This morning, we're going to
be in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter nine, if you would like to turn
their Hebrews chapter nine. This morning,
I want us to ask ourself a question. Why did Christ die? Why did Christ die? Why did he
have to die? Why did he have to become a man
and suffer the wrath of God? Why? Was it to make an opportunity
for mankind to choose or reject? Was it to make a way to obligate
men to do something so that they could obligate God to do something?
And that's really what all false religion does, is they say, well,
if you do this, you're gonna obligate God to do this. And
that's not true, is it? We can't obligate God. Why did
the Lord die? What if I told you he died on
purpose? He died on purpose. We believe that, don't we? It
wasn't an accident. Matter of fact, it was before
the foundation of the world was laid, it was determined that
he would die. He would die. Why? For his people. And for
the glory of the Father. The glory of God. According to
the determinate counsel of God, for a specific reason, he died.
To bring life to his people. You and I who were dead in trespasses
and in sin, he hath quickened. That means he made alive. You
and I who are the called according to his purpose are not left to
ourself. He brings us to the knowledge
of the truth by saying, live. This is why he died. This is why he died. The reason
was to also establish the covenant of grace. You and I had no hope
of salvation outside the covenant of grace. Covenant of works didn't
redeem anybody, did it? Not one person was redeemed under
that old covenant. And in Hebrews, that's what we
found over and over again. The priesthood, it was a continual
priesthood, that every day, every year, they would have to offer
up these sacrifices that could never take away sin. That's a
picture of man, no matter what we do, we cannot take away our
sin. God has to do that. That's why Christ died, to put
away the sin of his people. Thank God he says first Timothy
115. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. To save sinners
of whom I am chief. That's why he came. That's why
he died to save sinners. Somebody said, well, I'm. You
don't know how bad I am. I would reply to that. Well,
you don't know how powerful the blood of Christ is. Blood of
Christ. washes away every sin. There's not a sin that could
be committed that the blood of Christ doesn't have the power
to cleanse if he so chooses to do so. Can't limit God. Now let's read our text here,
Hebrews 9 verse 24 through the end of the chapter. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but unto heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every
year with blood of others. For then must he have often 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 for the second time without sin unto salvation. That's why he died. Why did Christ
die? To do that which we could never
do or achieve, to enter the presence of God. Now he says the word
appear right here the first time and I really struggled on how
I was going to present this to us because I think I had two
messages going at the same time and I didn't want to, I've done
that before and I don't want to ever do that again. It's too
much information. I'm going to touch on the other
message that I had just briefly, and then kind of when we hit
those points, we'll talk about that. But the title of this message
is For Us. For Us. For Us, he entered into,
let's read it again together. Verse 24, for Christ has not
entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the
figure of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in
the presence of God for us. For us. He appeared in the presence
of God for us. The first time our Lord appeared
would have been when He became a man. When the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Christ Jesus
appeared as a man. He was manifested as a man. Second
time He appeared, He appeared before the very throne of God,
the very presence of God. The third time he appears is
whenever he calls a sheep, when he calls a believer. He appears
to you by saying, live, let there be light, let there be life,
and you're born again. That's when he appears by his
spirit. And lastly, he's gonna appear
one more time when he comes back. That's what he says here in verse
28. 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. So we have four times the Lord
appears, four times. Now having made us accepted before
his throne, he appeared the first time for us. Every single one
of these is for us. Now it is for the glory of the
Father, it's for the glory of God, so I never wanna diminish
that. But he did what he did for the
salvation of his people, for us, for us, to put away sin. No man has the right, no man
has the strength, no man has the power to enter into the presence
of God. We don't have the ability, do
we? How are we to enter into the
presence of God? We are of the earth, earthly.
He is spiritual. We can't... We couldn't enter
there if we had to in order to be saved. There's no way. Now,
the tabernacle of old, the Lord said, I will, he said, I walked
in the tabernacle, but that wasn't the Shekinah glory that it talks
about in the scripture. That's where he said, I'll meet
with you here. But I'm talking about the very
throne of God, the very throne. We could never have approached
that without dying. but there's one who could and
it's the Lord Jesus Christ and that's what he did. for us. He entered into that which we
could not enter into. He went to the place where you
and I could not go. He endeared the suffering due
us that would have done us no good to suffer. If we would have
suffered the wrath of the Lord on the cross, no sin would have
been put away. No justice would have been satisfied
because we are utterly sinful. But the Lord, he satisfied justice. He put it away. And then he entered
into the presence of God and said, here's the blood. Then
the father said, well pleased, well pleased with that sacrifice. Now he didn't enter into a place
made with hands, did he? Not a place you and I can build.
No, the very, in heaven itself, that's what heaven is, is the
presence of God. Wherever the presence of God
is, that's heaven. people talk about things in Heaven. And I'm
certain it's going to be beautiful, there's no doubt about that by
a fleshly standard, but you know the only thing we're going to
be looking at is the Lord. Man said that, and I can't remember
exactly how he said it, but it's very true, if you could take
gold with you to heaven, it wouldn't do any good, because that's just
treated as pavement. That's what the streets are made of, right,
gold? So it's just pavement. Nothing's valuable up there like
it is here, because there's one thing valuable, the Lord Jesus
Christ. God's valuable. He's the object of our affection
there. He's the object of our attention
there. That's who we long to see is Him. And to worship him,
that's what heaven is. When he went to heaven itself,
the scripture says, he ascended on high and he led captivity
captive. All of us who were captive by
our sin, who were born in sin, shaped in iniquity, held with
the shackles of sin, he set captive free. We're no longer captive.
As our high priest, now he ever liveth to make intercession for
us. He ever liveth to make, as our eternal mediator, he mediates
for us. Now notice the second time he
appears here in verse 24 is when he appeared before the Father.
Now to appear in the presence of God for us. That means on
our behalf, in our stead, Because we couldn't, He appeared for
us, having obtained eternal redemption. Having obtained eternal redemption,
He manifested Himself before the throne of God. That means
God sees Him. That means the sight of the Lord
is completely upon Him. He's not looking at you and I
anymore. He's not looking at our sin anymore,
it's gone. When he sees me, when he sees
you, because Christ entered into the presence of God for us, he
sees the blood and he's satisfied. He sees the blood and he is satisfied.
He sees his darling son when he looks at you and I, his people. He sees Christ on our behalf. He's always seen there as the
substitute surety of his people. First John tells us this, my
little children, these things I write unto you that you sin
not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous,
we have an advocate. And he is the propitiation of
our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole
world. He's our advocate. He's our propitiation standing
before the Lord. Now, you think about an advocate. You think about a lawyer, somebody
that pleads your cause. I love the, we think about maybe
things, I think about things a certain way sometimes where
the Lord's actually doing something as advocating. Just his presence
is our advocation. He don't have to do anything.
The blood is there. Whenever the Lord sees us, we
come to him with our prayer and our need. The Lord already knew
that need. And because Christ is seated, the work is finished.
That prayer is answered before it's even prayed. The Lord's
gonna give exactly what we need because we have an advocate,
a mediator that's seated right beside God on his right hand.
A lot of people preach that when
you pray, you're obligating God to do things. Prayer changes
things. You ever heard that? The only thing prayer truly changes
is us. changes us. I pray for you more.
I think about you more. I love you more. You'll see a
change in that behavior. I might treat you a little bit
better. You know, that's just how it works. Prayer does not
change God. Prayer does not change God. God
does whatsoever he will. So why do we pray? We pray to
seek his will. Lord, reveal your will to me.
Teach me your ways. Show me your truth. And he does. And he does. Our Lord is ever
in the face of God, feeling the entire view of God. You know
what that means? He's not seeing us. He sees the
blood. He's not looking for you and
I to do something. He's looking at what the Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary. He's not
waiting and wondering if we're going to do what we need to do
in order to let Him save us. No, He saved His people from
their sin, and He's seated. He is the object in glory that
we see, and He is what the Father looks at to redeem you and I. That's exactly it. He's looking
at the effectual work on Calvary, the work done by the Lord. He's
not looking at the work you and I are supposed to do. He's not
looking at the deeds you and I do, but he's looking at what
Christ did in fulfilling the law and satisfying justice. The Lord Jesus Christ, I love
this. When the Lord showed up, I hope the Lord allows us to
enter into this and I don't say this confusing like, but the
Lord doesn't have to do anything to intercede. He's already done
it on the cross of Calvary. He doesn't have to do anything
to intercede. It's finished. He's already interceded. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father. There's nothing left to do. Every
intercession that was necessary has already taken place. All
the mediation's already taken place. The propitiation has already
taken place. He's seated right there. Him seating at the right hand
of God is the intercession. I love the thought that he doesn't
have to ask forgiveness for you and I. Every time we do something,
every time we sin, we come to him. If any man, we had just
read that, if any man sin, we have an advocate. If we confess
our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
have to look to the Father and say, Lord, will you forgive them?
You know why? All the sins are gone. Now, we're
going through the motions of it down here, but the Lord's
already put them all away. If that was the case, if the
Lord, if the son looked at the father and said, Father, forgive
them. Now, he did that on the cross of Calvary, I understand
that, but I'm talking about now that sin's been put away, he
never has to look at his father and say, Lord, forgive them,
because they're forgiven already. We see that? Already done. All
the forgiveness. No more sin. What sin? There
is none. He put it away by the sacrifice
of himself. There's nothing to forgive. There's
nothing to forgive. When he by himself purged our
sin, he sat down. He sat down. There's nothing
left to do. No more forgiveness has to happen.
No more, no other transaction needs to be made. Everything
was accomplished whenever he appeared before the throne of
God. The father was satisfied. Now
notice verse 25 and 26. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priests entereth into the holy place
every year with blood of others. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. now once in the end of the world
he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
The writer is declaring the elimination of the former priests. How that
the priest's work was never finished. How that they never really accomplished
anything as far as eternity. They were able to worship God.
They were enabling the people to worship God. And that is how
you and I would have worshipped under the law. We would have
brought a sacrifice to With your family you would have brought
your sacrifice and it would have been the time you would have
offered it up and then you would have had to eat the sacrifice
that was roasted with fire. And that was your worship. That
was your worship unto the Lord, unto the law. And they're saying,
but it didn't accomplish anything. It covered the sin for a year,
but it never put them away. That lamb, or that goat, or all
the other sacrifices that the Lord accepted, none of those
entered into the presence of God on our behalf. None of those
interceded for us. None of those mediated for us. The Lord said, if you do that,
and they were looking in faith to the cross of Christ, that's
what they were doing. But all those lambs, they were just a
type and a shadow of the Lamb of God, the only one who could
enter into the presence of God, the only one that could appear
before His throne and really put away sin. saying, no matter
what you did, no matter what I did under the law, we could
never have pleased God. But the Lord Jesus Christ did
what we could not do. He put away sin. He really put
away sin. And so many times, I'm afraid
we forget that. We forget the fact that when
we start looking around us at the things in our life and the
The sin that we are, the sin that we do, we're noticing it
more and more and we feel guilty, the Lord's put it away, rest.
Rest in his finished work. Rest in his accomplished work.
Don't look at yourself saying, well, if I was really a believer
of this gospel, I wouldn't do this and I wouldn't do that.
You know the difference between a believer and a non-believer?
The believer believes, that's it. That's it, a believer believes
the Lord Jesus Christ successfully redeemed his people. A believer
believes Christ is God. A believer believes that the
blood is their only hope of eternal life. A believer believes the
only way I'm gonna be saved is if he does all the saving. That's
what a believer believes. An unbeliever don't believe that. He's declaring here that if the
blood of the lambs would have actually redeemed, then why would
they need to be offered continually over and over? And if Christ
had failed, would he had not had to be continually offered
from the beginning, it says, over and over. But because he
did it one time and the father was pleased, there's no more
sacrifice for sin. Sin's gone. The sin's gone. There's no more need for another
sacrifice. So it's insulting unto the Lord
for you and I to bring anything of our own hands. It's insulting
for us to come and say, okay, well, here's the work I've been
doing. I was talking to somebody this week and they were asking
what, I always get the same question, what ministries do you have at
your church? And that sometimes is, Very vague, but I think I've
come to the conclusion, I know what they mean. What do we have,
outreaches? Do we have children's ministries? Whatever you want
to call it. And I said, well, we have one ministry. And they
said, what is it? I said, the preaching of the
gospel. And then they said, oh, well, we have this, this, this,
and I can't remember all that they said. I do remember one
thing in particular they said. She said, and the other day I
was out knocking on doors for Jesus. And I thought, no, you
weren't. No, you were knocking on doors
for you. You're knocking on doors for you to present something
to the Lord. Don't do that, we don't do that,
do we? We don't do things, now if you
wanna knock on the doors and invite people to church, I say
I'm all for that, I don't see anything wrong with that, but
don't do it as part of your righteousness, because this woman, that was
her righteousness, this is what I'm doing for God, righteousness. It's not, Christ is our only
righteousness. Or we don't have any, or we don't
have any. That's what he's telling us here.
He did it all, and we look to Him alone. It's insulting to
bring something of our own hands. It's insulting to bring something
of our own works. We didn't, even the building
that the Lord's given us, what we've done to it, none of us
did any of that in this building as part of our righteousness.
We did it because it's our responsibility to keep up with what the Lord's
given us. That was the only reason. We're not, we don't do, and serve
for righteousness. We do and serve because he is
our righteousness. And we love him because he first
loved us. He's telling us here that if
Christ had failed, he would have had to been offered multiple
times. But because he could not, it's impossible for him to fail.
He was successful in redemption. He was successful in redeeming.
And nothing you and I can do can add to or take away from
that. He alone entered into the presence
of God. He alone appeared. He's the only one who could redeem
because of his pedigree. He was the son of God. He was
100% man and 100% God, wasn't he? His pedigree, that's who
he was. You and I don't have that. We
don't have that character. We're born in sin. We're of our
father Adam. And likewise, the blood, he had
the only blood that could redeem. We can spill our blood, it wouldn't
do any good, it's polluted. The father was pleased with that
blood. In time, he appears to his people,
and that's the third appear that he does. I told you I was just
gonna touch on those, and we'll eventually probably, the Lord
leads here a message on that, the appears, the four appears
here. He appears for us, coming to us where we are. And that's
when he arrests us. That's when he opens our eyes
to the truth. That's when he brings salvation and says, here's
what I've done. You know, he went to that, and
it's the same, we have the same confession as most of the people
the Lord healed. He walked up to the man at the
pool of Bethesda and he said, wilt thou be made whole? And
the man of the pulpit says that, had the best response, and the
same as you and I, every believer's response, sir, I have no man.
This man can't help me and none of these can help me. I have
no man. When the water is troubled, that
will let me in. You understand the angel of the
Lord would come down once a year, trouble the water, and whoever
got in the water first, they were healed. He said, sir, I
have no man. I don't have strength and nobody
will help me. The Lord said, wilt thou be made
whole? And I love the part where the
man is made to confess, made to confess, well, if I'm gonna
be made whole, you're gonna have to do it. That's salvation, isn't
it? That's how he appears to us.
He passed, think about all the people he passed by. This was
a pool where they knew that healing took place. How many people,
it said many lame, impotent, sick folk were at this pool all
the time. They didn't know when the troubling
of the water would be. How many people were there? I don't know.
A bunch, you can imagine, desperate people. And he passed by this
one, and he passed by that one, and he passed by this one, and
he passed by that one, until finally he gets to this one individual. He says, will thou be made whole?
Why did he do that? Somebody says, well, it's not
fair that he passed by all the other ones. I say to the contrary,
it's not fair that he went to the one. He didn't. What obligated
him to do that other than his own choice? Other than grace
alone? That's the only reason he went
to one. And that's what he does for his people. He comes to them,
passing by others, not because of what we have done, not works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
and according to his grace alone, according to his love, he comes
to you and he comes to me and he says, wilt thou be made whole?
And we say, Lord, you're the one who will have to do it. Will
you be saved? Lord, you're gonna have to save
me. Can't save myself. I can't even accept you unless
you cause me to accept you. You must enable me to. You must
enable me to. The Lord says, I will be thou
made whole. Be thou made whole. That's what
the third appearing is. Does that for every one of his
sheep at the appointed time. When he was offered up, he really
put away the sin of his people. One distinct difference in our
gospel than other gospels. We really believe Christ was
successful in what He was doing on the cross of Calvary. We truly
believe Christ really put away the sin of His people. He didn't
die for everybody and He doesn't love everybody, but for those
whom He chose in the covenant of grace, He chose to love them.
He chose to have an everlasting love for them, never having a
beginning or an end. He chose the way the Lord Jesus
Christ in becoming a man to put away every single sin of every
single one of his elect. And that's what he did. He really
accomplished salvation. It wasn't an attempt. It wasn't
just an effort. He couldn't have failed. He wasn't
God. It's that simple. He successfully
redeemed. We preach him as the actual redeemer.
Not just a portion of redemption, not just part of salvation, he
is salvation. The fullness of the Godhead bodily
is salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just him alone. Don't you love the fact that
he settled the matter of justice forever? He settled the matter
of justice for his people forever. He established their righteousness
before God forever. He cleansed every single stain
He satisfied God. He offered himself to God, putting
away the sin of everyone that God chose in the covenant of
grace. We who are born utterly sinful,
born depraved, we were unable to appear in the presence of
God. The next hour we're gonna look
at the last two Verses where it says it's appointed unto men
once to die and after this the judgment. Everyone will appear. Before God. Everyone will appear. But we don't appear before God
by our choice, meaning we can't just appear before him right
now. That's when we die will appear
before him because the Spirit goes back to God, which gave
it souls to be judged. Christ. He had to die as well. in order for sin to be put away,
in order for him to appear in the presence of God. But judgment
already had taken place on the cross of Calvary, so there was
no judgment to be had whenever he came into the presence of
God. He said, sit thou here at my right hand. Judgment was satisfied. And every person that was in
Christ on the cross of Calvary, judgment has been satisfied for
them as well. Justice has been satisfied for
them as well. And now we are seated in Christ
in the heavenly. So when he looks at him, he doesn't
see me, When he looks at me, he doesn't see me, he looks at
his son, he sees the Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ appeared
one time before the Father. The Father said, sit thou here,
I'm well pleased. You and I were unable to enter
the presence of God, we had no hope of ever doing anything to
redeem ourself, but Christ did it all for us. He appeared once. at the end of the world is actually
what it says here. At the end of the world, that just means
the appointed time, the appointed time. Whenever Christ was appointed
to die, it came to pass. He died in our stead, he took
our place, our guilt before God, our shame, took it all. Then
he appeared once in the presence of God, having made an end to
sin by the sacrifice of himself, having put away that sin. And
he's now seated as our priest. our mediator, our advocate. He's actually seated as the soon
coming conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's how
he's seated. No other gospel gives him all
the glory. No other gospel reveals he has
all the power. No other gospel declares him
sovereign, truly sovereign, except this gospel. This is the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace to his elected centers. You and
I can't mess it up. You and I can't fix it because
it's not broken. Doesn't need our help at all.
No other gospel declares God is God and we are not and we
need him to save us or we will not be saved. Not 99% saved,
and I got to do this one little thing, 100%. If he doesn't save
me 100%, we're doomed. We're doomed. Thank God he did
redeem us. It was not possible for him to
fail because he's God. And because he was successful,
he didn't need to suffer over and over and over. He didn't
need to die again and again and again. That one sacrifice was
enough, more than enough, to put away all our sin. I will
say this, we don't limit the atoning power of the Lord Jesus
Christ's blood by believing what we believe. If the Lord would
have so chose for that sacrifice to put away the sin of every
single person that would have ever been born, it would have
been sufficient to do so. We're not limiting the Lord's
power in that. We just know that when he died, he was putting
away sin. He wasn't just making a way that
you would have an offer for salvation. When he died, he put away sin.
That tells us whose sin he was bearing, it's gone. So if that's
everybody, then everybody's saved, but we know that's not true.
It was for his people. No, we're not limiting the Lord's power
in his blood. Actually, we're exalting his
power in sovereignty, in choice, because we see ourself undeserving. We see ourself as the man at
the pool of Bethesda, not knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ was
going to walk up to us the day that he did and say, live. We
don't brag about that, do we? He brought us to that knowledge.
He gets all the glory. That's what this gospel declares,
is he gets all the glory. He did everything exactly like
he did on purpose. On purpose. And he saved his
people on purpose. For those chosen unto salvation
before time, he appears unto them by his spirit, declaring,
it is finished. It is finished. Those may be
the most precious words you'll ever hear as a sinner. Lord,
what am I supposed to do? I'm a sinner. Lord, I'm a leper. I'm unclean. Lord, I have sores
from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Lord, my righteousness
is as filthy rag. I can't approach you. I can't
appear unto you. And the Lord says, it is finished. Rest. Rest. If you're burdened, if you're
heavy laden, come to me. I'll give you rest. It's finished. Rest. This is being written here to
clearly set forth the fact that bulls and goats couldn't take
away sin. And if that didn't take away, and I call it innocent
animal, a lamb, he said take a lamb of the first year, that's
a little tiny lamb, without spot, without blemish. I mean, what
evil thing could that thing done? You know what I mean? You and
I are telling lies in our first year most of the time. We cry
when we want to get picked up and nothing's really wrong. We
start fooling mom and dad. Don't even mean to do it, do
we? That's what babies do. This little lamb, he's innocent
as far as we can see. The Lord said, that blood isn't
good enough. That blood isn't good enough.
It's going to take the blood of the lamb to put away your
sin. And the son said, I'll do it. I'll redeem him. I'll save your people. And he
did. It's finished. It's finished. God had to appear to do that,
and He did. He appeared as a man to put away sin. He appeared
before God as our eternal intercessor, eternal mediator, eternal advocate.
He appears each time according to His purpose and His time to
reveal Himself to His sheep. One lost sheep, He reveals to
Himself. He appears. And look whenever He's gonna
appear one more time, if you would, verse 28. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sin of many, and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin into salvation. He's gonna
appear one more time. We're just waiting on the trumpet, aren't
we? Waiting to hear the shout. The Lord said that he's gonna
descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet
of God shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and
we which are alive and remain shall be called up together to
meet him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. be
changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, be conformed to his
image. Brethren, we don't know what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be
like him. We may just like him because we're going to see him
as he is. What's going to be revealed is the glory that's
in us right now, our hope of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's going to be revealed in us. He's finally going to be
revealed in us. Very soon he shall appear in
the clouds for us to bring us home without sin and to salvation.
That's the fourth time he's going to appear. We shall be changed
in a moment. This is what he did for his people.
I don't know what I should have titled this message, but I titled
it for us. This is what he did for us. That's
what he did for us. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for doing all this for us. calls us to rest, in Christ's
name, amen. Let's take a break.