This morning, we're going to
be in the book of Hebrews again. Hebrews chapter nine, as I mentioned,
the first hour and look at the last two verses. Every single person. That is
ever born upon the face of the earth. Is born with an appointment. An appointed time, that's what
I've titled this message and appointed time or appointed time
is what the title is. This appointment cannot be dodged.
You know how you go to a doctor's office and you schedule an appointment,
something pops up, you have to call and say, I need to reschedule
that. Can't do that with this appointment. You weren't the
one who made the appointment, God was. The appointment is to
die. And that's what he's mentioning
here in our text. God has put time in motion that
everything according to his will shall come to pass. No one can
add one more second to their life, no matter what they do. We have an appointment, an appointed
time to stand before God and be judged, and be judged. Let's read this, Hebrews 9, 27.
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 to them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Appointed
time. We have an appointed time. Solomon
wrote the book Ecclesiastes. There's a time to live. There's
a time to die. There's a time to laugh. There's
a time to cry. There's a time for everything
under the sun. It was the end of all of that. As the seasons change, we see
falls quickly upon us. It makes some happier than others,
but seasons change. Our life is but a vapor. It appeareth
for a little time, then vanisheth away, James 4, 14. Proverbs 30
verse one says, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow,
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. We have an appointed
time. Very soon, every one of us in
this room, we're gonna draw our last breath. Our heart will beat
its last beat. And at that time, that'll be
the last of time. We will enter into eternity to
be judged of God. To be judged of God. Now most
never face this fact. Most never come to this reality. The Lord's people do. The Lord's
people do. But most never really think about
death. They never think about, they
say, I've heard a man say, well, I'll worry about that when I
get closer to time. When I get closer, well, when is that gonna
be? You know the exact date? Well, no, but I'm healthy, I
feel good. What did the Lord tell us in
a parable? There was a man who built, had
barns, Now think about this, he had barns and he filled them
up and he said, you know what? Make them bigger. He tore them
down and he filled those up. He said, now I've got plenty
of food to last me for years, for a long time, I'm good. I'm
just gonna eat, drink, and be merry. Isn't that what people
do? What'd the Lord say? Thou fool,
tonight your soul will be required of thee. Tonight you're gonna
die. And everything that you had worked
for and everything that you did will not amount to anything in
the presence of God. He's not looking for what you've
done or have not done. He's not looking at how full
your barns are. As a matter of fact, those barns
are just going to go to Whoever's in your wheel, I guess, they'll
get the work that you put in. They'll get it, won't they? And
Solomon saw that whenever he was talking. And he said, that's
just vanity and vexation of spirit. He said, I can't. It's everything
I'm doing. I'm just going to be leaving
to somebody else. But he found the one thing needful was to
be found in Christ. And being found in Christ Doesn't
mean that you're looking at what you're doing and what you're
not doing as your only hope at your appointed time, but you're
looking at him as your only hope at the appointed time he has
for you. Our hearts are so deceitful,
we'll just say, I'll worry about that when it gets closer. But
no man knows the hour of their time. No one can change or alter
it in any way. I've mentioned this to you all
before. I went to the doctor just for a healthy, checkup and
I take vitamins. I'm kind of taking vitamins now
so I don't have to take medicine later, is kind of what I'm thinking.
We'll see how that works out. I'm just trying to be proactive,
you know. And they were like, wow, you're
30-something years old and you're taking these vitamins. That's
awesome. Nobody else does that that's
normally your age. Nobody else, like normally it's old people
we see doing all this. It's like, well, she's like, you're trying
to live a longer life, aren't you? And I was like, And I literally
said, no, not really. I just don't want to end up in
a wheelchair or have a bad quality of life. That would be my, because
I know we have an appointed time that we can't control. But this
lady didn't know that, apparently, because she says, you remember
me telling you this, probably. She says, well, there's a book
you've got to get, How Not to Die. Gotta get that book. Everyone that's been in that
book, she said, everyone that does that book, the average lifespan,
they live to be over 100. I'm thinking, I don't even think
I wanna live to be 100. Said, you can live to be over 100 if
you do this. I looked it up because I was curious. It said on the
book, it guarantees you a longer, healthier life. You put a guarantee
like that on a book? You know how many copies of that
book? They've sold over one million copies. Over one million. People
believe they can add to their appointed time. I'm here to tell
you that's not true. That's not true. We can't add
one more second to our life. Our life is but a vapor. You
know as well as I do, when your time is up, when your time is
up, you're going to be standing before God, whether you're prepared
or whether you're not prepared. And the only way that you can
be prepared is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can avoid their appointed
time. You can't dodge it. You can't
bypass the judgment. It's going to be appointed for
you not to die, and after this, the judgment. It's appointed
by the creator and sustainer of life. Who can contend with
God or say unto him, what doest thou? Who can stay his hand?
No, he calls for you. You're coming. You're coming. It was ordered and sure before
the world ever began. Every second that's on the clock
that ticks, from the time the sun was first spoken into existence
by God saying, let there be light. And then the earth, that's the
beginning of time. There's going to be an end of
time. And every second that's ticked and every second that
will tick is ordered and sure because of who ordained it, because
of who created it, because of who purposed it. And our time
is appointed and we can't change it. We can't change it. For those who do ponder upon
the fact of death, you have some people that actually do worry
about it. They're not believers. They just have anxieties and
things. They fear death. And really, a lot of people fear
death. They do. At some point in their
life, they're made to fear death. But whenever this happens and
you ponder upon death, you must decide what happens after that. Well, some people's come to the
conclusion, well, that's just the end of everything. When I die,
I just go back to dust. You may have heard this before. And that's
just the end of it. I go back to the earth and it's
all over. That's not true. That's not true. We have a soul.
We're the only creatures created in God's creation that has a
soul that's going to be judged. A soul. No other animals have
a soul. You and I have a soul that's going to be judged. Some
others have come to the conclusion, well, you come back reincarnated.
Depends on the life that you lived and how good you've done.
You can come back as a cow if you've done really good, or you
can come back as a beetle if you've done really bad, or something
like that, and then you live out that life, and eventually, maybe,
you get to be something better, but we don't believe that either,
do we? Why? Because it's appointed unto man
once to die, and after this, the judgment. After this, the
judgment. Yes, this corpse will go back
to the ground. From whence it came, it'll turn
back to dust. It'll vanish away. but the soul is forever. It's
eternal. It's eternal. It'll never die. It'll never die. So we have the
truth here in our text that tells us it's appointed unto men once
to die, but after this, the judgment. But the flesh's natural conclusion
is, well, if there is God that I have to deal with, and there
is, but the flesh says, well, if, I'm not as bad as that person,
so I think I'll be okay. I talked to a man recently at
work, and I may have told you this story, and if I keep telling
you the same stories, I'm sorry, but he came up to me, and he
found out I was a pastor, and he said to me, are you a righteous
man? And I said, I don't understand what you mean
by that. You'll have to explain what you mean. And he said, well,
I consider myself a righteous man, because I do good. I take
care of others. I always try to put people before
myself. I try to go to church. And he gave me his whole, what
he did. And that's the message that's
being preached today is that you can have a righteousness
outside of Christ. You can have a, you can be considered
righteous because of what you do. That's not true. No, if you,
at judgment day, if you were to stand before God and you bring
forth everything, because everything's gonna be brought forth, whether
it be good or whether it be evil, and you bring forth what you
have done and you present it unto God, and you say, this is
the good that I've done, it's not gonna be a scale that has
good on one side and bad on the other, and it's gonna outweigh.
No, everything's gonna be put to the bad side, even if you
think it's good, and it's gonna be called sin. It's gonna be
called sin. What's the wages of sin? It's
death. But he didn't stop there. The
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Well, since I live a good life
and since I've been good to people, God will accept me. No, that's
just the deceitfulness of the heart, isn't it? Remember the
rich man and the Pharisee. The rich man prayed within himself.
I love the way that the Lord wrote that. He prayed within
himself. He's praying about himself to himself, but he's letting
God in on it. He said, I thank thee, O Lord, that I am not like
others are. I'm not like extortioners. I'm
not an adulterer. I'm not this, and I'm not that. And I'm not even like that publican.
Singled a guy out, didn't he? I'm not like him. He says, I
tithe. He says, I'm faithful to God. I've done all these things. But
what of the publican, said he would not so much as lift up
his eyes unto heaven, but beat upon his chest and said, have
mercy on me, the sinner. Lord said, one of these men went
home justified. Which one do you think it was?
It was the publican. Have mercy on me, the sinner. Whenever that Pharisee died,
unless the Lord saved him, when that Pharisee died and he stood
before God, he said, but Lord, I've done all these wonderful
works in your name. I've done this, and I don't do that, and
I've been a good person, and I've tithed, and I've fasted,
and I've helped the community. I've helped the church. That
church was, my name was above the door on that church. I donated
more money than anybody else to get that church. You know, that
kind of attitude. And that's his righteousness. That's his
righteousness. The Lord says, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. Here we have the truth. There
is none righteous but God. There's none righteous, no not
one, but God. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that doeth good. It's not that our good
outweighs our bad or vice versa, it's that our bad and our good
are equally bad. It's utterly sinful. You're saying
the good deeds that I do are sin in God's eyes? Yes. very best prayer that you've
ever prayed, the very best thing that you've ever done. Now, certainly
we do nice things for each other and continue to do that. Don't
say, well, what's the point if it's sin? Because Christ put away
the sin. That's the point. Christ put
away the sin. Here's what the Lord says. Behold,
all souls are mine as the soul of the father. So also the soul
of the son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. You and I have sinned, we're
born in sin, shaping into iniquity, aren't we? Because everyone has
sinned, we'll surely die. And in death, in death, you must
be held accountable for your sin. In death, you must be held
accountable for your sin. Now there's only one thing that
gives us hope. because the wages of sin is death.
The one thing that gives us hope is the but of the gospel, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Understand, you and I don't have to do anything to deserve hell,
to deserve separation from God. Heaven's the presence of God,
hell's the separation from God. That's the two differences. If
we try to attempt to fix our sin, the Lord calls that iniquity,
and he hates the workers of iniquity. What's our hope then? We can't
fix it. If you can't fix my sin, I can't
fix my sin. There's nothing I can do about it. Matter of fact,
anything I do makes it even worse. What's our hope? We can't do
anything contrary to our nature. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. What's our hope? Well, it can't come from the
flesh then, can it? Our hope can't be in the flesh. Can't
come from what we do. God must do something. God must
do something. Not that we did something, God
must do something. God had to choose to do the saving,
all the saving, because certainly we would never have been able
to save ourself. Our only hope is God's gospel. God's gospel. God chose in the
covenant of grace to redeem his people from their sin. He chose
to elect them unto eternal life. He chose to predestinate them
to be conformed to the image of his son. He chose for them
to be redeemed. And the son in that covenant
agreed to redeem them. He agreed to become a man and
die for them. And he, after death, was resurrected and now is seated
as our mediator, our advocate, our surety, our substitute, having
put away all sin of his people. And the Spirit agreed that in
time he would call every single one that Jesus Christ died for
and that the Father elected. That takes me and you completely
out of the equation, doesn't it? That means we can't do anything
to mess it up. We can't do anything to get in
or out of it. The Lord's the one that did it all. It's a covenant
between God. It's his covenant that he was fully obligated according
to his will and purpose to fulfill. You and I had no part in fulfilling
it. He did all this to save his people from their sin. He also did it to get all the
glory and salvation. If you and I did one thing to
get salvation, how many times have you heard somebody say,
I got saved? You know what that means? They've done something.
That's what that means. You'll never hear a believer
say that. You'll hear a believer say, I hope I'm his. I hope I'm
his. I've got to be his. If I'm not
his, I have no hope. If this isn't the gospel, there
is no gospel. I've got to be found in Christ. Because what
he says right here, it's appointed. Unto men once to die, I have
an appointment. I can't get out of it. And after death is the
judgment of God. The good news of the gospel is
is at the appointed time. You and I have an appointed time.
Christ had an appointed time. Did you know that? Christ had
an appointed time to die. And he was judged upon the cross
of Calvary, but not for his sin. Not for his transgression, not
for his iniquity. He was judged for the sin, the
iniquity, and the transgression of his people. He was judged
for the sin of you and I in our stead. When the wrath of God
fell, it was completely extinguished by the Lord Jesus Christ. He
drank damnation dry. He drank damnation dry. His soul
was poured out unto death, offered to the Father. And the Father
was well pleased with that sacrifice. And the last words on the cross
tells us that whatever he was doing between him and God, the
Father was satisfied because he said, it is finished. It is
finished. Put them all away, all the sin.
Cast them into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered again.
Our father Adam doomed us all by disobedience unto death. The
Lord Jesus Christ, he saved us all by obedience unto life. Obedience unto life. Philippians
2.8 says, in being found in fashion, and we Mac read this back in
the men's study this morning. I said, well, that's gonna be
in my notes. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
His obedience equaled our salvation. Adam's disobedience made us all
sinners. Christ's obedience made all of
his people the perfect righteousness of God in him. He owned our sin, suffered the
judgment of God on our behalf, endeared the cross, endeared
the suffering due us, endeared the wrath due us. This was his
appointed time. This was his appointed time to
die before the foundation of the world as well. He took our
punishment. By his own blood, by his own
death, he purged our sin. He purged our sin. The many,
he says here in our text, so Christ was offered to bear the
sins of many, that's the elect. Whoever sin he was bearing, he
put them all away. And they've been made the righteousness
of God in him. And in time, he just lets us
know about it. He just tells you about it. He enlightens us
to his truth, doesn't he? Everyone has an appointed time
of death and judgment. Only God's people need not fear
death. because of what Christ accomplished. We have already
died to the law. We have already been judged in
Christ. Our sin has been put away. There
is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
That's our hope. The gospel is our hope. It's
appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.
Paul says this, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation which at first began to be spoken of the Lord and
was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? How shall we
escape? There is no escape, is there?
How shall the sinner be made the righteousness of God except
to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ? There is no other way.
How can the mountain of sin that we have acquired, that we are,
be made right? How can our bad be made good?
How can our evil wickedness be changed to perfect righteousness
except by the blood of the Lamb? It's the only way. It's the only
way. Even courts weigh evidence as
rightly as they can, as truthful as they can. I know there's crooked
judges and crooked lawyers and crooked everything. I mean, I
understand that. We live in a sin-filled world, but think about the court
system that we do have. You're in court and you're being
judged for a crime that you've committed. You're guilty. But
in due process, because of what we have, is you're able to plead
your case, you're able to present evidence, perhaps somebody will,
something would pop up to make it seem like it wasn't such a
bad crime as it was, or maybe you'll get off. But if the evidence
is strongly against you, and there's undisputable video evidence
of you doing that particular action, no just judge is going
to let you off, are they? That's a human court system.
The scripture says, shall not the judge of the earth do right?
No, there's not going to be anything that we can sweep under the rug
before him. There's not going to be anything that we can say,
well, you know, I was at the wrong place at the wrong time
when that happened. Either you are perfectly righteous before
God, or you're a hell deserving sinner. It's that simple. Christ
is the only one that makes you to differ. Christ is the only
one that makes us to differ. Unless we have been conformed
to his image, unless we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous, we have no hope. Unless he bore
our sin on the tree, we still have sin, but he did bear our
sin on the tree in his own body. On that day when the scroll of
judgment is opened, the holy court of God, the throne room
of God, whenever that court is in session and we are to be judged
at our appointed time and we stand forth if the Lord Jesus
Christ is our advocate. If he did put away our sin, then
when the scroll is read, there'll be written in blood these words,
perfectly righteous, nothing to hold against your account,
nothing to charge you with. You're innocent. You're innocent. Enter in thou good and faithful
servant. God's pleased to look upon Christ and pardon me. It's
appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment.
But for God's chosen people, Christ took that judgment into
himself. Do us. Now judgment has been
satisfied. Justice has been satisfied. The
law is silent. There's no sin. It's all gone. I feel like Mephibosheth, when
you hear this good news, who am I that thou shouldest look
upon such a dead dog as I am? Mephibosheth, it ain't because
of you, but I'm showing you mercy, and I'm showing you grace, and
I'm showing you kindness, and I'm showing you favor. I'm showing
it to you for Jonathan's sake. Brethren, it ain't because of
us that the Lord decided to show us grace and mercy and kindness. It's because of Christ. It's
because of His work. Aren't you glad that it's not
based upon your performance? Aren't you glad it ain't based
upon what you do or don't do? If it was, we'd all be lost. It's based entirely upon what
He did. Mephibosheth sat at the king's table every day, eating
the king's food. You know, they had a You know
they had a cloth there covering up his lameness. Nobody knew
he was lame. He's the first one in and the last one out. Nobody
could see his impotency. And he got to eat the king's
food with the king. Isn't that us? Nobody can see our impotency
anymore because it's gone. The sin's covered by the blood.
I bet you that tablecloth was bright red, don't you? It's gone. It's covered. Paid in full. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. You
mean God did it all? Yes, this is God's gospel. 1 Peter 1, verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance,
incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for all of the Lord's people. And all the Lord's people,
he goes on to say, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. This is what Abigail and Kylie
are about to confess. Christ is all in salvation. Christ is my only hope in salvation. I have an appointed time to die,
and after this, the judgment. If he didn't take my judgment,
I will be judged rightly, but I will be weighed in the balance
and found wanting. Our hope is their hope that he'll
appear again, and when he does, it won't be in judgment unto
sin, Won't be in judgment under sin, but because of what he did,
his appointed time, because of what he did, if we are in him,
there is no more judgment. He's going to appear unto us
in eternal life, salvation, peace. Our appointed time will be Christ
revealed in us, the hope of glory. Didn't even know he was In us,
all we can see is this flesh. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. He's given us his spirit whereby we cry out, Abba, Father,
it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. All that's left now is eternal
rest for the Lord's people, eternal peace. Oh, death, where is thy
sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory?
Our appointed time will be a time of love, not judgment unto death.
Our appointed time, because we have been justified freely by
his grace, will be a time unto eternal life. Eternal life. Let's pray. Father, you have appointed the
time for us to die, and after this, the judgment. And Lord,
you knew we could not save ourself, so you chosen mercy and in love
to redeem your people. And took our judgment do us.
Lord, the. Thanksgiving we have in our heart.
And the joy that we feel because we know it's true. Thank you. Thank you. Be with us as we depart soon.
In Christ name, Amen. All right, we're going to allow
everyone to remain seated. If Kylie and Abigail would like
to go get ready, we're going to sing two songs.