Sermon Tone Analysis

There was a sports reporter who once asked championship golfer, Jack Nicklaus: “What is the most common problem for amateur golfers?”

I think I could ask the same question of the church: “What is the most common problem for Christians today?”

Nicklaus said this, “Overconfidence.”

— Thinking they are better than they really are… or that they can do more than they can really do.

— I can hit that ball between those trees…

— I can drive it over that water…

That is overconfidence.

And people do it all the time… amen?

We do it in the church too…

We overrate our spiritual strengths and underrate our spiritual weaknesses.

This is a difficult topic, but it is where we have to start today… Because… it is the reason why we find ourselves so often falling into sin when we are tempted…

We have a tendency to think that we are stronger… that we are doing better than we are… that our spiritual walk is super strong… when really… IT’S NOT!!!

— I can handle that…

— If I participate a little it will help me to open a door to them…

— That won’t hurt me… I’ve got God!

We’re like that teenager that’s “ten feet tall and bulletproof!”

This tendency to overrate our spiritual strength is called “moralism.”

“Moralism is the self-righteous belief that all is well spiritually because [we] lead a decent moral life and [we have] improved [our] behavior.”

— Dr. David Busic

Our culture — the world — is saturated with moralism…

A moralist is someone who believes they are saved by the good they do and the bad they avoid.

Have you ever heard someone say: “I’m not perfect, but I’m not bad either.”

“I work hard… I pay my debts… I don’t cheat on my spouse… I don’t lie… I even give money to people in need…at least I’m not a murderer… or a politician!”

That’s a moralist.

Moralism follows the line of thinking that says — On the Day of Judgment the good I do will outweigh the bad… especially when compared to people like serial killers, rapists, drug dealers, pedophiles, adulterers…

Moralism is one of the foundational ideas of the thought that “All roads lead to Heaven.”

Moralism is rampant in the world today… and in the Church!

According to a Gallup poll done in 2004, 77% of the people who believe in Heaven ranked their chances of getting there as “good” or “excellent” — but here’s the interesting part — they believed that only 6 out of 10 of their friends were going…

Talk about hypocritical!

(Do you think it has changed between then and now?!?)

Do you want to know what the most interesting thing about this survey was?

89% of the people surveyed believed that there is a Heaven where people who “lead a good life” go to be eternally rewarded.

We tend to like to believe that’s true, right?

We find comfort in thinking that people we knew… people who were “good people”… are now in heaven…

But, is that true?

Can being good or doing good lead to salvation?

Can it lead to heaven?

Scripture says “No!”

Let me ask you: “Do you believe that Jesus led a ‘good life’?”

— Then why does He even say that He is not good?

Jesus included His humanity in that thought!

But wait a minute… somebody ask me… “If Jesus wasn’t ‘good’, then how can He be the perfect, spotless Lamb?

How could He be said to live a ‘sinless’ life?”

— Jesus wasn’t the perfect Lamb because of His divinity, He was the perfect Lamb because His imperfect humanity was completely submitted to His Divinity.

Jesus was 100% submitted to His Divinity.

There are a lot of people out there who believe that God grades on a curve… that all they have to do is keep piling up more and more things in the “good” column of the ledger, and that will overcome the “bad” column…

But God’s Word is clear!

We are not saved by our efforts!

We are not saved by our goodness!

We are not saved by our intentions!

We are saved by grace!

… and grace comes from outside of ourselves!

Saving Grace comes from God through Christ!

Grace comes to us through the Cross!

But let me tell you… the Cross is scandalous!

That’s why so many people don’t want to look at it!

We look at the Cross, and we see Christ’s life, death, and resurrection… We find joy and comfort in it because of what we know it gave us… but…

Crucifixion was the most horrendous and torturous form of execution ever invented!

We wear crosses as jewelry… but to the first century people that would have been confusing and offensive!

— It would be like us wearing an icon of the electric chair as a necklace…

The Cross was a means of punishment and death…

— It was disgraceful and distasteful.

— It was the fate of hardened criminals and insurrectionists.

Crucifixion was so completely appalling that a word was actually created to explain it — “excruciating”…

“Excruciating” literally means “from the cross.”

Crucifixion was a slow, agonizing, public way to die…

Those being crucified were mocked and jeered… the crowd would throw stones and laugh at them… all while they hung there, fighting for breath… every single breath an action of agonizing pain… until finally they died of asphyxiation…

Sometimes that would take days… And afterwards, they weren’t even given a humane burial…

They were either left hanging their for the birds to pick at… or they were taken down and thrown in the city dump…

But why does knowing this matter?

Because that’s how Jesus died…

Jesus was crucified on a criminal’s cross.

Even that thief next to him knew He didn’t deserve it…

But … you see… that’s what the Gospel is… that is the “good news” for you and for me… He did it for us!

That is the “good news” that Christians declare!

1 Corinthians 15:3 (NIV)

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died …

But… how can that be “good news”?

1 Corinthians 15:3 (NIV)

… Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

The question is: Why did He have to?

Atonement.

Atonement was made for you and for me… through the Cross.

Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — is the holiest day in ancient Judaism…

It is a day designated for repentance and forgiveness…

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest (as representative of the people) would bring in 2 goats…

1 goat was sacrificed as a sin offering to make atonement for the people in the holy of holies and on the altar of God…

Romans 6:23 (NIV)

23 For the wages of sin is death, …

and

The second goat was kept alive…

The High Priest would lay his hands on its head… confess over it all the sins of Israel… symbolically placing them on the goat’s head…

Then it was sent out into the wilderness to a solitary place… carrying the people’s sins far away where they could not be seen again…

That is what God did for us!

Jesus was our “scapegoat”… He took our sins into His own heart… and

“Cast them as far as the East is from the West”

All of the sacrifices… all of the Law… all of the people’s experience up to that point was meant for one thing — to lead them to Christ!

He was the perfect sacrifice… the perfect lamb… and the perfect scapegoat… permanently ending the need for blood sacrifices!

Why? How?

Because He took our sin into His own heart and freed us from its power…