Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning!

Last week was so nice of all of you.

Carey asked me this week if I felt appreciated, and yes, I do.

At your request, I are going to preach the same sermon again, but the whole thing instead of just the “cliff” notes.

In chapter nine, we saw the author explaining the differences between the Old Covenant, which was limited and temporary, and the New Covenant, which has no limit and is permanent.

In this first part of chapter ten, we are going to see the author recapping the case that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice and why.

Chapters seven through nine were devoted to helping the church understand all that Christ did.

He was the perfect High Priest and the Perfect Sacrifice.

In this chapter, he brings those two ideas together at one time to tie those two ideas together.

As I mentioned last week, my desire is that we can put the final nail in the coffin of trying to be “good”.

Read with me in chapter ten verses one through ten.

1. Sin is a problem that we all have.

To clarify, by we, I mean every person that has ever lived.

I’m not calling someone out, I’m calling us all out.

And what is sin?

Sin is missing the mark or to fall short of the standard.

Sin is the cause of all that God has done to redeem us.

If you really drill it down, our sin is based on our rebellion against God.

Mankind sins because we believe the lie that doing the opposite of what God has told us to do will make us happier or bring more joy to our lives.

Think about trying to help a toddler that is going through the independent stage.

No matter what is happening, whether buckling up in the car or pouring juice, they want to do it themselves.

As the adult, you know full well how that is going to turn out.

That is frustrating, but if you think about it, we are the toddler and God is the adult.

He is trying to show us the right way, the safe way, the best way, but we are more interested in doing it ourselves.

This has been the case since Adam and Eve.

Mankind’s rebellion hasn’t weakened nor has the effects of sin waned.

As we have heard before, the law was not given to get rid of sin, but to remind the people of their need for something greater.

In the same way that the law can’t perfect us, the blood of animals can’t purify us.

This is what the author is bringing back to the forefront of our minds in the first four verses.

Sacrifices were never intended to fix the problem of sin, but to be a reminder of them.

While we don’t do animal sacrifices anymore, there is still something we do in the same vein.

We try to please God, not with blood, but with what we consider good works.

Our attempts at goodness are our modern day sacrifices.

We cannot be perfect or good and the law proves this over and over again.

When our goal is to “be better” or “get right”, we have already lost.

Literally, nothing we can do can ever make us right with God or fulfill the law.

The law’s only purpose and result is that it reveals sin.

That is literally all it can do and when we focus on good works in order to gain God’s approval, we are turning away from his plan.

There is no hope found in living outside of God’s redemptive plan in Jesus.

We are all sinners and there is only one solution.

That solution doesn’t include us trying harder or being better people.

2. The problem of sin has been fixed by Jesus.

Look at how I worded that.

It has been fixed.

I didn’t say it was partially fixed and needs you to finish it.

The life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law.

What did Paul say, how are we made right with God?

By placing our faith in Jesus Christ.

We are made right ONLY by believing in Jesus.

There is no fine print or sub-clause that adds to that.

This is literally the only way to be made right in God’s sight.

Not only can we not do it on our own, but when we step outside of God’s plan by trying to do it ourselves, we are moving farther away from God.

The enemy would have you believe that trying harder will bring you closer.

However, participation trophies or most improved awards do not do any good in terms of your relationship with God.

They make you feel good at the moment, but that good feeling will pass quickly and you are now not only feeling empty, but also tired.

You can try as hard as you want, but you cannot please God by continuing to live in rebellion.

If you try to please him by your works, you are rebelling against his Holy plan.

You are in fact saying that you know better than God about how to deal with sin.

The law is good and holy, but sin has twisted it in us.

We have talked a lot about the effect that sin has had on this world and it is broken because of it.

Sin has affected everything and the last thing we need to do is to make it worse.

When we try to make ourselves better and tell others to do the same, we are making the problem worse, not better.

God isn’t looking for us to figure it out on our own.

He has already told us how to fix it.

Look at Hebrews 10:5-8

The author quotes David with this Psalm, and David is referring to when God rejects Saul as the king of Israel.

This story is found in 1 Samuel 15 and to remind us all, God has told Saul to go and defeat the Amalekites and destroy all the people and animals in the land.

But Saul doesn’t do that, he kills all the people except their king, and his men sort through all the animals and keep the ones that they think are best, but that isn’t what God told them to do.

They took what God said and added to it...

They rebelled against God’s directions and did what they thought was best.

Look at this with me starting in vs 10.

Saul disobeyed God.

God told him what to do and Saul did what he wanted instead.

It says in verse nine that Saul and his troops spared the king and the best of his animals.

When confronted, Saul blames it on his troops and claims that they did it as a sacrifice for God.

Saul believed that adding more to what God had said would make the victory better and that it would be more pleasing to God.

Saul’s actions didn’t please God, they moved him farther from God.

It is easy to judge others, but we are all guilty of almost doing or doing more than what God says and then when confronted, it is everyone else’s fault or we try to change the motive behind the disobedience.

For so long the church has taught people that we had to fix ourselves in order to be pleasing and acceptable to God.

We are doing exactly what Saul did, we are adding to what God requires and making it harder for people to see God for who He really is.

What we have taught people and what we have believed for ourselves is actually moves us away from God, not closer to him.

I want to point out what Paul says in verse 22 of Romans 3.

“No matter who we are.” - this means that we are made with God, no matter what sin is in our lives.

Your past sin doesn’t define you wether it was years ago or on the way to church this morning.

Every person that has ever lived has sinned, and many have sinned more than you, but God loves you in spite your sin.

What is it that we are supposed to do?

What does God want from us?

Look at our last two verses that we will read in Hebrews 10.

To clarify what we are reading, Jesus is saying that He has come to do God’s will.

Jesus has come to fix the brokenness.

He has come to do what we cannot, to fulfill the law by living in complete obedience to God.

I think this is worth pointing out, Jesus didn’t come to focus on the law and do it perfectly.

He fulfilled the law BY his obedience to God.

Last week we looked at Jesus cleansing the temple and not long after that, Jesus begins interacting with people and speaking about who he is and what God has sent him to do.

He has his interaction with Nicodemus where he explains the idea of being born again.

He and his disciples then spend time baptizing people.

Then he has a famous conversation with the woman at the well.

The disciples return as the woman is leaving and all they can think about is their bellies.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit, as a man that can get very hangry, there are times where the next meal is all that matters to me.

They keep urging Jesus to eat and if you look at the text and think about the timeline of events, it is clear that Jesus knows what is coming and he is far more concerned about the work that God is doing in that moment than he is for his physical needs.