Sermon Tone Analysis

Something to Say Full of Eyes

READ TEXT—PRAYER

These are some of the greatest verses in Scripture.

But I don’t think we’ll really feel them as we ought unless we feel the weight of NOT having access to God.

Unless you’ve really truly felt something like that we saw in that video—or you’ve really done business with your depravity before a holy God then you aren’t going to be able to be excited about boldly approaching the throne of God.

There is no indication from this text of Scripture that is on the forefront of the mind of the author of Hebrews.

However, it certainly is part of what would be in the mind of anyone steeped in the Old Testament when thinking about the High Priest.

In we are given a picture of the high priest standing before God in filthy garments.

The word there is one you would use to speak of a garment stained with excrement.

Now there is much that could be said here but what I want you to focus on for this morning is that the high priest was THE guy who would stand between God and man.

He was supposed to be the cleanest and most holiest guy in the land.

Here is what you are supposed to feel from .

If Joshua the high priest is dirty and stained before God—and if Satan can accuse him—then I don’t stand a chance at all.

His clothes are in sharp contrast to what the High Priest is supposed to be.

In we read that the High Priest on the Day of Atonement is to “put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments”.

In other words, he is to be like the kid who gets a new set of clothes for his first day of school.

He is not supposed to even have a smudge—pure linen, holy garments.

So to say that the high priest has clothes that are filthy with excrement is to display that utter sinfulness and depravity of not only Joshua the High Priest but also the land.

You ever feel like Joshua?

The text doesn’t say specifically

How in the world could I possibly approach the throne of a holy God? Satan’s accusing you and you know that he’s right.

He tends to preach grace before we fall and law after, doesn’t he?

To add to this you hear the voice of Satan actively accusing you.

You’re not good enough!

You’re not clean!

How can you ever expect be used by God, look at how filthy you are?

What right do you have to tell someone else about Jesus—look at your life?

You are sinful!

You’re dirty, and here you are standing before God.

What do you think he is going to do with you?

We’ve got to hand one thing to Joshua, he doesn’t hide.

He doesn’t deny his sinfulness or his stained clothes.

He’s not going to hide that mustard stain behind a fancy tie.

His silence is deafening.

He’s guilty and he knows it.

Have you ever felt like Joshua?

I know I have.

You are standing before the Lord, you are filthy and you know it.

To add to this you hear the voice of Satan actively accusing you.

You’re not good enough!

You’re not clean!

How can you ever expect be used by God, look at how filthy you are?

What right do you have to tell someone else about Jesus—look at your life?

You are sinful!

You remember what you said the other day when you lost your temper.

You know how you sometimes lose it with your spouse.

You know the secret thoughts in your head.

You’re dirty, and here you are standing before God.

What do you think he is going to do with you?

I want you to notice something about this proclamation of Joshua’s sin.

Neither he nor the Lord denies it.

Joshua certainly knows that he is covered in sin.

He is not surprised by the proclamation, nor does he try to hide it.

I would probably try to hide it.

Have you ever been wearing nice clothes on your way to an important meeting and make the ignorant mistake of getting a messy fast food burger?

Certainly a pickle or ketchup or mustard or something is going to drop on your clothes.

So what do you do?

I know I try to clean up really fast, but whenever I notice that it’s not going away easily I try to figure out how to at least cover it up so as to not make it look as bad.

And this is exactly what we do with sin.

We try to paint a rosy picture of ourselves and make ourselves not look as bad as we really are.

We will make excuses.

We will even go so far as to tear down others to make ourselves look like gleaming little angels.

But Joshua has none of it.

The silence of Joshua is deafening compared to my constant excuse making and attempts to make myself better than I actually am.

We should be just like Joshua here, own up to what we are and be silent.

You see Joshua is a picture of why we do not have unfettered access to a holy God.

It’s a picture of the problem of the Bible.

How can sinful man have access to a glaringly holy God.

We can’t be in his presence with sin.

He cannot look upon sin.

He cannot tolerate sin because that would be telling a lie about it’s seriousness.

I want you to notice something about this proclamation of Joshua’s sin.

Neither he nor the Lord denies it.

Joshua certainly knows that he is covered in sin.

He is not surprised by the proclamation, nor does he try to hide it.

I would probably try to hide it.

Have you ever been wearing nice clothes on your way to an important meeting and make the ignorant mistake of getting a messy fast food burger?

Certainly a pickle or ketchup or mustard or something is going to drop on your clothes.

So what do you do?

I know I try to clean up really fast, but whenever I notice that it’s not going away easily I try to figure out how to at least cover it up so as to not make it look as bad.

And this is exactly what we do with sin.

We try to paint a rosy picture of ourselves and make ourselves not look as bad as we really are.

We will make excuses.

We will even go so far as to tear down others to make ourselves look like gleaming little angels.

But Joshua has none of it.

The silence of Joshua is deafening compared to my constant excuse making and attempts to make myself better than I actually am.

We should be just like Joshua here, own up to what we are and be silent.

Think of it this way.

What is sin?

I think Augustine had a pretty fair definition when he said "a word, deed, or desire in opposition to the eternal law of God.

Sin at it’s core is saying, this particular thing at this particular moment is more important to me than the desires of God Almighty.

So let’s say that we’ve become guilty of something.

We’ve taken a fruit that God said not to eat.

Now let’s say for a moment that God says, “ah, well, it’s okay I’m going to turn the other way because my love for you is so great.”

So what has God done in this moment?

He’s put something else above his eternal law.

He’s put something above himself.

Which is what?

It’s the essence of sin.

And so if God puts something else above his own glory, his own law, that’s not stooping and loving and such…that’s really bad news and supremely unloving for us because God becomes an abomination to Himself.