Sermon Tone Analysis

In October 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure became a household name when she stepped into an abandoned water well at her aunt’s house in Midland, Texas.

Stuck 22 feet beneath the surface in a slender well shaft, she was trapped in the well for two and a half days as rescue workers struggled to determine how best to extract her.

As the media circled, rescue workers considered and abandoned a number of plans before deciding to drill another well shaft next to the well, then create a tunnel between the two shafts.

The rescue played out on live television, creating accusations of a media circus.

“Baby Jessica,” as she is now known, suffered only minor injuries, including the loss of a toe to gangrene after the rescue.

Today, she’s a mother in Texas; most of the trust fund set up for her after the ordeal was lost during the 2008 stock market crash.

Romans 7:14 (ESV)

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

The law is a reflection of the character of God, it came from Him, and tells us a great deal about Him.

Jesus said, in John 4.24

BUT! Paul says, “I am of the flesh,” or , I am not spiritual!

I am not like God in the most basic of ways.

Paul understood that because he was not subject to the law, he was in rebellion against God, since the law is from God.

When Paul says, “sold under sin”, he has in mind the notion of a slave being sold.

And it points to something he is going to say much later in this pericope- “Who will save me?”

His slavery to sin is thorough and commands all of himself- his mind, his body, his actions.

His sin is almost mechanical or habitual in nature.

I do not do what I want to do- but the exact opposite.

Have you ever wanted to kick a habit?

Smoking?

Coffee?

Eating?

And lighting up, or that first cup in the morning, or that trip to the refrigerator is not what you want to do- but you end up doing it anyway?

Paul is saying, I have great, godlike intentions- but I keep falling so far from that it is sin… It is shallow, ungodly , acts of fulfilling my own desires...

AND I DON’T UNDERSTAND MY OWN ACTIONS!!!

Habits.

Atomic Habits.

by James Clear.

Cue, Craving, Response, Reward.

Paul is here saying, as I think most of us would, that the law is a good thing.

There is not an attitude of defiance towards it, just the simple struggle with it.

Expressed in the next verse:

Paul is not trying to avoid his own reality, to offer excuses for his sin, he is saying simply, “The real problem here can be attributed directly to the sin that dwells with in me.”

Beau- ground hog, stray cats, my neighbors pool, the new big dog, and his shock collar.

Romans 7:18 (ESV)

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.

Paul says sin has taken up residence in him.

He is a squatter- he’s settled in and it shouldn’t be his territory (sin).

Paul recognizes the enormity of this problem.

It is not just a little sin- this resident has taken over- has controlled the groceries in the fridge and the temperature of the thermostat!!

Repeat of Romans 7.15

Repeat of Romans 7.17

Rabbinic view, which had informed Pauls thinking substantially, said that all people had 2 distinct pieces in them from God- evil and good.

After a Jewish male turned thirteen, he became a son of the “law”, and the impulses of both good and evil contended for mastery of the person.

the answer to this was a devoted study and living of the principles of the law.

Paul, as a Christian, moves from this view in that he says the law, for all its good and the fact that God gave it- it cannot counteract the power and ifluence of sin.

The law does not counteract my sin- it only contradicts it.

Paul’s principle law- anytime I want to do the right thing, evil is there vying for my attention.

Paul is echoing Isaiah 6.5

“The source of Paul’s wretchedness is clear.

It is not a ‘divided self,’ but the fact that the last hope of mankind, religion, has proved to be a broken reed.

Through sin, it is no longer a comfort but an accusation.

Man needs not a law but deliverance”-C.K. Barrett

Who Will Rescue me? the Andrea Doria lost 56 people but saved over a thousand… the Titanic sank, t he 33 Chilean miners,

We’re not in a mess, the mess is in us.

When the law was given in Exodus, it emphasized outward actions- “What You Do”.

But in Deuteronlmy, Moses restated the law.

And it emphasized the heart- the inner quality of the law.

The heart.

Listen to Deuteronomy 10.12-13

Throughout Deuteronomy, the word “love” is repeated.

It reveals to us that God is more concerned with who we are than what we do.

You will notice in this passage multiple uses of pronouns… I, we, etc.,

that is because Paul has a problem with himself- with who he is; He is a sinner.

It’s not what he does, it’s who he is!

Paul could try his hardest and do his level best, and it would still be tainted by sin.

Remember Jesus in Luke 17.10

You may delight in the law of the God, but your old nature (sin nature) delights in breaking that same law.

And because of this circle of sin, you will become discourage, tired, depressed, and eventually give up.

Hence, O wretched man that I am… I’ve given my best effort to do the best and live the best- and I’ve failed again.

I’m wretched!

Who can deliver me?

Paul said in Galatians 5:16-18

Bottom Line:

You Cannot Eradicate What Your Heart Wants To Activate.

At the end of the day, we like the intruder in our residence.

Don’t we?

As much as we admit we are doing the wrong things often, as much as we admit that we are sinners- there’s a certain convenience in knowing that the intruder is in the residence- He helps us get done the things we wouldn’t do on our own.

Or so we say.

We try to circumvent responsibility, we try to place blame (the devil made me do it), but reality is- we did it.

Personal responsibility.

You see, to eradicate something means to do away with it.

To exterminate it.

To destroy it so it never comes back.

But it always comes back.

Because we always see something else, we are lured by something more, we are tempted once again to do what we know God would not have us do.

We want to activate sin in our lives.

To eradicate sin means to destroy it.

To activate sin means to dance with it- and we love that prom, don’t we?

Who can rescue me?

Who can deliver me?

You Cannot Eradicate What Your Heart Wants To Activate.

But God Can.

He doesn’t send the lifeboat.

He is the lifeboat.

He doesn’t call Houston, he arrives at Apollo 13.

He doesn’t send up a signal flare in hopes someone will see it- He already knows the problem.

But he doesn’t know you.

And the reason he doesn’t know you, is because we so often don’t want to know ourselves.