0:01 Welcome once again to Words of Life. In our study through the Bible, we have reached Hebrews chapter 9. And here a contrast is drawn between the 0:23 old and the new covenants again. And the better sacrifice of Christ. First of all, a description is given about the Old Testament tabernacle. And it's mentioned that 0:48 the Holy Spirit was signifying the way into the most holy place, verse 8, was not yet open. But Christ entered there through his own blood, verse 11 and 12. And it says in verse 14, 1:13 the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, can now cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Notice here in little expressions like 1:35 this that Christ offered himself without blemish to God through the Holy Spirit. He did not He could not do that without the power of the Holy Spirit. How did Jesus offer himself without the 1:58 slightest blemish to the slightest blemish to God? So, the power of the Holy Spirit. And that is how he expects us in the new covenant to live an overcoming life. That's one thing in verse 14. The other 2:22 thing that our conscience is not only to be cleansed from sin, but also to be cleansed from dead works. We are forced to do 2:43 by somebody or by our own conscience. So, that could be another way of saying that Or we do it to earn some favor with God. Another way of saying that is that you know, like people are told if you You know, like people are told if you 3:01 pay a tithe, God will reward you. And if you give money on that basis, And if you give money on that basis, it's a dead work. I don't know if that is a good Nobody preaches that. 3:20 But that is the truth. And you have to repent of dead works. Hebrews 6:1 says we have to repent of dead works. And here it says your cleansed conscience must be cleansed from dead 3:40 works. In the old covenant, Anything that we do out of compulsion. For example, A pastor tells all the sisters to take off their ornaments. their ornaments. Maybe most of them don't want to remove 3:59 it, but they remove it in order to please the pastor. God would have been happier if they had not removed And now they put it on and set the career money with it. It becomes a living work when a person does something to please God 4:18 and it is done joyfully. God loves a cheerful giver. Everything you do reluctantly Somebody drags you out to go and witness for Christ and you go and witness for 4:36 Christ. That's a dead work. A lot of dead works in Christendom. We have to repent of it. Ask the blood of Christ to cleanse our conscience from those dead works. Only then can we serve the living God. 5:04 So, that's the first thing we see here. And then another interesting verse we see in verse 27. It is appointed for men once to die and after this the judgment. After death, there is no more chance for 5:27 anybody to change. After death, the only thing left is judgment. So, all these people who teach that there is some type of place where you can change your mind after death is a lie. Another wonderful thing we see here is 5:51 that God waits until a man dies before he judges him. Why is that? Because till the last minute God hopes that the person will turn from sin. We human beings are so evil. 6:16 We judge people long before they have died. In fact, we judge people mostly as soon as we see something. When God sees something, he doesn't judge the person. He waits until the person dies. 6:36 And after that, the judgment. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4:5, "Don't judge anything until the Lord comes." But when he comes, he will show you the motives with which people did things. And then you will be able to make a 6:57 correct judgment. Right now, you don't know the motives in people's heart. So, don't judge them. So, this is a great verse that it's only after death that God judges people. And then in chapter 10, 7:22 he speaks about the law being a shadow of good things to come. And he again compares the old covenant with the new covenant. And in verse 5 onwards, 7:42 you see words that are put into the mouth of Jesus, prophetic words from the Old Testament. And it's a very interesting passage here in verse five. Sacrifice and offering God does not desire. Have you ever heard a message preached 8:02 from a pulpit that God does not desire your offering? That's not a very popular verse for preachers. That God does not want your offerings or your sacrifices, but he wants your body, 8:20 verse five. Jesus came to earth not to pay tithes, but to give his body as a sacrifice. And we follow him. And it's not sacrifice and offering 8:39 today the Father desires from us either. But our body, I beseech you, present your bodies a living sacrifice. And the first person who did that was Jesus himself. He offered his body 9:02 to the Father. And I want you to notice in verse seven. See, these are quotations from the Old Testament, Psalm 40. But you compare what you read here in Hebrews 10:7 with what is actually written in Psalm 9:21 40 and verse eight. There it is written Lord, I come I delight to do thy will, oh my God. That's what it said. Here it says I've 9:40 come to do your will. But that's not what it says in Psalm 40. In Psalm 40 it says in verse 8, I delight to do thy will, oh God. So there is a lot of difference. And we don't notice that if we don't 9:59 compare the New Testament with the Old Testament. All that David could say in Psalm 40 was, I delight to do thy will, oh God. He couldn't do it. 10:18 He could only say I delight to do it. There are thousands of believers who say the same thing today. Oh Lord, I like to do your will. I delight to do your will. I don't actually do it, but I delight to do it. So if you're like that, you're living in 10:37 the old covenant. In Hebrews 10:7, I've come to actually do your will. That is a big difference between the new covenant and the old covenant. Old covenant spirit, you can all you can 10:56 say is I want to do your will, but I can't do it. But in the new covenant we actually do it. Again repeated in verse 9, I've come to do your will. And thereby he takes away the first 11:14 covenant and establishes the second. And then further down is the repetition of the covenant in verse 16 and 17. And then in verse 19 onwards, we have a description of this what we 11:34 could call the central passage of the book of Hebrews describes this new and living way. We have boldness to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way that he 11:57 inaugurated for us through his flesh. This new and living way that Jesus opened to go into the Father's presence has been inaugurated for us. Take up your cross and follow me. 12:21 And if you follow him we also enter through the veil and go directly into the presence of the Father. and talk to him face to face. So it says God Jesus has made this way blood has been shed 12:41 standing at the right hand of the Father as a high priest. Let's come with boldness and assurance to God. Our hearts cleansed from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water 13:00 means that means there's nothing that I need to set right with my body. I have made restitution for all the sins I committed with my hands or whatever. And then it says let's hold fast the 13:18 confession of our faith. Let's consider how verse 24, how to stimulate others to do good works. And let's assemble together as often as possible since the coming of the Lord is near. But when the Lord is pays such a price 13:45 for us to come close to the Father and to live a holy life, instead of that, we keep on sinning willfully, taking advantage of the grace of God. verse 26 14:05 If we keep on sinning, saying, "Oh, well, God will forgive me. God will forgive me." then there is no more sacrifice for sin. terrifying expectation of judgment Because then, verse 29, we are trampling 14:25 under the foot the Son of God who died on the cross. And we are treating his blood like some cheap tap water. We don't mind our hands getting dirty 14:42 any number of times in a day. Because tap water is cheap. Tap water costs 10,000 rupees a glass. Then we would be much more careful to keep our hands clean because it's very 15:02 expensive to wash it. Now, apply that to sin. Why do people sin so lightly? Because the blood of Christ is cheap for them. It's it's 15:23 You don't have to pay anything. And that is the meaning of treating the blood of the covenant as cheap. Which is uh and insulting the Holy Spirit. 15:42 Trampling under the foot the Son of God. These are descriptions of what we are doing when we do deliberate sin. And he warns us here in verse 31. It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands 16:00 of the living God. And then in chapter 11 we read about the triumphs of many Old Testament saints. And it's a wonderful chapter. 16:21 All these people gained the approval of God through their faith. That is mentioned in verse two. And again in verse 39 at the end of the chapter. Again though the word faith hardly ever 16:38 comes in the Old Testament. Here this chapter shows us that all those Old Testament people lived by faith. And whatever they did they did it by faith. Starting 16:56 with Abel. We are told here what is not mentioned in Genesis 4. That it was by faith that Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. That faith was not there in Cain. In the 17:19 was was some By faith he trusted God. And thereby he offered a better sacrifice. And like that we read about all the Old Testament saints. How was Enoch taken up to heaven? 17:40 Says here verse 5, by faith. If he didn't have faith, he would not have been taken up to heaven. It's like God saying to Enoch, Enoch, I want to take you up to heaven now. Suppose Enoch had said, no, I can't believe that. 17:59 It would not have happened. By faith Enoch was taken up to heaven. And he says in verse 6, without faith it is impossible to please God. So we see here that all these people accomplished what they accomplished by 18:19 faith. It's very interesting to see what some of these people did. Enoch, for example, before he was raptured up to heaven, he had a testimony 18:36 that he is his life was pleasing to God. And that is an encouragement to us. Before we are taken up to meet Christ in the air, we must have a testimony that we have pleased God. Then it speaks about Noah. 19:02 By faith when Noah built the ark, thereby he was condemning the world. By building the ark, he was testifying to the world all of this world will collapse, only 19:19 this ark will remain. And that's what we do today in the church when we give ourselves completely to building the church. We're We're condemning the world. 19:42 See, for example, when we spend our money and our life and our energy for the church. If there's nothing in this for eternity, then we are wasting our time. And so, when we devote our energy and 20:01 time and money to building the church just like Noah built the ark. Without our knowing it, we are condemning the world. And it says here that is how he became 20:20 an heir of the righteousness by faith. And Abraham he confessed that he was a stranger and pilgrim here. And it says here that there's a reason why God called himself the God of 20:38 Abraham. In verse 16 because Abraham desired a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. So, if you are also not 20:57 if you are also seeking a heavenly country in your life God will not be ashamed to be called your God. We know that Abraham was tested more than once. Not only when he was asked to give up 21:18 his hometown, but later on when he was asked to offer up Isaac. And he was tested. And he offered up Isaac. We see something interesting about Jacob 21:39 here in verse 21. This chapter is dealing with people who did fantastic external things. For example, it says that Moses passed through the Red Sea by faith, 21:57 verse 29. By faith they pulled the walls of Jericho down, verse 30. Now, all these are fantastic external 22:16 things. But in the midst of it we see him what they Jacob did in verse 21. What did he do? It says as he was dying, he leaned on the top of his staff and worshipped God 22:33 and blessed the sons of Joseph. What was so wonderful about that? Where is the great miracle here? And yet I believe that is perhaps one of the greatest miracles mentioned in this 22:51 chapter. Because when he was a young man, God broke his hip socket so that he had to for the rest of his life. This staff, which is mentioned in verse 23:12 21, was something he needed after God broke him. And his leaning on the top of his staff was expression of his leaning upon God. It says he worshipped leaning on his 23:34 staff. And that leaning attitude which God was able to produce in Jacob after many years was an amazing miracle. And so we see here a number of things in 23:53 Hebrews 11. They were all accomplished by faith. Moses, for example, it says there are three things that he refused by faith. The honor of the world, in verse 24, he 24:12 refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He refused the pleasures of sin, verse 25. And he refused, verse 26, the riches of 24:30 Egypt. He refused worldly honor. He refused worldly pleasure. And he refused worldly wealth. How did he make those choices? Because, verse 23, his mother had faith. 24:55 That faithful woman brought her little boy. Knew that he had she had him only for a few months. A few years. Drilled into his mind that he was not to 25:13 live for these worldly things. And when he grew up by faith he made the right choices. So it's a wonderful chapter full of examples of how all these Old Testament people live by faith. We can all be challenged by their 25:34 example. God bless you. Welcome once again to Words of Life. In our study through the Bible we have now reached Hebrews chapter 12. Now to understand 25:58 these first verses we need to go back to the last two verses of the previous chapter. Here it says that all these men who are listed in Hebrews 11 they all gained the approval of God 26:20 through their faith. But even though they gained God's approval by faith they could not receive what God had promised. And then it says in verse 40, God has provided something better for us than 26:39 all that these people experienced. And what is that better thing that God has provided for us? Is there something better than splitting the Red Sea and pulling down the walls 26:57 of Jericho? Shutting the mouths of lions, shutting the mouths of lions. Putting a enemy armies to flight. These are all fantastic, thrilling experiences. And then it says God has provided 27:20 something better for us. That we can look at Jesus and run our race. And what did he do? What is the exciting thing he did? He endured the cross. 27:41 Despised the shame. But that we that doesn't look like something exciting. Is this better than pulling down walls of Jericho? God says it is. It is better than splitting the Red Sea. 28:06 To take up the cross. Overcome sin. Despise the shame of the world. And to follow in Jesus footsteps. Is a far greater thing than all these miraculous 28:23 experiences that these people had. And we will discover that in eternity. That to follow Jesus was a far greater miracle than splitting the Red Sea and pulling down the walls of Jericho. Pulling down the walls of Jericho and 28:47 splitting the Red Sea had no eternal benefits for anybody. But when we follow Jesus, we can partake of his nature more and more. We are more powerful light for God 29:08 in the in the world. So, the whole secret of the Christian life is here. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is the author and finisher of our 29:26 faith. Author means if I take a book and say so so and so wrote this, he is the author. So, what does it mean when he says Jesus is the author of our faith? Means he writes his faith in our heart. 29:51 And he's the finisher of that faith, the perfecter of that faith. And his faith was a faith that enabled him to obey every commandment of his heavenly Father. Do you know that obedience to God's 30:09 commandments is an act of faith? Prima, the Bible speaks about the obedience of faith in Romans. Chapter 1 and chapter 16. What is the difference between obedience 30:27 and obedience of faith? Obedience to Korea but in the Assam. In obedience, I may obey not trusting God, not knowing that this is the best for me. But obedience of faith 30:46 I am absolutely convinced this is the best thing for me. God what God has commanded me to do is the best for me. I joyfully do it. 31:03 As he told me to go to the cross and die gladly do it. That's how Jesus did it. For the joy set before him endured the cross. The joy was the joy of fellowship with the Father. The joy was the joy that he would get 31:24 you and me if he died on the cross. The to be with him in eternity. And all the shame he despised it. And dear brothers and sisters 31:42 that is the better thing God offers us. And so it says here when you find a lot of sinners opposing you verse three consider him. How he 32:01 endured. Then you will not get weary. So this verse says there is a possibility of our getting tired and weary and discouraged in this Christian race. But it will never happen if you fix your eyes on Jesus. Then we will never lose heart. 32:23 Keep on considering him. And it says in verse four you have not resisted sin to the point of shedding blood like he did. The meaning of that is that 32:41 he would rather die than commit sin. To shed blood is a picture of death. So, to use an illustration. Supposing we picture temptation like 32:58 a pin being pressed against our palm. Let us say some part of our palm which is a little hard. And the pin is being pressed. This is the 33:15 pressure of temptation. And I don't yield. No, it's it's being pressed more and more and more and I don't yield. But then it comes to the point where it's going to pierce my skin. Blood is going to be shed. 33:39 Then I pull back. So, this is how many people yield. They resist, resist, resist, resist up to a certain point. But when the price becomes too much 33:58 then they yield to sin. There could be so many circumstances. Where you resist sin up to the point where the price is becoming too much for you. Then we say we can't live like that. We have to adjust and live according to the 34:14 world. That's where we are told to consider Jesus. He resisted to the point of shedding blood. His attitude was I'd rather die than tell a lie. I'd rather die than hate somebody. 34:38 That's the meaning of shedding blood in striving against sin. Then it speaks about accepting discipline from the Lord. The Lord disciplines us verse 5 onwards 34:57 up to verse 11. We don't understand when he's disciplining us, why he is disciplining us so hard. It's painful. But if we submit to it joyfully, one day it will produce 35:19 good fruit in us. He says our earthly father has disciplined us for our good. And our heavenly father has got much more wisdom in all discipline that he sends into our life must be for our good. And it says if you don't have any 35:41 discipline in your life, then God is not your father. See, I will not punish somebody, a child that is not my child. It's my child when he goes in a wrong path, I punish him. But someone who's not my child, I don't 36:02 punish at all. So, he says if God is your father, one proof is Jesus said in Revelation chapter 3 verse 19, "Those whom I love, I rebuke and I 36:21 discipline." So, discipline from Jesus and from the Father is good for us. Ask God to discipline you if you slip up somewhere in your life. Because if you do that 36:43 you'll find afterwards, like it says here in verse 11, there'll be the peaceful fruit of righteousness. In verse 14, we are told to pursue peace with all men. Pursue sanctification if we want to see 37:03 the Lord. And it says, be warned from the example of Esau in verse 16. He despised a future birthright for some present enjoyment for his body. He got up some food for his body and he 37:29 lost out his spiritual birthright. And he says the same thing can happen to you. Give up your spiritual birthright for some present benefit for yourself. And then he says, remember afterwards 37:51 when Esau repented, he couldn't get it. So, don't don't make the same mistake. Then in chapter 18 onwards he contrasts Mount Sinai with Mount Zion. In Mount Sinai, it was a fearful sight. 38:15 Even Moses said in verse 21, "I'm full of fear and trembling." But in the new covenant we come to Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai. There we don't have fear. 38:34 But we come to our heavenly Father. And to godly people of all ages. And to Jesus. The mediator of verse 24 of a new covenant. Whose blood speaks better than the blood 38:52 of Abel. What is the difference? The blood of Abel cried out to God, "Avenge me. Avenge me against the one who shed my blood." And God told Cain that. 39:13 "Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground." Saying, "Judge. Avenge me." But when Jesus' blood shed fell on the ground in Calvary, that cried out, 39:35 "Forgive them. Forgive them. Forgive them for they don't know what they're doing." So when Jesus was oppressed and his blood was shed, he forgave his enemies. And he says, "That is a better thing 39:54 than the blood of Abel." See, when somebody troubles you, we can say, spiritually speaking, they are shedding some blood in your soul. Just like if somebody hurts you 40:10 physically, blood is shed in your body. When When you in your soul, blood is being shed in And what is that blood crying? Are you seeking revenge on the people 40:30 who hurt you? Or are you crying out for mercy? And then finally in chapter 12 It speaks about God is going to shake everything in heaven and earth. And only those things which cannot be 40:50 shaken will remain verse 27. And so he says we've got to we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken verse 28. Our life must be built on something that cannot be shaken. Everything in this universe that can be 41:11 shaken will be shaken. We must build our life on that which will never be shaken. And offer to God a service with great reverence and fear. For our God is a consuming fire. 41:31 So having given all these exhortations in the closing chapter chapter 13 He speaks on two subjects love and submission. Show love to the brothers. 41:50 Show hospitality to strangers verse two. And remember the prisoners who are ill-treated. Many Christians were prisoners those days for the sake of the gospel. Imagine yourself as in prison with them. 42:13 Keep your Don't defile the marriage bed. God will judge all adulterers and fornicators. And let your character be free from the love of money. Be content with what you have. 42:35 For the Lord has said, "I will never desert you or forsake you." Now, I understand that in the original language that says three times, "I will not forsake you. I will not forsake you. I will not forsake you." It's the whole Trinity saying that. 42:55 And if that is the case, then we can boldly say verse six, "The Lord is my helper. I won't be afraid. What can any man do to me?" That's an amazing verse. To be able to say, "The Lord is my helper." 43:14 In every situation, "The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can any man do to me?" Say that to yourself. Remember that verse. Analyze it. Quote it. 43:33 And say it to yourself whenever you're pressured by fear. There are two verses here concerning leaders. It says, "Remember those who led you 43:50 and who spoke the word of God to you. And imitate their faith, seeing how they ended their life." You know, we You imitate a person who's just a very fine zealous Christian when 44:08 he's a young man. Because I've seen many people like that when they are middle age or something, they become backsliders. But we can follow godly older brothers 44:25 who've been faithful from their youth. See how these people have been consistent for so many years, Paul says. See how they are towards the end of 44:44 their life. Then imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is same yesterday, today, and forever. What he did for that person, he can do for you. Then he gives a warning against 45:01 following strange teachings. Don't be deceived by false teachings that have not helped the people who are preaching those false teachings. And it says here also that we must as 45:20 long as we live in this world, we must bear the reproach of Jesus Christ, verse 13. The Lord was crucified outside the gate. It says here, let's also go outside. 45:41 Outside the religious camp and the camp of honor in this world. Despising the shame just like Jesus. In verse 15, we are exhorted to offer 45:58 praise to God with our lips. That's a sacrifice, he says. And another sacrifice is sharing the good things we have with other people. God is pleased with such sacrifice. 46:19 If you want to please God, offer to him a sacrifice of praise with your lips every day. And don't stop there. Offer up this other sacrifice of doing good to somebody else. These are the two sacrifices God is very 46:40 happy with. When you praise him, when you do good to somebody else, verse 17 exhorts us to obey our leaders. Submit to them. Because if he's a real godly leader, 47:00 he takes the responsibility for looking after your soul very seriously. One day he will have to give an account to God for your life. Help him to do it with joy. 47:18 And not with grief. So that he doesn't have to say, "Lord, I was so disappointed with this brother. I tried so hard." That's the case. It says it'll be unprofitable for you if he has to give us such a report about you to the Lord. 47:42 And then he says some concluding remarks. He's obviously in jail, and he says, "Pray that I'll be restored to you sooner." Verse 19. Pray that we shall have a good 48:01 conscience. There's benediction in verse 20 onwards. That the God of peace who brought again from the dead shepherd of the sheep May he equip you in every good thing to 48:22 do his will. Working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight. Here at the blood of Jesus is called the blood of an eternal covenant. Different from the blood of bulls and 48:42 goats that established an old covenant. Here is a blood that established an eternal covenant with God and man. God is called the God of peace. 49:01 He says, "May he equip you in every good thing to do his will." And working inside us primarily that which pleases him. God has to work inside us before he can 49:21 work outside us. And at the end of this lovely letter he says, "I urge you, brethren, please bear with this word of exhortation. I actually wanted to write much more to you. I've written a brief 13 chapters." 49:46 And this is the sentence that makes some people feel the next verse that this could have been written by Paul. Verse 23, take notice that our brother Timothy has been released from prison. Grace be with all of you, verse 25. 50:10 I want to encourage all of you to read and meditate on Hebrews more than you have ever done before. And see the glory of Jesus as a man. He was made as in every way 50:29 tempted like us in every way. Overcoming sin by the grace of God. Resisting sin to the point of shedding blood. Let us follow his example. God bless you.
