Chapter 9, and our text will
be found in verse 27 and 28. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27,
verse 28. And the title of the message
tonight is Divine Appointments. Divine Appointments. The Scripture says, 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 shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation." I'm going to give you the points of the
message, and they are basically following the text. First of
all, he says, as it is appointed. Appointed unto men wants to die. So what is appointed? Death is
appointed. God has appointed that men should
die. And we're going to look at the
cause, the root cause of death. which is sin. And then after
a man dies, what is appointed? And after that, the judgment. So because of sin, judgment is
appointed. Death and judgment are appointed
of God. But herein is the hope in verse
27, so Christ. So Christ was appointed. So Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many. This is appointed
redemption. So we have appointed death, we
have appointed judgment, we have appointed redemption. That He should bear the sins
of many, and unto them that look for Him He shall appear the second
time without sin unto salvation. So what do we have there? resurrection,
appointed complete salvation for all of Christ elect. Now then, first thing we see
here is divine appointment of death as it is appointed unto
men once to die. Death, death is the result, it
is the sentence, it is the judgment of God because of sin. Sin is the root cause of death. God made man a living soul. He breathed into Adam the breath
of life. And the world was made not full
of death, but full of life. Read Genesis chapter 1 and see
how God, when He created everything, He brought it out of darkness
into light. He created life from nothing. From nothing. God created life
and everything in His garden was life, full of life. Can you imagine every tree producing
fruit? Every tree in the garden produced
fruit that was good to eat. It was pleasant. It was always
perfect. Every day it was perfect. God
made man perfect to enjoy His creation that was perfect. And so what God made was life. There were no sickness, no sorrow,
no death, no dying. And earth, the earth produced
its fullness. It wasn't just fruit, it was
full of fruit. It was its best that it could
produce. It was a paradise. And God gave
His man, His creation, only one commandment. One commandment. that out of all of the trees
of the garden, imagine all of the types of trees that produce
fruit, and yet only one God kept for himself. One tree. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. And God said, Thou shalt not
eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what was
the judgment? The judgment was, In the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. This was not a perhaps, this
was not a maybe, this was a definite sentence. You shall surely die. And friends, Adam was no moronic
caveman. He was the best of us. Imagine
the most intellectual man, the most intelligent man that ever
walked the face of the earth other than the Lord Jesus Christ
was Adam. Adam was God's best creation. He was God's highest creation. He made man, not foolish, not
as a foolish child. But the best of his race, seeing
he was created without sin, without all the consequences of the fall,
he enjoyed the best. And so when man took that fruit,
I want you to understand this, it was in full rebellion against
God. Adam understood completely what
he was doing when he ate of that tree. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 14,
it says, And Adam was not deceived. I tell you, this is the greatest
mass murder that had ever taken place. You see, our Father killed us
all. He was a representative man of
His whole race. And He openly, in rebellion,
sinned against God. It was no innocent thing that
He did. He did it in defiance against
God. Eve did transgress the commandment
of God. She did disobey the commandment. But she was beguiled. She was
deceived into eating. But what happened when our mother
ate? What does the Scripture tell
us? Nothing. Nothing happened. They did not
know they were naked until when? Until our Father ate. Until Adam ate. Then, both, the
Scripture says, of their eyes were opened. They did not fall
into any sickness, any disease, and death did not enter into
the world by Eve's eating. This is because Eve represented
no one. She was not the federal head
of any race. Adam was the head. And it was
to him that God gave the commandment that he should not eat, and that
if he did eat, he would what? Die. Die. And that is exactly
what happened the very second his teeth plunged into the fruit,
he died. Died. The sentence of God was swift
and final, for we read this, and he did eat. Four words with
such magnitude of power behind them, and he did eat. And both
of their eyes were open, and they knew they were naked. Man was now a sinner, even because
he was now dead. Not physically dead, but what? Spiritually dead. Spiritually
dead. This is the cornerstone of all
true religion. Without this, if you get this
wrong, you are so far off from the Gospel that you'll never
find it. This is the truth. This is the cornerstone, because
without this, you would get everything else wrong. If man was just bruised
a little bit, if he had enough capacity, then you would suppose
he would be able to do something. But the God by His Word tells
us that man is dead. He's not wounded, he's dead.
And this spiritual death is seen, not only in their knowledge of
their nakedness, but in their remedy. The depravity of their
soul is seen in the remedy that they tried to use. They sewed
together fig leaves to cover their nakedness. This is the first works religion
ever. Figism. Figism. And we know that this religion,
this false works religion, It will only hold up so long, it
will only soothe the conscience so long, as long as God does
not reveal Himself. This religion of covering themselves
lasted as long as God did not speak, as long as God did not
come, they were sufficient with the leaves that they had sowed
together. And so is everyone in works religion. They're content,
and they don't want to hear anything else. They don't want to hear
from God, because if they do, their leaves begin to wither.
Their works begin to fade away. But when God comes calling, as
soon as God makes His holy presence known, to be heard in the ears
of dead, depraved sinners, And their fig leaves, their good
works, dry up and die. And what do they do then? They
do exactly like our parents did. They run to the trees. They try
to hide in the forests. What is this but trying to hide
in confusion? Man likes a confusing religion
because he can hide in it. You see, He cannot hide in the
plain gospel. The plain gospel is, Wherefore
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men. Why did death pass upon all men,
Paul? For all have sinned. When did
you sin? You sinned when your father sinned. You died when your father died. You see, they don't like that.
It's not confusing enough. There leaves no room to move. You're dead. Men will always run to the trees
of religion and philosophy and psychology, any place, any place
where he can hide. In relativism, well, that's just
what you believe. That's just relative to you.
No, it's not. It's not my opinion. It's a fact. Man is born dead. Dead. When God comes to the sinner,
if He ever comes to the sinner at all, if He ever comes to you
at all, He must expose this, He must reveal this to you. If He doesn't, then you'll die in your sin.
But if God ever comes to you, He must reveal this first. He
must expose you. He must expose that you are absolutely,
completely, and utterly helpless and guilty with no hope of redemption
or self-righteousness. He must expose this. You see, the devastating result
is spiritual death. That's the devastating result
of one's sin. Adam's sin resulted in the death
of every one of his race. See, we all have sinned in Adam. And so when he died, so did Eve,
and so did we all. Therefore, all the carnal actions,
this is the conclusion of it, all then the carnal actions of
a spiritual man, of a man, all the works, all the ceremony,
all the religion, all the tears, all the prayers, all the sighs,
all the action that a man can produce, cannot give himself life. all the knowledge a man can have.
I got in my phone, I've got more space in my phone for all of
the books in the Library of Congress. I can get all that, but if you
could have all of that knowledge into your brain, do you realize
that will never give you life? Ever. This maxim is true, and you better
mark it down. No carnal actions of men, no
deeds of the flesh, no sacrifice of religion can ever give spiritual
life. See, spiritual life is no carnal
problem. It's a spiritual problem. And it cannot be solved by carnal
means. Therefore behold the race of
man is born spiritually dead and by no means or obedience
of the flesh can give life Jesus you remember he told those Pharisees
the most Moral people that everly I don't doubt that they are the
most moral people You remember what the disciples said when
he offended me said Lord, don't you know you offended them? We
can't have this kingdom without them That's what they thought But you remember what the Lord
said to those Pharisees, He said, You are nothing more than widened
tombs, painted tombs, outwardly beautiful, but inwardly full
of dead men's bones. Dead men's bones. You take a
corpse and you lay it out there and you take the best Armani
suit and you put it on it. you take five hundred dollar
pair thousand dollar pair shoes put them on nice wristwatch and
what do you got you've got a nicely dressed that's all that carnal
religion can do is cover up the outside it cannot do anything
to give man life possible man needs life and i tell you only
god can give life Only God can give life we need spiritual life
so that when we are able to see our need You'll never see your need of
life until God gives it you just won't see Because of our sin against God
it must be We must be judged then according
to God's holy and just judgment. All sin must receive a just reward. And because of this spiritual
death, I want you to understand then the result of this is that
man begins to die. When Adam sinned, he died then,
and his whole race died in him. But from that moment, he began
also to die physically. Physically. Sickness came in
to the world. Suffering came in to the world
by that one sin. And so then, our scripture tells
us it is then appointed. I tell you, when you were born,
it was appointed for your birth. But it was also appointed that
you be born spiritually dead. And just as sure as your day
was appointed for your birth, it is also appointed for our
death. It is appointed. There is no
escaping. There is no escaping. And because
of this, we've got to see then the second point, it is also
appointed judgment. After this, the judgment. The judgment. You see, because
sin is against God, it must be judged. God is not like you and
me who can slide sin or offense under the rug. We do that all
the time, don't we? Why? Because we ourselves are
sinners and we understand each other, don't we? Just before
saying, well, you know, I forgot something, we say, well, I'm
forgetful too. Well, God doesn't do that. God doesn't excuse sin, He must
judge sin. All sin must receive a just reward. And listen, the just reward of
one sin is eternal damnation. It is no small matter. It is
no mistake. It is no mishap. It is rebellion
against God. It is high treason. I tell you, but unless God quickens
you from the dead, you'll never see this. You'll never know this. You'll never know the deadness
of your spiritual nature. You would never know it. We would
never then sue God for grace and pardon unless God revealed
this. If God reveals this, what's the
result then of this? It is, what do we do? What must
I do to be saved? Isn't that the result of the
man? He came to Christ, what must
I do to be saved? Unless God reveals it, you'll
be like those that Asaph said in Psalm 73. He said, the wicked,
there's no bands in their death. But their strength is firm, and
they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued
like other men. You see, they're not plagued
like us. They have no idea. They have no idea of the consequence
of their sin. And so they rush headlong into
hell, blind and dead, not knowing. But when God gives life, we understand
there's death coming, judgments coming. What do we do? What do
we do? How can I be accepted with God? How can God who is just and holy
justify me who is guilty? How can that be? Now, death of the Spirit comes upon
us at birth, but because of the sin, there is a death of the
body. As our text tells us, it is appointed unto men once to
die. Remember, God created man a living
being, but it's our sin that brought death. both to the spirit
and to the body. But death, what is the sting
of it? Why is death so stinging? Because of sin. The sting of
death is sin. The body will return to the dust
when it dies from whence it was made, but the soul must return
to God and be judged. It must be judged of God. 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 10, it says, We all must appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in
his body according to that which he hath done, whether it be good
or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. We persuade
men. What are we doing here? I'm persuading
you of this. Death is coming. Hell is moving. God will judge every sin. You should flee to Christ for
mercy. This is what we do. We persuade
you, flee from the wrath to come. Flee. For the love of Christ, Paul
said, constraineth us, because we judge that if one died for
all, then are all dead. We persuade men because they're
dead. I love that illustration of the
miracle that happened with Ezekiel. He stood out over those dry,
dead bones, a myriad of soldiers that lay in the field in that
heat for however many years, and their bones were dry and
dead. And God said, son of man, can
these bones live? And he said, you know. If you
want these bones to live, you're going to have to do it. You know
if you want them to live. And he said, you preach to them.
And he began to preach to those bones. And that's what we do
every time we preach to dead sinners. We preach to dead sinners. It seems as though on the appearances
this is a useless thing. To man it is useless. It is a worthless thing. Preaching
is foolishness. Don't you imagine that people
are watching him look over those dry bones and preaching to him?
Ezekiel, that's the most worthless thing in the world. But it's not when God commands
it. Why? Because God can give life.
He gives life. Brethren, because of our sin
is death, spiritual death and physical death, but after that's
eternal judgment. And because all died in Adam,
then all men need life that only God can give. And if God has
given you life, Then you will see your need of
absolute free mercy. If you ever see your dead, you're
going to know that if God's got to give you life, it's got to
be free. Because you have nothing to pay. You have nothing to give. If God is to give you life, it
must be by free grace. You will see then your need of
atonement. You will see your need of redemption,
because your sin is against God, and we are constrained. Having
ourselves been quickened from the dead, having ourselves been
given life by grace, having received the truth of the Word of God
ourselves, we compel you to receive it, to believe it. trust in Christ, to receive the word of truth,
even the love of Christ who has come to die in the stead of sinners. You see, the law was given never
to cleanse, never to redeem a dead sinner. It was never given for
that purpose. It was only given to expose our
sins. But the law had something in
it that was good. You see, the law was meant to
be a type, a shadow, a picture of something better. It contains, in types and shadows,
the only remedy for sin. The only remedy for sin. It says,
for without the shedding of blood is no remission. No remission. Yet all the blood
of animals, the blood of bulls and goats, from Abel to Zechariah
could not remove one sin or justify one sinner." But what does our
text give us? Not only had God appointed death,
not only had God, in judgment, condemned us spiritually to die,
and He was just to do it. He also appointed that we should
die physically and after that the judgment if that were in
if that was all then we would have no hope because none of
the Sacrifices of the law would be sufficient. None of the sacrifices
of your flesh would be sufficient But we have this hope because
as these were appointed to our verse 28 so Christ So Christ As these were appointed, so Christ
was appointed. Appointed for what? Christ was
appointed once to offer Himself to bear the
sins of many. In the previous verse it says,
But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. How was this done? Well, he was
appointed to do this by being made a man. By being made a man. He was not a spirit, but a man. And so as it is appointed unto
men once to die because of Adam, because of Adam being our representative
man, even so Christ was appointed to be our representative man. He was appointed not to sin,
but to put away sin. To redeem sin, to pay sin's debt,
to atone for it. How? By the sacrifice of Himself. And this is the appointed redemption.
The appointed redemption. The Son of God was made the Son
of Man, and as it was appointed unto man once to die and after
that to judgment, even so Christ, the sinless Savior, who deserve no day you mark this down if christ
would not willingly lay his life down he would never died why
there was no sin death is a result of what yet our lord love his people
so much lay down His life for them. He willingly offered His life in love for His people. And there
upon the cross, God made Christ to be sin for us. So then our
text reads, Christ was once made to bear the sin of many. It was upon the cross. and only
upon the cross that God made Him to be sin. And it was only
upon the cross that God poured out His vengeance, that judgment
that we should bear, that we deserve to bear. Christ being made sin bore that
wrath and judgment. against our sin, sin which we
have committed, which we have done. Jesus has suffered the
just for the unjust for this purpose, that He might bring
us to God. That's what was done by His appointed
work. This was appointed all the way
through the book. Lo, I come in the volume of the book it
is written of me to do what? By will, O God. By the which
will we are sanctified, made holy by His offering. Now then I ask you, was His work
appointed Him? Was He successful? Was He successful? Were all the sins that he was
made to bear, were they actually put away? Did he actually redeem
them? According to his own words, he
says, it is finished. It is finished. And he gave up
the ghost. When did he die? He paid the price. After He paid
the price for our sin, then He willingly died, gave up the ghost. Why? It was appointed unto man
once to die, so Christ in our stead died in our place. In our place, under the wrath
of God, He died after He had put away our sins. And while
His body lay in the grave three nights, What was he doing? Remember,
it is appointed unto men once to die, and after what? After
that, the judgment. You see, but Christ, having come
to the bar of God's justice, He came not with anything but
His own blood. He came not with sin. The sin
had already been put away by His death. And so He came to
the bar of God's judgment, God looked at Him and said, perfect. That's perfect. You know how
I know that? Because the third day he rose
again from the dead. That's how I know. Remember,
the cause of death is what? Sin. What keeps a man dead? Sin. And when Christ arose, there
was what? No sin. He rose again. Judgment had already been passed. God said, He's innocent. He's
full of righteousness. And He rose from the dead, ascended
Him to the throne of glory where He now sits. And Scripture says
in the very text in Hebrews 9, verse 12, it says, "...neither
by the blood of bulls and goats, and cast by His own blood He
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us." Jesus presenting His blood, His offering of Himself
to God, dying in the stead of His people, God testified of
His perfection by raising Him from the dead and ascending Him
to the throne. And therefore Jesus, as our Mediator
of the New Covenant, as our High Priest, as our Representative,
He as a man was appointed to die. He descended into death,
willingly died as a sacrifice for the sins of many, and in
victory He rose from the dead. Now I'm going to ask you, how
many times did He do this? How many times is it appointed
a man once to die? Once. And so Christ, after dying
once, after judgment being passed once, it was done. Victory was accomplished once
he died. That's what our text says. So
Christ was once offered. Those priests in the Old Testament,
they never were finished. But Jesus, once having purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."
Now then, I ask you, for whom did He do this? What does your text say? Look
at it. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of who? Many. Many. This atonement was not made for
the whole race. This atonement was made for many. And I'm glad it's many, aren't
you? I'm glad it doesn't say few. But I'm glad it says many. Many. He bare the sins of many. Go to Isaiah chapter 53. And
I want you to see that this is a very reflection of this. Isaiah
chapter 53. One of the most clear Gospel
messages in the Old Testament got to be the Gospel according
to Isaiah. Look at verse 4, it says, "...surely
he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." But He was wounded
for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities. The
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. Well, who is this our? Who is
this we? All we, like sheep, have gone astray. That's who?
Those who have gone astray. We turned everyone to his own
way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He
was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
He was brought as a lamb before the slaughters, a sheep before
a shearer's dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from
prison, from judgment, and who shall declare His generation?
For He was cut off out of the land of the living." Listen,
for the transgression of who? My people was He stricken. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death, because he had not done no violence,
neither was there deceit found in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." Isn't that what we
just said? He said he offered himself once for sin. He shall see his seed prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand, and he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify who? Many. For he shall bear their
iniquities. Is that not a reflection of our
text? Therefore I will divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong. Because he had poured out his soul unto death, he was
numbered with the transgressors. And he bear the sin of who? Many. and made intercession for the
transgressors. Is that not all? Just a reflection of what we
read in our text. So Christ was offered to bear
the sin of who? Many. These many for whom Christ died
are the elect of the Father. Jesus said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all he had given me, all he had given me, all
he had given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. These many, who are they? Well, they are no different than
any other son of Adam. There is nothing in them different
from any other of Adam's race. We like to think so. You suppose yourself above the
man that killed those people in Las Vegas? Do you look down
in condescension upon him and say, I never would. Oh, yes,
you would. If God took His hand off you
for one second, you would be in there, you'd be worse than
Him. There's no difference in these
many. They all alike are born dead in sin, haters of God, rebels,
self-righteous, blasphemers, boasters, proud, arrogant, disobedient
to parents. Am I talking to anybody? Anybody
have any identity with that? I tell you, the many have identity
with that. In other words, who are these
many? They are sinners, appointed once
to die and after this to judgment. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all your acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save who? Who? Who did He come to save?
Who? Sinners. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Sinners to repentance. You see,
if you're not a sinner, then surely you're not part of the
many. The many are sinners. They're the ones whose sins need
to be borne away. They're the ones that need their
sins paid in a substitute, and have no righteousness of their
own. That's the many. You see, if you don't need that,
then you're not part of the many. That's all I can tell you. Jesus came to cause sinners to
what? Repentance. Yes, the elect number
is set, it is fixed, but no one knows that but God. Why do you
quabble about that? Why do people reject it? That number is known only to
God. It is God's number. It is set. But I have no idea who they are,
and neither do you. A virgin was asked that question,
Sir, if you believe in the election, why then do you preach the gospel?
And he said, Sir, if you would kindly point out the elect to
me, I will only preach to them. I don't know who they are. So
I preach to all. Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. Christ came to die for sinners.
If you're a sinner, come and welcome. God's free bounty glorified. Come. True belief, true repentance,
every grace that brings you. Come, come to Christ. Are you such a sinner? Then repent,
turn from everything you thought, everything you learned, turn
to Christ and plead for mercy, and you'll find mercy. Believe
on Him and you are part of the many. You see, the only evidence
of the many is this, faith and love. Faith and love. Faith in Christ, love to Christ,
love to His people, love for His gospel. That's true. You're
part of the many. You remember the Apostle, this
is repentance. He said, everything that I thought
was gained to me, I counted but duh. that I might win Christ
and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but being found in the righteousness of Christ.
I desire to be wrapped up in His righteousness so tight that
it never sees. My righteousness needs to be
thrown away and burned. It is nothing. It is foul. I
want to be only in His righteousness. That's it. And because of that,
I know I am part of the many. And notice this, the last thing,
"...it is appointed a resurrection." To who? Look at that in verse
28, it says, "...unto them that look for Him." Do you look for
Him? What a day that's going to be.
I know we don't think about it much. It gets so busy. Can you
imagine that day? when he comes. I'll finally be able to experience
what he's been talking to me about this whole time. I know I see him as the bride,
the Shulamite. She saw him through the lattice.
You see that lattice is just like this. You see glimpses.
You turn and you see glimpses of him every once in a while.
see glimpses of Him, but then face to face, face to face, there's
an appointed resurrection to them that look for Him. He shall
come the second time without sin. He's not going to come meek
and lowly he's going to come not robed in in humility but
he's on full display in his majesty and his glory comes in the clouds
with his angels and every eye shall see him he'll catch us up And that day has no end. It's an eternal day. No night
there. No night. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Though it is appointed to us
to die, and after that the judgment, so Christ as our representative
died in our stead, bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
God judged him, and he was found innocent. And so then, everyone
that looks for him, he shall come the second time without
sin, unto what? Full salvation. Saved from what? Everything. Saved from everything. Everything
that pains you now, you'll be saved from it. Everything that
troubles you now will never trouble you again. All it takes is one day. Just
one day. One day it's coming. May God
give us grace to look for Him. Look to Him. for all our salvation. Pray God will bless this.