Heb No.19 The Last Will and Testament of Jesus 9v16-28

Now I'd be glad if you'd have your Bibles open at Hebrews chapter 9, and we're going to be considering those marvellous, marvellous verses between the 16th verse and the 28th, in effect to the end of this chapter. And as I mention in the outline notes, one could preach for some lengthy period, a series of Bible studies just on those verses, and in no way would you exhaust it, or exhaust them. Here is an ocean of meaning.

And while you could never get rid of all the sea water from the channel, even if you had a pretty large sized bucket, neither can you exhaust with the receptacle of the human mind, the fathomless depths that there are within these particular verses. So, all that we will be doing this evening is just skating over Scripture. I do remember when I was at Bible college, the first one I went to, that a dear Irish pastor, Nell Lilliman, who was our lecturer, he tried to encourage us that if we had the problem that we were running out of things to say after three years in the ministry, then possibly you could move on to the next church, and sort of start at the beginning of the file of sermons all over again.

Well, quite frankly, that's never been my problem. My problem is, will I live long enough to be able to deal with all that I would like to share from God's Word? Because it seems to me that I can never get beyond what I would call the microscope approach to Scripture. I find fascination sometimes just in a word, or in a phrase.

And as when you look through a microscope, at say a petal or a drop of blood, and there's a tremendous amount of life and interest there, I find Scripture exactly the same. So it would take me to the millennium, assuming that's still future, to exhaust all that I would like to be able to share with you. And then it would have only been done very inadequately.

However, let's move to our study this evening. And I was thinking this afternoon when I was contemplating this particular topic and reading over the prepared notes, of that occasion when the patriarch Jacob had come to the end of his life. You remember how the story is recorded towards the end of the first book of the Bible? He has all his sons in front of him.

This was typical Hebrew tradition, at least it became an established practice for Jacob. A descendant of Abraham was one of the people through whom the Jewish nation came into existence. He had all his sons around him.

And you remember that a whole chapter is given over to Jacob blessing his children. In effect, he's apportioning his inheritance, spiritually speaking, for he is bringing down in the name of the Lord, Heaven's blessings upon his children. And this was, as I say, to become a practice within the Hebrew community, to call people together, your family together, during the last days of your life and to make your will, to make it publicly known as you verbally expressed what you wanted to happen to your possessions when you died.

Now, why am I making that particular illustration? Well, you see, if your memory is good, and it must at least stretch back seven days, you will recall that last time we were together, we were thinking of the death of Jesus. In fact, I spent the whole of the period, and I think not very adequately, did I explain to you the significance of the shed blood of our Savior. It's so often referred to in the verses that precede the 16th, and mention is made later on also of the blood of Jesus in this chapter.

But the fact of his shed blood, of course, presupposes the concept of his death. Now, if he shed his blood, and if he died, and if his practice was to be the same as that instituted by Jacob in centuries gone by, then our Savior will make a will. And there's a hint of it already in that 15th verse, because in the heart of the 15th verse, mention is made of an eternal inheritance.

Now, if someone leaves a will, then the beneficiaries of that will, those who have been named, they enter into an inheritance. When your rich old auntie dies, and she makes out twenty, thirty thousand pounds for you, it won't just be a question of writing on a will. It will mean that in your bank, whether it benefits you or not, I don't know.

Whether it's wishful thinking or not, well, I do know for most of you it's wishful thinking. But you will have entered into an inheritance, if that speculation ever came about. Now, what is being said here by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, is that because our blessed Savior died, having shed his blood, there's an inheritance.

There is a will that many, many people enter into, because they have been named by the Lord Jesus Christ. Who are these people? Well, stay with verse 15 for a moment. These are the people who are called.

Let me read the whole verse in the NIV. For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that he has died as a ransom, to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Do you belong to Jesus? You say, of course I belong to him.

I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Well, quite right. That's the reason why you have a desire, a concern for Bible study.

But if you're a Christian, then you're mentioning the will of Jesus. You have been called to belong to him by sovereign grace. The Spirit opened your heart, convicted you of sin, turned you to the Savior.

The Savior, because of his shed blood, was able to pronounce absolution. And that wasn't the end of the matter. He directed you to the inheritance that is yours, because you are part of his family circle.

You remember how the Apostle Paul works it out when writing to the Ephesians? He speaks about the blessings that are ours, because we belonged, because we have believed in Jesus Christ. Not only have we received the gift of the Holy Spirit, says the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1.13, but he goes on to say that the Holy Spirit is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glory. We used to sing in the unsophisticated church where I was brought up and thank God for the naivety of our faith in some degree.

I'm richer than a millionaire, just because he cares. That was a chorus that came out long before these new scripture choruses. And in one sense it's very true, because we belong to Jesus, we are rich.

We have an inheritance. Now, it's the thought of a will and the riches of Christian people that occupies the mind of a writer from this 16th verse to the end of the chapter. And in the 16th and the 17th verse, he takes up the subject of an inheritance, and he tells us a couple of things about making a will, or a testament or covenant, whatever word you opt for, depending on which version of the Bible you have.

He tells us one or two things about a will which most of us already know. Who is responsible for drawing up a will? Well, the answer to the question is obvious. It's the one who owns his estate.

And he wants certain things to happen. When I die, then assuming that I have carefully drawn up a will, which I have, then the directions of that will shall be implemented. But the persons who will benefit from that will are not in a position of negotiation.

They can't sort of bring me back from the dead and say, well, you're a bit of an old miser, you know, I wish you'd have done this and the other for me. It's not negotiable. The person who makes the will has a sovereign right to do what he wants, with the things that come under his possession.

And that, of course, was the case in the experience of our Lord Jesus. He makes a will. You say, Jesus of Nazareth makes a will.

How do you work that one out? After all, Scripture says in Corinthians, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, although he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. Far from being a man with a lot of money in the Jewish stock exchange or what have you, he was absolutely without material substance at all. Ah, but he did have something.

Something that was far more priceless than ever a Rothschild was able to leave. Jesus Christ had is his own purity. Jesus Christ had the perfection of a life which had never admitted to sin, no, not in one degree at all.

And it was the benefits of his sinless life that he offered to his disciples and to all those who would be called in generations to come to be his disciples. And so you remember the occasion when Jesus, following the example of Jacob to which I made reference a moment or so ago, has his beloved disciples with him in the upper room. He's got his children, so to speak, discount Judas, of course, for the moment.

And what does Jesus do? Well, he's celebrating the Passover meal. No, he's not. He's only doing that at the cosmetic level.

At the deeper level, he is making his will. He's transmuting the Passover meal and he makes it into the Lord's Supper. And central to the Lord's Supper is the bread and the wine.

And the significance of the bread and the wine is the body and the blood of Jesus. And all that that body and blood shall have achieved because of the way that Jesus lived his life. What has Jesus achieved? I mentioned it before.

He retained his purity. And it's the benefits of his purity that he passes on to all those who will trust him as their Savior. This is the cup of a new covenant in my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sin.

You see this bread? It stands for my body. It's broken for many. And those who trust me, they benefit by what this blood and what this bread, or rather what this wine and this bread represent.

So those who belong to Jesus Christ, they inherit his sinlessness. And that's the most marvelous thing. If you have experienced that, my friend, then you are indeed a very rich person in this world.

Now, let's continue however. Here is Jesus and he sets up his will. It's not negotiable.

There are certain people who are written into his will. Indeed, there are an innumerable number of people who will benefit because Jesus has bled and died. Ah, but that's the point that I now want to emphasize.

You see, it takes the death of the person who has written the will for the piece of paper to have value. You might be able to go to my home and find out my particular will and you could read it and even if you were mentioned on it, it would not benefit you one moment at all. My bank manager wouldn't look at you, my solicitor would dismiss you, unless you could prove one thing.

What's that? Well, that I died. It has no value until I die. And neither has the will of our blessed Savior, which bequeaths salvation to those who trust in him.

It has no value until his death. That's exactly what our writer is here arguing. In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died.

It never takes effect while the one who made it is living. So here's a remarkable thing. The second person of the ever-blessed Trinity, God himself, takes upon himself human nature.

Because the Son of God, he can never die. But a Son, a Son of Man, he can. And in his death, he makes it possible for you and I to inherit salvation.

Listen to one very eloquent commentator as he makes reference on the fact that Jesus Christ has come to taste death for every man and through his death make every believer rich. The wonder and mystery of divine grace is this, that the deathless Son of God should become the mortal Son of Man. And though eternally sovereign as God, as man he might die for mankind.

And rising from the grave, unite mankind with himself in the enjoyment of his everlasting inheritance. Says the writer of the Hebrews earlier on, Jesus Christ has led many sons to glory. And that's a very apt description of what he has done for you and me.

He's led us into the glories of salvation. He's led us into the glories of the inheritance that is ours. A little bit of it we've experienced already.

The gift of salvation. The indwelling of his Spirit. Ah, but there's more to come.

I has not seen, says the Apostle Paul, nor you heard one of my favorite verses of Scripture. All that God hath in store for them that love him. There's lots, lots more to come.

Where do these blessings originate? Well, they come from God from whom all blessings flow. But how are the blessings mediated to a fallen sinful humanity? Through the Christ who died on the cross. Through that shed blood.

Through incorporating us, not only into his family circle, but into his own body. So that when God smiles on the Son, he also smiles upon ourselves. Well, these are things which so enliven my heart that I could stay just at the beginning of our study all evening.

But that will not do. Let's move on a little bit. Because from the 18th verse right through to the 22nd, it seems to me that you have an illustration of what is in principle stated in the opening two verses.

The 18th verse is a link. It introduces us into another concept to illustrate what has already been said. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.

What is our author speaking of? Well, he's making reference, of course, to Moses and that primary covenant which has often been referred to in the epistle of Hebrews. That covenant which was enacted by God in the presence of Moses many years ago. Now, how did that covenant come about? What ratified it? What was the activity of Moses that made the covenant in the Old Testament era a valid one? Well, we have a description and it's a very interesting description from the 18th verse right down to the 22nd verse.

In fact, there are details here in Hebrews which you can't really find in the Pentateuch. So, in a very full way, the writer of Hebrews is able to illustrate from tradition which was inspired and available in his day that you can't find in such detail in the Old Testament. What did Moses do? Well, there he was with an altar that was erected at the foot of Sinai.

And he had the people in front of him. And he was reading from a scroll from the book of the covenant. An animal had been slain and blood had been collected.

And half of that blood was poured on the altar in the front of Sinai. And then the rest of that book, the rest of that blood, well, Moses sprinkled it on the people. He made something which to get you visually to understand what it looked like, I will use the illustration of a brush, of a paintbrush.

He got some humble hyssop weed and some scarlet wool and he bound it round a piece of wood, possibly made out of cedar or possibly from the cedar tree. And he dipped the weed into the blood and the blood was mingled with water. And he sprinkled the people having had half of the blood poured on the altar.

And then he had the book as well in front of him. And he sprinkled also that document with blood and with water. Now, that's a very interesting thing.

Moses didn't even just stop there, we're told in Hebrews. When he had done this, then he went throughout the tabernacle and sprinkled blood all over the place. Look at verse 21, in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Well, what an incredible sight this must have been. Here are these people gathered in front of Moses and they're sprinkled, they're besmattered with blood.

And as he reads from the roll of the covenant, they respond in unison. All that God has said, we will do. So, the covenant is enacted.

The covenant of Sinai is made valid. But how is it made valid? Well, this is the point. It's made valid because someone has died.

Or rather, more accurately, something has died. A brute beast has involuntarily given its life. This then is what Moses has done.

Now, it's interesting just for a moment to pause and consider certain of the aspects of Moses' activity and perhaps to push it through and to relate it to the New Testament. For example, let me speak for a moment or so about the sprinkling of blood on the book, on the book of the covenant. If the book was sprinkled with blood and with water, what do you think the significance of that might be? Well, the book of the covenant contained God's law.

And God's law is a pure law. And water, of course, pure water, clean water, it has a cleansing agency. So, here typically represented, if you like, is the purity of the law.

But the people will break the law that's in that book. And so, blood is sprinkled on the book. An indication that in time to come, the blood of the Messiah shall be shed.

So that the law of God which has been broken and the sin, therefore, that has been entered into shall be forgiven, shall be repaired. Listen to A.W. Pink, a very spiritual commentator, who incidentally spent some of the years of his life in nearby Hove. The scarlet wool speaks of his personal glory.

And the hyssop, the meanest of plant life, is a figure of his lowly outward appearance. Well then, we've got the activity of Moses here, illustrated, as the people have blood splashed, sprinkled on them, and as blood is eventually taken into the tabernacle and applied to the utensils there. But let's not just look at what Moses did.

Look at what Moses said. Drop down then to the 20th verse. Moses said, this is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep.

This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep. Now what does that remind you of? Do you recall last week, was it, or the week before last, I used the illustration of a negative and a developed photograph as showing us the significance of the Old Testament and the New Testament. I held up a negative picture, and I held up the developed picture.

And I said that the Old Testament is very much like the negative, and the New Testament shows you the developed picture. Alright, if the negative in the Old Testament, the words of Moses speak of, this is the blood of the covenant. When you pass it through, so to speak, the development process, and bring it into the clarity of New Testament theology, what picture have you got in your mind? What words do you recall? Why the words of our Savior, which I've already mentioned.

When He takes the wine, and He says that this wine is the blood of the new covenant. It represents my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sin. Basic to the Gospel is the shed blood of Jesus.

Basic to the Old Testament covenant at Sinai was the shed blood of one of the animals that has its name listed in Hebrews 9. So you see how the one illustrates the other. Blood was vital to the Old Testament sacrificial system without the shedding of blood. Says the writer of the Hebrews, there can't be any forgiveness.

Verse 22, in fact the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. And we know that a bloodless Christ, the Christ of modern liberalism, the Christ of the philosophers, has not the power, because He's a figment of their imagination, to cleanse the sins of men and women. Those who will bypass Calvary, those who will ridicule the preaching of the Gospel as being the bad news of the slaughterhouse, they don't know what they're saying.

It's only through the shed blood of Jesus that sins are omitted. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing flood? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? There's no cleansing without the shedding of blood. The will has no value at all, unless the man who makes it dies.

And in the death of Jesus, His blood was shed. So you see how in those opening two verses, the 16th and the 17th, there is the explanation of what makes a will valid. Those are easy propositions for us to understand.

From the 18th verse down to the 22nd verse, you've got an illustration of the point from the Old Testament. Even there, there would be no significance at all in what Moses and Aaron and all the priests that were to follow did if blood had not been shed. And that illustrates something that becomes now more apparent as our author takes up his argument and develops it further from the 23rd verse to the end of the chapter.

Here is the consummation of the principle. Let's look at the 23rd verse. It was necessary then for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

You say, what on earth does that mean? This is the first time I've been at the Bible study and I haven't really got a clue what the writer is here talking about. Okay, let's fill you in just for a moment or so. There was a tabernacle on earth that Moses was instrumental in having erected.

It was a reproduction, a replica, inadequate but nonetheless useful of the heavenly sanctuary. It was made by ordinary men. And Moses and Aaron and the priests that were to follow ministered in this sanctuary.

They brought the blood of animals into the holy place on the day of atonement annually. Atonement was made for the sins of the people. Ah, but you see, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's greater than Aaron, a much more magnificent priesthood.

He inherits the priesthood of Melchizedek, one that will last forever. And His sphere of ministry is not just on earth, it's in heaven. And He, because of His death on the cross of Calvary on earth, will eventually go into the heavenly sanctuary and there, because of His death and His resurrection, it will be acknowledged that His life and His offering have made possible the atonement of the sins of believing humanity.

Now those Old Testament sacrifices, they were very interesting. There were several of them. The burnt offering, the sin offering, and so on and so forth.

Very interesting offerings. But all these offerings coalesced in the one, the offering of the Lord Jesus. That is what is meant by the better sacrifices in verse 23.

It was only one sacrifice that Jesus offered, but it was a fulfillment of all the special type of sacrifices that are described in the book of Leviticus. And of course, it was a much better, a much greater, a much more valuable sacrifice, because Jesus gave not the blood of a bull or a goat or a sheep. The Lord Jesus shed His own blood.

He was the Lamb of God slain since the foundation of the world. And it's the benefits of His life and His death that He takes up into heaven with Him. So look at verse 24.

Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary. That was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.

This is what our Savior has done. And His work is so supreme that He doesn't need to keep on doing it. Not like the priests in the Old Testament era, so verse 25.

Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again. Because as John Calvin points out very eloquently in his commentary, if Jesus had to offer the second time, then it indicates the first offering was not acceptable. But you see, He only had to offer once.

Because it was a superb sacrifice, an adequate sacrifice. Once again, I have to criticize Catholic theology. So many times it would appear during these recent days, I've had to do just this.

Last week I was denouncing the travesty of interpretation of James chapter 5 and the whole business of the last rites as administered by the Catholic clergy. Well here again, I say it humbly, I say it lovingly, but this whole business of the Mass. Well if not blasphemy, it's certainly not short of blasphemy.

The idea that the blood once again materializes from the wine when the priest blesses it. And the bread, the wafer is turned into the body of Christ. If this is the case, then rip up Hebrews.

Because the writer of the Hebrew epistle has got it all wrong. The blood of Jesus is not offered, literally again, before the heavenly Father, nor His body. Once, once, once.

I'm not saying that dramatically, repeating that word. This is exactly what Hebrews does, time and time again. He uses, the writer uses the word once to show the efficacy eternally of the value of the sacrifice of Christ.

He didn't go into the temple and there show His blood. His atonement, His mercy seat was the cross. The mercy seat in the temple was away from the hostile contemptuous eyes of the crowd.

It was in the secluded holy spot. But when Jesus bled and died, the holy place became that of a public spectacle as men spat at Christ and they scorned Him. But as the blood flowed from His riven side, as His body was broken and atonement was being made, the like of which would be recognized in heaven.

As our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to the holiest place of all and angels hushed their breath and cherubim veiled their eyes at the sight of the Son of Man. And Son of God entering into the sanctuary and there demonstrating the fact that once at the climax of the ages He appeared on earth to put away sins forever. And it's by the shed blood of the Lamb of Calvary that you and I know redemption.

And when we take communion we remember that death. We don't enact it again. He's never to be offered again.

But we glory in the benefits of what Christ has done. Where has Jesus gone? He's gone into the heavenly sanctuary. Not a man-made place but rather the dwelling place of the living God.

And there He offers before the Father the benefits or the benefits are recognized of His work here on this earth. What has Jesus done? Well I've spelled that out before I've actually come to the point in my notes. He has offered His life as a ransom for you and for me.

Says Dr. Hughes in the commentary to which I've often made reference and which is written out this particular comment on the back page of the handout that I've given you this evening. He says as He refers to Jesus entering into the holiest place in the eternal realm, the heavenly sphere is inaccessible to uncleansed sinners. And He goes on to say there's no need to seek precise and detailed parallels and correspondences between the cleansing ritual with its multiplicity of applications under the old system and the purification which is made available under the new.

What does He mean by that? Why have I said this? Why have I made this particular comment? Because I'm trying to say that what Jesus did when He entered heaven having offered His life as an atonement for our sins is almost beyond description. He has in effect by appearing in heaven as our Savior shown that He has made cleansing possible on earth and for men and women as one day they enter heaven itself. Blessed Lord Jesus who has done so much for you and for me.

And what's the consequence of that? Well, do you remember how I took you to Exodus chapter 24 and that was the first reading that we had? And there we found Moses and a couple of his colleagues with the Lord God at the summit of Sinai and also present were 70 of the elders of Israel. And I said to you that you read there one of the most astonishing statements in the whole of the Bible. Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel.

Now what had happened? Just stay with me for a moment because this is fascinating. What had happened before this audience with God was allowed for these 73 men? Well, Moses had just taken the blood and sprinkled the people and sprinkled the role of the covenant down at the foot of Sinai. In other words, symbolically he had made atonement for the sins of the Hebrew community and having done that 73 men, 74 if you include Moses, go to the top of Sinai and there they have an audience with God and they eat and they drink in the presence of the Lord.

You say, what's the significance of that? It was after the atonement through the shedding of blood had been made that men in the Old Testament were ushered into the presence of God. And that is parabolic my dear friend, of all that is now possible because the final atonement has been made in Jesus Christ. God and man at table can sit down is a very beautiful hymn that I came across in India.

And it's true because of what Jesus has done we can have fellowship with the living God and one day in the eternal era what we now enjoy spiritually we shall know literally. Jesus Christ and with this comment I conclude, having entered heaven, having shown the benefits of his sinless life and his atoning death, and having done that just once because there's no need to do it again, he will then return ultimately to this earth. There are three references made in these final verses to appearances of Jesus Christ.

Will you look at them? In verse 26 we discover these words, Now Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. What appearance was that? Well it began at Bethlehem and it ended at Calvary. At least it ended at the day of ascension.

That is a reference to God being manifest in the flesh. God indwelling a human body, a sinless body. Jesus Christ's incarnation and his death is all referred to in that particular verse.

His first appearance. But there's another appearance referred to in the 24th verse. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one.

He entered itself now to appear for us in God's presence. And at that moment, if you please, it's that appearance which is very vital. Because Jesus is with the Father as we've already seen in our studies in Hebrews.

And he's making intercession for us at this very moment. Appearance number one, when he's born at Bethlehem. When he dies at Calvary, the resurrection and the ascension.

Appearance number two, well his manifestation, his entry into heaven and his appearance before the Father. Having made an atonement for the sins of his people and beginning his intercessory ministry. Ah yes, but there's one more appearance.

Look at the 28th verse. So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And he will appear on this earth a second time.

Not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. This is a remarkable hope that we have. You see, in this sense, I repeat what I started off at the beginning of my study.

What was my initial observation? This business of a will. Jesus has made a will. But the will only comes into effect when the person who makes it dies.

Jesus has died and he has benefited an innumerable company of people with salvation. But he's going to come back again. This is where you go beyond the ordinary, ordinary natural illustration of the will.

And the death of the testator, the death of the man of the one who makes it. Jesus Christ shall come back again. And he will ensure that the benefits of salvation and eternal life, which he has bequeathed to those who have trusted him, are indeed being enacted.

For he will take from this world all who acknowledge him as Lord. And they will join that company of the redeemed who are already with him in heaven. But he will also come, not to benefit, but as judge for those who have never trusted him as Lord and Savior.

So you see how these verses fall as an illustration as to what happens to a will. In the opening verses, the will is made. The principle is stated.

In the middle part of the section, the principle is illustrated by the Old Testament and what happened in Moses' ministry and so forth. And in the last part of the chapter, the principle is consummated in what Jesus Christ has done. And we bless God for our high priest, who having shed his blood, appears before the Father and makes an intercession for us.

And one day will appear on this earth again and will bring to an end the human drama as we have known it down the centuries. May God have blessed this study to all of us this evening. Now, Father, we bow our heads again in your presence.

We praise you for our Savior. We thank you for the wonder of Scripture and how we get glimpses in the Old Testament of what shall become clear and even more wonderful in the new. Bless you that all that the Old Testament tabernacle stood for has been filled out in Christ Jesus.

And because of his supreme sacrifice, the old system is done away with. We praise you it will never have to be returned because Jesus Christ has perfected all that you intended for him to do. We bless you that written into his will are our names and we have an eternal inheritance because we have been called to belong to him.

Blessed God, blessed Savior, blessed Spirit, who makes all these things possible, accept our thanks. Amen.