 Good morning everyone and welcome to the class on Christology. I know it's quite a deep subject that we are learning, deep insights, deep truths, theology, but I hope it's exciting and hope you're learning and you're being benefited from what you are learning. It's not just kind of becoming knowledge in your head, but it's something that is also helping you to know more about this God that you serve, the God you worship, having deeper insights and just leading you to trust in Him more, put your faith more on Him, and also it's leading you to praise and, you know, just worship and honour this God who's so great, so infinite, so powerful, but yet so accessible, right? So near to us even though He's so great and awesome. Like 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 16 I think says, No, He lives in unapproachable light who no man has seen and can see, but even though He is so great, so awesome, you know, we have access to this God. We can approach Him. We can, you know, cure Him. We can speak to Him. We can, you know, unload our burdens to Him. And it's just so wonderful to know that this great God, you know, who's so holy, whose holiness is so great, so unapproachable that He's willing to, you know, relate with us. He's just, you know, He's just so high, but He's so close to us, so present, so accessible. So that's just so wonderful about who God is and how He relates to us as mankind. Okay. So before we continue with chapter 7, The Purpose of Incarnation, we'll just pause for the word of prayer. Can one of you please lead us in prayer? The students don't have the mic. Okay. So can one of you lead us in prayer, please? Anyone? Do you want to use the mic? The mic is here. Yeah. Yeah. Can you lead us in prayer, please? Yeah, put it on and lead us in prayer. Okay. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for this wonderful morning, Lord. Lord Jesus, I submit all things into your hands, Lord Jesus. But as we are going to study Christology, Lord Jesus, help us and give us wisdom and knowledge, Lord Jesus, and help us to gain more and more Lord Jesus. Thank you for everything. Thank you for Ma'am. And thank you for everything, Lord Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. So in chapter 5, we basically, you know, looked at, you know, trying to understand what is the, what Incarnation is, how God took on the human form. We examined also the humanity of Christ, and now we will look at the why of the Incarnation. Okay. So we look at the why of the Incarnation. In chapter 5, we try to understand how Jesus was fully God, how Jesus is fully man, how He is true God, He is true man, and how He lived here on the earth. And when Jesus became a man, we saw that He did not cease to be eternally God. He was fully God, was fully man. Okay. But we see that this eternal God, you know, took on the fullness of humanity. Okay. Very important to say that the eternal God took on the fullness of humanity, not just part of humanity to do His work, but He took on the fullness of humanity, which means in body, spirit, and soul, He was fully human. And also we see in the way that He was born into this world, He was through the natural conception, sorry, the conception, not the natural conception, but conception, natural birth, and growing up and becoming a man, and the things that He did. Okay. So even as He became fully man, He was also fully deity, He was fully God, but He limited Himself in the manifestations of His divinity. Okay. Which means that He did not, He ceased to, or He refrained from exercising or expressing His omnipotence, His omniscience, and His omnipresence. So He, it was not that He did not have that in Him, He had it, but He refrained or He stopped or He seized or He stopped from using it. And He also, we see that He took on the weaknesses and the frailties of the human flesh. Okay. Or the human body or human being. And then we also looked at the seven steps of incarnation. Which chapter do we find the seven steps of the incarnation in? Philippians, seven steps of incarnation, which chapter? Philippians chapter two versus six to eight. So in that we saw the seven steps of incarnation, very, very important. We saw that Christ was in the form of God. He was equal with God, but He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Okay. And He made Himself of no reputation. He took on the form of a born servant. He came in the likeness of man, and He was found in the appearance as a man. Okay. So we see that, you know, even though He refrained from exercising or expressing His omniscience, His omnipotence, and His omnipresence, but we see what did He willingly give up? What did He willingly give up in His deity? His sonship glory, not His sonship glory. He took on the sonship glory, but He gave up the glory of deity of God. Why did He give up the deity of God? To be fully human? To be an example for us? To give us a sonship glory? Okay. If He had His glory as deity, what would have happened? We could not approach Him, we could not access Him, we could not touch, see, you know, we could hear Him, but He can't touch, see, and just have a tangible experience of the presence of God in the human form. Okay. And also, what does it mean? He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, means what? You can take the mic so that others can, can you pass on the mic to her please? If you have another mic, you can have one this side and you can have one this side to be helpful, yes. Even though it was something that He owned or that He possessed, He did not think of it as something to keep it to Himself, He left it. Okay, something to hold on to, so what did He not hold on to? The deity. He held on to His deity, He was fully God, right? Yes. So, what do we mean when He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God? He did not hold on to His glorious estate and, you can put your hand, His privilege and position, so what was that? What was the privilege? What did He not consider it robbery to be equal with God? What did He give up? He can't descendant, right? What did He, He came down in rank and dignity. How was He not equal with God in terms of receiving, honour and worship? Remember, okay, He did not seek to be honoured and worshipped as God. That is what it means, He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Okay, very important, you can write down it's in your notes, but you can make this point, you know, He did not come, He came down in rank or dignity. He did not consider to be honoured or worshipped as God, okay? Then we moved on to chapter 6. In chapter 6, we looked at the humanity of Christ. We discovered that Christ was really human in all areas, but even though He willingly restricted Himself as a human being, He was truly human in every sense except in what area? Okay, are you listening? He was truly human in every sense, in every area except as a, except that He was sinless. Yes, okay, that's very important. He was truly human in every sense except that He was sinless. Okay, now since we understood the importance of His incarnation, we looked at the importance of incarnation in chapter 5 and 6. We look at why was it necessary for Jesus to become a human being? Okay, so now we're going to basically having understood what incarnation is that God is taking on human form, having examined His humanity of Christ. We will now summarize the why of the incarnation. Why did God have to become man? What was the purpose of the incarnation? Why did Christ have to become a man and take on the fullness of humanity? All of this is in your notes. And just follow through. Okay, what was God doing through humanity that He could not do in any other means? Why did God have to become a human being? Why did He have to be completely human? What was the necessity? Why could He not accomplish His purpose in any other way rather than just becoming a human being? So in this chapter, we're going to try to attempt these questions. What was the purpose of the incarnation? Why did Christ have to become a man? Why did He have to take on the fullness of humanity? What was God doing through the humanity of Christ that He could not do in any other means? Okay, so in this chapter, we're going to attempt to answer these questions and we're going to answer these questions by looking at our studying scripture passages like we have been doing for the other chapters. Because when we study any doctrine, we always have to study the doctrine in the light of scripture from Genesis right up till Revelation. Look at what each of them are telling and in the entirety of scripture, we try to come to conclusions or draw conclusions in the light of the entire scripture and not base our doctrines or our understanding about sin, salvation, Holy Spirit, angels, God, Trinity, based on just one scripture passage. So let's go and look at various scripture passages. The first one is Hebrews chapter one versus one and two. So can somebody please read Hebrews chapter one versus one and two. It's in your notes, so you can just read it out. Where's the mic? Pass it on quickly. Hebrews chapter one verse one and two. God who is at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. Has in this last day spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed here of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. Thank you. So in the past, that's talking about the Old Testament, talking to the fathers. God spoke to the prophets and they spoke what God told them. They told it to the people. Thus says the Lord and they told the people what God had spoken to them. So in the past, God spoke to the prophets. He communicated his message, whatever he wanted to say to the people. He communicated it to the prophets. In the fullness of time, in the Chairos time, in God's appointed time, God sent his son and he spoke his word or communicated what he wanted to say through his son, who is the word. So everything that God wanted to say, his final revelation, everything he wanted to communicate to man, he has spoken or said or has made known through the person and the work of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is God's final and complete revelation to mankind. So in the incarnation of Jesus, we see God's final and complete revelation or whatever God wanted to communicate to man is seen in Jesus's incarnation. In incarnation is basically also God speaking to man, to human beings through the man Jesus Christ. So one aspect of incarnation is God speaking to human beings through the man Jesus Christ. You need to know that here in scripture it says through the man Jesus Christ. So pointing out that Jesus is fully human. He had humanity in the fullness sense in his entire fiber in his being. And if he was the final revelation to whom God spoke to mankind. Now in your notes, there is a quote that says Jesus Christ is a self manifestation of God, the final culmination of all the acts of revelation of the Old Covenant and their fulfillment in the highest personal peculiar word of God. So some things that we can understand from this quote is the first thing is that Jesus is the image of God. He's a perfect, complete, exact representation copy of God. He's the exact, complete, perfect copy or representation of the nature of God or what God is really like. So in the incarnation, we have the complete revelation of the living God. We are able to understand God, we are able to understand his ways, his nature, his characteristic, his way of doing things. And the other third thing that we can understand from this quote which I just read is that the word with Jesus Christ is God speaking to man. So God the Father speaking to God the Son and God the Son communicating that to mankind. So it's God revealing himself to man through the person of Jesus Christ, through humanity of Jesus Christ. So the word which is Jesus Christ is God manifested. Okay, which means Jesus Christ manifested means made known, expressed who God is, his nature, his ways of doing things, his characteristic. Everything is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. And it's not something that we can't see or can't experience, but it's something that's manifest, it's something that is expressed. And that is why God became man so that he can express who God is. And even as he expresses who God is, his nature, his characteristic, we are able to see, we are able to understand, we are able to relate to. We are able to touch and experience in a very, very real personal and tangible way. Okay, the last thing that we can understand from this quote is that the acts of God, the revelation of God in the Old Testament is completed and fulfilled in the highest and in the very personal way in the person and life of Jesus Christ. So all of the acts, all of the revelations, all of the prophecies that that's spoken of in the Old Testament is completed and fulfilled in the highest sense, in the fullest sense, in the deepest sense, in a very personal way as well in the person of Jesus Christ. Okay, the next ref, the next point is that, you know, how, when we're trying to understand or answer these questions about the purpose of incarnation, why God had to become man, why had to take on the fullness of humanity. What was God doing through humanity of Christ that he could not do in any other means? The first thing is that, you know, through incarnation or through Christ humanity, God's fullest revelation could be seen, revealed, expressed to mankind, you know, because Jesus became human. The second thing is that, you know, Jesus was the only one who could reveal the Father in the fullest sense to us as human beings and who we can see and understand and perceive and know is because he's the only one who was in the bosom of the Father. Now what does it mean when we read in Scripture that he's on the bosom of the Father, bosom of the Father means, you know, very intimate to the Father, very close to the Father. You know, the mother always holds the child very close to her, to her chest, okay, very close here to her heart. So that is, this is called the bosom. We are very, you know, so it's talking about great intimacy, great love, great closeness, great oneness, great unity between the Father and the Son. So no one is so close to the intimate or close to the Father like the Son is, okay, and so the only person who could reveal the heart of the Father God or could reveal God's nature and characteristic is somebody who's very close to the Father, okay. Now, you know, you can, you are somebody who's very close to your Father or mother and you are the best person who could understand who could relate and who can express what your parents want. So now, for example, if your mother or father is unwell, you know, if my father or mother is unwell, then the one who's very closest to them is able to relate to them and understand what they're saying, they're doing, they want, okay. Now, for example, if you love dogs very much, I'm not a dog lover, but you know, my sister loves dogs very much and we had a golden retriever at home and anytime, his name is Travis, anytime Travis was unwell or anything he wanted, he would go right up to my sister and tell her and she would just catch it like this. If she's not there, he would not come to me because I'm not too close to him and even if he tries telling me, I will not be able to understand, but I don't know how she can understand. He has a stomach ache or he is having a flea somewhere that is biting him, that is troubling him or he's having a toothache. I'm like, how does she ever know what is wrong with Travis, which I'm not able to because you know, they're so close, they can understand, they can relate. She knows how to put him to bed, where to make him sleep, his bedding, his food, when he's sick, what to do, I just totally am clueless, okay. Because I don't have that kind of relation, that intimacy. So the one who could, who's very close is the best one who can actually reveal, express, make known the person that you are very close to, like in a husband and wife. The wife can express the husband and make known the husband better than anybody else because they're so intimate, they're so close. The same way husband can express and make known who the wife is or understand who the wife is or express who the wife is in clearer terms because they have a very intimate close relationship. So the only one who could express God in the fullest and the best way is one who's very close and that is Jesus Christ. And why is only Jesus Christ? Because, you know, like I said in 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 16, it says no one has seen God, you know, or can see him because he lives in unapproachable light. Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, you know, no one, God lives in unapproachable light who no man can see or can ever see or has ever seen. So we can't see God, we can never see him, okay, because he lives in this unapproachable holiness and awesomeness and might and splendor that he has. But, you know, and we could never fully know God, but it's only through the person of Jesus Christ who became man was able to reveal the Father heart of God to us. So only when God became fully man that he fully revealed the nature of God, the characteristic of God, the works of God to us. And now we are having a clarity of who God is, his nature, his way of doing things, his deeper understanding of who God is, is because it's revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, okay. Like 2 Corinthians 4-6, can somebody read 2 Corinthians 4-6 please. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Amen, thank you. Because so here we see that, you know, we were people living in darkness. We are living in, we were living in sin. We are slaves of Satan. And, you know, we, and we are also living in darkness when it came to our understanding of God, okay. We not have a deeper understanding. If you look at Old Testament, they did not have a deeper understanding of, you know, the Trinity, but we have a deeper understanding because of the, of the work of Jesus Christ and because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. So we have a greater deeper understanding of the knowledge of who God is, you know, because of Jesus Christ. But once we were living in darkness, because of our sin, because we are slaves of Satan, we were away from God, we could not understand him. And also, you know, we did not, we were living in darkness because we did not have a complete understanding of who God is. Jesus Christ, who is the light? Remember Jesus said, I am the light of the world, one of the seven I am say, sayings of Jesus and John, the Gospel of John, the John records for us. And Jesus is the light. And he, you know, he brought about light in, in the way of us understanding or giving us a knowledge of who God is, his way of doing things. Also gives us a better understanding of the knowledge of God's glory, what it means of his manifest glorious presence. So in the Incarnation, the Son of God, who was intimately one with the Father, one in the bosom of the Father, like we read in John chapter one verse 18. Okay, where John introduces Jesus as the Word and he says, you know, we have seen him full of grace and truth. You know, one who was in the bosom of the Father who came to reveal the Father, to declare the Father to us, reveal the glory of the Father to us as we read in John chapter one verse 18. So the bosom of the Father means somebody was very intimate, very close. And that was who, who, who was that that is Jesus Christ. And he was the only one who could make known God to us. And he could not make known God to us if he came in deity because we can't see him. We can't understand God. We can't, we can't, you know, express or understand or even experience his tangible presence. If he came as deity, if he came as God, that is why he came fully as a human being. He was fully God, fully human. But as fully human, we could, you know, see, touch, you know, have that close relationship with him and understand who God is. Okay. So John chapter one was 18, which says, no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who's in the bosom of the Father has declared him. So there's no one else who's qualified to reveal the Father to us. There's no one who's more intimately one with the Father, not even any angelic being. That is why God could not send any angel. Okay. No one had this honor, accepting the Son. And hence it was only the Son who could come and become fully human and, you know, reveal the Father's heart of God to us. So if somebody asks you a question, why did God have to become man? Why couldn't he choose some other human being? Why could he choose some angel? Then you know the square, how to answer it. Okay. John chapter one was 18. Okay. Explain the bosom of the Father. Okay. This, why was it important for God to become man? Why was it incarnation important? Why did God have to take on the fullness of humanity? The third point is that, you know, because he could suffer in the flesh. Okay. 1 Peter chapter three was 18. Can somebody read that please? 1 Peter chapter three was 18. 1 Peter chapter three 18. For Christ also suffered once for sin. But just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but not alive by the spirit. Okay. Thank you. So in this verse, in 1 Peter chapter three verse 18, it tells us that Christ was put to death in the flesh. Okay. So some people say, you know, even though he was hanging there as a human being, but he had become God. So he did not really go through all of those pain and suffering and all of those things. Because look at him. You know, if anyone, any human being would have gone through, they wouldn't have lasted or they wouldn't have been able to endure it and all of that. So, you know, it was just a human form, but he was, you know, he transformed into being God at that moment. But here we see that for Christ also suffered for the sins. He was put to death in the flesh. Very important scripture passage. Okay. So it was not that he suffered as, he was crucified as being deity. We could not do that to deity. We could not do that to God because if he was God, we could not even touch him. Right. Because, you know, and we could not even, we wouldn't be able to even see him. Okay. Because he's God. He lives in unapproachable life. We know man can even touch him. Can even, we will not see him touch him also. Okay. So he suffered in, was put to death in the flesh in his human body. Therefore, you know, the human body provided a means for Christ to die. So the reason why God became man, another reason is so that, you know, he could, you know, suffer for us, take on the sins of the humankind, die in our place, you know, and defeat sin and defeat death and Satan on the cross. And for that, he had to be fully human so that he can identify with us so that he can take upon the sins of the humankind upon himself. Now, if he was God, he was deity, he could not take on the sins of the entire human kind on himself because God is holy. You know, sin cannot come near him. Sin cannot even touch, sin cannot even touch him. So if he had to take on the sins of the entire human race, that means he can't be deity has to be man. Okay. So he came as fully man so that he could take on the sins. And also what is the consequence of sin? Death. So he had to die in our place so that he can, you know, do away with sin. You know, do away with death, break the power of sin, break the power of death and also, you know, defeat Satan on the cross. Yes, Chira, you have a question? I'm just now reading like John 18, right? No one sin God at any time. It means like no angels, no one can sin, including angels also? Yeah. When it says no one, it means no one. Okay. I'm not sure about the angelic beings. But it says that he lives in unapproachable light who no man can see as no man can see or has ever seen it qualifies there as man. But I'm not sure about the angelic beings, whether they can, because God lives in such great glory and awesomeness and splendor. So I don't think that even the angelic beings can even see him. But here in this verse says, you know, in 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 16 says who no man has seen or can ever see, qualifies. But we can check on the angelic beings and let you know. Good question. Okay. So we'll move on. So the purpose of his death was so that he might bring us back to God. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, bosom of the father is very, very close. So very intimately one. Yes. So nobody can even approach accepting God, the son. Yes. So the bosom of the father is only Jesus had the honor because he was intimately close. So no, not even angelic beings had that privilege of being intimately close with that close with the Godhead. Yes. Can you take the mic, please? Yeah. I mean, can we consider like this? I mean, the bosom and this seeing is different like so angelic beings can see the father, but they don't have the bosom with the father. Okay. Yes. Angelic beings are saying can because the word see and bosom is two different words. Yes. But I also don't have much clarity whether angels can see, but of course they receive orders from God, but I don't think they can, they can see. That is, this is what I think, but I can just back it up with scripture worse and, you know, give you that answer that question. Okay. So it was through his debt that, you know, he accomplished so many things. One of the things that he accomplished through his debt was that he, we could be made blameless and without guilt. So when he took upon the sins of the entire mankind, it was one way that, you know, he could do away with sin, break the power of sin. And we could be blameless, which means without fault, without sin, without guilt. And it was through his debt that we could, you know, be presented holy and blameless without any acquisition without any guilt before God, the father. Okay. So one thing that Christ accomplished through his debt as, you know, being fully human was so that, you know, we could be blameless. So we have access before God, we can be presented before God, blameless, holy, without any accusations, without any guilt. Okay. And it was also because of his debt that we are being, we have been reconciled back to God. What is being reconciled mean? For given, come together. Yes. You know, it's basically our relationship with God was severed. We, you know, was, we were far away from him. Our relationship with him has broken, fellowship with him is broken because of sin. But once Jesus died on the cross, he not only pronounced us blameless and holy before the father and guiltless free from sin, but also through his debt, we have been reconciled back to God. That means we have access back to God. We can relate to God. We can approach this throne of grace freely. You know, we are friends with him. We are sons, daughters of God. We can relate to him. We can hear him speak to us as it says in as we read in second Corinthians chapter five versus 18 and 19. Can somebody read that please? No, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespass to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Amen. Thank you. So here he's saying that, you know, God has reconciled us back to him. So the very purpose that God created us was for what? Why did he create Adam to have a relationship of fellowship with with Adam? But when that was broken because of sin, God, you know, through time past, you know, tried various means of reconciling himself back with mankind, bringing back mankind back to himself. But then in the fullness of time, he sent his son and who died on the cross and through Jesus's death on the cross, he reconciled us back to God. So now we are no longer strangers. We are no longer enemies of God. We are now friends, sons, daughters of God. We have that access and that fellowship. So it was God who was reconciling the world to himself through Jesus Christ. So God was not holding on to the sins of the world or sins of the people against them. Why? Because the sins of the world or the sins of the people was fully paid. It was a done, completed thing because of what Jesus did on the cross. And because the payment was made, the penalty for sin was paid once for all complete. God was able to reconcile the world back to him as self. And so through Jesus Christ, you know, God has reconciled us back to himself. And also that we have been reconciled back to God. That means we have been brought together to God. We are close to God. We have this intimate relationship, this oneness. And that is why we can call him Abba, okay? Not just like father in the Old Testament. They knew God as a father, but it was a very different understanding of the father. A father who was strict, a father who would punish them. Sin was dealt with there and there itself. A father who was strict, a father who was authoritative, supreme, sovereign. But the father heart of God that Jesus revealed was Abba. Abba is a more very intimate, close relationship that one can have with their father. So it's not here that a father is sovereign, one who punishes sin. One who is, you know, there's curse pronounced when sin is done. But here, you know, sin has been dealt with. So here we have a God who is, you know, loving, gracious, compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving, okay? So that is the different concept of God, of the father heart of God that Jesus came to. Reveal to us that he is a father who can be very close and all of these attributes of God. Look at what Colossians chapter 1 verses 21 and 22 say. Can somebody read that please? And you who once were eliminated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. Amen. So thank you. And in this verse is in Colossians chapter 1 verses 21 and 22, we see how we were enemies of God. You know, we were alienated. Alienated means what? Aliens means the far away. We just didn't know about God, just totally separated. There was a huge gap. Okay, we are enemies of God in our minds, but yet now we have been reconciled back to God and how we've been reconciled to God in the body of his flesh. Again, talking about humanity of God, Jesus Christ through his death and through his death, he presented us holy and blameless, you know, beyond reproach in his sight and also that we have been reconciled to God. Another purpose of incarnation was, you know, so that there was a body that was provided through this body, you know, God was able to deal with sin, death and Satan. And it was, you know, somebody who identified with the human race, somebody who could take on the human race or mankind and could die in our place. Okay, so somebody who had to identify with us, with our sins, somebody would also die in our place and that is what was the reason why, or the purpose of incarnation, why God became fully man so that it facilitated Christ's physical, that through which we could be made blameless, without reproach, be made holy in his sight and also be reconciled back to God. So through his death, God and man are reconciled. We'll read another scripture passage, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 and 20. Can somebody read that please? Hebrews chapter 10, 19 and 20. Amen, thank you. So here we see that, you know, through Jesus' death on the cross, so when Jesus died, remember the curtain of the temple that separated the holy from the holy of holies. And the holy of holies, only the priest had access only one day in a year, day of atonement, okay? But that curtain of that, you know, that separated the holy place, the holy of holies was torn into two, which means now we have, anyone has access before, you know, the holy of holies, that means we have access before this God who lives in unapproachable light, who's extremely holy, who's, you know, utterly holy, and we have access. And what gave us this access, it says, and what gave us this confidence to go enter this holy of holies, it's because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now look at how the writer of Hebrews very beautifully puts it. You know, even when the high priest used to enter the holy of holies on the day of atonement, that is one day in the year, he would go, you know, enter that curtain and go into the holy of holies, he would have actually sacrificed a bull for himself, we'll study that, for his own sins, and also would have sacrificed a goat for the sins of the entire Israelite nation community, and he would take that blood of that bull, which he made as a sacrifice for his sins, and as for the goat, which he made for the sacrifice of the sins of the entire Israelite community, would take that blood and he would sprinkle it on the Ark of the Covenant, which is, you know, the mercy seat. Now we have the Ark of the Covenant that is placed in the holy of holies, and on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant are two cherubims, two angels with their wings, you know, covered like this, and in between that is the mercy seat where God would come and relate to man. Just imagine this holy God, you know, who lives in unapproachable holiness and greatness and light, you know, he would actually come and this high priest man who is sinful would have access to, you know, not see God because he would come in his great awesomeness and glory and light, but would be able to speak and hear God in a very tangible, in a very real way. So for that to happen and for the high priest not to fall down dead because of his sin, you know, he would sprinkle that blood on that mercy seat and also would sprinkle the blood of the goat that represented the sins of the sun and the sins would be atoned for and God would come and meet man and God would, you know, man would have access to God. And so beautifully, you know, the writer of Hebrews pictures this whole thing and he brings in what Jesus did on the cross and he says his blood was sprinkled for us, shed for us and by a new living way, which he's talking about the new covenant, by the new covenant we have access to God without any sacrifice because Jesus made the full sufficient, perfect sacrifice and says he opened the curtain for us and so beautifully the writer of Hebrews says this curtain is actually his body. I mean, amazing way, you know, the Holy Spirit leads and he writes, you know, he says, you know, the curtain is torn, but this curtain is not just that physical curtain, but it is the body of Christ that was broken in, you know, and shed for the blood that was shed for us so that we have access. And don't you, you know, aren't you excited that, you know, we have access. We can approach this Holy God, this great, awesome, mighty God, you know, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can hear him speak, we can receive answers for our problems, challenges, difficulties, we can share our burdens with him, he counsels us, he helps us, we don't need any counselor, we don't need anybody we can go to, we can just go to God. We have this great access to the work of the Holy Spirit to God, to him hearing him speak to us is because of what Jesus did on the cross. So because of Jesus that we have this boldness to go before God in a new and living way, isn't that amazing? So every time you, you know, you go on your knees or you spend time in prayer, don't take that prayer time very, very lightly. You know, honor that because you are in the presence of the Holy God, you know, we need to honor that. We know that, you know, we have access to this God who's hearing us speak with which the Old Testament people did not have, and we are going to hear and speak it's because of what Jesus did. So, you know, just live in that great sense of awe and respect to what Jesus has done on the cross and what access we have and what grace we have, you know, make use of the spiritual, gives the spiritual inheritance that you have received because of what Jesus has done and your faith in and belief in what Jesus has completed on the cross. Okay, we'll stop here and we meet after the break. After the break, we'll take any questions or doubts that you have. Okay. Thank you, everyone. We'll see you after the break.