Good News!

Introduction

How many of you have ever heard someone say, “God just wants you to be happy”? I’ve heard this line of thinking from many different people and there are numerous pastors in our country who preach this very thinking from their pulpit. Let’s evaluate this claim with Scripture. Scripture shares with us in Philippians 4 that we are to have joy

Philippians 4:4 NASB95

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

We are to have joy at all times but is joy the same as happiness? James 1 talks about joy

James 1:2–4 NASB95

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Whenever we go through difficult times and experience trials, are we always happy? Of course not. Whenever we experience pain and disappointment it would be weird for us to be happy in the moment. While we might not always be happy, we are called to have joy. Happiness is predicated on our circumstances. Joy is predicated upon what Jesus did for us - He paid it all, therefore we can and should always have joy. So, back to the original question, does God just want us to be happy? No. Why not? Our happiness comes and goes based on our circumstances, for one. Additionally, I don’t know about you but sometimes the things that make me “happy” are not good things - in fact, they are often sinful things. It can make us feel good to say something about someone else in order to lift us up, but that’s speaking ill of someone else in an unloving manner which goes against God’s Word in Ephesians 4. Sometimes what makes us happy isn’t something that is godly. Certainly God does not want us to prioritize our happiness first if it comes at the sake of ungodliness. So what must come first if it is not our happiness? It is our holiness.

God cares far more about our holiness than our happiness - this isn’t to say that He doesn’t care about our happiness, He does, but it comes significantly after our holiness. We are called to be holy as our God is holy. What does it look like to be holy? To be without sin. Do you see a problem with this? We are all sinners, yet we are called to be holy. This is an impossibility… apart from Christ. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are called to follow after Him and we know that our accounts are credited with Christ’s righteousness. This is certainly good news! Yet, many Christians aren’t living this out. We look at the church and we look at the world and sadly we see a lot of similarities right now. That shouldn’t be the case, right? We are called to live differently as children of God. Just as the people of Israel continually fell short of the mark and fell into temptation. They looked at the other kingdoms around them and realized that every other nation had a king, so what did Israel do? They asked God for a king. They failed to trust in the plan of Almighty God at nearly every turn. Friends, we fail to trust in the Lord often times as well. We don’t necessarily forget who we are, but we forget whose we are. We belong to God and we have access to Him right now because of what Jesus did 2000 years ago - this is good news!

Hebrews 9:1–14 NASB95

1 Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. 2 For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place. 3 Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. 6 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, 7 but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, 9 which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, 10 since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The Old Way (1-10)

The first section in this passage talks a lot about the temple and how things worked inside of it with sacrifices and how the priest would enter specific places at certain times. The preacher of Hebrews has talked about the tabernacle several times throughout this book and chapter 9 is kind of the pinnacle of this thought. Verse 1 starts us off by mentioning that the first covenant had regulations for worship.

Can you think of some “regulations” of church worship services today? We might not say that we have any, but many of you are accustomed to some of these regulations of sorts.

Location - we worship in a church building

Attire - we wear specific clothes to church that we likely wouldn’t wear other places or vice versa

Singing - we sing songs during worship, even if we’re not good singers

Behavior - people usually behave at church

These are “regulations” of sorts that take place in most churches in the United States. Maybe this sounds a little uptight for you - you’re in luck because you weren’t around in the Old Testament. If you think that singing songs of praise is asking too much, listen to Leviticus 10 and see the importance of abiding by God’s regulations in worship.

Leviticus 10:1–2 NIV

1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

These two individuals did something that God didn’t command and they literally lost their lives. Can you imagine if you that’s how things worked today? Most people probably wouldn’t come to church simply out of fear of disobeying God and being struck down dead! Thankfully, we know that the center of worship is not a place: it’s not the temple of old, it’s not this church building, rather it’s a person - Jesus Christ.

For Christians around the world - we worship Jesus. That defines our lives and certainly our worship services. Some people wonder why churches aren’t doing this or doing that on specific days - we have to ask the question, is it emphasizing and centered around Jesus Christ? If the answer is no then certainly that’s not why we gather. We serve and worship Jesus and Him alone.

Verses 2-5 continue talking about the old covenant worship in the tabernacle. We see some of the things in the tabernacle in these verses, a lampstand, table, bread, a veil, a golden alter, the ark of the covenant, a golden jar with Aaron’s rod and the 10 commandments. This is a very specific list of things in the tabernacle. The temple restricted where people could go. Check out the picture on the screen as we look at how complex this was. Can you imagine only being able to come into the foyer at church? If you were a Jewish woman then you could enter only the first part of the temple. If you were a Jewish man then you could go into the next part. If you were a priest then you could come into the sanctuary area. If you were the high priest then you, and only you, could enter the holy of holies which is where the presence of God was at in the tabernacle. Aren’t you thankful that things are different now?

Aren’t you thankful for Hebrews 8:13? That Jesus Christ has made the Old Covenant obsolete not by abolishing it but rather by fulfilling it completely? This is good news! For these Jewish Christians, they likely would have thought that their precious tabernacle and temple would have been the “real” place of worship but what the preacher of Hebrews is showing them is that there is something even greater at work here. What could possibly be greater than a building full of gold, incense and where the presence of the Lord was at? The preacher doesn’t answer this question quite yet, but he will in a few short verses as he hopes to both encourage these believers and sternly tell them that the temple isn’t all it’s cracked up to be because it’s a shadow and you can worship God outside of it. Do you hear anything that we need to keep in mind today? We are called to worship God outside of the physical walls of the church building. Does this mean that coming to church is overrated and irrelevant? Of course not! We are called to gather corporately for worship in person - you can disagree with this statement, but doing so means that you disagree with the Bible. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that we are commanded to gather in person. Again, does this mean that we only worship God within the walls of the church, though? Certainly not! We are a new creation and everything we do in life is supposed to be done to bring glory and honor to God as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Think about your life right now. What changes do you need to make in order to bring glory to God in every aspect of life? Not just your life on Sunday morning or Wednesday night. What do you need to do in order to bring God glory at work? With your family?Worship is what we are called to do and it takes place both inside and outside the physical church building.

Verses 6-10 continue this idea of the old covenant ministry. The normal priests would offer sacrifices in the main area of the temple on a daily basis. As verse 7 says, though, the high priest would enter the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement, he would offer sacrifices for himself and on behalf of the people. This sacrifice would cover the people for one year until it would all have to be done again. The blood of this animal would cover their sin. We talk about sin a lot in church and we know that it shows up throughout Scripture, but what is sin at the end of the day?

Sometimes we associate sin with specific actions: You would be correct to say that murder is sin just as lying is a sin. Wrong actions are sinful. Think of it like this, we should do A but we do B. Because we do B, we have sinned. This is true throughout Scripture. There is a second definition for sin, though. What if you are supposed to do something and you simply do nothing. Have you sinned against God? Biblically, yes. We talked about this idea last Sunday evening in the book of Jonah. Jonah directly disobeyed God’s calling to go to Nineveh. He sinned against God because he failed to do what God commanded of him. So we can sin by doing what we should not do or not doing what we should do. These are the 2 categories we normally think of regarding sin, right? We lie to someone or we fail to love someone. They are both sin. Hebrews 9:7 mentions another category of sin: sins committed in ignorance. Unintentional sins are some of the most frequent sins we commit on a daily basis. Spurgeon notes that the Israelites had no business to be ignorant and commit sins of ignorance because they had the law. Willful ignorance of the Lord’s will is sin. We have the law written upon our heart according to Jeremiah 31:33, what is our excuse? For many of us we sin so frequently that we simply do not realize what we have done. We don’t realize that our actions have not only harmed someone else but they have resulted in a sin against a holy God! Again, we all do this so often. The High priest would offer a sacrifice once a year for all 3 categories of sin.

Verses 8-10 show us that the old covenant was temporary and imperfect because it could not make the worshiper perfect. The high priest could not draw near with confidence because there was a veil between the court and the holy of holies. They could not go in on their own accord, they went in once a year to fulfill their priestly duties. Aren’t you thankful that we don’t need a priest in order to meet with God? Think of the difficulties that would present in this season of life with COVID-19. You want to pray to God and ask forgiveness for a sin you committed? You have to drive up to the church, put your mask on, bring a bull and come inside. Then you’d have to say what was done, sacrifice the bull, offer the blood in order for there to be forgiveness. This would be a never ending cycle and our sanctuary would require new carpet on a daily basis! We ought to be grateful that we have direct access to God through Jesus right now wherever we are!

Not even the greatest sacrifice by the greatest high priest could make the sinner holy. It couldn’t bring about newness of life - yet we see in the New Testament that as a Christian we are a new creation! What is the change here? The change is in the nature and substance of the high priest offering the sacrifice as well as the sacrifice itself.

The New Way (11-14)

Verse 11 tells us that Jesus shows up and changes everything! He can do what the old way could not do - He can purify the human heart. What has Jesus done for us? He has entered into the greater and more perfect tabernacle through His own blood and He entered the holy place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption. So what has Jesus done? Jesus has obtained our eternal redemption. The old way required a sacrifice to be made on a yearly basis. Jesus paid it all once and for all. Do you see the security associated with Jesus’ sacrifice? Once you are in Christ, once you are born again and once you are redeemed, you cannot be lost. He paid it all. Why would He do this? Would Jesus die in our place so that we could say, “Thanks Jesus. I’m going to keep on living in sin, but thanks for the cheap forgiveness.”? Of course not! We are to be holy, as Christians. What does this look like? It means that we grow to be more like Jesus and that we hate sin.

Do you hate sin? Paul talks about this struggle in Romans 7:18-25 as he says that his flesh longs to sin but his spirit longs to not do this. We all have this struggle right now. We all have temptations and things that our flesh loves to indulge in that are, frankly, sinful. Again, back to the beginning. What does God prioritize more? Our happiness or our holiness? Sometimes sin makes us happy! We fight against sin and we have to have our minds rewired as Paul talks about in Romans 12

Romans 12:2 ESV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We have to have our minds be renewed , this is not always fun but friends it’s a part of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid it all so that we could be reconciled to a holy God. Therefore, we are to live a holy life because we are His workmanship, created for good works.

Have you ever heard someone say that they hope their good works outweigh their bad when they pass away? I’ve hard many say this. We know that our good will never outweigh our bad. Yet we see in verses 13-14 that through Jesus’ sacrifice we can be cleansed not only in our flesh but also our conscience. The old way did something good, but the new way is even greater! Not only are we cleansed externally but also internally. We could never deserve this on our own and we have to remind ourselves of this daily, friends. People in our world often talk about getting what they deserve. As Christians we get what we don’t deserve. We get what Christ deserved and Christ got what we deserved. Therefore, we live and we “work” not in order to save ourselves but rather because we are cleansed and we are called to live a different life! I came across a survey from the Gospel Coalition this morning, literally an hour or so ago, that said this: 41% of Evangelicals (Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal and others) believe that you can earn your salvation based on your works. These are people who attend church and call themselves Christians - this isn’t among people who identify as Atheists, this is happening in the church! Friends, we cannot earn it ourselves. If we get what our works deserve then we would get eternal separation from God. There is one way and that way is Jesus, there is one name by which we must be saved and that name is Jesus! If you don’t know Him and if you don’t believe and trust completely in Him then you are hopelessly lost and deceiving yourself!

I love what Al Mohler says about the book of Hebrews, “Hebrews remarkably captures the balance of the Christian life. Redeemed people serve God and find fulfillment and joy in doing the very things that we did out of obligation and frantic determination to try to justify ourselves before Christ came. The completed work of Christ rescues us from this foolish attempt and saves us from dead works.”

Are you still trying to save yourself? Are you hoping that your good will outweigh your bad some day? Stop! Jesus saves and He offers full and complete forgiveness right now.

Conclusion

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re working really hard outside and you get dirty? For many of you this is a daily ordeal! After you get dirty, what do you have to do in order to get clean? You have to take a shower! Why do you take a shower? Because you smell for one, and also because you have dirt, grass, paint or another substance on your skin that you want to get off. If you do not take a shower, what will happen? Your skin will stay dirty and your smell will only get worse. The awesome thing about a shower is that you can clean all of that off in a matter of minutes and you’re back to smelling good and you have clean skin. Now think about our condition spiritually. We are sinners. We are dirty and we are all smelly! We are in need of a spiritual shower in order to cleanse ourselves of our smell and our dirt. The awesome news in our text this morning is that there is a way to be cleansed of your sin and guilt right now. Friends, take a spiritual shower. Contrary to what some might tell you, there is nothing you can buy in order to cleanse yourself of your sin. There is nothing you can do in order to do this either! It is completely by grace that is given by Jesus Christ as He took our place on the cross. As the 19th century hymn put it, “Sin had left a crimson stain, He (Jesus) washed it white as snow.”

Have you been washed white as snow today? This is the best news of all, friends, and this is a message that we must share with others. So many people think that God just wants them to be happy, healthy and wealthy. What Scripture shows us is that God wants us to be holy. To live a different life as Christians. To flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness as 2 Timothy 2:22 tells us. Where does true, lasting joy come from? It comes from our relationship with Jesus Christ and in seeing the truth of Scripture that He who knew no sin became sin.

Are you living as a new creation today? If you’re a Christian, Jesus has forgiven you by His once and for all sacrifice. Trust in that promise today. Live as a new creation and be holy because God is holy. You were bought with a price! The cost was immense as it cost Jesus His very life. Yet, He came, lived a perfect life and died the death we deserved. Again, Jesus is the only way and He is greater!