This morning, I came across this shocking news story about a Polish man who leads an institute investigating war crimes from World War II; evidenced has surfaced of him offering the Nazi salute, and making statements sympathetic to Nazi beliefs: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-head-of-polish-institute-researching-wwii-crimes-photographed-giving-nazi-salute-1.9559008
Right away, I thought of the irony of this man leading an organization designed to fight what he believes. My guess is that he’s a mole – intentionally placed there in order to thwart the work of that institute! How fitting an illustration this is of the internal battle we all have with sin. We can’t trust our own hearts to lead us in the right direction, because they are deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9, Genesis 6:5). There’s an enemy on the inside – our flesh! There’s a battle between the flesh and the Spirit within us (Romans 8:4, Galatians 5:16-18, 2 Peter 1:4). Paul himself shared openly about his internal struggle (Romans 7), but he reassured us that the same Jesus who forgave our sins will rescue us “from this body of death” when we trust in him (Romans 7:24).
Sermon Illustr8r 