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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brody-thibodeau/it-is/
Let's read together in the New Testament the book of Hebrews, please, in chapter 9, Hebrews 9, verse number 26. We're going to read three verses here together, Hebrews 9, verse 26. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
Now here begins the passage that I really want to focus on. But now, once in the end of the world hath he appeared, now it's good for us to understand that he's not saying here the end of the world or at the end of all time, it's but it's the end or the culmination of the ages.
In the end of the ages 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, or apart from dealing with sin, unto salvation. Now, as I look around tonight, our crowd is about double the size of a regular gospel meeting night that we've had.
We're glad to see everybody. What that means is that there are some people here tonight that I have met and that I've gotten to know, and there are other people, I would say many people, who I've never met.
So as I'm about to present to you a gospel message from the Bible, it is safe to say that there could be people here and you are wondering, what is it that these people are preaching about? Or perhaps you've heard the message many times, and if you were in the cafe there in New Hartford or over in Dyke, and someone was to come up to you and say, I saw your car at the gospel hall and stout.
You were there for the meeting. You say, yes, I was there for the meeting. What if they asked you, what is it that they're preaching down there? What is it? Could you tell them? What we read is one statement here in the middle of this passage that tells us what it is that we are preaching about.
But some of the statements that come to mind when I consider the scriptures and the content of our message may go to Matthew chapter 4 for a very important statement about our gospel message when the Lord Jesus says, it is written.
It is written. And what we are preaching finds its basis and its authority in the Word of God. I think that's something that I want to make absolutely clear to every one of our listeners. We are not preaching to you a religious creed.
We are not preaching to you gospel hall doctrine. But what we are conveying to you tonight is a message that finds its roots in the very Word of God, the Bible. But that statement really goes beyond just the basis of our authority.
And it gets to something else that is very, very important about the Word of God. And it's this. As we are presenting you with information during these 60 minutes that you've come and attended, there's something far greater than that that's really going on.
And that is through the preaching of the Word of God and the presentation of that which is written, God is speaking to sinners. Now, if that sounds like a recording from the last three weeks of gospel meetings, it might just be.
Maybe I press a button. You don't know. But I keep repeating that because it's important. While you are here, God has a purpose for you. God's purpose, it begins with the salvation of your soul. And in order to get your attention, God is giving you His Word.
And His Word is written. It is established. But it is living. And it is moving. And it is reaching. And it is speaking. And it is written. The message that we preach. Perhaps if I were to take you to John's Gospel chapter 19, you'll find something else that it is.
When we consider the work on the cross of Calvary, the work that was necessary to put away sin, the work that was necessary to fulfill all the Old Testament scriptures that were written of the Christ, the work of the cross, according to the Lord Jesus Himself, the words are these, it is finished.
It is finished. So we love to be able to stand up here and tell you that the basis for our message, it is written. But the work to put away sin, it is finished. And if there's anybody here tonight who has been struggling with the issue of sin, who has been longing for assurance from the Bible, that everything is good for eternity, who has been looking to have their sins forgiven and wondering what they can do and wondering where they can go and wondering who you can speak to, remember this, the work, it is finished.
I'll tell you something. There are people in this room tonight who can tell you, based on the Bible, that they know for sure their sins are forgiven and they are going to heaven. Now, sometimes I say that too quickly and we fail to just stop and think of what kind of a statement that really is, that there are people, I could begin right here at these front rows and go to the back and they can tell you of a real experience that they have had and from the word of God, they can show you why they have confidence that for sure, if I died tonight, I'd be in heaven.
You say, that's quite a statement. What is it that makes you say that? If I took you to the Old Testament, there's a man named Jacob. That man named Jacob had a son named Joseph and at one point in time, Joseph was taken away from him.
Jacob thought he was dead and there comes a point in time where Jacob now is an old man. Having given up all hope that there could be recovery for Joseph, he now has resigned himself to the fact that Joseph is lost forever, but then his sons bring him a message.
It's a simple message. Joseph is alive. It's a simple message, but he doesn't believe them and then they present to him some evidence that Joseph is alive and now having been presented with the evidence and having been given a message, he has to make a decision.
Do I believe the message that I'm hearing? And when he finally comes to the conclusion, Joseph is alive. You know what he says? It is enough. It is enough. So not only is what we preach it written, it is written, the established authority and living value of the Word of God and the work that we preach about, it is finished, the completion of the work to put away sin, but when it comes to every single believer on the Lord Jesus, they will be able to tell you this, Christ died for my sins and it's enough.
It is enough. So now you're going to be able to explain to people what it is that they're preaching down there, but I have one more and it's found right here in this passage. If you have your Bible open, you'll look with me, won't you, in verse number 28.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, here's another thing that it is, and it's something that's going to draw our attention to a reality that few of us like to think about, the reality that few of us like to face, but to something that is not only written in the scriptures for our consideration and for our warning, but it is actually all around us.
And we get to witness this very thing when we go to a funeral or to a viewing, and we get to understand this very thing when someone who is a loved one of ours is taken from us and goes out into eternity, we are forced to face this.
It is appointed unto men once to die. That means all men. The word that is used here is really the word for men, women, boys, and girls, every single person in the human race. This is true of it is appointed onto you to die.
You could think of it as an appointment. I know that we have some people here tonight and, and you make appointments to see the doctor, right? It's a time that is chosen and that is set for you to meet with the doctor.
There are people and they have appointments for car maintenance. Now don't set your expectations too high because usually the doctor's late and the car maintenance guy is early, but you can move that around as you like.
But an appointment is simply a time that is set for you to meet. And make no mistake, that's what it's saying here. It is saying that there is an appointed time that is set in your life, and in your life, and in your life, and in your life, and in the lives of some of these teenage boys and teenage girls.
There is a set point in your experience that you will not go past. You don't like to think about this, but it's important that you face it. We know that older people die, don't we? It's very difficult to say what is old and what is young anymore.
I find it, it's hard to tell how old a person is and I'm always afraid to guess, right? So how old is old? Doesn't matter. Older people die. There are middle-aged people who die. And there are younger people who die.
Because you have an appointment that you must meet that is death. I remember pulling out of my driveway one day. I was only 16. I had my driver's license just for a little bit. And I was driving my dad's old truck.
And I took off from my house at lunchtime. And my friend who had just gotten a job welding at a welding shop that he was training for, he wanted to be a welder, he was also 16. But he had a motorcycle.
I thought that was kind of cool. I was a little bit scared of it myself. But he had a motorcycle and he pulled out just a little bit down the road from me. And I said, there he goes. Now I'll watch him.
In my community, there was a hill that we called it the St. Louis Hill. And it's not a very creative name because it was in St. Louis. So we called it St. Louis Hill. But when he took off and he started going toward the school, he just took off like a flash.
And I said, my, that's a fast bike. I kind of even smiled a little bit. What happened when he got to the top of the hill is that his uncle, who is a slow driver, was driving a one-ton flatbed truck, a dually.
And Chad was probably going, I'm going to say 80 mile an hour by the time he hit the top of the hill. And his uncle was probably doing 35. And when I came up over the hill, the first one on the scene, here's a guy that I used to do my science projects with, that we used to hang out together with, that we shared birthday parties with.
He was lying on the ground. I'm not going to describe to you the way his body was moving or the sounds that he was making. But I will tell you this. When his mother came and knelt down beside him, and the ambulance came and took him away, I was reminded of these words.
It is appointed unto men once to die. Some people would say, well, death is the end of all things. But as surely as it is appointed unto men once to die, be very sure that there is an after this. Because the next sentence is, but after this, the judgment.
After this, what you see here and now, after this, you're passing into eternity. You're destiny will have already been sealed. You're passing into eternity, where if your sins are forgiven, you will be in heaven forever.
And if your sins have never been forgiven, you will be in hell separated from God forever to eventually be in the lake of fire. There is an after this, and it is appointed unto man once to die. But after this, the judgment.
Right in the middle of two statements that I want to consider. We began at the first one. But now once in the end of the ages, as he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And then we want to look.
So Christ, verse 28, was once offered to bear the sins of many. I'm not going to get incredibly technical when I deal with these two issues. But both of these statements are dealing with one event. Both of these statements are dealing with the event that we sometimes call Calvary, or we call it the cross, or we call it the crucifixion.
But really, in terms of the book of Hebrews, we are talking about a sacrifice that has been offered. In the Old Testament, there were what we call blood sacrifices, where God required the shedding of the blood and the death of an animal in order to be atoned for when it comes to sin.
Atonement for sin was by the blood of a sacrifice. So the only way to deal with sin, again, you're not getting a theological lesson here, you're getting a very simple summary of what a sacrifice was. The only way to deal with sin was through the death of a sacrifice.
No other way. Because God said the wages of sin is death, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That means the death of a sacrifice is the only thing God would accept for sin. But because the Old Testament sacrifices were only the death of animals, they had to be offered again, and again, and again.
And when it comes to the Leviticus 16 day of atonement, it was really not the putting away of sin, it was actually the remembrance of sin. It was a bringing to mind of sin, knowing that while they were okay for a little while, there was always going to have to be another sacrifice.
And then comes Hebrews, and we read once for all time, in the end of the ages, that he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And we read that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
Now we have taken our focus off of those individual Old Testament sacrifices, and we come to the one sacrifice that pleases God one time, and for all time. Now here's a message to any person who is interested in being saved.
The Lord Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice. That one sacrifice satisfied God at the moment it was completed. The moment Calvary was complete, God said, I am satisfied with that work. Sin has been completely paid for sacrifice one time.
But you go beyond that, because not only was God satisfied at that moment, but God has remained satisfied from that moment until now, never requiring another sacrifice, because that sacrifice is enough.
That sacrifice is not only enough in its quantity and its value, but it's enough in its eternal value. So that means for the ages, and the ages, and the ages to come. Don't you love this, brethren and sisters?
For the ages, and the ages, and the ages to come, there will never be a time when Calvary will have depleted in value by even one little bit. It is one time accepted. For all time it remains accepted.
That's what he came for. But I want you to notice with me the slight difference in the two statements, because in one of them it says to put away sin, and in the other one it says bear the sins. Just a slight difference.
And again, I'm not going to get into a theological dissertation, but there is a difference because there is a distinction. Sometimes we think that sinners are sinners because they sin, right? When you do something wrong, we say that's a sin.
When you lie, we say you are a liar. When you steal, we say you are a thief, right? When you sin, we say you are a sinner. But that's not really an accurate conception, really, of how sin works. I was thinking this afternoon when I saw Amanda Finley was here, sometimes we go down to her parents' house there in Arizona, and I go outside, and you don't see anything like this in Prince Edward Island, by the way.
She has a grapefruit tree. Her mom does. Beautiful, big, yellow grapefruits on a tree that has beautiful, nice, green leaves, and a yard that has the sun on it 99 of the time throughout the year. It's a beautiful backyard.
Too bad I hate grapefruit. Too bad. But you know, maybe we have an idea here, right? We could take all those grapefruits off and throw them out. You have to get every one, though, right? You're going to get every single grapefruit.
We'll get a ladder, we'll get up to the top, we'll throw them all in the trash bin, and we'll get rid of them, and then we'll say, now, it's an orange tree, right? And we'll just wait. We'll stand back and wait, and we'll wait for those nice, juicy oranges, which are way sweeter than grapefruit, which we like, and we're going to enjoy it.
We might have to wait a little while, but we're going to get oranges, right? We've taken away all the grapefruit, so it's no longer a grapefruit tree. We're just going to wait and get the fruit we want.
Now, imagine our disappointment when we come back to Mrs. Chill's tree and we find grapefruits again, right? You say, well, you're being silly to expect anything else from a grapefruit tree, because it's not the grapefruits that make it a grapefruit tree.
It's a grapefruit tree right at the root, and that's why it produces grapefruits, right? The problem is not with the fruit. The problem is with the root. And that's the very same thing with sinners. We try to take off all the sins, right?
So you're going to quit swearing. I hope you do. You're going to quit drinking. I hope you do that. You're going to quit lying. You're going to quit all of the things that you think are sin, and you're going to say, well, there my sins are dealt with, so I'm no longer a sinner.
But that's exactly the opposite of what the Bible describes as sin, because it's not your sins that make you a sinner. It's your heart that is full of sin that makes you commit sin, just like the fruit on the tree.
The problem is not with the fruit with the sin. The problem is on the inside at the root. So when Christ came, he came and he died. It says here that he bear the sins of many the actions of men and women, boys and girls that were committed in rebellion and disobedience to God.
The work of Calvary is enough to take away every single sin it is. But let's not forget that the work of Calvary goes deeper than just atoning for the individual acts of sin, and it is going to deal with the very problem itself.
And eventually all things will be restored back to where they should have been in the first place. Because Christ died once. He satisfied God once, and God remains satisfied for all time. I'm going to read this to you one more time, and then we'll sing.
But now once in the end of the ages that he appeared, here it is, sinners, 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.
Here it is, sinners, to bear the sin of many. We'll pray.