Romans 7 How can you win the battle of the mind?

Summary: A verse by verse examination of what the book of Romans in the Bible teaches. This message covers Romans 7, how to win the battle of the mind.

Bible References:

Romans 7:1-25 ( KJV ) ¹Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?  ²For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.  ³So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.  ⁴Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.  ⁵For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.  ⁶But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. ⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.  ⁸But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.  ⁹For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.  ¹⁰And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.  ¹¹For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.  ¹²Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.  ¹³Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.  ¹⁵For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.  ¹⁶If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.  ¹⁷Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  ¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  ¹⁹For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  ²⁰Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  ²¹I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  ²²For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  ²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  ²⁴O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  ²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

2 Corinthians 3:1-14 ( KJV ) ¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?  ²Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:  ³Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.  ⁴And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:  ⁵Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; ⁶Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.  ⁷But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:  ⁸How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?  ⁹For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.  ¹⁰For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.  ¹¹For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. ¹²Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:  ¹³And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:  ¹⁴But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. 

Matthew 18:12-14 ( KJV ) ¹²How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?  ¹³And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.  ¹⁴Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ( KJV ) ⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:  ⁵And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  ⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:  ⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  ⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.  ⁹And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 

Ephesians 5:25-32 ( KJV ) ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;  ²⁶That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,  ²⁷That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.  ²⁸So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.  ²⁹For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:  ³⁰For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.  ³¹For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.  ³²This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 

Galatians 5:19-23 ( KJV ) ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  ²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  ²³Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 

2 Timothy 1:7 ( KJV ) ⁷For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 

Romans 12:1-2 ( KJV ) ¹I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  ²And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

Mark 5:15 ( KJV ) ¹⁵And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 

Philippians 4:4-7 ( KJV ) ⁴Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.  ⁵Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.  ⁶Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  ⁷And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.