I want you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews the ninth
chapter. I'm going to read verse 26 from
my text. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world, but now want in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. Now, in the morning message,
I spent most of my time on this verse of Scripture. Tonight,
I'm going to spend all of my time on this one verse of Scripture,
for it's the best news that a sinner can hear. It is the glad tidings. It is the good news. It is the
glad sound to every guilty son of Adam. it tells us the mission
of our Master, that cause for which he came into this world. Our Lord came into the world
to put away sin. Christ did not come into this
world to deny human sin. Christ did not come into this
world to define sin as only a Christ did not come into this world
to help us forget our sins. Christ did not come into this
world to lull us into a false peace of self-righteousness. He came to put away sin. And that's the title of the message
tonight, The Putting Away of Sin, When Satan Tempts Me to
Despair. and tells me of my sin and guilt
within. To Christ I look, I see Him there
who made an end of all my sin. And because the sinless Savior
died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just one is
satisfied to look on Christ and pardon me." My message tonight
will be divided into three parts. You can remember it easily. First
question is this, when did he come? The second question will
be, why did he come? What did he do? The third question
will be, how did he do it? Now let's look at the text, and
here's a word that I mentioned in my message this morning that
I want you to underscore. I think it's one of the most
important words in this entire verse. It's the little word O-N-C-E,
wants. It says here, now, wants, wants,
in the end of the word. And the reason I think it's important
is because Paul mentions it in connection with the sacrifice
of Christ over and over and over again. For example, in verse
12 of chapter 9, listen to him. In verse 12, Paul says, "...neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered
once into the holy place." He's careful to insert that word. "...neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into the holy
place." Then look at verse 28, "...so Christ Chapter 9, verse 28. So Christ
was once offered, once offered to bear the sin of many. He was once offered. And then
turn over to this verse that Charlie read a moment ago, Hebrews
10, verse 14. Look at this. Hebrews 10, 14. For by one offering, by one offering,
he entered in once into the holy place. By one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified." And then when the
Apostle Peter took up this message in 1 Peter 3, listen to him. 1 Peter 3, verse 18, 1 Peter
3, 18, listen, "'For Christ also hath once suffered for sins.'"
the just for the unjust, he hath once suffered for sin. The just for the unjust that
he might bring us to God. You say, why is this important?
Well, let's turn to verse 27. While you're looking at verse
27, let me remind you of what Paul said back in verse 26. He
said, If Christ had not suffered just once, but if he had, like
the high priest of old, gone into the Holy of Holies every
year, how often would he have suffered since the foundation
of the world? How often would he have suffered? But now once, in the end of the
world, he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." Now look at verse 27. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, and after this the judgment, So Christ was once
offered. And you know, I've read that
verse of Scripture. I've seen it there dozens and
dozens and dozens of times. So have you. But I've never noticed
the significance of it. I've never really connected this
little word, O-N-C-E, with verse 27. It's on either side of it.
In verse 26, he said, Now once in the end of the world hath
Christ appeared to put away sin. And then verse 27 gives an example,
"...as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that to
judgment. So Christ was once offered."
Now, verse 27 will illustrate it, and this is what he's saying.
Listen carefully. A man dies one time. One doesn't come back to this
earth and die again, and then die again, and then die again. We live and we die one time. And after that, everything's
settled. Everything's fixed. We answer
for our lives at the judgment. When once I die, when once I
lie down and die, it's over. It's finished. It's fixed. It's
settled. I meet God at the judgment. One
life, one death, and then everything is weighed. And the result is
declared. You understand that? All right.
So, so, Christ was once offered. Christ comes. He lives one perfect
life. He dies one vicarious death. And after this, the results of
everything he's done, the results of everything he's represented,
the results of everything he's accomplished, the results of
every task for which he, that task and mission for which he
came, the result is declared, it is settled, it is fixed, the
salvation of all for whom he lived and for whom he died. is
settled and finished and complete. That's the reason when Christ
died he said, it's finished. It's all finished. Of course
he meant the sacrifices were finished. They were to be offered
no more. The veil in the temple was went
in place. Of course he meant the tithes
were all fulfilled. They need not be reexamined. Of course he meant the work of
righteousness was finished. Of course he meant his sufferings
for sin were over. Of course he meant his days of
humiliation and his agony on Calvary were over. Of course
he meant that separation from the Father, as our scapegoat
was finished, he now would re-enter the presence of the Father. But
what he was declaring was this, that for which he came was done.
That for which he suffered was over. That task the Father gave
him to perform was performed. One life, one perfect life, one
vicarious death, and everything that he represented and everything
that he did was absolutely unconditionally finished and settled and fixed
for all eternity. That's what that illustration
means, verse 27. as it is appointed unto men. Wants to live, wants
to die, and after this, the judgment, it's settled, it's fixed, it's
over, it's unchangeable, it's irreversible. As the tree falls,
that's where she lies. He that's holy, let him be holy.
He that's filthy, let him be filthy. He that's righteous,
let him be righteous. He that's unholy, let him be
unholy. One life, one death, it's over. So Christ was once offered one
life, one death, it's over. He bore the sins of many, and
unto them that look for him he shall appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. God's covenant of return is met
and fulfilled. And that's exactly what they
say. One time. One time. One time. All right, the second question,
what did he do? We underscored the word once,
didn't we? Now once in the end of the world
hath he appeared. We understand a little bit about
that word now. O-M-C-E, once. Just like a man
lives once, he dies once, that's it. It's fixed, it's settled,
it's unchangeable. There's no second chance after
death, only a fool will talk about that. The Bible knows nothing
about that. No use praying for the dead,
pray for the living. Christ once lived on this earth
and he once died. And that for which he lived and
that for which he died is done, it is accomplished, it is settled
for eternity. Now the second word I want you
to look at, or group of words, is this, put away sin. to put away, he hath appeared
once to put away sin." This is what the gospel is all about.
This is the heart of this verse, this message, to put away sin. Have you ever stopped to consider
how difficult it is to put away sin? To put away sin. When I was sitting up here thinking
tonight about this question, sin is a hard thing to put away. I thought about old Pilate when
that multitude had urged him to crucify the Lord. He was torn
between a letter he had received from his wife and his own convictions
that Christ was an innocent man, and those eyes into which he
had and the words he had heard him say, and for envy they had
delivered him, and he saw through. He was a wise man, he was a leader,
he saw through these false witnesses. And he was so confused, and yet
he was held by a fear of losing his prestige and power and his
position, so he just sent for a basin of water, and they brought
a basin of water and a towel, and he ceremoniously in front
of all those people washed his hands. He washed his hands. And then he got the towel and
he dried them. He said, I'm free from the blood of this man. You
reckon that the bloodstains on the hands of Pilate were removed
by that little ceremony? Well, you know better and I know
better. Sin is hard to put away. Our sins of thought, our sins
of attitude, our sins of imagination, Our sins in word, our sins in
thought, our sins in deed. We don't love God with all our
hearts. We don't love our neighbors,
ourselves, our sins of omission, our sins of commission, our sins
in Adam. Our sins just go on and on and
on. They're more than the mountains.
They're higher than the mountains. They're like a cloud that has
separated us from God. They multiply by the hour. They never cease. They grow.
The Jewish sacrifices can't put them away. Look at Hebrews 10.4.
I know there, as I look back on those old sacrifices. If anybody
here is under the impression that when Abel brought that blood
offering, that that put away sin, well, I'll erase that right
now. If anybody is under the impression
that when Aaron would slay the Lamb and take it unto the Holy
of Holies and put the blood on the mercy seat, that the blood
of that That animal, bull, goat or heifer, could put away sin.
If you think that could put away the stain on the soul of the
sinner, read verse 4 of chapter 10 of Hebrews. It is not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. The blood of those Jewish sacrifices
could no more put away their sins, and the water could erase
the stains of Christ's blood from Pilate's hands. These sacrifices
were but pictures, they were but types, they were but patterns
of that which should come. Then I'll tell you something
else. All the ceremonies and fastings of the Old Testament
and all the keeping of holy days couldn't put away sin either.
The Scripture says, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified. All of the fastings and bodily
prostrations and circumcisions and all of these ceremonies,
through them all, sin, the stain of sin, And the filth of sin
and the guilt of sin still remain on everyone taking part in these
sacrifices. Tell you something else, repentance
can't put away sin either. Turn to Psalms 51. You won't
find a more beautiful, a more beautiful psalm of repentance
than Psalms 51. Psalm 51. talking about acknowledging verse
3, his transgressions, his sins ever before. And verse 4, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. Verse 5, I was shapen in iniquity. But then he comes down to verse
7, and even though, let me tell you this, when God gives genuine
repentance, when God gives genuine repentance, sin is put away because
repentance and faith are inseparable. You can't have faith without
repentance. You can't have repentance without
faith. Someone said they're like a piece of paper, got to have
two sides. If there's repentance, there's
got to be faith in Christ. And where there is genuine repentance,
sin is put away. But repentance doesn't put it
away. David prayed in verse 7, "'Purge me with hyssop, and I
shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than the snow.'" It takes something else besides repentance to put
away sin. It takes something else besides,
and don't misunderstand me, faith to put away sin. Repentance won't
put away sin. Faith won't put away sin. No form, listen to this. Now
here is something I want to deal with, and I hope all of you listen
carefully to me right here. No form of suffering in this
world will put away sin. Now, I was raised among poor
people. I lived during the Depression,
and my father worked in the steel mill in 1929, And he was laid off, and we went
to the farm down in Alabama. And we lived in an old run-down
house. We didn't have running water
and didn't have lights and didn't have gas and didn't have anything
but just a cistern and some coal-oil lamps and a wood-burning stove
and made our living. My parents did. I didn't contribute
much, but out of the ground. And I lived among poor people. There were poor sharecroppers.
We used to pick peas on the hags and pick cotton and things like
that to make a living. And I noticed, even as a child,
there was a notion among poor people, based on a false interpretation
of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, that because a
man is poor and because a man suffers in this world, he'll
go to heaven when he dies. Now, that's not so. It's just
not so. No poverty will put away sin. No suffering in this world will
put away sin. This is utterly false. Nobody
goes to heaven because he's poor, and nobody goes to hell because
he's rich. Now, you know that's true. You
know that most poor people have the idea that all poor people
are going to heaven. That some old lady can work out
there hard in the fields and work over a hot stove and can
and cook and sew and quilt and labor and mind her own business. When she dies, she's going to
heaven, you know. She's suffered enough. Now she's
gone to her reward, not necessarily. No man ever suffered quite like
Job. No woman ever suffered on this
earth quite like Job. God took everything that man
had away from him, everything he had. God left him nothing,
not even his health. He took his family, he took his
wealth, he took his cattle, he took his sheep, he took his home,
he took his friends, he took his servants, he took his wife,
he took everything away from him. Took his health, he sat
He sat on a trash heap, scraping his skin with pieces of glass
to get some comfort from the itching and the hurting and the
soreness. But when God appeared to Job
in the whirlwind, Job didn't say, Lord, I've suffered so much,
I've had so many trials, I know you're going to forgive me of
my sins." No, he didn't. When God appeared to Job, Job
said, Lord, I hate myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. I know my Redeemer lives. My Redeemer. Now, if you're sitting
out there tonight and you think God's going to take you to heaven
because you were raised on a farm, you're mistaken. If you're sitting
out there and you think God's going to take you to heaven because
you've had a hard time on earth, you're mistaken. Hell will just
be a little bit worse. If you're sitting out there thinking
that God's going to take you to heaven because you've been
too poor to buy into the luxurious sins of this world, you're mistaken.
suffering in the flesh will not put away sin. It won't do it.
I'll tell you something else, it won't put away sin. Holy living
won't put away sin. You can get a man to quit his
meanness and turn over a new leaf, and that won't put away
his sin. The Scripture says no man is
justified by faith in the sight of God. No man is justified by
works in the sight of God. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please
God." That's what the Scripture said. There's too much evil in
us and on us and around us and about us to recommend us to God
in the flesh. There's enough sin in the saint
of God nearest heaven to create another devil, if God permitted
it. Even our tears need to be bathed
in the blood of Christ, because there's a lot of hypocrisy and
self-pity in our tears. Even our repentance needs to
be repented of. Even our faith is insufficient
to bring us one blessing from God. It's all Christ. Christ has to make even our weeping
holy, even our repentance holy, even our faith worthy. If we
had the eyes of God and could see the phoniness and the hypocrisy
and the self-pity and the pride and the self-righteousness that's
in every one of us, it would nauseate us. We'd hang our heads
in shame and we'd cry like the publican, Oh God, be merciful
to me, be sinner, I'm the chief of sinners. No, we've catalogued sin. We've
got sin all catalogued. Sin is murder and adultery and
thievery and and profanity and playing cards and drinking and
gambling and smoking and this, that and the other, and that's
what sin is, and we've missed sin ten million miles. The majority of people don't
even know what sin is, and they've got themselves all fixed up because
they don't do these things. And God looks on them, and they're
more abominable than the people that do those things. more abominable,
because they've got on top of their sin the wretched hypocrisy
of religious pride. Holy living can't put away sin. It just won't do it, because
the flesh is too corrupt. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. And in the flesh dwelleth no
good thing, and in the flesh no man can please God. And when
you get to feeling real worthy and real holy and real religious
and real acceptable, go lie down on your face in the floor and
ask God to keep you out of hell by the blood of Christ, because
you're nearest to it right then. That's so. You're nearest to
it. Any time we can feel any worthiness
or any piety in the flesh, then we've taken our eyes off Christ.
Because you can't look at the perfect love of Christ without
seeing your imperfect love. You can't look at the perfect
obedience of Christ without being convicted of your imperfect obedience. You can't look at the perfect
righteousness of Christ without seeing your imperfect righteousness. You can't look into the holy
eyes of Christ the Lord without seeing your awful unholiness. and ungodliness. And death can't put sin away
either. Scripture says it's the soul
that sinneth. The death of the body is not
going to put away the sins of my soul. You can hack this body
up and kill it and put it in the grave, and I've still got
my sins, because it's the soul that sinneth. The body just carries
out what the heart tells it to do, and hell won't put away sin
either. The angels which fell, the scripture
says, have been reserved for thousands of years in chains
of darkness, and their sins are still on them. They're waiting
on the judgment. Turn to 1 Timothy 1.15. I tell
you, sin's hard put away. Now, brother, you're talking
about the putting away of sin. We're talking about the biggest
thing this side of heaven. When you're talking about the
putting away of sin, you're talking about the greatest thing in the
universe. When you're talking about the putting away of sin,
you're talking about the most difficult thing. An angel can't
do it. A man can't do it. A nation can't
do it. The world can't do it. All of
the armies of the world can't do it. Only God can do it. And
it's just one way God can do it. I do know this, I know God can't
just erase sin, because if he did that, he wouldn't be just.
I know God just can't say, well, I'll forget it. He can't do that
and be righteous. I do know this, I know God Almighty
can't just say, well, if you start doing better, I'll forget
the past. With God there is no past, it's all present. And only
one way God can forgive sin, 1 Timothy 1, verse 15. This is
a fateful saving, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's the only
way. Matthew 1.21, the angel appeared
to Joseph, and the angel said to him, Mary is going to have
a son conceived by the Holy Ghost. That holy one shall be called
the Son of God, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin." And you turn with me to the book
of Romans, and I want you to look real good at this Scripture
here, because this is the gospel. Romans chapter 3. Now listen
to it. Verse 25. Romans 3, verse 25. Listen to
this. It's talking about Christ. It
says, "...whom God hath set forth, God hath foreordained to be a
propitiation through faith in his Word, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that have passed." That's the Old
Testament through the forbearance of God, through the long-suffering
of God through those years, to declare, I say at this time,
God's righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus. Now, if God saves a sinner, if
God puts away your sin, he's got to do it in such a way that
he can be just, that he can be that he can be holy, that he
can still be God. So God sent the perfect Savior
down here in the flesh. Christ took on himself human
flesh. He was tested and tempted and
tried in all points as we are, yet without sin. As the perfect
man, as the perfect God-man, he met the law and obeyed it.
He honored the law. He exalted the law. He went to
the cross and died under the judgment and wrath of God and
satisfied God's justice? And a holy God can forgive a
guilty sinner because Christ took his place and honored the
law for him and paid his debt and satisfied God's justice. And the reason that I'm not going
to the judgment to be tried for my sin is because Christ has
already been tried for them, found guilty, and executed. The sword of God's justice plunged
itself into the heart of my Savior, and when that sword was pulled
out, there was nothing left for me to bear. He took my guilt
and gave me his grace. He took my filth and gave me
his mercy. He took my sins and gave me his
holiness. He took my hill and gave me heaven. He took my place And now God
can be just and justify the ungodly because all our sins are paid
for in the person of Jesus Christ. Now let's look back at our text
and I'll close. Hebrews chapter 9. It says, once,
this was done one time, in the last days, Christ hath appeared,
the Son of God. to put away sin, to put it away. The word put it away here means
to annihilate. Let me tell you a story. I don't know how true this is.
You know, history, a lot of times folks tamper with it, and sometimes
the story gets down to earth, but it's a good illustration
if it did happen. It is said that Julius Caesar,
when Pompey was killed that Julius Caesar obtained a huge chest
full of letters, communication from his trusted lieutenants
and his trusted governors and trusted leaders who had been
writing to Pompey, who had been collaborating with Pompey against
Caesar. And when Pompey was killed, they
brought that chest to Caesar, and it contained all those letters
and communications. And one of his men said, Well,
let's open it and see who has been collaborating with the enemy.
And Caesar said, Don't open it. Don't open it. Keep it closed.
I don't want to read one of them. Take the chest out and burn it,
and let's forget it. And I'll tell you that's what
God did with all my sins against him. And there was more than
a chest of them. There was more than a world of
them. There was a universe full of
our sins. And he took all our sins and
burned them at the cross. He destroyed them. He said, their
sin and iniquities will I remember no more. It's over. They're put
away. They're annihilated. They don't
even exist. What letter? You remember that
letter you wrote to Pompeii? What letter? There's no such
letter. There's no such letter. And you go back and look at your
past, present, and future, and you can take any sin and you
can say, what sin? There is no sin. My sin was burned
at the cross. My sin was buried in that garden,
in that tomb. When my Lord arose, he came forth
without my sin. It doesn't exist. There's no
such thing. Don't talk to me about it. It's put away. Christ
said he put them away. He put them away. I believe that.
Then the third thing here is by the sacrifice of himself. Now there are two words Spurgeon
used to say that sum up the gospel. You don't know the gospel if
you don't know these two words. The two words that sum up the
gospel are these, sacrifice and substitution. Here they are right
here. He put away sin. by sacrifice. You know what it
says? By sacrifice. Christ didn't put
away sin by teaching. Now, you boys and girls, listen
to me. I know you'll go to school, maybe
Sunday school or somewhere else, and they'll get up and they'll
emphasize the teachings of Christ, the teaching ministry of Christ.
And it should be talked about, but that's not how he put sin
away. And Christ didn't put sin away by example. by example. No, he didn't. And he didn't
put sin away by love, either. Christ loved us, I know he did,
but he didn't put sin away by love. He put our sin away by
sacrifice, the sacrifice. So without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. The word today is the same as
it was in Egypt. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Let's don't get so nice in our
religion that we leave out the blood. Let's don't get so nice
and so formal in our religion that we quit talking about the
very life of our religion, and that is the blood. What can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood. What can
make me whole again? Nothing but the blood. This is
all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood. This is all my
righteousness, nothing but the blood." I hope we don't get so
nice here that we have to leave out the blood. I hope we don't
get so nice in our religion and so formal and so educated that
we can't just get right down here and talk about the blood
of Christ Jesus. Would you be free from your burden
of sin? There's power in the blood. Would your evil of victory
win? There's power in the blood. I've
given you the blood upon the altar, God said, to make an atonement
for your soul. It's the blood that make an atonement
for the soul, the glory, agonizing, suffering blood that flowed from
the wounds of the Lord Jesus. that cleansing, satisfying, atoning
blood of Christ Jesus. For the last song that shall
be sung is unto him who loved us and washed us from our sin
in his own precious blood. But there are pulpits where the
blood is not mentioned. And the second word is substitution. Look at it. He put away sin.
by the sacrifice of himself, not you. He put away your sins
by the sacrifice of himself. That's substitution. He put away
my sins by the sacrifice of himself, not by his words, by the sacrifice
of himself. not by his spirit, not by his
disciples, not by his doctrine. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He bore our sins in his body,
in himself. He made his soul an offering
for sin. Paris Reid had said one time
he was out there on the mission field in Africa down in the Sudan
interior And he said they rounded a bin
on one of those missionary journeys, and he came upon a leper sitting
there on the ground. And I've seen movies of those
lepers. I've never seen but one leper in my life, and she wasn't
in this condition, but I've seen movies from Africa of lepers
that Well, one boy sitting next to me got deathly sick and threw
up, and they had to carry him out. It was so horrible looking.
But this leper, Readhead said, was sitting on the ground, and
his face was just one sore, just one open ulcer that was covered
with flies. You could see the slits where
the eyes were, used to be, and the mouth used to be. And his
hands were already eaten off, and nothing but bones. some skin,
and the white leprosy clinging all over him. And Reedhead said,
When I came around, I stopped in front of him, and there he
sat, that awful mass of putrid, rotting, decaying, filthy human
flesh. And he said he was putting those
handless arms up in the air, and he was saying in the native
tongue, Somebody help me. Won't somebody help me? And Reedhead said, I thought
as I stood there and looked at him, that's what God saw when
he looked at me. That's what God sees when he
looks at me, the putrid, rotting, dying, consuming depravity and
leprosy of the soul. in the sight of God ten million
times more horrible looking than these lepers are in our eyes.
God can't even look on sin, but has to turn his back because
he's so holy. When his son died on the cross,
he turned his back because his son was made sin. That's how
awful your soul looks to God.