Sermon Tone Analysis

Sin is the reason for the season.

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.””

We celebrate this joyous season on our calendar because of sin.

If sin had not entered the world neither would have the Savior.

The greatest rebellion this world has ever seen brought about the world’s greatest response of love the world has ever seen.

These Angelic words, recorded by Matthew, reinforce this reason for the season.

We cannot understand fully how magnificent this verse nor this season is apart from its greater context.

Christmas was a 4,000-year-old promise.

We find this promise of Christmas in

History’s worst day led to one of history’s most beloved and celebrated days.

So let us today set a right context for this Christmas season so that we might maximize our rejoicing.

We are DEPRAVED.

TOTALLY but not ABSOLUTELY.

First, we do not mean by total depravity that all men and women are as absolutely bad and depraved as they can possibly be.

This inherited tendency to sin does not mean that human beings are all as bad as they could be.

The constraints of civil law, the expectations of family and society, and the conviction of human conscience (Rom.

2:14–15) all provide restraining influences on the sinful tendencies in our hearts.

Therefore, by God’s “common grace” (that is, by his undeserved favor that is given to all human beings), people have been able to do much good in the areas of education, the development of civilization, scientific and technological progress, the development of beauty and skill in the arts, the development of just laws, and general acts of human benevolence and kindness to others.

Spurgeon wrote: “As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature.

It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.”

“The venom of sin is in the very fountain of our being; it has poisoned our heart.

It is in the very marrow of our bones and is as natural to us as anything that belongs to us.”

Second, it does not even mean that men and women in their fallen state have no innate knowledge of God.

They are totally depraved and still have a sense of God within them.

Third, it does not mean that men and women do not have a conscience; therefore, it does not mean that they have no knowledge of good and evil.

People in a state of total depravity do have a conscience, and they recognize the difference between good and evil..

Total depravity does not mean that men and women are incapable of recognizing or admiring virtues.

Finally, by total depravity we do not mean that every unregenerate person will indulge in every form of sin.

‘So then,’ asks someone, ‘what does it mean?’

Well, positively, it means that man in his fallen condition has an inherently corrupt nature, and the corruption extends through every part of his being, to every faculty of his soul and body.

It also means that there is no spiritual good in him.

Yes, there is plenty of natural good, there is natural morality, he can recognize virtue and so on.

But there is no spiritual good whatsoever.

It is not just that some parts of us are sinful and others are pure.

Rather, every part of our being is affected by sin—our intellects, our emotions and desires, our hearts (the center of our desires and decision-making processes), our goals and motives, and even our physical bodies.

Paul says,

and,

Moreover, Jeremiah tells us that

In these passages Scripture is not denying that unbelievers can do good in human society in some senses.

But it is denying that they can do any spiritual good or be good in terms of a relationship with God.

Apart from the work of Christ in our lives, we are like all other unbelievers who are

The great characteristic of total depravity is that every unregenerate person, is at enmity (war) against God and God’s holy law.

To put it another way, all that person’s powers are misused and perverted.

Now let me give you the Scriptures to prove this.

The first clear statement of all this is to be found in

What an amazing and comprehensive statement; I commend a very careful study of it.

Also consider

There again is an account of this total depravity— ‘brought forth in iniquity’, ‘conceived in sin’.

I trust that no one is befuddled as to why we are going into all this.

The obvious explanation is that no one can have a true or adequate understanding of the scriptural doctrine of salvation, not one of us can appreciate our own salvation truly, unless we realize the nature of the condition, out of which we are to be saved by the gospel.

In other words, we must understand the truth about ourselves in sin.

We can never really know the love of God until we realize this.

The way to measure the height of God’s love is first of all to measure the depth of our own depravity as the result of the fall.

We are DEAD.

Total INABILITY.

Then the second segment of our context is that we are dead meaning we have total inability, and this has reference, obviously, to our spiritual powers.

The Bible teaches that man is totally incapable.

Again, this does not mean that he cannot perform any natural good.

Of course he can.

It is obvious.

It does not mean that he is incapable of civic good and righteousness, because of course he is, and history is proof.

Indeed, it does not even mean that he is not capable of an external kind of religion; he is capable.

A man can be very religious and yet we still say of him that he is totally depraved and totally incapable.

He is totally incapable in the sense that all his actions are defective, good though they may be in many ways, because they are not prompted by a love of God, and by a concern for the will and glory of God.

So though actions may be morally good in and of themselves, they are useless because their motive is not true

“We declare on scriptural authority that the human will is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, so inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained toward Christ - Spurgeon

When we say that man is totally incapable we mean that he cannot do any act which fundamentally meets with God’s approval, or which meets the demands of God’s law.

All the goodness of the world is as ‘filthy rags’

All the goodness of the world is as dung, and refuse, and loss; ultimately it has no value because it cannot win God’s approval or satisfy His law.

By total incapability, we also mean that man cannot change his fundamental preference for sin and self.

He cannot change his nature.

He cannot get rid of the depravity which I have been defining.

I go further.

He cannot make even an approach to such a change, to getting rid of it.

He can do nothing about his fallen condition and he has no appreciation at all of spiritual truth.

I find that stated in

Read that chapter very carefully and you will find that the apostle’s entire case is that the natural person, this person who is in the condition of flesh, not only cannot change his nature, but also has no understanding or appreciation of spiritual truth.

Why is this?

Well Paul answers his own question in the second chapter of Ephesians where he tells us in the first verse that the natural is ‘dead in trespasses and sins’.

This is an absolute statement of total inability.

Let me give you some other Scriptures.

The new person in Christ is described in

In

The two great effects of original sin depravity and death.

Now let’s examine the consequence.

We are DOOMED.

To an eternal SENTENCE.

To eternal SEPARATION.

To eternal SUFFERING.

We need a DELIVERER.

He must DESCEND.

He must be DIFFERENT.

He must DIE.