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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Norman McNulty

Unto Them that Look for Him

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity we have to come and worship you and to be in your presence.

I pray that your spirit would come into this room and fill our minds with the presence of the Holy Spirit and that we would be closer to God during this hour.

That we would set aside all distractions and please be with me and help me to speak clearly so that I would speak your words and not mine.

Well I'm so glad to see all of you here today.

I missed all of you, I've been gone the last 2 Sabbaths, but if you didn't make it to GYC this year you really did miss out.

And I hope that the spirit of GYC will continue here at Adamant Hope this year with the messages that we heard.

And what I'm going to be talking about today comes from the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews is probably my favorite book in the Bible and I want to focus on something that is very important from Scripture.

And today we are going to study the Bible and we're going to study about Jesus.

And I'm looking forward to what God has in store for us today as we learn more about who Jesus is.

And turn with me to Hebrews 9 and start in verse 24.

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others.

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.

But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.

And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

The verse that we are going to look at especially today is verse 28.

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

The phrase that we are going to look at especially today is what does it mean to look for Him?

And that's the title of our message today, Unto Them That Look For Him.

Hebrews actually will give us a better understanding of that.

But before we break down the phrase, unto them that look for him, I wanted to point out something very interesting in verses 25-28, starting in verse 27.

If you notice verses 25-28, they have a pattern, an AB pattern, where the first half of the verse is conveying 1 idea, and the second half of the verse is conveying another idea.

And verses 25 through 28, if you look at them carefully, each of the first half of each of those verses is essentially saying the same thing, And the second half is essentially saying the same thing.

27, it says, As it is appointed unto men once to die.

And then it says, after this, the judgment.

28, It says, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.

This is talking about Christ's death on the cross.

And then after that it says, He shall appear the second time without sin.

So in the second half of verse 28, we have passed from the cross to the second coming.

And what comes in between the cross and the second coming?

Well, the judgment where Jesus investigates those who are righteous and those who are not.

So We have in verse 27 and verse 28, we have death than judgment.

Now if you look more carefully going back to verse 25, it says, "...nor yet that he should offer himself up..." and this is speaking of Christ.

And then the last half of verse 25 talks about the high priest entering into the holy place every year with blood of others.

Well, This passage is especially talking about the Day of Atonement ministry because it's talking about the yearly ministry of the High Priest.

And we can show that earlier in Hebrews 9 verse 7 that talks about the High Priest entering into the most holy place every year.

So, in the first half of verse 25 we have the sacrifice of Christ, the second half we have the most holy place ministry of Christ.

And then again in verse 26 we see Jesus, it says He must have often have suffered since the foundation of the world if He were to be sacrificed every year.

But it says, now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin.

When Jesus puts away sin, when the high priest puts away sin, that's actually in the most holy place talking about the blotting out of sin.

So this is clearly talking about in the end of the world when the High Priest, Jesus, enters into the most holy place, there's a work of blotting out of sin that takes place.

So verses 25-28 very interestingly talk about Jesus' work of His sacrifice on the cross and His work as our High Priest in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.

So interestingly, it's A-B, A-B, this is the dual aspect of the atonement in Hebrews.

Christ's ministry on the cross and His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.

And that is a clearly distinct message that we can see here at the end of Hebrews chapter 9.

Now, we believe as Seventh-day Adventists that since October 22, 1844, we've been living in the anti-typical day of atonement.

And because of that, these passages take on extra significance for us.

These verses are written especially for us, so it's important for us to study these and to know what they mean.

And that's why I want to look at Hebrews 9.28.

What does it mean when it says, unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Here are a group of people who are looking at Jesus and His death on the cross.

They are looking for Him and eventually, He comes back the second time.

And when He comes back the second time, He's not bearing our sins anymore.

Something has happened on the Day of Atonement.

So there must be something in the experience of God's people that when they look at Jesus, when He comes back the second time, He's no longer bearing their sins.

So what is it about looking at Jesus that enables Jesus to come back the second time without our sin?

And the book of Hebrews, interestingly, if you just stick to the book of Hebrews and don't go anywhere else, which is essentially what we're going to do, answers that question.

So we're going to start, now actually before I go there I'm going to read 1 quote from Great Controversy page 489.

And this is pretty familiar, it says, The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was his death upon the cross.

By his death he began that work which after his resurrection he ascended to complete in heaven.

We must by faith enter within the veil, whither the forerunner has for us entered." So that's what we want to do today, to enter by faith and to follow Jesus.

So the book of Hebrews, looking at Jesus.

Well if you look at Hebrews it's all about Jesus.

Hebrews chapter 1 proves that Jesus truly is God.

Hebrews chapter 2 proves that Jesus truly is man, And we're going to come back to a few verses there.

Hebrews chapter 3 tells us to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession Christ Jesus.

So Hebrews chapter 1, Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 3, we're looking at Jesus in different elements.

He's the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.

And these are the things that those who are looking unto Him are looking at.

Now, in Hebrews 4, we get a little bit more direct.

And we're going to spend a little bit of time here.

Now if you look at verse 13, this is just a reminder to us that Jesus can see us as well.

Verse 13 says, "...neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." So that's just a reminder to us of how God sees us.

And then in verse 14, getting back to the theme of looking unto Him, looking unto Jesus, verse 14 says, 15.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, Let us hold fast our profession.

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Unto Them that Look for Him

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