portion of Scripture that has
been read to you from the book of Hebrews, and that's the ninth
chapter. We'll be looking at the last
few verses of Hebrews chapter 9. Let's ask for God's blessings
again. Lord, You have gathered us together
again today, a blessing for which we give thanksgiving. You have given us the desire
to be here, the ability to be here, and we're thankful that
You've given us a place where we can go and fully anticipate
listening to the gospel of your rich, full, and sovereign grace. Thank you for our blessed Redeemer. We ask that He would be magnified
in the message this morning. May each of us have the hearing
ear, and the seeing eye, and Lord, the believing heart. or can each of us that which
is well-pleasing in Thy sight? These things we ask in the name
of the Savior and for His sake. Amen. And these last few verses
of Hebrews chapter 9, we have the three appearances of the
God-man. That's the title of the message,
the three appearances of the God-man. If you'll look, first
of all, in the 26th verse, right in the middle. Now, once in the
end of the world He hath appeared. Our Lord appeared. That's what
most of the world recognized yesterday. That He made an appearance
in this world. But most people don't know the
reason He came. He appeared to put away sin,
our sin, the sins of all of His people, and He would do that
and did that by the sacrifice of Himself. Secondly, back up
in verse 24, the last statement of verse 24, He is ascended into
heaven itself, not to appear. Right now He appears in the presence
of God for us. And then in the last verse of
chapter 9, it says in the last statement, to them that look
for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. So now you've got a road map
of where we're going. as we try to speak on the subject,
the three appearances of the God-man. The three appearances
of the God-man. Now, we must not therefore conclude
that the Son of God made no more appearances for us. In fact,
He made His appearance in the covenant of grace. He, the Eternal
God, the Eternal Son, and the Eternal Spirit of Grace, convened
in divine council. They devised the covenant of
peace, the everlasting covenant of grace in the secret council
chambers of old eternity. They met together with all knowledge
In all the fullness of wisdom, God devised the means of salvation
for a multitude of sinners. He chose the Savior, that's the
Son of God. He chose the means whereby He
would save, that is, by taking into union with Himself our nature. without sin, and in that nature
living on this earth, and then laying down His life, giving
His life a ransom for many, then taking that life back unto Himself,
then forever reigning in glory as our sovereign King and great
High Priest. In the covenant of grace, this
was all settled. I was thinking as I prepared
this message yesterday, when we get together for a council,
if we were going to make a covenant, you and me and somebody else,
perhaps we would sit at a table and all the details would be
ironed out concerning the covenant that we would make with each
other. Know this, all the details all the details that is regarding
to the salvation of our souls was ironed out by Father, Son,
and Spirit. And in that covenant of grace,
and if I may put it on a level that we can perhaps better comprehend,
at that table of grace, we had one there who was our representative. We had one there who is called
the surety of a better covenant or a better testament. We had
one there who is the mediator of that covenant. We had one
there who is the ambassador of God on behalf of that covenant. We had one there who represented
us in that covenant. Now make no mistake about it,
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all vitally interested
in the salvation of the people that God chose to salvation.
I said God chose the Savior and He chose a people to be the recipients
of that salvation. These were the vessels of mercy
aforeprepared unto glory. and every detail of our salvation
was worked out and ordained and predestinated in that covenant
of peace, in that council of grace. The Father choosing the
Son, then volunteering and yet also being chosen Himself to
be the Savior. And He appeared in that covenant
for us. These three appearances here
listed in the end of Hebrews chapter 9, these are not his
first appearances. He appeared for us in eternity. He has always represented us. He has always stood for us. He has always been that one through
whom God would show us grace and mercy and salvation based
upon Him fulfilling every stipulation of the covenant of grace. And
mind you this, make sure you get this, all the conditions
for our salvation rested very squarely upon the shoulders of
our representative. He was fully accountable for
the everlasting safety of His people. And so in that covenant
of grace, He appeared for us. Isn't that wonderful? We had one there who appeared
in the presence of God. One who is eternal, one who is
almighty, one who is all-glorious, one who is the second person
of the Trinity, and He was there representing the interests of
His people. In fact, The reason he appeared
in this world 2000 years ago was on account of that first
appearance of that eternal appearance of his in the covenant of grace.
The reason he came into this world is because the father sent
him on a mission of mercy. He didn't come merely to be the
example of how we should live. In fact, He didn't merely come
to show us that God is good, though God is good and God was
good to send His Son. And He didn't merely come to
show us that God is love, though God sent Him in love. He came
here to satisfy the justice of God that demanded death for our
sinfulness. He came on a mission. He came
on purpose. to do something that nothing
else and nobody else could ever do to save us from our sins. Yes, the reason he made his appearance
in this world as the God-man was on account of this appearance
of his in the covenant of grace. And as you go through the Old
Testament, you'll find that He made many appearances. Certainly
He appeared to Adam and Eve after they had fallen into sin, Adam
leading the way, Adam the representative of all of our race. As in Adam,
we all died. And our Lord Jesus revealed Himself
to them. He came to them and He spoke
to them. He appeared to them. You say, well, how do you know
it's the Son of God? Because God's not going to speak to nor
be spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam except through a mediator. And there stood the mediator
in the Garden of Eden. And no sooner had our parents
fallen Then He appeared to them. He made His appearance to them.
Oh, bless the name of our Savior. He appeared to our fallen father
and mother. And then He spoke of His own
coming. He said, the seed of the woman
is coming. He's talking about Himself. And
then He illustrated exactly what He would do when He did come. He illustrated that by taking
animals that were innocent of the transgression of Adam, and
he killed those animals. He stripped the fig leaf aprons
off of Adam and Eve, and he robed them. The result of the death
of those innocent animals was our fallen parents were robed,
they were clothed. illustrating what He would do
when He came. And when He made His appearance
in this world, He came to put away sin and to robe us, to clothe
us in His own righteousness established by His bloody death at the cross
of Calvary. He appeared to Adam and Eve. He appeared to others in the
Old Testament, too. He appeared to Moses at the burning
bush. He appeared to Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego in the fiery furnace. He appeared to Daniel, and he
closed the mouths of the lions. He made many appearances in the
Old Testament. The angel of God. The messenger
of the covenant. He made many pre-incarnate appearances
in this world. But now hang on. Here's the title
of the message now. Three Appearances of the God-Man. That's how I want to look at
this because these are three vital appearances that He had
to make Not only as God, but as man, as the God-man. Three appearances that he made,
and they're specifically mentioned in this text of Scripture. Number
one, the God-man appeared in humiliation to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. Now, this appearance was recognized
and is recognized this time of the year by much of the world. Most people talk about the birth
of Jesus, acknowledging that there was one named Jesus of
Nazareth who was born into this world, born of a virgin, born
of Mary, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, who lived
his life in perfection. Most people acknowledge that.
This is the great event to which most people were confronted with
just yesterday. And we know he came. In fact,
our calendar recognizes that fact. In fact, all of history
is divided by the the incarnation of our Savior, B.C., before He
came, and then A.D., that's after He came. So as you look at your calendar,
remember that our Lord Jesus, He's the one who set this up. We live in the year of our Lord. We live in 2021 A.D. The very calendar acknowledges
the fact that many years ago, some 2,000 plus years ago, one
came to this world who's the Lord of glory. He made his appearance
in this world in a humiliated state in the body of a man, subject
to many of the temptations and trials and troubles and difficulties
that we're subject to. He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin is what the Scripture says. And He had to be a man to save
us. We read in Hebrews chapter 2
that He became a man for the suffering of death. God can't
suffer. God can't feel pain. God can't
die. Yet the law of God, because of
our own sinfulness, demands the soul that sinneth shall die. For the wages of sin is death. It's death. Somebody's got to
die. And the only death that will
avail to the satisfying of God's justice for us is the death of
one who is eternal and yet also a man. That's the God-man. Why did He come? Why did He make
this appearance? Well, the Scripture is very specific
to put away sin. To put away sin. To deal with
the sin issue. It couldn't be dealt with any
other way. It couldn't be put away any other
way. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10, the very next chapter. Look
at verse four. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Rivers of blood
flowed on Jewish altars. Multiply thousands and thousands
of animals died. Animals that were not guilty
of our transgression, of our rebellion against God. But all
of their blood together would not satisfy divine justice. He couldn't put sin away. That's why He came. He made His appearance in this
world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And not only could the blood
of bulls and goats not put away sin, but even repentance can't
put away sin. You say, well, if I repent of
my sins, that will take care of them. Well, you ought to repent
of your sinfulness. Repent of your dead works, repent
of your idolatry, but your repentance will not, cannot, it is impossible
to put even one sin away. Repentance can't do it. Well, I'll be baptized. I hadn't
been getting a lot of sleep, so I got up and turned on the
television and I was watching this religious channel. And they
were talking about being baptized to wash your sins away. That
won't do it. You go in a dry center and come
out a wet center is all. They won't wash sin away. Faith won't even take care of
your sin problem. I believe the Bible. Wonderful. Wonderful. I read it every day.
That's great. But reading your Bible, that's
not going to put sin away. The only one who could put sin
away is that one whom John referred to as the Lamb of God. He said,
behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. That's why he came. That's why
he made his appearance in this world. And most people don't
know that. You ask Him, do you believe Jesus?
Do you believe Jesus? Oh, yeah. Do you believe Jesus
came to this world? Yeah. Do you believe He was born
of a virgin? Absolutely. Do you believe He
lived a perfect life? Yes. Why do you think He died? Well, to show us that God loved
us. Well, the love of God is certainly
involved in the death of the Lord Jesus, but that's an unusual
way to show us that God loves us by God taking the life of
His Son. You see this world, listen to
me now, the world is ignorant of God's justice in demanding
death for sin. They're ignorant of it. They
have no clue as to how God can be just and justify the ungodly. In fact, not only do they not
have a clue as to this, but they're not interested in hearing about
it. They want to hear about a good life lived, about a wonderful
person who went about doing good deeds. They want to hear about
His healings, about how He blessed the multitude and picked up the
little children and put them on His knee. They want to hear
about Him up in heaven now showering blessings down upon all people. but they don't want to hear about
His bloody sacrifice that God demanded to put away our sin,
and they don't want to hear about His reward of being exalted to
be the sovereign of the universe. They don't want to hear that
either. They'll gladly hear about Christ, the Lord Jesus blessing
everybody. Sweet little Jesus. If the attitude of the world
is set forth in the Scriptures, we will not have this man reign
over us. Not this man. Not this man. But because he made his appearance
in this world and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,
God's exalted him. Say, preacher, what is sin? It's
a violation of God's law. It's missing the mark of perfection. You see, here's what sin has
done. It has shut the door of hope upon our race. That's what
sin has done. We're sinners in the heart, and
therefore we express the sinfulness outwardly. And I'll tell you,
so long as one sin remains in any of us, We cannot enter into the gates
of glory. Revelation 21, 27 says, There
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. Do you know what condition you've
got to be in before you can enter into God's heaven? You've got
to be absolutely righteous. I'm doing the best I can, preacher.
It's not good enough. We're talking about perfection
now. Well, how can perfection be had?
How can righteousness be had? Listen. God imputed, God laid
upon His Son all the sins of all the people that God gave
His Son in covenant grace. And our Lord Jesus was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And by His death,
He did put away sin, He did satisfy divine justice, and He did bring
in everlasting righteousness, which is imputed to, charged
to, reckoned to the account of all of His people. You see, see if you can get hold
of this, and I pray that God give you eyes to see and ears
to hear and a heart to believe. You became sinful by the action
of somebody else. That's just the way it is. By
one man's disobedience, the many that he represented became sinners. And you become righteous. through the obedience of this
God-man. His obedience unto death. This is what God demands. That's
the reason the Savior looked at this vast group of people
to which He was preaching. And He said, and these are Bible-carrying
religious folks who prayed and fasted and tithed of all that
they possessed. He said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you're
not going to enter in the kingdom of God. How can I have that kind of righteousness? In the Lord our righteousness,
that's how. In Christ Jesus. And every believer
everyone to whom God the Spirit gives life and faith. They are then justified by faith,
believing the record that God has crucified His Son and killed
Him, and thereby established righteousness. This is the reason for our Lord's
incarnation. This is the reason for his birth. He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. What did he offer? He offered
himself. Now, please, he's not offering himself to you. Let me tell you something. The
gospel of God's grace is not an offer. It's an accomplishment. And by effectual grace, He gives
it to us and He makes you want it. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's what the Scripture says.
Christ offered Himself. Who did He offer Himself to?
To the Father. He didn't offer Himself to the
devil. The devil is owed nothing. It's the Father's law, it's the
Father's justice that's been offended, that's been aggravated. God's angry with the wicked every
day. Christ offered Himself to God
to appease His wrath. And in that offering of Himself,
all of the wrath of God fell upon those in whose stead He
came into this world and made that appearance, and with His
stripes were healed. Oh, He appeared. He appeared
the first time. He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. He appeared as a baby in Bethlehem's
manger. Bill referenced in that excellent
message he brought with him. If you haven't listened to it,
you need to listen to it. In fulfillment of Malachi's words,
he suddenly appeared in the temple. And the Spirit of God had directed
Simeon to be there. And our Lord suddenly appeared
in the temple. And Simeon saw Him. And Anna
saw Him. He appeared publicly to be the
Son of God with power at His baptism. The Father testified
of Him. He appeared in Gethsemane's garden,
surrendered Himself to the Father's will. And at the time appointed by
the Father, He appeared on Calvary's mountain to make reconciliation
for our sins. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself, and He did it all by Himself, and
He only did it once. That's all He had just one time. In our text it says here, concerning, look at verse 25,
not nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest
entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of
others. Aaron, the first high priest and every high priest
after him on the day of atonement would enter into the holy of
holies to put blood upon the mercy seat, having offered a
sacrifice out at the brazen altar. He would catch the blood and
go in there and sprinkle the mercy seed. And he did it every
year. He first of all offered a sacrifice
for himself and then for the people. Every year. Because that didn't do the job.
It pictured the job that would be done, but it fulfilled nothing
as far as the salvation of sinners was concerned. Our Lord Jesus
offered Himself. He was the offerer. He's the
high priest. And He was the sacrifice that
was offered. And He willingly poured out His
life's blood unto death. And He put away all the sins
of His people. This is an accomplishment of
redemption. Well then, the Scripture says
back up in verse 24, He went to heaven, He went into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Where is Jesus now? He's in the presence of God.
He got there, He got to the crown by way of the cross of Calvary. That crown, His sovereignty,
His reign over all things is the result of Him finishing the
work that the Father and Spirit assigned for Him to do in the
covenant of peace. And now He appears in the presence
of God, this God-man. He appears in the presence of
God making intercession for us. For us. He's the forerunner who entered
in for us. He appears in heaven as the head
and representative of His people. He's our advocate. Five bleeding, woundsy bears
received on Calvary, and they ever plead for us. He's there
as our mediator, as our great high priest. He's the one between
us and God. Our worship this morning, and
I know you have come to worship, and I have come to worship, but
we need to be aware of this. Our worship is far, far from
perfect. There's sin in our worship. There's
sin in our prayers. There's sin in my preaching.
Everything we do leaves the smell of sin on it. But we have an advocate with
the Father. We have a great high priest.
But how can God receive us and receive our worship, our thanksgiving,
our prayers, our Bible reading? How can God receive anything
that we do since we contaminate all that we do, even our spiritual
actions? They're all contaminated with
sin. How can God have anything to do with it? They go through
Christ, our great high priest. He makes them presentable for
God. Remember this, both the lost
ones who come to God and the saved ones who come to God, we
all come by Christ. There is no other way to approach
a holy God. That's the reason at the end
of our prayers we'll say something like, in Christ's name or for
Christ's sake. Did He not say, I'm the way,
I'm the truth, I'm the life? No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That's what He said. And nothing
we do is going to come to the Father except through Him. Aren't
you glad you have a mediator, an advocate, a great high priest? He appears right now, this God
man. He appears right now in heaven. Oh, if we could get a hold of
this for us, for you, for you. And then thirdly, This God-man
shall yet appear in this world in order to bring His people
unto Himself. That's what it says in the last
verse. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and
unto them that look for Him, do you look for Him? Simeon looked
for Him. Anna waited for Him or looked
for Him. Unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time, And here's two very important things.
Without sin. Without sin. He nailed that to
his cross. He took care of the indebtedness
of his people. He doesn't bear our sins and
we don't bear our sins. As far as the justice of God
is concerned, we don't have any sins. In that day shall the sins
and iniquities of Judah and Israel be searched for and won't be
found. They don't exist. Our Lord destroyed
them. He buried them in the depths
of the deepest sea. He put them all behind God's
back. God said, their sins and iniquities will I remember no
more. That's how powerful the blood
of Christ Jesus was and is. He shall appear the second time
without sin. Watch this. Unto salvation. That's when we'll fully be saved.
That's when we'll receive a glorified body. We'll still have bodies
recognizable as the body that we have now, but it's going to
be a glorified body. When He comes, when He makes
His second appearance to receive His people unto Himself, then
we shall be like Him. And John says, for we shall see
Him as He is. We'll see the God-man. Yes, His
three appearances. He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. And right now, He appears in
heaven for you, for each of you, for each of you who believe Him.
He appears in heaven for you, on your behalf. He's always represented us. He
represents us now. And one of these days, He's going
to make another appearance, this God-man. He's going to come back
to this earth. Every eye is going to see Him.
And we're going to be so thrilled to see Him. And then, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, our bodies are going to be glorified,
perfect, and will forevermore be with the Lord. Isn't that
wonderful? Be with Him forever. Well, let's
sing a closing song. And I thought this would be a
good one, 221 thank you's.