or you struggle with drinking or you struggle with drugs or you've got a sex habit or something else. The old way of the written code means you make new policies, new resolutions, new commandments, and it just never works for long because your willpower is evenly divided between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The new way of the spirit means it's not just about you and your willpower. It's the Holy Spirit of God and His power. And He gives you a new birth and now the good side of you is growing bigger and bigger.

And in fact, He guarantees eventual incremental victory. He guarantees it. Now what's going to happen? Some of you are going to get real excited about this and you're going to go, "That's right! I'm going to have victory! I'm going to do these three things!" And then Tuesday or Wednesday you're going to fall into the same bad habit and you're going to go, "René lied to us and Paul lied to us. It doesn't work. Wrong." You are now in a battle that you cannot lose. And you can tell because sin doesn't taste as good as it used to. And its satisfaction doesn't last as long as it used to. And it leaves a bitter aftertaste that it used to not leave. Why? Because it's no longer expressive of your true self. And that's a sign that God is slowly, incrementally changing you.

And that's the bottom line. I need to have confidence that God is changing me. He really is changing me. Too many of us have a defeatist mindset when it comes to sin. But you're in a battle you can't lose. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, Romans 8:29, "For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. And those He predestined, He also called, those He called, He also justified, those He justified, He also glorified." That means when God started in you, He'll finish. You're in this unbreakable chain of grace.

Now some of you are going, "Well, this is brand new." You thought that what Christianity taught was the old way of the written code. But what it teaches is the new way of the Spirit. Now most of you in this room are probably thinking, "You know, I get it. I believe it." People who didn't believe this probably came last night. But this morning I believe I get grace. I accepted Jesus Christ when I was eight. But changing your mindset is a daily thing. You know what the most important thing that Christians can do? Is preach the gospel to yourself every day. Preach the gospel to yourself every day.

Remind yourself, in fact, repeat these things out loud with me. Say, "I am under no condemnation." Say it. "I am under no condemnation. I have the Spirit's power." Say it. "I have the Spirit's power. I am destined for victory. I am destined for victory." Now live like it. Heavenly Father, I just pray that you would help this to make a difference inside of us. Help us to be a church typified not by people who live in the old way of the written code, but in the new way of the Spirit, reveling in your lavish grace, that changes me from the inside out.

And God, if there's anybody right now who's saying, "I want to move from the first battle to the second, from the old way to the new way," I pray that they'd simply open their hearts to you and say, "Lord, thank you for the sacrifice on the cross that paid my debt. I don't understand it all, but I want to start following Jesus and changing from the inside out, starting today in Jesus name. Amen.