I'd like to invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews 9. I'm going to read verses 23 through 28 of Hebrews chapter 9. Remember Hebrews 7 was about Christ, our better priest. Chapter 8 was about Him being the mediator of a better covenant and chapter nine is about the better sacrifice, about the sacrifice that he made upon the cross. It is better than all of those old covenant sacrifices because the sacrifice of Jesus actually takes away sin. I'm gonna begin our reading with verse 23 of Hebrews chapter nine. And there the preacher writes, thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, 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 the high priest enters 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 it 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 who are eagerly waiting for him. Well, the blood is very important in Christian theology. The Bible says that the life of the creature is in the blood. And thus, when the blood is shed, death has occurred. And death is, of course, the penalty for sin. And that would explain why there is so much blood in the Old Covenant. For example, man is guilty of sin. There was a lot of blood in the text that we looked at last week as we considered with the preacher that old covenant inauguration ceremony that Moses writes about in Exodus 24 verses 3 through 8. The preacher talked about that in verses 18 through 21 of this chapter and we saw that the blood had a pivotal role in the cleansing of the people and everything concerning their worship of God. There was just a lot of blood shed under the Old Covenant, and so much blood that critics of biblical Christianity have referred to the evangelical understanding of Christianity as slaughterhouse religion. On one level, it is true that the conditions of some of the priests must have resembled that of a slaughterhouse, particularly at the Passover time when hundreds of thousands of Jews descended upon Jerusalem and they killed the Passover lambs. And there was literally a stream of blood that ran out of Jerusalem through the Kidron Valley all the way to the Dead Sea. You could see it. And you could smell it. And when the priests came home at night, I'm sure that butchers looked neater in our day than the priests must have looked in the presence of their wives when they came home at Passover time. It was a time when there was a lot of bloodshed, but even throughout the year, day after day, there were these bloody sacrifices that were made. But the comment slaughterhouse religion comes from somebody who simply is, well, is scornful of the blood. It comes from a person who really doesn't understand the gravity of his or her own sin and who it is that we have sinned against, that we have sinned against a holy God and it hasn't come to terms with that sober reality. And to all such men who sit in judgment upon God and the provision of a substitutionary penal atonement that he has now made and offered to sinners in his son, Jesus Christ, for anyone who sits in judgment upon the blood, I would simply say that's not very wise, because as our text says, it's appointed a man once to die and then to face the judgment. And that's true for the people who sit in judgment upon God this day, is that I would have to say to that person, you too will die, and you will face the judgment. And on that day, it's not gonna be you that is on the judgment throne, but it is God who is going to be on the judgment throne, and so really it calls for a change of mind now about these things, or what the Bible calls repentance. Now all the blood in the old covenant testifies to sin's evil and what it deserves, the death in extremis, and I mean death in the ultimate sense, more than physical death, it deserves the second death or hell itself, but it also testifies, does it not, to God's grace. All those animal sacrifices under the Old Covenant were substitutionary and penal sacrifices where the priest put his hand upon the sacrificial victim or the individual Jewish worshiper put his or her hand upon the head, symbolizing the transfer of guilt to that animal, and that animal suffered the penalty in the place of And, of course, those sacrifices under the old covenant couldn't actually take away sin, but they did point to and they did prophesy the sacrifice that could. Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The big takeaway on the subject of blood that we looked at last week was given in verse 22. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Now, our text today, as we look at it, as we move on from that, I want to consider it with you under two heads. First, the supreme, sufficient, and final sacrifice of Jesus. That's verses 23 through 26. And then, secondly, the good news of Christ's atonement as we consider the future. That's verses 27 and 28. First, the supreme, sufficient, and final sacrifice of Jesus. Would you look at verse 23 with me again? The purification of the heavenly things in the tabernacle clearly anticipated Christ's purifying work of atonement. Verse 23, thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Now we mustn't think that heaven is unclean and needs Jesus' cleansing sacrifice. William Plumer comments on this text. He says, but how are the heavenly things purified with sacrifice? Heaven itself needs no purification, nor does our high priest need to offer any sacrifice for himself, nor has anything that defileth ever entered heaven. The best explanation is this. The persons to be admitted to heaven are sinners and need atonement before they can be received into that holy place. I don't know if you've ever thought about that, but people that we have known on the earth, people who have died in the Lord, who were pretty good at sinning when they lived among us, aren't sinning anymore. Christ has so purified them that in the presence of God they are as pure as the holy angels today. And they gather with those holy angels in joyful assembly. And our meeting here on the Lord's Day in this place is kind of a little dress rehearsal for that worship service that is going on above where our worship will be warm and perfect and everything that it ought to be. Jesus died to bring that about, and the saints in heaven are enjoying that this hour. Now Christ's purifying sacrifice has opened heaven itself up to believers. Look at verse 24. 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. Christ has entered heaven now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. We have a great high priest who is always on the job 24-7. We read in Hebrews 7.25, consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Our final salvation hinges on this very fact. Peter, you remember, was kept in the faith by the prayers of his high priest. You remember, Peter fell badly that night he denied his Lord. He fell hard upon the deck of the ship, if you will. But he wasn't washed overboard. He didn't go out to the sea of perdition like Judas Iscariot did. He was kept because he had a high priest who had offered himself an atonement for Peter and had prayed for Peter based upon that atonement. And that's why Peter didn't fall overboard that night. Our high priest is in heaven, and that means that he is able to save us, the preacher tells us in Hebrews 7.25, to the uttermost. He's able to save us completely and eternally. He is, after all, the great pioneer, the great trailblazer of our salvation, Hebrews 2.10. He is the forerunner of the saints into heaven, Hebrews 6.20. Because of his death, burial, and resurrection, he is preparing a place for his people in the Father's house. Spurgeon applies verse 24 to the believer this way, we're not afraid to die, for Jesus lives, John 14, 19. So whenever you have any dread about the future, recollect that you will be where he is. Heaven is open for the true believer, but it is not for those who reject his sacrifice for sins. The preacher in verse 24 specifically talks about the heavenly placement of Christ at present. He is no shadow priest like those that served under the old covenant. He did not enter the holy of holies in the temple in Jerusalem after the resurrection Notice that in referring to the holy places on earth, the preacher talks about a structure built with human hands. Verse 24, 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. Now, on one level, you'd have to say that the tabernacle and later the temple, it had to be built with human hands and it was according to God's precise directions given to Moses. And it was all proper in its place in the old covenant. But remember the preacher is preaching now over three decades after the cross. Three decades after God the Father himself tore that curtain in the temple from top to bottom indicating that the way into heaven itself had now been opened up by the blood of Jesus and indicating close this place down. It is not necessary. They didn't do it, so God sent the Roman army in 70 AD and they did it. And then they shut it down. And so when the preacher writes made with hands, with human hands here, He's using language that interestingly in the Old Testament often refers to idolatry. See Leviticus 26 verse 1, seven different texts in Isaiah speak about something made with hands in association with idolatry, three times in the book of Daniel. Paul uses this language to describe the pagan idolatry of the men of Athens in Acts 17-24. But most tellingly, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, uses the term made by human hands as a critique of the Jews who gave undue prominence to the temple in Jerusalem. And such were idolaters because they did not move from the type to the anti-type. I mean, the temple is fulfilled in Christ. the fulfillment of the temple, John 2. He is the proper meeting place between God and the sinner. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. And so to continue to go to this spot in Jerusalem is really to deny Christ as the fulfillment of the temple and the only way to God and the only way into the presence of God. is a shut door without the atonement of Jesus. It's very sad because sinners, in effect, shut the door in their own faces when they reject the atonement that he has made. Now Christ's sacrifice for sin is sufficient and effective for it was once and for all. Look at verses 25 and 26. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters 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 Well, Christ's sacrifice for sin was not like the sacrifices offered under the Old Covenant. For one thing, the high priest under the Old Covenant was not himself the sacrifice, as verse 25 points out. And he came into that holy of holies, you remember, with blood of bulls and goats, not his own. It had to be offered repeatedly because it couldn't get the job done. Year after year, there was the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. I remember reading once about the Dodger great, Southpaw Jewish pitcher, Sandy Koufax, that one of the playoff games that he was scheduled to pitch was on Yom Kippur, which is still a sacred holiday in the Jewish community. And he asked the Los Angeles Dodgers to be exempt from that game. And we certainly respect the conscience rights of Sandy Koufax and are in full agreement with the decision of the Los Angeles Dodgers to give him that day free of pitching. But I can't help but feel incredible sadness as I think about the Jewish community and we ought to really continually be praying for the Jewish community. I think Romans 11 encourages us to do that because every year as they celebrate Yom Kippur, they are denying that Yom Kippur was fulfilled on Good Friday. And a day of atonement that has to take place year after year is a testimony that the sacrifice to take away sin has not been offered. There's no atonement. There's no hope. There's no heaven. There's only hell. It's sad, isn't it, when sinners shut the door upon their own faces? Now Christ's sacrifice is in fact the linchpin of all human history. Look at verse 26b, 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. Richard Phillips asked this question, what was the pivotal moment in history? And then he says that the way that a person answers that question is really telling us a great deal about that individual. If the person, for example, says that the pivotal moment in human history was the invention of the printing press or the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment, what he is telling us is that history is about the progress of ideas. On the other hand, if a person says that the most pivotal moment in human history was the publication of The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin in 1859 as he purported the theory of evolution, then you would have to say that This is a person who is committed to a totally secular worldview. This is a person who is anti-supernaturalism. This is a person who really has a view of history that leaves him or her without any hope at all because if History is just this business of evolutionary chance. It's meaningless. It has no purpose at all. And if you begin to think about the evolutionary theory, it leads to absolute despair. Now if the person says that the most significant moment in history was political, like the development of democracy in ancient Greece, or the signing of the Magna Carta, or the French Revolution, or the American Declaration of Independence, then the person is basically saying that history is all about the primacy of politics. But Phillips goes on to say that the ancient Greeks would not have answered the question because their view of history is that history is circular and not linear. It's like a merry-go-round, only there's nothing merry about it. It just goes around and around and around and is utterly meaningless. Fallen Man is oftentimes far afield when it comes to the meaning of history. Even people with PhDs who teach history rarely understand their own subject. I mean, they may be good researchers, they might write some very interesting and helpful books, but they don't understand the meaning of history. I remember hearing that from a PhD Christian historian who lamented that so many of his colleagues had no idea of the meaning of history. They were missing so much in their own field of discipline. History is his story. It's the very platform upon which God has worked out in history his redemptive plan and it is the scaffolding that God is using to build his church which means that history is incredibly meaningful. It's not like Henry Ford said, it's not bunk, it's incredibly meaningful, it's incredibly purposeful. Phillips talks about A great Christian thinker who did get what the writer of Hebrews is talking about when he says of Jesus, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And that great Christian thinker who did get what the preacher is saying here was Augustine. And I haven't actually read the book, I don't know if any of you have, but I've been told it is a classic. called The City of God. And Augustine writes that book because he is living through the collapse and the fall of the Roman Empire. And when that happened, the Christian community was blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire. And he wrote that book as an apologetic at that time to say not so. And as Phillips says, he achieved his purpose admirably and along the way articulated the Christian and biblical view of history. Augustine began by noting that there is one event in history that is unrepeatable by its very nature, namely the death of the Son of God for the forgiveness of our sins. By its nature, this event could happen only once. And from this insight, he went on to develop a Christian view of history that is linear. He said that history has a start. a central turning point and a definite conclusion. According to Augustine's presentation of the Bible, history finds its consummation in the day of judgment when the city of man and the city of God are finally separated. The decisive point of history was the death of Christ upon which everything turns. Well, that's right. That's what our text is saying. The cross of Jesus Christ is the turning point of history. It is the centerpiece of history. And not only does history turn on it, every individual will turn on it. You remember when Jesus was crucified, there was one thief on his right and one thief on his left, and one of the thieves believed into Christ and him crucified, and Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. The other man was unbelieving, and that day he went to hell. That is not only the pivotal reality of history, it is the pivotal reality for every man, woman, boy, and girl. What side of the cross are you on? Are you on the side of the cross of the believing thief, or are you on the side of the cross of the unbelieving thief? We're all thieves. We're all sinners. guilty and deserve death, but what side of the cross are you? It is of pivotal importance in history and in the individual person's experience. Christ's sacrifice, the preacher tells us, was once and for all for it has decisively dealt with sin. Look at verse 26b again. 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. Christ's death on the cross was decisive in dealing with the problem of our sin. The preacher said he died once and for all in Hebrews 7.27. He's going to say it again once and for all in Hebrews 10.10. He says it again in our text here in Hebrews 9. This must be a very important point. And it was a point of great contention at the time of the Protestant Reformation, and it was a point that got a lot of Christians burned at the stake because they said, we cannot participate in the idolatrous mass with its perpetual sacrifice, which denies that Christ died once and for all and that he finished that work entirely. We would rather burn and go to heaven hanging on to our Jesus than to participate in the blasphemy of the mass. And, you know, it's a pretty important truth, isn't it, when Satan stirs up such wrath against it in the history of the church? And isn't it a precious truth as we come to the Lord's table? We don't come to the mass this morning. We come to a memorial meal, if you will, as we celebrate what Christ has accomplished for us. And this is a precious truth for which some of God's people were willing to be burned at the stake for. Well, secondly and more briefly, let's consider the good news of Christ's atonement as we consider the future. Look at verses 27 and 28. And just as it 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 who are eagerly waiting for him. Well, as we think about the good news of the atonement as we consider the future, the future does involve, for each of us, if we live, If we don't live to the time of the Second Advent, it will involve our death, and after the death comes judgment. Look at verse 27. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. Well, the first thing to note here is the placement of this verse in the flow of thought. is illustrating by way of human analogy that Jesus died once. I mean, human beings, they don't keep reappearing on the earth. People are born once, and they die once. There's no reincarnation. It's appointed on a man to die once, not twice, not three times, not four times. There's no reincarnation. The Bible doesn't teach that. And death doesn't end everything for the person. It's not like you're a dog and that's it. It's appointed unto a man once to die and then the judgment. There is existence for the human soul after death. Now, the preacher is simply, by way of analogy to the human experience, saying that Jesus cannot be sacrificed repeatedly on the cross. His death, which itself was a judgment because he bore the sins of many, cannot be a repeated affair. The Son of God became incarnate and as is the nature of man, he lived once upon the earth and he died once and he will never die again. His death on the cross is a non-repeatable event. The finality of the atonement, that's the point here. Jesus is now alive forevermore and his once and for all death really has put sin away totally, decisively forever. He has done it as Psalm 22 says. Now the good news of the atonement is the comfort of Christians only when we face death. The Bible says, and just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. It's appointed for man to die once and after death will come the judgment. Death obviously does not end human existence, but it does seal the fate of the soul. Now, death followed by judgment says that life on earth is a very serious matter, isn't it? I mean, the judgment that follows death is described in Hebrews 6.2 as an eternal judgment, meaning it has eternal consequences. There is no going back and having a second go at life. There is no purgatory. Purgatory, I was just reading last night, the idea of it has its origin in Pope Gregory of the 7th century who suggested the idea that there could be a purging that takes place after death so that people could eventually get to heaven and out of that came the doctrine of purgatory. But there is no purgatory, there's no second chance. And when people die, they face the judgment and God is the judge that they face and therefore the judgment can't be mistaken. It can't be a judgment for which there is a lack of evidence. The judge can't be bribed. There will be no mistrial. There will be no court of appeals, no second chances of any kind. It's appointed for all men to die and then to face the judgment. Now there were rare exceptions in history that but proved the rule. You remember that Enoch was translated without tasting death. The Lord took him home to heaven. You remember that story and Elijah went to heaven without tasting death. But you remember that they both underwent a divine assessment that they were saints or else they would not have been taken to heaven. And certainly they underwent a change to enter that place. And to that, we can also add the rare miracles of resurrection that appear in the Bible. You remember Elijah and Elisha, they were agents that God used to raise the dead, and then Jesus raised at least three people from the dead, and Paul and Peter were agents that God used to raise the dead. Of course, those dead died again, didn't they? But what we have with the translations of Elijah and Elisha and those resurrection miracles is an assurance given to the saints in the Bible that death is not going to be the final word. But the rule remains that it is appointed on a man once to die and then to face the judgment. And that's true for saints, and that's true for sinners. I mean, someday I'm gonna give an account to God for my life, the things that I've done in the body, whether good or bad, and so will you. We're all gonna give an account of our lives when we come to die. Now, the good news for the Christian is that Jesus is the judge, and when the Savior is your judge, it's not a judgment of condemnation, is it? It's an altogether different kind of judgment than the judgment that the man of the world is going to face, but it is a sobering thing. It is something that ought to influence the way that we think and the way we live. Life is serious business. That's what our text is saying. Somebody might ask, well, why must the saints die given that Jesus has already purchased our redemption? Why do we have to physically die? Well, we might ask the question, why do our bodies have to wear out? Why does that loved one have to have Alzheimer's? Why does that dear one have to have cancer and so forth? The redemption of Christ has obviously been purchased, but it hasn't been fully applied. It has been applied to your soul. The Christian will by no means taste or experience the second death, but the full redemption that Christ purchased will only be fully applied at the second advent. And the good news is, is that we have been sealed by the spirit under the day of full redemption, Hebrews 4.30, which includes the redemption not only of our bodies, but the redemption of the cosmos itself. William Plumer has given some thoughts to this matter of the Christian funeral, and he suggests the following. He says, one reason why God does not exempt his people from death is that he would, by that awful event, let all men see something of his displeasure against sin. Another is that it is right that in their death they should be so conformed to the sufferings of their Lord. Another is that if none but wicked men should die, the feelings of men would often be intolerably harrowed up by knowing that their friends who had died were certainly lost, their death being the forerunner of perdition. But God's people shall not be hurt by the second death. Them that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him, end of quote. Well, here's a lingering thought I want to leave with you as we consider verse 27, and that is that you too must die. There will be, if the Lord tarries, there will be two dates and a dash on your tombstone. And in light of that, isn't it a wonderful thing to be able to come to the Lord's table this morning and to know that Jesus paid it all? All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Sort of invest the Lord's table with real comfort, doesn't it? Well, the good news of Christ atonement as we consider the future, as we consider death and judgment, that's verse 27. But secondly, as we consider the second advent, look at verse 28. 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 who are eagerly waiting for him. Now, the preacher in this verse is drawing from the tradition of the Day of Atonement. You remember on the Day of Atonement, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, which was a shadow of heaven. It was cubical in its dimensions, symbolizing the perfection of heaven. It had the Ark of the Covenant, which, among other things, represented the throne of God. It was as if he went into heaven. But you know, when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, when he went into the shadow of heaven, he always came out And the people saw him come out, and they saw him come out with his glorious high priestly robes on. And when he came out, he came out and he blessed the people with the very blessing that I'm going to give at the end of the service today. And he pronounced the blessing of God upon the Israel of God for whom the atonement had been made. He always came out. He didn't stay in heaven, as it were. Because you see, he was pointing to Jesus, who is in heaven, who has made the one true sacrifice for our sins. But he is coming out. He's coming again. And he will be seen publicly and gloriously. And he will appear as John saw him in that vision of Revelation 1, wearing those glorious high priestly robes of his. And he's not coming to deal with sin. That's mission accomplished. He is coming to bring a full salvation. He's gonna come to bless his people with the full salvation that he purchased for them. Now this full salvation belongs to those who are eagerly waiting him. Are you eagerly waiting the second advent of Jesus Christ? Do you long for him and the full salvation that he will bring to you and to the cosmos itself on that day? Do you long for him as a bride longs for her husband? You know, when there is a separation between a husband and wife, there will be a longing on the part of the bride for her husband to be with her if she loves him. And the deeper the love, the deeper the longing will be. Spurgeon builds on that. He says, I will tell you what it is to look for that second coming, that second appearing. It is to love the Lord Jesus, to love him so that you long for him as a bride longs for her husband. Strong love hates separation. Longing follows on the heels of loving. To look for his coming is to prepare for him. Paul talks about how to prepare for the second advent in Titus 2. He writes this in verses 11 through 13, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. There is a great day of emancipation coming. The Old Testament anticipated something of that with the year of Jubilee. Everything is going to be released, set free. The cosmos is going to be set free from the bondage of the curse. Your bodies will be gloriously set free from the infirmities that you presently know. And there'll be such liberty that we can scarce imagine yet. That's what Jesus purchased on the cross. And we proclaim his death until he comes this morning. Our great high priest in the order of Melchizedek is coming again out of heaven, and when he does, he will bring heaven with him. And the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. Even so, Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the gospel of God, that it really is good news. And we thank you that long before we were ever born, Christ fulfilled the prophecies of old, and he has done it. He has finished that work of redemption. And we are grateful for that finished work and we are even today taught to anticipate and in hope look forward to that great day when the redemption will be fully applied. But even until that day, we do believe that your spirit is applying redemption to our hearts and strengthening Christian faith and renewing Christian hope and deepening Christian love. And so we pray that through the ministry of the word and now through our trip to the Lord's table, that you would be strengthening those chief Christian graces in our hearts. For we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.