Waiting For The Soon Return Of Jesus Christ - [Hebrews 9:27-28]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Faith in Christ Leads to Gratitude, Holiness, and Obedience

If you had to pay for your own sins when you died, would that change the way you live? Would that change your week? Would anything change? For many, sadly, they walk around sleepwalking, slumbering, trying to ignore that day.

For others, maybe they want to do something. Maybe religious deeds or sacrifice of time might placate this God. On the other hand, if death will not bring you eternal judgment, would that change the way you live?

What if all your sins have been paid for and you can meet death knowing that you�re not going to be judged? What do you do until death? How does that change your life? Dear Christians, since your sins have been dealt with permanently, you are free not only to rest in Christ Jesus, but to respond in gratitude and holiness and obedience.

I�d like you to take your Bibles and turn not to Hebrews 9, but Hebrews 13 for a while this morning. I know that you have recognized the emphasis of this ministry, the pulpit ministry, is faith and faithfulness paradigm, right?

Faith in Jesus, the high priest of Hebrews, should lead to faithfulness. Since we've been in Hebrews, can you imagine how long we've been in Hebrews? Don't count summers. I think since, I hate to admit this, I think 2015, if truth be told, we've been working through Hebrews.

In the 13 chapters of this sermon, I don't mean my sermon, but the Hebrew sermon, you've got a few warnings in the first 12 chapters, but there's not a lot of ethical obedience that's required of the Christian as fruit and evidence until chapter 13.

Week by week by week, we're seeing the greatness of Jesus and how great he is. If you think the angels are great, John did, remember Revelation 22, he falls on his face. If you think they're great, Jesus is greater.

If you think Moses was great, I mean Moses, Jesus is greater, and you keep focusing on who Jesus is so that you walk by faith and not by sight. You're focusing on the object of your faith. It's going to lead you somewhere, and it's going to lead you to what?

To living a life of gratitude, of holiness, and obedience. While evangelical Christianity overdoes the focus on faithful living of the Christian at the expense of faith in Jesus, we want to make sure that we don't switch it around the other way and say, well, since we're fine in God's eyes based on Christ's life and death, resurrection, what we do doesn't matter.

In other words, justification and sanctification are different, but inseparable. What I love about Hebrews chapter 13 is it shows that if you really get a good look at Jesus and you rest in him and trust in him as the high priest, this is what God expects.

Since he's taken care of everything so you don't have to worry on judgment day, how can you now live? As Francis Schaeffer said, how shall we then live? And of course, you know big picture before we look at the passage that God regularly, especially in the epistles, gives us some creed, what we believe, and then he gives us conduct or how we behave.

Is that not the paradigm? It is credenda, what we believe, then agenda. It is, how many alliterations can I come up with? It is duty and doctrine. And so we're not trying to do good works because we're trying to earn God's favor because God, if we want to earn his favor legally, we have to be perfect.

We know we can't do that. That's why we need Jesus who earned that favor for us by perfectly obeying the law. He didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. So we're resting in his work. That's why a synonym for faith is to rest because Jesus worked, he lived, he earned our salvation, died for our sins, was raised from the dead.

So we're just trusting and we're resting. So when it comes to legal standing before God, judgment day, judiciary kind of language, we're resting because we don't have to do any work, but we're still on earth.

So now what do we do? We just kind of rest our way to heaven. That kind of sounds nice though. If you come back today, as Luther would say, God doesn't need your good works, but your neighbor does. And so I don't want you to forget that Hebrews 13 is coming.

I want to just quickly go through some of the verses in Hebrews 13 so that you realize the resting element is settled. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. And then now I work this out in the sense that I'm not changing my legal standing.

I'm not making it more sturdy. I'm not making it more firm because that's based on Christ's work, that legal standing. But the evidence and fruit that I have in my life, I have a desire to want to obey God and to honor him, not to keep my standing, but because of my standing.

Listen to the London Baptist Confession, our statement of faith of good works. This is so biblical. I'll read it not as Bible, but as a summary of sanctification and good works. These good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith.

And by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries and glorify God whose workmanship they are created in Christ Jesus there unto.

That is so good. Why does the Christian do good works? To keep your standing, to make sure you're saved, to make sure that somehow God doesn't kick you out of his family. No, you do good works because you're thankful.

You do good works because you want to adorn the gospel. You do good works because you want to shut the mouth of unbelievers. You do good works because you say, you know what, my friends and my brethren need those works.

You do good works because as you do good works, you strengthen your assurance. And so when you come to Hebrews chapter 13 and we're getting there eventually through our time in the Bible, in this book, I want you to see these commands in Hebrews chapter 13 that we're leading somewhere, that we're going somewhere.

Now there's a bunch of commands in Hebrews 13 and these commands are not for the Christian to stay in the kingdom. These are commands that you obey because you want to show your thankfulness. You want to adorn the gospel.

Now before I read these verses, here's what I want you to get in your mind for today, dear congregation. When you think of law, when you think of commands, I never want you to divorce the commands and the law from the law giver or the command giver.

If you just see brute law, if you just see raw law, how do you say that if you're a New Englander? Raw. If you see raw law, you're not thinking rightly. You'd be thinking like Eve because Satan comes along and he's trying to divorce the law giver from the law.

And God doesn't want you to take pleasure. He doesn't want you to have this. That's the strategy of Satan. So what do you mean by that, pastor? When you get law from God as a Christian, Hebrews 13, think about the law giver.

Think about how these things are given for you for your good, for your pleasure. He knows what's best for you. He understands you. These are not these. Well, these are the laws of God. No, no. My father knows me and the son has redeemed me.

And here's how I live a life worthy of that calling. Conduct befitting an officer. Hebrews, excuse me, Ephesians chapter four, verse one, live in a manner worthy of your calling. So when you see these laws in chapter 13, you can't divorce them from chapters one through 12 and the person and work of the high priest.

To repeat, whenever you see a law in scripture to do, you need to say to yourself, who's it from? Because the unbeliever gets the law from the judge. You do this and you must perfectly obey or I condemn you.

That's the law from the judge to the unbeliever who won't rest in Jesus. And they have to perfectly obey those things. But for the Christian, we're given the law by a father. And when we do fail, we're not judged.

Jesus was judged, but we want to honor God with our actions and with our attitudes and our obedience because of this great law giver. Does that make sense? Look at Hebrews chapter 13. The doctrine of chapter one through 12 chapters.

Leads itself to things like this. First, verse one, let love of the brethren continue. Since you're resting in, believing in the risen high priest, Jesus Christ, dear Bethlehem Bible Church, love other people.

This is not to stay in. This is because you're in. Let the love of the brethren continue. Jesus didn't live for himself. We're not to live for ourselves. This is the brotherly love of Philadelphia. Family love.

We're all part of one family. Some people will say as they're Christians for a while. I think I have more of a family at church and my brothers and sisters in Christ. They feel more like family than my blood family.

So this family here that you have on blood family, you'd probably help your sister or brother how much more in the spiritual family. And since Jesus has paid everything, since he's your high priest, since he's making intercession for you, you're free to say, I can love other people.

And I don't even have to do it perfectly because I'm part of the family of God. He goes on. Since you're resting in believing in risen high priest, Jesus be hospitable. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for this by this.

Some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember, they were getting persecuted, the recipients of this letter. And you can imagine some people losing their homes. And now you have to be hospitable to people that you might normally be suspicious of.

I don't know about you, but I tend to be suspicious of people when it comes to just meeting strangers. And I don't know if it's an over analysis of the doctrine of total depravity or what. I lock doors for a reason.

Here there's persecution. And since you don't have to worry about your standing in Christ Jesus, because Jesus has paid for all your sins, Jesus has lived the life for you. God sees you in Christ. You're unified with Christ.

This great Jesus has purged all your sins. So now you don't have to worry about doing religious machinations all day long to please God. God is pleased with you in Christ. Therefore, be hospitable to people.

And there's sometimes some wonderful unexpected results. Some have entertained angels without knowing it. Now, these people who you need to be hospitable to, they normally will probably seek you out. These in verse three, here's another command.

Here's something else that every Christian should be reminded of so that you could adorn the gospel, so you could be thankful, so you could edify brethren, so that you could stop the mouth of adversaries and to glorify God.

Remember the prisoners. As though in prison with them and those who were ill treated since you yourselves are in, also are in the body. Number four, how does a Christian live? Since you're resting in, believing in, trusting in the risen high priest, be sexually pure.

Let marriage be held in honor among all. And of course, when he says that, that is between a man who was born a man and a woman who was born a woman. And let the marriage bed, the act, be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers, God will judge.

Now, I don't watch the show. I mean, every self-respecting pastor would have to say this. I don't know if I'd respect the pastor if he watched it. But some bachelorette, bachelor kind of contestant. I think she said something to the effect that I'm a Christian and I have sex and Jesus just forgives me anyway.

What she doesn't understand, if in fact she's regenerate, is she doesn't understand what the high priestly work of Jesus is like Hebrews chapter 1 through 12 and who he is. Here the text says, let the marriage bed be undefiled.

Because God's going to judge sexual sin. Now, could be because some people thought, you know, they were so crazy sexually before they got saved and now they get saved. And so they just want to be celibate.

And he says, no, no, that's that's not the case. That's not what you do. You have to think rightly. If I wanted to be very pastoral and very personal and pungent for a moment. If you're sitting in the congregation and you regularly watch pornography and you think I'm a Christian, it's just paid for anyway.

You don't understand the perfect work of Jesus, the high priest. You are to be holy. You are to avoid and to run from all kinds of flirtations on Facebook and IMing and this, that and the other. You're to run from it.

Why? To keep your salvation? No, but because God has saved you. He's redeemed you. He's purified you. And he would like you to act in a way that glorifies God, that shuts the mouth of adversaries, that shows thankfulness, that adorns the gospel.

These commands are given from the lawgiver. And who's the lawgiver to you, dear Christian? The one who loves you and gave his life for you, right? Somebody who has done for you that's the most important thing they could ever do for you.

And that is forgive your sins based on their own death. And so how do you respond to that? To take advantage of it? And that's why Paul would say in Romans chapter 6, verse 1, shall we continue that grace might abound?

What's the response? May it never be. While it's true in my mind, evangelicalism focuses way too much on obey, forgetting to tell me why to obey. The call to obedience is still in the scriptures. And he says, be sexually pure.

How can you really think through the ramifications of Jesus, the great high priest, and still fornicate? The answer is obvious. Well, he goes on. These commands from the lawgiver, who's now our savior and friend, continue with verses 5 and 6.

Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have. For he himself, if you ever see himself there in the epistles, this is very emphatic. It could just read for he said.

For he himself has said. I will never leave you. I'll never desert you. I'll never ever forsake you. So that we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?

Now, in those two verses, we got five negatives. No, no, no, no, no. I'm never going to be forsaken. And so in my life, I think I've got to get a good view of who Jesus is and his riches and his resource, and how he's greater than the prophets, greater than Moses, greater than Aaron, greater than the old covenant, greater than anyone and everything.

And therefore, since he's done this for me, and I am his child, and I am his son or daughter, I've got to think rightly about money and contentment and everything else. You say, well, I failed in some of these areas.

And I don't want to fail. That's the sign of a Christian. You're not under these laws as the lawgiver judge, who's looking to damn you, because your failings in these areas, along with mine, have been paid for.

But because we want to glorify God, we want to show him thanks, we want to adorn the gospel, we want to do these things, to be content. You know what's out there? Being content with what you have. I talk mainly to the men about the pornography.

So just a moment for the ladies. I hope you don't spend your life on social media, on Facebook, trying to show people that you're somebody that you're really not. Can't you just be content? Or shouldn't you just be content with knowing who you are in Christ Jesus?

Isn't it just enough to say, the God of the universe loves me in spite of all my sin, to the extent that Jesus came and died for me. I'm okay in God's eyes. I don't care what everybody else thinks. But running for all this, presenting yourself to be the greatest, you know, it's the greatest meal and the greatest night and the greatest kids and the greatest outfits and the greatest everything and the greatest demonstration.

Frankly, of not being content with what you have. He goes on verse seven, and maybe we'll just end here. There are more commands, but before we get into Hebrews 9, just remember, don't divorce law from the law giver, your father.

This is good for you. It's right. He knows what's best. Oh, side note, before we look at it, I said to all the kids who went off to Los Angeles to university, first Luke, then Maddie, then Grace. I said, Luke, I only have two rules for you.

Rule number, I mean, assuming that you're, you know, not going to go off the deep end, but just two general rules, two laws from the law giver, your father. You have to go to Grace Community Church and no dating your first year.

Now, why would I say that? Because I want to hurt him or harm him. I had a horrible college. I did. I'm going to make his horrible or... No, I know what's right. I know it's good. I'm wiser than he is.

How much more the Lord for us to know how wise he is. He gives us these rules for a reason. Yes, he gives us these rules as we're unbelievers. And we realize we fall short. We need a savior. But those same rules that reflect his holy character are good for us because we're creatures made in his image and he knows what's best.

Sexual purity is good. Not just because the culture says it is because it's good for his creatures. By the way, years later, Luke said those were two good rules. Dad, tell your sisters is what I said.

Tell your sisters. The legal standing of a Christian has to be perfection before God. If you want to obey to have God be pleased with you, you have to obey permanently, entirely, perpetually. But since Jesus obeyed, why did he not just come down on Friday, die and go up on Sunday?

He came to not abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He came to obey all the commands so that he might give us credit for his perfect life. And we stand before God based on Christ's perfect life. That's why we always have to talk about the obedience of Jesus and not just his death.

Because if you don't talk about the obedience of Jesus, you'll talk about somebody's obedience. Probably yours or mine. But because that legal standing is there, God is no longer our judge. He's a savior.

Now we can show fruits and evidences. Do not confuse legal standing and fruits and evidences. And here lastly, here's just another command that would show the fruit of, that would adorn the gospel, that would glorify God, that would show your thankfulness, that would edify other people.

Verse 7, remember those who led you, who spoke about the word of God to you, consider the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Remember and imitate. You probably have people in your life who were your past Bible teachers.

Maybe ladies, you've got a wonderful Bible teacher that you love. Maybe men, you've got some discipler that you love. Or maybe you've got a pastor. Maybe the Cranes and the Pharisees. Think about Bob Bowman and Bob and Judy and how things are going difficult in their life.

And they think, you know what? I remember Bob. I remember Judy. I remember I should imitate their faith. Think back how they lived. Think back on some of them. How they ended their life in terms of trusting in Christ Jesus on their deathbed.

These readers were tempted to go back and we can be tempted too. And you think about some of these people in your life that have lived the life well, not perfect, but lived the life well. And the Lord wants you to do that.

That would be a good thing for you to do. That's why I sometimes think about my first pastor or my second pastor. Or I even read biographies about Christians to remember that. And you say, yes, but I know pastors fail.

I know pastors fail out of the ministry. My Bible teacher back in so-and-so failed out of the ministry. And she did such and such. And she said such and such. And he did such and such. Verse eight, there's one who won't fail.

Tied into verse seven. You want to remember somebody who led you? Yes, they did fail. But here's one to remember that never will fail you. And this is the one those other Bible teachers pointed to. Jesus Christ.

Human, Jesus. More than human, the Messiah, God. Is the same yesterday, today, and forever. One man said pastors can fail, but Christ never disappoints. And so God knows what's good for us. And he says, here's something good for you, dear children.

Here's a law for me, the lawgiver. Instead of don't go to, you have to go to Grace Church. I want you to remember people in your life who've taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. Most of the time you look at verse eight.

And this is what the charismatics tend to use on verse eight. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There used to be tongues. There will be tongues. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the essence and nature of Jesus.

This great leader. They're not going to be tongues in heaven anyway. This has to do with the nature of Jesus, the great leader. And imitate the faith of those who pointed you to the Lord Jesus. Why? Because you're resting in Jesus.

Believing in him, this high priest. Therefore, do these things. All that's an introduction. So let's take our Bibles now and turn to Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. I did not want us to somehow forget that the resting in, trusting in, the risen high priest of chapter one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve will make us forget the ethical implications of the gospel.

Living a life of gratitude and obedience and following Jesus. Not to skit our standing, but because of our standing. And because we don't have to run around now and do works to get to heaven. We rest in Jesus's work.

So what did we do last week? That's just a rhetorical question. I know what we did last week. I'm just trying to get you to think. We were in Hebrews chapter nine verses 15 through 26. Who said we couldn't do a lot of verses at one time?

What we're going to do is we're going to focus on two verses that everyone here probably knows, at least the first one. But many don't know the context. It's appointed for man once to die and then what?

The judgment. Do you know what that verse means? There's a comma at the end of that verse. There's a context for that verse and they get the context. Remember what I'm trying to do is to show you the context so that you can go home and read this yourself and see the context yourself.

Anybody can isolate a verse. My job is to be faithful to the text and show you how to do the same. So what we're going to do is we're going to read the verses that I taught through last week as a review so you can see the immediate context.

Then we'll look at Hebrews 9, 27 and 28. Hebrews 9 verse 15. Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood, both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Verse 23, for thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood, not his own. For then he would have to have suffer repeatedly, have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, which leads us to verse 27. And just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment comma.

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Quick little outline for the rest of these two verses are for these two verses.

Let me just give you some irrevocable facts to help you understand these two verses. These are facts. We might not wish them to be true. We might want to wish them away. We might dismiss them, but they're true.

And they're important for believers and unbelievers alike. Irrevocable fact. Number one, God has appointed a time for your death. Number one, God has appointed a time for your death. Believer, unbeliever, and frankly, even Jesus will see in a moment.

God has an appointed time for your death. Every person born will die. It's appointed, verse 27, for man to die once. This is language of sovereignty. This is language of control, appointed. This is language that God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases.

This is language of accident? No. Chance? No. Fortuitousness? No. Serendipity? No. This is language of sovereignty. God's sovereignty, Pink said, refers to all things without exception, concerning everything, whether great or small.

God is king over your birthday and king over your funeral. Job 14, since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you and his limits you have set so that he cannot pass. Psalm 31, my times are in your hand.

Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. Psalm 139, your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book were written all the days that were ordained for me. This has nothing to say about being healthy or avoiding physical exercise because God knows the day you're going to die and has appointed it or ordained it.

It just shows you that this is a sovereign thing that God knows and does. Think about Peter on earth when Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished.

But when you grow old, Peter, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now, he said this signifying by what kind of death Peter would glorify God.

This is the language of appointment. By the way, not only for us, but Jesus. If you notice the text, appointed, it's passive. God is the actor. God is the agent. God is the one doing this. Not only is our death ordained, but Christ's offering of his sacrificial death was planned out by God, ordained by God.

The will of God, the purpose of God, it was all planned. I mean, what's the option? It was just chaos and an accident and Jesus got in over his head? No, it was planned. No wonder 1 Peter says, Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world.

It's planned. Irrevocable fact number two, judgment for sin follows death. Judgment for sin follows death. Or if I want to make it personal, if you're an unbeliever, you're going to be judged after you die.

For the believer, it's a little bit different. There's going to be a different one who stands in our place. But the principle is the same and it's an irrevocable fact. Judgment for sin follows death. See the text.

It's appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. And you can recall, dear Christian, can you not? Revelation chapter 20, the books that were written for all the people, for the unbelievers, the deeds were written.

Things that they had done in the body because they'll be judged for all those deeds that don't live up to God's standard of holiness and perfection and righteousness and perfect total obedience to the law.

They'll be judged for those things. Recompense for bringing recompense, Jesus said when I read Revelation 22 to start the service for things they have done. For the Christian, those deeds aren't recorded in Revelation 20, just your names recorded because those things, those sins, those transgressions have been paid for.

Adam sinned the day that you eat, you'll surely die. And there was a death sentence given to Adam and all those in Adam. Ecclesiastes 12, for God will bring into every deed of judgment, into judgment, including every hidden thing.

I think the world runs around, there's no judgment day. There's no judgment day. It's just this kind of like, you know, Tim LaHaye kind of book judgment, but it's not really true. What are the books that he wrote again?

Left Behind, okay. I can't believe you knew that so fast. Did you read them all? I'm just kidding. The first lie in all the Bible, there's no judgment, you won't die. Talking about this earlier this morning, there's no talk these days in churches about hell or judgment or the severity of eternal fire or punishment.

Nobody talks that way hardly anymore because the consumers and the pews don't like it. There's judgment. No wonder John Bunyan said of this in his book Pilgrim's Progress, speaking for Christian, it's appointed for man once to die and then judgment.

I don't want to do the first, I don't want to die and I can't do the second. I can't be judged because I know I'll fall short. There's a judgment coming. For Christians, no judgment for what you've done in terms of for sin, because they've all been paid for by Jesus.

There's no double jeopardy. The only judgment there'll be for the Christian is the Bema Seat judgment, which is for our works regarding rewards. But nonetheless, there is a judgment coming and it's from the Son.

Not even the Father judges anyone, Jesus said, John 5, but has given all judgment to the Son. If you're here today and you're not a believer, you'll die one day. It's an irrevocable fact. And number two, you're going to be judged for what you've done and what you haven't done.

Number three, third irrevocable fact. Since men only die once, Christ's death was not repeatable. Since men only die once, Christ's death is not repeatable. That's the point he's getting at. It's appointed for man once to die and then judgment.

Jesus only dies once. He doesn't keep dying over and over and over. Remember the backdrop. The backdrop is Old Testament, Old Covenant, Mosaic Law, slain sacrifices all the time, Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, year in, year out, year in, year out, once.