 Good morning everyone. Thank you for connecting on this course where we talk about books of the Bible and we're doing Hebrews right now. We will pray and then we will continue from the scripture portion where we stopped last time. I want to request somebody to please lead us in prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, thank you for this great day that you've given unto us. It should come to you in your presence. I want to pray to you, Father, to tell you to learn, Father. I want you to be for your honor and glory. I commit all my fellow students into time. To give them the spirit of understanding, wisdom and knowledge, Father. They tackle this subject of your learning. I also commit to our teacher, Adam Lanzi to your hand, Father. Bless her. Guide her, Father. You have all the honor to take care of her. I pray to you with the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Thank you, Kennedy. We will get back into understanding Hebrews chapter 9. I think I'm going to be stopped somewhere towards the end. Okay. So, I'm going to stop there. I think 23. We completed film 22. And we saw that because of the shedding of the blood of Jesus, the covenant that he has made with us, the new covenant is now seen. And we saw how the new covenant, which has been given to us, that it was sealed, not through the blood of wolves and goats, or scarves and goats, but with the blood of Jesus. And that is how the vessels of ministry. If you look at the Old Testament, that's how the vessels of ministry were also purified. So now we are purified by the blood of Jesus. So let's now look at the section from 23 to 28 of Hebrews chapter 9. So we'll read that portion, and then we will look at the meaning of that. So could somebody read it please? Hebrews 9, 23 to 28. Shall I read, ma'am? Yes, please. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 23 to 28. Therefore, it was necessary that the copies of the things in heaven should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood of another. He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many to those who eagerly wait for him. He will appear the second time apart from sin for salvation. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So in this passage, we notice how the Lord Jesus has entered into heaven and there were copies of the things in heaven, which we have understood. God gave earthly copies and these earthly copies, God had given this command that they should be purified and one good thing that we know of now is that because of what Jesus has done, our worship, right, that there is that purification that we receive through what he has already done. So we don't necessarily have to do it in a ritualistic manner. That's the point that he's making. So these earthly copies gave a purified. How are they purified? They purified two sacrifices. But another point which is coming through in this section is that these sacrifices, we can't term them as imperfect. Reason be the purification, even when it was done, one of purification was never sufficient. So if once the purification is done and it can make the substance clean forever, then the priest has to purify it. But then that kept happening. But what do we see if what Jesus has done for us? We recognize that he has become our perfect sacrifice and it also talks to us regarding this sacrifice being one of sacrifice and being perfect, which is why he does not have to do it again and again for us. So he has already entered the presence of God, provided the sacrifice, the way a high priest and earthly high priest would do and repeated sacrifices are no longer required. The sacrifice is a perfect sacrifice because it perfectly satisfied God's wrath and it has brought us that holy justice that we were seeking from the Lord and Jesus has done it all. Now another side note from here, which we can talk about is the fact that how in some cultures and some philosophies is a place for reincarnation and the appearance of more perfect versions of the so-called God figure and the reason why such philosophy exists is because they believe that the work one person has done is not perfect enough and that God would require another person to come to address the salvation more completely. And so there are philosophies where there are all kinds of beings who are better than the previous one. But when we leave here this particular portion, it's pretty clear that he entered the presence of God once or rather he made that sacrifice once and it was perfect and the author compares it to death and he says that as man also dies once and after that is judgment. So that's the norm, isn't it? Because this world is corrupted by sin, our mortal body undergoes decay and destruction and death is something that it's the last time we need to be conquered and that happens only once. Now we may argue and say that there are people in scripture who have never tasted death the way you know we know it for example people like Lee Know, Elijah those are exceptional cases but in general every human being tastes death once and in the same way the point he's making is that concept of once Jesus has done it that one sacrifice and that is more than enough for God so there is no requirement for him to come and keep offering himself. Now when we understand this there are many other concepts actually where people say that you know there's this one more concept called courts of heaven where Jesus has every time there is something against us Jesus plays the role of an advocate and he fights our case but when we look at these passages it's very clear that whatever needed to be done was already done and it was done once and that was sufficient for God so it was a perfect sacrifice Jesus no longer needs to keep fighting our battles you know in that sense he has done it once and that itself has taken care of any accusation that the enemy made bring against us. The last portion of verse 28 it says to those who eagerly wait for him he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation so here is the reassurance that we can await the second coming of Christ but that second coming that has nothing to do with providing redemption that has nothing to do with bringing salvation to mankind because whatever needed to be done again it's just making it stronger the fact that when Jesus died as the Lamb of God and he was buried he was raised from the dead with that is the completion of the redundant work that God wanted done so even in the second coming it has nothing to do with the redemptive work but that is you know a completely separate separate thing that God will engage in but for us as believers this is the reassurance that the high priest whom we have so the high priest what is the meaning of high priest what is the ministry of the high priest or even a priestly ministry it's very simple we see that all the ordinances all the regulations the laws which were given to the priest fell broadly in two categories one is to minister to the Lord that would include prayer worship that would include giving of gifts sacrifices basically to order God so that is one part of what the priest is meant to do and the second part of what a priest is meant to do is to minister to the people or serve the people so two things serve God, serve people and we notice that the Lord Jesus when we talk about this high priestly ministry both are included he did what was required to serve the people to rescue them from the consequences of sin and he has honored God he has worshiped God he really worked in incredible obedience before the father so he has fulfilled both of these and what does that imply for a believer today we now before the new covenant came into effect which was sealed through the blood of Jesus himself what happened is that there were only some priests but now under the new covenant here is the beautiful thing that each one of us we are priests unto the Lord when we study the book of Peter the epistles that Peter has written we will see there he in fact calls us a holy priesthood so every believer now has the capacity and the opportunity to be a priest unto the Lord because of what Jesus has done so as priests God accepts my service to him as a priest my service to people is something that is also very very important that God has given us this position we can serve God, we can serve people and Jesus has made it possible so let me just quickly let me pause here and see if there is anything some of you would like to add to that if so then we can talk about it otherwise we will move on to the next passage alright we can go ahead with Hebrews chapter 10 what we will do from now is let's try it's a pretty longish passage there okay I was thinking we can read the entire entire chapter and then I just dwell on some key thoughts in it so that we can make things faster but I don't know if that would be helpful so we will take it as we have been doing could somebody please read verses 1 to 3 Hebrews chapter 10 can you do faster yes Ashutom for since the law has the shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of this realities it can never by the same sacrifice that our country really offered every year make perfect those who draw me would they not have cease to be offered since the worshippers having once been cleansed with no longer having this conscience but in this sacrifice there is a great reminder of sins every year for it is important and possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins okay thank you Ashutom she read verses 1 through 4 and here we understand that the old covenant is a shadow of the reality which is the new covenant which came into existence much later through Jesus Christ so God has this factor in the way he has worked he has given shadow was that point to the substance and so the old covenant was really a shadow of the good things to come the good things to come would be the new covenant that the author is talking about and to these Hebrew believers again making it helping them recognize that what has now come into existence is better and greater than their beliefs and their practices that is his attempt that was one thing he said that the old covenant is a shadow and the second point he is making is again about the work of the blood of Jesus the fact that it brings us complete purification whereas the practices which they had where they would work with the blood of bulls and goats basically he is saying that if it was good enough to completely take away the sin from any human being then why would we need something new but the better is here obviously the property of the blood which was shed animal blood so he is saying it could not take away sins that is something we have to remember so what was the property or the ability of the blood of animals they could do something known as covering of sins only covering of sins so it would just before the Lord that blood would cover the sin of mankind that is about that but now something better is in place he is giving them an idea about the cleansing of sin you know taking away of sin or removal of sin from an individual so that is something new so what is the contrast here the blood of animals could cover the sin and that was known as atonement but the blood of Jesus can take away sin so that is how this really works now lets move on to the next section verses 5 through 8 so we will read from 5 shall I read ma'am yes yes sister please go ahead consequently when Christ came into the world he said sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but a body you have prepared for me burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure then I said behold have come to do your will oh God as it is written of me in the scroll of the book when he said about you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings these are offered according to the Lord thank you thank you thank you sister so here two key thoughts that we can grasp are one is that prophetically now this is quoted from the Psalms so this portion here it actually comes from Psalm chapter 40 verses 6 through 8 but prophetically you see this is something amazing from the works that Psalms spoke you know in their own lives by the spirit they were talking probably about some other context but you find that there is a reference to Jesus and what he would do right in a messianic sense in many of the Psalms so here again in what is being spoken prophetically there is a message and that message is that insufficiency of earthly sacrifices and offerings needs to be noted so it is as if Jesus is proclaiming the insufficiency of these sacrifices and he is also saying that God you have given me a body as a son you have given me a body and that body how would it help one is yes it helps us to experience God because Jesus came to represent God to us reveal the Father to us so that is one but the other is that body helped him in offering that perfect sacrifice so perfect sacrifice doesn't exist God is not pleased with all these insufficient sacrifices gifts and offerings which are being given unto the Lord but something more perfect is coming and that was actually through the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and that's the point which is being made in this section so let's go ahead now we read verses 9 and 10 then and then Luke I have come to do your will it takes away the first system in order to set up the second verse 10 it is in connection with this in this will that we have been separated for God and made holy once for and for all through the offering of Yeshua the Messiah's body thank you say which version is that the complete Jewish Bible oh okay alright that sounded a little different from what I have here but yeah that was quite nice thank you so the key thoughts that are coming through in verses 9 and 10 Jesus proclaims he says behold I have come to do your will oh God so he is speaking of his obedience to God and then he says he takes away the first that he may establish the second so the author is saying that stating that so basically he is saying of course the new covenant is now in place the previous order or this can be related to the mosaic law and the mosaic order so he say that has now become redundant we must go by the second and the new which has been established which has to do with the grace that has come through the Lord Jesus Christ and in verse 10 he says that we have been sacrificed through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all notice the emphasis is a sacrifice but a complete perfect one time sacrifice so God is not awaiting any more sacrifices for the work of salvation to be made complete and for salvation to be made applicable to people and how does it help to understand this it really helps because nothing we can do or nothing any so called good man or God man can do is required in the first place it won't satisfy God because he's a holy God looking for the holy sacrifice but the great news is Jesus has done it all he has done it once he no longer needs to do anything more and we now our relationship with God now is based on that and so he now points out to this reality in Christ where he states we have been sanctified so that is talking about the position in Christ through the offering of the body of Jesus I am now what I am sanctified I have been made righteous in the presence of God and I can approach God so let's move ahead verses 11 through 14 please verses 11 to 14 under the old covenant the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day offering the same sacrifices again and again which can never take away away sins but a high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins good for all time then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand there he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet for by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy okay thank you say thank you for reading that so again there are pointers to the insufficiency of earthly sacrifices because there are words like daily offering repeatedly the same sacrifices they can never take away sins and then you know he comes back to the point he was making earlier about how Jesus through his one sacrifice he has now taken us since forever and the concept that Taran was talking about in the last class we also see that Jesus now sat down at the right hand of God so sitting down is symbolic of completion of the given assignment so Jesus was able to sit down and as the ugly priests they did not have that provision to even you know rest in the holy place or the holy of holies because the work was not completed but Jesus has completed the work so this class just talked about the completion of his work and that he is now seated in victory and what does he await we know that the earth is going through what has been what has been set in motion and so we have to see Satan is already a defeated for whether we have to see see this through till the end till you know Satan and his demons and all the works of the enemy will be completely taken away from the face of the earth and so we are awaiting that and that is what this is talking about time waiting till his enemies are made his goods to was Satan already defeated yes we have enough scriptures to say that the cross has defeated satan but we are going to see him take it conduct to hell so that is the next part of what is going to take place as far as we judgment on Satan is concerned so that is something we are waiting for and then he says by one offering notice this is a very interesting scripture for one offering what does it say he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified so earlier what did we see the author saying he told the believers we have been sanctified and now he is saying those who are being sanctified but he also adds the fact that we have been perfected forever so how do we understand this like what is the author trying to say he needs to make up his mind are we already sanctified or are we being sanctified because there are two different tenses past tense present present tense but what he is pointing to is he is saying that in Christ or we can look at it this way positionally positionally what is the reality about who we are we are in Christ we are made holy we are made righteous we are justified we are sanctified so positionally yes that has happened but when he says you are being sanctified he is referring to the walk of a believer a child of God who is walking with God what happens in our daily life this sanctification that has already been accomplished in Christ Jesus the purity and holiness that is being established in our day to day life so there are two things and they are not contradicting each other in Christ many things have been established but just because a believer is made holy it doesn't mean that you know all his acts his words his thoughts will be holy unless he walks with the Lord in a sensitive way right so both are required positionally the truth must be embraced and he must also live it out in the the life of a believer so that's the point let's move on to the next section verses 15 through 18 I'm just going to keep going so if you have a thought of rest of this stop me I won't pause to see 15 15 to 18 any spirits and the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so what he says this is the new covenant I will make with my people on that they says the Lord I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds then he says I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds verse 18 when sins have been forgiven there is no need to offer any more sacrifices so what do we see here God is talking about the new covenant where he says that he will imprint his laws upon our hearts and there's also the promise of forgiveness of sins and he's pointing to what the prophet Jeremiah said he says after those days what is it you know pointing to it's pointing to the new covenant so after those days what came about the new covenant came about and that's what the context here is so the new covenant what else does it offer we said that the law will be imprinted on our hearts and also forgiveness so what kind of forgiveness are we talking about complete forgiveness under the new covenant so no wonder we have words such as better covenant the good things to come because the kind of forgiveness which is being offered is a complete forgiveness under the new covenant where God is able to remove remove sin away from us and there will be no longer a requirement for any other penalty for sin redemption has been accomplished in this manner so that is what we understand from this section let's move ahead we'll read verses 19 through 25 can everyone answer? yes I shall since we have come to this to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh and since we have a great priest over the house of God let us join here with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the confession of our faith without varying for if He who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of sin but encouraging one another and all the more as you see okay so finally talking about the high priestly ministry of Jesus he is trying to come to a conclusion and say that because of all these things let's draw me up Jesus has forgiven us sins His blood has done the work of taking away our sins we now have an audience with God and so try to come closer to God so that's the point he's coming to that and then we'll see how he will move on to instructions about a believer's walk and a believer's life as he closes off this writing very soon so from now from this section onwards verse 19 onwards he is trying to bring an encouragement and say because of all these things you put your faith in God and follow out to God don't give up your discouraged believers so he is saying now that having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus and he has explained it how so he has already made it clear that Jesus has already entered the sacrifice and so what can we have boldness we can enter God's presence we don't have to have to entertain the accusations of the enemy in our mind where the enemy says you know you're not good enough to enter God's presence because there's always this battle that a believer may go through now it is true that we make mistakes we are in error there are sins that a believer may commit so within us in our soul in our heart we would need to distinguish you know between what really needs to be brought before the Lord and you know I need to ask God to forgive this for certain matters I need to confess my sins those things and what the enemy actually puts in our minds so for a believer Apostle John puts it this way he says that if we confess our sins just to remove them as far as we he's faithful to forgive us our sins and remove them as far as we need to stop the vest so a believer can deal with those mistakes and those sins and then what happens our conscience will be will be cleared before God and we can continue to enter the presence of God if a believer is so walked out by his or her mistakes and things that they are not able to do right and they don't accept the forgiveness which is offered through the work of Jesus what happens say we can keep them in that place of condemnation all the time and they will lack what this author is talking about he's talking about boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus because somewhere they have not understood what Jesus has done for them and how complete that is and how by turning back to the Lord in repentance they can have their position with the Lord restored their conscience can be cleared before God and they will continue to have boldness to enter the presence of God not just presence of God when we say the author is also pointing out here he is saying the holiest the holiest by the blood of Jesus and thank God Jesus has made this way for us every time we can enter through this way it's a new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the way that is his flesh so something was told if the temple the veil was told it was symbolic of the body of Jesus which was broken for us which was told for us so a believer in our hearts we have to have this very very clear and settled that Jesus has done it all to to cleanse my sin that is a positional truth and that as a believer I choose to make choice make decisions which will help me live out this satisfied act very life and again he reminds them you have a high priest over the house of God and now comes the encouragement he says you better draw here to God with the true heart in full assurance so we can have confidence when we enter God's presence because whose work are we depending on we are depending on the work of our Lord Jesus Christ and he says having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience sprinkled with what? Sprinkle with the blood of Jesus so here is an indicator to the work which the blood of Jesus does for us what does it do the blood of Jesus has the capacity to cleanse our evil conscience okay our evil conscience can be cleansed by the blood of Jesus and we can put our faith in the blood of Jesus to do that work for each one of us and he says our body is washed pure water and you know body is washed with pure water I would interpret this as the work of the word also in our lives because he is talking about the lives cleansing and so the word also cleanses us and it enables us to walk righteous before the Lord so he says with so much confidence we can move ahead in our faith draw near to God let nothing hold you back and persuading he says let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and so he is saying don't give up but hold on hold on to what there is the emphasis on what we speak so the confession of our hope now that is an entire teaching in itself when we believe you know our believing then becomes our confession our declaration and our proclamation so he says if you believe then speak what you believe hold on to the confession of hope of our hope without wavering so let not words of unbelief come out of our work instead let words of faith come out of our work so our speaking is very connected to what we believe so because we believe let our confession also be a confession of hope when we say yes I am healed by the stripes of Jesus you know through the cross I experience deliverance Jesus has said I am forgiven so what am I doing I believe and therefore I am confessing that hope which has been given to me and so he is encouraging the believer draw near to God believe that your confession as well don't give up because the God who promised is faithful and then he goes on to I told us different instructions about the believer's life community life will come up one by one so at this point he says let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works so what is he talking about talking about a community a loving community a caring community so in times of discouragement wouldn't it be lovely to have a church family or a church community where we can you know we can find that stirring we can find that encouragement okay brother we are going through the season but don't worry this is the property word I got for you or let me pray for you or some sort of a help and so he is saying we all need this right now and let's do that step it to be there for each other and then he points to this fellowship and community life verse 25 he says not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some but exerting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching so once again he say that look we need godly communities and sometimes once we understand the truth of God's word and how we are now members of the body individually isn't it we have studied that when we talked about the house of God now because that is a reality an already a member of the body of Christ spiritually I don't need to relate with other believers you know sometimes believers end up with that kind of thought process especially when they are going through a season of discouragement they don't want to come to church they don't want to come and fellowship with others they only think that I'll go when I feel nice or I'll go when some special programs happen but when you look at the kind of community that the I'll just talk about he's saying that this whole thing of a local body a local fellowship a local church he says don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together so giving up fellowshiping together you're coming together for worship it will do something as far as strengthening you and the Lord is concerned as far as encouraging you is concerned so let's not neglect it is his point and now we will go on to a very crucial section just like you do 6 there is one more passage coming up from verse 26 to 39 so should we go ahead with that or any thoughts so far you can any saying how and how did the spirit affirm the eternal nature of Jesus Christ what does this this man signify okay so which verse are you talking about Kennedy verse 10 I'm missing that I don't think I can see verse 10 okay I'm not quite able to locate that okay verse 12 this man after he had offered one sacrifice yes we could say that because we have seen earlier that the author dealt with the deity of Christ and that the humanity quite elaborately so unless he establishes that Jesus was fully man he cannot justify the fact that his sacrifice was accepted because we needed a human representative to be our atonement prize and so he has to emphasise on the fact that the Lord Jesus was a man so when you see that emphasise it is to clarify and justify that sacrifice that's how we would understand it would that be fine so it's 15 now let's go on for a break and we will soon go into the faith passage and we also need much faith to complete our portions and hopefully you know we will do it do it well so let's go on for a break 10 minutes we shall be back see you all at 10