Sermon Tone Analysis

Step 1: We admitted that we were powerless over our dependencies and that our lives had become unmanageable.

“What then shall we say?

That the law is sin?

By no means!

Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.

For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?

By no means!

It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

For I do not understand my own actions.

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

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.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 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.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

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.” (, ESV)

We are born sinners and are even that way before birth - even from conception.

Therefore we are slaves to sin by default - in other words “a slave that obeys sin” right from the start.

(; )

The Bible doctrine for this is sometimes called total depravity.

It means we are slaves to obey sin wherever it leads.

People who oppose this doctrine say that it can not be because unsaved people do good things sometimes (e.g.

build orphanages, feed hungry, take in the homeless, etc…) It does not mean that people are so fully corrupt that they cannot perform good deeds in the flesh, it does means that those deeds will always have such a mixture of sin with them (e.g.

selfishness, covetousness, lust, etc…) that there is no way these deeds could be acceptable to God as worthy in any way.

The Bible doctrine for this is sometimes called total depravity.

It means we are slaves to obey sin wherever it leads.

People who oppose this doctrine say that it can not be because unsaved people do good things sometimes (e.g.

build orphanages, feed hungry, take in the homeless, etc…) It does not mean that people are so fully corrupt that they cannot perform good deeds in the flesh, it does means that those deeds will always have such a mixture of sin with them (e.g.

selfishness, covetousness, lust, etc…) that there is no way these deeds could be acceptable to God as worthy in any way.

Scriptures on Total Depravity :

“What then?

Are we Jews any better off?

No, not at all.

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””

(, ESV)

“What then?

Are we Jews any better off?

No, not at all.

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””

(, ESV)

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

(, ESV)

Peter as Example: “But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!

You are a hindrance to me.

For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”” (, ESV)

Pharisee & Tax Collector: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.””

(, ESV)

Corinthian Church: “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.

For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (1 Corinthians 3:1–3, ESV)

Because of sin, we do things we don’t want to do - even things we hate and despise.

() When we operate outside of our own will because of sin, we agree and answer “Yes, the Law is right.”

()

Paul is speaking as a saved person who is struggling with sin which remains in our flesh.

In reality we don’t have an addiction problem - we have a sin problem.

In our case, addiction is the fruit that has shown itself from our core sin nature.

This is a very real war that is being waged betwen the flesh and spirit.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (, ESV)

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.