Tana City Church Preaching
Kim Midgley | To obey is better than sacrifice(Hebrews 10v1-18)
this morning, I'm trusting and expecting that some of these truths and concepts we've been looking at will become even more real as we look at several scriptures this morning. I'm going to work through the verses in chapter 10, but before we go to chapter 10, I want to start in actually Psalm 24, so I'm going to read Psalm 24 from verse 1 to 5, so Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul toward his pulse and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. David writes this magnificent Psalm. He starts by describing that everything is from God and belongs to God and then asks this question, who will ascend the hill of the Lord who shall stand in his holy place? It's a question every one of us should ask, how do we draw near to God? How do you give close to God? What means and what writes? Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul toward his pulse and does not swear deceitfully. Everything belongs to God. The only way you can come near to him is if you have clean hands and a pure heart. I guess when I was younger and I read something like that, I felt feeling disqualified. I mean in myself, I would look at the sins and the failings and I would think, well I can't draw near to God. I didn't really understand the glory of the gospel that God would be the one who cleaned my hands and gave me the pure heart. And so at that point, I was just looking at my output, not God's input into my life and I was saying, if we're all doomed, we can't draw near to God. You can ascend his holy mountain now, of course not. It'd be just better to stay far away from God. And maybe if you're not a Christian, that's how you feel. You don't know God. You don't really feel qualified to draw near to God. Let me put you at ease. You are not qualified to draw near to God. But there is a way and we'll see more of that as we look at the texts today. So now to Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10 from verse 1. I'll read through to verse 18. That's all we'll cover today. Let's go for Hebrews 10 verse 1. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worship is having once been cleansed with no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there's a reminder of sins year every year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, "Sacrifices and offerings, you have not desired, but a body you've prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sun offerings, you have taken no pleasure." Then I said, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book." So there's something about what Jesus said. He said, He came and He declared prophetic texts about Himself that also reveals something about God to us and He comes and He speaks about the sacrifices that God didn't want and then He said, "But I'm here to do your will." So when He said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sun offerings," these are offered according to the law, "Then He added, 'Behold, I've come to do your will.'" He does away with the first in order to establish the second. The writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus is saying, "I've come to do your will," is effectively saying, "I'm replacing that obedience with all ... I'm replacing all of the sacrifices with my obedience." And that's why the title of my sermon is, "To obey is better than sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrifice." So it's a sentence in Scripture, it's the title of a song. It's something that is well known as a statement to Christians to obey is better than sacrifice. Today I wanted to go deep into our hearts. So the writer continues, he says, he does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So he has come to do the will of the Father Jesus. And by doing the Father's will, by His obedience, and by that will, by Jesus' obedience, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once all. And every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. So I know as a Christian that I'm not yet perfect, but I am made perfect by Christ and being sanctified now. So when I look at my sanctification, I think, well, I couldn't even tell you how far it's gone along its course. Am I 50% holy? Probably not. Am I 20% holy? Probably still generous if I count myself 20% holy? Am I perfect in standing with God? Yes, I am because of Jesus. So that's what that sentence means for by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, who after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, many as I will remember their sins and their lawless thieves no more." Whether it's forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. It doesn't mean you can't atone for sin. It means once your sins have been atone for, there is no sin left to atone for. There is no more offering to make for sin once the sin has been atone for. The problem with the old covenant and the law and the way Israel loathed us that the priest's sacrifices never accomplish the goal. They never toned for sin. They never completed the program. That's why those priests were performing the same sacrifices over and over, year after year, because they never succeeded. But Jesus came, he offered himself once and for all, settling the matter of sin. Therefore, there is no longer any offering for sin. Endless sacrifices and then one sacrifice to end them all. So I want to go a bit deeper into this passage and ask you this question, did God want sacrifice? Did God want sacrifice? Many of us, even as Christians, have a lingering little Pharisee or a lingering little self-justifier in us that wants to hold God rather than let God hold us, wants to control God rather than let God control us. And that little Pharisee wants its own righteousness to be able to hold up in front of God and say, "See, you must accept me, or you must bless me, or I've done what you required. You asked me to tithe, I tithed. You asked me to pray, I prayed. So now you're at fault, God. You didn't answer my prayer. You didn't give me the thing I was asking for. Did God want sacrifice even from Israel? This is a question we should ask. He answers it and this is what I'm hoping you'll get this morning as I share from the Word of God. I hope you'll see the heart of God. I hope you'll see something more of who he is because religious people, people who are into the pretense of holiness, putting up an outward appearance of holiness, they really want God to want sacrifice. Malachi 2 verse 13, God says this, the second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. So God, there in Malachi, the prophet's writing and saying, God's not accepting your offerings and there's a reason why, you say, why does he not? Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you've been faithless. Those she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Wow, it's a sudden jump from coming to the altar of God and bringing sacrifices and then pleading with God. Why won't you listen to me? And God says, I'm more concerned about what's going on in your behavior and your heart. You've been faithless to the wife of your your youth. She's your companion. Did God want sacrifices in this situation? No. God wants it you to treat your wife right. Second. Hold on, this has become very practical and personal now. Sacrifices are easy. You just do this. You put the offering on the altar and walk away. But now you go home to your wife and that's where God's actually interested in you. It's like, this isn't fair because I could deal with God once a week if I could just put money in the offering and go to church. But I go home and now I can't escape him because he's actually more interested in how I'm treating my spouse. In fact, this is the problem with the omnipresence of God. It's a big word, but it means God is watching you 24/7. He's got his eye on you. And he's interested not on what just the outside of you, what you did on Sunday church. He's interested in the heart of you and how you love your wife or your neighbor. You see, in Psalm 24, David tells us that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And he even founded it, which means he created it. So this stuff, yeah, the speaker, the microphone, the money, even this paper, the tree that they used to make the money that you gave to God whose tree was it, who made the tree. The writer of David in the Psalm is saying, everything belongs to God. So Jeremiah 6, verse 20 says this, Jeremiah 6, verse 20. What used to be, again, it's God speaking through the prophet, so here God's saying this, what used to me is frankincense that comes from sheba where sweet came from a distant land. Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifice is pleasing to me. In a way, God's saying, you bring me stuff that I already made. Like, I can make more. I don't need you to bring it to me. God doesn't need money. There's no currency in heaven. He doesn't need our offerings. He doesn't need the bulls and the goats. He made the bulls and the goats. He doesn't care for frankincense. He doesn't need it. Whatever's the best for Solomon and sheba or wherever, whatever. He doesn't, the queen of sheba comes sees Solomon's wealth. God's like, you guys are pressing each other, showing off your stuff. No big deal to God. God doesn't need it. See, God doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our sacrifices. He doesn't even need our songs. Put it in perspective if you're in a music worship. I mean, I wish that you wish of music here. I mean, if you wish of music rather than God. God doesn't need anything. It gets worse and take you down at the first before we go up here. Amos 5 verse 21. It's looking Amos 5 verse 21 to 25. I hate, I despise your feasts and I take no delight in your Solomon assemblies. That's your church meetings. That's what what me and Solomon assembly was, the religious gathering. So it's just like putting it into new, new testament terms or outgeneration. God could be saying, I don't, I don't, I don't really, that's not for me. I'm not impressed by your gathering together. Even though you offer me your good offerings and great offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings on your fenton, of your fenton animals, I will not look upon them. Take them away from me. The noise of your songs to the melody of your hopes, I will not listen. So he's saying to his people, I'm not even going to listen to your worship. I'm not even going to look at your offerings. Then he says, but let justice roll like waters and righteousness I can ever flow your stream. Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the 40 years in the wilderness, our house of Israel? Very interesting. What's happening here is at Bethel, God's people were copying what would have been done in Jerusalem. They had like a second place where they would go and worship. So it wasn't the main temple, but had all the copies of those things that they thought God wanted. So they were bringing the same kind of sacrifices as you would do in Jerusalem. They were bringing songs that had the same musical instruments. They had the viola, they had whatever, you know, they've got, they're making all the religious stuff the same. It's doing it just like they do in Jerusalem. They're copying the religious stuff. And God says, I'm not interested in this. But he rebukes him, let justice roll like waters and righteousness I can ever flow your stream. That's what he's looking for. And he says something interesting, then did you bring me sacrifices and offerings during the 14 years in the wilderness? Matthew, Henry, comments. I'm going to read a bit of a Bible commentary now. He says, the scope of these verses is to show how little God valued their shows of devotion, how much He detested them while they went on in their sins. See, this is the problem that people were giving God sacrifices but carrying on as they were. How displeasing their hypocritical services were to God. They had their feast days in imitation of those at Jerusalem, in which they pretended to rejoice before God. They had their Solomon sent these for religious worship in which they put on the gravity of those who come before God as His people come and sit before Him as His people sit. So they put on all this over respectability that they thought is what God was looking for. People are doing that right now, right now in the city, right now all across the earth they go to church where in the suit and they sit there looking solemn and serious about God and then they go home and they ignore everything about God and they live as they please listen. They offered to God burnt offerings to the honor of God together with the meat offerings which by the law were to be offered with them. They offered the peace offerings to implore the favor of God and they offered Him with that beast. In imitation likewise of their temple music they had the noise of their songs the melody of their instruments vocal and instrumental music with which they praise God. With these services they hoped to make God amends for the sins they had committed and to obtain leave to go on in sin. That's what they wanted. They wanted to get forgiven so that they could carry on sinning and come back and get forgiven again so that they could carry on sinning and that God was filled with indignation. Therefore they were so far from being acceptable to God that they were abominable. Now this kind of pretense with God doesn't fool Him so when we pretend to be religious or spiritual people God does not accept it at all. In fact it's worse. He hated. He despised their feast days. Not only despising them as no valuable services done to Him but hated them as an affront and a provocation to Him as we hate to see men pretend with us. Pretend to respect for us when really they have none. Nothing can be more hateful more despicable than hypocrisy. In using reference to some of the way that this is praised in the Bible God will not smell in their solemn assemblies. He won't sniff the aroma of the sacrifice. In other words God literally pinches his nose if he was to what's that word when you put human characteristics on God anthropomorphism. He won't even smell it. Their sacrifices are not to him as sweet smelling aroma. He will not accept them. He will not regard them. He will not take any notice of them. He will not hear the melody of their vows. For when sin is a jar in the harmony it grates in his ears. Take it away says God I cannot bear it. So God is far more concerned about something else than the sacrifice. He's concerned with the state of the sinner and the sinner's heart. So we learn from this that sacrifice itself is of small account with God in comparison with moral duties to love God and our neighbor is better than all things offerings and sacrifice. So there's this idea that you could do spiritual things and God doesn't care about them but you could do moral things, healthy things, relational things toward your neighbor, toward your spouse and God does care about those. Secondly the sacrifice of the wicked is really an abomination to him. Pretending piety is double iniquity and others pretending to be holy as twice as bad. It's double sin and so if we'll be found when in any place help be hotter than and if in any place in hell be hotter than another that will be the hypocrite's portion. We can also see what little stress God had laid upon the law of sacrifices though it was his own law in comparison with the moral precepts. Did you offer unto me sacrifices in the wilderness 40 years? That was the verse 25 of Amos we got after saying our I to sacrifices. He says he asks this interesting question did you offer me sacrifices in the wilderness 40 years? To load in statement it's a deep question because God's behavior with Israel in the wilderness was that he walked with them he never left them he provided for them he cared for them there was the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire like the cloud and the fire and God's presence was with Israel and yet for that entire 40 years there was no sacrificial system. That's profound it's like God saying actually I didn't really mean the sacrificial system when if you were willing to follow me that's what I want. So the greatest part of that time sacrifice was very much neglected because of the unsettleness of their state after the second year the Passover was not kept till they came into Canaan and other institutions were in lack manner suspended and yet because God will have mercy and not sacrifice he never imputed the omission to them as their fault but considered his care of them and kindness to them it was not the lack of sacrifices that made God angry with Israel it was their murmuring and unbelief for which God was displeased with him. Let's consider Isaiah 1 verse 11 I'm going to read a long portion from Isaiah Isaiah 1 verse 11 onwards "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices is the Lord. I've had enough of going to offerings of rams and the fetter well fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or the of lands or of goats. When you come to care before me who has required of you the strengthening of my quotes bring no more vain offerings. Insince is an abomination to me." It's like you can put on a Christian CD in your car. You can play Christian music in your house but if you don't love your neighbor or you have unforgiveness in your heart against your spouse it means nothing to go that you pay a Christian song in your house. I'm all for creating a godly atmosphere around your life. I don't want to tell you you can't play Christian music in your home and I'm not telling you you can't play secular music either. I'm telling you it's about what's going on in your heart and we can go and put our pretenses in our life that make us look like Christians or how we think Christians should look and all we do is what Israel was doing we're creating a religious facade around us but maybe we're still avoiding dealing with our hearts. Bring no more vain offerings. Insince is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations having these special religious events and other conference whatever it is. I cannot endure inequity and solemn assembly. So God doesn't want his people together while they have hidden some inequity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands I will hide that means to pray. I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers I'll not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Watch yourselves make yourselves clean remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes cease to do evil learn to do good seek justice correct oppression bring justice to the fatherless plead the widow's cause come down let us reason together says the Lord though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they were red like crimson they shall become like wool there are two things people do that make God angry I mean there many things people do but in this section of what I'm teaching one is they seek forgiveness by sacrifice that's that's one thing that made God angry when Israel was seeking forgiveness by sacrifice what they effectively say is God must now forgive because I've done my sacrifice and I can now go on as I want so that's not what God's looking for he's not looking for people who seek forgiveness so that they can go back and Sunmore they don't want to change they don't love God as Matthew Henry put it with these services they hope to make God a means for the sins they've committed and to obtain leave to go on in Sun the other thing that people do that God doesn't like is that they fake spirituality Matthew Henry made the point that pretending piety is double iniquity so pretending to be holy is twice as bad that's why Jesus had such an issue with the Pharisees he called them white wash twos clean on the outside dead on the inside anyway we don't have to pretend to be spiritual especially not for the sake of appearances and to illustrate this I'm going to look at the time that King Saul lost his crown I'm going to go through another story in the Bible now listen to this passage since once Samuel chapter 15 basically the whole of one Samuel 15 we read from verse one one Samuel 15 verse one Samuel said to Saul the Lord sent me to anointed King over his people Israel now therefore listen to the words of the Lord that says the Lord of hosts I've noted that Amalek what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way where they came out out of Egypt now going strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have do not spare them but kill both men and women child and infant oxen sheep camel and donkey animal rights out the window human rights out the window you think you have rights stick up your finger in God's place and say how dare you arrogant human beings so Saul summoned the people and numbered them until then 200,000 men on foot in 10,000 men of Judah and Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in weight in the city in the valley Saul said to the kenites go to part go down from among the Amalekites let us destroy you with them for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt so the kenites departed from among the Amalekites and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Hevalah to as far as sure which is east of Egypt and he took Agar the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword but saw that the people spared Agar and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fat and calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not at least destroy them and all it was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. Saul has deviated from the word of God he can't bring himself to hold a king to account and you notice how Africa cannot hold its presidents to account he cannot obey a God because he sees the stuff that looks so valuable that he is too attached to the stuff of earth the fattest and the best he kept the word of the Lord came to Samuel a regret that I've made Saul king for he has turned back from following me and has not performed by commandments and Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night and Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning and it was tossed Samuel Saul came to Connell and behold he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal and Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him "Bless it be you bless it be you to the Lord I have performed the commandment of the Lord" really Saul this is all not claiming to be the good guy who's done what God said Samuel said "what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the loin of the oxen that I hear" Saul said "they've brought them from their melecats for the people spent the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord O God and the rest we've devoted to destruction" two things God said to destroy it all Saul said "now let's keep the best ones and we'll perform sacrifices to God we'll make this a spiritual moment" God didn't want the fat sheep to be sacrificed to him he wanted his enemies to be destroyed Saul said "there's brought them from the melecats for the people spent the best of the sheep and even of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord O God and the rest we've devoted to destruction" let Samuel said to Saul "stop like shut up like stop it stop speaking nonsense stop with your lies that's how angry Samuel is" stop I'll tell you what the Lord said to me this night he said to him speak Samuel said "though you are little in your own eyes are you not the head of the tribes of Israel the Lord anointed you king of the Israel" so Saul failed to see that God had given him such authority and he was seeing himself as small and wanting to buy a thickness in the eyes of the people by being a more spiritual guy and the Lord sent you on a mission and said "go devote to destruction the sinners the melecats and fight against them until they consume" why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord why did you pounce on the soil and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord and Saul said to Samuel "I've obeyed the Lord with the voice of the Lord I've got on the mission on which the Lord sent me I've brought I gave the king of amelic and I've devoted the amelicats to destruction" Saul is still claiming to be in the right but the people took off the spoil sheep and oxen and the best of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal the Lord your God Samuel we took the best to make sacrifices to him and Samuel said "has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen is better than the fat of rams for rebellion is as the son of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry because you have rejected the word of the Lord he has rejected you from being king now suddenly Saul said to Samuel "I've sinned for I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I fear the people and obey their voice the people wanted a God who would do impressive stuff for them do spiritual stuff perform sacrifices God didn't care about any of that he wanted obedience why does God hate sacrifices so much because every animal that people are supposed to bring and put on the altar is a representation that they've just sinned what is God wants he wants that they just don't sin to obey is better than sacrifice now therefore Saul says please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord Samuel said to Saul I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king of Israel as Samuel turned to go away Saul seized the skirt of his robe and a tour and Samuel said to him the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel away from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you and also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret for he is not a man that he should have regret then he said I've sinned yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may bow before the Lord Joker Saul still doesn't get it Saul still doesn't see he says okay okay I've sinned but honor me now before the elders of my people don't make me look bad don't make me look bad do you know how much time and energy people in Madagascar put into that don't let me look bad in front of the people when I finally admit that I've done wrong and at least don't let anyone know this tendency to over-spiritualize and to want to put on a spiritual show is a honorable to God this is why I don't wear a suit now you can wear a suit if that is genuinely your reason for honoring God and you are at peace with him and you love him and you I have no problem with that but if you do it for man you've been like Saul you're dressing up to get more respect you show off your piety or your your position why why it doesn't impress God you don't have to you don't have to put on an act with God and when you put on an act he's even more offended that you pretend it to be something that you won't do you know people go so far as to justify everything with these layers of fake spirituality God doesn't want fake spirituality he wants genuine obedience and love genuine obedience and love for him and love for your neighbor a church I used to belong to once for a while it wasn't like a very defining time in my life but it was a charismatic church where we had this very you know don't seek happy worship and everything we we used to rent it both guys in the church used to hire a person go up a mountain so that they could pray down over the city they just don't understand the Bible they're creating all this spiritual activity and they're going to look spiritual and they're doing this delivered stuff from the top of the mountain and and Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well some people go to Jerusalem what she said you go to Jerusalem other people go out by holy mountain and Jesus said those places are going to be removed and true worship this will worship in spirit and truth so this is the problem we still want to spiritualize stuff and God just wants to get it out hearts he wants obedience not sacrifice he doesn't want a religious life from you he wants love he wants that kind of dedication it was a lady I've mentioned the story many times she came to me once and told me how special length was for her because during length she could fast something out of her life and then process stuff that she needed to process with God and I nearly thought I didn't react where should I I should have said what is wrong with you look putting something aside in your life and deciding to process things before God is right and good and if lead acts as a catalyst for you to do that in your life great what was I worried about that I'm worried about the person who thinks that length is necessary for you to do that I'm worried about the person who waits for a religious moment to join you to God join you to God when you're in the toilet join you to God when you out of church join you to God when it's not late process your stuff with God and don't wait for a holy month don't wait for late just to sort out issues in your life sort them up today if you love God then obey him don't look for a an act that you have to do to please him in some religious sense obey him in the sense that you should love your neighbor and forgive your wife or husband so forgive your husband why am I preaching at the wrong way around putting on a special voice religious sounding these and those were both public prayers Jesus attacked those things he didn't attack prayer he wants us to pray he wants me says when you pray going to your room where your father is in heaven sees what you're doing but don't pray to be seen by man don't do your religious don't don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing in your giving don't give as a show of giving none of these things are against the good acts give pray fast live a spiritual life but live it as someone who is profoundly aware that they are also a physical being see you can't feel good about yourself through shows of spirituality simply because you can't delight God that way that's why at the end of the day you never feel satisfied anyway when you finished being spiritual in a superficial way soul didn't need to perform the sacrifices he didn't do it for God he did it for respectability Samuel didn't even need to perform sacrifices because God stood by his people for 40 years and the wilderness with no sacrifices so the genuinely spiritual person is also a genuinely physical person a genuinely flawed person so let me put it to you like this you are the one who slept in the presence of God last night don't claim to be better than you are you were fast asleep hopefully for six or eight hours in the presence of God you are the one who made life to your spouse in the presence of God God doesn't disappear just because you got intimate with your spouse see the point is your life is lived in the presence of God you are the one who ate a burger and belched in the presence of God so why would you want to pretend anything more with God why not just worship him all the time in everything in your life why not just accept that God doesn't need your sacrifices he doesn't need you to pretend to be better than you are he loves you so much that he made away that's why he said come with us reason together with all your sins on the scarlet they shall be white as snow he said here i'm giving you my son to take care of all of your problems of sin but what do i want from you i want you to come to me love me or baby because you love me thanks to christ we can draw near to God who will ascend the hill of the lord here's he has clean hands i let my hands get clean i dirty them Jesus clean them and a pure heart how did my heart get pure i came to Jesus i said i believe in you he said i'm giving you a new heart a heart that loves me his pleasure in you isn't measured by how easy your life is or it's not signified by the absence of heartache or pain or sadness but actually in christ we're in this position where we are able to be those who please God without going up a holy mountain you're able to bring justice and love your neighbor and delight the heart of God if you think about it what the old covenant of it was that you had to bring some kind of a sacrifice or an offering and even that wasn't sufficient so you could never have right stand with God what the new covenant says is Jesus is the sufficient offering and sacrifice you can now be with God have an entity in reality you can draw near to and Jesus is your heart priest you don't you don't need to atone for your own son or make the sacrifice he is the sacrifice he is the priest so that means all you have to do is get on with your life you don't have to go on a holy pilgrimage you don't have to visit a temple you just have to go Monday Tuesday Wednesday loving God loving your neighbor obeying him not to hear your salvation but because it delights him to obey his better than sacrifice that's what this passage in Hebrews is emphasizing God wants us to be his obedient children and he's delighted in us just that simple and the band come up musicians can come up with