Let's turn together to Hebrews
chapter 9 again. Hebrews chapter 9. A good many years ago, a friend
of mine, Brother Perry Fuller, He was one of the students who
used to come over to the church at Lookout when I was pastor
there from the Appalachian Bible College. There were about 25
or 30 of them who came regularly until they were forbidden to
come anymore by the school. But he and his wife moved to
Springfield, Massachusetts, and I haven't heard from them in
a long time. But several years ago, he sent our family a Christmas
card. And in it, he put a note that
I thought was worth keeping. This is what he wrote. Christmas
is a time for the Lord's people to reset their compasses, to
redirect their lives to the one who gives our past days and the
year to come meaning. God has a purpose behind the
insanity of the world and the sentimentality of religious people
during this season. I suspect, he wrote, that one
purpose is to rekindle in our hearts the joy of the Lord by
reminding us that the incarnation of Christ was requisite for His
crucifixion and thus for our ultimate glorification. I want,
as God will enable me, to speak to you for a little bit about
the three appearances of Christ described for us in Hebrews 9,
verses 24 through 28. I get letters and papers and
pamphlets, as I'm sure some of you do this time of year, folks
squabbling about Christmas observance and Santa Claus and all those
things. And we recognize nothing religiously
significant about any of it. We don't make any pretense of
such things. But I am thankful that our God
in his wise and good providence has fixed it so that the whole
world is compelled at least once a year, this season of the year,
for the next couple of weeks anyway. The whole world, everybody
in this world with few exceptions, will be forced to acknowledge
the fact that more than 2,000 years ago, God stepped into humanity. God became a man. God took on
himself our nature. God became one of us. It is an inescapable fact from
which no man No man can escape. It's something that no man can
push aside. Many try to do so. But the fact
is, our Lord Jesus was born at Bethlehem, God the Son, coming
forth from the virgin's womb, the Nazarene, that he might redeem
and save his people from their sins. What a miraculous thing
it was. We read that passage in Luke
1 earlier. With God, nothing is impossible. With God, all things are possible. I have on occasion had some folks
to speak blasphemously and laughingly, you don't believe in that virgin
birth stuff, do you? And I'd look at them and smile
and I'd say, yes sir, are you fool enough not to? How can you believe that? That's
a biological impossibility. Not with God, not with God. He who made the womb by the Spirit
of God formed a body for his son in the virgin's womb. What a remarkable thing it was.
Whose birth other than that of Jesus Christ of Nazareth was
ever foretold by such a long prophetic history? Is there another
whose birth was longed for by so many? Who but Emmanuel can
claim that God sent a forerunner for him, John the Baptist, to
announce his birth? When before did the angels of
God assemble in heaven to sing in the ears of men except on
the day that Christ was born? When else did God create a new
star and hang it in the heavens except when Jesus Christ, the
God-man, came into this world? Well might the earth rejoice. Well might the nations cease
from labor and commerce for a day to celebrate this fact, Jesus
Christ, God, in our flesh. God came into this world to save
sinners from their sins. Let us never get over the wonder
of it. While men everywhere are reminded
of this fact, few understand why the Savior came. So I want
to seize this opportunity once more to preach Christ to you.
Hebrews chapter nine, verse 24. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For when then must he
often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But
now, once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. 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 unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. I ran across a hymn some time
ago that expressed my thoughts concerning our Lord's incarnation. concerning his real humanity
and his deity that I thought was worth writing down. It is
my sweetest comfort, Lord, and will forever be, to muse upon
the gracious truth of your humanity. Oh joy, there sits in our flesh
upon the throne of light, one of human mother born and perfect
Godhead bright. The worst foundations should
be moved down to the lowest deep, though all the trembling universe
into destruction sweep. Forever God, forever man, my
Jesus shall endure. And fixed on him, my hope remains
eternally secure. I want you to see one thing.
One thing I want to come at in two or three ways, but I want
you to get this one thing. Jesus Christ took on himself our nature. God the Son became one of us. Jesus, the child of Joseph and
Mary, God the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, came into this world
for one purpose, that he might give his life in atonement for
sin for the saving of sinners like you and me. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, became one of us, that He might give His life
in atonement for sin, that He might save sinners like you and
me. Let's look at this two or three
ways. First, I want you to see that the Lord Jesus Christ once
appeared in humiliation to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. this great event that men everywhere
are confronted with at this season of the year. This is the great
event that marks our calendars. In God's providence, he fixed
it so that when you look at your calendar, it is dated like this. Before Christ and after Christ. Before his coming and after his
coming. As if to declare what our Lord
declared, now is the judgment of this world. This is the hinge
of history. When you read the calendars day
by day, understand this gospel truth, God came here. This is the great fact that nobody
can ignore. Look at verse 24 again. This
is why our Savior came. Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are figures of the truth,
but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself." I don't know that we are sufficiently
cognizant of this fact. are that we sufficiently think
on this fact. Jesus Christ could never have
put away sin, but by the sacrifice of Himself. God could never have
forgiven sin, but by the sacrifice of His Son. Paul puts it this
way, if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. To suggest that there was another
way by which God could have put away sin is monstrous. It's horrible. It's evil. God
Almighty did not sacrifice his son for nothing. You see, God
is just. God is true. God is righteous. God has declared, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. And except sin be punished, to
the full satisfaction of justice, God cannot put away sin. You remember when Moses, back
in Exodus 33, said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. The
Lord appeared to him. And the Lord said, this is who
I am. I will by no means clear the guilty. forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin. Those two things, Skip, are impossible.
It's impossible both not to clear the guilty and to forgive iniquity,
transgression, and sin. Impossible, but by the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. Now, since Christ has assumed
our nature, since Christ who is God was made sin for us, justice
is poured out on His head, wrath poured out on Him, and He has
satisfied the justice of God. the punishment of sin bearing
all the heat, all the fury of hell, all the wrath, all the
anger of the triune God until with one tremendous draft of
love he drank damnation dry. If it's not possible for God
Himself to put away sin, except by the sacrifice of his darling
son. Sin must be the most monstrously
evil thing in the world. How lightly we think of sin. We judge sin in others a little
bit harshly. In ourselves, Doug, we think
of sin horribly lightly, and that's a horrible evil. How lightly
I think of my sin. Let me try one more time to describe
the evil of sin. It's transgression against God. Sin is rebellion against the
king of kings. Sin is the violation of God's
character. Sin is man's denial of God's
right to be God. My sin, the evil of my heart,
my corrupt nature, my deeds, screams, God, you cannot be! I have the right to be God. John
Bunyan described it better than any man I've ever read after,
other than in this book itself. He said, sin is the dare of God's
justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the
slight of his power, and the contempt of his love. That's what your sin is. That's
what my sin is. The whole of man is defiled with
this thing called sin. Because we are sinners, it is not possible for us to
do anything by which we can be saved. Because we are sinners,
it is not possible for us to be reconciled to God by anything
we do. Because we are sinners, it is
not possible for us to make ourselves acceptable to God. Therefore
Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Sin is the thing that makes man
obnoxious to God. God is holy. He's pure. He cannot look upon evil. He
cannot look upon sin without hating it. It's contrary to his
nature. Wherever he finds it, he hates
it. Sin has brought us under the wrath and curse of God's
holy law justly. Cursed is every man that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
The wages of sin is death. Hell is something you earn by
sin, by your attempt to rape God, by your attempt to sully
the character of God, by your attempt to dirty God with your
hands. Sin earns wages, and the wages
of sin is death. I have often gone to the graveside
of one I love dearly, and buried them with broken heart, get by myself and weep convulsively
before God, because I know they're in hell. But when God's finished with
this thing, and when God's finished with me, and God's finished with
you, no one in the universe will pity the damned. No one will
see things as God sees them and say amen to God's works. Man's
in hell because he earned it. Man's in hell because that's
what he deserved. That young man, that young lady,
that old man, that old woman are in hell because they despised
God and sought all their lives to rape God and sully his character
as God. Sin, I repeat, brings us under
the just wrath of God. You may not admit it. You may
not like to think about it. For you here who are unbelievers,
your conscience bears me witness. The conscience bears me witness.
There's not one of you who can push this out of your mind. God
has stamped it on you so you can't forget it. Try to go to
bed tonight and forget it. You try. Try to go to bed tonight
and forget about hell. Forget about the justice of God.
Forget about the wrath of God. Oh, I pray God won't let you
forget. The voice of God in your conscience
screams, guilty, guilty, guilty. There's no remission for sin
except by the shedding of blood. That shuts the door of hope against
any man on the basis of anything he has done. There shall in no
wise enter into heaven anything that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life. Until you and I are perfectly
free from sin, until you and I are perfectly innocent, until
you and I are perfectly righteous, we cannot enter into heaven's
glory. I've told you on other occasions
that my first time to go down and preach for Brother Mahan
at Ashland, I went in to preach for them on Wednesday evening,
if I remember correctly. And I got there early. I always
try to get where I'm going early. I don't like folks to wait on
me and I don't like to be late. And there was one couple that
came in just a little while after I got there. They were charter
members of the church at Ashland. Brother Am Adkins and his wife
Ruth. And just as nice as it could be, we chatted for a little
bit and Ruth said to me, she said, Brother Fortner, she was
much older than me, but she said, Brother Fortner, how good does
a man have to be to get to heaven? And I paused for just a minute,
because I had never heard anybody ask that kind of question. I'd
never heard tell of it. And I said, as good as God? She smiled from ear to ear, kissed
me on the cheek, and she said, that's right. And she took her
seat. How good do you have to be to
get to heaven? As good as God. As holy as God. As righteous as God. God will not receive. God will not receive. God will not receive anything
short of perfection. It must be perfect to be accepted. And the only way sinners can be made as good as God. is
through the doing and dying of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
in our place. By his obedience unto death,
he brings in everlasting righteousness and satisfies divine justice
so that now God, looking on his Son, is perfectly holy, righteous,
and just to put away sin. Not our works, not our praying,
Not our obedience, not even our faith can put away sin. The blood
of Christ alone can put away sin. Christ Jesus came here,
the Lord of glory, the Prince of heaven, in our nature for
this one purpose, that he might be made sin for us. being made sin that he might
be punished for sin on our account, that he being made sin might
be punished for all the sins of all God's elect at one time. Justice in anger and in fury,
in holy violence, slaughtered the Son of God at Calvary because
there's no other way for God to put away sin. God was manifest
in the flesh, that he might die in the flesh, that he might put
away our sins by the sacrifice of himself for us. For this,
the world was made. For this, the world was sustained. For this, Christ Jesus came. Christ offered himself. He offered
himself a sacrifice for sin. He offered himself alone. He
willingly poured out his life's blood at Calvary. And his blood was spilled by
the violence of divine justice. Until God didn't put his sword
away, he buried it in his son. So the justice wore itself out
upon God's darling, our blessed Savior. God help you to understand
this. When our Savior died, he actually accomplished everything
he came here to accomplish. He actually did everything He
came here to do. He fulfilled all the law. He
satisfied the justice of God. He made an end of sin, made an
end of transgression, made an end of iniquity. He put away
our sins so thoroughly so that God Almighty declares that He
will not remember your sins. will not remember your sins. Oh, my soul, hear God speak. I am he that bloodeth out thy
transgressions and will not remember your sins. God has cast our sins
into the sea of infinite forgetfulness. Christ so thoroughly put away
our sins that God beholds no sin in his people. Let's look
at our text again, Hebrews chapter nine, verse 24. The Lord Jesus once appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Here's the second
thing. He now appears in heaven in the
presence of the triune Jehovah to make intercession for his
people. He appears in heaven to make
intercession for the very people for whom he died at Calvary,
all of them and none but them. Why is that so important? It's
very important for you to understand. the distinctiveness of God's
love for you. He says, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. Jimmy Bowman, if Christ appeared
to put away your sin, it's because God Almighty distinguished you
from Adam's fallen race and set you on his heart in everlasting
love. Behold how He loved us. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. It's needful that we understand
His distinctive love for us, each of us personally. And it's
equally needful that we understand that His work is the work of
an effectual Savior, an effectual Redeemer, to suggest that Christ
died for some for whom he does not intercede, that he shed his
blood for some whom he does not represent in heaven, that he
poured out his life's blood at Calvary for some who perish in
hell after all is to declare that his blood didn't make any
difference at all, that he's not God, that he's no savior. Jesus Christ makes intercession
for those for whom he died. He said in John 17 twice, I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou has given me. Hebrews
9 24. Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands. which are the figures of the
truth. That's all they were, that's all they were. No holy
places, no holy places. I suppose I would maybe go to
Israel and visit over there and visit the historic places of
Bible events, but I'm a little bit fearful. I'm a little fearful.
I'm a little fearful if I did, I would catch the disease of
idolatry from everybody else. I'd stand there and I'd say,
oh, you feel so near to God, here you are in the tomb. Honestly,
if I could find the tomb, if I knew exactly where it was and
I could figure out a way to do it without getting arrested,
I'd take a bulldozer and push it over. Because everybody thinks
this is a holy place. Oh no, we don't have any holy
places on this earth. Christ is our holy place. We stand accepted of God in Him.
He didn't enter into those holy places made with hands, those
things that were symbolically holy, which are figures of the
true, but our Savior has entered into heaven itself. Folks ask, where is heaven? I
don't know. I don't know. Somewhere. Somewhere beyond this
present physical creation. Somewhere. Somewhere. So do you
believe heaven's a real place or just a condition? Yes. Yes,
I do. I believe it is a real place
and a glorious state of being. He entered into heaven itself
in his body. In his body. He entered into
heaven itself. now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Sometimes folks get more precise
than God, or think they do, and get more divisive than need be. The folks say, Lord, we come
into your presence. That's what we do, Merle, when
we come to pray. We come into his presence. Well, we're always
in his presence. Yes, so are the folks in hell.
He's omnipresent. But heaven, the place of his
presence, manifests. Christ, the God-made mediator,
now appears in the dwelling place of the Almighty. He sits on his
throne in heaven. He appears in a body before God,
who is spirit, to represent men and women who redeemed by the
sacrifice of his body upon the cursed tree. That very same Christ
who once walked on the earth, has gone into heaven as our forerunner. Now this will come astonishing
to some folks, I suppose, looking at my fine figure of a man, but
I don't know much about running. I never did know much about running.
Never did want to know much about running. Somehow when I played
football and wrestled and did those things in school. I managed
to get by without making whatever the time limit was in running
a mile. Just no interest. I was too big, too slow, didn't
plan to. I just had no interest in it.
But I know what a runner is, I've seen some. Christ entered
into heaven as a forerunner. Running to glory. To take possession! as some folks who are running
behind him. And we run with patience, the
race set before us. He took possession of heaven's
glory in my name. And I took possession of heaven's
glory in him. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high in my name. And, This is beyond my
understanding. I'm preaching way over my head.
I don't know how on earth it happened, but I sat down in heaven
in Him and with Him. Ephesians 2, 6 says so. We're
seated with Him in heavenly places. Not just represented there, seated
with Him, our Lord Jesus. Having run into heaven as our
representative, as a forerunner taking possession, is the guarantee
that some other folks are following. He who took possession of heaven
for us. He with whom we took possession
of heaven. shall at last bring us into heavenly
glory where our lives right now are hid with Christ in God. The Lord Jesus appears in heaven
to make intercession for us. Turn back to chapter 7, verse
24. This man, because he continueth
ever, this man, this man, his flesh is not eternal, but his
flesh is now. He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood. Wherefore, since he continues
forever, since he has an unchangeable priesthood, this man who died
at Calvary, this man who was buried in the tomb, this man
who rose again, this man who entered into heaven for us, He
has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, on the basis of all
this, we know He is able. He is able to save them to the
uttermost. He's able to save them to the
uttermost. Who? Them that come to God by
Him. Now listen to me. Come on to God. Right now, come
on to God. Will you? Will you come to God?
By Christ. Throw away your rags of righteousness,
your pretense and your filth. Just throw it away. Throw away
your resolutions and your repentances and your works. come to God a
naked, bankrupt, empty-handed sinner by Christ. Right now,
He's able to save you to the uttermost. He's able to bring
you at last into His own glory, partaker of His heavenly glory.
He's able to do that, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. Early this morning, Shelby and
I were having coffee together. She read me a passage from Hebrews
3 from the reading yesterday. Of those who enter not in because
of unbelief. Of those who fell away in the
wilderness. And she said to me, we're just
like them. And we too would fall away but for His grace. And we would. And we would. But I have hope of entering at
last into Heaven's glory, of being found with my last breath,
believing on the Son of God, because He who gave me faith
and continually day by day gives me faith will continue to give
me faith because He's able to save this sinner. A brand plug from the burning
to the uttermost. I've said many times I preach
way beyond my understanding, but never beyond the revelation
of this book, and never beyond what I'm confident is true. Let
me tell you what he's going to do. He's going to present me
thoughtless. before the presence of His glory
with great joy, holy, without spot, without blemish, without
wrinkle, without anything that even resembles sin and of all,
in His glorious holiness. That's the third thing. To them
that look for Him shall He appear the second time.
without sin unto salvation. It is appointed unto men once
to die. Death is sure. It's coming soon. After this, the judgment. You're
gonna meet God in judgment. Strict, strict judgment. and then eternity. Where will
you be in that day when Christ comes again without sin unto salvation? I'll tell you where I'll be.
I'm gonna be then right where I am right now with Christ. in Christ, in His glory. How can you be sure of that?
Because I believe the Son of God. Sometimes I feel like I do, not
very often, but I believe Him. Sometimes
I feel a little closer to Him than other times, not very often.
Usually I feel nothing but coldness and death and emptiness and sin. But in the teeth of it all, Mark,
I believe him. And this is what it says. Whosoever
believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Amen.