open our Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 9. Very familiar passage of scripture, but I want to look at it out of context. It's very unusual for me, but Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22. and almost all things are by the law purged with blood. I started reading in verse 22 to give you part of the context which we will look at in our introduction. Almost all things by the law are purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no remission, no forgiveness, no salvation, no mercy, no grace. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these. but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 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 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, How many years has it been since Jesus died? A little over 2,000, give or take. And yet Paul wrote that was the end of the world. Obviously the world didn't end, but it does show us what God's attitude about time is. We have been living in the last days since Jesus Christ rose from the grave. Just throw that in for nothing. But now once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." I hope you've gotten those couple of verses because 27 builds on those verses and most people I know skip and and go straight in it is appointed unto men once to die but that and is very important 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 Every word almost is important. Well, every word is important, but it's those that are looking for Him, not just everyone that goes to church, not just everyone that's made a profession, not just everyone that reads their Bible, not just everyone that says a prayer every day, but for those that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto our total, complete, absolute salvation. Father, we come as we attempt to break thy word into small pieces that we can understand. Lord, as we attempt to look at the main message of these verses, and then as we make several applications from these verses, may it make us stop and think. May it bring us to repentance. May it cause us to desire, not only to desire, but to fulfill that desire to serve you more. In Jesus' name, amen. Most of you know I am a stickler for context. I think I've been saying this for 20, 25 years. In every verse of scripture, there are three things that you must consider to understand any verse of scripture. Number one is context. Number two is context. Number three is context. Number one being the context of that verse in that chapter in that book. Number two being the context of the whole Bible. And number three being the context of what was going on historically when Paul or the other writers wrote these verses. Why did they write what they wrote? What was happening that caused them to write the words that they wrote? Most of you know I love to read Charles Spurgeon. Sometimes in reading Spurgeon, he will make a comment based on current events and I read it and it's like not knowing the current events that were taking place at that time, not knowing current events, that sentence or that paragraph makes absolutely no sense to me because I don't know the context of history that was going on. Same thing with the Bible. Why did they write what they wrote? What was going on? Now, in Hebrews, the main theme of Hebrews is better than or better. Do you recall when we studied this on Wednesday night? Man is better than the angels. Jesus Christ, who is the theme of Hebrews, Jesus Christ is better than the angels. Jesus Christ is better than the Old Testament tabernacle. The blood of Jesus Christ is better than the blood of bulls and goats. And the word better, comparing Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is better than anything and everything. When we get to chapter nine, Paul is emphasizing that point. We saw that almost everything is purged by the blood of Jesus Christ. In verse 19, I'm sorry, in verse 23, Jesus Christ was better than the heavenly pattern. When Moses was taken up to the mount, And there God gave him the blueprints for the tabernacle. God gave him the blueprints for the furniture in the tabernacle. God gave him the blueprints for the sacrifices and the three parts of the tabernacle. God gave him the blueprints and said, see that thou build it after the pattern that was showed thee in heaven." So God had the real thing. He showed the real thing to Moses and said, now go down and build the earthly tabernacle after the real thing that you saw. But Jesus Christ is better than the earthly tabernacle. A high priest had to enter into the Holy of Holies every year. He offered a sacrifice for himself. Then he went back and offered a sacrifice for the sins of the people. He had to do that every year. But Jesus Christ is better than the Old Testament priest, because the Old Testament priest had to do it every year. Jesus Christ is better because he only did it one time. He's better. He is better than the oxen and the sheep that were sacrificed. The animals, though they do not have a spirit, yet they were under the curse of Adam and Eve. And so anything that was under the curse, that was born in sin, could not take away our sins. So Jesus Christ was better than the Old Testament sacrifices. Now, with that as the background, Jesus Christ is better. He is better than this. He offered himself one time. One time. And then he put away sin forever. The blood of bulls and goats could only roll the debt forward. It's kind of like a balloon note. You know, every year you renew that balloon note and you roll the debt forward. That's what they were doing in the Old Testament. When they offered that annual sacrifice, they were simply rolling their sins forward one year And they kept rolling it and kept rolling it until finally Jesus Christ came and paid it entirely, satisfied the debt, left nothing unpaid. He paid it with his own blood. Then he sat down, which no high priest dared to do in the tabernacle, but he was bettered. better than any of that. Now, that is the context of verse 27. That's the context. Jesus Christ made one sacrifice. Jesus Christ offered one offering. Jesus Christ finished the sacrifice and sat down once and for all. Now, unlike most people, like I said, I've heard verse 27 preached, I don't know, 10 or 15 bazillion times, and I never exaggerate, But most people that preach it start off, it is appointed unto man, unto men, once to die. That's not where it starts. It starts with a conjunction. A-N-D. Now, If I were to say the ladies are fixing dinner, and we're going to eat in a few minutes, they go together, don't they? It's not the ladies are fixing food, but we don't get to eat it. The and says the ladies are fixing food, and we get to partake of it. So the and, explains what's taking place after the first part. What Paul is doing here, and I'll try to make this as brief as I can, because this is still my introduction. What Paul is doing is not saying that every man, woman, boy, and girl from Adam and Eve must die. It's appointed unto every man, unto men, to die. I remember hearing a man, I was in high school, so that's been, what, 80, 90 years ago at least. But I remember I went to a church, they were having service, and even in high school, I went, and the guy got up, and said that this verse proves every man, woman, boy, and girl must die. I was only in high school, but I thought, I don't know what's wrong with that. but I know something's wrong with that. I just, I don't know what's wrong, but I know something is wrong with that. He even went so far as to say, Enoch and Elijah. What do we know about Enoch and Elijah? Enoch was not, for God took him. But he had this testimony, that he walked with God. Enoch was walking along one day, and poof, he's gone. Elijah was carried up by a whirlwind, taken up into the clouds, and there it went straight into heaven. He went so far as to say, it is appointed unto men once to die. Enoch and Elijah must come back and they must die because this verse says it's appointed unto men once to die. Now, based on his theology, When I got to college and began studying this a little bit, in the rapture, the Bible said that the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be changed. in the twinkling of an eye. Most people say we're going to be raptured in the twinkling of an eye. Paul said we're going to be changed. Then we will meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Based on his theology, everyone who is raptured at the second coming of Christ, we're raptured, our corruptible puts on incorruption, our mortal puts on immortality, we're gonna then at some point have to come back and die because it's appointed unto men wants to die. Obviously, that's not what Paul is trying to get across. Paul is simply saying death is a well-established fact. Enoch did not die. Elijah did not die. The raptured saints will not die. But other than those exceptions, Death is such a certainty that, and you can only die once. And somebody asked me a couple of months ago, what about all those death, death accounts where people died and came back? They didn't die. You only die once. Well, unless you're lost, then you die twice. But physically, we only die once. That's an established fact. You can't die more than once. Although my son-in-law would love it. He'll do your funeral. You come back, he gets to do your funeral again and again and again. You only die once. That's his point. You only die once. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. We only die once. Jesus Christ only died once. He's using a common fact to show that Jesus Christ only died once. If you could lose your salvation and had to be saved again, which is impossible, but if you could, Jesus Christ would have to come back, suffer again, because his first time didn't stick. His first death didn't finish the job. So every time you lose your salvation, he would have to come back to earth, suffer again, die again, be buried again, rise again, And Paul said, hogwash, he only died once, just like you and I only die once. That's his point. He's taking an established fact and showing that just like you cannot die and live and die. Now I know there were Old Testament saints that rose from the grave. You know, I get it, and then somebody asked me the question once, what happened to Lazarus after he was called out of the grave? Did he die a second time, or was he somehow translated? He was dead the first time. He was literally brought back to life. I'll leave that for the theologians and you can tell me what's right later on. But the point is, as a fact, you only die once. Jesus Christ only died once. If he were like the high priest in verse 26, he must have suffered often. But he's better than the high priest. So with the exceptions of Enoch, Elijah, and the raptured saints, what do we know about death? First of all, we know that everybody since Adam and Eve with those exceptions, died. Now, I know if you're reading the book of Genesis, in those first several chapters, you know, Adam begat so and so, who begat so and so, and then it gives the ages. You know, Seth lived so many years and begat his son, and then after the birth of his son, you know, he lived so many years, and every one of them end up with, and he died. Methuselah lived to be 969, I believe. How would you like to be lived 969? In this current body, I don't necessarily want to live to see a hundred. But there were a lot of things factored in that at 900, it would be like about 20 or 30 today. So, you know, they were 900, but because of a number of things, they would not be like 900 today. But every one of them, Methuselah lived 969, and he died. By the way, when it says Adam and Eve begat Seth, the kid that's named is not necessarily the first kid they had. With Adam and Eve, Seth was at a minimum the third child, probably even farther down than that. No matter how old they lived, they died. They could be the poorest unknown slave on earth. Nobody outside of their master knows their name. But they died. Presidents die. We almost lost a presidential candidate yesterday. I don't know if you've watched the news, but they showed it on the news. He was talking, just like I am. He was talking, and just like I do, you know, I turn my head, I look at you. I look at you, I turn my head, and you look. He turned his head. and the bullet went right through the top of his ear. Had he not turned his head, it would have hit him square in the head. Why did God spare him? I have my own theory. But presidents die. Oh, they'll put him in the rotunda, and thousands and thousands and thousands of people will march by his casket but the presidents die. CEOs of companies die. I don't know how I got on this list, because I almost never read it, but every day, I get, almost every day, you know, famous actor dies at, I think one died yesterday at 53, I think, 52, 53. Richard Simmons died a couple days ago. Y'all remember Richard Simmons? Oh, you young ones, oh. He was the exercise guru of his day, but he died. Remember the guy that used to eat branches? Health food, he died. ate all the right foods, did all the right exercises, but he died. Scientists, doctors, even mentally challenged children die. It's a fact of life. Death is part of the universal curse that was placed on Adam and all of his descendants, even Jesus Christ as man, keep, no, don't get confused, as man, even Jesus Christ had to die. Death is all around us. I was in Indiana. And then we moved to Texas. I was a hospital chaplain in both states. One of my primary jobs as a hospital chaplain, and then as a police chaplain, I did it a lot there, was to notify people that a loved one had died. Somebody asked me, how many notifications did you do between the hospital and the police? How many times did you have to notify somebody that a loved one was dead? And I didn't keep records, but I'm sure it was way over 100 people that I had to notify. Your loved one was just killed. Your mother just died. Your father was just killed in a car wreck. Four-year-old baby crawled. His daddy was working under the house, had an extension cord, ran under the house so he could see. His four-year-old son crawled under the house. There was a puddle of water where the junction happened to be on the extension cord, fried the baby completely. How would you like to notify the parents of that one? Death is all around us. Whether it's a motorcycle accident or whether it's some maniac walking into a house and shooting and killing a dozen people or more or less, Whether it's a single person that dies in a wreck or a van full of people that are killed in a wreck. Whether it's a movie theater where some ignorant, demon-possessed person decides to start shooting. Whether it's a suicide bomber. that kills almost 3,000 people in a matter of hours. Death is everywhere. You can't escape it. It might be a friend here, a relative there, a co-worker here or there. It might be a neighbor. or a mere acquaintance. It might be somebody you don't know, but you can read all about them in the obit column. Everywhere you look, there's death. I don't know how many of you watch TV or watch channels, but there's a hospital down in, I believe it's Memphis, I think, Children's Cancer Hospital. They take young people from infants. I don't know how high up they go, but they take kids with cancer and bring them in and treat them. And they have tremendous success. But they've also lost a lot. Little kids dying with cancer. A dear friend of ours worked at Children's Hospital over in Cincinnati. They worked on the children's cancer floor. And they got to the point where they just couldn't stand watching little children die. But death is everywhere. Doesn't matter if you're six months, six years, 60 years, or 120 years, you're going to die. It's an established fact that is so well established, Paul used the established fact of death to compare the death of Jesus Christ. You only die once, but you're going to die. When are you going to die? I have known many cases where the doctor would say, you've got six months to live, and they would live for five, 10. One case, the man lived for 30 plus years after the doctor gave him six months. In other cases, you've got two or three days to live, and the patient lives for years. Then there's the other coin. Oh, your cancer is very slow growing. You'll probably live at least five or 10 years, and they die within two weeks. That's why they call it practicing medicine. I'm not condemning doctors. They operate, I mean, they work off of statistics. People with your symptoms, at your stage, in your condition, statistically live a week or five years. Statistically. And I love statistics, but the only thing is, if you say statistically, 90%, that means there's 10% that don't fit statistics. So doctors do the best they can with statistical evaluations and formulas that they use. But statistics are an average, not a guarantee. How many times have I pointed out, especially when it's in our area, A young mother was driving her kids to school. They were perhaps singing, maybe playing a game. Some drunk runs a red light, and that mother died before she even knew what happened. When are you going to die? If you can tell me, I'll borrow $5 from somebody. and I'll give it to you. Oh, I'm going to live to be 88. One of the men that comes to the prayer breakfast every month will turn 88 or 89 this year, still going strong. Well, I'm going to live to be 90. Am I? I know it's an established fact, except for the rapture, I am going to die unless Jesus Christ comes back first and takes us in the rapture. I know I'm going to die, but I have no idea when. They told me four years ago there was a good chance I wouldn't make it in the hospital. I love when doctors are proven wrong. Don't you love it when doctors say if he lives, he'll be paralyzed from the waist down? And when I walked in his office several months later, He said, you're a walking miracle. And I said, you didn't take into account God. When am I going to die? Where am I going to die? How am I going to die? Given a preference, I would just as soon die in my sleep. I don't want to die screaming and yelling and hollering like the people in the backseat of the car I was driving. How am I going to die? Nowadays, you can walk down Florence and get shot. You can drive to the mall and some drunk can hit you. You can die of a heart attack. My doctor just gave me a clean bill of health. You can still die of a heart attack. When am I going to die? It's an appointment that only God knows. I'm supposed to have died so many times growing up. I mean, if I spent all the times I'm supposed to be dead, it would take till after lunch. God knows an appointment. And that's an established fact. Paul's not making a doctrine here. He's saying it is an established fact that God has appointed a day and a time right down to the second when you're going to die. Just as Jesus Christ said over and over, they tried to kill him. The Bible says his time was not yet come. When am I going to die? Nobody knows. But we know what happens after death. If you're saved, you're immediately taken by the angels into heaven. Stephen, I love to read Stephen as they're stoning him to death. I see Jesus. I don't see the angry mob. I don't see the angry people throwing stones. I see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ready to receive my soul. Should I fall dead today, you know where I am. You see, many years ago, I repented of my sins and trusted Jesus Christ. Now it's not up to me to keep me saved. Now it's up to God to fulfill his word. I didn't save myself. I can't keep myself. But when I die, in the case of Lazarus, Lazarus died and the angels came and carried him into paradise. But if you die lost, how long does it take to go to hell? Faster than you can blink your eye. You die without Jesus Christ faster than you can blink your eye. You will lift your eyes in hell and you will burn where the worm dieth not, where there's fire and brimstone, struggling to breathe. How many of you have asthma or something similar to asthma? Two of us. They finally convinced me to take my medicine for it. And it really does help. I can't imagine that. But imagine not being able to breathe because of the fire and the brimstone. The worm dieth not. You'll be salted with salt. That's what happens when you die, if you die without Jesus Christ. Father, we come.