Hi, this is Pastor William. On behalf of the members of Providence Baptist Church, I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and thank you for joining us. It is our joy to share God's truth, and we trust that the preaching of God's Word will always bless His people. But we humbly remind you that no recording can ever replace biblical corporate worship or true Christian fellowship. So we encourage everyone everywhere to commit themselves to the service of God's kingdom in a local church. And we pray that the Lord keep and bless you as you continue to earnestly seek Him. Amen. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Remember this is a book written to the ancient Hebrew believers who were struggling to go back to their traditions. Because so much of this chapter is tied together, I will start from the very beginning. We'll start at verse 11 for context. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop. and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 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 awaiting for Him. So again, the author is going through comparing Christ to, or exalting Christ above the earthly things. He is comparing to God's messengers, and now he's comparing the work that Christ did to the work of the Levitical priests. And where I really want to focus is these last few verses, verses 23 through 28, these last six verses. Verse 23, thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites. He's speaking of the earthly rituals that they went through with the cleansing, with the hyssop and the white wool. and the blood, and the water, and sprinkling that on the tents, and the people, and the vessels, and all the utensils, and continuing in the verse. 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." So we see this cleansing through these sacrifices and through this work of the Levitical priest. And the author is saying here that the sacrifice of Christ, the work of Christ, is better. It's a better sacrifice. And we see the necessity of it. He says the copies of these heavenly things, in other words, the earthly sanctuary, he's pointing out the earthly sanctuary, the earthly rites and rituals, and their limitations. As we read before in Hebrews chapter eight, verse five, the tabernacle was built by, or by the command of Moses, by the Jews, The tabernacle was built by them, so it was built by man's hands, but it was a copy, as the author says in Hebrews 8.5, it was a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. The author says that it was necessary for these things to be purified. The altar, the tabernacle, the utensils, the vessels, all of that. It was necessary for it to be purified. Why? Because we taint everything with our sin. We taint everything with our sin. Remember when they was building the temple, God didn't even wanna hear the work being done at the temple. The work being done by the hands of men had to be done elsewhere and the stones brought there. The author says that it was necessary that they be purified. In fact, that's what he said in verse 22 when he said that under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. And we looked at that in some detail last time about the shedding of blood and the nature of sin and the wages of sin being death so that there would be blood that was shed. And in essence, all of this repetitious sacrificing is a repeating of the first sacrifice that took place in the garden to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. that the curse was that they would die for their disobedience. And there was a death, a spiritual death, when you consider what a physical death is, that it is a total separation from everything in this physical reality, everything that is real. then a spiritual death is a total separation from God. Everything that is real in the spiritual realm, everything that is real spiritually is found in God, and we become separated from Him in our disobedience. That's what happened. In order to cover that, to preserve His physical life for a while, there was the sacrifices. And these earthly rituals, the shedding of animals' blood, could only grant access to the earthly copies. It was a copy. All these things were copies and shadows of what was to come. earthly sacrifices, the blood of animals, was only a shadow of what was to come. It preserved them and allowed them to continue life. and to try to live to honor God here and now in this fallen world, but it was all temporary and pointing to something that would be permanent and something that would cleanse us and restore that spiritual separation. But note there in verse 24, it tells us that Christ entered heaven itself. Christ entered heaven itself. For anyone not paying close enough attention, when he wrote this in Hebrews chapter nine, verse 11, which said that Christ entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with hands, that is not of this creation, here the author is making it perfectly clear. perfectly clear that Christ's work was superior to the work of the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priest was granted the right to stand before God in man's domain here on earth, which was a copy of heaven, here on earth in the tabernacle, which is a copy of heaven's throne room. God would condescend to be in his presence there, but that was only once a year, and it was only one man representing so many others. Pay attention, you see those connections, all those things foreshadowing, all those signs pointing to Christ, the one man that would stand and bear the sins for many and go into the presence of God. But while the Levitical high priest was granted the right to stand before God here in man's domain, here on earth, Christ was granted the right to enter into God's presence in God's domain in heaven, in the actual throne room, not in the copy, not in the shadow. It was the actual throne room. So this was what everything was pointing to. All the work that the Levitical priest did, all the worship, all the sacrifices, it was all pointing to what Christ was going to do and what He did. And as we've already noted, heaven is a sanctuary not built by man. So how is it tainted by sin? It's not. So then why does the author In verse 23, he says that the earthly things had to be purified by the earthly sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves need to be purified by a better sacrifice. How is that possible? Heaven is not built by the hands of man, therefore it is not tainted by our sin. So what does the author mean when he says that it needs to be purified by a better sacrifice? I like what Simon Kistemacher writes about this in his commentary. And what he says is that we first have to understand what the expression heavenly things is referring to. We have to understand that in a spiritual sense. The text tells us that the true sanctuary is heaven itself. And heaven is where God and his people dwell together. But this is only possible because of the work of our great high priest. It is only possible that this could be a dwelling place for man in the presence of God because of what Christ did. Remember, all of the spiritual blessings that we have, all of the spiritual blessings that we have, we gain because we are united with Jesus Christ. We are in Christ. So where Christ is, we are. We are in Christ. So when Christ, as we read in Revelation, when Christ rules, we rule. So we, Christ is standing, dwelling in the presence of God. We dwell in God's presence because we are in Christ. And we can serve God by offering ourselves as living sacrifices because we are in Christ. It is Christ's blood that made all of this possible. You could look at it in the sense that we are the utensils. We are the utensils, we are the vessels, and scripture refers to us in that sense. We're the vessels, and we have to be purified in order to stand in the presence of God by something better than what the Levitical priesthood had to offer. that could only grant one man one day in the presence of God here on earth. What Christ has done grants us an eternity in the presence of God, in the presence of God in heaven. And in the future, it will be in a new heaven and earth, but we will be in his presence. And this is all possible because of the sacrifice of Christ. So you see how all of those things pointed to Christ, but Christ is the substance. All of those things are shadows, but Christ and His work is the substance of what it was all pointed to. And it is a superior sacrifice. It is sufficient and it is final and that's what we come to in when we continue into verse 25 It says nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest who 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." Notice, brother, that this is not repeated. He doesn't have to offer Himself repeatedly. In John chapter 17, verse 4, uh... christ praise this uh... this high prayer this uh... this this prayer it is his last public prayer this is just before the romans come before judas in the romans come to a arrest him and he's asking the father to glorify him just as he is glorified the father here on earth and he says in verse four he says i glorified you on birth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. He glorified the Father here on earth by accomplishing the mission that he was sent to do. which was to reconcile sinful men to a holy God. Yes, he came and he lived a life of obedience. All that he did was to the glory of God. But I'm focusing on this aspect, and this is the aspect that the author is focusing on, the reconciliation of sinful men to a holy God. Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, verses 18 and 19 says, all this from God. All this is from God who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. This is what Christ accomplished. Nobody else could do this. Remember the nature of our sin, the nature of the offense is that God created a creature and the creature rebelled against God. An omnipotent, omniscient God. The creature rebelled against Him. By all rights, God could have just destroyed Adam and Eve and started over. But instead, He chose to pursue a course that not only would manifest the glory of His justice, but it would manifest the glory of His mercy and His compassion. Nobody else could do this but God come in flesh. Nobody else could accomplish this but God. We certainly couldn't do it. We're the ones who offended Him. And we are the ones who come before Him with nothing. We have nothing to offer, nothing to bargain with. We've seen it over and over again in the Old Testament where God's not pleased with the way we worship Him. God is not, without Christ trying to live under the Levitical system of just doing the things and checking the boxes, it does not please God. He says it a number of times. One that stands out to me is Amos telling them to stop bringing their noise, stop coming to him with their singing and their offering. He doesn't want to hear it anymore because their heart was so far from him. And that's how we are until God moves in us. Our heart is so far from Him. We have no concern to truly please Him, so going through the motions angers Him, and for some people, it just offends them. No one else could accomplish this but God in the flesh. And now the glory of God manifests in the redemption of mankind is the most important finished work. Now we know that the glory of God is the most important finished work in all regards. But this is, here, what the author is focusing on is the manifestation of God's glory in the redemption of mankind. And there are many other things, though, that Christ accomplished. There are many things that he finished on the cross, from Genesis to Malachi. There's over 300 specific prophecies detailing the coming of the promised Messiah. 300, over 300 specific prophecies dealing with the coming Messiah. And all of these Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. That was finished. the humiliation of the second person of the Trinity. Finished. He is exalted now. The suffering of Christ while he was on this earth, and especially in those last hours at the hands of the Jews and the Romans and the religious leaders who should have been lauding his praises, but instead were stirring the crowds up saying, crucify him. That's finished. It is finished. God's will for Jesus is perfect obedience. It is finished. It was accomplished. Satan's dominion over this earthly kingdom is finished. Satan's dominion and the power of sin over God's people is finished. The work of atonement is finished. That is what Christ cried out in John 19.30 when he said, Tetelestai, when he said, it is finished. That's exactly what he meant. That was the meaning of the Greek. That is the meaning of the English. It is finished, paid in full. The work of atonement is done. It is finished. The work of reconciliation is finished. The work of our justification is finished. And it is finished once and for all. Yes, there is still ongoing work of sanctification. There's still ongoing work of the Spirit applying justification to God's people. As we go out, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians, as we go out with the work of reconciliation, there is still that going on. But the work of atonement is finished. The work of reconciliation is finished, finished once and for all. This does not mean once and for all mankind. Note what the author is talking about here. Note the focus is a temporal focus. Everything that the author has been saying is in reference to the constant repetition of the sacrifices under the Levitical priesthood. He's not talking about how the Levitical priesthood reached out to all the peoples and all the nations everywhere across the world. No, he's talking about how they had to constantly do these things over and over again. The author says that Jesus appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. It is in comparison to the repetition of the Levitical sacrifices. And so we must keep that in mind when we come to this passage, or this verse, where it says he appeared once for all at the end of the ages. The author is telling us what Christ did. that he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. To put it away, not to cover it up again for another year, but to put it away, to be done with it. And how did he do that? By living a perfect life on our behalf. He perfectly obeyed the will of God, which we do not do, he did it on our behalf, and then, because he knows that the wages of sin is death, and that we still have that debt to pay, because he knows that. He then offered up his own perfect life of obedience to pay for our sin. That's what he did. That's what he did. And when did he do that? we can look at it. We can look at the calendar and see when we did that, when he did that. But here, the author has given us a timestamp of his own. He's saying, at the end of the ages. Now, if you're reading the King James, it says at the end of the world. And the Greek, The Greek word here is aheion, and it's the source of the word, or heion, it's the source of the English word that we get that's aeon, or eon, eon meaning a long period of time. period of time, not necessarily a specified period of time, but a long period of time. It's eon. It's like, you know, we say eons and eons ago, something happened. Um, so, but I do want to point this out that the, uh, the writers of the King James use the correct translation of that word. It does also mean world. But in this case, we're not talking about the world. We're talking about temporal things. We're talking about time and repetition, once for all. So every other translation that I've seen out there translates this as ages. And when did Christ do this work? at the end of the ages, the end of the ages. You had the age of the time when Adam and Eve were in the garden, then you have the age of the time when they were kicked out of the garden, but before the flood, and you have the age of the period after the flood with Noah. and his descendants, and then you have the age of the patriarchs, and the age of the nations, the nation of Israel. However you want to break it, the age of the dispersion, however theologians want to divide it up, one thing is agreed upon by all of them, and that is that right now we are in the age of the church. They may not all agree that this is the end. Some believe and are looking forward to another thousand years when Christ will come to reign on earth. But as we saw through the study of Revelation, there's really no evidence for anything like that. Christ has come and he will come again. And the next time he comes, he's bringing an end to all of this. This is the last age. Ever since the incarnation of the Messiah, this is the time of the gospel. This is the end of the ages because this is the last age. After this age comes to an end, creation comes to an end, and judgment comes. And the author says, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. So the author then is calling us to consider how Christ has come at the end of the ages to put away sin and his sacrifice is sufficient and final for all who believe in him, for all who trust in that, for that day that is coming, that day of judgment. The author is calling us to consider our own imminent death and the coming judgment in light of what has been said about the work of Christ. because this is what the Hebrew believers were doing. They were considering that. They were considering judgment and God and eternity, and so they were thinking maybe they should return to the traditions that they knew, that it would soothe their conscience a little more. How is Christ, what he did, compared to all of these other things? Well, that's what the author's addressing. Christ is superior to all of those things. Christ doesn't have to offer sacrifices over and over again. His sacrifice was sufficient and it was final. And so he's calling them to consider their imminent death in that day of judgment in light of Christ and his sacrifice. Just as the Levitical priest's sacrifices are rooted in the events of the garden, So is our appointment, each individual one, each individual one of us, our appointment with death and judgment is rooted there in the events of the garden. God commanded Adam not to eat the fruit of a certain tree and told him that death would be the price of disobedience. And then in that moment of rebellion, in that one moment of rebellion, mortality, entered the human experience. And by virtue of our association with Adam, we fall under that curse. We didn't cause it, but we are born into it. We didn't cause it, but we are born into it. In God's providence, we are born into this fallen world at the time and the place that he has ordained. Now, don't get me wrong on this, brothers and sisters. None of us are going to be punished for Adam's sin. Scripture's clear that we are punished for our own sins. We will not be punished for Adam's rebellion, but we have continued in that rebellion. We have continued in that rebellion, and so we are as guilty of it as Adam was. We do more than enough sin on our own to warrant the wrath of God. And then here in Hebrews chapter nine, the author is emphasizing the finality of human existence. Death comes to us all. This is a fact of history that we all know, that we all have to live with. I know it's easy when we are young and very healthy to think that it's way down the road, to think that it's too far off to worry about, but it's not because we do not know what tomorrow brings. We do not even know what this evening brings. I'm sure we all have our plans for what's going to happen this evening. But this is the fact, this is the point of what the author is saying here, the finality, the imminent death and coming judgment. Life is lived one time. Life is lived one time, then you die, and then there is judgment. That's the human experience, just like it was for Adam. Adam has died and he has gone on to stand before God. You will die, I will die, and we will go on to stand before God, and He will be our judge. That is what makes the work of Christ so important. Christ died once to put away the sin of His people. That never needs to be repeated. If it's put away, it's put away. It never needs to be repeated. So when he returns, he will not come again to act as a sacrifice, but rather he will come to bring that final salvation for his people. So this focus on the death and judgment to come, it highlights a very important theological and biological fact. First of all, we all die. We know that to be the case, but death is not natural. I know that sounds a bit odd because everything that is alive does die, but it's not natural the way God created things. Death is not some sort of cosmic accident that just happened, okay? It is not part of the circle of life that mother nature came up with in order to recycle our atoms. Death is a part of the divine judgment against the sin of man. Death is the verdict against our rebellion. Death is a manifestation of the justice of God against disobedience. But that does not have to be the end of the story. That does not have to be the end of the story, because God, because of the gospel, there is hope. Because along with God's infinite and perfect justice, there is an infinite and perfect mercy and compassion. It's this hope that the author refers to, that he turns our attention to in verse 8. or verse 28, excuse me, 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. The message found in verse 28 is the gospel. Acts 2 tells us that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was in accordance with the divine plan of God. All the things that he suffered were in accordance with the divine plan of God. And so it is for all men. Or so as it is for all men, Jesus' death was appointed, just as our death is appointed. Number of Psalms, number of passages in Scripture tell us that our days are numbered. Our days are numbered, God knows the extent of our life. and a day of death and judgment is appointed. And Jesus' death was appointed and it was final. That's what the author says here, once for all, it's final. But unlike other men, Jesus doesn't go before God to be judged. Jesus goes before God victorious over sin and rebellion. And also unlike other men, He will return. He will return. He has earned the Father's blessing to rule and have dominion over this fallen kingdom until it is replaced. And then Christ will rule and reign in the new earth, in the new heavens. So Christ is not coming back to repeat anything that He's already done. He's not coming back to repeat the sacrifice. He's coming back to save those who are eagerly expecting Him. This is great news. This is the heart of the gospel. Christ is returning to rescue all of those who trusted Him, not just to rescue us from this fallen, cursed world, But it or to rescue us from the power of sin that was done on the cross He's coming now to rescue us from the wrath to come against this fallen world He is coming back brother sisters. He is coming back to claim his people Those who believe in Christ Should be longing for his return. We should be anticipating the second coming. Not like those who are looking for signs in the newspapers, looking for the sign of the times in the headlines around them, but like those who already know the message. That is a message of salvation. Those who are saved and share in the hope of Christ's return are safe from the wrath to come. That is the message. And we should be anticipating that second coming. Because our salvation, brothers and sisters, and we've talked about this in some detail before, but our salvation is a past and present and future salvation. It is a past in the sense that Christ has accomplished all that he has done in the past by His life and by His sacrifice and resurrection and ascension. All that happened long ago. That happened in the past, what Christ has done. And then it is also a present salvation in that we are saved and united with Christ right now. And so we can live in light of the gospel. And it is a future salvation in the sense that we will be saved out of this fallen, broken world and into eternal communion with God and eternal peace. free from the death and the destruction and the cycle of tears and sorrow that we live through here. It is in these ways that our salvation is past, present, and future. How else do they say it? That it's already and not yet. so we can rejoice in what Christ has done in the past. We can live with hope and eagerly await Christ in the future, but we can live with hope now. We can live by the power of God's spirit and his word now in the present, and we can anticipate the glories of the future. even though we still struggle against the trials and temptations of this fallen world. Christians can and must rest in the fact that we are eternally secure in Christ right now. Those who are trusting in Him right now are secure for all eternity. We are His. We are His. Look, don't misunderstand me. He looks at you and sees you for what you are. Christ does. And he takes pity and compassion on you to help you. And he offers everything that's needed for our help. God sees you through Christ. Christ is perfect. You and I are not yet perfect, but we will be. He loves us now because we are in Christ. So we can and we must rest in that fact that we are eternally secure. We are His. And He has all the power to do with us as He pleases. And He is pleased because we trust Christ to save us. And there's nothing that can separate us from that. We are His and He is coming back to claim what belongs to Him. Let us pray.