What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
14 sermons cite this verse
… I'm sick of my hand to God O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children then he brings you in real close and sets you on his lap and says, my son, how wonderful to be a son of God. How nice to know that I am his son. Now, smile because that means I'm not bastardized. I'm legitimized. I am his son. I belong to him. Satan, you can't do just anything to me because I am his son. I am a child of God. The Bible says this one woman came to him and said, I am a daughter of Abraham. Knowing your pedigree and your background is sometimes the only reason you get the blessing. It's not because you resisted so well, but knowing the lineage that you come from, sometimes God will give you a blessing on credit. How? Is there anybody in here that got a blessing on credit? …
therefore there is now no condemnation for all who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death for the law was powerless to do and it was weakened by the sinful nature God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering so he condemned sin and sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. Those who live according to the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death. The mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It doesn't submit to God's law nor can it do so. …
… If it's not confusing, then I'm in conflict. The good that I would do, Paul said in Romans chapter 7, I cannot do. The thing that I don't want to do, I find myself doing. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? This is Paul talking, y'all. The apostle Paul said it's hard for me to hear God. Does that make you feel better? It feels good to get it out. Not always easy for me to know where the Lord is leading me. So it was for Samuel, the prophet, the priest, and the judge. You say, which was he? All three. He's the only person in the Bible who simultaneously occupied all three of those offices other than Jesus. I have to get that in because they're put into comments. What about Jesus and Jesus? But as far as a human who is not the Son of God, Samuel was the only one prophet, priest, and judge. A lot hinges on his ability to hear from God. He's a kingmaker. …
longer," and then we are reminded of those who left the Master because of certain Truths of God which He taught, and we say, "Will you also go away?" Oh, you who have had your haughtiness brought down, I believe you will be swept out of that idea and will acknowledge that you never came to Christ of your own free will, but only of Sovereign Grace. You do not deny it, for you are always conscious of it, that unless your will had been moved by Sovereign Grace, and constrained by the blessed interposition of the Divine Spirit, you were as obstinate as the heifer unaccustomed to the yoke, kicked against the pricks and would not come to Christ that you might have life! Now, this part of the plan of salvation tends to bring down high looks. There is another point which I must notice and which is not always understood, but it is a mighty bringer-down of high looks, viz., the understanding of this—that our depraved nature is not in the plan of salvation supposed to be either improved or improvable. Are you startled at such an assertion? Well, if you have read the Word of God, you will have found plenty of warrant for it. All that God Himself can do for your depraved nature as it now stands is to kill it and let it be buried when dead! The ordinance of Baptism is intended to set forth this very Truth of God—that you must be dead and buried to the old life, and the new and true life that you are henceforth to live does not spring out of the ashes of the old, like the phoenix out of the ashes of the departed one, but is an emanation of the Holy Spirit! "Created anew in Christ Jesus." It is not that the carnal man is ever reconciled to God, for it is plainly declared that it is "enmity against God," and cannot be reconciled! The carnal mind cannot even understand spiritual truth! The carnal mind knows not the things which are of God, for they are spiritual and must be spiritually discerned. The process by which a man is practically saved is this—a new nature is put into us! That new and incorruptible nature immediately begins to contend with the old Adam, "the body," as Paul calls it, "of sin and death." This causes a conflict, a conflict which is constantly maintained, and which at certain times is extremely intense and makes the subject of it to cry out, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Or, "From this body of death, this death which has taken such a tangible form as to be to me a realizing tangible thing—a very body of death—who will get me rid of it?" He does not ask that it may be improved, but that he may be delivered from it! He does not ask that it may be changed, but that a new nature may come in and trample it down and rise superior to it! …
"Love's redeeming work is done— Fought the fight, the battle won!" What foes has Christ overcome? Our main foe, our sin, both as to the guilt of it and as to the power of it. As to the guilt of it, there was a Law which we had broken and which must be satisfied. Christ has kept the positive precepts of that Law in His own perfect life and He has vindicated the honor of that Law by His sacrificial death upon the Cross. The Law, therefore, being satisfied, the strength of sin is gone and now, O Believers, the sins which you saw in the day of your conviction you shall see no more forever! As Moses triumphantly sang of the enemies of the chosen people, "the depths have covered them," so can you say of your sins, "There is not one of them left." Even in God's great Book of Remembrance there is no record of sin against any Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. "By Him all that believe are justified from all things." Try to realize this, Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Let the great army of your sins pass before you in review—each one like a son of Anak, armed to the teeth for your destruction. They have gone down into the depths and the Red Sea of Christ's blood has drowned them! And so He has gained a complete victory over all the guilt of sin! And as for the power of sin within us—alas, we often groan concerning it, but let us groan no longer—or if we do, let us also sing! …
could be quite clear from all the opportunities to go back to the old sins in which we once indulged? No! Each man's calling may seem to him to be more full of temptations than his fellows, but it is not so. Our temptations are pretty equally distributed, I dare say, after all. And all of us might say that we find in our avocations from hour to hour many opportunities to return. But, dear Brothers and Sisters, it is not merely in our business and in our calling—the mischief lies in our bones and in our flesh! Opportunities to return in our own nature. Ah, who that knows himself does not find strong incentives to return? Ah, how often will our imagination paint sin in very glowing colors—and though we loathe the sin and ourselves for thinking of it, yet how many a man might say—"Had it not been for Divine Grace, my feet had almost gone, my steps had well-near slipped." How strong is the evil in the best man, how stern is the conflict to keep under the body, lest corruption should prevail! You may be diligent in secret prayer and, perhaps, the devil may have been asleep till you began to pray, but when you are most fervent, then will he also become most rampant! When you get nearest to God, Satan will sometimes seem to get nearer to you. Opportunities to return as long as you are in this body will be with you to the very edge of Jordan! You will meet with temptations when you sit gasping on the banks of the last river, waiting for the summons to cross—it may be that your fiercest temptation may come even then! Oh, this flesh, this body of this death—wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from it? While it continues with me I shall find opportunities to return. …
In a certain very special sense, that is the definite household of everyone of us. These powers and passions, imaginings and emotions, thoughts and desires—these are, so to speak, the children of your house, and I am afraid that most of us will have to say, "Although my house is not so with God." I read a book the other day written by a Brother whom I very highly esteem and, indeed, reverence for his holiness, excellence and usefulness. But when I found him speaking of himself as living in perfect allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and perfect love to Him—and as having continued so for 20 years without sin—I must confess that I thought he must either use language in a different way from that in which I use it, or else that he and I must have very different kinds of hearts, for I do not find it as he said! I believe I have sincerely strived to serve my Master, and have served Him so as to have had given me many seals of my service, but I never did serve Him in such a way as to be satisfied with my service! I never could dare to feel content with a prayer I ever prayed, or a sermon I ever preached! I have always cultivated the idea that if I were to feel satisfied, I would be proud—and that if I did feel content, I would be doing wrong—and so I have rather strived against the feeling of being satisfied with anything within me—but have tried to continually feel that I still have enemies to drive out of the Canaan of my heart and corruptions still to subdue, glorifying God for anything that I could see that was gracious, but trying, at any rate, to mourn and lament over what was my own—and there is a good deal of that—and I find, if anything, more of it now than ever, not that there is more, but as we grow in Grace I think we perceive it more clearly! A room is not more dusty when it is shut up than it is when the sun shines in through the little crevice in the shutter, where the beam of sunlight comes through. There is no more dust in that particular part of the room where the sun shines in than there is anywhere else, and yet how very full of dust that slanting sunbeam seems to be! The room is not more dusty there, but there is more light there than anywhere else. So it seems that the very coming in of light to the soul reveals more and more of the evil things, the spiritual ugliness that yet lurks there and which I fear will be there until the Lord takes us Home! It is very pitiable to see so many persons perfectly content to be so very imperfect, sitting down as though they—knowing they cannot here be absolutely perfect—have no desire to "grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." It does such persons good to hear a sermon on the Doctrine of Scriptural Perfection! If it does not make them angry with it, it does them good, for it makes them see that there is something better to be obtained in this world than they have ever yet dreamed and so stimulates their ambition! But for all that, I would still like to see a perfect man—and I would like to see Satan and he have a turn of conflict! And if Satan did not somehow or other get the better of him, I would be mistaken and surprised! …
For so it is—you stand before God as accepted as Christ is accepted and, notwithstanding the inbred sin and corruption of your heart, you are as dear to God as Christ is dear and as accepted in the righteousness of Christ as Christ is accepted in His own obedience! Have we got so far? That is the point on which I want to enquire this evening. Have you got as far as to know at this moment that it is through faith we are justified? If so, I shall conduct you just one step farther, namely to observe—and this is coming back, while it is also going forward—that "we are justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ." There is the foundation! There is the mainspring! There is the tree that bears the fruit! We are justified by faith, but not by faith in itself. Faith in itself is a precious Grace, but it cannot in itselfjustify us. It is " through our Lord Jesus Christ." Simple as the observation is, I must venture to repeat it tonight because it is hard for us to keep it in mind. Remember that faith is not the work of the Spirit within, but the work of Christ upon the tree! That upon which I must rest as my meritorious hope is not the blessed fact that I am now an heir of Heaven, but the still more blessed fact that the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me! My dear Brothers and Sisters, when all is fair weather within, there is such a temptation to say, "Well, now, it is all right with me, for I feel this and I feel that." Very good, these evidences are in their places, but oh, when it grows dark and when, instead of these gracious evidences, you get equally clear evidences that you are not perfect—when you have to say, "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" You will find that instead of your beautiful evidences, you will have to fly to the Cross! There was a time when I, too, could take a great deal of comfort in what I believe is the Spirit of God's work in my soul. I do thank God for it, and bless Him for it now, but I trust I have learned to walk where poor Jack the huckster, walked— …
Or rather, it is like the scorching heat in a dry wilderness, where the sun beats and burns all the day long; where they have nothing to defend them; where they can find no shade to refresh themselves. If they lay themselves down to rest, it is like lying down in the hot sands, where there is nothing to keep off the heat. Here it may be proper to inquire who are weary and heavy laden with sin; and in what sense a sinner may be weary and burdened with sin. Sinners are not wearied with sin from any dislike to it, or dislike of it. There is no sinner that is burdened with sin in the sense in which a godly man carries his indwelling sin, as his daily and greatest burden, because he loathes it, and longs to get rid of it; he would fain be at a great distance from it, and have nothing more to do with it; he is ready to cry out as Paul did, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ” The unregenerate man has nothing of this nature, for sin is yet his delight, he dearly loves it. If he be under convictions, his love to sin in general is not mortified, he loves it as well as ever, he hides it still as a sweet morsel under his tongue. …
7. Now he truly desires to break loose from sin, and begins to struggle with it. But though he strive with all his might, he cannot conquer: Sin is mightier than he. He would fain escape; but he is so fast in prison, that he cannot get forth. He resolved against sin, but yet sins on: He sees the snare, and abhors, and runs into it. So much does his boasted reason avail, — only to enhance his guilt, and increase his misery! Such is the freedom of his will; free only to evil; free to “drink in iniquity like water;” to wander farther and farther from the living God, and do more “despite to the Spirit of grace!” 8. The more he strive, wishes, labours to be free, the more does he feel his chains, the grievous chains of sin, wherewith Satan binds and “leads him captive at his will;” his servant he is, though he repine ever so much; though he rebel, he cannot prevail. He is still in bondage and fear, by reason of sin: Generally, of some outward sin, to which he is peculiarly disposed, either, by nature, custom, or outward circumstance; but always, of some inward sin, some evil temper or unholy affection. And the more he frets against it, the more it prevails; he may bite but cannot break his chain. Thus he toils without end, repenting and sinning, and repenting and sinning again, till at length the poor, sinful, helpless wretch is even at his wit’s end and can barely groan, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” …
This prayer will well suit those who are engaged in inward conflicts. I have heard of some Christians who do not believe in inward conflicts. Brother, take care lest you have to prove them beyond all other men. I heard today something which reminds me of how different our experience is at one time from what it is at another. A dear servant of the Lord was good Mr. Harrington Evans—perhaps a very model preacher, one who spoke very sweetly of Christ. A Brother was telling me today that he remembers hearing Mr. Evans say that he hardly liked a Christian to pray, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." He said, "I do not like it. The saint is forgiven. I know he sins, still he is thoroughly forgiven and there is a kind of clank of the chain about the prayer, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.'" "Yet," said my informant, "if I am not mistaken, on Mr. Evans' tombstone are those words, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.'" So that what he thought was a clank of the chain once, he came to look upon as being a most precious and comfortable prayer after all! And some of our Brothers do, at times, get a little top-heavy and say, "I do not make confession of sin." More the pity, Brother—you are making a birch for your own back! You will have it before long, depend upon it. There is no position for the child of God so safe, so Scriptural, so true as that of still clinging to Jesus as you did at the first—still mourning for sin and rejoicing in the Atonement made for you as a sinner! I must confess that I cannot ordinarily get that comfort by drawing near as a saint which I can get by coming to Christ as a sinner! My evidences often fail me and when they do I give up all seeking after them and go straight away, without any evidences, to Christ over again as the sinner's Savior and find fresh joy and peace in believing! May we be kept in such a frame of mind as this! …
In such cases, true Believers are sure to resort to the extraordinary use of the means of Grace. I mean they will add to their ordinary use, something more. Have you never been in such a state that the Bible has become uninteresting, or the only passages of Scripture that seemed to strike you were dreadful threats concerning your Own coming doom, as you thought—not a word of comfort, not a syllable that makes glad your spirit? You have gone to prayer and the heavens have seemed to be brass! And worse still, your own heart seemed to be brass, too, and you could not stir it up to anything like an intensity of desire. You did not wonder that you got no answer. You would have wondered if such a prayer as yours could be heard at all! Ah, and then you have gone up to the assembly of God's people where at other times your heart has danced within you with holy joy! The minister was not changed. Perhaps at first you thought he was, but on more attentive bearing, you noticed that there was the same Truths of God and spoken in the same honest fashion, but you could not hear it as you once did. Clouds without rain and wells without water—all the ordinances seemed to be to you. And all the while, though you felt that you could not live like this, and said— "Dear Lord, and shall I always live, At this poor dying rate?"yet somehow or other you could not get out of it. You felt like one manacled, as though a nightmare were upon you. You were distressed. You could not stir to break the spell! Your spirit cried out as best it could, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But the worst of it was that you did not feel that you were wretched enough, and you did not seem to cry enough! You were afraid you would sink into a terrible lethargy which would be the forerunner to a spiritual death altogether. …
I. THE MIXED CHARACTER OF THE BELIEVER'S EXPERIENCE is here very palpably suggested to us. Peter was undoubtedly a bold believer in Jesus Christ. He addresses his Master devoutly, calling Him, "Lord"—a name of reverence, the use of which evidences the change that had been worked in his character, and the obedient spirit it had produced. But the misgivings implied in that, "if—"if it is You"—savors rather of unbelief! And yet we find this hesitancy immediately followed by an expression of such strong confidence that we marvel at the request he uttered, "Bidme come to You on the water."Then cheered by the Lord's prompt answer, "Come," we find him showing his courage by descending from the vessel, setting foot on the sea and actually walking on the water! Thus did he participate in the wonder which Christ worked and share in the miracle of subduing the elements. His valor, however, soon evaporates. For, "when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid." The faith that buoyed him up gave place to a fear that bowed him down. He who was walking on the liquid wave, one instant, is sinking beneath the surge the next! The gallant cry, "Bid me come to You on the water," is quickly exchanged for the grievous wail, "Lord, save me!" So great his pluck, so dire his panic! And is this a common experience? Are all God's people thus subject to changes—alternating between calm trust and cowardly fear? Can they be neither one thing or the other—neither altogether believing or totally unbelieving? We think it is even so. We will not say how much frailty of the creature is mixed up with fealty to Christ in the best of men, nor how far the Grace of God may protect us from the guilt of double-dealing in the conduct of our lives. But we do mournfully confess that in our own experience, the good and the evil contend for the mastery and, sometimes, it seems but the turning of a hair which shall vanquish! Fully assured, though, we are that the new life which has been implanted in us will ultimately gain the victory, but not less fully conscious are we that disasters and defeats are constantly occurring on our path to triumph. …
But, dear Friends, you may suppose that as sincere repentance always leads to great searching of heart, it cannot be blessed—yet it really is so. Repentance, as we have already said, is a sweet Grace. You remember that the prodigal shed his tears, his best tears, in his father's bosom, when he put his face, as it were, close to his father's heart, and sobbed out, "Father, I have sinned!" Oh, what a place for repentance is the bosom of God, with His love shed abroad in the heart, making you contrite and moving you to say, "How could I have sinned against so good a God? How could I be an enemy to One who is so full of Grace? How could I run away and spend my substance with harlots, when here was my Father's deep care for my welfare? How could I choose their base love, when a love so pure, so true, so constant, was waiting for me?" Oh, it is a holy sorrow that has a clear life ensuing and I tell you that, however deep your repentance may be, it shall not stand in the way of your being blessed, but shall even prove to be one contributory stream to the blessedness of your experience! Does the memory of your sins haunt you, and do you feel that you shall always hang your head as one whom pardon could not purge? Not thus did the Apostle Paul reflect on his many sins. Though he bewailed the wickedness of his heart, and was ashamed of the evil he had done, yet his humility after he was converted took the form of gratitude, cheering his very soul with the most lively impulse! While confessing that he was the very chief of sinners, at the same time and in the same breath he said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Conscious of his own infirmities, he could exclaim, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Yet, confident of his full redemption, he could add, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Moreover, hurling defiance at all his accusers, he asks, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" No bolder or more triumphant champion of Divine Grace than that Apostle who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious—but now rejoices to bear record, "I obtained mercy that, in me, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering as a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." What? Though your past offenses are ever so rank, and your present shame should sting you with ever so much poignant sorrow, yet with thrills of bliss you shall prove the full blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! …