Sermon: Once for All

This morning we're gonna close out chapter nine verses 23 through 28 and let's go ahead and let's pray for God's blessing. Before we open the word together,

Father, we pray that you would quiet us

whatever is going on in our minds and our hearts and our souls right now. Whether that is the things of yesterday, things of tomorrow, things in this room, what we did last night, we are plotting for tomorrow. Do you quiet at all?

May we find that we are caught up in the spirit over these next minutes where we are gazing on your glory in the face of your son and that we are hearing your word echo in our minds and our hearts and our very souls. Teach us, we pray, oh we are so desperately in need. Teach us we pray in Christ. Holy name we pray. Amen. Hebrew chapter nine verses 23 through 28. This is the holy inherent sufficient word of God. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified

with these rights, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places, made with hands which are copies of the true things but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as I priest centers the holy places every year with blood, not his own for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation

of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and just as is is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those we're eagerly waiting for him. Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Wonder if you remember those when you were a a small child for some of your children in the room. You may remember this from just this past Christmas when his Christmas and all those presents are there and you're waiting anxiously for your parents to get up waiting, eager, eagerly for them to get up. Or maybe it's that I remember being in school and it was that last day right before summer break and you're just waiting eagerly for that builder

ring and it's like you wanna scream out with Mel Gibson freedom at the top of your lungs. Yes. Or maybe it's that girlfriend or boyfriend that aw newfound love, haven't seen each other for weeks or maybe days or that really newfound love where it's like I haven't seen them for hours and just waiting eagerly to see them. I wonder what you wait eagerly for.

What is it that you long for that you desire, that you want to see? Do you eagerly wait for Christ?

I mean really eagerly wait for Christ. You sang it this morning that you sing the words, but that's not really here do do you. You feel that pain, you long see Christ

who doesn't think about death. One of the questions that is run, that runs through the mind surely of every single one of us in this room of every single person in this world, I wonder what happens when I die. And there are a lot of different answers that people give out there if far too many bind to some kind of nebulous nothingness, but that's not the case. You don't become nothing. There is not a moment that anyone ceases to be in the sense that we're

annihilated or that we vanish. Neither do you join nothing. You remain as an individual, as a person for all of eternity. We are not taken into some grand beyond becoming part of it. Neither do we enter into some kind of trial period. Neither do we enter into some holding cell. Neither do we appear before God with a second chance where you can make your case, where you can bring evidence to bear, where you can provide an argument.

None of that happens when you die. None of it. The author says in verse 27, it is appointed for man to die. Once then comes the judgment. This is what happens when you die.

We're to live. Writer of Hebrews is trying to tell us the view of eternity before us. He's just been walking through and as we've said in the last couple weeks we've seen this over and over and now he's kind of repeating himself again here in verses 23 all the way through verse 25 and 26, he's repeating the same themes that we've seen him say before. He's actually repeating some of the very same phrases and some of the very same

words and he's doing all of that as he's talking about the tabernacles, he's talking about the blood as he's talking about the sacrifices. He's leading us all to this here in verses 27 and 28 where we're going to focus this morning. He wants you and I to have death on our mind. He wants you and I to see death on the horizon.

But before we get there, let's quickly think through verses 23 through 26, which provide hope as you and I face death. Christ died. He says on our behalf, he points out again that the tabernacle was a copy of the heavenly reality. The tabernacle and all of its furnishings had to be purified. He says with blood, why? Because as we've said in previous weeks, there is life in the blood and the penalty for sin is death. And so there had to be sacrifices, blood had to be spilled. And then that blood,

as he tells us again in this passage was taken into that tabernacle and it was sprinkled upon the tabernacle sprinkled on the mercy seat as he told us last week. It was sprinkled upon the book of the covenant and it was sprinkled upon the people because there needed to be cleansing, there needed to be purifying, sin had to be covered. So there was the shutting of blood. But again, he notes in our verses a sworn again that the tabernacle,

it's just a copy. It's just a copy of what is already above the holies above. And it's there that he says the greater high priest and greater sacrifice and greater mediator, as he has told us in previous weeks, it's there. He says in verse 24 that he appeared in the presence of God on our behalf, centered in in Jesus has gone into the very thrown room above and he did not offer the blood of bulls and goats. He did not offer the blood of calves.

He offered as the Rio says, his very own blood. Verse 26, once for all with the purpose of verse 26, to put away sin what? Sin. Arson. Arson.

Why? So that you and I might have communion with the holy sovereign God of heaven and dearth, but we might know him so we might dwell with him so we might see him.

So very important for all of us in this room, this perfect sacrifice of Christ, this perfect blood was shed. It's done once for all. As he says in verse 26, or as he says in verse 28, it was offered once to bear the sins of many. It is so very important for every single one of us in this room. No matter your age, no matter your background, no matter what you do during the day, no matter what your past is, no matter what you think your future is,

this is all important for every single one of us in this room because every single one of us in this room stands on level ground. We are all sinners

of need. I have need

appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. We will all appear before God

the moment we die.

And yet the average person in this world, maybe even the average person in this room,

acts as if day to day that death is not going to touch them or maybe death isn't going to touch them for a long time.

So do you live with a view of death on the horizon? That's my question for you. Do you live with a view of death on the horizon or are you living for the weekend T G I F

or are you living with the view of death on the horizon?

It is appointed for man to die once and after that comes a judgment. Thomas Fuller, uh, a Puritan prayed a prayer one time where he was praying for himself and he was praying for others and he's praying that quote, the Lord would shake their lives. He said before God threw their lives down. That is he said, we wanna totter a little bit. We want our lives to totter a little bit before they tumble. Why was argument was because we don't want to be surprised.

You don't want to be surprised. I I don't want to be surprised. He prayed this. He said, God deliver me from sudden death. Now what he meant by that was not all of a sudden death where it just all of a sudden happens to you. That's not what he's praying. He said, does it really matter if he has a short passage, if it's a safe passage, what? What does it matter if it's short? He prayed. There has never been a weary traveler who complained that he came

too soon to his journeys in never. But he said this, let it not be sudden in respect of me that as he always wanted to be ready to receive death, he wanted to be prepared for death so that when he came, he was ready.

That's a good way to live. Always having death on the horizon. Why? Because I don't know how to say it more clearly. It's a reality.

It's on your horizon.

It might just be over that next hill. You may not even get to that hill.

Those who live with death and view actually live meaningfully. It is appointed for man to die once and then comes the judgment.

My friends, you will not regret for a second upon your deathbed that you've tended too much to your soul. You'll not have one regret on your deathbed. There is not one person I've set by dozens of people on their deathbed. There has not been one person and you will never find one person

that regrets on their deathbed that they thought and prepared too much for heaven. Not one

our time here is so very short. Whatever you would do for Christ, for his church, for the good of our own souls, it must be done quickly and you will only do that if you have death on the horizon. See it

as Jesus said in John nine, we must work the works of him who sent me wildest day. Night is coming when no one can work. Night cometh for all. It is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment.

I want you all to live with death on the horizon.

But I don't want you to miss the writer of Hebrews point here. It's not that we lived to gain but Christ lived and died so that we gain. That's the writer's great point here in these couple of verses in 27 and in 28 he has offered once quote to bear the sins of many Christ died. He said in the previous verses on our behalf and the writer is giving us the one great hope for sinners as we face death. He's saying the payment has been made, it's done.

It's finished. It's a sufficient price that has been paid. He paid it with his own blood.

As John Owens said, show me the sinner that can spread his iniquities to the dimensions of this grace. And you can't, you can't show such a sinner that's impossible

bore or sins once for all. Christ died on our behalf. It is sufficient. It is his work. It is never our work. It is his work even as we seek to live. For him it matters not of all if we have not accepted his death on our behalf, it doesn't matter.

Many of you have probably seen this uh, over the last few weeks. It's kind of gone vi viral. But Alistair begs sermon illustration that he gave in a sermon not too long ago and he begins at talking about that great question from EE that was used in the seventies and eighties and nineties came outta Coral Ridge Presbyterian down there. That evangelism explosion question that was asked, what? What would you say if you died today and you appeared in heaven,

what would you say is the reason that you are allowed to enter into heaven?

And Alistair is saying, you know anything that you and I say in the first person, if we say, well I have done more good than bad. I've I have tried my best or I have faith. All of those things in the first person, the wrong,

it's the third person. It's not I I, no, it's he. He Died for me. He was sacrificed for sinners. His Blood was shared.

Be in the illustration he gives, he uses that. He speaks about the thief on the cross, that thief that is hung out next to Jesus and is on one side and is ridiculing him with the other thief that is on the other side and and that one thief has a prick of conscience, you know, and he tells the other thief to stop it. And then Jesus says to him, today you'll be with me in paradise. And so what bag imagines is that thief being in heaven one day and he

gets to the gates of heaven and an angel shows up and the angel says to him, why are you Here? And the thief says,

I don't know. And the angel says, well Why do you think You should be able to come in?

I don't know.

Angel goes and gets a supervisor. Angel beg says, the supervisor Angel comes over and says, Why are you here? Do you know the doctrine of justification by faith? Never heard of it. Do you know the doctrine of scripture? Blank stare.

Why are you here?

Because the man on the middle cross said I could come.

That's it. That's it. It's not your Experience, It's not your good Deed. It's Not even your Faith That saves you. It's Christ That saves

Is blood. His Christ, his sacrifice, him,

he saves You from sin and he saves you from death.

Second Christ Died taking away all fear. It's appointed for man to die once and after that comes the judgment.

See If you are in Christ, when you die, immediately you are in the presence of God and the verdict is immediately there is judgment and there's a verdict and the verdict is not guilty. Now you are guilty. We will often say guilty of sin. You're as guilty as sin. But he will declare you not guilty because that bloodshed was sufficient. That bloodshed was for you. That bloodshed, atoned for your sin, not guilty Price paid

death comes. It comes for every single one of us. It is a true enemy, but for the Christian, it's an absolutely neutered enemy. It is an enemy with no power. It is a conquered enemy. It is no longer what it was.

In fact, the Christian death now brings sweetness.

What is it that you and I speaking to Christians, what is it that you and I most enjoy in this world?

It must be communion with Christ,

communion with Christ, being with him.

Do you understand that death does not change our deepest communion.

It only changes the location and the degree of that communion to become sweeter.

John Flave said so well, oh then let not believers stand in fear of the grave. He that have one foot in heaven need not fear to put the other into the grave.

Embracing the Christ of the cross takes away all fear. When you have Christ, you have all

and Christ has all of you.

He's conquered the last enemy death. Even death itself has no hold on you. He does that to the final, the enemy he has victory over. Absolutely all. If we have Christ, we have nothing to fear. There is no darkness that can touch you. If we have faith, fear of death is taken away, then the fear of all things should be taken away.

Now here's the reality is that you and I, every single one of us in this room fears things. There's none of us that doesn't fear. We all have different moments of anxiety. If fear loneliness, we fear sickness or we fear disease or we fear our loss of mine or loss of wealth or loss of reputation or loss of our business or loss of our father or loss of our spouse or loss of our child or we fear the failure of our society or the failure of our church or the

failure of our family.

But here's the reality in a very real sin, you have no reason to fear.

He's got you.

He conquered your greatest enemy. He's got you.

Listen, even death

takes his harshest blows, stops the heart, closes our eyes,

and in the moment our eyes close, not not weeks later, not days later, not an hour later, the moment our eyes close in death, they awaken to the glory of Christ.

None can snatch us out of his hand.

A sting's gone

and we just get to be with him

and we just get to see him.

In fact, death for the Christian, it leads to life.

The die is gain. The apostle says,

of course Paul, when he is talking there to live, to live as Christ to die is gain. He says, oh to to remain with you. I'm press between the two to to live so that I can be of some help to you or to die so that I might be with Christ. He says, I'm hard pressed between the two. I don't know which to choose, but I think I choose the latter to remain with you because it's of benefit to you and that that's to be the mindset you and I with every breath that we have

and all the strength that we have, were to continue to fight because he cares for soul embodied. This body matters. So let's fight and we fight to the very end so that we can be a blessing to those in our family and those in our church family and those in the kingdom. But the reality is to die is gain.

Now that that isn't a proposition that should work. The die is gain,

but it makes all the logical sense in the world for the Christian

cuz we see him.

Cuz death here is birthed there and this great Robert death who seeks to steal. In fact, what is fascinating, it gives us instead

all of these things that we have done battle with day after day. It ushers us free from them. All of that sin and all of that worldliness and all of that conflict and all of the passions of other people and all of my own passions and all of the disease and all of the sickness and all of the sorrows and all of the crying. I'm set free from those things on the very day that I pass into his presence. Death seeks to take and it only gives for the Christian

again, we don't vanish but our enemies do. All our battle is turned to rest. All our conflict becomes peace. All our striving cease. As Thomas Watson said, the day of a Christian's death is the birthday of his heavenly life. It's his ascension day to glory. It is his marriage day with Jesus Christ. We will Be with him

and will see him.

Third

Christ will appear

speaking to Christians. To be very clear, there are only two options for you. Only two. One of these things is going to happen. Your future is absolutely sealed. You're going to be with him and you're going to see him. Either we go to him or he comes to us, we go to him, he comes to us. We get to be with him. It's fixed. And that's where the writer of Hebrews takes his argument. We will see him in death or we will see him in his returning.

Christ will appear. He's coming. He's coming for us. He purchased us. That's what he says. He does not come as the author says, verse 28 to deal with sin. No, no, no, no. He's already dealt with sin. He's already dealt with Your sin. Why then does he come?

He comes for you

knows he is saved.

He comes because of us,

we're purchased by his blood and that blood was holy acceptable to the Father. It was sufficient once for all.

Never had this thought until I was studying this passage this week. It's fascinating what the writer of Hebrews is doing here, at least in my mind. Remember the context. He's walking us through the tabernacle and he's showing us how that high priest went into the tabernacle. And so he set the scene there and then he talks about the return of Christ. And what he is doing is he's doing this sin. On that day of atonement each year, year after year,

the high priest, the new high priest, whatever high priest was alive, he would be consecrated. He would be sanctified. And then he would take sacrifices and he would sacrifice those animals. And then he would take the blood from that sacrifice and he would walk into the hol of holies with that blood. This would happen year after year

and the men and the women and the children of Israel would be outside of that tent of meeting. They would wait.

He would go in, they would wait.

Was he consecrated enough?

Was was the blood sufficient, acceptable?

It'd wait waiting as he says here eagerly.

And then what would happen?

Curtain would part and I priest would emerge, would know it's acceptable.

I read different Jewish commentators in the ancient world and they will say that there was, it's often dancing and rejoicing and crying tears of joy when the high priests would emerge.

Our high priests, the greater high priests has gone into the holy holies above if

his own blood. And so we know that it's sufficient

and we wait, we, we wait. Eagerly

for what? For? For the curtain to be drawn back between heaven and earth, for to be scrolled back as we often see, and for him to emerge so that our salvation is fully consummated

and oh, what a happy day that will be.

Even get some of you Presbyterians dancing on that day.

The older I grow in Christ

more, I resonate with the saints and the scriptures that just wanna see him.

Just wanna see him

that eagerly waiting.

Are you eagerly waiting for him? Too long to see him.

David, Psalm 27, 1 thing have I asked of the Lord and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord,

gaze upon him in his beauty and inquire in his holy temple. One thing he said, ass, I'm 73, whom have I in heaven but you and there is nothing on earth I desire besides you or Paul and Philippians. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. My desire is to part and be with Christ. For that is far better.

Whereas John will erupt at the end of Revelation where he will say in Revelation 22, he'll say, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly,

eagerly waiting.

I just want to see him.

Either we're going to him. Dear Christian, or he's coming to us

are the only two options.

Are you ready?

Ready. It's appointed once man to die and comes the judgment. Are you ready?

Let's pray.

Father in heaven,

we are so thankful for so great to salvation. We have a high priest who has entered to the holy of Holies above and is presented an effectual sacrifice for our sake. Lord Jesus, we are so thankful

you are such a great savior of sinners and oh well, we do not eagerly wait for your return. We're going home to see you. Would you stamp that wickedness out of us?

Help us to long and desire you more and more. We pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.