Hebrews chapter 9. I've entitled
this message, Once and Again. And the reason is, the word once
appears in this chapter four times. Now that would not mean
very much except for this. The word translated once appears
only 14 times in all the New Testament. Seven of those times
it appears in the book of Hebrews, and four of those times are right
here in this chapter. And actually three of them appear
in the last three verses of the chapter, all bunched together.
And as I was reading that, I thought, this idea of once, means something
to the writer here. It's not just a matter of passing
information. Like one time that the word is
used, Paul says, once I was persecuted in such and such a way. And there
wasn't any particular significance to once, except that the event
happened once. Just like you could say, well,
I had Okra once, but never again or something like that. But here
in chapter nine. Four times. Once. Once, in fact, so powerfully
is it used in this chapter that some translators emphasize it
with once for all. Because that's the sense, evidently,
in which the writer's using it, at least in the last three times. It refers to a thing that happened
once, and it's not going to happen again. Not once, because that
was the first time, but once, because that's the only time
it's ever going to happen. Now, the Jewish liturgical calendar,
and if you don't know what a liturgical calendar is, it's a yearly organization
of worship services. Now, this is Easter Sunday. We
are not a liturgical church. Sometimes we take notice of it,
sometimes we don't take notice of Easter. But in a liturgical
church, every week there's something special that they're taking note
of. And they follow that liturgy
every year. And I assume this came about because a lot of times,
and I'm thinking back, you know, just right there at the beginning
of the Reformation in particular, with the Protestant churches
anyway, there was a great deal of ignorance
on the part of even those who were supposed to be ministers
in the churches. And so the fellows that did have some understanding
arranged a pattern of worship throughout the year to make sure
all the major points were hit. And the, shout for lack of a
better way to put it, the lesser ministers could follow that and
make sure that they got everything handled. But in the Jewish liturgy,
there was a reason for it more than that. The Jewish calendar,
actually it had at least two New Years in it. A, what you
might call a political New Years, which began at Passover. and
then a religious New Year's which began on the Day of Atonement. But the liturgical calendar of
the Jews actually lays out kind of a pattern of God's dealings
in salvation all through history, or in the life and destiny of
any particular person whom He chooses to save. And that's why
in the religious liturgy, it begins on the day of atonement. Because brethren, there is nothing
to our salvation without that atonement. Salvation begins to
be real when Jesus Christ dies as the substitute for His people
bearing their sins. And as you go through the liturgy
of the Jewish nation there and their worship with the temple
and all that, you see played out all the various steps. of God bringing about the salvation
of His people, because not only is there the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, the atonement there at the very
beginning, but later on you have Passover, when that blood is
actually applied, and the people are redeemed and brought out
of bondage, and that pictures to us that time when God comes
and actually puts the blood upon us in our experience and redeems
us out of bondage. And we begin our experience as
those saved by God. It also refers to that time when
Jesus Christ came and actually was sacrificed. Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. And He was sacrificed on Passover
weekend. And so on the Day of Atonement
and in Passover, He's pictured as the sacrifice. And then a little later, You
have the Feast of Pentecost, representing the coming of the
Holy Spirit, which happened later on, when the Holy Spirit came and
revealed all these things. And so it says here in Hebrews
9, verse 6, and here it's referring to the Old Testament worship. It says, when everything had
been arranged, that is everything in the temple had been arranged
like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room
to carry on their ministry. Now in the tabernacle and then
later on in the temple, the building itself had two rooms. And the
first room was the larger room and it was called the holy place.
And there were particular pieces of furniture in there. And then
there was this veil, this curtain. between the holy place and then
what was called the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place. And back
there was the Ark of the Covenant and the Cherubim and all that.
Well, into that first room, any of the priests might go, any
of the children of Levi might go in there and render their
service, changing out the showbread, taking care of the lamps and
all that that was going on in there. But that place in the
back, that most holy place, only one man went back there, the
high priest of the house of Aaron. The high priest went in there,
he went in there once a year. And that's his point, it says
here in verse 7, He says, but only the high priest entered
the inner room and only once a year and never without blood,
which he offered for himself or for the sins of the people
or sins the people had committed in ignorance. Now, what's it
saying? Remember, this liturgical calendar
of the Jews represents the entire history of God's salvation, and
they repeated it every year. But this going into the most
holy place to offer the blood of the atonement happened only
once. And what's that teaching us? That in all of history, atonement
happens only once. Only once. Only once a year. And the Jews,
because every year in their liturgy represented the entire history
of God's salvation from beginning to end. But the real atonement
made by Jesus Christ happened only once. And let's look at
that now. Over here, we'll begin verse
23. It was necessary then for the
copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices. That is, all those parts of the
temple had to be made suitable to be used in the temple by being
sanctified by the blood of sacrifices. That's what happened when they
set it up. But they were just pictures and illustrations. He
said, but the heavenly things, that is the real, the real atonement,
the real temple of God, the real presence of God, had to be purified
themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not
enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one.
He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Now, in the book of Hebrews,
he's constantly comparing the old covenant form of worship
that you read about in the Old Testament. He's comparing that
to the gospel way of worship and the way of coming to God.
And he says, Jesus Christ, the true high priest of God's people,
did not enter a man-made sanctuary. Here's an interesting thing to
consider. He is God's true high priest, and he never entered
the Holy of Holies in that temple in Jerusalem. The men who were entering there
at that time were frauds. They were not only frauds in
that they were not the real high priest of God, I don't even know
that the high priest of that day were descendants of Aaron
as the law required. Because the high priesthood was
bought and sold. And the high priest only served for a year
and then somebody else would have it. I guess it was a way
to make some money for the temple, sell the high priesthood. And so they weren't doing anything
right. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the true High Priest of God,
the true High Priest of God's people, never once entered even
into the first room of the temple or way back in the back in the
Holy of Holies. Why? He had a better place to
go. He had the true tabernacle or
true temple to go to. He didn't go into a man-made
sanctuary. He went into heaven itself. And
He didn't go with the blood of bulls and goats or sheep or whatever
like that. He went in with His own blood.
He appeared in the presence of God for us, for His people. Just as the high priest went
into the most holy place with the names of Israel upon the
breastplate, He represented them. He didn't represent the Gentile
nations. So the Lord Jesus Christ went in the presence of God,
representing God's true Israel, His elect from all ages. His
elect from the beginning of the world to the end. And He went in there and He offered
Himself without spot to God. He sanctified that holy place
with His own blood. and made intercession for us,
not with smoke coming out of a censer. He made intercession
for us with His own prayers, His own blood. And He appears
there for us. Verse 25, Nor did He enter heaven
to offer Himself again and again, the way the high priest enters
the most holy place every year with blood that's not His own.
Now when the high priest would go in there with the blood of
a sacrificial animal, he was doing what God commanded him
to do. And the book of Hebrews is not
saying it was bad, but what he's showing is even that which was
commanded by God to be done there in the Old Covenant worship was
nothing compared to what God did in the New Covenant. That
high priest of the Old Covenant When He went in there, the blood
He took wasn't His blood. He lost nothing in the process,
did He? That high priest, He would bathe and they would dress
Him in the high priestly clothes, and it actually made Him look
better. He looked better on the Day of Atonement than any other
day. Clothed in a high priestly glory. And then they would kill
an animal. Not Him. They didn't kill the
high priest, they killed an animal. And He took that blood, and He
offered it, and He poured out, as I understand, there on the
mercy seat. The atonement cover on top of
that Ark of the Covenant. But the writer of Hebrews wants
to make it clear to us. The priest, the high priest of
the Old Covenant, lost nothing by his work. But Jesus Christ,
It says, verse 26, He didn't do it like the high
priest. Then Christ would have had to
suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now He has
appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. There's that word, once. He has
appeared once for all. Now, I said that Jewish liturgy,
they repeated it every year because every year represented the entirety
of history and God bringing about salvation in history. But there's another reason they
repeated it every year. Because it didn't matter how
many times a high priest went in there, sins were never put
away by what he did. He was a sinful man offering
the blood, not of a human, but of an animal. Not offering it
in the very presence of God, but on some token representation
of Him back there in the most holy place. And brethren, if that would not
put away sin, there's one thing you can be sure will not put
away sin. And that is some fella taking
some wine and some bread and saying some words in a foreign
language, and supposedly changing it into something, and you drink
it and eat it, and somehow or another that puts away your sin.
Can't be done. If that which God commanded in
the Old Covenant wouldn't put away sin, that which man invented,
because you can't find that in the Bible, that which man invented
isn't going to do it. We're going to observe the Lord's
table in a little bit. And I always enjoy doing it. Our Lord instituted
it as a way, a visible way for us to perceive something of what
was done for us, and it's meaningful. But I'll tell you one meaning
it does not have. It does not mean that by drinking
that wine, eating that bread, that your sins are put away.
Later on, if you participate in this, and you eat that bit
of bread and drink that bit of wine, When you're done, you will
be in exactly the same condition you were in before. The same
is true of baptism. I've got some friends that believe
that baptism saves. And if you believe, you may believe,
but you're not saved until you go under the water. And it's
under the water you wash away your sins. Friends, however you
go under is the way you're coming up. Ceremonies have never accomplished
anything. They simply show forth that which
God has done. And Jesus Christ went into the
holy place, not made with hands, and He went once. And why did
He only go in once? Because He, unlike the priests
of the old covenant, He got the job done. The high priest went
in there and even though that was the blood of a real living
animal, it wouldn't put away sin. So it didn't matter how
many times he poured that on the atonement cover. Sins were
never put away. He went in and he came out the
same way he went in. He went in and when he came out,
the people were in the same condition they were in when he went in.
Nothing changed. But when Jesus Christ once went
into the presence of God with His own blood, something happened. Something
changed. Sins were actually put away. Sins were actually washed. Sinners
were actually washed. Sinners were actually justified. Sinners were actually sanctified. In a very real sense, our Lord
went into the presence of God, bearing the sins of His people.
In fact, in some of the imagery of the New Testament, He not
only bore their sins, He bore them. Because they were in Him
when He went there. And He went in there bearing
their sins, and He came out without sin. And they no longer had sin
either. Something actually happened. Our Lord there, as He goes in
the presence of the Father, and He's hanging on the cross, and
He's pouring out His soul unto death, He's pouring out His soul
as a sin offering, says Isaiah chapter 53. He's the atonement
offering. And He cries out there very shortly
before He dies, It is finished! The high priest never said that.
The high priest could come out and he'd say, well, I'll do this
again next year. I did the best I could, but really nothing much
happened. Jesus Christ offered Himself.
And He's the first man that ever had the right to say this about
anything. It is finished. Now people like to tease me because
I'm real bad when it comes to finishing things. Now, brethren, none of us have
ever finished anything. No matter what we do, it needs
doing again. It does. You know, a woman may say, well,
I finished the laundry. No, you didn't. It starts all
over next week. You think your kids grow up and
they leave the house and you say, well, I'm finished raising
my kids. No, you're not. You're never finished till you
die, and really, it's not like you were finished, you just can't
do it anymore. Nothing's ever finished. Jesus Christ is the
only one who could say it's finished, and it actually was. There was
nothing more to do. He's not ever going to come back
and suffer again. Because the sin was actually,
really put away. That's why under the new covenant,
which His blood put in place, That's why in the New Covenant
it says there are sins and iniquity I will remember no more. Why?
Because they don't exist. They're gone. As that chorus we used to sing
from time to time, did you hear what Jesus said to me? They're
all taken away. Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. Brethren,
can you get a hold of that? Or can that get a hold of you?
Maybe that's a better way to put it. You say, but my sins,
they're ever before me. Yeah, they are, but they're not
before God. And if I've got to choose who's going to see my
sin, I'd rather me see it than God see it. If Jesus Christ paid
my debt, my sins are gone, I don't owe it, God doesn't see them,
God's not going to bring them up, I'm free. Do you really believe that? Are
you of that sort that says, well, Jesus Christ died, and if I accept
His sacrifice, my sins will be put away? The sacrifice was never
offered to you. The sacrifice was offered to
God, and He accepted it in behalf of those for whom it was offered.
Now the promise stands sure and firm, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
thou shalt be saved. We're not going to take away
from the promises as though the sovereignty of God's grace or
the limited nature, I hate to use that word with regard to
God's grace because the Bible is always talking about how great
it is, but God's grace does not come upon everyone. And the work
of Christ was not in behalf of everyone, but I'll tell you this,
it was done in behalf of everybody who ever wants it. You know, I find this. When it
comes to, quote, the limitations on God's grace, I don't find anybody who's wanting
it. Not very many. I'm not talking about you people.
I don't find many people really interested in God's grace, and
I don't see why they would ever be upset that God didn't give
them any. Because they evidently don't
want it. You preach up God's grace as the Scriptures declare
it, and they go, wait a minute. Yes, I'm a sinner, but I'm not
that bad. I've done some bad things, but
I'm no murderer. When I put in the hymn of the
day, you know, I did a copy and paste from the internet. And, you know, they just couldn't
quite take it the way it was originally written. Alas, and
did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he devote
that sacred head for sinners such as I? That's what was written
there. Isaac Watts, who wrote that, understood what it was
to be the kind of sinner that Jesus Christ died for. He said,
would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
died upon the cross, from the book of Psalms, it puts these
words in His mouth, I am not a man but a worm. Why was He
a worm? Because that's what we are. And
He had to become one. A man must become a worm so that
we worms can finally become a man. But he only did it once. He came
once for all, and it says here, at the end of the ages. It's
interesting that word translated end there has the same word in
it when Jesus Christ said it is finished. Religions, the form of religion
I was raised in, like to talk about all these ages, and you
know, they say, after the church age, there's coming an age of
tribulation, then there's an age of the millennium. Wait a
minute, it says Christ came here at the end of the ages. Brethren, you and I are in the
last age. We are. You say, what about the
millennium? This is it. This is it. You say, well, that's when Christ
is supposed to reign. Yep. And He's reigning. You say, well, if He's reigning,
how come there's all this bad stuff going on in the world?
Because that's what He said should happen. To bring about His purpose. You say, well, if He's reigning,
why are Muslims killing Christians? For even so, it seemed good in
His sight that that's what happened. Just because you and I don't
see the goodness in it, doesn't mean it's not good. Now, anybody
that reads my Facebook posts knows that there's some things
about the world that really bother me bad. Take, for example, abortion. You probably, like I said, if
you follow me on Facebook, you've seen me say many things against
abortion or click some articles or something like that. But I
want to tell you something. Hang on to your seats because
I don't know that everybody can handle this kind of stuff. You know why abortion
goes on? Even so. It seemed good in God's
sight that it go on. When I say good, I don't mean
that it's the right thing to do. But it is fulfilling His
purpose. Now, I'm one of these firm believers
that those that die in infancy die in the Lord. And while it
is a horrible tragedy for which this nation will be brought into
account, I'm sure that we have this abortion on demand going
on. Do not think for a minute that
there has ever been an abortion carried out that God did not
ordain, and that God will not be glorified, because I'll tell
you what He's doing. He called home one of His own. And how blessed they are, they
didn't have to live one second in this wretched world. Now, does that make me happy
with abortion? No. It's still wrong, but that
doesn't mean that it is somehow or another an overthrow of the
Lord Jesus Christ work. This is a consummation of the
ages. This is Lord Jesus Christ ruling and reigning. It says,
Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should
smite the nations. He rules kings. He puts them
in place. He overthrows them. Every one
of them is doing exactly what He ordained for them to do, to
bring about His purpose of grace in His people. They say, no,
in the millennium Jesus Christ is going to come down to sit
on a throne in Jerusalem. What does He want with a throne in
Jerusalem? He sits on the throne of heaven now. Do you think our President would
consent to being dog catcher in Rock Valley? If we went and
said, oh, you know, President Trump, we've got the deal for
you. You can be, well, let's even just say the mayor, you
know, you can be mayor of Rock Valley. He said, why should I
be mayor of Rock Valley? I am president of the United States.
And why should the Lord Jesus Christ consent only to be king
from Jerusalem when right now God has highly exalted him and
given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow, every tongue confess that he is Lord. You say the Muslims are running
wild only for so long. Every one of them is going to
bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. You are going to bow and
confess that Jesus is Lord. And whether or not you are saved
at this present moment is revealed in how you feel about that. You
know what? In my heart I already do. I can't
wait, Eric, until I can do it with real knees. It says in the
book of Revelation, they fell down on their faces. Oh, brothers and sisters, won't
that be wonderful? To really bow down in the presence
of our Lord and own Him as Lord. But would like it or not, everybody
here is going to bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. And brethren,
that's what it means for Christ to reign. The devil and all his followers
are going to bow and confess. Oh, they're going to hate it.
Can you imagine how hard that's going to be? I don't know when
exactly it was that Satan rebelled and took a third of the angels
with him. Don't know. But I know this, he has hated
the Lord Jesus Christ ever since. He wants the position that belongs
to Jesus Christ. And even now, he must get permission
from the Lord Jesus Christ to do anything. And eventually,
before all creation, he is going to have to confess. Jesus is
Lord. And then he'll be thrown into
hell. And Jesus is going to be Lord of that too. At the end of the ages, Jesus
Christ brought in this millennium. He brought in this glorious reign
of His by the sacrifice of Himself. Verse 27, just as man is destined
to die once. Once. Now you say, what about
all those people that say they died and went to heaven and came
back? They didn't die. Evidently. You know, medicine's got its
definition of death, and they may have gone through that. But real death? That happens
only once. It's appointed unto man once
to die. And you know something? It's
appointed unto you and me once to die. I don't care how good
you take care of yourself, you're going to die. I don't care what
miracle cures medicine comes up with, you're going to die.
I read here a few weeks ago, it says, the person to live to
be a thousand has already been born. Now I think that's kind
of stretching it, but that's what it said on the headline.
But I thought, yeah, okay. He lives to a thousand and then
he dies. The most often mentioned man
in the Bible is Andy. You say, Andy, I never heard
of him. Well, it says in the Bible over and over again, he
lived so many years and he died. And it's a whole lot of years.
Adam lived 930 years and he died. Methuselah lived 969 years and
he died. Brethren, it doesn't matter how long you live. I just
read, in fact, I guess it was yesterday, the oldest person
in the world, guess what she did? She died. You may run a longer race, but
there's going to come a time when you're done running. It's
appointed unto man once to die. And the reason that that scares
us, more than anything, is that deep within our hearts we know
about the next part, just as man is destined to die once and
after that to face judgment. All the amount of energy we put
in trying to ignore that. The amount of effort we exert
trying to somehow or another change that or not think about
that, but deep within our hearts is the realization that every
one of us must give an account to God. And we realize, and this
is part of God's grace of giving us a conscience, part of that
is we understand that we're going to be judged and it's not going
to turn out well. That if He looks upon what we've
done, What kind of account can you give for what you've done?
You know, there's people who are going to try. Lord, Lord,
did we not do good works in your name and many wonderful works
and cast out demons and preach in your name and all that? And
they're coming up with all this that they think is a reason or
giving of a good account of their life. And our Lord's response
would be, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. A judgment is coming. We die
once, we face judgment once. Why? Because it doesn't have
to be done again. Once. But that's the pattern with us.
But the pattern with us also applied to Christ. For it says
in verse 28, So Christ was sacrificed once. Now it doesn't use the
word die, but to be sacrificed involves dying. He didn't bring
a sacrifice, He is the sacrifice. He died once to take away the
sins of many people. We'll die once. And those who
die in their sins will die forever and never be done dying. That's
why hell goes on forever. For you see, death does not merely
mean that this body ceases to be, because human beings are
more than simply a body. But when a man's body quits working
and he goes to face God, if God finds sin in him, He forever dies. And that doesn't
just mean die a death that lasts forever. It is a forever dying
for which there is never an it is finished. Those in hell can never say that
because it will never be finished. Because their suffering will
never satisfy God. Their suffering will never fulfill
death. It says on the Mount of Transfiguration
that Moses and Elijah talked to the Lord Jesus about the death
which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. And his brother Tim
James said, who ever considered death an accomplishment? Well,
only one, because He's the only one who ever accomplished it.
Jesus Christ is the only one who has ever died and died to
the end. He fulfilled within Himself the
fullness of all it means to die. Death passed upon all men because
of sin. And so death passes upon men,
but they never get it done. They never finish dying to the
degree that the sin is gone. But Jesus Christ bore in Himself
the sins of His people, and such was His suffering, and such was
the greatness of His person, that when He suffered like that,
it actually satisfied God. And for the one and only time
in all of history, a man could die and say, I'm done dying because
dying is finished in me. Why? Because his dying put away
sin, and where there is no sin, there is no death. He was sacrificed once to take
away the sins of many people, and blessed be His name, when
He was sacrificed, He actually got that done. He took away their
sins. He bore them in the presence of God, and God, the just judge
of all, poured out His wrath upon Christ for the sins that
He bore, and Christ was able to bear it, and therefore the
sin was actually really put away. How do we know that that sin
was put away? Because He died and He came back. Jesus Christ is truly the only
one ever to go beyond and back, as they say. He actually died
to the full extent of death and came back. And He came out of the grave
And it says here, Christ was sacrificed once to take away
the sins of many, and He will appear a second time not to bear
sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
In one sense, His resurrection was an appearing the second time.
He appeared the first time to purchase our salvation, and He
appeared coming out of that tomb the second time to bring that
salvation that He purchased. But probably, the writer here
has something else in mind. The day is coming when the Lord
Jesus Christ shall return again. He appeared once. He appeared
once as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many. But He will
appear again not to suffer. He suffered only once. He will
appear a second time to bring the fullness of that salvation
that He purchased on Calvary. Brethren, you and I who believe
God, salvation has been begun. And we have this promise that
He who began a good work in us will perfect it until the day
of Christ. He'll bring it to completion.
But it's not going to be complete until Christ appears again. Now,
you'll turn back to In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I want to take just
a couple of minutes to look at a Scripture that we
went over in our midweek prayer service. Beginning in verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians
4, Brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant about those who
fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope.
Those Thessalonian believers, persecution drove the Apostle
Paul away from them more quickly than would have been his normal
practice. And he had not been able to teach them all that they
needed to know. We may wonder, why were they
ignorant about those that fell asleep? Well, remember, they
weren't raised in a Christian environment like you and I were.
Most of us here grew up hearing about Jesus and what he accomplished.
They grew up in paganism. And so here some of their brothers
and sisters are dying and they don't know what's become of them
or what will become of them. And so Paul goes on to say, verse
14, we believe that Jesus died and rose again. And so we believe
that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep
in Him. Now I used to think that that meant, this is how I envisioned
it, that when the Lord Jesus comes back, He's going to bring
with Him all those saints that have died before. But that's not how it goes on
to describe it. He's not talking about here that
Jesus is going to, I don't believe anyway that He is, that He's
going to bring saints with Him. Rather, it means that when the
Lord Jesus Christ, He comes down to get His people, when He gets
them and goes back to the Father, He's going to grab all those
that died in Him also. Nobody is getting left behind.
You see, that was the fear of those Thessalonians. They had
heard the gospel about Jesus Christ died, and He came out,
and that puts away our sins, and some day later He's coming
back to bring the fullness of His kingdom. They'd heard that,
but then some of them died, and they're thinking, did they miss
out? Since they didn't live until the Lord returned, are they going
to miss out on some aspect of salvation? And Paul says, no.
No, God's going to bring with the Lord Jesus Christ those who
have already died in Christ. And he goes on to hear in verse
15, according to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who
are still alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord will
certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. And I remember
I've been reading that since I was a kid and I always wondered,
well, who cares who goes first? Is this a big deal? You know,
that we get to heaven ahead of them somehow or another, you
know? No, I don't think that's a big deal. The word doesn't
simply mean to go before in terms of time. It can mean to be set
before in terms of greatness and glory. And I believe what
Paul is saying to this, brethren, don't you worry about our brothers
and sisters who have gone. They're not going to be second
class citizens in heaven. God's not going to leave them
behind. And they're not going to just kind of get, you know,
their log cabin while the rest of us supposedly get mansions,
as some people like to talk about it. You see, our physical death
before the Lord returns has no effect whatever. You say, well,
yeah, I can understand that. Right, because you were raised
to believe in this stuff. These folks, they had a pagan
view of death. All they knew was they saw them
die, they put them under the ground. And then it goes on. And he says, for the Lord himself
will come down from heaven. Oh, blessed thought. When the
Lord comes to bring salvation, remember he says he'll appear
a second time. When he comes to bring that salvation which
he first appeared to buy, when he comes to bring it, he's not
going to send angels, not going to send emissaries, he himself
is coming to get his people. All the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He will not leave even this part
of our salvation to someone else. He comes. The Lord himself shall descend
from heaven and with a loud command. I like that. People present the
Lord Jesus Christ like He's asking people, would you please let
me save Him. He comes from heaven with a loud
command. With the voice of the archangel,
and I believe that archangel is Him, and with the trumpet call of
God, the jubilee trumpet mentioned in the Old Testament, every 50
years, All Jewish slaves were set free. Anybody who had mortgaged
their property and in the process lost their property, they got
it all back. Everybody went home. All goods were returned, everything.
And that was called Jubilee. And they announced Jubilee with
the blowing of a ram's horn, which is called a trumpet. This
isn't talking about those brass trumpets that give a fanfare.
Really, a ram's horn gives kind of an ugly sound. Nonetheless,
it wasn't an ugly sound if you were a slave. On the year of
Jubilee, hear that trumpet blow? Okay. Put down the rake or the
hoe or whatever it is you're working through. Look at the
boss. See you later, pal. I'm done. Jubilee has come. I'm free. I'm going home. Everything
I lost through my foolishness is now brought back to me and
it's mine. And Jesus Christ returns, and returns with a loud command
that calls the dead to life. He comes with the voice of an
archangel declaring the message of the gospel. He comes with
a trumpet call of jubilee, setting His people free. And He said,
and the dead in Christ shall rise first. As though He would give a special
regard to those who have gone. He said, well, these are those
who have died in Me. Come on out of the grave. I came
out, now you come out." And he says, after that, we who are
still alive and are left will be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. I guess he raises them first.
I used to say they got six feet farther to go, so he starts with
them. And then we go right up with
them. And Paul in another place says, we shall not all sleep.
That is, we're not all going to die before the Lord comes,
but when He comes, we're all going to be changed because,
thank God, isn't it true, we need some changing? I don't want
to live like this forever, do you? I know we resist death,
but I'll tell you, death is the friend of the believer. In the
return of the Lord, he'll be changed. Even those that are
alive are going to be changed. And then it says, we'll meet
the Lord in the air. And then it says, so shall we be with
the Lord forever. And when I was studying that
this past week, I looked up that word forever. And we would think
of forever. You know, I think, yeah, when
I go to heaven, I'm going to be there forever. Well, this
has really something more in its meaning. The word actually
is always. Now, we can imagine going to
heaven, the place where Christ is, and seeing him from time
to time. Just like you might see any of
your family here on earth. You say, well, my kids are grown,
but they're right here in town, I'm forever with them, or at
least for the rest of my life I'll be with them. Right. But
you're not always with them, are you? They visit and then
they go home. Or you go visit and then you
go home. The word here, always. Always beholding His face. Always in constant companionship
and fellowship. You say, how can that be? There's
millions upon millions the Lord is saying. I don't know. There's
a lot about salvation. I don't know how it can be, but
that doesn't mean I don't believe that it is. We'll always be with the Lord. Therefore, we encourage each
other with these words. Once He comes. Once we die. Once Christ comes to suffer.
But now again He'll come. This time not to suffer. Not
in humiliation, but in glory. Not He came unto His own, but
His own received Him. Not, but He came to His own and
He received them. He brings them to Himself. And
from then on, they are forever in an unbroken union of fellowship
and love. And I don't know what can be
better than that. Do you? You say, well, I'm going to get
that mansion. Well, you can have it. I'm going to walk the streets
of gold. You can have it. Those are all
just symbols anyway. They aren't speaking literally
of what heaven is like. We'll be with Christ. We'll be
like Christ. And we will be united in an unbroken,
uninterrupted fellowship and union with Him. And if that's not what you want,
then you don't want His Gospel. But if that's what you want,
it's to be had for absolutely free. is thirsty, says the scriptures. Let him come. And he that hungers,
let him come. If this is the kind of stuff
you want, come on to Christ. It'll be yours. Heavenly Father,
bless your word as only you can. Make it powerful in our hearts,
and now even as we worship you further with this observance
of the table, we pray that you bless our hearts with that. In
Christ's name we pray it. Amen.