The Wretched Man That I Am

 October 5, 2024

Saturday

I keep a quote from C. H. Spurgeon on my wall to remind me who will do the great words of God. It says, "Most of us are far to great for God to use us; we can preach as well as anybody, make a sermon with anybody-- so we fail! Take care, brethren, for is we think we can do anything of ourselves, all we shall get from God will be the opportunity to try." And I must admit, I have tried over and over again.

We can do nothing without Christ. We can try as hard as is humanly possible but godly things cannot be done without God. Sermons can be preached but they will not accomplish the will of God. Teaching can be taught but it will not accomplish the will of God. Even great dreams can be dreamt but they will not accomplish the will of God. All of these things will be our will done in our power to result in our own glory. Even if they seem great before men, they will never amount to anything before God.

My own trying is often because I want to help God go beyond what He can do. Can you imagine that? I am going to help God! In reality I know that I am just trying to make myself look better than I would look otherwise. I don't know why I think that operating under God's power would make me look worse. I am like Saul offering the sacrifice before Samuel arrives. He was scared of what would happen if he waited on what God had told him to do. If he would have waited his kingdom would have lasted forever.

So, it is often not a matter of knowing the right thing to do but a matter of doing the right thing. Knowing the right thing to do means nothing when it is disobeyed. I guess the Apostle Paul would agree with me.

Romans 7:14-25 (ESV) 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.