Sermon Tone Analysis

Review

We have been going through this series entitled “Better Than” a study of the book of Hebrews.

We have seen a glimpse as to who our pastor, the author of the message, sees Jesus as.

He is the Son, The Heir of all things, The radience of the glory of God, the exact imprint of God, The Upholder of the universe, the purifier of Sin, He is not an angel, he is a merciful high preist, he is not Moses but.... he is the best!

Last week we specifically took a look at the first six verses of chapter three where we were pleaded with to consider Jesus.

Consider him for he is the only hope for mankind.

Do you want a realtionship a true communion with God the father, an existence that lasts forever, Consider following only JESUS.

We ended with an “if”....if we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

I was able to end with a pastoral exhortation in myself to Consider Jesus because he is more hope than the things that are tempting us for more attention than God.

This was all that we discussed.

This morning we are going to look at what it means to hold fast to you hope?

How does one do that?

How does one hold fast to confidence and our boasting in their hope?

Lets read the full text for today .

READ

We ended last week with a peculiar statement, a clause really, that we are Jesus’ if we hold fast to our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

That is Christ.

It is peculiar though.

Because it sounds like we can lose our salvation!

That is not the point here though.

Our author does not stop there so lets stand to gether in honor of the reading of God’s word and look at the rest of chapter 3. READ

PRAYER, so father, your kingdom come.

It is much better than the tiny kingdoms we have built for ourselves.

Help us most gracious Lord to recognize our sin, to hold fast to your promise, and actively make choices each day to praise your holy name for the mighty work you have done through christ.

Give us ears to hear your words this morning, in Jesus’ name.

Amen

I. /

HOLY SPIRIT

The first 5 verses of our text this morning are a quotation from the Old Testament.

Specifically psalm 95.

Before we look back into the old testament to grab the context in which our pastor is preaching this morning we need to start off on the right foot.

See those 6 words there to start verse 7? “therefore, as the holy spirit says”… Don’t skip over those words …Don’t move too fast through scripture.

There are three things that I want to point of from this before we continue this morning.

The Holy Spirit Speaks Through Scripture

All of it… The Hebrew text.

The Greek Text.

The Narrative.

The Poetry.

The Apocalyptic.

All of it.

What does 2 timothy tell us?

All of scripture is God breathed… Profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness that the man(or woman) of God may be made complete, equipped for every good work.

The Holy Spirit Spoke Through Scripture to This Audience

The Holy Spirit

This section of scripture could be used as a commentary on .

No doubt the author had and open in front of him as he was writing.

No doubt also that the Holy Spirit had something to say to this troubling congregation through this pastor.

The Holy Spirit is Speaking to You

Whenever God’s word is opened up, the Holy Spirit is convicting, God is Speaking, and Christ is being exalted.

In Hebrew the word hear has a two part meaning. 1 in which you physically hear the words being spoken. 2 in that you take what you heard and put them into practice.

So, Do you have ears?

let them hear the word of God.

Numbers 14

So to gain a little more context this morning of the warning given hear in the second half of the chapter we have to go back and look at Number 14.

You don’t have to turn there with me but write it down and go back and read the whole account later.

I will give you the cliff notes version this morning…

Chapter thirteen begins with God telling Moses to send spies into Cannan.

Which is also known here as the promised land.

See these 3/4 of a million people have been promised a land flowing with milk and honey and they are ready for it.

They have been walking around a desert for years being ticked off but seeing the miracles and provision of God.

They are reafy for a rest.

So that’s what Moses does.

He gathers 12 Spies and Sends them out.

However… When they come back those 10 rascally spies declare to the people(crying).... oh it is just how god promised, but we can’t go in because theres tall people in there!!

You’ve got to be kidding me right?! So the people wept and groaned and complained.

Wishing for death!

Moses and Aaron did what all good christian’s should do in times of trouble and fell on their faces in prayer to God.

Mean while good ole Joshua snd Caleb tried to talk the people down and remind them of the goodness of God.

But what happened?

they tried to stone Caleb and Joshua!

Moses and God have a conversation in which it ends like this....

26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall sthis wicked congregation grumble against me?

tI have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.

28 Say to them, u‘As I live, declares the LORD, vwhat you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 wyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and xof all your number, listed in the census yfrom twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I zswore that I would make you dwell, aexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 bBut your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that cyou have rejected.

32 But as for you, wyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness

In fact this entire section of scripture is the bread of this wonderful sandwich that holds the meat inside… you see it in the first five verses 7-11 and then again in the last five from 15-19.

Normally a preacher gets up and creates an illustration to get across his point of his message.

Like last week… what was my illustration?

Right, the S4 sub… But this was his illustration.

The meat of our text today is found in verse 12-14 which is a warning worthy of much attention.

II.

The Imperatives

A. Command #1 - Take Care

Take care, take heed, see to it....

This is the warning.

The negative side of two commands.

These are action words.

Meaning that there is work involved.

What work is it… Well it seems as though the author was concerned about the hearts of his people.

HE was concerned that their would be an evil unbelieving heart that would try and turn the church away from God.

The word used here for unbelieving represents that of someone that is in apostacy.

Has rejected faith in the Lord.

So what are are we taking care of?

You must take care of, or guard, your own heart…

The heart - Kardia…Lev in hebrew.

This is the part of the body that pumps blood right?

Well the ancient writers knew that it was an organ in your body.

But to the biblical writers this was the place where one would know something, understand something, what you use to discern between truth and error.

It’s where you feel emotions like sadness, fear, and joy!

It is where we have affections!