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Hebrews 9.27

Hebrews 9:27 By John Murray

The epistle to the Hebrews the ninth chapter, beginning at the twenty-seventh verse. (Hebrews 9:27)
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.
It is quite obvious that there is a certain comparison drawn in this text.
On the one side is the fact that it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
And on the other side there are the facts that 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.
And there is a comparison instituted between these two series of facts.
And the truth expressed turns on that comparison.
And it is well for us to observe the likeness that there is between the appointment of men to death
and the judgment on the one hand and the offering of Christ,
and he's appearing again the second time without sin unto salvation on the other.
And so there are just these two main considerations in this text.
First, that which is appointed for men, and second, that which pertains to Christ.
And so first of all there is that which is appointed for men.
And it is appointed for men to die.
Now that is not without any exception.
Enoch was translated that he should not see death.
And he was not found because God had translated him.
Those who will be living at the second coming of Christ will not die.
They will be changed.
But these of course are exceptions.
And the general rule for humanity, the general rule of God's providence throughout the whole history of the world,
is that it is appointed for men once to die.
Now why do men die?
Of course it is quite proper to say that men die by natural process.
Oftentimes their body is attacked by disease, and that disease is too powerful for their life,
and consequently there is a necessity of physical or a biological necessity that they should die.
For God has so constituted men that there are certain forces which are too strong for the life which he has given men in this world.
And sometimes men of course are the victims of assault, and so they are killed.
A force that is extraneous to themselves and too powerful for them, as it well went, life from them.
But these facts of providence do not explain the reason why.
Why is it so arranged in the providence of God that men should die?
And the only answer to that question is that death is the wages of sin.
The only ultimate reason why men die is that men have sinned.
And because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, since the wages of sin is death,
therefore it is appointed for men to die.
The emphasis, however, in this particular text falls upon the fact that it is appointed for men once to die.
There is a certain finality attaching to death as death,
and it is to that particular fact that our attention is drawn in this text.
There is a finality to death as death, and to the issues that are bound up with death.
And there are certain respects in which we may quite profitably reflect upon that fact,
that it is appointed for men once to die.
And the first respect in which we may think of it is the respect of warning, of unrestricted warning.
When we die, we are not brought back again to this earth to remedy the opportunities that we have neglected
or the privileges that we have squandered in this life.
We are not able to come back again to redeem the time that we have squandered.
There is no work, nor device, nor wisdom, nor knowledge in the grave whether we are going.
And you remember very well how in the Old Testament you have these eloquent words,
there is hope of a tree if it is cut down that it will sprout again,
and that the tender branch thereof will not see, but man dieeth and giveth up the ghost.
Yea, man wasteth away and giveth up the ghost and quaive death.
There is a finality to death as death, and it is not for us to waste as it went.
The proper, the precious opportunities that are given to us.
You remember in that chapter where I read, the man who had received one talent
went and hid his Lord's money in the earth.
What is the indictment against that particular man?
Well, it is just this, that he did nothing.
And you know we don't need to do a great deal in order to squander our opportunities.
We just need to do nothing.
And you see how eloquent is the indictment that was brought against him by his Lord when he returned.
He said, thou wicked and slothful servant, wickedness and slothfulness lie together.
And slothfulness is wickedness.
That's the great lesson of that particular parable.
And it's the great lesson of this text in respect of warning that we cannot redeem lost opportunities.
We cannot redeem squandered privileges.
Now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation.
The second respect in which we may properly think of this truth that is disappointed unto men once to die
is one of both warning and consolation.
There have been men even in our own time who have made the earth to tremble.
And some of you remember very well how these men made the earth to tremble.
Less than twenty years ago you could hear the voice of Hitler all over the world by radio
and it certainly made the earth to tremble.
We have got other men who in their time, even in our generation, have made the earth to tremble.
And where are they?
They fought the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree,
yet he passed away.
And lo he was not.
Yea I fought him and he could not be found.
And you don't need to be afraid that these, that these boasters are going to return to earth again.
It is appointed to men once to die and thereafter all only men.
And if we have, if we are jittery, if we are overcome by undue trepidation
with respect to the boasts or the claims of any man,
it's just because we forget the appointments of the living God.
It is appointed to men once to die.
And once they die all their glory descends with them to the grave.
I saw the wicked in great power, yet he passed away.
And lo he was not.
There is warning for the vain boast, but there is consolation for the meek of the earth.
And the third respect in which we may quite properly think of this text
is one of unrestricted consolation.
And it is one of unrestricted consolation for the people of God.
When they depart this life they go to be with Christ.
And because they go to be with Christ it is far better
than not be wrenched from the bosom of the Savior.
You know we would quite properly hold our dear faithful friends and believing friends
and it is not right for us to desire otherwise.
It is right for us to pray for the recovery of our friends
that's our duty.
But when God takes them we ought to have this comfort
that it is because they have gone to be with Christ
that it is far better for them and we cannot bring them back.
And it would be wrong for us to ask that the Lord would bring them back.
They'll never be brought back again to the tribulations and the perplexities
of this present pilgrimage.
They have gone to unalloyed bliss.
Bliss in the presence of the Savior himself.
And that is the consolation that belongs to us
as we are confronted with the death of our departed loved ones.
If they are in Christ they go to be with Christ.
And if they are with Christ they are in the presence of Him
who is the Exhorted, who is the Risen, who is the Glorious Redeemer,
the Great High Priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.
And that's unrestrained consolation for those who believe in the sovereignty
of the appointments of God.
Yes, there is a certain finality to death as death.
And there is a gravity, of course, that is bound up with this finality.
A gravity, a seriousness that ought to make each one of us ponder
what will be our situation when the fulfillment of the Divine appointment arises.
But after all, death is not the end.
It isn't the ultimate finality and it is just because it is not the end
that there is a gravity connected with death.
The very finality of death as death is bound up with something else,
with another finality and that is the finality of judgment.
After this, the judgment.
Death and judgment are placed together in this particular time.
And because they are placed together in this particular way there is a great lesson,
a great truth.
What is it?
It is just this, that as far as decisiveness is concerned,
these are the two determinative decisive events in the matter of eternal destiny.
There is no decisiveness in what will transpire between death and resurrection.
There is a finality to death as death.
There is a finality to judgment as judgment.
And just because they are placed together in this way,
there is no decisiveness in the matter of eternal issues
arising from what will transpire between death and the final judgment.
We overlook this fact that we are to be judged according to the things done in the body,
whether they be good or whether they be evil.
Now there is a solemnity attaching to that fact of judgment,
for God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing,
whether it be good or whether it be evil.
There is a great deal that will pass muster before man,
a great deal that will be considered virtuous and noble before man,
and it is simply an abomination in the sight of God.
But God searches the heart and he tries the reins of the children of man.
Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart.
And because he judges according to the secrets of man's heart,
his judgment is one of absolute equity.
And everything will come into judgment.
The whole panorama of human history, the whole panorama of individual history,
the whole panorama of collective history, and the whole panorama of world history
will come before God for judgment.
And everything will be adjudicated with perfect judgment and equity.
But it isn't simply that there is a solemnity to the fact of judgment.
Oh, there is a grandeur to the fact of God's ultimate and absolute judgment.
And it is just that God will ultimately put everything and everyone
in his or her or its proper place.
God is not going to leave anything at loose end.
You know, when a person dies and leaves an estate,
and that person leaves no last will or testament, what trouble.
Everything is as it were at loose end.
And sometimes you find that the whole estate is consumed by litigation
and there's really nothing left, and the lawyers get all of it.
Everything so sadly left at loose end.
Everything topsy-turvy.
And it's very calamitous, even in the individual sphere,
in the sphere of family relationships, when people leave things as it were at loose end.
Well, that's not what God is going to do.
There is going to be absolutely nothing left at loose end.
He is going to bring every work into judgment with every secret thing,
whether it be good and whether or whether it be evil.
And there is a grandeur to that fact.
Everything will be perfectly adjudicated with equity.
Do we live as if there is no final judgment?
Do we live as if by droms or by droms
that the past is gone and we have nothing more to do with it?
Do we live that way?
Well, what folly. What utter folly.
Maybe bygone with us for the present.
But God will bring every work into judgment.
Something far worse than its folly.
It's not simply the folly of living as if death ended all.
It's the dishonor it does to God.
And do you know this, my friend, that if we live in this world
as if death ended all, it's because we don't believe in the living and through God.
Justice and judgment are the habitation of God's throne.
And our realization of that fact is bound up with our belief
in the one living and through God.
And if we live as if death ended all,
it is just because we don't believe in the one living and through God.
Justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne.
And for that reason, He will judge the world in righteousness
and the people with His truth.
And if we are imbued with the love of the living God,
we shall really, after all, be imbued with the love of His final judgment
because it would be a hopeless and dismal outlook for eternity
if there were to be no absolute adjudication of everything
that transpires in the history of this world.
I say it would be a dismal outlook for eternity.
But it is not that dismal outlook that there is presented to us
because God is a God of judgment and with Him actions are laid.
He guards the cause of judgment.
And He will judge the people with righteousness and with His truth.
Now in the second place in this text we have that which pertains to Christ.
He was offered to bear sin.
And again we have to ask the question, why?
Why was He offered to bear sin?
And because of the comparison that there is instituted in this text
between death and judgment on the one hand and the offering of Christ on the other,
we must discover that the same real reason underlies the offering of Christ
as underlies the appointment of men to death and the establishment of the judgment.
And perhaps you wonder at that.
The same reason, the answer to the question, why do men die?
Answer the question, why is there to be a final judgment?
Is the answer to the question, why Christ was offered to bear sin?
That may seem very strange, but it is true.
What is it?
Well, why are men appointed to death?
It is just simply because truth must be vindicated and justice must be executed.
The wages of sin is death.
The sinner must die.
Dost thou art and to dost thou shalt return?
And because that is the case, men must die.
And it is really for that very same reason that Christ was offered.
Christ would not have been offered if there had been no sin.
If sin did not deserve its wages in death, he would not have died upon the accursed tree.
Christ indeed was offered a sacrifice unto death, the death of the cross,
just for the very same reason that the claims of justice must be satisfied and truth must be vindicated.
God has determined the salvation of a countless multitude.
And because God has determined the salvation of a countless multitude, justice must be vindicated.
And it is just his vicarious death that satisfies and vindicates that justice.
But the answer again falls upon the fact that Christ was one-third.
That's the leading thought in this text.
Just as the leading thought in the earlier part of the text is
that it is appointed unto men once to die and then there will be the once for all judgment.
So he was once offered to bear the sins of many.
And just as there is that once for all finality to death as death,
just as there is that once for all finality to judgment as judgment,
so there is this once for all finality to the offering of Christ once for all upon the cross of Calvary.
And what is the great truth?
It is justice. It is the truth that belongs to the very center, to the very essence of our holy faith.
And it is justice that he made an end of sin, that he finished transgressions,
that when he had by himself purged, felt sin, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
He made an end of sin on behalf of his own people.
And because he made an end of sin there is no need for any repetition.
You see there is a finality, there is a completeness, there is a perfection
attaching to the once for all sacrifice of Christ.
And that is something that never attached to anything else in the sphere of God's judgment upon sin.
He made an end of sin, he extorted the judgment of God against sin in himself
with the result that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
But again, the vicarious sin-bearing of Christ is not the end.
It isn't the final end.
There is something more out to make in the appointment of God
than the once for all offering of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the accursed tree.
And it is just because there is this finality and completeness and perfection
belonging to the sacrifice of Christ
that it is not the ultimate end.
Just for that very reason.
And what is this final finality of which this particular text speaks?
Well it is that in the latter part of the 28th version
he will be seen again the second time without sin for them that look for him unto salvation.
And it is just the finality, the once for all-ness, the completeness,
the perfection of the sacrifice of Christ that makes so precious
and makes indeed necessary the final consummation
that he will be manifested again the second time without sin unto salvation.
Now, how does that bear upon us?
What is the focal point of hope and expectation for the people of God?
What, after all, is it that looms highest on the horizon of our hope?
You might say, well, it's the death of the righteous, the death of the righteous.
That my last stand might be like this.
You say that is what is central in my hope and my expectation.
Well, may God grant that for all of us our last stand will be like that of the righteous,
the last stand of our existence in this world.
But if that is what is central in our hope and expectation
we are completely off the track of the Christian revelation,
completely off the track of the Christian hope.
Do you remember what the Apostle Paul says?
Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Paul indeed did say that to depart and to be with Christ was far better,
that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, yes,
but not that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
For we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved
we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in heaven.
And if it is the death of the righteous that is central and focal in your expectation,
my friend, you are off the track of the Christian revelation
and you have imbibed a pagan conception.
You are still, as it were, chained in the thought forms of pagan thought.
Let us deliver ourselves from it.
What is central and focal in the Christian hope
is the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
And what is it, my friends, that looms highest on our horizon
as we have respect to death, to judgment,
and to the once for all offering of the body of Jesus Christ?
What is it?
It is in that way that we shall test the reality of our Christian faith
as well as the reality of our Christian hope.
And what is central in the expectation of the people of God
is that Christ will be seen again the second time without sin and to salvation.
Now with reference to that there are three things that need to be stressed.
And the first is this, that Christ will be seen.
He will be seen.
Our version perhaps just slightly obscures that
when he says that for them that look for him shall he appear,
for it isn't the fault of the English at all,
but the fault of our reflection.
It will be seen with more literal reference.
And it draws our attention to this fact that physical sense,
physical sense is given its proper place and weight in the Christian expectation.
The finality for the people of God is one that gives full satisfaction
to the demands of physical sense experience.
The scripture doesn't place any disdain upon the human body.
God created man at the beginning, body and spirit, body and soul.
And death is an abnormality.
And the normal state will not again be realized
until the body will be resurrected from the dead.
And the physical sense experience will be given its full satisfaction
and realization in the beholding of Christ himself.
Come again in his glorious, in his glorious body.
I'm just trying to emphasize this, my friends,
that the Christian hope is not that pagan hope of materialized immortality.
There's something very concrete.
There's something very material itself in the Christian hope.
We will be seen with our physical senses.
And don't underestimate that.
If we underestimate that, it is just because, again,
we are caught in the quarrel of pagan thought.
The body has its place, its proper place,
and redemption will not be consummated until the body of our humiliation
will be transformed into the likeness of the body of Christ's glory.
We shall see him.
We shall see him as he is.
We shall see him in the glory of his glorified humanity.
And there will be something marvelous about that.
Just as there was for Thomas when Jesus said to him after the resurrection,
Trust, tether thy hand, and put it into my pride,
and thus put thy finger into the print of the nails.
And be not faithless, but believing, my friends,
it's an essential ingredient of the Christian hope
that we shall see Jesus in that body
that was crucified upon Calvary, the cursed tree,
in that body in which he bore our sins
at an end of transgression.
And the second fact that is brought to our attention in this particular text
is that he will be without sin.
It is not there in sin that Christ will come again the second time.
It is not there currently as it were enveloped in the clouds of humiliation,
but he will come in undimmed glory.
And there will be no shadow to obscure that matchless glory
that is his as the exalted Lord,
as the one who is given authority in heaven and in earth,
who is given a name that is above every name,
and that at his name every knee will bow
and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And not only that he will not come bearing sin,
but he will not come again the second time to load his people with their sin.
Don't you see, my friends, that that is the preciousness
of the finality and the completeness and the perfection
of the once for all offering upon Calvary the 33,
that he made an end of sin.
And although he will come to judge,
he will not come to load his people with their transgressions.
There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
There is no damnation for them.
And although there will be judged,
although even their sins will be judged,
it is not to lay upon them the guilt of their transgressions,
and it is not to burden them again with the grief
that is entailed in that sin and guilt.
There will be unalloyed joy for the people of God,
even in the final judgment.
For Jesus will say to them on his right hand,
Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world of heaven.
And the third point to be noted in this connection,
that it is unto salvation that Jesus will come.
He will be seen again the second time for them that without sin,
for them that look for him unto salvation.
And you must note that quite often in the scripture
that word salvation is used of the perfection of salvation,
the consummation of salvation.
When salvation will be complete
and the body of our very humiliation will be transformed
into the likeness of the body of Christ's glory,
the people of God long for it.
They long for that salvation in its completeness,
in its thoroughness, in its all-inclusive.
The whole redemptive purpose of God will reach its final realization
in the completion of the salvation that was once for all purchased by Christ
when he offered himself without spot to God.
And he purged our sins and sat down in the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
But I tell you this, my friend,
that although it is the salvation that they long for,
it's a salvation that will surpass all their expectations.
The half had not been told.
You remember in that passage I was reading to you.
That most graphic passage in describing the final judgment
when Christ will come and sit upon the throne of his glory
and when before him will be gathered all the nations
and he shall separate them one from another
as the shepherd separated the sheep from the goats
and he will set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left
and mark it, then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world.
And what a surprise they will then give.
He will say, For I was an hundred and ye gave me meat.
I was thirsty and ye gave me drink.
I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye clothed me.
I was sick and ye visited me.
I was in prison and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord,
When saw we thee and hungered and fed thee your thirsty and gave thee drink?
And when saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee?
And the king, remember, the king shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye have done it,
unto one of the least of these my brethren.
I have done it unto you.
Less than two months ago it was my sad duty to come to these parts of the country
to bury our very highly esteemed and beloved friend
and your highly esteemed and beloved pastor.
Well, it was a painful journey,
but I considered it one of the greatest privileges that was accorded to me in this life,
that it should have been possible for me to come
to pay these last respects of honor and esteem to my dearly beloved friend.
I considered it one of the greatest honors that God in his mercy and providence
has bestowed upon me in connection with that type of thing.
And I went back to Philadelphia and the next Sabbath afternoon I was reflected
and I was studying this particular passage.
I was reading this particular passage and I never realized in my life before,
as I realized then how precious these words were
and how appropriate to that person to whom we had committed to his last earthly resting place
just a few days before.
How appropriate.
I never saw them with such appropriateness in my life before.
Let me read them to you again and just think.
Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom,
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was unhungred and he gave me meat.
I was thirsty and he gave me drink.
I was a stranger and he took me in, naked and he clothed me.
I was sick and he visited me.
I was in prison and he came unto me.
And you can testify to the reality of that in his particular case.
And then shall the righteous answer him saying,
Lord, when saw we thee unhungred and fed thee?
Or thirsty and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, or naked and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee?
And the king shall answer.
Mark it, it is the king.
He shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it,
unto the one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.
And oh, let us demonstrate that example
that hath been so magnificently illustrated in our departed friend,
that he loved the humblest and the poorest
and the most obscure,
whom he recognized to be the blood-purchased possession of Jesus Christ.
It was not upon the great ones of the earth
that he as it were poured out his affection.
He did it unto one of the least of these his brethren.
And let us come back to our fame.
What is it? It is this,
that when Christ will come in his undimmed glory
and when he will dispense to all those who look for his appearing,
their final salvation, it will surpass all their conceptions,
all their expectations.
And how glorious, my friends, is the prospect!
How grand is the assurance that is ministered unto us!
That Christ will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trumpet of God,
and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Do you like to go to cemeteries?
I love to go to cemeteries where I know the people of God are.
I just love to wander among these graves.
Because I get a peculiar sensation,
a peculiar delight in recognizing that one day,
when the trumpet was found,
the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and those who are living will be changed,
and this corruptible will put on incorruption,
and this martyr will put on immortality,
and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
That the sting of death is sin,
and the strength of the self-sin is the law.
But thanks be unto God,
who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
My friends, don't live as if this world ended all.
Don't live as if death ended all.
That's folly, but it's worse than folly.
It's blind unbelief.
It's a loss upon the very foundation of God's government.
And it is dishonor to Him and my friends
in the perspective of Christ's glory is appearing.
View death itself in its finality.
View judgment itself in the finality that belongs to it.
And view the once for all offering of Christ
in the finality and the perfection
and the completeness that belongs to it.
For the issue of God's judgment
for the people of God is nothing less than this.
Come ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world.
Oh, judgment is a solemn, is a solemn event.
It has a grandeur too.
But everything would be out of proportion,
everything would be out of jointness,
our hope would be concerned
if it were not for the appearing of the glory
of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
And oh, may I, as Christ's messenger,
plead with each one of you
that you'll be joined to Him in the bonds of a faith
and of a love and of a hope that can never be dissolved.
And then when He will come again,
He will usher you into the possession of that salvation
which you look for, which you waited for,
which you long for,
but will surpass all your expectations
because it is a salvation that is bound up
with the glory and the presence of Him
who is given the name that is above every name.
The dead in Christ shall lie first,
and we which remain shall be caught up together with them,
with love, to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Let us pray.
Oh, ever blessed and gracious God,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory
and the Holy Spirit as the Comforter,
do Thou graciously grant them to us Thy blessings.
May Thy Word take hold of our hearts
and bring forth abundant fluting of light
so that when Christ shall appear,
we may be manifested with Him also in glory.
For His name's sake. Amen.