Sermon Tone Analysis

Numbers 15:1-41

We read of offerings for ‘atonement’(25,28).

We think of Christ: He went ‘outside the camp’ for us (35-36; Hebrews 13:12) - to bring us forgiveness (25,28).

We are to ‘be holy to our God’, the God of our redemption (40-41).

Obedience to God is of the utmost importance: We need to be reminded of all His commandments (39).

Our supreme motivation is redeeming love.

This divine redemption creates a relationship.

God is our God and we are His people.

Out of this relationship is to come the obedience of faith (40-41).

‘E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die’; ‘When He comes, our glorious King, all His ransomed home to bring, then anew this song we'll sing, “Hallelujah!

What a Saviour!”’(Mission Praise, 671; Church Hymnary, 380).

Numbers 16:1-50

‘You have gone too far!’:

They regarded themselves as ‘holy’, yet they refused to go ‘too far’ with God (3)!

What kind of ‘holiness’ is this?

There is a ‘holiness’ which is more concerned with respectability than obedience to God.

Faced with ‘the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’, we dare not say, ‘We will not come up’(12; Philippians 3:14).

We are to be ‘holy’: ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity’(4; 2 Timothy 2:19).

‘Separate yourselves’ (20): This is not the false separation of the Pharisees - Spiritual ‘pride’ is ‘an abomination to the Lord’(Proverbs 11:1-2).

Maintain your high calling- Don’t get dragged down to the level of those who ‘will not come up’ to where God wants them to be - and remember: ‘By grace... not your own doing... the gift of God’(Ephesians 2:8).